May 2012

Ease of Set-up & Use Powers the VueZone Webcam Solution

by Michael Sheehan on May 31, 2012

in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Opinion, Review, Security

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Remember how a few years ago setting up a streaming webcam was something that you left to the geek in your house? And even then, it probably didn’t work all the time or required the webcam to be attached to a computer that was on all of the time? I sure do. I even remember when setting up a security webcam meant that you had to also configure an FTP server where the webcam would upload periodic pictures captured from the webcam. If you were lucky, you captured something “relevant” in that snapshot but most of the time, your FTP server simply got filled up with pictures of empty rooms or blurred movements. Let me tell you, it was a pain!

vuezone-system

Fast forward to the modern day and suddenly you have a variety of streaming webcam options available and many of them work pretty well. But the features of these solutions vary widely so you need to shop around carefully. Here are some things to consider when looking for a security or streaming webcam solution for your home:

  • Easy to set up
  • Minimal configuration complications
  • Ability to hook into your network
  • Ability to see live videos via a website
  • Ability to see live videos via a smartphone
  • Ability to record videos for later playback
  • Ability to take a snapshot from a video
  • Ability to store videos for later viewing
  • Night-vision enabled
  • 1-way or 2-way audio
  • Cordless
  • Battery powered
  • Scalable so that you can add more cameras to your network
  • Remotely configurable
  • Receive instant alerts when motion is detected
  • High-Definition video
  • Easily mount a camera anywhere
  • Pan or zoom in on your videos
  • Schedule when recordings should take place

Are those enough consideration points? And honestly, I haven’t come across any solutions (yet) that can have a “yes” placed next to the items above. However, I recently tested out the VueZone Personal Video Network solution and their offering comes pretty darn close. Since the list of “no’s” is shorter, I will list those out first (and who knows, perhaps their next version will mark those off the list). What the current VueZone CAN’T do is see in the complete dark (nigh-vision), have 1 or 2-way audio or provide HD video (you can take high resolution photos though). That’s pretty much it! Not bad, right?

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5 Reasons Why You Should Repurpose Old Content from your Blog

by Michael Sheehan on May 30, 2012

in Application, General, How To, Opinion, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

Post image for 5 Reasons Why You Should Repurpose Old Content from your Blog

I have often been asked: why the heck do you have those automated tweets of old content coming from your blog? What is the reasoning? They are outdated and might not be topical, could be viewed as out of context and, in my case, might be talking about technology, products or services that are over a year old.

old-writing

Think about it, you pour you heart into every article you write and you want to have the world consume and hopefully enjoy your content. So, you write it and post it and then move on to the next piece of juicy content. You do this every day/week/month and over the years, you amass quite a nice set of articles. But who really goes through your site and hits the “previous article” button? It doesn’t happen that frequently. And if they do, it is probably for just a few articles. Or, people browse within a category to see your thoughts and ideas about a certain subject matter. But for the most part, once your content is there, it gets buried and lost in the archives.

Of course, search engines are your friends, so assuming that your articles have good SEO (Search Engine Optimization), have included good keywords, descriptions and have a catchy title, you could get visitors to your old content simply by the means of searches. For example, if I look at my Google Analytics for the past 30 days, some of my top content is pretty darn old:

HTD-old-content

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10 Tips & Some Security & Privacy Tools for Setting Up Your Child’s First Smartphone

by Michael Sheehan on May 30, 2012

in Application, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Family, Gadgets, General, HTD Tech Tip, Mobile, Opinion, Parenting, Safety, Security, Software, Trend Micro

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As part of The Digital Joneses study that I’m working on with other bloggers and with Trend Micro, one of our challenges is “Staying Connected on the Go.“ The study itself is one of online protection, privacy and security, using a variety of tools and software as well as tips and best practices provided by Trend Micro. This is the 4th challenge that we are undertaking and you can see some of my other articles from the challenges here.

Basic CMYK

This current challenge outlined some tasks that we needed to do during a 24-hour period but the over-arching theme was to essentially detach from your computer, and do everything that you would normally do on your computer but on a smartphone. The funny thing is, I do this type of challenge each and every day, most typically, on the weekend. Some of the tasks we were asked to do included:

  • Posting pictures to Facebook and set the privacy so that only “Friends” could see them
  • Do some online banking
  • Catch up on emails
  • Watch YouTube videos
  • Share photos with close friends and family
  • Make an online purchase

As you can see, many of these items involve security or privacy. This is something that I don’t take lightly and neither should you. So, using the themes of safety, security and privacy, I elected to slightly modify the challenge to hopefully make it helpful to parents who are thinking about giving their child a smartphone.

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Mother’s Day Motorola RAZR Madness with the Cast of Dads – Brady Bunch Style!

by Michael Sheehan on May 24, 2012

in Cast of Dads, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Family, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Humor, Opinion, PodCast, Video

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As part of the forces driving the Cast of Dads to greatness, we are always looking for corporate sponsors who are looking to have engaging, innovative and even funny promotion of their products or services. For Mother’s Day this year, Motorola sponsored our most recent episode of the Cast of Dads (we even hosted a giveaway).

COD-motorola

As part of our sponsorship, all of the Dads were loaned DROID RAZR and we were told that the sky was the limit for what we could do with these snazzy Android smartphones. The only requirement was that we create some sort of a video with the RAZR. So, before recording the Cast of Dads, we put our thinking caps on, lubed up our creative juices with a beer (at least I did) and came up with what we believe to be a pretty unique way to talk about both Mother’s Day and the DROID RAZR. Kudos go out to Danny at DadLabs.com for pulling all of our multimedia content together for the following Brady Bunch-style video:

Obviously, I’m a rookie when it comes to being a Brady Bunch – “no Michael, you need to look up to to the right” – guess I didn’t get the memo, oh wait, I did!

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Does the Blackberry Playbook Have Another Play Up Its Sleeve? Potentially!

May 21, 2012
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I remember when the Blackberry Playbook was first announced, in fact, I was at the CES 2011 where it was revealed. Everyone was saying what an amazing piece of hardware it was but then over time, the details emerged about how closely tied it was to having a Blackberry smartphone. Also, during the 1.5 years [...]

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We’re NOT Shaving with a Motorola DROID RAZR, We’re Giving One Away! – “Mother’s Day Special” – Cast of Dads Podcast

May 16, 2012
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While Mother’s Day has come and gone, and yes, all of the Cast of Dads were able to plan ahead to treat the moms (and wives) of our lives to their special day, we do have a “Mother’s Day Special” after the day went by. And, this episode marks a great milestone for the Cast [...]

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Seagate Storage Review Roundup: Thunderbolt Adapters for the GoFlex Line & the Satellite Wifi Portable Storage Solution

May 15, 2012
Thumbnail image for Seagate Storage Review Roundup: Thunderbolt Adapters for the GoFlex Line & the Satellite Wifi Portable Storage Solution

I have been evaluating 3 different storage solutions from Seagate for the past few months, two of these involve the new super high-speed Thunderbolt connection and one is designed to provide a huge amount of portable hard drive space for mobile devices via a Wifi connection. As we, as consumers, are creating more and more [...]

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The 2012 Chrysler 300S Exudes Confidence & Style with some Technology & Performance Thrown In

May 9, 2012
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I have driven a sedan now since 1998. It’s a great form factor for a 4-5 person family, especially if your children are younger. As they grow up, sedans might not be a preferred choice, until the kids have flown the nest. But as a second car, a sedan is a definite solid addition to [...]

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