While I wouldn’t trade my girls for ANYTHING in the world, sometimes it’s hard for a dad to find ways to interact and connect with his girls. So what did I do? I invented the “Daddy Spa” and don’t regret it the least! Let’s face it, girls love dressing up, putting on make-up and generally taking care of “people,” whether they be dolls or Webkinz or just each other. My girls are no different. I just integrated “Dad” into the mix.
Here’s how I do Daddy Spa:
- Give your girls a heads up - “Time for Daddy Spa” gets them going in terms of prepping the “spa”. This is good for them to set up some structure and let them be the leader and controller of the environment.
- Environment - their room (or yours) is great. My recommendation, a bed or the floor with LOTS of pillows. My girls close the shades, dim the lights and put on a sound machine of ocean waves in the background
- “Spa Activities” - there can be many, here are a few that we have found to be successful:
- Back scratch - this is an obvious one. Teach them to scratch your back lightly (they have a tendency to dig in their nails). 2 girl teams work great where they work like a sawing action back and forth
- Hair brushing - this is a super one for littler girls. Give them a brush and let them go crazy creating new hairstyles. Water lets them mold your hair without any “damage”. Sometimes I even allow gel or de-tangler to be used as a “hair product”
- Bandaging - sometimes the Daddy Spa turns into a hospital room. Just go with it. Toilet paper and scotch tape is a great way to create casts or large bandages
- Nail polish - Okay, I WON’T let them put on actual nail polish so I came up with a good alternative. Grab a bunch of Q-tips and some small glasses of water. They can dip the Q-tips into the water and “paint” finger and toenails…and they can do this over and over again.
- Makeup - along the lines of nail polish, you can use the Q-tip/water combo to apply eye-shadow, blush, lipstick, you name it!
- Back rubs - this is where things can get a bit crazy. Let them pound away (it actually feels pretty good most of the time)
- Back walks - if you are on the ground for your Daddy Spa, let the kids walk on your back. Be careful with this one, sometimes it is hard for them to keep balance and be sure you don’t let your bigger kids do this, it sometimes hurts! Be sure that if they do this, they have a safe place to fall off without smacking into things.
- “Fart-age” - this is actually a word that is a combo of “fart” and “massage” in terms of the word pronunciation. This is something that is guaranteed to get tons of laughs and will most likely end the restful, peacefulness of the Daddy Spa. This is not for the weak of heart (grin). All kids know how to make farting noises by pressing their mouths to their arm or something. In this case, just replace the arm with your back (ewww, right?). Well, they love it and will most likely only want to do this activity in the future so use it carefully!
- Clean up - well, they never really do it, it’s usually up to you. But still, if you work with them, it shows how to complete the activity and re-enforces the importance of clean up
Believe it or not, my 4th grader still enjoys participating in the Daddy Spa and the younger ones just love it. Try it out and let me know how it goes! And if you have any new “activities” for the spa that are real winner, post a comment. It’s a great way for you to spend some good time with your kids and even come out more relaxed in the process!
HTD says: Give “Daddy Spa” a try! It does wonders after a long day at work and helps you re-connect with your kids!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Just a quick post here. Last weekend as I was installing a 3rd party app, I managed to freeze my iPhone. I could only restart the iPhone but it would freeze at the Apple logo upon each restart. So, since it had been a while since I had Jailbroken my phone, I had to find the latest and greatest iPhone Jailbreakers and Unlockers (I only Jailbreak).
With iPhone 2.0 just around the corner, some people may not be ready to jump ship and lose all of their 3rd party apps. Or, if you are thinking about selling your iPhone on eBay or something, you would want to set it back to a “reconditioned” status. Also, Jailbroken and Unlocked iPhone seem to be fetching a higher value in sales. So, if you want to stick around in the 1.1.x realm or if you want to prep your iPhone for sale, here are some apps that I found and used. Some worked better than others.
