Again...you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you seriously suggesting that being able to simply start Address Book from within iChat is the same thing as having access through your cellphone's SMS capabilities via Bluetooth? You're reaching and you know it.
Apple has blundered here in a number of ways. The new release turns out to have a few extra bells and whistles, but ends up, in many way, being LESS than what Tiger was.
I have one call I'm waiting to make into tech support tomorrow morning and hoping to get 1) a refund for Leopard, or 2) some assurance that these features will make it back into future updates of Leopard. If not, it strikes me as a serious backwards step for Apple.
I mean out of all the features that leopard shipped with, what are the ones that are a deal breaker for you that you need your (wow $130 back)??
There is a work around for the AE Time Machine deal. Are you really that upset over Resolution Ind and ZFS??? What else got dropped that was "so huge" you need your money back?
I've been working in Leopard all day (trying to get my web server back to neat) and all I have to say is I'm floored by all the differences. It's already improving my workflow in enormous ways.
Besides Xcode and IB3 being cool as hell... they seem to be the best IDE package I've worked in. Spaces with Expose is so freaking killer. I love it. I love the interface to death. It's so much easier on my eyes. Meh you can go back to vista / xp for all I care. I'm 100% happy with Leopard (cept for the fact that I'm waiting on Marc Lynage to get his php package ready).
Well, guess I'm glad I haven't bought that 500GB external drive yet!
This sounds like something that will be enabled in a .1 or .2 update. Like someone said above, if there's any feature Apple needs to ship bug-free, it's this one. You can't ship a backup program for the masses if it's not going to work right out of the box.
Off-topic, but where are you finding HD content for your Apple TV?
I make it. I have a Sony FX1 HD Video Camera and FCPro.
Maybe you just have never seen the real HD? You know, the actual 1080p. I would guess for someone who's been watching VHS his/her entire life even iTunes Video would look awesome. But for someone who watches HD-DVD movies in full 1080p resolution every day, 720 just doesn't cut it.
mmmm You think? lol, I am a TV producer. I work exclusively in HD.
I make it. I have a Sony FX1 HD Video Camera and FCPro.
Do you use some fancy deinterlacing? I'm not sure if Final Cut Studio 2 offers it. Last I heard, 1080i footage exports as 540p for AppleTV, so it's basically digital PAL.
Again...you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you seriously suggesting that being able to simply start Address Book from within iChat is the same thing as having access through your cellphone's SMS capabilities via Bluetooth? You're reaching and you know it.
Apple has blundered here in a number of ways. The new release turns out to have a few extra bells and whistles, but ends up, in many way, being LESS than what Tiger was.
I have one call I'm waiting to make into tech support tomorrow morning and hoping to get 1) a refund for Leopard, or 2) some assurance that these features will make it back into future updates of Leopard. If not, it strikes me as a serious backwards step for Apple.
Man, you really have an attitude. I simply offered an obvious answer to your question. I have addressed your original complaints twice. Each time you add more details to your situation but act as though we're supposed to be a mind readers. So, now you are throwing in a cell phone and bluetooth into the mix.
I think you are starting to realize that you had your head up your butt and are trying to weasel out of it. I have no idea what you are actually trying to do because you are keeping it a secret, and at this point I don't really care.
And you can stop repeating petty comments like this too. I mean, it's really stupid thing to throw in your otherwise decent post.
Frankly, I'm sticking with Tiger. Oh, wait, that's not an option in your little retort, isn't it? Either I'm keeping up like Apple tells me to and pay my tithe or I'm only worthy of being a Windows user.
If you're moving your laptop around, like I do with my iBook G4, your updates are gonna be sporadic anyway. If you're not moving the laptop around, why do you have a laptop, and why not plug it in to a drive?
As the original poster said. It's a matter of convenience. We move ours from room to room - great reading material on the throne, etc. Having TM work wirelessly means it just happens without my having to think about it or plug in any wires. For us, although we move the laptops around, they remain within wireless range whether we're out on the deck or downstairs or wherever. The wireless TM connection would be ideal for us. I hope the issue gets resolved soon.
Like so many others have mentioned, too bad Apple wouldn't just make an announcement and end the speculation.
I would buy an external hard drive if Apple enabled wireless backup. It's a little inconvenient for a MacBook Pro user who is always on the go to have to plug in a peripheral. It's already annoying enough to plug in the power adapter, so wireless backup would be ideal.
