Sell Your Broken iPod

So you've got an iPod or two lying around broken do ya? Do ya? I thought so. Okay then, well how about getting a few bucks for it? BuyMyBrokeniPod.com will give you a fair deal for that broken iPod. Let them know what condition it's in, if you have the original accessories and they'll let you know how much it's worth. I played around with the very simple wizard and if you have a 60GB iPod Video that is dead, with the original box, they'll give you $51. Not too bad for a broken iPod.

TUAW gives you a few other options as well.

Cool iPod Dock

This is an ingenious idea. You know those holes in your desk for helping route cables, 1/2 of which are probably not being used? Well slip in this $40 desk hole accessory and you'll finally have a use for them. I kinda like that - desk hole. That's pretty funny. I think I'll trademark that.

Creative Suite 3 Now Available

Your last excuse to upgrade to a new Intel-based Mac is gone. Creative Suite 3 brings all the essential Mac programs to an Universal app - Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash Professional.

Photoshop is arguably one of the greatest applications ever written. If you're my friend Robert, you do everything in Illustrator (even PowerPoint presentations). Dreamweaver, InDesign and Flash are all great apps in and of themselves.

So run out today and buy it along with your new Mac Pro.

Finally

Through its new Complete My Album feature, iTunes is now giving credit when you buy an album after already purchasing a single from it. This update is long overdue and I want my money back for all those damn duplicates!

They've also enhanced the My Alerts feature a bit. Hopefully now I won't receive an alert a week after something is released.

Apple Pulls Plug On iPhone

Not. But Johhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifn Dvorak's article about how they should misses the mark and underestimates the power of the Apple brand and product. Apple did not come into the MP3 Player market and simply "advertise". They came to the market with a sexy, easy-to-use and integrated product. The iPhone appears to be that very thing for the mobile phone market, although only time will tell. I'll let you know when I get mine in June. Not that Apple hasn't had their flops. If the iPhone can live up to the expectations, it will not be a flop. The question is has the hype already exceeded any sort of reality.

NuFile Convenience

This is cool. Say you want to create a new Word document. The normal process is boot up Word, click "new document" and start. Howabout a contextual menu that let's you start a new Word document from anywhere. Or an Excel document, RTF, or a myriad of other options? NuFile let's you with ease. Check it out. Free download.

Top 10 Apple Flops

Not sure I agree with all of them - the ROKR was not technically an Apple product in my mind - but the others are there.

Connect To Windows

Those who have made the switch from Windows to Mac may still need to connect to a shared server on the PC or network. This article walks you through the steps, and while not complicated, are not necessarily as intuitive as they should be.

iPods Improve Listening Skills for Doctors

Doctors who practice listening to common heart murmurs improve their recognition scores by 100%. And you think they're too loud. For shame.

Shutdown Day

I don't really understand the point, nor do I really care either, but there's a worldwide experiment to see who can shutdown their computers tomorrow (24 March 2007) and not use them for the whole day.

Good luck.

AppleTV Ships

I'm sure you've heard by now - AppleTV has shipped. There's a myriad of articles out there with the obligatory unboxing, if you're so inclinded. The grandaddy of gadget writers has his glowing review as well. And don't forget the inevitble 5 things you didn't know.

It seems to work as advertised and so far the only negative comment I've seen is the lack of cables included in the box.

If you have a ton of content on your Mac (or PC), and want to be able to view or listen to it on your TV, this is a great option. It doesn't (yet) have any sort of DVR capability or ability to purchase content from the web (yet). Although I'm sure that's coming soon.

New Toy

Well, I got my bonus a week or so ago, and considering I got a higher than normal review coupled with company goals reaching higher than target, it was time to buy my annual expensive toy.

This year it was time to pick up the new 24" iMac. Wow, this thing is awesome! I don't know what to do with all of this screen real estate! iLife apps are super zippy as is everything else. With the large screen and Front Row, we'll probably start having the kids watch movies in the playroom where the Mac is located. It is quieter than the G5 and the screen brighter. I highly recommend this gorgeous machine!

I loved my 20" iMac G5, but really wanted to get an iMac with an Intel processor (Core 2 Duo), huge screen, faster wireless (n!), Front Row and the potential for an Apple TV to go with our 2 MacBooks.

