Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba got a chance to play with Apple’s newest toy, and discovered that it’s not quite as off-limits to us old-timers as Apple might have suggested! This is the unusual situation where a new product claims a certain limitation but is actually quite more forgiving. Paul discovered that Apple TV actually comes with a “480i” option that makes it suitable (or at least plausible) for some modern-ish TVs that are not quite ready for HDTV, but at least still have “component” input.

I have to admit there’s a big time rift in my technology adoption. Computers? Yes please. Televisions? Umm… when it really matters, maybe. I don’t upgrade my television, as a rule. In fact I have always, over the course of my life, been happy with “whatever television” was around. Right now it’s a 19″ TV that takes coaxial input or “RCA” style AV. It won’t even accept the component video that Paul is excited about. Oh well, I’m an old-timer.

But it’s good news for semi-old-timers who were hoping to use the Apple TV but thought they would be excluded. If you’ve sort of kept up with TV trends, then the Apple TV might be within your reach, even before you upgrade to the latest and greatest. If your TV has “component” inputs, then you could be in luck. If you haven’t, well… welcome to my world.

The folks at Macinstruct have put together a really nice tutorial:

How To Blog Using MarsEdit

Really nice work! I’m looking forward to seeing what other content they come out with in the coming weeks.

Today I’m pleased to announce the immediate availability of Black Ink 1.0. Read more in the Press Release.

Hopefully the icon makes it pretty obvious that this is an application for solving crossword puzzles. In fact, Black Ink is the successor to the most popular crossword solving application on Mac OS X: MacXword, formerly available from Advenio, LLC.

MacXword was the first AcrossLite-compatible client on Mac OS X, and has evolved over the years into the most feature-filled and elegant product in the category. When I acquired the product from original author Stephan Cleaves two months ago, I did so with two goals in mind:

1. Stay the best.
2. Get even better.

Black Ink is everything that MacXword was, and more:

• Fully compatible with Intel-based Macs.
• Ported from Java to Objective-C and fine-tuned for performance.
• Streamlined UI emphasises finding and solving puzzles.

The best part about this acquisition is that I love, and always have loved crossword puzzles. I’ve even gone so far as to try my hand at composing them. I’ve let my passion for puzzles diminish a little bit over the years, but Black Ink makes it so easy to download and solve puzzles, I’m finding it the perfect antidote to my stress-filled days.

If you love crosswords, and you have a Mac, you need to check out Black Ink.

If you love crosswords and you don’t have a Mac, maybe it’s finally time to change that.

PS: Yes, this is the “java app!“

Update: Stephan Cleaves offers a good historical perspective on MacXword, and how it ended up becoming Black Ink.

Wow! What a thrill to be listening to one of my favorite podcasts, MacBreak Weekly, and suddenly Leo Laporte is uttering my name, and expressing his satisfaction about my acquisition of MarsEdit.

And then I think I was so excited that I started hallucinating, because it almost sounded like Merlin Mann chimed in about FlexTime, and lo, there was a great praising. And everybody was happy. Especially me.

Listen to Episode 33: The Stay-At-Homers, and be sure to perk your ears up around 1:18:00 (that’s 1 hour, 18 minutes in).

My favorite quote is from Leo Laporte about FlexTime, “You know, I have FlexTime and I’m trying to think of what to do with it.” Yeah, the story of that app’s life. Reminds me of John Gruber’s initial reaction. Suffice to say, once you figure out what the heck to use FlexTime for, it will become indispensable :)

Thanks, Leo & Merlin!