I would buy an external hard drive if Apple enabled wireless backup. It's a little inconvenient for a MacBook Pro user who is always on the go to have to plug in a peripheral. It's already annoying enough to plug in the power adapter, so wireless backup would be ideal.
I'm in the same position with an MBP (and a Airport Express (n)) -- and once I Time Machined with fire wire the first time, I re-attached the external hard drive to the AE(n) and it's been wirelessly backing away quite happily since them. I'd read that it worked on AI in a few places, and I'm happy it does. Faster to do the first backup that way anyway. No big thang.
So far the upgrade has been like going from one Mercedes to a newer one -- still takes just as long to drive to work, doesn't do anything about the traffic, and even if the new one goes faster than the old one, you rarely get to open her up. But... it's just so much more fun in the new car. Same with Leopard: not much change in how I work (though Spaces has been a help), but it's so darn fun, I can't put it down.
Yes, it has been reported that if you connect the drive to the computer, set it as the backup, then perform the initial backup, then move it to Airport, Time Machine will find it and use it over the wireless network. The key is connecting it initially to the computer.
Cool, I had wondered about this, thanks for verifying.
My initial TM back up from a Dual G5 Tower with a 300 GIG 80% full drive took about 10 hours using FireWire 800, so it isn't fast (I assume some kind of compression is taking place here ?).
I am awaiting my 500 GIG USB2 box arriving from Apple today so i will clone the FireWire Time Machine drive I just made to this and attach to the wireless network and see if this works. If it does I'll move next step...
I assume I will have to then attach the USB2 drive to each MacBook and let each one create its own backup directly and then once all done, returned to Airport hub (802.11n)and see if it will work from them all wirelessly as first intended.
If so, I am one happy camper.
Has anyone tried to boot to a TM backup yet or do we still need to continue the use of Super Duper as a parallel backup strategy for total safety?
I'm in the same position with an MBP (and a Airport Express (n)) -- and once I Time Machined with fire wire the first time, I re-attached the external hard drive to the AE(n) and it's been wirelessly backing away quite happily since them. I'd read that it worked on AI in a few places, and I'm happy it does. Faster to do the first backup that way anyway. No big thang.
So far the upgrade has been like going from one Mercedes to a newer one -- still takes just as long to drive to work, doesn't do anything about the traffic, and even if the new one goes faster than the old one, you rarely get to open her up. But... it's just so much more fun in the new car. Same with Leopard: not much change in how I work (though Spaces has been a help), but it's so darn fun, I can't put it down.
Excellent analogy, plus that new car has sooo many toys fitted standard too lol.
I still can't get over how all my Macs love it even a very old 1.33 GHz /512 RAM iBook G4 that now feels like it just got a new V8 engine and new wheels and go faster stripes, lol.
Having seen this iBook speed up with Leo I wonder, has anyone pushed Leopard below the minimum configuration yet? I have an old G4 877 in a cupboard and I wondered if it might take or has Apple hardwired the cut off level for the install?
Do you use some fancy deinterlacing? I'm not sure if Final Cut Studio 2 offers it. Last I heard, 1080i footage exports as 540p for AppleTV, so it's basically digital PAL.
Yes that is true, the QT auto export for ATV does exactly that from NTSC. PAL seems to have different defaults to NTSC and NTSC ends up 540p where as PAL does go to 720p I think ... but I did find a way around this for NTSC using FCPro, but it escapes me now. I will send details when I remember Jeff.
It is worth noting that many HD TVs are only roughly 720p capable in reality whatever the advertising states, since they are not 1920 x 1080 pixels. Granted if you have a true 1080 TV, be it interlaced or progressive, all the better assuming you can get source material. Having said that a good 720p screen looks pretty darn good fed with ATV exported material that is 720p.
After so many years with $60,000+ Betacam SP cameras and decks limited to 640 x 480 pixels trying to make good quality, I wonder what these so call experts writing off 720p as 'not good' watched for the last 40+ years? lol. Remember the square law ... 720p is 4 x the pixel density of 640 x 360 plus not interlaced! That is a huge increase in detail. 1080 is obviously 9 x the pixel density and is awesome and down the road soon we will see far higher I have no doubt.
