Mac Mini on TV stand (photo credit: Larry Magid)

There are plenty of ways to bring Internet content to a TV set but, with the exception of PCs and Macs, they all have their limitations. One limit is the fact that some content providers that are accessible from PCs and Macs attempt to block access from game consoles, Google TV, Apple TV and other internet connected devices. Another is that different devices run different applications. An Apple TV, for example, gives you access to iTunes content but not content from Amazon’s library.  Non-Apple TV boxes don’t provide access to iTunes.

But by placing a Mac or a PC to a TV you can access pretty much anything you want.

The key to connecting PC or Mac to a TV is to make sure that the computer you purchase as an HDMI out port which is standard on a lot but not all machines these days. The HDMI will always handle the PC’s video but may or may not handle audio. If not, you’ll have to connect the audio via the PC’s headphone or audio out jack.

Another important piece is to get a wireless keyboard and pointing device or a remote control for the PC. There are several wireless technologies for both PCs and Macs, starting at under $30. Ideally you should buy one with an RF radio signal or Bluetooth rather than infrared.

It’s also necessary to have a PC with Wi-Fi unless you can run Ethernet cables into your living room.

You can buy a PC specifically for this purpose but if you are upgrading to a newer PC, it could be a good way to use your old one. If your old PC doesn’t have Wi-Fi or the hardware for wireless keyboard and pointing device, you can easily add it through the USB ports.

Mac Mini is a simple but expensive solution

This week Apple loaned me one of its new Mac Minis along with a Bluetooth keyboard and Bluetooth trackpad.  I placed the new Mini next to my TV and connected an HDMI cable from the back of the Mac to the back of the TV and that was the extent of the installation.  The video and audio worked fine though I did have to adjust the video resolution of the Mac so it was suitable for my TV.

The Mini’s small size and ease of installation would make it an ideal set-top box if it weren’t so expensive. A more economical solution would be to find a used Mini or a cheap PC as long as the device has an HDMI out port.  Unlike iPads and iPhones, the Mac works fine with flash so the entire Internet was accessible.

And because it’s a personal computer, I was able to do other things such as checking email and even writing this column via Microsoft Word.  Sitting back on the couch accessing a 55 inch computer screen isn’t exactly the most ergonomic way to work, but it does work.

The world’s largest retailer is now in the business of streaming movies and TV shows. About 18 months ago, Walmart acquired Vudu and today the retailer integrated Vudu into Walmart.com, allowing users to stream TV shows and movies, including movies just out on DVD.

The service lets you rent and stream videos for between 24 and 48 hours at a variety of price points. There is a daily $1 bargain offer and some older movies for $2 but most the rentals start at $3.99 for standard definition or $.99 for 720p high definitoin or $5.99 for “full high definition” 1080p viewing.  The service works with PCs and Macs as well as compatible Internet connected TV and Blu-Ray players as well as the Sony PlayStation 3.

For more see CNET’s “Wal-Mart takes another crack at challenging Netflix”

Listen to Larry’s 1-minute CBS News segment on 3D phones

For the past few weeks I’ve been using the HTC Evo 3D from Sprint and while it’s a perfectly good phone, the 3D function is silly.  The phone has a rear facing double lens camera that allows you to take stereoscopic or 3D pictures and video.  The screen allows you to view those still or moving images in 3D without having the wear special glasses. This works OK on small screens on phones or hand-held gaming devices (like the Nintendo 3DS) because you can easily position a tiny screen at just the right angle.  It’s not so easy with living room-sized TVs that generally do require 3D glasses.

When using the 3D camera on the HTC you can not only see the final product in 3D but see a 3D preview what you’re shooting in real time.  An HTC promotional web page claims that the “phone sees the world like you do, in 3D,” but that’s not the case. It sees the world in ways that are quite unnatural. What you see on the screen looks a lot different than what you’re seeing with your eyes when you focus on the object rather than the screen. In other words, the 3D images are exaggerated and unnatural.  They look more like a cartoon image of 3 dimensions than the actual world.

And then comes the question of what you can do with those images.  You can’t print them out in 3D and if you send them to someone, they’ll look even more unnatural unless that person happens to be viewing them on another 3D device which, while possible, is not likely. It is possible to connect the phone to a 3D TV set, but 3D TVs are few and far between.

The best part of the HTC 3D experience is the 2D/3D switch on the side of the phone that lets you turn it off .With the switch in the 2D position, the phone has a perfectly good 5 megapixel still and video camera (it’s only 2 megapixels in 3D mode). There is also a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera.

