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You've always wanted to see an animated cat say things in a squeaky voice, haven't you? If so, then Talking Tom Cat is for you! Talking Tom Cat is a free app that shows a cartoon cat onscreen that repeats whatever you say into the device in a funny voice. Talking Tom Cat also responds to pokes and strokes of the screen.

Talking Tom Cat lets you say anything into your microphone, which it then repeats with sound modifications, as well as onscreen animation. You can pet the cat and hear him purr. You can pour him a … Read more

BS.Player is a free video and media player that's been around in several versions for some time. It's a capable tool with lots of options and some useful specializations, such as automatically scanning your system for missing codecs and downloading and installing them. It's got some clunkiness, though, and it displays a nag message overlay when you play videos. It's only on the screen for a few seconds (though it seems longer) but all it does is tell you that BS.Player is free for noncommercial use.

BS.Player's installer has several options, including … Read more

About the time my iTunes music library reached 5,000 tracks I knew it was time for a cleanup. While I was at it, I adjusted the volume on some tracks that I had converted from audio cassettes, made sure joined tracks play in sequence, set iTunes to fill my iPod automatically, and learned some handy playback-control keyboard shortcuts.

Now I'm spending more time listening to the tracks in my iTunes library and less time skipping, scrolling, and searching.

The semi-automatic way to remove duplicate media files iTunes provides two options for identifying duplicate files: one based on the … Read more

In an obvious effort to turn YouTube into more of a TV-like experience, Google has created the YouTube Remote app for Android devices. With this free download, you can pair your mobile device with a desktop computer or YouTube-ready television, and use Android to share control of your YouTube playlist.

As great as the concept is for YouTube Remote, in practice, I see some things that need to be ironed out. My biggest gripe is that the device pairing process is not as simple as it should be. You must first navigate to YouTube.com/leanback on your computer or … Read more

Once you get past its nightmare of an installation process, KMPlayer's sheer power and flexibility are impressive. It includes a vast array of video- and audio-capturing options, as well as skins, a plethora of playback controls and tweaks, and broad DVD support.

When installing KMPlayer, be sure to keep your eyes peeled, as the process is less than straightforward. It presents a number of different jargon-filled installation options ("Extender Plus External Codec?"), an offer for a bundled Ask.com toolbar, and inexplicably another offer for a "Clean Water Action Reminder." It's also worth noting … Read more

Netflix began rolling out a new fandangled video player for PCs today. Besides beefing up the playback with added options, information, and video accessibility, the video service also redesigned the control bar to be more user-friendly.

There are a handful of notable new features to the video playback. First, the control bar has different options that include access to subtitles, previews of the next episode, and previews to the whole season (if users are watching a TV show). If users click on the previews to the whole season, a box will pop-up that lets them watch previews from within the … Read more

Microsoft has given Windows users yet another reason to complain.

The company revealed yesterday that Media Center will not be built into Windows 8 despite past assurances that it would be part of the new OS. Instead, users of the Windows 8 Professional edition will have to pony up money for a Media Center Pack. Those running the basic version of Windows 8 will have to pay for a Windows 8 Pro Pack just to get Media Center.

The lack of Media Center also means that DVD playback won't natively be available in Windows 8 since that option won'… Read more

Color me unsurprised that Sony's PlayStation Vita just got its own app for the company's cloud-based Music Unlimited subscription service, since a similar offering for the PSP already exists.

Nonetheless, the first version of the app for Vita features excellent aesthetics with the complement of intuitive and thorough controls (see if you agree with me after watching the demo video below). Album art and channel listings clearly pop on the large OLED screen. I found it easy to scroll around, explore music, and save tracks "from the cloud" to a storage card.

Overall, the experience seems very mature for a service often left out of the music service conversation.

Speaking of saving tunes, the Vita Music Unlimited app supports offline playback through playlist/channel caching. Users of the Android version of the music service can now listen to music offline through Music Unlimited as well. … Read more

Classical music fan mourns the end of CDs in the car, U.K. vs. U.S. mpg--why so different? Give your older car a total tech transplant, and why Bluetooth is so complicated--still!