Mac users who have wanted to share audio, video, and pictures with their Xbox 360s have had to depend on Connect360 from Nullriver Software. Now, however, there's a new option: Rivet from Cynical Peak Software. Frankly, it does about the same thing as Connect360, running in your menu bar and allowing you to share media to your Xbox 360, though it does add a few convenient features.
According to the developer, Rivet allows you to "supply multiple search paths for your media" and display your folder media folder hierarchies properly (instead of in a long, flat list). So if you've been frustrated by those limitations, Rivet is worth a look. In my brief testing it worked just about as well as Connect360.
Rivet is $18.95 and a demo is available from Cynical Peak Software.
We've posted on Connect360 from nullriver severaltimes before. This handy Preference Pane application allows you to stream media (music, pictures, and video) from your Mac to your Xbox 360 (by emulating a Windows machine). Well the Fall 2007 Dashboard update for Xbox 360 just dropped this week and, among other things, added DivX and Xvid codec support. So nullriver has updated Connect360 to version 3.2 with support for these video codecs.
Connect360 remains $20 and a demo is available. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Looking to get caught up on your favorite Guitar Hero music before the game finally comes to the Mac in a week? You're in luck, our sister site Xbox 360 Fanboy reports that Activision, who now owns the GH franchise, has released the master tracks of Guitar Hero 1, 2 and 3 as "Guitar Hero Essentials," available right now on iTunes.
Very awesome. Of course, listening to "More Than a Feeling," "Killing in the Name," or "Heart Shaped Box" isn't nearly as fun as actually playing it with the guitar, but until they release Guitar Hero for the iPhone you'll have to settle for listening to the downloaded tracks. Each game has its own playlist, and there's even extra playlists from Slash and Steve Jones to get you in the mood.
Rock on! Of course, we'll probably be a little too busy with Leopard at release to really get the thrash on right away, but after we get our Stacks and Spaces set up, it's time to shred!
As the resident Xbox 360 fanboy I had reservations about touching this one, but my Mac love triumphs over all and so I bring you news of a cool tutorial on streaming media from your Mac to a PS3. This method is basically built around the MediaTomb open-source UPnP media server. The tricky part is installing MediaTomb on your Mac with fink and setting it up for the PS3 from the command-line. But once you do, you should be able to stream audio, video, and pictures from your Mac over the network. Needless to say, I haven't tried this myself, but I am intrigued by this note: "Currently MediaTomb does not fully support the XBOX360 as it acts differently from the PS3, but the code is already there to make it work in future versions." I guess we 360 users will just have to make due with Connect360 for now.
I'm not sure how closely you're all following E3 (the big gaming convention going on this week in LA), but one of the tidbits of news dropped by some little company named Microsoft last night is Disney movies are now available for download on Xbox 360's Live Marketplace. Finally, just like all of us iTunes users have been doing for months, Xbox owners can enjoy Disney flicks via digital distribution.
But wait-- the Xbox flicks are available, right now... in HD. Wha? Is Microsoft's CEO the largest Disney shareholder and on their Board of Directors? Did someone from Microsoft run the animation company that turned Disney animation around? Why are Xbox 360 owners watching these movies in HD when we can't do the same on iTunes?
We've speculated before that HD movies would be coming to iTunes, but right now, Xbox 360 owners can see every single hair on Ariel's head, and iTunes purchasers cannot. What's wrong with this picture?
A while back in our TUAW Guide to Xbox 360 and Mac we mentioned the forthcoming Spring Dashboard update on the 360 was to bring updated video codec support. Well that update dropped last week and Nullriver has correspondingly updated their Connect360 software (which we've mentioned before) that allows streaming video (and audio) files from a Mac straight to a Xbox 360. The newly supported codecs include full HD (1920x1080) H.264 in both the MPEG-4 and QuickTime containers (in addition to the previous WMV). This, of course, is substantially higher than Apple TV's support for 720p video, making the Xbox 360 likely the best full HD video extender available (though the Xbox is disappointingly loud compared to the Apple TV).
This week's Ask TUAW takes us into questions about printing Finder window contents, assigning programs to the corner of your screen, bringing up the Finder with a HotKey, integrating Apple productivity programs, recording TV on your Mac and editing AVIs . Remember new Mac users and Switchers who are enjoying our Mac 101 series should feel very welcome to post questions for Ask TUAW; we're happy to take questions from all levels. As always, please submit your questions by commenting to this post or using our tip form.
A while back we posted on the cool open source Guitar Hero clone, Frets on Fire. Well I'm a pretty big Xbox 360 fan, and one of my favorite games on the 360 is the recently released Guitar Hero II, which ships with a USB X-plorer guitar-shaped controller. So of course the first thing I did when I got it was plug it into my Mac to see if it would work with the Pref360 controller driver, but alas it did not. Disappointed, I contacted the author of that driver, Colin Munro, to see if he could help me get it working. And sure enough, with a little bit of editing of the driver plist, we got it going (that is to say, I followed his directions exactly and it worked).
