Outline Notes for Accessing Plex Media Server from an Apple TV 3 (no jailbreak)

I want to be able to access a Plex Media Server from my Apple TV 3, but I don't want to jailbreak the Apple TV.  The media files sit on a USB drive connected to my WiFi router (so not on the media server PC).

Here is how - no fancy stuff as I've just included all the links I had to find in order to get this going...:

1. Standard Apple TV 3 with latest firmware (6.*)
2. PC running Ubuntu desktop 12.0.4
3. Install Plex Media Server on the Ubuntu desktop PC

4. Install Plex Connect on the Ubuntu desktop PC
https://github.com/iBaa/PlexConnect/wiki
https://github.com/iBaa/PlexConnect/wiki/Install-Guide-Mac-Certificates

...and run it as a cron a reboot as root
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1610270

5. Modify the Apple TV 3 settings to access DNS from the Ubuntu PC and not from the standard DNS

6. Access Plex Media Server from the Trailers menu on the Apple TV 3

7. Link the USB drive to a media share on the Ubuntu Dekstop
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MountWindowsSharesPermanently

... and fix a common fault with the Add Section button not responding...
http://www.ipaste.eu/view.php?id=2455
http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_Tips_and_Tricks#Recovering_broken_System.2FFramework.bundle_files
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2026372

Getting the Best from Rural 3G Broadband in Ireland

I live in an area where there is no Cable and the copper phone cable is too poor to support ADSL.  Therefore, my internet access options are limited to Dial-Up, ISDN, Satellite, Wide Area WiFi or 3G.

My preference is for 3G as it give me more flexibility (I can take it with me).

Hardware Selection

Having made my connection choice, how do I know I am getting the best out the potential service.  Well, I know from my mobile phone signal strength meter that I am a fair distance from the nearest mast, so I decided to make sure I had some decent gear to receive 3G data.

Here is my hardware:

3G WiFi Router

Option Globesurfer III+

£178.80

http://www.3grouterstore.co.uk/3G/Globesurfer_III_plus.html

Directional 3G Antenna

Panorama High Gain Multiband Directional Antenna  (can be externally wall or internally desktop mounted)

WM11-DEP3G-5-MCPL

£81.70 + Delivery

http://www.panorama-antennas.com/shop/

Alternative Antenna

GXD1201 Flat Panel Directional GSM and 3G 

£66.00

http://www.globesurfer.co.uk/globesurfer/3G_Antennas.html

The Globesurfer III+ has an 'MC' external antenna connector.  It is very delicate, so use minimal force to connect the antenna cable to the router.  Also, call the antenna supplier to make sure any adaptor is included as some antennae come with SMA connectors, so you may need a short adapter cable (about £18).

3G ISP Choice

From my mobile phone, I can tell which mobile operator gives me the best 3G data signal.  Note, that not all GSM masts carry both voice and 3G data, so you may be in an area where voice is best with one mobile operator and data is better with another.

In my case, O2 seem to be the best for voice and Vodafone is the best for data.  Unusual I know, but practical experience showed this.

So, I opted for a 10GB 3G SIM from Vodafone Ireland.  At the time, it costs 15 Euro per month (it seems to be going up to 20 Euro for the same).

Antenna Setup

The advantage of using this hardware is that I can place the WiFi router in a good location for WiFi distribution around my house and still place the antenna in the best place for 3G data signals.  So, I placed the WiFi router with Vodafone SIM in my attic.  Before setting up the antenna, I set up the router to use '3G only' as sometimes the router will decide to drop to GPRS if it thinks the 3G signal is poor.

So, the antenna is directional, so how do I find out where to place it…..

Step 1: Find your local 3G mast

I went to this web site from Ireland's communications regulator and zoomed into my location:

http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/siteviewer.273.LE.asp

From this I could see that there are a few masts within 3km of my house and in direct line of sight.  When I clicked on the mast icons, I could see the provider and the data capability.  This confirmed my experience as an O2 mast was closest, but had no 3G whilst a Vodafone mast was a bit further away with both voice and 3G.

So, I obtained the co-ordinates of the location of the Vodafone 3G capable mast:

ID: WW0xx
XCoord: 3xx452.0
YCoord: 2xx521.0
Operator: Vodafone
GSM: Y
3G: Y

'xx' is used for privacy!  You will of course get numeric values.

I then converted to these values to standard Lat/Lon co-ordinates for the next step using this site:

http://www.fieldenmaps.info/cconv/cconv_ie.html

Here, enter the X and Y co-ordinates above in the 'Irish Grid' section, 'Full Coordinates' and click convert.  This gave me:

OS Ireland 65

Used as graticule markings
on OS maps of Ireland
Not GPS-compatible

	Degrees
Lat		N
Lon		W

'x' is used for privacy!  You will of course get numeric values.

