Those plans came to nothing; eventually I settled on using Boxee on my current computer, rather than having a separate media centre computer. However, I’m thinking of revisiting the idea.

Eight years is a long time

Said Mac Mini will be eight years old this summer. It was last used intensively in early 2007, and so it has spent over six years as a spare computer looking for a purpose, whilst all the while becoming more and more obsolete. It uses a PowerPC processor, which limits what it can do – I wasn’t able to upgrade it beyond OS X Leopard and nowadays almost all Mac software is for Intel-based Macs only.

Software-wise, there are a limited number of media centre applications available for it. I wrote about possible software in 2009 when I was still actively looking into making it into a media centre.  The two programs available were MediaCentral, by Equinux, and XBMC.

MediaCentral is still available (and I still have a license for it) but it looks like it hasn’t been a priority for Equinux for some time and recent updates have seen some features removed, as well as support for PowerPC processors. I’d therefore be stuck on an old version. Plus, it’s proprietary software so I’m limited to the features offered out of the box.

For XBMC, again I wouldn’t be able to use the latest and greatest version 12 (codenamed ‘Frodo’) but would be able to use last year’s version 11, called Eden. Most of the improvements in version 12 seem to be related to performance with only a handful of new features, so this may not be too much of a bad thing. However, expecting good performance – especially when considering high definition output – from an eight year old machine is probably asking too much.

And there’s the practical side of connecting it to the TV. The main output of the Mac Mini is a DVI socket; affordable DVI to HDMI cables exist but these carry video only – not sound. Add in sound and you’re looking at a very expensive proposition.

Enter the Raspberry Pi

I’ve been following the Raspberry Pi ever since it was announced a couple of years ago. For less than £30 it’s possible to buy a brand-new, fully functioning general purpose PC, albeit one without a keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard drive, power cable or even a case. Its primary raison d’être is for education – specifically to follow in the footsteps of the BBC Micro from the 1980s and teach children about programming. But its status as a very small, cheap and low-power computer means that it has been used for all sorts of other things – the Rapsberry Pi news page shows just a few of the systems that people have built around the computer.

In particular, the Raspberry Pi has been used by a number of people for media centre computers. There’s a whole page about it on the XBMC wiki with three separate standalone XBMC projects available for the device. Whilst the Raspberry Pi has a relatively basic level CPU, its GPU is actually very powerful, and it can easily handle 1080p high definition video. Plus, the device includes the necessary HDMI output – with audio as well as video – which makes connecting it to a HD-ready TV very easy.

I’m planning a more in-depth post about the Raspberry Pi later this week.

What about buying a media centre, like the Apple TV or Boxee Box?

The Apple TV is a nice, compact device that works well with other Apple products. But Apple haven’t made much of an effort to localise the services it offers outside of the US. For example, it will connect to Netflix, a relatively recent entrant to the UK market, but not to Lovefilm. And none of the catch-up services offered by UK TV broadcasters – BBC iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player, Demand Five, Now TV and so on – are offered. Nor is there a way to add these; even though the Apple TV runs iOS, to date Apple have not allowed third-party apps on the device.

The Boxee Box has dropped in price to £99 – same as the Apple TV – but it’s no longer being developed for. In particular the Netflix app will only work in the US and Canada, and not in the UK and other countries where Netflix has recently expanded to. The company’s focus is now on the Boxee Cloud PVR which is only available in the US.

In both cases, with a bit of work, it should be possible to use a Raspberry Pi to make a media centre computer that is both cheaper than £99, and more flexible. In particular, it will (hopefully!) work with the catch-up TV services that I use.

I need to save up a bit of money before I start splashing out on new hardware (weddings are expensive things) but I’ll keep you posted.

Revisiting the idea of a Media Centre computer originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. Mac Mini Media Centre: Software
2. Mac Mini Media Centre: Resurrection

I reviewed the first user preview in 2006, and kept up with the development of it for some time – maybe even as late as 2011. But it never became my main media player. On my Mac, it was always slower and less stable than iTunes, which may be a hard concept for Windows users to fathom, I admit. But at some point I got rid of it off my computer as I clearly wasn’t using it.

Evidently I wasn’t the only one. Songbird has announced the cessation of all development, both of its desktop music player and Android and iOS apps, as of next Friday (I didn’t even know there was a Songbird iOS app until I started writing this blog post).

It’s a shame, as Songbird showed a lot of promise in the early days, but understandable. iTunes is still the unstoppable behemoth of media players despite everyone apparently hating it. Windows Media Player is also a lot better than it used to be and is still shipped with (almost all) new Windows computers. And POTI recently ceased development of its Linux port, allowing the likes of Amarok and Tomahawk to become the default players of popular Linux distros like Ubuntu. Plus WinAMP is still going after all of these years.

