iPhone 4 price plans

OK, so the HTPC link here is slightly tenuous, but the iPhone does have a place in any hi-tech home as a media controller, and I need a place to share some numbers on the UK iPhone price plans. Here are the numbers:

16GB	Provider	Up-front	Monthly	Term	Total cost	Monthly cost
1	O2	£279.00	£25.00	24	£879.00	£36.63
2	Orange	£169.00	£30.00	24	£889.00	£37.04
3	O2	£179.00	£30.00	24	£899.00	£37.46
4	Orange	£119.00	£35.00	24	£959.00	£39.96
5	O2	£209.00	£30.00	18	£749.00	£41.61
6	Orange	£229.00	£35.00	18	£859.00	£47.72
7	O2	£179.00	£35.00	18	£809.00	£44.94
8	Orange	£169.00	£40.00	18	£889.00	£49.39
9	Apple	£499.00	£15.00	24	£859.00	£35.79
10	Apple	£499.00	£15.00	18	£769.00	£42.72
32GB	Provider	Up-front	Monthly	Term	Total cost	Monthly cost
1	O2	£323.00	£25.00	24	£923.00	£38.46
2	Orange	£269.00	£30.00	24	£989.00	£41.21
3	O2	£279.00	£30.00	24	£999.00	£41.63
4	Orange	£219.00	£35.00	24	£1,059.00	£44.13
5	O2	£299.00	£30.00	18	£839.00	£46.61
6	Orange	£319.00	£35.00	18	£949.00	£52.72
7	O2	£279.00	£35.00	18	£909.00	£50.50
8	Orange	£269.00	£40.00	18	£989.00	£54.94
9	Apple	£599.00	£15.00	24	£959.00	£39.96
10	Apple	£599.00	£15.00	18	£869.00	£48.28

Notes:
1) 100 minutes, unlimited texts.
2) 150 minutes, 250 texts.
3) 300 minutes, unlimited texts.
4) 600 minutes, unlimited texts.
5) 100 minutes, unlimited texts.
6) 150 minutes, 250 texts.
7) 300 minutes, unlimited texts.
8) 600 minutes, unlimited texts.
9) Potential £50 quidco cashback. Could save £19 (16GB) or £29 (32GB) buying through Orange.
10) Potential £25 quidco cashback. Could save £19 (16GB) or £29 (32GB) buying through Orange.

Also worth noting for options 9) and 10) is that any contract obligations involved are over 12 month periods, so sign up now and come WWDC 2011 or WWDC 2012, you'll be out of contract and free to upgrade ;)

Apple redesigns the Mac Mini line, reduces spec levels???

Well well, the long-standing rumours of a new HDMI-enabled Mac Mini were true! Apple has released a new range of Mac minis with very clear aspirations for making it an even stronger contender for the corner of your living room.

Having invested in a shiny new Mac mini only a couple of months ago, it was with a certain amount of annoyance that I noticed this update on Apples website earlier today (whilst struggling to get my pre-order for an iPhone 4 through). But after plowing through the specs, I can't say I'm dissappointed to have picked up the previous model. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice new elements of the new range. However it isn't all a step in the right direction.

So, good things first: Apple have reduced the size of the box, and also done away with the external power supply. They've also replaced the DVI port with a full HDMI port (and thrown in an HDMI to DVI adapter). Most significantly, they've updated the graphics cards from NVidia's 9400M to the 320M. Now, I haven't been able to find any 3rd party benchmarks of these two cards, but according to Apple, you're looking at a 1.8 to 2 times performance increase in terms of graphical power. Not too shabby...

However, it's not all good news. The biggest gripe I have with the new range is that they have done away with the entry level price bracket, leaving just the two models. Price-wise, they're equivalent to the previous mid-range model and previous server model. However, the new £649 entry level model doesn't stack up that well when compared with my MC239*/A model. Ok, the new model has mine beat on a few areas mentioned above, but the processor is down from 2.53GHz to 2.4GHz, and more importantly the RAM is now down to 2GB from 4GB. The new specs do represent a small performance increase when compared with the previous base model, but that doesn't count for much when the price pitches it against the previous mid-range model with beefier specs.

It's a shame to see the entry-level Mac now priced at £649, that's going to put it out of reach of a lot of people wanting to build an HTPC around these things. I can't see this being Apple's only strategy for living room domination, and given the now even greater overlap between the Mac mini range and the Apple TV, I think it's now even more likely we'll see the Apple TV take the iOS appliance route I talked about earlier.

A new Apple TV in the works?