I’m going to flip this article around a bit and talk about the one that I liked the best first. You can stop reading this article after that or keep reading for curiosity’s sake.
The winner in my mind, was Liberty+ for its simplicity and easy-of-use, AND the fact that it automatically installed App Installer on the iPhone. Download is here. The reason I liked it, it just worked and was quick. I first had to Restore my iPhone in order to bring it out from a frozen state. This was done through iTunes. Once it had the standard 1.1.4 firmware on it, I simply fired up iLiberty+ and within minutes of choosing the Jailbreak option (and there are others), I had my phone Jailbroken with the App Installer installed. I did it a couple of times for good measure. A quick tip though, unselect the synching of Music and Videos, the whole process will go a lot faster.
Other applications that I tried in the past:
- ZiPhone - may not perform the jailbreak fully from what I have read. I tried this first and it seemed to be ok but I did not have an easy way to put the App Installer on.
- iFuntastic - lots of additional features, but you have to pay for them. They also have an “Unshackle” option.
- iNdependence - couldn’t run without messing with iPhone SDK installation
One application that I didn’t try but looks very promising is iDemocracy. In fact, I almost wish that I could redo the entire jailbreak process again. They have some great features including:
- Jailbreak, Activate and Unlock
- Backup Applications and Preferences
- Manage Wallpaper, Ringtones and Applications easily
- File browser
- Fixes some things (like WiFi issues) that other apps might not (ZiPhone had some issues)
It seems to me that the iPhone Jailbreaking/Unlocking application arena is maturing. Who knows what is in store for the 2.0 Firmware. Apple is definitely tightening things down (e.g., in-store activations only - no more iTunes - and a completely rewritten security underlayer to prevent jailbreaking/unlocking). However, not everyone will want to update to 2.0. I personally will (and I’m looking for some super generous reader to “gift” me a new iPhone - grin - ) but I will keep my eye on the open-iPhone community for other developments.
HTD says: Enjoy jailbreaking while you can using these applications. Your time may be limited.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
All kids get sick. Colds and flu’s are just part of a child’s process of building immunities for their future health. When a child is sick, it is not a fun experience for either the child or the parent. But it is part of life. It’s when an illness becomes a child’s life that is the most devastating. It is truly not fair.
I have been blessed with healthy children. Sure, I have one child with severe peanut allergies but that sort of thing is manageable through education, awareness, and training. My wife and I are always in a state of constant alert when our child goes to birthday parties, camps and schools. How do you avoid the staple that makes up a majority of kids’ daily menus…the peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Trust me, it’s not easy. But this post is not about allergies but rather about something much more serious.
I must admit I know next to nothing about Leukemia, or any other life-threatening disease for that matter. Call it “living in denial” or just not focusing on things that don’t affect me. Now I think differently. It is truly devastating as a parent to have your own creation affected in this way. Of course, you could live your life in fear that this could happen to you or your child, or you could live your life to the fullest, enjoying every second of the day. Most people live somewhere in between…until you are touched by the hand of fate.
If you are taking the time to read this, I thank you. Take a few more seconds to say a prayer or make a wish for children who have been dealt a hand out of their control. And don’t just stop there. Learn more, educate yourself and your peers, figure out ways to help, even if in non-direct ways. If you know a person or family in that situation, it might be incredibly hard for you to engage with them. They may be overwhelmed, or you yourself just simply may not have the capacity or strength to do so. But do what you can, even if your contribution is small.
With our friends, I don’t know how to help. I’m scared to actually. So I’m writing this post as my miniscule contribution to their cause. What can you do to help?
- Learn about Leukemia
- Donate to organizations like: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, National Children’s Leukemia Foundation, and the Leukemia Research Foundation, among others
- Offer to help in other direct or non-direct ways
- Spread the word
Any type of childhood illness weighs heavily on one’s heart. When something like this happens to or around you, nothing else matters anymore. That which was “significant” (like your next commercial purchase, a trip, your job, etc.) suddenly is no longer on the map. It’s a time to re-evaluate ones priorities and go back to the core of what life is about, living. I realize that this post is far from what I normally write about, but these things need to be said…even SCREAMED OUT! So do that now. Think about what really matters in your life. I would think that many things would fall to the side.
