Loop Your Presentation

Hillcrest Labs' Loop acts as a remote for your PC and is especially handy for those connected to a TV or projector. Plug the wireless receiver into your USB port, get a grip on the in-air mouse and click on objects onscreen, even across a room. The thumb has access to buttons that include "select" and "back" and a scroll wheel. The Loop can be used with PC, Mac, Windows Media Center, Apple TV and with PowerPoint presenters.

Via Hillcrest Lab Loop

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Apple TV 40GB Dropped, 160GB Model Price Lowered

If you were thinking of purchasing an Apple TV, note that the company has dropped their 40GB model completely and lowered the price on the high end 160GB device. The device has been marked down $100.00.

Via Apple TV

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Loop Pointer Now Available to Public

Hillcrest Labs has been working on its wireless Loop Mouse/Pointer for a couple of years and is finally selling it to the masses. With patented Freespace technology, you get precise in-air pointing. The circular device can be used with a media-center PC, a Sony Playstation 3 or an Apple TV, if a TV Flash from Fire Care is installed. In fact, any place you can use a wireless mouse, you can use the Loop.

Via Hillcrest Labs

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Apple TV Junkie - TV Listings and More

Apple TV Junkie is a handy site for those who have
one of the devices and iTunes. It lists AD and SD rental titles daily as they become available. They also list HD TV shows as well as Canadian and UK releases. And if you want a new way to hack using Boxee or aTV Flash or want to add tools like video encoding and backup software, then this is the place to be.

Via Apple Tv Junkie

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VUDU First to Sell On-Demand Movies in HD

VUDU has become the first on-demand service to offer HD movies for download to own. While users have only been able to rent about 1,400 of them, the company unveiled a collection of 50 independent movies available in both HD and HDX. Included are films from Independent Studios FirstLook, Kino and Magnolia's
"Man on Wire," the recent Academy Award Winner. Those that are purchased can be stored in the VUDU itself or in VUDU's Vault free online storage, which is certainly a plus considering that the company offers over 13,000 total movies and TV episodes. Each film is priced between $13.99 and $23.99. By the way, the company recently lowered the price of its player, no doubt to compete with
Apple TV and the Roku.

via PR Newswire

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Thumbs Up or Down For Apple TV?

While we don't get to review firsthand as many products as we would like, Dave Caolo received an Apple TV for Christmas and shares his thoughts about the first two months with the gadget. His positives includes the look of it, easy hook up and navigation and the HD content. His negatives? Mostly the charge for watching TV episodes and how he hasn't yet adapted to the way he receives his audio/video sources. Those who remember 45 records can surely see his point of view. Dave suggests that Apple come up with a subscription service. What do you guys think?

Via TUAW

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boxee Considers the Box

It may be that boxee is considering coming up with its own branded set-top box. At this point, you can only get their entertainment service by installing it on your Apple TV or TV-connected PC or Mac. The company wants to know what you think about it. Should they build a better box and put their service in it? By the way, they have released a new version for Mac and should come up with another for Apple TV soon, so check with the site to see if you need an update.

(Thanks, Darren)

Via engadget

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Turn Your BlackBerry Into a Universal Remote

How cool is the AV|Shadow? It turns your BlackBerry into a universal remote control. We are talking TV, DVD player, stereo system, settop and satellite boxes, TiVo, Apple TV, and your home theater system. Place the Bluetooth Shadow beside your other electronics, plug it in and set it up via your smartphone or on Unify4Life's site. Other members of your family with a BlackBerry can be added on as well. Use default or customize buttons, then simply search, put them on a calendar or add to your favorites list. The $99.99 price includes software, their SoundStreaming technology and 1 year of UnifyGuide.

Via Unify4Life

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Tutorial: Installing Boxee on your Apple TV

Last month we told you about Boxee, software for Apple TV that will allow you to stream Hulu content on your Apple TV.

If you've got an Apple TV, there's no reason not to have Boxee since it really opens up the availbility for lots of free streaming content. If you're ready to install Boxee, we found a great tutorial to help you get the most out of the software over at Gizmodo. The tutorial starts out:

What You'll Need:

• Apple TV with software version 2.0 or higher

• A USB flash drive 512MB or larger

• ATV USB Creator [download: 1.0.b7 version - Mac only, for now]

• An invite into Boxee's semi-public alpha (use this link especially for Giz readers to jump the line a bit)

Prepare Your USB Drive

Just like the iPhone, the Apple TV is basically an OS X computer (running a 1GHz Intel processor), so Boxee installs just like a regular desktop app in the Applications folder, which is hidden normally. Why Apple hasn't opened up the Apple TV to third party developers is anyone's guess, but thankfully, with a prepared USB stick it's all pretty painless.

