WebRevelation Blog

What am I supposed to do with my Facebook Cover?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

If you have updated to the new Facebook timeline, you've probably noticed that there is now a big space across the top of your profile or page to put a very short and wide photo. This is a little awkward to deal with at first, because we've become accustomed to making our photos for our social networks either square or cropped to "profile" view (slightly taller than it is wide).

This one, however, is meant to be 850 pixels wide x 315 pixelstall - or it can be cropped to those dimensions after it's uploaded to Facebook. Basically, it's going to either be a panoramic photo, a collage, or a true "header" like you might have on an older-stylepersonal blog.

If your pageor profile is public, it needs to be appropriate for all audiences (i.e. keep it"G" rated), andyou can only include"advertising" type material on a page (not on a personal profile). Pages are meant to be morefor businesses ororganizations or non-profits. The photos should not include any text that is meant to be hyperlinked, because at this time there is not a way to do that in the profile or page headers.

If you're looking for ideas, Honkiat.com (Part 1 and Part 2)has the best collection of timeline covers I've seen so far.

The important thing to remember is that this space is OPTIONAL. There's a lot to be said for the simplicity of just letting your profile image stand alone in this space (this will happen automatically), and leaving white space at the top of the page, like Tim and the gang at WebRev are doing right now. This strategy will achieve amuch more professional look than just hastily sticking ANY old photo you can find in that space.

Also see Facebook Timeline - well done! and Why we can't just leave things alone.

If you want to atte,pt to design a Facebook Timeline cover for yourself, be sure to check out the resources in our Web Rev Photos archive, especially Open Source (Free) Graphic Art and Graphic Design Software, and Image Resolution Made Simple, as well as Merging Photos for your Wallpapers and Web Themes, and Three Quick (and Easy) ways to Hand-Tint Photos for your Wallpapers and WebThemes.

Technology is not infallible. Always have a life boat.

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

This week, we're honoring the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, an important lesson that humanity recieved that even our most "modern" technological advances are no match for nature. No ship is unsinkable, and no technology is infallible.

Also over the weekend, the National Weather Service had an opportunity to test it's new warning system, which it believes may have saved lives, which is a good thing.

I live in Oklahoma, which is part of what is known as "tornado alley." People here have been dealing with this phenomenon for as long as there have been people here. My grandparents headed for the cellar (which did dual duty as a storm shelter and a place to store jars of fruit and vegetable preserves) as soon as the sky clouded up. This happened a lot, and they kept the place stocked for overnight stays. Because we're so close to the water line here, and technology has given us monster-sized refrigerators and freezers, most people have traded in their in-ground cellars for a "safe room" in their house. A safe room can be a room that is built specifically for storm protection (basically the equivalent of the black box on airplanes) - these are expensive. Most of us have opted to simply find "safer" rooms, which are rooms in our homes which don't have windows - as close the interior of the house as possible.

Knowing exactly when to get into that safe (or safer) room is the tricky part, of course. For a lot of us, the safer room is our bathroom, and you can really only spend so many hours in there without losing your mind. And, of course, it's tempting to want to go outside and watch or photo the spectacular funnel clouds. The most dangerous time is late at night, when people are sleeping.

For this, many of us have gone from depending on radios, to TVs and now our mobile devices. There are also sirens in many neighborhoods, which have been successful in waking people up to alert them to move to a safe or safer room. Unfortunately, in Woodward, OK, last night, those sirens failed due to a lightening strike and then the sirens were hit with a tornado. Tragically, there were injuries and fatalities in those tornados, and the siren failure is believed to have contributed to the toll.

In my neighborhood, I'm usually not able to hear the sirens, so I don't rely on them. I've come to rely on my mobile phone. The tornados did not hit in my city last night, but if they had, I might have been in trouble. I forgot that I had turned the notification signal down a couple of days before while I was in a meeting. When I received the tornado alert in the early hours of the morning on my cell phone, it didn't make a loud enough sound to wake me up, and I slept right through it.

No matter how great our technology is, we need to always remember to have a life boat - or a back-up. It's an important lesson to learn and never forget.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the tornados - those who have lost family, and those whose homes have been destroyed.

Also see: How to Track Severe Weather from your Safe Room, and Can Twitter Save Lives?

