Tag: apple

Mac Mini Media Centre – Energy Settings and iTunes Library

With the hardware plugged in and my essential software and codecs installed I was going to crack on with Plex but I needed to sort out my iTunes library and also make a decision – to sleep or not to sleep.

iTunes Library
A quick recap on my hardware setup. I have purchased a Mac Mini and will be using it as a Media Centre device for under the TV. Connected to the Mini is a Drobo. The Drobo holds all my media keeping the Mac Mini virtually free of content. I also currently have an iMac and Macbook pro. My iTunes library was sitting on the iMac but I wanted to move it to the Drobo and access the content from the iMac or the Mac Mini.

Moving the iTunes library was fairly straightforward as I let iTunes manage my music. This is a setting in iTunes preferences which means iTunes looks after the naming and location of all my iTunes managed media. To move the content I followed an excellent guide at iLounge on Transferring your iTunes Library. As I had moved to the iTunes 9 Media layout all I had to do was change the media folder location in iTunes Advanced preferences, then goto File, Library, Organise Library and select Consolidate Library. This copied all the media from the iMac to the Drobo via the network share I had created. Once this was complete I checked that all files including podcasts, movies and mobile applications had been copied and that all my music was now referencing the Drobo – do this by right clicking on a track and selecting Get Info. At the bottom of the Summary tab a Where field details the location of the file.

Once confirmed I then removed all the media content from the iMac. Happy days, or so I thought.

Energy Settings
One of the choices to make with your Mini is whether to have it always on or to sleep when not in use. This will very much depend on what you want to do with the Mini. For me, even though I will be using it for remote access and for downloading media, I still want it to sleep when not in use. I waste enough electricity as it is without having a Mini and Drobo switched on 24/7. So the Mini will sleep when not in use. However, unless you have an Apple Airport Extreme or Time Capsule you won’t be able to Wake on Demand which is a feature that both these devices support for any Apple attached hardware. This means when I start my iMac and the Mini is asleep, my iTunes library isn’t available. When this happens, music won’t play and any downloads will also reside locally in a newly created iTunes library. Not good at all.

To get around this I’m making use of a little known free Mac tool called SleepWatcher. This is a command line tool that watches two scripts – .wakeup and .sleep and will run the .wakeup script when your machine wakes up and .sleep when your machine sleeps. My solution to the sleeping Mini was to have the commands in my .wakeup script to wake my Mini, create a mount point and then mount my music network share. iTunes would then work properly and my music would be available with downloads being placed on the Drobo.

So lets go through each of the steps and explain the scripts I now use. Firstly I downloaded and installed the SleepWatcher utility which comes in two parts. SleepWatcher.pkg installs the actual SleepWatcher command. SleepWatcher StartUpItem.pkg installs the daemon and also the sleep and wakeup scripts that are executed by the daemon. With both installed I was ready to create my wakeup script.

In TextMate I created a new file called .wakeup in my user directory i.e.

/users//.wakeup

so for me

/users/ian/.wakeup

Remember to make the script executable:

chmod 755 .wakeup

I wanted the file to wake the Mac Mini. To do this I installed the WakeOnLan command line utility in a scripts directory in my user folder. Using WOL command line allowed me to wake the Mini using the following command:

wol ip_address mac_address

where ip_address is the fixed IP address for the Mac Mini and the mac_address is the unique MAC address for the network adaptor in the Mini. To find the MAC address for a machine launch System Profiler (Apple Menu, About This Mac, More Info or Applications, Utilities and the System Profiler), select Network and then select the Ethernet Active Service. Scroll through the information displayed and under the Ethernet heading you will find your MAC Address. You could also download WakeOnLan which is a tool which will scan your network displaying connected machines and their MAC addresses. From the command line the wol command worked well but adding it to the .wakeup script did nothing. The Mini would resolutely stay asleep no matter what I did. Odd. I then created a shell script containing the wol command and ran the shell script which woke up the Mini. Odder. I then called the shell script from the .wakeup script…success!

So my .wakeup script as it stands is as follows:

#!/bin/sh
# ------------------------------
# Wakeup Script for SleepWatcher
# ------------------------------

# Wait for network connect
sleep 5 

# Wake Mini and Mount drive
/users/ian/scripts/mnt_mus.sh

The script sleeps for 5 seconds waiting for the network to be up and running and then launches the mnt_mus.sh script which wakes the Mini and then mounts the drive. The mnt_mus.sh looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
# ———————————————
# Wake Mini and Mount Script
# ———————————————

#Wake Mini
/users/ian/scripts/wol/wol ip_address mac_address
# Create Mount Point
mkdir /Volumes/music
# Wait for mini start
sleep 10
# Mount drive
/sbin/mount -t afp afp://username:password@mini.local/music /Volumes/music

So with SleepWatcher, WOL and the scripts above my Mini can sleep and when my iMac wakes, it will wake the Mini and mount the music network share. Happy days. A final step is to call the .wakeup script at logon/startup so that no matter what the event, the network share is mounted. This is easy to do. I copied the .wakeup script to a new file called login.command (creating a command file), made it executable, then added it to my Login Items in System Preferences -> Accounts pane. By making the shell script a command file it makes it accessible to the Login Items GUI. So when I start or wake my iMac the drive will be mounted and I can access my music.

Moving the iTunes Library Database
While the iTunes media has been moved the Library database was still on the iMac. Although it takes up only a few hundred MB I wanted to move it so I could share the library file with iTunes on the Mini. The database file comprises of an XML file which contains all the metadata for your library, a Genius file and the Album Art folder. To move the database I closed down iTunes, moved the iTunes folder to a folder on the Drobo and restarted iTunes with the OPT key held down. This prompts you to create a new library or choose an existing library. I chose the library via the network mount and after a few seconds iTunes was up and running.

Sharing the iTunes Library Database
The final step in the process was to share the iTunes library between the iMac and Mini. I thought this would be simple but it’s not so straight forward. iTunes was built on the assumption that one iTunes would access one library and that’s it. You could share a library between two different iTunes but you must make sure that only one iTunes is accessing the file at any one time or you risk corruption. I don’t like those odds!

I could solve it by putting checks and locks in place like don’t launch itunes on Mini if iMac iTunes is running and vice versa but I’m sure there would be some scenario that would undo me. Therefore I’ve taken the safer route of having the Mini point to a copy of the iTunes database which is synced to keep it up to date. To automate this I’ve relied on SleepWatcher again.

On the Mini I’ve installed SleepWatcher and the .wakeup script calls the following script:

#!/bin/sh
# ------------------------------
# iTunes database Sync
# ------------------------------

# Sync Folders
rsync -a /Volumes/Drobo/music/"iTunes Library Files" /Volumes/Drobo/music/"mini iTunes Library Files"

Using rsync I copy the iTunes database from the folder iTunes Library Files to a separate folder called mini iTunes Library Files. The advantage of rsync is that after the initial copy which mirrors the file and folder structure, only differences in files are copied making the sync quick and painless. Therefore every time the Mini wakes the folder is synced. I created a symbolic link on the Mini to match the networked folder seen elsewhere and bingo – my library was being shared and up to date. I changed the settings on the Mini so it doesn’t download podcasts and I’ll still manage my library on the iMac but read below to see why this may change. I thought that was it but I still had one more issue. iTunes only updates the library files on exit.

