Phillo's site > iPhone

The latest addiction I have made to my setup at home is the Apple TV.

It’s a very nice engineered piece of hardware (for example the fact that do now have a power adapter and that the power cable goes directly from the power plug to the Apple TV is a very small thing but at the same time it’s very nice thing not to have another adapter connected) but, I have to say so, it’s basically useless without jailbreaking it (at least here in Italy where the Netflix offer is not available and so the only movie you can purchase are from Apple).

I was a little disappointed in the beginning because it does not have a full 1080p output like the WD TV it replaces in my setup but, after thinking about it, I’ve decided that it’s good enough, because my library of full 1080 HD video is quite short (just one movie!).

Jaibreaking it (a last generation Apple TV with the latest iOS from Apple) was quite difficult, because I did not find a way to put it in DFU mode that was predictable enough to describe here. The best suggestion I can give you is to use the Seas0nPass tool and try to reboot and put the Apple TV in DFU mode using in sequence the following remote control combination:

• Down Arrow – Menu
• Play – Menu

sooner or later Seas0nPass will see your Apple TV going in DFU mode and will perform its magic. The other suggestion is that, when you need to start Seas0nPass, you can alt-click (or option-click) on the button to avoid downloading the same ipsw file again and again from Apple if, annoyed because the DFU mode does not happens, you close Seas0nPass.

DFU mode works, you need to try and re-try, the timing between rebooting the AppleTV (Menu-Down Arrow on the remote) and pressing the Play-Menu combo on the remote and the timing to keep pressed the Play-Menu is critical and the window available is very, very narrow, so pressing the buttons with just a little delay can invalidate the procedure.

Once AppleTV was jailbreaked I’ve installed XBMC on it and the XBMC remote on the iPhone and so now I’ve a complete multimedia center connected to my network fully managed via iPhone.

In short:

• AppleTV: a very nice piece of hardware but (for me) almost useless without jailbreaking it
• AppleTV Jailbreaked: a very useful piece of hardware that, using XBMC, it’s one of the best media center combination available on the market

After purchasing the WD MyWorld edition I’ve tried different ways to stream my music library on my network.

The first solution I’ve found was to use PlugPlayer to play music using the iPhone but the solution worked great but had a big problem: it required to connect the iPhone to my stereo to listen it, so if you play music you cannot, at the same time… well… make a call!

So I moved to another solution, I purchased an Airport Express device, connected it via WiFi to work as a remote speaker and connected it to my main stereo (a Marantz amplifier connected to a pair of Indiana Line speaker). This way you can stream music from your Mac to the main stereo.

Last piece of the puzzle was to install the Apple Remote application on the iPhone so that I can control the iTunes running on the Mac via the iPhone.

Now I’ve what I consider a very well engineered and polished solution: the Mac runs iTunes connecting to the WD music library, stream music on the AirPort Express to play it on the main stereo with a very good quality (thanks to Indiana Line speakers, that are very, very good and not too expensive) and I can control everything from every room of the house using my iPhone.

I’ve added a Western Digital MyBook World edition to my home network. I was in “cheap” mode and so purchased the simple 1 TB, single disk, model, so without any kind of Raid.

Installation was flawless and very simple and, in just a few touch, I was able to connect my Mac to it, set it up to perform Time Machine on it (limiting the user quota for backup to just 250 GB). As a simple file server it works very well and without problem.

The fun started when I copied my MP3 collection on it and then shared it via the two options available for media sharing, iTunes and the standard Media Server available with the included TonkyServer.

The iTunes share can be seen from iTunes on the Mac but the overall experience is not so good, you cannot search for files or create playlists. Much more interesting it’s the media server option, that exposed data using the UPnP™/DLNA® standard, first of all because sharing is made also considering the various mp3 tag that are included in the files (so allowing browsing for artists, genres, albums and so on) but, above all, because I’ve found two very useful programs that allow me to browse the media server collection (both audio, videos and photos!) via my iPhone.

The first one is called AirPlayer (http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/airplayer/id369713694?mt=8. The first time you open it it scans the networks, find your media server and allow you to browse your media, listen or play them.

The second one is called PlugPlayer (http://itunes.apple.com/app/plugplayer/id293235450?mt=8) and works like AirPlayer buth it should also allow you to control other media players on the network, not only the iPhone.

None of this two is clearly superior to the other, AirPlayer has the strong point that manages all kind of video formats and so can be used to look also to video files (both keep in mind that you have high resolution files the video playback will suffer due to the performance of wifi network, unless you have a very good connection), but has a poorer user experience compared to PlugPlayer. PlugPlayer is definitively nicer to look at but wasn’t able to play any of the videos I’ve shared. A very strong point for PlugPlayer it’s the capability to manage Media Renderer device, unluckily I do not have one available and so I cannot test this feature.

Next step will be to purchase a BlueTooth receiver to connect to my stereo and see if one of this two tool can also send the music from by WD NAS storage to the stereo, so that I can listen to Christmas Music using my iPhone to control everything.

Post Christmas Update: After some testing I’ve decided to use PlugPlayer as my main player control. It has some feature missing from AirPlayer (basically it works with the back/forward buttons of my player remote) and because of its capability to control remote devices that should work with the next addition to my media rig, the WD TV Live I’ll use to replace my current WD TV. PlugPlayer misses the video capability of AirPlayer and to it’s basically useful just for music, but music it’s what I need, so as a guide line if you need a music player choose PlugPlayer, if you need a video player choose AirPlayer.

I’ve installed the TomTom software for Italy on my iPhone and I’ve just two words for it: TOMTOM RULES!!!

The interface is good, maps are very up to date (they also include a new street that was just opened two weeks ago near my office) and the GPS positioning work flawlessy in every possible condition.

I really like the new option to tell the road information including also the name of the street, like “take the second exit on the roundabout on Saint Elmo Street”, that it’s very useful.

The positioning of traffic and speed camera is very good, with very easy to see and hear alerts.

All in all a very good software, I’ve never tested other navigation tools from other companies but I feel that TomTom, being the older player on the market, still has some advantage point on the competitors.

This weekend I’ve purchased this very simple accessory to keep the iPhone in my car visible. The accessory is named Tetrax GEO and it works very well in its semplicity: a small holder could be fastened to your car venting holes and a small piece of steel is then glued to your mobile phone. Magic happens because the part fastened to your car contains some very strong magnets that keeps the small piece of steel in place locking your phone.

The kit it’s very easy to use, in includes the holder (shown in picture) that it’s fastened to your car using a very smart screw in a very powerful way (there is no way it can unlock!) and that contains the magnets, and some (the kit includes 3 different ones) buttons that need to be glued (they have self adhesive on the back, so no problem here) to your phone (or other accessory), the only requirement is a plane surface. The kit contains also two wipers with some de-greaser that allow you to clean the surface and insure the glue to work). If the iPhone is not mounted on the holder then the holder itself it’s very small and almost invisible.

The iPhone stay in place very firmly, also if I’m using it in a car (a Golf GTI) that is someway hard for suspensions and also crossing traffic bumps (I’ve two very high ones nearby home, so I tested it).

The full details can be found here http://www.tetrax.it/en/products/geo-line, where you can also find a complete list of accessories. As a benefit the company it’s Italian, something it’s always nice.

Total cost of the kit was 19.99 €, cheap considering that it includes 3 different pins for the phone (so that you can use also if later you change the phone or, like I’m doing, the protective case of the iPhone) and the fact that this is a very good concept indeed, coupled with a really smart execution.