Apple fan bois (rant within)

[drewbles]

Not when you jailbreak it and add XBMC with IceFilms addons! :mrgreen:

And install a Crystal HD Card in it... My AppleTV (mark I) happily plays 1080p/i content (and MKV files are a breeze). It's easily the best media centre i've had (and that's not cause it's Apple; it's the Crystal HD card and XBMC/Drivers, the form factor under my tv makes it perfect though).

 

[drewbles]

I guess that kinda proves my point. If it was so good it wouldn't be necessary to do those things.

The hardware isn't wonderful alone, nor is the software. Apple got this one wrong and they admit it's a hobby.

No one has come out with a killer box. As much as I dislike quoting Steve Jobs, he did make an interesting statement about Set-top boxes and the like, effectively saying Pay TV companies have killed innovation as they heavily subsidise units, and as a result, consumers don't want to pay the prices necessary to enable decent STB's. He's right to a degree. There's a lot of STB's out there, all $100-500, and they don't have the market share any of the manufacturers would like; TiVo and the like simply kill them on subsidies.

It'll change, and hopefully better things come out. The problem at the moment IMHO is the lack of standardisation on download formats. Media codecs/containers are a nightmare to navigate and provide drivers for, and until downloadable *legal* content is more readily available (movies and the like, not music) and when people get larger download limits, these things will take off.

I refuse to tether my ATV to iTunes. iTunes is a piece of steaming poo. I love my iPhone, but iPhones needs to be re-done from scratch. There's no way i'm converting all my media to iTunes formats just so I can play it to my ATV.

 

[TonyHancock]

I should be using different software, such as Parallels over VMware Fusion, iWork over Office Mac or Open Office.

You use VMware fusion :shock: and you don't use iWork? :shock: Ye Gods!

I'm a late convert to Apple, and I have given up caring what the Apple extremists think. I use what I like and know. I prefer Word and Excel to Pages and Numbers, but I like Keynote over Powerpoint. At the moment Parallels is probably fractionally quicker than VMware but for me they are both just programs that allow me to run windows for work stuff. (I use both!)

I have yet to queue for any apple gadgets, but I do have quite a few! I like Apple stuff but I'm not a fanatic.

 

[simongr]

I dont think the problem with the people you referenced in the OP is that they are apple fan bois I think they are just d*cks.

I am a huge apple fan now - I check macrumors.com every morning before facebook

I wouldnt queue overnight to get a product as that just doesn't fit into my lifestyle but I will order the iPhone 5 on the earliest day that I am able. I actually downloaded Lion as soon as it was available and iOS 4 at 5AM on the day it was out...

I am a bit over the anti Apple rants though - people constantly asserting that they aren't the best product and that xyz product is now much better than abc apple product.

People should just buy what they think fits their needs - if people ask my advice I will obviously suggest an apple product. I will also honestly counter all the nay saying (such as "the iPad hasn't got a USB slot so it is rubbish").

I don't see me moving away from apple products as the cross platform harmonisation just works for me now and when iCloud is out it will be even better (if I can find a job with international travel that allows me bring my phone and not force me to have a company BB).

For me the biggest problem with the iPhone is international roaming - the BBs I have had have cheap access to data overseas - with the iPhone I have to get a local sim and that is a hassle for very short trips.

 

[samh004]

I dont think the problem with the people you referenced in the OP is that they are apple fan bois I think they are just d*cks.

I am a huge apple fan now - I check macrumors.com every morning before facebook

Ditto.

And FWIW I think Office is better now than iWork, certainly much more compatible, and flexible.

 

[simongr]

I only use Office regularly at home as I am more familiar with it. I would switch to Pages if I could but again this is driven by compatibility at work sadly.

 

[samh004]

I only use Office regularly at home as I am more familiar with it. I would switch to Pages if I could but again this is driven by compatibility at work sadly.

Last time I used Pages it felt half complete. One of the things I used a lot and found very frustrating was that you can't have a landscape and portrait document in pages, it's one orientation for the whole thing. Word handles that fine though. One example though, YMMV.

 

[Paddy55]

I dont think the problem with the people you referenced in the OP is that they are apple fan bois I think they are just d*cks.

I am a huge apple fan now - I check macrumors.com every morning before facebook

I wouldnt queue overnight to get a product as that just doesn't fit into my lifestyle but I will order the iPhone 5 on the earliest day that I am able. I actually downloaded Lion as soon as it was available and iOS 4 at 5AM on the day it was out...

I am a bit over the anti Apple rants though - people constantly asserting that they aren't the best product and that xyz product is now much better than abc apple product.

People should just buy what they think fits their needs - if people ask my advice I will obviously suggest an apple product. I will also honestly counter all the nay saying (such as "the iPad hasn't got a USB slot so it is rubbish").

