Watch your iPod on your TV

I mentioned in a previous entry that you can watch your iPod on your TV. This entry will explain how to do it, cheaply. First things first... you need an iPod video, 30 gig or 60 gig, it does not matter. Next you will need a cable like the one pictured above. You don't need to buy Apple's cable for 20 bucks, you may even have one from your video camera lying around (that's what I use). The last requirement is a TV with RCA composite video and stereo audio inputs (the yellow video, red and white audio inputs), not to be confused with not to be component video inputs (red, blue and green all video) . Make sure that your iPod is set to output to the TV by accessing the setting with in the iPod menus. Go to Video>Video Settings then choose TVout and select "Ask". This makes the iPod ask each time you play a video wheather you want to watch it on TV or the iPod.

There is a trick to using the non Apple branded cables, it's not hard... are you ready...
switch the red and yellow cable (for those that are slow, put the red cable in the yellow input and the yellow cable in the red input). Yep that's it. I'm guessing that Apple figured that many people already have the cables and would try them, so they pulled a switcheroo and wired it differently to get more accessory money. Now you too can enjoy Hannah Montana on your 35 in TV instead of your 17 in iMac. Plus it frees up your computer so you can surf while watching!

When they add movie rentals to iTunes in August, you will be set. There are other options, you can get a dock from Apple, Griffin or DLO. But, at over $100 each, the cable option seems easier to get you going. The docks all include remotes and that makes sense, but this option will let you get up and running for 10 bucks if you don't already have a cable.

Radio Shack saves the day

Laugh if you will, Radio Shack saved my butt. Yes that's right, the "on the corner", "in the mall" "red headed step child" of electronics stores really came through for me today. I was running late this morning, I had a shoot to do this afternoon, nothing major, a swim team. I grabbed my gear bag and headed out. Some time around lunch I thought to check my battery, it had been fully charged just the other day at my son's baseball game, but I thought I'd better check just to be sure. It was low. I have 40 kids to shoot this evening and no way is this going to work out for me. I thought that I would just charge it. I open my bag and to my dismay, there is no charger. CRAP! I'm in deep.

Since my house is 50 minutes away, I went by the mall at lunch and dropped in on Radio Shack on the off chance that they might have a battery charger for a Canon BP511 (10D battery). I walked in and looked around for a bit. I noticed that they have all kinds of iPod stuff, but that is not why I was there. I asked a clerk if they had a BP511 battery. He tapped on his computer for a second and walked over to and end cap on one of the isles. He turned to me and asked if it was for a Canon camera. I could not believe they had it, I really was not looking for a battery, but I could use an extra to prevent situations like this in the future. I then asked if they had a charger for it. He walked over to another isle and picked up a universal charger and looked at it for a second before replying "yep, right here". Sweet! Now I am all set and I may prevent future problems due to low batteries.

Thanks Radio Shack, I may look to you more often!

Off Topic! Psych on USA

This will be a first in a continual series of "Off Topic" posts. There is so much stuff out there that deserves attention that I really need to let people know about. So, look for the "Off Topic" label to deal with the things that don't jive with my blog's description.

Whew! Enough of that...
Psych is a new show on USA (available on iTunes) that has real promise. It has a unique story line that involves a guy who was taught by his father (a cop) to notice subtleties about his surroundings and this gets him involved solving crimes later in life posing as a psychic. The show is funny and I have really enjoyed the FREE pilot episode that was on iTunes music store and am in the process of downloading the latest show. The lead character is Sean Spencer played by James Roday. He and his buddy Gus (Dule Hill) make a great coming team as the pair up to solve crimes the cops can't. If they keep up the good work, this will be a show that gets added to my DVR. Below is the link to iTunes where you can get the free pilot episode (iTunes required, duh).

iTunes to replace Blockbuster

Well, if you read this blog then you know that Apple is set to start renting movies by way of iTunes. When I wrote that last article, I was disappointed that you would not be able to own the movies you download. Now I am beginning to realize how big this idea really is. Follow me for a moment...

It's Saturday night and you decide to stay in and watch a movie. Right now that requires you to:
A) Rent a PPV from your cable or satellite provider.
Drawbacks:
1)Limited titles
2)Viewing on their schedule

B)Go to the movie store and rent a movie.
Drawbacks:
1)Having to go out to the store
2)Desired selection may be "rented out"
3)Late fees

C)Rent from Netflix or Blockbuster Online
Drawbacks:
1)Waiting up to 3 days for your titles to come
2)your selection may have an additional wait if it is popular

Soon, with iTunes and an iPod, you can choose any movie that is out, you download it to iTunes, sync your iPod, pop it in a dock by your TV(or plug in a cable) and watch it at your leisure. You never have to leave your home, you never have to worry that your movie will be out, you never have late fees and best of all, you can do it on your time table.

Here are some links to the current versions of the TV docks and cables:
Apple's AV Connection Kit (includes Dock, Remote and Cables)
Griffin's Tune Center (includes Dock, Remote and Cables)
DLO's Home Dock (includes Dock, Remote and Cables)
Apples AV Cables (cheapest option, but no remote)

You may want to be prepared and while you are at it, you may want to get a dust cover for that DVD player.

Rent movies on your iPod?

