cast

LAS VEGAS--Actiontec today showed off at CES 2013 its first wireless display kit called ScreenBeam. This is a Miracast-certified kit that allows you to display a mobile device's screen onto a big-screen TV.

Actiontec say ScreenBeam is one of the first devices approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance for its Wi-Fi certified Miracast program. This ensures that it's compatible with other Miracast-enabled devices.

Actiontec offers ScreenBeam as both a standalone wireless display adapter and as a kit. A standalone adapter works with existing Miracast-certified devices, including laptops, smartphones, tablets, and devices running Android or WiDi 3.5 and higher. … Read more

You can watch movies on your iPhone, so it only makes sense to be able to watch TV channels on it as well. SopCast Lite promises to deliver broadcast audio and video to your iOS device, and while we can certainly entertain ourselves for hours by watching strange television from abroad, SopCast Lite failed to let us add our own channels.

SopCast Lite opens with a list of channels to peruse, all of which come from Asian origins. We tapped the CtiNews channel from Taiwan to watch. It took a few seconds to load, but soon enough we were able … Read more

With all the time I spend sifting through the iOS App Store and writing reviews, there simply isn't time to use every app regularly. Still, I find that just about every month there are a new handful of apps and games that I keep coming back to.

These aren't the best apps of all time and I'm not declaring them as the best apps even for right now; these are simply the ones that have grabbed my attention and have been getting the most use on my personal home screen.

If you see something here and think, &… Read more

A few days after the Windows 8 operating system went on sale and started generating significant revenue, Microsoft was slapped with a lawsuit by a company no one had ever heard of. The suit targets the core design feature of the new Windows 8 user interface -- the Live Tiles that surface dynamically updated information, such as tweets, photos, notifications and weather data, on the home screen of Windows 8 devices.

Read: Microsoft sued over Live Tiles

SurfCast's bare-bones Web site is short on corporate details, such as who is actually running the show. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Google Glass makes catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week.

- The Fifth Element inspired: Remote-controlled roaches to the rescue.

- Odd "digital rituals" we perform to make technology serve us.

- Will putting a car remote under your chin increase its range?

Bathroom break video: Pong traffic light in Germany.

Video voice mail: Matt is now the ultimate trucker.

More than just a tool for reading up on celebs and movies, the IMDb mobile app lets you access an enormous entertainment database, view movie trailers, read reviews, track shows, and even get notifications for updates on your favorite celebs. What's more, the Android tablet version is optimized for the larger screen, as it breaks up IMDb's sections into two functional panels.

IMDb opens up directly to a Home screen displaying new trailers, popular movies and shows, upcoming titles, and top news. If you log into your IMDb account, it also shows you recommendations for shows and movies, … Read more

Casting for the upcoming Steve Jobs film starring Ashton Kutcher continues to fill out.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, the film has snagged actors J.K. Simmons and Kevin Dunn, the latter of whom recently played the father of Shia LaBeouf's character in Michael Bay's "Transformers" series. Simmons has been tapped for the role of venture capitalist Arthur Rock, with Dunn playing Gil Amelio, who was briefly Apple's CEO ahead of Jobs' return.

Other additions include actors Elden Henson, Giles Matthey, Lenny Jacobson and Victor Rasuk. Of that bunch, Henson will play early Mac team member … Read more

Apple took the wraps off most of the major iOS 6 features at its annual developers conference this week, but there may be one more thing it didn't show off.

According to All Things Digital, Apple's cooking up a standalone app for podcasts. Okay, so that may not be as sexy as 3D maps or Siri for iPads, but it's noteworthy given that Apple currently serves up podcasts within its iTunes app, then has users listen to them in a separate app called Music.

The report suggests that Apple plans on bundling those two things together in … Read more

When I reviewed the Panasonic TC-PVT50 series, I was annoyed to see that the latest software update caused a banner ad to appear for a few seconds whenever I turned on the TV. It disappeared quickly and only popped up upon power-on, but it was still obnoxious. The first thing I wondered was whether I could turn it off.

Happily, Panasonic built in a way to disable the advertising. It's a simple, albeit buried, menu command. Here it is in a nutshell.