But once and a while I run into strange errors when trying to boot my VM’s. Errors like “VERR_SUPLIB_WORLD_WRITABLE”, which basically mean the file permissions on some component of VirtualBox are too general.

You can fix most of these errors by opening up Disk Utility (Spotlight search or Applications > Utilities). From there select your system hard drive (likely Macintosh HD) and click Repair Disk Permissions. This process may take a few minutes. When its done restart your computer, open up VirtualBox and you should be good to go!

If you still have trouble, open up the Applications folder and find the VirtualBox app. Right click and open the Get Info screen. At the bottom in the permissions section, make sure “Everyone” only has read access.

Header screenshot by Rafa Espada.

It turns out you can! Just update your devices to iOS 4.3, enable Personal Hotspot on your phone and Bluetooth. Then open up the Bluetooth menu on your iPad and pair with your iPhone. It’ll pair up and show the Personal Hotspot icon at the top of the screen. Congratulations, you’re connected.

The setup was seamless, and certainly easier than the jailbreak + iTether method I’ve been using thus far. Pages and videos load reasonably fast, and emails come through without delay. And because this is essentially Bluetooth tethering, it has a relatively low draw on batteries.

iDentify file list

So let’s say you have a bunch of movies or TV shows converted for your Apple TV / iPhone / iPad / iPod. It syncs and plays great on your devices–but something is missing! Its the metadata (aka tags).

When you buy media from the iTunes store it comes with epidsode info or a film description, posters, cast info, air dates and more that make it easy to find what you’re looking for or pick something good to watch. Media ripped from discs (or obtained by other means) simply doesn’t come with those goodies.

Enter iDentify

But we can add that metadata after the fact. All you need is a piece of software called iDentify 2, and it will do all [at least most] of the magic for you. It works very well and once all is said and done it looks just like iTunes store content.

To use simply drag all the files you want to tag into iDentify. Let it scan them, check at least a few to make sure it got the right show or film (hint: click edit tags to view) and click “Process Files”. Then import your freshly tagged media to iTunes, and stream or sync to your heart’s desire. That’s it!

iDentify "Edit Tags" page

For the app to work, your files have to be named logically (eg: house.s05e03.mp4, lost.s04e16.m4v). Once and a while iDentify will mess up. If you’re tagging a batch of TV episodes and it can’t find any data, you can select all the files in the app, click “Edit Tags” and manually enter the “Show Name”. Then “Rescan Items” and 9 times out of 10 it’ll work. If you have trouble with movies, first try adding the release year in the filename or the iDentify directly. If that fails find the film on IMDB and paste its code (last number of the film’s URL at IMBD) into the “Edit Tags” page and “Rescan Items”.

Also certain files will crash the app rarely for no apparent reason. Just file an error report when you reopen iDentify (it asks you on launch). The developer is extremely responsive and helpful. If you like the app you might consider making a donation to the developer or registering your copy (this will gets your more features like file renaming).

So we convert. I’ve found a relatively painless workflow that will allow you to convert your media from just about anything (AVI and MKV included) to Apple friendly formats, and tag it with metadata so you can enjoy film description, movie posters, episode information and more on your Apple TV (just as if you bought it on iTunes).

Conversion

The first, and most time consuming step, is to run all your media through conversion software. I’m using two pieces of software. Video Monkey and Handbrake.

The benefit of Video Monkey is that it has a queue interface, so you can drag a selection of videos into the app, choose your options, hit start and grab a coffee.

Handbrake is a little smarter than Video Monkey and it allows you to preserve 5.1 audio tracks if your vidoes have them. It also has a queue, but its cumbersome and you have to add each file individually.

If you’re using Video Monkey:

1. Drag in your videos
2. Select the Apple TV preset
3. Check “Limit output params to input” (doesn’t work with MKV’s)
4. Default quality is good enough for me, but adjust to your fancy
5. Hit Start (it could take minutes or hours depending on your machine)

If you’re using Handbrake:

1. Use the Source window to choose one file (or drag the file from the Finder into the Source window)
2. Select the Apple TV preset from the presets pain on the right (might have to “Toggle Presets”)
3. Handbrake automatically limits output parameters to input, and this does work with MKV’s
4. Default quality is good enough for me, but adjust to your liking
5. Hit Start (it could take minutes or hours depending on your machine)
6. To add another file to the queue, click Source from the toolbar and repeat the process, clicking “Add to Queue” instead of Start at step 5

I recommend trying it with one file first to make sure quality is what you expected.

My next post covers tagging your converted media so it displays nicely in iTunes/Apple TV.

