October 2009

How to Pre-Populate Twitter Status Updates Via Links

by Michael Sheehan on October 22, 2009

in General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, Social Media, Social Networking, Tweets, Twitter

We all know that getting information out via Twitter is helpful to your brand or company, but what if you want to have your website or blog readers do it for you? Or perhaps you want to get a standard message out or include a keyword or two through the use of hashtags (#).

NOTE: As of May 2011, this method no longer works! Please read my NEW post on the new way here.

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The process for doing this is very easy, however I learned a little trick that you can use, especially if you want to use hashtags (which I solve at the end of this post).

Simple Link

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Help @HighTechDad Become the Next Living in HD Insider!

by Michael Sheehan on October 20, 2009

in Gadgets, General, Giveaway, Hardware, Tech News, Twitter

On a whim a few weeks ago, I entered into a contest that sounded really cool. All that I had to do was record a video about why I would be the perfect Living in HD Insider and submit it. There were quite a few entries at the end of the submission period. A week later, I found out that I was one of the 10 finalists! First, please take 30 seconds and vote for me! Then come back and read the rest of this post.

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In the video, you were supposed to answer the following questions in any format you desired:

  • As a content creator, why do you believe you should win this customized suite?
  • How would this suite help you create better, unique and/or different content?
  • What could you now do that previously you would not have been able to?
  • How would this benefit your community?

The suite in question consists of : the latest Panasonic HD products, including a VIERA 50″ Plasma TV, Blu-ray Home Theater System, Lumix Wi-Fi Digital Cameras, HD Camcorders, Toughbook Laptop and much more. The winner also gets a Lumix G1 SLR camera to give away to their own community.

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eBooks, Digital Readers and the Future of Printed Writing

by Michael Sheehan on October 19, 2009

in Family, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Opinion, Review

I am honestly not sure that all books should be electronic. I’m a gadget guy but some part of me feels that if we make everything digital that one day someone will accidentally kick out the plug and EVERYTHING will be gone. I do see the convenience and the immediacy that an eBook provides. It’s similar to the evolution of music as well.

When I grew up, the LP or record album was king. I had contests with my friends to see who could fill more wine boxes with albums. We tried to research and purchase the best turntable for the money, belt drive vs. direct drive, type of high-end needle, etc. How the arm was attached to the record player was important too. Some said that if the arm swung across the LP, it caused unnecessary strain on the needle so the arm should be attached to the cover and track directly across instead. I bought crazy cone-shaped feet for my record player to minimize the vibration. It was a science to get the music vibration-free and sounding crystal clear.

Sony_Pocket_Reader_sm

When CD’s came along, many music purist were up in arms. They felt that the music coming from a CD lacked warmth and feeling and that CD-quality music was sterile and cold. But it still intrigued me. I searched for CDs that had “DDD” on the back or “ADD” or even “AAD”. The “D” stood for “digital” and the “A” stood for “Analog”. The first position was for recording (digital or analog), the second position mastering (or remastering) and the third was the format (e.g., CD = digital, LP = analog). After time, I seldom lugged all of my albums everywhere I went. You could play CD’s in the car and you could store a lot more CDs in a box than albums. While I still have 2 cases of wine boxes filled with my old LPs in the garage, I haven’t played them in ages.

I now debate whether I buy a CD to have the physical box and insert or just buy the album off of Amazon or iTunes. I have been tending to just get the digital version and not worry about the storage of the CD (although I have been know to immediately burn the CD of any MP3 album I buy, just to be able to play it in the car).

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A “Wall Plug” To Go – HyperMac External Battery Juices up your MacBooks

by Michael Sheehan on October 15, 2009

in Apple, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Review

Batteries don’t last long enough. While the technology is getting better, and they can pack more juice into smaller spaces, unfortunately, for most people like me, this is just still long enough. Macs are no different than PCs. Both run on batteries that use similar technology. Recently, with the MacBook Pro Unibody designs and MacBook Air, while Apple did increase the capacity of the battery, thus extending the battery life, they also made a design choice making the battery very difficult to replace (it is doable, mind you). What this means is that the average user probably won’t be replacing the battery or carrying supplies of batteries to swap out (on plane trips, for example).

hypermac_stackMy MacBook Pro (non-unibody) is on its 2nd or 3rd battery now. I think my first one was recalled and a few months ago, my replacement battery started acting up. It was replaced as well. My current battery only lasts about 2-2.5 hours, barely enough to keep me working through a blog post. So, when I heard about a company, Sanho, that had created an external battery solution just for us Mac users, I just had to check it out for myself. The product is called HyperMac and it is truly a solution for those who travel, go to tradeshows, work away from plugs or just want the comfort of having extra juice available on standby.

I must admit, my reasons for contacting Sanho were a bit selfish, from what I had heard about the product, I really wanted to test it out and see if it lived up to the hype. And, I simply wanted to keep one to provide me with that emergency power that tech bloggers often need.

About the HyperMac

The HyperMac comes in many different sizes, each depending on the “capacity.” Current models available are: 60, 100, 150 and 222-watt-hour. Each of these different sizes (and, mind you, the longer the battery life the heavier and larger the battery is) extend the length of time you can go without a plug. With the smallest battery (the MBP-060), the worst you can get is 9.41 hours (unverified – that is what appears on their site) on a MB Pro 17″ non-Unibody. With the largest battery (the MBP-222) on the same computer, the battery life is estimated at 21.3 hours. Regardless, take a look at the chart below (taken from the HyperMac page) for some battery estimates and dimensions:

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Music of the World Packed into a Small Device – the MYINE Ira Internet Radio

October 12, 2009

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing the Livio Radio which streams Internet music but also has the built-in functionality of Pandora. I was sad to see it go at the end of the review, but I was lucky to get my hands on another music streaming device (this time sans-Pandora) called [...]

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Beyond the “100 Faces of Fall” with the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX1 & A330 DSLR Cameras

October 6, 2009

So I’m now pretty deep into this Sony “DigiDads” program (see the Sony Electronics Community site for more details). My kids are already used to watching the big BRAVIA in my oldest daughter’s room, I have been using the HD Camcorder for a few of my recent product reviews as well as filming some of [...]

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