Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Remember Joost?  The peer-to-peer video client made from the guys that made Skype and Kazaa?  Yeah, sometimes I forget it exists as well.  But that’s okay, because the somewhat annoying desktop client is gone.  Joost has finally gone to flash, just like Hulu and a number of other services.

Joost is touting its sort of social networking aspect to try and get people to use it.  You can use JoostFeed to watch the videos your Joost friends recently watched, or you can “Shout” about videos to your friends to tell them to watch it.  It might be a bit hard to actually use the feature unless your friends are those who haven’t already forgotten about Joost.  More after the break.

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Sections: Video, Video Providers, Computers, Web, Web 2.0, Websites, Online Music/Video

Gadgetell Quick Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

What is it?

Lightroom 2 is a program for Windows and Mac OS X designed to help organize, streamline, and develop your photos.  It costs $99 for the upgrade from Lightroom 1 or $299 for first time buyers.

Pros:

Easy to use thanks to clean and organized interface.
Imports all of your files using your preexisting directory structure.
Works with a wide variety of file formats.

Cons:

Does not allow pixel editing.  Requires another program for that task.
Initial use can be frustrating and can cause loss of work.

Does it hit the mark?

Yes.  Lightroom 2 definitely lived up to all of my expectations.  It’s easy to see that this program would be extremely popular with anyone working in the art or ad industry, or someone who does batch work with photos.  The program allows for very controlled editing and is remarkably easy to use.

For the full review, click “More.“

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It is very easy to get caught up in all the Android excitement and possibilities this T-Mobile device offers.  The gloss of this press event seems to dulling faster than a App store download.  Our man Iyaz got in Google’s grill and demand answers to questions Gadgetell has over the device and what Google hopes to achieve.  Last time we checked, Google is looking to make some money.

Google Maps, brought to you by Tide
So, the first question is how will Google present advertising on the phone?  Integration into street view and compass mode seems like a natural fit, right?  When Iyaz asked a Google rep: he said, “We cannot comment on future products.“  Iyaz said back “You’re not saying no?“  His response, “I cannot comment”

Will Iyaz press on?  Will security haul him away?  Will Google guy throw a punch?  Hit the jump and find out…

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Sections: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google

By now you’ve probably seen the Gates/Seinfeld commercials from Microsoft.  If not, you have no need to worry.  It seems two “episodes” as some have called them are all we’ll see.  The next phase of the $300 million marketing campaign will start soon.  The next step: have a Microsoft engineer that looks a lot like John Hodgeman of the Mac commercials to say “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”  What follows will be celebrities and Microsoft employees, including Bill Gates showing that they, too, are PC users.

It seems like it was only going to be a matter of time before that happened, actually.  There have been a lot of parodies of the “Get A Mac” ads, having Microsoft respond with something at least a bit similar would at least show that Microsoft is aware of Apple.  Not much else has gone right for Microsoft since the release of Vista (especially the “Mojave experiment”); taking the Apple template is at least a safe move.

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Garmin recently announced a few new GPS series, the Nuvi 7x5 series and the Nuvi 2x5 series. The interesting thing about these GPS’ is that they come with lifetime free traffic updates. This service is similar to Navigon’s, however, unlike the new service from Garmin, the Navigon service does not come with ads.

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