Snow-Predictable

What a couple of days... and hardly any technology.

Before I mention the Snow (which is of course a mandatory requirement when Snow falls in the UK), I wanted to tell you all about the exciting world of Harry Potter, via my experience of the Harry Potter Studio Tour!

I don't want to go on like some Harry Potter obsessed nerd (ah-hem) so I'll just share a few pictures and tell anybody who likes special effects, the film industry and the Harry Potter series to make sure you check this out!

The Potion's Classroom

The Weasley's Kitchen

The Knight Bus

Hogwart's Gates

So... Snow. Yes, it snowed, it snowed a lot. Fortunately I had the day off so didn't have to work out whether the trains would be working etc. But... since most of the residents of my building (of whom I get on with all of them extremely well) were all sent home or weren't working today, we all pitched together to build an igloo! 

View from my window

Using our garden to make an igloo. A team effort

A nice day.

Photo Sharing

Now, on to technology. I tried sharing my photo stream today. I use lots of different methods to share pictures and move them about 'the cloud'. Dropbox, Google Drive, Sky Drive, Facebook. I have an Android phone and iPad so there isn't a one-step tool to do this available.

However, I thought I'd try sharing some photos with a friend via Photo Stream. Seems very easy to share however she wasn't sure what she should then do with the email she received. There is a big button on it but it'd be good to see what it actually does. I can't test it myself as it's my Photo Stream (I tried). -- UPDATE -- Just found out that she's on IOS5... and it's a feature that only works on IOS6. Ah Apple, so close.

A new business idea

Plans to meet two people for another business idea (BIG website idea - bigger than any project I've undertaken thus far) have had to be postponed due to the snow.

Local Web Path

And finally... We officially registered Local Web Path as a limited company this week and it was a really nice moment to receive the official certificates from Companies House. 

Now Streaming: A Mini Christmas

Well... Firstly, this post comes from my new shiny iPad Mini.

So it was a good Christmas... being horrendously ill a few days after aside. 

On the iPad, i've opted for the WiFi only version - for two reasons:

1. It's cheaper
2. I don't want to pay for a second data plan (again, cheaper).

I'm rarely going to need to be browsing the internet on my phone and iPad at the same time. I say rarely but actually I can't think of a single example of when I would need this. It's even more unlikely that I'll need to do this whilst on the move. So... I've gone for the WiFi only option and am using the Portable hotspot feature on my Samsung Galaxy SIII when out and about. I've set it to only allow authorised devices so it's safe and that way I have only one data plan and an iPad that can connect to the internet on the move! Sorted.

I also wanted to be able to take advantage of AirPlay but without spending £99 on an Apple TV. I will admit I am tempted with an Apple TV (maybe a birthday present...) for the full integration of iTunes (specifically the store) and also because it's the only device that supports AirPlay mirroring at the moment...

However, I didn't want to just jump in and buy an Apple TV, so I decided to use Raspberry Pi, which a few weeks ago, I'd setup as a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) Server. 

I've installed Raspbmc, the image which has XBMC pre-installed.

And here's the result:

XBMC running nicely from the Pi.

Remote controlled via the iPad mini...

Run any video app, such as YouTube and select AirPlay

So that's video sorted... but what about playing any Audio that I want to in my living room...

Open Spotify on the iPad (or any audio application) and choose to AirPlay

And voila, My TV is playing my Spotify playlist, via the iPad. This leaves me the ability to use the iPad and is completely wireless. 

Beautiful.