HP releases MediaSmart add-in for TiVo, step-by-step guide
Earlier today HP released an awesome new add-in for their MediaSmart Home Servers. The MediaSmart Expander for TiVo allows you to copy your favourite recordings to the MediaSmart so running out of storage should never be an issue again. Another feature is the ability to stream those shows from your PC back through your TiVo to your TV.
This means you’ll never need to fork out for that Western Digital 1TB Expander drive, your own storage that you’ve already invested in. The only downside is the transfer is a manual one. So you’ll need to open the Home Server Console Periodically and transfer the show you wish to keep, then delete them from the TiVo. While that may seem annoying, the upside is the storage amount is only limited to the size of your Home Server array, which as you know is easily upgradable.
This Add-in is supported on HP MediaSmart EX490/EX495 and HP DataVault X510 models, earlier models are not compatible. On the TiVo side you’ll need a Series II, Series III, TiVo Premier. Both Australian TiVo models will work. One more caveat is that both the TiVo and MediaSmart must be on the same network. In the standard home setup, this isn’t an issue.
If you in the US, you’ll see a new Add-in available in the Settings screen of the Home Server Console. If your outside of the US, then head over to http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/everyday-computing/mediasmartserver/us/en/tivo.html and download the Add-in manually.
Step 1 – Setup
Copy the HPTivoExpanderAddin.msi file into the Software/Add-ins folder on your Home Server.
Step 2 – Install the add-in
Open the Windows Home Server Console, click Settings in the top-right corner.
Step 3 – Activate
Select the MediaSmart Add-in and click install. Once finished installing the Home Server Console will need to restart.
The next time you launch it, you’ll notice the addition of the HP MediaSmart Expander for TiVO© item to the left-hand side menu.
Step 4 – Configure
There’s very minor configuration required before the devices can talk to one another. Simply click on the Configuration button at the top-right and enter your TiVo Media Access Key, available from your account page on http://tivo.com.au
Step 5 – Select
Once configured you’ll see the files stored on your TiVo. To transfer files to your MediaSmart, select each file (holding CTRL+click for multiple), when your ready to go, click the Transfer Selected Files button.
Once the Transfer is in progress, go make yourself a coffee, or 10.. this process is not fast. When complete the files (shows) will display in the third tab Files on Server where they can be deleted if you wish, or simply browse to the folder and delete them like normal files.
Step 6 – Location and Playback
After some investigation I discovered the files are actually transferred to \\MEDIASMART\Recorded TV\tivo. If you’d like to playback the files, you’ll need the TiVo Desktop software installed on your machine.
Step 7 – Watch on TV
Another option, and probably the more common, is for playback through the TiVo to your TV. To play the files (now located on your MediaSmart, scroll right to the bottom of your Now Playing list and you’ll find a new item called HP MediaSmart Server (MEDIASMART) where MEDIASMART is the name of your server.
That’s it, that’s all there is.. well except for an nice little easter egg.. those guys at HP seem to love them. Discovered by the guys over at mediasmartserver.net, if you double-right click on the TiVo DVRs Found section, you get a 4th tab Team Info.
In other news.. while hunting around HP site today I noticed, the HP EX490 MediaSmart Servers have dropped in price. I paid A$899 for mine only a few months back, they are now A$749.
More info @ HP.com
Will you pay for games and apps 3 times ?
In a demo a Tech.Ed Middle East, Eric Rudder showed how a single project (in this case a game) could be published and run on 3 entirely different platforms. Running on Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone 7 which all have different input mechanisms – keyboard and mouse, controller, touch-screen and accelerometer, this begins to get very interesting.
This gets a whole lot more awesome when you find out that your game/app can sync across platforms. So hit the save point on the Xbox, run out the door and continue playing on your phone. Someone should sort through the old beyond 2000 footage, this technology is probably in there somewhere. It sounds like futuristic and probably will be some ways off before you get a triple-platform app in your hand.
