Digital Technology for Digital Living.
March 17, 2008
Beer OS - Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Every year on March 17, we honor Saint Patrick (circa 385–461), one of the patron saints of Ireland. Whether or not you choose to celebrate the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish foods, imbibing Irish drink (usually Guinness), or attending parades, we wish you a safe a happy holiday.
Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day… even computer operating systems. So as you raise your glass to St. Patrick this year, try to pretend your beer was a computer operating system. It might go a little like this…
Macintosh Beer
Considered by many to be a “light” beer. All the cans look identical. When you take one from the fridge, it opens itself. The ingredients list is not on the can. If you call to ask about the ingredients, you are told that “you don’t need to know.” A notice on the side reminds you to drag your empties to the trashcan.
DOS Beer
Requires you to use your own can opener, and that you read the directions carefully before opening the can. The can is divided into eight compartments of 2oz each, which have to be accessed separately. A lot of people keep drinking it after it was discontinued.
Windows 3.1 Beer
Was the world’s most popular beer in the mid-1990s. Looked a lot like Mac Beer’s. Requires that you already own a DOS Beer. Claims that it allows you to drink several DOS Beers simultaneously, but in reality you can only drink a few of them, very slowly, especially slowly if you are drinking the Windows Beer at the same time. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, a can of Windows Beer will explode when you open it.
Windows NT Beer
Windows NT beer could only be purchased by the truckload. This caused most people to have to go out and buy bigger refrigerators. The can looked just like Windows 3.1 Beer. Touted as an “industrial strength” beer, and suggested only for use in bars.
Windows XP Beer
Tastes like Windows 2000 beer but comes with a pretty dress. It opens sometimes without asking and if you leave a case of it open for awhile, it might explode all over your basement. Oh best of all, sometimes Windows XP Beer likes to open your front door and let people in to hang advertisements all over your house and steal your credit card number.
Windows Vista Beer
Windows Vista Beer looks a lot like the newest Mac Beer but tastes more like Windows XP Beer. Most people will probably keep drinking Windows XP Beer until their friends try Windows Vista Beer and say they like it. Many people try Windows Vista Beer, then spit it out and spend hours trying to put Windows XP Beer back into the same can.
UNIX Beer
This very heavy beer comes in 32oz cans, and has been around for years, rumor has it that it was originally brewed as a hoax by a couple of bored workers, only for them to find that some people actually liked the stuff. It tends to be drunk only by freaks or eccentric academics, often with beards; and drinkers of it do not like drinkers of any other beer. In its basic form it doesn’t look particularly impressive, but with the addition of a magic ingredient named “X”, it can be converted into an all-singing all-dancing beer on a par with the others. Many other varieties exist, with a huge range of flavors and (often unpronounceable) ingredients. Mac Beer has many of the same ingredients as Unix Beer.
OS/2 Beer
Tasted like a mix between Unix and DOS Beer. Allowed you to drink several DOS Beers and a Windows 3.1 Beer simultaneously, but slowly. You never saw anyone drinking OS/2 Beer, but the manufacturer (International Beer Manufacturing) claimed that 9 million OS/2 Beer six-packs were sold. The best place these days to find a an OS/2 Beer is inside an old ATM machine.
Amiga Beer
The company went out of business, but their recipe was picked up by some weird German company, so now this beer is an import. This beer never really sold very well because the original manufacturer didn’t understand marketing. Like Unix Beer, Amiga Beer fans are an extremely loyal and loud group. When this can was originally introduced, it appeared flashy and colorful, but the design never changed much over the years, so it looked dated in its later years.
VMS Beer
Requires minimal user interaction, except for popping the top and sipping. However cans have been known on occasion to explode, or contain extremely un-beer-like contents. Best drunk in high pressure development environments. When you call the manufacturer for the list of ingredients, you’re told that is proprietary and referred to an unknown listing in the manuals published by the FDA. Rumors are that this was once listed in the Physicians’ Desk Reference as a tranquilizer, but no one can claim to have actually seen it.
methodshop | Comments (0) | Software, Geek
August 28, 2007
iBought: Useless Chitika Facebook Application
When I checked my email this morning, I noticed that Chitika, the blogger-driven merchandising/shopping network, made a Facebook application called iBought. The application allows Facebook users to show off their latest purchases in their profiles.
