JK Beck is celebrating the release of her latest book in her Shadow Keepers series by offering a contest for a Kindle 3G at Bitten By Books.  JK’s series is a dark urban fantasy ride with werewolves and the lot to keep you on the edge of your seat.  In her world, the magic and creatures of the night are out in front for all to see, and the series is sort of a paranormal Law & Order.  Check our her post here.  The contest runs until 10/11/2010, so don’t miss it.

Here is the blurb from Amazon:

Seven innocents have been brutally murdered in Los Angeles, yet the Shadow Alliance has no suspects and no leads. As the body count mounts, the age-old feud between vampires and werewolves threatens to explode.

Lissa Monroe—a strong-willed, ravishing succubus who entices men to surrender their souls—agrees to go undercover for the Alliance. Her mission: infiltrate the mind of werewolf leader Vincent Rand, a ferociously alluring enemy who exerts a powerful hold over her. As the City of Angels teeters on the brink of apocalypse, these two adversaries must join together in order to survive an even more lethal enemy hidden in plain sight.

Do you like to read?  BookLover is a nifty app that allows you to take notes on books – perfect for students and more, you’ll be able to not only make notes on the various books but also post book reviews to Facebook.  Now, with the latest version, you can scan books in.  Books found will automatically be put onto your virtual bookshelf with covers and synopsis (when available) where they can be categorized.  Some categories include “Reading Now”, “To Read”, and “Have Read”.  This also works great for those book lists of great books that you’d like to share with everyone.  BookLover is available for $2 from the Apple App Store.

Hog Bay Software recently released PlainText.  This simple text editor for Apple mobile devices will allow you to create and organize documents and sync with Dropbox.com.  Simple and easy to use, this program is free.  Go get a copy from the AppStore today.

I’ve been following this story for a couple of days with a very confused look on my face.  When I first heard of it, I was almost convinced that it was a mistake. When I realized it wasn’t, I was certain that there was some kind of misunderstanding that would be worked out between the involved parties over the "next few days," and everything would get worked out.

Seems like I’m wrong; and that really just ticks me off.

I consider Scott Jordan to be a close, personal friend.  He’s a small business owner (plus!), he’s an entrepreneur (plus!), his products are awesome and his business is really starting to take off (plus-PLUS!!). I really love to see small businesses like that succeed as its people like Scott that make America not only great, but make it work.  Without people like Scott, and business like ScotteVest, the country and its economy would be in a WORLD of hurt.

I also LOVE gadgets and anything to do with them.  To say that I love gadget enabled clothing is an understatement.  In truth, its stuff like this that curls my toes. I see the new products he has planned and I have a difficult time keeping the drool off of my computer keyboard.

So, what’s the issue? Very simple:

$768M dollars in baggage fees.

Read More …

I am a huge fan of digital media, especially videos.  I just love everything about being able to cram hundreds of movies or photos onto a tiny memory card or drive.  What used to require a shelf full of DVDs can now be stored in just about any portable medium, including Seagate’s ultra-portable new line of GoFlex drives.  The problem comes when I actually try to watch these videos.  It seems my choices are plug the drive into my laptop, which does not have a great screen for watching HD video, or stream videos to my phone with its teeny-tiny screen.  What I need is a better way to get that video content streamed into my family room, where I can sit on my comfortable reclining couch, and enjoy videos on my gigantic 60 inch TV. That is where the Freeagent GoFlex Media Player comes into the picture.

Quick Look: Well, this is probably going to be the quickest quick look in the history of JAMM.  There is really almost nothing to see here, which is not to say there is nothing here at all. 

Don’t be fooled by this innocuous looking black box.  Just pop open the front of the device to reveal the gaping maw, into which you can slide your favorite Freeagent GoFlex drive. 

Head around to the back of the device for all of your necessary connections.  What I really liked here was that it comes complete with every connection you might need, regardless of your system.  You can connect to your TV or stereo system using standard RCA audio/video, component video, digital audio, and even HDMI.  There is also an Ethernet jack and a USB port.  This USB port is perfect for connecting a second drive, or a wifi adaptor for Internet streaming.  The only problem I had here was that with only a single USB port, you would be required to choose between adding an external drive or a wireless connection. 

What’s In The Box: Seagate has done a fantastic job of including everything you will need to enjoy the Media Player right out of the box.  There is a universal AC adaptor, which can be used either in the US or in Europe by simply swapping the heads.  There are also a variety of media cables, including both RCA and component video.  Alas, no HDMI or digital audio cables.  I did, however, soon learn the reason for this.  The jacks on the back of the device are not standard RCA and component jacks.  Instead, they are a single plug, meaning you will need a special cable (which is why they are included).  This is frustrating as it makes it virtually impossible to use a different cable, despite the fact that these are both popular and standard formats.

