bitdepth

Apple TV

As soon as I picked up the box I thought that it seemed really small. But when I got my Apple TV out of the box it seemed almost impossibly small. While the previous model looked like a small Mac Mini, this one is very tiny. Packaged with Apple’s usual style and finish it is efficient and beautiful.

After unboxing it and hooking it up to the tv (you’ll need to use HDMI to connect it) it powers up (no power switch) when you use the remote. After a bit of configuration with your network it works. Log in with your Apple ID and then you have access to your iTunes account and you can rent movies.

You can also connect to your computer if it is on the home network and then it allows you to listen to or view anything that you have in iTunes as well as photos that are in iPhoto. If you have video that isn’t in the right format you can use HandBrake to convert it (there is a preset for Apple TV 2). The connections can continue with your Flickr account and YouTube (to see your favourites), but the best thing for me to connect to is my Netflix account which provides a ton of movies and tv shows to watch. Each of these accounts show up in different places, but the close analogy is that they are like channels. In each of these areas there are gorgeous thumbnails that appear which is a nice touch.

The remote is quite lovely and is aluminum with a simplified set of buttons. It took a little bit of time getting used to, but it feels nice in my hand. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch you can use Apple’s Remote app to also control the Apple TV. When you do that you can also see information about music that is playing which is a nice touch. You can dj a party and change the music from your iPhone if you want instead of going over to your computer.

One of the very neat things added with the latest updates to iOS is that you can send video or photos to the Apple TV from any iOS device that is on the network. So when you look at a video on your iPhone and want to share it with people you can just click on the AirPlay button and choose the Apple TV and it magically appears on the screen. I love it and now I wish I had this hooked up to the video projectors at work to allow for more people to share stuff on the screen.

The image quality on the tv (a 32-inch LG HDTV) is great and right now the sound just comes out of the tv speakers, but with support for 5.1 Surround Sound at some point it may be hooked up to the stereo.

There are a wide range of video and audio podcasts that you can stream through the box and with my laptop I can play any of the regular podcasts that I listen to and watch. It’s a magical box that provides an easy and affordable way to get video and audio from all of the computers and iPods and iPhones in the house. Ideally it’s the type of thing that would be built in to all television sets.

Most of what I watch on the Apple TV are tv shows and films on Netflix. The image quality of some of the shows is a lot better than on watching them through the Netflix channel on the Wii which is the way that I used to watch Netflix on the TV. Without the surround sound hooked up I’m not sure if the sound quality is a lot better, but I’m assuming that it would be.

It just works and I’m looking forward to seeing how it may expand with updates and new channels (the latest addition is Major League Baseball) and new capabilities. But even if it stays the way it is, I’m going to enjoy using this for a long time.

March 20, 2011 apple, appletv, iphone, ipod touch, technology

iPhone 4

Being on the cutting edge of technology is something I really enjoy, but in terms of gadgets there is a bit of restraint. That’s why there isn’t an iPad in the house and recently I took the leap and finally purchased an iPhone. Waiting was a good thing. The transition from iPod Touch (2nd generation) to iPhone isn’t a huge leap, but being constantly connected is quite amazing. The timing was perfect with my previous mobile contract being up, giving the flexibility to choose any of the mobile providers for service. While I didn’t camp out or line up, there was a bit of research that was done to figure out which provider would be best and where a theoretical iPhone could be purchased. The chosen provider was Telus and it looked as though the store in New Minas would be good. On July 29, launch day in Canada, they expected their shipment in between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. But I was going to be leaving for a trip earlier than that and didn’t want to wait. As the stories of people waiting in lines started to trickle out, I stopped in to Future Shop at lunchtime to see if they had any. Luckily they did and without a line. 15 minutes later there was a 32 GB iPhone 4 in my pocket. The first thing you notice is the screen. It’s bright and sharp. The next thing is the speed. It feels a lot faster than my iPod Touch, both with the apps and everything online. It’s an amazing device. The signal strength is good and the antenna problem doesn’t seem to be that big. But the phone part is the least interesting. Now it seems as though it’s the camera I use the most and discovering apps that use the camera and the GPS is a lot of fun. Being on vacation while getting it is a good thing as this takes up a bit of time. There are no regrets and this is one of the most amazing devices I’v ever used. It’s kind of magic.

August 16, 2010 apple, iphone, technology

Pads and Pods

The introduction of the iPad by Apple has made me think about how I use the various computers and devices that are part of my life. Do I need to have a bunch of different devices doing similar things?
The short answer is “yes” and the short reason is context. My iPod Touch is great for having a tiny computer with me all of the time. It also can be used for listening to music too (someday we’ll tell our kids about how there were thing called iPods that only played music and they’ll give us blank stares). But many time when I’m using my iPod on the couch I think that it would be better if it was a bit bigger and that’s one thing that the iPad does well.
One interesting thing about the way we use and share things on the screens that we use is that there is a physical and social component to it. How many time have you shown someone something on your iPhone or laptop. It would be easier with the iPad.
But the most revolutionary and interesting thing to me is the lack of multitasking and the disappearance of the filesystem. It is great how I am limited on my iPod Touch. I can only do one thing at a time and I don’t have to remember where I’ve saved something. As I write this blog post using my iPod, the only other thing I can do is listen to music. Twitter doesn’t distract me, or email, or anything else. I don’t have notifications on, so I don’t get distracted. I think about what I’m doing and everything else gets out of the way.
Focus is good and it is also rare. Unless I consciously shut down email and Twitter and my RSS reader and web browser it is really easy to get distracted and come back to a film, a half-written tweet, an email draft, and a bunch of tabs in the browser. It’s more productive when single-tasking on the iPod Touch than multitasking on a MacBook Pro.
The iPad is like a good notebook and pen (a very nice and expensive notebook and pen). People have different notebooks for different contexts, so why not have similar device for different places. The days of the mutipurpose computer on a desk where you do everything and store everything are over. The computer is becoming an appliance and that’s a very good thing.
While I don’t think I’ll get the first generation iPad, I’m pretty sure that I will eventually have one. My next big Apple purchase will probably be an iPhone (the unannounced next generation one) and it will be interesting to see how the iPhone evolves in the increasingly mobile Apple ecosystem. Will you get an iPad?

