piksels

Today while browsing the ever so beautiful interwebs, I came across something interesting about Shakespeare. Turns out that our second favourite William (after the one and only William Gates of course) invented over 1700 of the words we use commonly use, by simply turning nouns into verbs, adjectives into verbs, and so forth..

Here is a very small list of words he invented:

1. Accused
2. Addiction
3. Advertising
4. Amazement
5. Arouse
6. Assassination
7. Bandit
8. Bedroom
9. Beached
10. Blanket
11. Bump
12. Cater
13. Champion
14. Countless
15. Epileptic
16. Fixture
17. Flawed
18. Generous
19. Hint
20. Lonely
21. Mimic
22. Negotiate
23. Obscene
24. Premeditated
25. Rant
26. Summit
27. Torture
28. Varied
29. Worthless
30. Zany

Well the list goes on, and you can read more about it here, or phrases he invented here. It is not surprising that he has had so much influence on the English language, as he is arguably the greatest playwright ever. But it is remarkable how he never felt confined to using only ‘true’ lexicon.

It is disappointing that we are taught that there is a word for everything, because it hampers our imagination to develop, to feel, to express, anything which has not been defined before. And sometimes we convince ourselves that if there is no word for it, then it cannot exist.

I hope we all can take an example from Shakespeare, and dare to break the structured guidelines.

Apple’s Safari web browser has been available for Windows for quite a few days now, and no one is impressed. After several hours of testing, I experienced more than 10 crashes, and then I gave up. Yes, Safari is a beta product, but even Firefox 3 Alpha (which is far from being released) is more stable. Safari feels like a beta product, it is buggy, takes long to start up, and the speed increase is not noticeable on a broadband connection. Before you start to think I am anti-Safari, I must admit that Safari has a sleek design, very polished, but will it’s look get me to switch to Safari, no.

So why did Apple release safari for Windows? There are a couple theories (here and there), and of course it has to do with the upcoming release of the iPhone. But is that it?

Does Steve Jobs really think he can capture a noticeable amount of market share? Just by making a beautiful ‘fast’ browser? Compare Safari to Internet Explorer, and sure, you will convert some users. But Steve’s problem is that right now, Safari is not competing with Internet Explorer, but with Firefox.

Most internet users are unaware that Safari is avaiable for Windows, and those who are, are mostly Firefox users. And to get us to switch from Firefox to Safari, will take a lot more than a sleek design. Firefox has a plethora of features, extensions, and plugins which would take Apple a lot of effort to catch up to.

But then again, there is that one thing which Steve has, which puts us in the palm of his hands, the iPhone. The iPhone is one thing that we all want, and has become Apple’s way to leverage their needs towards them.

The iPhone is going to be the beginning for many new Apple features, new applications, new widgets, etc. Being an iPhone owner will be an exclusive experience, you will have access to more things, you will be able to do more,.. or at least, it will feel that way. This is the direction that Apple is going, and part of this, is Safari on Windows. It may not be obvious now, but Safari will have exclusive features. Soon we will be able to do things on Safari which we won’t be able to do on other browsers. Soon Apple will be creating Safari specific apps, or Safari only widgets. We are going to end up finding ourselves in the position that every time we hook up our iPod or sync our iPhone, we are going to have to be starting up SafariTunes, or whatever Apple will end up calling it.

The release of Safari now, is just mainly for developing purposes for the iPhone, but in the long run, Windows users are going to be facing new Apple applications which will combine our iTunes, Mail application, Agenda, and even web browser.

We must admit, Apple developers are clever. The experience of owning a Mac is great, everything is integrated, everything is works well together, and that is the experience that they are going to be bringing to Windows.

