Should You Upgrade to Vista?

Not sure if you should upgrade? Follow this easy to use decision tree to decide.

Zune Executive Leaving

Bryan Lee, responsible for the Zune launch and helped shape the very popular Xbox game console market is leaving Microsoft to "pursue personal interests". Yep. Corporate speak for "you screwed up, good luck".

Everywhere Was a Song and a Celebration

Stereogum recently featured a nifty little app for iTunes. iConcertCal (terrible name) scans your iTunes library and creates a calendar of all the bands coming soon to your city. Great idea.

You can download it for Mac or Windows. Stereogum readers seem to like it.

Warning - It seems to be very unstable, especially with large libraries.

Original source

Apple To Be $700K Poorer

Apple has lost its attempt to suppress the rumor sites. In a definitive ruling, Apple must pay AppleInsider and PowerPage a total of $700,000 dollars for legal fees and more. Apple filed suit in 2005 for breaking trade secret laws related to an unreleased music product called "Asteroid".

A similar lawsuit agains ThinkSecret is still pending.

802.11n Now Available

If you have a MacBook, MacBook Pro or iMac with a Core 2 Duo processor, you can now download the updater for a mere $1.99. What is the new 802.11n wireless standard? Faster and wider wireless networking. How many networks support it right now? Very very very few.

These Macs have the 802.11n hardware built-in:

• MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo


• MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo


• Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme option


• iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except the 17-inch, 1.83GHz iMac)

Shuffle and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Apple's iPod Shuffle now comes in 4 new spiffy colors like its older sibling the nano. Spiffy indeed.

But wait? No black or red? Bummer.

Still $79!

*Update: the new iPods come with the new (slightly) better earbuds. If you want the silver, be sure to pick one up with gray print on the box. Silver Shuffles with green print come with the old-school earbuds.

Tip: Find Unused Radio Channels

This is pretty cool. If you listen in the car to your iPod via an FM transmitter, you'll find the Radio Locator site very useful. Just plug in a zip code and it will help you find unused frequencies, and even tell you which ones are best. Very handy.

Recognize The Mac Icon?

Recognize this person? She's Ellen Feiss. Remember Ellen Feiss? She was the famous "stoned" switcher from Apple's 2002 ad campaign. Well, she's 19 now (and a cutie!) and recently had a role in a independent film. And MacEnstein.com recently interviewed her. Seems to be a very down-to-earth and well-adjusted individual. And you'll find out if she was really high during the filming.

(via TUAW)

Vista

In Case You Weren't Convinced

:-)

What Would Be Cooler Than Cool?

I'm sure there's not much to this, but what would be cooler than the Beatles on iTunes? How about a Beatles Widescreen, Touchscreen iPod?

Just Say No!

South Korea advises users to not upgrade to Vista as it is incompatible with many popular South Korean web sites. I've got a lot of other reasons why your money and effort are better spent elsewhere, but if this works, more power to 'em.

nexTune 2.0

I could have sworn I've blogged about this before, but I couldn't find anything in the archive. NexTune is a new free jukebox program that lets you play all kinds of audio including DRM protected iTunes and WMA files. Now Apple doesn't license their DRM, so I'm not sure how they're doing it, but regardless, it's not a very good program. Apparently there's some sort of consumer-generated, playlist sharing something-or-other. Or it's a music store. Or a music auction site. I can't really tell by the web site exactly why you'd want to download this. But I figured what the heck - I'll give it a go. I do this out of the kindness of my heart, so you don't have to.

Truth is, the software is extremely clunky, hogs processing power like you wouldn't believe, and plays DRM files with cracks and pops. So I'd avoid it like that plague. Well, it's not THAT bad, but it's not very good.

iWitch

All You Need Is Love

Yep, that Hallmark Holiday is right around the corner and if you're looking for something special and actually a little bit different (despite 22 million of them being sold last quarter), get your significant other a Red {PRODUCT} iPod or tons of other great gifts. The red iPod nano is only available through Apple directly, so it's probably the rarest out there, and the color just fits right it...

