Jackson West

Innovations Still on the Drawing Board

Kyocera Eos: A Fold-Up Phone With Flair

QNext is an integrated communications suite, with IM, voice, and video-chat components. But it also allows you to share files securely--with no size restrictions--and it has special photo and music capabilities as well. QNext even lets you gain remote access to your computer through a standard Web browser.

Installation and set up are painless. You simply download the software, install it, and create an account--and you can begin adding IM accounts and creating folders of files that you want to share. Network configuration and input device detection--for hardware such as microphones and cameras--is automatic. To add friends, you enter your log-in data for popular instant messaging systems like AIM and Google Talk, and then ask your friends to download, install, and register for QNext.

Stephane Herry says that he founded his private file-sharing network GigaTribe out of frustration at not being able to share files with his friends on Kazaa. Every time he searched for a file that he knew a friend had uploaded, he saw only similar files uploaded by strangers.

Why not, Herry thought, create a peer-to-peer (P2P) application that permitted only trusted sources to share files? Such a network would be far more secure, because you’d be sharing files exclusively with people you know and trust--not with complete strangers, some of whom may wittingly or unwittingly be spreading viruses.

Technology has progressed so quickly that anyone over the age of 30 has probably amassed a collection of data generated in both analog and multiple generations of digital technology. (I'm looking at you, Commodore cassette tape drive.) And though you may never need a particular bit of data, being able to find an eight-year-old résumé or to search through a decade of tax returns may prove invaluable at some point. It's a great way to reduce clutter, too: Once you've digitized and backed up your old media, you can then recycle or otherwise dispose of much of it. So let's look at what you need to know to digitize all of your old media.

Organize Your Collection

First, you need to take inventory of the digital media you may need to convert or recover, including old machines, hard drives, and removable media. Make special note of anything broken or damaged, since getting that data back may require a specialist's help.

Once upon a time, it was easy enough to find your favorite clips and shows on YouTube. After all, the site owed its early fame in part to Lazy Sunday from Saturday Night Live. When media companies wised up, many folks moved to France's DailyMotion. Copyright enforcers duly followed; but on the Internet, that rabbit hole is proving to be bottomless.

Of course, it continues to be easy enough to download television and movies through torrents indexed at places like Mininova. But the multistep process of finding a torrent and downloading its data is discouraging for most casual consumers. They want streaming on demand--and many of them aren't content to wait 24 hours or more after a broadcast, as they might on network Web sites, Hulu, Amazon, or iTunes. Enter a new generation of sites that offer better quality and timelier programming than YouTube ever did.

The biggest change to television broadcasting since the advent of color will occur on Tuesday, February 17, when radio towers will start sending a digital signal--though Congress is currently debating whether to postpone the date. After the switch, older televisions receiving signals over the air with an antenna will not be able to tune in, potentially affecting over 7 million households still unprepared for the switch, according to Nielsen. Here are some common questions about the transition, and the answers you need to know.

Do I need to buy a new television?

No. But if your TV lacks an ATSC digital tuner, you'll need to buy a digital converter box. The federal government has a coupon program that will cover $40 toward the cost of a new converter box, which starts at around $50. I purchased a Lasonic LTA-250 for $50 from Amazon; it cost me only $10 after the $40 coupon and free shipping. The devices largely work in the same way, though some models add perks such as a program guide. The converter will also display HDTV signals in standard definition.