My second generation Apple TV arrived this morning. I hope to talk about the experience more on the next episode, but in the meantime here’s an unboxing video and some images. You can find more photos on the Maccast Flickr page.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 319. Apple’s entertainment interests grow. Security Update 2010-006. Apple’s mobile profit vs unit sales. Apple readying CDMA iPhone for launch? Most are convinced that Apple will end the AT&T exclusivity. Apple TV rental battlefield. Updates to iWork for iOS. Surprise, Apple customers generally satisfied. Apple TV shipping rumors. Macbook “Almost” Air rumors. iTunes 10.0.1 Update, Daylight savings time bugs. Self diagnosing Mac issues. Hide the new “Ping” drop-down. Running hardware tests. Backing up movie collection. Review: Switcheasy iPad Case. Choosing off-site backup solutions. How big an iPad do you need? Mac Computer Expo 2010

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New music, That’s Gravity by Geoff Smith (Buy on iTunes)

EOL: Etch-A-Pad (via Headcase)

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 044. I tried out ABC’s new interactive “My Generation” iPad app. The app was developed along with the ratings folks over at Nielsen to add interactivity to ABC’s new show by the same name. I’ll give you my thoughts on leveraging the power of iOS to bring more convergence to our entertainment and our iDevices.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 043. In this episode we take a look at the contents of OS X Library folders. I’ll point out what the different Library folders are for and highlight some common files and folders you might find in the Library.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 318. What’s next for iDevices and iOS. AirPrint for iOS coming with 4.2. FaceTime coming to desktops. Intel’s next gen chips announced. Mac sales continue to rise. Gaming on iOS is big. iPhone makes big gains in Europe. Apple Express Lane Support. iPhone 4 free bumper program ends soon. Newspaper subscription plans for iPad. Pro App Update 2010-02. 2G Apple TV may be iOS after all. 27″ LED Cinema Display now available. Search inside package contents. Speed dialing on the iPhone. Managing external storage options. Loving our Macs too much. I’ll be at the Mac Computer Expo 2010 in October.

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New music, Happy by Wagon Box Fight

EOL: Light Painting with the iPad (via TUAW)

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 042. Having just returned from my trip to St. Louis I share my thoughts and experiences taking a trip with just my iPhone 4 and my iPad.

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Links
Trip It
St. Louis Photos (Flickr)

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 041. My review of the Apple Battery Charger.

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Links
Apple Battery Charger

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 317. Safari 5.0.2 Software Update. iOS 4.1 release. New iPods are out. Details emerge. AirPlay streams outside Apple. Apple allows 3rd party iOS development tools. Apple gives Developers Guidelines. Maccast One Minute Tip: Secure Delete. Thoughts on Ping. iTunes 10 tricks. HTML 5 local database files. Field test your iPhone signal. Location can improve wi-fi. I’ll be at Mac Computer Expo 2010

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New music, Dormant and Grey by Derek Clegg

EOL: Son of Newton (via MacMerc)

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The iPhone 4.1 Software update was just released by Apple and after updating my iPhone 4 one of the first features I wanted to try out was HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. There are many ways to accomplish HDR varying from the simple to the complex. The basics are that you shoot multiple exposures to capture various areas of detail (highlight, mid-range, and shadow). You then take the resulting exposures and use software (in this case the iOS Camera app) to combine the images. The goal is to get a final image that offers a wider range of color and detail than one shot with a single exposure. iOS 4.1 attempts to offer the simplest way to shoot and create HDR photos. Simply pressing an “on/off” toggle switch at the top of the Camera app is all that is required to enable or disable the feature. The app then takes 3 exposures and merges them. Both the standard image and the HDR versions are saved so you can take your pick when you sync the images back to your computer. When shooting in HDR mode it did take a second or two longer to save the images to the camera roll. If taking a rapid sequence of photos is your objective you’ll want to turn this feature off. If you are having trouble capturing shadow or highlight detail in your images though, HDR mode may be a life saver. As with most things Apple does the implementation here is meant to be dead simple. Enable. Shoot. There are no other options or controls and you can’t adjust the exposures. If you need more functionality there are plenty of other 3rd party HDR apps available in the App Store. I’ve only spent 2 minutes with the new feature, but as you can see from my quick shots (Flickr), the results are mixed. Some shots were improved more than others and some common HDR issues, like ghosting, are going to be a problem. Apple isn’t going to revolutionize the HDR trend with this new feature, but at least now we have a second exposure option in iOS.

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 040. How to hack your dock to operate in single-application mode. Plus, some additional commands and modifier keys you can use with OS X’s Dock.

Command to enable single app mode using the Terminal:
1) Type defaults write com.apple.dock single-app -bool true
2) Press Enter
3) Type killall Dock
4) Press Enter

Command to disable single app mode using the Terminal:
1) Type defaults write com.apple.dock single-app -bool false
2) Press Enter
3) Type killall Dock
4) Press Enter.

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Links
Mac OS X: Additional features of the Dock
Secrets