February 14, 2010 apple, ipad, ipod, ipodtouch, technology

New MacBook Pro

I’ve had a lot of Mac laptops (actually every laptop I’ve had since the first has been a Mac) and I can say for myself that the new 15-inch MacBook Pro that I have is great.

Best. Laptop. Ever.

The only other laptop where I’ve felt this sort of love for was my “Pismo” G3 PowerBook that just felt right and was powerful and beautiful. With the G3 PowerBook it was the balance of speed and power and features that made it work. The slightly curving case was comfortable and fit easily into the carrying case. It was fast to set up and very flexible with 2 FireWire 400 ports, USB, s-video out as well as VGA out. There was AirPort too… and this was 8 years ago. I haven’t plugged in a laptop to go online at home for 8 years!
Over the past near-decade things have changed a lot with technology and with the new MacBook Pro Apple strikes the balance just right again. There are 2 USB-2 ports, one FireWire 800 port (which is a bit of a pain, but with an adapter cord, all of the FW400 things work with it), ethernet, a different Mini DisplayPort plug for external video (which means you need to get adapters for VGI or DVI out), and an SD card slot. I initially thought that the SD card slot was kind of strange, but I find that it’s great for getting pictures from the SD card in my digital camera. It is very fast and I don’t need any cables as I just pop in the card and the transfer speed is a lot faster than through the camera with cables. While I haven’t tried it yet, it will also work great with digital audio files that I record with my Zoom H2 recorder, which also uses SD cards.
The battery life is amazing. While the official story is that it will last up to 7 hours, in reality, it’s still pretty amazing, and I’ve been able to get more than 6 hours out of it and I haven’t had the battery die on me yet. It runs very quiet and doesn’t seem to get very warm. I’m using the lower capacity video card as it takes less power. With the video card with twice the RAM (512 MB), it apparently eats more power. For video editing that’s the one that will get used, but for surfing and writing and other non-video tasks, the display is fine.
The screen is absolutely gorgeous with the best colour and contrast that I’ve ever seen on a laptop. In working with photographs there is a lot more detail and the colours just seem to pop. I don’t know about using it for serious colour-correction, but it’s dramatically better than anything I’ve seen before.
Some unique changes that are part of Apple’s zen-like design ethos is the new, buttonless trackpad. The trackpad is much larger and the whole thing is a button. Initially I didn’t even notice the change, since the larger area works perfectly with my thumb where the button would have been. The trackpad is made from a similar glass to the surface of the iPod touch and there are all sorts of cool multi-touch features. Two fingers to scroll, three fingers to page around, and four fingers up and down for Expose (for hiding things and showing all active windows) and finally four fingers left and right to switch between applications. In the System Preferences there are great little videos demonstrating all of the multi-touch mouse action, which makes it much easier to understand.
The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is a simply beautiful and powerful laptop that makes me fall in love with design and laptop computing all over again.

July 11, 2009 apple, laptop, macbookpro, software, technology

Happy Birthday, Mac

I remember reading about the Macintosh in Byte magazine before I actually saw one. There was a review of the first Mac and an interview with the design team that was fascinating. I hadn’t really thought about the design of computers before because you didn’t really have that much choice in what you would get (and I didn’t have much money either). But once I started down the Mac road, I didn’t look back. For over a decade now all of my personal computer-related work has happened on a Mac. Today the Macintosh turns 25 which makes me think about the Macs I’ve known and loved.
The design of the Macintosh was brilliant and innovative and they’ve always stayed ahead of the curve for what was coming in computers. Being on a Mac sometimes means that you’re in strange places as the technology shifts. Sometimes it’s great with things such as FireWire for video editing and wireless networks with Airport (almost a decade ago!) and other times it’s more of a challenge (the shift away from SCSI, dropping 3.5 inch drives, and the wide range of video connectors for monitors). But they’re beautifully designed computers that work well and over the years they’ve maintained a clean look and feel that sets the tone for the other computers that follow. Even opening the box is a wonderful experience and I love seeing the simple line, “Designed by Apple in California”. Continue…

January 24, 2009 computers, mac, macintosh

Touched by an iPod

When I got my iPod with video a few years ago it changed the way that I related to the music that I listened to. While it had video capability, I never really used it for a lot of video. But it became my constant driving companion and preferred way of listening to podcasts. The iPod has always been a remarkable example of minimalist design, but with the iPod Touch, Apple takes it to the next level.
My combination birthday / Christmas present this year was a 32 GB iPod Touch and I absolutely love it. The applications are great and the wireless connectivity is changing the way I do a lot of stuff online. The first application that I purchased was the Premium version of Twitterific, which I use all the time. I keep up to date with my feeds with NetNewsWire and with Apple’s Mail I check my Gmail. I’m writing this on my iPod (obviously) with the WordPress app, but I’m eagerly anticipating the iPhone version of MarsEdit. I haven’t done a lot of actual productive stuff yet (aside from staying up-to-date with email and news) but I think that I’ll be doing a lot more.

December 28, 2008 apple, ipod, ipodtouch, technology

1 / 3