Archive for the ‘apple’ Category

New Seasons

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Boy do I watch a lot of TV. Yet surprisingly not much is actually on the TV. I’m a big fan of lots of the American dramas, and have watched Dawson’s Creek, The OC, Gilmore Girls, and others come and go. But I always like this time of year, because all the new seasons start. So, for the next 8 months (roughly) I will be watching:

One Tree Hill (recent convert), Smallville, Heroes, Big Bang Theory, Numb3rs, Chuck, and beginning in Janurary, Lost.

However I really just wanted to share this great advert which appeals to two of my interests. Can you guess which?

And here is the second one. (and yes I know the ads aren’t current but hey, who cares)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in apple, tv | No Comments »

Ultimate Macbook Pro Upgrade

Friday, August 8th, 2008

As you may have read last year, I got a new Macbook Pro. With it came 2GB RAM, and a 120GB hard drive.

Needless to say, that space quickly got used up, and I started spending a lot of time deleting iTunes content, and backing up stuff to DVD’s and my MyBook. I played with the idea of upgrading the drive a lot, but always held back because I have AppleCare and there is a chance it could void my warranty, or cause problems if I ever have to take this machine in. 

But this isn’t a post of regrets, its a post of action. The action being I finally took the plunge. The price was right so I ordered a Western Digital 5400rpm 320GB laptop drive and it arrived swiftly last week. I really couldn’t wait so I immediately formatted it, and started to clone my current drive over using SuperDuper. Three hours later and it was ready. I did a quick check and booted from it via USB. All was good so I was ready for the replacement.

I followed some instructions from iFixit.com and got to work. The whole process took about 90 minutes in total, and that was being very cautious and taking it slowly.

So what gems of advice can I pass on? Screws! The biggest issue is all the screws. In total, there are 8 sets of screws from around the laptop. I had a small screw box/pill box that I used to keep each type apart, and put them in the pot in the order I took them out. This made it easy to put it back together.
I would also make sure you put down a towel or cloth to lay the laptop on. You’ll be moving it around to access all the screws and the last thing you want is scratches when you’re done.

The last bit of trouble I had was removing the hard drive cable from the drive itself. Its a thin plastic cable that is glued to the top of the drive. In an ideal world you have a spudger, a small plastic tool you can use to separate the cable from the drive. I had none so I had to make do with a business card and then a pen lid when the card got too messed up. So before you delve in, make sure you have something to hand. And don’t be too worried about pulling the cable with your hands if you need to. Its fairly robust so will probably come off in your hand if you’re slow and careful.

That was the difficult part. I also bought 4GB RAM from Play.com as recommended by WIl Harris on ChannelFlip.com. Replacing this was easy as removing the battery and taking out 3 screws. Its possibly the ONLY user replaceable part of a Macbook Pro. And that is what perplexes me. Why does the high end machine have to be so difficult to replace a hard drive on? You’re paying more and are likely to be a bit more technically minded, so why is it such a pain and why does it void your warranty? That I will never understand.

But the final story is that I have a 2.2GHz C2D Macbook Pro with the biggest hard drive I can get, and the most RAM it can take. Its a true powerhouse to me.

Tags: , ,
Posted in apple | 1 Comment »

Posting from my iPhone

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Just a quick post here. If you have an iPhone, and have updated to the 2.0 software, be sure to checkout the new Wordpress application. It’s a lovely little app for blogging on the go.
It supports wordpress.com and self hosted domains and will store your drafts locally if you don’t have time to finish them.
You can easily add multiple blogs so now there is no excuse for me not to post
Wordpress for iPhone is free from the App Store.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in apple, blogs, iphone | No Comments »

HOWTO: Install WiFi Certificates on your iPhone

Friday, July 11th, 2008

So I now work where they employ the use of certificates for wifi security, and I want to use the wifi on my iPhone since the data connection sucks. But how?

Well with iPhone 2.0 software, there is support for certificates. But how do you get it on your phone?

Well…

1. Go to http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoneconfigurationutility10formacosx.html and download the iPhone Configuration Tool. Install

2. Open up the Config tool from your Utilities folder.

3. Select Configuration Profiles and click New

4. Fill in the details on the General Tab.

5. Click Credentials. and click the plus sign, and navigate to the Certificate file (in my case a .cer file). Click OK.

6. Check the details look correct, and give it a name.

And thats it! Done.

Well not quite. You need to install it on your iphone. You have two/three options but the third involves Mac OS X Server which many personal users won’t have. So your two options are host a file on a website somewhere, or email it to yourself. If you want to host it, click the Export button, save the file to disk, and then upload it somewhere. Then navigate to that file online and it should ask you to install.

The second easier option is to email it to yourself. So click Share, and wait for Mail.app to open a new mail and punch in an email address you can access on your iPhone. Click send. Wait (or go and check your mail).

Then in the email, click the file, and you will be asked to install the file. Do so and bingo. Success. Now go test it and make sure it works!

