The Apple TV update has been released within the last week, and I have finally had plenty of time to play with it, so here is my review.

Declaration of Bias
First off, I want to let you know my bias with regard to all things Apple. Yes, I love Apple products, but not because they are from Apple. It’s because I like the functionality that they give, the simplicity in their setup, and the power of UNIX at the core. So, now that you know my bias, on with the review!

The Interface
I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the interface, some from a “design” aspect, some in regard to the blatant iTunes marketing. But to tell you the truth, it’s just plain easy to use. It’s not fluid, but because of the new features they offer in the upgrade it doesn’t seem possible to make it fluid.

The only real difference from the UI in Take 2 from the original is the box that shows up. I actually prefer the two column box because menu options come up while your music plays, and doesn’t stop it like before. So in that aspect, it’s a better interface.

Is there anything that I don’t like about the interface? Just entering text. It’s awkward using the Apple remote to enter text, and as such takes too long to do any real searching. Would I want a bigger and more cumbersome remote with a built in keyboard? Absolutely not! It would then be too difficult to use, and too confusing for new users. And I know what you are thinking: if they don’t want to learn how to do it, why should you cater to them? Because those people have money to buy the product. Simplicity is what makes the Apple TV a joy to use.

Movies
One thing that I don’t think people understand about the potential of iTunes is the potential to cater to the cult classics that you can’t get anywhere else. Want to watch “Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine”? It’s there. It’s all about the rare, and getting that rare to those that would buy it.

With that in mind, let’s look at rental. It’s a great idea, and I really like it. There are a lot of movies that we purchase and only watch once or twice… That’s $30 down the drain, when instead we can rent it from iTunes and watch it to our hearts content (once or twice within a 24 hour period), and only pay $2.99 to $3.99. Do I care about HD? Not really, because I only have an Standard Definition TV. I’ve heard reviews and seen screen shots that compare the quality of the Apple TV to HD Cable shows, and it’s been favorable with the Apple TV. But again, it’s dependent on services and the TV you are using.

Browsing shared movies is similar to the original Apple TV, if only vaguely. It’s actually easier, because you can browse to them from the Movies menu instead of having to go to Sources to find the source. In fact the navigation let’s you get to other sources easier than before.

Renting is simple, though there isn’t a lot out there to rent. But what is there is a fairly diverse genre spread that would make most people interested at least. If you download a movie, it will sync automatically with your main source machine. If you don’t have a main source machine, it stays on your Apple TV. ^_^ That I really like. Once you are done renting (i.e., 1 month of not watching, or within 24 hours of when you started to watch the movie), it automatically deletes itself from your Apple TV/iTunes.

TV Shows
This was the only annoyance I had with the update. By default, it displays your TV shows by show, time stamp, and then alphabetically. There looked to be a way to organize the display, but no simple way to be seen to organize it. I was doomed to deal with my TV shows out of order, until I tried to just hit the right skip button on the remote. It then organized the TV shows by show, which was what I had before the upgrade.

One welcome addition to this view was the division by season, and then give the numbers of each episode. It makes it easier to see if you have all the episodes, and make sure they are in order. Needless to say, the one major complaint I had against the Take 2 upgrade was resolved.

Music
I don’t listen to a lot of music, but my wife does. One thing that is a great improvement is the Air Tunes option, where someone can play their music from their mac on the Apple TV. I like it, because I can leave the TV off to get to the music, and it gives more space on the Apple TV for movies and TV shows (soon to no longer be an issue, if I can talk my wife into the hard drive upgrade for the Apple TV).

Other than that, it’s pretty much like movies or TV shows, with sharing very easy to navigate, and a huge emphasis on iTunes.

Podcasts
I love podcasts. I listen to several, mostly from NPR. The search isn’t the best (see complaint about entering text), but sharing is great and easy to navigate. One great thing is the video podcasts for movie trailers. Because our wireless broadband network is, well, rather unreliable at times (anytime UTOPIA becomes ready, I’m dumping it), downloading to the Apple TV to watch a preview can take quite a bit of time. So, I would rather download the podcasts for the movies at work, and then bring them home to watch.

