Netflix will roll out with some popular local favorites such as Top Gear, The Only Way is Essex, The Inbetweeners and Torchwood. They will also bring with them a massive library of movies, TV shows and documentaries. This roll-out could be exactly what Netflix needs to break out of their slump.

Streaming users in the UK will be looking at £5.99 per month. The UK will also feature a Facebook recommendation tie-in that has some users concerned that their viewing habits will be shared.

Users will be able to watch their streaming Netflix content on supported Blu-Ray players, their computers, certain televisions, smartphones and tablets. There will also be support for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii for users in these regions.

If you are in the UK and Ireland, you can sign up for a one month trial of Netflix to decide if it is right for you.

Source: Mashable

It’s a growing trend – news organizations providing Chrome “apps”, built on HTML5. The New York Times app lets you read content from that newspaper, while NPR’s app lets you read and listen to the news. It’s no wonder that Al Jazeera English, experiencing a growing viewer base from the strength of their coverage of the Arab Spring, wants to join them in catering to the millions of Chrome users out there.

Is this app worth checking out? I think so. It’s visually-oriented and simple to use, and presents a variety of news stories not covered by other news outlets. If you want to check out the news from a different perspective I highly recommend it.

Browsing The News

Fire up this app and you’ll be presented with the day’s top headlines. The visual style is similar to Flipboard and other iPad news applications. Note that you can browse by region, if you like, and that you can also bring up business or sports news.

You can click a story to read an article; sometimes you’ll also get access to a video. You can use the left and right button on your keyboard to turn the page on your current story.

Unlike the apps for NPR or The New York Times, you cannot use keyboard shortcuts to navigate from one story to another. This gets frustrating if you’re not a fan of switching from keyboard to mouse frequently, but the app still works quite well.

Video Options

Is there a particular show on Al Jazeera you like to watch on a regular basis? You can browse and watch shows here.

Different shows focus on different regions or subjects; be sure to explore here if you’re not familiar with the channel’s content. The shows are arranged alphabetically, and you can even subscribe to individual shows if you’d like. Doing so means you’ll see a Chrome Alert each time a new episode is ready for you to watch.

Perfer to see what’s happening right now? The app also offers a live stream of Al Jazeera, allowing you to watch the news as it happens.

Give this a chance. It might not become your primary news source, but watching news broadcast from other places can be fascinating and enlightening.

On Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera made a name for itself during the Arab spring, though what that name is depends on your perspective. If you’re an Arab dictator, Al Jazeera is an American/Western/Israeli conspiracy to discredit you and transfer the authority in your country to the imperialists. You’ll probably send some thugs to beat up their journalists, and blame them for starting the protests.

Protesters, naturally, see the journalists primarily responsible for showing their protests to the world in a different light than dictators. Sadly, to many Americans, Al Jazeera remains “that terrorist network,” an incredibly ironic way to describe an institution spreading the democratic ideal of independent media in a region traditionally resistant to it.

Do you like Al Jazeera’s new app? Are you more or less likely to get your news from them now that it exists? Let me know in the comments below. Or, if you prefer, make derogatory statements about Al Jazeera or myself. That’s a useful way to contribute to the discussion here too.

All of these services are easy to use, but they are true clouds. All of your data is kept in a remote location, which leaves you with limited control over its security and limited storage space. There are only a few cloud solutions that can provide unlimited free storage – and Bdrive is one of them.

A Personal Cloud?

There are two basic types of cloud storage service offered to consumers. True cloud services, such as Dropbox, actually store your files in remote servers, from which they can be accessed at any time from any computer.  Personal clouds, like Bdrive, rely on your own hardware to keep the cloud active.

A true cloud service has many advantages. Your files are always available (in theory) because the servers are always up and maintained by a professional staff. Files can be accessed from any PC with an Internet connection, even if it’s not one you own. Most such services allow for sharing files with friends, as well. Yet there is one major disadvantage with a true cloud, and that’s cost. Maintaining a database with professional staff striving to ensure zero downtime isn’t free, which is why Dropbox charges once you exceed the free storage limit.

Personal clouds such as Bdrive don’t use anyone else’s hardware, so you have an unlimited data transfer limit. This is the most important thing to know about Bdrive. If you don’t need to transfer and share much data, you should just stick with Dropbox (or an alternative) and be happy. Otherwise, read on.

Bdrive Basics

A personal cloud like Bdrive is really just a streamlined way of creating a personal Internet network. In fact, the software goes so far as to offer “server” and “client” versions of the software.

How it works is simple. On the computer with files you’d like to share among multiple PCs, you install the server version. You select the folders you’d like to share and start the server. Bdrive will provide you with a BID (which identifies your server) and that’s it.

Now, install the client on another PC. Enter your server’s BID and presto! You’re connected over the Internet, and you can move as many files about as you’d like. Though I assume there is some limit to the number of connections that can be made to a server but Bdrive doesn’t state what it is, and I didn’t run into it in my testing.

OS Support & Streaming Media

If that’s all Bdrive offered, it’d be just nifty, but the developers have gone further by offering server software for both Windows and Mac and client software for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android. You can share files between platforms as easily as you can with Dropbox.

Bdrive also supports streaming content from your server to remote devices, such as smartphones. Some users might be interested in this software simply to use it as a remote media server. I found that streaming video was fluid on 4G, but a bit choppy on 3G. This feature also works well on phones connected via WiFi.

Versus Windows Live Mesh

I like the idea of a personal cloud. I have a lot of files that I like to have access to, and I need to access them on both my Windows PC and my Mac. Most cloud services are out of the question because I’d have to pay a monthly fee, and that adds up over time.

Windows Live Mesh has been my weapon of choice as a result, yet that service is not perfect. It can be confusing to set up syncing between folders, and the sync process can become laborious when working with folders that have thousands of files.

Bdrive is a much easier solution, and I’ll probably start using it instead. Setting up the server took no more than a couple of minutes, and within another minute I had installed the client on my laptop and connected it to my desktop. Within a few more, I had it on my phone.

Better yet, you don’t need to have, or log into, an account with Bdrive. Live Mesh requires a Windows Live account to use.

Conclusion

The main disadvantage to this software is that if your server goes down, you can’t access files from any device. This factor alone makes it a solution targeted more towards power users, organizations and small businesses than your average Joe. Yet this is also an extraordinarily simple piece of software, and for people (like me) who need to access my files across the Internet without paying, it fills exactly the role intended.

Best of all, Bdrive is free to download and use. There is mention in the FAQ of “freemium” features that will be coming in the future, but they’re not unveiled yet.

If you decide to install BDrive, let us know in the comments how it went and if you like it.

While searching for an interesting topic this week, I realized that we’ve never really covered radio talk show hosts here at MUO. Both David and Dean discussed how you can get started in your own talk show host career by launching an Internet radio show, but what if you’re looking for popular radio show hosts to listen to while you’re online?

Listening to Top Radio Hosts Online

Before writing this article, I asked around amongst my MUO colleagues for some good ideas. Many of them listen to online radio sites like Digitally Imported, Sky.FM and cool science or technology Podcasts like RadioLab.

These are all awesome resources if you’re looking for something interesting to listen to. However, I wanted to offer specific radio hosts – popular, well-known personalities – that host podcasts and syndicated radio shows that offer free content you can listen to or watch online.

Coast To Coast With George Noory

The very first radio talk show host that I have to mention, because they cover topics that I’m most interested in, is George Noory over at Coast to Coast Radio.

Coast to Coast covers paranormal topics that run the entire gamut, including crop circles, UFOs and strange news. The shows are really interesting to listen to, at least as far as the entertainment factor goes.

Kim Komando Tech Reports

If you’re into technology (you’re here at MUO, so you must be, right?), then you’ll definitely want to check out the highly popular, syndicated show by Kim Komando.

Kim tests the latest tech gadgets and talks about online and offline technologies. She produces what are called “Kim’s Reports“, shows that cover all of the latest technology trends people are most interested in right now. You can watch Kim on Demand for free, but the archives are members only.

Al Sharpton & Civil Liberties

This next suggestion is one that I am including mostly because it is a radio show I turn to whenever I’m looking for a story to write about related to civil liberties or civil rights abuses. If there’s anyone that’s usually on top of those issues, it’s Al Sharpton.

I don’t always like the guy’s style or his approach to many of the stories that he covers, but when it comes to getting the word out there about issues of civil liberty, Sharpton’s the man.

The Delilah Love-Fest

Now, I’m as surprised as many of you will probably be that I’m going to suggest this – but I have to also recommend talk show host “Delilah“.

Delilah is all about stories of humanity – tales of kindness and love. Sometimes, the song dedications are a bit overboard. But, then again, I once found myself sitting in traffic, listening to a deployed soldier dedicating a song to his wife and kids, and found myself on the edge of tears. Click on “Listen All Day” to hear the show. Take my word for it, you’ll want to take the Delilah-love in small doses at first.

Neal Boortz For President?

If you’re a politically minded listener, I can’t leave out the ever-popular Neal Boortz. Neal is a published, New York Times bestselling author, and often goes into some major (and entertaining) political rants in his show.

I wouldn’t say that he’s overly right-wing. He’s a self-described Libertarian, and has no qualms about attacking both sides of the aisle on his radio show. Check out his show under Latest Audio and Video.

Jeremy Vine Covers the News

If you’re over in the UK, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, then you’ve probably heard of Jeremy Vine and his BBC talk show.

Jeremy’s focus is discussing the latest news and the most pressing social issues of the day. He does so in a format that’s interesting enough to make him one of the UK’s most popular talk show hosts. His show is well worth a look, and available for free online.

Glenn Beck – Another Conservative Show Host

Many of the top political talk show hosts in the U.S. are conservative. Glenn Beck is no exception, but he is certainly a little bit unique in how he covers stories compared to other hosts that lean more to the right than Glenn does.

While I disagree with most of his opinions, I do find his coverage of the “truth” to be somewhat refreshing at times, even though I’m not Conservative. Just click the yellow “Listen Now” button streaming audio.

Ricky Gervais – Offensive & Really Funny

As I try to do with my lists, I’ve saved my favorite for last. This offering might offend some people, because let’s face it, there’s little about Ricky Gervais that isn’t offensive. With that said, there’s also little about him that isn’t funny.

I was introduced to Ricky by a friend in the UK, long before Gervais ever became popular in the US. My friend forwarded me a single clip from one of Gervais’ podcasts, and in just a few moments I was doubled over from laughing. If you like your comedy with biting wit and offensive sarcasm, then Gervais is your man.

In the limited space that I have, I’m forced to stop here, but there are most certainly many more radio talk show hosts out there that are very popular, and who offer free streaming content from their websites. I was also curious about top talk show hosts from India or Asia, do you know of any? If you have any Western hosts that you feel should be on this list, please share your opinion in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Since then, I’ve been using a Windows machine with Windows Media Center as a PVR and haven’t really been bothered to hook up my Mac just to watch movies, so my Plex library has sat unwatched.

The great news is that Plex have finally got around to releasing a Windows client, as well as streamlining their server offerings. Let’s take a look at at it all.

Plex For Windows Client:

There’s not an awful lot to say here – the client is now available for Windows, and it’s exactly the same interface as on Mac. So if you’d like to learn about the main features of Plex in general, I suggest you check out my previous article.

MyPlex Overview

MyPlex is a radical new online element to the Plex universe. It’s primary function is to allow you to privately share your movie collection with friends, though this does of course mean they’ll be using your bandwidth and you’ll need an always on server.

PlexIt Bookmarketlet and Media Queue

MyPlex also introduces the PlexIt Bookmarklet, which allows you to queue web videos to watch later on any of your MyPlex connected devices.

It requires Flash and Silverlight to be installed, but other than that it just works. Find a video you want; click the bookmarklet; it get’s saved to your Plex. Easy!

Setting It Up MyPlex:

The in-server signup process was a bit buggy for me, so if you’re having trouble, just head over to my.plexapp.com and create a new account there.

On your local Plex server, enter your sign in details and be sure to click on the “publish server to myPlex” option. If your router supports uPnP, the tests will clear and you’ll be all good – otherwise you’ll need to manually specify the port and open it with a bit of router management.

Once you’re done, refresh the Servers tab on my.plexapp.com and you should see your server listed.

Click on Share and enter the email address or username of anyone you’d like to share your entire collection with. For more finer control, uncheck the option for “Share All Sections” and choose precisely what get’s shared.

