Archive for category Jeromy’s News
Google Voice Transition to Gapps Account
Posted by Jeromy in Jeromy's News on September 1, 2010
This service is one of my most used and favorite apps on the web. Basically it’s one phone number that routes to all your phones. Be it a Gizmo5 line, Skype (with some hacks), cell phone, home phone, etc. This week they rolled out a new feature allowing you to call directly from Gmail. It’s truly a great app if you are using an Android smartphone. The Google Voice integration is top notch including eliminating the need for a txt message plan with my carrier (T-Mobile).
This was all well and good until I began the transition to a full Google account with my Google Apps service. In the past my Voice account was tied to my gmail.com address along with Reader, Analytics and Picasa. When I was accepted into the beta this became a problem because I could no longer login to my gmail account with my secondary account (lukenbaugh.com). One by one Google started to transition the apps over for use with my lukenbaugh.com account. Voice seemed to be the only holdout so against their warning saying it wouldn’t work, I signed up to have my Voice account moved from my gmail account to my lukenbaugh.com. It took a few days but everything moved over nicely including past voicemails and recorded names/greetings.
Here is the spreadsheet from Google to get your Google Voice account moved.
Hulu Plus and Hulu Desktop
Posted by Jeromy in Jeromy's News on August 22, 2010
A huge part of our content is from Hulu. A smooth fast interface that is very 10ft friendly is what all HTPC apps should strive for and Hulu Desktop is just that. I finally got my invite for Hulu Plus on friday and while I’ve been on the fence about paying to participate in a beta program, they sealed the deal the night before I got the invite.
I had seen rumors that Plus wouldn’t work with their Desktop app. This made me hesitant but after reading a forum post by a Hulu employee, they finally integrated the two. This was huge for me as it further fills the coffer of content we have on demand. Now along with back seasons of most of the shows we are watching (close to 70 subscribed shows) we can get most of them in 720p from Hulu.
I’m really glad companies are finally making it easy for consumers to access the content legally and for free or cheap. I have a problem with paying iTunes $0.99 per episode when a movie isn’t much more. I can tolerate that much for a song that I’ll listen to over and over but I don’t care to keep TV shows to watch more then once.
Now if the NFL and NCAA would quit being stall worts and give us the same access the NHL and MLB have offered life would be grand. Sites like Justing.tv can help fill the void but it’s comparable to watching a 10yr old VHS tape. Oh and local news, the finger is pointed at you too.
Update: It seems as though DirecTV is now offering the Sunday Ticket for $350 (source) via broadband. I doubt they’ll be giving any discounts for this like they usually do with current subscribers. Mighty steep price if you ask me, much more then the MLB/NHL offerings. But then again the NFL has a reputation for being very very proud of their brand, more so then any other sport.
Cutting the cord – My process of dumping cable TV | Part 1
Posted by Jeromy in Jeromy's News on July 20, 2010
During my bachelor days I wasn’t as aware with my money as I am now with a family. Since the birth of my daughter we decided that my wife would stop working to take care of our daughter. Since this meant becoming a single income household we’ve of course adjusted our lifestyle a bit. One of the things I wanted to do was cut cable tv since most of the shows we watch are available online as well as OTA. I’m 90% done with the transition and a co-worker was wondering how I did all of this so I figured a guide would be the best way to explain it all.
The number one thing in any married household is the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). You know that if cables are strung everywhere and computers are on the living room floor, you might as well just pack it up and find another way. I was lucky enough to have my office behind the living room tv, separated by a large closet where I house the WHS, Wii and HTPC(yay me!).
The central screen where everything is accessed is Windows Media Center 7. From here we can access Boxee, Hulu Desktop, Netflix, Media Center Internet TV, Weather forecasts and maps and so much more. I’ll list why we use all of these different sources for content and you can decide which is best for you.
Boxee – Awesome and possibly the best attempt to centralize all the media on your network and online. Pulls streaming video from major video outlets like ABC.com, Hulu, Fox, CBS and more. The default and third party apps make this a winner for me. Using the media libraries just point Boxee to your media and it does a pretty good job at indexing your photos, movies and TV shows. Supports most major formats and works with Media Center remotes well.
Hulu Desktop – One of the best sources for online tv in one central place. The quality surpasses most network video sites but their one nick is lack of HD content. Hopefully Hulu Plus will fix this with their 720p availability and more back content.
Windows 7 Media Center (7MC) – Still the most attractive 10 foot interface I’ve ever seen. Menus are smooth, apps launch quickly and the graphics are pleasant to look at. While MCE does have an Internet Video section, it’s very lacking in content. A few CBS and News shows are the major features but compared to Hulu and Boxee it just can’t compete.
This is still a work in progress but I’m pretty happy with the setup so far and even my wife hasn’t yelled at me (yet) for the my design. Right now we have 7MC as the hub of our HTPC. From here we can launch OTA TV (not yet implemented), Boxee, Hulu, Netflix and any movies/tv shows I’ve downloaded from legal sources.
Windows 7 Home Premium and above have 7MC preinstalled. Some additional software is needed of course to complete this setup. The greatest thing about these launchers is that they monitor the app and once you exit Boxee/Hulu they’ll reopen 7MC so you’re back at square one. I’ve tried the Hulu plugins like secondrun.tv and PlayOn but they just don’t work that well.
Boxee – www.boxee.tv
Hulu Desktop – www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop
Boxee Launcher – boxeewmc.teknowebworks.com
Hulu Launcher – huluwmc.teknowebworks.com
Optional
Media Center Studio – www.adventmediacenter.com – The best utility I’ve found for hacking 7MC. Create custom menus or deleting unwanted menu items this thing can do it all and all this for free!
Media Center Master – www.mediacentermaster.com – I’ve been playing with this to download content such as meta-data for TV shows and Movies that I download. Been impressed so far with this product and best of all it’s free.
Media Browser – www.mediabrowser.tv – Also been playing with this to access the downloaded and ripped content on my WHS directly from 7MC in a much nicer looking interface then 7MC Movie Library. Combined with Media Center Master it takes 7MC to an entire new level. Oh yea and free also, see a trend here?
In part two I’ll go into more detail about the setup and provide diagrams and details of the workflow of this all. I figured the first post would be enough for most people if they wanted to get started on their own.
New Format
Posted by Jeromy in Jeromy's News on July 19, 2010
Well i’ve had this domain for awhile had have had many formats and designs, most never felt just right to me. After seeing a few other blogs i’m going to try a new format and dump my technical ramblings on here. Most won’t care and that’s fine, I just want someplace to dump my thoughts.