What's new in EyeTV 3.0.1?

Hardware Support: Support has been added for TerraTec Cinergy Hybrid T XS FM, a new DVB-T/Analog PAL and FM Radio USB stick available in Europe.

Smart Guides: Smart Guides now have a Start Day and Stop Day rule which allows an easy way to select a specific day of the week.

XMLTV Electronic Programming Guide: EyeTV 3.0.1 adds support for xml files that contain electronic programming guide data downloaded via the open-source xmltv tool. Simply drag the downloaded .xml file onto EyeTV. To switch a particular channel's program guide provider to xmltv, select the channel in EyeTV's channel list, then click the EPG popup menu and choose xmltv. Elgato is interested in hearing user comments about this feature, especially from developers who'd like to work on integrating their xmltv-based applications with EyeTV. Please send your feedback to xmltvintegration@elgato.com.

Bug Fixes: Details available in Read Me file.
(ZIP'd readme files in English and Japanese)

"iTunes 7.6.1 includes several bug fixes and improves compatibility with Apple TV software version 2.0."

(Thanks to Stewart for the heads-up.) Apple has an updated kbase doc today titled iTunes 7.6 becomes unresponsive or hangs when opened or intermittently during use that also suggests the 7.6.1 update as a fix.

"Made a bunch of additions to our Garage Sale / Clearance listings over the last couple days. Same program.. Items are available on a first come, first served basis by ordering online via our website. In an effort to prevent over sells, quantity allowed to basket restricted by reported available + items sold out report as such. Current highlights:
Apple 2.5" Hard Drives 60GB to 120GB from $29.75 to $65
3.5" Desktop drives up to 750GB from $62.00

Wireless adapters and routers:
802.11g/b USB 2.0 for $25 (sold out now - but site specials page has $29.50 USB 2.0/802.11G/B adapter.-Mike), 802.11n/g/b USB/PCI/PCMCIA options from $50.00, Routers from $57.99

512MB & 1.0GB Apple DDR2 SO-DIMM 667MHz MacBook/Pro, iMac, Mac Mini Intels - $5.75 and $20.00. Apple Mac Pro 667MHz 1.0GB / 2.0GB Matched Pair Kits (2006/2007 Models) - $57.50 / $92.50. Various used/tested Memory including 1GB modules from $17.50

FireWire and FireWire/USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure Kits from $29.00
NewerTech miniStack FireWire+USB2 Hard Drive Enclosure Kits with Hubs from $49.50

PowerMac G4 Processor cards from $9.00, Dual G4 from $79 - speeds up to 1.7GHz

SuperDrive DVD + CD Burners for desktops from $17.50. Same for Apple Laptops from $77.00

NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter "old version" USB 2.0 to IDE/ATA/SATA from $20.00

ATI Radeon & Nvidia Mac Video Cards from $89.99

And over 180 different items still listed and available as of this e-mail..."

Subject: how to backup wirelessly without TimeCapsule
Mike, I just stumbled on this interesting article:
http://jnote.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=5312
I am sure many readers will be happy.
-Frank

A reader using OS X 10.5.1 wrote with a note/warning on this hack:

" Unless 10.5.2 has fixed the bugs in 10.5.1 (I haven't tested it, while I have tested 10.5.1) users should absolutely NOT use the unsupported hack to enable backups on other disks. Please add a large warning to this hint until someone has tested and verified that 10.5.2. actually fixes the very serious problems 10.5.1 had with this method.... Note that similar problems happen for AFP and SMB, and that they only show up once time machine has gotten around to deleting old backups, so everything will appear fine for the first several.
Here's my experience with doing this on 10.5.1:
TimeMachine is unsupported on non 10.5 file servers because *IT DOES NOT WORK* on anything other than a local USB/FireWire disk or a 10.5 machine via AppleShare. The hack listed is extremely dangerous. Here's what happens:

On third party samba (windows) servers TimeMachine will run just fine with that hack until it runs out of disk space. (FYI - the linked thread mentions using it with an Apple Airport Extreme base with USB Port/Airdisk) At that point it will proceed (without any warning) to delete every single one of your snapshots, and then fail when it still can't recover enough space.