HTD says: Spread the word about this post, about Leukemia, about Childhood disease; sitting around does nothing. Social media allows us to share to many and share quickly. Please do share this! And say another prayer while you do!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
This is a re-post of an article I wrote on the GoGrid blog.
Asking the Question
Where does one learn about technology trends? How does one test it out or know if it is a match for your offering?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Traditional Hosting in the 90’s
The early 90’s were marked with the presence of AOL being the primary way that users got on the World Wide Web (now just called the Internet because people are using far more than just HTTP for content delivery). AOL
As dial-up companies became more mainstream, they had to compete against the daily CD-ROM mailers congesting the traditional direct marketing channels. Advertising and PR among traditional hosting providers ranged from print ads to directory listing services like Yahoo!. Also, dial-up service was the main method of getting on the WWW. When people wanted to find dial-up providers, one’s choices were pretty limited, either go with a large “closed” community like AOL or national or local dial-up provider. As dial-ups expanded, the ISPs began to offer hosting packages as well. As hosting slowly became more mainstream and competition started heating up, perspective clients had to hunt around to find reviews or opinions of these providers, frequently leaving more confused than not. In the end, word-of-mouth played a huge part in the final decision as well as simple bulletin boards were the place where a majority of end users did their research. Communities were there but frequently closed or hard to find.
“In-between” Hosting of Dot-Com
Step forward to the end of the 1990’s and we saw an even more cluttered landscape. Traditional hosting provides still existed. Managed hosting was becoming mainstream and the Dot-com era was upon us. Suddenly, anyone could make a “business” on the web and have vast quantities of money thrown at them, even without having a solid business plan. Companies, like WebVan, spent huge amounts of money on portions of their
Nobody seemed to care about IT spending. It just happened along with the IPOs and Venture Capitalist dolling money out like it was going out of style. It was very hard for a company to rise above the fold without these capital expenditures. Companies planned on becoming the next big thing and invested heavily in data centers and computer infrastructure. Hosting providers simply rode the wave. The people talking during this time were the CEO’s, Executives, Investment Bankers and Venture Capitalists; all the rest (of us) just held on tight to our thousands of stock-options, hoping that we would be the next multi-millionaire on the block, and worked 15 hour days without coming up for air. The decisions were made by those with the money.
Then it all burst.
Web 2.0 and “Evolved” Hosting
As the shrapnel fell from the Dot-Com bomb, companies were forced to re-group, re-engineer and re-architect. Everybody knew that the Internet was here to stay as a viable marketing channel, but also as a business marketplace. Companies who survived the bust, continued to limp along while others sat back to watch what would happen. Then began Web 2.0, emerging from the ruins as a completely different beast. Gone were the days of money being thrown around haphazardly and business decisions made on a whim. Companies now had to be self-funded, with a proven business model and an established user base.
The commonality during this and previous times was that all business needed places to host their products. What had changed were the ways to host and the cost associated with hosting. Traditional hosting providers
This sudden influx of cheap and available hosting helped to foster the emergence of new Web 2.0 companies and services. But as technology continued to better itself exponentially, hosting alternatives to the traditional began to be more prevalent. Virtualization was an important catalyst to this, allowing servers to be used differently, more efficiently and more broadly. Hosting providers started carving out services with Virtual Private Servers (VPS’s) as well as offering a full gamut of dedicated servers at increasingly competitive rates.
Web 2.0 companies now had a choice: traditional, dedicated, shared and in-house hosting, each offering advantages and disadvantages. But that wasn’t enough.