LG is coming out with its own 3D phone called the Thrill 4G. To help promote the phone, wrote CNET News.com, the company is sponsoring a concert featuring rock band Jane’s Addiction and encouraging concert goers to use the Thrill to tape the concert in 3D, “with the footage getting sliced and patched together to create a user-generated 3D video.”  The Thrill will be released by AT&T for $99, according to ZDNet.com.

What LG is doing, it seems to me, is using a gimmick to promote a gimmick.

by Larry Magid
This story first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News

I recently wrote about the video “hangout” feature in Google+, but I didn’t talk about the service in general, its other features or why I think it’s going to be a strong player in the social networking arena.

Google+ is a new social networking service that’s still in what Google calls a “field trial.” Launched about a month ago, it’s starting to gain traction with an estimated 18 million to 20 million users as of last week. The service is still by invitation only so that Google can watch it grow, tweaking, adding and possibly removing features during the testing period. While still far short of the 750 million Facebook users, Google+, even during this early test stage, has a bigger population than the state of New York.

In some ways, Google+ is a bit of a cross between Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Like Facebook, it’s a place to socialize with friends. Like Twitter but unlike Facebook, Google+ makes it possible to follow people who don’t follow you, which makes it a great platform for celebrities, pundits, politicians, journalists and others who can amass a large audience of followers without having to become a fake “friend” of everyone who follows them.

It’s also nice for people who want more control over who can read their posts and whose posts they want to see. And like LinkedIn, it’s possible to use Google+ to keep up with a professional network of colleagues and also use it as a social hangout for friends and family.

All this is possible because of what Google calls “circles.” When you encounter someone on Google+ with whom you want to communicate or just keep up with, you can add them to one or more circles. When you add a person to one or more of your circles, they get a message that they have “added you on Google+.” The message also encourages you to “follow and share with” the person by adding him or her to a circle but reminds you that “you don’t have to add them back.” If you don’t put them in one of your circles they will only see what you post publicly.

But even people who are in your circles don’t necessarily see everything you post. Just below the area where you type in what you want to share, there is a prominent notice with the circles you shared with last time you posted. And if you’ve shared publicly, the word Public appears prominently.

By default, these sharing options remain in effect the next time you post, but you can easily change them each time. I’m not sure I agree with that strategy — it strikes me you should be able to set your own default that pops up each time while still making it very easy to change. In any case, it’s important to pay attention to whom you’re sharing with. If you say something public and later have something semiprivate to say, you need to change the setting before posting. You can also use this feature to post to individuals, even if they’re not in your circles or you in theirs.

Facebook actually has a similar feature called “Lists,” but it is hidden in the interface and hard to use, which is the reason that it’s not often used. Google+ circles are not only front and center, but you’re required to add people to a circle if you wish to let them view your nonpublic posts. And while you can see anyone’s public posts by searching for them or stumbling on one, adding a person to your circle assures that their public posts are part of your stream.

To get user reaction to the service, I reached out on Google+ with a public post asking people what they like or don’t like. Several people were frustrated by what one person referred to as “circle management.” Some people post a great deal, and you can become overwhelmed by their comments (Twitter has the same problem). Of course you can take them out of your circles but perhaps there could be an option of just viewing the last two or three comments of more prolific users.

Another person suggested that users should be able “to mute comment chains that have begun to rehash the same topics over and over and over.” Several people have called for Google to release APIs (application program interfaces) to allow third-party developers to create software and services to enhance Google+ with products like TweetDeck, which provides alternate ways to use Twitter and Facebook on PCs and mobile devices. For more good ideas see “The Google+ Punch Lit (21 Items Google Must Add to Plus) at Launch.is

It’s important to remember that Google+ is still in its “field test,” which is Google’s way of admitting that it’s not quite ready for prime time. The company is looking carefully at user reaction to Google+ and is in the process of tweaking and enhance it.

On its press site, Google says, “How long the testing phase lasts, and how the product evolves, will really depend on how it goes. We don’t have a set amount of time.” But Google has a habit of keeping products in this testing stage for a long time. Gmail remained in “beta” for years, even after it accumulated more than 100 million users.

Disclosure: Larry Magid is co-director of ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit Internet safety organization that receives financial support from both Google and Facebook.

You’ve no doubt heard about Britain’s phone hacking scandal that brought down the 168 year old News of the World tabloid and led to the arrest of its former editor Rebekah Brooks and the resignation of at least two high ranking British police officials. Brooks along with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and his son James Murdoch testified about the scandal before House of Commons committees on Tuesday.

