Author: jamesclay

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Problems with Apple TV

Last night I was trying to watch a TV Show that I had downloaded from iTunes onto my iMac through my Apple TV. It was Jeeves And Wooster if you are interested.

However the Apple TV couldn’t find my iTunes library on my iMac. I knew that iTunes was running, as I had just plugged in my iPad to sync and charge. However as far as the Apple TV was concerned, it wasn’t there and it couldn’t find it.

After a lot of running about between office and the TV I found that the issue was that iTunes had a dialogue box open, asking me if I wanted to update the iPad, and that was stopping iTunes from sharing it’s content to the Apple TV.

After unplugging the iPad and restarting iTunes, everything worked and we could sit down and watch Jeeves and Wooster.

Interestingly, though I can buy Jeeves and Wooster from Amazon for just £11.17 I have been buying it by the season from the iTunes Store. Yes it is costing me more in the long run, but when I bought season one I wasn’t sure I wanted the rest of the other series and spending £3.99 on something you don’t want is much better value than spending £11.17 on it. Yes it will cost me more in the long run, but I quite like how I can choose how much to spend.

I will also say how much I prefer streaming content from the iMac then fiddling around with DVDs, probably me just getting lazy!

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Unresponsive Internet Explorer

Well despite doing nothing but installing Windows Updates I have encountered a very annoying issue on my Sony VIAO P with Internet Explorer that I have as yet been unable to resolve.

After starting Internet Explorer it becomes unresponsive. I am unable to interact with the application, close it down or anything… Also no error messages.

Google searching isn’t much help as “unresponsive Internet Explorer” doesn’t come up with anything useful, it comes up with lots, but not much useful.

So far the only solution appears to be is install a new browser.

I have a hunch and it’s only a hunch that the problem lies with Internet Explorer 8, so I am intending to upgrade to IE 9.

In the meantime Chrome and Safari are now my browsers of choice, though I may also install Firefox.

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Well I never….

Well I never….

So there I was complaining about Vista on my Sony VAIO P when whilst updating I saw a reference to Instant On.

No idea what this was so I did a Google search and found this YouTube video.

Basically what this is, is a sub OS that allows you to play media and use a browser (Firefox). It has a similar interface to that you find on the PSP, PS3 or any new Sony TV.

The advantages are:

  • The fast boot up speed, less than 20 seconds. This means you can start browsing or playing media files without waiting an age as you can do with a Windows Vista laptop.
  • Fast to use, with no background tasks, it is really quite fast.
  • Tabbed browsing means you can use multiple sites, though no Flash on the version I was using.
  • You can use Skype.

I was quite impressed.

I should read the manuals that come with these things more often.

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It takes ages….

I hadn’t used my Sony VAIO P Series for a while, but deciding that it might be useful (and a lot lighter than my MacBook Pro) to take to a trip to London next week along with my iPad. I have always liked the format of the Sony VAIO P Series, however I have been less fond of the included Windows Vista operating system. The VAIO P was always underpowered and Vista did not seem to suit it one bit.

As I hadn’t switched it on for a few months, I knew that I better update the Vista installation.

Now this seems to take ages….

Even after updating, it appears again and again that I need to install more updates… At least with OS X you can download Combo updates that incorporate all the updates required in one package.

I did at one point install Windows 7 on the VAIO P, however that didn’t work out, so after reinstalling Vista on it, I think I have had to go through the whole updating process – though I thought I did that at the time.

Having installed all the Windows Vista updates, I now need to install the Sony VAIO updates! And I can’t do that until I update the VAIO Updater. It continues….

I am glad that I decided to look at the VAIO P this weekend and not the night before.

When this kind of thing happens, I start to seriously look at the MacBook Air.

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Twitter use strongest among US minority groups

In the US, minority groups are twice as likely to use Twitter according to a report from The Pew Research Center.

BBC News reports:

African-American and Latino adults in the US who use the internet are twice as likely as whites to use the website Twitter, a survey has found.

The Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank, found that 13% of Latino and 18% of African-American adult internet users use Twitter.

Of all US adult internet users, 8% use the micro-blogging site, Pew found.

For me one of the key things from the report was:

Minority groups visit the site more because they are younger and use mobile technology more often, the centre said.

It has often been said that Twitter was for older people (like me) and Facebook was used by younger people. I have read quite a few reports and articles that state the opposite now.

Twitter is not as big as Facebook in the US or the UK, I wonder though if the ethnic  and age make-up of Twitter users in the US is reflected here in the UK?

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Playing with the Apple TV

I spent a bit of time this evening trying out more of the different functions of my Apple TV. I have been using it more recently for streaming video from my iMac to my TV. Tonight though I wanted to see what else it was capable of. One thing the Apple TV will do is allow you to play video (and audio) podcasts to your TV.  I tried a couple of the (high quality) MacBreak Weekly podcasts and was quite impressed by how they looked on my TV. Not sure though if I would ever actually watch a whole episode of MacBreak Weekly on the TV, at this time I prefer to listen to it in my car. Though I am sure there are people out there who would watch it.

Like a lot of these devices, the Apple TV, allows you to watch YouTube on your TV, and though quite an easy interface, entering text on the Apple TV is nigh on impossible to do easily. The Apple Remote has very few buttons and makes the PlayStation text entry simple and effective! However all is not lost, Apple’s free Remote App for the iPad (and iPhone) allows you to use that to control the Apple TV. On the iPad this makes it much easier to enter text, such as names and search terms for YouTube.

I used this way to enter text to add my Flickr account to the Apple TV. Interestingly I had to my Flickr name, not my account name. I quite liked how I could show my Flickr images on the TV. This is how I show photographs quite a bit now, since I went digital, I certainly don’t print out as many prints as I should and like.

Overall there are many features of the Apple TV I like, the interface is quite usable and certainly much better than some other similar devices I have used. It is though not perfect, I would like to be able to use it to access BBC iPlayer, 4OD and other video on demand services and not just film rentals from iTunes.

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Okay I want one of these….

I would like one of these for Christmas

Why do I want one?

Just because I can. Would love to take it to a conference and use it in the main auditorium.

What do you want for Christmas?

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Snow problem…

Tardis

Much of the UK is covered in snow and unlike virtually everywhere else in the road, the snow plays havoc with our transport infrastructure. As a result lots of people are forced to work from home, or find their schools and colleges are closed. This increases the demand for the internet and places additional strain on the internet infrastructure in the UK. Snow can also cause problems with moisture creeping into wiring and cable boxes.

So is your internet speed slowing down?