Resources for installing Boxee on an Apple TV.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/10/set-your-apple.html

So I accidentally let a TV fall on my MacBook Pro last night – and not a light, modern, flat-panel TV, but a heavy ass old-school CRT TV.  When I tried to boot it after gravity played her evil trick on me, all i got was a flashing folder icon with a question mark in it.  I tried some tricks to get the machine to recognize the hard drive, all to no avail. I could hear the drive clicking but not spinning, and the TV did fall on the portion of the laptop where the hard drive lies, so I decided to try my hand at replacing the hard drive.  A trip to Best Buy and I had a 320GB hard drive in hand and a quick viewing of this video…and things seem to be on track. Ignore the awful music selection. If you’re crunched for time, watch this video instead…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhNPchwhQoc&NR=1

Tomorrow I will try and re-install the OS, but the computer recognized the drive and allowed me to partition it, so I am not overly concerned. I anticipate that the re-install will go fairly smoothly – but I will post updates. This new drive will give me 200GB more space so maybe once this is all over with it will end up being a good thing.

I just downloaded the iPhone/Wordpress app and wanted to test it out. I am very curious about how it handles photos so here is one totally un-related to this post.

Rules, the genious additions really are a great feature…

If you’re one of the lucky growing number of Mac owners out there you can now send free SMS text from your Mac. There has long been a widget allowing Mac users to send sms text cleverly named SMS Mac the problem with this application (as well as Skype and others) is that you must purchase credits that are deducted every time you send a text message. The rates are right around $.10 each which makes it no cheaper (and often more expensive) to send from your Mac than it is to send from your mobile phone. Using these “solutions” you gain nothing, other than the ease of sending with a full keyboard.

I was talking with another geek friend today and we (mostly he) figured out how to send free SMS messages using Adium.

With Adium open go to File -> New Chat in the window that opens, type “+1″ (the country code – if you’re in the US) then the 10 digit phone number so +13334445555 then type your message. Once you’ve successfully sent a message your new “buddy” (phone number) will be displayed on your Adium friend’s screen. From here you can CTRL -> Click and change the number to the person’s name ie “Steve Cell”.

Hope this helps some of you.  Leave me a note if it does.

by George it works…now i just need to figure out how to upload a photo…anyone know?

Funny video of a great “virus” for the mac user in your life.

So today I decided that it was time to take the plunge. I replaced the Blackberry Curve 8300 (Curve) with an Apple iPhone. I can only comment on the setup at this point, but as with everything under Mr. Job’s umbrella, it was very straightforward. Pretty much if you plug the phone in, with its included dock, iTunes opens and you go through a quick step-by-step process at the end of which, you have a functioning phone. I did the initial setup while on a conference call using my MacBook Pro. The longest part of the whole process was downloading the software to upgrade from 1.1.2 to 1.1.4 (a 162.1 Mb download).

I have yet to input my contacts and set up email, but that is next on the list, and i will be sure to report. I will definitely push the boundaries here as i will need to set up four accounts, Pantier.com, Invisible Window, GMail, and Hungry Mind.

Update – setting up mail etc was as easy as checking a few boxes in iTunes (which Apple is going to need to change the name of) – the iPhone automatically took the settings that Mac Mail uses and boom!  Everything works!

Anyone wanna buy a Curve?

A friend of mine just sent me the link to this video – basically it’s a Car alarm for Mac laptops. After the computer is “armed” any moving of it will trigger an alarm, take a photo of the “thief” and email it to the computer owner.

The application is made by Slapping Turtle Software and is called iAlertU.