Tones of the Ring

Tired of waiting for official ringtones for your iPhone to be made available via iTunes? Here's a DIY using iTunes' previews. Pretty slick.

Apple Financials

Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours. AT&T reported a couple days ago that they activated 146,000 phones in the first two days. I may suck at math, but that pretty much means that AT&T screwed up activations on about 124,000 phones. Good job.

Apple posted crazy growth . Sales of Macs and iPods were way up, 1.7 million and 9.8 million, respectively. Profits were 818 million. Sweet.

The Free Mac Classroom

Once upon a time, Macs dominated the classroom. Unfortunately, dumbass school boards think that saving $300 on a PC equates to an actual cost savings. Add in the anti-virus, dedicated IT administrator, maintenance agreements and more, and they've actually spend $600 more than what they would have spent on those "expensive" Macs.

Regardless, there's a site out there dedicated to cataloging the free software that's out there for the Mac, and there's a ton of great software there. Check it out.

Even God Uses A Mac

New MacBook Pro Adapter

Not that this is phenominal news or anything, but Apple has a new power adapter for MacBook Pros. This one is nearly 1/2 the size and closer to the size of the MacBook one (the new adapter s on the left, duh). Notable for those of us that have to lug it around with us from job to job.

I'm a Star!

Well, okay, maybe not. But I did start contributing to MyFirstMac.com with a couple articles....

• What's The Best Way To Print My Photos?


• Backing Up – How to Ensure Your Valuables on Your Mac are Safe

Oh yeah, well my 1 year old can beat your 2 year old.

Not to be outdone by a two year old, this 1 year old has figured out the iPhone:

The Apple dPhone

Apple has toyed with telphone technology in the past. Here's a concept from 1983 of a desktop telephone. In one of the pictures, it shows someone writing a check from their phone. No telling if the phone is networked in any way. I'm guessing that the answer's "no" since we're talking about 1983 here, but still. Interesting.

Mmmmm. Bowling.

Sims Bowling. $4.99 for your 5th generation iPod. Now. Go get it.

So Easy A Two Year Old Can Do It

Which is Cheaper? $600 iPhone or Free Treo?

The answer will surprise you.

The iPhone App I've Been Waiting For

Not really.

Finally - Something To Do With A Zune

This is hilarious. Hide your iPod or iPhone inside a Zune to protect it from thieves. Awesome.

Missing Something?

In case you forgot, you can apply cost of the songs you've purchased from an album to complete the purchase of the full album. Now you can complete that album for $7.99 or less.

OneTrip - iPhone App Review

For some reason this cool little iPhone app seems to be overlooked. OneTrip definitely is the best-looking app yet. It's a nice basic shopping list app. Just click on what you need from various categories. As you place items in your card, just tap the checkbox next to the item. Very slick. The only thing I can think of to make OneTrip better is to be able to add specific quantities of items.

21 iPhone Tips

Some of these are not so "secret", but you may find a gem or three in here.

Yellow Submarine iPod

That sexy stud Way2Poppy at TooPoppy reports on the long-rumored Yellow Submarine iPod. Is there nothing that guy doesn't know? I love him.

incase iPhone Case

Gizmodo reviews the incase iPhone cover. And I agree on all points. I bought a black one the night of the iPhone purchase because my good friend Robert said I'd drop it. And he was right.

iPhone Disk Usage

Bummed that you can't use your iPhone as portable storage like your iPod? So are a lot of people. The good folks at Ecamm brings you iPhone disk storage.

iPhone Pet Peeves

TUAW has a list of iPhone gripes. It's been two weeks and the initial euphoria has begun to wear off. I admit to agreeing with some of these, although the 2-3 clicks to get to things i a bit exaggerated I think. Sure, it could be less, but it really doesn't get in the way or really take up that much time. And I'm not sure why people are going into the settings all the time, other than to tinker. Here are my personal pet peeves:

• No multiple delete function within email


• EDGE. It's not as bad as I thought, but the iPhone is so much better on wi-fi.


