Upgrade Your 5th Gen iPod Video Hard Drive To 240GB

          

          Are you one of those people who have an extremely large amount of media?  Is the iPod Classic's 160gb hard drive not big enough for you?  Or maybe you have a 5th generation video that you think is worthless. Well its time you took that baby out and upgraded it to become a large massive beast.  If you have a 5th generation 30gb iPod, then you can upgrade that hard drive to a 120gb for $139.  If you want to swap in a fresh battery as well, thats only $19 more.  If you have the 60gb or 80gb 5th gen (Not Classic) iPod video you can upgrade your hard drive to 240gb for $169 and your battery for $25 more.  With Apricorn's iPod hard drive and battery upgrade kit, you should be able to do the process

Lala Music Streaming

        

          Lately I've been interested in finding ways to stream music to/from portable devices and computers, I recently found Lala.  Lala is an online music store that allows you to buy web songs/albums.  Web songs are only 10 cents to buy and you can listen to the song as many times online (not a download) and a web album is the same, but range from around 50 cents to $1.50.  What is even better is that buying a web song or album, deducts that cost from the full download.  So if you wanted to listen to a new song or album online for awhile before making a full purchase, you won't have to worry about paying twice for something you already have.  I have actually found that most individual songs are either 79 cents or 89 cents, with very few 99 cent songs.  Even albums are occasionally cheaper than other music stores like iTunes and Amazon.
          Now what does all of this have to do about streaming your music?  Well every song or album you buy is put in your online library.  You can go on any computer, sign into your account and start playing a song.  So simple and nice because of the easy access.  However, the fun doesn't end there because you are also able to upload your music library from your computer.  With the free Lala Music Mover application, you just effortlessly select your music folder and it does the rest of the work.  So you can have access to your entire music library from any computer with internet (and flash).
          Since it uses flash you can not use Lala with a mobile device (at least not yet), but with Lala's merger with Apple there may be hope for an iPhone app soon.  So tell me what you think of it.  I'm definitely going to be using this site often for my music purchases.  Thanks for reading and I hope this was useful to you.  If you do want to sign up, please use this link: Sign Up 

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

Want Free Music? Electronics? Video Games?

Okay you and I know that nothing is really free, but this program is pretty close. It's called Swagbucks (pretty catchy ain't it) and you get points that can buy all types of prizes. Now all you have to do to obtain points is simply use the search engine at the website. So as you use it regularly you will obtain points while you search. Now what is great about this is that both Google and Ask.com search engines are used. I always use Google when I am searching for something, so this is a really nice touch for me. Now when you create an account that you use with the website, you get three complimentary points. As you regularly use the website your points will slowly began to accumulate digital dollars (points) that can be used for buying a simple desktop wallpaper or maybe go all the way and get an iphone (which cost 3800 points).
Now if you have seen Mycokerewards.com, then this store is just like that, but with better prizes. Also this site is totally free, which is the best thing about it. No monthly charges or membership fees! My biggest problem about the store is that you aren't able to enter searches for anything in the store. But hopefully they will update the store and add that feature soon.
If this sounds even mildly interesting to you then sign up and search away. Now it plainly says on their website, when you sign up, that doing a large amounts of searches at one time will not really increase your chances of getting points, so just use it like you would Google or Yahoo and you'll be able to get what you want in no time. I am fairly new to this too, and only have 10 points, but I am getting some at least every other day. Now if you would like to sign up for it please click on the ad above because it will count as a referral from me. And once you start using it please keep me informed on how many points you have saved up. I'd love to see how much people can save. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, leave a post below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Like Video Games, Movies, Books, Or Music CD's?

Then Swaptree.com is the place for you.  I found out about this site on Yahoo.com and thought it was a great idea.  In a way, it's like ebay or craigslist.  You post all of the games, books, cd's, and movies you are willing to trade.  You do this by typing in the UPC or ISBN code on the item (its the scanner number, on most things).  

After you put in the items you have, now is the FUN PART!  Finding all of the things you want, add as many things as you'd like.  After that, you just sit back and wait for swaptree to find someone who has an item you desire.  It took about a day for me to receive an email notification of a potential trade, but for some people trades could be found INSTANTLY.  What's really cool about it, is that it is not always a trade between two people, sometimes you will get three way trades.  So the person you are getting the item from is not the same person you ship the item to.  I like how it is smart enough to create trades like that.  Swaptree looks all around the U.S for people to barter with and so that just makes the chances of you getting what you want THAT MUCH GREATER.  

Shipping is very quick and easy because you can print out the shipping label at home (no special paper or ink needed).  So far i've done one trade and sent the game to Spokane, Wa and it cost $2.74 for the label.  Even though I had to go to the store to buy packaging for the game, I still found it rather easy to do.   It cost me only $2 (it was a bigger game case), normally packaging would've cost me a dollar.  So $3.74 to send the game seems pretty reasonable to me.  I'm in the process of another trade where I'm sending a game to Pennsylvania and the label cost me the same thing ($2.74).  

A little more information about the site is that it cost you a dollar a month (for label and tracking fees).  And of course you don't have to use their shipping labels, it's just a simple method that is provided.  Also you don't have to accept every swap that is offered to you, but one thing about rejecting too many trades is that swaptree will limit the amount of swap's it finds for you in the future.  So if you go on a vacation, you can just pause your account and you wont have to deal with any of that.  Click the link above to to visit the site and see it for yourself.

So far, I'm liking the site and it is very straightforward and I hope that you find it to be that way too.  Have questions/problems?  Write it in a comment and I'll try my best to answer it.

Update: Just received my first game.  It was really quick!  Was not expecting it today.  So just letting you know people on this site can be trusted.

$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.

My Review Of Free Legal Music sites

Well let me start by saying that even though it may seem impossible to get music for free LEGALLY, there are a couple of sites i've found. One is www.Qtrax.com, which offers a wide selection of music. The only catch is that it is only compatible with windows computers and it does not work with Apple's Ipod or Microsoft's Zune! This is because while you download your song, it is encoded with a DRM, so that way you can't illegally share it with others. I say that it is nice to have a place to legally get free music, but it isn't really compatible with the very popular brands of mp3 players. There have been stories of Qtrax creating an ipod compatible song base, along with it being available to macintosh users, but that has sadly yet to come.

Along with Qtrax, www.Spiralfrog.com is another windows only compatible site. The reason is because the songs are encoded with protected-WMA, which is not compatible with Ipod's or Zune's. Both of these sites use advertisements to pay for the music. I think that Qtrax makes you listen to a few ads before you listen to a song, and Spiral Frog just has ads all around their site. So if you have a windows device, and don't mind advertisements, then these sites are just right for you. (Personally I use a mac and an Ipod 5th gen, so I'm not able to use these sites, instead I use Itunes) If you have any questions or comments PLEASE feel free to ask or say them.

Update:I have just found out that Spiral Frog has been shut down. For good? I'm not sure, but ad supported sites are not easy to keep up.