Rock Band 2 gets official for this fall, new guitar revealed
Rock Band 2 gets official for this fall, new guitar revealed: ”
Filed under: Gaming
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(Via Engadget.)
MarsEdit 2.1.4
MarsEdit 2.1.4 is now available for download. I’ve got some much bigger changes on the way for MarsEdit 2.2, but these are some short-term fixes I wanted to get out even sooner:
MarsEdit 2.1.4
- Add a dock menu item for easily starting a new post
- Support uploading to specific Picasa album for Blogger users
- Prevent dragging a URL to preview window from loading that URL
- Fix display of tags in main window preview
- Safeguard against bad URLs that could cause a crash when refreshing
If you’re a Blogger user and want to take advantage of the new ‘specific album’ feature, just type in the name of the album in the Media Manager’s Upload pane, where it says ‘in’.
Enjoy – and as always, let me know if you spot any problems!
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(Via Red Sweater Blog.)
iTunes remembers George Carlin
iTunes remembers George Carlin: ”
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, iTunes
Of all the things said about George Carlin over the past few days, I like what Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show most: he’s getting awfully tired of people who we need leaving us. But as Stewart also said, the good thing about Carlin is that he left us ‘hours and hours of video.’ iTunes has posted a page of George Carlin’s famous standup to honor a comedian that I and many, many other comedy fans looked up to for laughter and inspiration.
If you need a place to start, the ’seven dirty words’ monologue is probably the most famous, but Carlin often said that his favorite performance was the ‘Jammin’ in New York’ show — he said it was the first time he’d done longer pieces, and talked about stuff that he really put his heart into (it’s actually the show that was used for the Moment of Zen on the Daily Show). Definitely a great listen.
Of course, it’s probably not quite right that iTunes’ system automatically listed ‘Concert Tickets’ as an option on the page. But in the world that Carlin worked his whole life to show us, big companies doing stupid things is nothing new.
Thanks, Steve!
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Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player [Xbox 360]
I may have to shell out the money for one of these
Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player [Xbox 360]: ”
Netflix subscribers, if you’ve got an Xbox 360 and a Windows Vista PC, you don’t have to shell out $99 for Roku’s Netflix Player box to get your Watch Instantly library on your TV screen—you already have everything you need. Using the free Windows Media Center plug-in, vmcNetflix, you can turn your Xbox 360 into a Netflix Watch Instantly box. Here’s how.
What You Can Expect
Once you’ve installed and set up vmcNetflix (original post), here’s a video demonstration of what you can expect.
With vmcNetflix, you can watch, browse, and queue movies to your Netflix Watch Instantly queue all from your Xbox 360 or Vista Media Center. A highlight of the list of growing features listed on the vmcNetflix site include:
- Stream WatchNow movies directly to the Media Center player.
- Download WatchNow movies to a ‘Watch Later’ gallery.
- Support for Vista Extenders on both x86 and x64 platforms.
- Support for Netflix Instant Queue.
- Support for Episode listings.
- Search for movies by keyword.
- Browse DVD and WatchNow movies by genres.
- Sort Gallery by Title, Year, or Star Rating.
- View your queue, history, and recommendations.
- Add, remove, move movies in your queue.
- Supports DVD/Movie Parental Controls
What You’ll Need
Now that you’ve got an idea of the end product, let’s take a look at the short list of things you’ll need to turn your Xbox 360 into a Netflix player.
- An Xbox 360
- Windows Vista with Vista Media Center (it’s included by default in Vista Home Premium and Ultimate)
- A Netflix subscription
- The freeware vmcNetflix plug-in
Got all that? Then let’s set it up.
Step 1: Set Up Your Xbox as a Media Center Extender
If you’ve already set up your Xbox 360 as a Media Center extender, you can skip this step. Unless you’re already using your Windows PC as a Media Center powerhouse and have a tuner card installed on your Windows machine, chances are you haven’t had much reason to set up your Xbox as an extender. With vmcNetflix, you’ve got a great reason.
Microsoft already provides detailed instructions for setting up your 360 as a Media Center extender, so here’s the nutshell version. Start up your Xbox 360, head to the Media blade, and select Media Center. Since you haven’t already set up an extender, your Xbox will walk you through the setup process between your Xbox and your PC. The Xbox will generate an eight-digit code to authenticate the connection between the two. Then you need to fire up Media Center on your PC, go to Tasks -> Add Extender, and fill in the blanks in the setup wizard with your eight-digit code when prompted.
Step 2: Install the vmcNetflix Plug-in
Now that your Xbox is set up as a bona fide Vista Media Center extender, you’re ready to download and install the vmcNetflix plug-in. There’s nothing to it, so just download the latest plug-in from the link and go through the installer.
Step 3: Set Up Watch Instantly on Your PC
Before you can stream Watch Instantly videos to your 360 extender, you need to make sure your PC is Watch Instantly-ready first. If you’ve already watched videos on this computer using Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature, you can skip this step. If not, forge ahead.
Your PC needs to install a plug-in or two from Netflix to help deal with the DRM and such used to stream videos. Installing them is as simple as logging into your Netflix account using Internet Explorer, clicking the Watch Instantly tab, and then playing anything. You don’t have to finish it, so just click Play on the first video you stumble across.
Netflix will prompt you to install their plug-in before the video starts, so just accept their prompts and install. When you’re finished with the simple installation, you should be watching the video you just chose. Once you’re there, you can stop the playback. Soon you’ll be watching that through your Xbox, on your TV, from the comfort of your living room.
