January 30th 2008, 09:01pm
The (now delayed) Take 2 version of Apple TV has an AirTunes option according to this article at iLounge, allowing it to behave as an Airport Express.
When the Apple TV first came out, this was a feature it obviously lacked (in common with the new Airport Extreme and now Time Capsule). After comparing it with a Mac Mini I went with the Mini, mostly for the DVD playback and EyeTV support; at the time this suffered a similar disadvantage, subsequently mitigated by the arrival of Airfoil 3 which offers comparable functionality on any Mac (even if you can’t select the Mini’s speakers directly from iTunes).
This official new feature makes the Apple TV look more attractive, although with no price cut in the UK to match that in the US and no movie rentals, it’s still not a killer proposition. Perhaps the more significant angle to this discovery is the fact that Apple haven’t forgotten about AirTunes.
So come on Apple, how about an AirTunes Time Capsule?
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January 30th 2008, 07:01pm
Doctor Who episode Gridlock has been nominated for an Epiphany Prize for increasing “man’s love and understanding of God”.
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January 26th 2008, 08:01pm
Globe Link News, The Girlie Show, plus of course Sports Night and Studio 60 were all fictional shows we saw only from the production point of view. I’ve just finished Studio 60 and while I enjoyed it, the fictional show jarred horribly because whilst it was supposed be be funny and incisive satire it was just staggering awful, I’d never have watched it. In Drop the Dead Donkey/em>, on the other hand, we famously never saw more of Globe Link News than the presenters’ “good evening” in the credits.
Echo Beach is the show produced by the characters in ITV’s new comedy Moving Wallpaper with the twist that ITV have actually produced it. Unlike Studio 60 it’s meant to be rubbish, but in contrast it is brilliant. Doing 12 weeks of a show that’s supposed to be a ratings grabber and yet has to be distinguished by its rubbishness is a pretty tough undertaking, but it is very, very funny. Based squarely on the Home and Away surf and sunshine model, but set in Cornwall (that still has me giggling each time I see the credit sequence) the show is successful because takes itself seriously. Shows like Home and Away or Neighbours can be hilarious when they have their moments (though it’s rarely worth wading through the hours of dross to find those) but Echo Beach is strewn with alienation devices sown in Moving Wallpaper (an excellent British 30 Rock that would stand on its own, but wouldn’t be a fun). Echo Beach is perfectly cast: Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon play it totally straight (even though they have cameos in the parent show). The sun always shines in Echo Beach Cornwall, the soundtrack is stuffed with britpop and there are helicopter shots of coast line and glamourous houses. Whether it will sustain it for twelve episodes I’m not sure, but four in it’s still going strong (last week was dull but this weeks back to form).
The Guardian don’t seem to be able to make their mind up whether or not it’s succeeding (Gareth McLean hedged his bets when it started). Today’s Guide suggested it’s not doing well in the ratings, but Guardian Media says it’s doing great. I’m surprised less by the fact that funny, intelligent, innovative programming should do well on ITV than that it appeared there in the first place. In episode one of Echo Beach a sacked writer is seen headbutting a picture of Michael Grade. I’m no fan of his either, but like Jason and Martine, it would appear he has a sense of humour.
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January 26th 2008, 10:01am
With the press apparently in as eager a frenzy to decry the newly announced title for Bond 22 as they were to decry Craig two years ago, there’s a great article in its defence by Evan Willnow on commanderbond.net, and there are Fleming’s own words:
The Governor paused and looked reflectively over at Bond. He said: “You’re not married, but I think it’s the same with all relationships between a man and a woman. They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic humanity exists between the two people. When all kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn’t care if the other is alive or dead, then it’s just no good. That particular insult to the ego—worse, to the instinct of self-preservation—can never be forgiven. I’ve noticed this in hundreds of marriages. I’ve seen flagrant infidelities patched up, I’ve seen crimes and even murder forgiven by the other party, let alone bankruptcy and every other form of social crime. Incurable disease, blindness, disaster—all these can be overcome. But never the death of common humanity in one of the partners. I’ve thought about this and I’ve invented a rather high-sounding title for this basic factor in human relations. I have called it the Law of the Quantum of Solace.â€
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January 15th 2008, 07:01pm
I’ve been checking it out and it looks quite cool, though basically it is only an Airport Extreme with the hard drive inside it, so no AirTunes etc. But full Airport Disk support, so it can be used for storage or time machine backups for a number of machines, and you can add another disk (and/or a printer) via the USB port.
What I’d really like to know is how quiet is that hard drive? If it’s near enough silent, I might go for it just for that.
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January 15th 2008, 07:01pm
Once again, Europe has to wait…
I haven’t bought any films or TV from iTunes (DVD still preferred) but I can easily see myself renting. DVD rental with no waiting for the post – decide what you want to watch and then watch it straight away – video on demand has been around for so long but iTunes is the first decent implementation. The pricing seems reasonable, too, if they don’t charge us the usual premium for being outside the US.
Meanwhile, with HD rentals, is this a new player in the field, already over-crowded with Blu-ray and HD-DVD…?
