But does it work as well as the hype suggests it does? Can you really install Android apps from the Android marketplace on your TV, and can you control your TV with your Android phone?

More importantly, will Google TV transform TV as we know it, and is the Logitech Revue worth the $299 it’ll cost when launched?

We decided to find out!

What’s inside the box?

The Logitech Revue comes with a small Set Top Box and a giant controller!

The Revue controller

The controller has a fuill size QWERTY keyboard, trackpad in the top right corner and a plethora of buttons for one-touch access to Google TV’s main features (buttons such as Search, Home, Favourite, and a few navigation buttons as well!).

Because the controller controls all other STBs in your house (see below), there are also buttons to switch them and your TV on and off.

There are also buttons for switching instantly to TV, for calling up your Electronic Programme Guide with one touch, and for going directly to your DVR to see all the programmes you’ve recorded.

Naturally you can also control the usual TV features, such as volume, and also change channel up and down, which is perfect if you’re a channel surfer. There are even dedicated buttons to control your recorded programmes, including fast-forward, rewind, record and pause.

The Revue Set Top Box

The Set Top Box, meanwhile, looks like any other STB – it’s small, sleek and black with a minimal numbre of lights on the front. All the important action takes place round the back.

Here you’ll find the ports that connect the Revue to all of the important things in your home entertainment setup. The Revue comes with the following:

• HDMI in
• 2 USB ports for plugging in external devices, such as the Webcam
• Ethernet port
• HDMI out, for connecting to your TC
• SPDIF, for connecting the Revue to your HiFi’s amp or your AV Receiver

Note that the Revue also has built-in 802.11b/g/n WiFi if you don’t want to use (wired) Ethernet.

How does the Logitech Revue fit into your existing home entertainment system?

The Logitech Revue is itself a Set Top Box. But obviously, it’s not the only STB you’ve got. If you’re like me, you’ll have a STB from your cable or satellite provider (Sky, in my case, with its Sky+ box), or at the very least a Freeview box. You might also have a DVD or BluRay player, and possibly even a home theatre system.

That’s a lot of boxes, each with its own remote control.

And now you want to add another STB?! Just where will it fit, and how will it integrate with all of these other boxes?

Fortunately, Logitech has already figured this out.

The Logitech Revue hooks up to all of your other STBs, BluRay players and Sky+ boxes. The Revue then connects to your HDTV via its HDMI cable. You control all of the STBs, BluRay players, etc. from the Revue’s controller.

All of this is achieved thanks to Logitech’s Harmony technology, which it already uses in its Harmony Universal Remote, and which is integrated into the Revue box. The Revue’s controller communicates witth the Revue box via wireless (so doesn’t need line of sight to work), and the revue box communicates with all of your other STBs and what-nots via infraRed blasters.

In other words, the Revue controller controls the Revue box, which in turn controls every other box in your system. The Revue’s controller, therefore, acts as one universal remote for your entire home entertainment system.

As far as the TV itself is concerned, what you see is a browser (Google’s Chrome, naturally), with the TV signal running through the browser.

This really is impressive stuff!

How the Revue works its magic

The TV signal is fed through the browser. What this means is that the browser is always there, even if you can’t see it. So when you watch TV, you’re effectively watching it through a browser – you just can’t see it. But when you want to watch a video through YouTube, you can instantly see YouTube on screen – there’s no delay, no separate application to launch – it’s as quick and seamless as browsing to a different Web page.

For example, suppose you want to search for Top Gear. Simply click the search button on the keyboard and type in Top Gear in the search box that pops up at the top of the screen. The beauty of Google TV is that it will do a search across all media for the keywords you enter.

So in this example, you get results for Top Gear the TV programme (i.e. when it’s next showing from your TV provider); Top Gear videos on YouTube; Top Gear web pages; Top Gear on the BBC iPlayer; Top Gear results from Wikipedia; and if you had any Top Gear videos stored on your PC, they’d show up too.

Better still is the speed and ease at which you can choose these results. Because everything’s delivered through the browser, if you click on the YouTube link, you’re taken to YouTube instantly. Come out of YouTube and switch back to the TV instantly.

And if you want the best of both worlds, there’s live picture in picture – the TV programme will shrink down to the bottom right corner while you view a Web page about that TV programme. Perfect for watching the Apprentice, or X Factor or any other programme where you shout at the TV screen, while reading Twitter at the same and on the same screen!

Can you install Android Apps on your TV?

If being able to view the entire Web isn’t enough for you – and by the entire Web, I even mean those that require Flash (and full Flash at that, not just Flash Lite) – then the Revue will also let you install and use apps.

Out the box, the Revue comes with the following apps:

• Netflix (TV and movie streaming)
• Pandora (music streaming service)
• Logitech Vid HD (videocalling, when used with Logitech’s Webcam)
• Logitech Media Player (access all your photos, music and video directly from your PC and view/listen to them on your HDTV and home theatre.
• Napster
• Logitec Alert Camera Viewer
• CNBC app (real-time stock quotes, video and business news)
• Twitter

From early next year, apps from the Android market will also work on Google TV on the Revue as well.

Can you control your TV from your Android phone or iPhone?

This is one of the coolest features of the Revue. You can download a free Harmony app for Android or iPhone and control your TV from your phone! Using gestures with your finger on your smartphone’s touchscreen, you can navigate through the menus with a swipe of your finger.

If finger-control isn’t right for you, just talk into the phone, and use your voice to control the TV.

It gets better than that, though. Suppose you find a YouTube video on your phone, and you start watching it, but your phone’s screen is a bit too small. Simply select the video, long touch it, and up will pop a share menu. One of the options will be “Harmony” – click this, and the video you’ve just been trying to watch on your phone’s screen will magically appear on your HDTV!

Can you view content from your PC?

This is another super-cool feature of the Logitech Revue. It uses DLNA to connect to your PC, from where you can view all your media content – photos, videos, music, the works. Better still, because this is Google TV, you can search for the content on your PC using the same search box that you search for other content, and all from your HDTV.

So if you were looking for a smart media streamer or media hub, give the Logitech Revue a try – it does the exact same thing, but with the benefit of Google TV thrown in, which provides a unified search interface across all your media, whether it’s on your PC, the Web, YouTube or the TV.

Video reviews of the Logitech Revue

If you’re not excited by all this, then take a look at these early video reviews of the Revue

So is Google TV going to change the world of TV?

In a word, yes. Not immediately. It’s only the first version, and there are obviously a few kinks that will need to be worked out. The controller, for one. Personally, I love the keyboard idea, and the Mini Keyboard that Logitech also sell is much better for home use. But the controller for Sony’s forthcoming HDTV with Google TV built-in looks ridiculous!

Equally, the integration with TV companies’ programme guides will need to be much tighter to make the whole experience completely seamless.

But all this will come. Just as Android on the phone took a year before it became capable of challenging the iPhone, so Google TV wil lneed a bit of bedding down as well.

But the good news is, Google TV updates itself automatically. Just like Android on your phone, whenever Google releases a new version of it, you don’t need to buy a new STB – your existing one is automatically updated, giving you new features for free!

So within two years at most, I predict Google TV really will be the revolution in TV that Internet TV has promised for so long.

Finally, is the Logitech Revue worth $299?

Yes!

Of course, you’ll need to make this judgment yourself. It’ll obviously come down in price over time, and once other companies release their own versions of Google TV, we’ll get some interesting competition going on. Sony, for example, aren’t just releasing a TV with Google TV built-in, they’re alos releasing a BluRay player with Google TV.

But as the first Google TV STB, the Logitech STB is a fantastic effort. If you want the future of TV now, as well as the coolness of being able to fling videos, pictures and Web pages from your phone to your TV, then go and order the Logitech Revue now!

[Source: IntoMobile, Logitech, Google]

From 3D HDTVs, Google’s amazing Google TV, new Xboxes, social cameras and more, it’s a tough choice to work out just how to spend the hard earned fruits of your labours.

So we thought we’d help you out over the coming weeks with some handy posts showing you the gadgets you should buy and why.

First up: should you buy a smartphone or a tablet?

