"Stand in the place where you live, now face north. Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before." -R.E.M.

Apple

No Audio in Quicktime and OS X For Your AVI Files?

09/07/2008 05:40 AM

Then I’m about to make your day...

As someone who is constantly editing video and trying to find interesting clips for use in sermons, I wanted to give a little advice for those having trouble hearing audio in their AVI files in Quicktime. Sure, you could use VLC Player to play these files, but if you need to edit your videos files like I do, VLC just isn’t a good solution.

For years we’ve had to piece together different audio and video codecs from all over the web and insert them into the Quicktime home folder manually, making it very tedious and time consuming to make sure you have the codecs to play every given video you may need to play or edit.

That ends today. A fine open source community has recently released Perian, the “swiss-army knife for Quicktime.” It’s a single download and install that should beef up your Quicktime player enough for it to handle pretty much any format you throw at it: .mov, .avi, Divx, Flash, etc., etc.

It’s free and it works perfectly; I’ve been banging my head against the wall for a while trying to hear audio for a clip I’m showing in church tomorrow. I downloaded Perian and now the audio is crystal clear. Big sigh of relief!

You can download Perian at their website.

Tags: Quicktime, Apple, OS X, AVI, Mac, Perian

iWant an iPhone

06/08/2007 07:08 PM

My phone is terrible. There — I said it. You know why? It makes phone calls. That's it. I can call people and talk about the weather, Paris Hilton's jail time, or how terrible the Dallas Mavericks did in the playoffs this year; but when the call is over I have no reason to do anything with my phone but put it back in my pocket.

Losing Weight and Running Hard

04/03/2007 11:55 AM

I blinked my eyes...hard. I hadn’t noticed previously that anything was wrong with them, but they clearly had to be off. As I stared down at the digital scale I was standing on, it definitely looked like it read “223”.

New Apple Partnership

01/22/2007 05:14 AM

For the last year plus, regular visitors to joshcrain.com have probably noticed that we occasionally run information and reviews on new iPods, computers and software made by Apple, Inc.

Recently joshcrain.com and Apple entered into a partnership whereby the site will occasionally provide links to music, movies and television shows on iTunes and possibly even computers and iPods from the Apple store in the future.

iPhone, Therefore iAm

01/17/2007 03:31 PM

Most regulars know that joshcrain.com is a friend to all things Apple. Though news of the iPhone has almost definitely reached you by now, I wanted to make a quick list of the top five things that make the iPhone awesome (in my humble opinion):

5. It’s a widescreen, touch screen iPod that plays both music and video in an awesome way.

4. The touch screen is the most advanced of its kind to ever hit the market. Steve Jobs’ first bulleted point in his presentation of the touch screen feature was, “It works like magic.” I really don’t know why he even bothered with any points after that...

3. It runs OS X (if you don’t know what that is, you can stop reading now...j/k).

2. It has real internet access (unlike my Motorola Q), serving up actual HTML web pages that can be surfed, zoomed in and enjoyed just like on your regular computer. It even runs a full version of Google maps!

1. It’s made by Apple...that pretty much solidifies it as an amazing product.

Tags: Apple, iPhone

iPod nano (RED)

11/01/2006 04:33 PM

Well if you keep up with the site much (it’s pretty easy to do...I think I’m averaging about one article for every two months lately) you know that we’ve been pushing the ONE Campaign for the last eight months. Essentially the ONE Campaign is an attempt to activate our government to help out with some of the world’s largest problems due to poverty: lack of education, hunger, and disease.

Well, there’s an additional way you can help out, and this time it’s with your purchasing dollars. You’re already going to buy some things anyway (like clothes from the Gap, an iPod nano, a Motorola phone, etc.) so you might as well get the RED versions of them, and by doing so have a portion of the proceeds go directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

One of the very first American products to do this is the new RED iPod nano. You want a nano anyway, and now you can help out an awesome cause while still getting a beautiful iPod and listening to your tunes (as well as going running with it). Go get one!

Full details here.

Tags: Apple, iPod, ONE Campaign

Review: Nike + iPod

09/30/2006 02:37 PM

Well, I said I’d buy it once it came out and I did. After surviving the past year with running shoes that had literally been super-glued back together three times, I finally got some new shoes and some new technology for good measure.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Nike recently released a line of shoes and a wireless sensor in collaboration with Apple that works with iPod Nanos. The idea is that this sensor, placed in your running shoe, sends information to your iPod and allows the Nano to keep up with your average pace, your distance, and your calories burned. All of this information can then be sent to Nike’s website and your statistics can be easily kept up with and your progress can be tracked.

So how well does it work? I’ve been using it for about two months and I’ve already run almost 90 miles. That’s 90 more miles than I ran last year. Why? Because being able to keep track of my progress without running in place on a treadmill is fun. I can run anywhere I want and still get accurate results. The female voice on the iPod encourages me with her sweet words (haha), and I get to pick my own running soundtrack.

The Nike+ website is also pretty incredible. As you can see in the screenshots, it gives you many different ways to keep up with your progress, including goals you can set for yourself to earn virtual medals. It may sound cheesy, but it feels good to earn those medals (I earned my first one by running over 16 miles in just under two weeks).

I recommend this for anyone who is interested in getting in better shape through solid exercise. Go at your own pace, listen to your own music, and enjoy getting some fantastic conditioning. I’m actually planning on running a marathon the first half of 2008, and I never thought I’d do that six months ago. Get out there and run!

Tags: Apple, iPod, Review, Nike

My Love Affair With Apple

03/28/2006 05:39 AM

After completing my bachelor’s degree in December of 2004, I received graduation money from relatives and friends for actually making it through college. I thought long and hard about what to do with my newly acquired wealth: buy books to complete my commentary library...purchase an acoustic guitar amp...put a down-payment on my student loans...hire Oprah to give an emotionally charged congratulatory speech at my graduation party...

Read More...

Tags: Apple, iMac