Streaming

Some may call it a sophisticated alarm clock, but the truth is that the Dash presented by Sony at CES 2010 is simply much more than that. A one-of-a-kind "personal Internet viewer," this device is designed to let you pull all sorts of information off the Internet from its 7-inch touch screen even when you don't have a PC at hand. Read More

Wireless media streaming seems to be one hot topic at CES this year, and Slingbox has had another feather added to its cap via DISH Networks. The broadcast-anywhere solution first surfaced in 2005 and has since been superceded with a PRO-HD model and mobile versions for the iPhone. It now seems to be working on integration with set-top boxes and other devices, and a recent partnership with DISH has resulted in its new TV Everywhere service. Read More

Media streamers are rapidly gathering momentum as digital media collections grow, and it should come as no surprise to hear that the technology involved in streaming a collection of files to a TV is being built into more and more screens as standard. The Western Digital WDTV Live demonstrates how it’s possible to fit everything you need into an extremely small box, and such developments have encouraged VIZIO, the number one LCD HDTV company in America, to go one step further by adding lossless 1080p wireless HD support to its new screens. Read More

Few would doubt that the ability to stream media wirelessly around the home will, in one form or another, be fundamental to the future of home entertainment. It would seem strange then, that a product apparently versatile enough to wirelessly send video and audio from a PC to an HDTV hasn’t received more support, and the new Atlona PC to Computer Monitor/HDTV Wireless adapter is one of few on the market designed for this purpose. Read More

Opera's powerful content sharing technology, Unite, has now been fully integrated into its desktop browser with the release of Opera 10.10. Opera lovers can also enjoy visual tabs to view thumbnails of pages in open tabs, a page-loading turbo boost, web navigation with mouse gestures and a customizable speed dial interface. Read More

A new feather in the Sony PS3's cap is its ability to stream instantly thousands of movies and TV episodes from Netflix. From next month, Netflix members in the U.S. will have access to the Netflix library via their PS3s at no extra cost. Netflix says the PS3 is currently sitting in around 9 million U.S. homes while Netflix has notched up an impressive 11.1 million U.S. subscribers. Read More

Sonos is shortly to add a powerful new member to its digital music streaming family in the shape of the ZonePlayer S5. This new all-in-one device can be controlled by iPhone or a Sonos controller, supports numerous audio formats, offers free access to thousands of online music services and benefits from each audio driver being powered by its own amplifier. Read More

Despite being relatively late to bat in the media streamer/jukebox market, Western Digital came up with a gem of a product last year with the WD TV, which featured in our recent take on Media Streamers. This slimline, stylish device was designed to attach to a TV and play back music, photo and video files from connected storage, but lacked the streaming capabilities and HD support of more versatile (and expensive) rivals. Buoyed by the success of the WD TV, Western Digital is back with the WD TV Live, which addresses the above issues by offering full-HD, 1080p playback via an HDMI 1.3 port, and the ability to stream files across a wired or wireless network. Read More

Despite the music industry being relatively slow to catch on to the fact that accessing music online is clearly the way forwards, the phasing out of DRM and appearance of innovative new services that offer consumers more choice, convenience and easy access to tunes, suggests that things are finally falling into place. One area that is often omitted when discussing the pros and cons of online is the environment, and it stands to reason that there would be a noticeable impact when you remove the cost of both printing CDs and delivering them to the consumer. Read More