Apple TV - What it is and what it could be.

Apple TV gives YouTube for Free By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla The self-proclaimed "hobby" device in the Apple product line is neither iPod nor Macintosh, yet it is actually a bit of both. The Apple TV can be a wonderful device that easily extends your music, movies, TV shows and photos from your computer to your LCD or Plasma TV. Having been around for two years, the Apple TV now at version 2.0 is in actuality a very pared down Mac Mini (yes people have hacked it to run OS X Leopard, but it is dog slow) that integrates into the iTunes environment. More on Apple TV after the jump. Weighing 2.4 pounds and 1.1 inches high, the Apple TV can fit into anyone’s existing home theatre setup and can hook-up into most flat screen TVs via HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable to handle video and audio. As an amateur photographer, one of my favorite applications of the Apple TV is how it takes your shots in iPhoto and pushes them to your TV for spectacular and fluid slideshows. The Apple TV is more a large capacity video iPod than a desktop computer as it can’t browse the web, do email or messaging. In fact, outside of Apple’s integrated operating system, the Apple TV can’t do much. We did find a lot of ways to keep ourselves entertained with it. In the US and in Canada, the iTunes store offers online rentals and sales of movies and TV shows and a lot of these are available in high definition. Purchasing these movies is easy provided you have an existing account; in fact we would say that it is too easy to be renting movies left and right. Standard definition versions are rented for between US$ 1.00 to US$ 5.00 depending on how new they are – movies can also be purchased for roughly $10.00. The selection isn't bad but the library is being added on to on a constant basis. It sure beats having to toggle with that awful Rogers On Demand feature or take the TTC to the closest Blockbuster Video just to find out the movie you want has been rented out. On Demand all the time Once you have given your credit card information to Apple and have established an account, buying movies and TV shows from the Apple TV through wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi is dead easy. Pick the movie and once your credit card is charged it will begin to download and will be viewable within two minutes. On a well set-up HDTV, movie sound and playback is just as good as Blu-Ray for the most part although there are artifacts and pixelation that can occur during high energy action scenes and specially scenes with explosions. TV shows are equally easy to load and you can get the whole season of your favourite show and watch it at your leisure. There is, unfortunately, no way to back up these movies or TV shows to DVDs so they will take up space in your Apple TV’s hard drive. This is unfortunate as it would be a big hassle for users to have to re-download the movies should anything happen to the Apple TV that would require reformatting it. We've had the device for a month and we've gone and had to start everything from scratch twice already. What the Apple TV isn’t is a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) that is a shame considering its small footprint and the capacity of its hard drive. I wish TV Tuner producers like El Gato Users have found creative ways to extend the functionality of this device. Great workarounds all around Content for the Apple TV is not limited to what Apple offers. Industrious users have been able to re-encode DVDs to the required MP4 video format that will work on the Apple TV. Another workaround is installing Boxee (www.boxee.tv), which can stream additional web-video services and offer access to free TV. Since Apple TV also gives you access to YouTube and Flickr you have a lot of options on how to entertain yourself. One workaround that does not exist is a reset button on the Apple TV. Here is where the device’s minimalist design fails. We ran into some problems with the Apple TV and had no option but to simply unplug the power to reset the device. This would be the biggest chink in the armor of an otherwise amazing and promising entertainment device. We hope to see Apple focus more of its energy in improving the Apple TV and for Canadians, we need more content in the Apple TV Store to keep us interested.