Social Media and the Cloud Community
So why is “Cloud Computing” suddenly so hot? I would say that it is not due to the technology alone, but rather because of the new super-social community driving it. The people making Web 2.0 what it is today are connected in so many different ways than before. Communication has evolved from bulletin boards to instant communities and relationships through services like Twitter, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, MyBlogLog, FriendFeed, Facebook and podcasts, to name just a few. Couple these social communication tools with online publications like TechCrunch or Mashable who cover emerging companies and trends, and communities start flooding the market. These communities aren’t just connected, they are talking with fervor and passion. Creating a community takes a fraction of the amount of time than in the past. Look at the Cloud Computing Google Group, for example. This group did not have any messages or members back in March 2008, as of mid-June, there are over 1000 members and the group discussions are growing exponentially. People simply want to talk about these new technologies and understand how they can provide a competitive advantage to their own business.
Communities are driving the clouds. Web 2.0ers talk at meetups, on Twitter, at conferences and directly among each other. They are looking for the best technological match for their offerings and the best price to do so. To touch on the price issue, this is a paradigm shift from the Dot-com era of free spending. Startups are bootstrapped and given the state of the “recessive” economy, so are larger companies and enterprises. So as the features of cloud computing are attracting technologists and developers, the pay-as-you-go or utility pricing models are attracting CFO’s and budget-minded IT managers.
HTD says:Keep the Cloud talks going, it’s the technology driving Web 2.0 and Social Media.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Being a good dad means protecting your kids. That can be by physically keeping them from danger, or, by preventing their young innocent eyes and minds from being corrupted by seeing content that they are too young for. With technology, connectivity and communications pervading all aspects of our lives, it has become increasingly difficult to control what our children see, when they see it and how long they see it.
What can you do to protect your kids? I can offer a few possible solutions. Remember, I’m a tech-oriented dad and offer hardware and software solutions. However, I also try to educate my kids about WHY I’m restrictive. It is important to help them understand the risks and the dangerous types of people who exist on the Internet. So, the list below are just some techie things that I can recommend:
1) You can start by not allowing them to have any access to computers whatsoever. However, this isn’t very practical nowadays as teachers are requiring that kids get computer experience more and more, using computers for research and investigation. There is also the social appeal, starting earlier and earlier with Webkinz, for example and then moving to MySpace or other social networking sites. If you ban computers at home, your kids will seek them elsewhere (friends houses, school, neighbors, etc.). You probably can get away with this for a while while children are young, but not forever.
2) Use Parental Controls. I use mainly Apple computers at home for a variety of reasons. One of these is the Parental Controls that now come with the Leopard Operating System. Windows XP doesn’t really seem to have very robust (if any?) parental controls and Vista has dramatically improved support, but in my opinion, still pales compared to the Mac. All administration can be done remotely, meaning, you can manage the Controls of various Macs in your household via a central computer. Things you can control are: applications, content/sites, mail/chat and time spent.
3) Control at the router level. I have hybrid firmware installed on my router, actually I have tried a few. These hybrids (DD-WRT and Tomato) have access restriction controls that let you block contents/sites and even impose time limits to Internet connectivity directly from the router.
4) Use Third Party Software Solutions. There are many PC solutions (I know that Zone Alarm offers Parental Controls in their product and have used them. They seem to be good but may not go as deep as some others.) On the Mac side, there is the Intego Content Barrier x4. And that is what the rest of this article is about.
Setting up Content Protection
The easiest way to get up and running with Content Barrier X4 is to use the Setup Assistant. The Assistant will walk you through a series steps to help you quickly configure a user’s permissions and content access.
- The Setup Assistant Starts
- Defining a master password - the user you choose is an administrator, you should set a master password for the program
- Select the computer user that you want to define the permissions for. This is an actual user on the Mac.
- Choose the type of restrictions (No = wide open access, Restricted = some preconfigured restrictions, No Access = completely shut down and Custom = ability to define your permission sets.
- On this screen you define the content filtering for web-browsing and select some pre-defined tags and codes by simply clicking on the Stop/Go button.