Photos
Photos are not often used on our machine, other than as a screensaver, but the Apple TV does allow for connecting to Flickr and the .Mac repository that my wife would have had access to (but never used, thank goodness for trial accounts!). They are easy to set up, the settings are in the same menu (no more hunting), and you can also view shared photos from machines. WIll it be a good move? Well, only if I find a use for browsing through Flickr files on a regular basis. Until then, it’s really a non-issue for me.

YouTube
I just recently got my wife interested in YouTube, and created an account for us to use on YouTube. Now I connect at work, find interesting movies, and I can bring them home and have my wife watch them on the main TV. The only drawback is the broadband network we are on, and the problems we seem to have with bandwidth. Ah, well, perhaps one day it will be a good tool to use. In any case, other than search, the Apple TV is a really good tool to watch YouTube on a big screen.

Settings
The settings were pretty much the same, though they had an added option to add your iTunes account to the Apple TV directly. It’s time consuming, but keeps it on file and not in RAM. Good thing, because occasionally my son likes to play with the power strip into witch it is plugged. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same.

Final Thoughts
The main drawback to the Apple TV is the hard drive size. The good news is that it’s fairly easy to upgrade the hard drive (out of warranty, of course), and will cost just a little more to upgrade an Apple TV 40 GB to 250 GB than buying an Apple TV 160 GB.

Also, there are a number of hacks that can be loaded to the Apple TV, one of which is the Safari HD plugin, allowing someone to use Safari on the Apple TV without having to install a full version of OS X. They have a version for the new Take 2 update, so once I can talk my wife into letting me upgrade the hard drive, I’m going to look into it. You can also enable SSH, which makes upgrading the Apple TV that much easier.

So, is the Apple TV worth it? With the hacks, most definitely. Without the hacks, it is very usable, simple in it’s navigation, and therefore a definite keeper. Can you build and configure a more expandable device? Sure, if you want to go through all the work, time, effort, etc. Frankly, I like the fact that the Apple TV is just so simple to use. I can rip my DVD’s with Handbrake, add them to iTunes, and as such they are viewable on the Apple TV.

And finally, of course, it saves my DVD’s from my son’s fingers, and the fingers of his cousins.

Well, the speculation is over, the rumor and anticipation is done, Steve’s Keynote has been delivered. There were a number of updates, and two new products, that were announced. Let me go over them one by one, and give you my reaction to each of them.

Time Capsule
Time Capsule is a new device that Apple has that combines the Airport Extreme with a backup drive already on board. So, instead of getting another drive and adding it to your Airport Extreme, you have just the one device. Very handy, very popular, very much in need when using Time Machine to back up your data. If you don’t already have a server running at home that will let you back up your machine, this is a great idea.

At the time of the announcement, I was rather luke-warm about this device, since it is kind of a watered down home SAN, but it didn’t really grab me. Now, I think it’s something that I would like to have. It integrates with Time Machine well, so there isn’t a lot of configuration and thought that needs to go into backing up your system. It just does it for you. Of course, you can save a lot of space if you only back up your Users folder, which backs up all the user folders and configuration files. ^_^

iPhone Updates
Great idea, adding a lot of functionality to the already popular phone. But I don’t have a phone, and I’m not sure I will ever get a phone. Why wasn’t there an option to tether a Bluetooth keyboard? That, in my mind, would have been a much needed/wanted ability for the iPhone. Perhaps in future, as new software becomes more popular and functional with the SDK.

iPod Touch Updates
This was very much needed. It’s about time! The update will be welcome for everyone that want’s to have the functionality of the iPhone without wanting an actual phone. For the first time, I am seriously thinking of getting an iPod Touch. Course, if you already have one, the extra $20.00 seems a bit steep. Why charge for the upgrade?

iTunes Movie Rentals
We all knew this was coming, particularly since a lot of studios have been rather loose-lipped about the whole thing. It’s a good move, in my mind. There are a lot of movies I have ripped into MP4 format that sit on a DVD somewhere, never to be watched. All the DVD’s that we have purchased and have only watched once… It’s a good move. And the price is about what I expected. The HD rental idea was pretty cool, though I wonder what the download rate would be.

