Andrew Wirtanen is a usability specialist in Cary, NC More »

Goofy in “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater”

Here’s a funny Disney mock-instructional video about how to set up a home theater system:

As silly as the video is, tech companies could actually learn a lot from it. Goofy encounters a wide variety of usability issues. Many companies (e.g. Dell) conduct out-of-the-box studies to ensure a good user experience. Some companies (like Bose) attempt [...]

Apple TV Take 2 Gets it Right

It’s taken a year and a half, but Apple has finally made the Apple TV (40GB $230; 160GB $320) worthwhile. Most of my original complaints are no longer valid, though I was correct in the device’s initial failure to grasp only but a niche market. With version 2 of the device, Apple has changed very [...]

Apple TV’s Niche Market

Last year, I predicted that Apple TV was going to fail. While I still may be right, my thoughts on the device have changed dramatically.
This weekend, I was listening to the latest UIE podcast (SpoolCast Crew Episode #6) and the panel was talking about Apple TV’s failure. The group cited the obvious reasons (it’s not [...]

Calibrate Your New HDTV

There is no denying that HDTV is confusing to consumers. Terminology that was once only known by tech geeks (e.g. “contrast ratio,” “LCD,” “DLP,” “720p,” “1080i”) is now being forced upon consumers. Millions of people are saying that they are disappointed by the picture on their new HDTV. This is mostly because consumers think that [...]

On the Cutting Edge: HD on a Home Theater PC

InterVideo has released the first, legal HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player for Windows XP and Vista. InterVideo added HD movie support to WinDVD 8 on Friday the 15th via a $26 upgrade.
Home theater PC owners will need to have a Windows XP or Vista system with a dual-core 3.0+ ghz processor and video card that is [...]