TJ Crawford's Abstract Ideas

So it was Blog update night (and morning). I went in to update a theme and ended up compiling my blogroll, updating several plugins and changing my Twitter widget from a Flash based on to an HTML and Javascript version for improved search and find-ability. I did give myself a scare when i updated my Akismet plug-in because I just overwrote the current plugin folder. Not so good an idea. It totally broke the backend and front end with a PHP error. Noooooooo. Easily enough fixed though. I edited the Akismet.php file and hard coded my wordpress API key. Crisis averted.

I had someone ask me about a plugin I used so I’ll take the liberty and list all of them and give some credit to some great developers.

So I have been using Picnik.com for a while to correct some of the photos I post to Flickr.com, because it has a direct integration. The only issue I had in the past is that it could take a while to download and upload photos. I think a few things happened in the past month that makes this much less painful now. One I upgraded our Internet connection from 3meg to 5meg, VROOM, VROOM. Also Picnik officially lost it’s BETA status and I think they rolled a number of speed optimized features and possibly added some more hardware and infrastructure themselves. Either way it’s working great. 

The Hi-Def content for the AppleTV is starting to appear. Most of it is in podcasts right now but there is some pretty good stuff. The Big D from Walt Disney has posted several HD videos of the Walt Disney World Theme Parks, Disney Adventure Video Podcast, DiggNation has a Hi-Def version of their podcast, Engadget, a handful of Mac User Tips, 2 or 3 Golf Tips segments and lots more. Just go to the iTunes store and search for "HD" or on the podcast directory there is a link for "AppleTV Podcast Showcase". Now I can’t wait for the movies to start showing up in HD. There is 1 up now from the Sundance Film Festival but it won’t be long before the mainstream movies are at least 720p.

So while everyone else at Twelve Horses is loving their iPhone (Thank you TH and customers) I returned mine. I was very conflicted about it, however no or poor integration with Exchange made it too much of an imbalance between form and productivity. I often have all the emails for the day cleared out just in my drive time (it’s really pretty scary). Instead of taking the $ I did do an exchange for an Apple TV. Overall I love it but there are some things to be aware of before you rush out and get one. Very clean and what everyone comes to expect from an Apple form factor. Likes

• So easy to setup and get music and other content streamed to your stereo.
• All the support you need for anyone that has kept up with the equipment times. Some non-Hi-Def TV owners will be upset because there is no RCA out, Just HDMI and Composite.
• Tons of Space even with the smaller 40 Gig.
• Super Small footprint at 7 x 7 x 1. 
• Easily updated firmware that can add tons of extra functionality. The example you have initially is that YouTube content is available through a 5-7 minute update (Charter 3 meg cable connection)
• 802.11n for faster networking and ultimately streaming of video.
• Super quiet because it has no cooling fans.
• Screen saver with all of your best photos is definitely captivating. My wife relented on thinking it was a silly purchase based on a 3 hour memory lane experience, courtesy of the AppleTV’s Screen saver.

Dislikes

• Even thought it will sync your content locally it only syncs one instance of iTunes, not all of them. So I copied mine over and then went to sync everyone else’s, however you have to completely erase the original instance. This means My Music is local to the Apple TV however my wife’s, and 3 kids libraries can only be played by having their computers on and with iTunes fired up.
• The Apple TV appliance itself displays in 1080i and can run video at 720p resolution and frame rates. So it’s Hi-Def right? No because the iTunes store doesn’t have any content at this resolution. I bet it’s only a matter of time though. I did download "The Greatest Game Ever Played" movie and I really couldn’t complain about the resolution (640 x 480). it wasn’t as crisp as Standard DVD but not too bad. I have heard that other content can look horrible such as the first couple seasons of Battlestar Galactica. But I confirmed through a colleague that it looked horrible even on his iPod video, so it was an original encoding issue rather than anything with the Apple TV.
• You Tube content is there but not all of it. Before Google snatched them up the content was encoded into some format other than H.264 and MPEG4. i have heard they are converting older content but it’s probably not going to happen as fast as we all want. Also there is a log-in to my current YouTube account however once you log in there is no option to access any of my current videos. How useless is that? Better than the iPhone though that has horrible search options.
• No Surround Sound Support, NONE. WTF? I have heard that even the hardware they put in it doesn’t have the throughput to do it. That really sucks.
• Make sure you have ventilation because this thing gets HOT without cooling fans.
• So because I thought it would sync everybody’s library I got the 160 Gig version. Since it does not I only have 5%-10% of the drive space used. If i had known that I think I might have opted for the 40 Gig. I’m ok with it for now because I predict that Hi-Def content is not far behind, which will eat up space like a sumo binging after an secluded Alaskan plane crash!

Over all I would have to say it was a good purchase and stopped me from having to drag my laptop and power cord over to the Family room and hook up and Mini jack to RCA cord all the time.