How useful is iBought? If you checkout my Facebook profile, it says I just bought a goat. No, I didn’t really buy a goat. But I wanted to see what ads Chitika would list based on the word goat. Care to guess? I now have 3 bottles of Horny Goat Weed on my Facebook profile. But let’s say I bought something good like a giant HD-TV. Why would I list it on my Facebook profile? That’s like inviting someone to rob you. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure the iBought application will be deleted by the end of the week.
Besides being useless, Chitika needs to fine tune the application coding. I got this error after trying to interact with the iBought application in my Facebook profile:
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/facebook/lib/facebookapi_php5_restlib.php:1) in /var/www/html/facebook/lib/facebook.php on line 197
So why would anyone want to install the useless iBought application on their Facebook profile? Chitika is paying $1 per for every friend you get to install iBought. The offer is only open to the first 10,000 installs.
$1 isn’t a lot, but if you have a ton of Facebook friends it could be a worthwhile. Then again, you’ll probably make all your friends hate you. Still interested? You can install the iBought Facebook application here.
BeSocial: methodshop
methodshop | Comments (0) | Software
July 25, 2007
Sparky - Alexa Firefox Toolbar
Like to see how websites rate against each other while you browse the Internet?
Alexa, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, has been providing information on web traffic since 1996. Once you install the Alexa Toolbar, you can then view traffic trends, reach and rank, of any site you visit on the Internet. The toolbar then feeds traffic data of the sites you visit back to Alexa. There are billions of people on the Internet and only a minor portion of them have the Alexa Toolbar. This population provides a “sample” of users that Alexa uses to measure web activity and page popularity.
But their toolbar has only been available for PC users with Internet Explorer. For example, here’s the MethodShop.com Alexa Internet Explorer PC only toolbar. Macintosh and PC users with Firefox have been left out of the Alexa sample… until now. An Alexa toolbar called “Sparky” for Firefox was finally released last week.
Why should you care about the Alexa Toolbar? Most people don’t. But if you want to support your favorite websites, then you might want Alexa to track what sites you visit. Many webmasters use Alexa ranking to set advertising rates.
If you are interested, you can get the Alexa Sparky Toolbar for Firefox here.
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (0) | Software
June 13, 2007
Security Bugs in Safari for Windows
It’s been an interesting few days for Apple and their Safari web browser. On Monday, Apple released a PC version of Safari 3 (beta) at the 2007 Worldwide Developers Conference. But within a few hours, Internet security specialists and hackers had uncovered several bugs capable of crashing the Windows operating system as well as a major security flaw making it possible to remotely take control a PC without the owners knowledge.
Just hours after Apple made Safari 3 available for Windows, David Maynor from Errata Security and independent expert Aviv Raff both blogged about the Safari security bugs they found.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but the bugs [I] found in the beta copy of Safari on Windows work on the production copy on OS X as well… The exploit is robust mostly thanks to the lack of any kind of advanced security features in [Mac] OS X.” erratasec.blogspot.com
“A first glance at the debugger showed me that this memory corruption might be exploitable. Although, I’ll have to dig more to be sure of that. Again, this is just a beta version. But, don’t you hate those pathetic claims?” net-security.org
At last count, 6 total bugs in Safari have been recorded despite this claim on the Safari 3 download page: “Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one.”
But hell, Safari 3 is just a beta version, it’s supposed to have bugs, right?
So why did Apple decide to make their Safari web browser Windows compatible in the first place? Three reasons come to mind:
- A cross platform web browser will encourage web developers to create web-based programs for the iPhone and make their sites more compatible for existing Safari (Mac) users.
- A PC version of Safari is an opportunity to expose Windows users to another Apple product. Apple hopes PC users will enjoy their Safari experience and think about getting a Mac the next time they get a new computer. So far, they are off to a pretty bad start.
- Search dollars. The little search box in the upper right corner of the Firefox web browser is a major revenue generator. Every time you use that little search box, the browser manufacturer makes money off the search ads you are exposed to when you are taken to the results page. I’ve seen reports that Firefox (an open source project) made around over $50 million dollars from that little search box in 2006 alone.
You can download Safari 3 (beta) from Apple.com.
