Connectedville

Hello friends and welcome to Connectedville, a forum for all things related to the Connected Home. You may asking, “Uhhh, what is a connected home?” Great question. If you look up “connected home” on Wikipedia, you’ll get this definition: “There is no page titled ‘connected home’.” Bummer. I guess that’s why we’re here.

The term “connected home” applies to the idea of bringing all of your media and gear together in harmony. You watch a recorded program on your TV, look at digital photos on your laptop, listen to MP3s on your mobile phone – but what if you could perform any of those actions on any of those devices – sharing media across devices and throughout your home? That’s what the idea of a connected home is all about.

In the not too distant past, it was about tricking out your shag-carpeted den with a stereo receiver, cassette deck, turntable, fancy EQ and if you were really fancy, an $800 compact disc player – hooking it all together with a handful of gold-plated RCA cables – sweet! Welcome to the 21st century. Now it’s seven-channel surround sound, high definition video, gigabytes of digital music and video files, desktops, laptops, MP3 player integration, online video and photos, Internet radio, digital photo frames – in more than one room!

It sounds daunting to get all that gear up and running smoothly all by itself, but to get it to talk to each other, share content and be interconnected? Get outta here! Have no fear friends, it’s actually pretty easy.

To acquaint you with this brave, new, connected home, future installments of Connectedville will talk address:

· Accessing your media, slideshows and playlists from any room in the house
· Viewing digital photos stored on your PC on your TV from the comfort of your couch
· Watching Internet video on your television
· Which products are essential in creating a connected home
· Tips and techniques for installation and implementation
· And best of all, impressing your friends with your super cool stuff!

It’s a big, fun toy store out there and we want to give you the keys! Come back soon and get connected.