Officials at News Corp have admitted that detectives working for the company broke into the voice mail systems of several people to gain access to their messages.

You don’t have to be rich or famous to be a phone hacking victim. The tabloid newspaper reportedly went after crime victims and relatives of killed service personnel.  Unethical journalism aside, it can also happen to someone involved in a messy divorce, a civil suit or as corporate espionage.

There are several methods for phone hacking including using default passwords, using services to spoof your phone number, using social engineering to talk a phone company into giving you a user’s PIN number or planting malware on a phone.

Default PIN numbers

The use of default PIN numbers is easy to do and easy to thwart. Most phone mail services assign a default PIN number to each account such as 1111, 0000 or 1234 so users can get started. As part of the phone mail set up process, users are invited to change the PIN but a lot of people don’t bother. So, rule number one is change your PIN number to something that’s not easy to guess like a consecutive string of numbers, your birthdate or the four digits of your phone number.

Caller ID Spoofing

Another relatively simple method of phone hacking is to use a spoofing service that makes it appear as if the hacker is calling from the phone he or she is trying to break into.  As a convenience feature, many phone mail services allow you to avoid having to type in a PIN every time you check your mail as long as you call from your own phone. But these easy to find spoofing services can make it look as if the hacker is calling from your phone so rule number two is to make sure your phone requires a PIN each time you check your voice mail.

Malware

There is also the possibility of malware being used to infect a smart phone. There have been cases of malware on Android phones that give the attacker complete control over the phone, so it is quite possible for a piece of malicious software to access your voice mail as well as your contact list, calendar or even your physical location.

Social engineering

I’m not sure what to say about social engineering since most cases involve the hacker calling the phone company and posing as the subscriber. We have a right to expect that companies have good security processes in place which make it possible for legitimate users to recover a password or PIN without making it possible for unauthorized access.  Companies need to use positive measures to make sure they’re speaking with the right persona and use extra precautions such as sending the PIN # to the phone itself (via text) so that – at the very least – you have to have physical possession of the phone to get the information.

Avoid secrets on your phone

Finally, it’s a good idea to encourage people not to leave highly confidential messages on your phone. Sure you have the right to privacy but, unfortunately, if someone is determined to break into your voice mail, there are ways to do it despite your efforts to stop them. So, as a precaution, don’t use cell phones for secret communications or messages.

by Larry Magid

There was no typo in the title of a Wall Street Journal blog post that declared, Netflix Customers Subscribe to Unlimited Screaming.” While I didn’t hear any actual screams, I did see a lot of complaints about Netflix’s decision to stop offering its DVD-by-mail service as a $2 add-on to its unlimited streaming service. As many blogs pointed out, a lot of Netflix users were pretty upset about what amounted to a 60 percent price increase for people who wanted both streaming and DVDs by mail.

The virtual water coolers on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ were certainly awash with negative comments. One of thousands of comments on Netflix’s Facebook page read “Cancel your subscription, bring down the Netflix stock. Then they will listen to us!”

Wall Street’s immediate reaction was quite the opposite. Instead of an instant slide, the stock went up after the announcement and continued to climb the next day. Janney Capital analyst Tony Wible wrote that Netflix’s “old pricing model was unsustainable,” pointing out that the company was “losing money on a cash basis.” On its own blog, Netflix put a more positive spin on the news: “treating DVDs as a $2 add-on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs.”

One reason for the price hike is that Netflix has to buy its content from Hollywood studios that are demanding a higher price for streaming rights. In June, Netflix stopped streaming Sony movies through its relationship with Starz because of a “temporary contract issue between Sony and Starz.” Also, the cost of buying and mailing DVDs is substantial. If you think about it, the postage alone could be a money-losing position. The extra $2 streaming customers paid for DVDs by mail wouldn’t even cover the round-trip postage if someone ordered four movies a month.

While I understand why some people are upset, I think it’s important to look at this from a long-term perspective. In its blog post about the price change, Netflix admitted that “we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as nonmembers,” adding that they expect “a long life” for DVDs by mail.

DVDs to go the way of VHS

Well, long is a relative term. Surely, people will continue to order DVDs for the next few years, but there will come a point when the vast majority of people are ordering up their movies and on-demand TV shows online instead of inserting plastic discs in a DVD player. And the day will come — perhaps not for another decade — when the DVD and Blu-ray go the way of the VHS player.

