So you've created a kickass, play-anything media center with XBMC, but it's a too hard for your less tech-savvy friends and family members to use. Here are a few ways to make your home theater PC so easy that your four year old could use it.

Get a New Skin

The default Confluence skin is pretty good-looking, and there are some even prettier ones out there if you look around. However, not all of them are exactly easy to navigate, especially for those unfamiliar with XBMC. For example, Confluence's horizontal menu is hard to see, and its Movie and TV show menus are in a cluttered submenu. Experiment with some other skins and see which ones are easier to navigate.

I personally really like "Transparency" for its easy-to-read vertical menu. You can see every menu item on the menu page (that is, you don't have to scroll to see any of them), and nothing is buried in a submenu. From the main menu, you can see the Movies, TV Shows, Play Disc, and other options and go straight there with a few taps. It's much easier for an XBMC newbie to navigate than something like Confluence, Aeon, or Alaska, and it's still pretty darn attractive. Of course, there may be others out there, so search around and see what else you can find.

Program Your Remote for Easy Navigation

Certain remotes work out of the box with XBMC, but sometimes getting a simpler remote and programming it yourself can be more user-friendly than a PC remote with a ton of buttons. Even then, take care to program buttons in a way that makes sense—I spent years with an unintuitive button layout because I just matched XBMC's functions to the buttons they sounded like, which wasn't ideal. Play around with your remote and see what layout makes the most sense. Watch out for the "back" and "menu" buttons, which I found the trickiest to assign to something intuitive. If you really want to see if you've done it correctly, hand it off to someone else that hasn't used XBMC and see if they can find their way around without help. If they can, you've found the ideal layout, and you should stick with it.

You might also try going with a remote designed specifically for XBMC, like one that works on iOS or Android. Not only will they have buttons assigned to specific XBMC features, but you can even browse your library right from your mobile device and get it to play on the TV. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Lastly, if you really want an easy-to-use remote, the Apple TV remote is about as simple as it gets. It takes no setup, anyone can use it, and it comes with the cheapest XBMC box you can create. This won't matter if you've already put together a non-Apple TV box, but if you have an Apple TV, consider using it as your XBMC box for some serious ease of use.

Clean Up Your Main Menu

Head on over to Settings > Skin Settings and search for the menu editing section. Take some time to remove all the things you don't use, like "Pictures", "Music", and "Weather". Make sure to clean up the submenus too, if your skin has them—things like "Recently Added", "Random", and "Browse by Genre" aren't exactly confusing, but they can create a lot of clutter, which makes the menu a lot harder to navigate. Some skins will even let you remove the submenus altogether. Remove the "Videos" option and replace it with separate "Movies" and "TV Shows" menu items. And, if "Play Disc" isn't enabled, make sure you turn it on for those occasional DVDs you rent or borrow from friends.

Put Add-Ons like Hulu, Netflix, and Blu-Ray on the Main Menu

Next, put some of your most used add-ons on the main page, so you don't have to go digging through other menus to find them. This takes a few steps, but is really quite easy:

1. Navigate to one of the add-ons you want on the main menu (say, XBMC Flicks—the Netflix add-on for XBMC). Bring up the context menu and choose "Add to Favorites". This step isn't necessary for all skins, but it is necessary for many—including Transparency.
2. Head to Settings > Skin and find the option for customizing the main menu (in Transparency, it's called "Menu"). You should see some "Custom" or "Favorites" slots, where you can add custom menu items. Enable these and choose the add-on you want from the favorites menu.
3. Repeat this process for all the add-ons you want on the front page, like Hulu, Free Cable, Blu-Ray, and others. They should all show up on your main menu for quick, easy, pain-free access.

If you've cleaned up your main menu as we described in the previous section, you should now have a menu that's incredibly easy to navigate and has movies, TV, streaming video, Blu-Ray, and everything else you could ever want.

Enable Kiosk Mode

One of the most confusing parts about XBMC can be when you accidentally enter the "View" menu while scrolling through your movies or TV shows (the one that's hidden behind the right edge of the screen). Once you've got everything set up the way you want, you can turn on "kiosk mode" to lock your chosen views and get rid of this hidden menu. That way, when someone's browsing through your videos, they don't accidentally stumble on this menu or change your view mode by accident. In Transparency, you'll find kiosk mode under Settings > Skin Settings > General > Enable Kiosk mode. Check your skin's documentation for more info on whether it has kiosk mode and where to find it.

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XBMC has come a long way, but it's still not the most user-friendly program on the planet. Hopefully, with these simple tweaks, you can get just about anyone using your XBMC box in no time. Got any of your own suggestions for making XBMC easier to use? Be sure to share them in the comments below.

Photo remixed from Tanberin.

Have you ever found yourself starting up the likes of Netflix or Hulu and then staring at the different options for 20 minutes before making a choice on what you want to watch? It's not only a waste of time, it also makes the already time-consuming act of watching a movie more drawn out. While you'll never be able to completely remove the burden of choice, you do have some options to make things move a little quicker.

