Content
Any plan to ditch cable should begin with a trip to Antenna Web. After plugging in your location information, Antenna Web will identify the TV signals you have the potential to pickup with an antenna. If you are in an area where an antenna will not pick up any/few stations, the decision to cut the cord is much more difficult. For me, I live in an urban area within range of all the local TV station signals. I only tried one antenna in my cable free setup and have been happy with that choice.

My journey to cable freedom began with purchasing the Mohu Leaf antenna. Since I was unsure if it would work, I bought the antenna while I still had my cable subscription. I wanted to be sure I had a workable solution before cutting the cord.

The Mohu Leaf looks like a laminated sheet of paper with a cord hanging out one side. When you first open the box, you can’t help but wonder if this antenna is actually going to pick up broadcast signals. I’m here to tell you it will. After attaching the antenna to my TV and positioning it, I received over 30 channels including all my local stations. I watched a beautiful HD picture on my TV for a few minutes and turned off my TV thinking my work was done. I was partially correct.

My wife likes to watch the news in the morning before she goes to work. When I came home the day after installing the antenna, she said the picture kept breaking up so she switched back to cable. I turned on the TV and watched it for a few minutes. Sure enough, the picture was clear for some period of time, then it began to pixelate and sometimes drop completely. My plan to ditch cable hit the first snag only a day after it began.

As it turned out, my iPhone helped me solve this issue. One piece of information Antenna Web gives you is the location of the station signal relative to your home, in the form of degrees. I took out my iPhone and opened the compass app. I found nearly every station was being transmitted from a location facing the rear of my home, not the front where the antenna was located. After testing the antenna with my Macbook Pro (more on that later), I was able to receive crystal clear HD signals that did not drop out. After I found a location suitable to hang the antenna in the rear of my home and ran the coaxial cable from the antenna to my TV, my plan to ditch cable really began to take shape.

DVR
Elgato makes great hardware and software and I use the EyeTV Hybrid as a replacement for my cable DVR. I purchased a second Mohu Leaf antenna and hung it on my office window facing my backyard. I’m able to pick up all the same channels as my living room TV and I use the EyeTV software to record them on my Mac. After encoding them into an iTunes compatible format, I’m able to play them back on a variety of Apple devices.

Apple TV
In all honesty, the Apple TV is probably the single most important piece in our cable free setup. Between my wife and I, we use the Apple TV at least a few hours per day. We subscribe to Netflix to get additional content like TV shows and movies. We use it to stream audio and video content from iTunes on my Mac. We also subscribe to iTunes Match so my wife can play music if my laptop is turned off. With the MLB.TV application on the Apple TV, I’m able to watch my Atlanta Braves battle for the NL East crown.

iPad/iPhone
I use my iOS devices with AirPlay to stream a lot of additional content to the Apple TV connected to our living room TV. In addition to streaming local content from your iPad to the Apple TV, the App Store has a lot of apps that provide additional content to stream or watch on the iPad itself. Apps like ABC Player, PBS, VEVO HD, TED, Vimeo, YouTube, and NPR Music provide a lot of quality content for free. I’m also able to watch the Braves play on the MLB At Bat app on my iPad.

Additional TVs
Due to the placement of my antenna, I was able to split the signal and run it to both the living room TV and the TV in my home bar. If your setup does not allow you to split the signal, you can replace additional cable boxes with another antenna or a set-top box like the Apple TV, Roku, or other device. You can also use the Apple Digital AV Adapter to hook up your iPad or select other iOS devices to most any TV in your home.

What’s Missing
There are only a few things I have not been able to replace in my cable free setup. The first and most missed are cooking shows. My Saturday mornings used to be filled with a relaxing breakfast and a few cooking shows on either Food Network or the Cooking Channel. I haven’t found an alternative method to obtain cooking shows. To a lesser extent I also haven’t replaced home improvement type shows (HGTV or DIY Network), though they were not something I watched all the time. I stopped frequently watching ESPN several years ago so I don’t really miss that in my cable free setup.

