Eric from Ravenna Software has been in touch to tell us about his new WHS 2011 add-in called WHS Twitter Feed which adds your Twitter feed to your WHS remote access page.
The “WHS Twitter Feed” Windows Home Server 2011 Add-In allows you to remove the standard boring Windows logo from the login pane and replace it with your Twitter feed.
Download WHS Twitter Feed from here
Last month we had a preview of the Microsoft Touch Mouse, and now we have one so it’s time for our hands-on review.
Here is how Microsoft describe the Touch Mouse:
Ready for a whole new way to navigate your PC? Touch Mouse, made exclusively for Windows 7, makes everyday task more fluid and intuitive by using natural gestures instead of clicks. You’ll be more productive, with less effort.
The Touch Mouse enables you to use your multiple finger gestures to perform certain tasks with ease, such as snapping windows side by side, and because of the BlueTrak technology you can use it on pretty much any surface.
Requires Windows 7
100 MB
The box itself looks really nice.
You can lift up the top to see the mouse inside.
Sony have just released the 3.70 firmware update for the PlayStation 3.0, and it has some new features!
TV/Video Services
(TV/Video Services) has been added as a category to the XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) menu. Video streaming services now appear under (TV/Video Services). Some services require that you download and install an application.
(Video) category now appear under the 
(TV/Video Services) category.
(TV/Video Services) category is not displayed in the XMB™ menu when no services are used.You can now store new and recently updated saved data for PlayStation®3 format software in online storage automatically on a regular basis.
This feature is exclusively for use by PlayStation®Plus members.
PhotoMPO (Multi-Picture format) files for 3D photos and multi-angle photos can now be displayed under 
(Photo) and in 
(Photo Gallery).
PlayStation®NetworkA feature has been added for sharing information about products in PlayStation®Store with your Friends. Select [Recommend] on the product page to send a message introducing the item to your Friends.
Video* A 3D compatible television that complies with the 3D standard and a high-speed HDMI cable are required to watch 3D content. Some content might not play in 3D or might not play at all.
“Blu-ray 3D” is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
Settings
Introduction
While rebuilding my WHS 2011 server for the 2nd time one thing I had realized was if I was going to be adding more applications to my home servers 60GB’s system partition (3 times more than the 20GB in WHSV1) I was going to need more drive space on my system partition. While 60GB’s is allot more room than WHSV1 I noticed that after doing just the installation and completing the updates that my system partition was almost half full. Sure I can direct most of the installs to another partition or even another system drive but the installs still direct some of the installation folders to the “C” drive of your Server.
I then once again realized “Hey! This new version of Windows Home Server and Small Business Server resides on the Windows Server 2008 Code” and also remembered that the 2008 code had the ability to shrink or in my case EXTEND the partition on the drive.
After doing some testing in a Virtual Test Server of WHS 2011 I found this worked without a hitch. Something I would not been able to do in WHSV1 for 2 reasons one resizing partitions was not available in the 2003 code and two the Drive Extender would have already taken up the secondary partition.
Best time to do this is right after your initial install of the WHS 2011 or SBS 2011 Essentials server BEFORE installing any apps or moving data to your secondary partition on the Primary Drive.
Disclaimer
The How to information is intended as a guide or helping resource to those who are Extending their System Partition of the Primary Hard Drive on SBS 2011 Essentials or WHS 2011 Server. There is no 100% guarantee that this will work as attended and could possibly make your system partition unusable. I assume no responsibility for any consequences of extending the system partition.
Prerequisites
– Install and format a Secondary internal drive attached to the Home Server
– Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor or Remote Desktop
Installation Instructions
1) Shutdown Your Home Server and Install a Secondary Hard Drive (Disregard this step if there is already a secondary drive installed)
2) Once the Home server has booted up and you have logged in click the Windows Logo (Start Menu), then go to the right hand side and right click on “computer”, and then click “Manage”.
3) If this is a new drive your home server will automatically start the “Initialize” Disk Box as seen below
4) Make sure that all selected disks are checked and if the disk is less than 2TB’s that you choose “MBR” (Master Boot Record). If the disk is greater than 2TB’s choose GPT (GUID Partition Table), but remember anything bigger than 2TB Home Server will by default split the drive into 2 different partitions.
