Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Streaming Netflix Video on Multiple Devices

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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Streaming Netflix Video on Multiple Devices

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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Monitoring Multiple iTunes Downloads

Where did the iTunes Store Download link go in iTunes 11? It used to be on the left side of the screen and I could click it to see or pause multiple files downloading at once, but it’s gone now.

Apple’s redesign of its iTunes jukebox software last fall moved a number of elements around to new locations within the program’s interface. In iTunes 11, you can see a list of actively downloading files by clicking the small downward-pointing arrow in the top right corner of the program’s window.

When you click this Downloads icon, a box pops open showing the name and progress of each file on the way to your computer. You can pause all file downloads or individual downloads here as well, which can come in handy if you need to free up some network bandwidth.

Although the Downloads link no longer appears there, if you miss the other items that were listed in the left pane of the iTunes window in previous versions of the program, you can restore it. Just go to the View Menu in iTunes 11 and select Show Sidebar. When the Sidebar is showing, your various libraries (Music, Movies and so on) appear in a readily visible list instead of being hidden away in the Library pop-up menu in the top left corner of the window. (If you find you prefer the Library pop-up menu, just return to the View menu and choose Hide Sidebar.)

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Installing Microsoft Office on Multiple Machines

I just bought a new computer, but plan to keep my old one. I still have the original discs for Microsoft Office 2010 — can I also install the program on the new PC?

Microsoft released a few versions of Office 2010, so the number of computers on which you can install the software varies. According to the company’s Web site, if you have the Office Home and Business 2010 edition or the Office Professional 2010 suite, you are allowed to install a copy on one PC and a second copy on a portable device “such as a laptop.”

If you have the more consumer-oriented Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 edition of the suite (the version that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — but not the Outlook mail program), you have more flexibility. This version of the software can be installed on up to three computers designated for noncommercial use in a single household.

To install the program on the new machine, you will need the Office 2010 product key — that lengthy 25-character string of letters and numbers usually affixed to the DVD case — to activate the software. If you have problems with product activation, Microsoft offers some support.

Slipstream: Multiple Video Feeds Give Arena Fans the Comforts of Home

In a suite overlooking the home-side backboard, Chip Foley is watching the basketball game via live video feeds on his iPhone and iPad.

Mr. Foley is the director of building technology at the Forest City Ratner Companies, the real estate firm that developed the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn and is a minority owner of the Nets. Last month, the center introduced the latest thing in virtual spectatorship: an app that streams three different high-definition video feeds for stadium visitors who want to use their smartphones and tablets to follow the game they have come to see in person.

The goal, arena executives say, is to reproduce the multiscreen experience that many fans have already adopted in the man caves of their dens or living rooms. Fans like Mr. Foley, for instance, whose home setup for events like the Super Bowl includes a 60-inch, flat-screen TV augmented by two laptops (one to follow the coaches, another for the overhead view), not to mention the iPad on which he monitors game-related Twitter posts. To compete with couch multitasking, Barclays Center has installed a high-density Wi-Fi network and multicast video technology from Cisco Systems, called StadiumVision Mobile, intended to power similarly speedy video streaming, tweeting and photo-sharing for fans at Nets games.

From instant replay technology to microphones that transmit players’ and coaches’ live comments, broadcasters have spent decades developing techniques to make fans at home feel as if they are part of the game. Now, some arenas like Barclays are adding a complementary strategy: “You are trying to replicate that experience you would have on your couch,” Mr. Foley says. Fans at Nets games, for example, can activate instant replays on the mobile feeds they are watching, a pause-and-rewind technique that mimics a remote control.

Live spectator sports involve a kind of communion — otherwise, why bother leaving the house? — that personal devices have the potential to dilute. Still, the professional sports industry may just be playing catch-up with screen-centric consumers.

After all, many fans already prefer watching magnified views on a Jumbotron to the miniature-seeming live play somewhere down below them. Likewise, some football fans now tailgate next to college bowls, bringing their own satellite dishes and TVs so they can watch the game from the parking lot instead of the stadium, says John Nauright, a professor of sports studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

And it’s not just sports. Many colleges now promote online courses over in-person lectures.

