Recently Filed in Miscellaneous

The end-of-the-year shopping season means lots of goodies on the Blu-ray front. Sadly, November’s docket of Blu-ray releases doesn’t include any movies starring Megan Fox. But there are a number of blockbusters scheduled to come out to coincide with the holiday shopping season. Going where no Blu-ray release has gone before, new Blu-ray titles include movies starring Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, Sulley and Mike, Tom and the Griswold family. Two of the notable music releases include Rush and Carlos Santana. Click here for The… View this story
Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Blu-ray • Product News • Slideshows

Roku is adding two set-top boxes and new content channels in the coming weeks. The step-up Roku HD-XR ($130) and Roku SD ($79) will join the popular Roku HD Player. The Roku HD-XR, like the Roku HD, features 720p HD playback, optical audio output and HDMI connection. However, the Roku HD-XR has upgraded the WiFi to b/g/n and added a USB 2.0 port, which Roku says there currently is no use for. The Roku SD loses the HD outputs of the other two models, offering… View this story
AV Components • Digital Media Stores • Set Top Boxes • Miscellaneous • Web Services

The owners of this New Jersey home are downsizing their lifestyles and investing in green building techniques and clean energy sources like geothermal (heat and cooling from ground sources). But that doesn’t mean they’re not going to enjoy the conveniences of home electronics. In fact, home technology will help them be even greener. “We’re doing it for ourselves,” says this homeowner. “We want a healthy house to live in and raise our kids in. The second driving force is that energy is not going to… View this story
Miscellaneous • Green Technology • Enhancements • Info and Answers

If you’re a home theater enthusiast or movie buff, fall is a great time of year. Fall usually marks the time when summer blockbusters make their way onto Blu-ray and DVD. October’s scheduled Blu-ray releases are full of family-friendly titles, including the re-release of the 1937 classic Snow White, as well as action movies such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We’ve rounded up our six favorite Blu-ray movies being released in October. View Editor’s Pick: 6 Best Blu-ray Movies of October Related: Holiday Classics… View this story
Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Blu-ray • Product News • Slideshows

Have you gotten into the spirit of e-reading yet? Amazon, of course, put the tech style of reading into the public with its Kindle, and other companies have been joining the fray, like Sony and its own e-reader. Thankfully competition typically breeds lower prices all around, and so for the second time since it was initially offered for $359, Amazon is dropping the price of its Kindle. The new price is $259 for the Kindle with U.S. wireless (down from the latest $299 price). Still… View this story
Miscellaneous • Gadgets • Product News

Roku users will now be able to stream live and pre-recorded Major League Baseball (MLB) games on their $99 player. The service, available via a free update, requires an MLB.TV Premium subscription and will cost $35 for the remainder of the 2009 season. MLB.TV products only allow you to stream out-of-market games, so you won’t be able to catch your local team on Roku. The Roku Player, of course, also streams Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand. This partnership with MLB marks the first time… View this story
AV Components • Digital Media Stores • Miscellaneous • Web Services • Product News

In what might be the ultimate kitchen automation, Anvil Cabinet and Mill has introduced a line of fully automated, “intelligent” kitchen cabinets. These cabinets, which have the ability to “automatically fold and disappear” almost like a Roman shade, are activated by motion sensors. The homeowner simply waves his or her hand or taps a finger near the sensor. Unlike cabinets that have always opened with a hinged, swinging motion, Anvil Motion cabinets’ patent-pending technology allows the doors to rise and fall vertically, concealing or revealing… View this story
Home Control • Location • Kitchen • Miscellaneous • Product News

Audiophiles and guitar players have something in common: both groups are in search of perfect sound. Eddie Van Halen calls this tone chasing, admitting that he’s done it his entire life. Some guitar players have been lucky enough to capture their Holy Grail of sound and it will live on forever. We’ve rounded up six landmark guitar recordings that are great if you’re demoing a system. We’ll explain why these recordings are unique and why you might find yourself spontaneously breaking out the air guitar… View this story
Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Home Theater • Slideshows

The quest to delivering digital media to consumers’ TVs is the space race of the 21st century. The competitors are Netflix, Best Buy, Amazon, Apple, TiVo, Samsung, Sony, LG, Vizio, Vudu, Yahoo!, ZeeVee and countless others. It may be the custom electronics professional (CE pro) who ends up making sense of the joint-ventures and co-branding and ultimately helping customers land content on their TVs. Here is a breakdown of some recent developments: Samsung Offers Blockbuster Digital Library — With new services slated to be available… View this story
Miscellaneous • Web Services • Info and Answers • Product News

Unless you grew up on a farm, the thought of jumping on the back of a horse stirs up plenty of apprehension in most people. Words of encouragement can help, but there’s no better form of comfort than music, says Shery McDonald-Galbreath. The owner and president of the SaddleUp! Foundation and Riding Academy, a non-profit therapeutic horseback riding organization in Parker, Colo., Shery plays music during every riding class she teaches, helping her mostly disabled students relax and enjoy the freedom of mobility. “It’s particularly… View this story
Miscellaneous • Audio • Cool Homes

Advocates of green technology see the bright skies of a cleaner, greener future—as well as huge business opportunities as many of us strive to go greener. And one of those opportunities is in home control, also known as home automation. Green technology advocates like myself see the benefit of using electronics to help save energy in a home by shutting off our gadgets and gizmos automatically, controlling our lighting so we’re not leaving on banks of lights unnecessarily, and regulating HVAC systems in our homes… View this story
Industry • Retailers • Miscellaneous • Green Technology • Home Control Systems • Info and Answers

Most high-tech houses are cool when the electronics systems turn on, but the coolest part of this home is when the electronics turn off. That’s because when many of the electronic devices in this house are turned off, they’re completely off—and don’t draw the “phantom” or “vampire” loads of electricity that most home electronics systems use whenever they are plugged in. In this house alone, the phantom electricity load has been cut by a third, thanks to the use of energy-efficient electronics and automating them… View this story
Miscellaneous • Green Technology • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes • Slideshows