Dear TiVo,
I love you, but I am afraid I am going to lose you. You’ve grown distant and seem distracted somehow. You’re fading away. Now, I feel I must stage this intervention, before things get out of control and you disappear forever. Please take these comments as they are meant, out of love and dedication. I want to see you succeed, to better yourself, to be something I can love for many years to come.
Sincerely,
a concerned TV fanatic
| FollowFriday : On any given Friday, thousands upon thousands (maybe even millions) of Twitter users enter the hashtag #FollowFriday (or #FF), followed by one or more “mentions.” The idea is for users to share the names of other “interesting people” that they follow and think you should too. These recommendations serve as positive comment cards for the digitally inclined.
JumpstartMyPC.com has decided to bring FollowFriday to our blog. Read on and, if you are so inclined, add these “interesting people” to your own list. |
So you finally made the plunge to a TiVo Premiere (or two). If you haven’t yet, maybe you are just looking for that last bit of information that will push you over the edge and cause you to break out the credit card and order one up. For the last article in our Hello TiVo series (see Related Articles below for previous posts), I bring to you a list of “Accessories” that can make your TiVo ownership a truly rewarding experience (not that it was lacking to begin with). These accessories aren’t what you’re thinking. I’m not trying to sell you expensive gadgets here, but educate you on some low-cost tools that will help you get the most out of your DVR.
Anyone who loves gadgets or new electronics has been burned before. You shell out your hard-earned cash for the “latest and greatest” widget and rush home, only to find that it doesn’t perform as promised or hold up for more than 6 months before it stops working. In an age of smart phones, universal remotes, netbooks, HD video cameras, etc. this can be an expensive and frustrating occurrence. Luckily, this digital age also provides us with the internet and the ability to research before we head out to the big-box, retail electronics store. The trick then becomes weeding through the information and determining if the article/site is an advertisement or an honest review of the product in question.
Over the last few weeks, I have written several articles on my switch from DirecTV to a TiVo Premiere setup. Yesterday, I received a series of questions from one of my readers (thanks Dave) and thought that the answers to his questions would make a great article. This way, everyone would benefit from the responses and maybe begin asking some questions of their own. His questions and my responses are outlined below.
The TiVo welcome screen finally lit up our HDTV, signaling the dawn of a new era and this experiment that I like to call Hello TiVo.
We’re back for the second segment in a series of articles on ditching cable and moving to a TiVo solution. So far, I’ve authored two articles on the subject and brought you my reasoning, preparation and installation (links below). Now, we pick up with The Reality of switching from the high-cost cable bill to a mix-n-match approach of keeping up with our favorite TV shows, cable series, movies and more.
Our last article ended with the photo story of our TiVo units arriving, getting hooked up and powering on. After 3 weeks with the new TiVo Premiere units, I have some insight for others who might want to take the same plunge.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have covered both Father’s Day Gift Shopping and How to Get FREE Tickets to See Toy Story 3. While most readers are painfully aware of the date (and the limited time between now and the weekend), it never hurts to send a gentle reminder out to those who might just be too busy to have spent any time on either of these. Today marks the last day that you can order anything online and expect to receive it before the weekend, without paying overnight fees.
Consider this your official warning. Father’s day is Sunday, June 20th.
Now that you know when it is, let the gift hunt begin. Buying a gift for dad can be pretty simple, as far as picking out the right item, but what if you are trying to save money? Limited resources do not have to mean cheap gifts and homemade cards you know. Stretch your dollar and complete your Father’s Day shopping early using some of the sites and tools we have provided below. Your dad and your wallet will thank you!!
Saving money by shopping online has been a passion of mine for at least 10 years and I have tried (repeatedly) to share my shopping tips and tricks with anyone who would listen. While I have convinced a few of you to use coupon codes, comparison shoppers and auction sites to save big money, there are still many of you who think online shopping is just…. silly. I am not sure why so many people think shopping should be confined to the walls of a big-box retail store, but I have heard a few arguments that I think carry at least a little weight.
While there are times when you absolutely must have an item in hand immediately, I think most purchases are a little rushed and impulsive. Time is an important factor in shopping, but it doesn’t have to be a barrier. Thanks to the makers of some very smart applications for smart-phones, online shopping doesn’t have to be scary, time-consuming or unrewarding.
I recently stumbled onto a blog from Panda Security that focuses on “emerging threats” on the internet. Typically, with this kind of site or blog, the terminology and explanations are a bit over my head. Shockingly, the authors of the PandaLabs blog have managed to relay information on these threats in bite-sized, easy to understand articles that I don’t mind reading. When a threat is uncovered, they write a blog post with the information, including screen shots and a few details about the threat and then update their Twitter and Facebook accounts. I follow them on Twitter and now I have a better feel for what is going on in the ever-changing threat landscape.
If you are interested in this type of information, I strongly urge you to follow PandaLabs. However, I know how busy most people are and that they probably haven’t scheduled much time for following the latest malware threats of the world, so I plan on using Panda Security as a resource and relaying the information to you via the JumpstartMyPC.com blog.
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