Engadget are reporting on a tip they've received about a huge change in direction with the Apple TV strategy. Up until now, I've seen no advantage to the Apple TV over a Mac mini solution... well ok, ease of setup for the non-techie maybe, but I'm pretty sure the market for non-techies who want more than a TV and tuner (and possibly a PVR for the brave few) is pretty much non-existent. All that could be about to change though, if the Engadget rumour mongering is to be believed.

In a nutshell, a new version of the Apple TV is in the wings with a completely redesigned hardware and software layer. The hardware will be a thin client with 16GB solid state storage and the bare minimum of connections. It'll be running the iPhone 4.0 OS and focus on streaming content rather than syncing. This is a breath of fresh air coming from Apple; it's about time they realized that syncing is not the only way to get bits and bytes from A to B. Interestingly, it will reportedly be able to connect to a Time Capsule for offline content. Now if this is true, and if the codec support extends beyond the staple H.264 diet of most of Apples product lines, then this could be a very interesting prospect. You know what, even if it is H.264 bound, then you can always rely on Air Video to pick up the slack and transcode any content you like into the right format for this new Apple TV to serve up in full 1080p glory on your TV screen.

Now admittedly this thing would never replace my trusty Mac mini as the centrepiece of my home entertainment system, but I can definitely see a place for a few of these scattered about the house streaming content. It could even replace my Acer Revo in the kitchen cupboard - more on that later of course ;)

The best bit about the new Apple TV? The price: $99. Let's hope the rumours are true eh? :)

Air Video Server

I'm a big iPhone fan, I've had one since the day they came out in the UK. Well, not exactly true, I don't have one right now after losing it on a beery stag weekend in Malaga... but that's beside the point :) They are an amazing design with a beautiful screen, so any self-respecting HTPC needs to be able to serve up content to it right?

Enter Air Video by InMethod. It's a beautifully simple piece of software, but they've done a really good job with it.

The first thing you'll want to do is go install the server software on your HTPC. It's a very lightweight program that lives in the menu bar and generally stays out the way. You'll need to tell it what directories to share which is a simple, painless process carried out in the Preferences panel of the app.

Notice I'm sharing my EyeTV archive? I mentioned this in an earlier post on EyeTV; while EyeTV itself will automatically convert recordings to iPhone format and stream them to an iPhone app, it can't come close to the performance and ease-of-use of the Air Video solution. While the EyeTV conversion process is a slow, CPU-intensive affair, InMethod somehow manage to convert pretty much any video format to iPhone format on-the-fly and stream it straight to the iPhone app, no waiting, no messing. It'll even stream over 3G. Of course, it will also let you schedule videos for conversion in advance, either from the server or from the iPhone client itself.

Speaking of the Air Video iPhone client, there's a bit of bad news. It's not free. It'll set you back a whopping £1.79. Trust me, it's easily worth 50 times that so stump up the cash :)

Plex 9 Alexandria on its way...

A sneak-peek video has been released to demonstrate some of the new functionality coming in the new Plex 9 release:


Plex/Nine First Peek from Elan Feingold on Vimeo.

The full announcement can be found over on plexapp.com:
http://elan.plexapp.com/2010/05/19/a-sneak-peek-at-alexandria/

It's looking really cool, can't wait to get my hands on it. One thing that isn't clear to me yet is how tightly coupled the Plex 9 media server component is to the Plex 9 client, or if it is a generic uPnP AV server with some Plex-specific bells on... I want a beta to try out :)

Remotes: Harmony vs Apple

Like just about every other household in the UK, my living room was starting to disappear underneath an avalanche of cheap & nasty remote controls, many of which were actually the same cheap & nasty remote model with different key maps applied. Finding the one you want was an absolute nightmare, so I invested in a Harmony remote and I'm very glad I did. I bought a Logitech Harmony 555 Universal Remote Control as it had all the features I needed and was a reasonable price. The Harmony range of remotes goes on a long way past the 555, but for me they aren't worth the extra money. This little beauty does everything I wanted.

The Harmony remote isn't for the faint-hearted though. It takes a lot of effort to get the thing set up just as you want it. The software from Logitech is a bit cumbersome, but you can tell they've put a lot of effort into making the process as straight forward as it can be.

You need a Logitech ID to begin using the software, which at the time I bought the remote I didn't really see the need for. However after a couple of years when I changed a few pieces of kit and needed to update my configuration I had a cold sweat moment when I realized I'd got rid of the computer I'd originally used to set the thing up. Facing the bleak prospect of starting again from scratch, I grabbed the Mac version of the software, installed and logged in. Hey presto! All my config popped up safe & sound. Sometimes, not very often but sometimes, a well written piece of software can really put a smile on your face :)

I'm not going to go into great length about the setup process as it's going to be different for everyone, but basically you can organize your remote control around activities. Right now, my Harmony remote is pretty simple with only three activities: "Use Mac", "Play Xbox 360", and "Play Wii". All I have to do is his the Activities button at the top, then choose any one of these three options. The Harmony remote does the rest; it switches on all the necessary devices on, switches TVs and amps to the correct inputs, and remaps the buttons to something appropriate to the activity.

