iTunes Match, does it match my needs? I use iTunes to manage my music. Go ahead and mock me. I’ve grown accustomed to it and haven’t found a better alternative. But I’m still not sure that iTunes Match is a product for which I have a need. I might follow, the lead of Clayton Morris and use it to replace low quality rips from my past I suppose. At “256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality”, it would indeed beat the quality of my old CD rips. I still rip CDs at only 192. So, I might consider the $24.99 per year subscription to do a one time upgrade. But do I want to be limited to devices that play AAC? Not so much. Not only can MP3 play on my iOS and Android devices they can even play on that old feature phone I take out and dust off every once in a while. If I have to convert all those files, is iTunes Match still worth $24.99? I love Apple and even iTunes, but like MobileMe of yore, iTunes Match just doesn’t make sense to me.
The battery is still charging so I haven’t had a chance to really play with our new camera. But I wanted to share the video of the unboxing. The Sony Alpha a55 resolution isn’t the greatest at 16.2MP. But the Translucent Mirror Technology™ makes it possible to fire off pictures really quickly. It also makes quick auto focus possible in movie mode. I love the GPS tagging on my HX5V and I’m happy to have it on my new camera. The Canon T2i was my second choice but it lacked the Sony’s sweep panorama, in-camera HDR, GPS tagging, and continuous focus during video. When I found the camera on sale at 42nd Photo, that was the tipping point. My local Wolf Camera matched their price. Since Danny had answered so many of my questions and let me play with several different cameras, I wanted to buy the camera from him.
I had also considered the Canon T2i, Sony NEX 5N, and Sony NEX 7. In the end, I didn’t feel like my level of expertise warranted one of the more expensive NEX cameras. I know what lenses I intend to buy and when I compared the price of body and lenses the choice really came down to the T2i or the a55. So, I’ll give the a55 a trial and, if it works out, I’ll keep it. If not, I’ll move on to the T2i.
Looks like my “friends” at Teamviewer are upgrading their software. For years, I provided my family with computer support over the phone. And, then, one day (drum roll please) TeamViewer waltzed in and said, “Why don’t we just let you operate their computer for yourself?” I have used their free non-pro version for about a year and a half. My family loves not having to decipher what I’m asking them to do. I love being able to just get on, get it done, and go on with whatever I was doing before my “service request”. Or better yet, to talk about what’s going on in the life of my loved ones. It was already a great product and I’m looking forward to testing the beta of TeamViewer 7.
Occasionally in life one has to tuck one’s tail between one’s legs and go skulking back. Saturday it was my day to do just that. In humiliation, I confess that I am no longer a cord-cutter. Why?
Not because I wasn’t getting the local stations well enough with my little $7 wonder of an antenna. I was pretty happy with its performance. Sure, occasionally weather or randomness would conspire to mess up a TV show, but my life doesn’t depend on that and I could accept it.
Not because I was dissatisfied with Windows Media Center as my DVR. I have a Tivo HD and have experience with DVRs from both Time Warner Cable and Comcast. WMC is by far the best interface for a DVR.
Was it unhappiness with XBMC as the portal to enough media to choke a horse? No, sir. The longer I use XBMC the happier I am.
I have at last conceded to cable company extortion for two reasons. First, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. No, I didn’t wake up with my HTPC mangled and hidden in my sheets. But for about $35 more than I was paying for internet they offered me digital cable. Second, they did this just as the floodgate of sappy Christmas movies on Hallmark were beginning to pour over the dam and the Steelers look to make the playoffs again.
There is a third reason as well. I wanted to play with the TW Cable app on my iPad. It streams some cable channels quite well but nothing local so it is more than a little disappointing. The guide doesn’t work either. It pops up a message to contact customer service which I’m pretty sure is an offer to stay on the line until they have a chance to upsell me while telling me that my app won’t work with the current DVR that they just installed.
Will I still be connected after the Super Bowl? Probably not. But at least when New York finds out there really is a Santa Claus and the Steelers are once again champions, I won’t have missed it.
I might have been the last guy to get the Android 3.1 Honeycomb update to his Sony Google TV. When I got home from work last night, my TV announced that an update was available and I jumped on that.
The style changed. When I hit the home key, live TV continues in the background and a row of customizable app icons appear across the bottom. Quite a different look from the old home screen. Select the ‘All Apps’ icon and a wall of app icons is displayed much like one sees on an Android phone. Spotlight is now mixed in with the apps and Bookmarks is a menu item within Chrome. TV&Movies is also available on the app wall.
Spotlight opens a wall of featured “TV optimized websites”. Some are free. Some are subscription based. Here is a good place to start looking for Amazon Instant Video, npr, the NHL site, tunein radio, Flixster, HBOGO, Revision3, and more.
I have some quibbles about the TV. Navigation is quite unresponsive and clunky. You won’t mistake this for a polished Apple product. Photos aren’t displayed in their native aspect ratio but are squared off in the Photos app. This seems like a major screw up to me. Strangely, pictures streamed from local media are shown properly. This would indicate that someone on their team knows how to do this. Hopefully, it will be fixed in a future update. A last nit to pick has to do with the guide. The guide loads quite slowly. Tivo and Windows Media Center are virtually instant and they’re advertisement free.
I find using Netflix and Amazon Instant Video to be quite friendly and responsive in contrast. While navigating the AIV website is fine, Amazon really needs to develop an Android app.
I use the Media Player app to stream media from my NAS, Orb, XBMC, and shared folders on my home network. It works quite well. I control my PS3 through the HDMI connection which integrates the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player quite nicely.
The next thing I want to try is side loading some apps not available through the Market. Specifically, I’d like to get last.fm and Google Music working on my TV.
It bears repeating that the remote is quite a nifty piece of work. About the size of a game controller, it is comfortable to hold. If you can thumb-type on your phone, typing on this will be a breeze. It is much easier to handle than a full keyboard like comes with the Logitech Revue. My recommendation for improving the next generation is to backlight the keys, but keep the form factor.
At last year’s price of $800 I didn’t think this TV was worth it. After all it doesn’t even have a DVR. But at $420 from CompUSA, I think it is competitively priced with other low end LED LCD TVs. The picture quality is excellent and the sound is adequate. Buy a Google TV product now at discounted prices or get the next generation hardware when it comes out in the near future. (The rumor is December.)
