I have been lusting for a couple of Apples devices. Specifically the Apple TV and the iPhone. I haven’t pulled the trigger on either one yet because they are expensive.

I was really hopeful when the Apple TV came out. Steve Jobs refers to it as “The Hobby”. I believe this is an allusion to the idea that they know that such a device is needed but not exactly what needs to go into it. It can’t refer to the hobbyists that have been modding and hacking the device to add those things in. The first software update, 1.1, took away all of the tools that made modding easy.

It’s just missing too many things. The biggest beef I have is the lack of support for video formats. this is not a limitation of the device or even the codecs on it. Modders have even found a way to trick iTunes into sending all kinds of video files to the ApplyTV, which it plays quite happily. Not supporting every reasonable video format in iTunes and on the AppleTV out of the box makes this a non starter for me. You cant take over my media experience if you don’t play all my media.

Here is an example. I get loads of videos from FlyingGiants.com in all manner of formats, WMV, AVI, Xvid, ogm etc. None of that will play on the device and none of them will import into iTunes. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could subscribe to an RSS feed of the videos and get them delivered to me like a podcast? The XBox360 does a much better job of this and its comparable priced and, oh yea, it plays games! Hey Apple, get with the program, not all legal, legitimate, virtuous media originates on a Mac in Quicktime. The ApplyTV needs to be omnivorous.

No Net Radio. iTunes has stream support, why cant the AppleTV? I would like to be able to kick a little SomeFM in my living room without having to go mess with my PC. Seems like a glaring omission to me.
No Web Browser. Come on , they put Safari on the iPhone and that screen is tiny. The Nintendo Wii has a good web browser. i think though that this might require a better remote to really be easy to use, something like the Wii’s gyroscopic technology really is ideal for this.
So i had my hopes up, even after its release that the AppleTV would mature into the HTPC we have all wanted but never quite archived. It could still be that device it just needs a few things. Unfortunately those things are at odds with Apples corporate media strategy. Still if you don’t care about those things its the best HTPC going.
The iPhone on the other hand seems to be just about perfect. Its like they designed it for me personally or something. That thing is just Bad Ass. No Edge data is a bummer but Wifi is a huge bonus. I can live without the edge, the few times that I really needed net access on the go were for checking e-mail or getting directions. I never needed to watch YouTube.

My current phone has a lot of the iPhone’s features. Its a music player and lets you surf the net. It just seems neolithic with its small screen, clumsy interface and T9 text entry, next to an iPhone. I know I’m going to get one, it is a forgone conclusion. I haven’t this been excited about a cellphone since I got my first one. Still the $600 price point (come on, wants the 4GB model?!) makes this an item that may be on the “do want” list for a long time.

That was My Digg. Go to DiggTheDiggButton.com

I have been looking for a camera to replace my aging Canon S300. I want to get into shooting some video for a podcast and I also need a still camera with good macro performance. Canon has the TX1 available now and it would seem like the perfect choice on paper but there are problems. The TX1 is a first gen product, the battery life is half that of the G7, the zoom range doesn’t go as wide as the G7 and its currently more expensive. The HD movies and big optical zoom were tempting but ultimately I don’t see those features being advantageous for web video. Most zoom shots look amateurish and HD burns a lot of bandwidth.

The G7 has a very respectable movie mode. It shoots Motion JPEG AVI video at 640×480 @ 30fps. It can shoot continuously at that rate for 30 minutes. Thats long enough to cover most things that I want to film. The files it produces are big, 4GB at that rate but thats actually a plus for web video. Having a high fidelity progressive scan source to compress will result in a really high quality podcast. Mini DV camcorders shoot interlaced video and to get progressive output you need to spend upwards of 1K. Also the G7 has a poorly named ‘safety zoom’ feature which is actually quite cool. The digital zoom can actually be used at lower resolutions without any quality loss. This means the 4x digital zoom should actually be quite useful in movie mode. Edit: Well it’s not that cool because it doesn’t work in for Movies.
The older canon cameras have a 1GB limit on videos while the newer models with the Digic III processor have raised that limit to 4GB. 1GB gets you about 8 minutes of footage at high quality. I really felt this would get annoying. Having to constantly go and restart the movie mode to keep the film rolling so to speak. I didn’t want to be limited in that way even if the video gets cut down in post production. So I ruled out quite a few very good cameras because of the short movies. With an 8GB card on board the new cameras can shoot for an hour with only a single interruption. Thats great for on location work. In my workshop I’ll have it plugged into the mains so I can shoot pretty much continuously.

You can also tether the camera to a PC and Canon’s software will allow you to capture still shots directly to the PC. It can be set up to shoot at an interval to produce time lapse sequences. I’m defiantly going to be playing with that feature!
The G7 got criticized by reviewers for its lack of RAW support and the high price tag. If I didn’t value the video capabilities of the camera quite so highly I would have to agree. If you just want a solid still camera get the A640 instead and save some cash. For my needs though, I’m getting two cameras in one. In the future I may get a dedicated video camera and at that point I’ll still have a great, compact still camera in the G7.

I cant claim that my decision was entirely driven by reviews and spec sheets. I really like the look of the camera. Its hefty and really solidly built. It reminds me of the old film camera my father has with all the external dials. I just kept coming back to it and drooling.

A strange interaction bug on my work machine between Firebug, Visual Studio and Netvibes causes Firefox to run as slow as a dog. Remove any one factor from the equation and things return to normal AFTER a reboot. So I’ve seen it and I don’t know the actual underlying cause or solution. At home I don’t have Visual Studio running and its just fine. The bug only kicks in after visual Studio is launched.
The Apple iTunes COM SDK has disappeared from apples site. What gives Apple? We want it back with access to the new features!

I have been testing Google Apps for your domain service for a couple of months now. Recently there has been a lot of downtime. This coincides with the announcement that Google will be charging $50 for the service per year and paying users will get 99.9% uptime. In my case the only part of the service I care for is the e-mail gateway. Using GMail as a way to access my e-mail at work and to filter my spam has been very effective. $50 isn’t bad for that service. Of course my annual hosting fee at Dreamhost is only about double that.

Spektrum users (and probably all 2.4Ghz users) should be careful to orient their antennas towards the heaves lest they loose control of their model. A few people (yours truly included) are having glitching and lockouts related to pointing the tip of the antenna at the model. Its a good example of “Don’t Do That Then”, keep the tip of the antenna pointed away from the model and all is well. Much chastened by these events the author now has his ‘up’ all the time.

Lastly and probably of deepest importance. Internet radio as we know it is probably going to come to an end. As I write this I’m listening to the soothing sounds of “Groove Salad” on Soma FM. The same music station that brought you that Télépopmusik song from the Mitsubishi commercial. Yes, Groove Salad listeners were pretty tired of it by the time it got to the main stream. Now the RIAA wants to get its Payola on with internet radio. Net broadcasters will have to pay new per listener fees that even terrestrial broadcasters won’t pay. NPR isn’t happy and neither am I. With tunes going on sale sans DRM at the iTunes Music store, the logic behind this ruling no longer holds any water. Write your congress critter so we can save the music.