Songbird’s open source nature means that its death needn’t be permanent. Whilst its original developers have abandoned it, at least one fork is already available in the form of Nightingale, which crucially still runs on Linux. The Songbird may be dead, but its song will hopefully live on.

Songbird is an ex-Parrot. It has ceased to be originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. Songbird User Preview 0.1
2. Winamp’s 15th Anniversary

Here are the articles or web sites that I’ve found this week and linked to on my Delicious Bookmarks:

• Google beams internet from balloons
  Google is sending BALLOONS into SPACE to provide INTERNET access
• Train station cat gets own ticket barrier – Odd News – Digital Spy
  The station cat at Huddersfield now has her own catflap to get through the newly-installed ticket barriers
• Prior to iPad Steve Jobs Didn't Want an iBookstore – John Paczkowski – News – AllThingsD
  Steve Jobs was originally against the idea of Apple selling eBooks
• Lawsuit Filed To Prove Happy Birthday Is In The Public Domain; Demands Warner Pay Back Millions Of License Fees | Techdirt
  A lawsuit is being filed claiming that the song ‘Happy Birthday’ is in the public domain and not copyrighted
• Jony Ive Redesigns Things
  Brilliant Tumblr: Jony Ive redesigns things
• BBC News – 3D sport channel on ESPN to close after three years
  ESPN is closing its 3D sport channel in the US because so few people watch it
• PSA: If you're not a developer, don't install developer betas on your iPhone | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
  If you’re not a developer, probably best to hold back from the iOS 7 beta builds for now
• Facebook is just fine — How to use the internet — Medium
  ‘Facebook is just fine’ – how to tame to Facebook to make it enjoyable
• BBC News – Who, what, why: Are tech goods cheaper in the US than the UK?
  Why will the Xbox One and PS4 be more expensive in the UK than in the US?
• BBC News – Is Bitcoin the future of currency?
  Interesting BBC Click video explaining what Bitcoin is
• Here's the List of Macs Compatible With OS X Mavericks
  OS X Mavericks will run on any Mac capable of running Mountain Lion
• NSA surveillance, as told through classic children's books
  NSA surveillance as told through covers of childrens’ books
• WWDC 2013: from iOS 7 to 'iRadio', what to expect from Apple – and not | Technology | guardian.co.uk
  A list of what Apple may or may not announce at tonight’s WWDC keynote

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Links from Delicious for June 15, 2013 originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. Links from Delicious for June 8, 2013
2. Links from Delicious for June 1, 2013

It would seem that, at regular intervals, the Facebook app ‘wakes up’ and does something for 10 seconds, which uses some of your phone’s processor power, and, in turn, wears the battery down a bit.

It probably has something to do with the chat feature, however, as the author of the article says, signing out of chat doesn’t make any difference. The problem also afflicts the separate Facebook Messenger app, so if you use both (like me) then the effect is even more pronounced. I also thought it might have something to do with the background photo uploader but disabling this doesn’t appear to have had much of an effect.

Whilst there may be some other factors here, I’m estimating that these two apps drain an additional 20-25% of my battery each day. Previously, by the end of the day my iPhone would have around 60-70% charge remaining – now it’s usually well below 50%.

The article does suggest a couple of workarounds. Firstly, when you’ve finished using the Facebook app, you need to kill the process. To do this, double-tap the home button, find the Facebook icon (you may need to swipe from right to left to find it), then do a long tap on the icon until the icon wiggles and a red ‘no entry’ icon appears (as shown in the screenshot above). Tap the red icon, and the Facebook process will stop – this will also stop it running in the background and will hopefully prevent the battery drain. However, you may be signed out of Facebook chat, and the process will start up again as soon as you re-open the app, so you’ll need to kill the process each time you close it again.

The other workaround is to get rid of the Facebook app from your phone, which is hardly optimal.

Hopefully Facebook will look into this and make improvements. I can’t see why it needs to use so much power whilst idle, especially if all its doing is maintaining a logged-in presence on Facebook chat. And there’s no way that an app in the top 100 free apps should be doing this, especially one that partners with Apple through its integration with iOS 6 and above.

Is the Facebook app eating your iPhone’s battery? originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. How to: improve your iPhone’s battery life
2. How to: Restart frozen iOS apps

At the end of last year, I ‘quit’ Instagram in a huff over its new terms of service. I didn’t actually delete my account but I did stop posting new photos, and deleted the app off my iPhone.

