The NEX-F3 is about 3 models behind the latest in the line from Sony, but was only released last year, covers all the basics and is relatively cheap. The camera came with two lenses; an 18-55mm ‘zoom’ lens and a fixed zoom 16mm ‘pancake’ lens. It allows for the controlling of most the manual functions you’d expect from a dSLR and has a similarly-sized sensor to an entry-level dSLR, but it does all this in a  much smaller size that is far more suited to the type of use I expect to get from it. The sacrifice is that Sony accessories are prohibitively expensive, there are a limited amount of lenses available for it, all the controls are made via software, and of course the photo quality isn’t as good as a full SLR.

My buying thought process was that at this stage I do not know how far I intend to take my journey into ‘manual’ photography, and so the practicality of the smaller size was a far greater influence than the additional quality, cost and upgradeability of full SLRs. Once I’ve gotten a feel for what I actually want to get out of photography, hopefully I’ll be able to make a more informed, longer-term decision if I choose to upgrade to a full SLR, rather than committing up front without really knowing what my personal needs are.

Getting started

The world of manual photography is so interesting! I’m loving learning about aperture, ISO, shutter speed, white balance, exposure compensation, bracketing etc to understand all the variables that go into to taking a good photo. Obviously these only cover the technical aspects of the camera, then there is the whole world of composition and personal creativity that really drives the end result. I’ve attended a half-day beginner’s course run locally and have purchased a recommended book for beginners; Lonely Planet Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures.

Now I just need to keep taking photos! You can see a few example shots in my NEX-F3 flickr set although these are mostly pretty average and I’ve taken some better shots which aren’t public at the moment. Its useful to keep a record of the bad photos though so I can learn from them for next time. My favourite so far is probably a pic of my mum:

The next goal

I’ve got a fairly good handle on the basic elements needed to control how the camera takes a good photo, such as setting the ISO, aperture, shutter speed and white balance. The hard part is knowing which settings to apply in each given scenario, and doing it quickly enough to be able to take the photo before the moment has passed. I need to learn when to use manual, priority and fully-auto modes, as well as what sort of focus and light-metering to use to get the best results.

In learning this, I’ve certainly developed an appreciation for the abilities of phone cameras to be able to take such good quality photos purely automatically.

Anyway, here’s to a new hobby! If anyone has any tips, suggestions, links or any other comments about my efforts or photography in general, I’d be glad to hear them.

A few extracts to provide some context:

David Pierce @ The Verge:

It’s as fast, consistent, and capable as any ultrabook I’ve tested in the last several months, and from a touch and responsiveness standpoint may be the best I’ve used. It has no confusing app incompatibilies, no weird performance issues. Sure, it’s heavier and thicker than the Surface RT and has frustratingly poor battery life, but it’s worth both the tradeoff and the extra expense.

Great, so David recommends it. But then in the next paragraph:

It’s really tough to use on anything but a desk, and the wide, 16:9 aspect ratio pretty severely limits its usefulness as a tablet anyway. It’s too big, too fat, and too reliant on its power cable to be a competitive tablet, and it’s too immutable to do everything a laptop needs to do. In its quest to be both, the Surface is really neither. It’s supposed to be freeing, but it just feels limiting.

Ok so he doesn’t recommend it?

Walt Mossberg @ AllThingsD

It’s too hefty and costly and power-hungry to best the leading tablet, Apple’s full-size iPad. It is also too difficult to use in your lap. It’s something of a tweener — a compromised tablet and a compromised laptop.

Kyle Wagner @ Gizmodo

It’ll wobble on your leg. It won’t prop itself up at a viewable angle on your chest. Surface looks and acts like a laptop when it has its keyboard cover in, but it’s not one. It’s less sturdy, less adjustable.

I’ve not used a Surface Pro so I’m not in a position to cast a particularly firm opinion, but that’s never stopped random internet bloggers before so I’ll do it anyway:

• The short battery life means you’ll still need a different device for long-distance use, e.g. on a plane, train or car journey. (i.e. you’ll still need a tablet/large phone)
• The size and weight means you’ll never be using it handheld like a tablet or in confined spaces like on the tube (i.e. you’ll still need a tablet)
• The awkwardness of the kickstand and keyboard means you can’t easily use it on your lap
  
• You get a fraction of the disk space you’d get with a laptop

So it seems clear to me that from a purely tablet perspective, the Surface Pro can’t compete. If you want to do the sorts of activities we’ve come to expect from tablets, you’ll still need to own a ‘proper’ tablet if you buy the Surface Pro. So, perhaps the Surface Pro is providing a new type of tablet experience? I.e. one that is more akin to using a desktop in a touch-friendly manner as opposed to using a wholly different device. Is that worth the trade-off though and who is in the market for such an undefined and untested touch experience?