Overall
My wife and I have been pretty happy with our cable free setup. Between the antenna, the Apple TV (Netflix), and iTunes, we can get the vast majority of content we received via cable for a much lower cost. Our cable plus internet bill was $135. Our internet only bill is now $45. The savings in our monthly cable bill allowed us to spend a little extra money to purchase seasons 1-3 of Chuck on DVD. We started our re-watch of the series in February.

Besides the cost, one of the reasons behind ditching cable was to take back some of the leisure time in our lives. I’ve found myself watching less TV and I’ve replaced that viewing time with other hobbies like reading, woodworking, learning to code, and more. I’ve also been playing a number of iPad games and catching up on my Instapaper queue. If you can find a hobby you enjoy, you’ll miss cable even less.

So that’s how I cut the cord. Have you cut the cord? Share your success story, or lack there of, in the comments below. I’d like to hear what products or services you are using in your cable free setup!

Apple’s recent purchase of Lala has many intriguing ramifications for Apple users.

Lala is a music site that lets users stream music.  Lala scans your hard drive to see which music you already own.  If songs match what is in their library, or you upload your tracks, you can listen to that music an unlimited amount through their web site.  If you don’t own the tracks, you can listen to them once.  After that you can buy a web version that can be streamed forever or “upgraded” to a downloadable version.  The streaming component flies in the face of Apple’s “download-and-own-forever” model.  Apple sees that music consumption may evolve and they are preparing for this change.  It is unknown whether Apple will keep Lala’s current model or alter it to a “all-you-can-eat” subscription.

There is no way the Lala iPhone app sees the light of day, presuming that Lala isn’t kept as a separate service that is away from Apple’s ecosystem.  Streaming content could be provided through the music app on the iPhone/iPod touch (and hopefully Apple’s potential tablet) with optional caching for offline playback.  It would be nice to have downloadable music for iPods lacking WI-FI, with music files that time-expire.  Syncing through iTunes could then verify service membership (i.e. once a month).

There have been endless debates on the value proposition of MobileMe, especially in light of alternative free services that can be combined to be similar to what MobileMe offers.  Adding a streaming music service to MobileMe would increase its value significantly.  I would assume that being a subscriber to Apple’s music service would not require being a MobileMe member.

It would be great to have my music stored in the cloud from anywhere with a Internet connection.  Any Lala web site functionality will probably be rebranded as a Apple product and thus become iTunes in a browser.

Apple TV has not sold well.  Coupling this music service with the proposed video subscription deal that could be occurring soon and I would be far more interested in getting an Apple TV.  Content is king, and the variety and amount of music and video available will be key to increasing Apple TV’s popularity.

Many music services I have tried have left me wanting more.  Hopefully Apple’s will have enough content to please me.

My wife is not going to be happy. Just last week I showed her how to use Boxee on our Apple TV to watch her favorite TV shows via Hulu. Tonight, I had to break the bad news to her. Boxee is being forced to remove Hulu from their application. This situation upsets me greatly.

Hulu has a post on their blog about the situation. As you can see from the picture above, Hulu and Boxee are no longer friends. Ok, so I made that part up. The crude pictures help me cope OK.

Sometimes, OK often, I just don’t understand the media companies. You don’t want people to pirate video/music so you give us a legal way to obtain your content. Just as adoption rate of this new method starts to take hold, all the sudden that method is not good anymore. The viewing experience with Hulu and Boxee was working just fine! I didn’t mind watching the ads. Perhaps BitTorrent traffic will tick up because of this.

Hulu says their content providers “requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product”. So basically all is fine and dandy as long as you can’t watch Hulu on a TV? I can just hook my Mac to my TV video input and watch Hulu on my TV. Why is it any different if I’m using an application to do the exact same thing?

As to my wife and Hulu? We’ll they have broken up too. She’s not going to watch her TV shows on her laptop via Hulu.com. There goes at least one set of eyeballs!