Step 2: Get the bearing from my home to the mast

I picked the best location to place the directional antenna on the outside of the house.  This was as high as I could and clear of any trees.  I then used this site to obtain the Lat/Lon of my directional antenna:

http://www.gorissen.info/Pierre/maps/googleMapLocation.php

And then, the following site to calculate the bearing from my antenna to the 3G mast:

http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html

I obtained the result of 33 degrees.

Step 3: Point the antenna to the 3G mast

I mounted the antenna and adjusted the flat face to the 33 degree required (using a compass app on my Android phone).

After rebooting the router, the 3G signal was picked up (you may need to set the SIM PIN).

Result:

I generally obtain a 10x boost in data rates and a near 100% connection to the 3G mast compared to when I had no antenna.

My Current Top 10 Droid Apps

10. 1Password
Perfect for securely storing your passwords and credit cards for convenient access. Syncs from desktop version using Dropbox.
Free but needs a paid for desktop app.

9. QR Droid
Best QR barcode scanner with handy addons for product look ups, etc.
Free.

8. Flashlight
Turns the phone into a powerful torch with colour and flashing options. Great standby app.
Free.

7. Twitter
We all tweet right? I like the simple app from Twitter themselves.
Free.

6. Luas Times
Living in Dublin and as a Luas user, I use this twice a day to plan the time I need to get to the station.
Free.

5. GPS Essentials
Love the non navigation modes of this app such as the Head Up Display and the Dashboard.
Free.

4. Chrome Browser
I am a new user of this Beta App, but I love the navigation and pre-load speed.
Free.

3. NFC TagInfo
The best app for discovering RFID cards, types and open data. Great app from one of the greats in RFID!
Free.

2. Sygic Route Planner
Brilliant off line route planner with maps for most countries. Very detailed, fast and saves a fortune when roaming.
Paid App.

1. TouchDown
Email client, so I use it every hour of the day. I think it is the best, especially for Exchange server connections.
Paid App.

Homebrew NFC Test Probe

If you ever need a NFC / RFID test probe for your hardware and software development, here is a neat idea I picked up from the guys at Ingenico, Paris.

The idea is that you are testing your RFID control software on a terminal or a phone and you are not sure if the sensor is really active.  Make this little gadget and it will tell you if the sensor is broadcasting an RFID signal.

* Note it is intended to be used for 13MHz RFID (Mifare or similar card types).

1.  Take some thin, insulated wire

2.  Create a loop of the wire around your fingers with 4 turns (for Mifare, use 4)

3.  Bend or solder the wire ends to the pins of an LED - you don't need a resistor, just the LED

4.  Form into a nice rectangle, about the size of a VISA card

There you go.  If you bring the gadget within range of an RFID signal, the LED will light up and show the antenna is broadcasting.

It works equally well with your NFC phone too, allowing you to check if it is broadcasting an RFID signal.

Here are some photos of it in use...you can just about see the LED lit up...

The basic tool - 4 turns of cable and an LED - no light

In Use with an Ingenico iCT250 terminal - lit up

In Use with a ViVOtech VP5000 Reader

In Use with a Google Nexus S Phone

 

Handy little tool for your pocket!

Creating your Own Android Gingerbread ROM

I've recently been coding away at the Android Gingerbread Kernel, mainly to activate some of the unsupported features of the Near Field Communications Chip on the Nexus S phone.

Here are some links I'd like to share on how you can create your own custom kernel! I did this on a Macbook and it is certainly easier on a Linux based machine like OSX or Ubuntu. You can always create a Linux VM on your Windows machine if needed.

1.Root Your Handset
Rooting you handset will give you 'superuser' access to the phone's features, so well worth doing. Previously, to root your phone meant loosing all data on it. This is now not needed, so here are some links to how this can be done.

** Take a Full Backup First as non of us can guarantee this always works! **

Get the Clockwork Recovery tool from this URL and save it on your computer:
http://koush.tandtgaming.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-3.0.0.5-crespo.img

Get the superuser tool from here too and place it on your phone's SD card:
http://bit.ly/su2361ef

Boot your phone into recovery mode by powering it off, then hold down the volume up button and the power key together until the phone boots up.

Use the Android SDK fastboot tool from your computer to put the phone into clockwork recovery mode:
fastboot boot recovery-clockwork-3.0.0.5-crespo.img

e. On the phone:

i. Select 'Install ZIP from sdcard' using the power button to apply the selection
ii. Select 'Choose zip from sdcard', again using the power button to apply
iii. Select 'su-version#-signed.zip' file you downloaded earlier, and apply it
iv. Select 'Yes - install su-version#-signed.zip'
v. Confirm the screen shows "Install from sdcard complete" and Select go back
vi. Select reboot

2. Download the Kernel Code and Edit, build and Flash

a. Get the Android SDK from Google from this link and install:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

If you don't already have Eclipse IDE and XCode, get them too as they will be useful for your Apps development and Java RTE. You can get an Apple Dev Account for free for XCode. Follow the Android SDK instructions to set up a partition to work in.

b. I had an issue with elf.h.  It seems to be missing and needed for the builds, so get a copy from here to compile on a Mac, saving the file to the scripts/mod folder and edit references to to be "elf.h":
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/9006?getfile=16683

c. Look no further than this posting.  It says it all:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/samsung-nexus-s-rooting-roms-hacks/48675-how-compile-nexus-s-kernel-source.html

I would recommend not doing a flash ROM until you are sure on your build.