5) Once the disk (or disk) initialize right click on the new Drive and click on “New Simple Volume…”
6) As soon as the “New Simple Volume Wizard” Starts click on “Next”
FireCore have just released an update to it’s Media Player application, taking it to version 0.7. If you have ATV2, go update now!
What’s new in Media Player 0.7?
What can I do with the playback menu?
The new playback menu provides quick access to chapters, audio tracks and subtitles. To access this menu simply press and hold the center (select) button during playback. Press the menu button to return to the movie.
Note: Chapter controls can also be accessed by pressing the down arrow on the remote during playback.
Spectacular! Now how do I get it?
With aTV Flash (black) installed, Media Player 0.7 can be downloaded on your ATV2 through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu. If you need to re-install aTV Flash (black) links for the latest version can be found under the Downloads tab in your account.
New users can pre-order aTV Flash (black) here.
Following on from yesterdays news that HP had dropped the price of the TouchPad in the US by $100, here in the UK they have also dropped the price by £50.
As I said yesterday, I’m still not convinced and this really does look like desperation on the part of HP. Or is is a smart move to undercut Apple?
What do you think?
Yet another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit development marches on – now is build 3481.
Here is how CoveCube describes this application:
This version’s change log:
1.0.0.3481 ———-
* Re-added support for pending deleted folders.
* SBSE 2011 Essentials compatibility restored.
* Fixed changing folder name / duplication status in batch.
* When adding a new folder the description is now saved.
* Implemented persistent move for folder duplication change and folder rename (folder move already did this). This should help with the remaining sporadic access denied errors.
These guys continue the drive to complete the drive-pooling application. If you want to try it out, go here for more information about the beta.
Get More Information About the Beta Here Download Stablebit Drivepool build 3481 here
Tranquil PC have just released their AVA Media Video Transcoder add-in for Windows Home Server 2011 and best of all it’s free!
You will only be able to run this Add In on a powerful Home Server – ie the Tranquil Leo HS4 or Leo SS4 (Video Transcoding is a CPU intensive process. Running this Add In on an Intel Atom CPU is not realistic)
To get the Add In – users must send in the email to AVATRANSWHS2011@ixlspc.com
Tranquil do not ask for any payment, but they welcome any donations to their chosen charity MacMillan – and they welcome you to send a small Paypal donation to pp@tranquilpc.co.uk
Dave at the guys at the Home Server Show have released episode 147.
Here’s what Dave has to say about this weeks show:
We told you about an upcoming RAID throwdown and here it is. BYOB’s Mike Faucher joins us after challenging Jim Collison to install RAID on a WHS 2011 build. Chris Lux also pops in and it seems like old times! Tons of RAID chat and news. Enjoy!
As usual you can listen to the show from here.
Yet another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit development marches on.
Here is how CoveCube describes this application:
This version’s change log:
These guys continue the drive to complete the drive-pooling application. If you want to try it out, go here for more information about the beta.
Get More Information About the Beta Here Download Stablebit Drivepool build 3467 here
If you are in the market for a great server to install Windows Home Server 2011, Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, or anything else for that matter, you should look at the HP Proliant MicroServer. And you can get it now for £95 after cashback!
So what you do is buy the MicroServer then claim your £100 cash back – but hurry, this current offer is only valid until the end of August.
V-MODA have today launched a new set of headphones, called the Crossfade M-80.
V-MODA, the multi-platinum selling maker of headphones trusted by the pros and elite, deploys its best-sounding metal masterpiece yet, the Crossfade M-80. Masterfully tuned by a legion of legendary musicians, producers and DJs, M-80 packs unique materials, professional acoustics, natural noise isolation, ultimate ergonomics and military-level ruggedness into a design 53% smaller than its now legendary, over-ear sibling, Crossfade LP. M-80’s first-class materials are virtually indestructible including a steel frame, STEELFLEX headband, interchangeable brushed metal shields, durable microfiber suede and replaceable memory foam cushions. The M-80 also comes fully loaded with two Kevlar-reinforced microphone cables for universal smartphone compatibility and an exoskeleton carrying case for added road warrior armor.
