Top 20 Apple TV Plugins And Hacks

Leopard is coming soon, and some reports claim that the new Front Row is going to borrow its look from New-Digital-TV-Boxes Mar-08. In the meantime, Apple TVs themselves are cheaper then ever, but Apple is strangely quiet about it. Is Apple TV the future of home entertainment or is it Apple’s blunder which will probably disappear from the market in the years to come? You decide. In the meantime, we’ve created a toolbox with over 25 plugins and hacks to make all you AppleTV owners smile.

Plugins

Apple TV RSS Plugin – Configure and read various RSS feeds right on your Apple TV.

ATVLoader – Install many plugins from a large database. This one is great for those that want a simplified and easy way of installing plugins without a lot of hassle.

nitoTV – The biggest and best plugin of them all. Network and USB mounting, mplayer, and DVD playback with VIDEO_TS files or ISO files.

Road Trip – GPS plugin that works with any USB GPS adapter, fetches maps from MapQuest.

Sapphire – Best way to manage TV Shows and Movies.

Sports Scores – This plugin allows you to check sports scores.

Streamer – Stream internet radio through your Apple TV.

MPDControl – Control your MPD server easily from your Apple TV.

ATVTorrents – Finds torrents in your Home directory and automatically starts downloading them with rTorrent.

Firefly – Allows the streaming of music on your Apple TV to iTunes.

Omelette – A fun puzzle game designed to run on your Apple TV.

Perian – Although not truly a plugin, Perian allows playback of many file types.

JamanTV – Download movies from the JamanTV service onto your Apple TV.

ATVWakeOnLan – Wakes up remote media servers nearby.

Applications Menu – Run applications on your Apple TV easily with this launcher.

Hacks

Firefox – This hack shows you how to get Firefox up and running on an Apple TV, step by step.

Component to RGB – How to convert from component to RGB for TVs that don’t have component ports.

How to Play DivX From a NAS – Explains how to play DivX files on your AppleTV from a network storage device.

Color Output – How to easily get color output from the AppleTV’s component ports.

Asterisk – How to get Asterisk running on an AppleTV.

Keyboard/Mouse – How to get a USB keyboard and mouse working on an Apple TV.

Mouse Pointer – This tutorial explains how to enable the mouse pointer.

OS X – Install OS X on an Apple TV.

USB Drive – A tutorial that tells you how to boot your Apple TV from an external USB drive.

Enable VNC – Tutorial explaining how to enable Remote Desktop/VNC.

SSH and AFP – Explains how to enable SSH and AFP on Apple TV. (via)

Top 10 Free E-books For Bloggers

E-books aren’t as great to read as old school hard-bound books that you can cuddle up with in your bed. But, with some topics, like blogging, you’ll find more useful e-books than regular books. That’s why we checked out all the e-books for bloggers and handpicked ten contemporary ones that we think are the best of the lot.

Authority Black Book

Authority Black Book – What is an authority presence on the web? Why is it important to have an authority and how can you attain authority? What are the web 2.0 tools that you can use? Authority Black Book is a 64-page ebook by Jake Humphrey explaining how to get the best out of web 2.0 technology including blogging, RSS marketing, social bookmarking sites, social media marketing sites, and video marketing in order to attract more traffic to your site. There is also a list of web 2.0 resource sites.

You would already be aware of what is written about in the ebook if you have been blogging for quite some time. But the ebook is a good resource with plenty of links of the top sites and services in different categories related to blogging, and you can take it as a starting point if you are newly starting out in the blogosphere.

Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization – For many a blogger, search engine optimization is the next thing they want to understand once they set up their blog and are couple of weeks into blogging. If that’s the case, this is the ebook that they should get their hands on. Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization is a good newbie’s guide to SEO practices from SEOmoz explaining how search engines operate, how to conduct keyword research, building a traffic-worthy site, and growing a site’s popularity.

The ebook can be downloaded in MS Word or Open Office Text Document format. There are single page and 9-page versions of the ebook as well that you can read online.

BlogBash: Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging – learn from 30 experts

BlogBash: Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging – learn from 30 experts – What can you say when you get 30 of the top bloggers from across the globe writing down their secrets in one free ebook? This ebook is a must-read for every blogger.

Some of the articles include – Synergy between SEO and traditional marketing by Aaron Wall of SEOBook, Driving traffic using Delicious by Neil Patel of ProNetAdvertising, 7 ways to make your content search engine friendly by Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips, Staying Connected-the secret to keeping those loyal readers by Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog, Help me – my mom is my blog’s only reader by Darren Rowse of Problogger, Advertising in the blogosphere by Chris Batty of Gizmodo, among others. This ebook is a product of BlogBash – the 30 day event featuring expert bloggers from across the blogosphere.

Blog Profits Blueprint

Blog Profits Blueprint – Starting off with how he discovered blogging, Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey explains in this 54 page ebook the strategies and tactics you require to start blogging successfully. Some of the subjects he talks about include key ingredients of attracting attraction to your blog, how to choose your blog traffic – passions vs profits, creating pillar posts, marketing your blog, etc.

