Nick La, witer for Web Designer Wall, is writing a complete guide on how to install WordPress and customize WordPress themes.

(Via -Complete WordPress Theme Guide.)

The Apple experience is a combination of form, function and intangible user emotional responses earned from its masterful blend of software and hardware

(Via -The Apple Experience | TheAppleBlog.)

Recently the topic of spam came up in one of the meeting of the PMUG. Someone suggested that digital signatures was one solution to the problem of spam but there was no clear understanding of digital signatures and how they help with the spam problem. I intend to write a concise but easily understood series of article on digital signatures, email encryption, and how to use it on Mac OS X ( with Mail.app ).

What is a digital signature?

According to Wikipedia:

A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a type of asymmetric cryptography used to simulate the security properties of a handwritten signature on paper.

Digital signatures are one component of what is called a public key infrastructure ( PKI ). PKI provides mechanisms and process for ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of digital information. It allows someone to prove his/her online identity and that documents and communications ( e.g. email and banking transaction ) haven’t been tampered with.

How does it work?

The science behind PKI involves some very complicated math. It involves finding the factors of very long prime numbers. These factors are used to create two keys, one private and one public. The private key is kept strictly confidential and is not shared with anyone, while the public key is distributed widely. Messages encoded with the private key can only be decoded with the corresponding public key and message encoded with the public key can only be decoded by private key.

How is this useful for digital signing?

The idea is to take piece of digital data and using a mathematical algorithm compute a large number called a hash – a small digital “fingerprint” made from any kind of data. The hashing function should create a unique hash for any particular piece of data. If the data changes then the hash will also change and we will know that the data has been tampered with.

To digitally sign a document, we compute the hash of the document and then encode the hash using the a private key. Since the data was encoded with the private key, it can only be decoded with the corresponding public key. To verify that the document ( e.g. email message ) came from that user, simply decode the hash using the widely known public key, compute a new hash from received document, and compare against the hash that was sent. If the hashes do not match we know that the document was tampered with. We know who sent the message because only that user has the private key used to encode the message.

How do I know the person sending the message is the person sending the message?

How do I know that the doctors is really a doctor? That the lawyer really knows the law? In the end, everything in security boils down to trust … but verify. In the real world we have authorities that certify that the doctors and lawyers ( teacher etc ) know what they are doing. The doctor or lawyers has been issued a license (certificate) to practice their craft. In a similar way PKI has the concept of a Certificate Authority (CA).

The user securely creates a private key and the CA signs the users public key with their private. This places their stamp of approval on the user digital certificates. The system is very heavily dependent on the trust placed in the CA. If the private key of the CA is compromised the entire PKI system is at risk since anyone could use that private key to create digital certificates. Similarly if the user loses his/her private key then anyone could digitally impersonate that user.

How does it all work together?

• A and B want to exchange confidential message. – A creates a message and encodes the message ( and the message hash ) using B’s public key. B receives the message and decodes the message using his/her confidential private key. B is the only one who can decode the message because B has the private key.
• A wants to send B an ( non-confidential ) message but B wants assurances the message did come from A. -A creates a message and encodes the hash of the message using her private key. B received the message and decodes the hash using As public key. B knows the message came from A because only A has the private key to encode the hash.

What’s Next?

In my next article I plan to show how to use digital certificate and digital signature to make your email more secure.

References:

• Public-key encryption for dummies, MIKE ROTHMAN, Network World, 05/17/99,http://www.networkworld.com/news/64452_05-17-1999.html
• Digital signature,Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature#Definition
• Cryptographic hash function, Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function
• What is PKI?, SearchSecurity.com, 10 Oct 2006,Jim Brayton, Andrea Finneman, Nathan Turajski, and Scott Wiltsey,http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci214299,00.html

Cross posted from the Princeton Macintosh User’s Group

The SecurityFocus web sites has been running a series of articles on web browser security.  The articles target the two major browsers, IE (6 and 7) and (strangely) older versions of Firexfox (1.5 and 2.0).  The current article looks at attacks on Password Managers. The user is given a false sense of security because they “expect that the browser, possibly in conjunction with the operating system, will protect their information”. The major take away was that these browsers are not to be trusted to store personal information such as usernames, passwords and other stored form information.