Do not Lose Your Voice

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Make Use Of has an excellent post this week on the 9 Types of Facebook Status updates that your friends will like, explaining how to generate conversation. We covered several of these topics in detail a couple of years ago in our series, Types of Blog Posts. This is very good information for promoting a blog for your website, a Facebook page, or Twitter feed - particularly for your business.

But all of this got me thinking. About 2 1/2 years ago, Miley Cyrus took a break from Twitter, partially because she felt she had stopped living for moments and started living for people. She got over that at some point, apparently because she's back on Twitter, but I've seen comments from friends on both Facebook and Twitter from people who have confessed that instead of really experiencing some incident in their lives, they found th few themselves distracted by how to explain the moment in a 140-character Tweet, or a short Facebook update.

If you've ever found yourself in the position of being the family photographer, you might be able to appreciate those rare family gatherings when you leave the camera in the case, and just sit around and have a conversation. I've found recently that I have benefitted greatly from not really posting updates to my own social networking profiles for a few days at a time, and just enjoying reading, liking, and occasionally commenting on other people's updates and photos. It has helped me on my offline (sometimes known as my "real life"), too. I'm rediscovering the joy of just enjoying, as Miley said, the "moments," instead of focusing on trying to capture everything I find funny or interesting in a photo or one-liner to post somewhere.

Taking these brief social-media breaks has helped me rediscover my own voice, and remember what is most important - actually LIVING my life, not just logging it.

How do you maintain that important balance of staying involved with your online friends while still enjoying personal contact with your family and friends off line?

Here's a little trip down memory lane, when Miley Cyrus was younger...and wiser?

The Internet Community Doth Protest Too Much

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Once of the hallmarks of our generation has come to be that about once every couple of months Facebook does something, and the entire Internet revolts. Sometimes the Internet has a good reason to revolt - especially in the cases in which Facebook has made changes that affected its users privacy or security without adequately informing them first. Facebook seems to have learned its lesson in this regard, however, as evidenced by the fact that it took several weeks to roll out the new "timeline" format for profiles and pages. This, of course, didn't stop the Internet from revolting.

This revolting every time Facebook makes a move has become a tradition - or a bad habit, depending on your perspective - as evidenced by this week's acquisition of Instagram by Facebook. Remember Instagram? Just last Friday we were exploring this site, which allows users to create artwork out of their mobile photos before uploading them to their favorite social networks.

While the real news of this acquisition is that it was reported for One Billion Dollars (with a "B"), which is HUGE for a start-up application that just finally rolled out to (Google's) Android devices last week. Previously, it had only been available on (Apple's) iPhones.

Why was Facebook willing to pay so much? My guess is that Facebook wanted to get it before Google scooped it up. Critics are concerned that Facebook primarily wanted the user data from Instagram. This seems unlikely, however, because although Instagram had its own social network, its primary purpose to be used as a tool to filter photos prior to uploading to Facebook and Twitter. Ergo, most of the users probably already had Facebook, and were already sharing their photos on Facebook or another social network. And, of course the Twitterverse is going nuts - as per usual. Even the reaction among Facebook users is mixed, and hysterical.

OK, here's the deal. Facebook is a for-profit company, and so is (was) Instagram. So are all of their competitors. They are going to make business decisions that they hope will make them as much money as possible, and keep them in business as long as possible. This is how business works, and that's what this acquisition was - a business decision. I think it was probably a good one all of the way around, and I'm very happy for the folks at Instagram who has the business acumen to develop a great program that turned out to be worth $1B.

Now, let's all calm down, and save our energy for the habitual outrage that is sure to ensue as soon as one of these media giants buys the other photo-related time-sink, Pinterest.

Google Glass Might Make Talking to Yourself Cool Again

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

When I first started reading about this story, I thought it was another of Google's April Fools Day jokes. Does anyone remember Georgi LaForge, on Star Trek? These look a cross between those glasses and the technology used in The Minority Report.

Although I have to hand it to Google for usually being out front in the world of technology (their numerous failed attempts to recreate the social network notwithstanding), I'm afraid this one is just plain dangerous. Even more dangerous than robot-driven cars.