• Earpiece Sound quality. If the volume is turned up all the way, I get a fair amount of distortion on phone calls. The speakerphone turned up all the way is fine, so I'm guessing the earpiece is just a lower quality component. Not enough to truly impact the experience, but I shouldn't have to hear it for $600.


• Crashes. Safari crashes on a regular basis as does the mail app. The phone does recover gracefully as it tries to leave things where they were when it crashed, but I'm just not used to crashing apps since I use a Mac for everything I do. At least when the iPhone crashes it continues to work. My Blackberry used to crash all the time and I'd have to do a hard reset each and everytime which usually took about 5 minutes.


• Slide To Answer. If the phone is locked, and you get a call, you only have one option on screen - to answer the call. You should also be able to decline the call as well. Sure, you can press the standby button once to ignore, and twice to send the call to voicemail, but the instinct is to use the screen.

I'm sure I'll come across a few more over time. It doesn't make me regret my decision in any way. This is a beautiful and elegant phone; both physically and in the software.

This Is Just Oh So Wrong

iPhone App Review: TIPR

I was taken aback about my post about the new iPhone Apps as someone that I didn't personally know actually made a comment! I thought only like 3 people read this blog. I guess we're up to 4 now! Yay! :-)

The comment asked for some feedback about their iPhone application, TIPR. TIPR is a new iPhone application that does what the name suggests - help you calculate tips at a restaurant. Now I personally love this app because I am severly math-challenged. It should be simple enough to calculate a 20% tip, but I constantly screw it up.

The application is the best kind - it does one thing, and it does one thing well. The user interface is simple and elegant - just like the phone it works on. You simply punch in the amount of the check, dial-in the tip percentage (be gracious people) and click submit. It comes back and gives you the tip along with the bill total. Including the total is a nice touch, especially for math-challenged people like me.

The only issue I found with the app is a calculation error for hefty bills. Punch in something like $987 with a 20% tip and it comes back with a $-986 tip for a total bill of $1. Nice if it were true. This is not likely to come up much with average users, but I have personally put a similar business expense on my corporate credit card in the past.

It would be nice if the keyboard defaulted to the numeric keypad when entering the bill amount, but I'm pretty sure that's not something that could be controlled via the Safari browser. Hear that Apple? We're having to sacrifice a superior experience because you won't give developers a true development kit. I hope Apple rethinks their approach. While developers will indeed come up with some outstanding apps, they'd be even better if they could get to the core of the environment.

The only other enhancements I could think of would be a way to access customary tips when traveling outside the US and a way to "split" the bill amongst X number of people in a party. How many times have you been out to dinner/lunch with a group of people and it takes 45 minutes to figure out what everyone owes. However, this might need to be a separate app (with a simple link from TIPR) or something. I wouldn't want to clutter up the simple TIPR interface with a less-common need.

Great job on TIPR guys! Definitely an early must-have iPhone app.

Roll Out Them Apps

While the developer community is generally unhappy with Apple at the moment with the lack of a true SDK for the iPhone, it hasn't stopped them from developing some great Safari-based apps. Gas.app and TIPR are two I've actually used recently, and others I will be exploring soon.

The No B.S. iPhone Review

Gizmodo has the most realistic review of the iPhone I've read to date. It's harsh where it needs to be and gushing where it should. I personally don't care about a lot of the smaller missing features, but I do agree that the sum is greater than the parts. I'm sure Apple will blow us away with the first iPhone update and address many of these things. Of course a software update won't fix any issues with AT&T. But I've been with them for about 3 years or so now and haven't had any issues. I've actually been pleasantly surprised every time I've had to deal with them on some things.

iPhone Enhancements List

By now you've got some things that you wish the iPhone did. Macenstein is compiling a list - add yours today. I'd agree with most if not all of them so far.

iPhone Stress Tests

Thank god for the intertubes. I mean where else can you go for this kind of stuff. PCWorld performed all sorts of unthinkable things to a $600 device so you don't have to.

iPhone is for sale online

Apple Store - however, expect to wait up until a month before you get it. Now waiting in line 6 hours doesn't seem so crazy now, does it?