Do I think it will change the industry? Not really. I think it will be more popular, easier to manage, and more natural for people because of their current use of iTunes, but ultimately the industry is too young to say that it will be changed forever by this announcement. But it does make using the current industry more simple to use. ^_^

Apple TV Take 2
Yes! It stores it’s own media! Yes! The upgrade is free! Yes! This was the real announcement for me. The Apple TV had so much potential, but it felt like those of us using it for so long had been pretty much left out of the loop. It was great for sharing media from my wife’s Mac, and still will be. But now we can rent movies to it easily, watch them, and have the movie automatically delete once we’ve watched it. Also, video podcasts can be downloaded and watched without having to use another machine. This was a great idea, and I’m glad Apple went with it. ^_^

The price drop was also nice, though not significant enough to warrant another purchase of the 160 GB model (yet). Yet again, price begins to drag on my wants, reminding me of the needs that are more pressing. Oh well, perhaps soon.

Macbook Air
The rumor was pretty strong on this one, and I thought it would be something similar to the Eee PC by ASUS. The devil was in the details, depending on the type of drive, size, and features it carried. It turned out to be the same, much the same way a Honda Civic is the same thing as a Mercedes Benz. Here are the points:

1. Size: It’s perfect for what I want. I need something small, easy to carry around in either a backpack, briefcase, or even a portfolio. That’s why I wanted an iPod Slate to begin with. Something like that would have been perfect, and they have given me basically a Slate with the keyboard attached. It’s nice and compact, if wider than I would have wanted (in comparison to my 12″ Powerbook).

The thing is, I don’t really need a 13″ screen. I can deal with a 8″ screen (I did with my NEC 120LT for a couple years, and it was great!). So the screen size isn’t actually a benefit for me. It could be, if I needed to see something that big, and the resolution is right where I would want it to be. But a small screen I can live with.

2. Weight: Great weight. I like small laptops that are lightweight. My 120LT that I had for years was 2.2 pounds. That was perfect for running around. This gives me the ability to write documents, show presentations, carry my movies/TV shows with me, and having a full OS that will work with the classes I teach. And it’s all in a small form device that is about the same size and width of a 30 page document (estimate only). That I like. It’s perfect particularly for any instructor in Distance Education, who want’s to have the power of a full-sized laptop, but save on space while traveling.

But how does it compare to the Eee PC? The Eee PC is lighter by a full pound. So even though the weight is great for the Macbook Air, it’s still not the lightest option out there.

3. Drive: This is what concerned me the most. Solid State drives have a limited number of writes before it fails. Granted, pretty much everything could have the same, but a solid state drive is more limited. With a full OS writing to it constantly (log files, caching, deleting, etc.), it can fail rather quickly.

I had mentioned before in a previous post that if such a thing were to be developed, it would be nice to have an iPod Classic drive in the machine. And that’s what they did. It’s not really fast (4200 RPM), so don’t expect to be gaming heavily on it, or producing video with Final Cut Pro. But it will do the job, and potentially last longer than a Solid State Drive.

Course, if you want speed, the 64 GB (compared to the Eee PC’s max of 8 GB) will definitely give it to you…at a cost. That cost? $999. yep, the 4200 RPM PATA drive was a good choice. ^_^

One thing it can’t do is boot from a USB drive, unlike the Eee PC. Of course, I could be wrong about that, but that is a huge bonus with the Eee PC. Sure the SSD drive may die on it after a few years, but you can still boot from either a USB drive, or an SD card. Therefore, you have a device that can outlast the SSD drive installed, as well as have multiple versions of the OS for the machine.

4. Peripherals: The Macbook Air was built to be wireless, and use wireless devices. Sure, you can have an external, USB powered Superdrive ($99 extra), or another USB device, but that’s it. It doesn’t even have a Firewire port, as you might expect. The Micro-DVI port looks interesting (almost like a 400 Firewire port??), but if you lose your adapter you are sunk. No one else will have one that will work with it, unless they have the same machine.

The wireless technology is what you would expect from Apple: 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1. There was a guess that it would include either UTMS or WiMAXX, but neither came about. I wouldn’t mind WiMAXX… I like the idea and the technology. Perhaps in future incarnations of the Macbook Air as the technology begins to catch on. We will see.

The Eee PC has three USB ports, and an SD card slot. Great idea, but SD cards are easily lost (particularly if you are as disorganized as I am). But then, the USB ports could easily make up for that. Wireless is the standard 802.11g, which most people support.