- On this screen you define your chat preferences (e.g., for iChat, AOL IM, Adium, etc.). On of the most intriguing features of this product is the ability to alert parent about possible “predator activity.” When this feature is enabled, all instant messages will be quickly scanned and blocked if it matches certain criteria like “Don’t tell your parents”. Also below is the configuration page of those phrases.
- Email filtering can also be defined but shares the configuration with the Web blocking. Also, you can prevent streaming media, newsgroup, peer-to-peer transfers on this screen.
- With this screen you set up notifications based on log events and configuring your logging.
- That’s it. If you had other users to set up, you would be prompted to do so prior to getting to this screen.
There are some other items that you can fine-tune once you go through the Assistant process (which is the process that I recommend prior to tweaking it). For example, you can set up the days and times when a user can have Internet Access as well as how many hours per day they can have access (stripes show time limit, green shows times during a day when access is granted):
You set application access restrictions, meaning you only allow certain application access to the Internet. I actually thought that these Alert boxes were kind of nice, especially for smaller children.
The teddybear hiding its eyes was a really nice touch. It toned down the severity of the alert a bit.
The “blocked website” alert was a bit more powerful, but you have other options on how you want to block a website. You can display the message below, or you can redirect the user to another site.
SUMMARY
Intego has carefully thought out this product for you. The assistant gets you going quickly and then the other controls can help you fine-tune your content filtering and protection even more. I do wish that I could merge the remote administration feature of Apple’s Parental Controls with Content Barrier x4. That would make it an essential product to have. As it stands, most users will be fine using Apple’s Parental Controls as it seems to do much of what Content Barrier x4 does. However, the minor price point (between $0 and $35) is justified, in my opinion for the Anti-Predator protection alone. This live content filtering and notification process is critical to prevent and possibly catch predators trying to do nasty things. Also blocking streaming and peer-to-peer traffic is a nice feature to have, especially as many ISP are starting to crack down more and more on this type of traffic. If you are still on Tiger and don’t have the Parental Controls that come with Leopard, this is a must have piece of software.
I will eagerly await the next version of Content Barrier. If they add remote management and reporting capabilities and other types of content filters like banner blocking and such, this will definitely be a required piece of software. As it is, being a dad, I would want this on each of my kids’ computers.
HTD says: Intego’s Content Barrier X4 is one of the BEST ways to protect your children from the harmful sites and people that exist on today’s Internet. Do your duty as a good parent and protect your kids!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Only a few days left before Father’s Day descends upon us, so in the spirit of “giving to Dad” (heck, it should be a WEEK of giving and not a day), here is another gadget review. Today I found out that the Netflix Player (reviewed here) is currently out of stock and back-ordered for 4-6 weeks. So, you could give Dad a printout of the product (or my review) with a nice bow on it, or you could take a look at this new product released by DLO (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters), the TransDock Micro with IntelliTune.
I have now tested several FM Transmitters for the iPod, and each have their advantages and disadvantages. Earlier this year, I reviewed another DLO product, the TransDock Deluxe and while I thought it was a great product, I personally couldn’t use it. I have a 10 year old Honda Accord that has the cigarette adapter located near the center console/shifter. For the life of me, I couldn’t get the TransDock Deluxe properly configured to work well, even with all of the extension arms fully extended and twisted.
I had a different FM transmitter from Griffin Technologies (one of their iTrip products) that my wife manage to acquire (despite my best efforts). The reason I liked it was because of its design: a plug, a cord and the connector. It really worked well, but my wife got to keep it (worked better in the Odyssey which has the power jack on the bottom near the floor).
Then along came the TransDock Micro which this time I got to keep (from my wife, that is). And frankly, I couldn’t be happier. Sorry, I only have stock photos here, my car just wouldn’t do the TransDock Micro any justice.
