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Quick Fix: MobileMe Gallery Video on Apple TV

Charles Jade — Tue, 10 May 2011 21:32:28 +0000

Use just a MobileMe name to add an account to the Apple TV

For Apple TV owners that also subscribe to MobileMe, Gallery is an underrated feature. By uploading pictures and video on the go, there’s no need to sync an iPhone or camera with iPhoto at home before enjoying content on a television. MobileMe Gallery and the Apple TV just work, at least most of the time.

After upgrading my broadband service, I had to reset the Apple TV to get it on the network, after which I logged on to MobileMe without issue. After looking at some pictures from a day trip, I tried viewing some video. Instead of a home movie, I saw a dialog box that said, “an error occurred loading this content. Try again later.” I did, many times, always getting the same error. While it’s important to remember that video for the Apple TV must be H.264 or MPEG-4, this was video recorded with an iPhone and uploaded to MobileMe.

At first, I thought the problem might be with MobileMe, but it turned out to be user error, though I think Apple shares a little blame. When adding the MobileMe account to the Apple TV, I inadvertently used my MobileMe e-mail address, not just the user name. Nonetheless, it was accepted, and Gallery photos worked fine, but not video. Removing and re-adding the account with just the user name solved this odd problem, and should work for anyone else experiencing the same curious issue.

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How to Fix TV Show Sorting on iOS Devices

Charles Jade — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:00:58 +0000

If you acquire television shows from sources other than the iTunes Store for enjoyment on your iOS device, some of that enjoyment may be frustrated by a bug that inexplicably missorts shows and episodes. Luckily, the fix is simple, if a little illogical.

In the above screenshot from the iPod app on an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1, two shows are listed on the left, Fringe and The Office, the latter showing seven episodes. However, drilling down into The Office reveals three episodes of that show, three of Caprica, and one of Fringe. A variation of this problem may also create an “unknown” television show with one or more shows and episodes within. Annoyingly, this can happen even if shows are properly tagged.

Tagging television shows is done in iTunes through the Get Info (Command + I) dialog box under the Video tab, where show, season, episode ID, and episode number can be edited. Unfortunately, even if all that information is correct, and displays correctly in iTunes, it still might not work right on an iOS device. I’ve seen this problem on an iPhone, an iPod touch, and an iPad, but strangely never on an Apple TV 2.

The solution is to go to the “Info” tab where the “Name” of the episode is found, and under “Artist” enter the show’s name. It makes no sense, but it works. As can be seen above, the episode number is also entered under “Track Number.” Previously, shows that were correctly grouped might have episodes listed alphabetically unless ordered with the Track Number. Apparently, that was fixed in iOS 4. Hopefully, the this bug will soon be fixed, too, but until then this workaround solves the problem of missorted television shows.

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Critical Update Issued for Apple TV

Charles Jade — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:08:01 +0000

Ten days after updating the Apple TV’s software to version 3.0, Apple has released version 3.0.1 along with an alarming warning about users’ content “temporarily” disappearing.

From the uninformative and unintentionally hilarious support document, if you are running Apple TV 3.0 and “all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be missing” or “all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be present,” you should update to version 3.0.1 immediately.

In a letter to unlucky Apple TV users, the Apple TV team (at least those that still have jobs) gave instructions for updating.

Reboot your Apple TV (unplug the power cord and plug it back in)
Select Settings > General from the main menu
Select Update Software
Select Download and Install

After a restart, the problem of disappearing content should be solved. That’s the good news. The bad news is there are still a number of problems with the 3.x software.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Apple 2.0 beat me to the Apple Support Forum and found 10,000 page views for the missing content discussion, as well as continuing complaints after updating to the latest version. Reported problems include the Apple TV no longer syncing with iTunes, surround sound problems, new purchases not showing up, as well as performance issues.

It appears Apple’s “hobby,” as the Apple TV has been described by company executives, could use a little more developer attention, not to mention a purpose besides being an iTunes Store kiosk.

