MacSwitching.com - The Mac Switcher resource

In early 2007, the recently-announced Apple iTV will debut but right now we’re able to have a look at it and time to think what we will with it!
In short, could the iTV be considered just like a well-grown-up version of the Airport Express, in terms of streaming (video) content wirelessly from iTunes?
Check out for yourself: as far as it concerns myself, I’m looking forward for some smart hacking of this cool device.

Click here to watch the CNET first look video on Apple’s iTV

Among all news and new products introduced yesterday, I’d like to highlight iTunes 7 since it features a really nice interface.

iTunes 7

Complete support for new media and contents (more on this later), some interface redesigns along with a new, blueish icon, and a brand new way of browsing through your albums.

We often hear complaints from people missing their album collection and the pleasure of browsing through CD covers: no longer should they complain about it!

iTunes 7 allows Mac and PC users to visually browse like nothing else through their albums with stunning graphics.

This FrontRow-style interface comes from a previous iTunes 6 plug-in from the guys at Steelskies: CoverFlow, the name of this plug-in has been incorporated into iTunes 7; check SteelSkies for more details on CoverFlow.

Check full article about new iPod and iTunes on iPodPalace.com

Three new models: 17″, 20″ and a gorgeous 24″, Core Duo 2 64 bit processor ranging from 1.83 GHz to 2.33 GHz.

Up to 500 GB hard disk and three different graphics board: from Intel’s GMA 950 to ATI’s Radeon X1600 up to NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128 MB of DDR3 memory.

Prices from US$ 999 up to US$ 2.249 for the high-end 24″ with 2.33 GHz model.

Check the new iMac specs on Apple’s web site.

A pretty working tool to download & convert videos from YouTube, Google Video and iFilm to your Mac and PC into AVI, FLV and MP4 (iPod & PSP!) and Palm Treos as well!

Every single moment a nice idea comes alive on the web.
This is useful too: a website that enables anyone to convert a video available on one of the most popular video sharing systems around, namely YouTube, Google Video and iFilm, and save it directly to your PC (or Mac!) into three different video formats.

This is done simply starting in two ways from the http://www.googlevideodownload.com/ home page:
– searching on Google Video, Youtube of iFilm or
– copying the video URL directly into the second textbox.

The first way will give you results you’ll be using later.
Let’s see what happens for a simple search: let’s look for guy kawasaki, a well-known guy in the Mac-world and Venture Capitalist guru, among other things.

Clicking on the first link/result we get just brings us to the magic of this site: a page with at least three download links, namely for .FLV (Flash Video), an .AVI compatible with PCs and Macs as well and (great!) .MP4 directly for iPod, Sony’s PSP and more…
The result page should be this bringin up the Guy Kawasaki presentation in several video formats .

The advantage is clear: you can watch videos without downloading/installing flash players or Google Video Player (available for PCs and Macs) and have your favorite videos converted for iPods, PSP and any other portable device as well: for free!

It’s just a matter of downloading them from googlevideodownload.com website (so it’s up to your internet connection speed) and you’ve got a stand-alone copy of these videos on your hard disk.

File size matters: the Guy Kawasaki presentation it’s about 300 MB for GVI (Google Video format) and stays the same (same encoding?) in .AVI format; it goes down to 174 MB in .MP4 format.

What to add more?
Palm Treo video playback support!
We still love & use our Treo 650 and, even though it lacks stereo headsets and a huge screen it’s still enough to see some pod/videocasts or to show some friends videos.
Interested? Here’s how we did!

Download the MP4 version of your favorite video and open it with Quicktime 7 Pro (you may try some other free video converters too).
Export video to .3GP, a common cell phones video format, and then copy it onto your Treo.
Our Treo 650 is using a 1 GB Sandisk SD card, so file transfer it’s quite easy this way!
Again, the Guy Kawasaki video shrinks to a mere 22 MB fitting perfectly the SD card and leaving room for a lot of videos.
Check the Treo video playback in this Quicktime or the .MP4 version

As a result we’re able to pass the video on any device: from the Powerbook G4 to Windows XP, to a DiVX player, to an iPod or PSP and to a Treo 650 too!