I'd Vote For Him

Jobs for president in '08. Despite his political leanings (Al Gore is on the board of Apple), he's still better than the current choices right now...

Wii Transfer 2.0

I'm pretty sure 2Poppy will find this interesting with his fancy new Wii and all...

Wii Transfer 2.0 enables you to share MP3 music and pictures to your Wii over your local network, convert movies for playing in Wii's Photo Channel, copy movies to an SD card, browse and convert iTunes video podcasts and even backup saved game files to your Mac automatically.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Just seeing the covers brings back fond memories of 5th grade. The Choose Your Own Adventure series of books are becoming available as an iPod ebook, utilizing the notes feature. You can download the The Abominable Snowman for free!

You've Got To Be Freakin' Kidding Me

Um, believe it.

Anti-Squirt

Here's another stellar Zune discovery courtesy of Boing Boing:

Some labels have told Microsoft that it's not allowed to enable "squirting" for their tracks when sold through the Zune store. Squirting is Zune's much-touted ability to send your friends DRM-crippled tracks that can be played three times (or saved for three days) before they're erased. Microsoft won't tell you whether or not a track you're about to buy is extra-crippled -- nice deal.

Unbelievable. Actually, it's quite believable. I wish I had money like Microsoft to burn inexplicably on something like the Zune. And it looks like they have another stinker with Vista. Go in for the kill, Apple!

New Apple Products

Check out new products Apple definitely probably has in development.

Stars on 45

These are by far the coolest iPod cases I've ever seen! 45 iPod Cases sells iPod cases made of ... 45s -- vinyl 45s that is. I'm bummed that Mind Games is sold out, but there are still some other wicked cool ones! $45 is a bit harsh, but I suppose it makes sense.

via DoCopenhagen

I Told a Girl That My Prospects Were Good

From too poppy:

Could there be any more rabid fan bases than Apple's and Apple's? The rumors are getting hot! Steve Jobs hinted at an imminent Beatles deal this month when they popped up on his iPhone during his Macworld keynote. Despite no "oh, and just one more thing" Beatles-on-iTunes announcement, many are speculating that it's going to happen soon, maybe as early as Valentine's Day (a handy holiday given the Beatles' most recent release).

Stereogum sums it up.

This would also be an excellent time to release all new remastered versions of the albums, plus maybe individually sell the American releases as well. Ahh, the potential!

Unsubscribe Today

Okay - you may not think this is appropriate for this forum, and you're probably right, but I believe strongly that wrongs here need to be corrected. Consumer Reports - which is supposedly "objective" in their product reviews - basically flat-out lied about their child safety seat tests. Read this article for some of the details. I used to subscribe to Consumer Reports but stopped several years ago because of their obvious bias on certain issues and their nearly useless reviews. Most of their product reviews are woefully out-of-date and flat-out inaccurate. If you want to know what products are like in the real world, listen to your fellow consumers via product review sites like PriceGrabber.com, Amazon.com and so forth. "Expert" opinions are rarely unbiased with at least one exception being Atlanta's own Clark Howard. Don't buy any product until you've heard how other "real people" who have that product have experienced it.

Consumer Reports Propaganda Press Release.

Andy's iPhone Experience

Andy Ihnatko had the opportunity to spend 45 minutes with the iPhone after Macworld and calls it "perfect".

This thing continues to live up to expectations and beyond. In other iPhone news, there are reports that Apple is making upwards of 50% on each iPhone sold. And it looks like they deserve every penny. And for those of you complaining about the high price tag, don't forget some simple things; there had to be a tremendous amount of R&D in there, so that needs to be covered, brand new consumer electronics are always high until manufacturing costs are lowered, the cost of R&D is recouped, etc. Have you seen the $1000 High Definition DVD players out there? Remember the current standard definition players were once that price too. And the new LG Prada phone? $775 with no storage, music or video capabilities. So get over it.

In the "duh" Department...