To make sure I sync the most up to date library I have created a .sleep file on the iMac and Mini that will close iTunes on the machine sleeping. That script can be seen below.

#!/bin/sh
# ---------------------
# Close iTunes on Sleep
# ---------------------

#Close iTunes
osascript <<< "tell application \"iTunes\" to quit"

It's not perfect but again it's working well for me at the moment and means both computers are sharing the same media files with two different databases. If all the above is a bit too much then there is software like SuperSync or myTuneSync which will keep separate libraries in sync

Future Options
The scripts above are very much a 'now' solution. In the future I plan to consolidate down to the Mini plus one other machine. If that machine turns out to be a laptop then the Mini will act as the master for iTunes and I'll rsync all my music between the Drobo and the laptop so that my music is with me at all times. Extreme perhaps but I do want to access my music wherever I am.

Closing
Hopefully this third post in the Mac Mini series here at DigitalOutbox, although optional, will give you some hints and tips in how to manage your iTunes library and how to best manage your Mini if you want to be a bit more energy efficient. If there is something glaringly wrong or a better way of achieving the above then please leave a comment or drop a mail as I'm sure there are better methods and this is a learning experience for me.

With the first three posts out of the way it's now time to install Plex, but thats for the next post. What a tease!

DigitalOutbox Episode 33

DigitalOutbox Episode 33
In this episode the team discuss Google vs China, MS Word Banned and Apple Rumours.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
0:45 – Google vs China
– “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on their corporate infrastructure that occurred last month.
– The attack originated in China and resulted in the “theft of intellectual property from Google.”
– Attack, as confirmed by MS, was through IE (one of the vectors) and MS is working with Google and partners and developing a patch for the hole
– In light of the attack Google is making sweeping changes to its Chinese operations
– The company says that a minimal amount of user information was compromised, but has come to the alarming conclusion that the attacks were targeting the information of Chinese human rights activists
– In light of the attacks, and after attempts by the Chinese government to further restrict free speech on the web, Google has decided it will deploy a fully uncensored version of its search engine in China.
– This is a major change: since January 2006, Google has made concessions to the Chinese government and offered a censored (and highly controversial) version of its search engine at Google.cn.
– Should the Chinese government decide that an uncensored engine is illegal, then Google may cease operations in China entirely
– Huge, huge step. Massive corporate switch in strategy
– Should be applauded – too often corporations chasing the lucrative untapped chinese market have made concessions to the regime that they would never contemplate anywhere else
– Was this done, as some blogs are stating, due to google losing in China? Google says no – best quarter ever was the latest quarter
– One more thing…..Google hacked the hackers – PC in Taiwan, gathering evidence the attacks originated from mainland China, possibly orchestrated by the government. Hacked 33 other companies including Adobe.
6:08 – Nexus One Support Issues
– It seems that Google / T-Mobile (America) / HTC don’t really know who is supporting the Nexus Phone.
– Google have no dedicated support line and are only offering support through a forum and via email.
– Good product but bad support = fail.
– Google have said they are now working with their partners to offer support via a number of channels.
– Early termination cost greater than cost of full hardware cost. (Google claim back as do T-Mobile…)
11:45 – GDrive but not in name
– soon upload any file type at all to Google Docs, not just the dozen or so Office formats that the service allowed as of yesterday. Video files. Images. Audio Files. Even Zip files. As long as those files are 250 MB or smaller, you’re good.
– The new feature will roll out over the next several weeks, says Google.
– Like other documents in Google docs, files can be kept private, made public or shared with a few users.
– Google Viewer can be used to view many file types, with the notable exception of video.
– Regular users have 1 GB of free storage and can purchase more for $0.25/GB.
– Enterprise customer pay higher prices, starting at $17/year for 5 GB. There are no bandwidth charges.
15:38 – MS banned from selling Word and Office
– The US courts upheld the initial judgement that MS has infringed i4i’s “Custom XML” patent in their Office suite and Monday 11th saw that start of the ban on selling the products.
– As it happens, MS has now produced a version that no longer violates the patent and so “This process will be imperceptible to the vast majority of customers”.
– MS also had to pay i4i damages of £183m.
– MS are planning to appeal further.
22:56 – Free laptops for low income families
– A new scheme to give free laptops to some 270,000 pupils from low income families has begun.
– The Home Access Scheme will follow similar eligibility criteria to those offered free school meals and will see a grant for a computer and also funding for a broadband connection for 1 year.
25:05 – OINK Admin Acquitted on fraud charge
– Alan Ellis, 26, was the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing.
– He operated the site, called Oink, from his flat in Middlesbrough from 2004 until it was closed down in a police raid in October 2007.
In that time Oink facilitated the download of 21 million music files.
– At the end of the two week trial the jury returned a unanimous verdict (12 to 0). Alan Ellis is not guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud the music industry. He walked out of Teesside Crown Court a free man today, his name cleared.
– The verdict cannot be appealed and Ellis can finally put the past behind him and move on.
– So, crack on with torrenting then….
28:59 – Blippy goes live
– Social network for your spending
– Hook up your iTunes account, Amazon account, audible, godaddy, netflix, blockbuster, credit card or bank account
– Blippy will then broadcast your purchases
– People can follow you and see/comment on your purchases
– Step too far?
– It’s got lots of investors – I just don’t feel comfortable putting my accounts into this service.
35:14 – Marks and Spencer Netbook Range
– What the hey!
36:36 – Binged.it
– URL shortener
– Longer than bing?
39:38 – Tablet Rumours
– Orange exec confirms it and a built in webcam….then denies it
– Lots of 10.1 inch oled screens ordered,
– Gruber – no camera, webcam or otherwise on The Tablet
41:25 – iPhone Rumours
– oled, video chat, removable battery, twice the battery life and mobile tv
– touch sensitive back ala magic mouse – why – does that solve the game controller problem Chris mentioned?
– go figure
– Question – what would you want in os 4.0?
47:29 – Vodafone launches sat nav app
– Vodafone Navigation
– The application promises turn-by-turn navigation, with voice instructions and speed camera alerts, for any location in the UK.
– While the application is currently free, at the end of April 2010, customers can decide to keep the application for the length of their contract for just £3 a month, or choose to take it month by month for £5 a month.
– Only works with iPhone and a Vodafone SIM card
– They also sold 50,000 iPhones on first day

Picks
Ian
Readability
– Cleans up cluttered pages
– Great for reading long form stories – run through readability first then store to Instapaper or Evernote

Henry
Appzapper 2
– The uninstaller that Apple forgot
– Easy to use – keeps your mac clean of old apps

Chris
Dragon Age:Origins

Mac Mini Media Centre – Setup and Essential Software

In the first part of our Mac Mini Media Centre series we looked at Hardware and Connectivity. Now that the Mac Mini is hooked up to the HDTV it’s time to configure it for Media playback and install some essential software.

