Drew's Blog

AppleTV upgraded to 160GB hard drive...plus a new menu

2007-05-31T03:42:00.000-07:00

About damn time. What were Apple thinking with a 40GB hard drive?

At D5 this morning in California where Bill Gates unveiled Surface (see post below), Steve Jobs decided he wanted a piece of the pie, revealing a number of upgrades to its AppleTV device.

In June this year the owners of AppleTV can install an update to get a new menu called YouTube - yes, YouTube.com. You get access to YouTube content via your big-screen TV to stream bad bottle-rocket videos or hilarious Indian versions of Thriller (he even has the same orange jacket!)

A new build-to-option of 160GB hard drives will also be available, finally changing the measly 40GB hard drive. In the future it might be possible to stream content from other sites but for now iTunes is the best option for users, says Jobs.

The iTunes Store finally opened a second store called iTunes Plus, the store without DRM (digital rights management). Check it out via the link below as you might be able to upgrade your purchased songs in the 128Kbps AAC format to 256Kbps DRM-free version. Half of the iPod owners won't be able to tell the difference or even realise their songs contain copy-protection. The new tracks cost $2.19 up from the old pricing of $1.69 with albums remaining the same price.

Of course Media Centre users have been using hard drives to record TV and listen to music three times that size for years now, so at least Apple are making a renewed effort to get there.

Microsoft Surface to revolutionise human interaction

2007-05-31T02:33:00.000-07:00

This is probably the coolest thing this year in virtual technologies.

Today, Microsoft Surface was unveiled by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at a special digital technology event called D5. Known internally as Codename Milan, Surface is a new way of virtual technologies, and not involving the use of a tablet which you need to use a mouse or keyboard for. You can grab what's on a giant 30 inch tabletop with your hand and move it around with natural gestures and touching, all by several people.

It's pretty much a way to view and compare stuff like prices and specs for a mobile phone or computer. Using your hands you can move the items around, comparing side-by-side specs.

No. Surface is a new platform which was conceived back in 2001 by Steve Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research thinking about ideas for an interactive tabletop to mix the physical and virtual worlds to provide a unique user experience. The first units will surface (excuse the pun) in winter this year in places such as Harrah's, IGT, Sheraton and T-Mobile.

I wonder if this could be the future of tablet PCs or even portable Media Centre tablets.

See more of Surface at www.microsoft.com/surface

iPod video 30GB review

2007-05-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

I was excited when I got the chance to have a play with the new 30GB video-capable iPod.

Truth be told, everything Apple makes is stylish and simple. The other day I was troubleshooting a new $5000 MacBook's wireless internet connection and just pressing a button makes it, well, just work.

What's in your box? Simplicity rocks.
In the box, you get some fish, chips but no salt to go with that. Only the USB charger, earplugs (plus spare buds) and the iPod are included. And no, this model does not support FireWire. Luckily most (if not all) PCs and Macs come with USB2.0 ports. The iPod is simple to use with basic wording (music, photos, videos, settings, podcasts), you don't get easier than that. It's pretty thin, much, much, much thinner than the 4G U2 iPod which I own and comes in either white or black of which I tested the latter model.

Music for your ears
The music is amazingly simple to get on there with either iTunes 7.0 or YamiPod, with no issues on Apple Lossless, MP3 or MP4 audio and holds heaps of songs. Even at 320Kbps you will notice a difference with premium earphones or headphones - but for serious audiophiles FLAC is not supported.

Viewing pleasure
Photos look extremely beautiful on the 2.5" 320x240 LCD screen, extremely clear. You could hold literally thousands of photos, put on a slideshow and no way would it ever run out of photos - though battery is a different matter. But you wouldn't use it as a fully-fledged photo viewer because it ain't designed for that. Photos take only a few minutes for about 300 or so to go over.

Life in cartoon motion
It's designed for video, and to be really honest the LCD makes videos look great. The battery life, on the 30GB model is kind of crap. You get around 3 hours, which is a full movie (not a Tom Hanks film) or 3.5 hours depending on what size the video resolution is at.

It's a pain to convert your own movies and videos over because of such restricted formats, in which case you need to buy QuickTime Pro 7 or find software which can convert it easily, of which there are several. Sometimes the video freezes up, in which case you just reset it or wait.

Below are the video restrictions (for iTunes and iPod):

H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320x240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480x480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

Hopefully new Firmware pops on by to get better support for video and wider support of formats, as this is just too limited for what you're paying.

Extra stuff makes all the better
You can finally have a key lock combo. Enter four numbers and you can increase security along with the Hold switch. However, if someone connects your iPod to iTunes they'll be able to unlock it. The point of this feature is sort of useless if someone nicks off with your iPod and connects it to iTunes, however I never found out whether it was limited to just your computer or could work on any system.

You can define several time zones with the new World Clock feature and see how long you take to run a lap with the new Stopwatch feature. It also keeps a database of your last laps so you can compare.

And finally a search function and gapless playback is a very cool addition to an already cool player.

Hard Warez
The iPod 30GB model is 10.35cm high, 6.18cm in width and 1.1cm in depth, so it's pretty small.

Hard drive: Toshiba 29.98GB MK3008GAL
SDRAM: Unknown 32MB 534-K9WAG08U1M
Video: Broadcom BCM2722 32Mbits SDRAM
LCD: Unknown, 2.5" 1WX510015194 320x240
Battery: Unknown, 5H27086
Audio decoder: PortalPlayer 5021C-TDF
Video decoder: Broadcom VideoCore BCM2722
Power: Philips CF5067
Voltage: National Semiconductor LM34910 40V 1.25A step-down switch regulator

Final Rating

Good about the 30GB iPod video
Awesome display, good pricing, U2 edition available and gapless playback.

Bad about the 30GB iPod video
Bad battery life, screen and shell easily scratched, annoying video conversion, crap earplugs

Final words
A cool great audio/video player marred by some flaws. Rating: 85%