With the release of a software update for Apple TV, version 2.2, there are many new and exciting features being brought to Apple’s revolutionary product. The most notable features being written about include:
- HD TV shows - Finally watch and buy HD TV Shows on your Apple Tv
- Genius playlists - Create a Genius Playlist directly from your Apple TV
- On-The-Go playlists - Add a song to your playlist without your computer
While all of those features are excellent and much needed additions, the most exciting feature to me is Music Video Playlists (finally!). Before this update, no matter if the music videos were in a playlist or not, the Apple TV would refuse to play through all of the videos (even though iTunes will). If you have spent a small fortune on music videos and want to use them at say, a house party, the Apple TV came just short of expectations, but as always, Apple seems to come through in the end.
The funny thing is that I sent Apple this exact feature request about 1 week ago via their Apple TV Feedback Form. Maybe I am starting to get some pull these days. Thanks for the update guys.
After a long night of work, there is nothing worse than the dreaded sound of an alarm clock going off, loudly letting you know that two hours of sleep goes by faster than you could ever imagine (theory of relativity anyone?). With all of the advances in technology, why is it that my alarm clock doesn’t slowly monitor my awareness and gradually bring me out of a state of rest? While the latter would be nice, I found what I would call alarm nirvana using software that is available today.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to reviewing software that, quite frankly, I didn’t think would be that interesting. Enter Awaken (by EmbraceWare), easily the best alarm clock software for mac and by far superior to the old-and-busted annoying as heck alarm clock you currently own. Awaken combines an innovative set of features and a superb visual interface to create an alarm clock that is actually fun to use on my mac.
Of the many features of awaken, the ones I like the most are:
- Volume + Screen Fade - Because your alarm should not startle you every morning with sheer volume.
- Integration With iTunes Genius Playlists - Wake up to a new “Genius” mix every morning.
- Fully customizable alarm “repeat” settings - Never forget to “unset” your alarm again!
- Awaken automatically wakes up your computer - Let your computer sleep while you sleep, Awaken takes care of the rest.
During my normal everyday use, as shown above, I have no need to ever worry about changing my alarm based on different days of the week, as I have a pretty routine schedule. My accounting class is only on Tuesday and Thursday, which is why Awaken only wakes me up at 8:00 am on those days and 11:00 am on MWF. Pretty intelligent eh?
Of course this application is not quite perfect, although it is pretty dang close. The one feature I would like to see implemented in a future release is the volume + screen fade for the snooze alarm. Hitting snooze will definitely make sure you get up in 10 minutes when your computer plays music at full volume all at once.
All in all, Awaken is easily worth the $12.95 price tag it carries. Trust me, you will never feel good about getting waken up until you try out Awaken. Also included in the pricetag is unlimited lifetime updates (major + minor), what a deal!
Yea, all the stuff that was here has been deleted up to this point. I just needed a clean start because there was no one clear theme that all the writings followed. Before you get excited that I will finally be picking up writing entries once more, not quite yet. I am still brainstorming about what direction to head in, but things should start picking up rather quickly.
In the meantime, feel free to follow me on twitter.