The first setup issue is screen resolution. If you’ve got a 1080P HDTV then it’s a simple as plugging in your Mac Mini and you’ll get a full 1080P desktop without issue. If you’ve got a VGA inout then you shouldn’t have a problem either. If you’ve got a 720P HDTV then you may have some tweaking to do to get a full desktop display. Most 720P tv’s are actually 1388*768 panels rather than the 720P resolution of 1280*720. The Mini will pump out a 1280*768 resolution which gives you two options. Live with that resolution and you get a black border around your desktop which is ugly. Alternatively, goto System Preferences and enable overscan. This will remove the border but instead you see half the dock and lose the menubar. Although this sounds bad in actual fact you will be using software like Plex most of the time which can cope well with this scenario so it’s not an issue.

If your not happy with this scenario then a final option is to use SwithResX. With this utility you can tweak the resolutions outputted by your Mac. However care must be taken as this software is basically (my understanding so could be wrong) a hack and it’s easy to set a resolution that your TV doesn’t support, so leaving your Mini displaying a black screen. Always select a resolution via System Preferences so that you can easily use the up/down arrow keys to pick another resolution that works. If you boot and you get a black screen there is advice on the ScreenResX website – good luck!

While we’re sorting out the desktop, there’s a couple of other worthwhile tweaks. I want the Mini’s desktop to be clear of any distractions. By default a Mac’s desktop will show external drive’s connected to the machine. To keep the desktop clear, open Finder, select Preferences and under the General icon ensure that all desktop items are unchecked. Speaking of the desktop, select a great background picture that will look good on the TV. Right click on the desktop and select Change Desktop Background or goto System Preferences and select Desktop & Screen Saver. You can pick a folder of pictures and have the system rotate them on a set time or when the Mac wakes up. Another great way of keeping your desktop fresh is to use DeskLickr which is free app that will connect to your Flickr profile, tag searches or a DeskLickr group and set the desktop picture. Unique and pulls up some real gems.

When your media is playing you don’t want to be interrupted or have the system kick of any scheduled tasks or software checks on the internet. Therefore, goto System Preferences and in Software Update disable Check For Updates. You should do similar for any other software that may be running – set checks to manual and every few weeks check for updates.

Another potential annoyance is Bluetooth, in particular when a device isn’t detected. In System Preferences select Bluetooth, click on Advanced and uncheck Open Bluetooth Assistant option.

With those out of the way it’s time to get some essential software installed. Remember this is primarily a media centre so I won’t be installing many of the popular Mac app’s.

For video and audio playback the key is codec’s. There are a variety of essential codec’s that should be installed to make the most of any digital content you own. Perian describes itself as the swiss army knife for Quicktime as it comes with almost all the codec’s you’ll need to make Quicktime your goto player. Perian enables support for the following:

  • File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
  • Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
  • Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
  • AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
  • Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT

While this add’s greatly to the flexibility of Quicktime it also brings a couple of issues. MKV’s take a long time to load in Quicktime as it likes to know the total length of a movie before starting. This isn’t the fault of Perian but rather Apple in how they’ve built Quicktime.

One codec issue is AC3 support. Apple doesn’t fully support AC3 and to set it up isn’t trivial. This blog post on Record and Reverie details the steps to enable AC3 support but it should be noted that this won’t work with all receivers.

Another essential codec to install is Flip4Mac Windows Media Component for QuickTime. Catchy. This enables playback wma and wmv files in QuickTime and allows you to view Windows Media Content in your browser.

Despite all the codec’s we’ve installed, sometimes QuickTime just doesn’t cut it. That’s where VLC Media Player steps in. This is an open source multimedia viewer, streamer and convertor. To be honest I only ever use it for playback and then you look at the features that’s not a surprise. The only drawback is the shortage of developers which has stopped the development of a 64 bit version.

iTunes is a great app for music playback but Spotify is a great companion. Spotify allows you to stream music for free from a large music library. With collaborative playlists it makes for a great music client.

The majority of internet video content is encoded in Flash so installing the latest version of Flash is also required. One word of warning if your new to Macs. Flash on the Macs is inferior compared to the Windows version. It’s pretty CPU intensive and likes to use up a lot of RAM. This was the case when it was owned by Macromedia and the Adobe purchase hasn’t made much difference. You should also get the latest Silverlight plugin from Microsoft as there is a growing amount of web video that requires Silverlight.

The final two app’s (for the moment) are Xmarks and SuperDuper!. I use Xmarks to sync bookmarks amongst all my browsers and it makes sense to make those bookmarks available on the Mini. I use Sync Profiles in Xmarks to make the bookmarks bar unique to the Mini and also keep some bookmarks exclusively for Work and vice versa. SuperDuper! is my backup tool of choice and it’s easy to backup the Mini to the Drobo so that I have a full disk image backup in case I need to restore. The image is actually pretty small as all of the media is stored on the Drobo and there are very few app’s stored on the Mini.

So that’s the Mini setup. Almost. The next post will detail some specific setup options that I’ve chosen to do to help share iTunes libraries amongst machines and also make the most of the energy saving features on the Mac as I don’t want to run the Mini 24/7. Once that optional post is out of the way I’ll take you through the setup and usage of Plex and that’s when the real fun begins.