I've Got My iPhone!

Yep, it matches the hype. After 6 hours in line, it took less than 15 minutes once 6pm hit and the doors opened.

Words cannot adequatly describe how awesome this thing is. The screen is beautiful, the multi-touch interface is extremely easy and intuitive. The iPod is incredible, the internet is incredible and the phone is incredible. The AT&T network could certainly be faster, but was fine for most tasks except YouTube and the web. But it's faster than you might think.

The virtual keyboard is really a snap. I'm having no problem typing things. There's an occasional fat-fingering of a letter, but it's simple enough to correct or accept the iPhone's spelling suggestion. I've even started typing with two thumbs (blackberry style). I need some more practice for that, but it won't be too long before I master it.

My only issue so far is the headphone jack is a bit deeper than most, and my tape adapter won't work with it. I'm sure someone will come up with an extension, but I really don't plan on using it too much in the car anyway.

This thing is sweet.

Activation was a breeze and took about 2 minutes. They've really thought of everything. Call quality is great, sms is great and email is super easy. If you have your Mac setup with address book and iCal (which I have automatically update from Entourage) and Mail, it just zips everything over. You don't really have to do anything. I was able to get my OneSpring Exchange email with no problem.

The wi-fi is very nice. When the iPhone detects an available wi-fi connection, it asks if you want to connect. If the network is secured, you have the option to enter the password. If the network name is not broadcast, you can set it up to connect. All very simple.

Yep, I'm a dork In Line

Number 35 or so in line at the Apple Store Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, GA. Pretty sure they'll have one when I get into the store in 6 hours.

:-)

Lines Already Beginning to Form

Well, we're about 10 hours away from the moment. I'm heading to the Atlanta Buckhead store today around 12 or so. Hopefully that won't be too late. I want an iPhone, but I really don't want to wait 10 hours in line for it. :-)

A Little Over 1 Day And Counting

Can't you just feel the anticipation in the air? No, wait - that's Atlanta air pollution.

iPhone goes on sale TOMORROW at 6pm. Apple has created a very handy iPhone availablity finder to help locate your iPhone.

It looks like we're going to be adventursome and try the Apple store tomorrow, so it should be a geektastic time for all!

iPhone

Not that this hasn't been covered in 1000 other places but here's the latest....

• iPhone activation is through iTunes, so no need to wait to have it activated and set up in the store. Should significantly impact lines on Friday for the positive


• Talk/Data plans are actually affordable - starts at $59.


• Official reviews are out. iPhone excellent and unparalleled in some areas, sucks in others (especially AT&T's s-l-o-w network). The virtual keyboard seems to require some getting used to, but once you do it's fine. I'll of course post my own review after I get mine setup on Friday. :-)


• Even Vegas is getting involved....bet on various aspects of the iPhone.


• iPod functionality won't work without activation & two year AT&T committment.

iPhone Central

Just in case you weren't getting enough iPhone news, the good folks over at MacWorld have an iPhone-dedicated blog, iPhone Central.

Apple Kicks Amazon's A$$

Apple is now the third largest music retailer after surpassing Amazon.com. Now on to the top two....Best Buy (#2) and Wal*Mart (#1).

Safari Beta 3.0.2 Available

If you're having/had troubles with the Safari Beta, version 3.0.2 is out.

iPhone News Summary

• There's an awesome 25-minute guided tour online.


• The iPhone web site has been redesigned.


• Will be sold online via Apple Store.


• 4 foot iPhone displays have invaded Apple and AT&T stores. Even more pictures.


• Contract cancellation fee will be $175. (why would you cancel??!!)


• When the store runs out of iPhones 1 person before you in line, you can order for mail delivery, with delivery in 3-5 days after launch; assuming you didn't beat up the guy who took the last one and are now in jail.