So from my perspective, the Surface Pro is a laptop with a leaning towards touch/tablet usage. In making this transition (which in fact is more of a compromise than anything else), it sacrifices the battery life and physical usability we’ve come to expect from laptops, but doesn’t inherit the benefits we’ve come to expect from tablets, such as size, weight and extended battery.

So who is this device for? I can’t see how owning a Surface Pro, that tries to do everything but does it only adequately, provides a better overall experience than the combination of a laptop and a tablet, where both devices excel at their specific functions. The included stylus combined with the high-res screen is getting some positive feedback, so graphics professionals may enjoy that aspect.

The jury is still very much out on this one. It will be interesting to see which Windows 8 device form-factor takes the lead, but I have a feeling the winner will be a device than can confidently replace a laptop, rather than provide the compromised experience of the Surface Pro.

I was looking forward to using it everywhere, as it is small enough to fit in my coat pocket. Where I used to use a phone or briefly a Nexus 7 I owned, I would now be able to use the iPad mini and take advantage of all the iOS apps I’ve already invested in.

What I noticed was something unexpected. I started to feel self-conscious/worried about using it in some scenarios. There was something unsettling about getting out a £540 tablet on a bus in London. Us Londoners are accustomed to being on our guard and not generating attention while out and about on public transport, but this thing makes that quite difficult!

I didn’t mind so much when it was a £180 Nexus 7, which I didn’t feel was that attractive to others anyway (owning Android doesn’t exactly shout “I’m likely to have expensive things on me”), but a £540 device suddenly requires an extra element of foresight before use in public.

Maybe I just need to get used to it. Or move to Silicon Valley.

For example:

To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata) and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

This means that basically Facebook can now use your Instagram photos, location tags, username and any other associated data in ad campaigns paid for by Facebook’s advertising partners or other 3rd parties. Your data may now become an ad, and certainly you won’t know about this, be asked permission, or receive any financial compensation.

In addition:

We may share ‘User Content’ and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of…

Similar to the previous clause, this  basically means all your Instagram data is shared with Facebook’s ad partners to allow for increased targeting of ads.

Then my favourite:

You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content or commercial communications as such

This is all to be expected. Facebook is an advertising company that uses a social network to increase the value of its product (i.e. you and your data). I think it does somewhat remove some of the inherited joy of using Instagram though, knowing that its purpose for being is no longer to provide a great service, but to monetise your activity.

I can’t see myself using the service for much longer, which is easy for me as I wasn’t a particularly frequent user in the first place. Others will likely not know or care about these changes and will no doubt continue to enjoy using it.

There goes another independent service to one of the ‘big four’ (Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon). Up next, Foursquare…

P.S. If you want to delete your Instagram account (I’m seriously considering this), you can do so here. If you’re looking for an alternative, you could do a lot worse than the just-updated Flickr by Yahoo. Still a free service so there’s probably still an advertising undercurrent, but Yahoo are currently in such a state of recovery that they are going to do everything in their power to look after their users – they can’t afford to do anything else.

I got a bit obsessed with it to be honest, and so went to see him live last week at the Hammersmith Apollo. However, by that point I had decided that I only really like him for that one song and wasn’t really interested in his other stuff, to the point where I nearly didn’t go.

But I’m very glad I did! I ended up loving the performance, and SIUTK was in fact the weakest song of the entire performance in my opinion, probably to do with the hype and how overplayed its been.

For every song he played, an enormous screen behind him played the accompanying music video, and these videos were amazing. Each one was an animated adventure, telling a story in its own right, and was a perfect backdrop to the music. His songs are very tight and the videos were timed precisely to the beat, creating a really powerful experience.

