Time was the only way you could access Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature was on a Windows PC. Now you only need to watch on a computer (Intel Macs included) if you want to. There are now many different ways to enjoy streaming Netflix content where y…
This freeware utility for creating a powerful troubleshooting drive gets a major upgrade that supports 10.6 Snow Leopard and Apple’s latest Intel Macs.
A new gaming service allows users to play high-end games on Intel Macs, regardless of the Mac’s processing power.
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The Boxee folks released the public beta of Boxee today. In addition to a new UI, Boxee has partnered with TV.com, blip.tv and IGN. Watch streaming shows from their partners and Hulu. The Hulu content still involves seeing the Hulu.com page. You can also watch videos stored on your Mac or on machines on the same network.
Whiel checking out the streaming shows from Boxee partners, we watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Twin Peaks when we should have been writing this article. That poor Laura Palmer.
The Boxee beta is available for Intel Macs running OS X 10.4 or later. It’s also available for Ubuntu and some OS out of Seattle we’ve never heard of.
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In addition to the Boxee Beta, the company introduced it’s new Boxee Box. The D-Link built device is powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 (T20) platform. The three-wheel motion designed box (ask your favorite lowrider about three-wheel motion) is about as tall as a can of soda.
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Ports? Well here is Boxee’s port run down:
- HDMI – one inexpensive HDMI cable to connect The Boxee Box to your TV
- SPDIF – hi-definition digital audio that will pass through Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS to your A/V Receiver
- Stereo Audio (RCA) – red & white cables from the 80’s, 90’s and today
- 2 x USB ports – add devices like external hard drives and more
- Wireless 802.11n & Wired Ethernet – Cords if you got ‘em, wireless if you don’t
- RF Remote Control – control playback from anywhere
The backside remote is actually a keyboard. Fancy!
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No word on pricing yet.
We’ll have a review of the new Boxee Box soon on MacLife.com and in the Mac|Life magazine.
Initially shut out of streaming video to its EyeTV iPhone app over 3G, the minds at Elgato have just released a workaround involving a free desktop update coupled with Mobile Safari.
The trick comes by way of Elgato’s new EyeTV Live3G web app, an ingenious solution that allows EyeTV hardware owners to stream live television and their EyeTV recordings over a 3G connection to their iPhone.
The EyeTV Live3G web app uses the HTTP Live Streaming technology introduced with iPhone OS 3.0, relying upon H.264 video and AAC audio to deliver the highest possible playback quality, even over a 3G connection. Live3G also takes advantage of the iPhone’s hardware acceleration to deliver higher performance and longer battery life.
Live3G requires a free EyeTV 3.3 update for the desktop software. The web app connects your iPhone to your Mac at home running EyeTV, then uses HTTP Live Streaming to broadcast both live TV signals and your own recordings to the phone.
Elgato’s EyeTV iPhone app launched in October and users were quick to discover a backdoor that allowed broadcasts over 3G when the app was only intended to work over a Wi-Fi connection. Apple slammed that door shut just as quickly, and a subsequent update from Elgato removed any chance of using 3G inside the app. Instead, the developers cleverly chose to shift their strategy to the Live3G web app unveiled today at https://live3g.eyetv.com/ (login required).
EyeTV 3.3 also improves on its H.264 video decoder by running it as a 64-bit process, when available, which improves playback performance on Intel Macs by 10-20%. A long list of other improvements and bug fixes are also detailed in Elgato’s Read Me file included with the update.
