Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jun 25, 2010 in
Apple As you are probably aware, only a few days ago I got the Airport Express to bridge my upstairs and downstairs 
network. I liked the device so much, I bought a second one so I could have an Airtunes device in the kitchen.
I was going to by a 3rd, but though it would probably be best to just replace my Netgear DGN2000 and Airport Express in the front room, with an Airport Exteme.
After looking at the specs, it’s essentially a Time Capsule without the built in hard drive, and I could bridge the two 5Ghz wireless n networks together
As with the Time Capsule, and Airport Express‘s, you just plug it in, and it works. Airport Utility fired up on my macbook, followed the onscreen prompts, and bridged it with my Time Capsule and jobs done !
I’ve now moved my 1st Airport Express into the bedroom so I can steam music in there too…..Gotta love Apple.
As always, unboxing picks are below.
Tags: airport express, AirTunes, apple airport, bedroom, capsule, device, DGN, downstairs, drive, Express, Exteme, Extreme, few days, Gotta, hard drive, jobs, kitchen, love, love apple, macbook, music, Netgear, Network, onscreen, steam, time, time capsule, upstairs, Utility
Posted by Ub3rG33k on Mar 18, 2010 in
Apple 
As mention in my Happy Mac Day post I was awaiting delivery of the Apple Time Capsule ,and as assumed it did arrive today.
I have to say, Apple once again made setting up and installing this device an absolute pleasure !
Below are the unboxing pics
..and finally a picture of it inplace
Now in true Apple style, the setup was flawless, I put it on the shelf, I plugged it in, and that was it ! The iMacs and MacBook Pro all popped up with a prompt saying Time Capsule detected, do you want to set up Time Machine ?
Click yes, input the password and your away.
Did this on all the Macs in the house. The initial backup took a little while, however after that there is a silent hourly backup which you don’t even notice, and it’s good to know my data is now safe !
As you can see from the last image, I’m a little paranoid about my data, on the left I have the 2TB Acer Aspire Easystore, in the middle I have the 500GB Western Digital My Book World, and obviously on the right is the Time Capsule.
I tend to store the majority of my data on the EasyStore as this is set up with Raid 5, giving 1.5Tb of storage and losing only 500Gb to the parity recovery. I did use the MyBookWorld, however upgrading the firmware broke it, and had to spend the best part of a week recovering the data.
So with all this backup, why have I got the time capsule you may ask ?, well let me tell you.
I have a tendency of keeping an extremely clean desktop. If possible I will have nothing on it, however will use it as a temporary file store for the work I’m currently doing. Once I’ve done I tend to just delete everything, and then empty the recycle bin. Unfortunately on more than 1 occasion I’ve needed one of the files I’ve deleted.
Another reason is because C doesn’t tend to use the EasyStore as much as I, and tend to keep everything on her desktop on her iMac and MacBookPro, which means if the worst case happened, she would lose everything !
All in all, I’m very happy with this addition to my network, and can highly recommend getting one if you have a Mac
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Posted by Ub3rG33k on Dec 15, 2009 in
Tech 
As time goes on, and I buy myself more and more gadgets, these obviously come with more and more remotes. Over the last couple of years I’ve tried various “All in One” remote controls, from the cheap “enter the device ID, and hope for the best”, to a Cambridge Audio MI+ “Smart Remote”
I’ve been more than happy with the Cambridge MI+ however I made the mistake of leaving another remote on top of it, which drained the batteries….
As I couldn’t really be bothered reprogramming it all (which took me ages to get everything how I wanted, also all the macros I had set up), I decided to give the Harmony remotes a try.
I found a good deal on Amazon, and got one of the basic Harmony 515 remotes just to give them a try. The major selling point to me, was that it backed up the remote to an online database.
A couple of days later, the remote arrived, very simple PC/Mac GUI interface, pick your devices and bobs your uncle !
One of the limitations of the 515 remote, was the fact that it will only run up to 5 devices, however this is where the limitations end.
The major thing that makes the Harmony remote series stand out from all the rest, are the way they work. On the “All in One” remotes, you basically switch on device a, then device b, then device c, then switch device a to channel d, etc etc. The Cambridge remote did attempt to combat this, by giving you the option of macro, which meant with 1 button press, you could macro “switch on device a, then device b, then device c, then switch device a to channel d, etc etc”.
The setup of the Harmony creates Activities. Once you have set up your devices, it will give you a list of suggested activities based on your devices. An example of this would be “Watch TV”. The setup runs through, and asks the following question.
Assume you want the TV on (and what channel, AV, etc), the PVR on, do you want the amp on, if so what channel, when the activity is complete, do you want the volume controls to control the amp or the TV, etc. Once done, you plug your remote into your PC/Mac and download the information to it, and your done. When you then click the “Watch TV” activity, it turns on the TV, switches to my HDMI channel, turns on the Sky HD, turns on the amp, and switches to CBL/TV, sets the control to emulate the Sky+ remote, and the volume control to control the amp.
This setup works for DVD, PS3, Xbox, and anything else I throw into the mix !
With being so impressed with the 515 remote, I treated myself to the Harmony One remote, and moved the 515 up into the bedroom. This gave me chance to use the “Replace Remote” function within the Harmony software, plugged in the Harmony One, clicked Replace Remote, and within a few minutes it had configured the new remote with my configuration, all the devices worked as before ! Brilliant !
The advantage of the Harmony One, is that it can control up to 15 devices, has a colour touch screen and comes with dock/charger, and to be honest looks the business.
If you are looking for a smart, all in one remote, look no further than the Harmony series !
Tags: 515, activity, amazon, amp, audio, batteries, button press, Cambridge, channel, control, couple, couple of days, device, device id, everything, gadgets, gui interface, harmony, Harmony One, harmony remotes, logitech, mac, Mac GUI, macro, macros, mistake, one, pc mac, pvr, Remote, remote controls, Replace, series, setup, Sky HD, Smart, switch device, time, top, try, volume, Watch, watch tv
network. I liked the device so much, I bought a second one so I could have an Airtunes device in the kitchen.