One thing that iTunes has over Spotify’s online music service is its wireless connectivity to the Apple TV. But it is actually possible to get the same kind of connectivity with Spotify, and use it from any room in your house, with the addition of a classic Mac app and a couple of third-party iOS apps.

Step 1: Get Spotify

There are two ways to get a Spotify account: either by invitation for a free account, or by paying for premium or unlimited accounts. Once you have an account set up, you’ll need to download and install the Spotify OS X client application. Then just start browsing for music and create playlists. Just a few more steps, and you’ll turn your house into one big Spotify jukebox.

Step 2: Extend AirPlay to any Mac music app with Airfoil

Next you’ll need Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil for Mac. Airfoil has been around since long before Apple introduced AirPlay and the second generation Apple TV. Any audio application on the Mac (including Spotify), or even the Mac’s system output can be made accessible to AirPlay devices with Airfoil.

1. Download and install Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil for Mac.
2. Choose Spotify in Airfoil as the application you want to play.
3. Choose the AirPlay and/or Airfoil device(s) you want to connect to.
4. Play music using Spotify.

Step 3: Extend your range with Airfoil speakers

One of the limitations of Apple’s AirPlay has been the fact that iOS devices themselves are not able to receive AirPlay streams, only send them. Luckily, Rogue Amoeba created an app called Airfoil Speakers Touch for iOS devices that allows Airfoil to play music on any and all iOS devices connected to your local network. This works great if you want to extend your playback to speakers that otherwise would not be connected. There’s also a version of Speakers for OS X (.zip file) that will allow you to extend your playback to all the Macs on your network. Keep in mind that you are limited to your local network, so this is not a workaround for taking your library on the go, which is only included in the premium and unlimited Spotify accounts.

Bonus: Remote control options to round it all off

Now that you’re playing music from Spotify around your house, how can you also control it remotely? There are two good third-party solutions to help with this: One will let you control Airfoil on your Mac, and the other will allow you to control Spotify.

• Reemote for Airfoil. Kai Aras’ Reemote lets turn on and off different combinations of Airfoil and AirPlay enabled devices on your network. You can even control their individual volumes, to some extent, and you can switch your audio source application on the host Mac. There is an iPhone as well as an iPad version of Reemote. To make this work, you’ll also need to download and install the Reemote Server application for Mac.
• Two Remotes for Spotify. To control what playlists you’re listening to from within Spotify on the Mac, there are two good solutions. Axel Moller’s Spot Remote and Anders O’s Remoteless. Both apps are universal, supporting both the iPhone and iPad. Both allow you to browse and start Spotify playlists, as well as search for tracks, artist and albums. Another thing they both share is the use of an open source library called SIMBL. The server software for Spot Remote as well as Remoteless requires that SIMBL be installed on the host Mac in order for either solution to work. SIMBL allows third-party developers to enhance the functionality of other applications from other developers. Unfortunately, while it seems to work for some, OS X Lion does not yet appear to be officially supported by either solution.

Since this does require a bit of setup, it isn’t quite as easy as just using iTunes and an Apple TV. But if you’re looking for an alternative that makes use of Spotify’s great new service, maybe this is the whole home music solution you’ve been waiting for.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodes
• Connected Consumer Q1: The Over-the-Top vs. Pay TV Battle Heats Up
• A 2011 Connected Consumer Forecast

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When Google Chromebooks started arriving without the Netflix streaming we’d been promised we were predictably bummed, but that may be rectified soon. While Chromebook owners attuned to beta channel updates first noticed an entry for a Netflix plugin last month, it still couldn’t actually play movies and didn’t appear on older, single-core Atom powered Cr-48 laptops. Fast forward to the present, where one of our friendly comment moderators, masterofrandom has spotted this updated v1.0.2 plugin lurking in the depths of his murdered out 12-incher. There’s still no playback to be had, but we’re figuring Netflix didn’t update the version number past 1.0 because it’s finally figured out the perfect queue management system. Chromebook owners or prospective owners (and by extension, Linux users) still awaiting Watch Instantly streaming — your alert level is at Vermilion.

