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Paul's Time Sink

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DIRECTV's reaction to TiVo Series3?

Paul Westbrook | 13 September, 2006 12:02

DIRECTV has started upgrading the DIRECTV HD DVR with TiVo (HR10-250) to version 6.3.  Did this software suddenly become ready, or is DIRECTV feeling the pressure from the TiVo Series3?

[via PVR Wire]

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Annoying iTunes 7 behavior

Paul Westbrook | 13 September, 2006 03:16

I just discovered an annoying behavior in iTunes 7 when attempting to sync a iPod game to an iPod.  After downloading the game, when you sync your iPod you will see a messages with text similar to:

Some of the games in your iTunes library, including the game "Vortex", were not copied to the iPod "Paul's Vide iPod" because you are not authorized to play them on this computer.

Unauthorizedgames
 (More)

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TiVo Series3?

Paul Westbrook | 13 September, 2006 02:49

Since I used to work at TiVo, I am pretty partial to the TiVo service and interface.  Since it seems like DIRECTV is phasing out support for TiVo DVRs, the TiVo Series3 looks like a very good option.  I still have a Series1 that has lifetime service that I can transfer to the Series3.  Here are the pro and cons for switching:
 (More)

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.Mac

Paul Westbrook | 13 September, 2006 01:56

There is a lot of talk about whether .Mac is still relevant and a lot of people are not going to renew.  There is even a viral feedback petition to Apple.  Our .Mac membership doesn't expire until March.  I am not sure if we will renew it.  Some of the features we don't use, while others we do:

Use:

  • Mail/Keychain Sync - Is use this to synchronize my mail settings, keychain between different macs
  • HomePage - This is a very easy way to create a web pages, especially to share movies.  (Google Page Creator may be a reasonable replacement)
  • iDisk - I only use iDisk for storing videos for iDisk.  We could just as easily use our web server with the WebDAV module.
  • Backup - This is an easy way to have automatic offsite incremental backups.  (I think that this alone may justify the membership)

Don't Use:

  • Bookmark Sync - Since I use Firefox, Google Browser Sync is use to synchronize bookmarks.  One reason that this is better that .Mac is that it works cross platform.
  • .Mac mail - Gmail is a better implementation of webmail and POP based mail.
  • Secure iChat - This is not that useful, as it you can only send encrypted messages to other .Mac users
  • s/mime email - Unfortunately most people are not able to verify signatures or encrypt/decrypt messages.
  • iWeb - So far HomePage has worked for us, so I haven't even launched the program.
  • Groups - If we needed to use this, we could use Google Groups.
  • iCards - I believe that you don't need to be a .Mac member to send an iCard.
  • Online iCal - Google Calendar implements online calendars better than .Mac

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iTunes 7

Paul Westbrook | 13 September, 2006 00:46

Apple released iTunes 7 today.  I noticed some interesting things about the new features

  • Gapless Playback - This is intended to mark series of tracks that should be played back without gaps, such as live albums or classical pieces.  The problem is that it appears that it has to open each track to make this determination.  This can be very slow when the tracks are on remote servers, and there doesn't seem to be an option to turn this off
  • Get Album Artwork - This is one feature that I am glad to see built in to iTunes.  I had been using the Album Art Widget to get album art into iTunes.  It is interesting how they implemented this.  It looks like iTunes send the list of albums that are missing artwork to Apple.  I tried this on the Mac mini, which had not been set up with the iTunes Store, and getting Album Artwork required me to log into the iTunes Store.  I am assuming that the way that this works is that the album artwork will be downloaded at some point later, since they don't appear to be adding the at the time the menu item is selected.

Getalbumartwork

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Google Calendar Suggestion

Paul Westbrook | 13 September, 2006 00:10

I wanted to enter our kids' school calendars into a calendar program I can access the calendar at work and at home.  Also this gives us the ability to have access to the calendars from either of our computers.  I decided to enter the calendar into Google Calendar, and it went very smoothly.  I noticed one thing that I would love to see in Google Calendar.

Google Calendar can export a calendar to iCal through an ics file.  Unfortunately the ics file does not include the alarms for events.  This means that iCal, or any devices that sync through iSync, will not alert you for events.  Google Calendar has event notification with SMS messages, but these notifications can cost money, as often there is a charge for receiving text messages.

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