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (0) | Broadband, Software
April 12, 2007
Remove Red Eye In Adobe Photoshop
Red eye. What a pain in the ass. I have so many great photos in my iPhoto Library which have been ruined because of red eye. Sometimes I use the red eye tools iPhoto or Adobe Photoshop to fix problematic images, but unfortunately they don’t always do a good job.
Luckily red eye is very easy to fix manually in Adobe Photoshop (US, UK). You just need to know how. Here’s a tutorial on how to remove red eye using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 or higher.
Tutorial: Remove Red Eye In Adobe Photoshop
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Software
March 05, 2007
Handbrake for Windows
Do you have a ton of DVDs? Want to watch them on your iPod? For years, the best DVD ripping program, Handbrake, was only available for Mac. But the unthinkable has happened. Handbrake has been ported for Windows. It’s still in the experimental beta stages, but you can download a PC version of Handbrake now.
If you are unfamiliar with Handbrake, it’s a GPL’d multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. Here’s a MethodShop.com tutorial on how to use Handbrake.
Features:
- Can encode directly from DVDs (even encrypted ones) or from VIDEO_TS folders
- Supports AC3, LPCM and MPEG audio tracks
- Outputs MP4, AVI or OGM files
- Outputs AAC, MP3 or Vorbis audio
- Supports 2-pass encoding
- Supports encoding of two audio tracks
- Includes a bitrate calculator
- Supports picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
Links:
PC users looking for a super DVD-to-iPod easy solution should use DVD Copy by InterVideo.
methodshop | Comments (2) | Music, Video, Software
February 12, 2007
Battlestar Galactica Mini Game
Feel like climbing inside a Viper and fraking a Cylon? According to a Sierra Online press release, this fall you’ll get your chance.
Looking to capitalize on the series’ current popularity, NBC Universal and Sierra Online (Space Quest, King’s Quest, Homeworld) are developing a mini Battlestar Galactica high-definition video game that will be available this fall as a digital download.
The Battlestar Galactica mini game is just a way to wet fans appetites. NBC U is talking to several publishers about making a full size Battlestar game for consoles that would be much broader in scope and encompass the show’s political, military and religious themes. But console games take two or three years to develop.
“The show is really hot right now and the fans want content so we had a lot of discussion to figure out something we could do this year,” said Universal interactive licensing VP Bill Kispert.
Sierra’s Battlestar game will focus on spaceship fighting, allowing fans to play as either humans or Cylons in missions culled from the series. There will also be an extensive multi-player combat element.
Kispert also said that Sierra Online has spent time on the show’s set in Vancouver to incorporate elements from the show into the new game, including everything from actual ships to the computer monitors aboard the Galactica. The game will feature sound effects from the show, including weapons firing, and Kispert said they’re talking about incorporating radio chatter from the show that could feature cast voices.
Because it’s online, Sierra may also offer downloadable updates to keep the game fresh after it’s released.
“Battlestar Galactica” game will be distributed via the Xbox Live Arcade service to download to Xbox 360, as well as for PCs.
Unfortunately, it looks like PlayStation and Macintosh users are being left out on this release. Hopefully that will change before the fall.
For more information about the Battlestar Galactica mini game, visit the official web site at http://www.BSGarcade.com
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (1) | Console, Software
Steve Jobs Hates DRM
If you went to Apple.com last week, then you might have seen an article written by Steve Jobs about DRM and the music industry called Thoughts on Music. In the article Job talks about the history of DRM (digital rights management) and how companies, including Apple, who sell music online have to change in order to survive.
In case you haven’t read the article yet, the bottom line is Jobs doesn’t like digital rights management and thinks it has been ineffective at stopping music piracy. The root of his argument is how music companies failed to come together and create an audio CD format with built in copy-protection.
Here’s a quote from the article:
“Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.”
In contrast, the movie industry was able to set aside their differences and DVDs were invented with copy-protection built in. So since the music industry can’t get their act together, what should happen now?
If Steve Jobs has his way, DRM would be abolished entirely:
“Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.”
So why would Jobs write this letter and why now? Recently there’s been a lot of pressure coming from Europe, including consumer groups in Germany and France. The Europeans claim that Apple’s iTunes Store violates consumer laws because iTunes songs can only be played on iPods. Since the iPod has about 80% of the portable media player market, the Europeans believe that Apple is stifling competition.