Here are three of my favourites:

State Of The Art - Directed and animated by Greg Sharp & Ivan Dixon at Rubber House

A song about the dangers of embracing technology and how it can sap your freedom. A very dark video indeed:

Thanks For Your Time – directed, produced and animated by Lucy Dyson

This one is about the infuriating experience of dealing with call centres! They must have had a lot of fun making this one:

Dig Your Own Hole – created by Saiman Chow, produced by Blacklist

Another great example of timing the music to the video, I love this one:

More videos can be found on his YouTube channel and I recommend checking them out. They make use a wide variety of animation techniques and are really well done. Its so much nicer than just watching a band trying to seduce the camera for 4 minutes.

This evening, checking the status of my pre-order on the Apple Store iOS app shows me a small but nonetheless newsworthy update on this. Delivery is now scheduled for “30th November to 7th December”:

As of 17th November 2012, the order is marked as “Dispatched 1-2 weeks” so I guess the earliest I could hope for delivery is from around the 28th November, with the latest being 7th December. I think it highly likely Apple are being cautious with their estimates – much better to under-promise and over-deliver.

Apple are certainly stretching the definition of a “late November” delivery here! Oh well, at least things are progressing!

If for nothing more than to have a record of the latest gadget/lifestyle change in my life, I thought I’d briefly explain my reasoning for pre-ordering Apple’s new iPad mini.

The reason became self-evident as soon as I started considering how the mini could be of use. I looked at what devices I currently use and which of them I use in during the day. I have both a grown-up iPad 2 and a Google Nexus 7. I’m an Apple man at heart and my iPad is my primary ‘casual’ computing device. I use it for the usual sofa-based activities of web, reading and streaming, and when I first got it I took it to work, read my RSS feeds on the tube and did a few work activities such as meeting notes when away from my desk.

After a while though the novelty wore off and I stopped taking the iPad to work – it was too big to be convenient on the heaving London Underground. I don’t carry a bag to work, so it meant I had to just to put the iPad in. So it stays at home now and is used for casual stuff – as soon as I need to look at something on a computer, I flip open my 11″ MacBook Air, which continues to the best computer I have ever owned, 2 years on.

Then I received a Nexus 7, given to me in the spirit of experimentation  It was not expected to become a major part of my routine, but almost instantly, due to the size of it, I started taking it to work. It could fit in my jacket pocket so I didn’t need to carry a bag, and it could do run all my usual reading apps like Kindle and Pocket. I found myself disliking the 7″ Android app experience intently in comparison to the effortless nature of iOS, but the convenience of the smaller form-factor outweighed this. Stil, it was always in the back of my mind that if I could somehow have iOS instead I would be a much happier technobunny.

What was interesting was that I never, ever took my Nexus 7 out of my coat pocket when I got home. The 7 inch screen was in no way useful at home, compared to my iPad – I can’t think of a single example where it does something better than an iPad at home. So I ended up with three devices in use during the day – the Nexus 7 for the commuting, the iPad for casual use, and the MacBook Air for anything a bit more specific.

When the iPad mini was announced, after a short period of thought it became very clear that it is a very strong contender to bridge the gap between these two uses. It is small enough to fit in my coat pocket (yes, I measured it), yet with a large enough screen to benefit from iPad apps and actually still be useful for browsing and other sofa-surfing. I don’t watch movies or tv shows on my iPad, and the portability was far more appealing than a larger screen. The fact it gets full iPad-length battery and runs iPad apps is fantastic. I’ve never used a Retina iPad so the screen will actually look better than what I’m used to (it retains the same resolution but on a smaller screen, increasing the pixel density (PPI) and therefore the screen clarity).

I love improving and investigating the way technology is a part of lifestyle, and I’m more than happy to swap out the old for the new in the spirit of supporting exploring this. So I’m selling both my iPad 2 and my Nexus 7 to replace with a single device that I can casually use at home, and take on the tube as my reading device.

Which iPad mini?

My first iPad was a 3G model and I never used the 3G. My second iPad was wifi only, and I tether it to my phone when needed. However, in thinking about the use case for an iPad mini it became clear the primary benefit is getting iPad quality experience in a portable form-factor out and about. No matter how small the iPad is, it is still a fairly big device and so spends most of its time near wifi signals rather than being constantly moving. The iPad mini, on the other hand, begs to be used wherever it is, as it is far more portable. I wasn’t going to stifle its ability to do a good job by limiting it to only work on wifi, so I chose the cellular model. I’ll get a nanoSim on GiffGaff which gives 500MB of data for £5 a month with no contract, happy days.