We’ll start the ball rolling by looking at Android phones and iPads. Over two articles, we’ll look at 10 things each does that the other doesn’t, all to help you determine where they will fit into your life and ultimately if they’re worth your readies. Given the number of Android-based tablets that will be launched between now and Christmas, it should also help you decide on whether you want an Android tablet or an iPad (everything that’s listed here is applicable to both Android smartphones and tablets – except, perhaps, for making phone calls on a 10″ Android tablet and not looking like an idiot; you would!)

For part 1, let’s take a look at where Android’s strengths lie. Part 2 will come next week, when we look at 10 things an iPad does that an Android phone doesn’t.

1. Multitasking

While Apple’s iOS 4 lays claim to multitasking, it’s only just catching up with Android. Multitasking brings the Android handsets into the pocket computer arena with fast switching between applications, allowing you to run things in the background such as Twitter or a music application.

This makes the operation of Android handsets closer to that of a computer, as many phones shut or suspend applications when you exit them – not good if you’re working on things and you need to refer to something else.

2. Widgets

Widgets, for those not in the know are micro apps that sit on the main screen connected to a main app. For example if the main app is a weather app, then its widget would be a little display in the main screen that shows data from the main app – in this case, it’s the current temp and weather.

Widgets can be used for anything such as showing twitter posts, friends facebook statues or just controls for the music player, and they are an extremely quick way to see lots of information on one screen. Plus, they look pretty cool too.

Although Apple introduced their version of Widgets a long time ago into the desktop OSX 10.4 Tiger operating system, so far they haven’t implemented a similar system on their iOS-based devices such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad (and you’ll really miss them from the iPad).

This is particularly odd, given their popularity and usefulness on Android phones, which have nearly as many widgets as apps.

3. Integration with Google

Well after all Android is fruit of the Google tree, and you can expect pretty tight integration with the rest of the family G. Making a welcome appearance is Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Calendar / Contacts and more, all integrating nicely with their desktop browser equivalents.

There’s forthcoming integration with Google docs too, including the ability to edit Google docs documents directly within the phone. This brings an excellent basic office suite to the handheld – even if it’s a little small on a phone.

And yes, I know that Google’s apps are available on an iPad, but available is very different from tightly integrated – and on Android phones, the Google apps are very tightly integrated indeed. So much so, in fact, you’ll wonder just how you ever functioned without Google always in your pocket (however scary that sounds!)

4. Google Navigation

GPS is very common on phones these days and there’s even GPS-like circuitry in the 3G iPad, but nothing uses it so elegantly and cheaply as Google Navigation.

A subset of Google Maps, Google Navigation uses your GPS location with Google Maps & Directions to create a simple but effective route navigation application. Coming with speech and a Tom-Tom like screen, there’s nothing to give it away as a free app, plus it’s never out of date as it uses the Google Maps library.

The latest HTC phones, such as the Desire HD and Desire Z, both let you cache Google Maps on the phone itself, so you don’t even need to worry about losing your mobile signal – the maps are always there whenever you need them.

It also has the very cool Street View function where your route is overlaid on the Street View, er, view, so you know exactly where you are.

Very 21st century! And talking of futuristic….

5. Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is the shiny, jetpack owning futurecousin of GPS. Like a cross between the internet, social media and a Tom-Tom, AR (as it will be henceforth called to save my fingers) is one of the most impressive apps on phones today.

At its most basic, it opens up the camera of your phone and overlays local information over the live image, which changes as you move. A simple example is Google’s Sky Map – fire it up, let it find your position with the GPS and then hold it up to the sky and you’ll see a map of the stars that moves as you move.

Getting a bit smarter you have apps such as Layar, which overlays information such as Hotels, Restaurants, Wikipedia entries and Twitter tweet locations onto the image you see live on your phone’s screen, beamed to you via its rear-facing camera.

With AR you no longer need be a stranger in a strange city (although you will be waving your phone like a looney). Yes you can do some of this with an iPad but it doesn’t have a camera and frankly you’d have trouble mounting it on your windscreen.

6. Voice Control

Another futuristic application, Google Voice Search lets you talk to your phone, but contrary to the ‘search’ suffix, it lets you do a whole lot more.

“Call Mum” will call Mum (or as I found out, people called Monk); “Navigate to Tesco” will fire up Google Navigation and give you the option of which Tesco before guiding you there. All very clever and very 2010.

Some Android handsets even let you use voice as a method of text entry so you can dictate emails, texts, in fact anything that uses text entry. The best thing about it is it’s also free and comes preinstalled on most phones with Android2.0 and up (which by now, is most Android phones released since early 2009).
Android Voice.jpg

7. Make phone calls / IP calls / Skype

Although we communicate by many different methods these days, it’s often forgotten that under the mountain of other things that Android can do, the one thing they’re designed to do above all else is to help us speak to our friends. Yes, you can telephone people from Android handsets, either by regular phone lines or even by IP telephony.

Making a nice change from typing, you can have an actual chat to an actual person, something you can’t do with the iPad in any form yet.

With some phones, like Samsung’s Galaxy S, you also get a front facing camera to let you get some er, face time with friends over video chat-enabled apps.

Plus, let’s not forget that the iPad may look a bit odd being held up to your ear unless you are the size of Jaws from the James Bond films.

8. Application Integration

One of the things I love most on Android is Application Integration – where new apps integrate themselves into the framework of the OS so they can be used in other apps, not just on their own.

An iPad simply can’t do this, and frankly, it drives me mental!

An example: I’m browsing a page and want to share it. If I bring up “share page” in the browser’s submenu, I can send it to my Gmail account from my browser or bluetooth it to another handset. However if I install the Twitter app I now have an option to send it to Twitter, where selecting it opens a tweet box completed with shortened url waiting for your input.

Likewise if I install the WordPress app an option appears for WordPress, opening up a posting page with the URL already in there.

There are also Delicious apps, Evernote apps, Springpad apps, Facebook apps, and on and on, all of which integrate into your phone and extend its features in whatever app you’re using.

This a real boon when apps can talk to each other like this and saves a great deal of time and hassle, and really becomes apparent when it doesn’t happen in systems like the iPad.

9. Personalisation and Customization

One of the biggest selling points on HTC’s ad campaign for its Hero handset is how it could be personalised to reflect its owner, something phones had only offered in a cursory way before.

With HTC’s Android phones, you can change the clock for a different clock, or even have no clock at all and just fill your screens with shortcuts iPhone-style – the choice is yours. You can even change fundamental parts of the system, something impossible on the iPad.

So if you feel you want more out of a browser, search the market for another one more suited to your needs – there are currently six different versions to choose from, including browsers from Opera, SkyFire (very fast) and even Firefox (very beta!).

The same applies for the email program, the input system, and even the home application controlling your home screens.

For example, I have a Samsung Galaxy S, but personally i don’t like Samsung’s Touch Wiz home screens. But instead of being stuck with it, I simply downloaded a home replacement in Launcher Pro. It’s an excellent, fast and smooth replacement and it’s the same launcher I’ve used on previous Android phones so I felt at home straight away.

10. Removeable USB drive

Another function you don’t miss until it’s gone – plugging in your phone by USB and being to access it as a hard drive like any other hard drive.

It’s only in the last few years we’ve been able to do this; previously data transfer was handled with proprietary software and special cables but thankfully this is dying out.

With Android, you can drag photos, movies and music on and off the phone at will, with no special software required and no machine authorisations. Compared to everything being tied into iTunes on the iPad, from photos to music and video to documents, this is a massive breath of fresh air.

11. Flash

I say no more here as it’s been covered a million times already and to be fair only a handful of Android 2.1 devices handle a version of Flash lite. But with 2.2 FroYo ready to push the full, GPU accelerated Flash into the mobile world, iOS’s staunch HTML5 stance looks like that of an immovable octogenarian capra.

Summary

You can probably tell I’m a big fan of Android but this isn’t rampant fanboyism. Android is in all honesty growing into a very powerful and flexible mobile OS and in the long run may do more to move mobile OSes on than Apple (although we still have to credit Apple for changing the game enough to allow Android to even exist).

It’s not to say it’s suited to everything, with even Google themselves saying the current iteration isn’t built for proper tablet use.

Which leads me nicel to part two, where we look at how the iPad has the edge over Android in more than a few areas.