Pure Sound – Bespoke Fit
The nucleus of M-80 is its patent-pending and biggest-in-class 40mm Dual-Diaphragm Drivers that deliver multi-driver sound with the energy efficiency and consistent quality of a single driver. To recreate a pure balanced sound analogous to Vinyl, M-80 uses no batteries or artificial sound processing and instead relies on immortal acoustic techniques. The masterfully crafted V-PORT V3 provides natural noise isolation, life-like staging, vibrant bass, vivid mids and vivacious highs. By utilizing a 31-band EQ with select master musicians and producers, every step of the frequency response curve was finely sculpted.
The headphone also offers long-play comfort through a tailored, fashionable fit without unsightly gaps and minimal pressure on the head and ears, the result of years of ergonomic research. Since the fit is the sound, M-80 utilizes replaceable supple memory foam cushions, a bespoke STEELFLEX headband and tactile arm extensions. This tiny dancer can bend, move and twist like no other.
Salute to the Masters
“After years of research, design, and testing, this is truly the finest addition to our acoustic arsenal we have ever developed. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and similarly it took almost half a decade to fuse the durability of an M1 Abrams tank, timeless Vinyl sound, Italian-suit elegance and exotic motorsport materials into the compact Crossfade M-80,” says Val Kolton, V-MODA CEO and DJ. “In the sound-age of over-processed digital compression and disposable plastic products, our virtues were to develop a quality product that salutes the true masters of music, machines and materials. It’s an incredible value for hi-fi sound and sophisticated style that says as much about you as your shoes, watch or car.”
trueHERTZ – The Revelation of Headphones
Most headphone marketing is simply not telling the whole truth – headphones often break too fast and every unit sounds different due to quality control variance and individual fit. Upon this revelation, V-MODA invested heavily on a crusade to create a rugged product that provides the greatest sound for the greatest amount of people.
V-MODA’s trueHERTZ and materalEDGE initiative reveals the sound, materials, engineering and quality control processes shielding the ever-present dangers to defenseless headphones.
“I vowed to never sell a headphone I wouldn’t use myself, and as a producer, DJ and engineer always on the go – M-80 is knighted by quality,” said Kolton.
The M-80 is tested under strict MIL-STD-810G military testing and V-MODA’s even more stringent VMQA guidelines, of which a few are listed below.
MIL-STD-810G and V-MODA Quality Tests
• Kevlar reinforced detachable cables and 45-degree plug strain relief can each bend more than 1 million times, over 100x industry standards
• Survives 70+ drops on concrete from 6 feet, approximately three times the industry standard
• Headband can bend 10+ times flat, without breaking and retain its memory and shape
• Virtually inaudible sound variances across the spectrum of less than 2dB from unit to unit versus 10-30dB+ of inferior products
• MIL-STD-810G environmental tests including high and low temperatures, humidity, salt spray and UV exposure
M-80 Features:
• Stylish interchangeable ear shields
• Detachable Kevlar®-reinforced cables with 24k gold-plated plug
• One 3.5mm fabric cable with a three-button remote control optimized for Apple products
• One 3.5mm fabric cable with a one-button microphone universally compatible with all audio, tablet and 3.5mm smartphone products including Android, BlackBerry and Windows 7
• Hard exoskeleton carrying case, ensuring headphones are protected in style
• Two-year V-MODA premier warranty
• Immortal Life Replacement Program – 50 percent off lifetime discount to replace consumer-damaged headphones
The Crossfade M-80 retails for $230.00 and is available today at V-MODA.com and select retailers worldwide including Radio Shack.
ABOUT V-MODA
V-MODA is the true music lifestyle brand that is distinguished by its fashion-forward design, unparalleled quality and unequivocal passion for music and materials. Led by professional DJ and Chief Visionary Officer, Val Kolton, V-MODA products blend the inspiration of Italian design, the essence of music, and the charisma of Hollywood. Together with design extraordinaire Joseph Bucknall, the worldʼs most influential producers, musicians and DJs, V-MODA is constantly challenging the norm and forging the remix revolution. For more information, please visit V-MODAʼs website, V-MODA.com.