As I love app and games, I went with 32GB, because once you run out of space, you can’t upgrade. This is going to be a very capable device I feel, I’m quite excited about the implications.

Further reading

The two most memorable things I’ve read on the topic of the iPad mini are:

Marco Arment, on the lack of retina:

I don’t mind the lack of a Retina screen in the first version. As we can see from the iPad 3 and 4, lighting and driving a 2048×1536 screen just can’t be done well in a small, thin, light, inexpensive device yet. Maybe next fall, or maybe the year after that.

Exactly. By virtue of the fact that the iPad 4 is still thicker and heavier than the iPad 2, it is clear the retina screen is a beast to power. It doesn’t look like Apple can make a retina iPad mini at this stage while retaining the desired size, weight and battery life and, of course, a profit. Hopefully we’ll see this upgrade with the 2nd generation, which I’m sure will coincide with a thinner retina display iPad.

Fraser Spiers:

I’ve said before and I still think I’m right on this: a sub-10″ device makes a wonderful adjunct to a computer. A 10″ device can replace it.

I find this a very astute sentiment. My iPad was so close to replacing my MacBook Air, but there were still a few computer–only things I like to do from time to time. By having both an iPad 2 and a MacBook Air, there was some serious overlap in devices that could do similar things in my home. With the iPad mini, I’ve hopefully addressed that balance, giving each device more of a defined purpose.

As I ordered the cellular version, it won’t arrive until late November, so I have plenty of time to mull over the decision!

The iPad mini seems to be causing a fair bit of animated discussion as people spend time getting their head around it and where it fits in.

Understandably, it is being compared to the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD. The main points coming out against it are:

• It doesn’t have a retina screen
• It is too big
• It is too expensive

Allow me…

It doesn’t have a retina screen

All the signs currently point to it not being possible at this point in time for Apple to make a retina screen on a tablet this size while still retaining the desired levels of battery performance, weight and profit. Remember, the iPad 4 is still thicker and heavier than the iPad 2. That flies in the face of Apple’s normal strategy of increasing thinness with each generation. The retina screen must be a real beast to implement. If you can show me a 7.9″ tablet which achieves all of the above (remember folks, profit matters), speak up.

Also, since the resolution is the same as that of the iPad 2, but is used on a smaller screen, the PPI (Pixels Per Inch) increases, so the screen actually looks better than the iPad 2 – great news for those who never made the retina upgrade on iPads (like me).

It is too big

I think apps speak volumes here. The app experience on the iPad mini is going to be a world apart from that of Android. I own a Nexus 7 and in my opinion the iOS apps are infinitely better. Their design, polish and usability all exceed the boring and inconsistent app experiences on Android. By sizing the iPad mini at 7.9″, not only does it get to keep the same resolution (so all iPad apps instantly work), but it prevents any ‘enlarged iPhone apps’ from making a prominent experience, like they do on Android. By reducing the width of the side bezels, Apple has managed to get a significantly larger screen onto an tablet that is only marginally wider than the Nexus 7.

For me, I just find the 7″ screen too close to a phone screen, in terms of the uses it lends itself towards. There’s nothing I can do with it that I can’t easily do on my iPhone.

Its too expensive

This is an easy one, and it is a core aspect of Apple’s strategy. They don’t compete on price. Just read that again… Apple. don’t. compete. on. price.

Ok fine, obviously they aren’t plucking numbers out of thin air without a consideration of the competition, but Apple willingly and knowingly sell at a premium price for their premium products, and people are happy to pay. Value is more than how much something costs, it is what that thing does, and how it does it. As one writer asked, if you were offered between a Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7 and iPad mini for free, which would you choose? Apple compete on quality. If you just want to buy the cheapest tablet out there that does ‘the most stuff’, you aren’t really in Apple’s target demographic. They aim to sell to people who don’t mind spending that extra bit of cash to get a significantly better overall experience. Its a very subtle thing to put a value on and a lot of techies don’t get it – they don’t appreciate design and user experience so they just see it as expensive. I think this misses the point, which is really inexcusable now we’ve seen success after success of iOS devices being sold in this way.