[Featured image credit: Alfred Osuna]

But which system do you choose? All seven do similar – but not identical – things, and each will do things the others won’t.

Should you choose Apple over Google? If so, why?! And just what is on offer in this new world of Web TV?

Luckily for you, we’ve created this handy guide to help you navigate through all the confusion and the find the Web TV box that’s best for you.

Eight Internet TV Players

Before we begin, let’s briefly look at the contenders

• Apple TV
• Roku XDS
• PS3
• XBox 360
• Boxee Box (see our Boxee Box review)
• Tivo Premiere
• WD TV Live Plus
• Google TV (not yet released, but coming very soon)

You’ll note that the PS3 and XBox 360 are both included. That’s because they’ve both got really good Internet TV software, and now that they ship with built-in Wi-Fi and hard drives, and come with a plethora of A/V connectivity options such as HDMI, they’re actually really good for doing much of the stuff you’d expect from a dedicated Internet TV player such as Apple TV.

How to choose your Web TV box

Each Web TV box is pitched at a slightly different market. The difficulty for you is working out which market you’re part of! So we’ve organized this list according to the things that people most want to do, and then we recommend the boxes that will do them the best.

If you want to see a full head-to-head comparison of the specifications of each box, head on over to Gizmodo, where this list was derived.

If you need to stream your own videos

If it’s important to you that you’re able to stream your own videos from your PC, then choose from one of the following:

• Apple TV
• Google TV
• PS3
• XBox 360
• Boxee Box
• WD TV Live Plus

Neither the Roku XDS nor the TiVo Premiere will stream your videos from your PC, so if this is essential for you, rule these two boxes out.

If you want to stream your own photos

Burying your pics on your PC’s hard drive does them an injurious injustice, as you’ll never actually look at them! Much better to bring them out into the light once in a while, and the best way to do this is to be able to easily stream them from you PC onto your HDTV.

Not only does it let you see the pics more often (and in great clarity too), it’s also great for when your friends and family are around too. Watching pics on your telly is so much more civilised than on your monitor!

So if this feature is important to you, you’ll need to choose from the following:

• Apple TV
• Google TV (possibly)
• PS3
• XBox 360
• TiVo Premiere
• WD TV Live Plus

The Roku XDS and Boxee Box do not offer this facility.

If you want to stream your own music

What if you want to stream the tunes that are stored on your PC, and pump them through your home cinema? Then you’ll need the following boxes:

• Apple TV
• Google TV (possibly)
• PS3
• XBox 360
• Boxee Box
• TiVo Premiere
• WD TV Live Plus

The only box that won’t stream your tunes is the Roku XDS, which seems like a bit of a shortcoming!

If you want to watch live TV

Now this could be a deal breaker. Some of these Web TV boxes will let you watch live TV as well as the Web and PC content you can stream from the ether. Google TV in particular focuses on blurring the lines between live TV and Web videos.

In contrast, with other boxes it’s an either/or approach: either you watch live TV or you watch web content or PC content.

If live TV is important to you, then choose from the following boxes:

• Google TV
• Boxee Box
• Tivo Premiere

Hmmm, that’s not a large selection! Makes your decision easier if live TV is what you’re after though!

If you want to watch YouTube on your HDTV

They all let you watch YouTube videos on your HDTV. Which is just as well, as a Web TV box without YouTube wouldn’t be much a Web TV box!

If you want to watch Netflix

If Netflix is your movie renting streaming service of choice, then you’ll be fine for all of these devices, except one: Google TV, which currently doesn’t support Netflix (or more likely, vice versa!)

However, Google TV hasn’t been launched yet, and it’s only a matter of time before Netflix finds its way onto Google TV, particularly since Google hired one of Netflix’s executives two weeks ago to become Google’s new VP of Content Partnerships.

If you want to watch Blu-ray discs

…get a Blu-ray player! Only the PS3 supports Blu-ray amongst this lot.

If you need to store your content locally

If you need to store any of the content on the box itself, then you’ll need to use one of the following:

• Google TV (possibly)
• PS3 (160GB hard drive)
• XBox 360 (250GB hard drive)
• Boxee Box (SD card – don’t expect to be saving entire films!)
• TiVo Premiere (it’s what it excels in)
• WD TV Live Plus (via external USB drives)

Local storage isn’t what these boxes are about, though. Leave your PC to store your tunes and pics, and the Web to store your films and videos, then stream them whenever you need them.

If you need to view the content from your phone or iPod

What if you want to see the content from your PC and your phone or your iPod? Fortunately, some of these little wonders will let you do just that:

• Apple TV (iPhone, iPad, iPod content – who’d have thought it?!)
• Google TV (content from Android phones and tablets)
• PS3 (content from the PS3 and PSP)
• TiVo Premiere (content from iPhone, iPod, PSP and laptop)

For the other devices, you’ll need to upload the content onto your PC first, and stream it from there.

If you want the best quality HD content

Features are one thing, but what about quality? All the boxes here support 1080p full-HD content except one: Apple TV, which only supports 720p.

It should also be noted that Google TV’s quality hasn’t been announced yet, but as there will be several different options, including set top boxes and HDTVs with Google TV built-in, from many different manufacturers, it’s a safe bet that at least one of them will support 1080p!

If you want to extend your Web TV box with downloadable apps

This, for my money, is the killer feature – apps! Web TV is great, but it’s been limited by the functionality provided in the box itself. But not with some of these boxes. Some of them support apps, letting you download whatever app you want to enhance and extend the features of your Web TV box, just like you can with your smartphone.

So which boxes let you do this? Just these ones at the moment:

• Google TV (Android-based so you can install all the hundreds of thousands of Android apps onto your telly)
• TiVo premiere
• WD TV Live Pro

With all of the other boxes, you’re stuck with the features that the box came with, and reliant on the manufacturer for any updates.

If you don’t want any wires

Now we’re talking hardware! Web TV requires an Internet connection, but what if you hate wires? Good news: all of the boxes support Wi-Fi, except one: the WD TV Live Plus.

So which box should you buy?!

Well, hopefully this has helped steer you towards a better choice, or at least cut down the number of options for you. If not, here’s a few recommendations:

The box that supports (nearly!) everything

The box that ticks the most boxes (as it were!) and supports the most features is….…the PS3 and Xbox 360!

But note: I haven’t included Google TV in this section, as there are too many unknowns about it. However, as it supports live TV, where the PS3 and Xbox 360 don’t, then it might still win as the most heavily-featured box in this list.

In the meantime, if it’s a dedicated box that you’re after, the next best is the WD TV Live Plus.

What about price?

Another potential deal breaker! At the time of writing, the following prices apply (though as with all tech, the prices are sure to change, but this at least gives you an idea of the relative cost of the boxes):

• Apple TV: £99 from Amazon
• Roku XDS: $99 from Amazon.com (not available in the UK yet – possibly another deal breaker!)
• PS3: £249.99 from Game
• XBox 360: £183 (250GB model) from Pixmania
• Boxee Box: £199.99 from Amazon (available November 10)
• Tivo Premiere: $264.97 from Amazon.com (not available in the UK)
• WD TV Live Plus: $119 from Amazon.com (not available in UK yet)
• Google TV: Unknown, but possibly $299 if current rumours are true. The Logitech Revue Set Top Box with Google TV built-in is set to launch, tomorrow, while the Sony Bravia HDTV with Google TV will be announced on October 12th, so we’ll have a better idea then.

Should you buy a Web TV box?

In short, yes. Web TV is set to do for your telly what the Web did for mobile phones. And if you’re not sure what that is, just compare the iPhone to an old Motorola RAZR! Think tight social networking integration within your telly, surfing the Web at the flick of a remote, or searching for TV programmes and YouTube clips from the same interface.

And then think of apps and imagine a whole new set of features for you humble telly that we’ve only just begun to imagine!

If that sounds too airy fairy, check out this video of Google TV:

Hopefully you now get some idea of the revolution that’s just around the corner – and it’s not 3D!

[Source: Gizmodo]

Fortunately there’s a solution. The latest generation of digital cameras have all manner of social photo features that let you upload your pics to sites such as Flickr, Picasa and even Facebook with absolute ease.