Firefox’s password manager (version 2.0) as of Novermber 2006 has a software flaw that allows a user’s credentials (from the site being currently visited) to be posted to any URL if the user clicks a maliciously crafted link.

And IE( 6 or 7) has this issue:

Internet Explorer is usually a prime target for malware infection. …… these vulnerabilities converge at a dangerous point where malware programs are specifically targeting AutoComplete information. These programs gain confidential information, and then send it back to the attacker.

So what we do to reduce the risks?  Fortunately the article provides some defensive strategies.  They suggest avoiding password managers altogher, using a strong ( not easy guessed ) password to protect the password manager, using an alternative password manager that support encryption, strong and unique passwords for every site, and even some programming tips for web developers.

On my Mac I use 1Password.  IPassword uses a master password, encrypts stored passwords and form data, and can generate unique random passwords for any site.  You can Download 1Password here and give it a test drive.

Gnip’s jud valeski on Chrome.

My favorite kind of technology is the kind that quietly gets built, then one day you wake up and it’s changed everything. Google Gears has that potential and if Chrome winds up with meaningful distribution (or Firefox adopts Gears) web apps as we know them will finally have mark-up-level access to local resources (read “offline functionality”). This kind of evolution is long overdue. — Gnip Blog

Enabling HTTPS in Gmail

Researchers at the at a Defcon hackers’ conference revealed a flaw in the way Google’s Gmail handles session cookies. According to the Hacking Truths. web site:

The problem lies with the fact that every time you access anything on Gmail, even an image, your browser also sends your cookie to the website. This makes it possible for an attacker sniffing traffic on the network to insert an image served from http://mail.google.com and force your browser to send the cookie file, thus getting your session ID.

However, Google does provide a way to prevent that risk.  Login to your Gmail account and click the Settings link in the upper right hand corner of the page.  At the bottom of that page look for the Browser connection section and make sure that Always use https is enabled.

A friend told me recently that he does not like iTunes and iPods because it uses non-standard formats.  A little research later and here’s my response ( I borrowed heavily from Wikipedia.com ).

.MP4 and .M4V, AAC are the video formats Apple co-developed with Microsoft and others back starting back in 1997.  AAC ( also used in iTunes, RIM BlackBerry, Sony Ericson Phones, Zen and other MP3 players ) is also a standard format.  So when he says iTunes does not use standard formats he is really saying “iTunes does not use a format I like”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

MPEG-4 Part 14 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Compatible software

• 3ivx
• Amarok
• Banshee Music Player
• foobar2000
• GOM Player
• iTunes
• jetAudio
• J.River Media Jukebox
• J.River Media Center
• The KMPlayer
• KSP Sound Player
• Media Player Classic
• MPlayer
• Nero Burning ROM (Nero ShowTime)
• Nokia PC Suite
• Photo Channel (Wii)
• QuickTime Player
• RealPlayer
• Songbird (software)
• VLC media player
• Winamp
• Xbox Media Center
• Xine
• Zune Marketplace

Compatible hardware

• Archos
• AT&T Tilt
• BlackBerry 8100 | 8300 | 8800
• Creative Zen
• iPhone
• iPod
• Motorola SLVR L9
• Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder | Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder 2 | Neuros OSD
• Nokia N Series, Nokia 5300, Nokia 5700 and Nokia 6300
• PlayStation 3
• PlayStation Portable
• Sansa Connect (with firmware upgrade)
• Sony Ericsson
• Some Sony Walkman models
• Wii (with system software update, available early December 2007)
• Xbox 360
• Zune

AAC compatible devices and software.