The other option would be for Apple to license their DRM technology, called FairPlay, to other companies. Licensing FairPlay could end up making Apple a lot more money in the long run, but Jobs doesn’t want Apple’s secrets behind the FairPlay technology leaked, copied or modified by hackers. He’d rather just do away with DRM altogether. That would be the easiest solution for everyone… especially the consumer.
I give Jobs a lot of credit. Who knows, years from now people may look back at this article as the Emancipation Proclamation for digital music.
BeSocial: digg story | flickr | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (1) | Music, Software
February 06, 2007
More than a fifth of Windows installations are Counterfeit
Figures from tests conducted using Microsoft’s controversial Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tool have revealed that more than a fifth (22 percent) of Windows installations failed tests on their authenticity.
These copies are instead counterfeit though many would argue that users who know their installations are counterfeit would not let Microsoft test them so in reality this figure could be much higher.
Users need to validate their operating system using WGA before downloading certain updates from the software giant.
Understandably Microsoft are a little surprised by this fact. Their WGA has tested more than 512 million tests since July 2005 resulting in a failure rate of 22.3 percent. MS hope that users will be willing to buy the legal version so that they can receive beneficial updates from the software giant.
Reference for posting: http://www.theregister.co.uk
AndyD | Comments (0) | Software
January 10, 2007
Apple Announces iPhone, Apple TV
Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Apple, a company known for innovation, has been very fortunate in this regard. In 1984 they introduced the world to the first Macintosh and changed personal computing forever. Then in 2001 Apple introduced the first iPod and redefined the music industry.
Today Apple introduced 3 revolutionary products: widescreen iPod, mobile phone, and internet communicator. But there’s a catch… these revolutionary products aren’t 3 separate devices. They are all rolled into one product called the iPhone ($499 4GB, $599 8GB).
The iPhone (GSM+EDGE) has a touchscreen interface with multitouch capabilities. That means you can use multiple fingers at the same time. How can such a small device have an advanced multitouch interface? The iPhone runs the Macintosh operating system OS X. How did Apple fit an entire operating system into a tiny phone? I don’t know. Magic?
The iPhone syncs to your computer just like your iPod. All your media (music, videos, podcasts, etc.) as well as contacts, email amd calendars will sync to your iPhone. You can even add any any IMAP or POP email account. Yahoo users will like this next perk. Yahoo is giving all iPhone owners free IMAP email. You normally have to pay extra for this feature.
Web browsing on a mobile phone was probably one of the worst user experiences you’ve ever encountered. Well those days are over. The iPhone uses the Safari browser and can smoothly navigate complicated sites like Google Maps.
And if all this iPhone business wasn’t enough, Steve Jobs also announed Apple TV ($299) - a way to enjoy your media on your big screen TV. Anything you put into iTunes (content from iTunes, DVDs you’ve ripped, videos from YouTube, etc.) can be wirelessly transmitted to your Apple TV box.
The Apple TV has 802.11 WiFi (b, g + n) and will automatically sync from your PC.
More Apple TV specs:
- 40GB HD
- 720p HD video
- componet
- RCA
- USB 2.0
- ethernet
- WiFi
- HDMI
methodshop | Comments Off | PVR, Music, Wireless, Video, Digital TV, Software
January 04, 2007
Copy DVDs for Your iPod
Did you get a lot of DVDs for Christmas? Want to watch them on your iPod? For years, the best DVD ripping program, Handbrake, was only available for Mac. But the unthinkable has happened. Handbrake has been ported for Windows. It’s still in the experimental beta stages, but you can download a PC version of Handbrake now.
If you are unfamiliar with Handbrake, it’s a GPL’d multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. Here’s a MethodShop.com tutorial on how to use Handbrake.
Features:
- Can encode directly from DVDs (even encrypted ones) or from VIDEO_TS folders
- Supports AC3, LPCM and MPEG audio tracks
- Outputs MP4, AVI or OGM files
- Outputs AAC, MP3 or Vorbis audio
- Supports 2-pass encoding
- Supports encoding of two audio tracks
- Includes a bitrate calculator
- Supports picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
Links:
PC users looking for a super DVD-to-iPod easy solution should use DVD Copy by InterVideo.
methodshop | Comments (2) | Portable, Video, Digital TV, Software
December 21, 2006
Apple Store Holiday Screen Saver
Have you walked past an Apple Store yet this month? If so, you might have noticed a 3D snowflake screen saver running in the display windows. The screen saver is called Snowfall and it was designed by Russell Warenboldt using the OS X Quartz Composer.