I know I would find having "helpful" information popping up in front of me very distracting. And as for putting "helpful" information in front of me at the right time, it's not as if the glasses are actually going to know what I'm THINKING (I hope). I may be looking in the direction of a woman who has a Gucci handbag (which may be advertised, conveniently on Google), but I may actually be focused on a set of restroom signs, to figure out which one is the girls room (and please, please, Google - don't even TRY to help me with that).

But one really great thing that is likely to come out of this is that the technology is likely to be used in making our mobile devices intuitive in a way that we've never seen before. Better assistance with street-level directions, and special offers for restaurants and retail stores I'm actually walking into would, in fact be appreciated. We're already getting there with applications like Google Maps, and Foursquare.

If Google really wants to make bring this technology into the Star-Trek age, I hope they ditch the eyewear, and focus on developing a great projection screen for their Androids.

Friday Fun: Mobile Digital Art

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

You may havenoticedthat digital photographic art is all the rage these days. If you're unfamiliar with this trend, it's where you take photographs, then enhance them digitally to make art out of them. People have been doing this with software like Adobe Photoshop and Gimp for a long time. This usually requires uploading your photos from your camera or phone to your computer, then working on them, then re-uploading them to whatever photo-sharing site you're using (Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, etc.).

However, now that so many of us are taking photographs on our mobile phones, applications are being developed to do the digital artwork right on the device, then upload it directly to our photo-sharing site (almost instantly). A couple of months ago, I highlighted an application called Scalado, which will allow users to remove objects from a photo - I'm still waiting for that one to be available on my Droid.

Another application that has been getting a lot of attention lately is Instagram, which has been available on iPhones for a while, and just became available on the Android devices this week.

I've tried it out, and I think it's a great option for folks who just want to give their photos a little artistic flare before sharing them on your favorite photo-sharingsocial network. Basically, you snap the photo (either usingthe "advanced" features in the program, or your camera's features), and thenrun it throughone of several "filters" available.The filters are the equivalent of merging a filter in Gimp orPhotoshop, to make your photo look distressed, or like an oil painting, or likean old photograph, or whatever.

Instagram has its own voting system and the most popular photos are availablefor viewing by the community. You can use the site to network with your friends who are in your contacts lists on your phone, in Facebook, or in Twitter. The Instagram blog has tips and tricks for using other available marketplace apps to improve your composition, create collages, or get more creative with your photography and mobile art.

Flickr has a massive compilation of photos created using Instagram, mostly on iPhones, because the app just became avaiable on Android this week.

Have a Happy and Blessed Easter weekend with friends and family, everyone!

Can Twitter Save Lives?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Mashable's Pete Cashmore has a great write up about the tornados in the Dallas area on Tuesday, and Twitter.

Twitter has proven itself to be a great way for hundreds of thousands of people to discuss an event - live - in real time, whether it's something fun like the Super Bowl or a Royal Wedding, or whether it's something dreadful like a violent revolution.

And, of course, it's great for tracking weather events. I'm signed up for the local radio station alerts through my mobile phone. I think this is important, because I live in a tornado-prone area, and the phone is more likely to wake me up than the sirens are in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, because of internet provider delays, I sometimes don't get these alerts for several minutes, however, so once I'm awake, they aren't particularly useful for keeping up-to-the minute on the location of the storm and exactly where the danger is.

TV is pretty good, but I don't have access to that in my safe room or if the power is out. Facebook is good (I follow all of the popular local weathermen), but sometimes those weathermen are a little busy during a storm.

The beauty of Twitter in events like this is that it's citizen journalism at its finest. Anyone with a mobile phone that still has battery power can tweet exactly what's going on where they are, and include an appropriate #hashtag to alert other people in their area.

In the Dallas tornados, there was absolutely devastating property damage - including along the highways, where interstate travelers are often killed because of the lack of ability to communicate - but few injuries, and as of this writing (7:30pm CDT on Tuesday night), no reported deaths. With Twitter, however, people in this situation were able to communicate exactly what was going on, and warn everyone else - in real time. Did this play a role in saving lives? This is hard to know for sure, but it seems like it may have, and this is wonderful.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who lost their homes and sustained injuries from the tornados.

Why We Can't Just Leave Things Alone

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Google and Mashable vied for the geekiest April Fools Day jokes this year, with between Google's new "Gmail Tap," mobile app (which allows users to text in Morse Code), and Conan O'Brien supposedly taking over the social media news giant, Mashable. I'm not sure who won, but both all-day long performances were pretty impressive.