Side Bar: Just wait till those SDTV airwaves are available for WiFi ... watch out for a paradigm shift in late 2009! I am hoping Apple are in on this big time...
Time Machine is running a backup wirelessly right now after having backed up with a direct connection yesterday and connecting it to the APE today, as others have observed. The backup started on its as soon as I selected the drive in the Finder. However, it launched into a full backup instead of incremental. This baby's going to run all night and into tomorrow.
Time Machine is running a backup wirelessly right now after having backed up with a direct connection yesterday and connecting it to the APE today, as others have observed. The backup started on its as soon as I selected the drive in the Finder. However, it launched into a full backup instead of incremental. This baby's going to run all night and into tomorrow.
Same thing here. I also wonder if a second laptop can use it or would that require a direct connection first or perhaps even a partition first. Also the fact the full back started means we have a large unused file to get rid of that was initially created by the original connection.
I suspect that we can delete the visible backup file before attaching to the APE ... I will try that tomorrow.
And you can stop repeating petty comments like this too. I mean, it's really stupid thing to throw in your otherwise decent post.
Frankly, I'm sticking with Tiger. Oh, wait, that's not an option in your little retort, isn't it? Either I'm keeping up like Apple tells me to and pay my tithe or I'm only worthy of being a Windows user.
Actually I can say whatever I want.
I don't get the point in sticking with tiger if someone can't give me a good reason? I think it's fair to say that the whinning from that user was more than a Leopard bash and more of an Apple bash.
I am sticking with Tiger, I never said that wasn't an option. I picked up on the trollness from the user and smelled windows on him.
I have leopard on an external drive, because I will be spending the next week or so trying to get php and all of the libraries I need to run on it (gd, cURL, mysql drivers, Mcrypt with blowfish, etc).
I never said there were reasons to not "stick with tiger", but to make a big deal of "returning leopard"... don't you think that is a little extreme?
I just want to say... this Leopard release has been nothing but a troll magnet. There has been so much bashing going on before anyone gives anything a chance. They make up their minds from screenshots and what others have to say. It gets very old after a while, reading complaint after complaint. I suppose I could just stop reading this stuff all together... but that isn't practical. I don't why everyone only talks about the negatives, instead of the positives. There is a reason review sites like CNet (m$ owned) and Arstechnica have given Leopard an 8 out of 10 (8's are very rare from cnet). Leopard is so incredible. I can't believe how much more responsive it is than Tiger. I can't believe how well Spaces works (usability and productivity). So yah, I overreact with silly comments like the above... but damn it gets frustrating when all you read is negative when there is so much positive to write about as well.
Again...you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you seriously suggesting that being able to simply start Address Book from within iChat is the same thing as having access through your cellphone's SMS capabilities via Bluetooth? You're reaching and you know it.
Apple has blundered here in a number of ways. The new release turns out to have a few extra bells and whistles, but ends up, in many way, being LESS than what Tiger was.
I have one call I'm waiting to make into tech support tomorrow morning and hoping to get 1) a refund for Leopard, or 2) some assurance that these features will make it back into future updates of Leopard. If not, it strikes me as a serious backwards step for Apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
Man, you really have an attitude. I simply offered an obvious answer to your question. I have addressed your original complaints twice. Each time you add more details to your situation but act as though we're supposed to be a mind readers. So, now you are throwing in a cell phone and bluetooth into the mix.
I think you are starting to realize that you had your head up your butt and are trying to weasel out of it. I have no idea what you are actually trying to do because you are keeping it a secret, and at this point I don't really care.
Sorry, I now understand what is up with the address book after reading an intelligently written post in another thread. They removed the bluetooth button in address book. It just wasn't clear through all your ranting what actually was going on.
As the other poster pointed out, it may have been remove because so few phones were actually compatible with the feature or maybe because it drew attention to the shortcomings of the iPhone which does not work in that capacity.
Really? Damn I thought Apr 8th 2009 was pretty set.
Nope it looks to be earlier:
Quote:
On February 8th, 2006, President Bush signed into law the "Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005", a section of the "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005." This law mandated a hard shut-off date of February 17, 2009 for the end of all analog (NTSC) TV transmissions in the U.S., thus ending this uncertainty. The act also provided for the auctioning off of the frequencies associated with UHF channels 52 to 69, and set aside $990 million for a voucher program enabling low-income households to purchase converter boxes.
