One of the current application gaps is the ability to play internet radio on your device. Fortunately, FlyTunes fills that gap by offering the ability to stream high quality music channels direct to you iPhone/iPod Touch.

Taking advantage of the ability to drag and drop applications onto the home screen (requires firmware 1.1.3), FlyTunes operates like an individual application which launches in Safari and provides many genre based music channels to choose from:

• Country (Classic Country, Real Country)
• Dance (Dance Hits, Disco Ball, Chilled, Dance Hits LBR, Party)
• Decades (50s & 60s, 60s & 70s, 90s, The Mix, 80s, The Beatles, 70s)
• Eclectic (Lounge LBR, Classical Guitar, Bluegrass, Love Songs, The Office, Classical, Soundtracks)
• Jazz (Smooth Jazz, Modern Jazz, Uptempo Jazz)
• News (BBC, NPR)
• R&B (Blues, Urban Adult, Gospel, True R&B)
• Rock (High Voltage, Live!, Top Rock, Today's Rock, Alternative Rock, Classic Rock)
• Sports (ESPN)
• Talk (Talk & Comedy)
• Top 40 (The Hitz, Jamz, Todays Hits, Hip Hop, Classic Rap)
• World (Bombay Beats, World Hits, Salsa)

The music streams through Quicktime in an MP3 format. Over a Wi-Fi connection on my iPod touch, the quality is much better than I expected. I didn’t get the opportunity to try this on an iPhone over EDGE – please give this a go and report back in the comments below. Overall, I found the service to be very responsive, with the pages being light in content, there was no delay switching between genres or starting the music stream.

Navigation is simple. To switch between genres, tap on either the left or right arrows and the stations of your chosen genre will appear. To start listening to a station simply tap on the station name. Once streaming, the user has options to return the genre selection, add the station to their favorites, or email a friend about the current station.

All said and done, FlyTunes is a great addition to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform with a lot of potential. While light on features at this time and limited to only a handful of streaming stations, there is a lot of opportunity for FlyTunes to offer a much broader selection of stations, including public radio from around the globe (I’d love to see more BBC and NPR) as well as album art. Since it’s leveraging the Quicktime engine, it may well be possible to extend the app with video content.

FlyTunes, available free, is currently limiting the number of new users to balance uptake on their servers. The sign-up process is relatively simple. From the sign-up page, provide your email address, answer a few questions and wait to receive an email with a URL to launch on your iPhone/iPod Touch. The rest of the profile setup is actually completed on your device. As you complete setup, be sure an add FlyTunes as an icon on your home screen.

When Apple released the 5G iPod with Video in Oct 2005, the push to take your video content on the road began and new tools started to surface to convert many of the different codecs over to iPod format.

Since AppleTV’s initial release a year ago, the second wave has become the push to move content into the living room. Leading the pack on the Mac platform is VisualHub from Techspansion. MacApper originally reviewed VisualHub back in April of 2007. With this post we’ll revisit VisualHub to see how far it has come in the race to keep up with Apple.

In less than one year Apple has released not just the iPhone and AppleTV ‘take 2′, but also revised the iPod line with the latest iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod touch. Along the way, VisualHub has been quick to release updates to support each of the Apple releases and updates. VisualHub provides fast conversion from nearly every video format to iPod/iPhone/AppleTV, PSP, DV, DVD, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash.

Conversions can be scaled to desired resolutions, cropped, and audio modified. Formats to view directly on television support both NTSC (North America/Japan) and PAL (Europe/everywhere else). All MPEG formats are supported, including MPEG-2. H.264 is supported when converting to MPEG-4 or any of the iTunes supported devices. If you have non-mainstream formated videos such as DivX/XviD AVIs, VisualHub is an ideal tool for converting those to MP4.

VisualHub has become the must-have tool of choice when it comes to converting content for iTunes. Conversions can be optimized for the current selection of Apple devices. There is an option to have concerted content added automatically to iTunes where it will end up in the Movies library by default. The seamless integration with iTunes is a key differentiator from some of the lower-cost/free alternatives.

For a long time VisualHub has provided the ability to process groups of files in batches which can even be stitched together into a single combined video – I’ve found this particularly useful for many small home videos which I don’t want to edit and merge via iMovie. There is support for Xgrid Encoding, wherein if you have multiple Macs on your network with Xgrid Sharing enabled, VisualHub can distribute conversion tasks among those Macs. This is useful when converting multiple files, though be sure to let others who are using those Macs know you’re doing this before they start wondering where all their CPU cycles are disappearing to.

With the most recent release, v1.31, VisualHub adds support for AppleTV 5.1 surround sound. Videos with 5.1 AC3 audio can now be converted to play on AppleTV with the ‘Take 2′ software update from Feb 12th.

VisualHub, a Universal Binary, can be downloaded to try-out (limited to 2-minute conversions) and a full license is available for $23.32. If you want to watch your DVD collection or selection of non-MP4 videos in the living room or on the road, then VisualHub is the conversion tool for you.

So was it worth the wait?

Oh yes, very much.

