Every once in a while, I like to plug one of my favorite iPhone or iPad apps. The one I’m plugging today is most awesome, especially if you have a Windows Media Center. Yes, WINDOWS! Ever thought about how awesome it’d be to run your Windows Media Center on your iPhone, iPad or Android device. Well, you can. And it doesn’t take special software, port forwarding, 15 different configuration files or anything that the novice can’t handle. It’ll only cost you $4.99 for the iPhone or iPad. $6.99 for Android devices. The name of the app is called Splashtop HD. Simply install the app on your iPhone, iPad or Android device, then download the free streamer from the Splashtop web site and you’re well on your way. Installing the streamer on your mac or pc is very easy. Once it’s installed you’ll need to set up a security code (password) and if you want to stream over the internet (WAN), you’ll need a Gmail account. This will allow you to connect to your media center or any other pc from anywhere! I won’t go into great detail about setting up the streamer because it’s pretty much a no brainer. If you have any questions, please feel free to send them my way.
Ok, you have the app installed on your device, you have the streamer (which runs as a service) on your media center pc (or any other pc or mac). So now it’s time to tap away. Open the Splashtop app on your device. [Read more...]
Windows Media Center On Your iPad, iPhone or Android Device
Real Steel (2011)
Got around to watching Real Steel tonight. I honestly had no intention of watching this movie, had actually forgotten about it. Boy, what a surprise it was. Set in the near future (2020), where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it, you won’t be disappointed!
Real Steel on IMDB.
Our Rating: 
Cars As A Kid
When I was a kid, most kids wanted to own this car: [Read more...]
What Men Want For Christmas 2011, Day 26
Wilson Castaway Volleyball – Know someone that loves playing volleyball or just needs someone to talk to? Then the Wilson Castaway Volleyball would make a great gift idea. Based off of Tom Hanks’ Castaway movie, this is an official Wilson Volleyball with Hank’s bloody handprint face imprinted. Disclaimer: not Tom Hanks’ real blood. This would be a great conversation piece, especially for the movie buff! Cost: $15.00.
Men In Black 3
I think this is going to be the best movie next year! Look for it in theaters on May 25th, 2012!
[Read more...]
What Men Want For Christmas 2011, Day 9
Movie, movies, movies, you can never go wrong with movies. DVD or Blu Ray! All of the big box stores are having great sales on dvd and blu ray movies right now. I’ve seen them as cheap and 99 cents at some places. He’ll need these movies for his home entertainment center or the media center that he may build. Dvd’s as gifts lead to many other gift opportunities as well, such as a place to store the disks, software to rip the disks and other devices to play the disks! Regardless, having his favorite tv series or movies on dvd or blu ray will surely make him a happy camper. Approximate cost: $.99 to $13.00.
What Men Want For Christmas 2011, Day 2
Depending on his level of geekability and tinkerability, you can’t go wrong with a Media Center. Media Center’s come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and configurations. But if he’s a true geek and likes to tinker, he’ll want to build his own. And the base of any good Media Center is a big screen tv. I’ve included a picture of my Media Center in it’s current configuration. However, I’m always changing, upgrading and tweaking. That’s part of the fun! It can be a costly hobby, but it doesn’t have too. That old computer that you’ve been thinking about getting rid of can make a very nice hub for your Media Center. As will that old Xbox or Playstation that you’ve recently upgraded to the latest model. Sure, you can throw it up on Ebay and get a few bucks out of it or, you can put it to use in your new Media Center. Some additional costs may also include a Xbox live account and a NetFlix account. It just depends on how far you want to take it. I get asked a lot about building a media center pc at a reasonable price. What are the benefits of having a media center pc and how does it integrate with other equipment. There really is no simple answer and I can assure you that there probably aren’t any two media center setups identical. And as I stated before, it really doesn’t have to be an expensive project either. You’ll just have to take your time and shop around. Since I hardly ever throw anything away that has to do with pc’s or servers, I had most of these parts on shelves and in drawers. So, you can look at my current setup (which is always changing) and maybe it’ll give you some kind of idea of what to do in case you want to build your own media center pc. A lot of money can be saved by going with a Linux distro and media center software for Linux, neither will cost you a dime. I’m a Windows person, so that’s direction I took. I’m using Windows 7 Ultimate and the license isn’t cheap. But once you’re past the cost of the software and the hardware upgrades, a media center will bring months and years of entertainment to any man cave out there! Approximate cost: $100.00 to $2,000.00.