Comments
iChat > Window > Address book
Again...you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you seriously suggesting that being able to simply start Address Book from within iChat is the same thing as having access through your cellphone's SMS capabilities via Bluetooth? You're reaching and you know it.
Apple has blundered here in a number of ways. The new release turns out to have a few extra bells and whistles, but ends up, in many way, being LESS than what Tiger was.
I have one call I'm waiting to make into tech support tomorrow morning and hoping to get 1) a refund for Leopard, or 2) some assurance that these features will make it back into future updates of Leopard. If not, it strikes me as a serious backwards step for Apple.
I mean out of all the features that leopard shipped with, what are the ones that are a deal breaker for you that you need your (wow $130 back)??
There is a work around for the AE Time Machine deal. Are you really that upset over Resolution Ind and ZFS??? What else got dropped that was "so huge" you need your money back?
I've been working in Leopard all day (trying to get my web server back to neat) and all I have to say is I'm floored by all the differences. It's already improving my workflow in enormous ways.
Besides Xcode and IB3 being cool as hell... they seem to be the best IDE package I've worked in. Spaces with Expose is so freaking killer. I love it. I love the interface to death. It's so much easier on my eyes. Meh you can go back to vista / xp for all I care. I'm 100% happy with Leopard (cept for the fact that I'm waiting on Marc Lynage to get his php package ready).
Well, guess I'm glad I haven't bought that 500GB external drive yet!
This sounds like something that will be enabled in a .1 or .2 update. Like someone said above, if there's any feature Apple needs to ship bug-free, it's this one. You can't ship a backup program for the masses if it's not going to work right out of the box.
Off-topic, but where are you finding HD content for your Apple TV?
I make it. I have a Sony FX1 HD Video Camera and FCPro.
Maybe you just have never seen the real HD? You know, the actual 1080p. I would guess for someone who's been watching VHS his/her entire life even iTunes Video would look awesome. But for someone who watches HD-DVD movies in full 1080p resolution every day, 720 just doesn't cut it.
mmmm You think? lol, I am a TV producer. I work exclusively in HD.
I make it. I have a Sony FX1 HD Video Camera and FCPro.
Do you use some fancy deinterlacing? I'm not sure if Final Cut Studio 2 offers it. Last I heard, 1080i footage exports as 540p for AppleTV, so it's basically digital PAL.
Again...you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you seriously suggesting that being able to simply start Address Book from within iChat is the same thing as having access through your cellphone's SMS capabilities via Bluetooth? You're reaching and you know it.
Apple has blundered here in a number of ways. The new release turns out to have a few extra bells and whistles, but ends up, in many way, being LESS than what Tiger was.
I have one call I'm waiting to make into tech support tomorrow morning and hoping to get 1) a refund for Leopard, or 2) some assurance that these features will make it back into future updates of Leopard. If not, it strikes me as a serious backwards step for Apple.
Man, you really have an attitude. I simply offered an obvious answer to your question. I have addressed your original complaints twice. Each time you add more details to your situation but act as though we're supposed to be a mind readers. So, now you are throwing in a cell phone and bluetooth into the mix.
I think you are starting to realize that you had your head up your butt and are trying to weasel out of it. I have no idea what you are actually trying to do because you are keeping it a secret, and at this point I don't really care.
Meh you can go back to vista / xp for all I care.
And you can stop repeating petty comments like this too. I mean, it's really stupid thing to throw in your otherwise decent post.
Frankly, I'm sticking with Tiger. Oh, wait, that's not an option in your little retort, isn't it? Either I'm keeping up like Apple tells me to and pay my tithe or I'm only worthy of being a Windows user.
If you're moving your laptop around, like I do with my iBook G4, your updates are gonna be sporadic anyway. If you're not moving the laptop around, why do you have a laptop, and why not plug it in to a drive?
As the original poster said. It's a matter of convenience. We move ours from room to room - great reading material on the throne, etc. Having TM work wirelessly means it just happens without my having to think about it or plug in any wires. For us, although we move the laptops around, they remain within wireless range whether we're out on the deck or downstairs or wherever. The wireless TM connection would be ideal for us. I hope the issue gets resolved soon.
Like so many others have mentioned, too bad Apple wouldn't just make an announcement and end the speculation.