5. Design: Quite frankly, the Macbook Air has a killer design. It’s sleek, it’s fancy, it’s impressive. It will turn heads, and be the kind of tech status symbol that many people feel they need in their lives. Personally, it’s not as important as a number of other features, but then I still like to have something that looks as good as it performs. The key there is as good as. I don’t want something that looks fabulous, but totally bomb in performance. It still needs to do what I want it to do.

The Eee PC doesn’t look as nice, but the ability to boot from any Linux distro at any time, while keeping your home folders on the main drive is pretty slick. The geek factor goes up pretty high at that point. Of course you can always tri-boot the Macbook Air, you just don’t have the flexibility to move based on new storage.

6. Price: For those (two) of you who have followed my blog, you know that I pride myself on my Scottish heritage. It’s in my Blog’s name, I show it every April 6th (national Tartan Day!), and I try to show it in my purchasing of devices. I’m very wary of paying a load of money for a new thing just because it is “shiny”. I want to have made an informed decision, and gone with the lowest bid.

Now, that doesn’t mean that I automatically look at price! I look at quality, life expectancy, and multi-tasking my purchases. if it does one thing really well, but I can’t do anything else with it, then I generally leave it be (unless it’s under a dollar ^_^). So with high prices comes high expectations. If I can do the same thing with a lesser-priced device, I will go with the lesser priced device. It’s simple rules of economics.

The Macbook Air is priced at $1,799.00, with an Education discount of $100. Good price? It hurt my wallet. I want the thing, but that’s a bit much for me to muster. I need a new laptop, and I really would like it to be a Mac. It makes a $999.00 Macbook look a lot better. After all, it’s just a little thicker, has more features, and weighs just two more pounds. I just can’t put it in a Portfolio while on the go.

Course, the Eee PC is priced around $400.00, which makes it a much better purchase. I could purchase two and still have it be less than a Macbook.

Anyway, that’s what I thought of today’s MacWorld Keynote. All in all, they were all really neat. But I don’t think I will be getting a Macbook Air today. Perhaps, if more is known on how it performs with Target Disk Mode, and other support features, I may change my mind and try to talk my wife into letting me get one. Perhaps…

Like many people that have purchased the Apple TV around the globe, I have been limited to the 32 GB available for storage on the machine (unlike those that purchased Gen 2 with a 160 GB drive). As such, only a portion of my overall movie collection can be stored on the device. Even with the 160 GB hard drive device, I could only have about a third of my total collection stored on the device.

Since this concern has been quite vocal in the community, a bounty had been set through Apple TV Hacks to enable booting off of the core machine, but use a USB device for storage. Since that bounty had been set, it appears that a real fix has been developed and is expected to be made available this evening. if you would like more information, check out the post on Apple TV Hacks here.

Now, if they can just release a method of installing third party tools onto the iPhone, than I will be in Apple heaven. ^_^

THis week I am on vacation, working in the yard and spending some quality time with my son. But, being the geek that I am, I have kept busy with other things too. I’ve spent some time looking at video compression software, working with sharing images to my Apple TV, and looking for an acceptable way to activate an iPhone without having to worry about monthly charges (I don’t like cell phones period, even if it’s really cool). So, here’s a quick review of what I’ve been doing, for those who are interested.

The Back Yard
Since I worked for an obscure ISP that stopped paying me, I have been letting my back yard go wild. THis isn’t because of any particular choice, more because I haven’t had the money to really fix it up. Well, as we are started to get a handle on things, I have started to work on the back yard. I had a lot of plans for it (as documented in my blog), but zoning laws have been keeping them from happening.

Well, I decided to shoot a bit lower with my plans, and just go for your basic back yard. I started by tilling under the weeds that have grown with a vigor that has daunted me for years. I then set some bricks down in a rough patio on the side of the house. All this in 100 degree weather (37.778 C for those metric fellows). I dismantled the foundation to the greenhouse I was going to build, and will settle for a quick and easy one over the current garden area. That will be easier to set up, and simpler to build. THe cob project is still under construction, and will be completed by the end of the month.

VIdeo Compression
I have a lot of video that I would like to convert to an Apple TV-Friendly format. These videos are in RealMedia format. I thought I could do it with VideoHub, but it doesn’t support a lot of RealMedia formats. The video converted just fine, but it converted without any audio. Ah, well, back to the drawing board.

