How to Use Windows

A cool feature in Windows 7 Media Center is the ability to listen to local FM radio. But what if you don’t have a tuner card that supports a connected radio antenna? The RadioTime plugin solves the problem by allowing access to thousands of online radio stations. With the RadioTime plugin for Windows Media Center, you’ll have access to over 100,000 online radio stations from around the world. Their guide is broken down into different categories such as Talk Radio, Music Radio, Sports Radio and more

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Listening to the Maximum PC podcast #131 this past week (I’m behind) brought back some fond memories.  Not only was there a little glint in my eye because I was actually mentioned on said podcast, but I was also tearing up a bit at the realization that the very art of podcasting could serve as an excellent Freeware Files roundup. Thus, here we are!  Podcasting is a huge topic in itself, so I’m trying to bridge a bunch of different worlds in this week’s list of awesome applications.  Just interested in listening to podcasts?  Don’t worry–I’ve got you covered.  Looking to make a Maximum PC (or Freeware Files) fan podcast of your own?  You’ll find a fun trick or two within the bits and bytes of this week’s post.  Tired of all the same-ol’, same-ol’ podcasting programs that you read about on all the other tech sites (like iTunes, cough cough?)  Well, I’ll do my best to surprise you with a new app or two! Even if, like me, you think that 99-percent of all podcasts are lame and not really worth your time, you can also use some of the enclosed apps and utilities to exert some editing influence over existing audio files.  As well, you’ll even find an awesome player for video and music files that even comes with a built-in Bittorrent download capability. Have I whet your podcasting whistle yet?  Great.  Let’s begin!

Panasonic is a superstar of the Blu-ray world. Year after year, its new players are greeted with the sort of unbridled enthusiasm usually reserved for Tom Cruise’s red carpet walkabouts in Leicester Square. The reason for its techno-celebrity is simple: innovation. Profile 1.1, BD-Live, Blu-ray recording – you name it, Panasonic did it first, and over the years no-one has done more to push the format forward. However, Panasonic’s position has been under threat from deck’s like LG’s brilliant BD390 , which offers built-in Wi-Fi, PC streaming, unrivalled digital media support and top-drawer performance at a consumer-friendly price.

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YouTube is putting automatic video captions on YouTube videos, using speech recognition software , to help the deaf and hard of hearing. Google-owned YouTube said the latest use of its speech recognition tech is the biggest experiment of its kind online. YouTube said opening its content to those who could not access it in the past should democratise information to “help foster greater collaboration and understanding”.

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As you might expect, Russ Andrews offers a wide range of LP maintenance and tweaking accessories, but I was particularly drawn to the Tip Tonic as it performs the same function as an old Audio Technica product (long discontinued), which I treasure and allows wet cleaning of a stylus. Obviously, loose fluff and suchlike can be dislodged easily from a stylus with any soft brush, but discs often have nastier stuff deep in the grooves, which leaves a hard and tenacious residue on the diamond. It may not even be possible to see this with the naked eye, but just the smallest buildup on the stylus will cause imperfect tracking and, all too readily, premature disc wear. One needs to be careful with wet cleaning, though, as the suspension at the back end of the cantilever may be weakened and/or hardened by use of the wrong chemical solvent, and on such small parts it’s likely that capillary action will draw the fluid up from the stylus to the suspension, however carefully one cleans. Tip Tonic is specially formulated for this job and a quick ‘nose test’ suggests that it’s not an aggressive chemical that’s likely to attack rubber suspension, but a couple of drops on the supplied nylon brush are highly effective at loosening gunge

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While the quantity of media players on Ubuntu may be low, the quality is as high as any other operating system. SMPlayer, which we have previously recommended for Windows, is also available for Linux. We’ll show you how to install, configure, and start using the latest version of SMPlayer. Some of the many features that makes SMPlayer great include its ability to remember where you were in a video when you closed it so that it starts up at the same spot the next time you open it. It plays any format that you throw at it, and can play DVDs if you have those restricted libraries installed.

The full story can be found on How To Geek

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you know that 3D is this year’s entertainment buzzword. With 3D blockbusters like Avatar scoring megabucks in the theaters, 3D cinema’s jump to the living room is all but a foregone conclusion. But where does that leave all your old 2D files and DVDs?

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Designed to demonstrate some of the star quality of the larger A30, the A10 integrated valve amplifier is the newest and least expensive arrival in a range from Pure Sound which includes amps, preamps and phono accessories. In fact, due to market enthusiasm for the new amps, the A10 may well rule the roost in sub-£1,000 models. Vacuum minimalism The A10 is a class A Ultra Linear push-pull design.

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CeBIT isn’t slated to run for about another couple of weeks, but rather than wait to lift the wraps on its newest desktop replacement, MSI on Tuesday off ered up a few details on its upcoming GT660 gaming notebook. Every bit the next-gen part, the GT660 crams a Core i7 processor into what we presume will end up being a 17-inch display. Anything smaller would be a colossal waste of the GeForce GTX 285M graphics that will also be stuffed inside. MSI could have stopped there and had a winning combo on its hands, but the GT2660 also boasts USB 3.0 ports and up to 12GB of memory.

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Surprisingly, the TVonics DTR-HV250 is the first Freeview PVR from TVonics to sport an HDMI output, which enables hi-def TV owners to savour the delights of upscaled Freeview programmes. But in our eyes, a bigger selling point is the eye-catching design and superb build quality. It’s compact enough to squeeze into cramped AV racks, while the curved edges lend a touch of style missing from most PVRs. For the bodywork, TVonics favours aluminium over plastic and the gloss black finish makes it pleasingly fashionable.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar