Fun and Easy Music for Slide Shows or Videos

We think making videos or slide shows is a great idea, and we’ve found a fun and easy way to add music: Sonicfire Pro 5 (www.Smartsound.com), an amazing music editor.

The program includes a sample of original musical pieces, created as music blocks that you can arrange to make the music you want. It’s called SmartSound, and you can have the program add the music automatically or have the entire selection or any block stretched or squeezed time-wise to fit your video or slide show. You can also watch the video as you match the music to the action.

And–-it’s quick and easy to find and preview optional additional SmartSound music by genre, mood, tempo, intensity and more.

 Add narration or add music from your own audio CD, and the program fades the music volume up or down to fit. Save your completed soundtrack with the video, or export the music soundtrack separately.

We used Sonicfire Pro 5 to build a soundtrack for a youngster’s “How to Make a Muffin,” video, and it was a charge. We customized the music for the on-screen action and had fun doing it. Loved the results.

SmartSound’s Web site has detailed online tutorials if you need help, so no reason not to enjoy this program.

New Webcam

If you haven’t used a webcam, now is the time to do it--so you can enjoy the fun of seeing and talking to family, friends or business associates over the Internet (think video conference). You’ll need a webcam, software such as Skype (www.skype.com free), a computer with Internet connection, and someone at the other end who has similar stuff.

We’ve just tried the new award-winning Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 (www.logitech.com $80). Easy to install, includes built-in stereo microphones, and lets you zoom, tilt and pan the auto-focus webcam using on-screen controls while talking. Works in any place you can bring your computer, webcam and have Internet access.

Two of the cool features we used during our “Skype” sessions and with still photos were terrific: facial recognition to automatically keep your face centered within the frame, and auto-focus Carl Zeiss ultra-wide glass lens for a sharp, clear pictures.

 

Video for calls is 720p, with 1080p resolution for video recording, and snapshots are at 10 megapixels. And Logitech Webcam Software (included) has fun effects: turn yourself into an on-screen alien, cat or bat, add a crown or arrow-in-head to your image, add distortion, and more.

We use this webcam to talk to people in this country and abroad–-people we couldn’t easily connect to any other way. Try it!

Wireless Music System - Fun & Flexible

We love the wireless Sonos S5 Digital Music System (www.sonos.com) that we’ve just installed at home. Now we can play music from our computer, any audio source, Pandora or Internet radio anywhere in our home, wirelessly.

The system has integrated wireless units called S5 Zone Players incorporating amplifiers and speakers, and comes with PC or Mac software, including an on-screen controller. Installation was super easy: install the software, power up the Zone Player and plug in the network cable.

Sonos uses its own wireless network that’s secure, matrixed and able to interact with all Zone Players. The Controller provides flexibility and wireless coverage anywhere in your home. Plug a unit into a wall outlet, push the button, and the ZonePlayer automatically connects to the Network.
 

 

Control your music system from your computer, iPhone, Android or iPad, or buy the wireless hand-held Controller. We love the flexibility: Play single songs saved in our computer or play iPod or Sonos playlists. Control zones individually. Play the same selection in a single zone, linked zones or in all zones. Play one selection in one zone(s) and a different selection for another zone(s) or mix and match music from Pandora, Internet radio stations or an auxiliary input.

Independently control volume and equalizations; if you mute a zone, unmuting ramps the volume up rather than suddenly blaring on. One of many nice touches we like. The hand-held Controller(s) and the PC control program display information (including album art) about the selection being played.

We’re enjoying the sound quality, convenience and the compact package that makes up the Sonos S5 Digital Music System.

Easy/Fun Print Projects

One of the fun, useful and often money-saving ways we’ve used our computer is to create print projects. We make greeting cards, calendars, posters, and much more. Some print projects are part of word processing programs, but we like the creative freedom of PagePlus X5 (www.serif.com), a desktop publishing program that lets us make professional-looking stuff - and it’s easy and quick to do.

 
PagePlus X5 has nearly 1,000 templates we can customize, but you can also create your own projects from scratch. We make all our greeting cards with the templates. Just substitute our text, color and font–and Voila! A personalized, colorful card in minutes.

There are lots of projects (flyers, invitations, banners and more), and the color schemes option lets you preview projects with different combinations of colors for text, background, graphics and borders.

Those of you who are more creative will also find plenty of features to make projects from scratch. Place text on a curve, use it in any place or shape, add graphics and photos (sized, shaped and/or altered if you want), or put inside one of the many included shapes. Go wild at will.

Tool tips, onscreen help and video tutorials are there to help, or order the 300-page printed User Guide. PagePlus X5 has dozens of simple, easy projects, but the many advanced features (OK, they’ll take some time to learn) will let you creative types shine big time.

Just Dance 2

Taking advantage of technology makes life easier and more productive, and it can also be a lot of fun too. Case in point: 

Just Dance 2 for Nintendo’s Wii combines music, dance and a bit of competition and uses the hand-held remote controllers to track and score your dance moves as you mimic the on-screen dancer’s moves. Music ranges from today’s hits to yesterday’s favorites, with the artist’s original recordings coupled with choreographed fun dance routines and on-screen lyrics if you want to sing along. Choose from Rihanna S.O.S., Vampire Weekend A-Punk, Kesha Tik Tok, our favorites, Cher The Shoop Shoop Song, Ike & Tina Turner Proud Mary or any of the 40+ included songs. Others available to purchase.

Select Just Dance, Dance Battle or Just Sweat, depending on what you’d like to do. We usually Just Dance--great for exercise and lots of fun, especially when shared with up to four “dancers.” We’re definitely hooked.

Wikipedia 101

Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) is a free, Internet-based multilingual encyclopedia that has more than 15 million articles and is currently the largest and most popular general reference site on the Internet. The articles are written by registered volunteers around the world and cover an amazing variety of subjects.

The occasional cultural bias, as well as reliability and accuracy, have been criticized, but Wikipedia is supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, and its policies strongly support verifiable information and a neutral point of view.

For Wikipedia on the go, there’s the Wikireader (www.thewikireader.com), a self-contained device that holds more than three million entries from the online site, all quickly and easily searchable. It’s a snap to check out a word or concept by just looking it up on the spot.

Wikireader’s 3.5-inch touch screen has a virtual keyboard and selection and scrolling functions. The text-only LCD screen is easy to read but not back lighted, so you’ll need good ambient lighting to view it. Wikireader is compact, portable, and fun to use. Information has never been easier to find. We like it.

Smart TV

Get ready for the merger of TV and Internet with “Smart TVs.” Smart TVs are television sets that connect to the Internet to access content for entertainment, information and more--without turning on your computer or even having a computer (OK, you do need  a wireless or ethernet connection to the Internet via cable or DSL modem, which may need a computer to initially configure). Smart TVs can also stream videos, photos and music from home media servers or a computer.

LG Electronics (LG) (www.lg.com) will soon ship Internet connected Smart TVs. They’ll have a simple on-screen Home Dashboard, controlled in point and click fashion by a Wii-like remote, to select TV programs and access online content from sources such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and many others.

The LG SmartTV includes a web browser (so you don’t even need to turn on your computer to access the Internet), which lets you watch news, reviews and more directly on the television screen.

If you have an older, not-so-smart TV, LG has a SmartTV Upgrader that converts your TV set into a wireless Internet connected SmartTV with all its benefits, including easy access to premium content, a web browser and the ability to stream content from any device connected to your home network. Just connect the small Upgrader to an HDMI input on your TV,  and you have a “Smart” TV. Very cool.