We’ve rounded up 5 of the latest social snappers to see how they help you share your pics amongst your friends and across the world,

Kodak SLICE – The sleek-and-cool option

Let’s start with one of photography’s biggest guns – Kodak. This sleek number is one of Kodak’s newest devices, the Kodak SLICE, and it’s bursting with technology to bring your pictures to the web on a device barely bigger than a mobile phone.

The SLICE has a massive 14 megapixels with a 5x optical zoom (never trust digital zooms) and has a very cool 3.5″ touchscreen interface on the back making it simple and intuative to operate. It also has face recognition, so you can tell the SLICE the name that belongs to the face, and when you take pictures, it automatically tags them with the right names. This can save you hours on Facebook!

The best thing about the SLICE, though, is its one-touch upload feature to Facebook, Flickr or email (and even videos to YouTube). Simply find the photos you want to share, press the ‘Share’ button, and select where you want to share them to. The next time you plug the SLICE into your PC via USB, all the pics are automatically uploaded to the destinations you’d selected. There’s absolutely nothing for you to do, it’s all taken care of for you.

The Kodak SLICE is one of the smartest cameras today, and could be the one for you if you want the technology without the fuss.

Samsung ST1000 – The kitchen sink option

The Samsung ST1000 is a camera that has a trick up its sleeve for all you travellers out there – GPS. No, you can’t use it to find your way to Rickmansworth, the GPS is there for Geotagging, the simple process of adding location data to each shot.

So what esle does the ST1000 pack in to its little case? How about 12 megapixels through a very smart 5x inner zoom lens (yes, the zoom is still optical but it’s inside the lens housing!). Not enough? How about bluetooth to send the pictures to your smartphone for emailing? Or onboard WiFi to skip the PC completely and email them from the ST1000 itself? Or DLNA networking for viewing the photos and videos on any DLNA device, such as an HDTV?

Phew! On top of all this, the ST1000 is Flickr compatible (of course) and also boasts working with Facebook, Picasa, YouTube and Samsungs own photo website. This is definitely one for the travelling social media enthusiast.

Samsung ST5500 – The amazing screen option

The must-have phone this year has arguably been Samsung’s Galaxy S, and its biggest draw has been its luscious AMOLED screen. Anyone who’s seen one will rave about their vibrant colours and unrivalled contrast.

So what kind of device could also benefit from a display with vibrant colours and unrivalled contrast? A device concerned with imaging maybe? Stwp forward the Samsung ST5500, the world’s first camera to have a beautiful 3.7″ AMOLED touch screen integrated right into its frame, giving superb and accurate previews of the photographs you’ve shot, taking much of the guesswork out of how well the colours and shade have come through its 14 megapixel 7x optical zoom lens.

However it’s not just a camera with a pretty screen. It’s got the same Wifi / DLNA / bluetooth connectivity of its little brother, the ST1000, and also like its sibling, it will upload to Flickr, Facebook, Picasa and YouTube. You can even use the wifi to email straight from the camera.

The ST5500 also has some clever ideas about control – yes, you can control it by touching that lovely screen, but you can also control it by tilts and shakes, scrolling through your pictures with a shake of the wrist!

If you like the look of the ST1000 but want that little bit more opulence and image control, the Samsung ST5500 is for you.

Kodak Easyshare C142 – The social media on pocket money option

The gear above is great, well specced and impressive, but it’s also expensive. A much less expensive option is the Kodak Easyshare C142. Coming in at nearly a quarter of the price of the SLICE, this is social media photography at its simplest.

A solid little camera, the C142 still packs an impressive 10 megapixels through a 3x optical lens, and it also boasts a 2.5″ LCD screen, so it’s no slouch technically. The C142 is the modern embodiment of the simple point-and-shoot you had for holidays, so while suited to the kids, it’s also at home with people who don’t want to worry about shutter stops, white balance and ISO speeds but just want to take snaps.

Nowadays we don’t get them developed in an hour at Boots, we upload them, so the Kodak makes that easy too – it’s not called Easyshare for nothing. There’s even a button for it, called – wait for it – Share, which you use to mark the images you want to er, share. Come on, it wouldn’t be easier if it uploaded them for you would it?

Hmm, well actually it does do that too, taking your share tagged images and uploading them to your profiles around the web. See, now it can’t be simpler unless it went on holiday for you and took the pictures itself, and where’s the fun in that?

The Kodak Easyshare C142 isn’t for photographers, it’s for you, the person who just wants a good value and simple to use camera to take a decent picture.

Eye-Fi – The I’ve-already-got-a-good-camera option

There will be some amongst you who have your perfect digital camera, such as a Panasonic Lumix, but find it’s not very good at sharing. However, you’re certainly not going to trade it in for one that does, as the camera you’ve got gives much better results (particularly true if it’s a DSLR you’ve got).

So what do you do? Simple: you buy an Eye-Fi. Using some sort of technology voodoo, the clever bods at Eye-Fi have shrunk a wireless dongle, 8GB of memory, geotagging and “endless memory” into a regular Secure Digital card that’ll pop in a SD card compatible camera (which is most of them).

With the Eye-Fi, you go out and take your pictures as usual, treating it like a regular 8GB memory card. Then when you return home, you switch on your PC and your camera and you go and make a cup of tea. While you do that, the Eye-Fi sends your images wirelessly to your PC – it really is as simple as that.

But what if you’re not near a PC? Well you can even set the Eye-Fi up beforehand with your favourite social site (and trust me, it’ll work with nearly all of them – Flickr, Picasa, MobileMe, SmugMug, Photbucket, webshots…you get the picture), and the Eye-Fi can upload them through Wifi. Let’s not forget Endless Memory either – it basically senses when the card is nearly full and automatically uploads your images, clearing space on the card invisibly to you.

Eye-Fi is an excellent solution for those who want to keep the camera they love, plus it’s also the best option if you want the easy life with its simple wireless uploading.

Summary

So that’s 5 devices to get your pictures out onto the web with the absolute minimum of fuss. There’s a wide variety from the great value C142 to the very cool SLICE, with some excellent gear inbetween. You can even get in on the social action even if your beloved camera isn’t quite modern enough.

So now you have no excuses not to go out into the world and bring back some memories to put on the web, without losing hair over it. So much better than leavin gyour pictures buried somewhere on your hard disk, lost amongst the thousands of others and never to be seen again!

TV is going through a transformation the likes of which it’s not seen since the birth of Satellite TV.

New Internet TVs don’t just give you a TV with YouTube – they give you a whole new viewing experience that’ll transform your living room.

To guide you through the minefield of the different technologies available, we’ll take a look at 5 televisions that let you connect to that most social of video sites, YouTube.

TVs with YouTube – making the TV social again

Here at MediaMentalism, we’re all about the social. We’re also about the smart technology, but what really gets the MediaMentalism boat afloat is when the smart technology gets with the social.

Everything’s getting in on the act, from cameras that are Flickr friendly to blasting out your favourite tunes with a HiFi and Last.FM. Now even the TV is getting in on the social action, growing network interfaces and talking to the Internet.

Every TV manufacturer is doing things slightly differently though. To help you choose the best way of watching YouTube on your TV, we’ve looked at different models from different manufacturers, grouped according to the main TV tech being used.

Internet-equipped LED TV

Panasonic D25 LED LCD

While Samsung and LG have cornered the public’s eye with catchy adverts, Panasonic have quietly released their own LED LCD screen, the Panasonic D25 series. Keen AV followers will know that any Panasonic TV comes with an impressive heritage and the D25 is no exception.

Using a top-end LED backlit IPS panel, the D25 comes packed with Freesat HD to flex those HD pixels, 4 HDMI sockets, a very cool USB “HDD PVR” function which allows you to record onto a USB hard drive, and finally the all important Ethernet socket. Through this you have access to Viera Link, Panasonic’s web portal, which includes the usual news and weather, and also social elements like YouTube and even Twitter.

Now you can watch dancing mongoose and tell the world without touching a phone or PC!

The Top End 3DTV

Samsung UE40C8000 3D LED TV

Maybe LED is not enough for you, and you crave something that little bit more. Ok, how about the very cutting edge of television technology from one of the world’s biggest names in TVs?