As soon as my RSS feeds started to light-up with the release announcements late Tuesday afternoon, I quickly found a reason to leave work early and hit the road home. The update itself took about 15-20 mins (depending on your connection) to download and install, and before I knew it I was presented with the new menu system, including a beautiful background of movie art. Before I give my initial impressions, let me highlight the new features of AppleTV take 2:

• iTunes Movie Rentals. 30 days after a DVD release you can download DVD or HD quality movies
• New DVD quality – $3.99
• New HD quality – $4.99
• Library titles DVD quality – $2.99
• Library titles HD quality – $3.99
• Rentals are available for 30 days from download and 24 hours from when you start watching
• Support for 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound
• No computer required – AppleTV sources direct from the internet (local computers still supported)
• No need to switch sources – AppleTV groups available iTunes content from all associated local computers (Mac or PC)
• Preview and download Movies, TV Shows, Music and Podcasts direct from AppleTV
• Podcasts now stream directly to AppleTV, including HD podcasts
• Photo library support for .Mac Web Gallery and Flickr accounts
• Updated UI for browsing Movies, TV Shows, Music and Podcast content
• Support for AirTunes

Reading back over the list above, AppleTV now brings most of the main iTunes and photo browsing features you’d expect on your Mac or PC to your large HD TV. No longer do you need to run back to your computer to download new content and then sync over; you can do this directly from the comfort of your couch.

So now that we have the update in our hands, how does it perform?

Movie Rentals, TV Shows, Music and Podcasts each have the same new user interface. The display is structured into multiple rows with select highlighted titles at the top, followed by top downloaded/listened to, new titles and staff favorites. Using the standard Apple remote, you scroll to the right and left to see additional titles as the cover art scrolls with the very familiar Coverflow effect. Navigation throughout is just as you would expect.

Selecting a title brings up individual details of that selection. This includes a larger view of the cover art, a description, some specifics like Show Details and options to Preview, Rent or Download. At the bottom is a list of other titles rented by users who have also viewed the current title.

The true killer new feature for me is the ability to stream video Podcasts. Now at my fingertips I have access to the full range for Podcasts available from the iTunes Store and can either flick through the featured selection or search directly by title. Streaming and quality isn’t so much dependent on your own internet connection, but the source from which the Podcast is being streamed. Note that, unlike paid content, Podcasts are not hosted or served-up by Apple. Many of the more popular Podcasts stream immediately without interruption. In some cases I tried to view some that I’d never heard of before, and they either didn’t begin to play or I got a message stating “Unable to play selected song” (the error message needs to be corrected for Podcasts). At any rate, I was able to catch up on a couple weeks worth of Mahalo Daily before turning in for the night.

Given the size of my music library, I have not synced any music over to the AppleTV. Before, I would have had to change the source and point to my MacBook Pro, but now with this update it’s as simple as selecting “My Music” and AppleTV displays all the music and playlists from each available source – a much simpler solution.

“Photos” is also now able to view all photos and albums from each available source. The ability to view .Mac Web Galleries and Flickr galleries worked well – I didn’t run into the same problems Steve did during his Macworld Keynote.

YouTube features appear to be the same as before; I didn’t see any change here.

Overall, I have to say that I’m really, really impressed with the software update. AppleTV is now what it should have been a year ago. I was an early adopter and purchased one as soon as I could after Macworld 2007, and although it lacked most of the above features, I still found it a great devise that we used regularly. With the full range of iTunes Store content and the addition of Movie Rentals from all the major movie studios available it finally feels complete.

I’m sure Apple will find many ways to further extend the feature-set over the coming years, but for now, the on-demand, streaming content that is available to you is incredible. With the writers strike now wrapping up, it will be months before we see a return of new shows. In the meantime, I think Apple has been handed an opportunity to fill the content gap and draw in new users. Retailing for $229/40GB and $329/160GB, the AppleTV is positioned at a very reasonable price for a devise that is going to open the door to floods of rich new content that will cause the Apple halo effect to only continue to draw in new adopters in droves. The AppleTV revolution has just begun.

Have you found any hidden gems? Please add your thoughts and impressions in the Comments section below.

Leap, from Ironic Software, is a new Finder-like application for finding files in a more natural manor. What isn’t Leap ? First and foremost Leap is not an extension or replacement for Finder or Spotlight, but actually a utility to enable a greater depth of search when seeking out those hard to find files.

Leap presents the user with the means to locate files via a simple search dialogue, with the ability to narrow down the results by predefined tags, file types or folder names. Results are displayed in groupings of file type, keywords, known tags, folder names and dates. These groupings help the user trigger memories of where the file might be, for example: “I know it was created back in February and had something to do with accounting”. Knowing this level for detail, the user can narrow the search by date and review the folder names with some similar reference to “account“.

Folder contents are displayed in preview icon, grouped preview icon or list views. The user can enlarge or shrink the icon preview display, similar to photos in iPhoto, to see more or less files at a time. Once the desired file is located the user can perform many of the traditional Finder actions such as Open, Print, Email etc. True to the premise of Web 2.0, tagging is the means to improving future file lookup. The more files that are tagged with descriptive identifiers, the more useful Leap will become over time. This will remove the need to remember dates and folder names. Leap provides a desktop sliding shelf which, upon dragging files onto it, opens a entry window to capture multiple tags per item. Go nuts and add plenty of descriptive tags.

