Earlier this month SNARB.TK released an updated version of XHub Media Center for OS X. It boasted enhanced photo and TV modules, better remote controls ,and new animations. But it was missing one crucial update that you would have thought would be kind of important for any Mac software released this month: Leopard support.
Now XHub 2.3 is out, and it includes support for Mac OS X 10.5. Otherwise, XHub 2.3 looks an awful lot like XHub 2.2. Not that this is a bad thing. The $25 software package does a great job of turning your Mac into a full fledged media center, something you can't really say for Front Row or even Elgato's EyeTV software.
XHub includes support for EyeTV for watching and recording TV programs. There are also modules for listening to music, watching DVDs and other movies, and accessing online media like RSS feeds, and radio streams.
XHub Media Center 2.3 is a free upgrade for existing users.
I got a chance to check out Elgato's EyeTV 2.5.1 last night, and it looks pretty sweet. The Leopard integration is slick, and cover flow for recorded programs looks awesome, as you can tell from the video above.
As I pointed out last week, you can also share videos with friends over iChat and play back videos using Leopard's new Spaces feature.
But one thing I hadn't realized about EyeTV is that the electronic program guide is practically non-existent. Without a doubt, EyeTV is the most popular PVR application for the Mac. But it's missing a feature that's found in pretty much every Windows, Linux, or set top box-based PVR: the ability to record every new episode of a TV series. Right now you can't create a "season pass" for, say, The Simpsons. You have to search for individual episodes and schedule recordings.
That's something the Elgato folks say they plan to address in version 3.0. There are also plans to add place-shifting. Right now you can stream video from your Mac to other devices on your home network. If you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch, for example, you can watch movies over WiFi. But right now there's no way to watch live or recorded TV over the internet with EyeTV. For that, you'd need a Slingbox or other place-shifting piece of hardware.
With EyeTV 2.5.1 fresh out the door, nobody's saying how long it will be before we see EyeTV 3.0. But it looks like the next major release will make EyeTV a killer app. You know, if you have a Mac and a TV tuner.
Elgato has released an updated version of its EyeTV personal video software for Mac OS X. EyeTV 2.5.1 is compatible with Leopard, the updated Apple operating system released this week. But compatible is probably an understatement. Here are a few of the changes:
Quick Look: Cover flow support, and the ability to preview the contents of recordings in Finder. If Wi-Fi access is enabled, you can even play back reduced resolution videos in Finder.
iChat Theater: Share videos over iChat
Spaces: Set up EyeTV's player window to play back in every space.
The update also includes several bug fixes and support for new TV tuner hardware.
That low rumbling whirrr you heard coming from the west as you sat down to your Fruity Pebbles this morning was the sound of the generators for the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field coming online. The master took the stage once again today to wow fans, put an end to some of the recent speculation and introduce some new products.
As far as MacWorld's go, this one was a little odd. Most of the keynote was devoted to the new iPhone, with no mention of iLife, iWork, Leopard or any of the computer hardware. You can get the complete rundown on the show, including all the info about the iPhone, from our pals over at TUAW. For our purposes here though, the big news is Apple TV.
Tomorrow evening at 9 pm, National Geographic Channel will air Eye of the Leopard, a documentary from Dereck and Beverly Joubert, conservationist whose main focus is on Botswana and the big cats and elephants that live there. Eye of the Leopard follows a leopard named Legadema (which means, "light from the sky") over a three year period, starting when the cat is only eight days old. The documentary will be told mostly in flashback form as she learns to use behaivors taught to her as a young cub. Jermey Irons narrates the story as Legadema learns to use both her instinct and learned behaivor to survive in Africa. I've placed a clip from the documentary after the jump.
Earlier this month SNARB.TK released an updated version of XHub Media Center for OS X. It boasted enhanced photo and TV modules, better remote controls ,and new animations. But it was missing one crucial update that you would have thought would be kind of important for any Mac software released this month: Leopard support.
Elgato has released an updated version of its EyeTV personal video software for Mac OS X. 
That low rumbling whirrr you heard coming from the west as you sat down to your Fruity Pebbles this morning was the sound of the generators for the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field coming online. The master took the stage once again today to wow fans, put an end to some of the recent speculation and introduce some new products. 
Tomorrow evening at 9 pm, National Geographic Channel will air Eye of the Leopard, a documentary from Dereck and Beverly Joubert, conservationist whose main focus is on Botswana and the big cats and elephants that live there. Eye of the Leopard follows a leopard named Legadema (which means, "light from the sky") over a three year period, starting when the cat is only eight days old. The documentary will be told mostly in flashback form as she learns to use behaivors taught to her as a young cub. Jermey Irons narrates the story as Legadema learns to use both her instinct and learned behaivor to survive in Africa. I've placed a clip from the documentary after the jump.
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