My biggest question out of this is the pricing model. Are we expected to buy the game 3 times to get ultra-portability ? It’s important to also recognise that this isn’t functionality everyone wants. So building it into the price of the first purchase will hurt those who only want it on one platform. For the right price, those that want ultra-portability should pay for that feature, but at a subsidised price. Maybe after the primary purchase, you could then pickup the same app/game on the other platforms for 5-10% of the original cost. I think that’s a model that would work.
For a $100 Xbox 360 game, you should be able to get the PC version for an additional $10 and maybe an additional $5 for the mobile version. Currently pricing models don’t recognise that people game in different places, when in reality that’s very true. Imagine if you didn’t have to make the console vs PC choice, but could have the game on both for an affordable price. Crazy thought right ?
More @ Engadget
Victorian Government release Data Directory
As part of the ‘App My State’ Competition, the Victorian government has released 92 pieces of raw data for developers to use. These range from Skate Parks to Crime statistics, even projected populations till 2056, so much data, so many possibilities. The really interesting part will be seeing what creative developers use the data to create.
Available in .csv files, the data is easily imported into excel and turned into graphs, but more interestingly will be web-sites driven by databases, fuelled with this open data.
It’s an interesting project and on that displays openness and transparency rarely seen by the government. What’s important to remember is that it’s our tax payer dollars that pay for the surveys that lead to most of this data in the first place.
It’s important to note that there are already two Australian Government data directories running:
Go nuts people.
The Victorian Government Data Directory is at http://data.vic.gov.au
What’s coming in WordPress 3.0.. ads multi-blog support
If you’ve ever wanted to operate and manage multiple blogs from a single WordPress install, there’s always been the option of running WordPress MU. Unfortunately by the time you realise you need it, you’re already many months into running your standard single instance blog.
Why would you need to run multiple blogs ? Well perhaps you run multiple sub-properties from the major overall hub. In some scenarios you may want these to be branded or themed differently. Imagine a company that produces mac and pc software for instance. Or perhaps your blog theme isn’t conducive to the photo gallery section of your site.
Good news.. As outlined in a new post from Mitchell McKenna, titled ‘What’s Coming in WordPress 3.0’ he explains that WordPress and WordPress MU are in fact merging. This means from a single install you can operate and manage multiple blogs from one central location. We can assume that the upgrade process allows for this to happen seamlessly.
Also included in the list of new features is the addition of better menus via custom Woo Themes Navigation included in the core release.
There’s also a brand new default theme, which frankly was over due for an update.
More information about all the new features @ MitchMcKenna.com
Minority Report is already here – g-speak by Oblong
After listening to the latest episode of This Week in Startups, I looked up the company Oblong. One of Oblong’s founders served as science advisor to Minority Report. Oblong looks at new and innovative ways of how we’ll be interacting with computers in the future.
Those paying attention would have seen Tom Cruise use gloves to control the semi-transparent interfaces in the movie. Sure Hollywood embellished the idea, but seen here on video, gloves are used to control UI elements, displayed across 3 large screens. Oblong are the developers of g-speak, a spatial operating environment.
g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.
More @ Oblong
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 now available
If you own a Windows Home Server, it’s update time. This time it’s Power Pack 3. This largest addition in this update is Windows 7 compatibility.
The folks over at WeGotServed blog has a great run down of the new features and instructions for PP3 beta users on how to uninstall the beta, before updating to the full PP3 release.
More @ WeGotServed and Windows Home Server blog.
Google Chrome OS running !! [screen shots]
Thanks to the guys over at GDGT, I now have Google Chrome OS running in a VMware virtual machine. As you can see from the screens below, it’s really just Google Chrome with a couple of extra icons.
In the top right, there’s control for Power Management, Networking (wifi or wireless) and essentially Chrome options menu.
It did take some configuring to get networking happening, so the first attempt wasn’t exactly successful.
Google Chrome OS running on Windows 7 in a VMware virtual machine
The About Screen
Networking fixed 
Some work to do on getting techAU.tv to display correctly. Related to screen res, no way of changing.
If your thinking you want to check this out yourself.. you don’t. The experience even with a well resourced VM is not a nice one. For now just be content with the Google Chrome browser.