Step 4: Set Up vmcNetflix on Your Xbox 360
Now you need to run your Xbox 360 in Media Center extender mode. To do so, turn it on, head to your Xbox dashboard, and fire up Media Center from the list where you set it up originally. Your Xbox will find your computer and start up in Media Center mode.
Once there, scroll down to the Online Media section and then move left to select the program library. You should see an entry for vmcNetflix. Fire it up.
Since this is the first time you’ve run vmcNetflix on your extender, you’ll need to set it up with your Netflix account. Doing so is as simple as providing the plug-in with your Netflix username and password. Do that, and you’re ready to start watching movies.
Step 5: Enjoy!
That’s all there is to it. You can now stream any Netflix Watch Instantly video directly to the TV in your living room using the Xbox 360 that’s already there. No $99 out of your pocket, no extra piece of equipment to add to your entertainment center. vmcNetflix handles everything nearly perfectly, from separate episode listings for television shows to managing and accessing your Netflix Watch Instantly queue.
The vmcNetflix plug-in has been in steady development for a few months now, but as the video above points out, the vmcNetflix plug-in can be a little slow and sometimes buggy. I hardly notice the sluggishness, though thinking about it, it does feel a little slower than normal Media Center extender operation. If you run into bugs, the vmcNetflix homepage offers tips for troubleshooting. I’ve found that restarting my 360 and or Media Center PC remedies any problems. Be sure to check back in with the vmcNetflix homepage from time to time and keep an eye on updates, since the developer is fixing problems and adding features at an impressive pace.
Also—as the video pointed out—vmcNetflix can download Watch Instantly videos and save them on your computer. This comes in very handy because saving videos means you don’t have to worry about downloads buffering, and video playback, fast-forwarding, and rewinding all work better. The downside is that saving videos is not part of the Watch Instantly terms of service.
If you’ve been using vmcNetflix to turn your Xbox 360, Vista Media Center, or other Windows Media Center extender into a full-fledged Netflix streaming device, let’s hear about it in the comments.
Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who needs no Roku Netflix Player (though he wouldn’t mind one in the other room). His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
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(Via Lifehacker.)
Do you ever wonder how long it takes to change your life? What measure of time is enough to be life altering? Is it four years like high school? One year? An eight week rock tour? Can your life change in a month, or a week, or a single day? We’re always in a hurray to grow up, to go places, to get ahead. And when you’re young, one hour can change everything.
If you could go back and change one thing about your life, would you? And if you did, would that change make your life better? Or would that change ultimately break your heart? Or break the heart of another? Or would you choose an entirely different path? Or would you change just one thing, just one moment? One moment, that you’ve always wanted back.
Albert Camus once wrote, “Blessed are the hearts that can bend. They shall never be broken.” But I wonder…. If there’s no breaking, then there’s no healing. And if there’s no healing, then there is no learning. And if there’s no learning, then there’s no struggle. But the struggle is a part of life, So must all hearts be broken ?
Make A Wish
Make a wish and place it in your heart. Anything you want, everything you want. Do you have it? Good. Now believe it can come true. You never know where the next miracle is gonna come from, the next smile, the next wish come true. But if you believe that it’s right around the corner, and you open your heart and mind to the possibility of it, to the certainty of it. You just might get the thing you’re wishing for. The world is full of magic. You just have to believe in it. So make your wish. Do you have it? Good. Now believe in it. With all your heart.
Find Album Art at AllCDCovers [Album Art]
Great little tool if you are like me and have some odd music that Itunes can not find the cover art for or am I the only person that really uses coverflow?
Find Album Art at AllCDCovers [Album Art]: ”
Web-based album art library and search engine AllCDCovers just may have the missing art you’ve been looking to fill in your digital music collection. Despite its name, AllCDCovers carries both album art, DVD covers, and game covers, front and back, with pretty high res versions available for free download. AllCDCovers didn’t have the indie artist I tried, so the really obscure stuff might not be here; still, when the iTunes Store fails you it may be a good stop. Here’s more on how to fix up your MP3 collection by adding album art through Media Monkey; see our complete album art tag to get a few more sources and art search engines. Share your favorite online source of downloadable album art in the comments.
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(Via Lifehacker.)
American Airlines to test in-flight WiFi tomorrow
Its about time I have wanted this for years now I may get it.
American Airlines to test in-flight WiFi tomorrow: ”
Filed under: Transportation, Wireless
You heard right, folks. American Airlines is planning to open up the world wide web to passengers on board an unspecified round-trip flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles. The Gogo service, provided via Aircell, will be free for patrons tomorrow, but will eventually run users $12.95 for flights greater than three hours and $9.95 for trips under said threshold. We’re also told that more trials are expected to get going on flights between New York and San Francisco and New York and Miami, though no time frame is given for when the service would escape the beta stage and hit mass implementation. Additionally, the Gogo system is supposed to ‘prioritize the flow of data so that passengers downloading movies or large documents won’t prevent other passengers from getting their email,’ so don’t expect to use that excuse for not sending in those Q2 close reports.
[Via Jaunted]
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(Via Engadget.)
Facebook’s Newest Friend? Visa
Facebook’s Newest Friend? Visa: “Facebook is a gated community whose members make up demographics that are relatively easy to quantify — and yet, it remains something of a barren wasteland for advertisers. Now Visa is stepping up with a $2 million ad buy that seeks to tie in with the roughly 80,000 small businesses on the social network.
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(Via Wired News.)
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