Asus EEE...xcellent Performance and Fit

As we searched over and over for a way to play Netflix movies using either our MacBook Pro or the Air, we came up far short of the excellent streaming that we were seeing on our Vista Machine. While Netflix is not the subject of this rambling, it is the cause.

We debated whether or not to move the Vista machine in the office to the family room. Due to the size of the box and that fact that we actually use it for keeping track of finances and business ventures, moving the large computer did not make much sense. So, we considered the alternatives...

A Roku box...but that is limited to just Netflix movies...

An Apple TV...this is limited to iTunes and others with some simple and not so simple hacks...

Another PC, maybe a laptop...however, the prices were a bit more than we wanted to spend to have the simplicity of watching Netflix movies and connecting our external hard drive with our other family movies and such...

Enter the Asus EEE Box...



With its form factor being the same size as the Apple TV and functionality of a full PC, not to mention the price lower than a PC and about the same as the Apple TV with a hard drive half the size, we could not pass it up.

You turn it on and it is almost ready to go. You answer a few questions about basic settings and such for Windows and away you go. After which you can choose to load Windows XP or use the ExpressGate and get to your media quicker. We chose to load XP. I forgot how snappy XP could be without any added items running at start-up...

Updates took a little while as it came installed with XP Home SP2. Total time for updates 90 minutes. An additional 3 hours was spent adding other programs such as: Live OneCare, Live Mesh, Live Services (Writer, Photo Gallery, Mail, and Messenger) Skype, iTunes, Slingbox, the Netflix player, and Firefox.

With our 37 inch Vizio tv, the RGB/PC monitor connection seems to work best. We tried the DVI connection to an open HDMI port. However, we could not seem to get the video setting just right so that it fills up the screen and maintains readable text. Trying the recommended settings for other graphic cards, 1280X768,1280X720, and even 1366x768, we gave up after about 2 hours of playing with it and hoping we just missed something. We even updated to the recently released 9.01 bios update during this process...the RGB connection using an adapter on the EEE's DVI connection was still the best option.

With the RGB being the best choice, we needed to connect the audio with a 3.5mm headphone cable. It provides OK sound. Nothing to knock your socks off, but enough to make it very capable to play back movies in iTunes and Netflix. The full screen feature looks great and video playback does not seem to suffer. We have not tried an HD movie yet, but standard definition is very good.

The wireless N network card on top of the gig ethernet connection work great. It connected well to our N and G networks without any challenges. Data flow was steady and solid for upload and download speeds.

Currently, there are three things for the future that we are holding on an answer...
1) The unit, given its size does not have a CD or DVD drive. When we think of loading other programs, or even our children's games on this, it will be a challenge.

2) The four usb ports are OK for now, but with the keyboard and mouse taking up 2 and an external hard drive with media a third, we will run out when we add the video camera for Skype calls.

3) Speaking of keyboard and mouse...well, one may hope for a wireless option. Unfortunately, this unit only comes with a wired keyboard and mouse. We will need to invest in an alternative if this will truly work for better TV usage.

The unit runs extreme fast and cool. While other reviews from CNET and the like will tell you that you can not play high performing games and can get a better alternative for a multimedia pc at about the same price, try not to believe it. The other units are much larger, much louder, much more of a pain to connect, and much more full of bloatware. If you are looking for a simple box, don't buy the others, check out the...
ASUS Eee Box PC (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, XP Home) Pure White

More reviews to follow as more programs and connections are tested...Enjoy...

Amazon Prime Perfect for the Impatient

Signing up for Amazon Prime has been a great asset to our company and household. Many times, you think of buying something online and convince yourself that by the time you get it, it will be later than if you went down to the local store and purchased it. Amazon Prime helps with that. Recently, we thought of purchasing some books at our local bookstore. Then the thought hit us...What if they did not have the title? Of course they would offer to order the titles. However, the hassle of organizing the time and the children to visit the store would be daunting, especially if the title was not in stock. Now, if we could look up the title online, pay for it, and have it waiting at the store within the hour...well, that is a different post...

Amazon Prime enters the mix here with product availability and quick shipping. Yes, it takes longer than 1 hour to receive the product (2 days) and does cost a small amount for 1 year ($79), however, you do not pay for shipping on most items within the Amazon inventory for that year. For those two days, you could have saved time and sanity. For those of you saying that you would have just called the store to check the stock...ask yourself how often you get a hold of someone who knows the stock and is helpful...then ask yourself what happens if they do not have the resource...

