Ever since I first wrote about Vudu, a Santa Clara, CA based hardware company that had been in stealth mode for 2 years, I have been wanting to get my hands on their innovative set-top box. The Vudu is a $399 set-top box that lets you browse through a massive library of movies (5,000 at the moment), watch previews and then rent or purchase movies. Continue Reading »

While I have seen a few mentions of Amazon S3 supporting BitTorrent tracking and file-sharing, I don’t think it has been a well publicized feature. PSTAM reader Carlton Bale wrote a great guide for getting Amazon S3 to create a torrent for a file of yours on S3 and seed the file. He goes through Continue Reading »

I have been trying to ignore the Halo 3 coverage everywhere online as I don’t have an Xbox 360 and the hype has started to make me want one (even though my bank account is at -$44.63). But this type of stuff is hard to ignore when you go to a tech school and campus was noticeably void the Continue Reading »

Over the last two weeks I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the future of PaulStamatiou.com. It has been around for over 2 years, served up over 4 million pages (1 million of those in the last 4 months), amassed over 15,000 comments over 850+ posts and grown a dedicated readership. PaulStamatiou.com has always just been a hobby as I’m passionate about everything Continue Reading »

First it was video with Amazon Unbox, now the online retailer giant is venturing into digital music sales with Amazon MP3. Here’s the real kicker - all songs are DRM-free, encoded at 256 kilobits per second and priced from 89 cents to 99 cents each, with most albums costing $8.99. In comparison this is considerably better than Continue Reading »

Media Temple hosting recently launched a beta test of a new GridContainer for their (gs) hosting service that supports Python and the Django framework right out of the box. Django is an increasingly popular framework as of late, quite possibly all from web designer Jeff Croft’s Django evangelism. Continue Reading »

After asking around for headphone suggestions and receiving some great responses, I decided to go with the Sony MDR-EX71SL earbuds. As I didn’t want to order anything online and wait too long, I went with these earbuds, which were easily found at a local Best Buy for around $50 (although they can be found for much cheaper online). They are what you would Continue Reading »

A few months ago I wrote an article about ideas, ones that can grow into big things. I received overwhelming response from readers in the same boat as me - tons of ideas and no clue where to go next. Today I shall propose the next step: applying for a provisional patent. Continue Reading »

As I’ve been into the whole Nike+ thing recently, I have been trying to hunt down a great set of headphones that stay put. The standard Apple iPod earbuds are worthless when it comes to sports activities and fall out quite often for me. I have been using Continue Reading »

For months I have been sworn to secrecy being an early user of Mint, a cutting-edge money management web application aimed at helping college students and the like get a hold on their finances. Now I can open my mouth as Mint has been released to the public. I have written a few things regarding Continue Reading »

With the release of the highly-anticipated Google Presentations (click New » Presentation), Google is one step closer to becoming a complete online office productivity suite and stealing many of Zoho’s users. Similar to Google Docs, Presentations can only do basic things and stays away from animations, sound, video and complex image manipulation. However, the most Continue Reading »

Dash is the name and revolutionary automotive navigation is the game. Dash has been developing an Internet-connected GPS device that taps into services like Yahoo! Local Search, provides you with ridiculously accurate traffic reports by talking to other Dash units on the road and anonymously checking their location and speed, and much more. I had the chance to Continue Reading »

When spending hours in front of the computer, it’s important to incorporate some physical activity into your daily routine. Unfortunately, physical activity usually brings up ideas of slaving over a treadmill and doing something you’re repulsive about. At least those were pretty much my sentiments Continue Reading »

Every site boasting social features has, no doubt, some kind of custom user-to-user messaging system. Each one works differently but they all require that you be logged in to read the message. Don’t worry about missing a message though, most services email you to tell Continue Reading »

Jottit is a basic web application developed by Aaron Swartz that lets you create your own web page. Yup, that’s pretty much it. There’s nothing revolutionary about Jottit but I love the user experience. The homepage is nothing but a textbox where you Continue Reading »

Shortly after I publish this post, Microsoft will kickstart a campaign called The Ultimate Steal where Office Ultimate 2007 will be sold to students for a ridiculous $59 (retail is closer to $600). This is one of the best things Microsoft could do for students. Granted most of my classmates pirated Office 2007, use Google Docs or use OpenOffice, had Continue Reading »

Ever since Facebook applications came along… Continue Reading »

The Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation is gearing up to give away another impressive blogging scholarship for eligible college students (U.S. citizen, quality blog, full-time post-secondary education student). This time the check is for a whopping $10,000. I participated in last year’s blogging scholarship and took home a Continue Reading »

There are only a few ideas that really pop out at me and make my jaw drop. When Allison Rhodes of OpenDNS asked me what I thought were some of the best recent innovations at dinner a while back, I really didn’t have anything to say and have been thinking about it ever since. Now I have my answer: Startup Weekend. Continue Reading »

[Update: Admish is now in public beta.] Created by several undergrad students aiming to help out prospective college students, Admish is a yet-to-be-launched community for “college admissions that connects parents, students, guidance counselors and admissions officers.” By filling out a profile including information ranging from GPA and SAT score to household income, Admish helps students Continue Reading »

No that’s not a cheesy allusion to an altered saying in the V for Vendetta movie, alright well maybe it is, but today will be the day that Apple releases its first touch-screen iPod. That is, assuming you take Think Secret’s latest post verbatim. Apple scheduled a media event to be held later today (10AM PDT) and they will without a doubt be announcing some changes in the iPod product line. Continue Reading »

I came across an interesting note on 9rules asking people how much time they spent online each day. I’ve already asked you what you use as your homepage, now I’m going to ask how much time you spend online everyday. I’ll go first. Continue Reading »

Around the time that Facebook unveiled their iPhone mobile site, Josh Lowensohn at WebWare praised the iPhone-optimized version of Facebook for doubling as a massive phonebook on the go. He was absolutely correct. You have many friends on Facebook that list their phone numbers, which can come Continue Reading »