Marc Cohen & Marsha Collier

Our California Governor, Arold Schwarzenegger  was in Germany for CEBIT and it seems he was mesmerized by the same slick piece of hardware that caught my eye at CES this year. Pictured at left is Thomas Jell, NETGEAR’s Managing Director for Central Europe, showing Arnold and German Chancellor Angela Merkel NETGEAR’s new Internet TV Player (ITV2000) under the watchful gaze of David Soares, NETGEAR’s Senior VP of Worldwide Sales (far right).

It’s NETGEAR’s Internet TV Player (ITV2000), a compact, easy-to-use, “plug in and go” Internet set-top device with a simple remote control that enables viewers to catch up on the world of Internet videos including YouTube™, live Internet TV, popular Internet video websites, premium video-on-demand and online video searches retrieving billions of Internet videos from a place it was previously unavailable — the TV in their living rooms. Rather than watching videos on PC screens in separate rooms, families can watch video from a variety of Internet sources on the TV together, in the comfort of their den or family room.

The Internet TV Player unlocks the value of new HDTVs as well as old analog TVs. It is ideal for the Internet families who enjoy online video, and for those who are geographically displaced from their preferred television content, such as international sporting events and Bollywood productions. It streams content from popular sites such as BBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, EuroSport.com, NBC.com, PGATour and TMZ.com, as well as video powerhouses YouTube, Google Videos™, Yahoo Videos™ and MetaCafe™. NETGEAR’s Internet TV Player supports streaming of live TV broadcasts from Internet sites around the world, and premium, paid movies on demand such as CinemaNow.com, in addition to downloaded videos from sites such as BitTorrent®.  Its superior VTap™ video search capabilities enable the intelligent search of Internet videos, including targeting video sites by country, topic of interest, person or popular website. Consumers are also able to play video, music, and photos from a local USB flash drive as well as from the NETGEAR ReadyNAS® family of storage solutions.

Slightly larger than a deck of cards, the compact Internet TV Player connects to the home network and the Internet via Ethernet or wireless USB adapter. It does not require a PC to play Internet video, nor does it require installing any PC software or setting up file sharing or firewall settings.

I can’t wait to try it out, it looks like a piece of hardware that we all can use!

Marsha Collier

The NETGEAR Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is expected to be available in early Summer 2009 through leading retailers, e-commerce sites, and value-added resellers, at an MSRP in the U.S. of $199. More information can be found at (http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/itv2000.aspx).

We got a call from a listener who was having a problem upgrading her Adobe PDF Reader on Windows XP and can’t remove her old reader. Adobe gives the steps to take. Follow this link from Adobe.

Marsha

Sure you’ve done it, we all have. Maybe you’re not drunk, but you’re overtired and cranky and had a burning desire to state your feelings in an email? Once you click that send button, you know (accompanied by a sinking feeling) that you’ve made a terrible mistake.
Google has to our rescue. They’ve come up with a cool new tool for Gmail that may prevent us from emailing while drinking, Mail Goggles.

Once you hit the send button on that email you composed in the dark of night, Mail Goggles will present you with five math problems that must be solved in a limited amount of time. Only if you complete the computations in the given time will your message be sent. I’ve always felt that doing math (even simple math) is a sobering experience.

Mail Goggles, by default, is only active on weekends and nights, but of course you can adjust that to be more in balance with your personal ‘happy hour.’

Marsha

As you may know, N wireless is the fastest and newest flavor of WiFi networking. It features MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology and can send data at 10 times faster that the old 802.11g. Sadly, most of us have an older router that is in the g format. Plus, we have legacy (nice word for a coupla year old) computers and can’t take advantage of the latest technologies without shelling out beaucoup bucks for hardware upgrades. During last week’s show I learned that Netgear has a new upgrade kit that attaches to your existing router – to allow you to broadcast an additional n signal to those computers in your home that can accept it. Older computers wills till be able to access wi-fi from your old router, at the speed they are comfortable with. I say that’s progress. It’s nice to know we don’t have to change everything to be able to use the latest technology.

Marsha

From what we’ve heard, the boxes that are required for the television over the air (OTA) transmission of digital signal can be quite expensive – even with the $40 discount coupon from the government. After our interview this past week with Kevin Hutchinson from Dish Network, we find that Dish is offering affordable digital-to-analog converter boxes – and you don’t have to be a subscriber to Dish to use them. Their boxes also have the benefit of having an On-Screen Program Guide at no extra charge! Go to their DTVpal page and see their TR40 converter box which will only cost you about twenty bucks (along with your government coupon). Nice deal for smooth technology.

Marsha

She’ll be the Keynote speaker at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, September 10. The conference runs through the 12. RocketPlace is a multi-day conference for eBay sellers at all levels. PowerSellers at all levels, eBay sellers shooting to become PowerSellers, Trading Assistants and consigners, and eBay educators and consultants are welcome. RocketPlace is aimed at helping eBay sellers, whether eBay is a new, old, small, or major channel for your sales. Get $25 off registration with the code MARSHA.

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