Streaming Video to Apple TV
With the latest version of iTunes, you can now stream your photo content to your Apple TV, and it displays in a slide show with music from your iTunes library playing along with it. Unfortunately, it plays all your iTunes library, so those tracks that I have of my “Teach Yourself Gaelic” are playing along. This is turned on within your Apple TV section within iTunes, in the Photos pane.

iPhone Hacking
Yes, I admit it, I really want an iPhone. Any surprise, considering that I have been talking about Apple products for quite a while? But I don’t really want a cell phone. I hate them, because it’s an additional expense that is hard to justify when I have phones everywhere I go. What I really want is a PDA that can do network SIP phone work, or have Skype installed. Something like that would be perfect.

Well, as such, the iPhone would be great (if you could install Skype on it, or any SIP phone client). I honestly believe that it’s on the way, and will worry about that when I finally get the funding to purchase the phone. But for now, I would just like to know that it can be activated without having to sign up for an AT&T account.

Having partly answered that question, the folks at Hackint0sh have found a way to do it. In this post here, some one found out that you can activate one phone, and then activate the other without having more than one phone number. It was all by accident, and will probably be taken care of in future releases. THey are also working on a number of hacks to open up the phones to other services. I’ll be happy if they can find a way to activate the phone without having to purchase a service. This was one step.

Local Government Blues
As many of you know, I have been actively petitioning the local governments here for various things. Now, I don’t expect them to actually act on the things I petition for right away. After all, I’m not that important. But I would at least like the consideration of a response, even a form letter of some sort. As of yet, I have not heard from County Mayor Peter Corroon, or West Valley City Councilman Joel Coleman. Needless to say, I’m not going to even consider voting for these men without some sort of acknowledgment of my petitions. After all, one is for the betterment of the County, the other for West Valley City.

So, that’s what I have been up to this week. I would like to send out a really Happy Birthday to my good childhood friend Marc Steffensen, who is turning the bid 3-1 today. I don’t know if he is reading this, but perhaps he will. Happy Birthday Marc!

This weekend my tax return came in, and because of an extreme want by both my wife and I, we purchased an Apple TV. The purchase is something that I have been looking forward to, and it is the first version. That means that should Apple decide to lock down the Apple TV, I will still be able to hack this one in future (which I fully intend to do ^_^).

Now, before I start the review, I want you to understand the direction I am coming from. I needed a device that was simple to operate (for my wife’s sake), easy navigation through the content, and allow me to provide all my DVD content without having to use DVD’s. Why? Because my son, being a 2 year old, has become very adept at getting fingerprints on the DVD’s, and has already broken two. So, I need a media solution that allows me to lock up the original media from his little fingers, and be convenient to access.

The Purchase
I purchased the Apple TV from the University Bookstore, and it was literally the last one they had in stock. When I pulled it out, I was excited. It didn’t have any cables, but it did have the remote and various other documents for review.

Reality Struck…Hard
I eventually got to take it home (after waiting several hours after purchasing it), and realized that I made a huge mistake. In my excitement, I didn’t realize that all this time it said component video instead of composite. Until now, as a matter of fact, I didn’t know there was anything like component video. As I have had very little need for anything more than a DVD player that I purchased almost 8 years ago, I didn’t worry about additional hookup items.

So, here I was with a content player, and no way to hook it up, as my TV only has composite and not component video inputs. So, I started looking around for some cables that make the conversion. You would think it would be simple, but it’s not.

The closest I got to was using a component video to S-video converter, that will convert to 7-pin s-video. Then, I found an obscure 7-pin to component, composite RCA and 4-pin s-video converter. But it would take at least 2 weeks to get the cables, and the expense was pretty high. I also didn’t know how much of a loss I would get with the setup, so I was a little reluctant.

By this time my wife realized what I had been trying to convince her of: It would be easier and almost as expensive to just by a new TV. So, we headed down to Sears and bought a nice SDTV 27″ Sharp with component video inputs for $164.00 (originally marked $269.99). The price was reasonable, and I could get the Apple TV working, finally.

The Setup
Once I got the Apple TV hooked up and plugged in, the display was terrible, and didn’t show anything. It was because the Apple TV resolution was set too high for the TV by default. I panicked for a second, but then I read the manual under “troubleshooting”. It turns out that if you have a standard definition TV, you need to reset the display to handle the 480i resolution. And you do that by holding down the Menu button and the + button for at least 6 seconds. Then you start to navigate through the resolution menu.

