The end of the week is approaching, and with it comes a certain sense of taking it easier, relaxing a bit at the office—you know, caching up on all that YouTube browsing you skip when there's real work to be done. The popular video sharing site is a great resource (and source of entertainment) that gets better with the right add-ons, plug-ins, third-party tools, and clever usage. Let's take a look at the best ways to get better video, download clips, and just find the video you're looking for at YouTube, so you can get more from your guilty pleasure.

Read More »

TimeTube is one of those rare YouTube mashups that make the video-sharing site both fun and functional. Type in a search term, and TimeTube lines up the results on an easily-navigated timeline, letting you trip down memory lane or learn more about a topic as it progresses through the social media jungle. There are alternate views—a list, a flipbook, and geo-located—but the timeline view is what really sells this mashup. Got another tool that stramlines and organises YouTube searches? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Web site YouTube Fast Search dynamically searches for new YouTube videos and creates playlists while a video is playing. If you've got a list of videos you know you want to queue up after the current one finishes, YouTube Fast Search will do the trick. Aside from the dynamic search, it also all happens through a really nice drag-and-drop interface. It could still use some work on playback controls, though, which were buggy for me.

Read More »

March Madness is in full swing, so if you're keen on catching and staying on top of all the action as it happens, don't forget that you can catch the games live online this year, either through your browser from CBS or with the freeware application, Joost. Alternately, you can follow the scores and fill out your own bracket with the Google Docs NCAA tournament bracket.

Read More »

More devices in your living room have Ethernet ports than ever before, but you can't plug them into the network if your router's in the other room. When your Wi-Fi access point is in the home office but your TiVo, Xbox, and media centre are screaming for network love under your TV in the living room, you want a wireless bridge (also known as an Ethernet converter). A wireless bridge catches your home network's Wi-Fi signal and provides ports where you can plug in wired devices near it. Let's take a look at how to wire up your living room using a wireless bridge.

Read More »

US-centric: March Madness is just a week away, and this year you've got more ways than ever to catch the action no matter where you are. First, the freeware TV-over-the-internet app Joost (remember our full tour and review of... Read More »

It's been hyped, dissed, and privately tested for five months, but now you can check out Hulu, a streaming video site created by NBC Universal and News Corp., for yourself. The U.S.-only site features a few (generally financially under-performing) full-length movies, including The Big Lebowski, The Usual Suspects, and Sideways, and a good number of clips and full episodes of shows like Family Guy, The Office, Babylon 5, and even the (dearly) departed likes of Arrested Development. No sign-up required, but, then again, you also can't upload or share clips—this is a sit-down-and-watch affair. Add it to the list of ways you can catch your favourite shows outside their air times.

The Geek Tonic weblog details how to use a remote control with your Netflix Watch Now videos. The tutorial takes advantage of several tools, most notably a shareware app called Girder. This method will work if you're desperate to add some remote control functionality to Watch Now videos, but it's also a nice introduction to adding remote capabilities to any program. If you're already using Windows Media Center on your Vista machine, this previously mentioned plug-in will give you the same Netflix remote functionality and more.

Read More »

US-centric: Video rental service Netflix is lifting the limits on its "Watch Now" feature, allowing subscribers to watch as many hours of streaming video as they can handle. The service requires Windows with Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player... Read More »

Now that the Xbox 360 has been updated to support DivX/XviD playback, work-arounds like conversion and the Transcode 360 Media Center hack aren't strictly necessary. The Pain in the Tech blog offers two walkthroughs for using Winamp Remote (part of Winamp 5.5) or Windows Media Player 11 to stream video from your PC to your XBox. Both programs have their pros and cons (based mainly on media accessibility versus buffering times), but both also get the job done. If you've put together your own PC-to-Xbox streaming solution, let's hear it in the comments.