In my never-ending search for good ways to convert my Media Center TV shows (at least until the new Zune software is available!) I came across a nifty little FREE program called Druid. It was the easiest conversion I think I’ve ever seen.

Druid can convert your saved TV shows and movies and optimize them for a variety of portable media players–including, as you can see, Zune, iPod, PSP, Nokia, and Pocket PCs or Smartphones.

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If you are in the process of becoming a Life|ware dealer, you probably know your regional sales manager. An updated list of our RSMs and their territories is available online.

This week, EI’s Trisha Gladd takes a closer look at one of our RSMs, the Midwest’s Brett Werner.

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According to this article from CEPro, quite a lot–although they say they aren’t interested in watching movies while they cook. That struck me as surprising–I’d have thought that people would at least want to be able to watch something that might be on in another room in the house–so I surfed on over to the study (pdf link) from the CABA Internet Home Alliance.

NOT surprisingly, the homeowners that were surveyed said their most-desired features included wireless internet and TV. Quoting directly from the study:

Kitchen as control center, not entertainment center. While some who are remodeling their kitchen said they want to watch movies and videos in the kitchen, the vast majority (85%) of homeowners said they don’t see themselves watching videos or movies in the kitchen, perhaps because those are activities that need time and attention, two things in short supply when making dinner. In addition, the vast majority (93%) would not play video games in their ideal kitchen. There are just two entertainment-oriented items that consumers want in their ideal kitchen of the future: a TV and wireless Internet access.

The study emphasizes that homeowners want the kitchen to be a “control center”, not necessarily an “entertainment center”. That includes the ability to leave electronic messages for other members of the family, control climate and security in other parts of the house from the kitchen, and use wireless internet to check recipes or the forecast.

Sounds like all those people need Life|ware.

Lots and lots of EI hardware arriving at our facility!

WebGuide is an application that allows you to remotely view live and recorded TV programs and to remotely schedule and manage your recorded television programs, music, pictures and videos on your Media Center or Windows Vista PC. Install WebGuide on your Media Center PC and access it from any machine that has a web browser, including your cell phone or mobile device.

WebGuide4 is now available FREE to Media Center users!

Later in the week we’ll have some installation tips for Media Center users who want to use WebGuide.