digitizing

Each Thursday here on The Digital Home, I will be discussing a current topic of interest that may have serious implications on your home in the coming days, months or years. The topics may range from groundbreaking new products to government legislation to adults only video games -- our topic of interest today.

In a setback for Take-Two Interactive, the company's Manhunt 2 video game has been banned from sale in the UK because of its ESRB Adults Only rating. Even worse for Take-Two, Best Buy and Wal-Mart -- two significant video game retailers -- have historically banned Adults … Read more

In a new series that will be featured each Wednesday here on The Digital Home, I will be interviewing industry experts and icons to talk about how they made their rise to the top and what The Digital Home means to them.

In the very first installment of the interview series, I had the opportunity to talk to "MAD's Maddest Writer" Dick DeBartolo. With a career that spans more than forty years of comedy, gadgets and TV, Dick the longest running writer for everyone's favorite comedy magazine, and is one of the most renowned gadget lovers … Read more

Glaxstar, a software developer that makes plug-ins for Firefox, has crafted a specialized extension for the Web browser that helps parents keep their kids in a safe Web-surfing sandbox.

The software, called Glubble (for global bubble), is essentially a white list, or collection of pre-approved sites, for the Web browser. By downloading the Firefox plug-in, parents can control their kids' experience online by choosing which sites they can visit and with whom they can chat. Designed for children under 12, the browser extension filters out all other sites, and maintains personalized preferences for parents and individual children. It even offers … Read more

Microsoft said Monday that's it's revamped its IPTV software, now called MediaRoom. In a feature published Monday on CNET News.com, I've already gone into some depth about what the new software offers and what it means for the telco TV market.

But I also wanted to point out an important feature the new software doesn't offer: multiroom DVR. This service would be a dream come true for me. Even though I've got three TVs in my tiny apartment in New York City, my roommate and I still fight over the TV in the living … Read more

When I first saw the title of the Logitech Transporter, I immediately thought, wished, hoped it would be a device that let me travel through time. No.

The Logitech Transporter allows you to easily and seamlessly transmit audio from a PC, portable music player or the internet over a wireless network to speakers you connect to it. Even better, it works seamlessly with Pandora -- my favorite web audio source.

The Transporter is capable of transmitting just about any kind of audio, but it's tough to say just how well it works given the spotty performance of similar products.… Read more

Microsoft is discontinuing one of its products, and I'm bummed.

Having one less piece of software to write about is no big deal, but this particular program happens to be one I actually used--a lot. Microsoft's Digital Image Suite served as my introduction to photo editing and photo manipulation. I've since taken to using both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, but just this week I installed Digital Image Suite on the Windows portion of my iMac so I could keep using it as well.

Microsoft noted the change with a terse statement on its Web site.

"Microsoft … Read more

Glyn Moody has a disturbing post on the latest attempt to stave off the IP hemorrhaging the industry apparently suffers. Quoting from Glyn's post:

"Our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned," NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton said. "If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year."...

This is clearly total poppycock: the figures for the supposed losses … Read more

As I sit here and think about what I should discuss first, I forgot all about the things you will need to begin the task of creating your very own digital home. So, with that in mind, take a peek at this list of five necessities you will need to begin your quest.

1. Electricity. Seems a bit obvious doesn't it? Sorry, it's a long list.

2. A Home or dwelling place. OK, so maybe this is a cheap one, but trust me, The Digital Home will do you no good unless you have a home, apartment, basement, … Read more

Let me guess: right now you are sitting in a chair reading this on your vivid LCD monitor while a computer is roaring underneath your feet. Within twenty feet an HDTV is standing by just waiting to be turned on. In your pocket is a digital music player, and your home theater system is ready to go whenever you flip that HDTV on. Right next to your monitor is your brand-new digital camera, and downstairs is that great new touchscreen remote you've been researching for the past couple of weeks. When you want to watch some movies, you flip … Read more