What do you get when you combine a new parent on maternity leave with a love of gadgets and Apple products? Why, you get "baby monitor overkill!"

In response to Dave Caolo's recent ode to the Mac mini, I figured it was time to step up. I had two things gathering dust: my old standalone iSight, a gorgeous example of Apple design sadly idle since the advent of built-in iSights, and a lovely new Intel Mac Mini that was recently scored on sale at MicroCenter with plans to set it up for my older two kids once I could get my hands on a small LCD monitor.

I figured in the meantime it would serve nicely as a baby monitor, since I couldn't find a matching transmitter/receiver pair among the various baby monitors I had accumulated over the years. My idea was that it would live discreetly, headless and tailless (monitor, keyboard, and mouse-free) in the baby's room, and broadcast both locally on my network and also wide-area so grandparents could tune in remotely.

For the initial setup, I needed a monitor, but fortunately my TV has a PC (VGA) port, which I used to configure the mini. I set it to login automatically to the main account and join my Airport network. In System Preferences, I enabled screen sharing and added iChat as a login item. In iChat, I enabled Bonjour and instant messaging, added myself as a buddy, and restricted chats to preapproved users under security preferences. Because I didn't want to connect via screen sharing every time I wanted to initiate a chat, I typed the following into Terminal so that it would auto-accept any incoming video chats:

defaults write com.apple.ichat AutoAcceptVCInvitations 1

After that, I set it adrift on the network. From my main computer, I watched the mini pop up on Bonjour after reboot, and we were off and running.

While this worked great for my own local use, it had some inherent restrictions: remote users (aka "grandparents who love to watch sleeping grandsons") couldn't join the chat easily. Spouses at work had issues with company restrictions on AIM. Plus, it was iPhone-unfriendly; the holy grail for me was turning the iPhone into a video terminal that followed me around.

I went through a few different ideas: private channel on Justin.tv (great for multiple viewers, but awash in advertising, restricted at work, and unavailable on iPhone), Skype (great video, automatic call acceptance and limited iPhone capabilities, but terrible for multiple viewers), and complicated setups involving QuickTime Broadcaster. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel (well, no more than I already was doing), I hit upon SJKM's iCam software, which is an iPhone application & accompanying cross-platform video streaming tool specifically designed for video monitoring, available in the iTunes store for $4.99. Initially dismissed for lack of audio, it has since enabled audio monitoring and non-iPhone web access, making it an almost perfect setup. Why "almost?" Well, for reasons I cannot quite figure out, the video is much choppier than AIM, Bonjour, Justin.tv, or Skype. But it works over 3G and Wi-Fi, and it connects multiple viewers without requiring conference setup.

And now, with SJKM's latest update, iCam can run in the background and push notification will alert me to sound or video motion. I have not yet enabled that feature, as it is a $.99 add-on and still pending Apple approval in the store.

Ultimately, I ended up using a variety of different applications, but I can report a lot of very satisfied relatives dreamily cooing at the computer screens from Portland, OR, to Philadelphia, PA. All thanks to the mac mini and the standalone iSight. And one very cute baby (if I do say so myself.)

Upcoming: that's great, but can you make it work in the dark? Adventures in IR.....

If you're a Twitter fan and a Mac user, you'll appreciate a new tool from RADSense Software -- Tweetube for Mac OS X.

Tweetube is a free application that uses your iSight camera to record a 25 second video which is then uploaded automatically to Tweetube. A tweet with an embedded link to the video is sent out, and the world can then see your smiling face.



It's also easy to share YouTube videos with your Twitterpals by logging onto the Tweetube site, and then either entering a YouTube URL or doing a quick search. After you add your tweet, a link is sent off to your Tweeples.

Tweetube received a few seconds of fame earlier this week when comedian Dane Cook recorded a 25-second blast in his usual high-speed rant mode. If you use Twitter, give Tweetube a try!

If you have been following Saltatory Software's Family.app, then you know how great it can be for easily creating family trees. Recently updated, this application allows you to easily track your family's genealogy. The new update fixes some bugs that occurred with Leopard, like the iSight/iLife integration. Some of the updates to Family include:

• You can now export your Family file to PDF, and it will still be crisp if you zoom in.
  
• The iSight and iPhoto/iLife integration work again in 10.5.
  
• You can now zoom in 120% when in the main editor.
  
• Updated Family bubbles to make Family files look better in general, especially in printing.
  
• Minor bug fixes regarding text input.
  
• There is a fun little fade out when you close windows.
  
• Made it so that dragging a new connection is easier than before. Dragging a connection is not as particular about where you click like it was in 2.0.2.