Regardless of what type of movie and TV offering you fancy—whether it's streaming, on demand cable, torrenting, or physical copies—being overwhelmed with choices is a particularly modern problem. With Comcast's On Demand services arriving on the Xbox 360 options are getting even more overwhelming. Picking out a movie these days often feels like wandering into a Blockbuster circa 1995 at the end of a busy Friday night when all your top choices have already been checked out. So, what can you do? Let's take a look at some of the options.

Keep a Running List of What You Want to Watch Curated from Your Favorite Sources

You can think of this as a to-do list for your media. Every time you catch wind of a new show or movie from a friend or your favorite entertainment journalist, add it to a list. If you're digging through options on cable or from your computer, you can compare this list to what you have available to you and run with it from there.

You can also start queuing those options up right away so when they are available they'll appear in your queue. This is especially handy for movies that are in the theater that you have no desire to actually go out the theater to see.

Use Movie Recommendation Engines to Whittle Down the List

If you're using the streaming services you have a few really good options for help making your choice. First off, the built-in recommendation engines on Hulu and Netflix are actually pretty solid, albeit a bit limiting. If you really enjoy Law and Order, it's probably worth checking out what they're recommending based on that. Unfortunately, you can't always just pull up those recommendations on a whim.

If you're in the mood for a particular genre, the best option is to head over to Instantwatcher and check out a curated list of everything available on Netflix (and in turn a good chunk of what's available on Hulu). Click the genre you're interested in, sort by Rotten Tomatoes or New York Times scores, and you'll be watching something good in no time.

While Instantwatcher has been the king of this type of curated content for a while, Netflix and Hulu availability is slowly being integrated into more review sites. The Chicago Reader, for instance, allows you to sort and read its reviews based on streaming availability. Other sites, like Jinni, take a different approach and allow you to search by mood, plot, or location.

Alternately, if you happen to subscribe to all the streaming services and own an iPhone, Fanhattan is a terrific way to browse Hulu, Netflix, Vudu, iTunes, and others all at once. If you really want to watch something similar to The Jerk right now and don't care how much you have to pay to get it, Fanhattan can show you what's available.

Set a Time Limit on Your Choice

As someone who has consistently spent 20 minutes searching through a Netflix queue only to turn it off and wander off to do something else, setting up a time limit for choices is an important step. After all, this isn't like buying a car or a home, it's about how you're going to spend the next couple of hours. If you can't make that choice quickly it's time to do something else. If you need to, set up a whole block of time devoted just to watching entertainment and stick to it. The longer you spend picking a movie out, the shorter a movie you'll have to watch.

Clear Out Everything You've Already Watched

One feature that Netflix could really use is a "watched library," where after you watch something, it takes it out of your queue and sends into a library so you can return to it later if you want. Since that isn't possible and movies and TV shows stay in your queue for as long as they're available on all the streaming services, I find it helpful to go through and delete movies from the queue I've already watched so I can quickly get to new things.

You can apply this same idea in the physical space as well. Instead of organizing your DVDs (or Blu-Rays or Laserdiscs or whatever) alphabetically when you buy them, set aside a section at the end with "new arrivals." This is your constant reminder that you still haven't got around to watching something. You can, of course, sort digital files in the same way by sorting by "date modified" or "last played."

Consider the Social Elements That Might Benefit You

One of the big things that comes with a set TV schedule is the added layer of social interaction that comes with it. Watercooler conversations about Lost, for instance, were a huge part of the experience. As silly as it might sound, this is actually a really good weight to put on your entertainment choices. Did a friend just watch and recommend a movie to you? In that case, it might be beneficial to watch it now so you can discuss it with them while it's still fresh in their heads.

If the element of choice is a perpetual problem for you it might also be worthwhile to consider limiting your options. If you have Sickbeard automatically downloading new shows, a Netflix subscription, cable, iTunes, a DVD collection, and a Hulu subscription, you might be better off dropping all that down to the one or two services you really use. Too many entertainment options can not just be a problem, but a hassle. How do you typically handle the overabundance of media at your fingertips and make a choice quickly?

Title photo by Sean McGinnia.

There are some movies that you'd like to see but they're not worth seeing in theaters. The free webapp WatchIt makes sure those movies don't fall off your radar; it will send you an email when the movie is available on Netflix, Redbox, Cable, or any of several other viewing options.

Options abound. You can be notified when a film is available on Netflix Streaming, Netflix DVD rental, iTunes, Redbox, Amazon streaming, SnagFilms, YouTube, SundanceNow, Hulu, Vudu, Movies OnDemand, cable TV, and in theaters with Fandango. Notification emails can arrive daily, weekly, per movie, or not at all. You can login via Facebook but if you don't like doing that you can register with the webapp itself.

Right now the only option for finding out more about movies are links to Flicktweets.com and MRQE.com. I imagine as this webapp goes from beta to release version more options will be added such as Metacritic, RottenTomatoes, iMDb, etc. The selection of films on the site is pretty good, I was able to stump it once or twice with Indie flicks or documentaries, but that was the exception rather than the rule.

WatchIt seems to be a good webapp for keeping track of all the movies you'd to see. Five years ago that wouldn't be necessary as I mostly watched movies from only Netflix, but now we have so many options that tools like WatchIt can save time and frustration.