Finally, as I got to 480i, the display was beautiful. I started by trying to sync the material, but it takes a long time (more on syncing later). So I played with streaming material.

Streaming Video
I don’t have the new Airport Extreme, so my wireless network is just 802.11g. Even with the slower network, the streaming was brilliant. It didn’t take very long to recognize the video, cache the video, or start playing the video. The video was also really clear and crisp, even with TV episodes that I ripped originally for the iPod (320×240).

There are times when the video gets a little grainy, but at the moment I can live with it. It just means re-ripping the library, but that can wait when I have enough storage space (i.e., airport extreme and 500+ GB external hard drive attached). For now, I’m just collecting the video I will most likely see a lot, and using it.

Syncing Content
The whole point of syncing content, it seems, is not to provide additional storage space for your files, but to provide video when the computer is turned off. This being the case, you always have duplicate video stored on the Apple TV and on your computer. That’s kind of a pain, as I would prefer to store different video in each location, and stream the video I don’t have on the Apple TV.

You can change the synced computer, but that wipes the Apple TV completely, rendering it nice and clean for the next sync. When you turn syncing off, it wipes it completely anyway. Big problem for anyone wanting to add a lot of content without having to store it all on their laptop.

Syncing also goes on in the back ground, whenever the computer is on, and the Apple TV is sitting idle (or you are playing with the menus). Once you start watching video or streaming video, the syncing stops and restarts from the beginning once the Apple TV is idle again. So if you are going to sync your content, you would want to leave your computer on all night and have it run then.

The Good News
So, with all these problems, you may ask why I didn’t go for another media player that exists out there for less money. The answer all comes down to the hacks. It’s possible to install a full version of Mac OS X on the Apple TV, and then turn it into a DVR. As far as I know, you can’t do the same with other media solutions out there (if I am wrong, please let me know). I also have ripped all my content through Handbrake, which places it in a nigh quality media format for Quicktime. So, I need an Apple solution to play it.

But, as the hacks allow for multiple media support, playing directly from the hard drive, and DVR support, I’m looking at a beautiful relationship with this little box that is no bigger than a hot pad, and no taller than two DVD cases stacked. Footprint is everything, and will be even more so as I move to an LCD projector for my content.

Today I want to focus on the readers. Yes, all 3 of you. ^_^ I’ve been checking my hits from Google Analytics, and I’ve noticed an increase in page views and hits from all over the world. Most of the hits come from those searching on Google, but I have some regular hits as well. For those that keep coming back, I thank you!

There are two major subjects that represent the interest in my page: Apple, and building with cob. Well, today I’m going to cover both in my Friday Round Up.

Leopard Delay
As many of you have heard, Leopard has been delayed in its release. Much to my disappointment, and to the disappointment of others, the new operating system and server services that it offers are not going to be out on the Market until October, 2007.

How does this impact me personally? Well, I will be unable to set up a Team Server until October, which is a little disappointing, but I can handle it. It also sets back my training series offering considerably, so it looks like I will not be offering any additional classes until Summer or Fall of 2008. That is a problem, as many of my clients are looking forward to more Directory Service training, as well as future Xsan training. Ah, well, more time to read up on the Tiger services, I suppose, and get Kerberos working correctly.

Apple TV
I recently finished going through my taxes, and much to my relief, we will be getting a nice return. This means we can get an Apple TV, as well as take care of some other household maintenance (part of which will be covered in the next section). So, I finally get to start some hacks of my own (hopefully without having to remove the hard drive).

For those of you who have heard of the Apple TV, but were wondering why I would be interested in such a narrowly limited device, there are a number of reasons:

1. All my content is ripped through Handbrake, Which is an open source tool for ripping content into an MP4 format from a DVD. Why rip your content from a DVD? Because if you have a young child in your household, you realize how delicate your DVD’s are, and how hard it is to keep them out of their hands.

2. It gets its content from iTunes, which is where I keep all my content anyway. It will also stream its content from up to 5 computers, be they Apple or Windows machines. Right now I’m searching for a replacement for the TV, as most shows have become to vulgar, crass, and mind-numbing for my taste. This way I can watch TV on my own terms without having to pay for On Demand material from Comcast. I am also looking for a solution for my parents, and the simplicity of this device makes it perfect for them.