DigitalOutbox Episode 32

DigitalOutbox Episode 32
In this episode the team discuss Nexus, Apple Tablet and some CES discussion.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
2:21 – London Datastore
– More than 200 data sets detailing life in London are to be put online by the capital’s governing body.
– Opens on Jan 29th
– Information about planning decisions, crime rates, abandoned vehicles, house prices, road accidents and many other metrics will form the London datastore.
– Those who come up with the most innovative ways to harness the data could get a substantial grant to help them bring their idea to life.
– 4iP, Channel 4’s Innovation for the Public Fund, said it would back the best ideas with a £200,000 cash pot.
– Data list – http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/data-packages-launch
5:13 – Project Canvas Approved
– Internet access for the TV via set top box
– BBC Trust has given the go-ahead for the corporation to push on
– The consortium of six firms is now looking for “expressions of interest” for other partners to join the platform
– Project Canvas now includes the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and Talk Talk. Sky is likely to vocally object to the Trust’s apparent approval – its press office was unavailable at press time.
– “By seamlessly converging broadband and broadcast content, Project Canvas can help secure the future of free-to-air broadcasting and create an open platform that gives online services a route to the TV set.
6:57 – Videogames Bigger Than Film
– More money was spent on video games than on films – including both trips to the cinema and films on DVD – figures compiled for The Daily Telegraph indicate.
– In the twelve months to the end of September 2009, £1.73 billion was spent on video games, according to the data company GFK Chart-Track.
– According to the UK Film Council exactly £1 billion was spent at the British box office during the same period, with a further £198 million spent on film titles released on DVD and Blu-ray
– Only television – including DVDs of television shows, along with the cost of the license and satellite subscriptions – and music are bigger forms of entertainment.
– Industry figures show there the number of games consoles being used in Britain has shot up from 13.5 million in 2008 ago to well over 25 million earlier this year, with enough consoles for nine out of every ten households in the country to have one.
9:32 – Orange to launch HD Calls
– Orange will begin trials of the new and improved, 3G-facilitated service early in the new year
– fully roll it out along with a “range of handsets” before the end of the year.
10:27 – Nexus One
– Jan 5th launch
– http://gizmodo.com/5436673/rumor-nexus-one-will-be-530-unlocked-180-with-t+mobile
– 3.7-inch OLED display, HVGA (480 x 800) — deep contrast. 1GHz Snapdragon
– Trackball with multi-color notification LED
– Ah, so those contact points enable inline remotes and mics. Inline noise cancellation: two mics, front and back, which enables nose suppression. Custom engraving on the lower bezel!
– Live wallpaper – looks pretty junky to be honest
– Voice – any text box – demo – spoken english, server based translation to text – it worked! Voice looked amazing, as do all voice demo’s
– Google Earth demo
– www.google.com/phone – buy Nexus 1 plus other devices ‘soon’ – was this really the big announcement?
– Nexus One unlocked and without service: $529. Buy it with service from T-Mobile for $179.
– Will be shipping to UK from today + Singapore & Hong Kong
– On Vodafone in the UK in a ‘few short weeks’
20:03 – Apple Tablet
– Apple has reportedly scheduled a media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Wednesday Jan. 27, 2010, for a major product announcement.
– Selected app developers asked to make sure their app’s work…full screen
– 10″ screen is seemingly the size but lots of sites reporting 7″ too
– APple have owned iSlate domain since 2006/7 – iSlate?
– Is it tablet or high res iPhone?
– 5MP camera’s also rumoured
24:08 – Microsoft at CES
– Power cut – classy start
– Lame introduction – Crazy Steve Balmer ain’t no Steve Jobs
– Xbox – first up and sales looking good
– Bing – good year, growing market share – can’t argue
– Car – growing market
– Zune doing well, Windows Mobile – more next month
– Windows 7 – fastest selling OS in history, 94% satisfcation rating, 300M pc’s shipped, 4 million windows applications – there’s an app for that
– Some of the laptops looked…interesting
– Software – Blio, e-book reader, Office demo – snore, Bing maps again, Recording 4 HD streams – demo, Media everywhere – nice demo of media on tv, comp, phone, xbox – Microsoft Mediaroom – demo’d and talked about IPTV so many times – still not taking off
– Slate pc’s – ugggghhhhhhh – would Steve have said slate if the Apple rumours weren’t so rabid?
– Touch demo on slate fails 🙂
– Xbox – Mass Effect 2 – Jan, Splinter Cell Conviction – Feb, Spring – Mod War 2 expansion packs exclusively first on Xbox, Fable 3, Crackdown 2, Alan Wake – physiological action thriller – episodic with more episodes on Xbox Live, Halo Reach – demo not streamed due to intellectual property – Fall 2010, multiplayer demo in Spring
– Game Room – Personal Arcade, games in original cabinets, 30 original arcade classics from Spring, invite friends to custom arcade and let them try your collection, 1000 games coming!
– Natal – coming this year, holiday 2010, works with current 360, uses 10-15% of 360’s processing power
35:18 – Sony at CES
– 3D TV’s a go-go – top end come with two glasses and transmitter
– Using SD in camera’s!
– BDP-S770 – 3D blu-ray player, wi-fi, netflix and a free iphone app controller
– Sony Dash – 7inch, $199 running Chumby OS, not portable
– 24.5 inch OLED…getting bigger
– PS3 will play 3D movies through 3D Bravias
– PS3
– Heavy Rain – Feb 26th
– God of War III – March in Japan
– No mention of GT5!
40:54 – Skype goes HD
– 720p from Windows
– HD Camera’s coming
– Directly form TV’s – LG and Panasonic
42:21 – Boxee
– Plays everything the normal Boxee software does
– Under $200
– Powered by the Tegra 2 (T20) — a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU
– NVIDIA Graphicsthat can play 1080p video from locally stored content and stream HD content
– Utilizes Adobe Flash 10.1, meaning HD and web content should play back smoother and require fewer resources
– RF remote (so you can hide the box behind a cabinet)
– 802.11n
– No hard drive, no IR
– Remote looks great with chatpad on the back – I want for my Mac Mini
– Boxee Beta software now available to download – http://blog.boxee.tv/2010/01/07/boxee-beta-goes-public-download-now/
44:29 – Kindle DX On Sale Worldwide
– On sale on 100 countries
– $489, ships Jan 19th
– Includes wireless deal, get content wirelessly wherever you are
45:03 – Chrome OS Netbook Specs
– According to IBTimes, the Google netbook will house an Nvidia Tegra platform with an ARM CPU. If the rumors hold up, it will also have a 10.1″ multi-touch screen that supports HD, come with a 64GB SSD, 2GB of RAM, and other standards like Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, a webcam, and so on. Not surprisingly, the netbook will run Chrome OS and come pre-installed with a suite of Google Apps.
– The rumors also indicate that the netbook will be available by holiday season 2010 for a subsidized price of under $300, which is impressive for the type of hardware they’re talking about. It would sold directly from Google’s website, and they may partner with a network operator to sell it as a bundled 3G plan. – If previous experience is anything to go by, the data-bundle costs will no doubt be pretty crippling – especially for a device that is online only. Does the device need all the power to simply run web applications…
46:11 – iMac Woes Continue
– Resolves graphic card flicker
– The 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update applies to the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or the display to flicker.
– If your screen remains black after applying the updater or if you continue to experience image corruption or display flickering after successfully completing this update, contact AppleCare or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
– So not only does Cupertino seem to be blaming ATI for the issue, it’s not actually promising to necessarily fix anything with this update, either
– Couple of days after the firmware release, the flickering still continues for many – OUCH!
47:42 – Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone
– It’s using a modified Unreal Tournament level previously shown off at GDC. A virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen controls your movement, while tracking your thumb in the lower right corner of the screen controls the camera. Just tap the screen to shoot. Mark said this is a tech test bed and they’re experimenting with several different control schemes including ones with tilt.
– OpenGL2 only so 3GS or 3rd gen iPod touch
48:03 – AppStore – 3 Billion Downloads
– From 2-3 billion downloads in 3 months, 1 week
– Wowsers
48:22 – Apple Store Madness
– Apple stores don’t have “no smoking” signs. Legally they need them but they “ruin the design of the store”, so for every apple store in the UK they pay £50 a day to keep their windows sign free

Picks
Ian
Unison 2
– newsgroup app for mac
– looks amazing

Chris
Beautiful People
– The 5000 people who were kicked off of beautifulpeople.com for getting too fat over Christmas!
– To you I say… WAHHHHHHHHHH!

Mac Mini Media Centre – Hardware and Connectivity

Wanting to use a Mac as a Media Centre/HTPC? Then this is the guide for you. In the first of a series of posts we’ll describe how to hook up a Mac Mini to an HDTV. Future posts will show how to get the best out of the Mini, the utilities that we recommend and the great playback software available on the Mac but this post will concentrate on hardware and connectivity to your HDTV. We’ll also test some different methods to control the Mac Mini and some great software to get media onto your mac. The first question you may be asking – why a mac?

There are now a variety of technologies and hardware that will act as a media centre for your HDTV. If your a gamer then the Xbox 360, PS3 or the Wii can all act as good media centre machines. However you are limited to the codecs they support and navigating your own content via the software on the consoles which isn’t always the best. Another option is to use a fairly cheap Windows box as an HTPC. Asus and Acer do some cracking Windows machines for £200-£300 and Windows 7 is a great O/S for media playback, but for me it still doesn’t match OS X when it comes to features and stability.

