It's finally here - iTunes 11

iTunes 11 is Apple's flagship media player and has just had a radical overhaul. In this episode, I take you through all the new elements of iTunes 11 including the brand new interface,the new mini player and the extremely useful "Up Next" feature.

Apple have moved to a single window approach with lots of popups and sliding windows - it can be a little confusing or overwhelming, but I take you through all the changes in a logical, easy to follow sequence.

This episode also contains information on the new ScreenCastsOnline help desk system.

This full tutorial includes sections on:

• iTunes 11 Overview
• New iTunes UI
• iTunes 11 Controls
• Up Next Queue
• iTunes 11 Mini Player
• Navigating Your Library
• Managing Devices with iTunes 11
• iTunes Store & Playlists
• Withdrawn Features
• ScreenCastsOnline HelpDesk

As promised, this is a short supplementary show to SCO0265 - Plex/Nine for Mac OS X.

In this supplementary show, I describe the features of the new iOS application for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. In detail, the show covers:

• Using Plex on your iPhone
• Using the iOS app as a Remote Control
• Accessing any media library directly from your iOS device
• Initiating Playback on your Mac from your iOS device

• Streaming media from your Mac to you iPhone

• Using Plex on your iPad

• Using your iPad as a Remote Control
• Streaming media from your Mac to your iPad

What a week!

New iPods, New iTunes 10 and even a new Apple TV, all announced at Apples special ""Music"" event on September 1st.

However, a couple of days before Apple's announcements, a much smaller group of enthusiastic individuals made their own announcement. A new version of Plex had been launched - Plex/Nine - an amazing Media Center for Mac OS X and iOS.

This week’s show takes you through this stunning free media center software and demonstrates how to install and configure on your Mac. I was fortunate to get a pre-release version (only by 24 hours) but it soon became apparent that this was a special release.

But would it be overshadowed by the new Apple TV?

Nope! Not by a long shot!

The new Apple TV looks great, is relatively inexpensive and I've ordered one to feature on a future show.

However, it has it's limitations. Other than freely available internet content, you can only play content rented from the iTunes store or stored in specific formats in your iTunes library on a local machine.

Plex breaks down all these barriers and allows you to play virtually any video format on your Mac. Add in a great selection of plugins for all the major internet based services and access to your iTunes music and iPhoto and Aperture libraries.

Plex becomes the ultimate media center for your Mac. Not only will Plex play your media, it will also automatically enrich your media with metadata from the web - poster art, descriptions, artist information, genres, directors.. a whole host of information downloaded and made accessible to you via the Plex interface.

Plex/Nine takes an already fantastic application to the next level and has been completely re-engineered with a brand new architecture, separating the Plex player away from the media library. No more struggling with entering media from a cumbersome 10 foot interface, you can manage your media directly from your Mac desktop. Metadata acquisition has been improved dramatically, making it easier than ever to catalogue and organise your media automatically.

The best feature of Plex/Nine as far as I'm concerned is the ability to access any Plex Media Server on the network with zero configuration. Just start the Plex viewer on any Mac, and you'll have immediate access to all of the shared media on the network along with all the metadata. Or just have a single Mac with all your media on, accessible by all the Macs on the network - automatically!

Another huge new feature for Plex/Nine is the release of a dedicated iOS app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Remotely control any Plex instance on any Mac, directly from your iOS device. Not only remote control, but stream the video from the Mac to your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with on the fly transcoding. But more about that in the next supplementary show available in the next few days.

In detail, this week's show covers:

• Introduction to Plex/Nine
• Installation
• Initial Configuration
• Plex Media Manager
• Using Plex/Nine on the Mac
• Amending the Media Library
• Accessing Multiple Plex Libraries
• Library Sections
• Video Plug-Ins - ScreenCastsOnline

Boxee is yet another media centre for the Mac!

But at it's latest release, Boxee Beta, it has matured into a feature packed application with a killer user interface. Boxee allows you to access your local media files in a very smart, easy to use, big screen interface. Integration with IMDB and other internet based databases allow your media files to be tagged with artwork and meta data automatically, no configuration required.

Boxee is highly integrated with Internet TV shows, with automatic access to internet based TV networks based on geographic location. In addition, using Boxee apps, you have access to a huge number of independent internet based TV services.

Want to know what your friends are watching and recommending? Boxee also has a social element that allows you to follow friends and see their recommendations in your Boxee queue. If it's available on the internet, you can watch it directly from their recommendation!

Surfing the web and spot a video you would like to see later on your big TV screen at home? Boxee has a neat, easily installable bookmarklet that installs in your browser. One click, and the video is added to your Boxee queue and will be waiting for you when you get home.

