Category — iPad

Last week, Elgato announced a new TV tuner/DVR solution for the Mac. It is called the EyeTV HD and pulls 720P HD cable content right from your set-top box. The device was born out of the need to get television shows and movies out of the living room and on to the multitude of devices people are using to get their daily fix.

I am in the process of working up a formal review to be posted on my Boston Tech Gear column, but I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts about the device. To start, I have yet to come across a more streamlined way to move content from cable box to computer. Total setup time is less than 15-minutes, and that includes cable connecting, IR blaster placement, and software installation. Once the device is fired up, all it takes the click of the mouse to schedule a recording.

Recording TV shows to a computer is nothing new, we Mac-wielding television enthusiasts have been doing it since the days of the Performa 638cd. What is new is what happens after the show has been recorded. By way of a simple preference selection or click of a button, the EyeTV software will automate the conversion of the raw H264 HD footage into the iPod, iPhone, and iPad friendly .m4v format. One-half hour of HD content morphs from a 3GB file into 1GB for the iPad and 250MB for the iPhone. The file is then automatically added into iTunes. Very cool.

I will get more into the specifics in my official review, but after a few days of use I am beginning to see some serious advantages to using a computer-powered DVR such as this. For anyone that regularly views movies and shows on their iPhone or iPad, this device could definitely make life a little bit easier. However, without giving too much more away, it isn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows (is that even a real saying?). You need a Core2Duo Mac for the EyeTV HD to really be happy. Also, that Mac needs to be within a few feet of a cable box, which is not all that common. But, for those serious about their television, these are small prices to pay.

Head over to my column at Examiner next week (June 1, 2010) to read the full review.

It may seem slightly crazy, but believe it or not, there is no built-in way to manage a collection of PDF documents on the iPad. You can view them as attachments in email, but there is no way to save or bookmark the files. Not to worry – the folks over at Good.iWare LTD have got us [slightly insane] iPad early adopters covered with their app, appropriately titled, GoodReader.

With GoodReader, document viewing woes are a thing of the past. This high quality app allows for the transferring, managing, bookmarking, and oh yea, reading of anything text. PDF’s/Docs/TXT – even Excel spreadsheets. Just install the app, connect the iPad to iTunes with the USB cable, and drag whatever files you want into the file transfer well. Within minutes you will be in iPad PDF reading heaven.

I’ve been using this app since day one and it has been nothing but a joy to use. File transfer was a bit rocky in the beginning, but now that Apple has allowed for the drag and drop file transfer, it is no longer an issue. This is .99 cents well spent. Highly recommended.

Get a copy here [iTMS link]