Getting digital content from the computer to the TV has long been a challenge. The fairly recent arrival of the Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 have brought a solution to the mainstream that put the capability in the hands of the technically sophisticated. They both offer internal media players that will stream video, music, and photos across the network to the HD screen now found in the average living room. But such multi-media integration should be in the hands of the average computer users, regardless of their technical awareness or skill. The first product to do this, and do it well has arrived: Western Digital's WD TV Live HD.
Its a name that won't roll off the tongue, no matter how you practice. But the device works, and it works well. Where game consoles suck as the 360 and the PS3 make the computer based media available, accessing that content is still more difficult than it should be and still requires customers to shell out some big bucks to get the game console in the first place. The WD TV Live is a box that is currently listing for about $119 on Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. It is a small unit with its own remote control. It plugs into a HD TV and connects to movies music and photos by either linking to a networked computer in the house, or an external hard drive connected to the box via USB...
Back for the second season, ABC's Castle is one of this seasons prime-time shows that I am most interested in. Season 1 was compelling and sure to interest fans of Nathan Fillion. Many will remember Fillion from his role as Malcolm Reynolds on the classic but short lived Firefly series. Needless to say, Fillion's roll as crime author Richard Castle plays to the actors strengths and makes for an amusing series.
So, here's why I find this show interesting enough to warrant a post. The shows main character, Richard Castle, successful author who decides to kill off the character that made him famous. The plot explains that Castle is bored writing about the character because he knows him inside out. He wants to create a new character.
Castle spends some time with the NYPD and finds inspiration for a new character. He pulls some strings at the NYPD and the Mayors office and get assigned as a consultant to a detective on which he plans to based his new character. The new character, Nikki Heat, is based on NYPD detective Kate Beckett. Wikipedia has some interesting background on the characters.
At the beginning of season 1, Castle kills off the lead character that supposedly made him a house hold name and risks his career with a new book. He starts investigating strange cases with Beckett. Shortly into season 2, Castle is about to release the first book based on the Nikki Heat character. This is the part that I find fascinating.
In this weeks upcoming episode Castle's book is supposed to hit fictional store shelves within the show. But in real life, a physical copy of the book is also hitting book stores. In fact Amazon.com is offering both a hard cover version of the book as well as a copy of the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. And, just to be clear, the book is being published in real life. Further more, its being published under the author name of the fictional character, Richard Castle!
I was talking with my neighbor the other day and he was going on about his disappointment that while it was easy to watch Divx and Xvid movies over the network on his Xbox 360, there is no support for MKV files he had downloaded. Each video he had was a 720p or 1080p high definition download. And if he wanted to watch the video on his 360, he had to transcode the video to Xvid before he could watch it in his living room. This was taking him 8-12 hours to transcode even on his high end Mac.
I did some digging and found an obscure reference in a forum indicating that the transcoding wasn't really necessary after all as long as you had QuickTime Pro and used the correct settings. It turns out that the QuickTime export for MP4 has an option in its video settings to allow "Video Passthrough". This lets us open a MKV file in QuickTime Player 7 and export the video out to MP4 (Xvid really) in a fraction of the time it takes to transcode the video...
I have to say that I have been very impressed with Windows 7. I downloaded the RC 1 build the morning it was released to the masses. I installed it on my MacBook Pro using Boot Camp the following day. It was fast, visually very impressive, and really put a smile on my face. Since that time, I have been working full time on my Mac but I roll over to Windows whenever possible to see how things are working on the other side of the street.
I installed Office 2007, Hamachi, Firefox, and Dropbox. The usual core applications I like to keep handy. Prior to all of this, of course, I installed Kaspersky Antivirus. It was the first antivirus to catch my eye offering actual support (though preliminary as it is listed as a technical preview) for Windows 7. I was impressed that the system didn't seem unduly bogged down by the AV solution and off I went...
All computer users that routinely accesses more than one computer in the course of their normal routine share the same pain. Keeping all of the files we need available to us at all times is nothing short of maddening. I might have a spreadsheet I was working on all afternoon on my desktop computer, but when I grab my laptop and run out the door to meet a client I only have access to a version that is 2 days old. Or I might have a series of files on my laptop that I need to work on. But when I left my laptop at the office, there is no way I can access them from home...
Here's one I've been wanting for a long time. I think it would be great to pair my cell phone with my computer and have the computer screen lock each time my phone leaves Bluetooth range. Seems like a great security feature given the prevalence of cell phones these days.