Update: I have tested this at work, and it worked perfectly. You have to make sure you enter your username as Domain\username and your password as normal or it won’t authenticate. So now I can use the internet connection at work. Only thing is that IMAP and POP3 ports are blocked so can’t use the Mail.app to check them, but everything else works a treat!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in iphone, macosx, work | 1 Comment »

Now for your iPhone

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

If you own and iPhone, or iPod Touch, or just fancy playing with the Develop menu in Safari, then you may notice that DomBarnes.com now looks a bit different on your iPhone. Thanks to the iWPhone plugin from ContentRobot, you can now view this website in a easier version for your device.

Let me know if you like it, or prefer reading the full version.

Posted in apple, internet | No Comments »

Review: Elgato EyeTV DTT USB Stick

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

As you dear readers will know, I had some recent ventures into the world of PVR’s, and specifically, MythTV, and you may have read about the failures I came across.

Well, after a recent visit to the Apple Store in Birmingham, I made a choice, one which cost me £40! I bought an Elgato EyeTV DTT USB Stick. What is it? Its a TV receiver built into a USB stick, about the size of those wireless adapters. Plug it into your laptop or desktop, hook up an antenna, either roof top aerial or the mini-aerial included in the box, and very soon you’ll be watching TV.

The software, EyeTV, which is compatible with many other PVR devices, is simple to install. You’re asked to sign up for tvtv.com which provides TV listings, and during the setup you do the initial tuning. Clicking the Auto-Tune button does a quick scan and picks up any TV and Radio signals in your area (you can also do an exhaustive scan which takes longer but can pick up missing stations).

To record, either press the Record button on the controller while watching any show, or click a programme in the Guide, and click Add Schedule. When you’ve recorded a show, you can play it back on your Mac, or export to iPhone version, AppleTV version or send it to Toast to burn to a DVD. Another nice feature is the Wifi access - you can set programmes to automatically convert to iPhone versions for Wifi viewing, so if you’ve got your mac on all the time, you can watch those shows, streaming over Wifi from your iPhone or iPod Touch, which is done using the built in web server in Mac OS X.

Recordings come in MPEG-2 files, wrapped in an EyeTV wrapper, which includes thumbnails and info on the recordings. You’ll use about 2.2GB for an hour’s recording. Exporting will obviously reduce that file size, so if you are low on space, it might be good to export to AppleTV for storage. 

A exhaustive scan of channels picked up about 64 channels in total (radio and TV), all coming from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. Comparing that to my Virgin Freeview box, and there are some missing. Specifically, I could not pick up E4+1, Dave or Virgin 1, despite being able to get them on the freeview box. This is probably just differences between the lowest signal strength each device needs to get a signal. 

Not all channels picked up listings from tvtv.com - those listed in blue have no listing, but you can manually select these channels from a search list, and then will be able to get listings. Those that don’t have them at all can be picked up from the signal transmission, and you select DVB for those channels to get the listings. 

For me, the killer features are the Wifi Access, and the smooth integration into Front Row. If you have the EyeTV software running, and grab your Apple Remote, you can switch between Front Row and EyeTV by holding the Play button. From there you have access to almost all features, scrolling through channels, and setting up recordings, using the Menu. Then you can quickly switch back to Front Row for your Podcasts or Movies.

For 95% of my watching and recording TV, this is perfect. If I had a spare Mac MIni, i would turn it into a media centre, and use the EyeTV as my main Freeview box. Having full control over TV, movies, podcasts, and purchased TV from iTunes through one small remote would be lovely, as would the Live TV functions (EyeTV records what you watch as you watch it, allowing you to pause, rewind and replay live tv. You can limit the buffer used for this in the Prefs).

Overall, the EyeTV was a great purchase, Its functional, small enough to throw in my bag when travelling, and I can see it staying in regular use, at least until we move and get Virgin+ or Sky+

Notes: I purchased the Digital only version, there is a Analog+Digital version at a higher price. There are also dual tuners, allowing you to have picture in picture, or record one channel and watch another. 

 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in gagdets, macosx | No Comments »

Google Ate my Contacts

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

So you may have heard a few weeks ago that the Address Book in Leopard now syncs with Gmail contacts. I heard this and thought GREAT! I can keep it all together, up to date with gmail, and have a handy backup.

After firing up Address Book I got it all in sync, and as expected, had a few duplicates which I sorted out.

Unfortunately, as the title suggests, I received a text from my girlfriend but it didn’t come up with a name, just her number. So after a visit to the contacts I noticed that ALL her details were gone, except her work email. I had a look at other people and there were more missing people.

So now I have lost faith in the contact syncing. I made no changes at all but somehow lost everyone. I did of course make a backup, but that doesn’t seem to import back into Address Book. Thank GOD for my second backup at Mozy.

Right now I’m downloading a backup from a few days ago and will give this stuff another shot. Glad I have my backup in hand in case Google poops on me again.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in apple, internet | 1 Comment »

Get a new ad, Mac

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

I’m an Apple fan. Thats no secret. I like the products, I like the design, the interfaces, the simplicity and yet ability to be powerfully complex. I like the whole shebang (sp?). I also liked the new “Get A Mac” adverts they started a while ago.