Macally MSUITPAD

I bought an iPad a couple weeks ago, does that mean I’m horrible person? Anyways! I wanted to be able to share my new toy with people that might not, uhh, value its scatch-and-scuff-free good looks as much as me. So I set off to find a case. Let me tell you something about iPad cases in BC: there’s almost no selection. Your best bet isn’t at Apple, its actually London Drugs. I visited several stores and they had the widest selection.

Unfortunately I don’t like any of the cases I’ve seen so far (I want the Incase Grip Protective Cover), so I decided to pick up a cheap alternative until I can get down to the US. I settled on Macally Silicone Protective Case for iPad (msuitpad). Here’s what you need to know..

Its cheap. I got mine for $25CAD plus tax. Its also cheaply built, there’s some rough rubber around the edges and the fit is mediocre. That said, it does the job and is actually very nice to hold. The material is a soft rubber texture, and the back has these awesome ridges that make it easier to hold on to your iPad. In fact, if the fit were just a bit tighter I think I would have been content with this product.

The problem is that the fit is too loose. And I fear that with time it will only get worse after repeated repositioning/removing. Here’s a little video to demonstrate my concern.

So overall it gets the job done. Don’t go picking your iPad up by the cases’s rim, don’t expect top of it’s class beauty, and save a little coin. If you’re looking for a nice-enough silicone case, a temporary protective cover, or something cheap this might just be the product for you.

1. Cellular Data switch: This is great news for people outside of the US and UK who have limited data plans. Now if you have no data plan, are reaching your limit, or just don’t want to use any data at a given time you can turn it off independently of 3G/edge voice and SMS.
2. Missing music controls: Double tapping on the home button to bring up Multitasking has come at the cost of the iPod controls (the little blue menu that would appear over whatever app you were working in). I suppose this doesn’t matter when you’re using Apple earphones, but I already miss that feature quite a bit and I hope they can re-implement it.
3. Threaded email doesn’t work (yet): The universal inbox works perfectly, but the actual threading makes strange mistakes. Completely unrelated messages from different people are grouped together, not all conversations are threaded…its a mess. Hopefully Apple can get this figured out by the Summer release date, and I’ve just disabled the threading for now.

Here’s the deal: you can use push email from MobileMe, Yahoo or a Microsoft exchange account. This is kind of limiting, seeing as most of the world doesn’t want to drop $100 on MobileMe (see my older post), doesn’t use Yahoo mail and isn’t a corporate email junkie. The good news is that someone has been thinking about the rest of us and that entity is Google. They are offering a free service called Google Sync, which is essentially a personal Exchange account that you can use with your iPhone and other mobile devices.

I have four email accounts that I want pushed to my iPhone. 1 Gmail, 2 Google Apps, and 1 external account. Since you can only use 1 Exchange account (Google Sync) on your iPhone I had to come up with a crafty solution.

You could forward all mail to one MobileMe / Yahoo / Exchange / Google Sync account. The problem with that setup is that when you reply to emails they will all be sent from your push enabled account, and not necessarily the one they were sent to.

Instead, I setup all of my email accounts using IMAP and set the fetch interval to 1 hour. This way I can open emails on the right account and reply normally. I’m still not getting push, so I also went into the online settings for my email accounts and setup forwarding to a single Google Sync address (eg iphone@mydomain.com). Now I have the four normal email accounts and one push (iPhone Pushmail) that receives all mail from the others instantly.

Another problem. Now I receive immediate notifications of new mail, but once I open up Mail it fetches from the IMAP accounts, and now I have duplicate new emails. Gross. To solve this problem I logged into to my iphone@yourdomain.com Google Apps (Google Sync enabled) account, and setup a filter that makes all messages “skip the inbox” and applies a label “iPhone” to them.

Then I went in to my Mail settings on my phone and enabled push for the new “iPhone” folder on my iphone@youdomain.com account.

The result: when new mail is received, I get an instant notification. The counter on Mail doesn’t increase, but there is a sound and the phone vibrates just the same. From this point I can open Mail and new messages are quickly fetched from the IMAP accounts.

This solution is far from elegant and I hope if you find something better you’ll share it with me. Hopefully Apple can work with more email providers to make push support a little more common.

So when I got my 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro I decided to get a hardshell case along with it. I travelled to a few local Mac resellers, the Apple Store and various websites, considering what options were available along the way. I asked a couple questions that helped me make a decision:

1. How well does this fit and will it make use difficult?
2. How effective is it at actually protecting my Mac?
3. What’s it going to cost me?
4. Will it make my sleek computer look dorky?

