So here you are, in a room of 100 people (Group A). Of those 100, ninety of them agree on Product X and are very positive and engaged when speaking of X. The remaining 10 people (Group B) point out only the negatives of X, claim it "sucks" mainly because it doesn't do everything exactly the same as Product Y. Group B declare Group A are sheeple, drinking the Kool-Aid and need to wake up.

Group B, when asked to help the developer of Product X, Vendor Z, by discussing their concerns, react by saying "we've said what we don't like, Vendor Z isn't listening." Group B also seems to insist on posting to their blog an endless stream of obscenity, and claiming that Group A just needs to "deal with it."

For some reason Group B is greatly annoyed when they aren't having their ego stroked and rump kissed by everyone, especially the large corporation Vendor Z. All the while, Group B claim that they're "just saying what needs to be said."

Sound familiar? We've seen it recently in LotusLand when talking about the Lotus Notes 8.5 for Mac client. We've seen it on Midrange-L regarding the IBM i platform. We've also seen it on the blogs of certain people who think they're the divine enlightened ones because they are the only people with the guts to tell the truth and call out a vendor.

The gist of the argument seems to be that those who express the negative argument among a relative sea of positives are somehow automatically the only ones speaking the truth. Certainly there might be some truth to this in some cases. However, overall it's bunk.

Folks who go against the grain always seem to believe they're the only intelligent, thoughtful ones. I am sure in some ways I am guilty of this, as are many of us who are devotees of a particular product - be it from IBM,Apple, Microsoft, whatever. However, it still doesn't mean that those who voice the negative opinion against the general consensus are, by default, the only correct voices.

That's not saying it's verboten to call out a vendor for doing something stupid. It's how you do it that will ultimately determine if they're willing to listen to your comments. In the case of the Notes for Mac client discussion, certainly the author has some valid points...assuming everyone else is seeing the same thing he is, and I have reason to believe they aren't. But, due to the combative nature of the site, the post and pretty well everything surrounding the discussion, it's pretty clear the argument (and having someone suck-up to him) is what he's after, not a solution.

Before my current two week trip to Texas I decided to pick up a Sprint Mobile Broadband adapter. I figured this is a business trip and I'll be online every evening most likely, costing me around $12 a day.

With the adapter costing me $0 (with contract, no biggie - been with Sprint for how long now?) it seemed a good idea. Sure I'll have to deal with the $59 monthly fee long term but still, I think it was worth it. I refuse to pay for wireless in an airport and now, anywhere I go (assuming Sprint coverage) I'll be set. I almost got the PCMCIA card (or rather the ExpressCard with a PCMCIA slot adapter), but opted for the USB model because 1. It was free 2. I can take it to any PC.

Overall the speeds have been more than acceptable. I won't be hauling down the Domino 8.5 install image over it, but for general mail/web/small download it works great.

So if you're interested, it is the 598U from Sierra Wireless. We'll see how this works long term, but so far it is just what I needed.

So, you have an Apple TV. Great. But, you aren't overly pleased with the little Apple Remote. Well, if you happen to have an iPod Touch or iPhone. You're in luck.

With the advent of the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch 2.0 software update and the AppStore, comes a little app called Remote (free). Download and sync the app to your device to get started.

When you launch Remote you'll need to enter a passcode in order to pair the device with Apple TV. This is much like how you had to enter a code in iTunes to pair with Apple TV.



Once the device is paired to Apple TV, it connects and you're able to control Apple TV from anywhere your device can access the network. What this means is that since the device doesn't require a line-of-sight to the Apple TV like an IR remote does, you can have control of Apple TV from just about anywhere in the house. If the iPod Touch or iPhone can connect to your wireless network, you're good to go. Sweet.



The iPhone/iTouch will show album art, playlists, track lists, track controls..everything you need.



The other nice thing with this method is that you don't have to turn on the TV to use Apple TV. If you're only listening to music and thus really don't need the display, you're in good shape. Save some power, save your TV.

So now it's time to pick which media device I'd place into my home theater setup. My requirements to play digital music and photos is pretty easy, lots of players work those options.

* Netgear's EVA8000 is popular, works well with my Netgear ReadyNAS DUO and costs $349.99. It does support a good number of formats, and will do video. It requires a PC to be available since it's just a streaming device, i.e. no internal storage. It also won't play iTunes protected content.

* Now, there's no question the Sonos unit is pretty darn sweet. They've got a really nice deal there, if you want music only. Sonos also supports a really wide variety of file types including Apple's AAC and Ogg Vorbis. You can of course connect an iPod to the Sonos unit which would allow the iTunes DRM content to be shared. It's also multi-room capable.