[Thanks, masterofrandom]

Netflix plugin for ChromeOS hits v1.0.2, is an official release around the corner? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of content providers bossing you around, telling you what you can do with your own phone? Good, because Netflix is sick of telling you kids to keep off its lawn. Following a recent update, the outfit’s Android app now officially supports the LG Revolution, Motorola Droid, Casio G’zOne Commando C771, and any unsupported device that just happens to work on its own. In addition to adding official support for the aforementioned trio (and of course, some minor bug fixes), the stream king removed a device check that previously blocked unsupported handsets from attempting playback. Your mileage may vary, but the folks over at Droid Life are reporting success with both the Droid X and Droid X2, as well as the Xperia Play. That’s no guarantee for you and your unsupported device, but at least you have the freedom to fail. That’s nice, isn’t it?

Netflix updates Android app, expands device support originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Mopho DJ uses your iPhone to track turntable movement (instead of your movements)

Mopho DJ uses your iPhone to track turntable movement (instead of your movements) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 May 2011 19:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor has it that HP is preparing to enter the cloud-based music storage fray. A reader at PreCentral sent in what purports to be a confidential PowerPoint presentation indicating the TouchPad will launch with an HP-branded music and movie store, as well as a smart syncing service that caches frequently accessed media for local playback. This may very well be the “Music Synergy” that SVP Steven McArthur mentioned to us. Amazon has already launched such an app and it’s all but official that Google is planning the same thing, so it only makes sense that the company would want to imbue webOS with similar powers. We can’t verify these claims ourselves and the slide above is clearly a wonky Photoshop job, but it’s would hardly be surprising after snatching up Melodeo and the streaming music service Nutsie. And, while webOS and Android are working to banish the quaint ritual of plugging your cellphone into a computer, we can only imagine what the Lala team is up to — maybe Jobs has them washing his turtlenecks.

HP may bless webOS with cloud-syncing music store originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Working with the video of video recorders e. G the Canon HV20 3MP can produce a serious business. HD video contains four times the number of pixels that standard definition offers, and it’s much more heavily compressed.

Remember that you will need a powerful PC with plenty of memory to deal with the extra info and compression. Height for instance, advocates a minimum 512 MB of RAM and a graphics card with 128 MB of RAM for standard resolution video, though that goes up to a GB of RAM and a 256 MB graphics card when working with 1080i HD video.

You’ll find lots of software available that supports revising high-definition videos. For instance, the newest versions of Apex Studio and Ulead Media Studio 8 can import and edit files in HDV format.

Even though the Hi-D video with these sorts of looks superb when played back on an HDTV, at the time is there is not any way store HD Video on a DVD. The only real way you can store HD video for playback is on your PC or the same kind of media you employed in your HD mpeg recorder.

There’s but the latest generation of high-definition optical media format coming shortly. Products that are based primarily on the HD-DVD and Blu-ray disk formats are extremely expensive, and they are going to remain that way for the near future.

HD-DVD players were pronounced some time back that they are going to cost $500 and up, and will most likely be available extremely soon. You’ll also need one of the new HD-DVD
Drives to draft to the disk, which should cost as much again. You can expect the same story with the Blu-ray disc, as both the recorders and the players are going to be dear for some time to come.

There’s one other option as well . There’s a DVD player from KISS, the DP-600, which can play back Hi-D files that have been compressed to Microsoft’s Windows Media 9 format. This may at least offer a stop opening till the price of the HD-DVD and Blue-ray disk players and writes come down to an affordable price.

You can always play back the recorded video you have through the mpeg recorder itself, though you should not expect to be well placed to write it out on a disk with the prevailing available clobber and preserve its quality. If you wait it out, the new generation of available media will be everything you need for your HD video.

Know a lot more about video editing software and free video editing software by visiting http://todaysbestvideoeditingsoftware.com/.