• 200 field technicians have been secretly testing the iPhone and looking for technical glitches for more than 10 weeks. They say it's ready for prime time.


• iPhone reads Word, Excel and PDF Files.


• 2000 temps will be hired for iPhone launch.


• Too lazy or important to wait in line yourself? Pay someone else to do it.


• Apple releases Safari Beta 3.0.2 for Mac...oops, wait....this isn't iPhone news...

The iPhone Manhandled

Did the iPhone shrink?

New iPhone Specs

Apple announced today the battery life on the iPhone is better than expected - 8 hours of talk time versus 5 hours. The iPhone will also sport an optical-grade glass screen instead of plastic. Both address two of the most common concerns - battery life and scratchability. The news sent Apple's stock soaring today. The only lingering (major) concern is the lack of tactile keyboard.

We'll all know soon. Of course at this point the phone can really never live up to the hype, but if it does - wow.

Get Ready To Camp Out

If you want to be "cool" like me, you'll want to make sure your sleeping bag, beer and munchies are ready for the evening of the 28th / day of the 29th. There will be limited availability for the iPhone in the beginning.

Should you de-frag your Mac?

No.

Apple Doesn't Lie

One of Apple's ads in the UK was recently challenged for truth in advertising. The commercial was "Restarting" where Apple claims Macs don't get viruses and don't crash. The British Advertising Standards team agreed with the ads.

New Paul McCartney iPod/iTunes Ad

Check out Apple's new iPod ad - Paul's Dance Tonight. Very cool.

Remove iTunes Plus Watermarks

If you're an uber paranoid type and have to remove the watermarking on iTunes Plus songs, there is a way to do it. You have to do it song by song, but paranoid people won't mind that.

Safari 3.0 Day Two

Okay - here are the problems I've run into so far on the Mac Safari 3.0:

Yahoo Messenger - Conversations reset to the top after every entry. EXTREMELY annoying. Why would Safari affect Yahoo you ask? Well, in addition to the Safari application, Apple updates the entire WebKit architecture which other programs like Yahoo Messenger and Dashboard Widgets rely on.

Blogger - While it works MUCH better than the previous version of Safari, I'm not able to add images to this blog's posts. Back to using Firefox for blog posts.

Others are having more severe issues.

No SDK = No Killer Apps?

Gizmodo makes a case for how Apple is limiting the iPhone potential by not having a true software development kit for the iPhone. At the Keynote yesterday Steve said that no SDK was needed - developers just need to use the built-in Safari browser to deliver distributed apps. The software lives on the web server, not on the phone. However, what is not clear is the availability of things like the built-in address book and other native applications.

I think Gizmodo has very good point and something Steve & Co. should pay very close attention to. Feels like one of those "we won't license the hardware" decisions from 30 years ago. And we all know how that decision played out.

Update: The Motley Fool weighs in with their opinion.

Safari on PC

Wow. If you think the new Safari is fast on the Mac, wait until you see it on the PC! It seems even faster, and blows IE 7 out of the water.

WWDC Announcements

Nothing too earth-shattering today at the Stevenote during the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC), but cool nonetheless. Here's the roundup:

Leopard - New Desktop, Stacks, New Finder (with Coverflow!) and QuickView were the "secret features" Steve alluded to at Macworld in January. Add this to Spaces, Time Machine, iChat and more, and Leopard will be one kick-ass system. Check out the demos.

Safari - Public beta of version 3.0 was released today. The shocker that no one predicted - Safari's available on Windows now. I'm using 3.0 to type this, and it certainly works faster and better than the old. I used to have to post in Firefox because Safari didn't play nicely with Blogger. I'll be loading it up on my Windows XP virtual machine over in Parallels shortly. Download it.

Games - EA announced they were coming back to the Mac. I didn't even know they left. Id Games showed some incredibly detailed gaming on the Mac as well.

iPhone - Steve revealed that the iPhone will go on sale at 6pm on 29 June. Can't wait.