Sonos can be a pretty expensive option though. The smallest player - ZonePlayer 90 (which is un-amplified, good for connection to a home theater receiver) runs $349, and that's before you add the Controller for another $399. If you want the amplified ZonePlayer 120, that's $499. A bundle including one of each item can be yours for $999.

* Squeezebox from Slim Devices (owned by Logitech) is another popular option, and they have quite a collection of devices, ranging from the rather simple Squeezebox Classic for $299, up to the $1,999 Transporter. The Duet isn't a bad option at $399 and comes with a display remote and the player. It is however, music only.

* Then there's the option of a built PC for the purpose of playing the content. Sure I could use my NAS and access the PC via the TV. Sure this could work, but certainly not for much less than what you'd pay for a 40GB Apple TV, and have it be something that works into a media center well (i.e. a small device). The other issue is simply the user interface that many of the PC based options use. Simplicity is key, and I think Apple TV wins there too.

* A number of home theater receiver/amp manufactuers such as Yamaha, Denon and Onkyo have set up their units with Ethernet ports for network connectivity and streamed content. Some also have iPod docks and connectors so the iPod content is available to your home theater that way.

In terms of dealing with that pesky Apple Fairplay DRM, there are solutions ranging from apps that strip DRM from tracks purchased in iTunes (which seem to get broken again every time iTunes is updated) or apps that have virtual CD burner emulation and allow you to burn your iTunes content to a virtual CD and then rip it back into the library. What a pain.

So...what's a technophile to do?

For awhile now I've been wanting to put together a solution for digital media in my home theater system. There are of course quite a few options out there on the market, and of course there's always the option of a roll-your-own design.

As with anything, what you plan to do with it makes quite the difference. So first off I had to set my expectations and have a list of goals to accomplish. Quite honestly they're pretty simple:

1. Play digital music on the home theater system, including files purchased from iTunes

2. Ability to show photos/slideshows on the TV from my photo collection

In the past we've used our TiVo Series 2 with the media server software on a PC, which lets us stream music and photos from a PC on our network. However, even with the little additions they've added over time, the experience is far from satisfying. Photo support works "ok" but the resolution is far from what I'd call great, and of course on the music side the TiVo can't play iTunes purchased content.

The requirement to view/listen to content purchased from the iTunes store turns out to be quite the differentiator.

Before we get to that point, let's talk about file type & size. Eventually I'll likely get into video over the network, but right now I am just talking music & photos. On the music side I have to balance file size with quality. Ideally you'd like to use a lossless file format, or one that maintains the full fidelity of the CD you're ripping.

Choices generally would be WAV, FLAC or the Apple lossless format. The tradeoff there is file size. Lossless files will be very large. Perhaps on the order of 35MB for a 4 minute track. Do the math and you see how much disk you'll use up. This also doesn't work well on portable media players due to their relatively small storage capacity.

So you're left with the option of either use a lossy format such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis and the like - and choosing a high enough bitrate to maintain quality or having two copies of everything, one for the home theater and one for the portable players.

Clearly two copies isn't the best idea. Sure I could have a TON of storage to accommodate that plan but the management of such isn't something I find to appealing. So, lossy format it is.

As to format, MP3 is by far the most well supported. There are many who swear by Ogg, and some that claim AAC is better. While Ogg is quite popular and supported on many players, it isn't quite as well supported for what I want to do on iTunes (iPod support requires some custom work), and AAC doesn't seem to be much better than MP3 to my ears and isn't as well supported. So MP3 is the format. Good, two out of three choices.

The last one is bitrate. Well this is easy. I can tell some difference between 192k and 320, so I'll go with 320. Sure the iTunes store stuff is 192 or lately 256 has shown up - but that's OK.

Ok, with that solved it's time to figure out what media device to include with the home theater gear....stay tuned.

My current personal phone is the Palm Treo 755p. This replaced my Treo 600 when it finally gave up. Since that time I've been in the search for a case that I liked.

I started off with a flip lid leather case, the Sena Cases MagnetFlipper. This was something like what I had on the 600, except this one flips from the bottom instead of the top.

In theory this seemed to be a good idea, but in practice it pretty well got annoying really quick. The magnet isn't strong enough to hold it fast so the slightest bump and the lid flops down. Can you say walking in and out of an airplane? Yep, every single time. The other thing was that like many of these cases it doesn't provide protection over all corners of the device. So a drop usually results in a scratch of some sort.

So off I went looking for something else. The idea of a holster style case interested me, but I really wanted to see it close up before I bought. Most of the Sprint stores or any other cell phone store are pitiful when it comes to case selection. Most mall retailers aren't much better.

Enter the Palm Store. I happened by one in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL). Terminal B I believe it was - but the airport website has a nice search function for the shops there. The Palm Store has a wide variety of cases, they're for Palm devices of course, and lucky me - they had the one I was looking for.