Are you upset about the Boxee and Hulu situation? Write Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, at Jason@hulu.com. He’ll be seeing my email soon.

Of all the Apple products I own, perhaps my favorite is the Apple TV. The Apple TV along with iTunes, VisualHub, and Handbrake make for a fantastic media experience. Despite nearly every Apple TV owner absolutely loving their device, the product remains a “hobby” to Apple. Though I don’t believe sales figures for the Apple TV are publicly available, a “hobby” isn’t exactly a glowing indicator of sales.

I purchased my Apple TV after the Macworld 2008 price drop and news about the 2.0 software. Originally the unit was too expensive and lacked features. The $229 price (40GB version) was much more attractive as was the 2.0 software which brought movie rentals and the ability to act as a stand alone device (no PC or Mac required). I dropped my $199 bucks down on a refurbished Apple TV and have used it nearly every day since. I really enjoy watching TV shows, video podcasts, movies, and pictures on my Apple TV. My wife absolutely loves it too!

While I gush about how much I like the Apple TV, I seem to be in the minority of Apple fans, as many do not own one. You rarely see ads for the device anywhere and I think a lot of people aren’t really sure what the Apple TV actually does. And really, how much can a “hobby” add to Apple’s already large chest of cash?

I have a solution to raise the demand for Apple TV. In fact, Apple has already implemented this solution with two of the other main product lines, the iPod and iPhone. Apple needs a Made For Apple TV program and a SDK and App Store for the Apple TV.

SDK: Imagine if NBC released a Hulu application for Apple TV. What about Google Earth for Apple TV? NetNewsWire, NYTimes, WeatherBug, Wikipanion, and Last.fm for Apple TV? The ability to set Apple TV to play music/video while you are on vacation would be a nice security feature. The list could go on for possible applications for Apple TV.

Made For Apple TV Program: Imagine the Apple TV as the central nervous system for a wireless home music/video automation system. The ability to interface with the unit via third party controls, wall units, wireless keyboards, etc.

Not only would Apple move more Apple TV units, they would also receive additional revenue with App Store sales and third party accessories (like they do with many iPod accessories). These moves would open up the device to third party developers and create an iPod like ecosystem. This would be a win-win for Apple and their partners/software developers.

Do you own a Apple TV and love it? If not, would you want one if third party accessories and software were available for it? Sound off below with your comments about my idea or your thoughts on the Apple TV.

B = Billion
M = Million
YAQ = Year ago quarter
FY = Fiscal Year

Revenue/Financials
-Best June quarter for revenue and earnings in Apple history
-Revenue of 7.46B; 38% increase over YAQ
-Net Income 1.07B; 31% increase over YAQ
-EPS of $1.19
-Gross margin was 34.8%; down from 36.9% in YAQ
-International sales accounted for 42% of revenue
-Europe revenue growth was 43% over YAQ
-Operating Expenses were 1.21B
-Capital expenditures were 304M in quarter
-1.33B in cash generated in quarter
-5.4B in cash generated in first 3 quarters of fiscal 2008
-20.8B in cash on hand
-Q4 estimates of 7.8B in revenue

Mac
-Shipped 2.5M Macs; a new quarterly record
-Mac unit sales up 41% over YAQ
-49% increase in Mac desktop sales over YAQ
-37% increase in Mac portable sales over YAQ
-25% growth in Mac US education sales over YAQ
-Mac channel inventory is currently below average, currently at 3-4 weeks
-Mac products and services accounted for 61% of total quarterly revenue

iPhone
-Sold 717,000 iPhones (iPhone 3G was not released in this quarter)
-Sold 1M iPhone 3Gs in 3 days (sales not recognized in this quarter)
-Over 25M iPhone apps downloaded to date (sales not recognized in this quarter)
-Q4 iPhone sales are expected to be the highest for any quarter yet (well duh; a distribution in over 20 countries will do that)
-”About” 20 additional countries will have an August 22nd iPhone 3G launch; bringing the total to over 40
-iPhone will be in 70 countries by the end of the year
-Apple still expects to sell 10M iPhones in calendar year 2008
-Revenue of 419M was recognized from iPhone sales, iPhone accessories, and payments from phone carriers. This does not include iPhone sales between March 6th and July 10th (due to accounting methods in relation to the announcement and release of iPhone 2.0 software).

