Blu-ray, DVD, HDTV, Video info and more at WesleyTech.com

Online file sharing now ubiquitous thanks to cloud storage services

Online storage, file sharing and data backup is all the rage these days. While perusing the latest tech news, you can’t go for long without reading all about the cloud, cloud, cloud! Cloud solutions! Cloud backup! Cloud storage! And while the term “cloud” might be the latest catch-phrase for storing data online, the concept has existed for quite a long time.

One of my first encounters with this type of service occurred back in the early 2000′s, when I signed up for a free Xdrive account. This now defunct service was one of the initial pioneers in online data storage, offering consumers free online storage space to house their data. Xdrive provided software that integrated with Windows Explorer, allowing for a seamless user experience. The online storage simply showed up on the PC as an additional drive letter, the X drive. It was easy to use and worked relatively well.

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Attack of the prepaid rebate cards

It’s a disturbing new trend in the world of technology retailing — Rebates — but these aren’t the rebates from years ago… these rebates come in the form of prepaid credit/debit cards.

No longer will you receive that fancy paper check in the mail that can be deposited directly into a bank account.

The old paper rebate checks were a treat to discover in your mailbox, as if you were getting a paycheck back for making your tech purchase, albeit a small one. But alas, these days that doesn’t happen anymore, as most rebates now come in the form of a square piece of plastic that is “preloaded” with your rebate dollars. I’ve seen Visa, MasterCard and American Express prepaid cards.

What’s wrong with a debit/credit card pre-loaded with funds? You ask…

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Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus review

The good folks over at Corel sent us over their new Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus product to review. Yes, you read that right, Corel now owns Roxio consumer software. This hardware & software combo package allows you to capture and transfer analog video from sources like a VCR or an old camcorder, converting them into a digital video format.

There are many reasons for converting old analog video to digital. Doing so allows you to retain video quality, as analog video tapes continually degrade when they are played. They even lose quality when they aren’t used, as aging & environmental factors can cause tape to deteriorate. Converting to digital allows you to preserve these videos without having to worry about the source tape media wilting away and becoming unplayable.

Converting video to a digital format also provides you with the flexibility to copy your video to a USB storage device, a DVD, a Blu-ray Disc or upload it to a website such as YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo or countless other streaming video websites. This allows for portability and playback on computers, smartphones, iPods and other modern devices.

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Kaleidescape to release online retail store

Kaleidescape has been under the gun on the legal front lately, and they’ve also been beaten up by online streaming services too. The former problem is up to the court system of California, but Kaleidescape is tackling the latter by getting in on their own online retail store. The store will be accessed at store.kaleidescape.com.

The details are not in yet. All I know so far is that the storefront is being tested for release soon. But based on my knowledge of Kaleidescape Systems, I think I can make some safe predictions.

Kaleidescape is a very emphatic supporter of owning content. I can assume with great certainty that the store will provide purchases of movie titles which will be stored on the local hard drive of the Kaleidescape System.

The service will probably have the same limitations Amazon and Vudu has as it relates to obtaining titles. A few new titles will be available, but most of them will be lesser-known catalog titles.

The video quality will be high-def, and the cost will be slightly more than a similar purchase from Vudu.

I’ll have more information on this online storefront soon.

I own a 46″ Sony HDTV powered by Google TV. I love having the web on my HDTV and I love being able to control my TV with my Android smartphone. Google TV is great, it has a lot of potential, but it’s just not fully polished, even after the latest major overhaul that upgraded it to a new version of Android.

My experience this past weekend is a typical example of how Google TV just doesn’t have its act quite together.

While using my smartphone, I often see an interesting video posted on Facebook or Twitter. If the video sounds interesting enough for me to watch, I’ll typically send the video link to my Google TV using the “Share with Google TV Remote” option on my Android device. This works great for “beaming” video content to the big screen in our living room.

I tried this twice this weekend, and both times, I got a big fail from Google TV.

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Jabra Biz 2400 USB headset review

Over the past few months, we have been testing the Jabra Biz 2400 USB headset in preparation for this review. The Biz 2400 is a well built, premium USB headset targeted at professionals and other discerning consumers who are looking for a quality, top of the line USB headset.

There are a few different variations of this device and we received the Jabra Biz 2400 MS USB Duo headset version. The “MS” designation in this model name signifies that this headset is optimized for Microsoft Lync (the successor to Office Communicator), which is an enterprise instant messaging and VoIP platform used by many businesses. The “Duo” refers to the fact that this is a biaural (or binaural) headset, which means that it is worn over both ears.

We had our resident model, the beautiful Tera, pose with the Jabra Biz 2400 USB for a quick snapshot, shown below.

Next we’ll dive into the product description and features…

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Best Buy asks: Would you buy an Apple TV?

Electronics retail behemoth Best Buy has sent a survey to some customers asking if they would potentially buy a 42-inch Apple-brand HDTV that would use your iPad or iPhone as a remote control for $1,499.

More than just speculation, the survey goes into detail telling the customer, “Be one of the first to get the all new 42″ Apple HDTV at Best Buy for $1,499. Apple finally reinvents what a TV can do.”

Features included are:

• 42″ 1080p LED flat panel display
• Incorporates Apple’s operating system (iOS) found in its current Apple TV set top box which allows you to purchase and stream movies and other entertainment from the internet
• Download and use apps from the App Store. Can you imagine playing Angry Birds on a big screen in your living room?
• Supports Apple’s new iCloud service for storing your movies, TV shows, and music content that you’ve purchased from iTunes and mean them to your Apple HDTV.
• Use your iPad or iPhone as a remote control, and do everything from controlling your TV, to purchasing new shows and swapping content between your Apple devices and the iCloud service.
• Built-in convenience with built in iSight camera and microphone for Skype.
• In addition to iTunes, stream content from popular sites such as Netflix, YouTube, and flickr.
• Available for $1499

While this is just Best Buy speculating on what future sales they might pursue, Best Buy is large enough that they have been known to ask companies for specific products. Of course Apple is considerably larger than Best Buy at this time.

A few clues as to how this can’t be a real product is the iSight isn’t something Apple has used in a long time, and they would most definitely opt for Apple’s own FaceTime over the competing Skype.

What do you think? Would you buy an Apple HDTV as specified?