Which Mac?
The natural choice for Mac fans is the Apple TV. This is a device which connects to your HDTV and allows for playback of your own media, rent/buy of HD films and TV via iTunes and a few other nice media features like streaming music, photo’s from other devices etc. However the Apple TV is £223 for a device which has wi-fi and a 160HD. Not ideal as agin it doesn’t support many codecs, although you can flash the Apple TV to install Boxee or other codecs. That leaves the Mac Mini.

This is a fully featured PC that currently (Jan 2010) comes with a 2.26GHz processor, 2GB of Ram and 160GB hard drive. Coupled with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card means it’s a great machine for playback of all music and video comeback up to 1080p. One other important feature – it’s tiny and most importantly for me is it’s silent. Drawbacks? Lack of Blu-Ray is disappointing when so many Windows machines come with that option and the price isn’t cheap. In the UK they are currently starting at £510. Not the cheapest but with a little bit of effort I think it’s one of the best options for a HTPC.

Video Connections
So you’ve bought the Mini – how do you connect it to your HDTV?

The Mini has two graphics ports – a mini DVI port and a mini DisplayPort. Apple has standardised on Mini DisplayPort in most of it’s recent hardware so it’s no surprise that the Mini is supplied with a Mini-DisplayPort to DVI adaptor. To connect your Mini to your HDTV you have the following options:

  • DVI to DVI cable – plug into DVI port on HDTV
  • DVI to HDMI cable – plug into HDMI port on HDTV
  • DVI to VGA cable – plug into VGA port on your HDTV
  • Mini-Displayport to HDMI adapter + HDMI cable – connect to HDMI port on your HDTV

Plenty of options and that’s obviously not all as the Mini-DVI port is there and can be used instead.

Audio Connections
That covers video but what about audio? None of the above cables will carry audio from the Mini-DisplayPort – thats what the Audio Out port is for.

This is a standard 3.5mm audio out port which also doubles as a digital out with the right connector. Search on Amazon or online for Mini Toslink to Toslink and you’ll find adaptors similar to the one pictured. Plug this into the Audio Out and you will now be able to hook the Mini up to an Optical in on your amplifier or TV via an Optical cable. This option allows for 5.1 sound to be delivered from the Mini. Note that to get 5.1 sound you must select 5.1 in each application. By default the sound will be output in digital, but digital stereo only. Taking DVD Player for example, goto Preferences and Disc Setup. make sure that Audio Output is set to Digital Out – Built In Output and check Disable Dolby Dynamic Range Compression. See screen below for example.

Later topics will cover the optimum audio settings for media playback software like Plex and Boxee. If you don’t have an optical in then you can make do with a 3.5mm to dual RCA (sometime called dual composite) cable which will give you stereo sound.

Input Devices
The Mac Mini is sold as a BYODKM machine – Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard and Mouse. Catchy, not! The display has been covered above. As for keyboards and mice, you can plug any USB keyboard and mouse into your Mini which isn’t ideal for a Media Centre device. Ultimately the Mini won’t need a keyboard and mouse day to day but for setting up, they are essential. I was lucky in that I had a spare Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse which once paired with the Mini has worked a treat. As already mentioned, for short term use any old USB keyboard/mouse will do. Another alternative is to set up the Mac Mini via screen sharing from another Mac. Easy to do as long as the Mac is already up and running.

Logitech do a few keyboards that work wirelessly and also include a touchpad but models that have been recommended elsewhere and are bluetooth include the diNovo Edge which looks gorgeous but should do at £139, the diNovo Mini which is a smaller keyboard and touchpad combo but still pricey at £119 and something you may overlook – the MediaBoard Pro for PS3 at £50. While it’s a bit bigger and less sexy than the other keyboards, it includes a touchpad and is far more reasonably priced. Note that these keyboards are built for Windows PC’s, not for Macs, so some keys are missing like command for example. I should also mention that Apple’s new wireless keyboard is tiny, gorgeous and would be ideal if only it had a trackpad as well. Maybe this year Apple?

Another option is to use an all-in-one remote like the Logitech Harmony range. The advantage with the Harmony range is that it will work with all your A/V equipment and also with your Mac Mini and it comes with profile support for some of the software you use on the Mac, like Plex.

Finally, if you use an iPhone then there are a few app’s that allow you to have total control of your Mini – this will be covered later in the series.

Network, USB, Firewire and Tuners
While the latest Mini comes with wireless N support I’ve chosen to hook mine up via ethernet. Despite the improvements over the years I’ve found ethernet far more reliable, less prone to variation which is important when streaming and it’s far easier to do Wake On Lan (WOL) with ethernet than via wireless. The final connection for me was to plugin my newly acquired Drobo via the Firewire 800 port on the Mini.

One last piece of hardware which many will consider is a TV tuner. Elgato’s EyeTV range has long been considered the best solution for Mac owners. I’m sticking with my Sky HD box for now, mainly for the live sport but over time I can see me using the sky box less and less so I may revisit this at some point in the future.

Boot Time
With the hardware sorted and your Mac Mini connected it’s time to boot, configure and install some software but that’s for a future post.

TuneChecker and I Love Stars

Legally downloading music has started to take off as more buying choices become available. At one point iTunes was the only buying option but there are now many places that sell digital music. TuneChecker is a great website that shows you where to buy music online at the cheapest price and the potential savings are pretty huge.

The site allows you to browse the Top 40 UK Album and Singles charts and also browse by genre and new releases. If that’s not enough you can search for any artist or track and the site will return the price ranges for that album or single. Searching for Radiohead shows just how wide a price there is for their Best Of album. £12.99 on iTunes and £3.47 from Tesco!

The only thing not covered is the quality of the music you are downloading and if it’s DRM’d so tread carefully before making the purchase on price alone. You can’t really go wrong with this website although the site design, in my opinion, is awful. It’s been developed in conjunction with MoneySavingExpert.com so maybe they saved money by doing the design themselves 😉

Once you’ve downloaded your new music if your like me then rating your music is an essential step in iTunes to getting better more intelligent playlists…but I always forget to do it meaning I need to do catch up sessions every so often to rate my tracks. Step forward I Love Stars, a menu bar app for the Mac. This app displays only when music is playing allowing you to adjust the rating of the track without having to move to iTunes. A video saves a thousand words…

It supports 1/2 star ratings and won’t display during podcasts – what’s not to love? For tracks you haven’t rated the app can play an alert, which can be annoying, or flash discretely alerting you to your unrated track. The latest version now supports keyboard shortcuts too so rating doesn’t get in the way of working. Did I mention it’s free? Get rating.

Handbrake and Perian

Handbrake is a great video ripping utility for the Mac. Handbrake was initially a DVD ripping tool which was always reliable but for video transcoding I relied on VisualHub. That was until the company behind VisualHub shuttered development. For a few months there was a bit of a gap in the Mac market but Handbrake stepped in and not only does it do DVD ripping but it covers video transcoding as well.

Handbrake is open-source, GPL-licencsed, multi-platform and multi-threaded. The latest update to version 0.9.4 included over 1000 updates and a 64 bit version for Snow Leopard. It includes support for presets which come with Handbrake so it’s easy to create a video for Apple TV or iPhone – the settings are automatically set making encoding very easy. You can create your own presets so if you want to repeatedly output video in a particular format you can create a preset which guarantees the sam format each and every time.