Now this device is probably only good for cars that have visible lighter/power outlets because the brains of the device are in the plug. While this could be a limitation for many car owners (like with my wife’s where the power jack is close to the floor making the display impossible to read), it wasn’t for me and I’m glad about that fact. The iTrip solutions, for example, put the controller mid-way on the cord, the TransDock Micro, as I said, has it as part of the power plug.
Before I go into the details, here are some high-level facts about the Micro:
- It uses an FM transmitter to play your iPod audio over your car’s stereo
- Never get caught with a low battery - it charges while you are connected
- Automatically finds the clearest station to broadcast to your car stereo
- Use it with one hand
- Easy to read digital display makes configuring and tuning a snap
- Nice long 4 foot cord
But what I really liked about it, was the Micro’s configurability that was built in to its tiny little brain. Note, it does take some practice to figure out how to work with the settings and controls, after all, you can only dial right, dial left, push and push & hold the display (which acts as a button). Before I go into the configurability, these newer generation FM transmitters all seem to be coming out with a feature that automatically selects the station that is the clearest. DLO calls it “IntelliTune” (Griffin calls it “Smart Scan”). This is a must have feature. Don’t settle for an iPod FM transmitter solution that does NOT have this capability; if you do, you will be kicking yourself later. To use this feature on the DLO TransDock Micro, simply push the display (the OLED will show “IntelliTune Searching” and will finally stop at the best/clearest station). Just change your car’s stereo to that station after that.
The other nice thing that DLO does right about this, is the manual station tuning. The device looks like and functions like a dial so if you want to manually select a station, just dial left or right and then tune your car stereo appropriately. You have the full frequency range at your disposal (88.1 to 107.9).
I found the actual transmission to be almost stronger than other FM transmitters that I have tested. There seemed to be less station bleed-thru, even when I used a station that wasn’t completely clear. I was actually pleasantly surprised about that. So, with little effort, you can be listening to audio on your iPod within seconds. Just plug in, push the dial, set the station and away you go.
Let’s go a bit deeper now into the settings. The Micro is highly configurable (which gives it a leg up on some of its competitors). Before you start diving in and changing everything, I recommend that you read the manual. (Note: as of this writing, the online version of the manual had not been updated.) You can change:
- your saved presets
- the audio level (low, medium, high - watch out for high as you might get distortion)
- listening mode (mono or stereo - I chose stereo but you run the risk of having potentially more static. I haven’t found that yet.)
- brightness time (various time selections including always on - these is for the OLED readout on the device)
- dim level (determines how bright you want the display to be when it is active)
Some other recommendations:
- Turn off your device’s Equalizer as it could cause unwanted distortion, you can always tweak it later
- Take advantage of the IntelliTune, it will save you (or your DAD) some grey hairs finding a free station
- Start with Mono for the listening mode as it will give you the best performance
- The iPhone is not officially supported with ANY FM transmitter device due to the TDMA noise that comes from the iPhone transmitter. However, you can use it by either putting you iPhone in Airplane mode or just dealing with the noise (often you can position your iPhone to minimize this)
This is a device that any iPod user would LOVE to have, and, being priced at $60.00, it is well within that $100 Father’s Day budget. Its ease of use and performance definitely set it apart from predecessors as well as competitors.
HTD says: If I didn’t already have one, this is one gadget I would definitely add to my wish list!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
I’m going to try something this week and write up some quick product reviews in case you are looking for something to buy your dad or husband for Father’s Day. This year, budgets are tight so even spending $100 may be pushing it, but when you make a tech decision, you should do some careful reviews prior to pulling the trigger. The Netflix Player might be a good gift right at that $100 level.
I have been a Netflix subscriber for many years (with a slight diversion where I was with BlockBuster until they started taking away features and raising the price). It was actually kind of neat that when I came back to Netflix, my old user name and password still worked, AND all of my moving watching history was still there.
