Do you want your Facebook feed on your smartphone's home screen?

When you've got a minute to kill while waiting for coffee, chances are you reach for the smartphone in your pocket. You might play a quick game, but I suspect most people are checking their social media feeds. I know I check Twitter, email and Facebook -- in that order. This would obviously change if Facebook jumped out at me before I even unlocked the screen.

Facebook Home is a new Android app which replaces your lock and home screens as well as the App launcher. All your other apps and services are still there if you want them, but only if Facebook doesn't catch your eye first.

If Facebook is the first app you launch when you've got a spare minute then Facebook Home might make a lot of sense. Even if it's not, it could grow on you -- although it could drive a new wave of compulsive phone-checking disorders.

Grabbing your attention before you even open another app is a brilliant strategy by Facebook. While encouraging our social media obsession, it also has significant advertising potential -- although as Alex Kidman points out it's easy to cross the line.

Should Facebook be the first thing you see when you pick up the phone? How much Facebook is too much?

When you're ready to scream, what kinds of games help you chill out?

I've never been very good at relaxing at the end of the work day, or even on a public holiday like Good Friday. Many people reach for their nearest handheld gadget or games console when it's time to relax, but I actually find that the sense of achievement and satisfaction from getting things done calms me down more than playing a pointless game.

I know games are meant to be pointless, that's the whole point, but when I start investing too much time and effort into a game -- whether it be Minecraft or Real Racing 3 -- I get the nagging feeling that I'm wasting my time. Wasting my life, even. Tower defence games can be okay unless I get stuck on a difficult level for too long. Telling myself that I'm entitled to waste some of my time doesn't really help.

When I was young I was happy to invest countless hours in pointless games, but as a so-called responsible adult it's harder to switch off. Working for myself makes it worse, because I don't get that same feeling of being "off the clock" that I did when I'd leave work in the city. The train ride home was like decompression chamber to ease the transition from work to play, but you don't get that when you work and play in the same space.

I know hardcore gamers will be horrified, but I've actually found that casual gaming is more relaxing because I can easily dip in and out without feeling like I'm wasting my life on it. Fruit Ninja is probably the best example. The games are quick and there's no long-term commitment, but there's a sense of immediate satisfaction from slicing up that fruit and sometimes achieving a high score. The subtle bushland noises in the background, with chirping birds and running water, are also surprisingly soothing. You don't even notice them at first, but at some level they manage to trick your brain into relaxing. They've actually encouraged me to check out a few relaxation apps to help me get to sleep at night.

Which games do you reach for when it's time to relax? Are you looking for a grand adventure or just a quick escape?

Panasonic still treats internet video as an optional extra in high-end TVs and Blu-ray players.

Australia's home entertainment journos were taken through Panasonic's new range of TVs, Blu-ray players/recorders, cameras and camcorders in Adelaide this week. Panasonic plasmas have long been the pick of the bunch if you're shopping for a great television on a budget and it's sad to hear reports that it might be abandoning the plasma market.

While Panasonic has been a plasma frontrunner, unfortunately it's dragged its feet on internet video features compared to the likes of Sony. For all Sony's faults, you have to respect the fact that its extensive internet video features are now standard across all of its internet-enabled televisions and Blu-ray players. Shoppers can focus on picture quality and other key features with having to worry about whether they're missing out on built-in iView and internet movie rentals.

As tech journos quizzed Panasonic's product managers in Adelaide, we quickly became frustrated at Panasonic's insistence on including Bigpond Movie rentals and Catch Up TV in some models but not others. The same goes with streaming content from Blu-ray recorders -- they'll all stream via DLNA but only one will send video to Panasonic's smartphone app while another supports Miracast. Even some of Panasonic's own people quietly agreed that it's a frustrating situation.

To be fair to Panasonic, competitors LG and Samsung are also guilty in this department and it's often unclear which models support which internet video services. As more Australians get access to fast and reliable internet access, they're going to expect internet video features to come standard. It would be great to see the industry follow Sony's lead and offer a standard internet video platform across all their home entertainment gear rather than playing hide and seek with internet video features.

A simple hack might let you watch US video services on your Australian Blu-ray player without the need for a VPN.

I've spent so much time bypassing geo-blocking services lately and jumping around the world that I think I've got jet lag. In my travels I stumbled across a particularly interesting trick with Blu-ray players that I thought worth sharing. I'm going to be a little vague here, because if you shout about these things too much they can stop working.

Many current Blu-ray models sold in Australia are designed to support Netflix if you're in the US, but Netflix won't show up in the menus when you're in Australia. You might think it's necessary to hook up your player to a US-based Virtual Private Network such as WiTopia to access the US services, but that might not be the case.

With some Australian Blu-ray players, simply changing the DNS settings to those of a geo-dodging service is enough to trick them into seeing Netflix. You might need to restart the player and/or update the available apps for it to kick in. If it does and you can see Netflix, you can happily login into your account and start watching movies (how to get a Netflix account is a post for another day). Change the DNS back, refresh and Netflix disappears while your Australian services return. No permanent damage seemed to be done, but proceed at your own risk. I'm offering no guarantees on this one.

The first time I got this trick to work was with the Blu-ray player hooked up to WiTopia running on a notebook PC with Internet Connection Sharing. But when I disabled the VPN, the trick kept working and I could easily switch from Australian to US video services by simply changing the DNS. It's possible the trick only works because I used a VPN the first time, I'm not sure but it's something you might try.

The other catch is that the trick doesn't seem to work with all DNS-based geo-dodging services. I had luck using Unotelly, so see how you go. This hack might also work with internet-enabled television as well, along with other boxes which would have Netflix access in the US. I can't say for sure, but I've seen it work at least once.

Your mileage may vary, as always, but it's an interesting hack for Aussies keen to tap into foreign video services.

If the US iTunes store thinks you live in Main Street, USA, make sure you're not paying sales tax on your sneaky US purchases.

It's becoming ridiculously easy for foreigners to trick their way into supposedly US-only services such as Netflix, HuluPlus and the US iTunes store. Dreaming up a fake US address offers the chance to be creative, but you need to appreciate that taxes vary widely across the US.

In Australia we pay a flat 10 percent GST on all purchases, no matter where we live. But sales tax varies between US states, and even between counties and cities. It's a hotch potch mess which means you could be putting more than 10 per cent of your US purchase price straight into government coffers.

There was a time when 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, was a popular fake address -- which worked out well as California didn't impose sales tax on downloads. But as Apple cracks down on such things, you probably want to choose a more subtle address. If you stray outside California, choose your fake residence with care. Give your address as Wrigley Field, in homage to the Blues Brothers, and you'll find yourself paying around 12 percent in state, city and county taxes.

If you want your greenbacks to go further, consider using an address in a state like Delaware which doesn't impose sales tax. Even then it's worth doing your research on the exact address and/or postcode you select. You shouldn't be paying sales tax when you purchase US iTunes cards to fund your account, but apparently it does happen so once again it pays to shop around.

An easy way to see if you're paying sales tax in the US iTunes store is to check your emailed receipt. Australian receipts don't itemise the GST, but US receipts do make it clear if you've paid sales tax on the purchase. If the taxman is getting a taste of the gig, it might be time to move house.