3. I don’t want to stop at just watching current shows. I would like to eventually provide plugins for additional formats, and even plug in a USB TV device to turn the little device into a DVR. While this is not currently native to the Apple TV platform, it is possible as outlined at Apple TV Hacks. There are several hacks here that I would be happy to try, given the opportunity.

4. It’s nice because it also has audio control, therefore removing the need for a media center to control the audio. This is significant, because I have a beautiful floor stereo that once belonged to my grandfather, and it has the most magnificent sound! I had used it in the past as the audio output for my DVD’s, and now I want to use it again as the audio output for everything.

5. Once I have safely installed one for content, I want to try installing various versions of OS X on it, to see if I can get a decent client system out of it, or even a decent server. A $300.00 server running my Directory Services would be nice, particularly since I don’t need a lot of power to run a home Directory system running 802.11n speeds. ^_^

So, once I purchase the Apple TV, look for some updates. ^_^

Building With Cob Update
The weather is starting to dry out now, as we get closer to Summer, and with the tax return coming, I will be able to lay the foundation for the cob greenhouse, and possibly even build the entire structure within a couple weeks! That’s exciting, because not only do I get to work with cob, but I also get to work on the hydroponic system that I want to build. Finally, everything is starting to come together in that area. Of course, that means I will need to make some special trips to get a citrus tree, but I can handle that. ^_^

I will be laying the foundation initially with gravel, which will also be the floor of the greenhouse (to allow for easy drainage). It will also be built up for the patio surrounding the greenhouse, which will be a perfect place for the grill and two benches. I’ll see if I can’t get a shot from the roof so that you can see how I am going to be placing everything. Yay! I get to show off my lack of Photoshop Skills!

So, that’s the news from the week. I should have some pictures up by Monday evening, if you are interested in the cob building project, and I hope to have made some test adobe bricks to show off as well.

As is inevitible with all training classes, one starts talking about new products and their potentials. In our Server Essentials class, we started talking about potential Mac OS X Server installs that are relatively inexpensive. Most people may be aware that the Mac Mini can support a Server install, though we are unaware of whether or not recent updates will break it. It seems that this happens with Laptop installs which are not technically supported by Apple anyway.

But then the question came up about thin clients. I have been interested in thin clients since I worked for the Salt Lake Community College, and saw it as a potential cost-savings for a lab deployment. My arguments didn’t go anywhere at that point, but with my recent focus on Apple and their deployment options, the idea has sprung up again. The Mac Mini had seemed like the perfect option, until recently.

Enter the Apple TV/Mac Micro
Since the Apple TV has been shipped (i.e., within 8 days), the machine has been hacked. This is because it is basically a stripped down computer with really good graphics and a 1 Ghz Intel processor. It only has 256 MB RAM that is soldered onto the motherboard, so it’s not like it’s going to be a killer device, but it is a lot better than the Windows machine I gave up in order to get my G4 Powerbook.

Since that shipping day, the kind people at Appletvhacks.net has managed to work out a Mac OS X 10.4.8 install for the Apple TV. Yes, that’s right. They managed to install a full fledged Apple OS onto that small device that was only meant to display iTunes material on your TV. This was achieved by removing the Apple TV’s hard drive, connecting it to a Mac, installing the OS, and then using a processor emulation written by semthex from Hackint0sh.org. The end result was a smaller Mac Mini with only one drive (no optical drives or media), one USB port for a keyboard and mouse (if the mouse is plugged into the keyboard), and multiple video out options.

Now, I want this understood.. I wouldn’t be deathmatching on this machine, or expect any high end applications to work on it. But if you were working in a lab environment, and you needed to deploy several workstations to use Office software, email, and browse the web, then it’s perfect! And that, basically, is pretty much all a thin client would need to do.

The One Mortal Drawback
Well, as I was reading these hacks, I started to wonder: What if you could boot off of a NetBoot image?! That would make the Apple TV act as a diskless client, and save a lot of hassle in getting the machine set up.