iPod/iTunes
-Sold 11M iPods; 12% increase over YAQ
-7% iPod revenue growth over YAQ
-Over 70% market share in MP3 players in the US; based on latest public data
-Over 5B songs sold since iTunes released

Apple Stores
-58% growth in Apple Store retail sales over YAQ
-About 32M visitors to Apple Stores; up 10M over YAQ
-Apple Stores reported 1.44B in revenue
-Average revenue per store was 6.8M; up 33% over YAQ
-Over 50% of in store Mac sales were to new Mac customers
-8 new Apple Stores opened in quarter; including first in Australia
-Q3 ended with 216 Apple Stores
-Apple Stores coming to Switzerland and Germany in 2008
-Expect to close FY 2008 with 242 Apple Stores

Other
-Gross margin will decline for Q4 in part from a “future product transition” (ideas anyone?)
-Added 170 Best Buy mini stores; bringing the total to 570
-Added over 1600 storefronts to Mac distribution in the last year
-In a question about the health of Steve Job’s: “Steve loves Apple, he serves as the CEO at the pleasure of Apple’s board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.”
-Apple continues to invest in the Apple TV; yet it remains a “hobby”
-Analysts seemed overly concerned about the 30% gross margin Apple predicted for FY 2009

As of this post, the stock is down more than $16 in after hours trading. Record sales, incredible growth, stock tumbles. I guess you can’t always please The Street!

Without a doubt, the Remote application from Apple is one of the coolest programs I’ve seen in a while. Remote allows you to control iTunes and Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod touch. All you need is the Remote application, an iPhone or iPod touch (with the new 2.0 software of course), an iTunes library or Apple TV, and a wi-fi connection.

After downloading the Remote application (iTunes link), launch it. Click the Add Library button and follow the on screen prompts. This involves the same access code process that is involved with attaching a iTunes library to the Apple TV. After you have correctly entered the 4 number code into your iTunes or Apple TV, you should see the contents of your iTunes or Apple TV in front of you.

Like using the iPod feature on your iPhone or iPod touch, clicking the links at the bottom will change the view of your library. Tap though to the appropriate file and it will start playing in either iTunes or your Apple TV, depending on which you are connected to. If you want control another library, just go back to settings and add another. It’s a simple tap of the screen to choose which library you want to control!

When I first installed the application I actually laughed with amazement. The ability to control the media in my life with my phone is simply amazing. If you’re currently playing something in iTunes and open Remote, it will automatically bring up the currently playing track on screen. When you are controlling a video, it will show one frame of the video on your screen instead of the album art like it does with a song.

In conclusion, this needs to the the first application you load from the App Store on your iPhone or iPod touch. I’m simply amazed it’s free!

iSquint is a simple tool for converting videos to an iPod compatible format. As the screenshot below shows, it’s very easy to start converting video. Just drag a file into the application window, choose your optimization format and quality, and click start. If you selected the “Add to iTunes” checkbox, your video will be added to iTunes when it’s done converting. Sync your iPod and it will be transferred to it. It really is that simple. If you’re looking to put video on your iPod, iSquint is a great tool.

iSquint is available free of charge from Techspansion. iSquint is the little brother of VisualHub, the fantastic video conversion tool that I frequently use to add content to my Apple TV.

If you have the need to convert video formats or own an Apple TV then I’ll assume you have heard of VisualHub. For the uninitiated, it’s basically the swiss army knife of video conversion for the Mac. VisualHub features fast conversions from nearly every video format to a plethora of formats in a quick three step process (shot of the UI below). I just finished converting some video for my Apple TV and it worked flawlessly and quickly.