The AppleTV has been out on the market for a couple months now, and the general consensus seems that it is just plainly satisfactory. I admit that the slick looking box, with its beautiful eye-candy interface are by far the most beautiful I have seen, yet I can’t help but desire more. It seems when anyone talks about media hubs or streaming media through a network, there are only two things they mention, AppleTV and the Xbox360. But both are seriously flawed. Although I am both an Apple fan and a proud Xbox360 owner, I would never use either as a media center solution. Well, what’s missing? Well just to mention a few, xvid/divx playback, larger or hassle-free upgradeable hard drives, .mkv support …

Because I have seen little about better alternatives to the Apple TV or Xbox360, I give you now, the Best Alternatives to the AppleTV:

1. DViCO - TViX M-5100SH/M-4100SH

Hands down, this is the best HD multimedia player out on the market. Just released a couple of months ago, this supports all video formats you can think of(even 1080P). No worries about whether you can play that Xvid movie or even those 720p MKV x.264 files, this machine plays them all. These players come with an easy loading hard drive slot, where you can insert any SATA drive. Prefer to have your all your content on your PC? or even on an external hard drive? No prob, this bad boy can stream content through your home network or just plug in any external USB drive. In the back of the player you will find every connector you will ever need (HDMI, component, composite, s-video, optical audio, stereo). And DViCO seems to have thought about everything this time, because you can even upgrade your 4100/5100 with a TV tuner and use it to record TV! (People who aren’t interested in x264 playback, might want to consider looking at the 4000/5000 model, which would save you about 100 bucks)

So what’s the difference between the 4100 and the 5100, its purely aesthetics, and about 50 bucks extra for the 5100.

Final thoughts: Although a bit more expensive than the AppleTV, this player has everything every savvy tech user has ever wanted. Worth every cent. Only downside is that it has no DVD player.

Starting price, 330 euros

2. Linksys - KiSS 1600

Coming in a close 2nd, KiSS is a great networked media center solution for users who don’t playback any x.264 content. If all you want to do is play back some dvix/xvid files (you innocently found on the web) this player is perfect. Unlike the TViX, this player does not have any built in hard drive, and all media is streamed through ethernet or wireless network. Most media will stream fine wirelessly, but ethernet is recommended for HD files.

One great thing about the KiSS is that is comes with a built-in DVD player, which upscales to 1080i. Connectors on the back resemble those of the TViX, everything you need (HDMI, Component, Composite, Optical out, SCART, ethernet, etc)

Final thoughts: Great player for anyone with a home network and no need to play x264 files.

Starting price: around 250 euros

3.Budget PC / Mac Mini

Well everyone knows that there is no media player better than a PC. Although a dedicated media player will save you some money (both on starting cost and electricity bills), they are no match for having a fully functional PC in your living room. Anyone who has a standard def TV, stop reading now. There is nothing worse than reading text on a SDTV hooked up to your PC. Anyone fortunate enough, will know how beautiful it looks to hook up your PC to your glorious HDTV set, and from that point on the possibilities are endless. Add a wireless media center keyboard, lay back on your couch, and your in heaven.

Windows Media Center rocks, yes it does. For TV playback, video playback, just install a couple codecs and your good to go. Want to play those x264 files you downloaded, no prob, just download VLC player and you will be able to play anything you like. Put a PC in the living room and the possibilities are endless, it will be your media hub, it will replace your TIVO, replace your DVD player, and could even be dedicated to downloading torrents or to keep your to-do lists on.

So just how rigged should your system be? Well depends on what you are looking for… want full HD playback? then I would settle for a low Core2Duo processor and a mainstream video card, because you won’t need more than that. But if you want to just play back just some dvix/xvid files and some DVD’s, then you’ll be fine with a Pentium D, or even a budget Athlon X2 system.

Keep in mind that your PC will be consuming more electricity than most multimedia players, and there for it might be wise to buy a pricier small form factor PC (which is based on laptop architecture which will use much less energy). Personally I would go for a Windows PC just because the only budget Mac is the MacMini which struggles playing back some HD files at 1080P because of its integrated video card.

Final thoughts: You want the full experience, get a PC or MAC. Setting it up will take a little bit longer and require some basic computer knowledge to install codecs and such, but the rewards will be endless.

My recommendation: Core2Duo 1.8ghz / 1gb RAm / XP MCE or Vista Premium / nVidia 7300

Starting price: around 430 euros (Mac Mini’s start at 599 euros)