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Software Updates & New Releases For Week Ending 2008-11-01

Bob Rudis — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:00:06 +0000

While the highlight of my week was seeing the release of some new security software (albeit, one that needs work), there was a great deal happening in the rest of the OS X application world that is worth a mention.

VLC media player – 0.9.5 – The de-facto, plays-anything, multi-platform media player get a small bump that plugs three security holes (CVE-2008-4686, CVE-2008-4654 & CVE-2008-3964), enhances closed caption parsing and fixes a few bugs. I’m still somewhat disappointed that VLC does not make it possible to make your built-in drive “region free” on newer Intel Macs, but it’s important to install the update, if only to keep your system defenses as sharp as possible. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
Audacity – 1.3.6 – This very handy audio-editing utility has a small version update which greatly reduced the footprint of saved projects and increases support for MIDI content. Audacity’s temporary/working directory is now more easily accessible by less technical OS X users (yay!) and FFmpeg has been updated to the latest release. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]

1Password – 2.9.3 – Agile has done a minor bump to their password management utility with some enhancements to 1Password’s desktop app’s ability to sync successfully with its iPhone counterpart along with other small changes and bug fixes. Details: $39.95 [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
Bee Docs Timeline – 2.2.1 – While I am normally a pretty responsible netizen and do submit bug reports to software developers, I failed to do so for an item that was fixed in this update to Bee Docs Timeline. I really like the 3D timeline generator but noticed that you had to actually enable tick marks for timelines to render properly in 3D. This update fixes this bug and also lets the “era” date format map better to localization setting and date/time preferences. Details: $40.00/$65.00 [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
Screenium 1.0.4 – While there are many options for screen recording in OS X, Synium’s Screenium has really been growing on me ever since the betas. There have been several updates since October 1st which have improved functionality and smashed a number of bugs. It’s a steal at $20.00 and I highly recommend checking it out if you have not done so already. Details: $20.00 [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
Garmin WebUpdater – 2.0.4 – Most folks who have been waiting patiently for Garmin to really show some love for OS X will admit that the efforts to-date have been less than exemplary. To their credit, Garmin does seem committed to providing tools for Mac users and this minor revision to their WebUpdater fixes crashing issues when attempting to upgrade certain GPS models and also resolves an issue that caused downloads over slow links to fail. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
Today – 1.3.2 – Office users may have “My Day”, but you can realize the full task-management potential of Apple Mail, iCal and Address Book with secondgear’s highly useful little utility. You get an at-a-glance view of what you have “goin’ on” and can use the app to create events and tasks without having to deliberately jump-start iCal. Well worth the $15.00 investment if you rely heavily on Apple’s built-in toolset. Details: $15.00 [10.5-ONLY; Intel/PPC]
Flow – 1.1 – While I am a die-hard user of ExpanDrive, Extendmac continues to impress me with the slick UI in Flow and I consider it a must-have utility if you do any work with Amazon S3. Version 1.1 removes the need to use the Finder when uploading/downloading, provides a mechanism to use external editors, enhances their nifty QuickLook functionality, interfaces with public iDisks, tosses some nods to better security, and makes use of multi-touch on Macs that support it. A very nice job by Brian and crew, with a ton of features added for just a dot-release. Details: $29.00 [10.5-ONLY; Intel/PPC]
Microsoft Office 2008 – 12.1.4 – Since one can never have too many Microsoft Office updates, the MacBU folks have given us a “fix to the fix”, as it were. 12.1.4 fixes an issue that prevented Exchange accounts in Entourage from sending meeting invitations and responses, especially when an Entourage identity is configured with more than one mail account. It is a highly-recommended update by Microsoft. Details: Free! (well, the update is, but Office 2008 prices vary) [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]

Remember, toss your alpha/beta or pre-release invites my way. If I test or am a regular user of your software, you’ll make it to the list as I only mention what I use or try.