As we venture back to Amazon Prime...think about how much you would spend on tax and shipping if you ordered one item any way. With rising shipping costs due to rising gas prices, you have just locked in your rate at $79 for all you need to ship regardless of changes within that year. We have ordered about five items within the last 2 months that would have cost about $60 to ship if we shipped them using the 5-day shipping option and about $80-$90 for the 2 day option. That is within the first 2 months. For the rest of the orders that we have this year, shipping has already been paid.

Even though Amazon has many different products, which you will not get just going to a book store, the one thing that we would have liked are the 2-day options for everything on Amazon. Amazon Prime is only available for items sold on Amazon. Vendor products such as those pulled in from Target or their food retailers will still cost you shipping at regular rates.

The interesting thing for us was the 1 month trial. We ordered two items before the five mentioned above. All items were received within 2 days and we were able to track them online. Try it. There are no commitments. You can turn off automatic renewal so that your credit card is not charged if you don't like it and it cancels itself. Good luck and enjoy.

MacBook Air - Oh What to VMware

OK, I have to admit that this post is a bit of a hesitation. I wrote a while ago about my not so pleasant experiences with Parallels and the MacBook Air...see MacBook Air, Parallels...I hear that not only is Parallels running better, but they have a version specifically for the Air. I hear that, but will not try it at this point.

I have installed VMware Fusion the Beta 2 version on the Air about 1 month ago...and, even after one complete update, it is still performing extremely well...now that I write this, it will, of course, stop working and revert to more corrupted state...kidding. Even if it did, I have two back-ups of previous working versions that I can just copy over...

I ended up completely removing the Bootcamp install as it was taking up more space than I wanted to afford...After removing Bootcamp, I still had the challenge of reinstalling XP yet an additional time. It seemed easier this time. There were actually only a couple of updates needed before the wonderful Windows XP SP3 initiated itself. It was much easier installing the 196+ updates when they were a part of a service pack than the individual ones were. Everything went in...with only a couple of hours lost instead of numerous weekends and more harddrive space.

Microsoft Office 2003 went in with no challenges. There were more updates for office than expected. Since I wasn't using it within the XP install as much, I let them go in over the next week. Windows Live components such as Messenger, Writer, and the lot installed quickly. Live OneCare was the only program that provided any challenges being installed. As it turns out, it was the slipstream version of XP I decided to use for this install. It did not activate Terminal Services which OneCare needed. After making some minor registry changes, all is well.

With this install of VMware Fusion and Windows XP, I was also able to attach to Windows Live, pull down items from my Skydrive, and add the MacBook Air to Windows Live Mesh. I can access the folders in the cloud whenever I am connected, and simply drag them to the Mac desktop. I am also able to connect seamlessly with the NAT bridge to my office's VPN and the shared corporate folders, dragging and dropping files when needed.

Civilization III and Railroad Tycoon II run fairly smoothly on this installation that runs in its own space on the MacBook Air. When I want to really multi-task, I attach an external monitor and run XP there with 1 GB and OSX with 1GB using the Air's beautiful screen. There are moments when MobileMe decides to sync and the VMware Fusion install slows down, but it is not as annoying or as painful as a crash or restart. The only challenge I have noticed is a longer than expected boot and shut down process, but I was noticing that with a previous XP machine after the SP3 update as well.

Lastly, I was so impressed with the beta that is free until October or so, I purchased a license within a couple of weeks. The upgrade to this version is supposed to be free for those with current license, so this made sense. Good luck...enjoy.

OK, some other items that I thought of after the original posting...

First, the bad pieces...connecting and disconnecting usb devices is not always as simple as plugging it in and unplugging the device when XP is running. Sometimes, you have to tell Vmware that there is something there. Another slightly annoying piece is the fan is constantly running. It is noisy, but too bad. Last item on the negative, unless you are just going to go in and do some quick things in XP, plug in the Air. It sucks up battery life quicker than the MacBook Air usually does.

Second, the better additions...the snapshot and shrinking worked better on the second version of the beta. I don't think I gained much space, but the tool worked well and sped up the load time a little. I have not had any crashes of the operating system...touch wood...when it looks like it is about the crash, it is a system resource issue...which I wish the MacBook Air could accept more memory...Also, two-finger scrolling, right-clicking with the CTRL key, and basic mouse functions from OSX all work splendidly within this environment.