"iPhone could cannibalize iPod sales". "Some buyers will want a converged device rather than the dedicated devices". Um, yes, I believe that's the entire point of the iPhone.

Trouble Right Here in River City

From today's Des Moines Business Record Daily:

Apple Inc.'s new iPhone won't be available in Iowa when it hits stores in June, reported the Silicone [sic] Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Iowa is one of 19 states with limited or no service through AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless, the exclusive service for the new iPhone. The new device combines an iPod music player, cell phone and full-featured Internet browser.

This Des Moines resident gives it three years.

Welcome to the 90s

Microsoft now sees the Intertubes as a distribution channel for the new Vista operating system. Wow, now that's quite progressive.

Uncle Walt Reviews Vista

If you're anxiously awaiting the launch of Windoze Vista on 30 January, you might be in for an underwhelming experience according to Mr. Mossberg. Read his review. I've played around a bit with Vista and while there is some "wow" factor, most of it is "wow, Mac OS X had that 5 years ago, it's nice to see it on Windoze finally".

LG Goes Official with iPhone Lookalike

Okay, both phones were in development secretly at the same time, so I'm pretty sure this is all coincidental. Anyway, LG went official with their touchscreen cell phone this week calling it the PRADA. It's the world's first all touchscreen cell phone, something they can say since it will be available for purchase in February, a full 4 months prior to the iPhone. There is no real storage on the device, it doesn't do music, wi-fi, video or any of those fancy schmancy things the iPhone does.

Press Release
Official Launch Site


via Engadget

iPods on Sale at Circuit City

I'm not sure if this is a sign that new iPods are coming, but Circuit City has select iPods on sale. The 30GB iPod with video is $237.49. No, not a substantial discount, but since Apple almost NEVER discounts, it's something.

Circuit City is my new favorite electronics store. It used to be Best Buy, but they just annoy me now. The Circuit City web site is one of the best out there and you can order online and pick up in the store. And they have decent prices on everything.

Apple Knocks It Out of the Park

Apple announced 4th quarter earnings today. Wow. They sold over 21 million iPods and 1.6 million Macs. Got that? 21 million iPods. That's a lot for 3 months. A year ago same period they did 1/2 that. Revenue doubled from $565 million to $1 billion. Mac sales were 3 times higher than the industry average.

If you're looking for a thorough but very sucinct and easy to read rundown of the earnings news, visit AppleInsider.

iPhone Widescreen? Humph!

Engadget is reporting that the new "widescreen" iPhone ain't so widescreen. It's actually somewhere in between!

Great Deal on a Mac & FInal Cut HD

If you're a video professional who's in the market for a new Mac and one of the best editing packages out there, now is the time. Get $200 off when you purchase any Mac and Final Cut HD together.

New Version of iStat now available

If you use the iStat Dashboard Widget to monitor things like uptime, memory/cpu/network usage and more, you'll want the new update. Especially on an Intel-based Mac as it now can monitor fan speed and tempurature.

Netflix "Watch Now" Movie Download Service

Netflix launched its new "Watch Now" movie download service today. This is a big deal for Netflix, who ignited the at-home DVD rental market, causing big-box players like Blockbuster to scramble.

The new service is available for no additonal charge, but to Windoze users only. Sorry Mac & iPod fans. No movies for you.

The press release has more details. It's a streaming video and requires a minimum of 1 megabit of bandwidth. I'm a bit skeptical of all streaming media these days - sometimes it's great, and sometimes a 500K GooTube video stops, stutters and disconnects. But maybe the have the buffering and networking worked out.

Speaking of Airport Extreme

Something I glossed over is a new feature of the Airport Extreme Base Station is something called Airport Disk. This gives users the ability to hook up just about any USB drive to the station and share it with all users. Pretty slick. Of course there are a ton of non-Apple product out there that do this, so it's just catch-up for Apple.

New Online-Only Get A Mac Ad

This Just Sucks

$4.99 to activate 802.11n? That's right. Apple's charging $4.99 to download software that will enable 802.11n on any recent Macs that actually have the 802.11n capabilities built-in. Of course if you buy the $179 new Airport Extreme Base station, the 802.11n activation software is free.