Anyway, I’m back. I suppose I predicted that Instagram would go into meltdown after the announcement and everyone would stop using it. That didn’t happen and it’s seemingly still as popular as ever. Plus, it’s a really easy way to share your photos in multiple places at once – the acquisition by Facebook hasn’t resulted in the ability share photos on Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr and Twitter yet which is good.

So I’m using it again, although I’m not seeing the same level of interaction with my photos – fewer likes and comments than before. Maybe I’m just not photographing enough interesting things?

Giving Instagram another chance originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. On Facebook buying Instagram
2. 10 Reasons why Flickr is better than Instagram

Last week, I wrote a wishlist of features that I wanted to see in iOS 7. These were five improvements that I hoped would be announced at Apple’s WWDC keynote.

The keynote was yesterday and so Apple has duly announced what’s new in iOS 7. So how did they do?

What they didn’t add

Three of the things I wanted do not appear to be in iOS 7 – these are the ability to change the default apps, remove default apps that I don’t use, and third-party intents (for example, sharing to social networks or apps other than those that ship with the phone). I suppose the first two of these are niche desires and if I was really bothered by them I could jailbreak my phone. I’m a little bit disappointed that third-party intents didn’t make it though, as this is one feature that Android does well.

And what they did add

Two items on my wishlist have been added to iOS 7.

I bemoaned the lack of password synchronisation in Safari – Apple announced iCloud Keychain which will synchronise passwords between Mac desktop and iOS devices. It’ll also do Wifi passwords as well, apparently. I’ll still be using 1Password though as iCloud Keychain apparently won’t work on Windows.

And while I was hoping for a visual refresh, I wasn’t expecting an almost complete ground-up re-imagining of the entire operating system. iOS 7 looks fantastic, in my opinion, and I’m really looking forward to the autumn when I get to try it for real. The new ‘control centre’ is very welcome for turning on airplane mode and Bluetooth, and I like the like of the new Notification Centre with larger text and buttons.

If Safari and Mail are sufficiently improved over their iOS 6 counterparts, then I’ll happily go back to using them, thus negating the issue of not being able to make third-party apps default. I’ll need to try them out first though.

Is iOS 7 just ripping off Android and Windows Phone?

I’ve heard a number of comments that iOS 7 introduces nothing new compared to Android and Windows Phone, and, if anything, its new design aesthetic is directly ripped off from these operating systems. Having never really used anything other than iOS I can’t really comment but there do seem to be more similarities than before. I suppose there are a limited number of ways that you can do things on a small screen and if one company finds a better way of doing things then others are bound to imitate it. I doubt it has been done maliciously.

I also agree with the point that Apple is probably less keen on attracting people away from other smartphone platforms, and instead ensuring its current users don’t switch away. Remember that Apple also makes money from every app, song, iBook and TV show that you buy from its stores, so Apple has a vested interest in keeping users within its ecosystem. They won’t want users switching to Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry and so will want to keep the grass green on their side of the fence.

iOS 7 – did my wishes come true? originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. My iOS 7 wishlist
2. Is it worth jailbreaking my iPhone?

Last night Christine and I joined a few friends to be in the audience for Bollywood Carmen Live, a Bollywood-themed retelling of Bizet’s opera Carmen by BBC Three. It was broadcast live from Bradford city centre, in front of City Hall and in the adjacent City Park.

We managed to find a spot right in front of the main stage, where we got to see most of the dancing; a big screen behind us then showed the other bits (well, most of them). Admittedly the only person in it that I recognised was Meera Syal. It was great fun though. I didn’t take any photos during the broadcast but managed to snap the photo above about an hour beforehand.

Hopefully the show will show off the good side of Bradford – City Park is brilliant and still new to a lot of people. It’s also fitting that the BBC should choose to celebrate 100 years of Bollywood films in Bradford, which is the world’s first designated UNESCO City of Film.

It’s repeated on BBC Three tonight, and it’s also on the BBC iPlayer. You may be able to spot me in the audience.

Disclosure: My employer, the University of Bradford, was a partner in the production.

Bollywood Carmen Live in Bradford originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. Bradford City of Film
2. Jerry Springer in Bradford

On Friday both Christine and I had the day off work, and as it was a warm, sunny day, we went to visit the Victorian model village of Saltaire. I probably end up here at least once a year for some reason or other. Mostly to visit Salts Mill – home of many of David Hockney‘s paintings and photographs, as well as some quirky shops. But the village itself is worthy of a stroll around. Saltaire was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001, and despite being built by Sir Titus Salt, an avid follower of the temperance movement, it now has several nice bars to spend time in.