Watch It Beta | via Make Use Of

You shouldn't have to pay more to tether your phone, get a digital download, or use your devices the way you want, but many companies seem to disagree. They take action to try and get more of your money for products and services you shouldn't really have to pay for. Here are three ways to stop that from happening to you.

Cellular Service Providers Charge Extra for Tethering Your Smartphone

The Problem: Although somewhat understandable in an unlimited plan, when you have a finite amount of data each month you should be able to use it how you please. Nonetheless, cellular service providers insist on charging a premium for tethering your smartphone (via USB or wirelessly) but this restriction is easily circumvented by getting the right app.

The Solution: On pretty much any smartphone, you can grab PDANet (our favorite tethering app for both Android and iPhone). PDANet not only provides tethering options, but also the ability to mask the type of data you're using. Cellular service providers can detect if you're accessing mobile sites or the full versions from your computer as a way of determining whether or not unauthorized tethering is taking place. PDANet can force mobile sites to load on the desktop as a way around this problem, although it's obviously not perfect as you probably don't want to browse the mobile web on your desktop in many cases. PDANet generally works out of the box on most phones, but iPhone users will need to jailbreak. Also, expect to pay at least $16 for full functionality. Although that might seem a bit steep for something you shouldn't have to pay for in the first place, most official tethering plans cost more than that per month. In the long run, it's a pretty good deal.

Movie and Music Studios Create Artificial Wait Times to Encourage You to Buy Their Product in Multiple (or Undesired) Formats

The Problem: Media companies—especially the in the film industry—have a business model that's heavily based around a release schedule. Taking movies as an example, they go to the theater first, then to airplanes/hotels/other on-demand services, then to DVD, then to the internet, and finally to television. This isn't the timeline for every film (and is also oversimplified), but it illustrates the problem: if you want to watch a film in a certain way, you have to wait until the production company decides you can.

There's really no reason to employ a staggered release schedule anymore aside from the fact that it earns more money. It's a little ridiculous to have to wait additional months to buy a digital copy when it's already available on DVD or Blu-ray. Additionally, channels like HBO do the same thing. To watch their shows, you have to subscribe to an already expensive cable package just to have the option of purchasing access to their shows. If you don't want to pay upwards of $100 per month, you get to wait about a year until the show is released on DVD and you can rent or buy it. If you want to purchase the show in a digital format, you generally get to wait longer and—in the case of Game of Thrones, where the Blu-ray is $35 on Amazon and the iTunes Season Pass is $39—pay more. It's also difficult when you use streaming services like Netflix and Spotify and content is removed (like in the case of several indie labels and Starz Play).

The Solution: Although third-party music and video streaming services aren't without their issues, their goal is to provide the entertainment service you want. It's the media companies that are resistant because it takes away control. Supporting services like Netflix, Spotify, Rdio, and others continues to build up evidence that these are the kinds of places consumers want to go. Additionally, you have the option of downloading TV shows and movies using BitTorrent or Usenet, but doing so can bring up some legal issues. However you choose to proceed, your best course of action is to use your purchasing choices to inform media companies of the way you want to acquire and use their product. The business model is unlikely to change until it has to, and sometimes that means a little disobedience is required.

Companies Use Proprietary Technology to Lock You In

The Problem: If you've ever used a Sony Memory Stick or purchased an Apple product you know what it means to deal with proprietary technology. An Apple iPhone sync and power cable can be used with other iDevices, but if you decide to switch to Android you're suddenly stuck with a useless cord that ends up in a drawer or bargain bin Craigslist listing. You don't want to waste your money on useless accessories, so owning proprietary junk encourages you to keep buying products that can use it. This helps companies lock you in, and it's pretty annoying. Additionally, you see this same problem on the software side of things. The best example is Apple's iPhone (and iOS in general), which is severely restricted. It prevents you and prevents developers from realizing the full potential of the device. It doesn't matter that you paid for the hardware—you're supposed to do what Apple wants you to do with it.

The Solution: There is no perfect solution to the proprietary cable problem, but there is a solution nonetheless. Convertible cables, such as this one, allow you to buy a single cable that you can plug in to different types of devices. This way your cable can still work if you switch devices (or just if you want to use it with a different device for awhile). Although this doesn't suddenly give your iPod a standardized connector like mini- or micro-USB, it'll help you avoid getting stuck with one company's device.

When it comes to locked-down software, you're probably already aware of what you can do: jailbreak your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or root your Android. Then you can do pretty much whatever you like.

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A final note: While companies, large and small, have a tendency to do things that we might see as unfair, they're just one half of the problem. It's important to remember that we, as consumers, can sometimes be excessively demanding and what things that companies cannot financially provide. A lot of tricky methods are used in business to get more money out of consumers because we demand very low prices. Companies will often take a loss on certain items—such as cellphones and smartphones when you agree to a two-year contract or video game systems since you'll be buying a bunch of games later on—to offer those prices to you. It's important to remember that we are, in some part, responsible for the way companies are acting by making the demands we make. Before you decide to fight back on any consumer issue, be sure to understand your responsibility in the matter.

Title photo by Slavoljub Pantelic.