Google’s Nexus 7 or the iPad mini ? What will be under your tree ?
Dec 20In a household where both the iPad mini and a Google Nexus snuggle up alongside each other at the charging station, we regularly get the question : “What is the best one to buy”. The question is the same as asking Darth Vader which of his children was his favorite ? The one with the worst hairdresser in the universe, or the one that chopped off his hand. You can’t choose between your children. Personally I’m also struggling with that very question ? Which is the better tablet. The anser is ” It all depends on a certain point of view” (Thank you Obi-one Kenobi, you’ve been no help at all !) So we have a nice review online we found from Pocketnowvideo who do the hard work of putting both tablets side by side … and letting you decide.
So whats YOUR opinion ? Which is the better tablet ? What should you buy ? What have YOU chosen to be your 7 inch companion .. and why ? Share it with us in the Comments Section.
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Behind the Scenes : How a “Storytime” episode is recorded.
Dec 19How about taking a peek behind the scenes at Knightwise.com as we show you just how the magic is created. When recording this weeks podcast I decided to combine the recording with a Google Hangout session where people can join and watch what i’m currently doing. The show will be released tomorrow, but if you are an early bird (or a curious one) you might want to check out this livestream. It has bloopers, a deleted scene and a talking plant ! So there ! Here is the rough cut of KW407 : Storytime.
For those interested in the “Finished Product” : You can find the actual show here.
So, was the recording process as ‘Magical’ as you thought ? Have any questions on the gear we use or the way we do things ? Drop them in the comments section.
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Turn Plex into the heart of your media consumption setup.
Dec 17If there is one thing I love, then it’s performing acts of Blasphemy 🙂 Strickly technological blasphemy of course. The kind that makes operating system makers, virtual shopkeepers and DRM overlords grasp the few stray hairs on their balding heads and cry out “Blasphemy” into the digital night. To be frank : I love it to make tech do things it wasn’t supposed to.
With our Mac Mini as a central mediahub in our house, it holds all the movies and TV shows that I love to watch, and hidden deeply behind the magical fairy dust that is the Itunes library, lie hidden all my songs. Locked away in a proprietary cloud of pixy poo.
Around the house we have several devices lying around depicting both the Cupertinian Apple, The green android goblin or boast a bold penguin. The owners of these devices have long ago banished the television from its monopolistical rule of the entertainment empire. These masters would like to consume any content, anywhere on any device. Wether this be Android, IOS, Linux or even Windows .. They would like to watch and listen to anything, anywhere .. and if possible, pickup on one device where they left of on the other.
I have done a podcast about these shenanigans once before (Remember KC0057 : Cross platform Streaming ) where I used a combination of XBMC and DLNA to get things where I wanted them to go. However technology is always on the move and there is always something better on the horizon.
Today I have been playing around with Plex. A central media hub that takes all of the content you have at your disposal (Audio or video) and “streams” that towards any connected device in the house. (Tablets, Phones and embedded devices) Aside from being the red-light district for your home media with the “plex server” It also offers a great front end to “consume” that media on whatever desktop (or media center pc) you are using. If you ever feel the urge to crawl out from under your desk and enter the big airy meeting room with the high ceiling (Referred by some as “outside”) Plex even lets you connect back home so you can continue to enjoy whatever you have been watching before you were forced out of your house.
So far I”ve enjoyed flawless transcoding and streaming of some of my favorite TV shows and ‘backed up’ movies to both my Tablets (Android and IOS) and am currently enjoying some music streamed from my itunes library .. on my Android tablet. Can you spell Blasphemy ? No ? thats ok .. you can just SCREAM it ! :p
The Plex server app is ‘Slider friendly’ and available for Windows, Linux, OSX and some “embedded NAS” devices. The clients will put you back a couple of bucks (about 5 or 10 depending of what you choose) on your mobile device .. but the quality and convenience is totally worth it.
In a couple of words. Download and install the Plex server, run the configuration wizzard ( Click yes yes yes and point it towards your media) Put the mobile apps on your portable devices and let them auto discover your Plex server .. Run to the bathroom and don’t come out until you have watched the entire series of Friends .. from your tablet or smartphone.
Never mind the family members who command the black monolith downstairs to consume whatever dribble they like to watch .. Get Plex and turn any device into your personal media station.
Links : PLEX.
So have YOU played with plex ? Share your experiences or questions in the comments.
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Making bootable USB linux disks on your Mac the easy way.
Dec 16As I mentioned in this weeks podcast, making bootable Live usb disks on a Mac is far from a joyous experience. It requires a bit of command line fu, and although thats pretty cool once you get it working its not always easy. So before you strangle a baby squirrel out of sheer frustration, lets give you an easy alternative.
With the Mac Usb loader from Seven Bits that is a thing of the past. A simple point and Click interface gives us the ease of use of its Linux and Pc cousin UnetBootin, but I am however not completely sure if it supports persistant disk images (So you can save the changes you did in the live OS) According to Ubuntu Vibes its still a little bit buggy .. but give it a go nonetheless.
Link : Mac Linux Usb Loader.
Have you tried it out ? Report your findings in the comment sections and share !
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Get some great wallpapers for the upcoming Star Trek movie.
Dec 15When I was pimping out my iPad’s lockscreen yesterday and posting the pictures to the internet, I got a question from one of my followers WHERE I got that specific wallpaper. The site in question has had the privilege of my frequent visitations because its such a great source for Star Trek related wallpapers. Ricky “Madmann” Walace has, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best websites out there when it comes to wallpapers from “J.J. Abrams – reinvented” Star Trek universe. (even better then the official Star Trek Website) Ricky has great wallpapers, meshes and pictures for Star Trek lovers to gawk at.
So adorn your wallpapers with his latest exploits as he has just posted some awesome pictures of the USS Enterprise rising from the waters of the San Francisco bay and our favorite starship in orbit. All in the spirit of the upcoming second Star Trek movie that will be hitting the theaters May 17th next year.
Should the world end on December 21st and humanity will become vaguely absent from the movies premiere .. we will always have the Madmanns awesome wallpapers.
For those of you painfully oblivious about what we are talking about .. here is the trailer.
LINKS
The official Star Trek movie site.
What is your favorite wallpaper on the Madman’s Shipyard ? Share it below in our comments section.
