Monday, June 13, 2011

Gadget developments...

It's been way too long since I've blogged... Somehow, life just got too busy..

I bought an iPad 2 for my wife's 30th birthday and subsequently won one myself through a draw at work, so I thought my first return to blogging would be a gadgety one...

I love my iPhone but had never really thought an iPad would offer anything I'd really use daily. I was so wrong. There are great apps offering streaming for video and any other multimedia you may have such as photos.. I have a HDHomerun which streams TV to pretty much any device on your network including Windows (Mediacenter), Mac and Ubuntu (using MythTV frontend).. Using this you can use any of these to schedule recordings and watch them. Using a brilliant app called Remote Potato, you can watch these on an iPad, iPhone or via http streaming over a LAN OR 3G connection.. This converts .wtv files on the server (PC) end and send the compressed stream across seamlessly!

Another two apps I use constantly are Buzzplayer HD and Air Video Both of which do similar except do not support wtv files. Buzz player is brilliant in that no conversion is required for avi's and you can copy content to your iPhone/iPad across the wifi to watch on the plane/train etc

A few days ago I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on an old laptop.. It installed within 30 minutes and is excellent for use as a server for media until I migrate to a real server (maybe with WHS 2011)... I like the Homegrouo thing too much and DLNA works well with our network connected Sony TV...

I love this part of the iPad, Kerry loves Kindle (installed on her phone, laptop and now, iPad), catching up with emails while cooking, IMDB, all the brainless Enews stuff and Skyping while on the go... Did I mention Kindle???

On the non gadgety side of our lives, we're still waiting for our plot of land in South Africa to sell, before we starting construction on our house here in Aus...it's just taking too long now...

We return to SA in July for a two week holiday to meet our Boet and Melis's baby daughter Lizzy :-)... Very happy to have an iPad for the 17 hour trip, especially to keep Abi, our 14 month old busy..

Well, that's it for my first iPad blog from the back seat of the car on the way to a little town called Berry... More about that here From the tip of Africa...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Princes Hwy,Broughton Village,Australia

1 comment:

rodney said...

Was an interesting post - the 10% that was not spaghetti soup. You're such an IT nerd!