While you probably prefer your media to be digitally distributed these days, chances are you still own several thousand dollars’ worth of DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, music CDs, video games and computer software on disc.

If so, you’re probably aware how easy these discs can become scratched or sticky underneath -- especially if you have young kids.

There is a right and wrong way to clean your discs.

To clean a DVD, use a soft, lint-free cloth. In other words, don't use a tissue or anything that could leave a residue. Then, hold the disc by inserting your index finger in the hole and supporting the disc with your thumb on the outer edge. Cleaning a DVD should always be done by wiping the disc from the center to the outer edge in a straight motion, and repeating the process in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion.

Discs should never be rubbed in a circular motion.

As for what fluid you clean a disc with, stick with rubbing alcohol or glass cleaner, while other experts say a mix of running alcohol

Readers of my blog posts might be aware of one of my odd hobbies: collecting and listening to "old time radio" shows.

Huh? Why would a future-looking gadget geek want to fill up his smartphone with radio dramas popularized in the '40s and '50s?

Yes, I see the irony -- but hey, a great story is a great story. In fact, these bite-sized old-time radio (“OTR”) shows are awesome for combating boredom while spending time in the car. They’re typically 20- to 40-minutes in length, so they’re perfect for those who commute on trains, planes and automobiles.

As someone who travels a lot, I find nothing beats listening to one of these well-written and superbly-acted plays while resting my eyes on a plane. Or, in many instances, I'm playing a game on my phone or tablet while listening to these shows at the same time.

Just like other media – such as books, movies, television shows and video games – there are different genres for different tastes. Comedy fans, for example, might prefer to hear the

Django UnchainedDirector Quentin Tarantino's bold and bloody Western Django Unchained – new to DVD and Blu-ray – is not for the faint of heart.

Django has the overall shape of a classic spaghetti Western, but inside those lines Tarantino is playing by different rules entirely. It's a grim but deliberate and artful film that wields its scenes of graphic violence with purpose.

It goes like this: In the antebellum American South, German bounty hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) teams with liberated slave Django (Jamie Foxx) to hunt down outlaws and collect reward money from the U.S. Marshall's office.

Schultz and Django form an unlikely friendship and set out to rescue Django's enslaved wife (Kerry Washington) from a psychotic Mississippi plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Things get messy.

There are scenes of appalling cruelty and brutality in Django Unchained, and the film has generated the usual Tarantino-related controversy for its use of racially charged language and explicit violence. It also

Eric Risberg/APIn 1973 Martin Cooper made a phone call and changed the world. He stood outside the New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue and made the world’s first cell phone call. The former Motorola Vice President used the opportunity to taunt his competitor – calling Joel Engel at Bell Labs, the company he had just beaten in the race to build the first cell phone.

“Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone. A real handheld portable phone.”

Most of us didn’t see a cell phone until 1987, when Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) made a call on what looked like a suitcase attached to a military walkie-talkie in Lethal Weapon. Those first models weighed three pounds and cost around $100 a month, plus tolls. The bulky device made possible the amazing gadgets we now take for granted.

Warner Bros.“I was working at Koons Ford in Baltimore. A salesman came in to sell the ‘brick’ to the staff,” said Ruth, an office manager in Maryland. “I was so intrigued by it that I bought one for my husband. He was a real estate

Forget dollhouses, footballs and jigsaw puzzles – kids today want tech in their toys.

Whether it’s products designed for learning, such as the stellar Leapfrog offerings, or straight-up toys for toys sake, many of 2013’s most wanted fuse entertainment with electronics.

Heck, even LEGO has evolved into buildable robots with “on-brick programming," while many classic board games let you place your iPad in the middle of the action -- including Hasbro’s zAPPed editions of The Game of Life, Monopoly and Battleship.

The following is a look at a few of bigger tech-infused toys expected to debut this year:

Action figures + video games

How do you top Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Giants, which have sold more than 100 million toys between the two games? If you’re Activision, you announce the third installment in the billion dollar franchise.

As with its predecessors, Skylanders SWAP Force marries a video game with action figures, placed on a Portal of Power that‘s connected to

PresenceThere are literally millions of apps loose in the wild of the Internet. Last year Google tied Apple with 700,000 apps available for Android platforms. The industry hasn’t slowed down since. The following apps are drops in that bucket, but each one is innovative in its own way. If you have an app you love or love to hate, let me know in the comments section and I’ll check it out.

Presence
Big Brother is watching you. A new app lets you watch him. (Well, that’s what I would do with it.) People Power Presence is a cloud-based app that lets users operate an unused smart phone as a wireless video camera that can serve as a monitoring device. It can detect motion and audio, send alerts, and capture images, video, and audio from the event that set it off.

The People Power Presence application recycles old devices while providing a free real-time monitoring system and a secure way to check on loved ones. You’re more likely to use it to keep an eye on the kids, the house and the babysitter than

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ComiXology!

The smartphone and tablet app for comic book fans is so popular, in fact, a recent giveaway of more than 700 free Marvel comics caused ComiXology’s servers to overload, prompting an apology from the CEO. Oops.

For the uninitiated, ComiXology lets you browse, buy and read digital comic books on your iOS or Android device (or if you prefer, on a PC or Mac web browser). Most of the major comic book publishers sell their wares on this platform, including Marvel and DC Comics/DC Universe, as well as IDW, Image, Disney, Archie, The Simpsons, and others (curiously missing, however, is Dark Horse).

More than 30,000 comics are now available at the marketplace, each of which can be read page by page, like its paper counterpart, or in the slick “Guided View,” that cleverly glides and zooms from frame to frame with the swipe of a finger.

ComiXology has now opened its virtual doors to independent comic book artists and graphic novelists. Profits are

VerizonPicking the right gift for mom is a tricky business. Mom is probably too modest to tell you what she really wants. So you’re flying blind. Know these two things:

1. Mom will appreciate any gesture that shows her you were thinking of her.

2. Dads aren’t the only ones who like gadgets.

You don’t want to send the wrong message with a gift that’s associated with housework or fitness, though there are exceptions. As one mother told me: “I’d only give [a fitness gadget] to someone who I was very sure would understand that it was given with all the right intentions. And make sure that you are giving it with the right intentions!”

With that in mind I have compiled a list of gadgets – big and small, expensive and cheap – to consider when shopping for Mother’s Day. This list is bereft of any scientific expertise or data. I interviewed a few mothers with different backgrounds and tastes, thought about my wife and my mother, and employed some tech gadget expertise to cobble this together. If I