To the best of my knowledge there are no Mac applications to facilitate this right now. Fee apps or otherwise. I read about one possibility a while back that was a series of scripts. But when I played with it, it just didn't work correctly. Over at phoenixfreeze.com, it looks we might have a solution on the way. Right now their product only supports Windows XP and Vista. But according to the FAQ section, Mac support is planned.
I really enjoyed this book. The story was interesting, and largely plausible if you really understand the technology being employed. Plus, being someone who is technically aware, I thought the author did an amazing job of employing current internet based concepts to build a story that is simply a great read.
The story centers around a massively multi-player game analogous to WoW (World of Warcraft). The developer of the game dies before the story begins. When he dies, it triggers hidden code in the game that runs as a distributed daemon service on a botnet spread across the planet. Without giving the plot away, the story is extremely engaging and uses social engineering, security exploits, spiders, and the internet to take a really fresh look at what could really happen to our world if current technologies were properly manipulated.
Every once in a while I run into a real gem on the internet. A service that simply reevaluates the way business gets done. For example, in the past, if you wanted to use a multi-line phone system that supported different extensions, and auto attendant, and voicemail, it meant spending thousands of dollars on phone system hardware and contracting a specialist to assemble and maintain the system.
With the internet revolution, voice over IP became a central technology. And when that happened, businesses found new ways to work existing technologies. Once powerful example is RingCentral.com. RingCentral takes a new approach to complicated business phone systems and offers a service that puts the power of those multi-thousand dollar phone systems in the hands of small business owners and telecommuters.
RingCentral's service is difficult to describe. In fact, I suggest taking a look at the video tutorials on their site in order to really grok everything the service can accomplish. I've been using the service for about a year now and I am very impressed. Its not a one trick pony either. It is flexible and it can fill a wide range of needs.
Project Motorsport started out as a fun way to spend an afternoon. We set out to shoot some motorcycle video and have a good time. Once when we brought the video back and began to edit, we realized we had the making of a music video.
Check out the video and see for yourself. And, if your interested in further information on the project, we give you that too!
The Freedom to Switch:
In 2003 Apple Computer released a marketing campaign with the intention of showing Wintel users how easy it would be to "switch" platforms.
One of the Mac's main selling points, ironically enough, was Digital Video Editing. Apple wanted the world to see how easy it was to edit video on the Mac platform. And, in overwhelming response, Mac users set out to show the world just how easy it really was.
The campaign was effective for Apple, but also spawned a unexpected parody campaign in the Mac underworld. Users from all of the world whipped out their camcorders and set to work making spoofs in the same cinematic style as the acclaimed commercial line.
With this, Maclive.net rose to the challenge and shot our own spoof. We think it proves that a Mac can be a powerful tool in the wrong hands. It also shows how far a couple of Mac fans will go for a laugh. We hope you enjoy our contribution, aptly named The Freedom to Switch.
Getting digital content from the computer to the TV has long been a challenge. The fairly recent arrival of the Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 have brought a solution to the mainstream that put the capability in the hands of the technically sophisticated. They both offer internal media players that will stream video, music, and photos across the network to the HD screen now found in the average living room. But such multi-media integration should be in the hands of the average computer users, regardless of their technical awareness or skill. The first product to do this, and do it well has arrived: Western Digital's WD TV Live HD.
I was talking with my neighbor the other day and he was going on about his disappointment that while it was easy to watch Divx and Xvid movies over the network on his Xbox 360, there is no support for MKV files he had downloaded. Each video he had was a 720p or 1080p high definition download. And if he wanted to watch the video on his 360, he had to transcode the video to Xvid before he could watch it in his living room. This was taking him 8-12 hours to transcode even on his high end Mac.
All computer users that routinely accesses more than one computer in the course of their normal routine share the same pain. Keeping all of the files we need available to us at all times is nothing short of maddening. I might have a spreadsheet I was working on all afternoon on my desktop computer, but when I grab my laptop and run out the door to meet a client I only have access to a version that is 2 days old. Or I might have a series of files on my laptop that I need to work on. But when I left my laptop at the office, there is no way I can access them from home...
Every once in a while I run into a real gem on the internet. A service that simply reevaluates the way business gets done. For example, in the past, if you wanted to use a multi-line phone system that supported different extensions, and auto attendant, and voicemail, it meant spending thousands of dollars on phone system hardware and contracting a specialist to assemble and maintain the system.