Yaro also details blog monetization methods including Google AdSense and other alternatives. There is a section on RSS and blog advertising too. The writing is easy to comprehend and Yaro has included some genuine experiences that you can learn from.

Dive Into Web 2.0

Dive Into Web 2.0 – This is a comprehensive guide to Web 2.0 sites and technologies including search engines, SEO, wikis, blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social media, tagging, web monetization, APIs, mashups, widgets, gadgets, RSS, web 2.0 business models, and rich media applications like AJAX, Silverlight, Google Gears, and many more.

Maybe you can say Wikipedia is there for all these terminologies. But what this ebook brings you is the entire set of web 2.0 technologies in one go, exposing many tools that you might not have heard about before.

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents – Reporters Without Borders is an international organization that works for press freedom. In this ebook, the organization provides tips to blog anonymously and get round censorship for free expression in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. In their own words, bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Sometimes, only bloggers provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Plenty of bloggers have been thrown in prison for their writing.
One unique tidbit that you won’t find anywhere else is the chapter on Blogging ethics that talks about thoroughness, accuracy, fairness, transparency, and independence. There are also personal accounts of bloggers who have been writing from Internet-censored countries.

The ebook also dedicates the final chapter to the countries that censor the Internet including China, Vietnam, Tunisia, Iran, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. This is truly one read that reminds us that blogging is not all about keeping a personal diary or being just a business tool. It can play serious socio-political roles in different parts of the world.

Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com

Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com is a comprehensive ebook on everything you need to start a blog and maintain it successfully. Written by John Chow, one of the most outspoken bloggers on blogging, the ebook explains blogging tips for beginners and then goes into blog monetization tips with examples of various affiliate links, blog promotion tips, and Google Optimization. There is a chapter on WordPress as well.

The ebook has 9 chapters spread across 59 pages. A must read for beginners and something that even a veteran blogger might find useful.

Unleashing the Idea Virus

Unleashing the Idea Virus – This is a mega 197-page viral marketing ebook by marketing guru Seth Godin. He explains why ideas matter, and reveals the secrets on how to unleash an ideavirus. He also presented many case studies to prove his point.

The book answers tricky questions like why is it foolish to launch a new business with millions of dollars in TV ads, why the market leaders in every industry are more vulnerable to sudden successes by the competition than ever before, what’s the single most important asset a company can create—and what is the simple thing that can kill it, does the Net create a dynamic that fundamentally changes the way everything is marketed, and how can any big or small business use ideavirus marketing to succeed, among others.

Although the book is aimed at marketing professionals, it is also a must-read for professional bloggers, webmasters, and those who are out in the blogospshere to create a successful brand/product for themselves.

Web Style Guide

Web Style Guide – This is a newbie webmaster’s guide to page design, typography, editorial style, graphics, and multimedia. There are sections on web site accessibility, CSS, and flexible page design, information architecture, and site maintenance, coupled with illustrations and examples.

Who’s There

Who’s there – Seth Godin again in his unconventional style reveals a few truths about blogging, and defines three types of blogs – cat blogs, boss blogs, and viral blogs. He also lists down the four laws of blogs and the five components of a great blog.

This is one of those books that’ll make you stop and think. A must-read. (via)

Top 80 Open Source Content Management Systems

A content management system, or CMS, is the easiest way to get a content driven site up and running fast. Frequently, they’re also used for building social networks. We’ve rounded up more than 80 popular CMSs due to reader requests. For the sake of brevity, we haven’t delved too deeply into CMSs for personal blogging or wikis (although we recommend WordPress and Mediawiki, respectively).

Selecting a CMS is about selecting the right tool for the job. However, the most highly recommended general purpose CMSs tend to be Drupal and Joomla. We welcome your own recommendations and experiences in the comments.

Joomla – popular, award-winning CMS that will help you build powerful online applications.

XOOPS – extensible, easy to use; ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community websites, blogs, portals and much more.

Drupal – equipped with a powerful blend of features, rich set of modules, very popular.

e107 – totally customizable content management system written in PHP using MySQL database.

Plone – ready-to-run, easy to set up, extremely flexible, and ideal for project groups, communities, websites, extranets and intranets.

Zope – an open source application server for building content management systems, intranets, portals, and custom applications.

PHPnuke – established CMS featuring web-based administration, surveys, customizable blocks, modules and themes with multilanguage support.

Dotnetnuke – port of PHPNuke into Microsoft .NET platform.

Typo3 – flexible and extensible CMS with an accomplished set of ready-made interfaces, functions and modules.

PostNuke – fork of PHP-Nuke to make it more secure, stable, and able to work in high-volume environments with ease.

SyntaxCMS – simplify publishing , create and edit site content online, and approve it before publishing to the web.

jLibrary is a DMS (Document Management System), oriented for personal and enterprise use.

V2 CMS – simple CMS, easy to install and modify.