I asked Colin if he would go ahead and add native support for the X-plorer for the next release of Pref360, and he has now done exactly that in the just released version 0.05. Furthermore, it works great with Frets on Fire (look here for the Mac version); just install Pref360 and then go into the Frets on Fire button setup and you should be able to assign the fret and strum buttons (the whammy bar is not yet supported in Frets on Fire). Now you have access access to all the fan created songs for Frets on Fire on your Mac.
Coincidentally, MacRecon recently reported that you could use the X-plorer with USB Overdrive ($20). However, Pref360 is donationware, and it works with Frets on Fire. So unless you have some other need for USB Overdrive I'd suggest going with Pref360, which is a free download from Tattiebogle. Thanks gortman (mac recon)!
Update: fixed preposition. For those of you having trouble getting Frets on Fire to run, I would suggest trying out one of the older builds. Version 1.1.324 from back in November is running fine for me on an Intel Mac. Look here and scroll down.
In many of the recent reviews of the Apple TV, the Xbox 360 was often mentioned as a competing Media Extender product. Having recently bought a 360, I thought it would be good to discover the ways in which my two pretty white boxes can work together. In this TUAW Guide to Xbox 360 and the Mac, I'm going to discuss some of both the hardware and software compatibilities between the machines. If you've ever been curious about the Xbox 360 read on, and if you're an old hand my Gamertag is matonmacs, send a friend request my way; maybe we can get a TUAW clan going!
TUAW reader Bryan Hughes writes in to tell us that after many unsuccessful attempts, he was unable to connect wirelessly to his Xbox 360 via the new 802.11n Airport Extreme. Over at a discussion at Apple Tech Support, other users report no problem connecting their Wiis and Playstation 3s to the Airport Extreme network but that the Xbox is another matter.
The Xbox 360 apparently will not recognize any network with security, whether WEP or WPA and Microsoft's tech support apparently is telling customers that Apple routers are not recommended. So would you be willing to entirely disable security on your wireless network to connect to your Xbox? That's apparently one way of making the connection work. Some readers report that turning off security and closing their network (not advertising the SSID) and using MAC address filtering work. You can join the Xbox/Airport Extreme discussion here.
The other day Microsoft announced that you will be able to buy and rent TV shows and movies directly from your XBox 360. The twist is that they are offering the videos in standard def and HD (720p will be the max resolution).
Now, I know you're wondering why I am blogging about this on TUAW. What I'm hoping this will do is force Apple to offer higher res movies and shows on iTunes. I have all this broadband just waiting to transfer HD content!
I don't own an XBox 360, but I hear that it is the best thing to come out of Redmond for a long, long time. Now, if you are a Mac user and an Xbox 360 owner you might be keen to hook up your XBox's controller to your Mac for some Mac gaming fun. Sadly, you have been out of luck in that regard, that is until Colin Munro whipped up some OS X drivers for it. Now you can gleefully kill things on your Mac and not have to get used to another control (it even supports force feed back).
If you're
one of the Crazy Ones who fought their way through hordes of game-addicted line-dwellers at Best Buy to get their hands
on one of those swanky new Xbox 360s, this may interest you: Nullriver -- the same company that brought you Amaryllis and PSPWare -- has developed an app called Connect360 that actually lets you stream music and photos
from your Mac to your Xbox 360. It automatically indexes your media, which you can then access over the network via your
Xbox Dashboard. (But while it does index your iTunes library, I don't think it will play music purchased from the
iTMS.)
You can download a trial of Connect360 from Nullriver's website -- or you could purchase it for a measely $10.
Give it a try and let us know how it works, ok?
Mac users who have wanted to share audio, video, and pictures with their Xbox 360s have had to depend on Connect360 from Nullriver Software. Now, however, there's a new option: Rivet from Cynical Peak Software. Frankly, it does about the same thing as Connect360, running in your menu bar and allowing you to share media to your Xbox 360, though it does add a few convenient features. 
We've posted on 
As the resident 
I'm not sure how closely you're all following E3 (the big gaming convention going on this week in LA), but one of the tidbits of news dropped by some little company named Microsoft last night is Disney movies are now available for 
A while back in our 
This week's 
A while back we 
In many of the recent reviews of the Apple TV, the Xbox 360 was often mentioned as a competing Media Extender product. Having recently bought a 360, I thought it would be good to discover the ways in which my two pretty white boxes can work together. In this TUAW Guide to Xbox 360 and the Mac, I'm going to discuss some of both the hardware and software compatibilities between the machines. If you've ever been curious about the Xbox 360 read on, and if you're an old hand my Gamertag is matonmacs, send a friend request my way; maybe we can get a TUAW clan going!
TUAW reader Bryan Hughes writes in to tell us that after many unsuccessful attempts, he was unable to connect wirelessly to his Xbox 360 via the new 802.11n Airport Extreme. Over at a discussion at 
The other day Microsoft 
I don't own an XBox 360, but I hear that it is the best thing to come out of Redmond for a long, long time. Now, if you are a Mac user and an Xbox 360 owner you might be keen to hook up your XBox's controller to your Mac for some Mac gaming fun. Sadly, you have been out of luck in that regard, that is until Colin Munro whipped up some 
If you're
one of the Crazy Ones who fought their way through hordes of game-addicted line-dwellers at Best Buy to get their hands
on one of those swanky new Xbox 360s, this may interest you: Nullriver -- the same company that brought you 