According to Think Secret, Apple will announce iTunes Music Store movie rentals at the upcoming World Wide Developers Conference.
I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. I am excited that I will finally get to put movies on my iPod with out jumping through hoops and wasting hours doing it. But, on the other hand I am disappointed that I will not be able to own the movies. There will undoubted be some time limit technology built in to the files. I also wonder what the quality will be like. Time will tell and the WWDC is just around the corner. I will download at least one to see what I think and I will post my thoughts about it here. Check out Think Secret for more info.
Think Secret - WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals

Netflix vs. Blockbuster

Has Blockbuster found a way to kill off Netflix? In my mind they have. Blockbuster is offering up to 3 movies out at a time and one free rental per week at your local store for $17.99. Netflix has 3 out at a time for $17.99 but you don't get any in store rentals or any other perks

I was terrible about returning videos, that is why I went with Netflix in the first place. Now that Blockbuster has the "No Late Fees Ever" (read 7days or you buy it on your credit card), I have plenty of time to get my sorry behind back to the store to return it. So when Netflix asks why I am canceling my membership (again), I'll tell them that I basically get 4 out at a time with BB and if I get that Saturday night craving for Bad News Bears, I can run down and get it, before I come to my senses and replace it on my cue.

Want to know who is really going to win the war with online rentals? The first one that gets their head out of their bum long enough to realize that people want to get their games and movies in one place, with one fee.

Flock me!

Some of my recent preoccupations with Flickr have led me to Flock. What is Flock you ask? Well, it's a browser. Geez, another browser, how exciting. But this browser is KICK ASS! It helps you manage your photos with Flickr, it lets you work with your blog, it manages your bookmarks across multiple computers using del.icio.us, is cross platform, it slices, it dices, it makes amazing waffle fries! The last part goes a little far, but you get the point. You can do so much with Flock that it really begs the question... why has this not been done before? It does everything that I like to do with the web all in a convenient, easy to use interface. Check out a screencast from screencastsonline.com (July 11th) for a great tutorial on Flock.

Flashy Flickr

I just stumbled across something new on Flickr, a flash gallery/slideshow. I suppose it's name is "Flash Slideshow". Talk about a boring name for such an awesome application. It is Flickr native and runs from your Flickr photos on the Flickr site. It allows you to display your Flickr photos in a unique and well designed flash presentation. Look at a sample whith my Flickr Landscapes Gallery below.

Be sure to click on one of the images to see how it displays the info about the photo. You can access the slide show controls by mousing over the top of the interface and if you are impatient, like me, you can see thumbnails and navigate at your own pace by mousing over the bottom of the interface.
I found a hack on blogger templates that basically puts a frame in your blog and displays the slideshow from flickr right in your post. One of the issues with that was that it was too wide to fit on my template. So, I hacked the hack and made a static page on my site and linked to it in a new custom window (code available on request). Go get your frame code and start flashing your Flickr on your site.... (is that legal?)

Spell with Flickr

Things don't have to have be useful to catch my attention. My dad swore when I was little that I could care less what was in the gumball machine, I just wanted the quarter so I could turn the handle and watch the machine work. I guess that is why I think Spell with Flickr is so cool.

Think of any word you want and spell it with photos. How cool is that. Go give it a try, it's better than wasting a quarter on some crappy, lose it's flavor in 2 minutes gumball. Plus, it'll look great on your next ransom note!

My friend Flickr

Let's talk Flickr... When I think about Flickr I think of what my TV used to do when it was about to go to the dump. But that's not what Flickr means these days. Flickr, according to Wikipedia is "a digital photo sharing website and web services suite, which is generally considered Web 2.0."

While it is a photo sharing website, it is so much more. Flickr not only lets you store and share your photos, but it lets you organize them and tag them (for those unfamiliar, tagging is adding words to aid in searching er... finding images), order prints, create slide shows, show them on your own website, and much more. I'll devote some space in the coming days to a "getting started with Flickr how to" and get more in depth about the things you can do with your photos once you have them on Flickr.

Simply Awesome!

Want a good way to display photos on your own website? Look no further than Simple Viewer. It is one of the coolest FREE Flash photo presentation systems out there. It's really easy to configure and if you have iPhoto (Mac users) or Picasa (Windows users) you can get a plugin that makes it even easier.

I have a couple of galleries using Simple Viewer and could not be happier with the results. Heck, I even modified it so that I could sell prints using PayPal (more on that at a later time). Airtight Interactive, the maker of Simple Viewer has a few other photo presentation methods based off of Simple Viewer that I also have played with. I recommend that you check them out. Your photos will be glad you did.

DPReview.com

I have been a user of http://www.dpreview.com (Digital Photography Review) for years. This site has everything you need to make an informed decision about purchasing a digital camera. You can browse all the current makes and models, compare them and even see sample photographs from the cameras. They have forums that are broken down in to groups related to cameras, printers, etc. where you can learn more from fellow users. Give it a look. I do, several times a week.

iLife Tutorials

Apple has released new multimedia tutorials on it's iLife suite. If you are an Apple user on OSX chances are that you have iLife. The tutorials are for iLife '06, the newest version. iLife includes iPhoto (photo organizing and editing), GarageBand (loop based track recording and podcast creation), iTunes (entertainment organization and on-line purchase), iMovieHD (video editing), iDVD (dvd authoring) and iWeb (web site creation and editing).

If you are not already a Mac user, these may make you want to switch by seeing all the really cool things you can do on a Mac right out of the box.