Lastly, the one reason I forgot to mention about moving to even try VMware Fusion was that with the update that Apple provided to BootCamp, I lost some of the mouse functions on the trackpad and the environment kept crashing after that update. While I am sure the makers of VMware Fusion can thank Apple for the additional revenue stream, it is annoying that functionality was impacted by an upgrade...no worries. This method is much better for multi-tasking and balancing workload.

MobileMe is Meshing With Me

While the great 3G iPhone did not lure me in and cause me to spend even more on a device I really need to use less, I was looking forward to the enhancements to MobileMe. All I should be saying is I can now backup most of my current pictures in the cloud...however, I will add that I have been greatly disappointed.

You can sync calendars...but only Outlook and iCal...even though I have iCal subscribing to my GMail calendar, it will not include that sync...And, of course, now that I moved from Outlook on our lone PC to Windows Live Mail, no consistent and supported calendar is available...So, no appointments made easy...

After successfully logging in to the MobileMe sync portion on the PC, an error occurred everytime I tried to activate a sync. After checking a few blogs and Apple's support site, the answer was simple..log in with all lowercase letters in your user name...I know, I know, it has been like that for a long time...if that is really known than why can you login in the first place...anyone? Anyone? Apple? OK, nevermind...move along, nothing see here...

Speaking of seeing, or rather syncing...You can sync emails...but there are days that the Mail.app is the only way to go...I am getting IMAP from Google on my Tilt and using my MacBook Air for complete functionality...

The storage...I am so happy that this was increased. I struggled with renewing this 6 months from now for $100...this helps...however, since the Air's harddrive is so small, many files are on the still on the PC or a network storage device. iDisk on the Air works well, drag and drop, how much easier can it get? On the PC, well, there is the web app and uploading multiple file is scary...and, you can forget about syncing...I know that you can add a network place and such, but for some reason it takes an incredibly long time to upload items...longer than other cloud uploads, especially compared to ftp.

So, what about the Meshing Me in the title? I am glad you asked...As you may be able to tell from previous posts, we move between platforms...So, Windows Live Mesh, while in public beta now, offers a meager 5GB, but hey, it is free. You can upload multiple files by a sync from a Windows machine...but, you guessed it, only one file at a time can be uploaded from the Mac...so far.

We are syncing basic folders on Mesh.com using our Live ID and accessing them on our mobile devices, Macs, and PC at home and on the road.

Lastly, the greatest thing that made me happy and my little tech world align is the ability to connect to the PC, drag and drop files between machines using only Windows Live Mesh. To get the full effects, right now, you have to use Internet Explorer and, yes, Windows..Mac and Mobile versions are on their way. So, whether we use the seamless VMWare Fusion running XP from the MacBook Air, or need to grab certain files while at the day job without violating corporate internet policies, Mesh links our worlds together through the cloud instead of being lost within it.

Neither MobileMe nor Mesh has everything our hybrid teams need. However, with both of them competing and growing, that iPhone or Tilt, Air or corporate PC, can be more connected with data available at a literal click...OK, a couple of clicks, but much easier than carrying around 20 floppies, an external drive, or a little keychain dongle that gets lost and washed...Good luck in connecting your worlds...enjoy...

Vista - Choose When to Change

As I began reading this month's PC World Magazine, I noticed some letters and forum posts about businesses complaining about how proprietary systems were not working with Vista...in fact, one letter even said that Microsoft should be slapped with a class-action...Please stop. Seriously, these are the same people who stayed with the Dos, green-screens even after XP was out..Does anyone remember the chaos that went around for Y2K? Windows 95, 98 and 2000 still run today because Microsoft fixed their issues...And, companies spent millions fixing older "proprietary" programs that didn't think past 1999...OK, this is a bit extreme, but there is a point in there somewhere...Should companies shell out the money to buy new software? Should companies be forced to use Vista?

No one is forcing either...Microsoft is just trying to move things along for those that do want a change. They are not saying that you need to buy Vista...In fact, if your company is buying machines from a reputable computer company, they can offer you a downgrade, even after June 30th to Windows 2000 if you would like. The downgrade program has been a part of the deals Microsoft makes with businesses who build computers for some time now. They still buy a "Vista" license number. Really, though, they are just purchasing a license for Windows.

