Delboy’s Blog

For the last few years I have been using Skype to keep in touch with all of my family and friends back in the UK, this became a very important tool when Christopher was born. Video calling just makes the world a much smaller place.

However since the start of this year I have been having lots of problems with video calling with Skype back to the UK, it worked fine in the USA but every time I tried back to the UK they would not see my video. I then had to go and find the windows laptop to use MSN (Not good quality).

Now I have found ooVoo I have been tested ooVoo this week and it works just the same as Skype. Download the client on each PC and away you go. The good news is that I found the Video and Sound quality to be as good if not better than Skype. My parents were much happier they could just see Christopher with out me hunting down the other laptop.

I will still be using Skype for all my voice calling as that works great but for video calling I will be using ooVoo for the time being.

You can download oovoo at http://www.oovoo.com/

Technology @ Home

I was recently asked about how I use technology in the home and how I share my home media with my family back in the UK. I thought that this would be the ideal subject for my next blog. In this blog I will highlight what technology I am currently using in the home and how I share my digital media with my family and friends back home in the UK.

How do I store my Data?

I store my data using a small windows XP box with many USB drives hanging off it. I currently have 6 USB drives with a total capacity of 1.5Tb. I also run a number of applications on this “Server”.

What Software do I run on the Server?

iTunes – I use iTunes to share my Photos, Music and Video with my AppleTV and other devices within the house.

Mozy – I use Mozy home to back up all my data to an offsite location keeping all of my data secure. I currently have 1.1Tb backup to the Mozy servers (I wonder if anyone has more backed up).

Skype – I use Skype as the main phone service into the house. I find this much cheaper than using a conventional phone server, especially for calling the Europe. I have 2 USB Linksys iPhone (the original iPhone) for my handsets.

NTRConnect - I use this as a way to remote control my Server and in partnership with MSN i am also able to copy any of my files to and from my remote location.

MSN Messenger - I use messenger and the shared folders option to copy files to and from my remote location. If I need a file I can remote to my server with NTRConnect and put the file in my shared folder that is shared with my Laptop. If I have some new files when I am traveling I am able to add them to my shared folder on my laptop and they are then copied to my server, I am then able to remote to my server and move the files to where I need them. Even adding files like picture’s to my AppleTV so they can be viewed on my TV before I am even home.

Sharing my Media in the Home

Last year I decided to be an early adopter of the new AppleTV when it was released, for sharing my media in the home. This has been the best purchase I have made. Before I bought the AppleTV I was using a Linksys Media device to share my digital pictures and music with my TV and sound system. This was fine, but I wanted to share video with my TV. When I read about the AppleTV I decided that this was the device for me.

AppleTV

With the AppleTV connected to the TV I am now able to stream all of my media from my server to my TV at the touch of a button. This includes over 400 movies, 1000+ TV shows, 1000’s of music files, and of course my digital pictures. On top of this I now have Youtube on my TV.
Earlier this year Apple released an update to AppleTV adding a number of features. The 4 features that I like the most are as follows.

Movie Rental – I am not really bothered about renting standard movies, but I really like the option of renting High Definition movies.

AirTunes – I can now push music from any PC or Laptop on my home network to my AppleTV and then on to my surround sound system with AirTunes. If I also add an AirPort Express Base Station to the network and connect some speaker I can now send music to a number of different room through out the house all in sync.

Photo sharing with the Web – The new version of AppleTV allows you to now look at photos and Video that are shared on .Mac and Flickr. This gives me the ability to look at my friend’s pictures on my TV, and give my family and friend’s the ability to look at my Photo’s and Video’s on their TVs back in the UK.

HD and surround sound – Adding 5.1 surround sound and High Definition movies as an option made AppleTV far better option.

So, how do I share my digital photos and home movies?

Well, I upload my media to my .Mac account from there. My family and friend’s can either access my photo’s from my website or via there AppleTV on there TV’s.

What I would like to see next from Apple TV

There have been many rumors as to what might be next for AppleTV, and if we have learned anything from Apple, it is to expect the unexpected. However, for what it is worth, here is what I would like to see next for AppleTV.

