Posts

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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?

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Your name’s not on the list, so you’re not allowed in….

According to PC World (Magazine) Apple recently decided to “ban” a magazine app from the iTunes Store, because it was focused on the Android operating system.

As one might guess, Android Magasinet–a brand-new, bimonthly magazine app from Danish publisher Mediaprovider–focuses on Android and the devices that run it. When Mediaprovider managing director Brian Dixen asked an executive from Apple Worldwide Developer Relations why the app was banned, he was told explicitly that it was the magazine’s Android-focused content, according to a report on Mediawatch.

“You know… your magazine…it’s just about Android…. we can’t have that in our App Store,” the Apple executive reportedly told Dixen.

Read more.

Is this really “offensive” content or is this about competition?

Fair enough Apple can decide themselves what does and what does not go into the App store and I guess there would be other (less lucrative) channels that Mediaprovider could use for the Android based magazine so that iPad owners could read it.

Bizarre behaviour from Apple, but then we have come to expect that.

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Updated the Apple TV

I have updated my Apple TV to 4.1.

I’ve not really noticed any different as I haven’t been using it much before I updated.

Having used it a little more recently I have found that it is much faster than Front Row on my Mac mini for moving between media from the iMac downstairs. As a lot of my media is in standard definition the 720p resolution hasn’t been much of a problem. Also all my iTunes HD content is 720p so the fact that it can’t play 1080p content at 1080p is at this time not so much of a problem. I wonder for the future whether this would be a software upgrade or (more likely) Apple will release a new model of the Apple TV.

It’s a pity that BBC iPlayer and other similar services aren’t available on the Apple TV, I personally would like to see 4OD on the Apple TV.

So will we see Apps for the Apple TV in the future, one can hope.

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Yes it was

So the big iTunes announcement was that the Beatles were coming (finally) to the iTunes store.

Good news for Beatles fans who don’t already own any Beatles music on CD then…

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Beatles on iTunes?

So this afternoon Apple have an iTunes announcement.

Rumours indicate that this is probably going to be an announcement that the Beatles will now be available in the iTunes Store.

Another rumour indicates that Apple will announce live streaming for iTunes.

I wonder if the wording of the “invitation” is significant? It does say iTunes and not iTunes Store. Does that make a difference?