Also from the keynote: the Time Capsule. Presumably it can also be a regular Airport Disk (can it be partitioned?) Has it got AirTunes? (I bet it hasn’t). And the MacBook Air. I guess I was wrong to disbelieve the rumours on the grounds they couldn’t use such a rubbish name. Pricey, but I guess worth paying if it’s a second Mac and you really can’t be bothered with the extra couple of pounds.
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January 14th 2008, 07:01pm
…five days after I complained because the Rogue Amoeba website was essentially an information vacuum (with no mention of its announced product upgrades, despite several links from external sites to forums that “are no longer online”).
Not only that, when I’d emailed them the chap who replied hadn’t heard of Airport Speakers. Well, Airport Speakers are now here, and they rock.
Apple’s Airport Express is a wifi base station that can plug into your hifi so you can send music from iTunes wirelessly. Airfoil let you send any audio from your computer over the the AEX. Now Airfoil 3 lets you send audio from your Mac to any other Mac running this little app called Airfoil Speakers. The Mac running the latter shows up in Airfoil along with any AEX units on your network. I have a Mac Mini but no AEX (I was going to buy one and plug in next to it just to get AirTunes. Airfoil just saved me £60). It’s a pity the Airfoil Speakers won’t show up in iTunes itself (this is apparently due to Apple’s encrypting the iTunes output) but it doesn’t really matter because you can easily use Airfoil instead.
Now Airfoil can also send the audio from your videos and DVDs to an AEX/Airfoil Speakers. Previously this was a problem because of the delay when sending audio (the video was out of sync). This is solved, now, by using the Airfoil video player which has, built in, just the right amount of delay. It’s a shame not to be able to use your video player of choice, but it’s not a bad little player. It urgently needs to support the Apple Remote (the only flaw I’ve found so far).
There’s a tour of the new Airfoil here. With the new features, it’s indubitably worth the $25, but you can download a trial to use it for up to 10 minutes a time.
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January 10th 2008, 08:01pm
Being rather familiar with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s home town of Axminster and his local Tesco I watched these three programmes about his campaign to get people eating free range chicken (Chicken Out) with interest. With regard to my going free range, Hugh was preaching to the converted, but two things struck me as underplayed.
Flavour
Animal welfare issues are enough to persuade me to eat free range, even if I don’t feel strongly enough to try to persuade others. But even if they weren’t I would not want to eat the poor quality tasteless mass produced birds. What surprised me in a show fronted by a chef was how little consideration was given to the flavour – the campaign was all about animal rights, and there are always going to be plenty of people who don’t give a damn. The only comments were where people were tasting free range birds for the first time (“it’s so tender” or “it tastes of chicken”). Are there people who really can’t tell the difference, or who even prefer the watery 39 day birds?
Money
So what is it about the English that we are prepared to eat something so revolting just because it’s “2 for £5″? Even those who patently could afford to spend more chose to save their money for… what? Is there something more important to health, happiness and well-being than what we eat? And the argument – again and again – that the pricier free range chickens were not affordable on a budget never stood up. Eat better chicken but less of it. Quality not quantity.
In the end, the most compelling part of the program was the residents on the Millway estate who reared, slaughtered and ate their own chickens – fantastic. But I did admire the lengths to which Hugh went to persuade even take-aways to offer free range as an option (I was as skeptical as the owner of Axminster’s Charcoal Grill that the 2am crowd would be gastronomically demanding, but one customer described his kebab as “tastier and juicier” and wanted it made a regular feature). I’d love it if Lewes’ exploding number of Indian restaurants put on a free range option.
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January 5th 2008, 07:01pm
Though I’ve got a new Mac Mini plugged into my hifi, I’ve kind of assumed I’d end up having to buy an Airport Express to plug in next to it if I want to stream AirTunes from my MacBook (which I do, and yes I know there’s NetTunes etc. but all the music is organised on the MacBook).
So I got pretty excited to read this interview with Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis about Airfoil 3. This is a new version of the app that lets you send any audio to an Airport Express and “one of the major announced features is Airfoil Speakers” which, basically, let you use any Mac to receive AirTunes, ie. act as an Airport Express. Yay!
Except that the link to Rogue Amoeba is broken and just states “the forums are no longer online”. Nothing else. No mention of Airfoil 3 elsewhere on the site. But it’s mentioned elsewhere on the net in posts between July and September ’07, like this one and this one (which states the update will come in September).
So it seems reasonable to assume, since all the original announcements at Rogue Amoeba are “no longer online” that the upgrade and new features have been quietly swept under the carpet. Still, there’s only one way to find out: I asked them if they’re still supporting Airfoil and they said “we’re still here and development continues on Airfoil”. But they the chap who sent the email professed ignorance of the “Airfoil Speakers” referred to by the CEO.
What’s going on?
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January 1st 2008, 07:01pm
I found a solution to this along time ago, but forgot it and couldn’t find it when I got the problem again today.
The problem is: after I change the artist or album for certain MP3 tracks, as soon as I play them iTunes changes them back. I’ve got read and write access. I’ve used iTunes to convert to every version of the ID3 tag I could think of.
The solution turns out to be: remove the ID3 v1 tags. iTunes is only editing the v2 tags, and then reading the v1 tags and overwriting the v2 with that info. It’s totally weird and illogical but removing the v1 tags solves the problem.
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