It is quite satisfying to do this and see the Kernel ID with your name on it on the handset.

Good Luck!

Cloud Based NFC Services

Forum Based Approaches
The NFC Forum is a group of organisations and individuals who are involved in Near Field Communications services.  Traditionally, their members were from SIM Card vendors, banks, mobile phone companies and NFC hardware vendors.

So, on the whole you would expect them to promote NFC using these building blocks.

NFC for years promised to be the next big thing and for years it disappointed, mainly due to the lack of handsets, which meant no customer adoption, which meant no retailer support.

Any company operating outside the restrictions of SIM/Smart card based services (mobile operators, banks and hardware suppliers) has found the lack of handsets to limit the services they can give.

No retailer is going to support a service which is only available to a limited number of its customers.

The Cloud is your Platform
So, many of these NFC service providers, such as ZAPA and PayPal, have moved towards Cloud Based NFC instead of the established NFC Forum view of NFC.

In Cloud Based NFC, the handset and the point of sale merely become on-line devices, accessing cloud based services for balances, coupons, payment, etc.  The handset memory just becomes a means to store a simple customer specific identification (i.e. a mobile PAN number). 

The point of sale can capture the mobile PAN in a simple RFID exchange and from there on, it accesses the same cloud services to perform transactions such as loyalty, pre-pay, couponing, etc.  If the customer looses their phone or RFID device, no problem.  Just reassign your cloud account to a new device and move on.

NFC Forum Methods
The standard NFC Forum view would be that these balances and coupons are stored locally on the handset in a secure memory area.  But, when some of your key members supply SIM and Smary Cards, then of course you are going to promote this type of solution.

A by-product of this is that once a SIM card is the secure memory element in an NFC solution, then you need secure protocols to access it over the air, which just so happens to be based on the same Global Platform standards that the same SIM companies use for mobile SIM cards and payment card Smart Card chips.  It is all a bit....close.

Stick to the Cloud!
So, even though NFC enabled handsets are not appearing in volume on the high street, why don't we all just stay with the Cloud NFC model?

Point of Sale systems and handsets are now on-line systems, so let's not ignore this.  Let's use these channels as a means to expand on cloud based services and release retailers and consumers from the restrictions of SIM based NFC.

Google dropping Barcodes for NFC?

News on the boards is that Google are dropping support for barcodes from their retail and location services (e.g. Places).  Interesting stuff and that would hint that they favour the use of NFC, this being their other big focus on identification in the real world.  This is as a result of field trials in local retail deployments in the US.

This news kind of plays into the hands of those of us involved in NFC deployments, where there is a constant reference to QR codes and 1D barcodes as a 'universal' solution for customer identification.

Of course, the truth is that there is no universal solution for using a mobile phone as an identification device as there is such a large legacy of older handsets with neither have screens that can support a barcode display, nor have the chips that are needed for NFC.

So, where is Google going on this in the short term?

Options include the use of RFID Stickers, which emulate the NFC experience through the same radio link from an ID card to the point of sale.  These can be attached to any handset and mimic the same 'tap' action by the customer and so can be seen as an aid to transition people from today to the eutopia of universal NFC enabled handsets....

Others include 'bump' technology, with a cloud server linking your phone's physical bump to a similar sensor on the point of sale - OK if your phone has an accelerometer, but then we are back to the whole smart phone scenario, so it is not mass market.

My personal view (which is skewed by the business I am in of course!) is that Google will go for the NFC/RFID option as in time this is the technology that all point of sale PIN Pads will support.  You cannot ask a retailer to put in hardware that only supports a minority of their customers, so by deploying PIN Pads and readers that support both normal payment cards (Chip & PIN and Magnetic Strip) as well as NFC Phones and RFID Stickers, the merchant can be sure that they will get a return on investment, especially if they use the RFID for non payment services today, such as loyalty and couponing across their customer base.

This approach also fits in well with their Android platform, who's recent 2.3.3 release had NFC API support as it's headline addition.  Handsets such as the Nexus S, Galaxy S II and the Wave are all smart and desirable handsets, with an increasing number of social and commercial applications appearing on the Market.

Let's hope Google share this technology and provide a means for third parties to access the keys that enable these phones to join the growing number of services out there.