There’s also Roberts Park, on the other side of the River Aire from the village, which is one of my favourite parks. A major restoration project was completed three years ago and the park now boasts a nice café. When the weather is like it was on Friday, it makes for a great place to sit with a cold drink.

In a rare example of organisation, I’ve already uploaded the photos that I took to Flickr for your perusal. At some point, I’ll get around to uploading the rest of the photos from Paris as well…

A day out in Saltaire originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. Bradford Mela 2010
2. Lister Park

Here are the articles or web sites that I’ve found this week and linked to on my Delicious Bookmarks:

• Six things the EDL should probably learn about England – Us Vs Th3m
  Six things that the EDL should probably learn about England
• Making Google’s CalDAV and CardDAV APIs available for everyone – Google Developers Blog
  Google does a u-turn and makes CalDAV API available to all developers again, along with CardDAV
• Mad genius Rickrolls and crashes Vine with full-length music video embed | The Verge
  Developer finds out how to circumvent Vine’s 6-second limit, uploads Rick Astley video
• Top Gear Mag builds 130mph lawnmower
  Honda and Top Gear are collaborating to buikd the world’s fastest lawnmower, capable of 130mph
• An American’s Guide to Rugby « Man Cave Daily
  A guide to Rugby for Americans. It’s pretty accurate… and brutal
• Sunset on the British Empire
• BBC News – Devon council says changing light bulbs costs £30 each
  How much does it cost to change a light bulb? About £30, if you work for Devon Council
• BBC News – 10 things you might not know about India
  Ten things you probably didn’t know about India – insightful
• Facebook app is draining your iPhone’s battery | hagga_blog
  If you’ve been getting poor battery life on iOS lately, the Facebook app may be to blame
• Modified iPhone charger installs malware
  Security researchers have found a way of installing malware on unjailbroken iOS using modified charger
• BBC News – Blind Federation slams Captcha security test
  A petition demanding that printed materials be made more accessible can’t be signed by the blind because of a CAPTCHA
• BBC News – Census reveals German population lower than thought
  Following first census since reunification, Germany discovers its population is 1.5million fewer than thought
• The Burger Lab: Revisiting the Myth of The 12-Year Old McDonald's Burger That Just Won't Rot (Testing Results!) | A Hamburger Today
  Why don’t McDonald’s burgers go mouldy? Probably not because of the reason you’re thinking of

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Links from Delicious for June 8, 2013 originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. Links from Delicious for June 1, 2013
2. Links from Delicious for June 11, 2011

It’s not often that I ask you, dear readers of this blog, to sign a petition. But please can you take a few seconds of your time to sign a petition to Save the National Media Museum in Bradford.

The museum, along with the National Railway Museum in York, and the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester, are threatened with closure. Their parent company, Science Museum Group, cannot afford to run all three in addition to the Science Museum in London, due to cuts in funding from central government. It is therefore said that one of these will have to go.

I really, really hope that none of them close. As a child, I loved going to visit them and have also been recently as an adult, and enjoyed them all. Putting the museums against each other in a fight for survival is therefore not helpful.

But, I’m particularly keen for the National Media Museum to stay open. It’s the one big visitor attraction in Bradford city centre, with a strong reputation. Closing it would be an absolute disaster for a city which has fallen on hard times over recent years. Racial tension fuelled riots in the summer of 2001. In 2003, demolition work started on a new shopping centre, to be built by Westfield, but ten years on and there’s just a big hole in the ground. Meanwhile the recession has caused many of Bradford’s other shops to close, leaving even bigger gaps in the city centre.

Last year’s opening of the City Park, with its excellent mirror pool and fountains (a magnet for kids on hot sunny afternoons), was a big step in the right direction and shows that the city does have positive momentum. And, hopefully, work will start on our long-awaited shopping centre this year. But all the good work could be undone if the National Media Museum closes. Because people will stop coming to Bradford, and then more local shops and business will go under. It’s a horrible thing to even contemplate.

So please, sign the petition. And if you’re free tomorrow (Saturday), why not visit the museum? There’ll be a mass ‘visit’ of the museum at around 12pm. It’s free to get in, and it’ll show the powers that be that this museum is important, not just to Bradford but for the country as a whole. It is, after all, part of our national collection.

Save the National Media Museum originally appeared on Neil Turner's Blog and is released under a Creative Commons License. Follow me on Twitter - @nrturner

Related posts:

1. National Railway Museum
2. Looking into The Internet Mirror