Here’s a screenshot of Snowfall with a picture of my dog in the background. Snowfall is a beautiful screen saver. These pictures really don’t do it justice. You’ll just have to install Snowfall and see for yourself. Snowfall is free, but it requires….
methodshop | Comments (0) | Software
December 15, 2006
Bill Gates Buys Blogger Buzz
Want some positive blogger buzz about your product or service? Maybe you should just buy it like Bill Gates. To help promote the Zune and get some positive Microsoft buzz, Gates coughed up a dozen round trip plane tickets to Redmond, hotel rooms, and Zunes (of course) for a group of gadget and tech bloggers. He then hung out with the bloggers for an hour and answered one question from each of them. Once you factor in the total cost of this stunt, I wonder how much Gates paid per letter for a handful of blog posts?
So what did Microsoft get in return for all of this? Were the bloggers wooed by Bill’s big wallet? Yep.
- Check out the tech-news search engine Techmeme.com. Today their homepage was practically a mural to anything related to Bill Gates, the Zune or Microsoft in general.
- While most reviewers are panning the Zune, blogs like TechCrunch [see post], Micro Persuasion [see post], and GigaOm [see post], are restricting their Zune coverage to DRM issues or posting “feel good” pieces about Microsoft.
Honestly, my criticalness against these other blogs is probably part jealously. Why wasn’t MethodShop.com invited out to Redmond? Oh well, I’m an iPod guy anyway and we’re too small of a blog to make much of a dent for M$. But I do give some of these bloggers credit. Most of them (not Ryan) were upfront and disclosed that Gates gave them free Zunes and paid for their flights out to Microsoft headquarters.
But on the other hand, should corporate blogs like Micro Persuasion and GigaOm, who have venture-capital financing and/or big name PR firms, really be accepting free stuff and sacrificing their objectivity?
How cheap are your personal ethics?
methodshop | Comments (0) | Music, Software
December 13, 2006
1984 Apple LISA Demo
Want a good laugh? This video clip from a local cable show has a rare demonstration of Apple’s 1984 Lisa computer as well as some sexy 1980s hair styles. In the video, some guy named Alfred takes the $10,000 Lisa computer for a test drive. Yep the Lisa sold for $10,000. Pretty expensive for a clunky word processor. In case you are wondering, the Lisa would cost about $19,500 in 2006 dollars. Another funny thing about the video is the TV host. For some reason she talks like a robot. She’s also wearing a pair of over-sized 1980s eye glasses that probably have more glass than an automobile windshield.
Warning: There is a very long 5 minute introduction before the Lisa demo clip. Alfred, the guy giving the demonstration in the video, is now a YouTube director and loves to suck up to his subscribers. He also apologizes for his 1984 haircut, suit and a recent nose surgery. But once the actual demonstration clip starts to play, you will probably enjoy it.
If you pay close attention, you will see the cursor switch to the hour glass quite a lot. Every time Alfred opens a window or document, he has to wait several moments for the Lisa to catch up. Good thing he’s such a good talker and can fill the time blabbing with the robotic female host. You can see the video here.
Highlights of the Lisa demo include such state-of-the-art innovations as the floppy disk, digital clock, calculator, graphical user interface, icons, pull down menus, and a rodent input device called ‘a mouse’.
If you want to copy this video off of YouTube and save it on your hard drive, then check out this tutorial: Copy Videos Off YouTube. Enjoy!
methodshop | Comments (0) | Software
December 09, 2006
14 Reasons to Switch to a Mac
Need a reason to switch? Last week there was an article in the Washington Post that highlighted some of the advantages of the Macintosh over the PC.
1. Macs just work. How much time have you spent troubleshooting your PC? Imagine a computer designed by people who hate to waste time as much as you do. Where all the hardware and software just works, and works well together. Plus, Macs don’t crash (that often). The Mac is designed to let you spend more time doing the things you love, and less time doing the things you hate. Like restarting. Get a Mac and get your life back.