This is just ludicrous. This just seems like a normal software update to me. I hope Apple caves and gets rid of this stupid fee.

Update: The fee is now $1.99 for the upgrade. Better, but still should be free.

Paranoia Will Destroy Ya

Microsuck's new operating system Vista is so paranoid that security expert Peter Guttman wrote a paper with this "executive executive summary:"

The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history.

iPhone = Roach Motel?

It was only a matter of time before the anti-DMRers started criticizing the iPhone.

PayPal Security Device

I'm sad to admit that I've been phished for my eBay account 3 times. Being in the e-commerce business you'd think I'd be able to spot these a mile away. But the phishers are good. All three times I had something for sale on eBay and the phish came in the form of a "you've got a question about your item" email. Not one to read the details, I clicked through. Thankfully I caught it each time and instantly changed my password. The lesson? Don't click on links in emails - go to the web site directly.


PayPal has a new device to make security even better. Corporate folks will recognize the device - pretty much the same thing we use to get into our corporate networks remotely. There is an LCD which sports a new password every 30 seconds or so. So if you want to get into your PayPal account, you must have the device in hand. Great idea, especially for those power PayPal users.

Relive the Keynote - Indexed!

This is actually pretty cool. They mashed up the keynote video with Macrumors' keynote notes for an indexable version of the keynote. Relive all those great moments - the Steve Jobs walk-on, the moment when the clicker didn't work, the moment the CEO of Cingular came on and titalized the audience and some announcement of some new important product.

Send SMS Messages From Your Mac

SMS Mac lets you send standard SMS messages either through an Address Book plug-in or Dashboard widget. 50 SMS messages cost $5 and the software requires a $10 subscription.

Convert Cassette Tapes to MP3s

Here's supposed to be an "idiot proof" way to convert cassette tapes to MP3s. Just slip it in any spare 5.25" expansion bay, load up the software and start converting those old cassettes. The only downside is that it is specifically "Not Mac Compatible". Still, if you still have an ol' Windoze machine laying around it sounds easy enough. I like the retro car dashboard look.

LG's iPhone

Engadget has a couple of articles about LG's KE850 which looks an awful lot like the iPhone. And recent video of it's interface shows it's a lot more iPhone like than you might think.

Apple Swipes Another Copyright?

The term "Visual Voicemail" is potentially owned by Citrix so here comes another lawsuit, right? Well, maybe not - the author of the article can't find a trademark filing for "Visual Voicemail", there's no trademark mention on the Citrix web site and Citrix did not return calls, so this is probably some anti-Apple person trying to dig up more dirt. Can't the press be doing something more important like digging up dirt on politicians conservatives and celebrities? That's what we really want anyway.

(via Engadget)

Vista is Paranoid

Steve Gibson's latest Security Now! podcast talks about the more bizarre (my words) aspect of Vista security. Apparently Microsoft is so paranoid about security that Vista is constantly checking itself looking for intrusions. It also turns on & off the kitchen faucet exactly 42 times every 27 minutes.

Check out the comments on the web page though - lots of new Mac users coming our way!

iPods Could Make You Fat

The FDA is requiring Apple to update the nutritional label on all iPods including the diminutive iPod Shuffle. "The amount of trans fat in all iPods is seriously understated", said Spotlight Johnson, head of electronic nutrition at the FDA. "And they're not even reporting the lithium amount", he added. Apple was not available for comment.

Doctors recommend exercise of course, but do iPods make your workout better or worse? People who listen to music during workouts worked 13 percent more than those in silence. However, if you're a serious athelete, you may want to leave your iPod at home for the big race. Psychologists say it could add "static" to the "mind-body connection" and cause "dissociation effect", which they say basically means your iPod is distracting you from top performance. I think psychologists sit around in their robes all day thinking up fancy terminology for everyday things.

What Could Be Cooler?

What could be cooler than playing doom on an iPod using a NES controller ? Well, a lot of things actually. But this is still pretty cool.