Samsung’s 8000 series sets are not only the de rigeur LED LCD flavour but these uber-TVs have that trick up their sleeve that everyone wants – 3D. Looking stunning in brushed titanium, the 8000 is loaded with a full HD VA LCD screen (better than monitor-type TN LCD), Freeview HD, 4 HDMI sockets, 200hz motionplus and the all important network connection (WiFi optional).

Samsung’s web service is the very-90′s-named internet@tv and it offers an original take on the whole idea with widgets. You can add new widgets to the taskbar on the screen, from BBC iPlayer to Flickr and from Twitter to YouTube. The 8000 even has a Skype widget for video calls on the big screen, very 21st century.

If you are looking for possibly the most Web-aware and technologically advanced TV, the Samsung 8000 series must be at the top of that list.

The 3D LCD Bargain

Samsung LE40C750 3D LCD TV

While Samsung’s 8000 series is at the high end of today’s TVs, it also has a price to match, so in these somewhat frugal days it’s always worth keeping one eye on the cheaper option. Though it may not have the ultra sleek titanium frame and LED technology of its fancy brother, the latest Samsung 7 series LCD TV (the C750) is still getting plenty of praise for its deep black levels, impressive 2D to 3D conversion and great viewing angle.

Still equipped with a raft of socketry (including the now standard 4 HDMI) and Freeview HD, the C750 runs the same internet@tv as it’s bigger brother, so you still get access to cool widgets like YouTube, Lovefilm, Twitter and more, but big screen Skype is kept back for the big boys toys only.

The C750 offers a taste of the big time for small potatoes, so if you’re on a budget, go check it out.

The Refined Plasma TV

Panasonic G20 Plasma

The Plasma vs LCD/LED debate has been going for some time now and shows no sign of stopping. Both have their advantages and their disadvantages – LED TVs are razor thin with a sharp picture, but plasma sets have better black levels and motion handling. Horses, courses!

Panasonic’s G20 series are plasma-based TVs and are one of the best options if you want both plasma technology and YouTube in your new TV with Panasonic Viera Cast. Using Panasonic’s NeoPDP panels (the closest any panel has come to Pioneer Kuro black levels), the G20 packs in a whole lot of tech for a fantastic, lifelike and vibrant image.

A full 1080p display, 4 HDMI inputs, 600hz motion, intelligent frame creation, Freeview HD AND Freesat HD, the G20 has optional WiFi and it’s THX certified so you know it’s been calibrated to motion picture standards.

Another distinct advantage plasma holds over LCD is how well it handles SD video, with LCD tending to be very matter-of-fact and showing all blemishes and noise. Plasma on the other hand will gloss over much of the issues in a similar way to CRT TVs did with video files, smoothing them out and making them look more like regular film.

With YouTube generally being at a lower resolution, plasma may well be the best way to view it on a 42″ screen. Plasma is often (incorrectly) assumed to be old technology, but visit any decent TV showroom or audio visual forum, and you’ll see the enthusiast’s TV of choice will have a plasma screen.

The Cracking Budget Choice

LG 42LD690 LCD TV

LG’s sets have come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, with excellent budget plasma panels, highly reviewed LCD set and revered top end LED model all doing well. Even though it is the cheapest option here, the LG LD690 is still an excellent HD TV for the money and carries on LG’s good name.

Coming packed with Freeview HD, the LD690 can also boast 3 HDMI inputs, 100hz TruMotion and network connectivity. LG have used that inconspicuous little ethernet socket to give the LD690 DLNA capabilites, allowing you to stream videos from any computers or network drives that are sitting on your home network – no boxes needed.

They’ve also used it for NetCast, LG’s answer to Panasonic’s Viera Cast and Samsung’s internet@tv. Netcast offers the viewer weather reports, photoshare, Skype video calls (soon) and YouTube, all on a 42″ full 1080p high-definition screen.

Significantly, as a majority of Channel 4′s demand service, 4OD, is on YouTube, you can now watch it on demand and in your front room. While LCD may not handle YouTube as gracefully as Plasma, it’s a sharper image with HD sources like consoles and Blu Ray players, and in the LD690′s case, it’s a few hundred pounds cheaper too!

The Clever Box of Tricks

WDTV Live

What if you’ve got a great TV already? Let’s say you’ve spent a few thousand on a 60″ Pioneer Kuro and nothing bests it in your eyes, but you still want to dabble in social media and the web on a big screen, so what’s the answer?

Western Digital’s WDTV Live.

Western Digital’s little box of tricks is not only an excellent networked high definition media player, capable of playing back AVI, WMV and MKV up to 1080p, but it also has the all-important on-line action.

The WDTV Live allows you to access YouTube, Flickr and internet radio from Live365, all up on your big screen. It also has HDMI out and optical digital out to get the best sound out of the little box into your hifi or surround system. The WDTV Live is a great YouTube player with a simple but powerful media player in the package too, and makes a great media hub at a fantastic price.

Summary

Ok, so there you have six ways to get the power of the internet into your front room – and this is just the beginning. The internet and our front rooms are merging, with services like Google TV, Zune Videos on the 360, Apple TV and many more aiming to stream not only YouTube but high definition films into our living rooms over the internet.

Even YouTube itself is going high definition and even 3D, so it’s a very exciting time. The Web can be at your fingertips if you want it – enjoy yourself!

What is Last.FM?

Last.FM is an intelligent radio station that tailors itself to your musical tastes by examnining your mp3 collection. Using the oddly named system of ‘scrobbling’, every track you play though a supported media player (such as Windows Media Player) is logged and sent to Last.FM to build up a picture of what you like.


Then you select your ‘channel’ and you’ll hear a stream of tracks that you have scrobbled, plus new ones the system thinks you will like. If you don’t like one, you can tell it so and it’ll further tailor your taste. You can also select the easier way of putting in an artist’s name and the system will stream tracks it thinks relate to that artist.

For example, put in Depeche Mode and you may also get Yazoo and Nine Inch Nails in the stream. All very clever and all very free for the basic package, and there is a £3 per month premium package with extra features for those wanting more customisation and additional use with media streamers.

In addition, there are thousands of “radio stations” based on a particular artist that feature tunes that are similar in style and genre to that artist’s music. Again you can tell the system which particular tunes you love, helping it to build up an even more complete picture of the tunes you like.

The end result is a continual stream of tunes that focus more and more on your musical tastes, and all without having to do any kind of searching yourself. The more the system knows what you like, the more it can pick the tunes for you, until you get an Internet Radio that’s absolutely perfect just for you.

Getting Last.Fm in your Living Room

All this is great when you’re at your PC or using Last.FM through a phone app (yep, you can do that too!), but let’s face it: good music deserves a proper sound system.

So how can you get Last.FM into the living room? With the following five devices, each of which will hook straight into your stereo or home cinema system, so your bass can kick and your guitars can rip!

1. Revo AXiS

Like a space age lunchbox, Revo’s top of the line Revo Axis is a radio for the 21st century.

Part DAB radio, part iPod dock and part touchscreen media centre, the AXiS is certainly a one stop shop for all your digital audio needs. The AXiS boasts a touchscreen interface controlling the internet radio, the DAB radio and for the old school it also has FM radio too. It has wireless media streaming from a Mac or PC (including artwork) and hooks into Last.FM, allowing you to choose an artist or band and the AXiS will stream a unique station tailored to the listener.

It’s no sonic slouch on it’s own either, with NXT’s ‘Balanced Radiator’ speakers and a class D amp but you can still hook it up to a big system for an even bigger sound. Revo have been doing this sort of thing for years with great success, and come October 1st, when the AXiS is launched, they’re success is sure to continue.

Best for: The music-loving gadget fiend who wants a cutting edge design and great sound, but without the price tag.
See more details and check prices of the Revo AXiS

2. Logitech Squeezebox Touch

One of the original music streaming systems, Logitech’s Squeezebox has evolved into the touch generation with the release of its Logitech Squeezebox Touch.

Unlike the AXiS above, the Touch is designed from the ground up to be connected to a larger system, as it has no speakers or amplification of its own. Looking like a very sleek digital photo frame, the Touch is, as the name suggests, a touchscreen device using Logitech’s dead simple Squeezebox interface.