So what do I think of it?

I think it is how I always pictured tablets to be. Wafer thin screens you could pick up and do anything with. The iPad got that right from a UI and software perspective, but was just a bit too large to have brief, portable encounters with. I believe the iPad mini will hit a sweet spot between size and functionality.

I love that it has the same 10 hour battery life of the iPad. I love that it runs iPad apps, and I love that it has the usual Apple-level build quality. Most importantly, I love that I’ll be able to carry it around with me finally, bringing to my lifestyle for the first time, a true post-PC portable device.

As you can tell, I’m fairly optimistic. Mine won’t arrive until “late November”, so it will be some time before I can put it to the test and see if it lives up to my expectations.

Here are a few thoughts that I think should be considered before leaping to these conclusions.

Innovation, then iteration

There is a very good reason why the iPhone 5 isn’t a completely different size and shape, and it comes down to Apple’s strict adherence to a long-term vision and product roadmap. The innovation that we have all come to know and love about Apple is demosntrated only in very specific circumstances, and this is when Apple enters a market. In the case of the iPhone, Apple introduced a completely revolutionary mobile phone (seriously, do not underestimate the significance of the iPhone), a category they had previously not competed in. Likewise, with the iPad, Apple entered the tablet market with such a groundbreaking device that it reshaped the nature of the market overnight, instantly making obsolete the existing Windows tablets that were available. The list goes on – the iPod revolutionised personal audio players, and let’s not forget the original Macintosh, that brought a graphics-based display and inteface to personal computing for the first time.

Now here’s the thing. Once Apple enter a market, usually with one of these revolutionary devices, they then shift into “phase 2″: iteration. Each subsequent release of their products is a carefully calculated, refined version of the one before it. It is intended to improve on the areas that need improving in line with a long-term goal of creating the best possible device for consumers. The familiarity that grows with each device is an extremely powerful sales tool and means that people grow a level of attachment to the entire product line that competitors can only dream of.

The problem is that people expect innovation from Apple at every release. While this is fair to a degree, it slightly misses the point. Apple doesn’t need to innovate every year – they need to create a market-leading device and their strategy is to slowly build a compelling, strong, recognisable interplay of hardware and software (“the ecosystem”) that people love to use. In fact, their iterations are innovations, but just a different sort. The level of craftsmanship and engineering prowess that has gone into the iPhone 5 in order to reduce size and weight while providing a larger screen is incredible.

Leading, not following

The other aspect is to do with the actual ‘tech specs’ of each device. Every year, someone moans that Apple has excluded a particular feature. This year, it is NFC and wireless charging, because some competitors have these features. Apple’s products do indeed often lag behind the competition when it comes to like-for-like comparisons of technical specifications. This is because, in Apple’s vision, tech specs alone do not make a phone; the overall experience does. This is where Apple leads the way. They don’t just add a feature into a phone willy-nilly, because the competition have them; if it doesn’t fit in with their overall strategy, they are happy to omit it in order to preserve a consistent and reliable user experience. They will only add a feature when they are happy that it integrates seamlessly into the ecosystem. This strict adherence to a wider vision creates an undeniably strong and compelling user experience that the other manufacturers who lack such a vision can only dream of.

Now I’m not saying they do this perfectly, 100% of the time. Siri was a bit of a damp squib at launch (although I feel it absolutely has set the vision for the future of mobile voice control), and the implementation of multi-device Notification Centre alerts has been an on-going bug-bear of mine. However, in all cases, Apple treads its own path and does not make design and feature decisions based on the competition (in fact the reality is entirely the opposite, as the courts have recently confirmed).

Can you think of any other company currently active in the mobile space that has been setting and following its own strategy without any influence from Apple? No, because such a thing does not exist. Their strategies are inherently influenced by the mere existence of the iPhone.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/16/3343054/heres-my-mac-mini-htpc-setup

It provides a brief overview of the various components of my setup, and what it can do, from acting as a central iTunes hub, to allowing for remote streaming of movies and TV shows, to hosting a VPN server for secure web browsing anywhere in the world. Since this blog is really the spiritual home of a piece of content like this, you can find the post in its entirety below.

This post was originally going to be a reply to another Mac Mini thread, but when I reviewed it, it was so long I thought it probably warranted its own (elaborated) post!