Apple.com - Not sure if this was discussed during the Keynote, but Apple.com has a new look & feel which is very nice. As a usability professional I especially like the sliders at the top of the pages to select products & services. Nice touch.

Fun? Hack?

This from Macenstein just had me rolling on the floor:

Have you ever woken up after a long weekend of partying and you couldn’t remember what day it was? Well, how about whether Jesus died or not? If you’re like me, this has happened more times than you’d care to remember...

Man, if that weren't ever true. If you indeed need to know what era it is, just follow these simple steps.

My New MacBook Pro On The Way

I broke down (like it was hard) and ordered the new 15" MacBook Pro. I recently changed jobs and am doing the independent contracting thing for an awesome Applications Definition company- OneSpring. Am doing a lot of interactive work and need a workhorse. My 1st gen MacBook has actually surprised me and has been an awesome little machine. I just need more screen real estate and processing horsepower.

Will provide a full review mid-late next week after it arrives.

New MacBook Pros

These are being covered everywhere, but here's the highlights:

New 15" and 17" MacBook Pros

LED-backlit screens (15" only): lower power consumption=longer batter life. Oh yeah, and it's greener.

Up to 4GB of RAM (previous model was 3GB)

Intel Santa Rosa architecture - 800MHz bus (compared to 667 before)

17" doesn't get the LED screen, but you can get high-res (1080p) screen for $100 more.

Longer battery life - 30 minutes to an hour.

802.11n Wireless (previous cost extra to activate)

Screaming video card - nVidia GeForce 8600M GT

Price stays the same - starting at $1999.

Plus everything else the previous version had - Bluetooth, Firewire 400 & 800, etc.


Can't wait to get mine soon!

It Was 20 30 Years Ago Today

The Apple ][ computer was launched 30 years ago. I'm feeling really old now. But for the record, I was 6 at the time.

It's always interesting to see what the technology was 30 years ago. Get these specs:

Price: $1298 (close to the top-end MacBook or mid-range iMac today)
Processor: 1 MHz MOS processor (minimum on a Mac nowadays is 1.83 GHz)
RAM: 4 KB of RAM - that "K", not "M" (minimum today is 1GB)
Storage: Programs were loaded and stored on the built-in audio cassette interface
Upgrades: A $2638 version was available that had 48 K of RAM.

The Apple II hooked up to a monitor or TV set via a composite video cable, and displayed color for the first time.

OpenOffice Come to Mac OS X - Alpha

It's an alpha version, so if you're looking for some really stable and bug-free software, look elsewhere. My favorite feature currently missing is the ability to print. From an office suite. Get it? :-)

OpenOffice is the open-source office suite that is fully compatible with MS Office. It's available in a stable version for Windows, and in Mac OS X under X11, but this is the first version that you don't have to be an ubergeek to install.

iTunes Plus - Worth The Plus?

http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifiTunes Plus offers songs at twice the bit rate (256 vs. 128) and sans DRM. The lack of DRM to me provides the value of the 30 extra cents - but does the bit rate?

According to two independent sources, probably not.

The average person can't tell the difference between the two. My ears might be a bit better tuned that the average person, but I don't hear much of a difference either. But storage space being dirt cheap, why not have the higher quality?

29 June It Is

Boy, when Steve says "late June", he means it. You can't get any later than 29 June (for a weekday). New ads released tonight on TV and on the web proclaim 29 June.

Check out the ads - very cool. Man, I can't WAIT!

Complete Mobile Phone Access

Accessing your mobile phone from your Mac is a frustrating exercise at best. Most of the time all you can do is do some limited syncing of contacts.

Fonelink changes that by giving you full access to your mobile phone. Well, as long as it's supported. Mine isn't, so I couldn't test this for you. VersionTracker gives the software 5 stars, so it can't be that bad.