That Didn't Take Long is Right!

If you've got a Palm Treo and simply just can't wait until June, download the iPhony Launcher and have your Treo look like an iPhone.

I wonder how mad my wife will be when I try this on her Treo.

Thanks TUAW!

iPhone - It's Everything

Pretty funny bit about the iPhone. I especially like the hand grenade.

R.I.P. Apple Computer

Apple changed their corporate name this week from "Apple Computer, Inc." to "Apple, Inc." which reflects their gradual transformation into a full-fledged consumer electronics company.

Stephen Colbert on the iPhone

This guy's a genius. Don't argue with me.

The Cult of Personality

After all the HYPE this week about something (I can't remember now), it makes sense to go back through the mists of time and see how Mr. Jobs introduced some little product called the Macintosh. Thanks, stereogum.

R.I.P. iSight

There have been numerous reports of this, but it is starting to look official now that Apple has pulled it off their web site. The iSight is a great web cam with built-in microphone. The picture quality is great, even in low light. One of these days my brother and I will be able to use the iSights we have, even though we've had them for over a year and still haven't used them. It's a long story. But I'm not bitter.

Rumors abound that Apple will be releasing new monitors with built-in iSights which would more or less make the need for a standalone iSight moot.

How Apple Kept The iPhone Secret

Okay, everyone really knew that the iPhone was eventual, but the specifics were unknown. Sure the rumor sites had some of the bits, but no one put it all together.

CNN.com has an article talking about how Apple kept the details secret, going so far as to not even show their partners (Cingular, Yahoo! and Google) in it until weeks before the launch.

Fun With Sounds

Some of you out there may remember programs for OS 9 and before that would let you assign different sounds to different actions. I remember having one that would play Star Wars sounds. R2-D2 bleeping when inserting a floppy (what's a floppy) or Chewbacca growling when pressing the escape key.

Bring back that fun with Sounds4Fun. Available for download next week, you'll be able to assign sounds to over 60 different actions, such as inserting a CD, trashing a file, pressing various keys keys, typing a specific word, pulling the power, plus many more.

Now of course it was only fun for about an hour before it became very annoying. If you use Macs in the workplace, this would be a fun prank to play or at least a way to drive your co-workers nuts like my talking Darth Vader my brother gave me for Christmas.

iPhone & Phil

GooTube has a great video of Phil Schiller giving an up close overview of the uber-awesome iPhone.

Why?

What the hell is this? AOL and Haier build an MP3 player that looks like an industrial robot escaped the plant and made robot-worthy MP3 players for other robots. Did I mention that only robots would love this? What the hell am I talking about? Now I know how the pilgrims felt.

First AppleTV Accessories

Xtrememac has already started advertising Xtreme accessories for AppleTV - high quality cables and a 4 port switcher for multiple inputs. The cables offered include Audio, Component, HDMI-DVI, HDMI-HDMI and TOSLINK.

Best of 2007 Macworld

I could create one or several posts with a listing of all the awesome products launched at Macworld this year. But why go through all the effort if iLounge has already done it for me? It was awfully nice of them to do it. I should probably buy them something.

iPhone Questions & Answers

David Pogue's blog has a funny post with questions and answers about the new iPhone. I especially like the questions concerning which carriers the phone will work with. As a general rule, I hate people, and this is why.

Cisco v. Apple

Who didn't see this coming? Cisco is suing Apple for trademark infringement. Cisco obtained the trademark in 2000 when they bought Infogear, which filed for the mark in 1996. Linksys, a member of Cisco's family, markets and sells a line of iPhones. It seems the two companies have been negotiating a long time about use of the name, but talks broke down moments before Jobs hit the stage earlier this week. Apple's response to the suit?

"We believe that Cisco's U.S. trademark registration is tenuous at best," [Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris] said. "Apple's the first company to use the iPhone name for a cell phone. And if Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're very confident we will prevail."