Website Baker – PHP-based CMS designed to make website creation easy.

Jahia – use the Jahia community edition for publishing, managing files, and workflow.

eZPublish – created by eZ Systems, which has a team of professional software developers responsible for creating and maintaining the CMS.

Magnolia – makes Enterprise Content Management simple by being user-friendly, battle-tested, enterprise-ready and open-source.

WebGUI – built to give average business users the ability to build and maintain complex web sites.

OpenCMS – helps content managers worldwide to create and maintain beautiful websites fast and efficiently.

PHP-Fusion – a lightweight, small and versatile CMS.

Collaborative Portal Server (CPS) – most complete platform for building Enterprise Content Management applications, built on top of the Zope application server.

SiteFrameâ„¢ – lightweight content-management system designed for the rapid deployment of community-based websites.

TribalCMS – includes multilanguage support, template architectures, AJAX User Interfaces and unique administration.

Xaraya – create sophisticated web applications; designers enjoy considerable flexibility.

Krang – designed to publish magazine websites.

MMBase – CMS with strong multi media features and advanced portal functionalities.

Pligg Рbased on Men̩ame (Spanish Digg clone), Pligg enables you to create Digg-like sites.

elevateIT – an extension of ZOPE/Plone server.

Cofax – manages your text and multimedia content, and simplifies the presentation of newspapers.

DBPrism – first open source CMS based on Oracle XMLDB repository.

Flux CMS – XML/XSLT based, easy to use, extensible and suitable for developers to fill specific needs.

Apache Lenya – Java/XML based CMS that comes with revision control, multi-site management, scheduling, and workflow.

Rubricks – CMS for Ruby on Rails fans, boasts simplicity and speed.

Silva – built on top of Zope, enables you to export to Word, stream media, store content as XML, and manage hierarchical and traditional websites.

YACS – build your online blogging communities.

Clever Copy – A scalable website portal and news posting system.

Fundanemt – focused on usability and aimed at small and medium sized websites.

Dragonfly CMS – feature-rich open source content management system, based on PHP-Nuke 6.

ContentNOW – simple to use, flexible, multilanguage, modular CMS.

Bitweaver – suitable for large-scale community websites and corporate applications.

Elxis CMS – professional free open source CMS released under the GNU/GPL license.

Etomite – allows you to remotely administer your website from anywhere.

fuzzylime – simple way for you to run your site and keep it up-to-date.

iGaming CMS – build your own gaming websites.

MODx – CMS that helps you take control of your online content.

PHP comasy – simple, multilingual and fast content management system.

Mambo – very well-known CMS. Can be used for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications.

Jupiter – one of the most lightweight portal systems available.

Ovidentia – integrate an environment for publishing content on the www or a groupware portal.

Jaws – build your own modules on the powerful Jaws framework.

Geeklog – out of the box blog solution with support for comments, trackbacks, multiple syndication formats, and spam protection.

CMS Made Simple – make a home page for your family or your multinational corporation.

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Eazy portal – solution allowing you to maintain your own online community.

Papoo – accessible content management system

phpWebSite – develop an interactive, community-driven website.

RunCms – portal system that includes most things a webmaster would expect from a CMS.

Exponent – allows site owners to easily create and manage dynamic websites without necessarily directly coding web pages, or managing site navigation.

SPIP – publishing system, use it freely for your own site, be it personal, co-operative, institutional or commercial.

Silverstripe – powerful enough for any website or intranet design and simple enough for anyone to use.

Pheap – created for folks who don’t like complex CMSs like Joomla and Drupal.

MDPro – an innovative and imaginative content management system.

TYPOlight webCMS – specializes in accessibility and uses XHTML and CSS to generate W3C/WAI compliant pages.

PlumeCMS – have multiple websites, multiple authors with different rights.

Xepient Open-Point – create a professional website quickly through the browser.

SlashCode – the original code for the Slashdot geek news service.

YaWPS – is a hybrid between a content management system and a web portal for medium or small-sized websites.

APC ActionApps – allow authorized users to easily update the content of their website.

Pagetool – suitable for people with limited technical skills to modify and contribute to an organization’s web site

OpenACS – toolkit for building scalable, community-oriented web applications.

ttCMS – build your community website with calendars, surveys, member management and authentication, file downloads, forum, articles, and announcements.

MySource – enables technically unskilled users to build and maintain their own web solutions.

Ariadne – web application server and content management system.

Mason CM – makes it easy to manage the workflow of information as it moves from staging to the live site.

Managee – comprehensive web based CMS.

ESY Web Builder – an intuitive content management system that allows non-technical people to create and manage websites and extranets.

PHProjekt – a groupware suite, for the coordination of group activities and to share information and documents via intranet and internet.

PROPS – extensible publishing system designed specifically for periodicals such as newspapers and magazines

Midgard CMS – internationalized set of tools for building web sites and networked applications.

Pivot – web-based tool to help you maintain dynamic sites, like weblogs or online journals. (via)