Of course, you don't need a big screen TV to use Boxee, it's a standard OSX application (and Windows and Linux) that will run happily on any Intel based Mac.

Add in the ability to control Boxee from your Apple remote, an OSX Desktop widget and the free Boxee iPhone app, and you've got a great way to manage and access your media and the latest internet based content.

For people outside the US, I also demonstrate using a free VPN service as a proof of concept for accessing various services.

The full show covers:

• Getting a Boxee Account & Installation
• Basic Boxee Operation
• UI Overview
• Boxee Feed
• Queue
• Movies
• Boxee Popup Navigator
• Playback Controls
• TV Shows
• Using a VPN
• Hotspot Shield
• Boxee Apps
• Access to File System
• Being Social with Boxee
• Boxee Bookmarklet
• Apple Remote & Snow Leopard Fix
• Other Remote Options

Part 3 of the ""Using Your Mac mini as a Media Centre"" series this week and it's time to take a look at how to control your Mac media centre.

Sure, you can use an Apple Remote but that's really only useful for navigating full screen applications such as FrontRow or Plex. A full size keyboard and mouse? In the living room? Sure, you can use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, but they can be a bit cumbersome to use and they don't really fit into the domestic environment.

How about using your iPod Touch or iPhone to take full control of your Mac media centre?

This week's show is all about setting up your mac media centre to run independently of a keyboard and mouse by using a hand held device to take full control of your Mac over WifI.

The full show covers:

• Disabling ""Bluetooth Setup Assistant""
• Pairing Apple Remotes
• Setting up an ad-hoc ""Computer to Computer"" Wifi network
• Three iPod Touch/iPhone Remote Controller Applications
• Rowmote
• Rowmote Pro
• Snatch
• Using Snatch as a dedicated controller for Plex

A bit sooner than expected, but this week I couldn't wait to show you PLEX, a stunning media centre application for Intel based Macs running OSX Leopard.

This follows on from the recent Mac mini Media Centre episode, where I started the process of using the newly upgraded Mac mini as a full blown media centre. PLEX is based on the original code for the XBMC (XBox Media Centre) but has forked into a separate development specifically for Intel based Macs running OSX Leopard.

Now that the Mac mini supports full High Definition playback, PLEX allows you to manage your Movies and TV shows with a beautiful high resolution interface. With some sophisticated ""scraping"" technology, PLEX seamlessly integrates with a host of Internet based services to add rich textual and graphical metadata to your media automatically with full support for DVD artwork, ratings and even Fan artwork. With a multitude of selectable views, browsing your media collection has never been such a joy.

With the introduction of the PLEX Media Server, PLEX now integrates with your local iTunes and iPhoto libraries, giving you access to your music and photos without any additional configuration, it just works.

Rounding off and already impressive suite of functionality, PLEX also has a plugin architecture allowing third party developers to create plugins or applications to access external web based video and photo services directly from PLEX.

Available and installable from within PLEX itself, within minutes you can have direct access to such services as HULU, BBC iPlayer, 4OD, Ted Talks, The Daily Show and many other streaming video services (geographic limitations may apply for some services).

The full show covers:

• Sharing Media Files on a Network
• Installing & Configuring Plex
• Calibrating Plex for Overscan TVs
• Audio Setup
• Adding & Watching Movies
• Adding & Watching TV Shows
• Music & Pictures
• iTunes & iPhoto Integration
• Selecting & Installing Applications

Finally, Apple have released an updated Mac mini ideally suited to act as a Mac Media Centre. The previous Mac minis were underpowered in both the processor and graphics departments, making them struggle playing anything over and above standard definition video.

The quiet running and small form factor makes the Mac mini ideally suited to living beneath your TV, and now with its powerful processor and enhanced graphics, the Mac mini is now positioned to be the centre of your digital media experience.

This weeks show is the first of a mini series of shows looking at how to utilise the Mac mini as a Mac Media Centre. As there is so much to cover, I'll start the series from the basics looking at the hardware considerations, how the Mac mini is connected to your TV and audio systems, and looking at using FrontRow, the application within Leopard specifically designed to allow you to control your media using an Apple remote.

I also take a look at using iTunes, moving your iTunes library to an external drive and sharing your external iTunes and iPhoto libraries for use with FrontRow.

To finish off, I look at installing, configuring and using Sapphire - a free plugin for FrontRow that allows you to use FrontRow to manage your external media files. As well as allowing you to use the familiar FrontRow interface, Sapphire has intergration with online services such as IMDB and TVRage to seamlessly retrieve the metadata for your media files.

In future weeks, I'll be taking a look at additional third party utilities and viewers, along with the various options and utilities for controlling your Mac Media Centre using the iPhone or iPod Touch.