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Software Updates & New Releases For Week Ending 2008-09-27

Bob Rudis — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:22:45 +0000

Despite my MacBook Pro going into service yet again (getting a new one, btw), I managed to take a look at some of what the Internets had to offer before handing my venerable system to the Apple Store Geniuses. As always, only what I use makes it to the list so, drop a line to @hrbrmstr on Twitter if interested in having me scope out something. Also, any iPhone developers looking for an ad hoc tester should definitely drop me a note, as I’m a dev as well as a user and can run your app through its paces.

Bible-Discovery – 2.2 – I’m always on the lookout for better Bible study tools and came across Bible-Discovery a little while ago. Intially, I was skeptical of a Java-based application (having written plenty of Swing-based apps in my time) but seeing that Miklos Zsido was up to a 2.x release series, I decided to give it a try. Despite the lack of more modern translations, I found the software to be pretty easy to navigate. Searching works well, window layout is pretty sane (if you’ve ever used complex Bible software, you know that this is a big problem in most programs) and it was easy to use without digesting a large user manual. For ~US$80.00, it’s a bit steep given that you could do most of the work online for free. Users of commercial software such as Accordance (my offline tool of choice) will also find little reason to switch. Requires Java but runs on almost any platform.
OmniPlan – 1.6.1 beta 1 – I manage a decent number of large-scale projects and could not do my job without OmniPlan. Microsoft Project is overkill for my needs and OmniPlan has a great Mac look-and-feel on top of being very functional. This beta release makes HTML exports and fixes two bugs. If you try it, please remember it is beta, so keep backups and provide feedback! Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC. US$150.00
Trek Trivia – 1.1 – Yes, I admit it. I’m a Star Trek geek. We own the series’, collect the action figures and have all of the movies as well as the animated series (shudder). How, then, could I not have Trek Trivia? Esoteric facts that will mystify your friends are at your fingertips, and you can challenge you own personal databank as you learn new details. This version adds the now-expected auto-update functionality plus facts control by series. The best feature is the ability to copy the facts to the clipboard so you can spam all your IRC-mates with your l33t knowledge. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC and free.
MacSword – 1.4.3 – Taking a page from Apple, MacSword releases “bug fixes” to their staple Bible study tool. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC & free.
Camino – 1.6.4 – I keep a copy of most web browsers around most for testing of how they render pages. Camino has a great OS X look-and-feel while using the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine. Unfortunately, this means it must (or should) be ugraded each time security patches make it into the Mozilla codebase. This version updates Gecko (including security fixes), changes (restores, actually) behavior in certificate handling, modifies how it reads Keychain data and adds enhancements to how it blocks unwanted content. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC and free.
Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 7, Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2 – Apple releases security, compatibility & bug fixes for Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 and Java 1.4 on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and later. This release updates J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_16 and Java 1.4 to version 1.4.2_18 and Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5. Definitely need to upgrade once you finish your app-compatibility testing.
OmniGraffle Pro – 5.1 beta 3 – One of my all-time favorite programs gets a beta update release which fixes a ton of bugs as well as improves the functionality of the sidebar. If you are still on Tiger, this app is worth the upgrade to Leopard alone. Again, it is beta, so all bets are off where your data is concerned and the Omni folks would appreciate your feedback. Pro version will set you back USD$200.00 and worth every penny.
VLC media player – 0.9.3 – The Swiss Army tool of cross-platform audio/video receives an update which fixes many bugs, some specific to OS X. The full screen controller now has a new time label and remembers the position across media opens. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC and free.

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Software Updates & New Release Highlights For Week Ending 2008-08-02

Bob Rudis — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:17:36 +0000

Apple’s Security Update and iTunes minor update received the bulk of the attention this week, but there were a few other post-worthy items as well:

Sequence – 1.0.1 – The now $19.00USD innovative screen capture utility fixes a bug in video compression. I had not noticed the “é” in the name now (I believe that came with the actual 1.0 release) but am happy to report that QuickSilver still brings it up after hitting “se”. 10.5 only, tho, as it makes extensive use of a number of Leopard-only features.
CLIX – 1.8.1d – After just mentioning it CLIX gets an update which adds built-in command-group sharing (.clix files) from within the application (sends an e-mail with an attachment, but thankfully does not open up Apple Mail to do so). It does incorporate address book lookups and enables you to choose from all available Apple Mail accounts (for the sending part). Again, it’s free and works on 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel & PPC).
QuarkXPress – 8.0 – I do not do much desktop publishing at all these days, and – when I do – Pages provides most of what I need. Back in the pre-OS X days I used to be a QuarkXTension developer and still attempt to use Quark shortcuts in apps where I am doing more publishing-like activities. The app link goes to their 60-day demo (warning: 517MB, but pretty quick over cable modem) download where you can try some of the web features (Flash and Web Authoring Tools) and enhancements to tools that I cannot believe took this long to get into the program. I realize both Quark & Adobe use the “it’s for professonals” and “piracy” excuses for their software prices, but $799.00 seems a bit much, even for this highly extensible program. 10.4 & 10.5 compatible (Intel & PPC)
Centre – 2.14.1 – This is a server-side app which requires a number of other components, but it can be setup on either OS X workstation or server and is a full-featured, web-based student management system that incorporates significant functionality into an open source program. I had not fully tried it on OS X prior to this release (I’ve done most of the installs on Linux), but this release works great and may be something institutions on a budget may want to investigate before the new school year starts. Free!, and OS X 10.1+
Citrix ICA Client – 10.00.601 – A minor update (fix for XenDesktop connections) to this mostly-enterprise tool for running Windows apps remotely (you need the Citrix server software for this to work). Free and 10.3.9+
Flip4Mac WMV – 2.2.1.7 – Telestream fixes a security vulnerability in their substitute for Windows Media Components in QuickTime and also improves some existing features. My installed version did not find the update (even with a manual check), so you, too, may want to grab this on your own and update manually if you use it. 10.3.9+ and pricing starts at free!
Flip4Mac Drive-in – 1.0.0.72 – Flip4Mac has another app out (in beta) that requires a full review, but you need to go and grab this beta soon if you want an easy way to get DVD’s (that you own!) onto your system and also want to avoid the full price of $59.00USD for the finished version (users who activate the beta prior to 2008-08-15 are eligible to purchase for $19.00USD). 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel & PPC)
VMware Fusion – 2.0b2 – Again, this is an app that requires a full review to do it justice, but if you are a VMware Fusion user you really should kick the tires with this pre-release as it significantly improves so many aspects of running virtual machines on your system (and not just Windows). 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel-only) and $79.99USD (but you can often find great deals with much more palatable prices).
Accordance – 8.0.4 – This great Bible search & reference tool (exclusively OS X) releases a minor update to fix bugs in 3D map processing. They support a wide range of Mac operating systems and pricing really varies depending on the packages you want (all related to license fees).
OmniPlan – 1.6 beta 2 – I dislike Microsoft Project, but have enough large projects on my plate that I wound up grabbig OmniPlan when it first came out just to help keep things in some semblance of order. It is less complex than Project (which is Windows-only), runs on OS X and has all the features I need. This beta fixes bugs, but I encourage OmniPlan users to give it a spin and provide feedback to the Omni folks since they are a solid bunch of developers who do a great deal for the Mac community. 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel & PPC)

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Software Updates & New Release Highlights For Week Ending 2007-07-19