2010 from 1988

An incredibly boring and dry prediction on what 2010 will bring from Apple - made from 1988.

DRM-Free Music Identifies Purchaser

New iTunes Plus music shows purchaser details. So F---king what. Don't steal music. Jerk.

GooTube Videos on AppleTV

Apple announced a new version of AppleTV with a 160GB hard drive (instead of the worthless 40GB in the "basic version") and that you can now stream GooTube videos. Both pretty cool IMHO, although I don't have an AppleTV nor do I have any real need (or want) to get one. I just don't have enough video content in my iTunes.

Apple Launches iTunes Plus

From Too Poppy:

Apple launched iTunes Plus today, which features higher-quality DRM-free tracks for only $1.29 rather than the $.99 for regular tunes. I'm not sure I hear a big difference, but I like the option and the fact that you can upgrade previously purchased tracks is tremendously well thought-out. That kind of post-purchase flexibility is what makes the digital format superior over CDs (ever buy a whole album twice because the second version is remastered or features additional tracks?)

As a bonus, Apple took the opportunity to announce that "more than a dozen" of Paul McCartney's catalog is now available in both formats. Excellent, but "more than a dozen?" Why not "all?"

One Million Zunes

Zune hits one million.

It's amazing how quickly I can lose respect for one million people.

A Day at the Bar

Mac|Life has an interesting read on what it's like to be an Apple Genius.

Sell Your Mac

Here's a very cool site - Mac2Sell.net. Just plug in the particulars on the Mac you want to sell for 17 different countries and voila - up pops a price. I just recently sold my iMac G5 20" on eBay and the price Mac2Sell displayed was right on the money.

Take A Chance on Me

Why don't you swap Shuffles with a friend, colleague or hell, even an enemy. It has to be Shuffles, otherwise you could look through the playlist. You might find something interesting. Or your ears might bleed. Either way, bliss.

Another Reason to Love Apple

It seems that MySpace users are hogging computers and bandwidth at Apple retail stores. In a move that makes me want to buy even more from them Apple has banned MySpace from their stores. That $599 iPhone now just doesn't seem so expensive anymore. MySpace SUCKS!

WiFind 1.1

Here's a cool little app - WiFind 1.1 adds to you Airport menu the ability to see at a glance which networks are secure and which aren't. Handy if you're like me and always trying to find a connection when I'm working remotely.

Try free for 15 days and only $8.00 afterword.

WTF?

I don't even want to know.

The iPhone is bigger than Jesus

Tomi T Ahonen declares there are now two times in mobile phones - BiP and AiP. He makes some interesting points, and he's probably right in more than a few instances. However, the last time someone declared something was bigger than Jesus, it didn't go over so well.

Moody? I bet you are.

There are other iTunes plug-ins that try to filter your music based on the mood of the songs. Most of them use some algorithm to figure that out. Moody lets you tag your own music based on two axis - Intense/Calm and Happy/Sad. Then you can create smart playlists based on mood.

I'm all for it, but with 13 thousand songs I don't have the time or patience to do it.

Sir Paul McCartney Comes to iTunes

The good people at TooPoppy bring us the news that Paul McCartney's new album is now available for pre-order via iTunes.

New MacBooks (yawn). Where's my new MacBook Pro?

On Tuesday as predicted, Apple launched new MacBooks with a slight speed bump, more memory and bigger hard drives. While this is great and all, I'm looking for my new LED backlit, Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pro! Apple, don't make me wait until June!

iPod Drumsticks

This looks like fun. Admit it. You drum along with your music - usually when no one is looking. But usually someone is, and they're staring at you thinking, "what a crazy person". But that's okay. I won't tell.

Macitt Baby

Macitt is a new Mac-specific news aggregation web site ala Digg. And if you visit in the next month and submit some stuff, you can win a MacBook.

(via TUAW)

Joost Anyone?

Joost is the new online TV service which actually is pretty interesting. The programing is surprisingly diverse - big content providers like Comedy Central, National Geographic, MTV and more. Plus a really great selection of music channels.