My problem with these, however, is only a recent event. Up until about 6 ads back, they were more focussed on features that the Mac could offer over Vista, such as MS Office native, iWork, Time Machine, Boot Camp, the version simplicity. But recently, the ads seem to have dropped into the realm of Vista-bashing.

That being said, I’m not a massive fan of Vista, or Windows at all. But I use it, and I admit that Vista does have some advantages over XP. I recommended it to my mum in fact (largely on the basis that XP support will dwindle so best to jump on board sooner). 

Surely Apple can come up with better ads, and features to push, like Photobooth, Garageband, iChat, Screen Sharing, all of which are great features to plug, rather than spending time and money on ads going on about unhappy Vista customers and Vista bugs.

Perhaps we can band together and make them come up with some engaging adverts instead?

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in apple | No Comments »

HOWTO: Set up your Fon, or My adventures with a little white box

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

FonteraSo tonight at the Midlands Mac User Group Richard, Ben and I were talking about the Fon AP that Ben had at Trilby. For some reason he (and others) were having trouble setting up their Fon router to work.
I bought one too for €8 and never got around to setting it up. So I figured I’d give it a try.

Firstly, my current setup. I have ADSL broadband from Virgin (not the cable service, the over the BT service). I have a Netgear DG834G Wireless ADSL Modem Router serving up wifi to my house (protected of course). I can also connect to one of the 4 10/100Mbps ports if needed. My DG834G currently serves up IP’s via DHCP all within one range. I have no other routers, switches, or anything else in the house. Oh but I do have a Airport Express which connects as a client to the DG834G to stream audio to my Hifi.

So here we go. I’ve taken every thing out of the box. I have my Fon AP (access point), power supply, installation guide, and network cable if needed.

According to the install guide I start by connnecting my ethernet cable from the adsl router to the Fon WAP.

(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in apple, gagdets, howto | No Comments »

Leopards in my house!

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

Don’t worry, its not actual Leopards. Monday was pay day and my treat for the month was to get Leopard. Obviously its been out since October 29th but I wanted to save getting it till later. I had two main reasons.

1. Save my money
2. Wait till I had an external drive (Christmas present) and could do a backup.
 
So here’s the tale of my upgrade.
 
I started off by clearing as much bumff off my laptop onto my external drive. This mainly consisted of movies and torrents I was in the middle of. Then I used SuperDuper to do a clone of my hard drive to a disk image on the Western Digital 500GB MyBook Premium drive, hooked up via Firewire (because it is supreme over USB2.0!). This turned out to be a bit of a mistake but I will come to that later.
Next, I was ready to install Leopard. I had chosen to do a Clean Install over an upgrade because my current user account was partially migrated from my old Pre-Intel Powerbook G4 (that was a lovely machine). My hard drive had crashed and I had only managed to retain a small portion of my data. Luckily I had most of it saved on various DVD’s, and on my iPod (iTunes library). So I wanted to clean install to ensure that all permissions were correctly set, and also to clear up some of the crap that got added to it during various Terminal adventures.
So I clean installed. This took about 40 minutes maybe to wipe and install the OS. Then I went through the setup proceedure. I had sought advice from the MMUG and Drew gave me some good words of advice. So I set up my first user with the same shortname as my old. Now as you may not know, your account has a Name (i.e John Smith) and a shortname which unix uses to assign permissions to, and creates the basis for your home directory and preferences (i.e johnsmith). I used the same shortname for my new account, and booted into Leopard.
My next stop before getting my data back was to get the majority of my applications installed and up to date. I ran Software Update twice (which took a while. Thanks Virgin Media!) and was done. Then I needed to reinstall iLife ‘06 from my Macbook Pro Install DVD’s. This took a while too (30 mins maybe) and then I was good to go. One more Software Update for iLife and we’re there. (I will probably update iLife in the coming months).
So I was now ready to migrate my data. I plugged in my external drive, mounted my backup image, and ran Migration Assistant. I selected the disk image, and it correctly found all the user accounts. At first I was confused as it said I needed another 2.5GB of space free, which seemed crazy since my user folder was only 73GB and I had 95 to spare. I selected my user name and continued. I was then told that as the shortname already existed, I could import to a new user/shortname, or do nothing. Well that was no good. There second option was actually grayed out and that was what I wanted. Import settings and files into existing account. But I couldn’t do that while logged in with it. So I quit MA, went into System Preferences and set up a temporary account, logged out, logged back in as that, and ran MA again. Sucess! I can select the second option. So I carried on and was finally at the end, where I could import my files. I was told it would take about 4 hours. Fine, I can go to bed,  but in reality that time dropped quickly and became 1 hour 35 minutes. Fine I’ll wait up.
So come 1.30am it was done. Account data back in, and most of my apps installed.
 
 So what have I learnt as I now look to upgrade my GF’s Macbook? Well I think it would be easier if I had just partitioned a 120GB drive on my external HD and cloned to that, then I could just import during setup and all be fine. But hey we live and learn. 
 
So will this affect how I upgrade my gf’s laptop? Not in the slightest cos I’m just going to do a standard upgrade after backup to image. She has no legacy stuff so she should be fine. She’s a normal user, no terminal craziness or hackery. 

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in macosx, tech | No Comments »