OVER the last several years, Cisco has tapped into this trend of audiences accustomed more to simulcast than to live spectacle; it has outfitted more than 100 arenas in 20 countries with its networks. One product, StadiumVision, is a video distribution system that allows the display of customized digital signs and videos on hundreds of monitors throughout an arena; the installation cost varies, depending on the site and the number of monitors, but it can cost several million dollars per stadium.

Sitting in the suite in the Barclays Center, Michael Caponigro, Cisco’s leader of global solutions marketing for sports and entertainment, says the idea is to keep fans continuously connected to the game via video monitors whether they are sitting in skyboxes, wandering concourses or standing in line at concession booths. Teams, sponsors and advertisers use the same video monitors to blanket stadiums with digital marketing.

The advanced system that Cisco installed in the Barclays Center extends that idea of continuous connectivity to individual seats, Mr. Caponigro says. It will also allow teams and brands to tailor mobile marketing to specific fans.

“We have placed two big bets with our customers, with video and mobility at the intersection of sport,” he says. Above and below the suite in the darkened stadium, smartphones glow and flicker out like fireflies. “We believe this is the new frontier of fan experience,” he adds.

To try out the new feeds, Mr. Foley, the director of building technology, clicks on the main video stream for the game on his iPad app, watching as Joe Johnson, the Nets shooting guard, disentangles himself from the pack, leaps, shoots and scores. During that play, Mr. Foley simultaneously watches on his iPhone a second, live video stream called the Slam Cam — a camera positioned directly behind the basket; a ball rockets into close-up view, hovers for a moment and then sinks through the net. A third device, an iPod Touch, displays a rawer video stream, from a hand-held sideline camera following the Bucks as they dribble back down the court.

E-mail: slipstream@nytimes.com. Twitter: @natashanyt

Bits Blog: Designing for Multiple Screen Sizes Is About Consistency

A few years ago I taught a class at New York University in the Interactive Telecommunications Program, called, “1, 2, 10.”

The class explored the then-nascent challenge of designing apps and experience across the multiple screens that popped up everywhere in our lives. The numbers 1, 2, 10 defined the distance between a screen and a person’s face: The cellphone being approximately one foot away, the desktop computer and tablet about two feet away, and the television about 10 feet away.

Designing for these devices might sound like a trivial task, but figuring out how to portray consistency between a 4-inch screen that you can touch with a finger, and a 60-inch screen that comes with a clunky remote control, is not so simple.

Twitter has recently learned this. After the company released its latest iPad application on Tuesday, people complained that it was a step backward for the app. But, this is really one small step for Twitter, one giant leap for consistency across Twitter-built apps.

In the 1, 2, 10 class at N.Y.U., I encouraged students to design their applications for the greatest common denominator, then work backwards. For example, a student who set out to build an interactive cooking show that would allow people to order the recipe’s ingredients in real-time, designed the experience for the television first, then considered the user interface for the smartphone.

Another student, who built a unique location-based surf report that worked across 1 foot, 2 foot and 10 foot screens, built for the computer first, then adapted the design for the smartphone and television.

screenshot via AppleApple uses design cues from the iPhone in the iPad and Mac.

Apple has been doing this in recent years, too. The user interface for the iPad is an exact replica of the iPhone interface. It has slowly started adopting these design elements for the Mac, too. The company recognizes that creating a consistent design language that traverses its different screens is more important than creating a unique experience for each device. As Apple continues its march toward the 10 foot experience, you can be sure elements from iOS will carry in that direction, too.

Amazon also does this with its Kindle software, which works on almost every Internet-connected screen out there. Is the Kindle software groundbreaking? No. But it’s consistent. And don’t forget, it all started on the Kindle: a clunky black and white screen with an ugly scroll-wheel. Now, Amazon’s reading experience has been adapted for smartphones, computers, e-readers and tablets of all shapes and sizes.

screenshot via TwitterAfter an inconsistent iPad experience, the new Twitter app looks like the company’s smartphone apps.

For Twitter, its greatest common denominator experience is clearly the smartphone. It has since adapted this design language to the Web, and with Tuesday’s update — finally — the iPad. Is it a unique design for the iPad? No. Not by a long shot. But it is consistent. And in its quest to gain more mainstream users for the service, a design equilibrium is more important than anything else.