Joost is in beta-testing right now, so you can only get in if you have an invite. And I just so happen to have invites to share. If you want one, let me know by sending an email to way2poppyATkonfrstDOTcom.

Joost is available on Macs & PCs.

Microsoft Fixes Vista iPod Problem

It only took 6 months. If you're a Vista user that's had trouble syncing their iPod in iTunes you can download the update to Vista and it will be fixed. Way to go Microsoft on getting it fixed so fast.

Free Ms. Pac Man

No, she's not tied up. She's Free! Download Ms. Pac Man for free, but hurry, it's a limited-time offer.

I downloaded a couple iPod games before my last long business trip - Golf and Sodoku - both excellent and fun to play.

One More Thing

USA Today has compiled the top 25 most memorable quotes with Steve's famous "One More Thing" being number 17.

Rev Up Your Wallets...iPhone Is Coming

Cingular has sent a memo to all employees to limit vacation between 15 June and 15 July to be ready for the iPhone onslaught. My wallet is ready...

Automatically Rate Your iTunes

Autorate will automatically rate all your songs based on a simple formula (that's even posted on the site). It uses the number of times you play songs, skip them, etc. to rate them. Note that running it will overwrite any previous ratings you might have. Probably not the thing if you have lots of ratings, but if you're just starting to rate songs, this would give you a great jump start. Oh yeah, and it's free.

iTunes Breaks Billboard Top 10

For the first time ever a iTunes exclusive track has debuted in the Billboard Top 10. Too bad it was an American Idol tune - Carrie Underwood's I'll Stand By You from some charity show or something. For me, no one will top Kelly.

iPhone Case

Here they come...iPhone cases. This one from ebCases seems nice enough and comes in a myriad colors - blue, brown (what is it with brown?), pink, red, black and others that I don't feel like looking up. If you're interested, you'll click the link - if you're not, you won't. Darn kids and their links.

CoverScout 2.3.1

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty anal when it comes to cover art. I'm always tweaking my cover art and have it for nearly all of my 13k+ songs. Since my tastes are not always mainstream, cover art is hard to find. Especially for imports and the like.

CoverScout 2.3.1 promises to better find art - it now searches all Amazon sites worldwide. You can now also search Google.

The application also has cool features such as being able to take a picture of covers via your iSight camera.

This Has Gone Too Far

Need I say more?

Sun's Open Office Coming to Mac

Well, it's technically already on the Mac through X11, but most probably don't know what that is, or how to use it let alone install it. An Aqua port to Sun's open-source office suite has been discussed for about 7 years now, but it looks like it might actually happen.

If you're looking for a non-Microsoft Offic option and don't want to mess with X11, check out NeoOffice. I've used it here and there and it's certainly capable, if not a bit slow. But it is compatible with MS Office.

Your Personal Trainer

Apple has launched a new personal trainer service called onetoone. For only $99 a year, you have access to an Apple expert to help you with learning anything you want on the Apple platform. Just like at the gym, they'll create a program specific to your needs - digital photography, video, music and more. Really cool idea.

10 Unexpected Uses for the iPod

Some are lame, others cool. Check it out.

Cheater Cheater iPod Eater

Cool kids all over the world are using their iPods to help out on their third period history exam and educators are quick to ban the devices. I would recommend just banning third period history, but apparently that's not in the cards.

Battery Update

MacBook & MacBook Pro users should download and install the new Battery Update 1.2. It fixes issues where batteries report incorrect charges, don't charge, and even swell.

More DRM Free Music Coming To iTunes

According to the awesome blog Engadget, Apple is sending notices to its content providers that their offering of higher-quality DRM-free will become possible in the near future. Rock on.

Guitar Hero on Mac OS X

Fans of Guitar Hero and Mac OS X rejoice. There's now a way to play Guitar Hero on your Mac. Frets of Fire is the Guitar Hero clone with all sorts of fan-created songs. Check it out!

