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.

(Via GigaOM.)

Add me to your Google+

Since there’s been quite a lot of new people getting in to Google+ today, I thought I’d share this ‘cheat sheet’ that’s been doing the rounds. Hopefully it’ll help some of you newbies get better orientated.

After long speculation, Google is officially introducing the company’s Facebook rival today, named Google+. It has a number of unique features to the service. Plus, there is no sign up required for anyone with an active Google account. But is this really the Facebook killer we have been waiting for?

Google+ has five different points of emphasis. The first is Circles, which lets you drag and drop friends into specific groups. Similar to Facebook friend lists, yes, but a lot of the sharing revolves around which groups the user decides to share certain bits of information to.

Building upon Circles is Hangouts, which is really just Google’s fancy term for group video chat. In the stream, users can see who is ‘hanging out’ and decide to join a hangout and participate in a large video conference. Hangouts may consist of random friends or specific Circles of friends.

Sparks is the third point of emphasis, and it stems more from Google search than it does from the social aspects of Google+. In a nutshell, it is a mini search engine. The service encourages the user to search for things of interest and save them in a list. Instead of a standard list of results, Sparks presents different articles or videos the user can watch, read, or share. And using the list of interests, the results for each are accessible again at any time.

Finally, we have two mobile features, available on the Android Market immediately and coming to the App Store soon. Instant Upload plays up the fact that it is a tedious process to upload multiple photos from a smart phone. This feature will automatically upload any photos and videos a user captures and store them in a private album in Google+ for sharing upon the user’s own discretion. Huddle, simply put, is Google’s answer to iMessage. It combines text messaging and chatting into one and allows for group chatting from within the app. Circles plays a big role in this as well.

Those five main features are the stars of the show here. Aside from them, Google+ does provide some more familiar features. A stream shows real-time updates from friends and a hub for sharing statuses, photos, videos, and links. Plus, each user gets an individual profile. The normal bar at the top of each Google product turns black when Google+ is active, and acts as full navigation for the services, profiles, and notifications.

The Google+ project is currently available by invitation-only, but over time Google will roll it out to everyone. So — the question you have been waiting for — is this going to take down Facebook? I think for sure that it has more potential than any other competitor thus far. However, since Facebook reportedly now has 750 million active users, winning the battle will be an extremely long and painful challenge. Google+ is either going to fly or die.

(Via Skatter Tech.)

If you’re looking to set up a media center, you need to know what free software is out there. Choose the media center application that works best for you by comparing the best programs on the market.

If you’re looking for a program to watch your favorite videos from the comfort of your couch, you’re going to need a good TV media center program. These programs are designed to be readable and browsable from your couch, and present you with the media on the web and on your hard drive. All vary in terms of features, and all have something to offer. One of them is right for you. This list is by no means definitive, but it does cover most of the major players.

Browse the list, find more information. Try them all out if you have to; after all, all of these programs are free.

XMBC

It started as a media center for the original Xbox, but it’s evolved to become so much more than that. XBMC is considered by many to be the best media center out there, and it’s not hard to see why. Insanely customizable, and giving you quick access to your movies, music and TV shows, it’s simply a hard program to top. Like XBMC, but want more online content? Check out NaviX, the ultimate extension for XMBC. You’ll find lots of streaming content there, so enjoy.

Boxee

Built using code from XBMC, Boxee can seem overwhelming at first. There are TV shows, movies and more to browse, and even an entire App store. Start using it for a while, though, and you’ll wonder how you lived without it. That’s because Boxee allows you to customize everything enough that your favorite videos on the web are only a few clicks away.

Want to learn more? Read 5 things you should do after installing Boxee.

Hulu Desktop

Simply put: it’s all of Hulu’s videos, from your TV. There’s really not much more to this program; you can’t add your own videos, or watch any videos that aren’t on Hulu.com. This makes it useless outside of the USA, naturally, but assuming you’re in the States and most of the shows you like are on Hulu, this can be a good program to have around. Read more about the Hulu Desktop

Kylo

This one’s a little different. Basically a web browser built for television, Kylo is a pretty good media center in itself. Links to most of the major video sites on the web are easily accessible, and an interesting control paradigm makes for easy browsing. Sadly, Hulu is blocked, but there’s still a lot to discover here. If you want your media experience to be the web, try out Kylo.