There are a massive amount of settings and options in Handbrake which can affect the final output. You can see a preview of the video as it will appear allowing you to check for any quality issues before running an encode and you can add multiple video’s to the encode queue so Handbrake can run through your queue while your away.

When downloading Handbrake you can opt to grab the command line version instead of the GUI and that becomes useful when you want to automate your ripping process. For example, this fantastic tutorial – How-To: Automate DVD & Blu-Ray (Backup, Encoding & Tagging) on the Handbrake forums takes you through the process of ripping, tagging and moving your content automatically on the Mac – something I hope to be setting up in the new year. If you have any problems the forums are definitely the first place to visit as it’s a goldmine of information.

That covers encoding but what about playback? On the Mac Quicktime is the default video player but many install VLC as it supports many more codecs than Quicktime but there is an alternative – Perian.

Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. A full list of the formats can be found here. Perian is easy to install and once complete it’s settings can be accessed via a Systems Preference pane. Like Handbrake there is an active forum where you can find answers to any questions but for me it’s been trouble free. A great plugin for any Mac, especially if your using yours for media playback.

Secrets

Mac OS X is a great operating system but there are many settings that aren’t exposed to the user via a GUI, instead requiring typing in a command via terminal. Secrets is a database of hidden settings for Mac OS X. The website allow you to search by application and list all known secrets for that application. It lists the command line entry you need to type which you can easily cut and paste into terminal.

By logging in via a Google account you can edit newly added secrets or add your own. As good as the website is there is a better way of accessing secrets – via a preference pane that is downloadable via the Secrets website.

Once installed the pane can be accessed via System Preferences under Other. You can click on an Application name to view all secrets for that app. Instead of typing via the command line, options are now available via a GUI so they can be easily toggled on/off once you’ve tried them. Secrets don’t just cover the default OS X app’s. There are secrets for many app’s including Transmission, Skype, Fission and many more. From the preference pane you can also refresh the app to make sure your Secrets are up to date.

This one preference pane removes the need for a few other utilities and allows you to access a multitude of settings which were previously hidden. Highly recommended for any Mac owners.

DigitalOutbox Episode 29

DigitalOutbox Episode 29
In this episode the team discuss Snow and Swine Flu.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:33 – 4G Network
– First speeds on 4G dongle – 42.78Mbps over a wireless data card, 5.3Mbps upload and 37ms ping
– TeliaSonera bundles the 4G service with 30GB of data for just 599kr (85$) per month
– Why mobile?
– http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/morgan_stanley_mobile_internet_market.php
– Mobile Internet market will be “at least 2x size of Desktop Internet,”
– Apparently, O2 4G trial also happening in Slough!
7:25 – Facebook Privacy Concerns
– Unfortunately, the truth is that almost everything is accessible to quiz authors.: Even if you have your profile information and content set to “private,” quizzes can see almost everything that you share with your friends on Facebook: your politics and religion, embarassing photos, comments you leave on your friends’ Wall. It doesn’t seem like a quiz developer has any reason to poke around in your profile, but it’s temptingly easy to do so.
– What info about you can a quiz see when your friends take a quiz? Nope – once again, the correct answer is: Almost everything on your profile. Yes, that’s right: when your friend takes a quiz, the quiz maker gets access to your information! So even if you’re being careful, if you haven’t changed the right privacy settings, your information could be collected by anyone who writes a quiz that your friends take!
– Developer’s aren’t vetted
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/15/facebook-lie-terms-of-service/
– Facebook suggest lying about your hometown and profile picture to protect yourself
– That in itself is against Facebooks T&C’s
Court Action Looming?
– 10 US based privacy groups have filed complaint to the federal trade commission over facebooks new privacy settings.
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8420431.stm
16:50 – Windows Mobile 7 Delayed
– Microsoft UK head of mobility Phil Moore addressed the thorny subject of Windows Mobile saying: “We’re still playing catch-up. When Apple came on to the scene a couple of years ago, it threw away the rulebook and reinvented it. We unfortunately don’t have that luxury. It’s true, Apple caught us all napping. It launched something that was very iconic, new and unseen with a very good user interface.”
– “It has been put back until late next year but it is definitely coming.”
19:46 – Palm Ares Beta
– Ares is the first complete set of integrated mobile development tools hosted entirely in the browser
– features a drag-and-drop interface builder, a robust code editor, a visual debugger, and built-in source control integration. Ares dramatically lowers the barriers for web developers to jump into mobile development and makes building webOS apps even easier and faster than before.
– drag-and-drop UI creation and the ability to deploy to your device from the browser (albeit so long as you’ve got the Mojo SDK installed).
21:59 – iMac Delays
– Flickering and other graphic card issues forcing 27″ iMac delays
– According to resellers, graphic cards are being replaced
– Lots of feedback in discussions on the website – http://imac.squeaked.com/
24:50 – Apple wins court battle against Psystar
– Judge bans Psystar from:
– Copying, selling, offering to sell, distributing or creating derivative works of Mac OS X without authorization from Apple
– Intentionally inducing, aiding, assisting, abetting or encouraging any other person or entity to infringe Apple’s copyrighted Mac OS X software
– Circumventing any technological measure that effectively controls access Mac OS X, including, but not limited to, the technological measure used by Apple to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X on non-Apple computers
– Playing any part in a product intended to circumvent Apple’s methods for controlling Mac OS X, such as the methods used to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X on non-Apple computers
– Doing anything to circumvent the rights held by Apple under the Copyright Act with respect to Mac OS X
– Rebel EFI software not specifically included in the ruling, because Psystar avoided describing specifically what the software does. However it is unlikely Psystar would be able to sell the software without finding itself in contempt if investigated again.
– It was reported earlier that Psystar was totally shutting down, but it has now emerged that is not the case
28:10 – Kindle App on Appstore
– Buy and read digital books
37:02 – BluRay 3D Spec
– Will work with PS3
– First, that the Blu-ray Disc Association has chosen the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec to store 3D, so that even though it is now providing a full 1080p frame for each eye, it will only require about 50% more storage space compared to the 2D version, and all discs will be fully backwards compatible, in 2D, on existing players
– Better than backwards compatibility, the PlayStation 3 will be forwards compatible with the new discs — a new HDTV setup (the spec promises to work with plasmas, LCDs or projectors equally well) with IR emitters and glasses will still be necessary
40:21 – PSP Digital Comics
– Launched on Wed 16th
– Marvel, IDW, Titan, iVerse and 2000AD
– http://playstationcomics.com
– Interesting – may need to charge up the PSP
41:27 – Gran Turismo Time Trial
– Dissapointing
– 1 track, tuned and ord version of car
– Handling….iffy – car difficult to control with joypad
– Aiming for wheel market? All fastest times by those with a wheel – forums reckon wheel trims 1-2 seconds from lap time
– Graphically underwhelming too – even saw a few stutters
42:55 – PSN Subscriptions
– Seems inevitable

Picks
Shakeel
Guardian App
– Guardian app hits the app store
– £2.39 so a bit of a stink from people saying that the website is free so why pay for the app?
– Writing in his blog about the application, The Guardian’s mobile product manager Jonathon Moore answered criticism of the decision to charge for it. “At an early stage we decided to set the bar high, which hopefully means the app has been planned, designed, tested and developed to offer a truly engaging experience,” he said. “The investment involved in this requires us to ask a small fee in return,” he said.
– The app offers an offline mode which allows you to stay in touch even if you don’t have a signal;
– easy access to audio and podcasts (including ‘download for listening later’);
– elegant personalisation;
– a topic-based search engine;
– the ability to follow all your favourite Guardian authors and contributors, and superb picture galleries

Ian
360 Live
– Great app for checking Xbox Live friends list
– Was paid for, now free
– So much better than other app’s – delve into frineds details, games played etc
– Can message from app as well

Perian
– Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.
– Do away with need for VLC

Chris
Doodlejump
– bouncy dude.
– Keep him bouncing on platforms and everything will be fine!
– Use the tools – like jet packs, springs, helicopter hats to help you on the way.
– Avoid black holes and shoot the baddies on the way.
– Fantastically simple. Annoyingly addictive. 59p.