Additionally, you will find various manuals, a CD Rom including media sync software. and a remote control.  The remote is nothing fancy, but is plenty functional.

Watching Media From Your Hard Drive: Not long ago, I had the opportunity to check out the predecessor to this device, the FreeAgent TV HD Media Player.  The only real different between the two, other than some cosmetic changes, is that the older model worked with the FreeAgent line of portable drives, while the new model works with the GoFlex line.

The main menu is much the same as the previous model, with a bit more emphasis on the Internet connectivity.  With the GoFlex drive connected, you can use the GoFlex TV HD Media Player to view photos, listen to music, or watch videos.

As soon as you connect the GoFlex drive, the device will automatically search for compatible media and display it under the correct menu item.  Let’s start with pictures and music.  These worked fine.  The only problem I found here was that the organization of my files.  When the GoFlex Media Player sorts your media, it does not maintain the original file structure, meaning your files end up in a single location, listed alphabetically (you can also choose to sort by date).  This is fine if you have actually given your files proper names.  If you are like me, however, are just dump your photos onto your drive using the default name it was given when you imported all 562 pictures from your memory card to your camera…well, then you are going to have some problems.  I have tens of thousands of photos, most of which come with some variation of a name starting with IMG.   This can make things a bit difficult to search or sort your photos.  Maintaining the original file structure would go a long way toward making this feature significantly more functional. 

Of course, while the ability to display photos may be a fun sideshow, the real main attraction here is the ability to play HD videos from your GoFlex drive directly to your HDTV.  Like its predecessor, I did have some trouble with codec compatibility.  I tested it out with videos from Amazon, iTunes, and the Zune store, and found relatively mixed results.  These are the most common codecs, which most of us use, and it was frustrating to find limited compatibility.  Still, I did have plenty of video with which to test.  It worked great with the video I shot over the summer with my DXG video camera.  Again, however, most of my videos have generic system names, so sorting them alphabetically simply caused problems for me to find the one I wanted to view. 

I absolutely loved the ability to display HD video content in full 1080p.  Despite the lack of codec compatibility, those video formats which were compatible looked amazing.  Still, while it was fantastic to be able to view HD video I shot of my family on vacation, let’s be honest, most of us are not sitting down to watch all that much of our own vacation footage, let alone rushing over to a friend’s house to watch theirs.  Besides, when we do watch vacation footage, does it really matter whether you are watching the kids diving into a lake in standard video or HD?  Not particularly.  Where this increased video quality really matters is when you are watching commercial quality movies or TV shows.  So, it was a shame that most of these videos are recorded in formats which are not compatible with this device.   Ultimately, the GoFlex Media Player is a fantastic solution for playing HD video content on your big screen TV.  The lack of video codec compatibility, however, significantly limits the functionality of this device, which was disappointing and frustrating.

Streaming Video From The Internet: When I reviewed the previous generation of this device, I did not have an adaptor to connect the player to my wireless network and the Internet to really test the streaming video capabilities on it.  Since that time, streaming video from the Internet has become significantly more prominent, and I wanted to make sure to test out that capability this time around.  Seagate was kind enough to accommodate me with their Wifi adaptor, and I was on my way.

To access the streaming content (and to clarify, there is more than just video here), just hit the Internet option.  This will take you to ten preset Internet sites from which you can begin streaming immediately.  There are movies and videos (Netflix, Youtube, MediaFly), Radio (vTuner), Photos (Picasa, Flickr), News Feeds, Video Feeds, Weather, and Financial News.

While I absolutely loved this feature, I was thoroughly disappointed by the limited options.   There are dozens of streaming video sites on the Internet, all with unique content; Seagate gives you access only a limited handful of them.  Most notable were the omissions of Hulu and Amazon video.  Likewise, I found it odd that vTuner was included for online radio, but packages like Slacker radio and Pandora were not. 

In the end, the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV HD Media Player is a fantastic step in the growing trend of merging your computer content television into a single device.  Using your portable drive, you can take virtually any multimedia content and view it on the “big screen” quickly and easily.  I will say, however, that the interface could use some work,. especially in the way it organizes your content.  I was also happy to see Seagate highlighting the growing trend of streaming video content directly to your television from the Internet.  Unfortunately, the limited number of sites you could access significantly limited the usefulness of this feature.   Despite these drawbacks, I am happy to find companies like Seagate thinking outside the proverbial box, and devising new ways to access your content.  From that perspective, this is a fantastic addition to your media system…and to your computer.

The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Media Player is available from Seagate for $129.  GoFlex portable drives are sold separately.

What I Liked:

• compact design
• compatible with any hard drive
• easy setup
• View computer video and media content on your television
• stream video and other media content directly to your television

What Needs Improvement:

• limited video codec compatibility
• poor organization of files
• limited sites for streaming content