Viewing Videos In your Queue:

This confused me a little and I spent ages trying to figure out how to actually view the videos in my queue. The short answer is: go to Preferences -> System -> myPlex and enter your login.

The long answer is: if you try to do this on your existing Mac client, you won’t find the option. Curiously, the automatic update checking doesn’t indicate that a new version is available, so you’ll need to actually go to plexapp.com and download the latest (beta) client. The latest client is separate from the server, so if you download the combined package, you’re doing it wrong. Having done that, you should now see the login option.

You’ll then find the Queue on your media list.

For me, this is now the ultimate Media Centre app, bar none. myPlex sharing is a nice feature to have, but I’m not sure how many people will actually give up their bandwidth so friends can watch their movies. Queuing media from internet sources might be a big hit for some people, but it’s not something I’ll make heavy use of myself. The release of a Windows client is the most important takeaway from this though, and should open up this superb app for a lot more of you. I would strongly encourage you check it out.

For this price, you get the ability not only to sync photos across devices, but to edit photos and sync those edits too and to allow others to view and edit photos as well. All edits are saved automatically to the cloud and you can access them from all your devices, along with copies of the originals.

Here’s a short video of the service’s main features:

Apple’s new Photo Stream lets you access your photos across devices, but the storage is limited to 30 days and you can’t select which photos you want to sync, you can only sync all of them. Adobe Carousel is aimed at providing a solution for those who find Photo Stream to be insufficient for their needs.

Versions for Windows and Android are planned for the future, but Adobe is not providing a definite date for those yet. What do you think about Photo Stream? Is it more than enough for photo sync, or do you think Adobe Carousel truly provides something that was missing?

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Today’s new music tool is JamCloud, which is an awesome new way of listening to music and watching videos socially. Users create listening rooms with their friends or like-minded listeners and vote on the tracks being played. DJs take turns and build ratings as they go, while anyone can build playlists for personal or public use.

Get Started With JamCloud

Sign up on the JamCloud website, then download the Adobe Air application. This will run on all operating systems and it’s easy to install. You’ll probably be ready to roll in a couple of minutes.

Solo Fun On JamCloud

JamCloud is one of those applications which is just as fun solo as sociable. You can easily search through the music and video collection and make playlists for yourself or for sharing later. JamCloud starts by guiding you through the process of making playlists, getting you straight into the music fun. It’s really easy and will get you jamming in no time at all.

Sociable Listening On JamCloud

The next thing to check out are JamCloud’s listening rooms. Click on “Go Social” in the bottom left corner of JamCloud’s application. Either find a room by genre or popularity or create your own room for sharing with your friends. Click “Go Solo” later to jump back to solo music playing.

Users can chat about the music in the room using the room’s chat channel.

The DJ responsibilities will rotate and you can jump in and have a go whenever you like. To become a DJ, you’ll need to have a playlist prepared to share with the listening room. The playlist will need to be activated by clicking on the light to the left so that it’s clear which of your playlists you’re keen to share with this room. Then press “Click to DJ” and the top item of your playlist will start when it’s your turn to DJ. Make sure you get a feel for the the room before you give DJ’ing a go. DJs are ranked, so you don’t want to be upsetting people by misreading the taste of people present.

To establish DJ ratings and track ratings, users are encouraged to rate the tracks as they’re played using a “Meh” or “W00t” scale. If you really love the track, you can add it to your library by using the buttons in the top right. This will make it easier to add to your playlists later.

Sharing Rooms

If you feel a JamCloud room needs some more attention from your friends, it’s possible to generate a quick shout-out to Twitter or Facebook from within JamCloud.

Importing Playlists

You may have already created some great playlists on YouTube, so Jamcloud makes it easy for you to import these. Try searching, but limit it to the “Playlists” option.

JamCloud Music

At the moment, JamCloud uses music from SoundCloud and YouTube. In the future, they hope to add more sources, but with 325 million tracks already available you’ll have plenty to start you off.

More Music Madness

If JamCloud’s not your thing for some reason, there’s plenty of other music streaming applications out there to do similar things. Try out these cool services:

• Hang Out On Console.fm To Hear Great New Tunes
• 5 Websites To Play Music Matching Your Mood
• Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online

What did you try on JamCloud? Are you more into personal online playlists or social?