AppleAddiction.net

I often blog about applications and pieces of hardware that bring increased functionality to your Mac. Not only because it is practical, but also because a Mac can do so much more it gets credit for.

Quite a few months ago I was experimenting with a linux distro aimed at replacing DVRs called KnoppMyth. (If you are interested, Systm just released an episode detailing the setup of MythTV. Click here to watch)At the time it was a great alternative. It had all the great features you would expect from a spendy set top box with the benefit of being a free linux distro. However, as much as I do like linux, I do spend the majority of my time on a Mac. So I have been keeping my eyes open for a Mac alternative.

This is what I found. It’s called EyeTV Diversity. It’s a USB Tuner that allows for free OTA TV reception. Here is an excerpt from the site:

“Enjoy superior free-to-view digital TV (DVB-T, also known as DTT or Freeview) reception on your Mac deep indoors, in weak coverage areas, and while traveling at high speeds, all thanks to EyeTV Diversity’s revolutionary antenna diversity technology.”

EyeTV Diversity is an over the air (OTA) dual tuner DVR. It utilizes two antenna to either watch one channel while recording a separate one, or can be set up so both tune into the same channel. This will provide you with a stronger signal resulting in better quality. The included software gives you the ability to edit out unwanted content as well as schedule recordings using the included program guide. All of this is powered by a simple USB stick that the dual antennas are plugged into. The rest of the work is done with the uniquely simple software from Elgato called EyeTV. EyeTV does all of the organizing and recording of the TV programs as well as the saving and exporting. Also, if your Mac packs a big enough punch you can view and record 720p and 1080i HD content.

Keep in mind that this a product designed to capture OTA broadcasts and is not for use with an existing cable subscription. Depending on your location you can get many HD channels for free. And if your anything like me, your probably not happy with your cable company anyways and looking for any solution to leave them behind.

More info as well as purchasing options can be found here. Elgato Online Store

You may remember in the past that I have gone over methods of getting your Mac to communicate with both your XBOX 360 and your Sony PS3. Today I get to complete the circle by introducing you to Wii Transfer from Riverfold software.

Wii Transfer allows you to share movies, music, and pictures from your mac to your Wii using the Wii internet channel. It also includes advanced support that allows you to view iTunes playlists and iPhoto photo albums on your Wii as well. It even includes support for converting your movies into a format the Wii understands as well as management for save games.

It’s not free but the one time fee of $19 is not that bad if your and avid Wii user. You can find more info as well as the download link here: Wii Transfer.

Many of you likely won’t be interested in this post, however, I feel like I should share it with you anyways. I have been working on AppleAddiction.net on and off for the past three years. It’s been a lot of work but I really enjoy doing it. I wanna thank all of my visitors and everyone who actively uses Appleaddiction.net. Now, I may not be the most popular Apple site out there, however, when looking at the following stats I feel like you guys are at least appreciating the work I do. Because, belive it or not, I am actually going up in the ranks instead of down.

The Following stats were taken from Alexa.com

• Appleaddiction.net has a traffic rank of: 1,440,852 (5,037,862 from 3 months ago)
• Appleaddiction.net has increased in popularity by 710% in the last 3 months.

So I would just like to again say thanks to everyone who visits and I kindly ask you keep coming back and spreading the word about appleaddiction.net

Back in June I wrote about a unique application called Trax. At the time it was a very unique and appealing application. It has only gotten better. Since then, the Trax team has been working diligently to get the next version out the door. Let me introduce you to Trax 4. Trax 4 comes loaded with lots of new features and a beautiful UI.

The biggest change to hit the newest version of Trax is the move away from Eye OS. The previous versions were built on top of a web technology called Eye OS. This limited Trax and what features it could support. Now that Trax is it’s own entity, it will provide a much more unique user experience. If you have used Trax 3 you will notice a few similarities. However, they have introduced a few changes to the over all look and feel.

Another great addition to Trax 4 is the App store. The App store gives you access to a wide variety of applications ranging from text editors to multi-media tools. This addition insures that customizing Trax to your liking will be easier then ever.

Although no date has been announced, you can look for the final release as well as more info at: Get-Trax.com

In May of 2007 Cupertino announced an addition to the iTunes store. An addition that I feel never gets enough praise. iTunes U. iTunes U features free content such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by many top US colleges and universities.

iTunes U offers audio and video lectures from over 50 colleges and universities. Not to mention the hundreds of hours of content from other public institutes such as the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Digital Science library.

There is no reason not to turn your spare time into a learning experience. I mean, iTunes U almost makes it enjoyable. But in all seriousness, I highly recommended you give it a look.

After crawling through all of your links I have decided that they are all very interesting. However, I do only have one flash drive so a winner must be chosen. With the submission of Screenvader.com Dale from Computermachanic.info is the winner of the 4GB Flash Drive from Kingston.

I strongly suggest you all check out the winning site and at least download the application called Variason 10. It’s a fun mix between music composition and a keyboard.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. Keep checking back as I usually have a contest every month. So don’t feel bad if you didn’t win this time. I’m sure you will have another chance.

When Apple announced that OS X would be based on a UNIX core I was really really excited. However, Since that date, I have felt that Apple has done little with the OS. You might say that I’m just not noticing the changes because they are so small in comparison to the switch from OS 9 to OS X. But when looking at what Linux distros have done in the past 8 years, it makes me wish Apple allowed itself to be a little more open source in order to speed up development. But I do realize that Linux has the ability to speed along where as Apple needs to ensure quality and dependability much more then some Linux distro. But here are the features and quality’s I wish Apple would adopt from Linux.

• A variety of display managers for different needs. Such as a lighter one for laptops and lower end computers and a more sophisticated one for high end setups. As an example Linux offers, GNOME,KDE,XFCE,FLUXBOX,LXDE
• Better integration support of multiple systems on the same box.
• More effort to keep the system lightweight.

I must say that Snow Leapord is a step in the right direction for OS X. It features a smaller footprint as well more performance focused updates. In the end though, I’m just glad OS X isn’t Vista

1. MacMod.com - This site is my personal favorite. It showcases some of the most creative content and unique designs from the Apple modding community.
2. XLR8yourmac.com - XLR8Yourmac provides tons of info and articles about getting the most out of your Mac. Product reviews and how-to’s for getting the most out of your Mac. This is the site that introduced me to ATIccelerator II, An on-the-fly overclocking utility for Macs using ATI cards.
3. Mac-Forums.com - The Mac Forums offer a very active user base if your looking for an alternative to the Apple support forums. These forums tend to offer some info not allowed by Apple.

If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments section below.

As much as I’m sure you guys love reading about everything Apple, I have a feeling that you won’t mind while I take a little break from that rule and introduce you to the next Appleaddiction.net Giveaway! This week I will be giving away a free 4GB flash drive from Kingston. The rules are simple:

• Submit the most unique website you know of below in the comments section (Click “Show Meta” at bottom of post to comment)
• Contest runs until this Friday
• Winner will be chosen and announced Saturday
• Open to everyone!*

Tell your friends and get the word out. If more then 25 people enter, a second flash drive will be given away at random. Thanks and good luck!

*If winner is not a U.S. resident, a $5 surcharge may be asked to compensate for international shipping.

I may be overdoing it with the claim of forgotten a little bit, But for the past few years I have made VLC my default player and have heavily strayed away from Quicktime. But I recently discovered a little plug-in that has renewed my faith in Quicktime. Perian.

Perian is marketed as the Swiss army knife for Quicktime. It’s not only amazing, but it’s free and open source as well. After installing Perian you get playback support for quite a few more features and file types such as,

• AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer II Audio
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT

Although VLC will continue to be my media player of choice, it is good to see that Quicktime still has support.

Check out the link for more details and download: Perian