DigitalOutbox Episode 28

DigitalOutbox Episode 28
In this episode the team discuss Google, JooJoo, Boxee and Tweeting during sex.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:56 – Google Search Event
– innovations combining these trends and mobile phones. Search by sight. Search by location, and search by voice.
– Near Instant Voice Translation
– showed a demo of “talk in English, run voice recognition, translate into Spanish, then do voice synthesis in Spanish.” So basically a Babel fish
– bake location into the Google.com homepage. New feature: “Near me now” on Google.com mobile. Hit Near Me now and it shows you nearby restaurants, coffee shops, Bars, ATMS. Hit the down arrow, and it will show all the locations nearby.
– Today we have a new version of Google Mobile Maps for Android. Among new features are What’s Nearby feature. Longpress on a location hit What’s Nearby, and it has a list of nearby POIs.
– Google Goggles
– Take a picture of an item, and use that picture as the query. Say you have a bottle of wine to see if it’s any good. Take a picture. Looks it up, shows it has hints of apricots, etc. It’s in labs for two reasons. It’s nascent. Works in certain types of objects in certain categories. We want to be able to do any image. Today you have to frame a photo. In the future, just have to point at an object. We’re a long way from that. But today marks the beginning of that journey.
– Crap name
– How long before face recognition search?
– Great demo – http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/07/google-goggles-video
– Currently android only but will come to iPhone
– Google Real-Time Search
– http://google.com/trends / http://google.co.uk/trends
– http://www.google.com/search?q=google%20goggles&hl=en&gl=us&esrch=RTSearch&rtfu=1260216053&usg=9073
– Does a query for “Obama” into Google, results page comes up. Latest results for Obama streaming in. There is a widget on the standard results page, with results sliding by. They’re nested in the standard results page. This is the first time any search engine has integrated real time web into the results page. Google’s Matt Cutts just tweeted something, and it immediately showed up in the search results. This is huge.
– This is the first time we are presenting real-time web on the results page. What you see in this realtime section. Is a scroll bar to the right. You can scroll back and go forward. Shows the source (twitter.com). This is a comprehensive real-time web. With Tweets. News Articles, blog articles.
– New link under search options. “Latest results”. In addition to old ones, “Past hour, past 24 hours, past week, past year”. Available today. iPhone and Android
– Google trends is also leaving labs today.Rolling out real time search product over the next couple of days. You can always go to Google.com/trends page and clicking on a hot topic will show Google’s real time results.
– Two huge new partner announcements. Facebook will be providing us with a feed from Facebook Pages (shared publicly, obviously). Appearing in Google’s real time results. The second is MySpace.
– Q: How much real-time data are you crawling?
A: We’re crawling a lot of content ~1 billion pages a day. Many sources. Both new sources, and if a company announces a new product and does a release, we get that. And new blog posts. So we’re casting a very wide net. The key here is comprehensiveness of realtime integration.
– Q: How do you prevent spammers from taking advantage of real-time search results.
A: We have the best systems in place to prevent gaming of the system. Our spam lead out here (Matt Cutts) runs the best spam prevention team that there is out there. We have had experience with this for so long. We’ve developer algorithms so we can counter things almost before they happen. Real-Time is moving from minutes to seconds.
7:26 – Broadband Tax Details Revealed
– Alistair Darling in pre-budget report. £6 a year for all fixed line phone users so that people in Wales can have Broadband.
– Superfast broadband to 90% of the country by 2017… 2 0 1 7!!! In technology time-scales that’s just plain ridiculous.
– “It is estimated that the broadband tax would raise around £170m a year, which is some way short of BT’s estimate of £5bn needed to provide super-fast fibre services to every UK home.”
– Apparently, the Conservatives have pledged to scrap the tax if they win the election next year… So we should probably just ignore this until it goes away? But is there a need for this tax?
10:12 – Web Firms Oppose Digital Britain Clause
– Facebook, Google, Yahoo and eBay
– Want removal of clause 17 that gives any future Secretary of State powers to change copyright law as they see fit.
11:06 – Postcode Data to be free in 2010
– Currently organisations that want access to datasets that tie postcodes to physical locations cannot do so without incurring a charge.
– Following a brief consultation, the postcode information is set to be freed in April 2010.
– As part of this push, the government said it would start “consulting on making Ordnance Survey mapping and postcode datasets available for free reuse from April 2010.”
– The dataset that is likely to be freed is that which ties postcodes to geographic locations. Many more commercial organisations use the Postcode Address File (PAF) that ties post codes to addresses. Currently access to either data set incurs a charge.
– Harry Metcalfe, who helped sites get at postcode data, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the decision to open up the OS data sets.
“If the right data is released in the right way, this will be a positive development,” he said.
– Unlikely to be the PAF – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/10/ordnance_survey_data_postcode_paf/
– Woo hoo – just hope it’s released without strings.
12:50 – US Games Company sues British Blogger
– In an internet defamation case that lawyers say could set an “extraordinary precedent”, an American games company is suing a British blogger in the Australian courts.
– Evony, an online games company registered in the US state of Delaware, is suing Coventry-based blogger Bruce Everiss for libel over a series of allegations made on his website. In a bizarre twist, however, Evony has decided not to pursue its case in Britain or America, but 10,000 miles away.
– A hearing in Sydney on Monday will determine whether or not the supreme court of New South Wales has jurisdiction – with the potential to set a precedent for the way defamation laws are applied to the online world.
– Evony’s owners, who boast that the game has more than 11 million players worldwide, have accused Everiss – a 30-year veteran of the computer games industry – of damaging their reputation with a series of claims made on his blog. Among the allegations that Evony is objecting to are claims that the game is exploitative and has links to another company that is already being sued for fraud by Microsoft.
– Evony’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment, but have previously said that the company intends to seek worldwide damages – a move believed to be a first in a case of this kind.
– The blogger himself, who does not intend to make an appearance in Sydney, has responded angrily to the action and accused Evony of libel tourism.
– He has suggested that if the case is allowed to proceed “it will create a precedent and open the floodgates for anyone to litigate anywhere against anyone they don’t like”.
15:44 – Facebook Changes Privacy Controls
– Facebook has rolled out its long touted updates to the privacy controls. Great.
– They are fine grained and allow you to control many aspects. They are clear and well implemented.
– But why the heck does it default to fully open!
– As a user, you are presented with a box informing you to update your settings.
23:15 – Tweet During Sex
– Best man rigs bed to tweet while couple are having sex – start time, end time, frenzy rating
– http://twitter.com/newlywedsontjob
26:03 – Google Chrome Beta for Mac
– Finally comes to the mac
– No extension support (there is in dev build) – in fact bookmakrs manager, app mode, task manager and gears support missing
– No flash blocker!
– Very fast though, faster than safari, for me anyway
– Needs xmarks support before I can use it seriously
– Also announced Extensions (previously dev only)
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/08/chrome-extensions-live/
– https://chrome.google.com/extensions
– Rem The Milk, Xmarks, Adblock etc etc – happy days
30:16 – UStream Live Recorder
– Live video streaming finally comes to iPhone
– 10-20 secodn delay but quality is fine
– App is free
– record videos right to the web, and allow others to watch them as they’re being recorded. These videos can also be archived so that people can watch them later, if they choose.
– easy to automatically tweet out when you go live, as well as to do things like share the videos on Facebook and YouTube. The live broadcast can also send out your location, if you’re into that sort of thing. The app also allows for chatting with viewers, and yes/no polling.
33:46 – Tesco iPhone Pricing
– For the 3Gs, £20 x 12 months + £407 = £647 or £60 x 24 months + £50 = £1,490
– Highest cost per month on 3GS or 3G but appealing 12 month contract instead of 18 or 2 years
– £60 – unlimited but limited by Fair Usage Policy…which is 1 TB of data!
– £20 – low minutes and texts
– Different but a bad different from current UK deals
– http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49304500,00.htm?s_cid=82
– cnet uk analysis implies that when you compare like for life cost of ownership over the same period, Tesco deals are best out there.
38:07 – Apple Sues Nokia
– Nokia sued Apple in Nov for 10 patent infringements
– apple now sues Nokia for 13 patent infringements
– “Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.” That was the only official Apple statement we’ve yet seen on the matter, by Bruce Sewell, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president.
44:47 – Boxee Beta and Boxee Box
– private beta with a new and improved look
– users are greeted by a dashboard with three columns in the form of a newsfeed, featured content and a program queue
– newsfeed offers starred content and comments from Boxee, Twitter and Facebook friends
– center column is reserved for featured community content
– the program queue lets you to keep track of your Netflix queue and latest Boxee-related TV subscriptions
– In the past users were asked to differentiate between their local and web files. Boxee Beta mixes local and web content in recognition that users simply want to watch their favorite programs regardless of the formats or location of files
– plan to open up the Beta to the public on Jan 7th (at CES) – Over the next 4 weeks we will gradually release invitations to our early access users
– Also announced Boxee Box
– http://mashable.com/2009/12/07/boxee-box-dlink/
– Hardware partner is D-Link
– Wi-fi enabled, SD slot, HDMI, SPDIF and RCA Audio connections, plus two USB ports – full specs in Jan
– $200
– Design is pretty unique – height of a coke can
– But would your money be better spent on a laptop/mini-desktop that you can install the software on and use for other purposes?
50:50 – Google Phone
– A Google branded android phone which, if rumours are true, will be sold unlocked
– Game changer
– Android dogfood – http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/12/android-dogfood-diet-for-holidays.html
– The phone itself is being built by HTC, with a lot of input from Google. It seems to be a tailored version of the HTC Passion or the related HD2 (Unlocker scored some leaked pictures back in October which are of the same phone).
– From tweets: Yeah, it’s a hot, sexy mess. And I mean that in a good way. Similar form-factor to the iPhone, but with a smooth-brushed-metal-looking shell instead of a glossy one. And perhaps a smidgen lighter. Super fast, speech-to-text in EVERY app, awesome “live wallpapers” in the background that respond to touch in really beautiful ways. Like water ripples that emanate out from a touch.
– Rumours of January launch, but is it not just a rebrand of another phone?
– Called the Nexus One, It’s built by HTC, Google put a lot of effort into tweaking the stock Android interface, they’ll sell the phone direct online, and you’ll BYO service plan
55:43 – Milestone Sells Out In UK
– Retailer eXpansys is reporting that the just-launched Droid clone for GSM became “the fastest selling gadget in the website’s 11 year history, even more successful than the iPhone” when it sold out inside of three hours on its site on top of the roughly 1,000 preorders they had taken prior to the 10th.
– Expansys is a reasonably big seller in the UK, but only the geeks know it exists.
– The general public in the UK haven’t a clue what a milestone/droid is.
– It is only with Expansys exclusively for 2 weeks. From 21 December Play.com will also have it and from next year, it should be sold at phone shops from different networks
58:48 – Crunchpad is now the JooJoo
– Is available as pre-order (shipping within 8-10weeks) on thejoojoo.com – $499. Desktop stand $30.
– Boot to the internet in 9 seconds – fastest out there
– Could deliver HD on the go (Although it only mentions HD YouTube, Hulu and other Internet sites… screams – NOT 720p to me.)
– It’s a web browser with a touch interface – too dear, people will wait for Apple, damaged goods. (But what if Apple device does cost rumored $1000)
– After a long background story about how and why he partnered with Arrington on the Crunchpad (”I guess I had him at hello”), Rathakrishnan got down and dirty: “Unfortunately, Michael was unable to deliver. Michael was completely unable to deliver.” Rathakrishnan also criticized Arrington’s Internet-celebrity approach to talking up the Crunchpad before its launch. “Publishing pictures of an unfinished product on a blog … is not a recipe for success,” he said. In Rathakrishnan’s version of the story, Arrington spent his time blowing hot air about what he was going to do, while Fusion Garage did all the work to finish the design and build the product.
– Chris – But this clearly worked as there has been more buzz around this than plenty of other MID’s.
– http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10410960-250.html
– First hands on – good, fast to boot, no app’s, no storage, web browser and touch screen – too focussed, too expensive