My question to these companies not looking to move forward any time soon is, "When will be the right time to move forward?" Many "proprietary" systems are well overdue for a change. Your users/employees are getting frustrated with learning programs that greatly differ from the rest of their computer usage. Your training teams could use a little more than a Windows 98 interface to liven up the discussion. Your customers could benefit from a system that they can tap into as well.

I may not understand the ins and outs of your program and how it functions with any version of Windows, but programs that can not grow and adapt limit the growth of your company; limit the usability of your users; and may limit your market share due to frustration by your consumers...

For those that would disagree, I ask for you to think about the advancements first and not the resistance to change. Change really is inevitable...but, choose WHEN you make the move not IF you make the move...

Amazon MP3 Downloads

So, you say that you want an alternative to iTunes...Well, the Amazon MP3 store is a good choice...scratch that...it is a great choice. They have agreements with the major labels that bring you what you like. In fact, every Friday this May, check out the site for special $5 offers on select albums...Listen to some selection below, or check it out for yourself...

XP SP3

OK, so I debated whether to post this or not since I do not have complete specifics or have figured out why XP SP3 would actually slow down our machine...We recently reinstalled everything from the original install disks and went through the painstaking process of updating to SP2 and the various updates over the last 2-3 years or so...It would boot up very quickly...In fact, it was so quick, I thought we did something wrong in the installation and it would crash at any time...It has been running strong for a few months now...that is until we updated it to SP3...

The install took about 10 minutes and it rebooted. The first boot took longer than our newer Vista Machine which has enough extras on it to choke a rather small whale...After logging in completely, we shut down, waited a few moments, and rebooted again. Boot time still three times as long, and the start-up programs like Windows Live OneCare, LogMeIn, and Orb took at least double the previous time to load. The machine is even slow starting IE...

Now, I know that this 6-year old, P4 1.80GHz with 768 MB of RAM, running XP Home is not the fastest or the best machine out there...this is why we use it as the media server and backup machine...but, it was quick and clean before XP SP3...I have deactivated some items in the startup, but annoying would be a kind word to use for this update...I just hope it is more secure or has other features we are missing...

I will post more as we find out more. Good luck with the update...Enjoy...

Up, Up, and Hopefully Not Away...Full Cloud Computing - Are We Ready for It?

With the recent news of Microsoft Mesh and Albany, I have been wondering if we, as users are ready for cloud computing. In fact, when I first read and looked into the details, I began thinking about what would happen if there was an internet tornado and the little people that push the data around to the emerald city got caught in the mesh...wait, that could have been because I just watched Tin Man ...nice adpatation by the way...

However, really...are we ready to have: all of our devices work together?...all our data and applications available from anywhere?...the people we need to connect with just a few clicks away for sharing and collaborating?...our the information to stay up-to-date and always be available?...You bet you we are...Where has this been?

We have a home and a business network, but have to add on multiple applications and even more security measures to be able access things on the road. We have to purchase as many variations of software as we have computers. This can get costly and time consuming...not to mention crazy when everything needs to be updated all at once. We would like to purchase the newest version of Office for our business and home, but the economics don't always work out...so, we have re-installed an older version and accepted the short comings. We are looking forward to more of this cloud computing.

While some of you may say that you prefer to have programs and documents locally, that is fine...hopefully, the options will remain. However, considering how expensive the upgrade or new install of MS Office is and how time-demanding other options can be, I would enjoy spreading out the time and expense elsewhere. Please Microsoft, hurry, but make sure it works well...it can be difficult explaining another cunning data-sharing plan to our parents and grandparents...again...

To read a more thourough review of Mesh, Albany, and other Cloud Computing...please use the more versed resources:
Paul Thurott's Supersite for Windows
Paul's Albany Information
Microsoft's Mesh Screenshots
Microsoft's Mesh Blog

Twitter - Introverts becoming extroverts by proxy

It was inevitable that this topic would appear on this page...Twitter is either a great way to stay in touch and communicate, or just another addictive addition to society...Or, something in between and not mentioned here...which is plentiful...

If you stumbled upon this page, you may be saying who cares...but if you searched or followed a link, you may already have the addiction. Right now, I am following 10 people who I do not know personally...I may have listened to their podcast or read their writings...but really, is there a reason why I need to know when these people go to a party...? I don't remember where my sister and brother-in-law went on vacation last week...However, maybe if they posted online and told the world, life would be easier...

