The Appeal of the Apple TV to Me

Earlier today, I wrote a bit about the Apple September Event and it’s affect or appeal to genealogists on the go. With the iPod touches once again mirroring the current iPhones for the most part, and becoming incredibly powerful and rounding things out with the iPad, I mentioned that I think genealogy apps on the iOS platform will continue to increase.

I also mentioned the use of the new Apple TV for doing presentations or acting as a backdrop of sorts at family reunions, for streaming video or slideshows to an HDTV.

A few hours ago, a friend asked why I didn’t just hook up my laptop to an HDTV and do the same thing and save $99. There are two answers to that.

One reason: At a large gathering with a lot of people, especially where there will probably be a lot of kids, I really don’t feel like leaving my laptop out in the open and hooked up to a TV. Too much potential for something to happen to it, whether it’s getting knocked to the floor, or somebody deciding they want to try and play games on it or do who knows what else. I don’t want to spend my time babysitting my laptop. Having it off elsewhere, where it can be secured, frees me up from wasting my time. It can also be used with a desktop PC, which means not having a tower sitting there hooked up to the TV.

The second reason: At a presentation, if I’m presenting photos or video, I really don’t want to have my laptop tethered directly to the TV, because it will be a distraction as people will be paying attention to me and not the TV. There would be times where I’d want to be out front of course, but a lot of times, if I’m going through something, I want the focus to be on what’s being displayed, and not me. I might lose the advantage of not being able to do a live demonstration of software, but I can still easily hook up my laptop for that if needed. I can also do screenshots of software or content and have those displayed through the Apple TV device as well. It would be really nice if I could tell the Apple TV device to switch from displaying photos or streaming a video to streaming my desktop, and maybe that’s a future update, but I’m not counting on it.

Of course, a genealogist using an Apple TV device is still reliant upon having a decent-sized HDTV available. If that’s not the case, you’ll still have to pull out the trusty old projector.

Families 1.0.2

Families has received another fairly significant update – it now supports Apple iOS 4.0. Whether this includes full multi-tasking support, I’m not sure.

It also had an alternative synchronization option added via USB through iTunes. This is significant, since Families works directly with Legacy Family Tree software, which is Windows based. Families is an iPhone OS/iOS genealogy app from TelGen Limited that works with Legacy by syncing up with the data and allowing you to edit or add to the genealogy information while away from your PC. You can then rescync the changes with your Legacy Family Tree install. Prior to Families 1.0.2, you had to run a Windows application from TelGen to do the synchronization. I’m guessing that they’ve got it setup so that you can point to your Legacy Family Tree install from inside of iTunes.

Changes/updates:
* Added alternative sync option via USB/iTunes
* Added support for iOS4
* Fixed problems with image alignment when tapping arrow buttons in photo viewer rapidly
* Added support for additional Source types
* Fixed crash when adding text containing Scandinavian characters
* Fixed problem with search by RIN

Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad w/iPhone OS 3.1 or iOS or later.
* Windows sync program available at www.telgen.co.uk/families

Families is available through the Families – TelGen Limited Apple’s App Store (iTunes) for $14.99

GedView 2.16.1

A new version of GedView is available. Version 2.16.1 consists of only bug fixes.

GedView is an iOS/iPhone OS genealogy application that revolves around importing GEDCOM files. You don’t need to be using a specific Windows or Mac OS X genealogy application/software package to use it. There are several ways to import GEDCOM files, and you can import multiple GEDCOMs into multiple databases you set up on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Requirements:
iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iPhone OS 3.0 or later

GedView is available through Apple’s App Store for $3.99.

Research Logger 1.2

Research Logger 1.2 is now available. Research Logger is an iOS/iPhone OS app for genealogists that helps you keep track of your genealogy research, both the research that you’ve already done, and the research you need to do or will be doing.

Version 1.2 is another major upgrade. You now have the ability to add audio recordings and pictures to your log entries. You can also email log entries to other people.

Changes:
* Audio recording and pictures in your log entries.
* Email individual log entries.
* Email all your log entries in .csv format.
* Various bug fixes.

Requirements:
iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, with iPhone OS 3.1.3 or later.

Research Logger can be downloaded for $0.99 (US) through the Apple iTunes App Store

iWork and ePub, Assorted App Updates

Apple has released iWork 09 version 9.0.4. This is of interest to mobile genealogy fans as Pages version 4.0.4 can now export to the standard ePub file format. That means that iBooks users on iPhones, iPod touch, and iPad, as well as owners of Barnes & Noble’s nook, Sony’s Reader series, and Google Android users can now easily read documents created with Pages. Quite a few people use Pages/iWork for creating family newsletters and similar documents, and this increases the distribution choices.

Read the full story at Mac Genealogy

Amazon.com has updated their Kindle App to version 2.2.1. The Kindle App allows you to view electronic books (ebooks) purchased or downloaded through Amazon’s Kindle Store on your iPhone OS/iOS devices. We’ve highlighted some of the genealogy eBooks available through Kindle in the past.

Changes:
* Improved highlight sensitivity to reduce inadvertent highlights when turning pages
* Fixed a crash some customers experience when highlighting a word
* Corrected a problem where the most recent page is not saved when returning to the app
* Other bug fixes based on customer feedback

You can download the Kindle App for free (iTunes)

Google has updated the Google Mobile App. Google Mobile App acts as a front-end for various Google services (Google Search, etc.), and it also interacts with other Google apps.

Changes:
* Push notifications for Gmail and Calendar.

You can download Google Mobile App for free as well (iTunes).

Last, but not least, another major update to a free app. NASA has updated the NASA app. The NASA app features information revolving around NASA missions, information for astronomers looking to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station, NASA’s Image of the Day and the Astronomy Picture of the Day.

This has absolutely nothing to do with genealogy, but they’ve done something that I think is really cool, and being a fan, I had to mention it. Besides some fixes for iOS 4 users, they have added live streaming of the NASA TV public channel. Not everybody has access to their public channel, but if you have an iOS devices, now you do. They show quite a few interesting shows on there, as well as live streaming from orbit during various activities.

Download here: NASA App (iTunes)

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