Video Messaging – I would like to see video messaging integrated with AppleTV. An application like Skype added to the box and a web cam connected to the USB port would be great for communicating with other AppleTV users.

Internet Browsing – An Internet browser added to the box, plus a wireless keyboard and mouse really would connect the Internet to the living room.

HD Movie Purchase – Now that we can play and rent High Definition movies through AppleTV, I would like to be able to purchase HD movies from iTunes so that I can watch them at my own leisure.

Now that’s how I use technology in the home.

Moving to the Dark Side
Over the last year I have found that I have move more and more to becoming a Mac User up until in December 2007 I finally move from being a Windows user to being full Mac user when I bought my first MacBook Pro. I wanted to share the reason for moving to the Apple world and also share my thoughts on the software and hardware that I now use.

Why Move to a Mac?
In a word VISTA. After using Windows Vista for 9 months and after 9 months of the OS crashing the applications crashing I had finally had enough and decided I had to look at a different option. My first thought’s were to move back to XP this was stopped short when I found that I was unable to get Driver for my new HP Vista Laptop. This is when I decided to get away from Microsoft. I decided to move to Apple as I had already bought an iPod, iPhone and AppleTV in the last year, as I was more than happy with these 3 products it made sense to me to move to a Mac. After a lot of research into the software that I would have available and after a number of email’s with colleagues (thanks David and Doug) I decide to Sell my new HP laptop and buy my new MacBook Pro and I have never looked back.

What Laptop did I buy?
Here are the specs of the MacBook Pro I decided to go with
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz

My Mac Experience
I found that Apple OSX Leopard software was very easy to use from day 1 even for someone who has been using Windows software for over 15 years however I did spend about an hour with a sales guy in the Apple store before I bought the Mac this give me a good basis to start to use the Mac from day 1. One of the reason’s I decided to buy the Mac in December was so I could get used to the OS over the Christmas Break but after a couple of days I was all but there the experience was very easy to get used to. There were a couple of web sites that I found very useful http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ and http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ as well as Google for finding the answers to specific questions.

What Software Am I Currently Using
After a couple of months of playing around with different software and trying different options here is what I am currently happy using and why.
VMware Fusion – This is a must for being able to run my on a day to day basis and be able to get access to my work environment. Unfortunately in the businesses world there will always be a need to run a windows PC not only did VMware Fusion allow me to do this but I have never had Windows XP running as well as I do on my Mac.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac – For the same reason, as I would need access to a Windows PC I realized that I would always need to access Microsoft Office Documents after trying a number of different Options including Apples version and some free versions I decided on Office 2008 for the Mac mainly because of formatting problems that I had when going between different software.
Adium – In my opinion the best instant message application around not only did it give me access to all my personal message applications but it also works with sametime allowing be to have all my instant messages in one place. Adium also has a great transcript view for reviewing all conversations.
Firefox – Although Apples Safari is getting better I still prefer Firefox for web browsing.
Handbrake – Handbrake is a great tool for converting DVD’s to M4V or MP4 files this works great if like me you are an AppleTV user. The current version allows you to copy the 5.1 surround sound and lets up edit the Movie Chapter’s.
MetaX – This is a great tool that works along side Handbrake allowing you to insert Meta data into the converted Movie file, you can insert information like description, starts, cover art, show, season, episode, etc.
Skype – Still the best Video messaging app this is great for me to keep in touch with my family back in the UK.

The Verdict
Would I go back to a Microsoft OS? Never Never Never after 15 years of using Microsoft’s OS’s from windows 3.1 right up to Windows Vista I can say that the Mac OSX is by far the best OS I have ever used not only is it faster, I can boot up and have my app’s up and running with in a minuet of powering on, it is far more stable than any Microsoft OS I have ever used I am still amazed that I can open up a web browser at the start of the day and it is still running when I come to turn my Laptop off at the end of the day. Now when I go to use my wife’s XP laptop I am always finding that I am trying to do things the Mac way and not the Windows way as things are much easier this way. My advise to anyone in the market for a new Laptop or PC go to you closes Mac Store and have a play around with there software, yes they are more expensive but they are also a lot better to use.