Taking more than a few cues from the original iPod interface, the Touch’s interface is simple and intuitive to operate and connects not only to your mp3 collection but to internet radios and the all important Last.FM. It’s very snappy and smooth to operate (although those with a large collection may experience some occasional jerky scrolling of titles) and the unit has a capacitive screen – far more elegant than a resistive solution.

Of course, you can use the supplied remote too for use at a distance, and cleverly it puts the display into large text so you can read it from over on the sofa. The Touch also has a selection of outputs including digital optical, so if you are lucky enough to own a high end system, you can use its superior DAC instead of the Touch’s own.

You will need a PC or Mac to stream music from using the proprietary SqueezeServer software but coming in at a shade under £250, the Squeezebox Touch is a keenly priced device that looks good and works great, and with Last.FM, it boasts a never ending supply of music.

Best for: The musical perfectionist, looking to mix the range of tunes from Last.FM with the audio quality of their existing Hi-Fi
More details and check prices on the Logitech Squeezebox

3. Sonos Bundle

Like the Squeezebox Touch, the Sonos system is a wireless streaming system. However, unlike the Touch it doesn’t require a PC or Mac.


The Sonos system is a high end audiophile product that can stream music to any room in your house and comes with a 15″ touchscreen server. You can also add powered or unpowered satellite devices to bring the music to other rooms, all controllable from the very cool CR200 capacitive touchscreen remote control. You can also control the system with an iPhone or an iPad, with each having their own separate app for full control and interactivity.

Not only is the Sonos an extremely elegant audio solution but it also seamlessly integates Last.FM into your playback. It’s the same idea as the desktop versions – select an artist and it’ll find similar tracks. It also scrobbles your own music so over time it builds a picture of your tastes, so when you can pick what to listen to, let the Last.FM feature read your mind!

As the remote has a full colour 640×480 display, you can also access Last.FM’s artists biographies and even if they are touring nearby. You can also see what others who share your taste in music are listening to, broadening your horizons.

The Sonos package is a serious bit of kit but not only does it play back music superbly, it’s very impressive to use. From the large 15″ display of the main server to the lavish remote control, the Sonos system screams quality.

Best for: The Audiophile sound-smith, for whom nothing but total quality will do (irrespective of price!)
More details and check prices on the Sonos Bundle

4.Roberts Stream 83i

Roberts seem to be making an art of putting cutting edge technology into classic boxes that look as at home blasting out Test Match Special as they do Interpol or LCD Soundsystem. The Roberts Stream 83i though is their first device to incorporate Last.FM along with a wealth of internet radio stations and both DAB and FM radio.


Stylistically a world away from its peers in this list, it nevertheless still puts out a good sound with its “bass woofer housed in an acoustically tuned cabinet” and it’s simple to operate with the raft of buttons on the front.

Talking of the front, it’s also got a USB input for either an MP3 player (not an iPod) or a memory stick and it’ll happily play music from it. It’ll also pick up uPnP servers too (some other devices like the Squeezebox will only talk to their own servers) which is great to plug and play if you already have something like that set up at home.

While the Stream 83i’s looks are not to everyone’s taste, it offers so many ways to stream music it simply can’t be ignored by anyone looking for a comprehensive playback unit.

Best for: The go-anywhere music person who wants their tunes wherever they are from a gadget that looks great wherever it’s placed.
More details and check prices on the Roberts Stream 83i

The Alternative Choices

5. For Bedroom Rhythms: Revo Domino D3

Ok let’s say you love having Last.FM so much in the living room you want the same in the bedroom but don’t want to have to do the hooking up to a sound system bit. Well how about another box from the makers of the AXiS?


The Revo Domino D3 is a neat little WiFi-enabled sound system with a natty OLED screen and the bonus of an inbuilt iPod dock, all in a deep black or cool white package.

Best of all, it offers Last.FM in a portable format so your carefully scrobbled music that has taken so long to build up can sweetly send you to sleep (or violently wake you up if that is your want!). It is quite small so some may find the little screen difficult to navigate but once set up you just need your ears, and the Domino is generous to them with a good sound from a good source.

Revo have designed another interesting device that certainly catches the eye and gives a wealth of sources in a neat little package.

Best for: those who want the features of the AXiS on a budget
More details and check prices on the Revo Domino

6. For Audio and Visual: Microsoft Xbox 360 S

Did you know you can get Last.FM on the humble Xbox 360? From November 2009, Last.FM has been available to subscribers of the Xbox Live Gold service, and brings the full Last.FM experience to the big screen TV.

Hooking into your Last.FM account, it’ll show you the last stations you listened to on any device including your own, and selecting any will start the stream just like on any other Last.FM client. The screen will then show images of the artist or band playing (which move and change to prevent screen burn), with the full biographies and links to other stations all present.

It’s excellent at parties, really showing a multimedia experience – streamed from the net, displayed on a HDTV and played through a surround sound system. The new slim black 360′s themselves are much quieter and smaller than their older cream forebears, and re-engineered to prevent failure. Coupled with the inbuilt optical or HDMI outputs for digital sound direct to your amplifier,this really could be the time to get a sleek, black 360-shaped media hub for your living room.

How will you listen to Last.FM?

So there you go, some ways to bring the power of music and the power of the internet together, giving it the sound it deserves. With your collection fully scrobbled you can use Last.FM to bring you music anywhere and in great quality. With these devices you can explore its rich features to show you new music you may like or find out if the band you are listening to are touring.

Or you can simply use these Last.FM gadgets to listen to great music and show off a bit when doing so. Never before have we had so many of sources of music and any of these devices will help you get the best sound possible from them.

Go on, turn it up to 11!

Although MKV files are everywhere on file sharing networks, finding an MKV Player is difficult as there aren’t many available, simply because the format is so new.

So we thought we’d help you with a guide to the best MKV Players on the market at the moment, together with links to where you can buy them.

Why buy an MKV Player?

Without getting too geeky (more details on Matroska can be found here if you do want to geek out!), an MKV Player will automatically play videos contained within an .mkv file, many thousands of which you’ll find on torrent sites.

MKV isn’t just a new format of video, though – it’s a complete multimedia container, containing video (in many different video encoding formats), audio, selectable chapters and menus.

Think of it as a DVD, complete with its selectable chapters and extras, but all contained in a single file, so downloadable – and playable – from a single MKV file.

An MKV player, therefore, is simply any media player that natively supports MKV fiiles out of the box, letting you play them as soon as you download them without having to reformat them into a different video format.

Finding an MKV player can be tricky, though, as the format is still new. So we picked out six of the best MKV players on the market for you, each with its own unique claim to fame (and price!).

The six best MKV players

1). Iomega ScreenPlay Director

The Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD is a cracking media player that streams full 1080p HDTV from hundreds of different sources, and in dozens of different formats – including MKV.

• Watch video from your PC – the ScreenPlay Director comes with Ethernet and optional WiFi, and will stream your videos from your PC. It comes with own onscreen display and remote, which let you navigate through your music, videos and pictures for instant viewing.
• Watch video from the Internet – again via either Ethernet or Wifi, you can stream videos from CinemaNow, YouTube or dozens of other sites
• Watch video from the ScreenPlay Director itself, with its bui;t-in 1TB or 2TB hard drive

You can watch videos in tonnes of different formats, too, including MKV, MPEG, AVI, DivX and Xvid, H.264, WMV, AVCHD and VC-1 (phew!)

Add to that support for Internet radio, more HDTV connectors than you can name, USB support for plugging in and browsing external MP3 players (with support for MP3, AC3, WAV, Ogg, WMA and Flac audio files), and DLNA support for viewing videos and pictures from DLNA-compliant gadgets (including your PC, camera phone or camera), and the Iomega ScreenPlay Director is a strong contender for one of the best connected gadgets of all time – period!

With its suport for MKV though, it’s a downloader’s dream – download any MKV file from the Internet, and play it instantly on your HDTV. Genius!

Best for: The ultimate gadget fiend who wants the ultimate media sharing experience and doesn’t mind paying for it.

