Chocolates, candy, flowers – while all these are fine and dandy, why not give a loved one something more practical, or even better, something that brings you closer together?

IOGEAR has several recommendations to ‘woo’ your significant other this Valentine’s Day:

GearPower: What better way to say I love you than to make sure you can keep in contact with each other, 24/7? GearPower is a lightweight, portable battery that can charge a variety of mobile devices on-the-go, eliminating the need to plug in to a power outlet. Check it out here.

Portable Media Server Player: Watch movies, view pictures and listen to music with your partner anywhere with this versatile and powerful device! The Portable Media Server Player hooks up to any standard definition TV, HDTV or display and has 120GB of internal memory, meaning it can store up to 34,000 digital photos, 30,000 MP3s or nine hours of Digital Video. Load up on your favorite tunes, couple pics and romantic flicks and snuggle up on the couch – the Portable Media Server Player will take care of everything else!

USB Laptop KVM Switch with File Transfer: Since you’re already connected at the hip, you might as well be connected to each other’s USB ports, right? When you’re on your laptops next to each other in bed (don’t deny it!), sync up with IOGEAR’s USB Laptop KVM Switch, which easily facilitates file transfers so you can share music, pictures and documents quickly and efficiently. It also lets you control the secondary computer, so when your significant other needs troubleshooting, you don’t have to move a muscle – just toggle between screens.

Here’s to hoping Cupid’s aim is on target this year!

XOXO,
Your friends at IOGEAR

What good is a portable media player if you do not have a way to get the media to put on it?  There are, of course, illegal methods of acquiring digital media, but you don’t have to be a pirate to get the videos or music that you want.  Before going into the details of the sources, we should first discuss the gadget on which to put this free media.

For those who want the professional storage capacity and ability to upscale standard definition content at up to 720p HD resolution while still maintaining the layman’s simplicity and portability, we strongly recommend the Portable Media Player by IOGear.  With 120 GB in available memory, one can store up to 34,000 digital photos, 30,000 songs (MP3), 9 hours of Digital Video (DV), or 50 hours of DVD quality video on a box that is 3.20 in (81mm) wide, 5.25 in (133 mm) long, 0.75 in (19 mm) deep.

Now, the sources for free, legal movie downloads:

• Free Movies and Documentaries in the Public Domain: These are all free movies that have fallen out of copyright – download away.
• OVGuide: a meta search guide to online movies.
• Movies: This enterprising website has taken the time to find and upload clips of hundreds of movies.
• Veoh Cult Classics: Night of the Living Dead, Eraserhead are all included here.
• Watch Free Movies Online: This site is full of classic movies, all free movie downloads.
• The Internet Movie Database: Movie reviews, information about upcoming movie premieres, movie clips, and more.
• AltaVista – Video Search: Search for movies and videos on the Web in virtually any format. Find free movie downloads easily and fast.
• Yahoo Search-Video: Search for videos and movies on the Web. Also includes a link to submitting your own video to Yahoo to be indexed.
• Singingfish: An audio and video search engine. Search for movies, free movie downloads, short movie clips, and always check “Staff Favorites.”
• Google Video Search: Find videos, movies, and TV programs online.
• Netbroadcaster.com: Features trailers, shorts, independent films, and more. Most of the films on this site are free, but some do require subscription access.
• Turner Classic Movies: Lots of trailers, movie clips, and background information on all your favorite classic films. A very cool site.
• Hollywood.com: Trailers, movie clips, and more.
• All Movie Guide:Comprehensive database of film synopses and reviews as well as concise actor biographies.
• Apple Movie Trailers:An extensive collection of brand spankin’ new movie trailers.
• JoBlo.com: Reviews, trailers, scripts, interviews, clips, and a lot more.
• YouTube: you can upload, watch, and search free videos here.
• YouTube, GoogleVideo, and IFilm: Nice mashup of all three services; looks like you’ll need to know exactly what video you want, however.
• Google Video of the Day: Another day, another Google Video of the Day. Varies from funny to interesting to extremely weird.
• LearnOutLoud: free streaming lectures, audio, and video.
• VideoBomb: “Video Bomb filters up the hottest videos on the internet: people submit links to the ‘Incoming!’ page and you bomb the best ones. If a video gets a lot of bombs quickly, it makes it to the front page.”
• Truveo: a video search engine that delivers pretty good results.
• Mefeedia: “Find thousands of videoblogs (video podcasts), and watch them on your computer, video iPod or PSP.”
• The Open Video Project: a shared digital video collection
• Free Documentaries: “Welcome to the Internet’s top resource for finding free documentaries.”
• SearchforVideo: SearchforVideo is a fantastic video search engine with over 6000 sources available for searching at the time of this writing. News, entertainment, viral videos – all searchable here.