2. You can make amazing stuff.
Every Mac comes with iLife ’06, a suite of software that transforms your photos, music, and video into all kinds of projects. Make high-quality websites, photo books, DVDs, songs, slideshows, music CDs, calendars, cards, prints, podcasts, music videos, documentaries, and more.
3. Design that turns heads.
You won’t want to hide your Mac in a corner of the den. You’ll want it front and center in your life. The Apple style shows in every detail, from its sculpted surfaces to its gorgeous Mac OS X graphics.
4. 114,000 Viruses? Not on a Mac.
Mac OS X was designed with security in mind. Windows just wasn’t built to bear the onslaught of attacks it suffers every day. A Mac offers a built-in firewall, doesn’t advertise its existence on the Net, and isn’t compromised within an hour of being turned on.
5. Next year’s OS today.
Since Mac OS X engineers aren’t busy damming a flood of viruses, they have the time to think up amazing new technology. Like Dashboard widgets, mini-applications offering a world of capabilities just a keystroke away. Or a built-in RSS news reader.
6. The latest Intel chips.
Intel Core Duo processors put you on the cutting edge. In fact, a Mac with an Intel chip is so fast it surprises even longtime Windows pundits, who keep running benchmarks again and again. Results? Fast. Fast. Yup, still fast.
7. Instant video chats.
Setting up a video chat with the people next door — or across the globe — should be as simple as picking up the phone. On a Mac, you just click an icon to have a four-way video chat in a full-screen window with amazing clarity and special effects.
8. More fun with photos.
On a Mac, you don’t need any extra software to make a photo book. You don’t have to leave your photo software to visit a separate website and wait for forms to load. All you need is a camera and a Mac.
9. One-click websites.
How long does it take to post a photo or video to your blog on a PC? On a Mac, you can shoot a picture or a movie with the built-in camera, then post it on the web in a few clicks. Pontificate, preachify, and publish. The hardest part is coming up with something to say.
10. Amazing podcasts.
Want to get your message out to the world? Podcast it. A Mac makes it simple to create professional podcasts, complete with artwork. Add sound effects and jingles, even use the built-in radio engineer to make it perfect. So you can be a talk star in seconds.
11. Rock star tunemaking.
Musicians get all the girls (or guys). And a Mac has the software to turn you into the musician of your dreams. Choose from hundreds of cool riffs and instruments to create your own songs. Get good enough and you could be on iTunes.
12. Hollywood-style movies.
Connect your DV camera and turn your movies into spectaculars. Add graphics, titles, and sound effects in minutes. Then use your Mac to burn a DVD or post to your website.
13. No hunting for drivers.
Just plug in your stuff. A Mac includes USB drivers for mass storage, digital cameras, input devices, iPod, and more. It can see Bluetooth cell phones and headsets, as well as FireWire cameras. No rebooting.
14. Awesome out of the box.
Other computers include software, it’s true. But once you start using that software, you find that you’re hobbled in some way or another. Software included with the Mac, on the other hand, is critically acclaimed as best in class.
methodshop | Comments Off | General, Software
November 15, 2006
Apple Credits Already Purchased Songs
Has this happened to you before? You like an artist and buy a few tracks from their album on iTunes. Then you realize that you really like the artist and want to buy the rest of the album. But if you buy each remaining song on the album separately, it costs more than if you just buy the entire album all at once. And many times, several tracks on the disc as well as the PDF booklet are only available if you purchase the entire album at once (iTunes calls them Album Only offerings).
I’ve run into this dilemma a few times before. Sometimes I’ll want to buy the entire album but won’t just because I don’t want to waste the money.
Apparently I’m not alone when it comes to this problem. If recent reports are true, Apple is supposedly going to credit iTunes users who purchase individual tracks before buying the entire album. For example, let’s say you bought two tracks from the new live Foo Fighters album for $0.99 each and the album is priced at $9.99. If you decided to buy the album later, Apple would charge you something like $8.01 instead and credit you for the tracks you already own.
Why would Apple do this? Why not? Something as simple as this might be the deciding factor between you just buying 1 or 2 songs or the entire album on iTunes. And if you decide to buy the entire album, then everybody wins. You save some money and get the music you want. The record companies sell more albums (something they are struggling to do because everyone just buys singles now). And Apple makes a bigger commission.