This one will be interesting. Apple undoubtedly will win this one on the marketing side, but they may have to pony up some cash to make Cisco go away.

iPhone Countdown

Here's a little countdown to the iPhone launch. For those of you like me that can't wait, you can also download (PDF) a papercraft version of the phone.

New Airport Extreme

In other news of note, A new Airport Extreme base station and new wireless standard was release. The new base station loses it's UFO-like body for a svelte Mac mini/AppleTV-esque one. It supports up to 50 users. 802.11n is the new standard and while not ratified yet, simple software updates will accommodate any changes. n is 5x faster than g networks. The new Airport Extreme also supports a/b and g networks. Parents will like the new station as they can control what web sites their kids can access.

Apple also confirmed that recently sold Macs already have the 802.11n capability built-in.

An Apple A Day Keeps The Computer Away

Another interesting tidbit from yesterday's Macworld was Steve's announcement that Apple Computer, Inc. is no more. They're now Apple, Inc. to recognize the fact that they are now more of a consumer electronics company than computer company.

Regardless, it's amazing what a company can do when they focus on the customer, the usability of products, and control the entire experience. It's ultimately what we as consumers want and why so many people are drawn to Macs. You can argue the finer points - Macs still have some problems, they're not perfect - but no one else focuses on the experience like Apple, Inc.

Speaking of Tablet PC's

OWC is selling a new Mac tablet PC. How you ask? How can that be when Apple doesn't license their software or hardware? Well, it's all in the name. They take a MacBOOK and MODify it with a touchscreen and other accutrements and wha-la; a ModBook. Prices range from $2199 through $2699 depending on configuration.

iPhone Is A Failed Tablet PC

There's a great article in Time about the genesis of the iPhone. The entire thing came about while investigating tablet PCs. The article is an excellent read.

AppleTV

I don't see too much point in talking about the iPhone, since that will be everywhere. Yes, innovative. Yes, awesome. Yes, lives up to expectations and beyond. Yes, I will be getting one. Yes, I will probably blog about it later after watching the keynote.

The red-headed step child of the day was AppleTV (formerly iTV). Apple TV puts your iTunes library — movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts plus iPhotos — on your TV. And it all appears in high definition (720p) so you can put on quite a show. Sporting the latest HDMI output along with component out, this baby will hook up to all modern TV's as well as some of the older ones like my 5 year old Sony Wega old-school "tube" TV. It syncs wirelessly to your iTunes library via 802.11 b, g & n, but wireless streaming requires g or n. It has a 40 GB hard drive for storing programming locally so you're not always hogging your home network bandwidth. You can also wire it up via 10/100BASE-T Ethernet.

At $299, it's a pretty good deal to be able to get all that content from your downstairs iMac to your upstairs TV. And in high-definition. It will begin shipping sometime in February.

MacAddict is now Mac|Life

Macsimumnews has an interview with the new editor-in-chief of Mac|Life, Leslie Ayers. Mac|Life takes up where MacAddict left off. I personally subscribe to Mac|Life and have read through the first issue. It has a physically better feel with thicker paper. The look is good and the writing seems to be more sophisticated. There's a ton more advertising than MacAddict, but that's not too suprising in this over-marketed world. There are more how-to type articles than product reviews. Magazine publishing cycles are just too long to provide useful reviews.

iPod Video Projector

ViewSonic has now added an iPod projector to the LCD monitor with iPod dock. It has a 1024 x 768 XGA resolution, 2,000 ANSI lumens brightness, and a 2,000:1 contrast ratio. Other inputs are single s-video, composite, and VGA ports. Look for it within the next three months for $999.

So Many Posts

If you're wondering why there have been so many posts, it's CES time where electronics companies all over the world announce their new products. And just wait until tomorrow - MACWORLD! Yeah, baby!

Altec Lansing iPod Video Dock

Here's a different kind of dock - a video one. Altec Lansing launched their new iMV712 video dock for iPod. It sports a 8.5 high-res LCD screen, good speakers and required remote.

