Boxee is a very cool multimedia app that lets you access and stream your digital media in many different ways. There’s also a lot of extra apps included with it, and today we take a look at the Pandora application in Boxee.

Pandora has been a favorite free music streaming service that’s been around for some time now. Though there are new services like Grooveshark and Spotify that are competing, Pandora is still a reliable choice. It’s now included in Boxee, and here we take a look at using it.

Create a Pandora Account

If you don’t already have a Pandora account, you can easily create one at their website (link below).

Pandora in Boxee

To start using Pandora from Boxee, launch Boxee and from the main menu select Apps.

Now from the My Apps section select Pandora.

When the Pandora app menu comes up, select Start.

Now you need to log into your Pandora account.

After signing in you can starting listening to your stations, viewing artist info, and cover art. All while enjoying some cool visuals in the background.

From the controls at the top you can control playback, skip songs, control volume, get information on why a song was picked, and give a song a thumbs up or down.

Of course you can also pull up your stations and switch between them and add more. The same features you’ve come to expect from Pandora are available.

One thing we noticed missing is not being able to click on the band or artist to get additional information about them –which you can do on the Pandora site and desktop app. But that isn’t a deal breaker by any means, and we’re hoping the feature will be added in the future.

Then while you’re checking out other apps, shows, and setting within Boxee, the cool visuals continue and the songs from you stations keep playing.

Conclusion

Pandora is a great streaming music service and a welcome edition to Boxee. If you’re a fan of Pandora now you can listen to it on your home theater system. If you’re new to Boxee, make sure to check out our article on getting started with Boxee.

Create a Pandora Account

Download Boxee

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You’ve filled out your brackets and now you are ready for one of America’s most popular sporting events. But what if you are you stuck at work or away from your TV?

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Finally another Friday has arrived and it’s time to waste the afternoon on company time playing a flash game. Today we take a look at a fun game called Abduction.

Abduction

Abduction is a neat game where you snatch people and livestock to sell them on the intergalactic market.

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Being able to unwind for a few moments each day can make the time pass so much better and help you feel refreshed. If your favorite method for relaxing is playing a quick game, then join us as we take a look at the Random Games from MyGiochi.net extension for Google Chrome.

Random Games from MyGiochi.net in Action

The really great thing about this extension is that each day you can have a new random game to play. If you love variety this is definitely going to be a perfect match for you. We got “Power Golf” as our random game of the day.

Here is a look at things once we got started…this one can be a lot of fun to play.

Time to move on to the third hole now…

What if you want something different from the game available on any given day? In the upper right corner you will find links for “game categories” that you can look through (clicking on the links will open a new tab). Since the links are in Italian you might need to experiment a little bit to find the category that you want to browse through.

We chose the “Games for Girls Category”. With Chrome’s new built in “Translation Bar” you can easily switch the page over to the language of your choice.

Ready to choose a fun game to play!

You really can have a lot of fun with the games available at My Giochi.

With our “game of the day” we had a second option for other games to try.

More games equals more fun!

Conclusion

If playing online games is your favorite way to relax then the MyGiochi.net extension will make a great addition to your browser. Have fun with all of those new games each day!

Links

Download the Random Games from MyGiochi.net extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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We’ve received a lot of questions about mapping a drive from XP to Windows 7 to access data easily. Today we look at how to map a drive in Windows 7, and how to map to an XP drive from Windows 7.

With the new Homegroup feature in Windows 7, it makes sharing data between computers a lot easier. But you might need to map a network drive so you can go directly into a folder to access its contents. Mapping a network drive may sound like “IT talk”, but the process is fairly easy.

Map Network Drive in Windows 7

Note: All of the computers used in this article are part of the same workgroup on a home network.

In this first example we’re mapping to another Windows 7 drive on the network. Open Computer and from the toolbar click on Map Network Drive.

Alternately in Computer you can hit “Alt+T” to pull up the toolbar and click on Tools Map Network Drive.

Now give it an available drive letter, type in the path or browse to the folder you want to map to. Check the box next to Reconnect at logon if you want it available after a reboot, and click Finish.

If both machines aren’t part of the same Homegroup, you may be prompted to enter in a username and password. Make sure and check the box next to Remember my credentials if you don’t want to log in every time to access it.

The drive will map and the contents of the folder will open up.

When you look in Computer, you’ll see the drive under network location.

This process works if you want to connect to a server drive as well. In this example we map to a Home Server drive.

Map an XP Drive to Windows 7

There might be times when you need to map a drive on an XP machine on your network. There are extra steps you’ll need to take to make it work however.

Here we take a look at the problem you’ll encounter when trying to map to an XP machine if things aren’t set up correctly. If you try to browse to your XP machine you’ll see a message that you don’t have permission.

Or if you try to enter in the path directly, you’ll be prompted for a username and password, and the annoyance is, no matter what credentials you put in, you can’t connect.

To solve the problem we need to set up the Windows 7 machine as a user on the XP machine and make them part of the Administrators group. Right-click My Computer and select Manage.

Under Computer Management expand Local Users and Groups and click on the Users folder. Right-click an empty area and click New User.

Add in the user credentials, uncheck User must change password at next logon, then check Password never expires then click Create.

Now you see the new user you created in the list. After the user is added you might want to reboot before proceeding to the next step.

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