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According to the original announcement from Apple we should see the Apple TV before the end of September. The last time I went to my local Apple store they still had the old model and no news on the new one (nothing new there then).
Originally I was quite excited about it and nearly pre-ordered….
However since then I have become slightly less keen.
Will still probably buy one.
BT Infinity is BT’s new broadband product that makes use of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) to enable even faster speeds than available via normal DSL. In some cases 40Mbs download speeds are possible.
Of course if you are going to make best use of this and have a wireless network, if you use 802.11g then you may find this is not fast enough and want to get an 802.11n wireless router.
Another feature of FTTC is that unlike traditional UK ADSL that uses PPPoA, FTTC uses PPPoE so that a router like Apple’s Airport Extreme is now possible to use direct with the broadband connection. Before you would have needed to use a ADSL modem between your broadband connection and your wireless router.
My local exchange has just been upgraded to FTTC so looking forward to upgrading and trying it out.
There are also trials with FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) that can result in even faster 100Mb speeds. I can wish.
Back in July I wrote a blog post about the problems of using the then new iPhone 4G with the existing TomTom iPhone Car Kit.
My main concern now though is compatibility with the iPhone 4. It does click in, but you wouldn’t want to do it too often. However even if you do click it in, there is no connection made with the Car Kit, so no charging and I guess no enhanced GPS.
You can , according to the internet tubes, add some padding that will allow it to work, but not tried that yet.
I would like TomTom to offer upgrades to an iPhone 4 model or even free upgrades would be nice.
Well if you head on over to the TomTom website you can claim a free adapter for your iPhone 4G to allow it to work properly with the Car Kit.
Excellent and well done TomTom.
As mentioned before on the blog, my Airport Extreme is becoming less reliable. I am having to reboot it at least once a week now. There is no warning before it goes dodgy.
I am going to wait before replacing it, as we are getting BT Infinity later this month and I am not sure if I will need a new router. If I do need a specific type of router then I will get a new 802.11n router.
Yes!
Well nearly yes!
Apple today announced their new Apple TV. A quarter of the size of the original Apple TV, no hard drive and a much lower price.
£99 is a much nicer price than the £200+ of the older version.
The main downside is a lack of storage, however streaming is possible from both Macs and iOS devices so not too much of an issue. My experiences of 802.11n streaming is that it does work fine and is much better than 802.11g wifi. I am thinking though that the iPad and the iPhone use the slower 2.4GHz 802.11n and my 802.11n network runs at 5GHz I may need to add a third wireless network at home if I want to stream from my iPad.
Goodbye…
Well Apple are holding an event on the 1st September for the press.
Generally at this time of year we see Apple announce their new iPod line up for the festive season.
With sales of traditional iPods falling I suspect (as others do) that there may be a limited refresh of the traditional iPod line, but the real focus of this event will be a new iPod touch and a new iOS4 based Apple TV (or iTV as Apple want to call it). There are also rumours of an iPad refresh, not sure how reliable that is, but we will be getting iOS 4 for the iPad about now and I do wonder if the delay was down to a refreshed iPad with Facetime camera? There are also other rumours of a 7″ iPad.
What really interests me is the new Apple TV. I have been considering buying one for some time now and keep putting it off. Using a Mac mini has solved many of my issues with pushing video and music from my computer to the front room, however this is only a temporary solution. In the long term I need to choose between getting another Mac mini or getting an Apple TV. The new rumoured $99 Apple TV actually might be a real solution and in many ways could work alongside a Mac mini!
Will be interesting to see what is in fact announced on the 1st September.
This did make me smile.
The impact of iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G
Download Squad are claiming that there will be a Google Chrome Tablet coming on the 26th of November.
Yes, our source tells us that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. It’s real, and it’s being built by HTC.
HTC of course made the Nexus One.
Sounds interesting, might get one.
Doubt it will be as good as the iPad, but you never know!