Digital Lifestyles
Jake's Top Ten Digital Lifestyles Web Resources
Last updated May 20, 2005.As part of a collaborative effort across the Reference Guides this week, the editors at Informit asked each of us to cite some of our favorite sources of information. I read over 200 different sites everyday via RSS, so narrowing my list down to a handful for this column seemed like a colossal task. While I consider all the sites I read valuable, these 10 provide an overwhelming wealth of knowledge, with a nod to my own digital media space online.
AV Science Forum is the hangout of audio and video experts, DIY home theater enthusiasts and novices trying to figure out how to make their home theater gear work. If you need help with HDTV, configuring your surround sound or choosing the right speakers to hang off the Mark Levinson amplifier you inherited from a rich uncle, someone at avsforum.com will have an answer that points you in the right direction.
DPReview.com offers in-depth camera reviews covering every possible aspect you can imagine and several you can't unless you're a serious camera enthusiast. While the reviews may cover more detail than the average photographer needs, this is one site I recommend everyone consult before making a camera purchase. Reviews dive into the subtle details of a camera, but offer pearls of wisdom about which cameras are the best buy in their class from people who know cameras. If DPReview hasn't reviewed a camera you are considering, you should probably consider another option.
DVDTalk.com is my favorite source for DVD reviews. I watch at least 100 movies every year but a small percentage are Hollywood blockbusters. DVDTalk helps me wade through movies of all genres from studios around the globe. While I may not agree with every reviewer, I walk away with a solid sense of which movies I want to rent, which ones are keepers and which movies just plain stink. With B-Movie coverage through the outstanding CineSchlock-O-Rama, highbrow reviews from the DVD Savant and some of the most unique audio interviews in the movie industry, DVDTalk is one place I'd spend more time if I wasn't watching so many movies.
eCoustics.com is my reality check to the opinions expressed at avsforum. eCoustics offers quality reviews of home theater gear, car audio and digital cameras, aggregated from a variety of sites to bring and tied nicely in with user reviews from ePinions. I often use the information at ePinions to validate opinions at avsforum to make sure someone wasn't blowing smoke. Since they aren't the originator of most reviews, eCoustics lacks an RSS feed, but their information is worth my time to pay them a regular visit.
eHomeUpgrade.com bills themselves as a Connected Home & Digital Lifestyle News site, but they deliver much more. While eHomeUpgrade does deliver a regular dose of news pertaining to home automation and media center PC content, they tend to find gems that are overlooked by other sites. If you want to find out about new developments on the home automation front, I haven't found a better resource for getting the news first.
Engadget.com is to gadget fanatics what finding dad's stash of Playboy magazines in the garage was to adolescent boys before the Internet came along. It's a drool worthy feast of gadgets just over the horizon, with insider dirt and sharp writing to draw your attention away from the pictures. What's on Engadget today will likely be on the market for the holiday buying season.
MediaBlab.com is my home on the Internet. Here I publish articles on digital media topics written either to document problems, as well as a public forum to document questions received from my newsletter subscribers. From articles on hacking your home phone lines to work with VoIP, to coverage of the best techniques for securing data on your laptop, this is where I'm living out my digital lifestyle. There's an expansive list of tips for video editing, my Podcasting Starter Kit and hundreds of answers to reader submitted questions. A free email newsletter keeps subscribers up-to-date on all the latest information.
Screenhead.com is the place where your friends find those videos your friends are always forwarding. Some of the featured content is sophomoric, occasionally it may be offensive to some, but the quick wit of the writers make it a regular destination in my aggregator. From uncovering long lost television and movie classics now available online to discovering the next Star Wars Kid.
SourceForge.net makes my digital lifestyle must-read list because they play host to some of the best software projects in development. Before you spend serious coin on commercial software, check SourceForge to see if the open source community provides an acceptable alternative. You need some patience to wade through registered projects with no code and there are more than a few duds in the list, but some of the apps I use daily make their home at SourceForge.
ThoughtsMedia.com - I tried to pick just one of the Thoughts sites for this article, but together they pack the perfect punch for a fulfilling digital lifestyle. PocketPCThoughts and SmartPhoneThoughts are two of the best places online for the latest news, cool hacks and software add-ons for Windows Mobile compatible devices. DigitalMediaThoughts.com aggregates relevant news, reviews and new product announcements from a broad cross-section of tech topics. The common thread across the three sites is coupling of articles with reader feedback in a lively forum where readers get to the bottom of what's really going on in the market. There's a whole lotta thinking going on.