Apple TV

A few short months ago Apple Inc. announced its new toy, the Apple TV. I watched Steve Jobs keynote as he showed off its various features and quality. I was instantly in love with this new marvel. I had just updated to a TV that had a true HD input and I was starting to build a video library on my computer to watch and share. But until the Apple TV my only means of sharing my videos and stuff was via my hacked Xbox that I had turned into a media center. It worked well, but was a tad difficult to move videos to and from it. So when Apple announced they were shipping the Apple TV I pre-ordered that very day. It came a few weeks later in its pretty shinny little box. I opened it right away and hooked it via HDMI - DVI cable to a monitor I had in my office. It was awesome. Sharp graphics, simple interface, wonderful navigation. I didn't and still haven't had time still to fully appreciate the eccentricities of this fantastic device. But I wanted to share some of my first impressions of it both good and bad. So before you run out and buy one for yourself, give this a quick read.

You can read all the reasons that make this so great on the Apple site. So I'm going to try and stick to the Pro's from a truly geek point of view.

The Pro's..
Connects to just about any iTunes Library and lets you play the content. So long as the Video is MP4 H.264. Even though iTunes can play XVID and DIVX (if you have the codec installed) it will only show and play MP4. But thats not a problem since you can use Quicktime to export anything it plays to be compatible on the Apple TV. While I'm sure many "converters" will come out in the next few months you can get a simple "how to" here.

The hard disk is totally upgradeable by the end user with little effort! It ships with a tiny 40 gig drive for storing content locally from a "synced" iTunes library. I myself am looking forward to popping a 160 Gig disk into this as soon as I can. It will of course void the warranty. So I will probably wait a while to make sure the thing isn't defective. But there is a great guide here that tells you how to upgrade it.

It is basically just a PC thats tailored to run as a media center. The good thing about this is that its pretty much infinitely upgradeable by Apple to add countless features. Not to mention, we will see TONS of hacks and upgrades for the box. I honestly can't wait to see what the smart guys come up with. They already figured out how to make it play DIVX and XVID :)

The Cons..
So what don't I like? Well thats mostly glitches and software over sites. Lots of which will probably get fixed in updates over the next year. I do wish it was capable of steaming photos instead of just syncing them. But I suspect this is due to the design of iPhoto more than the Apple TV. Considering the numerous folks asking for this feature, its likely it will be added at some point. It has various bugs too. But I'm not too concerned about that as those will be fixed soon enough. There is however one thing that does bug me. I can live with out it being true 1080i for now and that it doesn't record. But my biggest issues is its inability to decode and play true 5.1 audio. I love my surround system and movies sound so awesome on it. its hard to go back to ProLogic from DTS/Dolby Surround. While the specs for the Apple TV says it plays 5.1, thats not exactly true. So I have basically ended up watching most things with just the TV's speakers as the stereo only shows the connections to be 2 channel stereo and my bass box never turns on. :( There is a good article here about what exactly 5.1 support means in the Apple TV. I can only hope this will be fixed. Until 5.1 is there. I'll stick to buying DVDs of my favorite films.

Over all I am super happy with my purchase and I look forward to using it. I don't see myself using this as my main way of viewing theatrical movies or TV shows any time soon. I am much more excited about the idea of being able to see all my photos and play slide shows and browse my music and play it with out needing to go back to my computer to pick a new album. I will use it to show home movies and short videos I get off the net. I have lots of fun plans for the Apple TV and I have already thought up some fun uses for it outside of its intended use.

Although Apple TV isn't perfect, it's a HUGE step in the right direction.

Combichrist

What the Fuck is Wrong with you People?

I came across this Norwegian group when i was looking at the play list from a club I frequent. The entry read like this

"This Shit Will Fuck You Up! - Combichrist"

How could I resist anything with a title like that? I grabbed one album and had a listen. I loved it. It was hard core industrial, super aggressive and had thumping beats. It was after that, that I learned that Combichrist was the brain child of Andy LaPlegua. This guy was also responsible for some of my other favorite bands. Icon of Coil, Scandy, and Panzer AG. Each band, while electronic in nature, explores a different aspect of the Industrial music scene. Some is hard and thrashy and some is more danceable. All of it is fun. If you're in the mood for something to get your self motivated or you just like a lot of heavy bass beats, give them a listen. Good for working out too.

What to say first.. hmmm

First off. I'd like to thank my browser for have a built in spell check. Go FireFox! This will make my poor writing much easier for everyone to decrypt. Second. I'm going to blame Chase for this bloggy business. It's her fault I am even doing this. I don't usually have time to write scores of random information on a web page for all to scrutinize. But I will make the time to at least try and add a little somethin' somethin' each week. Plus I do need to practice writing. I'm so horrid at it, I need all the practice time I can get.

So what am I going to write about? Well the title says a lot of it. Though I'll dare not regale you with tellings of my toast fantasies. But you will hear tell of music I like, technology I hate, and crap I have an opinion on one way or another. And I might just mix it up with a funny story or 2.

So there you have it.