Website: remote.collect3.com.au

[rating: 3.5/5]

I love my modded Xbox with XBMC. I still believe it is the best and cheapest digital media system that you can get to this date. Until AppleTV can natively run movies in multi format of course.

When hear that XBMC Remote is available on Apple App Store I was so excited and tried to accept the $5 price tag that makes it a middle-priced for an iPhone/iPhone app. I bougth it anyway in the end and hoping it can really work like Apple’s Remote app to control iTunes/AppleTV.

Review Note
A little breakdown on my current system: I use the latest XBMC build by T3CH. I previously used a very old version of XBMC which could not work with this app. More on this below. My Xbox has just a little over 1,000 songs on its library. A IR-receiver is plugged on one of the controller jack and I regularly use my Logitech Harmony remote to control it.
Another thing, I understand this is a very early release so I am sure with a few more updates this app will be a lot better.

Installation
Like all iPhone app from App Store, installation was a breeze. Just click buy and the app will be downloaded and installed on your iPhone. You also need to turn on Web Server function on your XBMC, details provided here.

First Try
On my case after I set everything up, I was having a frustrating time because I could not make the remote work even though it could connect to my XBMC. The app FAQ page just did not give enough information of what to do to solve this. At the end I decided to upgrade my XBMC and it worked.

Interface
It is definitely inspired by Apple’s Remote app for iTunes. All the buttons are nicely done, album cover thumbnails are slow to load but this is something that will be updated on the next release.

Performance
I am going to be super honest here, the performance is not exactly the way that I had hoped for. Everything feels lagging, like when I choose a song it may take a few seconds before it starts playing. Worse, when I click on Songs tab and click Shuffle it will make the app and Xbox freeze and if I am lucky it will start playing a few minutes later. I understand this can be the limitations on my Xbox’s power as XBMC is not only limited for Xbox only but also available on Mac and Linux which may have better processor and memory. But then again this should be something that is mentioned on their product page, considering this is not a free nor a beta version.

Support
Apart from the lack of information on their website, support is something that the developer’s put attention to. They provided forums for people to ask questions and give suggestion. They are also quite responsive when I emailed them regarding my problems.

Price
For $5 I feel this app is a bit overpriced, considering similar app was already developed a year ago for jailbroken iPhone. Maybe I am being too subjective here, but $5 also feels hefty because everything else about XBMC are community-maintained and free.

Conclusion
If you have an Xbox with XBMC and use it a lot, it is nice to be able to browse through your libraries without needing to turn on your TV. If you have a huge music library and need to keep it organized and sync with your iTunes, maybe buying an AppleTV is a better option.

More than three years using Mac, I have always been frustrated when I need to type non-regular characters. On Windows I usually had this huge list of ASCII characters list then entered them by pressing ALT + (ASCII code number).

On Mac I think it cannot work that easy, but I maybe wrong. Anyway, just today I just find the better way to do this by accident. Turns out all you need to do is press alt+command+T and it will open the Characters window.

Not all the characters I use are there, but still need to check it more.

My new best WP plug-in starting today: Wordpress Automatic upgrade

Seriously, as much as I love active development of super-good web apps/systems, upgrading the ones you are currently using is always a pain. This may need to be done every few months. Well, with this plug-in now I am more than happy to wait for every WP update. Cheers!

Visit plug-in homepage

I love the guys at Smashing Magazines! I have been collecting and indexing the coolest scripts I find for months, if not years. Now they just posted an article with 75 (Really) Useful JavaScript Techniques. Almost all the ones I like are there and so many more. Thanks!

Read their article here.

Everybody loves Firefox. Even if I use Safari as my main browser most of the time, Firefox’s expandability is still irreplaceable. With so many available themes, plugins and extensions, you can personalize your browser according to your browsing or work behavior.

Firefox toolbar with Web Developer extension

So, what’s my favorite? Since switching to Mac, I do not test out everything one-by-one anymore but I have to say Chris Pederick’s Web Developer extension is one of the best of productivity purpose. It provides you with almost every tool you need as a web developer like customize how the CSS should be displayed, window resize, display outlines (tables, links, frames) and so much more.

For me this is perticularly important and makes everything easier to learn how a site or webpage is built.

This extension is available for Firefox, Flock and Seamonkey, and will run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Chris Pederick’s Web Developer page link

If you use a Mac, you would probably use OmniGraffle to replace Visio as a tool to create diagrams, flowcharts and other similar documents. The coolest thing with it is you can add a list of graphics called stencils from the originally provided ones to make a wider use of the app.

Just today I stumbled on Graffeltopia, a site dedicated to give OmniGraffle users a huge range of free stencil add-ons. These are contributed by users, so expect for the number to keep on growing.

Check it now to start adding your stencils or look for the ones you need for your projects.

Sendloop is a promising email marketing service with simple and easy user interface. It is developed by the guys from Octech who created Oempro, a popular email marketing software.

If you have been wanting to promote or manage an email marketing for your website or business, I would recommend to try it. With sleek web 2.0 look & feel, you can easily adjust yourself with the system. I dare to say this because the first email marketing software I used years ago just so hard to adapt, although it worked.

A screenshot of Sendloop's clean user interface

Now with Sendloop and other similar services, everyone can create and manage their own mailing lists for regular newsletter or occasional email blast. This is a hosted service, which means you do not need to install and set it up on your own server. You just need to manage your lists, create your campaigns and send them.

They only charge you when you send email to your list(s). For 1 cent per recipient, this is quite a bargain. If you have 1,000 of subscribed email addresses, you only need to budget $10 for your monthly newsletter. Of course if you have more than 10,000 addresses and you need to send them weekly, considering to install your own newsletter system is a good idea.

One last highlight why I have been following their news recently, because they have this one feature that integrates with Shopify’s webhooks. It will enable you to automatically import your customers email addresses to Sendloop.

More information can be found their website.

Renamer4Mac, batch file renamer for Mac

Price (older version): free, link
Price (newer version): $26, link

Renamer4Mac is a simple tool to batch rename your files. All you need to do is drag all the files to its window and set the rules. On the older version you can rename the files based on Search & Replace, Insert/Overwrite, Remove Characters, Number, or Uppercase/Lowercase. This tool is very handy if you do a lot of repetitive file renaming.

While I am writing this post I just realized that this app is no longer maintained by its original developer. So you need to spend an extra $26 (with 10 days free trial) to get the latest version. I am sure more features have been added, but you can still get the one I have been using all this time here.

For anyone who curious to know what kind of products that Bluelounge make, now is the best time to take a look or even buy one!

By inputting this coupon code during checkout, you wil get a $10 off any purchase of $50 or more: LD2008

This code is only valid until Sept 1, 2008.

There are too many good CSS out there, possibly thousands, but I still want to share my most useful links. I always look that these sites first whenever I need something new or face some problem and need solution.

• Listmatic – Using CSS and a simple list to create radically different list options
• CSS Table Gallery – A showcase of how CSS and data tables can work together to create usable and pretty results
• Position Is Everything – Explain some obtuse CSS bugs in modern browsers, provide demo examples of interesting CSS behaviors, and show how to “make it work” without using tables for layout purposes
• A List Apart – Explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices
• CSS tests and experiments

You can share yours too..