It’s a great idea. I’m surprised Apple hasn’t done this in the iTunes Music Store since day one.
methodshop | Comments Off | General, Music, Software
November 14, 2006
Wallop vs MySpace
As the online social networking phenomenon continues to grow, more and more competitors are trying to get into the market. There has been a lot of talk about Microsoft’s new Wallop, but is it really worth leaving MySpace for this new social network?
Unlike MySpace, Wallop is an invitation only social network. Meaning you must be invited by another user to join. Upon joining, Wallop will ask for your credit card information. This is because of Wallop’s “mods.” For MySpace, all modifications to your profile are done using HTML code. The HTML may be written by the end user, or taken from the internet and as a result, is free. The pages on Wallop are more like Power Point pages, which do not use HTML code to change the look. To change your look on Wallop, you have to purchase these “mods” for about $0.50 - $1.00 a piece. An easy way for Microsoft to make more money, but is Wallop targeting the same demographic as MySpace?
The answer is no. Wallop is meant to be an adult social networking community. The concept is a good one but will adult users migrate from a free social networking community like Myspace to a pay version? More and more adults are using Myspace to keep in touch with family and friends and also to advertise their businesses. The network is huge mainly because of its ability to personalize your page with free and widely available HTML. Wallop is cleaner and easier to navigate but profiles are not searchable (yet) and you must pay to personalize your page.
With the addition of Wallop to the social networking community, adults now have a place to go where it is targeted strictly for adults. However, it appears that Myspace has provided a place for 14-35 year olds to go without having to enter a credit card number, and pulling those adults away from a free and open service to a pay service is going to be a challenge.
Is Wallop a “MySpace killer” for Microsoft? Not a chance. Is Wallop worth a try? Only if you like tinkering around.
methodshop | Comments (1) | General, Broadband, Software
November 09, 2006
Windows Vista Demo Goes Awry
According to Microsoft, Windows Vista contains hundreds of new features including advanced speech recognition software. Vista’s speech recognition software can be “trained” to understand a user’s voice, activate commands in any Windows application, and to enable voice dictation. It also supports multiple languages. Sounds great right? Well maybe not. What until you see this video of Vista’s speech recognition in action.
The guy giving the demo says the following into his microphone:
- Dear Mom
- fix aunt
- delete that
- select all
This is how Vista’s speech recognition software translated it:
“Dear aunt, let’s set so double the killer delete select all”
Of course the audience attending the live demo broke out into a fit of laughter. Wouldn’t you? Jim Goldman from CNBC called the fiasco a “live product demonstration gone awry.” He then went on to say the following, “Microsoft calls it voice recognition. But after today’s major technical glitch, you and I might want to refer to it as voice wreckognition.”
Windows Vista ships sometime in early 2007. Hopefully that will give Microsoft enough time to work out some more kinks.
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Software
Monitor Your Web Addiction in Firefox
Are you addicted to the Internet? How much time do you spend on your favorite websites everyday? If you are curious, a free Firefox extension called PageAddict can give you a summary of your daily online activity.
If you are already using the Firefox web browser, just install the PageAddict extension and surf the Internet like you normally would. When you want to see the results, just return to PageAddict.com. There you’ll get the time spent at each site, percentages of overall time and the option to apply tags. You can even categorize different sites and restrict how much time you spend in each category per day (if you deem necessary).
PageAddict results are often surprising. Will you use the data to help make positive changes in your lifestyle? You can download PageAddict here.
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Broadband, Software
November 06, 2006
Install Homebrew PSP Games
Think Sony PSP games are overpriced? Us too. Here’s a tutorial on how to download free homebrew games off the Internet and install them on your PSP.
In this tutorial we will be installing a homebrew game called SmashGpsp. If you are unfamiliar with this game, SmashGpsp is a lose PSP recreation of the popular Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Brothers by a very talented programmer named mATkEUpON.
Tutorial: Install Homebrew Games on Your Sony PSP
This guide doesn’t detail eboot loaders, which you’ll need for some of the more complicated homebrew programs out there. This tutorial is a good first step if you want to get your feet wet in the world of PSP homebrew.
Links of Interest: Game Guides at mygameguides.net is where it is at!
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Toys, Software