Kudos to the guys at googlevideodownload.com!

BTW: please keep in mind that some video content may have copyright or stuff like that so check out before sharing them.

As a Mac-switcher (and still using/owning some Windows PCs) I’m always looking for stuff I can use on my Powerbook G4 and iMac too.

Benq keyboard model X530 got my attention while walking in one of those retail stores for its sleek design and, quite clear, its low price, less than $20.

A wireless keyboard with optical mouse just like thousands others you may have seen; light keyboard with a good touch with USB connection and a split PS/2 connector for older PCs.

Strangely enough the box says it’s just for Windows 9X/2000/XP: funny I bet on this error and won.
Plugged it in the Powerbook and boom (just like Steve says) it worked. No driver, just a dialog box asking what kind is the detected ‘external keyboard’.

I’m still arguing why most products never state they work with Macs too.

Check Benq web pages for more details.

News.com reports about a pretty problem with G4 iBooks (12″) and Powerbooks (12″ and 15″).

This time it’s no joke for Apple users (and Apple as well) about Dell notebooks or any other Win-portable: it’s about iBooks and Powerbooks batteries (maybe) overheating.

I just checked mine and, yes, it’s in the list.
A simple procedure on Apple web site will allow you to check the battery and the notebook serial number if it fits in the ‘black list’ range.

Check here the full story on News.com and then go to Apple’s web page and check your own G4.

Strange days…
The same week Apple announces the truly innovative Mac OS Leopard’s Time Machine, an automatic backup and file rollback system like nothing, NASA seems to have lost some valuable data or, at least, seems unable to find some tapes.

Slashdot reports and links an australian news site.

Apart from bad press for NASA (which it doesn’t deserve), maybe it’s time for any organization to consider very loooong time backup and storage policies, isnt’it?

News.com reports on Virtualization software manufacturer VMware has announced a product designed to enable Mac OS X users to run multiple PC operating systems simultaneously without needing to reboot the computer. [here for the full story on VMware on Mac]

VMware is a long-time well-known software for Windows and Linux users, which has allowed virtualization of almost any OS running on Intel processor.

Right now, Parallels has estabilished a good beachhead with its VM (virtual machine) software running on Intel-based Mac as we reported here and, since Leopard will feature Boot Camp, multiple OS running on Intel Macs will be a really hot topic in the near future.

After a lot of rumors, Steve finally unveiled the Mac Pro, the powerful desktop which replaces the [still] powerful G5.
Same case, Quad Xeon 64 Bit Intel processor, up to three graphics board and full expandability are among its features, but further investigation is required.
High end graphics are provided by a trio of graphics board, two from NVidia and an ATI X1900 in the middle.
All in all thousands of BTO options.

As expected, Steve let the world have a first look at Leopard along with its Time Machine feature, a totally new, automatic backup and version-control application.

That might sound decidedly not sexy, but Time Machine marries powerful potential with an interface that makes most of the proposed forthcoming Windows Vista user-interface features look old hat.

Selecting an item and invoking Time Machine replaces the standard interface with a starry background, a time scale on the right, and past versions of the item floating “behind” the current version.

Users can scroll back in time and review past versions; when they find the desired one, they can drag it to the present. Time Machine can also automatically back up entire systems, along with any changes made to an external hard drive or a server.

Apple claims that even if your hard drive dies, you can use Time Machine to restore your system to a new drive.

Of course you should watch by yourself Steve’s keynote.

Note: this is all based on web articles and Apple releases, still no hands-on experience on Leopard, so stay tuned.

[to be continued & expanded as news grow]

A short (and obvious, I admit it) personal story (much like a hands-on case-study) about really working Mac-switching and Windows interoperability.

