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AirServer adds back in the AirPlay function Apple forgot

AirServer is a Mac app that turns your computer into a receiver for AirPlay. We have seen this kind of thing before, in the shape of Banana TV, but AirServer works better, and adds in some functionality not found in Banana TV.

AirPlay is what lets you throw content from an iPad or iPhone wirelessly to speakers or your TV. To do this, you need to have an AirPort Express next to your speakers, or an Apple TV hooked up to your TV. Bluetooth speakers show up in the list, too. What you can’t do is beam movies from your iOS device direct to your big-screen iMac.

AirServer is a $3 app that adds in this last piece of the puzzle. With it running on your Mac, a new entry will show up in the AirPlay popover of any iOS device on the same network, as you’d expect.

Music just appears magically from your Mac’s speakers, or whatever speakers are hooked up to it. Movies open after a second in the Quicktime player, and it’s on-screen controls let you play, pause, scrub and change volume on the Mac itself.

Both of these (usually) work just fine in Banana TV (although that app can also use its own video viewer). The difference is with photos. With AirServer, you can not only view individual photos, but you can also run a slideshow. Pick your album in the Photos app, choose slideshow and a popover will pop, erm, over to let you choose a destination. You need to select a photo in that album to see the popover, and the promised transition is replaced by one photo simply appearing to replace another, but it works.

Like the $8 Banana TV, AirServer has no trial, and thanks to its nature it won’t be making it into the app store. Then again, it costs just $3, and you pay with PayPal, so there’s little risk. And as I took one for the team and tested it, you know it works.

AirServer product page [AirServer]

See Also:

• Hands-On: Banana TV Streams iOS Video, Pictures to Mac
• AirPlay
• The Hidden Secrets of Apple's AirPlay
• AirPlay Can Stream to Apple TV From Any iOS App – Not Just iTunes …

OS X Lion is coming to the Mac App Store, ushering in a new era of digital distribution for their desktop operating system. And rumors are flying that iOS devices will soon receive over-the-air updates. If we had to smash these two pieces of information together and speculate about the future a little bit, we’d say Apple is heading down a path to automatic background updates for all of their operating systems. Hardcore nerds would hate this to be sure, but for the average user, it’s a good thing. More »

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This article was written on February 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Last week, Newsweek sat down to interview Bill Gates for the launch of Vista.  He was asked about all of the typical questions regarding Vista like security, upgrading, and whether or not he was satisfied with the outcome of Vista. The one part that caught my eye was when he was asked how he felt about the infamous “Get a Mac” campaign that Apple has started with the most recent commercial showing the PC going in for surgery. This of course is in regards to upgrading to Vista.

Everybody takes the commercials differently. Some look at them and can’t help but laugh, others get infuriated over the serious jabs and sometimes untruthful lies that fill the commercial. One of the first things you’ll notice in any of the commercials is that the Apple is portrayed as a “cool stud” and the PC is portrayed as a “geeky dud.” This is the first thing Bill addresses. He was asked by Newsweek:

Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?

I’ve never seen it. I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.

How about the implication that you need surgery to upgrade?

Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.

And finally, the last and probably the most interesting question addressed some of the features in Vista which are very similar to those in the Mac.

In many of the Vista reviews, even the positive ones, people note that some Vista features are already in the Mac operating system.

You can go through and look at who showed any of these things first, if you care about the facts. If you just want to say, “Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along,” that’s fine. If you’re interested, [Vista development chief] Jim Allchin will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is. I mean, it’s fascinating, maybe we shouldn’t have showed so publicly the stuff we were doing, because we knew how long the new security base was going to take us to get done. Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine. So, yes, it took us longer, and they had what we were doing, user interface-wise. Let’s be realistic, who came up with [the] file, edit, view, help [menu bar]? Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?

Now, perhaps I’m just under-educated with the Mac, but I haven’t heard about that many exploits. Every single day? Clearly hackers/attackers go after vulnerabilities in PCs because that’s where the market share is, but every single day a total exploit is found for a Mac? I’ve always heard people say that you’d never need an Anti-virus for Linux, simply because the general population is not using it, therefore creating viruses would be a waste of time. It’s a similar situation for Apple as well (although they definitely have more of the market share than Linux), but obviously, if what Bill Gates said is true, perhaps Apple needs to take a good look at their security.

There’s been quite the collection of these “Get a Mac” ads.  You can find clips of all of them here. And, if you’re interested in reading the entire interview with Bill Gates, you can find that here.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 28, 2007 by CyberNet.

It’s one day before the launch of the iPhone and more details are emerging from Apple, and news around the Web continues to be abundant. There’s lots to cover today, so we’ll just sum it up.

Pre-approved credit check a good idea:

First, The Boy Genius Report has an “exclusively obtained leaked document” filled with all kinds of details about what the scene will look like at the store when you go to purchase a phone.

One of those details is that AT&T employees must always offer to complete a pre-approved credit check for every customer purchasing the iPhone with a line of service. If you choose not to run the credit check in the store, you’ll have to do it during the iTunes activation process at home.  The problem is that if your credit is less than desirable and you’re not approved, you’ll have to choose one of the following options:

• Choose ‘Pick your plan’ (Pay as you go)
• Pay the $250 security deposit which would require a trip back to the store.
• Return the product, requiring a 10% re-stocking fee.

So if you know that your credit isn’t great, the pre-approved credit check that you’ll be offered is a really good idea.

Zoho’s Office Suite optimized for iPhone:

Zoho has taken this opportunity to get in on the iPhone craze with iZoho, an office suite optimized just for the iPhone. As of now, you’ll be able to view your existing Zoho files, and edit your Zoho Notebook documents.

Zoho says that they’re working on more features, so keep your eye out for this one.

iPhone “Gotchas”

While there are a lot of great things about the iPhone, there are certainly some drawbacks too. Some of which I’m sure we’ll hear more about in the next few days after masses have had some quality time with their iPhones.

PCWorld has put together a list of 11 iPhone Gotchas, or some drawbacks that you should consider before buying. It’s definitely worth reading.

Among them: Data that crawls, limited third-party apps (hopefully more become available after developers are able to get their hands on a phone), keyboard issues, the cost, battery life issues, and the fact that it’s not really practical for business-people.

Thanks for the tip on this one Cory!

iPhone Premiere Details for Apple Stores

These details apply only to Apple stores, not AT&T stores.

• All 164 Apple stores will stay open until midnight
• Each customer may purchase a maximum of two phones on a first come, first served basis.
• Starting Saturday Morning, iPhone customers can attend “in-depth” workshops all day at Apple Stores
• Support will also be available at the Genius Bar and through their One to One program.
• Starting at 6:00 PDT tomorrow, you can go to Apple’s online store to purchase an iPhone.
• Apple stores will open at 9am on Saturday

If you decide not to get in line tomorrow night, and you plan on waiting until Saturday or another date, Apple has set-up a website so you can check iPhone availability at your local Apple store.

Click here to check availability.

RSS Reader for iPhone

It appears as though Apple has created an RSS reader for the iPhone. If you go to http://reader.mac.com, you’ll notice that it says “This Application is Viewable Only on iPhone.

This is most likely part of their .mac service which requires a paid membership.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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