Why Mac OS X is the most secure OS

It's not because of the installed user base. It's the BSD Unix foundation of Mac OS X.

Upgrade your AppleTV

For those of you not happy with the paltry 40GB hard drive in your AppleTV, and are not technically inclined, Weaknees has a do-it-yourself upgrade kit to bring it to 160GB for a mere $199, or almost twice the cost of the device itself. Seems pricey to me.

iPhone Delays Leopard

The hysteria over the iPhone and making sure it is released on time has unfortunately resulted in a delay of Leopard, the next Mac OS X, until October. In order to complete the iPhone, key resources had to be shifted from Leopard. I'll reserve personal comment.

iPod Case For Kids

Here's a cool idea - a case designed for kids. Let the kids watch movies, play games or listen to music and keep that expensive toy safe in a silicon wrap. Even comes with child-sized headphones. Nice idea.

100 Million iPods

Apple announced today that the 5.5 year old iPod has hit 100 million sold. One of the fastest consumer products to hit 100 million. And there's no end in sight.

Apple Remote Cases

Just when you thought all the cases for all the Apple products have been invented, along come two companies that make cases for your Apple Remote. Phew, thank god. I've really been worried about my Apple Remotes.

Can You Tell The Difference

So EMI and Apple announced that DRM-free music is available at twice the bit-rate and only at a 30-cent premium. But is the sound quality better? PC World has a couple of samples. Take a listen and see if you hear a difference. Even on the tinny speakers on my MacBook, I can actually hear a difference. The 256kbps versions have more presence. I was actually a little surprised at the difference. I definitely be picking up these version when buying tunes and will probably change my default ripping to 256kbps.

I'm Moving to Michigan!

Will someone just think of the children?! Somehow the state of Michigan thinks giving out free iPods to kids will improve their education. Um, I'm guessing not. But still, free iPods - why not?

Blu-Ray Burner for Macs

Well as the article suggests, there are only about 4 people who are clammering for this. And for $800 a pop no less. If you have this burning desire (sorry, pun intended) to be able to burn Blu-Ray discs from your Mac, now you can. Only if you have a 17 inch MacBook Pro, Mac mini or Intel iMac. Oh yeah, and an iBook G4. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I'm not sure why'd you'd put an $800 optical drive in an iBook worth less than the drive. But hey, who am I to judge? Go for it.

EMI/Apple Announcement

So, okay, EMI disappointed everyone many when their announcement this morning failed to bring the Beatles music to the digital download world. However, the upside is that EMI's talent is now available DRM-free.

But all is not as it seems. There are some hooks to all of this apparent pro-customer lovefest.

1. DRM free music is at a higher quality (256kbps vs. 128kbps), but also at a higher price. The DRM-free version of a song is $1.29. You can still buy the same song at $.99, but it will be 128kbps and crippled with DRM. However, full albums cost the same either way.

2. For those concerned with interoperability, the songs are still encoded with AAC (which is better than MP3), but there are very few devices that can decode AAC. So if you want to buy from iTunes but use something other than an iPod, you have very few choices. This was an Apple decision, EMI doesn't care what format the music is in according to their spokesperson.

I haven't had a chance to hear the difference between 128kbps and 256kbps, but my guess is that there's not much difference. And considering I'm quite happy with my iTunes and iPod, I don't see the point in spending an extra $.30 for DRM-free music. If I want to create a mix for someone (which will ultimately spur further music sales), I'll get around DRM the old-fashioned way.

Beatles Announcment on Monday

The Beatles' label EMI announced today that they have "an exciting new digital offering" with Apple to be announced on Monday. Hard to imagine that it would be anything other than the availability of The Beatles catalog through iTunes. Let's hope there's a Beatles iPod with it!

Update: No Beatles, just the announcement of high-quality DRM-free downloads from EMI through iTunes. While it is great to get out from the tyranny of DRM, it is BORING!.