I don’t own a stand-alone DVD player but I do have a Sony PS3 connected to my TV that I can use for standard DVDs and high-resolution Blu-ray discs. And while I occasionally watch movies on DVD or Blu-ray, I find myself doing so infrequently. Call me lazy, but I don’t like having to walk way across the room to insert a disc, not to mention having to remove it and put it back in an envelope to return to Netflix. At least we no longer have to “rewind.” The PS3 is one of several devices that let you stream Netflix to a TV.

I do watch a lot of movies and TV shows via Netflix’s streaming service. Most are older titles, which suits me fine since I have a soft spot for older movies and TV shows. One of the things I love about Netflix is the ability to discover titles that I might not otherwise watch. Sure, some turn out to be dogs, but others are gems. There the worthy old classics like “Gone with the Wind” and “To Sir, with Love,” and plenty of silly “guilty pleasure” titles like “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” or “No Time for Sergeants” that I could never justify spending money to rent yet enjoy watching. There are also some classic and not-so-classic TV shows like “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show” or more recent oldies like “The Rockford Files” and “Monk.”

However, until they greatly enhance their library with newer films, one can’t live on Netflix alone, and there are plenty of other options besides getting discs in the mail. One of the cheapest options is Redbox or Blockbuster kiosks in grocery stores, which typically charge $1 to rent a DVD.

Alternatives

Amazon and iTunes are two of several online rental services that have reasonably new titles. Hulu offers some TV shows for free (wtih ads of course) while Hulu Plus offers additional shows, current seasons and a relatively small selection of movies for $7.99 a month, the same price as Netflix streaming. HBO now offers its HBO GO streaming service for people who subscribe to the service via cable or satellite. Another option is Amazon prime. Sure, it has a much smaller selection that Netflix but it does allow you to stream some movies and TV shows and it’s cheaper. The price is $6.50 a month and also includes free two day shipping on most items ordered directly from Amazon.com. I got it for that alone and now obsessionally use it for video.

My favorite video steaming service for new films is Zediva.com, which — for a $1 per movie if you buy 10 coupons at a time — streams movies starting the day they come out on DVD. The company gets around the movie industry’s timing controls (called “release windows”) by buying physical DVDs and robotically controlled real DVD players that actually play the DVD when you order up your movie. It works, but because they need to have physical inventory, it doesn’t scale very well, which is one of the reasons there is a waiting list for new members.

So, scream if you will about Netflix’s 60 percent price rise, but even if Netflix hears you now, eventually these screams will fall on deaf ears as people realize that DVDs are oh-so early 21st century.

I’ve been using Google+ for a couple of weeks now and it’s starting to grow on me.

What I like about it lets you group the people you want to share with or follow into circles and, unlike Facebook, you don’t necessarily have to agree to friend someone to share with them or even see what they’re posting.

If there is someone you want to read or share with, you add them to one or more circles. Circles can be anything you want to calk them: friends, classmates, churchmates or even “jerks that I need to keep an eye on.”  The person in the circle knows that they are in one or more of your circles but not which ones.   I have some people in multiple circles like a friend of mine who is in my friends circle, my colleagues circle and my journalists circle.

Some of the people who have me in their circles are also in mine, but not all of them. That’s kind of nice. If someone wants to share with me, they add me to a circle but that doesn’t mean that I have to share with them or even see what they post. I can, if I want, limit what I post to specific circles, specific people, extended circles (which are my circles plus the circles of people in my circles) or I can post to the public. The same is true with what I look at. I can, for example, decide only to look at posts from family members or I can look at posts from people in multiple circles or posts from anyone on Google+ who posts to the public, even if I don’t know them.

Most of what I post is for the public because I like using Google+ to reach a wide variety of people but sometimes I just post to specific circles.  For example, I do a daily radio segment for CBS News and I wanted to get a quote from a journalist or a industry professional who uses Google+. So, I posted a note on Google+ asking for comments but only directed it to my colleagues and journalist circles.  Minutes later, I heard from Dan Gillmor who’s interview you can hear below.

Whether or not you can join Google+ is a bit of a crap shoot. Last time I checked the public could sign up but they keep changing that as a way of controlling the number of people in the service during these early testing days.

Resources

My 1-minute CBS Radio News Tech Talk segment about Google+

Dan Gillmor’s first look at Google+

A look at video chat services from Google+ and Facebook (my column)

I fell in love with Spotify almost the moment I started using it and now that I have a couple of days experience with it, I’m starting to wonder if Apple’s iCloud might be too little too late.

