This article from Life hacker shows us a great way to stream media to any pc or phone (smartphone). So instead of downloading all your music to your phone, just stream it as you need it. This is a great alternative to getting a high capacity iphone or andriod. Don’t have the space for your media, no problem with Skifta. This is similiar to ORB product we reviewed earlier.

“Windows/Mac/Linux and Android: If you’ve been longing to stream your home media to your Android phone on-the-go, Skifta will do that and more. Not only will it stream to your phone, but will also stream to your friend’s TV or stereo.

Skifta allows you to play media pretty much anywhere, on any device. You can stream media—whether it’s music, photos, or video—from your phone to a TV, from your home PC to your phone, or even from your home PC to your friend’s TV using your phone as an intermediary. All you need is a DLNA-compatible device, which includes lots of different things, from a PlayStation 3 to an XBMC box to a simple Windows 7 computer.

Skifta Streams Media to Your Phone or TV From Anywhere, Is Like Air Video for AndroidMost of the setup is pretty simple, too—you can do almost everything from the Skifta app on your phone. When you start it up, you go through three steps: you pick the source of the media (which could be your home computer, your phone’s SD card, or one of its online content channels like Revision3), then pick where you want to watch it (which could be on your phone or on another computer or TV), and then get to watching. If the media’s on your phone or on the web, you can just install the app and go.

If you want to stream media from your home computer, you’ll need to do a little bit of extra preparation. First, you’ll want to install the Skifta helper app. Note that this only alerts Skifta to your media’s presence; you’ll still need to set up sharing in XBMC, Windows Media Player, or your other favorite program to access it on your device. Once you’ve done that, though, Skifta should detect your shared media at home the next time you start it up and pick a source.

The big downside of Skifta is that it doesn’t transcode media on-the-fly like Air Video does. As such, your videos will need to be in a format your phone understands—and probably of lower quality if you want to stream over the net—but so far, it’s one of the best Android apps we’ve come across for this sort of thing. Hit the link to check it out.

Skifta is a free download for Android devices, and the desktop app works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Skifta is still in beta, so there are bound to be a few snags here and there, but in our testing it worked pretty darn well and without too much fuss.
Skifta”

Wow check out the latest article on Lifehacker. The version of LibreOffice can work with DocX files.

Windows/Mac/Linux: The first finalized release of the OpenOffice.org spin-off, LibreOffice, has hit the web at version 3.3. It’s got a few unique features, an ever-so-slightly tweaked look, and the ability to export to Microsoft’s DOCX format by default.

You can read up on the new features and fixes and general release notes, but know that, in general, this is an OpenOffice.org package released under a different banner, for a multitude of reasons.

LibreOffice is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Note the “Download with BitTorrent” checkbox when you’re downloading, and use it if you can—my download was quite slow this morning.

Gmail has always had notifications for the desktop, but now it’s built Gmail notifications right into Chrome. If you haven’t played with Chrome yet, it’s worth checking out. It’s a pretty good browser. Although I have not switch to it as my main browser. But if they keep adding these type of goodies, I might have to switch.

“Well this is awesome: Gmail just added desktop notifications for new mail and chats, baked directly into Chrome. Here’s how it works.

Basically it turns Chrome into a desktop notifier for Gmail, so you don’t have to run any separate notifier if you’re big on getting the heads up when new email (or chats) arrive. Clicking a notification will either open up the new email in a new window or direct your back to your Gmail tab (which is what happened in the video above)”

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Today, Google announced the beta launch of its Chrome operating system, along with a new notebook to run it on. If you spend most of your time on the Internet, Chrome OS has a lot going for it, but you may want to wait for a piece of hardware that’s not quite so incredibly ugly.

The big idea behind Chrome OS is that it blends an operating system on your computer with the happy fluffy cloud that is the Internet. You don’t need to be running programs on your computer anymore, you can just run them online instead. Want to edit some pics? Picasa has you covered. Need to work on a spreadsheet? Google Docs is right there. By making programs and data platform independent, Google is making sure that everything you do is always backed up and available from anywhere and everywhere, since Chrome will automatically sync itself to wherever you happen to be. And for anything that Google can’t do for you directly, there’s also a new Chrome Web Store, which offers both free and paid apps.