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The Palm Pre and its Possibilities

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla A few weeks ago, it seemed that Palm as a company and most importantly, as a mobile platform, was done for. In the world of Blackberries, iPhones, Windows Mobile phones and Symbian smartphones — Palm, which could be credited fro creating the smartphone, was just played out, moribund and lost. Its operating system harkened back to the pre-millenium it showed. The inability to multi-task, the flaky Wi-Fi implementation and and it got to the point where the best OS to run on a Palm Treo was Windows Mobile. For loyal Palm users everywhere, this was an outrage and they began to seek the comforts of alternative smartphones. Now Palm is back and in surprising fashion has unveiled the Palm Pre and a new OS. More impressions on the Palm Pre after the break The Palm Pre, which was designed and developed in part by Apple engineers responsible for the iPod and which were subsequently hired by Palm brings a lot of features and functions as a camera phone, a portable media player, a mobile Internet client and relies heavily on Palm’s own WebOS. Great Revelation The Palm Pre seems to be a strong contender and may just be the device that puts Palm back on the map and we are happy about this since Palm has always been a nostalgic favorite of ours since the days of the Palm III and even as they acquired Handspring to absorb the very first Treo, the last product that really kept Palm in business. The Pre integrates multi-touch features and a full tactile keyboard, which is a powerful statement to make in the wake of products like the Blackberry Storm which is trying to offer multi-touch to an established thumb-board market. The Pre, its seems, is giving its users all options. Right now it will only be available in the US Sprint network — a 3G GSM model is in the works but no news on when it will be available to networks outside of the US. Canadian users will likely see a version on Bell or Telus networks. Innovation In Effect What do you get with the Pre? A 3.1 inch 24-bit color screen, a 3-megapixel camera with an LED Flash, 8GB internal memory, EV-DO, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It also features an innovative wireless charging system that uses electromagnetic induction system which uses a ‘Touchtstone’ dock that charges the device upon contact. The new OS is based on the cloud and doesn’t seem to have a desktop equivalent, it should be interesting to see it in action. For now we have to content ourselves with the reviews from the US. We hope Palm has a few more of these in the works, maybe even a non-smartphone version for those who are clamoring for a PDA with Wi-Fi. We’re watching with great excitement as this story develops further.

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Big Screen Dynamo - MacBook 17-Inch Unibody

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla The recently released unibody Aluminum MacBook Pro with the 17-inch LED screen is the answer to the prayers of lovers of digital photography, graphic designers and video editors. Revealed at the otherwise lackluster Macworld event earlier this month, the new 17 completes the Mac portable line’s transition to the newer, more resilient unibody enclosure. What sets the 17 apart from the rest, aside from the increased weight and larger footprint, is the inclusion of a non-user removable 8-hour battery as well as an option for a matte screen upgrade (without the glossy glass overaly). The battery is a new direction for Apple which was hinted at with last year’s introduction of the MacBook Air, to the disdain of road warriors who insisted that the non-removable 5-hour battery was insufficient for a full days worth of work. More on the 17-inch MacBook Pro after the jump Apple’s website explains the thinking behind the new 17’s battery solution: “The battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro lasts up to 8 hours on a single charge and can be recharged up to 1000 times — compared with only 200 to 300 times for typical notebooks. To do this, Apple engineers custom-designed lithium-polymer cells to create the largest possible battery, then they went even further: They built the battery right into the computer, eliminating the space-consuming mechanisms and housings that standard removable batteries require. The result is a battery that’s 40 percent bigger than the previous generation and offers up to 8 hours of wireless productivity on a single charge — all in a notebook that’s less than an inch thin, weighs just 6.6 pounds, and remains the same price as the previous-generation model.” Granted that a 17-inch notebook isn’t really designed for a lot of travel, I can see a lot of people having problems with the idea of a non-removable battery. Having used a MacBook Air exclusively (and realizing that the 4.5 battery life is really 3 hours at best, even with all settings tweaked to minimum) you need to carry you power adapter. Apple’s 8 hour claim is likely closer to 5 hours, specially after a few months when the battery has seen substantial use. Still, 8 hours on a 17-inch behemoth is unheard of in the industry and a definite sign of things to come. Now, can Apple apply this magnificent battery technology and adaptive charging backwards to existing models? They should, people will pay good money for even a 6-hour replacement battery for their Macbook Air or replaceable cells for their 15' inch Pros and MacBooks. The new 17 offers processors ranging from a standard 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo to a pretty beefy 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo. 4 GB of RAM come standard and can be bumped up to a mind-numbing 8 GB. Those with an SSD jones can put out even more cash for a 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive. It would have been cool to offer a build-to-order feature eliminating the SuperDrive with an additional HD or SSD drive for people who need more storage space. As with the other MacBooks, the 17 is Greenpeace compliant and eliminates a lot of toxic materials and bi-products. It offers highly recyclable parts and even has a Mercury-free LED-backlit display which will appease those of greener inclinations. With a whopping $2,800 price, this really is a tool that your office or job should pay for. Students and those with more modest needs should look to the Macbook line, which seems to be the sweet spot in terms of price, size and features.

