Posted on by mwhybark

For review

The Last iPod Video Guide You’ll Ever Need, at Plastic Bugs, via BrainLog.

UPDATE: Geez, that’s a pretty intimidating page for a non-technical user. Apple (or someone) could make a killing by releasing a conversion app that really truly doesn’t require a whit of oversight. Let’s see, how would it work?

My theoretical user would presumably understand using an iPod as a music playback device. Therefore the video usage procedure should be entirely analogous. My user inserts a video source such as a DVD or locates a video source such as a downloaded rip of the Daily Show. Then, the user drags the source to “Library” in iTunes, and the material is added. iTunes should broker any conversion, if neccessary, and the conversion settings should be tweakable in the iTunes preferences panes.

I would guess that a conversion dialog might be presented at the time the user drags the content over, asking if the conversion should take place as fast as possible or run more slowly, in the background, since ripping video is so timeconsuming on this generation of hardware.

Additionally, if the video source is a DVD, if possible, the raw DVD video should be copied in entirety to the local drive, allowing the user to eject the disc more rapidly than if the conversion process were to be based directly on the data stored on the optical disc.

Posted on by mwhybark

Romeo

While it’s not available for the Treo, Romeo appears to offer a freeware, opensource app to provide remote control of iTunes and other Mac OS X stuff from your bluetooth phone.

I found this via a linktrawl in search of my preferred configuraton for Airport Express – I blew away the config we had at the apartment and don’t recall exactly how I had it set up.

We were using it to share a printer and to control music playback on the stereo. I had the printer set up under the A/V stack, which worked OK.

Here, I haven’t set up any A/V gear yet, except for the Victrola. Thus, I could split the Express away from the stereo and just use it to do printer sharing, which I’m leaning toward in order to get to an action plan.

What’s got me hung up is that it would be beyond cool if I could stuff the printer into the Victrola cabinet along with the speakers and the Express. However, that’s also overkill, since the clamshell iBook that we are currently using to stream to the speakers is also already in the cabinet. Therefore if I can cram the printer in there, I don’t need to use the Express. The only functional advantage would be that one could print to the printer via the Express without having to open and wake the iBook, a machine which insists on sleeping when lid-closed.

This train of thought has also led me to note that I do posess not one but two headless Wallstreet PowerBooks, both running an old OS X and neither with native support for Airport or USB. It’d be child’s play, if you posit that the child may be both slower than most and a masochist!

Hey, look, Walltreet LCDs are down to $20 on ebay!

Of course, there are one or two maintenance chores about the house that also call for the patience and ingenuity of a specially-abled person such as myself.