Tag Archives: Apple

Windows 10 and iTunes There was an error connecting to the Apple ID server

Recently after a fresh install of Windows 10, I tired to reinstall iTunes.

While trying to authorize my computer for my iPhone Apps I got the following error:

“There was an error connecting to the Apple ID server”

Several reboots later, still no joy. I also noticed that I couldn’t connect to the iTunes store.

I found the following helps?

  1. Right click on the Windows Start Menu Icon and select ‘Command Prompt (Admin)’
  2. Type the following into the command prompt box followed by enter:
    netsh winsock reset
  3. Reboot the computer

How this works: I’m not overly sure why it effects iTunes, but it’s similar to clearing the cache in your browser, just at a network level.

Hopefully this helps someone else.

Reference: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7192420?start=0&tstart=0

Apple TV vs Chromecast for Netflix / YouTube access on your TV

The great debate in the wonderful land of mobile devices, Apple vs Google. But what happens when you start to mix ecosystems between the two.

I’m an iPhone 4s (stop laughing, I realise it’s 2025) and iPad mini 2 guy, but when it comes to putting content on my TV, I’ve tested both the Apple TV & the humble Chromecast & funnily I prefer the…..Chromecast.

The Apple TV allows sharing of your screen (which is nice to have), along with the ability to stream apps & games, but the downside, no multitasking. Say you flick a Netflix movie up from your iPad to your Apple TV, then head over safari which then sends you to YouTube, bam! Netflix stops showing your movie. However with the Chromecast you can multitask, you can watch your Netflix Movie on your TV & your YouTube clip on your iPad. 

The way Netflix & the YouTube apps hand off to the Chromecast allow you to continue using the app & search for more content to watch, the YouTube app even allows for “queuing” up content.

Unfortunately the Chromecast doesn’t support mirroring from the iPad. But you can mirror from the Google Chrome web browser with the aid of an extension which I haven’t used an awful lot, but it is handy.

So if you want a cheap way to show Netflix or YouTube from your iPad to your TV, the humble $50 Chromecast is a winner.

iPhone 4 issues with reception

Apple iPhone 4Over at the AB Technology Blog facebook page, Nathan has posted a link to article on Neowin.net listing some of the issues with the new iPhone 4s.

The biggest issue it seems is by pressing your finger in the right (wrong?) place you can kill the reception to your phone…maybe that is a handy feature for when your having an argument with someone and you want to quickly drop the call?

The second issue seems far more widespread and appears to be a major glitch. Multiple reports suggest that the new iPhone 4 loses reception when you hold it by the antenna band. Several videos have popped up across the net explaining the issue and it appears that if you hold the device, as soon as you connect the left side with the bottom, that’s when reception starts to drop. The issue appears to be widespread with most early adopters able to reproduce the problem.

Hopefully Apple is able to quickly fix this issue.

Have you been an early adopter? Got issues with an new iPhone 4? Then let us know in the comments.

More information on issues on Neowin.net’s Article

Image from Apple’s iPhone Page

iBooks for iPad updated now with OS4 devices support (iPhone and iPod Touch)

Today I noticed on our iPad here that the iBooks application had a pending update. A quick look at the change log revilved the following:

What’s New in Version 1.1

• In addition to iPad, iBooks is now available on any iPhone or iPod with iOS 4.
• Open and read PDF documents from Mail. PDF documents will be added to your library and appear on the PDF bookshelf. You can even search PDFs for words or phrases and bookmark your favorite pages.
• Take advantage of new ways to bookmark. In addition to highlighting a word or a passage, you can now also add notes or bookmark an entire page with the new page ribbon.
• Keep your bookmarks, notes, and your current page wirelessly in sync between iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with the new automatic bookmark syncing feature.
• See your book pages in a new font, called Georgia.
• Read your books on white or sepia colored pages.
• Choose left or fully justified text layout from Settings.
• Read pages with greater ease by increasing to even larger font sizes.
• Enjoy greater stability and better performance. (Source iBooks in the iTunes Store)

We personally hadn’texpereinced any stability issues with the first version, but then again we didn’t use it all that much, since it didn’t appear to have PDF support (For PDFs we have been using Stanza, which has also been updated with OS4 support).

Let us know in the comments how your find iBooks and if you are trying it out on an OS4 device.

A new age of Mac Mini’s

Underside of the new Mac MiniI can remember when the first Mac Mini came out a few years ago (Jan 2005 according to the MacRumors:Guides site) with the humble PowerPC processor. It was a rather extraordinary piece of hardware for it’s time. I’m sure that there were other mini computers around, just none as good looking or as mass marketed as the Mac Mini.

Now in its 7th revision the humble Mac Mini is in a new age and has just had a refurbish.

The specs are as follows:

  • 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
  • 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8GB
  • 320GB or 500GB Serial ATA hard disk drive
  • 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
  • Mini DisplayPort with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution
  • HDMI port with support for up to 1920-by-1200 resolution
  • Audio line in/out/headphone minijacks (digital/analog)
  • HDMI port supports multichannel audio output
  • One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
  • Four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)

The specs look rather nice, although as always you could build something similar cheaper, but lose the convenience factor along the way.

The NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card with only 256MB of memory seems a little low though for my liking, especially when using it with a full HD Display. I guess time and user reviews will tell whether or not this is enough, although Apple are saying that this was 2x the spec of the last model.

For those more techincally inclined there is the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server, it has a similar configuration just without the optical super drive and in its place another hard drive. This makes for a great option as a central server in a home or small business.

Prices are starting at $999

For more information check out the Official Apple Mac Mini site.

Tech Specs from: Apple Mac Mini Tech Specs
Photo: Apple Mac Mini Site

iPad AirVideo [Apps]

Dying to watch some videos on your shiny new iPad? Well so was I…until I hit the file format wall.

The theory behind watching a video on an iPad is easy right, connect your iPad to your computer with iTunes, grab the video file and drag it into the movies section in iTunes and let it sync…Well apparently I’m wrong, because iTunes returned an error of:

"Video.mp4" was not copied to the iPad "andrew's iPad" because it cannot be played on this iPad.

Well now that’s annoying.

I was faced with two options: convert any video files that I wanted on my iPad, then copy them (hard way) or find a better way (easy way).

Well it turns out that the guys over at www.inmethod.com have a huge time saving solution for us: AirVideo (both free and paid versions)

How it works. (Short Version)

1) Install “Air Video Server” on the computer that has the videos that you want to watch, and configure the folder that the files are in.

2) Install the AirVideo app on the iPad (or iPhone)

3) Run the App, locate the server, find the file, press play and Enjoy.

How it works. (Extended version)

The Air Video server is a pretty graphical front end to the FFMpeg software that converts the video files on the fly, then streams it to the client app on the iPad/iPhone. If the file is already in the correct format all it needs to do is stream it. This works similar to how YouTube works.

The benefits:

The benefits of this solution is that you don’t have to waste time converting video files, then coping them onto your iPad before watching them. It’s snappy and it’s fast.

The downside to this method is that it only works within the local network of where the server is. (I’m pretty sure you could port forward your firewall/router to allow external access, but then there is the added cost of bandwidth)

The free version and the paid version are identical with their basic feature set, but the free version does have the limitation of  only being able to show 3-5 files/folders from the server at a time. (Which can make finding that particular video hard, on the positive side it means that you can add some random spice into what you watch)

For more information check out the Air Video site: [Air Video] or in the iTunes App Store [Free] or [Paid]