R.I.P Steve Jobs

          Although I never knew Steve Jobs personally and I can't say I followed all of the news about him, I greatly admired him.  As a man who spends much of his life reading and learning about technology, Steve Jobs was one who would consistently amaze me with each and every product his company put out.  You can't go far without seeing an iPod in hand or at least see a glance of those white earphones.
          One thing I truly loved about him and his company was that they made their products

Change Your Mac OS X Dock Color/Boot Image

Ever wanted to customize the look of your Mac's boot up image or dock color?  Then take a look at these applications called "Docker" and "BootXChanger".  Both of these are free to download.



Docker  
This application allows you to customize your dock without having to be

Mac Hints

          If you are a mac user this site is something you need to know about.  There are tips that are updated constantly throughout every day and some you may have already known, but others you will be surprised to learn.  One of the most useful tips that surprised me was the ability to use your Facebook chat with iChat.  All you have to do is setup a few quick things with the iChat server, and you are done. Each post

Extending Your Devices Battery Life

        

          One of the biggest problems with portable gadgets is that their battery life never seems to last as long as we had wanted.  Which then you have to continue to plug in and recharge which can take hours.  Or if your not near a plug-in outlet you will have to bear without your device for the time being.  I'm sure you as hate it as much as I do, and luckily there are some solutions to fixing your short battery life misfortune.  Such as buying a battery case.  Now and days, more and more cases are having a battery extenders built in.  Such as Seido's Innocase Surface, which is a case for the Blackberry Tour 9630.  There are also a few different battery cases with the iPhone as well.  The Power Slider Case for the iPhone 3g and 3gs which contains 120% of your iPhones battery.  Giving you a chance to fully recharge and then a little more.  There are also battery cases made by Mophie that allows for a full charge and more.

          Additionally, there are separate battery packs that provide more compatibility between different devices.  Along with the option to charge more than just one device, separate battery packs normally contain a larger battery than in a battery case.  And maybe for the same price as a case that can charge your device one full time, you can get a battery pack that is able to charge it twice or more.  The Satechi iCel 4400 mAh Battery Pack can charge your iPhone at least twice, and it is able to charge other cell phones and media players.  Another major battery pack company is imaxpower.  Their IMP500 can charge your iPhone four times, the IMP880 can charge it six times, and IMP19500 can charge it 20 times!  Not saying that anyone needs to have that big of a battery with them, but its a great option for long trips or hikes.  The packs aren't limited to iPhones either, other media players, cell phones and laptops are covered too.  Check them out for yourself and please leave any comments if you've had any experience with the packs.  Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this.

Simplify Media And Orb

                                 

Both are great pieces of software that work on Mac os x and Windows, they allow you to access files from one computer to another.  Simplify Media's applications allow you to share your music collection and photo collection to another computer and Orb allows you to share the same, plus any other file or document on your computer.  I like Orb especially because of the ability to share music, photos, and videos to a PS3 or Xbox 360,  but the application doesn't seem as secure as Simplify Music or Simplify Photo do.  Also both of them are available in the Apple App Store, but they are not free. I have had experience with Orb and I will most likely never pay for the software.  I like the idea of sharing any file you want over the internet, but the application and Orb's server just isn't stable.  I would recommend that you keep an eye on it though.  I mean problems can be fixed and who knows, maybe soon they will get better and downloaded onto everyones computers.  But right now I would stick with Simplify Media.  I can't fully back it up because I have not bought the iPhone app, but from the many reviews I've read it seems better off than Orb.  The interface looks more stable, but from personal reviews it has a problem with large libraries.  Why would you pay for something that wont work for everybody.  I know I wont be getting it anytime soon because I have many gigabytes of music I'd love to stream.  Also Simplify has three iPhone apps (but only 2 different types).  Two are Simplify Music (Original) and Simplify Music 2.  What really gets me mad is that users have to pay eight dollars for the updated version, when they could have given it as an update to the original.  So six dollars (Simplify Music Original) plus the updated version (eight dollars), and that doesn't even include the third app that cost four dollars to stream your photos.  So all that for some application that may not work well with large libraries.  I would definitely be mad at the company if I had paid for the original and then pay even more for the update.
          But just because things are bad now doesn't mean that won't get better.  I think that these apps are worth checking into, and I am surely going to keep my eye on them.  I would love if Simplify Media had a free or lite version of their app so it could be tested, like Orb does.  I tried Orb on my friends iPhone and it was slow loading media and skipped a few songs, giving me different errors.  Now what is interesting is that Orb is suppose to work via your Orb server (www.mycast.orb.com) with any computer, phone or internet device for free.  But they are making you pay to use it on the iPhone, one to access files (music, photos, documents) from your computer and the other Orb Live allows you to stream video feeds to your iPhone.  If you do go to the website (without using the app), you get a horrible interface that is very slow to load.  It doesn't separate multiple songs, so if you chose an album to play it would put all of the songs together.  Making one 32 minute or however long song.  If they just simply updated their mobile interface, it would be more enticing to users.
          Offering a nice clean interface for free would get them more attention then making people pay for it.  But again I would continue to see how they grow and watch out for other competing apps (maybe even free) that will try to get noticed.  Thanks for reading and here are links to the websites and iPhone apps.