Moovida

A slick user interface for browsing your own videos. While lacking in online content, Moovida is a great option for those looking to organize their desktop video collection. Lots of customization options await, so check it out!

Enna

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A recent addition to the field, Linux media center Enna comes with some capabilities not seen elsewhere. Support for couchbound book reading, for example and a pretty slick photo browser as well. This exciting new application also gives you access to your local music and videos, so give it a spin.

(Via MakeUseOf.com.)

I recently purchased a shiny new MacBook Pro and while it’s pretty awesome, I didn’t realize how much time it would take for me to re-adjust to a new operating system. Being fairly new to the whole Mac experience, I’ve been browsing the MUO archives for as many tips, tricks, and interesting tidbits I can find that will help me better learn the new OS. From researching free apps I should download to finding a good screen capture tool, I’ve found some great resources. I can finally edit photos again and, yes, even play games.

One of the things I was curious about however, was which universal video player to install. QuickTime is pretty cool, sure, but I quickly found out its limits after a short time using it. Where can I find a good, lightweight video player that’s capable of playing every type of file?

1. VLC Media Player

Regardless of what operating system you’re using, VLC Media Player is one of, if not the, best video players out there. VLC is an open source cross-platform multimedia player that plays pretty much every type of video file, making it truly ‘universal’.

You can also use it to play DVDs, CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. No codec packs are needed and it’s completely free. Anyone who is familiar with VLC should not be surprised to see it on this list.

2. DivX

DivX Player for Mac is also a nice alternative for you to play videos, especially if you’re looking to play something in HD. Naturally, DivX Player allows you to play all native DivX videos (.mkv), but it does also support other popular video file types, including QuickTime files. The player also includes a desktop dimmer, window fade, and free full screen playback options.

3. NicePlayer

NicePlayer is a relatively unknown application but it’s a pretty impressive video player for Mac. Jeffry dedicated a post on MUO to NicePlayer back in June 2010. It’s an open source app that was designed for playing movies and it features full screen or border-less floating windows, on the fly playlist creation, and more.

4. Elmedia Player

Elmedia Player is a Flash and media player for Mac OS X that supports playback of FLV, SWF, XAP (Silverlight), RM and RV (Real), AVI, MOV, MP4, and many other formats. It features a built-in web browser, so you can browse through websites and watch movies without leaving the application as well.

5. Windows Media Components for QuickTime

You may be surprised to learn that this even exists, but it’s a viable solution if you’re just looking for a little bit of Windows love. With Windows Media Components for QuickTime, you can play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player and view Windows Media content on the Internet using a web browser. It gives you added support for numerous audio and video codecs, as well as different file formats (like .avi).

(Via MakeUseOf.com.)

If you’re a digitally aware couch potato like me, you risk burning a significant number of calories surfing between Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and iTunes to get your fix of movies and television shows.

If you’re interested in mitigating that risk, you’ll want to take a look at Moki.tv, an all-in-one guide to the Internet’s entertainment offerings.

From Moki, you can browse a broad and deep catalog of almost all the silver-screen and small-screen content available on the web. You can watch free content from Hulu; subscription stuff from Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Comcast’s xfinity tv; and on-demand TV and movies from iTunes and Amazon Video On Demand. You can sign up with Facebook Connect, then simply select the content services you already use; Moki makes it easy to connect service with third-party authentication, so you won’t need to remember any logins.

Once you’re in, you’ll be able to rate movies and get recommendations — you can even pull your rating from Netflix to Moki and vice versa — and create a queue of shows and movies to watch. The site uses your ratings as well as ratings from IMDb, Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes to make recommendations for you; and the recommendations I got were spot-on, especially after I had imported my Netflix ratings.

