In this episode, Katie and David cover some of their favorite Mac related gadgets.
Links of note
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MonoPrice Display Port ot HDMI
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Great show as usual, thanks.
On the issue of having a home server, I wanted to briefly share my experience. I have a Mac Mini which serves the dual purpose of the being my media centre (attached to the big TV in the living room) and my always-on home server. That was one of the key reasons I went for the mini rather than the Apple TV – it performs both of those tasks well.
By having it on all of the time it filters the mail that arrives at my iPhone and iPad, it serves up my media to any of the computers around my house and I can use Dropbox to initiate TV/movie downloads from work.
The final, really cool, advantage of having the server always on is that you can use an inexpensive app on the iPad or iPhone called Air Video to stream that video to your device wherever you are in the world. The app even converts on the fly so you don’t need to have converted it to a supported video format beforehand. It’s great to know that I can pull out the iPad wherever I am and have almost instant access to the all the movies and TV shows sitting on my computer at home. And because the mac mini has such great power management I have no qualms about leaving it on 24/7.
A couple of reasons for Mac Mini server:
1) VPN server, so you can set a VPN on your iPhone/iPad. You will be always protected regardless the wifi you are connected to due to the fact that all the connections will be encrypted back to your home and only from that point on will be unencrypted.
2) Attach a Drobo to it and use the filesharing in order to backup multiple macs with Time Machine to a single, reliable place.
I would love if someone could point me to explanation of how the color toner/ink runs low when printing black only copies.
(Thanks!)
Hello,
I used to be very interested in this whole itunes server thing to stream my music and videos to my living room. However, now with Rhapsody and netflix, i have cut my consumption of Itunes products exponentially: i can get most movies and songs without actually downloading them in itunes.
So if most of my songs and movies are played through netflix and rhapsody, the apple tv really loses its value, and I’m better off connecting a computer to my stereo/hdtv (yes, I’m ashamed to say: a msi netbook with a wonderful hdmi port that sells for about 500 dollars!).
As subscription services become more and more popular and all-encompassing, you got to ask yourself if it is really worth it to “own” a song or a movie, vs accessing the entire universe of media via a small monthly fee.
After much trial and error I have found a combination of products that allows me to use and charge my iphone (3GS) in the car.
1) Car specific mount and adaptor at Proclipusa.com. I have two of these one for my car and truck. The are rock solid and clip on to the console. I bought the adjustable holder with tilt swivel. It works great with every case I’ve owned.
2) PocketDock Line out mini USB from sendstation.com. Allows a much better audio from the 30 pin connector to 3.5 mm mini-jack to plug into an auxiliary Jack eliminating the need of an extra cable sticking out of the top of the iPhone.
3) Any 12 volt to USB charger with a USB to mini cable. I use a crinkle tube sleeve to make the installation neat.
4) Ground Loop Isolator & RCA Noise Filter PAC SNI-1/3.5 available through ebay or Crutchfield for around $18. This completely eliminated the whining sound I would get with acceleration.
I’ve had this basic setup now for about a year and found it to be pretty much bulletproof. The only minor annoyance is the stupid “this accessory is not compatible …” message that I dismiss and everything works fine.
I would recommend Griffin’s WindowSeat car mount, best I have had although I now use TomTom iPhone mount, I still have WindowSeat
I too am waiting for the ‘magic’ Mac media server. Apple could own this space if they could leverage the commercial relationships with the content providers.
I’ve listened to a number of podcasts covering adding movie media to iTunes but no one ever seems to help users with adding metadata, subtitles, HD/SD tagging etc. You typically end up with pretty scruffy movie and TV libraries. With Davids OCD I cannot believe that he lets his itunes get this way.
I’ve looked at 3rd party software to help automate this and have created a 3 part article covering ripping, adding metadata subtitles and HD-SD tagging and optimal TV shows. If you’re interested please take a look at my articles on my website at http://www.theapplechap.com. A shortcut to the first of the 3 articles is at:
http://www.theapplechap.com/TheAppleChap/Blog/Entries/2010/4/23_Perfect_video_in_iTunes_-_Part_1Getting_great_ripped_content.html
I’ve ended up with a fantastic library that feeds the optimal resolution content to what ever device that can access the iTunes libruary.
Hope you find it useful.
Alan
That Scosche tip is great. I’ve been dealing with that “Charging is not available” message on my iPod Touch forever but I didn’t want to take apart my stereo (again) to replace the iPod connector. This is perfect. Thanks!