Use your Mac with MULTIPLE Monitors, TV's, etc. in full 1080p HD

With the Diamond BVU195 HD USB Display Adapter. I've never seen anything come close to this.

Use your Mac Mini as a DVR for under $100

The Elgato EyeTV One Computer TV Tuner 10020311 plugs into a USB port, and allows you to plug your antenna into it. It's corresponding software lets you watch TV on your Mac and use it like a DVR.

You can actually get pretty much everything online now, so it's not for everybody. But if you want to catch shows on their actual air date/time, can't find that one show you want to watch online, have cable without a DVR, or might prefer using your Mac as a DVR, then EyeTV seems like a very elegant, functional solution.

One nice thing about it is that you can get DVR functionality for basic programming without having to pay for cable. With a Mac Mini and Boxee, Hulu, Plex, and other software, you can get almost anything in an extremely functional, beautiful interface, and with an EyeTV, you get DVR functionality for live TV, and all you've done is paid for hardware you now own. None of this $30-50/mo businesss (think about it - 2 years of even cheap $30/mo. cable is already over $700, and you don't even own any hardware to resell, and you're stuck having to continue paying monthly).

An Alternative to the Time Capsule

If you value beauty, simplicity, convenience, customer care, and power, then the Time Capsule is the way to go.

But if you don't mind (or even enjoy) taking some time to configure your hardware, having advanced setup options available to you, and price, you may want to consider something closer to the following:

For about $400, you can get the Cisco-Linksys WRT610N plus a Western Digital My Book Studio II - 2 TB, which would give you all the basic functions of the Time Capsule as well as the aforementioned missing features.

-CNET

A dollar late and one second short on that prized eBay auction? Never get outbid again. At least, not for lack of putting in your max bid at the last second.

This thing, "Auction Sniper" will automatically put your bid in at the last second. You get some free "snipes" for signing up for free (and I do to if you use my link), but later snipes will cost you a little. Worth it, though, if it wins you auctions and saves you money.

eBay sniping software
to help you win more items.

The Only Free Auction Tools for eBay Sellers

Some Mac-Based Entertainment Center Options I'm Considering

My wife and I have a pretty nice, fairly big, analog TV with nothing but RCA inputs. We like to watch Hulu using the Hulu app on my computer. But since I am doing a lot of contract SEO work lately, I could be working during these times (she clips coupons, so we don't count it as "quality" time necessarily). The problem is getting Hulu onto our TV. In addition to this consideration, we also want my wife's amazing but technologically inept mother to be able to access whatever entertainment upgrades we make, and when we rent our house out for IronMan, we want our renters to be able to use our cool new toys, too. Sometimes bragging about your entertainment center gets you renters secured for the next year faster, or gets you a higher price for your house.

I thought a lot about the old Apple TV + Boxee, but I can't tell if Netflix and Hulu will actually work on Boxee when it's hacked up onto the Apple TV. The new Apple TV is really cool, but content is still too rich for my blood. I want Hulu. And Netflix instant content too if possible. So if I'm going to run content from an Apple product to my TV it needs to be either my MacBook Pro or a Mac Mini (which, the new ones are really sweet and have HDMI outputs built in).

Here are the scenarios I've cooked up to try and get me Hulu on my TV so I can free up my computer to do SEO work while we watch our shows:  

SETUP #1 - The ideal setup for everybody (renters, Mum, Wife, and Me), lots of perks, but expensive.

$199 23” flatscreen (may want to wall mount)

$699 Mac Mini (brand new)

$4.49 HDMI cable

$69 Apple wireless keyboard

$69 Apple wireless trackpad or mouse

=====

$1040.49

SETUP #2 - Same as #1, but an older Mac Mini, sacrificing some performance for savings.

$199 23” flatscreen (may want to wall mount)

$355 Mac Mini (used older model)

$5.23 Mini DVI to HDMI adapter
$4.49 HDMI cable

$69 Apple wireless keyboard

$69 Apple wireless trackpad or mouse

=====

$701.72

SETUP #3 - Just adding an old Mac Mini to our current TV. Still all the functionality, and usable by everybody, but not as elegant, space-saving, or cool. We could add the TV later (effectively upgrading to SETUP #2).

$355 Mac Mini (used older model)

$69 Apple wireless keyboard

$69 Apple wireless trackpad or mouse

=====

$493

SETUP #4 - New TV, but no Mac Mini - just hookups for our laptops. Great for us, and very elegant, but not usable by Margaret or renters. We could add the Mac Mini later (effectively upgrading to SETUP #1 or #2).

$199 23” flatscreen (may want to wall mount)

$7.70 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter

$4.49 HDMI cable

=====

$208.72

SETUP #5 - No new TV or Mac Mini - just hookups for our laptops to our current TV. Gets us Hulu on our TV, but nothing for Margaret or renters, and not guaranteed to work. Cheapest of the options.

$9.51 Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter

$0.66 VGA to RCA adapter

=====

$10.17 There are more expensive converter boxes that are more likely to work, but for their prices ($200+), SETUP #4 is a better deal by far.

With one of the new TV setups, we could potentially sell our old TV to offset the cost. Which makes #4 very attractive, since it does the trick I was initially looking for, is fairly affordable (especially given the chance to sell our current TV), and is fully upgradable to my ideal (#1), should I ever run into more expendable money.

What do you think? Do you have any advice? Do you need any advice? Do you run a Mac-based entertainment center, and if so, what's your rig?

[iPhone TIP: Mobile Mouse Pro does a bang up job at transforming your iPhone into a mouse and keyboard for your Mac, which is just dang cool.]

Orbicule Incognito

Adding to my Safari 5 Extension collection: Orbicule's Incognito, a free extension that prevents your browsing information from being collected by Google and Facebook.