Not only can you find and watch what you love without visiting a half-dozen websites; you can also find new shows and films to watch that are similar to ones you’ve already watched. You can sort content by genre, rating, popularity and release date; or you can browse award-winning films and TV shows. The site also has fascinating curated collections of content, like Shakespeare adaptations or Clint Eastwood flicks hand-picked by Eastwood himself.

In addition to getting boatloads of online video, you can explore trending lists of actors and directors, read synopses, write reviews, leave comments, and more. And perhaps best of all, if you signed up with Facebook Connect, you have an instant social connection and can see your friends’ ratings and reviews on content, too.

The site, though new, is remarkably full-featured; many of these cool features are made possible by clever integrations with existing sites and apps.

You can expect to see streaming media sources on Moki.tv soon. Currently, the site’s founders are polling users to find out which streaming sources are the most requested. Moki’s also working on an API.

We like the premise of the site — one-stop shopping for watching TV and movies online — and we like the UI, which is sleekly designed with lots of nice touches. Check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think.

Moki, Inc. is an San Francisco-based Y Combinator startup founded by Matt Huang, a recent MIT math grad, and another dev who is taking pains to keep his identity rather private. The company is currently hiring looking for local engineering talent.

(Via Mashable!.)

BBC recently released their iPlayer which allows you to watch many of the BBC shows on the web. Unfortunately for us, BBC does not allow users outside the UK to watch these shows. Luckily there’s a way around this. There are many sites recommending different software to use, but having tried many ways, this is the one I’ve found that works using Windows and Firefox: (note, you can also use instructions below to watch other content blocked from viewing within the US, or even to watch content only allowed in the US when you are abroad)

Step 1: Download and install the latest stable release of Tor using the default options. You can uncheck Privoxy in the install if you like. We will be using another proxy tool. (Tor is a tool that allows you to browse the web anonymously by routing your requests through various servers/proxies)

Step 2: We now need to ensure that the last server your request is routed through is a server in the UK. Go to https://torstat.xenobite.eu/. Click on the pulldown next to “CC:” and select “GB” and hit “search”. Now click on the “>” under “Exit”. You now have a list of servers in the UK that are allowed to be used as Exit Servers. Take note of all the nicknames of the servers except those marked Unnamed.

Step 3: Go to Start Menu and open All Programs -> Vidalia Bundle -> Tor -> torcc. This will open the Tor config file. Scroll all the way to the bottom and enter the following lines:
StrictExitNodes 1
exitnodes <list of the names you found in step 2 separated by commas>
An example of the second line above would be:
exitnodes anonion,anotherlink,colinwillsdorkyahoo
Save the file and exit notepad.

Step 4: Run Vidalia. After a few seconds, it should say “Connected to the Tor Network”.

Step 5: Install the Foxy Proxy addon for Firefox.

Step 6: When you install Foxy Proxy, it’ll ask you if you want to add a Tor proxy to it’s settings. You’ll want to set up the Tor Proxy to have the following 2 patterns: BBC iPlayer pattern – http://*bbc.co.uk/* and Tor Check pattern – http://torcheck.xenobite.eu/*

Step 7: Check that you’re exiting through a UK server by going to http://torcheck.xenobite.eu/index.php

There you go – now, when you have Vidalia and Foxy Proxy running, whenever you go to the iPlayer site, you’ll be able to watch videos. Note, that you’ll probably have to repeat step 2 and step 3 intermittently, as the same UK servers don’t always exist.

Hulu Desktop is a lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer. It features a sleek new look that’s optimized for use with standard Windows Media Center remote controls or Apple remote controls, allowing you to navigate Hulu’s entire library with just six buttons. For users without remotes, the application is keyboard and mouse-enabled. Hulu Desktop is a downloadable application and will work on PCs and Macs. It will initially launch as a beta product during which we plan to gather and incorporate user feedback to improve the service.

