TimeMachine has saved my ‘bacon’ on many an occasion. However, when trying to stream movies over wireless in can sometimes get in the way, and cause the film to stutter whilst it backs up.
Now, the easy way around this is to disable TimeMachine before you start your film, and then start it again afterwards. However, if like me you forget to do so – and you Mac is set up for SSH access, you can do this easily via your phone.
SSH into your Mac, logon with your credentials and run the following command:
Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -boolean NO
Entering your password when prompted. This should ensure no further interruptions whilst you watch your film.
Once you’ve done, turning it back on again is just as simple:
Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -boolean YES
All that without having to get up out of your comfy chair! Perfect!
For some time now I’ve hunted for the perfect media center solution for my apartment. Let’s face it, DVDs are so last year! Digital media is where it’s at.
I’ve tried (and loved) many solutions, all the way from plain old Windows Media center to XBMC. Since my recent migration to OS X I stuck with the old faithful iTunes.. That was until now.. Featured on one of my daily RSS feeds was the latest release of Plex, it wasn’t that I hadn’t heard of Plex before – but I’d never actually downloaded and tried it out.
So off I went, downloaded and installed version 0.9.3.4 (latest at time of blogging). The install was start forward enough and was quite quick to complete. I was then greeted by Plex’s Media manager, which was a first for my media center trials.
Media manager makes it a cinch to set up your media locations, and uses its Internet links to download and update your medias metadata. Right from your movies synopsis’ to its media artwork.
What’s even more special, is the ability to choose different artwork if you’re not happy with the default.
As with most media center solutions Plex is also capable of managing your TV shows, audio and photos. Just like it does with your movies the media manager downloads and updates the meta data and artwork for your TV shows and audio.
Once you are happy with your freshly organised and professional looking media collection, it’s time to start-up the beast.
My current setup (awaiting further cash injections) is a 2010 17″ MacBook Pro with HDMI out to my LCD tv, and audio out to my Sony surround sound unit. Now my TV is quite dated now and doesn’t normally play well with my MacBook. However straight out of the box, Plex looks stunning.. With the slight exception of cutting off the RSS feed at the bottom and weather in the top right. Luckily a few tweaks in Plex’s settings soon had this rectified.
The Plex home screen is pretty similar to most media centers on the market, with a menu system on the left hand side and a selected menu related image on the right.
One thing that immediately becomes obvious it’s just how well Plex works with Apples remote control. The menu structure is easy to navigate and intuitive. Giving you everything you need to make this the perfect in media solution.
I am a massive fan of the movie selection screen, everything you need to know to make an informative choice. Displaying information such as the media quality, the movie rating, it’s synopsis and a movie poster. Now, there are other views to choose from, but I always seem to come back to this one.
Plex has a massive amount of features, and should be enough to satisfy any tech hungry mind. So why not dump your current media centre solution and give Plex a try. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!
Not only is Plex available for download to your nice shiny Mac, but there’s also a version available for Windows users too!
Do you use something else for your media centre? Why not post its details in the comments below and we can see how it stacks up!
One of the main benefits of the time line feature, is it will finally give users the ability to move away from the stale, boring, conforming and standardised profile.
However, as this is ‘bleeding edge’ the Timeline facility is currently locked down to developers only. If you are itching to get your hands on it, and see how your profile will look at the time of launch – you can enable the Timeline feature right now, by following the easy steps laid out in Techcrunchs’ Post
YouTube can be worth its weight in gold when looking for hands on video’s, product demo’s, how to’s and lots more besides. However one of it’s biggest downsides is when it comes to providing said video’s to the ‘road warriors’ who are unable to get access to the internet at the time of needing the video.
A good example of this, is when a sales person visits a customers site with laptop in hand and wants to show them a video of their product and it’s uses. Often being unable to connect to the internet..
Which is where SVCreations‘ Get Tube comes in. GetTube is capable of downloading the video and audio direct from YouTube into either MP4 or MP3 format.
GetTube has been around and developing for sometime now, and the latest version boasts a pretty handy new feature. Which is the ability to download multiple video’s at the same time. Perfect for prepping for those times ‘offline’
You can download your copy of GetTube direct from SVCreations website.
I’d only heard roumers about it, read blog posts and seen ‘spy’ shots of it. Until today! We received our official invitation to test the all new LogMeIn Rescue Beta today.
We have used LogMeIn Rescue to support our countless number of mobile workforces handheld devices for some years now. In fact it was one of our success stories we bagged whilst at the Service Desk and Support show back in 2009.
LogMeIn Rescue is a web-based mobile remote support solution supporting the major mobile OS’s along with PC and Mac OS’s. Providing an easy to use powerful remote support solution which wouldn’t (and doesn’t) look out-of-place in support centres the world over!
Since we started using LogMeIn Rescue in 2009, it was clear to see that LogMeIn’s R&D where heavily investing time in developing their product. With regular Beta invites adding useful features and supporting new OS’s regularly.
However, the latest Beta really is something else! Up until now the LogMeIn Rescue technician console has been governed by your machines web browser. Which although the web console has never been lacking in features, sometimes the browser seemed to somehow hold back its performance. This, Im pleased to report now appears to be a thing of the past!
One of the Beta’s biggest features is the introduction of a desktop based support client. Offering all the features of the online client and more besides.
The first thing that my colleagues commented on, was the fact they no longer have to logon each time they want to connect to a user. The desktop client automatically remembers the username and password and logs straight in. Now this may seem like a simple thing, but when you are sharing client licences like us, logging in and out all the time can often be a pain!
But wait!…. ‘Hold the Phone’ (whilst I connect on and reconfigure it)… The iOS and Android device configuration facility has received an overhaul. To introduce some pretty powerful features.
The ability to configure key components on iPhone’s is soon going to become invaluable:-
- APN – Push new APN settings to both iOS and Android devices
- WiFi – Push new WiFi settings to both iOS and Android devices
- WebClips – Install new shortcuts on iOS devices that can connect direct to your help desk, knowledge bas or chat portal
- Permissions – Push device permissions to iOS devices, providing the ability to restrict access to certain applications
- Passcode – Push passcode enforcement to iOS devices