(source About.com)

Free, legal music downloads:

• Amazon MP3 Store: The vast majority of the music at Amazon is for sale, but they do have a rotation of free tracks available for download.
• AmieStreet.com: Focused on promoting new and independent music, their downloads range from free to $0.98 as they grow in popularity.
• Archive.org: An enormous collection of public domain music, expired copyright tracks, as well as some free contemporary music.
• ArtistServer.com: It started off as a resource for independent electronic musicians, but is now open to all. All tracks can be downloaded for free.
• BeSonic.com: Offers over 13,000 free tracks from mostly European acts.
• BetterPropaganda.com: A music webzine covering hundreds of music labels, and offering thousands of free & legal songs for you to download.
• CCMixter.org: a site dedicated to music that you can download to remix and post your results, all under the Creative Commons license.
• Download.com: Most people think CNet’s Download.com is just about software, but they also have tens of thousands of free MP3s you can download from new as well as up and coming bands.
• Epitonic.com: A large selection of free tracks from smaller record companies that are free to download with larger releases available for purchase.
• EZ-Tracks.com: Offers over 30,000 legal downloads that are managed through a partnership with the labels. Starts you off with credit for 101 free upon registering.
• FreeAlbums.blogsome.com: A blog that posts reviews of complete albums that are available for free downloads from numerous sources.
• GarageBand.com: Independent bands can upload their music, then have it rated by users, as well as downloaded for free.
• Imeem.com: Features streaming music from all of the major labels as well as numerous smaller companies, with numerous free downloadable tracks.
• ItsFreeDownloads.com: Finding the free downloads on iTunes can be a chore, this site does the work for you and lets you know what’s free each week.
• Jamendo.com: Artists upload their albums under Creative Commons, allowing new listeners to discover their work. Although free, there is the opportunity to donate to the performers of your choice.
• Last.fm: While most people know Last.fm for its streaming and social aspects, they offer a weekly chart of downloadable free mp3s.
• LegalTorrents.com: Proving that not all BitTorrent activity is illegal, LegalTorrents is filled with completely legal material.
• Live Music Archive: Part of Archive.org, features thousands of live performances by smaller bands as well as the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jason Mraz.
• MetalHordes.com: A band promotion site focusing on various forms of heavy metal, and allowing bands to upload mp3s users can download for free.
• MP3.com: Besides their paid section, MP3.com does offer a large selection of free tracks from acts small and large alike.
• MP3.com.au: Focusing on Australian bands, mp3.com.au offers a repository for bands to upload their music for people to download and try for free.
• MP34U: Works in conjunction with Muzic.com, this site finds sources of free music & legal music from all over the Web.
• MP3Raid.com: Searches multiple sources to bring you approximately a million free song downloads.
• Muzic.com: A sister site to MP34U, wherein the artists upload their tracks themselves, and muzic.com helps them promote their work.
• Purevolume.com: Allows independent musicians to set up profiles for themselves, stream their music and gives them the option of enabling their work for free downloads.
• Ruckus.com: Ruckus provides free music to people with .edu email addresses, and requires you to renew your licenses for DRM once a year.
• SoundClick.com: Offering a mixture of signed and unsigned artists the opportunity to set up profile pages and either stream their music or offer it up for free downloads.
• SpiralFrog.com: Major release albums and tracks available for the price of just watching some advertisements.
• Stereogum.com: Daily free mp3s from various artists, as well as rotating free albums.
• TuneShout.com: A site for independent artists to promote themselves. Artists can upload tracks either for free or at a user cost of $0.89.
• We7.com: We7 offers mp3 downloads for free, but they do have advertisements attached to them. If you want them without the ads, they do offer a paid alternative.

(source Mashable)

IOGEAR is not affiliated with, nor is responsible for the content behind the above links.

What are your favorite legal download links?

Whether you have a closet full of your complete VHS library or you just have a couple of tapes you would like to view digitally, you would probably like to be able to convert and store your movies on something that isn’t antiquated.  Even tapes and (gulp) LP albums may be collecting dust under your music center.  Surely there is a way to put it all on a hard drive and haul your collections to the local antique store.

Here, you will find some basic methods of achieving your goal of converting your analog media to digital and storing it for safe keeping.  The first step is having a place to store and play your newly-created digital masterpieces.  The best method is to use a Portable Media Player (PMP).  Once you have the venue, it’s time to start converting.

Option 1: Camcorder to Camcorder to Portable Media Player

Using a digital video camcorder, connect your analog camcorder to your digital camcorder (making sure to connect both the video and the audio), and connect your digital camcorder to your portable media player via its IEEE 1394 port.  Start and stop both the source camcorder and the PMP manually to capture, then let them run.  This isn’t the most customizable method, but it’s definitely the easiest “set it and forget it” method.

Option 2: Using a DVD/VCR Combo Device

A DVD/VCR combo device is a component specifically made to convert VHS tapes to DVDs. The key is that your combo must have DVD recording capabilities built-in, and can simultaneously record a DVD and play a VHS tape. If you own a VCR already, all you need is to pick up a standalone DVD player/recorder which may also be used to convert the video.  You can connect your PMP directly to the unit to capture the video for storage and playback later.  For a more detailed description of this method, refer to this older (but still current) article on Techlore.

Option 3: Video Editing Software

Capture the VHS video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter (which includes many DV/Digital8 camcorders as well as standalone analog-to-DV converters), then encode it to MPEG-2 and author a DVD. This is the most time-consuming method but it gives you the flexibility to edit the video as much as you want, adding transitions, special effects, music, etc. Between the capture time, the editing time and the often considerable time it takes for software encoding to MPEG-2.  This can result in several hours of work for your computer – and you – for each hour of video.

These basic methods of conversion are intended for those who have intermediate skills in such things.  For a complete step-by-step guide, refer to this 20-page tutorial on PC Magazine.