Leap, which requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later, is distributed as shareware and available for a 21-day evaluation period, after which registration costs $34.00.

I personally attend many presentations at work where someone is at the back of the room with a video camera running to capture the presenter, his/her presentation on the overhead and the delivery that goes with it.

While this adds immense value for reuse of the presentation, the quality is often poor, and in many cases, the presentation itself is illegible. ProfCast, from Humble Daisy, is a great application for capturing live presentation content and audio in a format that can be easily published and distributed via a number of open channels.
ProfCast is able to record either PowerPoint or Keynote presentations in-time with the presenters audio.

With each new recording, a project document is created storing the raw material for future editing. Recordings can be shared by publishing as a Quicktime (.mov) movie or exporting to GarageBand or iWeb. The GarageBand export supports either enhanced .m4a audio or .m4b audio book formats. Through the use of ID3 Tags, it’s possible to include additional descriptive metadata information which is particularly useful when publishing content to iTunes U.

Podcasts are managed within a central repository called The Podcast Manager. Recordings are managed as a podcast series with associated episodes which can be edited and published. Additionally, screenshots, embedded links and other media not created by ProfCast can be included in the published podcast. The Podcast Manager will generate and publish well formed RSS feed files as well as publish the recording to an FTP, .Mac WebDav or local location.

With the mid-January update, Profcast 2.2 is now fully compatible with 10.5 Leopard as well as iLife 08 and iWork 08. ProfCast, distributed as shareware, is available for a 15 day free trial evaluation after which registration costs $59.95. Education pricing is available with volume discounts. If you’re the poor guy standing at the back of the room working the camcorder, why not give ProfCast a try and recommend it to your next set of presenters?

It will make your life a lot easier. Future viewers will thank you.

With Stacks you have the choice of folder contents ‘fanning’ out from the Dock or displaying in a grid. But if you’re someone that likes easy access to all your applications from the Dock, then Stacks may not be right for you.

Enter Todos. Todos has been around since 10.4 Tiger and although not a Dock extension of any sort, it provides a single view of all the applications in multiple folders similar to the single folder view provided by Stacks.

Initiating a user definable hotkey (default is cmd+opt+cntl+t) launches a pop-up view of all applications. The display is very clean with a translucent black background displaying rows of colorful application icons. Moving the mouse over an icon will display the application name and location at the top for easy reference. To launch an application, simply click on it once. The application will launch and Todos will fade away. Applications already running are highlighted by a surrounding green box.

The beauty of Todos, which is Spanish for ‘everything’ or ‘all’, is that your can configure which applications or folder of applications to display, but also hide applications without having to move them somewhere else. To do this, open Todos, hold down Option and click on the icon of the application you would like hidden and it will be removed from the display. All hidden applications are listed in the Preferences window should you wish to unhide it.

To display multiple folders of applications, open ToDos Preferences from the icon in the menubar and add additional folder locations. Where I find the multi view particularly useful is in the ability to reference both the user as well as the system-wide Application folders and also the Utilities folder. Add more locations as you please. Todos is one of those little known utility gems that makes Mac OSX such as pleasure to use.

It’s a lightweight and unobtrusive application that you’ll forget is even running, but refer to when you don’t want to go digging through folders to find an application. Todos is a universal binary and available as a free download from OpenSoft Development.

In this article I’ll review the latest beta version of ecto, an offline blogging tool that I’ve personally used for nearly 2 years now.

Available from Infinite-Sushi, ecto is distributed for both Windows and Mac OS X, but the latest major version is being initially built for the Mac first. It’s a lightweight, Universal application with an intuitive interface and solid integration with Apple’s iLife suite for photos, musics and movies.

ecto offers seamless integration with the major online blogging tools. When first creating accounts, provide ecto with the access API URL, username and password, and ecto will take care of the rest. A list of current posts will be downloaded automatically and available for review or edit.

Posting new entries is as simple as using a rich text editor. Starting a new post opens up a new entry where one can immediately start typing. Pulling in media content is as simple as selecting the Import Media option and browsing either iLife application folders or local or mounted folders.

Posts can be edited in HTML mode should you want to get your hands dirty with some advanced content entry or styling. Categories, tags and trackback details can be easily modified, and for those that wish to separate out an entry, posts can be divided into summary, body, and extended sections.

Version 3, currently in beta, is fully Leopard compatible and follows Apple’s latest HUI standards similar to iTunes. ecto supports multiple blogging accounts on most major platforms with no discerning formatting differences when submitting posts with it, rather than a web based admin panel. Overall I think it’s a real winner.

A 21-day trial version is available, after which you’ll need to pony up a very reasonable $17.95 for a license. In the past I’ve made contact with the developer when I ran into a few blog connectivity problems and found Adriaan very responsive and willing to review logs and suggest solutions.