Picks
Shakeel
Beat It
– Part beat machine, part rhythm (re)creation, totally addictive
– http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/beat-it/id335583964?mt=8
– listen to a track, lay down the beats, match the beat
– super retro 8-bit pixel-art graphics
– http://games.glu.com/game/beat-it

Ian
TuneChecker
– Find the cheapest price of music on the web
– Doesn’t compare quality of the music though so mileage may vary
– Also highlights free tracks
– Developed by moneysavingexpert.com

I Love Stars
– Sits in menu bar and shows you rating, lets you rate iTunes tracks
– Flash or play sound 3/4 way through playback of unrated song
– Supports keyboard shortcuts
– Free

Chris
Acrobat
– Adobe’s online suite. Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation apps.
– Online PDF creation.
– Online meetings – whiteboards, webcams, mics, screen sharing and even screen control.
– Online repository for files.
– All run from Flash player.
– Free account limited to 5 PDF creations per day and 3 people limit in meetings. (Premium subscriptions available to raise limits.)

Tam
Free-OCR.com
– Free-OCR.com is a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool. You can use this to perform OCR on any image you supply.
– This service is free, no registration necessary. We also do not need your email address.
– Just upload your image files. Free-OCR takes either a JPG, GIF, TIFF BMP or PDF (only first page).
– The only restriction is that the images must not be larger than 2MB, no wider or higher than 5000 pixels and there is a limit of 10 image uploads per hour.
– Supported by ad’s but a nice way of getting some OCR done quickly, for free without installing software