I’ve read countless reviews about the Apple TV (both the first and second version), and in my eyes it has always been too locked down, the feature matrix just can’t rectify the price tag.

Thus, for a long time, I’ve been using my laptop as media center (w/phono and SVHS inputs), but after having switched from CRT via LCD to a whopping 46″ Samsung LED-TV, this is no longer a good match. The laptop VGA output just doesn’t give me the quality I want.

I was very happy when my employer agreed it was time to invest in new computer equipment, so now a i7 15″ MacBook Pro (via a mini-DP->HDMI adapter) serves as a media center in my home (amongst other things, of course – having such an expensive computer just as a media center would be … overkill ).

I’ve tried out several flavors of media center software, after quickly having thrown out Front Row (movies has to be imported into iTunes… Ugh!), and finally I have landed on Plex, a great piece of software excelling in both features and ease of use.

Then, today, my RSS reader notified me of an interesting post on the Plex website, announcing that something is about to happen on 1st September. And what a coincidence – Apple decides to have a media event at that very same date (Apple announced their event first, of course). I just put together two and two, and I’m pretty certain this isn’t just a new version of Plex which is about to be announced (although, of course, it can be…).

Nobody knows for sure, of course, until after the announcements, but I am fairly certain of a connection between these two events.

Remember: You read it here first!

I’m really looking forward to JavaZone 2010 (8th-9th Sept in Oslo). They have a very competent group of marketing people working for them, who now have pushed the following Lady Gaga music video parody (called Lady Java), featuring the Norwegian actor Jenny Skavlan.

See the artpiece uploaded to YouTube below.

Visning neste veke, tysdag 17. august.

Gå til Finn.no og sjå på heile annonsa om du er interessert!

I used the high-res torrent as source, so 1,8GB (for 3:36min) was uploaded to YouTube and is now available in 1080p (it defaults to 720p, however) for your viewing pleasure.

[...] The fact is that new MacBook Pro 15in is a gorgeous notebook to use. You can show me better benchmark results, without doubt, but in the real world this machine boots up quickly, runs smoothly, responds to commands instantly, operates quietly and performs slickly. It looks stylish in an understated way, and heads will surely turn when you place the machine on a boardroom table. In emotional terms, it’s the computer equivalent of stepping into the Cannes sunlight on a hotel balcony facing the sea while wearing a casual Armani suit, no tie. You’re telling yourself “I paid way too much for this” but you love every second of it.

Why, thank you, The Register Hardware, the wait has now become outright unbearable.

Perhaps this week?

Problem scenario: You’ve downloaded a file from t3h intranetz on your Snow Leopard MacBook, and opens the file (possibly a PDF or DMG file) using the Mac. Then you try to copy the file to your SMB/CIFS network share (Samba/Synology/QNap/ReadyNAS/{your NAS device here}), but get the following dreaded and dumbfounding error message:

The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.

The problem here, is that the file has been modified by OSX. Now, after having been tampered with by your Mac, the file contains more attributes, which you can display using the ‘xattr {file}’ command in a terminal window. A file with extended permissions might look like this:

$ xattr Pictures/Avatar/cookie-monster3-7769871237963363.jpg
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms
com.apple.quarantine

$ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine

Note that you would have to do this process for every extended attribute the file has.

Well, back to the problem. In order to make Samba ignore the extended attributes, you could add the following to your smb.conf Samba configuration file (I’d put it in the [global] section):

[global]
unix extensions = no

Do a restart of the Samba daemon on the server, remount the service shares on your Mac, and everything should be back to normal. At least, that’s my experience this far .

Happy hacking!

No laptop will of course ever become “perfect”, and one thing I have been sorely missing from my MacBook, is the ability to use it as a full-fledged media center for my television/surround system. The MacBooks does not have an HDMI connector, but have went for the Mini DisplayPort instead, which haven’t supported audio out, only video. It does not help that the DisplayPort 1.1a specification explicitly states support for this when the hardware in the MacBook Pro does not supply an audio signal .

But now, as of 13th April 2010, this is no longer a problem. Today Apple launched their new line of MacBook Pros, which now supports an audio out signal in their Mini DisplayPort connectors.

Now I just need a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable (ordered), an Apple Remote (ordered) and a new i7 15″ MacBook Pro (not ordered), and I’m all set! .

On a sidenote: I love Wikipedia. Since the news about support for audio out on Mini DisplayPort appeared today, Wikipedia had not been updated to reflect this fact. Well, since I knew all about it, it was my netizen duty to update that information!

Update 16apr10: This also got some press attention, both on the norwegian site Hardware.no and over at reputable Ars Technica.

To see full-size versions, please click on the images.

As always a great experience, and this time I had the opportunity to bring my svelte Canon EOS 5D Mark II to play with as well. After filming for a while, and adding quite a few sounds and transitions using Apple iMovie ’09, I decided I had a product I could show to the little ones .

Interested? Of course, read on to see the video clip on YouTube.