Foodista Friends

My friends at Foodista Friends are posting some great recipes. Check out their site.

Streaming Videos to an iDevice Using Air Video

Air Video allows you to stream your videos to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices.

I like it and recommend that you give the free version a try. Here's how to set it up in a few minutes.

AirVideo

Air Video has two parts. The first part is a server that runs on your desktop machine at home or whenever your videos are stored. The server essentially reads the local videos (that you've configured to be viewable) and publishes them for your mobile devices. In some cases, that requires that the videos be converted to a format for your mobile device. This conversion can happen in real time (Air Video "Live Conversion") if you have at least a Core 2 Duo processor on your desktop. Live conversion allows you to watch the video instantly. The videos may also be converted in batch mode. You basically say you want to convert a video and it will be available to watch as soon as the conversion finishes.

Step 1) Install the Air Video Server on a fast machine with access to the videos you want to stream.

Air Video has good instructions for installing and configuring the server which you can read on their site.

The second part of the Air Video system is the application that runs on your iDevice. You'll need to use this application to view the videos that your Air Video server is publishing.

Step 2) Install the "Air Video Free" application on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. Just search for Air Video in the AppStore. The free application limits the number of videos it will display during browsing but you can use it to immediately see if Air Video will work for you.

Step 3) Start up the Air Video application. Make sure you're using wireless and on the same LAN as the server you just installed. You should see your server listed. Touching the server will take you to a list of videos and directories. From there you should be able to play videos.

Step 4) To play videos remotely (on 3G, at work, at a hotel, on the road, etc.) you'll need to enable "Remote Connection" on your Air Video Server. This is a one click operation on the server and matter of entering a PIN number in your Air Video application. Air Video provides good instructions for enabling the remote connection.

Air Video is great distraction for grumpy traveling kids.

2011 Lexus ES 350 Electronics Review

My two year old Lexus LS is in the shop getting valve springs replaced as part of a recall. Apparently, a small percentage of these springs have impurities in the metals which may cause them to break apart. The job is going to take several days so I have a loaner ES 350. I've taken this opportunity to check out the new electronics in the ES 350.

Lexus made several improvements to bluetooth support versus my system. First, they added a "phone" label to the "Info" button so that users can actually find the phone setup. This change alone probably saves new Lexus drivers thousands of minutes everyday. The on-screen menus are also improved so I was able to setup handsfree in just a few seconds. The phone power and signal meters are also accurate which isn't true with the LS screens. The LS often indicates incorrectly that the phone battery is near death or that I have signal when I don't. The biggest improvement is bluetooth audio support. Music can be streamed from  bluetooth audio devices such as the iPhone through the car stereo. I'd heard that the sound quality wasn't great but it sounds fine to me. The steering wheel controls also work to switch songs and volume. The coolest thing about bluetooth audio is that music playback automatically starts up again when I come back to the car with my phone.

Lexus ES 350 Bluetooth Audio

Amazingly, the voice command "dial by number" also worked. I was able to successfully make a handsfree call the first try! Of course, the kids weren't in the car so maybe that's an easy test but it should be noted that it's a test the LS can't pass.

Lexus ES 350 Screen Playing USB Music Files

The center console on the ES 350 has a USB port. I connected the USB drive I had been using with the Vaistech Multimedia LinQ. That's a FAT32 formatted drive with folders at the top level and music under each folder. It works really well.  Unlike the LS system much of the ES music navigation functions continue to work while driving. I am able to jump directly to folders and songs that were displayed when I started moving. Unfortunately, some functionality such as scrolling around folders locks down while driving.  Maddeningly, the LS the screen blanks out information while driving and that hasn't happened on the ES 350. One last observation is that the whole ES LCD screen is used. On the LS much of the screen is left blank cutting off song, album, and artist names needlessly. Overall, the newer ES system is much less frustrating than the older system. It still locks up too much functionality while driving but I appreciate that you can do more than on the older LS system. Too bad you need to buy a new car to get the update.

I've only driven the ES 350 for an hour but it's already clear that the controls for the entertainment system are improved versus my two year old LS. I'm reminded of a T-Shirt I saw Apple guys wearing at a developer conference, "System 7.5 Sucks Less." Well, it's definitely true that the "Lexus Entertainment System 2011 Sucks Less."

Acer Aspire Revo 3700 and XBMC

The latest piece of equipment for home theater puzzle is an Acer AspireRevo AR3700. It's a very small nettop PC that can easily be hooked up to a TV using HDMI.

