The Princess Geek

It was a very pleasant surprise to receive the message yesterday that AT&T had implemented Media Share which allows users to stream Pictures and Music from your computer to TV.  I had never used Windows Media Player on Vista and couldn’t immediately see the settings to enable media sharing within it.  The U-verse Media Sharing window pointed me to  http://helpme.att.com/mediashare which links to a Media Share Wizard.

The Media Share Wizard was very easy to use and made the Windows Media Player and  network setting changes necessary for U-verse Media Share to see my picture and music folders.  I also attempted this on my XP computer and had no luck.  I still have not been able to get it working.

Back on TV, the Media Share function is quite responsive and easy to use.  Of course, since Windows Media Player does not play well with iTunes I could not see all of my music.  However, there was enough to give me some great choices of music to play while watching a slideshow my family vacation pictures.  Easier than ever to bore company!  LOL  When a song changes, the song information is displayed on the screen for a few seconds.  The DVR remote can be used to pause the slideshow, back up to previous pictures, increase or slow down the show, etc

The new update also allows you to bring up a News, Sports, or Kids Multiview which allows you to see 4 screens at a time.  I think there would be times that it would be useful, but would like to see more choices, like movies or documentaries.  That might be tough because the channels shown would have to be dynamic.

The TV & News Shows (not a good name) helps you find new programming by seeing lists of Nominated Shows New Fall Shows, Primetime Emmy Shows, Teen Choice and TCA (critic association) Awards.  You can also view Bios and Vote for Your Favorite Shows.

All in all, this is a great U-verse update.   As a few recommendations, I’d like to be able to randomly show all pictures in all of the folders instead of having to select a folder.  Same with the music…I want to be able to choose to shuffle all of the available music.   It would also be nice to save a slideshow/music combination to be able to bring it up quickly when a new victim shows up at the door!  This update really shows how great fully IP TV can be.  I just hope they quickly release the  iPhone app to allow us to use the iPhone as a U-verse remote and to allow us to watch recorded shows on the phone!

I just moved my blog at www.geekmommy4.wordpress.com to this site, bring most of the content with me.  I wanted to have more control over the theme.  I have lots of tinkering to do, so bear with me if I break something!

Please leave comments if you have suggestions of articles or theme improvements.  Especially leave comments if you agree or disagree with my articles!  Most of my posts here have been links to my articles on eHow, but I should be getting up some exclusive material up here soon!

I’ve never thought that being a geek was a negative thing…maybe it’s because I think that being a geek only means a person who loves technology.  I’ve never worn a pocket protector, black glasses, or pulled my pants up above my belly button and I suspect that most tech lovers have never done those things either.

This article that I wrote on eHow is telling people who might be afraid of technology that they can find their inner geek and confront that piece of technology without calling their “favorite geek”!  We geeks love to fix your computer (or DVD player, or smartphone, etc), but we also love for you to join us in loving to learn about that piece of technology along the way!

How to Think Like a Geek

Here’s my newest article on How to Compare and Choose Between Apple iPhone and the Palm Pre!

Check it out and let me know if there are other features that you think are important.

Here are some articles that I’ve written for a website called The Phone Lounge.  It is a great website about smartphones, mostly focusing on the iPhone and the new Palm Pre that is going to be released soon.

• iQuarterback for iPhone – Get Ready for the Big Game!
• Touchgrind – Skateboard Addiction for the iPhone!
• Should Palm have chosen Sprint for the Pre release
• With iPhone OS 3.0, what’s left for the Palm Pre?
• Can Palm effectively leverage apps to help them compete?
• Digging through the iPhone App Store

Thanks for checking these out!