If you want more information about this update, or would like to download Family.app, you can visit the Saltatory Software website. Family is $29.95US for a personal-use license and it requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher.

Those of you who like to use your iSight cameras to record and upload video to YouTube or other video sharing Web sites will be happy to know that Dream Apps has released version 2.2 of Dream Capture.

Dream Capture is designed especially for both internal and external iSight cameras, although it works with other cameras as well. The 2.2 release now features auto-focusing technology derived from Apple's Shake software, metadata support for iTunes 8 imports, and H.264 video encoding.

Dream Apps also added their audio compression technology, DreamSync, to Dream Capture 2.2. A new audio-only recording mode is available for those who wish to use Dream Capture to record audio podcasts or lectures.

This is a free update for existing Dream Capture owners. Interested readers can download a trial version of Dream Capture (click begins download), and then purchase the application for US$9.95 if it fits your needs. A Mac running OS X 10.4 or later is required.

MacRumors speculates on the possibility of Apple releasing updated Cinema displays at next year's Macworld Expo. According to the post, the new displays could incorporate the LED backlight technology that Apple has started building into their 15" MacBook Pros.

MacRumors notes that LED backlit displays going into the 30" range tend to be more expensive than Apple's current 30" Cinema display. However, if this is true, it would be a nice change from Apple's 2004 design of the current Cinema displays. There is no word yet on if the new displays would include the iSight camera.

Apologies to Dr. Peter Venkman, but it's hard to believe that it's taken this long for a webcam vendor to encroach on the vacuum left by the discontinued iSight, even though we have hints that a new model of the Apple camera might be on the HD horizon. Logitech has now announced the QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac, featuring "premium autofocus technology and Carl Zeiss® optics." No word on whether the camera will feature fine Corinthian leather or Posi-traction, but there's hope.

Seriously, though, the camera does offer a voice coil motor for autofocus, RightLight exposure technology and a 2 megapixel sensor; this should allow for VGA-quality (640x480) videoconferencing and 720p HD (960x720) local video recording. Snazzy! Logitech expects to ship the unit in July for an SRP of $130.

Update: Commenters point out that the product is quite similar to the QuickCam Pro 9000, which isn't billed as Mac-compatible but actually works just fine with Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5; it's also list-priced $30 cheaper. Hrm.

[via Engadget]

Parties can sometimes be boring, but with a Mac with an iSight and an Apple TV, you can liven up any party! In this how-to, I am going to show you how to create an Automator workflow that will take pictures at specified times and sync them over to your Apple TV, all without you ever lifting a finger. This Automator workflow is fantastic when you have people over for a party they can head over to your Mac, take a crazy picture of themselves and have it synced over to the Apple TV in the living room.

Continue reading to learn how to make this Automator workflow.

A clever Mac user helped police recover a stolen laptop using Back to My Mac's screen-sharing feature.

After her apartment was burglarized, the victim received a call from a friend while she was at work (conveniently enough, at the Apple Store in Westchester, NY). The friend noticed her stolen computer was online. The victim then quickly used another Mac to connect to the stolen laptop.

The article doesn't mention the technical details, but I reckon she activated screen sharing, and started Photo Booth (or another app that activates the laptop's built-in iSight camera). After a while, the perps showed up, and the victim's roommate recognized one of them as an acquaintance who had attended a party at their apartment some weeks before.

Armed with names and photos of the alleged thieves, police quickly arrested two men, who were in possession of most of the property stolen in the burglary.

If that isn't worth her year's subscription to .Mac, I don't know what is.

(Update: The New York Times has a story with some more details. She used Photo Booth, too. Who called it, baby?)

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Have you ever been away from your Mac, then come back only to find that your co-worker has stolen your favorite Apple pen? Well, I am going to show you how to catch them in the act by creating a Mac "spy cam." For this how-to, you will need to create an Automator workflow, AppleScript, and some Mail rules. So, cue the James Bond music, and let's begin. You do need an iSight or a newer Mac with a built-in camera. (Yes, I know there are some tools prebuilt to do this -- but what's the fun in that?)

Continue reading to learn how to create the Mac spy cam.

It's always seemed to me that the image that comes from the built-in camera on my MacBook Pro should be more adjustable. We've previously mentioned iGlasses, a webcam utility (from the makers of the handy Call Recorder for Skype) which provides all of those missing controls. The utility recently updated to version 2.1, and adds a zoom button, stability improvements and compatibility with more applications.

iGlasses 2.1 lets you control color, exposure, zooming and cropping of your iSight (or one of several other webcams). It also provides several color adjustment "effects", if you're into that, and it's AppleScript-able so you can automate settings. Personally, I'm mostly interested in zooming and controlling lighting/color settings, which it handles quite well. Once the free, 7-day demo is installed, the adjustment palette shows up in most applications that use the iSight: iChat, Skype, Skitch, Pixelmator, Photo Booth and about 60 others.

iGlasses will set you back $9.95 and a free demo is available. The demo can be easily uninstalled by running the installer and clicking the "Uninstall" button.