In the morning, when I walk around the track at my local gym, I listen to my iPod and send updates to Twitter. I nod to the people I past, but have never asked them which they prefer, Apple or PC...Being an introvert, I am beginning to think that Twitter just helps introverts become extroverts by proxy. Scary, but it may just be true...where else can "talk" and listen to the advice of strangers without feeling the anxiety of the interaction...

Whether you dislike or enjoy Twitter, each new 140-character, limited-line tells a story. You get to choose the meaning...good luck, but remember everything in moderation...

Follow me on Twitter for random nonsense and updates from Story Institute...

follow RamblingVerser at http://twitter.com

Story Institute Expansion

There comes a time when the material piles up and you have to do something with it...so...we will be incorporating under Story Institute and adding a site and expanding our vision...check out our mission and these locations...For those of you looking for tech items, they will still be here...afterall, technology does provide a dollop of ingenuity for any storytelling...just look at the MacBook Air and their stories around the web...Enjoy...

Story Institute Vision
We will inspire you to imagine, enhance, and grow your stories personally and professionally while helping you share your successes in print, online, and in person.

Story Institute Mission

Though Integrity, Ingenuity, Inspiration, Influence, Impact, and Excellence,
We will:
* Evoke emotion within our customers that make connections to our communities.
* Engage our customers, their families, and clients in active tales that connect their emotions to past knowledge and experiences.
* Empower our partners to use their new knowledge while growing their families, organizations, and stories into a world of their own.

Story Institute Entities
Story Institute - Imagine your Stories Again - Story, Poetry, and Contests for the writer in most of us.

Timeless Tales - Enhance Your Stories Now - Candy Wrappers, Family topics, home décor, kid fun for the now.

MySkillCenter - Grow Your Stories for the Future - Personal and Professional Enrichment within HR, People Skills, Manager/Leader, Career Pathing, Measurement.

MacBook Air Wrap-Up...For Now

OK, so I have had some great opportunities to use the Air as a standard and daily machine. Instead of separating out items, I decided to wrap up individual topics on the Air at least for now with this post...

* I attended a conference recently where I got tired of taking notes and transcribing them later...So, since the MacBook Air fit into my portfolio, I brought it with me. I used this wonderful tool the entire conference, from 8 AM to 5 PM two days in a row...I turned off wireless and bluetooth for the majority of the day and used mostly MS Word 2004. I only turned on Bluetooth and used Safari during 2 segments of about 10 minutes each on both days. I entered the notes into Word and closed the cover when I was not taking notes. The battery lasted the entire day and all sessions on each day. There were no outlets close, so plugging in was not an option. The battery can last, it just needs limited usage and manual power management of closing the cover when not using it.

* There have been many periods where when logging in or opening an application, especially Microsoft Office 2004 applications, the spinning beach ball lasted for a while. I am still trying to figure out what is causing the beach ball. I am still learning about Leopard, so there may be something in the logs that I am missing.

* For BootCamp, I noticed that when I changed our AirPort Extreme router to N only, I was not able to acquire an IP address. So, I have to use the slower G part of the network. Not too bad, but a pain. I will be playing with the settings further to make sure it is not a simple user error, but for some reason it is not connecting at N speeds...The ironic thing is that when I mixed the network, XP indicated that it was connecting at 130 mbps...interesting...

* A couple of harddrive clicks when shutting down have caused some worry, but all seems to be OK. I have run the diagnostics, checked disk permissions, and Onyx to make sure the drive was working OK. So, far, so good, but the sounds have been few and far in between.

* I believe I will be giving up on the virtual software for now as well. BootCamp will have to do even with the incredibly lower battery life...

* Lastly, the size of the hard drive is still a point of concern...While I am far from running out of space, it decreases everyday with podcasts, pictures, as well as personal and professional documents. About 15 GB remain even after splitting out pictures, movies, and most music files to an external drive.

Still excellent machine that I carry all over the house at ease. We'll see how an upcoming flight works out soon as well.

FM Transmitter

So, you bought that iPod, or even, perhaps, the Zune...but the longest time that you have to listen to your hours and hours of endless music, or in my case, podcasts, is in your car. You did not buy that fancy new car with the built-in audio jack out...or, you simply have an older stereo. I have tried a few FM transmitters that plug right into the audio jack of my iPod. There are only a couple that I actually enjoy that have functionality and flexibility.

The VR3 is good for those vehicles that may have a place to put your music player as you make those sharp turns.



I have also used the Maxwell iPod transmitter and charger. It is good for those vehicles that do not have a place close to safely store their device while driving.