See more details and check prices of the Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD

2). ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 Media Player

The Asus O!Play HD 1080p HDP-R1 Live Internet Media Streamer is a similar box to the Iomega ScreenPlay Director, but with a few missing features. Firstly, there’s no Wi-Fi – it’s not even an option. You do get an Ethernet cable, though, which is some comfort, but Wi-Fi would have been better.

There’s also no internal hard drive, so you’re reliant on your PC or an external hard drive (the ASUS O!Play comes with an eSata connector) for stored video.

Fortunately, none of this detracts from an excellent media player. It’ll play just about any type of video you care to throw at it, will read DVD menus from a ripped MKV file, and will pretty much let you watch anything you can download from the Internet.

And one benefit of a reduced feature set is a much reduced price – just $99, which less than half the price of the Iomega.

Best for: people on a budget who want to share their media cheaply, but aren’t too fussed about some of the finer features offered by the other players here.

See more details and check prices on the Asus O!Play HD Live Internet Media Streamer

3). Popcorn Hour C-200 Media Tank

The gloriously-named Popcorn Hour C-200 Networked Media Tank
is another media player, but this time one favoured by the hardcore video geeks – it supports just about any video encoding you care to throw at it, and comes with a built-in BitTorrent client, so it’ll download files from the Internet all by itself without any need for your PC to be switched on.

If your PC is on, then you can still stream any music or video from it, as you’d expect. Alternately, you can also share your media from your Popcorn Hour C-200 to your PC or laptop, as the Popcorn Hour also acts as a file server.

The remote control is based on RF technology rather than InfraRed, which means you can control the Popcorn Hour in any room, regardless of where the box itself is located (obviously more useful for music selection than video!), and there’s even space for a Blu-ray drive.

All of this doesn’t come cheap, of course – but it is the best box of the bunch, especially if you’re a hardcore media freak.

Best for: Hardcore video geeks who want full video support and full control over their media (yet don’t really care about a polished interface!)

See more details and check prices on the Popcorn Hour C-200 Networked Media Tank

4). Lacie LaCinema Mini HD

The Lacie LaCinema Mini HD debuted at CES 2010 a few weeks ago, but already it’s drawing admiring comments. With full 1080p HD, video streaming from your PC, and complete UPnP and DLNA support, which will share your media across your computers, cameras, phones – even your PS3 or XBox 360 – the LaCinema is a media sharer’s dream!

Better still, it doesn’t compromise on features – as well as supporting virtually every video format known to man (including MKV), it also comes with a bui;t-in 500GB hard drive and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

This makes using the Mini HD simplicity itself – simply connect it to your HDTV via HDMI, and choose your source: internal hard drive, an attached USB drive, or anything attached to your Wireless Network. Your content can be navigated smoothly on-screen, and you can even view media stored on non-PC devices, such as a DLNA-equipped mobile phone or camera.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about the Mini HD, though, is its size – it’s just 118 x 118 x 40 mm, which is tiny! Perfect for taking round to your mate’s and watching whatever you’ve got stored on her HDTV.

Best for: Plug n Players who want a small box with minimal fuss, nothing else to buy, and the ability to take it round to a mate’s house.

See more details and check prices on the Lacie LaCinema Mini HD

5). WD TV Live

The WD TV Live is a full-HD 1080p media player that, despite its ugly appearance, really knows how to share your media in style. Its unique user interface adds some nice polish, which is always nice when searching through thousands of videos and tunes, and is welcome relief from some of the more minimalist interfaces from the likes of the Popcorn Hour.

The WDTV does what most media players do – it lets you share video, music and pictures from your PC and the Internet, including YouTube, Pandora and Live365.

There’s an Ethernet connection, an optional Wi-Fi adaptor, HDMI 1.3 connector for connecting to your HDTV, and support for all manner of video formats, including MKV.

As a point of interest, Gizmodo tested a range of media players, and concluded that the WD TV Live was the best at finding and playing different videos from different sources. It sounds like that should be the absolute minimum that a media player should be able to do, but you’d be amazed how poorly some of them performed (not the ones in this list, it has to be said).

Best for: Accessing any type of content without hassle, so long as you can hide the box somewhere!

See more details and check prices on the WD TV Live

6). Archos 5 Android Internet Tablet

If it’s something more portable you’re after, you could consider the Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet. Not only does it support MKV as well as a tonne of other video formats, it’s also got the kind of feature list you normally only dream of.

Based on Google’s Android operating system, the Archos 5 is a Portable Media Player with huge 4.8″ touchscreen, integrated GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM transmitter. You can even tether it to mobile phones, letting it access the Internet via your phone’s 3G connection. Very hadny if you want to browse the Web on its splendid Web-kit based browser.

There are a variety of different versions on offer, from an 8GB version to a hard-drive equipped version with 500GB of storage space.

But it’s the media playing virtues of the Archos 5 you’re interested in, and here it shines. With support for AVI, WMV, MPEG4, h.264, MKV, XVid, DivX and Flash video content out of the box, all the way up to 720p, and audio support for MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg, and WAV files, it’ll play pretty most of your content with ease.

It’ll also play video content from the likes of YouTube and Hulu, while music is served wirelessly via Pandora, Slacker, Last.fm, or whatever else you care to throw at it.

And if none of that appeals, just use it as a digital photo-frame – its screen is big enough and clear enough!

It’s not without its flaws, but as an all round media player capabale of playing your precious MKV files, and with a tonne of other features as well, it’s the perfect portable device for video downloaders.

Best for: Gadget fiends looking for the ultimate go-anywhere video player.

See more details and check prices on the Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet

Summary

MKV, although a relatively new format, is fast becoming the video container of choice, particulalrly among file downloaders. If you’re serious about your video, you need a media player that can support MKV, adn the range of media players in this list gives you this and so much more.

It’s great to see media players finally coming of age, as for the past few years they’ve been dogged by flaws, flakiness and poor usability (and just looked plain hideous). This list of 6 of the best shows that they’ve really upped their game, and any of these should suit you well if you’re looking for a great MKV player for your collection.

Know of any better MKV players? Let us know, in the comments below (and yes, we know about the PopBox, but it hasn’t been released yet!).

We’ve selected the best sociable gadgets from the biggest gadget fest in the world: CES 2010. Whether it’s YouTube camcorders, Flickr cameras, Facebook tellies or even Tweeting TVs (and no, I’m not joking!), if the gadget links to the social Web – and if it’s any good – we’ve covered it!

See our entire list of CES 2010 post here.

Gadgets that capture your location

Just some of the gadgets available to you for capturing your location include:

• Stand alone GPS devices – the latest Sat-Navs from the likes of Tom Tom and Garmin don’t just tell you where you are, they let you take Geocoded pics and videos and even
• Cameras with built-in GPS . Try the Nikon P6000, or read about the dozens of different GPS camera options available to you.
• Camcorders with GPS – the first consumer models will be the Sony Handycam HDR-XR500 and XR520, both of which will feature built-in GPS and geotagging of your videos when they’re released, later in 2009.
• Cameraphones with GPS, including the Nokia N95, N82, N96 and E90, the LG Renoir II KC910, and the Samsung Omnia i900, or the superb 8 megapixel Sony Ericsson C905.
• Location-aware Browsers – Mozilla’s Geode extension for Firefox works out where your laptop is from the proximity of nearby networks
• USB or Bluetooth GPS devices – useful if you want more accurate results than network triangulation. Try the Garmin Mobile PC, for example, available in both USB and Bluetooth versions.
• Add on gadgets – if you can’t afford a gadget with built-in GPS, try the tiny Sony GPS-CS1, which adds geocoded data onto your pictures and videos after you’ve taken them – even if you’re nowhere near the location where they were taken from!

Geotagging sites for showing off your location

Capturing your location is one thing – what do you do with it once you’ve got it?

Simple – you upload your pictures, videos or text to the site of your choice and let it display your travels on a fully interactive map, so your fans can follow you wherever you go. Just some of the sites you could use include:

• Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio, SmugMug, Locr, Fotonauts and dozens of other image sites,which can all display geotagged images on an interactive map
• Feedburner – lets you stamp your co-ordinates on your blog’s RSS feed. Try mixing Geode with Feedburner for automatic geo-blogging.
• Plazes and Brightkite – social networks that focus on telling the world and your fans where you are.