All of these jokes about changes brings me to my main point, which is not a joke: A complaint I've been hearing over and over and over ad nauseum about every single change that takes place on the web from Facebook's timeline to Second Life's upgrades to Twitter's ad placement is, "Why can't they just leave things alone?!?!?"

Really? Most of these social networks we're using on a daily basis now have been created in the last 7-10 years. What if we had just decided in 1999 to "leave things alone"? Most of us would still be using those huge console "car phones," thinking we were Soooo up to date, or e-mail (just barely).

What if we had stopped in the 80s? We would still be finding each other in the local phone directory and writing letters to our friends, delivered by snail mail.

What if Alexander Graham Bell's wife, had convinced him to just have another cup of tea, and leave things alone? The phone directory wouldn't even be necessary, and we really would be communicating by Morse Code and the pony express, or smoke signals, or whatever. What if Ben Franklin had decided he didn't want to rock the boat with all of this "electricity" stuff?

Yeah, sometimes the social networks make "improvements" that are just ridiculous in hindsight, and we as humans are naturally resistant to change - especially when it comes to our creature comforts. We're also prone to complaining. Several of my friends (who just discovered Facebook within the last couple of years) have been complaining for several months now that the features they had learned how to use weren't working properly anymore - because they refused to upgrade to Facebook's new timeline. Now that Facebook has forced the timeline on most of the users (after months of warnings and opportunities to upgrade voluntarily), those same dear friends of mine are complaining about the new timeline's features. Most don't really have anything specific to say about the features or functionality, but they are instead just upset about the fact that their page "looks" different. Sigh.

This same resistant-to-change-rut is easy to get into when it comes to web page technology. Tim and the crew at WebRev have been rolling out new features to make their clients' websites more available by mobile and more usable for online purchases. It's very easy, however, to think, "Hey, I just updated my website (five years ago). I'll wait awhile. A lot of changes have taken place in the last five years - and three years - and even the last year, and your customers and readers know it. Do you?

Need Training?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Skillshare is another resource to add to your portfolio if you occasionally have a need to upgrade your skills or the skills of your employees. Click on the link above to watch a video (in a new window) of an interview that one of the co-founders of this organization (formed about a year ago) gave to TechCrunch.

While the program is not in a position (yet) to offer certifications or degree programs and does not qualify for Federal student loans, it has a lot of potential for corporate and individual training programs, casual learning, and learning "for fun."

Classes can be taught in person or online (most are in-person), and anyone can sign up to be a teacher. That last part is not as terrifying as it sounds, because the founders are committed to providing both quality resources for teachers and quality training for students, so the company will help you get ready for your first class or upgrade your teaching skills. The teachers set the price of the tuition, and a very reasonable 15% of what is earned goes to Skilllshare (to help keep the site running).

A list of the feature is HERE, and a list of current classes by city is HERE (or you can just choose "all cities" to get an idea of the types of courses that are being offered). If you already have skills and want to share them, you'll notice that some of the courses are needing teachers. If you don't see one that suits you, you might consider posting your own.

It's a very interesting idea, and I'm going to enjoy watching it's progress. If you decide to take a course (or teach one), I hope you'll share your experience.

Remember the Simple Things

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

A research group at Ipsos polled web users internationally, and found that most people are still communicating online via email.

That's right - email.

Social media is catching up, but the majority still find the simplicity of direct communication works best for many situations. The study's press release does not explain "why" e-mail is so popular internationally. Possible factors include that inEnglish-speaking countries (remember, most social media sites are based in the United States) and others, so it ispossible that the need for some international users touse translation sites may be affecting their choice of communicationtechnology. Some social media sites also use more bandwidth, so there may be regional preferences based on accessibility to high-speed internet and mobile connections. So, it is possible that internet users in western countries where high-speed internet and access to the web in one's native language (or fluently-spoken second language) might take more advantage of social media than others.

However, the fact remains that email has not yet gone away, and it probably will not. Service providers will come and go, and the line between instant-messaging through a social media site and emailing directly will continue to become more and more blurry, but simple, direct, one-on-one written communication skills are still paramount to effectively communicating with much of the world.