My plan was to load the amazing XBMC application onto the device, point XBMC at my library of ripped movies, and then enjoy watching. I also wanted to keep Windows 7 installed in case I needed other Windows applications. By the way, for those who already know Google TV and Apple TV you can think of XBMC as a much better application for playing back content on your home network. Maybe someone will port it to Google TV one day.

After cabling up the Revo 3700 I spent some time removing all the extra software Acer had loaded onto the system. Then I ran windows update and loaded XBMC. I configured XBMC to use files on an SMB server and started playing some video.

It worked but the video stuttered quite a bit.

I worried that the Revo did not have enough horsepower to play 1080p video so I put some video on a USB drive and connected that to the Revo. XBMC played that video perfectly.

I should mention at this point that I was using a wired connection over power-line ethernet. My wireless doesn't reach into this room. Next I tried to copy a file from the network to the Revo. I noticed that even though the transfer was about 30Mbps average it was not consistent. There were lots peaks and valleys.

I did more testing and eventually concluded that there was some issue with the Revo's wired network adapter. This sent me looking for drivers. I found and updated the software using the latest Realtek network drivers. The driver install didn't go very well. It failed during the first update but after I rebooted the system the new drivers installed correctly.

Went back to XBMC and my SMB video files played perfectly.

If you haven't used XBMC I recommend it.

Google IO is it a rock concert or tech conference?

Tried to sign up for Google IO today at about 11AM but by the time I loaded the registration page the conference was sold out. 5000 seats sold out in less than an hour!

I understand the excitement. Talks detailing Google's latest APIs, a few free gadgets, and access to Google engineers. Personally, I really wanted to hear about GWT.

Access Denied! Poor me.

Is that a Coaster with an Apple Logo? (Apple TV Review)

The family was at the mall over the weekend and decided to buy an Apple TV so that we'd be one step closer to having a complete set of internet TV devices.

The current Apple TV device is a small black box about the size of a stack of a few fancy drink coasters. You know the kind with cork on the bottom. It comes with an aluminum Apple remote and a power cord. The packaging is amazingly spare and elegant.

You need to supply the HDMI cable. Apple conveniently sells a matching black HDMI cable in the store. I was disappointed that the cable wasn't included in the box because you'll absolutely need one to connect to your TV. You might say cable length matters but honestly the Apple TV is so small that you won't have any trouble placing it near your TV or even velcro'd to the back.

Getting the device out of the box and physically connected to the TV took no more than five minutes. I powered the Apple TV on using the remote. There is no physical power button. Then I went through a short setup wizard which connected to WiFi and collected my iTunes account information. The software setup process took less than five minutes. That was about one hour shorter than the Google TV setup!

I watched a few YouTube videos.

Then I went on to trying content on my home network. This was a bit more work. I had to startup iTunes on my desktop machine and turn on home sharing. Once enabled Apple TV could browse and play content in my desktop iTunes. As far as I can tell, Apple TV doesn't support DLNA. This leaves out a lot of content on my home network because I don't put everything into iTunes -- also frankly, I don't like the video playing experience in iTunes so I don't have a lot of incentive to add video there beyond what I want to sync with devices. I'll wait and see if Apple TV makes moving content to iTunes worthwhile. For someone with a completely Apple home network this won't be an issue because they'll most likely have all their content in iTunes already.

The Netflix interface was up next. I had to enter my Netflix username and password. Sometime while I was doing that I realized that I didn't even need to look at the Apple remote to know how to use it. It was also clear to me that Apple TV was easy. I hadn't opened the manual once. I actually hadn't even pulled the manual out of the bottom of the small Apple TV package. Netflix was up and running with a nice snappy interface.

Apple TV Manual Still in Box

Finally, I loaded the Apple Remote application on my iPhone. After installing the application it controlled the Apple TV with no additional setup. The interface that allows you to browse and play your iTunes libraries is pretty amazing. You get album artwork, playlists, etc. all on your phone. It also worked nicely for Netflix while essentially emulating the aluminum remote with a pop-up keyword available when needed. However, even with all that goodness I can't see myself using it because the aluminum remote is good enough.

At this point, I can already give the Apple TV a big thumbs up for easy setup and doing the core things (Netflix, home network, YouTube) well.

Kids Only Los Altos

A friend of mine just built a web store for her favorite kids clothes store.

She tells me that little girls love Banana Cabana Bathing Suits.

Check out Kids Only Los Altos if you have time.