Sounds wonderful, I hear you cry, so what's the need for an Apple remote? Well, the Harmony remote suffers from the same problem as most remotes; they are big, clunky, terrifying things that require a manual. Compare this to the Apple remote: a simple slab of white plastic with a few simple buttons. It is much less intimidating and feels more comfortable and natural in the hand. In short, it passes the GF test: she happily picks up an Apple remote and clicks away, but stares bemusedly at the Harmony remote before handing it straight over to me (which admittedly is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if Embarrassing Bodies or Coleen's Real Women is on at the time and I can quickly nip across to Dave).

But I do have another reason for loving the Apple remote. I'm the kind of person who could misplace a straight jacket in a padded cell. This general dopiness applies to remotes just as much as it applies to my car keys, wallet, house keys, mobile, and anything else that isn't screwed down. I lose them. A lot. All the time, in ridiculously unlikely places. It's very annoying. But, I've found a solution! A Harmony 555 will set you back around about £60, but an Apple remote can be picked up for a few quid on eBay. So my solution is simple:

Even I can't lose them all at the same time :) And I have done a scientific study to show that 3 is the perfect number: at any one time, one is on my first sofa, the other is on the second, and the third is lost somewhere down the side of either. Remote control nirvana, trust me!

Remote Buddy: HTPC Glue!

Up to this point, I've blogged about a couple of different software packages I use: EyeTV for live & time-shifted video, and XBMC for DVDs, video files and streaming video. Both these programs integrate seamlessly with the Apple remote making controlling them from the comfort of your armchair an absolute doddle. But there's a snag... what do you do if you want to context switch, say you've just finished a DVD and want to catch the news before bed? It feels wrong to have to drop the remote, reach for a keyboard or mouse to shut down XBMC and fire up EyeTV, then switch back to the remote again. Enter ioSpirit to save the day!

ioSpirit are the makers of Remote Buddy, and for me it is the glue that holds together the whole HTPC concept on my Mac mini. Without it, it feels like I've got a computer connected to my TV. With it, I can sit back the arm chair and control the whole thing with a simple white remote.

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: it isn't freeware. A license will cost you $19.99 and can be bought on their website at http://www.iospirit.com/products/remotebuddy. Trust me on this, it is well worth the money. And if you don't want to trust me, then fear not as there is a 30 day free trial.

Once installed and up and running, it'll give you an icon in the menu bar.

It is the "Preferences..." option on this menu that you'll spend a little bit of time getting things set up just right. By default, Remote Buddy will set itself up to display its overlay menu when you press and hole the menu button on the Apple remote. It does a great job of fitting the contents of the default menu to what you've actually got on your system, but for me it is a bit exhaustive and messy. Just because a program on my system can be controlled by remote, doesn't mean it has any part to play in my HTPC system. And simplicity is the key here; if my GF brings up a list of 30 different pieces of sotware to choose between, that remote is going straight back down the side of the sofa where she found it. So I recommend creating your own menu profile (by hitting the plus icon in the screenshot below) and then ripping it to pieces. Delete everything you don't htink you'll need; it's easy to add it back in later if you were a bit overzealous with your pruning. I ended up with a very simple list of 4 applications, like so:

Clean, simple, and elegant! From here you can pick and choose your applications, fire up new ones, close down ones you aren't using any more, and so on and so forth. It's nice and simple to navigate, and the only thing you need to be aware of is that the clumsily-named "Activate behaviour" option is the first option you'll want to choose each time you switch between apps. It will fire up the app if it isn't running, and it'll bring the window to the front and then re-map all the buttons on the remote to perform application-specific tasks. The only button that isn't remapped is the menu-button-held-down action; this will always pop you right back out to Remote Buddy's own menu overlay. All the application-specific controls can be customized to your hearts content by visiting the Mapping tab in the Preferences panel:

Mostly, the defaults are spot on and so unless you really want to tweak it to your own specific requirements (all I did was change the fast forward and rewind actions around a bit on the EyeTV mapping set) you'll get along just fine without having to wrap your head around the details on this tab.

So there you have it: Remote Buddy is one useful piece of software for any HTPC. I have friends trying to set up their own HTPCs on a Windows platform and despite a fair amount of fiddling, ebaying, and googling, they've so far been unable to get close to the level of slickness offered by Remote Buddy. I give it a big thumbs up, well worth the investment!