If you were hoping you would soon be able to get by with 140-character updates (the virtual equivalent of grunting and pointing), that's not likely to happen in the near future. If you are someone like me, however, who actually LIKES to communicate in writing, this is good news. You are still likely to find that many of your customers may appreciate this mode of communication.

MailChimp has a great piece on writing an effective subject lines for emails, and Dennis Jerz, of Seton Hill University has ten very good tips for writing effective email.

As we noted earlier this week, WevRevelation is prepared to help you with your Customer Relation Managment (CRM).Also, be sure to check out Streamlining your eMailhere at WebRev, as well as Tim's explanation of IMAP vs. POP.

Mashable has commentary and additional information about the study.

Let WebRev help you get your website ready for what is next.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Have you been to the front page of WebRevelation.com lately? If not, you might want to check it out!

Better yet, go grab your mobile device, and check it out there. Very cool.

Tim and the gang at WebRev have been very busy. They want to help you get your website mobile-ready, and upgrade your content management system (CMS) as well as your customer relationship management (CRM) and your e-commerce system, if you're selling on your site. They can even help you develop custom web applications specific to your business and website (so you can say, "Yes, we have an app for that!").

If you're not sure what all of this means, or why you need these features, check out the updated list of services. Even the admin screens have a fresh new look.

Also see Why you can no longer ignore mobile.

Any Potential Employer who wants your Social Networking Passwords is Too Stupid to Work For

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

"Stupid" is not a word I use lightly - at least not in professional writing. But a news story made the rounds this week on the web which can be described no other way.

Apparently, there are a few HR departments out there (including a few state agencies) which are asking employees and employment applicants to provide the passwords to their social networking profiles on Facebook or other social networks. The reason given is that this is both an inexpensive way todo a background check on a potential hiree, and a way to keep tabs on current employees' communication.

The public outcry about this focuses on employee privacy. It is a privacy violation, but that's not the biggest problem. The main issue here that any human resources manager who would think it's a good idea to log in to employees' or potential employees' private social networking files - then keep a log of those passwords - is setting his or her company up for a massive lawsuit and/or public relations disaster.

As Cindy Krischer Goodman points out on The Work/Life Balancing Act, by accessing private data employees might not normally share with an employer, the employer can make itself vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits.

On a more practical level, if someone's profile is hacked - even if it's by a phishing scammer - that person is going to automatically suspect anyone who has the password to his or her profile. Would you want your human resources office to be constantly on the defensive against accusations of hacking into people's Facebook accounts, for example, and spamming their entire contacts list (a common occurrence on the popular social networks)? Of course not.

For those who have not been in the corporate workforce in a while, no, employers do not typically want your passwords.Generally, there are policiesthat prohibit sharing ofany passwords - even the ones used internallyforcompany-ownedsoftware programs. No respectable employer who understands social media would require you to give your password to any of your private accounts.

Techdirt has an interesting discussion, asking whether asking for such passwords should be illegal. I'm not sure that's where the focus should be. I think as more people become aware of the dangers of such a practice, most employers will develop internal policies (if they haven't already) prohibiting such a practice.

Meanwhile, if you are asked by your employer or a potential employer to provide your password to any of your private (not company-related) profiles, what can you do? Here are some options.

1) If this is a potential employer, consider whether or not you actually want to work for someone who would require this from you? Maybe this is a good time to just say, "no" and walk away.

2) If you really need the job (or need to keep the job), consider setting up dummy profiles just for this purpose, and give those passwords to the employer. If you do this, make your "real" profiles visible only to your close friends and family while you are working there.

What happens on the internet stays on the internet. Forever.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

When I was in school, I remember being told by advertising experts that "any publicity is good publicity." Perhaps in some industries, this is (or was) true. I remember Jerry Falwell galvanized what he referred to as the "moral majority," primarily by making statements that drew negative attention from the press, and some politicians and political pundits still seem to live by this principle.

Those not involved in social movements or politics, however, might want to re-think this old adage in the age of the internet - where good and bad publicity really never dies, thanks to the search engine caches.

Apple is gaining a lot of publicity right now because a few of their latest creations have been alleged to overheat (this is denied by Apple) and spontaneously combusting. News of a few Chevrolet Volt fires hasn't exactly been good for sales, and will we ever forget Toyota's brake problems? The internet won't - long after all of these isolated "glitches" have been resolved.