As you may know, I am a huge fan of My Movies, and now Brian has released My Movies for Mac OS X as a pre release. I can’t wait to check it out!
Here is what Brian posted:
Introduction
My Movies for Mac OS X allows you to catalog your entire movie collection from our high quality online data service containing data for more than 475,000 DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD titles from various countries. The application supports Mac OS X 10.6 and higher.
Notice! The application is currently in Pre Release, and is freely available to everyone during this Pre Release period. The Pre Release distributions contains a time bomb functionality, allowing to function typically for one month from the release date.
My Movies for Mac OS X requires you to create a user account, or log on to an existing My Movies account to be able to use the program. Your collection will follow your user account through our online servers, allowing you to switch between different clients without ever loosing your data. If you log in to an existing My Movies account, your current collection will automatically be synchronized to My Movies for Mac OS X. Users of My Movies for iPhone, iPad or Android will automatically have their collection synchronized between My Movies for Mac OS X and your movie devices.
Pre Release
During the Pre Release, we would like your bug reports, feature requests and general inputs, allowing us to ensure that the final product meet the expectations that users have both feature and stability wise. Please leave all coments and bug reports in our forums, where a special section have been created for the My Movies for Mac OS X Pre Release.
Download
You can download the Pre Release by clicking here.
My Movies for Mac OS X and My Movies for Windows
My Movies for Mac OS X is a standalone software, synchronizing with the My Movies WebService.
The application is not a client for My Movies for Windows servers, such as My Movies for Windows Home Server and My Movies Collection Management functioning as server. This means that you cannot connect it to the My Movies Windows based solutions.
It is not planned that for the software to function as a client to the My Movies Windows software package at any point. The internal structure and functionality of the application differs in many ways to how the Windows software packages function. Depending on user feedback, it may be that this at some point will change, and while we would like the requests as feedback, it is not something users should expect.
Interface Overview
Below is an overview of the interface of My Movies for Mac OS X, allowing you to see the functionality of buttons and interface areas. You can click the image to view it in a larger version.
Licensing
The application will at the time it is out of Pre Release be available in a “Free” and a “Pro” version in the Mac OS X App Store. The “Free” version will be limited to 50 titles – a number that can be lifted by contributing data to the My Movies WebService, which earns you contribution points. The title limitation will be lifted by one title per each 5 or 10 contribution points on your account, an amount that have not yet been decided on – at 2,500 points, the limitation will be lifted in full.
To ensure users with the “Free” version can contribute data to all of the titles in their collection, it will be possible to add titles to the collection after the title limit have been reached – adding a title when the limit have been reached will simply remove the first title added that is currently in the collection, which means that the added title will replace another title.
Users who prefer to purchase the application can purchase the “Pro” version in the Mac OS App Store, at a price which have not yet been decided on. Users who purchase the “Pro” version will not have any title limitations, and do not require contribution points to lift any limit.
Notice that earned contribution points will only be able to lift the title limitation in My Movies for Mac OS X Free, and won’t affect the title limitation on My Movies for iPhone Free, My Movies for iPad Free or My Movies for Android Free, where the users still will have to purchase the “Pro” versions for the ability to display more than 50 titles. There will also not be a rebates available for users who purchase the application on multiple platforms, as this is not technically possible.
Development plans
My Movies for Mac OS X is a brand new product, and feature-wise, we have made three milestones for it. This initial Pre Release covers milestone one.
1) The initial and first milestone covers a fully useable Collection Management software, allowing you to maintain, browse and look through your movie collection. It also includes automatic synchronization to the My Movies WebService, which means it is a fully synchronized client for use with My Movies for iPhone, iPad or Android. Last, it is created to give users on Mac OS X a full option to contribute data to the My Movies WebService, and by doing this, edit and improve titles in their collection.
