“Convergence” is one of those budding buzzwords that marketers and even scientists use when describing the prolonged combination or mixing of various entities. The blending together of traditional and social media is one example as is the simultaneous inward movement of eyes towards each other.


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QR codes have in great part; as discussed last week, helped to educate and inform consumers beyond the ways traditional marketing and signage could ever hope to. They have made shopping interactive and fun, by simply using your smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows 7, Blackberry) to scan a barcode and open a whole new world of available information. Here’s a guided tour to how these QR codes can work for you.

Start by scanning this QR code with your smartphone’s camera with the appropriate app (iPhone, Android, Windows 7 or http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/13962?lang=en):



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Jim Louderback says that “…the average American household may have three TVs, but many, many more screens,” when contemplating a survey by Nielsen that revealed that the average American home has 2.93 TV sets. Consumers want to watch the programming of their choice, when they want and where they want. The use of digital video recorders (DVRs) and services like TiVo have illustrated consumers do follow specific shows, but don’t want to be confined to the original air date of those shows. Furthermore, the ability to stream content on-demand to PCs and other devices has opened yet another door for those who want to watch programming.

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UPDATE: There have been a change in the rules (please read the blog post below for details), starting at Saturday December 18, 10am PST. In summary, entries will be made here on the blog rather than at Delicious in light of the news that Delicious is being shut down by Yahoo.

The holiday spirit is in the air and IOGEAR is in a giving mood! We are giving away a total of three prizes to three lucky winners:

1 Grand Prize*: iPad 16GB with Wi-Fi + IOGEAR Composite AV Cable with Charge and Sync
1 First Prize*: Wireless Audio / Video Kit
2 Second Prizes*: USB Laptop KVM Switch with File Transfer
*Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

This is a raffle style contest where you get one point for each successful entry. To enter you will need a Delicious account.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE CHANCES OF WINNING.

In the comments section below, provide links to your favorite legal streaming media resources.

For each non-duplicate link, you will gain one entry point for the contest. When the contest is over (on December 31, 2010 at midnight) we will tally up all the points and randomly choose the winners.

Before you get started, please take a look at the official contest rules.

Good luck!

From laptops to iPads, Blu-Ray players, gaming consoles and other devices, we surround ourselves with an increasing number of components, cluttering our living and entertainment rooms with cables and black boxes. While some consumers are happy to live with high-tech inspired decor, many others just want the performance without the visible hardware.

Fortunately, one of the greatest innovations in home entertainment over the last five years has made cable and black box clutter obsolete. Wireless HD streaming, once littered with endless buffering, colorful scroll bars and interrupted audio, has made great strides on the back of research and development by companies like IOGEAR.
Of course, not all wireless HD streaming products are created equal, and settling for an untested, low-end solution can result in the same problems mentioned above, or worse. IOGEAR spent countless hours in the lab developing the most reliable solution possible, and the result…Ultra-wideband (a.k.a. Wireless USB or UWB).

This new radio technology can be used at very low energy levels for short-range high-bandwidth communications by using a large portion of the radio spectrum – 3.1GHz ~ 4.8GHz (WiMedia Band Group 1). By using this frequency, our Wireless Audio/Video Kits have a minimum level of interference with other wireless signals such as WiFi, Bluetooth, or cordless phones.

As mentioned, wireless HD streaming is an ideal solution for eliminating cable clutter, but if signal clutter is wreaking havoc and interrupting your wireless HD streaming, there’s really no convenience at all. Our wireless products may not clean up the clutter in your closet, but they can reliable make your entertainment more accessible.

If you could eliminate one cable or wire in your home, which would it be?

Yesterday, the interwebs went into overdrive as Steve Jobs took the stage for Apple’s latest press conference in San Francisco.

Although the biggest announcements were of changes to Apple’s line of media products and services, what really grabbed our attention was the news of iTunes 10: Ping. The upgraded service, available as of yesterday, has taken the form of a music-centered social network, allowing users to follow people and their favorite artists. Using Ping, music fans can create a circle of friends, comment on their updates and find over 17,000 concert listings. Not only is it available on computers, but it’s also accessible on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Pretty awesome, if you ask us.

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In July, we celebrated our independence, and now with the 2010 CEDIA Expo coming up and our Wireless HD Kit poised to win an award for best new product, we believe the day of independence from wires in your home entertainment setup is not too far away. In the mean time, we must be content with reducing as many wires as possible. In this week’s post we provide some ideas on how to minimize your wired footprint.

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In today’s economy, the average consumer’s budget may not afford a complete home theatre transformation, but there are some affordable solutions that will make noticeable improvements. Today’s topic explores ways to upgrade without the need to downgrade your wallet size.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and experiences, please take the time to share with us here in the blog comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

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Green technology is all the rage in the tech space, and here at IOGEAR we love nothing more than to keep our finger on the green pulse. From Apple’s work-in-progress solar powered iPad and iPhone, to the grass-trimming goats Google has put to work, earth conscious companies are developing new ways to help our waning Mother Earth.

This week Cisco Systems announced the testing phase of their home energy management system, temporarily named the home energy controller. Despite the unsexy name, this is a pretty slick device which helps keep an eye on mounting energy costs. The controller’s digital readout helps people keep track of energy consumption throughout their home and do away with energy waste. Wasting energy is so passé, people.

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Are you spending less time channel surfing and more time surfing the web for video content? You’re not alone – according to CNN, there’s a growing army of defectors turning their back on traditional cable options and replacing the tube with the net.

As cable prices continue to soar and content is becoming less and less readily available, today’s couch potato is rising from their seats to find new methods of instantaneous delivery while neatly sidestepping an expensive monthly bill.  Online content providers have been rising to the challenge, providing everything from your favorite network TV shows to independent films to music videos – all available to stream online at no cost.

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