So here’s what I discovered. Cases from Incase and Speck both fit reasonably well, with the Incase having a slightly better implementation. It’s hooks seem more sturdy and connect in better places. Neither case seems impede use at all, except that they make the screen feel looser. It will fall if you use your MacBook at an extreme angle (this is annoying if you use your computer in bed).

Both cases will protect a Mac from bumps and scratches. I couldn’t say which would do a better job over time, but I doubt there’s a big difference.

The Incase and Speck offerings have the same exorbitant price of about $60 CAD (Can you spell collusion?). For the love of broccoli, how could two pieces of plastic cost that much? Anyway, its a price that I agreed to pay to protect and customize my MacBook and YMMV.

The dorkiness factor is a pretty subjective topic, so bear with me here. I found that the Speck product looked a little cheaper and less refined. It doesn’t follow the shape of the MacBook Pro as closely and and it looks bulky when attached. The Incase seems to preserve shape and sleekness, following the nice lines and curves of the computer very well.

So I settled on a green Incase 15″ Hardshell Case for MacBook Pro. Public opinion of my case is good. Two or three people ask me where I got it everyday, and its always easy to tell which laptop is mine. It fits well, protects my Mac, cost me a lot and looks pretty good. Probably my favourite part about the case is the soft-touch rubberized coating. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you should really go see one of these cases, because its truly awesome.

Other than the price, I don’t have anything negative to say about the Incase. If you follow the instructions its simple to attach and forget its even on. It is difficult to remove, but there is no danger of damaging your Mac in the process. And in all honesty, if you plan to remove the case that often you should probably be looking at a sleeve-type case anyway. All in all I’m very happy with this purchase. If you’re looking for a hardshell case for your MacBook I’d recommend it for you too.

The app is put together by Mira Software, who provide frequent updates and, in my experience, excellent support. It works with a great number of devices and there is an updated list of compatible phones. These are my favourite capabilities:

• Readings texts on my Mac’s large screen
• Receiving instant notification of new messages
• Typing messages on a full size keyboard and sending them through my cell
• Mass archival, moving or deleting of texts
• All over Bluetooth (as the name implies) so there aren’t any messy cables

The applications provides a seamless SMS experience. When you receive a text your Mac’s screen flashes white, and the message appears in an iChat-like window. You can then type your response and send without having to touch your phone. Messages in the chat windows are threaded so you have one open with each of the contacts you’re chatting with.

BPE also has a number of calling features. I don’t really use them since Skype is available on my computer, but they are impressive nonetheless.

When you receive a call the screen flashes and displays a window that contains the phone number of the caller. If the caller is in your address book, it will also show their name and display picture. Even better, the app will fade out and pause iTunes if music is playing, and then resume playing when the call ends. You can also initiate calls with a dial pad on the screen or by clicking “Call So-and-So” straight from your address book. The integration is nearly flawless.

Issues and Solutions

I use BPE with my KRZR K1m on the Telus network in Canada. This setup has worked very well for me, although I’ve had a few issues. Sending texts on my phone is not possible when “Hands-Free” (the protocol that lets you make calls through your Mac’s speakers and microphone) is enabled. I’ve solved this problem by choosing “Suspend Hands-Free” from the BPE menu. Alternatively you can set an option that only opens Hands-Free when in a call, which was successful in my limited testing. You should know that the Caller-ID and iTunes features work regardless of these settings.

MMS messages also seem to mess with BPE, so they should deleted or moved before you use the app (at least on some phones). I don’t imagine these issues will affect every phone, mine is quite old, but this is what I have learned through trial and error and in conversations with the support team.

Conclusion

Its definitely a great app, but before you buy you should test to see wether your phone is fully compatible. Fortunately Mira Software provides a trial period, and if you’re still not sure you can even request a trial extension. Given the complexity of the app, its a bargain at $24.95 USD. I would recommend it to any Mac user that spends a lot of time tied to their computer and phone.

If you have any questions about app I’d be glad to answer them in the comments.

Something in has changed in Snow Leopard that causes problems on some Gmail and Google Apps accounts. I’m not completely sure whats going on behind the scenes, but a problem has arisen where Gmail complains the “Account exceeded bandwidth limits.” This means that too much data has travelled between Mail.app on your Mac and Gmail, and Google automatically cuts your account off to maintain service for other users.

If you’ve already been blocked, don’t worry, you can still get your mail online. The block should be removed within a day. I also changed this setting that seems to have prevented me from getting blocked again. In the menubar, click Mail > Preferences > Accounts > select your account > Advanced and change the “Keep copies of messages for offline viewing” to “All messages, but omit attachments”.

Select "All messages, but omit attachments"

Please tell me if this solution works for you guys. I hope that either or Apple or Google comment on this issues because it does seem to be effecting a number of people.