I would buy an external hard drive if Apple enabled wireless backup. It's a little inconvenient for a MacBook Pro user who is always on the go to have to plug in a peripheral. It's already annoying enough to plug in the power adapter, so wireless backup would be ideal.
I'm in the same position with an MBP (and a Airport Express (n)) -- and once I Time Machined with fire wire the first time, I re-attached the external hard drive to the AE(n) and it's been wirelessly backing away quite happily since them. I'd read that it worked on AI in a few places, and I'm happy it does. Faster to do the first backup that way anyway. No big thang.
So far the upgrade has been like going from one Mercedes to a newer one -- still takes just as long to drive to work, doesn't do anything about the traffic, and even if the new one goes faster than the old one, you rarely get to open her up. But... it's just so much more fun in the new car. Same with Leopard: not much change in how I work (though Spaces has been a help), but it's so darn fun, I can't put it down.
Yes, it has been reported that if you connect the drive to the computer, set it as the backup, then perform the initial backup, then move it to Airport, Time Machine will find it and use it over the wireless network. The key is connecting it initially to the computer.
Cool, I had wondered about this, thanks for verifying.
My initial TM back up from a Dual G5 Tower with a 300 GIG 80% full drive took about 10 hours using FireWire 800, so it isn't fast (I assume some kind of compression is taking place here ?).
I am awaiting my 500 GIG USB2 box arriving from Apple today so i will clone the FireWire Time Machine drive I just made to this and attach to the wireless network and see if this works. If it does I'll move next step...
I assume I will have to then attach the USB2 drive to each MacBook and let each one create its own backup directly and then once all done, returned to Airport hub (802.11n)and see if it will work from them all wirelessly as first intended.
If so, I am one happy camper.
Has anyone tried to boot to a TM backup yet or do we still need to continue the use of Super Duper as a parallel backup strategy for total safety?
I'm in the same position with an MBP (and a Airport Express (n)) -- and once I Time Machined with fire wire the first time, I re-attached the external hard drive to the AE(n) and it's been wirelessly backing away quite happily since them. I'd read that it worked on AI in a few places, and I'm happy it does. Faster to do the first backup that way anyway. No big thang.
So far the upgrade has been like going from one Mercedes to a newer one -- still takes just as long to drive to work, doesn't do anything about the traffic, and even if the new one goes faster than the old one, you rarely get to open her up. But... it's just so much more fun in the new car. Same with Leopard: not much change in how I work (though Spaces has been a help), but it's so darn fun, I can't put it down.
Excellent analogy, plus that new car has sooo many toys fitted standard too lol.
I still can't get over how all my Macs love it even a very old 1.33 GHz /512 RAM iBook G4 that now feels like it just got a new V8 engine and new wheels and go faster stripes, lol.
Having seen this iBook speed up with Leo I wonder, has anyone pushed Leopard below the minimum configuration yet? I have an old G4 877 in a cupboard and I wondered if it might take or has Apple hardwired the cut off level for the install?
Do you use some fancy deinterlacing? I'm not sure if Final Cut Studio 2 offers it. Last I heard, 1080i footage exports as 540p for AppleTV, so it's basically digital PAL.
Yes that is true, the QT auto export for ATV does exactly that from NTSC. PAL seems to have different defaults to NTSC and NTSC ends up 540p where as PAL does go to 720p I think ... but I did find a way around this for NTSC using FCPro, but it escapes me now. I will send details when I remember Jeff.
It is worth noting that many HD TVs are only roughly 720p capable in reality whatever the advertising states, since they are not 1920 x 1080 pixels. Granted if you have a true 1080 TV, be it interlaced or progressive, all the better assuming you can get source material. Having said that a good 720p screen looks pretty darn good fed with ATV exported material that is 720p.
After so many years with $60,000+ Betacam SP cameras and decks limited to 640 x 480 pixels trying to make good quality, I wonder what these so call experts writing off 720p as 'not good' watched for the last 40+ years? lol. Remember the square law ... 720p is 4 x the pixel density of 640 x 360 plus not interlaced! That is a huge increase in detail. 1080 is obviously 9 x the pixel density and is awesome and down the road soon we will see far higher I have no doubt.
Side Bar: Just wait till those SDTV airwaves are available for WiFi ... watch out for a paradigm shift in late 2009! I am hoping Apple are in on this big time...
