Solution Spheres

Using Apple technologies (and possibly others) to create a seamless digital lifestyle for home and business.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Front Row on NTSC TV's

I happened to see Front Row running on a plain ol' TV the other day. It was gorgeous. A mac mini was connected via crummy little RCA jacks (not even gold), about the worst signal you can get, on a mediocre 29" TV. The gradients in the background of FR's interface had no banding! The fonts on screen were smooth and legible. Everything looked fantastic.

Front Row is made for TV. Say it with me: Front Row is made for your television.

Will the Mac mini be superseded by the Mac nano?

Imagine a set-top PVR with integrated iPod dock. You can run it headless, via BT keyboard, mouse, or IR remote... through the TV. Or you can buy a wireless tablet screen as an accessory to interface with things like email, iCal, photos, etc.... Then those Airport Expresses to spread the joy across the house.

Perhaps I've said too much.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Front Row hacked, the juice is loose

Go here to get Front Row on your Mac. YMMV. As seen on TUAW!

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Automatically get video onto your iPod using p2p

It's a mashup of tools like videora and azeurus (if you don't know what those are read the article anyway), but it looks pretty cool. Hackaday has the deets on grabbing vids off the net and plopping them on your 5g iPod automatically each night. Not as easy as the method below, or obviously buying them off iTMS, but very cool for you DIY crews.

Not only that, but you can get stuff off p2p faster than the store (like Lost).

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Turn EyeTV vids to iPoddable vids

So I still use my EyeTV, though not as I'd intended, because I'm being cheap and not wanting to pony up the dough and time to put Airport on my mini. There it sits in a corner, tethered to TV cable, but not internet cable. I need a cheaper wireless solution, as the WAP-11 won't act as a simple pass-thru for DHCP... Or something like that. I'm no networking guru, that's for sure.

HOWEVER, if I ever get an iPod for video (the 5th gen one), I'll really want to automate the process of capturing TV shows and plopping them onto my iPod. Jim Heid has put together a great how-to on getting video from the EyeTV to the iPod. Thanks for beating me to the punch Jim!

He also notes that a future rev of the EyeTV app will include an iPod video preset (as the latest QT 7 Pro does). So that's a good thing.

Now I need to setup an AppleScript (since Automator is too lame to do it) that'll take a recording, once it's done, and export to iTunes. Should be easy when the preset is available, as EyeTV is very scriptable. That way I'll have auto downloads of shows onto my pod!

Why? I'm a BIG "Lost" fan, but I work on Weds nights. So I'm missing it like right now... And I don't want to pay $1.99 just to have commercials removed. I'll just record it, and have it on my iPod in the morning (because I can plug in at night, see how that works?). Nifty. That is, IF I get a 5th gen iPod!

Monday, October 17, 2005

Steve Jobs has a posse


Steve Jobs has a posse
Originally uploaded by superpixel.
This one is just for fun. Jobs has a fascinating history, really. At the epicenter of the Silicon Valley story, he and others have made the technology world what it is today... Check Wikipedia.org for a great short story... What's interesting to me is how Sun, IBM, Microsoft and others have either been enemies or allies of Apple at any given time, and Steve has just about seen it all.

More tips coming soon!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Stop the Broadcast Flag-- again

Why do we keep going down this road? Obviously the boneheads in Hollywood STILL don't get technology... They have, once again, tried to resurrect the Broadcast Flag. What's that?

Well, you know how you can plug in a VCR to your cable and tape a show, then watch it on your TV? That's nice, isn't it? Well the Broadcast Flag would make sure that, in the future of HDTV, that is NOT possible. No more recording for you! In Hollywood's America every citizen is a thief, guilty until sued out of existence. And even then they want you to buy the package of Dorito's with Yoda on it...

So let's kill this thing AGAIN. Some really stupid congressional idiots have actually been suckered into supporting this crap, and BoingBoing.net has their info here. I'm dismayed to see rep. Marsha Blackburn, from my state of TN is on there. I think I met Marsha back when I lived in Nashville.

This is SO stupid...

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Video DJ tool

Oh how I wish I had the dough to try this out: the Tactic M2 from Livid Instruments. It's like something out of a BBC sci-fi show. It's freakin' sweet!

The Tactic M2 is literally like a video mixer, and as such you can mix video streams (and audio, naturally) just like a DJ mixes the music. Very cool. It's for the Mac!

Monday, October 03, 2005

Sun and Google teaming up

Wow, Marc Perton has a nose for news. I hadn't seen this yet, but he pulled this info on Google and Sun's big announcement tomorrow. The post (on Download Squad) actually refers to the roadmap for Open Office, or rather StarOffice, which Google has been kicking around...

Put that together with Jordan's post on Jon Schwartz (also from Sun, for those who don't know) saying everyone would rather ditch their desktop apps before their browser... Doesn't this sound like the beginning of a Google OS?

Well, duh for many techies, but for those of you unfamiliar with all this, and how it would make a useful solution, allow me to explain very briefly.

A web-based office app, combined with online calendar/email/newsfeed apps, and some form of online storage is a holy grail. Imagine being able to walk up to any network-enabled device and get to all your work. Between this, Google's purchasing of fiber lines, gearing up wireless spots...

Well, when you connect the dots I think it's clear that 2006 may be the year of the Google.

I'm hoping they get to releasing some more Mac apps, like Earth and Picasa. But having an online work solution would be cool. If they could tap in to Backpack features, that'd be nice too...