So what's the future of Boxee? According to the tutorial:

Eventually, Boxee wants to be in set top boxes and on every platform (Windows is coming before the end of the year)--since it supports practically every audio and video codec known, it's aiming to be the Firefox of multi-platform connected AV setups, featuring plug-ins and add-ons of its own. It doesn't support DRM of any kind, so don't hold your breath for Boxee to be picked up by any of the majors. Fine with me.

At Gizmodo.com [image: Gizmodo]

Apple TV at Amazon

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Boxee Makes Hulu Streaming to Apple TV Official

This morning we told you that Boxee's media center app for Apple TV is going to support streaming TV from Hulu.

we just released a new alpha version of boxee that includes:

• streaming TV shows, movies and clips from Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central and MySpaceTV (we integrated their players into boxee)
• major changes to the UI
• web interface to adding RSS feeds
• improved performance

... and yes the new version is also available for Apple TV (click upgrade and its there).

Very cool. If you're using Boxee on your Apple TV, let us know what you think.

At the Boxee Blog

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Hulu Streaming Coming to Apple TV?

There's a rumor out there that today Boxee's media center app for Apple TV is going to support streaming TV from Hulu. According to Mac Soda:

Alright everyone, listen up. Mac Soda has heard reliable word that Boxee is going to announce on Moday at CEA i-Stage that their popular media-center app, which is available for the Apple TV, is going to now support streaming videos from Hulu.com.

That's great news for Apple TV owners. We'll let you know if and when the info from Mac Soda is confirmed from Boxee.

At MacSoda.com

Apple TV at Amazon

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Apple Releases Version 2.2 Firmware Upgrade for Apple TV

Apple TV owners listen up, you can finally download HD TV shows with a new firmware upgrade for Apple TV. There also quite a few new features with the upgrade which you can see from the screenshot below (click image to expand):

If you haven't updated your firmware yet, follow these steps (according to Apple's website):

1. Select Settings > General using your Apple Remote.
2. Select Update Software.

At this time your Apple TV checks to see if an update is available and a Download Now message should appear.
3. Select Download Now to start the download process.

When the update has finished downloading, an Update Now message should appear.
4. To start the update process, select Update Now. During the update process, your Apple TV will conduct a restart which is followed by the Apple logo and a status bar.

Note: On some TVs, the screen may display black for up to 15 minutes and the Apple TV may flash an amber light; this is expected behavior. Do not unplug your Apple TV during the update process.
5. After the final restart, your Apple TV plays the opening video and returns to the main menu.

At Apple.com

Apple TV at Amazon

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Are HD TV Downloads Coming to Apple TV Soon?

We've never had any doubt that HD TV shows would eventually make it to the Apple TV but MacNN states that Mac is working on how to deliver the content:

Apple is already at work on an update to deliver HD TV shows to the Apple TV, anonymous sources claim. The release of iTunes 8 brought with it HD-quality shows, which can be viewed either on a computer or an Apple TV; the latter device cannot download HD shows directly however, despite supporting the option for movies. A software update for Apple TVs is said to be in progress, which may be necessary for multiple reasons.

We'll keep you posted when we here any more news on streaming HD to your Apple TV

At MacNN

Apple TV at Amazon

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Top 20 Hacks for Apple TV

One of the great things about devices that run on mainstream operating systems is the awesome ability to add features or "hacks". The Apple TV is one of those great devices that has plenty of hacks to get the most out of your device and an article at the Top 100 Directory list the top hacks and plugins for Apple TV. Here are a few of both categories:

Plugins:

• Apple TV RSS Plugin - Configure and read various RSS feeds right on your Apple TV.
• ATVLoader - Install many plugins from a large database. This one is great for those that want a simplified and easy way of installing plugins without a lot of hassle.
• nitoTV - The biggest and best plugin of them all. Network and USB mounting, mplayer, and DVD playback with VIDEO_TS files or ISO files.

Hacks:

• Firefox - This hack shows you how to get Firefox up and running on an Apple TV, step by step.
• Component to RGB - How to convert from component to RGB for TVs that don't have component ports.
• How to Play DivX From a NAS - Explains how to play DivX files on your AppleTV from a network storage device.

So if you're looking to tweak the heck out of your Apple TV, be sure to check out the complete list.

At Dir100.com

AppleTV at Amazon

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