Orb: Computer Application 
iPhone app: Orb Live, Orb Live Free, Orb Media

Simplify Media: Computer Application
iPhone App: Simplify Music, Simplify Music 2, Simplify Photo

Looking For The Latest Ipod App Sales?

          Then you need to keep your eye on these sites.  AppShopper and 148Apps, they both post apps that have recently changed in price.  As well as provide ITunes store links so you can easily download them.  It's perfect because for people like me who don't want to spend a lot of money (if any) on apps, they save me from spending when I don't need to.  I've downloaded about 15 different apps that would have cost me around $20.  It's really smart shopping and every Ipod touch and Iphone user should know about it.  Everything from GPS, games, and utilities apps are shown on the sites.  So you may find an app that you've never even heard of or thought of.  Each site is updated daily, so you wont miss a thing.
          Just think of all of the money you'll save.  You could use it to buy a case, so you can prevent scratches from your very precious and delicate device.  Just thought I'd post this quick notice so you readers could start keeping money in your wallet.  Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment or two.

Use A Touchscreen's Keypad Without Looking

                                

I've always thought that touchscreen phones were one of the greatest ideas ever thought of, but one thing every phone lacks, is the physical buttons.  Without actual buttons being there, it is impossible to type things without looking at the screen, like a person's phone number for instance.  Well people at Google have been working on an idea to solve that problem.  This idea started when they realized that there were many visually impaired people that used touchscreen phones everyday and that there needed to be more accessible controls towards them.  

So the concept is that wherever you touch the screen, it turns into a five.  Next just press/hold the screen and slide up for 2, or right for 6, or diagonal to 1 or 3, etc.  The phone will not only recognize the input, but also read out the number so you can make sure it's the correct number.  It sounds like a fairly easy thing to do for me and as long as you know the number keypad configuration you will be set (I'm sure everyone already knows it).  

I like how they are making sure that there phone can be used by anyone.  As far as I know Google is the only company working on concepts like this, but who knows Apple could be working on something like this behind closed doors.  I'm not sure if this feature will be coming out anytime soon, or if at all, but if it does I want to be one of the first to try it out.  Check out the video above to see it for yourself.

$1.29 For A Song?

Now when I think about Itunes, I think .99 cents per song. No matter how favored or foolish the song is, but that may soon change. To provide cheaper music, Itunes is thinking about charging $1.29 for the most popular songs. HUH?? Why in the world would they do that? I mean it's bad enough that many people steal music, but this is a better reason to start.  Seriously, I would rather pay .79 cents for A POPULAR song at amazon.com.  The only good thing about the price hike is that the unpopular songs will be priced at .69 cents. They say that most of the songs will stay at 99. cents, but it doesn't seem like a smart pricing system to me. Maybe there is something I'm missing, but they should have made unpopular songs .79 cents and everything else .99 cents. Maybe it's just me but, I hope they figure out something better than this.

FIRST! ONE!

Hey everyone, my blog is going to basically be about things I'm interested in. Things like, technology (apple, windows, xbox 360, ps3 and others), sports, and occasionally clothes (cool items I like). These are just a few of my interests, so don't worry I'm sure you'll find something that catches your eye. I hope I can keep people happy with it and I'll try my best too make in appealing. Also if anyone has suggestions on what they would like me make a post about, I can try and do the best I can about it.