Google hasn’t had the greatest luck when it comes to hardware, and with this in mind, they’re not really going for anything amazing when it comes to their demo platform. Their beta program notebook, called Cr-48 after an isotope of chromium, is deliberately unbranded and uninteresting, featuring a dull black color scheme with dull black highlights, all wrapped up in a boxy dull black case. In mid 2011, companies like Acer and Samsung will be release Chrome notebooks for consumers that will hopefully be a bit easier on the eyes.

Once you get past the case, the notebook is fairly respectable, with a 12-inch screen, full-size keyboard, oversize touchpad, flash storage, the obligatory and questionable eight hours of battery life, and integrated 3G with a free Verizon data plan. Before you get too excited about the 3G, you should know that you’re limited to a mere 100 MB per month for free, and if you go over, which you will if you do much more than check your email, Verizon will start charging you $10 a day for unlimited access. The coolest thing about the Cr-48 has more to do with the software than the hardware: the OS boots from zero in ten seconds flat, and resumes from standby instantly.

If you just can’t wait to get your hands on a Chrome notebook, you can apply for a free one here as part of the beta program. Also, if you’re a Chrome user, there’s apparently a small chance that you’ll get a random pop-up window in your browser offering you an invite. Otherwise, look for Chrome notebooks to go on sale towards the middle of next year.

Via Google Chrome OS

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“This new Google notebook may just be for the people who surf the web. It seems pretty bare bones and simplified.”

Today, Google announced the beta launch of its Chrome operating system, along with a new notebook to run it on. If you spend most of your time on the Internet, Chrome OS has a lot going for it, but you may want to wait for a piece of hardware that’s not quite so incredibly ugly.

The big idea behind Chrome OS is that it blends an operating system on your computer with the happy fluffy cloud that is the Internet. You don’t need to be running programs on your computer anymore, you can just run them online instead. Want to edit some pics? Picasa has you covered. Need to work on a spreadsheet? Google Docs is right there. By making programs and data platform independent, Google is making sure that everything you do is always backed up and available from anywhere and everywhere, since Chrome will automatically sync itself to wherever you happen to be. And for anything that Google can’t do for you directly, there’s also a new Chrome Web Store, which offers both free and paid apps.

Google hasn’t had the greatest luck when it comes to hardware, and with this in mind, they’re not really going for anything amazing when it comes to their demo platform. Their beta program notebook, called Cr-48 after an isotope of chromium, is deliberately unbranded and uninteresting, featuring a dull black color scheme with dull black highlights, all wrapped up in a boxy dull black case. In mid 2011, companies like Acer and Samsung will be release Chrome notebooks for consumers that will hopefully be a bit easier on the eyes.

Once you get past the case, the notebook is fairly respectable, with a 12-inch screen, full-size keyboard, oversize touchpad, flash storage, the obligatory and questionable eight hours of battery life, and integrated 3G with a free Verizon data plan. Before you get too excited about the 3G, you should know that you’re limited to a mere 100 MB per month for free, and if you go over, which you will if you do much more than check your email, Verizon will start charging you $10 a day for unlimited access. The coolest thing about the Cr-48 has more to do with the software than the hardware: the OS boots from zero in ten seconds flat, and resumes from standby instantly.

If you just can’t wait to get your hands on a Chrome notebook, you can apply for a free one here as part of the beta program. Also, if you’re a Chrome user, there’s apparently a small chance that you’ll get a random pop-up window in your browser offering you an invite. Otherwise, look for Chrome notebooks to go on sale towards the middle of next year.

Via Google Chrome OS

Cool new feature from YouTube. If you pause the video and right click on it you can send a link that will start the video at that moment you paused it.

Acer introduced monster 4.8? Android-powered smartphone

… The new Acer smartphone with the soul of a tablet perfectly combines the capabilities of a smartphone with a tablet-like format: a huge 4.8? widescreen with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a super cool chassis.
… Inside the product beats the powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor, which, in addition to the large screen, turns this smartphone into a perfect game console. Together with 6-axis motion sensing (Gyroscope + accelerometer), this smartphone will exceed any gaming expectation. Equipped with an 8MP camera and LED flash, and a 2MP front camera for high quality IP video calling. With a screen resolution of 1024×480, more content can be displayed on screen, in all regular apps, such as, Contacts, Google Maps, Email, Instant Messaging conversations, etc.

I’m enjoying all these tablet/smartphones that are coming out. iPhone has always been too small and the iPad is two big. I’ve been watiing for something to be just right.

Here is a great overview of several video chat applications.