New Roku: A new Roku streaming video player, called the Roku 3, has just hit the market. All the reviews of this player I’ve seen have been positive. The player has a faster processor which is supposed to deliver video at five times the Roku 2’s speed, offers a brand new tile like interface, the ability to search for television shows or movies across all 700 Roku channels (i.e. Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video etc.) and a cool new remote headphone feature that allows users to plug earbuds or headphones into the remote control and thus mute the sound on the television. Thus if one person in the room is reading and the other wants to watch a loud action film – that latter person can plug headphones or earbuds into the remote control and the sound on the TV will be muted but will come in loud and clear via the headphones or earbuds.
As a cord cutter of four years and the owner of several previous models of both the Apple TV (that’s Apple’s media streaming player) and the Roku player – I will be upgrading to the new Roku 3 shortly! I love my Roku player and actually have music playing in my home via Pandora or TuneIn Radio channels most of the time – but I also watch television shows and news via the Roku too usually via Amazon’s Instant Video store or Netflix.
Roku actually sells four models of media streaming players and they range in price from $49 for the basic entry level Roku LT to $99 for the new Roku 3 that has more of the proverbial bells and whistles.
The only caveat regarding the Roku 3 is that, unlike all other Roku models, you must use it in conjunction with an HDTV.
Here’s a link to a review of the Roku 3 by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal:
A second link to a review of the Roku 3 by CNET:
http://reviews.cnet.com/roku-3/
And a link to the Roku site itself just in case anyone would like to compare Roku models:
http://www.roku.com/roku-products
Tablet Use Growing: Adobe Digital Marketing has just released a new report that shows that consumer use of mobile devices to access the Internet is growing and that more people are now using tablets to access the web than Smartphones. Tablet Internet access was up to 8% of total Internet access for 2012 and Smarphone Internet access came in at 7% of all Internet traffic. And while desktops and laptops still hold the largest sway over Internet access at 85% of the total Internet usage pie the fact that tablet Internet access now comprises 8% of all Internet access is notable because that figure is double the percentage it was for 2011.
Here’s a link to an Adobe blog articl on the subject, titled Tablets trump smartphones in global website traffic, that gives more in-depth information regarding the on the subject of the growing popularity and usage of tablets:
And a link to a Mashable article on tablet usage in classrooms that talks about the new Amplify Tablet that will compete with the iPad for classroom usage – it looks like a cool tablet with special apps and separate sections for work under umbrella categories like English and Social Studies.
Here’s the link:
http://mashable.com/2013/03/06/classroom-tablets/
Old Fashioned Electric Moonlights: I never heard of “Moonlights” before and was fascinated by an article I stumbled across online on that subject. The article notes that in the early days of the electric era people wanted as much bright light at night in towns and cities as they could get and municipal leaders were having a tough time installing enough electric street lights and keeping them running – it seems the cords that plugged those lights into their power sources keep coming unplugged and could lead not just to an unlighted street at night but also to electrocution if one wasn’t careful. And so many municipalities came up with a solution of installing a number of bright lights on top of high towers. These lights were called Moonlights – the idea of course being that the light towers cast as much light as a bright moon on a dark night so you could see as you were walking down the street on a moonless night. The Moonlights did indeed bright up the night by shining light down upon cities streets but since the light came down at angles blue-tinged light was seen by passersby and of course people, buildings, trees or animals that were between the Moonlights and anything else blocked out the light; so eventually the Moonlights were replace by electric lights set up on posts at intervals – like the modern electric lights we have today.
The Atlantic features an article on the old Moonlights, titled Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon; and the article is cool; it features a number of photos of these early electric lighting towers and a more in-depth description of where they were installed and when they were in use.
Here’s the link
Have a great day!
Linda R.
References
Fiegerman, Seth. (2013, March 6). News Corp. Education Unit Unveils Tablet to Rival iPad in Classrooms. Mashable. Online.
Garber, Megan. (2013, March 6). Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon. The Atlantic. Online.
Mossberg Reviews The Roku 3. (2013, March 5). Wall Street Journal: Digits Live. Online.
The new $99 Roku 3: Overhauled interface, faster chip, and private-listening mode (hands-on). (2013, March 5). CNET. Online.
White, Tyler. (2013, March 5). Tablets trump smartphones in global website traffic. Adobe Digital Marketing Blog. Online.
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