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Bottom line: Version 10.6 of iTunes brings a handful of enhancements to Apple's ubiquitous media software, and adds support for 1080p video.

Review: As one of the most popular programs for managing music and video content on a personal computer, Apple's iTunes software has become an indispensable part of our digital life.

Interface The look and layout of iTunes 10 is essentially identical to that of iTunes 9, with just a couple of noticeable differences. The first is that Apple has updated its logo for iTunes. Rather than the old-school music note-over-CD icon, you'll see a … Read more

People are increasingly using their game consoles for more than just playing games.

Thanks to the greater availability of Netflix, Hulu, and similar services, streaming videos via a game console has grown in popularity over last year, according to a study from Nielsen released yesterday.

Surveying more than 3,000 people in the U.S. in October, Nielsen found that video streaming now accounts for 14 percent of all time spent on Microsoft's Xbox 360, 15 percent of time spent on the Sony PlayStation 3, and 33 percent spent on the Nintendo Wii.

As a whole, time spent on … Read more

Back at CES 2011, Orb announced a $20 Blu-ray disc to come in February that would add streaming-media functionality to older Blu-ray players. After several delays, the company has finally released a Blu-ray disc that will work exclusively with the PS3, with the generic Blu-ray player version still "coming soon."

We're familiar with Orb's products from the Orb TV and Orb MP-1, and we took the PS3 disc for full hands-on spin over the weekend.

Right off the bat, the appeal of Orb's software on the PS3 isn't quite as clear as it is on an older Blu-ray player. The PS3 already has several excellent built-in streaming media services, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, and MLB.TV, without any need to use a disc-based workaround. However, there are still holes in the PS3's streaming offerings and Orb's software can add high-profile services such as free Hulu content (no need for a Hulu Plus subscription), Amazon Instant, and Pandora. … Read more

For those who have succeeded in cutting the cord on their cable television, solutions for sensible TV streaming are, to say the least, a challenge. The Elgato HDHomeRun, announced today, offers up a small box that connects to a router and TV antenna and streams HD TV content via Wi-Fi anywhere in one's house. More importantly, unlike other Elgato products, the HDHomeRun comes with dual TV tuners for watching simultaneous recordings/viewings of two different channels on two different computers.

The $179 HDHomeRun is a small box that offers a lot of the same features as the small USB-stick Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, which we recently reviewed. The Hybrid, however, required physically interfacing with a Mac or PC via USB. The HDHomeRun more conveniently handles the video transfer wirelessly, and still works with (and is packaged with) Elgato's EyeTV3 Mac software for DVRing and managing TV content and programming.… Read more

Most existing wireless N routers, such as the Cisco Valet Plus or the Netgear WNDR3700, are based on the dual-stream standard that offers speeds of up to 300Mbps. There are also "light" versions of wireless N routers that are based on a single-stream standard and cap at 150Mbps, such as the TP-LINK TL-WR941ND.

However, the wireless N standard also allows for multiple-stream applications, and this is soon going to find its way to consumer-grade products.

Atheros, a top maker of chips that power networking products, debuted its first three-stream wireless N solution chips Tuesday--the Xspan AR938x and Xspan … Read more

WireTap Studio is an excellent, relatively inexpensive audio-capture tool that can help you record, edit, and export any audio on your Mac, whether from your overall system audio, a specific app (like Skype or iTunes), or even an external microphone.

For simple tasks, like recording an iChat conversation, you can access many of WireTap Studio's features directly from its streamlined Controller window--including a very cool Live Preview, which lets you hear what your audio will sound like before you start recording (even as you switch formats, compression rates, and more, on the fly). The rest of WireTap Studio's … Read more

As a former record store clerk turned cubicle drone, I'm all too aware of how out of touch I am with today's underground music scene. Really, my only tether to the music world beyond iTunes is a site called The Hype Machine, which aggregates the audio streams from hundreds of influential music blogs, and throws them into a big ol' jukebox.

Aside from working like a Cliff Notes for indie music hipsters, The Hype Machine has proven itself as a valuable tool for artists and music labels. Just like trending topics on sites such as Digg or Twitter, … Read more

WireTap Anywhere is a professional audio-capture utility that can take input from any source and redirect it to any audio-recording application. That means you can take audio from your entire system, a hardware input, or an app like Skype, and then take that directly into GarageBand, Peak, or any other recording app.

You manage WireTap Anywhere through your System Preferences, and you can create and save any number of "virtual microphones," which show up almost as if they were hardware. There are other apps (including open-source ones) that can help you with this kind of redirection, but WireTap … Read more

Muziic claims to offer users an enormous library of free music and videos within one simple program. While this is partially true, the program is actually just a glorified YouTube player, though a very nice one.

The program's layout is incredibly easy to understand and navigate, with a professional design and intuitive command icons. When you first open Muziic, you encounter a fancy interface that works a lot like YouTube. You can search for music--or any topic, for that matter--and watch the rundown of results on a small screen. This, its most important element, was unfortunately its weakest and … Read more