2) The second milestone, which is not part of the initial Pre Release, but will be developed once milestone one is out of Pre Release, it will feature an option to function as a meta-data provider for various products. This milestone will contain features such as importing titles from folders on local harddrives or network storage devices, storage monitoring functions as known in My Movies for Windows, where the application will detect changes in folders and add titles in these folders to the collection. Lastly, it will contain an option to store meta-data files for devices such as XBMC, TViX and other devices supported by My Movies for Windows. It may be that meta-data for some devices will be released before others.
3) The third milestone, which is not certain to be developed, covers the option to let My Movies for Mac OS X function as a front-end for a remote control. If, and how this will be developed is at this point not certain – it could be a front-end for Apple TV if the device is opened officially for developers, it can be a standalone functionality, or it can be an add-on to other Apple based products available on Mac OS X.
Notice
There are some things that is worth noting before starting to use My Movies for Mac OS X.
a) The development plans above outlines that My Movies for Mac OS X will have features added in steps. This means that feature wise it cannot be fully compared to My Movies for Windows in the initial Pre Release. We have decided on an initial feature set for the Pre Release, and will extend the product from there – we would like your inputs during the Pre Release of which functionalities you would prioritize for future development.
b) My Movies for Mac OS X is a standalone product, connected to the My Movies WebService, and therefore ideal for usage with My Movies for iPhone, iPad or Android. It is however not a client for My Movies for Windows or My Movies for Windows Home Server, and it will not communicate with these in multi-zone environments. It have been our intention to offer a feature rich product for Mac OS X on it’s own – not to create a client for the My Movies software packages for Windows. Depending on the incoming feature requests, it is possible that the application later will be able to function as such, but it is not part of current plans.
c) My Movies for Mac OS X does not contain features for TV Series as introduced in My Movies 4 for Windows in May 2011. It is planned that this will be added to the product in a later version, but exactly how priorities will be is not known at this point.
Understanding Server Synchronization
My Movies for Mac OS X automatically synchronizes with the My Movies online servers, which means that your collection follows your user account though the online service. This approch have several benefits:
The approach with sharing titles between users also means that there are some things to pay special attention to:
There are with My Movies for Mac OS X some exceptions to the automatic synchronization, created to allow you to create new titles manually, that later can be contributed to the server as general public profiles, and allow you to make changes to your collection, even when your device is not connected to the internet:
The information above refers to using the online servers as synchronization between My Movies for Mac OS X and the My Movies mobile softwares, but it can just as well be between multiple Mac OS X devices, allowing you to use the software on multiple computers. There are no limits to how many clients that can be used to synchronize with the same user account.
Notice! The synchronization can also be used with My Movies Collection Management for Windows, which however uses a different approch for synchronizing, where you manually have to confirm changes made from other clients, which is not automatically synchronized. The Collection Management software uses a semi-automatic synchronization approch, where any changes made to the personal data is automatically uploaded to the online servers when you make them, but where the titles do not receive special statuses if this fails – the software will instead automatically upload these changes when it is connected.
Not content with the announcements they have already made this week, Boxee have now announced that Grooveshark, a music streaming service, has arrived on Boxee.
Huge Collection, Past and Present
Grooveshark’s catalogue won’t leave you wanting. Access millions of songs from every genre, from Rock to Classical to Electronic to Folk.
Check Out What’s Popular
The Grooveshark Popular List lets you check out what’s hot at the moment. Keep up with music trends and new tracks without being bombarded by ads (a la commercial radio).
Curate Your Music Library
You don’t have to dig through the mountains of music available every time you build a new playlist. Grooveshark makes it easy for you to build your own personal library. If you see something you like you can add it to your library with just 2 clicks. Then access your library from anywhere you want. Even on your mobile devices.
Create Playlists
Create and save playlists in the app, or any browser, then access them from anywhere.
The app is free to try for a few weeks and if you end up loving it – give up buying one cheap meal a month ($9) and all the music you can stream is on Boxee, your phone, and your computer. Once you’ve got an account – your playlists and music library are loaded up no matter what device you’re using.