On AFP (non-10.5 mac, AirPort extreme) servers TimeMachine will stop working with the GUI once it has to delete an old snapshot, although the data will still be there. So the bottom line is that if you actually care about your backup do *NOT* use anything other than an external disk or a "supported" 10.5 machine. I would encourage you to put a big red warning around the hints you listed earlier to prevent people from using them... (name withheld by request) "

If anyone has tested the hack with OS X 10.5.2 let me know... (And again, even if the hack was reliable, Airdisk performance is slow so it wouldn't be my choice for a backup drive.)
Another reader comment on the subject of Time Machine and Airdisks:

" I believe the reason Apple screwed over those of us who bought the new Extreme Base Station and connected an HD to use with Time Machine in anticipation of Leopard (based on promises from Apple that it would work) is because they screwed up the implementation of AirDisk in the first place. The disk is dreadfully slow for writing, so it becomes useless for Time Machine. Read speeds are much better, and I can use mine to serve my iTunes music wirelessly without hiccups, but writing to it, even just to close the iTunes library and update it takes forever. I use Backup.app and it's bearable, but that is only to store key files. Trying to backup my whole MacBook Pro via AirDisk would take about 10 hours. Enabling it via hacks is just not a good idea unless you want to tie up your bandwidth most of the time...

Apple hasn't updated the firmware for the EBS 2.0 since the still buggy 7.2.1 (lots of complaints on 7.2.1 here when it was released, at least from Airdisk users who often reverted back to a previous version-Mike), even after introducing the gigabit version (7.2.2 is just 7.2.1 for the gigabit device), and the AirDisk can't be used for true backups until they do. One would assume that Apple is working on this problem and firmware 7.3 may fix everything. But it's been many, many moons now since the horrible 7.2.1 update was introduced. I'm still using 7.1.1 until they fix it (which upsets Apple to no end, as I'm constantly reminded to update it). And I'm still mad that Apple promoted a solution that doesn't work right and now is going on 9 months without resolving it despite introducing an updated hardware device in the interim. They must have known this last spring, but the marketing department didn't get the memo? Very MS like...

On a bright note, upgrading to Leopard has fixed all my MacBook Pro 2.2GHz problems. Sleep, display brightness fluctuations, keyboard light anomalies, random crashes, overall speed, all fixed. It's pretty obvious now that Tiger was strapped together with duct tape to work on Intel machines, and Leopard was designed with Intel in mind. My Core Duo iMac is also working perfectly under Leopard. My G4 Mac Mini is slow though, and I've ordered more memory to see if that solves it.
-Mike K."

My (refurb) AL 24in iMac has been pretty solid with Leopard. Using Time machine with a FW800 drive connected to it (Ministack v3 case chosen for its FW/USB hubs also).

• Mac OS X 10.5: Hard drive disappears from the Finder (Apple)
• iTunes 7.6 becomes unresponsive or hangs when opened or intermittently during use (Apple -says fix is iTunes 7.6.1)
• MacBook Air: SSD Media Capacity (Apple)
• Email Quick Assist (Apple)
• Airfoil 3.1 update (yesterday - adds support for transmitting audio toApple TV, Improved perf, full compatibility with Front Row other minor fixes)
• Preliminary Test: The Sony Alpha 700 DSLR and RAW Converters
• MacBook Air: How to correct an HDD or SSD that shows lower than expected capacity (Apple)
• Troubleshooting the MacBook Air SuperDrive (Apple)
• iCal: Some calendar events do not appear after installing Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update (Apple)
• AudioLobe 2.5 (Audio speed and pitch processing)
• StuntMANIA!pro 2.5.1 (game)
• Opacity 1.0.1 (image editor designed for creating resolution independent screen graphics)
• iFreeMem 2.0
• Leopard Cache Cleaner 4.0.6
• HD DVD Kicked While It's Down - Universal, Amazon Turn 'Blu'
• All Hollywood studios now back Blu-ray
• Apple updates storage software, dumps hardware
• Apple Serves Up Heartier Xsan, Drops Stale RAID
• LG to Continue HD DVD Support (they offer dual-format HD+BR players)
• DVD surrender a black eye for Toshiba star
• Thanks to PS3, Sony enjoys spoils of format fracas
• Blu-ray victory means royalties, royalties, royaltiess
• GDC '08: PC Gaming Alliance founded
• Intel unveils "Skulltrail" eight-core high-end, gaming platform
• IBM experimenting with DNA to build chips
• Emotiv's headset gives users mind-control over digital objects