Time Machine is running a backup wirelessly right now after having backed up with a direct connection yesterday and connecting it to the APE today, as others have observed. The backup started on its as soon as I selected the drive in the Finder. However, it launched into a full backup instead of incremental. This baby's going to run all night and into tomorrow.
Same thing here. I also wonder if a second laptop can use it or would that require a direct connection first or perhaps even a partition first. Also the fact the full back started means we have a large unused file to get rid of that was initially created by the original connection.
I suspect that we can delete the visible backup file before attaching to the APE ... I will try that tomorrow.
And you can stop repeating petty comments like this too. I mean, it's really stupid thing to throw in your otherwise decent post.
Frankly, I'm sticking with Tiger. Oh, wait, that's not an option in your little retort, isn't it? Either I'm keeping up like Apple tells me to and pay my tithe or I'm only worthy of being a Windows user.
Actually I can say whatever I want.
I don't get the point in sticking with tiger if someone can't give me a good reason? I think it's fair to say that the whinning from that user was more than a Leopard bash and more of an Apple bash.
I am sticking with Tiger, I never said that wasn't an option. I picked up on the trollness from the user and smelled windows on him.
I have leopard on an external drive, because I will be spending the next week or so trying to get php and all of the libraries I need to run on it (gd, cURL, mysql drivers, Mcrypt with blowfish, etc).
I never said there were reasons to not "stick with tiger", but to make a big deal of "returning leopard"... don't you think that is a little extreme?
Actually I can say whatever I want.
Of course, anyone can. But anyone can call on you for it too.
I don't get the point in sticking with tiger if someone can't give me a good reason?
I didn't see where that even came up.
I didn't see where that even came up.
Where i asked him to give me reasons why...
Edit:
I just want to say... this Leopard release has been nothing but a troll magnet. There has been so much bashing going on before anyone gives anything a chance. They make up their minds from screenshots and what others have to say. It gets very old after a while, reading complaint after complaint. I suppose I could just stop reading this stuff all together... but that isn't practical. I don't why everyone only talks about the negatives, instead of the positives. There is a reason review sites like CNet (m$ owned) and Arstechnica have given Leopard an 8 out of 10 (8's are very rare from cnet). Leopard is so incredible. I can't believe how much more responsive it is than Tiger. I can't believe how well Spaces works (usability and productivity). So yah, I overreact with silly comments like the above... but damn it gets frustrating when all you read is negative when there is so much positive to write about as well.
Originally Posted by lesnewsom
Again...you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you seriously suggesting that being able to simply start Address Book from within iChat is the same thing as having access through your cellphone's SMS capabilities via Bluetooth? You're reaching and you know it.
Apple has blundered here in a number of ways. The new release turns out to have a few extra bells and whistles, but ends up, in many way, being LESS than what Tiger was.
I have one call I'm waiting to make into tech support tomorrow morning and hoping to get 1) a refund for Leopard, or 2) some assurance that these features will make it back into future updates of Leopard. If not, it strikes me as a serious backwards step for Apple.
Man, you really have an attitude. I simply offered an obvious answer to your question. I have addressed your original complaints twice. Each time you add more details to your situation but act as though we're supposed to be a mind readers. So, now you are throwing in a cell phone and bluetooth into the mix.
I think you are starting to realize that you had your head up your butt and are trying to weasel out of it. I have no idea what you are actually trying to do because you are keeping it a secret, and at this point I don't really care.
Sorry, I now understand what is up with the address book after reading an intelligently written post in another thread. They removed the bluetooth button in address book. It just wasn't clear through all your ranting what actually was going on.
As the other poster pointed out, it may have been remove because so few phones were actually compatible with the feature or maybe because it drew attention to the shortcomings of the iPhone which does not work in that capacity.
m
Really? Damn I thought Apr 8th 2009 was pretty set.
Nope it looks to be earlier:
On February 8th, 2006, President Bush signed into law the "Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005", a section of the "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005." This law mandated a hard shut-off date of February 17, 2009 for the end of all analog (NTSC) TV transmissions in the U.S., thus ending this uncertainty. The act also provided for the auctioning off of the frequencies associated with UHF channels 52 to 69, and set aside $990 million for a voucher program enabling low-income households to purchase converter boxes.