I’ve been pondering buying VisualHub for a week or so and finally went to pull the trigger last night when I noticed that in addition to buying VisualHub for the low cost of $23.32 USD, there was an option to get it for free. So what’s the catch you’re saying? Well basically you buy something else and get VisualHub for free through a service called TrialPay.

TrialPay works by showing you other offers they think you might be interested in. In exchange for completing one of the participating offers, you get your original purchase, in this case VisualHub, for free. I decided to give TrialPay a chance and within a few hours I had my free VisualHub license.

I was able to get my VisualHub license free by purchasing a print from Snapfish. I took a fair number of pictures while in Wyoming a few months ago and wanted to get one of them blown up and framed. I’ve been slack about looking into online digital printing but seeing the Snapfish offer from TrialPay gave me the motivation I needed. After researching the Snapfish print quality, I uploaded my picture and purchased an 11×14 print. If the print turns out well, I’m very likely to use Snapfish again. For less than $10 USD I’m getting an 11×14 print of one of my pictures and a license for VisualHub.

If you’re in the market to do any type of video conversions for the Mac then VisualHub is a must. The fact that you can get something you want for free by buying something else you want, is a pretty amazing deal. I’m not sure what kind of terms the Techspansion folks (makers of VisualHub) are getting from TrialPay, but I hope it works out from them. I’m sure if it wasn’t to their benefit then they wouldn’t be using it. Sounds pretty simple, eh?

The only problem with renting these cheap movies is actually finding them. I spent a good 5 or 10 minutes clicking around in iTunes and for the life of me I couldn’t see any place where you could actually find the special movie rental of the week. Search no more. Wake Interactive has created a website that lists the movie special along with a brief description of the movie and a direct iTunes link to the rental. 99Rental.com also features an RSS feed so you can get the latest movie rental special straight in your RSS reader. If you have an AppleTV or watch movies on your computer, 99Rental.com is a great resource.

[Via TUAW]

With the release of version 2.0 of the AppleTV software today, AppleTV has become a nice addition to any digital living room. The ability to rent and purchase movies straight from the device and the elimination of the need for a computer have gone a long way to making the AppleTV a more desirable product. I took the time tonight to upgrade my AppleTV and installing the new software was a breeze. Here are the steps to installing the new software:

1) I’m not sure that it matters, but I made sure that iTunes on my MBP, the AppleTV syncing machine, was closed. I didn’t want the software update and a sync to be going on at the same time.
2) Go into the Settings menu and choose Update Software
3) Your AppleTV will check to see if a new software version is available. The previous version is 1.1 while the new version is 2.0.
4) Once it finds that a new version is available, it will ask if you want to download it now or later. Choose Download Now.
5) Downloading the software on my 802.11n network took about 5 minutes.
6) Once the download is finished, it will ask if you want to update the software now or later. Choose Update Now.
7) You’ll see a note that the AppleTV will reboot itself and may reboot several times during the entire update process. It also warns you not to unplug the AppleTV during the update process.
8) After rebooting several times and displaying an Apple logo with a progress bar several times, the update will finally finish and show a short AppleTV intro video. The update process takes about 10 minutes.
9) You’re done!

The entire update process took slightly longer than 15 minutes and was pretty painless. I tested downloading a podcast directly from the AppleTV and it was very easy. The search feature narrows results as you type so finding the podcast I was looking for was very quick.

With the updated AppleTV software, it looks like iTunes added a new option in the Summary tab. The screen below could have been there before but I don’t think so. I’m really digging the updated software. Now when I’m laying down to go to bed I can get content directly and find something to put me to sleep. Where are those educational podcasts again?

If you’re looking for some HD content to display on your new, or maybe not so new TV, look no further than iTunes. I recently came across a new HD podcast that will look great on my TV once I get my AppleTV in a few weeks. I thought some of you might be interested in the podcast too.

