multimedia

B&W's new P5 headphones, MM-1 PC speakers available soon

Late last year, Bowers & Wilkins was quietly showing off its fancy new P5 headphones and MM-1 multimedia speakers. Well, we got word that those products should be available for purchase in the next month or so, with the P5s priced at $299 and the MM-1s at $499.

With the distinct and stylish P5s, B&W's touting their natural sound, which allows you to wear them for longer without experience listening fatigue. The company claims these guys have "some of the most advanced technology ever to be put into a set of headphones," including specially developed … Read more

AT&T-Verizon price war debunked (FAQ)

Some people are calling the new tweaks to AT&T and Verizon Wireless' pricing plans the start of a mobile price war, but for many wireless consumers, they'll actually be paying more each month.

The companies each revised pricing late last week in separate announcements. The price cuts follow new aggressive pricing from Sprint Nextel, which last year introduced plans that allow customers to call any cell phone in the U.S. for free.

AT&T's and Verizon's new plans were supposed to simplify pricing for consumers. But the fact is that the new plans … Read more

QNAP raises bar in digital media players with the NMP1000

LAS VEGAS--It's almost old news now when a vendor introduces a new digital media player. Western Digital has the WD TV Live, Seagate has its FreeAgent Threater+, and LaCie has the LaCinema Mini HD. Many other vendors have a players, too. However, what QNAP showed off at CES 2010 still strikes us as completely new.

The company demoed the NMP1000 Network Multimedia player Thursday, and from what I saw, it is by far the most comprehensive and complete multimedia player yet.

The device is a marriage of a NAS server and a digital media player. That said, it has … Read more

Electronic flipbook

Imagen is an easy-to-use media player that allows users to play sequentially numbered images in succession. With an intuitive interface and support for a wide variety of file formats, Imagen is a fun and versatile multimedia tool.

Imagen's interface is quite intuitive, with a large viewing area and a well-organized menu at the top. Playing a set of images is easy: users simply make sure that the desired files are numbered sequentially and then open the first file in the sequence. The program will ask users to enter their desired frame rate (25 fps is the default), and the … Read more

Basic presentation program

IntroCreator allows people to create multimedia slideshows similar to that of PowerPoint. Although the program is not the most intuitive we've seen, a thorough Help file ensures that users have all the tools they need to create attractive presentations.

The program's interface is clean and well-organized, with thumbnails of each slide arranged in a grid. Large graphical buttons across the top give people access to the program's major features. Double-clicking each slide opens menus that allow users to customize the slide's appearance and content. Users who have never used a similar program before will likely need … Read more

Simple slideshow creator

Presentation Wizard is a versatile program that allows users to create executable multimedia slideshows. Although we like the simplicity of its design, we do wish that the instructions were a little briefer.

The program's interface is uncluttered, with a small handful of buttons and menus. For the most part, the program is intuitive, and it's not hard to get started even without reading the instructions. However, users who don't read the instructions are likely to miss some important features, such as options for customizing backgrounds and other characteristics throughout the slideshow. And that can be a bit … Read more

Spiff up your Twitter profile with photos, video

As a frequent Twitter user, there's nothing more appealing to me than checking out the photos and videos that the people I'm following publish in their Twitter timelines. It makes the experience a little more rich.

That's precisely why I wanted to write this roundup. Why only write text in Twitter? Why not share multimedia content? If you're like me, you'll want to do just that. So take a look at some of these services and let's work together at making Twitter just a little more fun to use.

Be entertained

Ffwd Video-sharing site Ffwd allows people to share their favorite videos with Twitter followers.

When you get to Ffwd, you can view a host of videos on several topics. When you find something you like, Ffwd provides a "Share to Twitter" option. When you click that, your update box will be populated with a standard tweet and a link to the video. You can change it before you send it out. It's a nice service, but given the fact that there are many more videos on YouTube (which also lets you share content on Twitter), it might not be your first option.

Flickr If you're a Flickr user, the Yahoo-owned site allows you to show off your images on Twitter with the help of a unique Flickr URL.

In order to syndicate your content to Flickr, you first need to authorize it on your account through the "blog this" pane. Once Twitter is authorized, you can share any of your Twitter images with Flickr. I tried out the service, and it worked relatively well. The site provides users with a unique shortened Flickr URL for an image. That said, Flickr hides the "tweet" button under the "blog this" option. It's a little annoying. I would have liked to have more convenient access to it. Either way, it might be worth trying out if you're a frequent Flickr user.… Read more

Firmware upgrade adds tethering, remote shutter to Epson P-6000/7000

Are you an owner of the Epson P-6000 or P-7000 Multimedia Photo Viewer? If so, the new firmware available at the end of this month will interest you.

Previously, users had to take out the flash media from their cameras and plug it into the gadget to start the file transfer. But with the upgrade, shutterbugs can connect selected Canon or Nikon dSLRs to the photo viewer via USB and images captured will be sent to both the memory card and Epson device simultaneously.

Other than tethering, the upcoming firmware update also adds remote shutter function and this lets users … Read more

The 404 433: Where we're a bit slow on the uptake

Jeff has the day off today, so you know what that means: TOTAL CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION! Well, not exactly...Wilson has a little trouble getting the show started, but eventually we get off the ground and welcome our guest on today's show, Mr. Tim Geisenheimer. However, we only get to chat with Tim 1-on-1 for a second before Natali Del Conte pops in to help us out too, making it an all-star lineup!

So after a quick Seinfeld moment about the woes of moving Ikea furniture, we break into a story about a real life "Gaydar" developed by two MIT students which uses social networking data to determine the sexuality of a user. Our major issue with this "study" is that the computer program takes statistical analysis way too seriously. It assumes that if you have a high volume of gay friends, then you must also be gay yourself...interesting jump there. Subscribing to a "birds of a feather, flock together" adage, the two students trained their "Gaydar" to be "very accurate" on men, but not so great on bisexuals or women.

Speaking of women, apparently a group of 3,000 female participants voted the SHOWER RADIO the worst gadget ever invented. It's unclear whether or not they forced the women to choose overtly female-target gadgets (which tend to be cheesy anyway), but Natali has a few things to say about the other gadgets on the "worst ever" list, which include electric fluff removers at #8, egg slicers at #10, and the electric can opener at #18. Although I think we're all starting to doubt Natali's sanity after she tells us all the infomercial junk she's bought over the years...can you say...SLAP CHOP?

Have you heard about CNET TV's newest show called CNET Conversations? To kick off the first episode, CNET's Molly Wood and Ina Fried will sit down with Steve Balmer at the Microsoft offices in Redmond, Washington, and they're bringing questions from viewers. If you have a question for Balmer, head over to the CNET Conversations blog and ask it in a comment!

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iPhone MMS now live

As promised, AT&T's iPhone finally has the capability to send multimedia messages to another phone number. Whatever AT&T had to do to gets its act together, the carrier did it.

The update went live just a moment ago, and I've successfully sent my first MMS on CNET's iPhone 3G. I was able to exchange photos both with another iPhone and a Samsung SPH-M330 on Sprint.

You'll need to connect to iTunes to receive the update, which should download in seconds. We were able to send an update immediately, but you may have … Read more