This is a brief overview of how I currently have my home (and remote) media solution set up, which covers music, movies, tv shows, photos, downloading, remote control, syncing etc. My two philosophies when trying to resolve a particular problem are a) keep it simple – the less I see a filesystem the better and b) make as much use of the cloud as possible, so everything is accessible everywhere with as little manual input as possible.

Anyway, here goes:

First, the hardware

• I’m running a 2010 Mac Mini as my HTPC (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256MB)
• Its hooked up directly to a Samsung Series 5 37″ TV via HDMI (this is the only physically attached screen – no LCD monitor or anything)
• Audio goes straight to a NAD amplifier, which is the hub for all audio in the living room.
• Logitech Harmony Remote is the only remote in sight – configured to control all the devices and is pretty automated (more on this below)
• Virgin Media Super Hub for internet connectivity

What it all does

• iTunes hub – central location for all music and iOS syncing. Its always on so can sync over wifi 24×7. I mainly use Spotify for music and iCloud for iOS backups so iTunes is becoming more and more redundant, but it is still needed so it resides here.
• Media Centre – I use Plex which hosts all my movies and TV shows. It runs at fullscreen by default so you only know its a Mac when minimised for admin purposes, all other times its showing the Plex front screen. As well as browsing my movie collection on the TV in front of me, I can use the iOS app to browse the collection on my iPad/iPhone and then start playing on the TV, at which point the iOS app turns into a remote control.
• For offline video viewing on my iPhone/iPad, I use an app called AVPlayer, which I manually transfer files to from within iTunes. This is not a method I am happy with and I wish Plex allowed for syncing to iOS devices for offline viewing but it does not. I don’t do a lot of offline video watching on regular basis, usually only when I go away for a few days in which case I’ll transfer a batch of videos and be done with it. UPDATE: Plex have since released offline sync! This is called “PlexSync” and is available to PlexPass subscribers. It allows you to mark the next x number of unwatched tv show episodes to be synced to each of your mobile devices. Plex will keep track of what you’ve watched and start transcoding the next episodes in advance, ready to be synced. There is currently a bug to do with video out but generally I can take my iPad + video out cable anywhere I go and stream my entire collection to any TV with an HDMI port. Happy days!
• Logitech Harmony One universal remote and Rowmote Pro on iOS all can control Plex from the sofa. The Harmony One is amazing as it lets me have profiles which automate what is turned on and what is controlled. I don’t worry about which device I’m controlling, I just select “Watch Movies” and it turns the TV to the Mac Mini input, turns the amp to the Mac Mini input, turns everything else off, and knows that some buttons (e.g. menu, up, down etc) control the Mac (the Plex interface) and others (volume) control the amp. Very cool, I love it.
• Plex Media Server runs on it as well 24×7, so I can stream all my movies and tv shows anywhere in the world so long as I have an internet connection. If I watch something on my iPad/iPhone, next time I go home the progress is synced and it asks me if I want to carry on on my TV from where I left off on my iPhone/iPad.
• The download tools I use all monitor a single DropBox folder which I can add to from anywhere, on my iOS device or other computer, which prompts the Mac to start downloading automatically. These tools also have public web-facing admin controls so I can monitor and manage downloads.
• It runs AirServer, so as to mimic an Apple TV. I can then stream music and video to it from any iOS device that is on the home wifi network. As the audio out of the Mac goes straight to the amp, I can leave the TV off and just have Spotify on my phone streaming music to the living room speakers. UPDATE: The latest Plex beta (called “Plex Home Theatre“) available to PlexPass subscribers includes an AirPlay server, meaning AirServer is no longer required.I can leave the Plex client running on the Mac in fullscreen, and stream video from any iOS device and Plex will instantly pick up the stream and play it fullscreen on top of the Plex interface. This removes the need for a separate AirPlay server app. Plex doesn’t yet support AirPlay mirroring but I never use that and am sure it will be included in time for the public release.
• Picasa runs on it, hosting all of my photos. These are then synced to Picasa Web Albums for a permanent online backup of every photo I’ve ever taken. They can easily then be shared, and any photos I add via iOS devices etc get synced back to Picasa on the computer. UPDATE: I’ve also set up a shared iPhoto library on the Mac Mini, which I mount on my MacBook Air for photo importing (I’ve got a new camera you see).
• AirFoil runs on it so I can stream audio from my MacBook Air, to come out of the living room speakers.
• RowMote on iOS also acts as a remote mouse / keyboard for the Mac Mini. I own a Magic Trackpad and wireless keyboard but never use them – my MacBook Air, Harmony remote or iOS devices act as the inputs for it.
• VNC and LogMeIn run on it for remote control from local MacBook Air or public computers. I have Screen Sharing running on my MacBook Air as a fullscreen app so I swipe right to see my Mac Mini desktop and take full control. I have a shortcut on my MBA desktop to open Screen Sharing direct to the Mac Mini.
• EasyVPN runs on it so I can VPN in from my iPhone/iPad/MacBook Air in case I want to browse privately, say if I’m on a public cafe internet connection etc. I’m still trying to get the Bonjour service to broadcast over VPN so I can sync my iTunes library remotely!
• Movies, TV shows, music, photos etc all stored on a few external USB hard disks which are shared across the network
• Both Mac Mini and MacBook Air both backup using Time Machine to the external hard disks, either directly or over wifi (the MBA). I used to have a Buffalo LinkStation NAS running but it broke during an automated firmware upgrade and I haven’t been able to fix it  Update: I managed to fix it but then the cat jumped on it and properly broke it. Typical. I am now on the hunt for a proper NAS solution to replace the USB drives as I’m running out of storage.
• Google Drive and DropBox installed on both (and work laptop, iOS devices) for document syncing
• Internet is hard-wired to the MM, and is Virgin Media Sky fibre broadband (UK) 30 40bps down / 2 10Mbps up