Version 0.9.10:

• This update includes general bug fixes for everyone and Hulu Plus support if you are a Hulu Plus subscriber. The update should be automatic for Mac and Windows users.
• **One known issue we’ve noticed – if you are already signed into your Hulu Plus account when the update installs, you may not see your entire queue. In this case, sign out and sign back in again, and your full queue should appear. Our apologies on this glitch – we should get it fixed soon.

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz.
• At least 2.0 GB of RAM.
• Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
• 2 Mbps Internet connection.
• Flash 9.0.124.

Download Now

(Via MacUpdate – Mac OS X.)

There’s a growing number of websites and apps that allow you to conveniently stream music for free, whilst still staying on the right side of the law.  Grooveshark, Spotify and Mougg are just three such examples. More often than not however, you’ve got to put up with interruptive audio and banner adverts for products or releases you have little interest in.

Enter mflow, the music streaming service that puts the music before the marketing. At the moment it’s still in beta and sometimes acts accordingly. Still, that’s never put us off before!

Beta Beware

Despite the lure of free music without adverts, you should probably be aware that whilst using the beta I encountered a few issues. I first found out about mflow via the Chrome Web Store, where I saw it promoted as a free Web App.

I clicked install, loaded the rather fancy looking interface and… waited. And waited. Not only did I get no adverts, but no music. I then tried it in Firefox and everything worked a treat. For the record I used the latest stable Chromium and Firefox builds for Ubuntu 10.10 x64.

Using mflow

The development team have done a worthwhile job of designing an easy to use, clean and fairly well-behaved interface from which to do your streaming.

You don’t need to sign up for an account, although if you want to take advantage of the full set of features then you can choose to link your Facebook, Google or OpenID accounts for a quick sign up. You can also just register an mflow account with an email address and username, if that’s your style.

If you already know what you’re looking for then you can jump right in and search. You can filter search results by tracks, artists, albums, people (profiles that directly relate to your search) and tags.

If mflow has it in the database then it won’t take long to find, and once found you can simply click on the small play icon next to the track of your choosing. Once your song has finished mflow will simply move on to the next track in line, be it from search results, an album or an individual’s recommendations.

Once you’ve clicked play, your song will open in the mflow player. The player is always visible on your screen and remembers what you’re listening to regardless of what else you’re doing on the site. Despite the issues I encountered in Chromium, I was really impressed with the player and the approach taken by the mflow team.

Unfortunately there is no way at present to use mflow to create a playlist, or indeed queue a track from a different artist/collection/search without ending the one you’re currently listening to. I’m going to put this down to the early development stage, and cross my fingers, arms and toes that the feature will be added at a later date.

At the time of writing (and hopefully for a good while yet) there are literally no adverts to interrupt your listening experience. Whilst users of Grooveshark and Spotify will probably find the interface (and lack of playlists) a little lacklustre, there’s no arguing that listening for free without interruption is hard to beat.

Instead of adverts you’ll find a quick-and-easy way to buy any tracks you especially like via a ‘Buy’ button next to the song. Downloads generally range from 256-320kbps MP3 files that are completely DRM-free, allowing you to do what you like with the music you’ve bought.

Next to the ‘Buy’ button there’s another button, labeled ‘Flow‘.

What Is A Flow?

A flow is essentially a musical tweet, that is shared across the mflow network. You can use the flow button to recommend a track to your profile, social networks (Twitter, Facebook and Buzz) or via email.

You’ll need to connect any services you wish to announce to, and once done you can turn them on or off in the flow box. Hashtags are used to add a genre, so users who enjoy similar music can find your recommendations easily.

This is all part of mflow’s plan to marry social networking and music. What makes it really special is that unlike Spotify (for example), your Facebook or Twitter friends won’t need to register or download a client to listen.

At present mflow are offering your first 5 flows as free MP3 downloads, although you have to use them within your first week.

If you find any users who regularly share the kind of music you’re interested in then you can choose to follow them and any subsequent shares. Simply visit your profile page to check up on the latest flows, who you’re following, your followers and stats.

Similarly you can also follow tags, which will aggregate all relevant flows featuring that tag.

(Via MakeUseOf.com.)