But anyway, this is not about the standard Netflix service, but rather about their newly released Netflix Player. Announced about a month ago, the first player to hit the market is the one made by Roku (other manufacturers are lined up for later releases). The premise is simple, assuming you have a NetFlix account of over $8.99, you simply choose movies you want to watch and they magically appear on your NetFlix Player. Ok, that is a bit oversimplified but essentially true.
The Player Details
The Roku player is small, black and unobtrusive. I was truly impressed with its size. You can easily hide it away or place it gracefully out in the public. Its footprint is square and is less than two inches high, just big enough to have just about every possible video/audio connection on the back. The box comes with standard RCA jacks, S-Video, component video, HDMI and optical audio. You would be hard pressed to find a TV that doesn’t work with the NetFlix Player.
The other nice thing is that it is incredibly mobile. Once you have it configured, you can move it around your house from TV to TV. That is one of the the things I like best about it. I may actually try bringing it to other people’s houses (all I need is a network connection) - I haven’t tested this out so it might not be possible.
Set-up
Even the technically challenged can set up the Netflix Player (not that there is anything wrong with being technically challenged, that’s part of the reason I’m around, to help out!). But with this set-up process, you will be hard-pressed to get confused. The hardest thing is probably figuring out which A/V connection to use and getting that to work. That is if the first step. I started with the most simple, the basic RCA jacks connected directly to an old analog TV (later did an S-Video and RCA to an HD-DLP/5.1 A/V receiver).
Once you have your TV/Audio connection set, you need to chose whether you want a wireless or wired connection. The Roku box supports both with an Ethernet jack in the back and WiFi built in. If you have Wifi, be sure you have all of your wireless network information handy. Next, fire up the box and work your way through the connection process on the screen. My steps involved entering in the wireless network security information (after my wireless network was automatically discovered) and waiting through a software update. After the mandatory reboot, I went through the setup again (all of my previous data was preserved) and I quickly came to the activation point. To activate, you need to go to the activate section of the Netflix site and get a series of numbers/letters and enter those on the Roku box. Activation took less than 1 minute. Once that was completed, my on-demand queue was instantly there. The entire setup took about 10 minutes (if that).
Usage
If you already know how to use Netflix, you will not have any problem with the Netflix Player. The ONLY difficult thing (currently) is that the movie and TV show selection is a bit sparse with only about 10,000 movies and shows available. This number is growing though and HD content is said to be coming soon as well (and supported by the Roku box).
Some titles have hybrid buttons (e.g., for “Weeds,” for example) which allows you to add the entire series to your queue for watching one episode after the other. You will, however, find that many movies simply have the red “Add” button and not the blue “Play” button which can be a bit frustrating at times.
Browsing your shows or movies and selecting the one you want to play is incredibly easy. When you select the item (depending on your Internet bandwidth) the player starts to download it (pulling the item into a buffer). Within a few seconds, your movie will start. To fast forward or rewind, you see a series of screenshots in a row. You don’t see movie chapters but rather these screenshots that seem to be take every 10 or 15 seconds (?). When you are done viewing, simply delete the item from your queue. If you want to continue watching it later, just stop it. When you come back, you can resume where you left off.
But here is the really cool thing, if you pause your movie, you can resume it on your computer and visa versa. So, if you didn’t finish your movie at work, you can watch the rest at home (don’t get in trouble watching movies at work though!).
Final Thoughts
The Netflix Player is a great gift for $100. The price gets you just the box, you must have a Netflix subscription to get movies. Being a dad, this was a great addition to our media environment (even allowing us to cancel many of our premium channels). I introduced my girls to the classic Pink Panther (the item that I downloaded from Netflix has over 60 episodes!). My wife and I are watching the original Battlestar Galactica before we dive into the new series. Getting one of these boxes is a no-brainer if you have have a Netflix account. You can get the newer releases mailed to you and watch older movies or classic on-demand using the Netflix Player.
HTD says: This is a great gift for Dads. Easy to set up, functional and entertaining (literally), the Netflix Player is truly a gift that keeps giving day after day, movie after movie!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite