Thursday, July 10, 2003

TiVo Home Media Option My TiVo popped up a message stating that I could buy into the whole home media option at a $40 discount. Buy now for $99, get $40 back next month -- sounds like TiVo is trying to make a positive point on their books. But, whatever. I decided to go ahead and pick it up -- I already had an ethernet<->802.11 bridge hooked up to the TiVo because of the lightning strike that took out the TiVo's modem and the ability to play music off the server is actually quite handy. In typical TiVo fashion, it "just works". It took a couple of hours before the TiVo realized that the HMO had been enabled, but I was able to schedule a recording via their web site (a Simpsons episode I hadn't seen!). The recording scheduler is quite slick -- it even has options for dealing with scheduling conflicts and will send you an email with the status of the recording. Very nice. The shared music feature is quite slick. Just download and install a System Preferences module and select want iTunes playlists or iPhoto albums you want to share. That's it. Information about the track being played is displayed on the TV and all the usual controls work -- track forward, back, etc... No screen saver yet, though, and it won't play AAC -- either Music Store purchased or otherwise. Hopefully a future update will add AAC decoding. 6:03:58 PM  pontificate

Silly iSight Trick When you twist the front of the iSight, it covers the lens with a very white piece of plastic to let you know that the iSight is effectively disabled. It isn't just a purely mechanical cover -- it also turns the iSight off entirely (it seems). Cool. Now, the silly trick: When you twist the lens back to the "on" position, iChat automatically activates. 5:51:35 PM  pontificate