Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Can you even buy firewire disks that don't also have USB?

I'm yet to see one

The last few pages of this thread have made my head hurt.

I want to get an external HDD as I don't have a backup system for my iMac. Should I get a G drive or a time capsule? I currently access wireless through the box that you get from BT, so will the wireless bit of the time capsule make life better in any way?

My thoughts are probably not, although I don't have wireless reception everywhere in my place and wondered whether the time capsule would help. Probably cheaper to buy a G drive and signal booster though...

PS my iMac has a firewire port

PS my iMac has a firewire port

Don't tell nailbrush

g-drive is cheaper and if you want to store it off-site you can, do that with a time capsule and you negate it's other functionality.

i'm contemplating a time capsule as i might be able to use it fully by siting at it next to my printer (using usb) stick my i-tunes library on it and using an airport express stream to the dac i have as part of my hi-fi (streaming in the digital domain at 16bit/44khz)

it will be in a bedroom connected via ethernet and hopefully should be able to connect to the airport express in the front room wireless and i control it from the laptop also via wireless? don't know if this will work though? could ethernet/network the airport express easily enough but not sure about controlling the itunes interface on the laptop with library on the time capsule?

Don't tell nailbrush

I definitely won't be spreadign the word about my class-war connection

g-drive is cheaper and if you want to store it off-site you can, do that with a time capsule and you negate it's other functionality.

Good point. Does your Airport Express replace the BT wirless box? I think my real problem is that I don't understand the extra functionality of the Time Capsule that well!

no. i have a netgear wireless router (in front room) which i guess is similar to a bt box.
a cat 5 cable that goes to a bedroom where the printer is, i already own the airport express that i can stream from the laptop to wirelessly and if i connect to the dac via optical cable then the dac in the airport express is bypassed and the one in the Hi-Fi's dac is used (better sound, no lossy compression)
what you could do is get a TC and then connect another HD via usb to do intermittent copy back-ups and then store this elsewhere.
if you wanted to print wirelessly then the TC could be the bridge between the laptop/printer (i use my airport express for this sometimes)
and/or if you have poor wireless at the top/back of the house you could run a cat5 cable and stick the TC there. this way you extend the range of your wireless and have a wireless HD to back up to (for big files plug into the TC directly)

you can also wirelessly connect airport express/extreme/time capsule to your existing router and use it as a range booster without the hassle of long ethernet/cat5 cables.

It's a bit tricky and depends on the router/modem setup you have, but a bit less messy.

Dont use it myself but I have made it work in a small scale environment out of boredom.

there is also the remote app for iphone and airplay. i can stream from my iphone to the dac but that's lower res mp3's.
i might be able to use the remote app on the iphone and control the library (high quality files on the TC) and get it to play via the airport express?
i need to speak to an expert as it's all a bit confusing.

Airport Express should solve any audio connection issues but you may find the setup easier if you use one mac in your setup as a sort of media server (always on etc).

I currently leave my iMac on with all my TV shows / Movies & music (all lossless). It connects to two Apple TVs and an airport express into a hifi which are all controllable using my iPhone. All airplay interaction is lossless as well which means it doesn't down sample the audio or video when streaming.

do i understand it right that I can also stream music to an apple TV?

Airport Express should solve any audio connection issues but you may find the setup easier if you use one mac in your setup as a sort of media server (always on etc).

I currently leave my iMac on with all my TV shows / Movies & music (all lossless). It connects to two Apple TVs and an airport express into a hifi which are all controllable using my iPhone. All airplay interaction is lossless as well which means it doesn't down sample the audio or video when streaming.

that sort of worked when i had a tower, now i'm just using my laptop but i keep that stripped down for working so no room for an i-tunes library. i could buy a mac-mini but that seems overkill when i will never use it as an actual computer.

an airport extreme + usb connected drive or time capsule would be better if it can do all the things i want it to. (already own an airport express)

The only issue, i think is that Apple really relies on iTunes to organise and play the content. I'm not sure if Time Capsule can cope with streaming content directly as it doesnt have the correct interface.

you can also wirelessly connect airport express/extreme/time capsule to your existing router and use it as a range booster without the hassle of long ethernet/cat5 cables.

I like the sound of that, but worried by this:

It's a bit tricky and depends on the router/modem setup you have, but a bit less messy.

do i understand it right that I can also stream music to an apple TV?

Yes. I stream lossless music to my Apple TV and out to my 5.1 setup. Sounds great :-D

lovely. knew i needed another thing from apple.

The only issue, i think is that Apple really relies on iTunes to organise and play the content. I'm not sure if Time Capsule can cope with streaming content directly as it doesnt have the correct interface.

might work with the iphone. remote app as it connects to a library (will be on the TC) and i presume will use the itunes/ipod interface on the phone then i presume it would connect to the wireless network on the express/TC?

i'm trying to remove the laptop from the equation or at least not use the laptop for the direct streaming because doing this means i can't surf the web while listening to music. i can plug in an ethernet cable to laptop if i have to but would rather not if i can get away with it.

k bitches, who's got CS5?

I need it for like yesterday, can't get it somehow...
Please, will cook for you for a week if necessary.

get the demo meanwhile?

yep..

I like the sound of that, but worried by this:

herehttp://support.apple.com/kb/HT1515?viewlocale=en_US#1

Except where they say "no", what they mean is "yes, but only sometimes and it's a bit tricky".

Basically, you clone the network settings of your router and apply them to the airport device so that anything connecting to it thinks that it effectively is the same network (ie a wireless distribution service). The tricky bit is getting the airport device to speak to the non-apple router/modem arrangement.

What you could do is hook up an airport extreme via ethernet to your existing router, and then easily daisychain other airport expresses to the extreme.

Thanks very much. Understand now. Could I just use a generic repeater (i.e. not airport express) to extend the wireless range or does the airport express do something special. Main thing I'm wondering is why the airport express seems so much more expensive than other brands. Is it just apple shininess?

in a word, yes.

It also gives you the advantage of much more straightforward access and control using the airport utility from a mac. This i'd say is what makes it worth the money.

You can also run a usb printer and speakers from an express, but i'm sure you can do that from other companies too.

sounds pretty handy actually, especially as connecting a printer would make life a lot easier. have to check the piggybank!

Right, Mac-heads, I have a little conundrum to test your grey matter.

I'm part of a team of five at work, and we do three shifts (Early, Middle, Late) as well as weekend shifts. We have a Google Docs rota that just has five rows with our name, columns for the date, and "E", "M" or "L". Then in weekend columns there will be one person with "W".

Now, we all use iPhones, and all prod this data into our phones for coming months manually. Is there a good way of sharing all this stuff? I don't mind if it means changing the way we write and store the rota.

Bonus points for any solution that actually puts the right times into iCal, and bonus bonus points for any solution that allows you to only add your name.

Tricky, or really simple? What do you reckon?