Are we going to see new Cinema displays by the end of the month? If so, they might look like this-- it's a nice-looking mockup posted by Ben over on the redrant forums. It is interesting that Cinema displays are almost starting to match up to the Beatles as the one thing we hope to get from Apple but never do. For years now, people have been hoping for an update to these things-- an installed iSight (that one's actually been "a lock" for years) and even a touchscreen display. But Apple hasn't budged-- the last time they updated the Cinemas, it was to drop the prices two years ago.

Yup, it's been since then that a Cinema update has seemed to be just around the corner. You can only think of so many ways to update monitors, but it seems that Apple hasn't, so far, liked any of the ideas enough to put them on sale.

Thanks, Jacob!

A few months back, we wrote about reader Dylan's iSight autocapture project-- he rigged up the code to have his iSight on his MacBook Pro snap a photo every time the lid was opened (and even released all of his work as open source). At the time, he mentioned eventually combining all of the photos together into a timelapse video, and seven months later, here it is.

Unfortunately, he says the Sleepwatcher daemon he was using doesn't work as of 10.4.10, so the project is over until it gets updated, if ever. But he did share with us how he compiled the images together into a timelapse-- he punched out a Perl script (which is reprinted after the jump) to rename all of the pictures into sequenced filenames, and then squished them together with Quicktime's "image sequence" feature. Very nice.

Multitouch is all the rage lately, but one of the drawbacks is that it's still pretty expensive. Enter this ingenious device-- it's a bag with dye colored water in it. That bag is then laid flat on a glass table, an iSight camera is placed underneath, the computer is coded (it appears, anyway) to look for fingertips pressing through the dye, and just like that, you've got a multitouch interface.

Really incredible. Of course, it's hard to figure out how this could be used for something like the iPhone-- instead of a camera, you'd have to have some kind of light sensors behind the dye, and you'd have to figure out a way to have the dye-colored water stay spread even throughout the bag. In fact, come to think of it, I'm not really sure how most multitouch interfaces work-- maybe this is closer to the real thing than I imagine. Even if not, very cool idea, and I'm almost surprised to see it really works so well.

[via Waxy]

Update: Looks like the video is a little old-- this was posted back in early June, even before the iPhone was released. But it is still really cool, and it's the first I've seen it.

If you want to customize your iSight output for chatting or video recording, there's a quick and cheap way to do it: iGlasses from ecamm network, only $9.95 for a whole kit bag of adjustments, colorizations, exposure controls and pan/zoom options. The 2.0 version was released earlier today (a free upgrade for previous licensees) and adds exposure lock for the built-in iSight camera among other new features.

I find myself using the exposure control a lot to manage iChat video in poor lighting conditions; you can check it out for yourself by downloading the demo here.

Thanks Glen & Ken

[Update 1:15 pm -- And this is why we don't often post product rumors... indications are that this is coming from someone posing as our "reputable source," and other sites have received and debunked the rumor. We tried to reach the source for verification but were not able to do so. Our apologies if this turns out to be complete bunk. -Ed.]

We don't often post product rumors hereabouts, although we're certainly not above reporting on them and linking to them; it's just not the regular beat. That said, when an email comes in from a reputable source (thanks, Mr. X) with supposed details on Tuesday's product announcement... well, we gotta let you all know. Pile on the disclaimers (this is a rumor!) and here we go. Our source says that there are plenty of new products coming on Tuesday:

Two new iMacs, with 20 and 24 inch screens, and entirely covered in brushed metal (!) plus the previously hinted new keyboard design and a slightly slimmer enclosure. Even more surprising, our source says the iMacs are shipping with a 2.4GHz Intel Penryn chip. Intel's first 45-nm CPU was originally slated to ship at the end of the year, and it's not clear that Apple could get enough parts to actually build these puppies before October, so take this with a grain of salt. The machines might ship with the dual-core Conroe part instead.

Three new Apple Displays at 20, 24, and 32 inches. These are supposed to have an iSight camera built in.

The Mac Pro will get a speed bump as the Xeon/Woodcrest chips are swapped out for Penryn chips, running at a brisk 2.4, 3.0, and 3.33GHZ.

Lastly, the long-expected end of life for the Mac Mini may finally come around as the machine is expected to be dropped from the product matrix. *sniffle*

Again, this is all unconfirmed. We'll know for sure on Tuesday!