Category Archives: Apple

How to get Pandora on Jailbroken Apple TV 2

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This is how I got Pandora script going on my Apple TV 2.
I used the script here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=70471&highlight=pandora

First make sure your Apple TV is jailbroken and you have XBMC and SSH installed.

ssh into the Apple TV
ssh root@XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
password is alpine

cd /Applications/XBMC.frappliance/XBMCData/XBMCHome/addons

wget -O xbmc-pandora-xbmc-pandora-master.tar.gz http://gitorious.org/xbmc-pandora/xbmc-pandora/archive-tarball/master

tar -xvzf xbmc-pandora-xbmc-pandora-master.tar.gz

rm xbmc-pandora-xbmc-pandora-master.tar.gz

mv xbmc-pandora-xbmc-pandora script.xbmc.pandora

cd $_

wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar/raw/master/src/libpiano/crypt_key_output.h

wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar/raw/master/src/libpiano/crypt_key_input.h
After that, start up XBMC -> Music -> Music Addons -> Pandora
The first time you run the script, it will ask you to go to the settings page so you can enter your login information.
Hopefully that gets Pandora going for you. 

 

Mac App Store

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Apple opened the Mac App store just the other day and it works sorta in the same way that iOS apps are purchased.
You load up a App to access the store and there you can see if the program is already installed or if not you can purchase it.  They do have free apps also for download. I think this is such a great idea because it allows more exposure to programs that you normally might not know about.
To get the Mac App store App, you just update Snow Leopard to 10.6.6.
Here I have downloaded the game Angry Birds and it looks great on my 15″ MacBook Pro.

New MacBook Airs, iLife ’11, and OSX Lion Preview

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At the Back to the Mac event Apple announced a few new items.

From the Apple Press release RSS feed:

Apple today unveiled an all new MacBook Air, the first of a next generation of notebooks which will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid state flash storage. Read more…

Apple today introduced iLife ’11, a major upgrade that gives Mac users even more great ways to create and share photos, movies and music. iPhoto ’11 has a whole new look, with stunning full screen modes for Faces, Places and Events. iMovie ’11 makes it easier than ever to edit videos and quickly transform them into fun theatrical trailers for easy posting online. GarageBand ’11 introduces new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs with Flex Time and Groove Matching. Free with every new Mac, iLife ’11 is available as a $49 upgrade for existing users. Read more…

Apple today announced the public beta of FaceTime for Mac, an entirely new application that allows Mac users to video call iPhone 4 and iPod touch users as well as other Macs. Featuring an easy to use interface, FaceTime for Mac automatically uses your Address Book contacts so there’s no need to create special buddy lists, and it works seamlessly with the built-in camera and mic on Mac notebooks, iMac and Apple LED Cinema Displays. Read more…

Apple today gave a sneak peek of Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Shipping next summer, Lion is inspired by many of iPad’s software innovations. Today’s sneak peek highlighted just a few of Lion’s features, including the Mac App Store℠, a new way to discover, install and automatically update desktop apps; Launchpad, a new home for all of your Mac apps; system-wide support for full screen apps; and Mission Control, which unifies Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces and full screen apps into an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere. Read more…

Apple Launches iPad

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Apple today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, playing games, reading e-books, and much more. Its high-resolution Multi-Touch display lets you interact with content — including 12 innovative new apps designed especially for iPad and almost all of the 140,000 apps available on the App Store. At just 0.5 inches thick and 1.5 pounds, iPad is thinner and lighter than any laptop or notebook. iPad will be available in March starting at the breakthrough price of just $499. -Apple
You can get more info here.

Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard

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About 1 week ago Apple released the it’s new operating system Snow Leopard.  It was basically a improved version of Leopard with a few new features but not a lot.  It was priced very reasonably at $29 for a single user license upgrade.
There’s been a lot of people talking about how it isn’t much different and breaks some compatibility with some old applications, so some have not upgraded and some have rolled back to Leopard.
Myself I have upgraded all of my Macs and I find that it is much faster and responsive.  The sleep and wake function now works really fast and as I’ve been using it for the past week, I have slowly started to notice new features that weren’t on the previous OS Leopard.  Some of these updates like when you click on the WiFi icon you can now see the signal strength of all the wireless networks detected which can make choosing one easier.  Also expose is much better now and can now show what’s been minimized in the dock.
Overall I think Apple was going for stability and not so much for new features as that is what they mentioned in the last WWDC.  One feature that works now for the address book that didn’t before and left my address book unable to work was adding a smart group that shows all the contacts that are not in a group.  That use to make my address book hang and I would have to reset some settings to get it to function again, but now it works fine.
Also a big change was the ability to run in 64 bit native mode which only some macs can do.  You can hold 6 + 4 during boot to force the OS to boot into the 64it kernel which makes the OS all 64bit but you may find compatibility issues if you do so.
I think most of the new features will be more apparent once developers utilize the new programming features like grand central dispatch and Open CL.
You can find out more about Snow Leopard here – http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Tomorrow September 9th Apple is holding a event in San Francisco which rumor has it they will be showing off their latest new iPods.  Stay tuned for a post tomorrow on whats new tomorrow.

