All Apple All Day

AAAD readers probably know I'm working on a couple of iMovie home video projects.  Since most of the source material is on VHS, we needed a high-end VCR. I bought a JVC HR-S9600, which is one of the best ever made.  We also needed a way to connect that VCR to the iMac, and capture the video at the best possible quality.  We chose the elgato Video Capture .  It arrived last night, and I'll put it through its paces tonight.     

We've solved the immediate problem for now - our sump pump is working properly, and the roots are cleared from our drain pipes. (The problem tree is still standing, but will be removed this week.) But what if something goes wrong with our solution? If our basement floods, we need to know immediately. Especially if we're away from home.  We need water sensors!

An update from yesterday's post - we were able to get the roots out of our underground pipes! Here's how. 

Winter has finally given up! It's a big weekend at the AAAD house. Some are fun projects. Some "keep the house from falling apart" maintenance projects.

I got a little aggressive in cleaning up my email on the iMac Mail program yesterday, and accidentally deleted every single piece of email in my Gmail account. Yikes. But hey, Time Machine worked as advertised.

The Apple Watch won't be released for a month and a half.  And for the first time, I'm unsure about whether I need - or even want - Apple's newest gadget.   But the Apple Watch 2? That's going to be awesome. 

I get it - a lot of people have been VERY excited about the Apple Watch for a VERY long time. I'm a bit ambivalent - I'm pretty unlikely to buy one at the outset... I wish it had mechanical hands so I could tell time without turning it on. What else might we hear about today?

A few years ago, I created a 30 minute iMovie for my parents' birthdays. It was a huge hit. But the video quality was terrible.  It's 2015. I'm sure I can do better. Here are some of the unique tools and challenges that come with video capture today.

If you're like me, your family has a TON of home movies from the Eighties and Nineties. And they're priceless. Those movies can transport you back across the years, back to your youth.  They're also long and unwatchable.  Cut it down to just the good stuff! That's why we have iMovie!

We watched BIRDMAN on our AppleTV last week. The movie was great. The experience was awful. In fact our AppleTV has been doing a terrible job with streaming movies for a while. Maybe wiring the entire house for ethernet will help?

We've been living with our Nest Thermostat for almost a year now. It's great. Even though it intentionally makes our house freezing every night, no matter how many times we tell it to STOP. But we can make it better... .

If you recently upgraded to an iPhone 6, there's a decent chance that your sales associate told you about the Verizon EDGE program. In short, you pay full freight for your iPhone 6, in 24 installments. That means $600 or more, instead of the $200-$300 you'd pay with a carrier subsidy. Is this a good deal, or not?

Our 21" iMac is about 5 years old. It is, without question, the best computer that I have ever owned. But it could be better. Should I replace its HD with an SSD? Or sell it and replace with a 27" Retina iMac? ...

We've always wanted an espresso machine.  But the fully-automated types we liked were really expensive, and seemed to be somewhat difficult to use.  The Delonghi Latissima Pro Nespresso machine solves one of those problems. ...

Thanks to everybody - I never thought that this blog would get any traffic whatsoever, but it seems like there are quite a few people out there who share my interests in iOS and home automation.