Well, unfortunately, it’s not possible with the current version of Apple TV. As published by Macintouch.com in their Review of the Apple TV, the standard Network boot key combinations were not successful. So, in order to get the Apple TV to work as a thin client, you would need to open the Apple TV, remove the Hard Drive, set it up, then put it back. Bugger, just when I thought it would be the perfect solution for a low-powered, barely funded lab deployment, I got shot down.

But, the fact that it is possible, and that there are additional potentials for this type of market makes the future of the Apple TV both exciting and terrifying. What if Apple shuts down the hack by restricting access to the drive, or the inside of the device? What if they shut down any potential access to the device through hardware chips blocking any USB access, even when outside of the Apple TV interface? Hopefully they will not, and allow hackers to modify the device to suit their own needs.

It’s been a while since I have posted on something other than an ancient technology, but today I was browsing around the web trying to find out how I can maximize my use of the Apple TV setup without having to get a new computer. As I did my research, I focused on two Apple devices: The Airport Extreme, and the Apple TV.

The Problem
As it sits right now, the Apple TV can stream video from up to 5 connected computers with iTunes installed, along with having 40 GB of caching space internally. If I were to cache it full of commonly watched videos, it would give me roughly 40 DVDs worth of viewable content. Not bad, but I currently have almost 300 DVDs worth in my collection, and all of which I intend to add to iTunes. That way, they are out of my little son’s hands, and more likely to survive. ^_^

So, I need to find a way to store all those videos in such a way as to maximize my viewable content, without spending myself into bankruptcy. I also want to make all that material available across the network, and have it update from multiple sources, if possible.

The Solution
Ultimately I can either have all 5 computers on at once in order to access all the content (which would cost too much in power alone), or I can somehow integrate a Storage Area Network into the home and link all my computers to it. Either one sounds expensive, so let’s look at the key pieces of knowledge that is needed in order to accomplish this task:

1. iTunes needs to be able to use another volume other than the install drive.
2. The Storage Area Network would need to have a fast enough connection to be useful.
3. The SAN would need to be accessible by all, yet still provide some security.
4. The Network would need to be secured.

Moving the Location of Your iTunes Library
Because Apple TV doesn’t allow an external drive to be hooked up to it’s USB port, I needed to find a way to increase the volume of my iTunes library. Yes, my wife has a 250 GB hard drive in her iMac, and I have a 80 GB hard drive in my Power Book, but together we are looking at maxing out the drives without installing any other media. Luckily, I found an answer.

Christopher Breen at PlaylistMag.com came up with this tutorial on how to shift your iTunes play list to an external volume. The examples are very simple, and utilize a setting that I failed to look at in the Preferences. So the quick answer is, Yes, you can move your iTunes play list to another volume to allow for more space on your computer. This would also include a networked volume. Of course, to be useful, it would need to be an auto-mounted volume, but I digress.

So now I know I can move my iTunes off my computer and on to an external volume. That also means that I can move it to a networked volume, providing that the connection to the media is fast enough to perform. So SAN is very possible for using iTunes. This means that my iTunes Library can now be accessed from multiple computers, as long as they all have the most recent iTunes installed. It also means that I only need to have one computer running at a time in order to view that content. But what good is it if I can’t afford a SAN?

The SAN Solution: The New Airport Extreme
For those of you who have been following the new Airport Extreme, you may have read that the USB port, while also supporting a printer, can now support an external hard drive. The drive is mountable automatically for Macs (and maybe Windows with the Bonjour Drivers), and it can also support multiple drives through a USB hub. Suddenly, you have a SAN that costs $179.00 plus the cost of the external drives.

I found a 500GB USB drive for $189.99 at Office Depot, and a 1 TB drive for $449.95. Of course, because you can mount multiple drives, you could just mount more than one 500 GB and get your 1 TB capability that way. Either way, it’s a really inexpensive SAN that can use 802.11n speeds in a wireless network environment. Now, possibilities have become 1. Cost effective, 2. Secure, and 3. Available to all computers with iTunes.

All totaled, with my Education discount, I can get a 500 GB SAN working for iTunes and Apple TV for $647.99 (plus tax). And the best part about it is the ability to keep the media out of the hands of children.

I hope to have this setup built within a few months depending on funding, so I will report on the project’s progress at that point. Currently I know that network media storage is possible for iTunes based on testing I have already conducted. Wish me luck on the rest!