isteveblog

When Steve Jobs announced the Apple TV I rushed out and bought one. At the time I had just bought a Sharp Aquos HD tv and though the Apple TV would be a perfect companion. Although it was always a cool product it didn’t do anything that I wasn’t already doing with my ipod and a ipod dock.

Well just when everyone was saying that Apple TV was dead Steve get’s up at Macworld Expo and announces Apple TV 2 and a free upgrade for currant owners. Well the update was pushed out this week and Apple TV now makes sense.

Podcast, this is my favorite new feature with a simple yet powerful interface I can easily browse and view thousands of podcast in seconds. My first stop was Geekbrief tv one of my favorite podcast that I know has a HD version. I navigate to the list of available episodes and there is a play or download option “very cool if you have a high speed connection”. I click on view and in seconds Cali comes on screen in beautiful HD and Cali still looks great even with the harsh lighting.

Next is the ability to rent movies with a just a click. This to is a simple task of both finding movies and downloading.Flickr integration is built in just type in a flickr account name yours or a friends, family or you favorite photographer. You can view these photos watch the in slideshows and use them as screen savers.

The Apple TV also has many other features like buying tv shows and music, work with airtunes and watch youtube videos. This upgrade has made a cool device to a awesomely cool must have device.

I recently bought a new Macbook… well then I installed Windows XP in a virtual machine using VMware. I’m not really sure why I need XP maybe just because this is what all the cool kids are doing. Next Ubuntu.

I think this speaks for it’s pretty cool. 

When it comes to home recording these days there is a lot of great equipment to choose from. I belong to a online help forum that provides help for Apple Garageband users. Many time people ask what interface is best and many people say go with presonus because of it’s great preamp’s. Well I find it hard to believe given todays technology and price that it could make much of a difference.

So I own a Presonus inspire and a Alesis Multimix and decided to take a unscientific approach and record my Seagull Acoustic guitar through both and see if there is a difference.

I record first the on board pickup next a Audio-Technica Pro 63 and a MXL 900. I recorded it in garageband using no FX on the tracks and used only the improved guitar preset in the master track (no effects basic).

You can listen to the mp3 and judge. There are six track.

Presonus / on board pickup—- Alesis / on board pickup

Presonus / dynamic mic —-Alesis / Dynamic mic

Presonus / condenser mic —-Alesis / condenser mic

Both sound ok but need some EQ terribly. The guitar is very boomy p robably due to room acoustics.

Hear the comparison here.