There are many varieties of this beast, so look what you can afford and test them out. If they don't work like you anticipated, return or exchange them. Don't keep something that just costs money. Enjoy the tunes, not the cost...

MacBook Air BootCamp, XP Continued

Having limited space on the XP partition, though I keep thinking it is enough (12 GB), I was running into challenges when playing simple strategy games such as Civilization and Railroad Tycoon. I got a blue screen which indicated that I should turn off shadowing. After looking this up online, I made sure that the system restore points were turned off. While this may not be a good idea at all when running Windows XP regularly, it does make sense with limited space and a sparse image backup. I figured that if I need to reinstall, I will just copy the image instead of attempting restore. There are very few needed files on this partition, but, it works and the random crashes seemed to have ceased.

One additional item learned during this process is that Windows will go through a chkdsk when it restarts from this crash. Even though the screen indicates that you can bypass this option by pressing a button, the keyboard does not seem to be active. When I plugged in a USB keyboard, I was able to bypass the chdsk. This may appear to be a limitation at times given the one USB port, but a simple USB hub came through again. I am not sure why the laptop keyboard didn't work, but it seems to be one of those things that loads from the Bootcamp items that Apple installs.

Security Now...and Later

When you think about security for your computer, the first thing that ay ome to your mind may be anti-virus software, firewalls, or perhaps infected...when I think about security on a pc, Mac, or Linux, I think about Security Now with Steve Gibson and Leo LaPorte.

Security Now is a weekly podcast that you can download directly from the iTunes podcast store or directly through Leo's website at Twit.tv or a lower bandwidth version at Steve's site GRC. They not only talk about the items you normally think about with computer security, they also use the techniques and tools themselves. The conversation within the podcast goes into more details than you will mostly ever need whether you are a tech youngin' or a codger tech.

I have tried multiple times to jusr stop listening, but the conversation touches that logical side of my brain, and I am lured back in. Secuirty Now recently went through encrypting your data so that those with less than good intentions could not do anything with it. This was a great and timely topic as I prepare to travel for my day job again and my usb key dangles from my keychain.

Listen, learn, and enjoy...

Orb.com

So, you want to be able to listen to your music when you are on the road...or, perhaps, you are on a business trip for weeks on end and wanted to watch that video of the kids you took last summer...well, Orb 2.0 to the rescue...OK, the rescue piece is a bit of an exaggeration, but, Orb is a great little tool that allows you to access your media from just about any device and location with a internet connection. You can watch videos, listen to music, and setup a security webcam from you home pc and check it on the road.

The setup was rather easy...in fact, it was a download and install. You complete a registration piece with very limited amount of information so that you have a login and a password. You navigate to http://mycast.orb.com, enter your information and away you go...

I know, I know, I am over-simplifying things, but is really was that easy. We have one computer acting as a server. This computer is on pretty consistently and almost always connected to the internet. Orb does the rest. We have used Orb for the following situations:

* Checking the house while we were out. The webcam functionality is a great little tool. We have it setup facing the door of the room. While we can see the mess we left behind, we can also check if there is any damage from storms or unexpected guests.

* Grabbing documents left behind. While on a business trip, I forgot to copy some stories that I was writing onto my thumb drive. Fortunately, I did copy them to the server and into the shared document folder. I was able to pick up where I left off. I have also used LogMeIn to copy the documents to the folder so I would not have to send them..for more on LogMeIn, see this post: LogMeIn Review

* LIstening to music...yes, your music. Orb, searches the directory that you specify and lists the music. Even though we have music on our laptop or iPod, not everything goes with us...This even worked with the AT&T Tilt. We were able to stream music using the 3G connection of the phone. You can sort by artist, album, playlist, and your favorites. The search feature works just like you were at your computer.

* Watching local and internet tv shows. Sometimes, we wish we put in a tv tuner into this pc. If we did, we wouldn't need the Slingbox. However, with the TV options in Orb, we have been able to watch tv stations from other states. This is good whether we are home or on the road. We watched local weather for Florida before a trip and while we stopped at a hotel on our way. No storms, but it worked well.

* Reminiscing with family. If you do not want to upload your pictures to Flickr or some other photo sharing site, you can share them on your public orb site or have your family member create an Orb account and give them access to your pictures and videos. We used this to show some pictures and video after a recent holiday concert from our little ones. Save time and space since they could not be there.

More to come, but so far, Orb is worth the FREE price tag. Enjoy...