Geotagging is still in its infancy, and although there are several handy guides on what you’ll need to do it, it can be difficult to setup, particularly if your device isn’t designed to support it. Some phones, for example, despite coming with GPS built-in, won’t automatically geotag your photos.

Fortunately, you can install software such as ShoZu, which will not only automatically geotag your images and pics for you, it’ll also upload the content to Flickr, YouTube, or many other sites, with the geotag info all ready to use by the site of your choice.

If you’re tech-savvy, you might like to try out Yahoo!s FireEagle, which takes your location from many different devices and lets you export it to dozens of different sites in all manner of different ways. With FireEagle, for example, you could create a widget that puts your current location on a blog, or which updates your Facebook status or loyal Twitter followers with your location. You’re a social media rockstar, remember, with profiles and accounts in tonnes of different social networks. Update them all with your location with FireEagle, and literally let your followers follow you!

FireEagle’s not for the faint-hearted, though, but again there are some useful FireEagle tutorials out there to help you get the most from it.

If you want a simpler way of using FireEagle to update your location to the hundreds of social networks you belong to, let Plazes do it for you.

Summary

If this has whetted your appetite for Geoblogging, have a look at the many Geotagging sites that make innovative use of the geotagged info you provide.

What are you waiting for? You want to be a social media rockstar – get out there and show the world where you are!

This has been the last in a series of posts on how to use the very latest gadgets and social media sites to get yourself Internet famous. You can read the rest of the posts at:

• What YouTube camera to buy
• The video sites that are better than YouTube
• How to succeed with online video
• The gadgets you need to become Internet famous

If you like this post, consider subscribing to our RSS feed, or else follow me on Twitter.

If only it were that easy! Fortunately, I’ve created a guide on how to succeed with online video, which shows you how to use your video camera, the dozens of video upload sites and your own imagination to make real money with online video.

How to succeed as a Video blogger

There are two ways of making money from a video blog: either make yourself the focus of your videos, or create a blog that includes your own videos and those from other people.

Video blogging using your own and other people’s videos

If it’s Internet celebrity status you’re after, such as Robert Scoble, then you’ll need to include yourself in the videos you shoot, even if it’s only behind the camera. A much easier, way, though, is to mix video that you shoot yourself with videos from other producers.

The guys at YouGottaSeeThisVideo.com (left) did this to perfection, and were nominated for best video blog 2007 at the prestigious Weblog awards.

This is an easier way to have success with a video blog, as creating video can be quite time consuming, so combining your own video with videos that other people have created ensures you get more high quality content than you would if you were shooting all the vids yourself. Just make sure the other videos are related to the topic you focus on, and ensure that your video blog has a consistent theme throughout.

For tips on creating a video blog and monetizing it using your own videos and those from other people, check out the following:

• Using YouTube to become a leader in your blog niche – blogging and social media genius Maki (one of Digg’s top superusers) shares his thoughts on becoming a successful blogger by using a successful Youtube user as a case study.
• Make money with a video blog – superb article on how to make money with a video blog. Step by step advice on setting up your blog, choosing content, and even where to position your ads for maximum click-through.
• DigitalPoint forum on making money with a video blog – forum thread that expands on the above article, including more detailed advice for the budding video blogger.
• More top advice from Maki on making money for a video blog – does exactly what it says on the tin. Maki’s posts are so consistently good, you wonder how he has time to sleep!

Video blogging all by yourself

If you want to be YouTube famous, you’ll need to ensure you’re always in the video somewhere, even if it’s only as a voice over behind the camera. This will only work if you have a loud and engaging personality – no-one wants to see videos of dull people.

Look at Perez Hilton (left), for example. His whole site isn’t just about celebrity gossip, it’s about him and his personality.

If you want to be Internet famous, you need to be able to capture’ people’s attention in a similar way (well, maybe not in quite such a similar way! – there’s only room in this world for one Perez Hilton, surely!)

One way to test this out is to start live blogging yourself on Justin.tv. Here you can experiment with a small audience to begin with, and build it up over time, before branching out with your own video-based Web site around you.

If you don’t have a loud personality, or you don’t want to be Internet famous but like shooting video, then consider live blogging important people or events.

The best example of this type of video blogger is Robert Scoble, who scours the world to get the latest scoops on tech-related subjects, and interviews the people in the industry who matter.

You can live blog trade shows, conferences, launch parties – pretty much anything that people want to see. You can do it to generate traffic to your own blog, or to promote someone else’s for money. Effectively, you become a freelance blogger for someone who pays you to cover important events.

If you think this is for you, check out some of these sites on how to become a live blogger:

• Live blogging best practices (note: the page looks like it was designed in 1994, but don’t let that put you off – it was actually written in 2007!)
• How to do conference blogging – excellent set of tips on how to live blog conferences for your own professional development
• Conference blogging for professional bloggers – from Blog Herald, one of the top Problogging sites on the Web
• How to blog a conference – hardware, software and strategy for live blogging like a pro.
• How to Live Blog a conference – conference blogging tips from the experts
• Beth Kanter – prolific blogger for Blog Her, Beth has covered many live events and givdes some top tips for Live Blogging wannabes
• Live blogging the Web 2.0 way – great set of Web 2.0 sites to help you live blog an event
• Live Blogging the WebWorkerDaily way – loads of live blogging posts from one of the top blogs on the Web
• How to use CoverItLive for Live blogging – review of the live blogging site CoverItLive.com
• ProBlogger’s live blogging tips – tips from the expert himself.
• Free 6 page e-book on live blogging – extremely useful guide to live blogging,plus great links to opther experts
• Confessions of a live blog failure – some of the pitfalls to watch out for when live blogging
• The art of live blogging – does exactly what it says on the tin
• TopRank tips on Live blogging – includes strategies,software and top tips

How to succeed with viral videos

If you’re the creative type and love creating your own videos, then you need to make your video go viral if you want success.

A viral video is one that people like so much, they share it with their friends, who in turn share it with their friends, and so on.

The video literally spreads like an epidemic, gaining you maximum exposure.

Be warned, this is not an easy process, but the rewards can be huge.

Finding the killer hook you need to get your video to go viral is the secret to viral success.

It’s a black art, though, and will require much trial and error, but here are some excellent articles with tips and advice that’ll give you a head start:

• Viral marketing with Lisa Nova’s sexy videos – sex sells, and Lisa Nova (in the video, above) knows it, exploiting this age old marketing trick to perfection. She’s created a series of sexy characters that you can use in your own video clips completely free. Called Lisa Nova collab characters, they can help spice up your clips, while promoting Lisa herself – clever! Emulating Lisa’s strategy is one option, but using Lisa’s video clips yourself in your own clips may be a better option if you have the sex appeal of a moose’s arse.
• The secret strategies behind many viral videos – TechCrunch article into viral video promotion from the head of viral video marketing company The Comotion Group. See also this follow-up article, which clears up a few misundertandings from the original post.
• How to succeeed at YouTube – revealing interview with Andrew Nesbitt, who’s had several videos go viral.
• Forrester research’s interview with WillItBlend.com. Video Website WillItBlend.com has had enormous success with YouTube. Forrester research interview the guys behind the site and come up with some top tips for viral videos.

If you’re still looking for inspiration, check out the deeply ironic vid below on how to make viral video clips!

Custom video creation

If you love creating video and want to be paid for your efforts, consider becoming a freelance video producer. Companies will pay you to create videos to advertise their products or services. You need to be skilled in creating videos to do this, but if you’ve got the talent, head to MediaMobz and sign up as a producer. You can then bid for work producing videos for companies looking for creative individuals to produce advertisements for them.

Note that their homepage implies they only sign up advertisers. This isn’t the case at all – when you start the sign-up process you can select whether you’re offering your services as a producer, or whether you’re a buyer. Check their FAQ for more details.

Summary

Blimey, these posts are getting out of hand! If you’re into making videos for the Web, these links should help you focus on your videos’ theme, monetize them, become a YouTube superstar, and ultimately succeed with online video. If you know of any other great articles for online video success, or just want to share your own tips and advice,feel free to comment below.

Meanwhile, check out my other posts on the best gadgets for online video, and video sites that are even better than YouTube.