(Via Engadget)

Timex iPod Alarm Clock

While Timex isn't known for its stellar audio quality, it nonetheless has cranked out an alarm clock with an iPod dock. It also has an input for other devices. It's an alarm clock, so you know, it does stuff like tell time and alert you to a specific time. Complicated, techno-savvy stuff.

Creative's Wireless iPod Dock

You may remember that Apple and Creative settled their differences a few months back with part of the deal Creative becoming an authorized iPod accessory maker. Well, I think this is the first fruit from that relationship - the Xdock. Dock your iPod and transmit its sound to your stereo.

SanDisk Launches New MP3 & Video Players

SanDisk expanded it's popular Sansa MP3 & video players line this week. The Sansa Connect is the first Wi-Fi based MP3 player. Play music, view photos, listen to Internet Radio wirelessly, connect to any open Wi-Fi network, get your music subscription library on the go, recommend songs to your friends and it even has an internal speaker. The good folks at Engadget have a great hands-on review of the player.

The Sansa View Pocket Video Player In addition to a DVD-quality viewing experience, the Sansa View plays photos, music and comes equipped with a flash memory expansion slot for easy playback of SD and SDHC cards. It even comes pre-loaded with full-length movies, short films, videos clips, photos and music. Of course Engadget has a hands-on review of the new device.

Finally, the SanDisk Sansa Express is the world’s first cable-less, Flash-based MP3 player with microSD expansion slot. Not bad for a miniscule footprint.

If there was a MP3/Video player that I would buy other than the iPod, it would be the Sansa's. Nice looking and decent usability. However, they only work with Windoze, so I wouldn't be able to actually use it.

Stream iTunes To Your Mobile Phone

Some of you may remember the first couple versions of iTunes where you could stream music across your network or even the internet. Then Apple made nice with the record companies to bring you the iTunes Music Store and did away with it. It now returns courtesy of Avvenu Music Player. The player will stream music from your home computer to your Mobile phone, another PC, another Mac, etc.

You can download a free beta version of the software. Requires Windoze XP. If you plan to stream to your mobile phone, you'll need a Windoze Mobile Smartphone.

The Year To Be

Macworld asked a panel of experts what Apple will do in 2007 and when. Widescreen iPod? "...if at all." It's a good read.

Touchscreen Media PC Announced

Microsoft announced a new touchscreen PC by HP today. Sports a 19-inch touchscreen, AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core TL-52 processor, 2GB SDRAM, 320GB drive, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated FM and ATSC HDTV tuners, a DVD±RW / DVD-RAM burner with LightScribe, Pocket Media Drive bay, wireless keyboard, mouse, stylus, front media reader, and a ton of ports.

Looks ugly as hell compared to the iMac, but it certainly has some kick-ass specs. I like the touchscreen potential.

iPod Docking Monitor

Here is an innovative computer monitor. With the ViewSonic ViewDock you can just dock your iPod and watch your movies, photo slideshow, whatever. It has all the typical outputs that monitors do but sets new standards with an 8-in-1 card reader, USB connection, integrated microphone and headphone jack. It comes in 19 and 22 inches.

Review: My iPod Shuffle

I don't think I ever mentioned that I bought a Shuffle with a gift certificate I got at work. I've been hitting the Y lately, and this is perfect. I was concerned I would miss the screen, but I don't. The built-in clip is awesome. Just clip it to your shirt, coat, pocket, shorts, jeans, ear or nose and go. So easy. I really love it. I even took it on my last trip - a whirlwind tour of Rockford, IL. The Shuffle was awesome. A definitely recommend for a portable iPod. The sound is great, the portability is unmatched and it even looks cool. I wouldn't give up my full-sized iPod of course, but the Shuffle is damn cool.

Free Printer

This is an oldie but goodie. Buy any Mac and get $100 towards any printer. There's a few decent printers out there for $100 - definitely more than adequate for domestic duties. Don't need a printer? Pick one up anyway - it's free afterall - and sell on eBay. When I got my two MacBooks, I got free printers and sold them both for about $40 or so. That's $80 back on your purchase (if you count it that way as I do).