If you love to travel and enjoy the outdoors, check out Beautiful Places. The podcast (iTunes link), features Tony Farley as he visits beautiful places around the US. Many of the early podcasts feature California locations like Yosemite, Point Reyes National Seashore, and more.

The podcast features Tony hiking around the various locations with his camera and filming the natural beauty that he encounters. Along with the video, the podcast features quotes and descriptions by Tony along with just enough silence to really take in what he has captured. Watching this podcast really inspires me to hit the trails.

OS X
-5 million copies of Leopard have been delivered. This is likely a combination of new Mac sales and Leopard boxed copies (no definitive word given).

Time Capsule
-Time Capsule is a companion product for Leopard’s Time Machine. Time Capsule is a combination Airport Extreme Base Station with a server grade hard drive. It’s a “backup appliance”.
-500GB and 1TB storage for $299 and $499 respectively.
-Backup multiple Macs to the same Time Capsule.
-No word on if this feature will be available for USB drives connected to the current Airport Extreme Base Stations.

iPhone
-4 million iPhone sold to date.
-It’s first quarter shipping it garnered 19% of the smart phone market share.
-1.1.3 iPhone software upgrade released: SMS to multiple people, current position locator in maps, customizable home screen, and more.

iPod Touch
-Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather coming to the Touch.
-The cost of those applications is $20 for current Touch owners and will be built in to new ones.

iTunes
-4 billion songs sold
-125 million TV shows sold
-7 million movies sold
-iTunes movie rentals coming by the end of February
-Studios renting movies on iTunes includes Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony.
-24 hours to finishing watching rented movie once started; you have 30 days to watch movie from the time of download.
-You can transfer the movie to a PC, Mac, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, nearly anywhere.
-Library titles are $2.99 and new releases are $3.99

AppleTV
-Computer no longer required for AppleTv
-Rent movies directly from AppleTV
-Rent movies in DVD quality or HD (with 5.1 sound)
-Flickr and .Mac photo support
-50 million Youtube videos now available for AppleTV
-Buy TV shows and music directly from AppleTV and have them sync back to your computer
-HD movie rentals are $1 more than the standard rentals.
-New UI
-Free software upgrade for existing AppleTV owners to support new features
-Price reduced to $229

Movie Media
-Working with Fox to include a digital copy of a purchased movie on current optical media (DVD, Blu-Ray) to allow instant transfer to iTunes.

Macbook Air
-Super thin notebook
-.76 – .16 inches thick; 3lbs
-Full size keyboard
-13.3″ widescreen LED backlit display
-Built in multi-touch gesture support ala iPhone
-80GB or 64GB SSD (upgrade option) hard drive
-2GB RAM standard
-Runs on a Intel Core 2 Duo chip that is 60% smaller than current chips
-Magsafe power adapter, 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, USB 2.0 port, iSight, Micro-DVI, and headphone jack. No optical drive.
-$99 USB external optical drive
-Remote Disc feature allows you to connect to a local Mac/PC and share its optical drive
-5 hour battery life
-$1799
-Ships in two weeks; pre-order today.

So those are the highlights of the Macworld Keynote. I included nearly every remotely interesting detail about the Keynote, but not everything. Engadget liveblogged the event and you can see their post here. I kept waiting for the “one more thing” but there wasn’t one this year. My money is out for an AppleTV in a few weeks. Are you going to buy anything mentioned in the Keynote?

If you’ve got a Wii and a Mac, then Wii Transfer might be what you’re looking for. Wii Transfer turns your Wii into something similar to an AppleTV. “Wii Transfer can share your movies, music, and pictures directly to your Nintendo Wii using the Internet Channel. Browse iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums on your television. Convert your movies to formats the Wii understands, either streaming directly from your Mac or for playback in the Wii’s Photo Channel.” Wii Transfer is available today only for $9 from MacZOT.