HD For Indies

Hey all -

as if I didn't have enough to do, I felt like starting a new blog just for kicks - AppleTV Hacker*

The URL is appletvhacker.blogspot.com until I can get it switched over to appletvhacker.com

On that site, I'll be sharing my latest reports and doodles and discoveries about what can be done with, and more importantly, TO an AppleTV. I'm not looking to figure out how to do illicit things, just clever things.

I've kicked it off with a round-up of AppleTV news today (pics, analysis, deconstruction hardware pron, etc.) since many AppleTVs are arriving today (Thursday), but mine isn't one of them. DAMMIT.

The joys of the interwebs - I got the site up and running in about an hour, with click trackers and AdSense and all. Blogs are quick and easy to set up. It is the writing and whatnot that chews enormous amounts of time!

I'll continue to cover AppleTV related stuff over there, and will post links on hdforindies.com for pertinent AppleTV things.

So check it out, or if you're a fancy type, read or subscribe to the RSS feed!

As an added bonus, I expect to get my own AppleTV tomorrow, and will be running it through my own heavy user paces - I have well over 120 GB of pictures, movies, and audio content - so how do I pick and choose what goes in?

I want to find out things, like:
-exactly what OS is it running?
-how is it, REALLY, to use, esp. with large media libaries?
-can you attach an external USB drive for expanded storage and have it be recognized in any way shape or form?
-can you attach an external DVD drive and play DVDs from it?
-and most importantly, can you swap out the hard drive and have a bigger hard drive be recognized and use all the additional space on it?

My guesses: a modified stripped down OS X (we kinda knew that already), cumbersome with the itty remote, no (not without software upgrade, but I betcha it's possible, even though Apple claims it is for service only - if it connects to mobo, why not?), no again (same reason), and perhaps, perhaps, perhaps....

I'll document the hell out of it and post some nitty gritty hands on feedback and analysis over the weekend.

And for all you other fellow geeks whose propeller beanies spin at similar frequencies, I'd LOVE to have your reports as well to run on or link from the site - so send them in! Or also links to good AppleTV stuff, too please!

As always but not said often enough, if you've done something you think hdforindies.com worthy, I'm ALWAYS interested in reader submissions of hands on reports on gear, theory, etc. Please do send in, credit & link luv always given.

Why? Because I geek that way....and if you thought I got flippant and occasionally unprofessionally silly on this site...

-mike

PS - and don't forget to check out the lyrics to the theme song...how can you have a blog without a theme song?

Labels: AppleTV, AppleTVHacker