When people are thinking of making a significant purchase, they tend to Google the product to see what people are saying. If the search engine results return a lot of bad publicity, it is likely the customers will keep shopping - fair or not. Recently a local young woman was in a dispute with her former mother-in-law. When the young woman was not where she was expected to be for a visitation appointment, the mother-in-law used her influence with local law enforcement authorities, and managed to have an Amber Alert placed on the mother. The mother and children were soon "found," perhaps because they weren't hiding, but that young mother may have a bit of explaining to do each and every time she applies for a job or considers dating someone....perhaps for the rest of her life. Amber Alerts rank pretty highly on the search engines, and when anyone enters her name into the search engines, they are likely to see her name, her photo, and her children's names and photos before they really see anything else. I'm sure this isn't the type of attention she was wanting.

So what does this mean for your website and your blog? Some folks still think that generating a little controversy is a good way to attract free media attention, or internet publicity. Maybe this will work, but it could "blow up" on them in the wrong way. Remember, whatever happens online will not just be on the six o'clock news, then be forgotten. What happens on the internet truly does stay on the internet - forever. Make sure it's something you're still going to be proud to read a few years from now.

Online Credibility

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Mashable had a great post over the weekend, listing the factors that make a tweet credible, according to researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University. The data seems to confirm what we discussed last week pertaining to networking and reciprocation, regarding the idea that there is a trend away from "following" or subscribing to a bunch of people online just to grow a network. According to this study, this practice can actually be a detriment to perceived credibility, at least according to this study.

So what does work?

According to this same study, it appears some of the old-fashioned methods of gaining credibility may be seen as more valuable, especially in their fancy new "new media" clothes.

At the top of the list of items which increase one's perceived credibility online are peer review and demonstrating that you are a subject matter expert in your field, along with backing your data with credible references. These concepts have always been important in the fields of academia, literature, science, and journalism - whether in print or online. Increasingly, they are finding their place into new media, and (at least indirectly) into the search engines, which are an important lifeline for young researchers.

Which brings us back to your website, your blog, and your social networks? How can you increase your online credibility?

1) Network with other industry experts. Link to their quality content when it makes sense to do so.

2) Establish yourself as an expert in your industry by being the go-to place in your market niche.

3) Make sure the sources you link to are high-quality credible ones.

4) Be current in your delivery, but make sure your grammar is correct and your graphics are professional

What are the ways the people you follow online convinced you that they are credible?

Saving Money on Home Entertainment

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Well, it's Friday, again, which means it's almost the weekend - time to find something fun to do.

Those who have been reading this blog for a while know that I'm a bit of a cheapskate about...well, almost everything. If I see a less expensive way to do something with the same amount of satisfaction, I'm going to give it a try.

So, I've been looking at my movie-watching habits, needs, and expenditures, and have been trying to find ways to trim the expenses a little. I've been reading that a lot of people have either partially or completely dumped their cable TV and replaced it with live streaming video over the web, using their home gaming devices like the Wii, Sony Play Station 3, or XBox 360. The problem is that I'm really not that into gaming, and those devices start at around $300, plus all of the equipment....which, of course, I would buy, because if I spent that much money on gaming software I would undoubtedly become a gamer.

This week I found something that I believe might work for me. It's called a Western Digital TV Live Media Player. This device is around $100, and Best Buy has it with a 3-month Hulu premium subscription included. It will work with just about any TV, and all you do is hook it up to your TV and to your internet modem or wireless router, and follow the instructions, and voila! You have at your fingertips access to most of the major video streaming services like NetFlix , Hulu Premium Blockbuster, and a few other paid services, plus free ones such as YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. The overall cost depends on exactly which services you decide to pay for monthly, but for me, this option is much cheaper than any of the others I've looked at. The pay-per-view movies through the cable company no longer have any appeal; I'm going to be able to downgrade my cable TV package, and resist the temptation (I think) to visit the movie theater every other week or so, while catching up on some of the movies I've been wanting to see. This is a significant savings for me, but would be even greater for a family of four or more avid movie-watchers.

Of course, if you already own one or more internet-enabled TVs and/or gaming devices, this extra device is not necessary. However, if you're like me and don't own any of these gadgets, and if you have been wanting to take advantage of the cost-savings of live-streaming video without wearing out your computer or mobile device - this option might be worth considering.