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Windows 7 - Promise of a New Day

Windows 7: Loading soon in a PC near youMicrosoft is still reeling from the fiasco that was Windows Vista. 2008 for them was really all about dodging the backlash from customers and PC manufacturers who turned to Linux or offered, “upgrades” to Windows XP on new Vista machines. The Mac vs. PC advertisements, which poked fun at Vista’s shortcomings, eventually led to Microsoft’s rebuttal in the form of the “I am a PC” ads, which gave a more human face to PC users. This didn’t really ease the sting from unhappy Vista users or computer resellers but it showed the software company was aware of the perception that Vista had fallen short of expectations. Rather than continue beating a dead horse, Microsoft wisely gave advance notice of a successor to Windows Vista. Redesigned from the ground up, the new version made it to public beta recently. More on Windows 7 after the jump. A New Hope Windows 7, which is supposed to make it to market late this year, carries with it the hopes of millions of users. It is supposed to be the breakthrough OS that patches all of Vista’s flaws and offers what Microsoft is calling, “a major Windows release.” Will 2009 be the year of redemption for Windows, it remains to be seen but for now we can gloss over the features and improvements that lucky 7, Windows that is, will be bringing to market. Multi-touch technology, currently making waves in iPods, tablets and some smartphones, will be integrated into Windows 7; we see this as a handy feature for Tablet PC users or for touch screen enabled notebooks. Multi-touch is a great party trick and does have some uses but for most mainstream users it isn’t a big deal. Users will see more of the new Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a spiffy home networking system called HomeGroup and performance improvements. A lot of the applications that Microsoft used to include in Vista, will be cast away from the system to trim the fat and give users a more solid OS that requires less storage space. Fans of Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery might miss these built-in apps but the rest of us can rejoice their departure. You will still be able to get them separately as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite, part of Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative of offering applications online. Windows 7 users will also see updated versions of Paint and WordPad plus more things to tweak in the Control Panel including Accelerators, ClearType text tuner, Display Color Calibration, Gadgets, Infrared, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors. Expect upgraded functionality on the Start Menu and the rest of the taskbar that will now be called the Superbar and will feature Jump Lists that is a way of accessing common tasks. Lean and Able Microsoft wants to make sure that Windows 7 is as lean an operating system as it can possibly be. Aside from ditching all the add-ons which users don’t really need, they are supposedly streamlining the code to trim out the bloat that has swelled up since the days of Windows 3.1. The result is that Windows 7 will run well in machines that Windows Vista could not. It remains to be seen if Windows 7 will have as many versions as Windows Vista did, hopefully Microsoft will just offer a home and a professional (business) version like they did with Windows XP. This is exceptional news for the netbook crowd who are stuck in XP land simply because Vista is too bloated to function on stripped down systems. Newer PCs like Sony's new VAIO P have been proven to run Windows 7 quite well despite choking on Windows Vista Home. One thing is certain, Microsoft has learned their lesson and won’t be shipping a product that is premature and still buggy. If it has learned anything about the painful Windows Vista experience, it is that the extra time taken to refine a product can only make things better. Shipping something that “just works,” is less expensive than constantly patching unfinished and buggy software. Users will finally be getting the efficient and stable OS they deserve.

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