I don't see me moving away from apple products as the cross platform harmonisation just works for me now and when iCloud is out it will be even better (if I can find a job with international travel that allows me bring my phone and not force me to have a company BB).

For me the biggest problem with the iPhone is international roaming - the BBs I have had have cheap access to data overseas - with the iPhone I have to get a local sim and that is a hassle for very short trips.

Ditto in the main.
Especially re MacRumours and downloading Lion on Day 1.
I'm an Apple enthusiast and, after 35 years in IT am glad there's new stuff that excites me and puts a smile on my face... it's a long while since a Microsoft product did that.

Mind you, since upgrading to Lion I can't print to my Xerox printer at home :evil::evil::evil:

Paddy

 

[mannej]

Drewbles, what is this free version of parallels you talk about?

 

[simongr]

I refuse to tether my ATV to iTunes. iTunes is a piece of steaming poo. I love my iPhone, but iPhones needs to be re-done from scratch. There's no way i'm converting all my media to iTunes formats just so I can play it to my ATV.

This is my only gripe with the ATV - I used to use Vuze to do the conversion of Xvids to mp4 but the latest version of Java has borked Vuze so I am back to using iSquint

 

[elbarto]

This is my only gripe with the ATV - I used to use Vuze to do the conversion of Xvids to mp4 but the latest version of Java has borked Vuze so I am back to using iSquint

Have you tried using Handbrake? I use it to do video conversion, don't know if it's the best but it's always handled everything i've thrown at it.

 

[simongr]

I have used Handbrake to rip DVDs to mp4 - so much easier to flick on an mp4 than find the disc and risk toddlergr scratching it against the floor...

iSquint works ok but seems to struggle with queues of files under Lion - no biggie though.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Have you tried using Handbrake? I use it to do video conversion, don't know if it's the best but it's always handled everything i've thrown at it.

What's the secret??? Everything I've ripped lately on Handbrake has been totally scrambled on iPad !

 

[drewbles]

Drewbles, what is this free version of parallels you talk about?

I have a wholesale account with a company that sells Parallels to companies (like my private business). I get complimentary NFR copies of it as a result. It's still a cheap buy (well under $100, and worth it; I believe VMWare Fusion is similarly priced; they're both very good products).

 

[drewbles]

This is my only gripe with the ATV - I used to use Vuze to do the conversion of Xvids to mp4 but the latest version of Java has borked Vuze so I am back to using iSquint

Investigate the various hacks around. There's a lot that will untether you from your iTunes leash and allow you to do so much more (Watching the latest episode of Top Gear right now in HD, MKV file on my hacked ATV. Well worth it!).

 

[drewbles]

What's the secret??? Everything I've ripped lately on Handbrake has been totally scrambled on iPad !

Use the iPad preset; i've never had any issue ripping stuff into my iPad.

The alternate is to use a program that allows you to download images to your iPad and play it like it's a local file.

nlagalle has an App (from the store, I can't remember its name) that will let you do it.

 

[simongr]

Investigate the various hacks around. There's a lot that will untether you from your iTunes leash and allow you to do so much more (Watching the latest episode of Top Gear right now in HD, MKV file on my hacked ATV. Well worth it!).

Not that keen to hack my ATV at the moment - it works and works fine. Re-encoding is not a major hassle just a gripe.

Use the iPad preset; i've never had any issue ripping stuff into my iPad.

The alternate is to use a program that allows you to download images to your iPad and play it like it's a local file.

nlagalle has an App (from the store, I can't remember its name) that will let you do it.

I grabbed VLC (when it was available) and it worked really well - O player also works. Personally though I go the iTunes route as I might watch the episode on the big TV, the iPad or the iMac.

 

[medhead]

What's the secret??? Everything I've ripped lately on Handbrake has been totally scrambled on iPad !

Yeah, this confuses me as well. Recently spoke to an all apple friend and they just use Handbrake. As I do my DVDs on XP I find it better to use DVDShrink first and then Handbrake.

 

[Limewood]

We like our Apple gear, fans yes, but don't go on about it, have 2 iPhones, 2 x 27" iMacs and an iPad 2, the latter is best toy I've had in years take it everywhere and its so light with amazing battery life too. On a 7 hour flight to Hong Kong didn't even look at the seat TV, just watched some music and movie video's on iPad.

 

[TonyHancock]

I grabbed VLC (when it was available) and it worked really well - O player also works. Personally though I go the iTunes route as I might watch the episode on the big TV, the iPad or the iMac.

VLC is great, I presume it was dropped from the app store because of Video Lan's open source policy.

I find the whole conversion to mp4 process a pain. I used MPEG Streamclip, which worked quite well, but the whole process is time consuming. Using VLC makes it so much easier, it pretty much plays everything.

I have either a PC or WD Live media player attached to my TV's at home, with a central 8GB NAS serving them. (That is where my TV and movies are kept and I can pretty much watch them on any device!)