Upgraded Apple MacBooks and Lower Pricing

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I haven’t blogged in a while so I figured I’d catch up on some posts and give some information on the new line of Apple products and software.

overview-gallery1-20090608I’ll start off with the new line of MacBook Pro laptops that Apple released in early June.  Now even the 13″ model is considered a Pro.
I’ll start with the pricing and then go into the features they have added.
The 13″ now starts at $1199 and for $1499 you get a slightly faster processor, more memory, and storage.
The 15″ now starts at $1699 and for $1999 and $2299 you will respectively get a faster processor and storage but the $1999 model comes with a GeForce 9600M video card with 256MB vram in conjunction with the GeForce 9400 video card.  The $2299 model adds a GeForce 9600M with 512MB vram in conjunction with the GeForce 9400.
Finally the 17″ now is priced at $2499 and has the same specs as the last model 15″ but includes a 17″ screen and still has a express card/34 slot.

All models use the GeForce 9400M with the last two 15″ and 17″ having the option to switch to the more powerful 9600M video cards to do tasks that require more graphic processing.
All models now come with a Firewire 800 port.
All models but the 17″ dropped the express card slot and added a SD card slot instead.
The 13″ models only have a line out/shared optical out port now with support for the Apple stereo headset with microphone that is used for the iPhone.  The 15″ and 17″ models have both a line in and out / shared optical in and out port with the out having support also for the Apple stereo headset with microphone.
All models now have a backlit keyboard.
All of the models have support up to 8GB of ram.
All of the models now follow the previous 17″ design of having a long life integrated non removable battery.  (You can still unscrew the bottom case off to change the battery, hard drive, or add ram)

In my opinion these are the best notebooks Apple has released and the lower pricing is definitely a better bargain than what was previously offered.
You can find out more information here – http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

Drobo + Mac Mini = File/Media Server

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design_angled20090303= File/Media Server

About a month ago, I picked up a Drobo and stopped using my Vista PC for my raid storage.  At first I picked up the Droboshare with the Drobo which is a network interface for the Drobo which has gigabyte Ethernet.  I thought that would be good, but turns out the connection to the Drobo is still USB 2.0. So it basically has a bottleneck from 1000Mbs to 400Mbs.  Also when testing out the Droboshare over my gigabit network I was getting constant disconnects from the Droboshare.
I later decided I would pay about 400 more and just get a new Mac Mini that has Firewire 800 and hook that up to my Drobo and share it over the network.  This solution worked and has been very reliable so far.  I can also run Boxee and other media related applications on the Mini which is a plus.
If anyone is planning on getting a Drobo and a Droboshare, I would highly reccomend checking out this common solution instead.

New Mac Pro and updated Consumer Desktop Line

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macproimacmacminiEarlier this month Apple released a New Mac Pro and updated the Consumer Desktop line which consists of the new iMacs and Mac Minis.
The new iMac’s and Mac Mini’s are based on the new NVidia chipset like the unibody MacBooks and run on 1066mhz DDR3 ram.
I recently picked up a new Mac Mini and a Drobo storage device to setup as a file/media server and will be posting a little about my setup later on.
You can buy and find out more about the new:
Mac Pro here – http://www.apple.com/macpro/
iMac here – http://www.apple.com/imac/
Mac Mini here – http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Buttonless Talking iPod Shuffle

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shuffleA few weeks back Apple released it latest version of it’s small portable music player.  This new version doesn’t even have buttons on the device but instead it incorporates controls on the headset sorta like how the iPhone has a mic and button to hang up calls or skip or stop songs.
The negative part about this new setup is the inability to use 3rd party headsets that people might already have.
I’m sure 3rd party companies will offer better aftermarket headsets with controls and better sound quality but I really think that will be a turn off for some buyers.
The new player is extremely small and incorporates a built in clip that makes it easy to attach to the listener.  It also boasts a 10 hour playback time when fully charged.
But the most amazing thing about this player is VoiceOver, the ability to speak track and artists names and also playlist names since the device has no readable LCD display.
You can buy and find out more about the new iPod shuffle here – http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/