I attended a (quite) long business meeting last week in a wonderful hotel.

The meeting room was not so wonderful: no Internet connection and few AC outlets… nice furniture but not so biz-oriented.
I was the only one with a Mac (Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz), all other guys were carrying Win-portables (I still do have an XP box, I confess); the scenario: 10 notebooks, plenty of paper and a Coffee pipeline.

What happened at 10.30 AM was ridicolous: the Excel spreadsheet we were working on has so changed so much from the original (9.30 AM) printed version that we decided to share the (only one) digital version across all participants.
I’ve been told to participate just as a ‘technical viewer’, I had no opportunity to prepare, setup and think a smart solution… before the meeting.

The first solution was to pass it over all other 9 notebooks with USB pendrives.
Thank God, we almost immediately realized it was going to happen several times throughout the day.
Thank Apple (and me) I suggested sharing the Excel file through the obvious: a wireless LAN.
All notebooks had Wi-Fi (mostly were Centrino-equipped) but quite a few guys never used it.

What I did:
– plugged my Airport Express in, just the power plug [no Ethernet/WAN needed 😉 ]
– used Airport Admin to remove (my) usual MAC address filtering and security features so that the AE was completely open and available,
– set up my Powerbook as a FTP server, copying the Excel file in the default FTP directory from the dreaded USB pendrive.

Then, I wrote on a Post-It the FTP address and asked all people to switch their Wi-Fi device on, check that my AE was in the available wireless LANs, log in that address with Internet Explorer (no one using Firefox, sigh).

Just typing

ftp://10.0.0.2/theholyexcelfile.xls

did the magic for all people.

My Powerbook eventually became the pseudo-server of the meeting: the money-and-figures guy moved on it and worked on it (telling me “Wow, it’s a lot like Excel on Windows!”…) the whole day.

Biz-meeting mission accomplished: apart from biz-related results, it was clear to most people that a little white box with an apple on it IS DEFINITELY NOT JUST FOR Mac (OR iPod) users.

Lesson learned:
– biz guys are really accidental notebook users: some never noticed F2 is the ‘edit-key’ in Excel,
– wireless LANs are easy to setup, provided you don’t worry that much about security…
– unlike free meals, Mac-Win interoperability exists,
– always check for Windows and Norton Firewall and, just for the working session, disable it,
– with a USB printer shared through Airport Express, success would be complete!
– Airport Express hasn’t reached a lot of potential users (AKA buyers), most people think a hotspot is a heavy device and cannot come from Apple…
– most people looked at the AE thinking it was an iPod power supply…
– there has to be a better way for biz meetings than sharing paper-digital-paper Excel files,
– I know that collaborative tools for cooperative spreadsheet working are available, but this was a quick-and-not-so-dirty solution!

Remember, just like your parents, you can’t choose biz-meeting people!

It’s here now! Skype has released, without much fanfare by the way, a preview version with video calls support for Mac OS X.

Just tested it!

Don’t mind the italian language version in the screenshot…

Downloaded it, run it and check for iSight support.
Or… just check a firewire videocamera (the Mini-DV you use for birthdays…) or a bunch of so-and-so supported webcams.
Check here the SourceForge project that has brought us a webcam drivers for Mac OS X.

Now you can talk (it works, right now) and use video with proud Windows users with Skype 2.x.

Download here Skype Preview release: 1.5.0.47.

It may sound weird, but running Windows on a Mac has become a worldwide sport.

You may already know (don’t you?) about Apple’s Boot Camp and Parallels, until now the only two way to get a ‘Start’-based OS into your Mac.

Enter Wine, a quite old solution, well known to most Linux users, to have just a few Windows apps running under Mac OS X.

[…] Though the move to Intel has already opened up Windows options for Mac users, the planned release of CrossOver Office highlights the fact that Apple’s systems are becoming far more compatible with the Windows world.

“That’s why it is so hard, and why not so many applications work,” White said. […]

Check here for the News.com full story.