Other Portable Players

• Creative Zen Portable
• Microsoft Zune
• SanDisk Sansa
• Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with firmware 2.0 or greater
• Sony Walkman A and S Series
• SonyEricsson Walkman Phones-W series, e.g. W890i

Mobile phones

For a number of years, many mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, BenQ-Siemens and Philips have supported AAC playback. The first such phone was the Nokia 5510 released in 2002 which also plays MP3s. However this phone was a commercial failure and such phones with integrated music players did not gain mainstream popularity until 2005 when the trend of having AAC as well as MP3 support continued. Most new smartphones and music-themed phones support playback of these formats.

• Sony Ericsson phones support various AAC formats in MP4 container. AAC-LC is supported in all phones beginning with K700, phones beginning with W550 have support of HE-AAC. The latest devices such as the P990, K610, W890i and later support HE-AAC v2.
• Nokia XpressMusic and other new generation Nokia multimedia phones: also support AAC format.
• BlackBerry: RIM’s latest series of Smartphones such as the 8100 (“Pearl”) and 8800 support AAC.
• Apple’s iPhone supports AAC and FairPlay protected AAC files used as the default encoding format in the iTunes store.

Other devices

• Palm OS PDAs: Many Palm OS based PDAs and smartphones can play AAC and HE-AAC with the 3rd party software Pocket Tunes. Version 4.0, released in December 2006, added support for native AAC and HE-AAC files. The AAC codec for TCPMP, a popular video player, was withdrawn after version 0.66 due to patent issues, but can still be downloaded from sites other than corecodec.org. CorePlayer, the commercial follow-on to TCPMP, includes AAC support. Other PalmOS programs supporting AAC include Kinoma Player and AeroPlayer.
• Microsoft Windows Mobile platforms support AAC either by the native Windows Media Player or by third-party products (TCPMP, CorePlayer)
• Epson supports AAC playback in the P-2000 and P-4000 Multimedia/Photo Storage Viewers. This support is not available with their older models, however.

• Vosonic supports AAC recording and playback in the VP8350, VP8360 and VP8390 MultiMedia Viewers.

• The Sony Reader portable eBook plays M4A files containing AAC, and displays metadata created by iTunes. Other Sony products, including the A and E series Network Walkmans, support AAC with firmware updates (released May 2006) while the S series supports it out of the box.

• Nearly every major car stereo manufacturer offers models that will play back .m4a files recorded onto CD in a data format. This includes Pioneer, Sony, Alpine, Kenwood, Clarion, Panasonic, and JVC.

• The Sonos Digital Media Player supports playback of AAC files.

• The Roku SoundBridge network audio player supports playback of AAC encoded files.

• The Squeezebox network audio player (made by Slim Devices, a Logitech company) supports playback of AAC files.

• The PlayStation 3 supports encoding and decoding of AAC files.

• The Xbox 360 supports streaming of AAC through the Zune software, and off supported iPods connected through the USB port

• The Wii video game console supports AAC files through version 1.1 of the Photo Channel as of December 11, 2007. All AAC profiles and bitrates are supported as long as it is in the .m4a file extension. This update removed MP3 compatibility, but users who have installed this may freely downgrade to the old version if they wish.^[10]

Software

The Rockbox Open source firmware (available for multiple portable players) also offers support for AAC to varying degrees, depending on the model of player and the AAC profile.

Optional iPod Support (playback of unprotected AAC files) for the Xbox 360 is available as a free download from Xbox Live.^[11]

Other software media players

Almost all current computer media players include built-in decoders for AAC, or can utilize a library to decode it. On Microsoft Windows, DirectShow can be utilized this way with the corresponding filters to enable AAC playback in any DirectShow based player. Software player applications of particular note include:

• Easy CD-DA Extractor for Windows, CD Ripper and audio converter, which includes an AAC encoder that supports LC and HE AAC.
• ffdshow is a free open source DirectShow filter for Microsoft Windows operating systems that uses FAAD2 to support AAC decoding.
• foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows that supports LC and HE AAC.
• Jetaudio is a free media player for Microsoft Windows that plays a large array of formats, including AAC.
• The KMPlayer also supports AAC.
• KSP Sound Player also supports AAC.
• Media Player Classic
• MPlayer or xine are often used as AAC decoders on Linux.
• RealPlayer includes RealNetworks’s RealAudio 10 AAC encoder.
• Songbird (software) for Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh supports AAC, including the DRM rights management encoding used for purchased music from the iTunes Store, with a plug-in.
• Sony SonicStage also support AAC.
• VLC media player supports playback of MP4 and AAC files.
• Winamp for Windows, which includes an AAC encoder that supports LC and HE AAC;
• Another Real product, Rhapsody supports the RealAudio AAC codec, in addition to offering subscription tracks encoded with AAC.
• XBMC (XBox Media Center) supports both AAC (LC and HE) on modified Xbox game-consoles.
• XMMS supports mp4 playback using a plugin provided by the faad2 library.

ConvertDirect.com serves AAC Files using Youtube Video conversion. It converts Youtube video to AACs.

Wow! Pow! This is my favorite all time Firefox extension. I think that the Gmail team should buy the code for this extension and incorporate the design right into Gmail or provide it as a skin. They can use the same mechanism they use for the iGoogle page.  Go get it!

One of the discussions on the Apple MobileMe iDisk forum is how to get iDisk mounted as a drive on Windows XP. While Apple has provided instructions on how to do this on Vista nothing was said about XP. The solution that worked for me was similar to the one that Apple provided for Vista and involves using the “Add Network Place” wizard. If you’re using Windows XP, open the Explorer, click Computer, and then click “Map network drive” in the toolbar. Then click the link that says “Sign up for online storage or connect to a network server” to launch the “Add Network Place” wizard. Then Click OK. Click to choose a network location and click next. Then type http://idisk.me.com/[username] in the folder field, and click next. Enter your MobileMe member name and password, and then click OK. This mounts your iDisk on your desktop, so you can work with it as you would any other hard disk.

I host my blog on WordPress.com. I use an iPod Touch to read RSS feeds while I listen to music. Now with the WordPress iPhone app I downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store I can blog while I listen to musc. I won’t be doing this often.The touch interface is not suited to long prose. Maybe I
should micro blog. Hello, Tumblr!

After composing an email in Gmail yesterday I went to the address bar and started typing in my wife’s name.  Normally Gmail would present me with a drop down of choices but in this case I was present with only her MSN account email.  Strange?  Until I read this on the MobileMe status blog.

Yesterday (Monday) morning a syncing bug was discovered which caused contact and calendar data to not sync properly over-the-air with iPhones and iPod touch. For some users this caused their contact and calendar data to disappear from their devices, but not from their computers or the MobileMe cloud.– MobleMe Status Blog

The Google Calendar code jockeys have added support for iCal. I no longer need Gsync and all that other non-sense.

Event information will automatically refresh every 15 minutes.

(Via -Google Calendar CalDAV support – Calendar Help Center.)

This is a followup to the problems I was having with Time Machine backups to Time Capsule. Time Machine would start preparing a backup and after about 10 would fail. After a few weeks of failed backups or backups taking hours I called Apple support. They had me try several things including reseting Time Capsule. One of the things that we tried was using the Disk Utility to mount the sparse bundle files as a OS X volume. That’s when I got this error message.

After almost an hour on the phone with first level and second level support I decided on a drastic course of action. I used the AirPort Utility to erase the Time Capsule disk. Once that completed I configured Time Machine to point to the Time Capsule disk and Time Machine has successfully completed two weeks worth of backup.

I like my Time Capsule. Together with Time Machine my MacBook and Mac mini have been wireless archived … or so I thought. Over the last few weeks I started to notice my MacBook huffing and puffing ( the fan would come one and stay on ) and Time Machine seemed to be taking forever to complete backups. My Mac mini was behaving similarly and would hang ( the mini is a 1.42GHz PowerPC ).

Then one day I got a message from Time Machine saying something along the lines of “The last time machine backup was 7 days ago”. What!!!???

I manually kicked off a Time Machine backup but it was taking a very long time. I went to use Spotlight to find something and noticed that Spotlight was indexing the Time Machine backup image. 2HRS!!!!!!!

So here is what I thought was going on. Time Machine would create and image file to archive my current local disk for backup. But before it could complete, Spotlight would start rebuilding the system index, which would then be included in the TM backup, which would then be indexed ….

I tried excluding the Time Capsule disk and backup image file from Spotlight indexing but … Spotlight continued doing what it does and I am stuck with a 500GB Time Capsule that is almost full.

I have been having a lot of problems with NetNewsWire recently. The applications sometimes causes the fan on my back to sound like a Honda Civic in a street race and if I use the application for too long or simply leave it open, the app hangs.

Earlier this year I decided that my home did not have enough Apple products, that my network and home data center design was not stable, and that my cable bill was too high.

I decided that I wanted better range on my wireless home network, backup solution that worked without much work from me, and a home entertainment system that allowed me to enjoy music and movies from anywhere in the home on any device.

Some of the pieces are starting to fall into place. In April, I purchase Time Capsule (TC), Apple’s simple but effective combination of a Wireless Access Point (WAP) and a Network Attached Storage ( NAS ). I already had a NAS that I setup by installing BSD based FreeNAS on an old Dell Dimension. That setup works ( it works so well that I sometimes forget it’s there ) but I wanted something that offered automatic backup. So for about $300, I bought a Time Capsule from Apple that provides me with both. With Time Machine running on both my Macs things just work.

One of the problems I have in my house is that the cable company installed the cable router/VOIP gateway in my basement. This was the easiest place to put the device since it provided a juncture to attach the cable telephone service to the phone wiring in my home. Unfortunately it is also where I have to place the Time Capsule to easily plug it into the cable router. The Time Capsule is off to the far end of the basement so the far end of the second floor of the house gets a very weak signal. My wife kept complaining that she could not get a signal from her laptop and the kids could not get onto Webkinz.

This problem existed before I bought Time Capsule. Earlier this year I tried solving the problem with power-line networking but that solution did not work at all for me. Once I had Time Capsule I learned about Wireless Distribution System (WDS).

A Wireless Distribution System is a system that enables the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE 802.11 network. — via Wikipedia.org

I was hoping to use my old Linksys WRT54G WAP to go this but then I remembered Apple’s AirPort Express (AX). AirPort Express is a WAP that is perfect for frequent travelers or someone with a very simple home network with just a few computers. It is designed like a MacBook power-brick and includes two very interesting features. One of these allows the AirPort Express to extend the range of an existing wireless network using WDS. The other enables the streaming of music from any computer (Mac or PC) running iTunes to the AirPort Express. The Express has an audio jack into which one can plug in any stereo or powered speakers in your home.

I found and 802.11g AirPort Express on eBay that was gently used ( the previous owner had just bought it before Apple debuted the newer 802.11n model ). Within an hour I had extended the range of my network with the AX and the TC in a WDS configuration. Yesterday while eating dinner the family listened to our favorite music send over the network from my Mac mini. Now how cool is that!!

When will people learn not to trust this company. Microsoft spent miilions convincing consumers and media devices manufacturers to invest in its technology and then leaves its “customers” holding the bag. The funny things is their technology is called “Play for Sure”. Yeah, right!

In other news, concerns over Vista are so “minor” that the US News and World Report had to write about it.

Imagine the training budget for a company like with tens of thousands of employes that must be trained, hundreds of in-house custom apps that must be tested and or rebuilt ( some software consulting firm will be swimming in the dough ), and hundreds of business applications that just do NOT run ( image how costly it will be to upgrade or replace Windows based manufactuing systems ) on Vista. My employers migration plans do not even start until 2010, which is when we expect that all of the current set of PCs would have replaced by “Vista ready” machines.

And the business productivity benefit is suspect.

Oh, and just to make sure we all feel the urgent need to move to Vista, Bill Gates has already started talking about Windows 7 which he expects Microsoft to release “sometime in the next year or so”. That’s just around the time I expect most people will have “Vista ready” computers. What the ….?!

Any idea on what your employers plans are for Vista? I say “Hasta la vista, Vista!”

I recently bought a 500GB Apple Time Capsule. The Time Capsule is a wireless access point (WAP) with an embedded hard drive. The Time Capsule replaced my aging Linksys WRT54G WAP. The WRT has worked flawlessly over the last 3 to 4 years but I wanted something for the future ( 802.11n ) and since I plan to completely switch my home over to Macs in the near ( or not ) future I figured I might as well start with the infrastructure.

However, the install and setup did not go as easy as I expect. I ran the Airport Utility and entered all the questions the wizard requested. One thing I did not expect was that the Time Capsule could import the configuration of my current router ( a Linksys WRT54G ). That would make things a lot easier to setup.

I fully expected the setup to take about 15 minutes. Three hours later I was still screwing with the thing. I had disconnected the WRT54G and connected the WAN port of Time Machine to the cable modem. But Time Machine kept coming up with a private IP. When I plugged it into the Linksys it worked fine as a secondary gateway behind the WRT54G. It was not until the second day ( after going to bed around 1 AM ) that I realised that the problem was the cable modem. I do not know what the issue was but after resetting the cable modem Time Machine was able to get a proper IP and I was able to surf the web. And oh … install the latest Airport update from Apple.

I then configured Time Machine to use Time Capsule as it’s backup drive. That was extremely easy as shown here.

I then forced my first Time Machine backup and waited. And waited. And waited some more. I am not quite sure how long it took. I went to bed and in the morning both my Mac mini and MacBook had been backedup to Time Capsule. Using OS X 10.5 ( Leopard ) with Time Machine, the macs on my network are backed up ( differentials ) each and every hour. Very cool.

The WRT still works so I decided to repurpose it. My friend Mike, suggested I re-image the device with DD-WRT. DD-WRT was originally a project to create a modified and enhanced firmware for the Linksys line of WAPs. The project has grown overtime to support other WAP and router brands but the main focus is still the WRT.

I have version 5 of the WRT54G, so I downloaded the micro version of the binary from the DD-WRT web site and followed the instructions from this site. Why? Well… they seemed to be more detailed and provided a back-out plan in case of trouble; something the instructions on the main site did not. Following the instructions I had a new router in less than 15 minutes. I won’t go into the features and benefits of the DD-WRT software; there is just too much there. Perhaps another post later this month when I have poked at all the button.

I did notice that DD-WRT supports Wireless Distribution System (WDS). WDS allows for connecting WAP to extend the range of wireless networks. The Time Capsule also supports WDS. I do not really understand how it all works but I am looking to use WDS between Time Capsule and DD-WRT. The Time Capsule is in the basement where the cable company placed the box that provides my internet connection and my telephone service. The wireless signal does not make it to some parts of the house. I can get about 30-40% in my family room; which hosts my mac mini, TiVo, and Nintendo Wii which all happen to be wireless. If I can get WDS working between WAPs then I may be able to provide a more robust signal in the other parts of the house.

 

Proposed Home Network, originally uploaded by Khürt on 3rd April, 2008.

Technorati Tags:
apple, time capsule

To followup on yesterdays conversation. The vision I have for the IT infrastructure of my home ( yes, I used IT infrastructure and home in the same sentence ) revolves around Apple product. No surprise there.

My vision is one where the computers in the house automatically and seamlessly backup on a regular basis without user intervention. I have already put some money into that part with the purchase of the Apple Time Capsule. Time Capsule is a wireless access point that contains a hard drive ( 500G or 1 TB ) that can be networked to other computers in the house. A single place to put my media (music, movies, photos). Time Capsule works wirelessly with the Time Machine software built into Mac OS X Leopard. It automatically backups everything so my important files won’t be lost.

The second part of the plan involves thinking about how my family uses media; movies, photos, and music. Right now we have a TiVo and a cable provided HD PVR for time shifting TV and controlling the shows that our kids watch. We also have a DVD player (we have a Netflix subscription) and a Mac mini hooked up to our Sony HDTV. The Mac mini is a sort of media center for synching iPods, editing photos in iPhoto, and watching movies rented from iTunes. That’s 4 devices and none of the media is moveable between them. If I want to watch a movie I must sit in front of the TV to do so. If I want to watch a previously recorded show I must switch inputs and use a completely different menuing system. I want something simpler. What I want to do is replaces all of those devices with one or two devices.

I want to be able to view or listen to any of my media from either another other devices around the house. I want my media centralized and managed from one place. I also believe that the future of movie rental is broadband download. The iPod touch has a screen large enough to view a movie and is small enough to take anywhere. I recently rented the movie, Next, from the iTunes store. I quickly synced the movie to my 3rd generation iPod Nano and started watching it while the kids were in Tae Kwon Doe. When I came home later I moved the movie back to my Mac min and continued watching it from where I left off. iTunes took care of the whole thing. Why bother with the DVD player ( or Blu-ray ) and Netflix when within 10 minutes I can be watching a movie downloaded from iTunes?

I plan to buy either an Apple TV and an HD TiVo, or get an Intel Mac mini and an Elgato eyetv 250 plus. With an Intel Mac mini I could use iTunes as a source of rental or bought movies as well as manage my music library with all media stored on the network on the Time Capsule. The Mac mini support HD and DVD quality video via as well as digital sound. However, the Mac mini does not have a tuner. That problem I plan to solve with an the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus. EyeTV 250 Plus delivers free-to-air digital TV to a Mac (ATSC), unencrypted digital cable (Clear QAM), as well as conventional analog TV via standard cable or antenna. EyeTV 250 Plus also comes with a break-out cable for composite video and S-Video, enabling you to connect a set-top box directly to your Mac. The Mac mini could then becomes the digital media hub of the home.

But I could take this even further and question whether I need cable at all. A lot of top TV shows are available on iTunes. Why watch Lost interrupted by ads when I can download the season on iTunes ( one episode ) for about $30? My cable connection costs $45/month times 12 months. That’s $540/year. I could subscribe to 18 different shows on iTunes.

To be clear, from a technical standpoint, I do not think this solution is superior to other products on the market. There are most likely other products on the market that do one or all of the above. However, none of these solutions are well integrated. It requires the user to buy separate pieces and “hack” together a solution that works. The value proposition of an all Apple solution is that everything just works and works well. Apple is doing what Sony wishes they could do.

Do you see any flaws in my plan? Let me know in the comments.

Technorati Tags:
apple, hdtv, mac, apple tv

This post started life as an email reply to my bother-in-law. The text of his original email.

A few thouths on what you sent out earlier about AAPL and how is makes money.

Even at the 120 price the PE ration for Apple is double the others in the market space, so people have high hopes at this price.

the money is still in the software market, you just have to get enought people to buy it. The margins are amazing. hardware unless you can get people to buy itesm more often you will not make the money at high % over a long term period.

Apple has already shown signs of this. by having to lower its prices to compete withe other companys offering product in the same market space. Apple is still a good but at the 120 mark but will have to bit the bullet as being a special persons things, ie if they want to be a money making machine that lasts, it will have to sell to the general public (500/pcs not 1000-2000/pc)

In my opinion the $500 PC is a myth. That $500 PC or laptop becomes a $1000 computer after 6 to 12 months. You buy something at Dell or Best Buy. A few months later you start complaining that editing your pictures or that video of your vacation takes a long time. You buy more RAM and a larger hard drive and a few more applications (photo editing, video editing etc) after the trial versions expire. Add a webcam to use that cool video chat feature the salesman showed you. And then you need software (subscription) to remove all the spyware and viruses on the machine.

Dell is a lot better at marketing themselves as cheap and affordable. The reality is, however, far from it. Sure, they offer truly cheap desktops and notebooks, but a little looking around makes it perfectly clear that those cheap prices are for entirely stripped-off computers with abysmal hardware; suffice to say, not an option for a serious computer user. ( via Debunking the price myth: Apple vs. Dell )

In my opinion, Apple’s competition is not the $500 Dell or HP. It is the Sony Vaio, IBM ThinkPad and the higher end Dell XPS. If a $500 PC is so good why does Dell and HP sell $1000 machines? Click here for PC Magazine’s 19th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey ( I did not find one for 2007 or 2008 ). Why is Dell tech support is so bad? Why is it outsourced to India? Costs get high when you have to provide the same support for the $500 buyer and the $1000+ buyer. Everyone suffers. The Dell brand is now seen as cheap just like a Chinese brand DVD player. Throw it away and buy a new one in a year.

I went to the Dell web site and as soon as I selected an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB RAM ( same specs as in the MacBook line ) for a laptop the price went to over $1000 and that was for a CPU that was slower than the one the MacBook. I then select at least a 250 GB HD and CD/DVD+RW drive, web cam etc. The price was now just over $1100 about the same as a new MacBook with the same specs.

I the made a similar price comparison; comparing Dell desktops to the iMac.

Now imagine BMW, Mercedes, Infinity, Acura and Lexus introducing a cheap car? Mercedes tried that with the C230. It failed miserably. I admit that with the market downturn ( that sub-prime mortgage thing ) that luxury brands ( including Apple ) will be hard hit. But now is the time for them to really promote the value of their product not cheapen it. In the end it all comes down to what you want to do with the machine. If all you want to do is run a web browser and sync music to your MP3 player then a $500 computer might suit your needs. Just don’t expect Apple to make one.

I tell my kids ( 9 and 7 ) “let’s order a pizzaa and watch a movie”. Yeah, Dad’s a cool guy. Amazon tells me that the download will take 30 minutes to my TiVo. 1.5 hours later my kids and I are eating pizza and WE STILL HAVE NO MOVIE TO WATCH!!!!!

iTunes? I find a movie, place the order, and 10 minutes later we are watching an almost HD quality movie on my HDTV ( via my Mac mini ).

Adobe recently announced the release of version 1.0 of their AIR application platform. I have been using the Pownce client which is an application written for AIR. I decided to take a look at what else was available.

Adobe has a list of applications on the AIR Marketplace portion of their web site and I noticed that there are three twitter clients built on the AIR platform; Spaz, tweetr, and twhirl. This is not a review of these but my personal opinions of each after trying them out for about an hour.

Downloading and installing an AIR application is VERY easy but first you will need the AIR runtime. I installed the 1.0 version and then clicked the link for each client and accepted to install the .air package into my AIR runtime.

Spaz, an open source project, appears to be the least stable of the three twitter clients.

The application crashed at least three times. But that also proved the stability of the AIR platform since the crashing app did not bring down the other twitter clients that I was running simultaneously.

Feature wise twhirl and Spaz are about the same and are more feature rich than tweetr. Both Spaz and twhirl have clickables to mark a tweet as a favourite or to do @replies or direct communications. This feature is lacking in tweetr. Also, Spaz and twhirl are “skinnable”, although twhirl does this better than Spaz.

tweetr was the least feature rich of the three and is more of a front end that replicates the functionality of the twitter web page.

The screen shots are from my MacBook but I also ran all three clients on a MacBook. The look and feel was exactly the same. I guess that is one good things going for Adobe with the AIR platform. Users can expect consistency in the GUI and developers can code once run anywhere. Now where have I heard that before?

I plan to keep twhirl as my twitter client on both OS X and Windows. I have already removed Spaz. It crashed too often to be useful. Too bad, because aesthetically speaking I found it the most pleasing of the three clients.

NOTE: My apologies to the Spaz team. To make the screen shots look the same I opened multiple client connections to twitter and caused the error above to appear. If I had bothered to read it then I would have known what the issue. Since this is the only issue I had with Spaz, I have since re-installed it and I Spaz is now my favourite twitter client.