For all practical purposes, Spotify gives you an unlimited library with access to almost any song you can imagine.  Since I’ve been playing with it, I’ve re-visited some old favorite artists I haven’t listened to for years and — thanks to public playlists from my Facebook friends – I’ve discovered some very cool artists I had never heard of before.

The PC, Mac and Android software is about as intuitive as any I’ve used. If you’re familiar with iTunes, your learning curve for Spotify is pretty close to zero.

In addition to providing you with instant access to any song in its library, it also finds and indexes the songs on your device so the music you have purchased, ripped or stolen is also avaiable — even if you’re not online.

As you may have heard, Netflix has changed its pricing model so instead of being able to get unlimited streaming plus one DVD in the mail for $9.99, you’ll now pay $7.99 a month for streaming plus another $7.99 a month for a single DVD.  For those who want both, that represents a whopping 60% price increase.

Not surprising, the blogosphere and Twitter are buzzing with complaints as is Netflix’s Facebook page. I haven’t read all of the more  60,000 comments there but most of the ones I did read were not from happy campers.

I’m OK with Netflix’s streaming only service

Personally, I’m not affected by the change because I subscribe to Netflix’s $7.99 streaming only service. I used to get DVDs in the mail but I found myself hardly ever watching them. One disc sat next to my DVD player for more than a month before I finally got around to returning it unwatched.

I’m OK with Netflix’s streaming service and I have no intention of quitting even though it offers only a fraction of the content available on DVDs and hardly any new content. That’s partially because I’m a sucker for old movies and TV shows. I love classics and even some of the black and white “b” movies from the 40s, 50s and 60s.   And I love some of the TV shows on Netflix including Monk, The Rockford Files and even The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Netflix Business model

Also, like all businesses, Netflix needs to have a model that’s sustainable and I believe them when they say that they can’t afford to lose money on mailing you a DVD for only $2 a month over the streaming only service.   If someone orders a movie a week, that’s more than four round trips a month. $2 wouldn’t even cover the postage not to mention the cost of running the service and buying the DVDs.

Even though they are keeping their DVD by mail service, Netflix’s heart (as its name implies) is on the Net side of its business. There may be a few years left in the DVD rental business but the future is in video over the Internet. Rather than stretching to be the low-cost leader in a diminishing business, Netflix is smart to be the innovator in what is obviously going to be a growing market of instant video on demand not just to TVs and PCs but to mobile devices as well.

Alternatives to Netflix

Of course, you can’t live by old films alone but there are plenty of other ways to get newer content including Amazon’s instant video service, iTunes, Hulu and Hulu Plus and even the few remaining neighborhood video stores or those $1 a night video rental kiosks at grocery stores.   For more options, see CNET’s 9 Netflix Alternatives and the Huffington Post’s Netflix Alternatives for those who don’t want to pay up.

My favorite video source is by invitation only

My favorite way to watch new DVDs is on Zediva.com which is so overwhelmed with customers that it’s taking requests from people who want to be invited to sign-up.  I got in before they started limiting membership and I pay $10 for 10 movies, including DVDs the day they come out. You can also pay $2 per movie but the $10 deal is a lot better.

Like Netflix and Amazon, the movies are streamed to my computer or my Google TV (which lets me watch them on my big TV) but instead of streaming content from a server, they “rent” you an actual DVD and DVD player that they house at their facility.  They play the movie and deliver it to you via the Net so that, for the most part, the experience of using Zediva is similar to other streaming services except, like that old-fashioned video store, it’s possible that the title you want to watch might be “rented out.”  Also, the process of starting a movie is a bit slower because it involves software control of a real DVD player, but unlike most other premium services that make you watch the movie within 24 or 48 hours, you get to watch them as many times as you want for a 14-day period.

Oh so early 21st century

Netflix’s move may have angered people this week but in the future, we’ll all look back on DVDs and even Blu-ray as being oh-so early 21st century. It’s almost time for the DVD and Blu-ray players to go the way of the VHS machine.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been an active pilot but if there was ever a product that would get me back behind the stick, the Terrafugia Transition has to be it.  Of course, it’s not yet ready for a road or skyway near you and when it is, it will set you back $250,000.  But don’t think about the price as you watch this very cool company provided video.

After viewing the video, scroll down for more on the history of flying cars.

Earlier flying cars

The Terrafugia isn’t the first flying car.  An early 60s CBS TV show, the Bob Cummings Show featured an Aerocar that had its maiden flight in 1949. There is more on the history of flying cars on Wikipedia, and after a bit of a YouTube search, I found this interesting video from the fifties.