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Sometime ago I purchased a first generation Apple TV as a media extender or as I have read on the net “the ultimate media extender”.  I was pleased with it.  Not really overwhelmed.  Things got a little better when I ran a jailbreak script on it.  It was still only about 90% to where I really wanted to be.  One of the major hang-ups for me was the constant updates and then having to re-run the jailbreak.  It was getting annoying.

After doing some research I decided to buy a Boxee Box.  I almost went with a Roku but after helping someone set-up one I decided that it was not the option I was looking for.  I downloaded the Boxee software to my laptop to try it out and see what I thought about it.  The GUI did take some getting used to but after a couple of months I think that I am relatively comfortable with it.

After a quick and quite easy set-up I was ready to go.  Get some apps up and running.  I need to have my MLB.TV and NHL Gamecenter.  That went smooth enough.  Next up, mapping it to my media server.  Again, not very difficult.  To my surprise after all the media folders were mapped it took a while to actually go back and navigate these folders.  I was a littled concerned.  Well, after some time I was able to navigate the folders.  Behold, it went out and got all the album and DVD cover data on it’s own.  That was one heck of nice feature that I was not aware of.

I am still working with a variety of apps beyond my sports related ones.  I have a list that I have been working on getting installed and will report the choices that I have settled on.  For my money this is the best set top box, media extender, or whatever you want to call it, is the best thing out there at this time.

I will admit that I was a late adopter to the iPod.  I had always stayed away from Apple products.  I always thought that one of the many MP3 player alternatives would fit my needs.  Well, three years ago I bit the bullet and bought a reconditioned iPod.  It lasted three years.  It did everything I asked of it.  It played music and video for not only myself but for the kids.  Then one day when syncing it to iTunes I started to get the dreaded Error -69.

So, after troubleshooting and looking into buy a replacement hard drive I decided to buy a new one.  Everything pointed to a failed hard drive.  I was able to find numerous sites that claimed to sell the iPod hard drive replacement kits.  Unfortunately, none of them had any in stock.  Or so they said.  Looking at the cost of this kit and the amount of time it would most likely take me to complete the task I decided on buying a new one.

This device has grown on me and I will admit that this skeptic

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has be turned when it comes to the iPod.