Bob Rudis — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:21:40 +0000

JumpBox for Ruby on Rails Deployment – 0.9.1 – While the Mac is an awesome platform for web development, it is sometimes useful to use it for the creative & editing side and deploy in a more production-like environment or just deploy in a “sandbox”. By pre-configuring (in a virtual machine) Apache, MySQL and Ruby on Rails on a solid Linux foundation (Ubuntu), the JumpBox folks make installation and management a snap. They support Parallels and VMware so you have your pick of your favorite environment. Alas, this means you must have an Intel Mac running OS X 10.4 or 10.5. Definitely drop a note in the comments with your take on this package.
Audio Hijack Pro – 2.8.2 – If you’ve ever wanted the ability to record audio playing on your Mac (without having to rig up cables) then this is the utility for you. As the Rogue Amoeba developers themselves say: “If your machine can play it, Audio Hijack Pro can record it”. Version 2.8.2 updates the LAME (mp3 encoder) library, now includes Instan Hijack 2.1 (64-bit) and fixes some bugs. It will cost you $32.00 USD but works on 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel/PPC). Be sure to check out their Nicecast and Airfoil updates as well!
XTension – 6.0 – I have a bit of X10 devices around and I grabbed this software to see if it was worth dedicating a Mac to home control (I use a hacked NSLU-2 now). With support for OS X 10.2+ one could easily dedicate an older machine to this task. While the web site can be a bit painful to navigate, the software does look interesting. I’m still evaluating whether it’s worth the $149.95 purchase price and would appreciate any feedback in the comments.
ReceiptWallet – 2.0.6 – Despite the introduction of that other receipt management program to the Mac world, I’m still very partial to ReceiptWallet and version 2.0.6 squashes some bugs (including TWAIN issues) and adds some new features including the capability to encrypt receipt libraries. OS X 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC & $39.95.
HP Printer Driver – 1.1 – Until SoftwareUpdate cranked out a notice for me I used to think that Apple only updated printer drivers with major releases. You can grab the 405MB download on your own to see if you need the update in areas where Internet connectivity is lacking. You’ll need 10.5.3 or better to utilize it.
Headline – 1.0.2 – I’m giving the full release of Headline a go (despite there being a ton of decent free RSS feed readers that do not cost $19.95) and it definitely has a unique and pretty interface. You’ll need 10.5 (Intel/PPC) to get your feed readin’ on with Headline as well.
D2X-XL – 1.13.44 (OpenGL version of Descent 2) – Descent 2 was a great game and – being the pack rat that I am – the disks are always somewhere to be found (even after our cross country move to WA). You can play Descent 2 on your Mac (10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC) with D2X-XL and this new version enabled Descent 1 mission play, a new capture-the-flag mode as well as three additional game modes, better multi-player support and an integrated help menu (plus tons more). You will need those original disks, tho.
VLC media player – 0.8.6i – The world’s best media player (where’s the iPhone port?!) gets better with security & bug fixes. Definitely recommend, especially if you play WAV files from untrusted sources. OS X 10.3.9+.

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OS X 10.5.4 Released To The Wild + Other Apple Updates

Bob Rudis — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:29:36 +0000

Apple has released OS X 10.5.4 (59 MB via Software Update) to the masses which includes the content of Security Update 2008-04. The update also includes improvements to AirPort reliability and speed, many iCal improvements, two secure surfing improvements to Safari and three Spaces & Exposé bugs.

The Security Update fixes 21 security issues in OS X 10.4 and 14 security issues in OS X 10.5. Fixes for especially nasty bugs include:

CVE-2008-2309 which adds .xht and .xhtm files to the system’s list of content types that will be flagged as potentially unsafe under certain circumstances, such as when they are downloaded from a web page. While these content types are not automatically launched, if manually opened they could lead to the execution of a malicious payload. This update improves the system’s ability to notify users before handling .xht and .xhtm files.
CVE-2008-2314 which disables hot corners when the screen lock is active (When the system is set to require a password to wake from sleep or screen saver, and Exposé hot corners are set, a person with physical access may have been able to access the system without entering a password prior to this fix.)
CVE-2008-0960 which performs better validation of SNMPv3 packets (SNMP can be used to retrieve information about your system).

OS X 10.5.4 can be installed via Software Update or downloaded directly from Apple.

Users still running OS X 10.4.11 can also (along with the Security Update) look forward to a Safari 3.1.2 update as well, which includes a fix to a security issue (CVE-2008-2307) involving a memory corruption issue that exists in WebKit’s handling of JavaScript arrays. Without the patch, users who visit a maliciously crafted website may see unexpected application terminations or be vulnerable to arbitrary code execution. Apple engineers improved bounds checking to fix the problem.

If you have installed any of these updates, drop a note in the comments if you experienced any issues or if you can confirm whether a particular issue you have been seeing has been fixed.

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