Limitations

• The Mac doesn’t have enough oomph to stream AirPlay videos while Plex Player is running at the same time, so I have to quit Plex player to stream AirPlay video (an easy task using RowMote – it has a button to do this – don’t need to faff about with moving a mouse or anything). UPDATE: This is now resolved as the latest beta of the Plex client (called “Plex Home Theatre”) includes an AirPlay server, which streams videos with no jerkiness whatsover. Not only have I now consolidated two apps into one, but the experience is far better.
• While it plays 1080p video absolutely fine, general use is really slow. I’m not sure why its so slow, but I’ve always been confused why Apple continue to ship Mac Minis with slow 5,400 rpm hard drives – why not use the standard 7,200 instead of offering these as paid upgrades? Bad form.
• AirPlay mirroring isn’t smooth enough over Wifi for gaming or video. (This is different to AirPlay video streaming which works fine). I don’t know if this is a limitation of the router/wifi signal (i.e. network problem) or if its a limitation of the AirServer software or Mac Mini itself just not being powerful enough.
• Its not particularly great for gaming, but I use OnLive and PS3 for that anyway. Would be nice if it was more powerful and I could buy Mac App Store games.
• Transferring videos for offline viewing on iOS devices still requires an app and manual transfer of files via iTunes. I don’t use iTunes to manage my videos because I don’t want to use 2 tools – Plex is the hub and will stay that way for the time being – iTunes doesn’t have a friendly interface and requires too specific file formats for offline viewing on iOS devices. If only Plex would support offline viewing… UPDATE: Plex now does do offline syncing! See update in previous section
• If I want to do some admin on the Mac Mini, I have to minimise Plex. This also means I can’t use the desktop etc while Plex is running on the TV. OS X Lion onwards includes the ability for a remote user to log in to a virtual desktop (very cool!), so I initially had the main desktop permanently displaying Plex on the TV, and would remote in to a virtual desktop to do admin tasks simultaneously. Unfortunately my Mac Mini just isn’t powerful enough to handle this, so I’ve put this on hold until I upgrade, but the functionality is all there ready to go and will be a great improvement on the overall usability of the solution.

The Mac is the only piece of Apple kit that I want to upgrade because it is so central to my computing setup and is pretty slow now. Thankfully the core functions, like playing HD video etc, work fine, but waiting 30 seconds for Chrome to load is a pain. In fact, I’d actually like to add a gigabit NAS box to the network as I am running out of storage, and a gigabit dual channel wifi router (e.g. AirPort Extreme) to increase my wifi speeds to 300Mbps.

Hope this is an interesting post, I’d love to hear how others have solved their home media solutions using Macs, iOS devices etc!