Instead of paying full price, I went with the Apple-certified refurbished iMac. Same bells and whistles, same warranty, same everything - just 300 bucks less. Throw in the fact I am selling the free printer along with the old iMac and the overall cost comes in under $1000.

iPod Privacy Screens

I'm guessing if you're interested in these iPod privacy screens you've either got an extremely embarrasing music collection or you can't go anywhere without some portable porn. Pervert!

Coolest iPod Cases

My new IA and iPod fiend at work (thanks Cindy!) recommended these cases to me. Very cool cases - duo toned with a customizable clickwheel graphic. For $29.00 get a really cool case. For $14 more, get a customizable clickwheel graphic - corporate logos, your personal art, etc. Very nice.

Mii on the Mac

I don't have a Wii, and I only vaguely know what a Mii is, but whatever it is, you can transfer it to your Mac with this free download.

Cool Google Hack

Searching for images on Google is great, but a total pain in the ass with its thumbnails-and-frames results. The Google Image Ripper does the search and only brings back the images in their full-size glory.

The Flushing of CompUSA

CompUSA is shutting down well over half their stores. Which shouldn't be a shock to anyone since they generally suck. Their prices suck, their customer service sucks and so on.

However, their pathetic loss is your gain. While their going-out-of-business prices almost bring their prices down to what everyone sells at, the exception is Macs.

Macs almost never go on sale. Never. Well, okay - once a year - the day after Thanksgiving, but other than that, never.

Closing CompUSAs have Macs at a whopping 5% off. Not much of course, but still less than you'll get one anywhere else. As they get nearer to closing, the price will come down another 5%, but selection will be very limited if anything.

Mac & iPod accessories are 10% off, but will go to around 30-40% in a couple weeks. Again - the longer you wait, the less selection you'll have.

Review: Airport Extreme

I've been having a lot of trouble lately with my internet connection. According to Comcast (It's Craptastic!), it's not them, so that of course means it's me. So I decided to replace my Linksys wireless router with the new Apple Airport Extreme.

The Airport Extreme is definitely better looking than the Linksys. Linksys has to have some of the most god-awful fugly hardware out there.

Setup was simple enough - just plug in, install the software, and away you go. The only trouble I had was trying to use the old "Airport Setup Utility" versus the new "Airport Utility". I did not see the new version. You would have thought Apple could have deleted the old utility. Not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.

Setting up security, access levels, etc. is extremely (pun intended) easy. You can either use the step-by-step wizard or get into the nitty gritty via the manual setup.

I also hooked up an "Airport Disk" which is one of my USB 2.0 external hard drives. Very slick having access to my backup drive from our two MacBooks and iMac without any of them physically connected. There are 3 ethernet ports on the back which supplies network access to our Vonage and PS2.

While it is pricey at $180; the ease of setup, Airport disk, asthetics, 802.11n speed and more make it worth it.

BTW - my internet connection is more reliable meaning that the Linksys was probably starting to fail.

Inside The iTS

An interesting article about the merchandising of the iTunes Store. Apple has completely changed the music industry. Instead of paying for space, labels are asked to provide special pricing, additional material and more. My two favorite parts of the article were the use of the word "kerfuffle" (what the hell is that) and that the iTunes staff is very knowledgeable about music - something rare in the big box retailers of the day.

iTunes PC to Mac & Back

This article is great if you're contemplating a move to Mac, but you're hesitating to because the thought of losing your iTunes library is unbearable.

iLaunch - Revolutionary

iLaunch will revolutionize product launches.

Secrets of iTunes 7.1

Get all the secrets of the newly released iTunes 7.1 here, courtesy of iLounge. Coolest update? Full screen cover flow.

Get the update here or via Software Update naturally.

Sleep by Email

Not really sure why you'd want to do this, but regardless, it is kinda cool. Send your Mac an email and put it to sleep via Automator.

Culturally Insensitive

Mac OS X supports an incredible amount of languages. But if you're monolingual, you probably don't need all those languages taking up space on your hard drive. Monolingual removes all the languages you don't need. Removing almost all the languages except English (and a handful of ones I need for work), I saved 562 megs - enough space for about 100 MP3s.

Tip: Summarize

I had totally forgotten about the summarize feature. Simply highlight a string of text you would like to summarize, and select "Summarize" from the "Services" menu (found under the program name). Nice.

Paparazzi Use Macs

(via Gizmodo)