OK… so the real reason for this post today is so that I don’t go the entire month of October without an update to the website. Things have been busy, but not with the sorts of things to update on the website.

We had everyone to our place for Thanksgiving which was a lot of fun.

Matt and I are also trying our hands at video podcasting now with The Skinny on Sports Tech. The latest episode talks about my new toys - the new iPod nano and the Nike+ Sports Kit. You can check out the video to find out more about that. The easiest way to play the videos if you’re having trouble is with iTunes. We’re hoping to make it much easier in the future for those of you that just want to see the video within the web page itself.

That’s all for now. November is just around the corner!

Technorati Tags: apple, nano, nike, podcast, sports kit, video

After doing some searching, I finally found a Skype phone that is compatible with a Mac - the IPEVO Free-1. If you’ve never used Skype, now is as good a time as any to try since they recently announced that not only can you call between Skype users for free, but you can also call any number in the US or Canada from Skype for FREE! This will be great when I’m traveling this summer and that is part of the reason for getting the phone. If you’re wondering what I mean by “Skype Phone”, basically it’s a USB device that looks like a phone and communicates with Skype. It’s an easy way to avoid having to use the built in mic and speakers on your computer - plus it seems less awkward to be talking into something that looks like a phone instead of just a mic on the computer! To use it, your computer needs to be on and connected to the internet, but then you can place calls on the phone and it goes through Skype. You can choose to either call one of your Skype contacts, or call any other regular phone line. I’ll let you know how the quality is, but as I say, it was the only one I could find for a Mac, so I thought I’d give it a shot! You can get all the details about the phone here.

Technorati Tags: apple, ipevo, skype, usb phone

Seeing as I’ve been talking about some of my favourite Mac software on here lately, and FreeMacWare.com is running a contest involving free sofware for the Mac, I thought now would be a good time to write about by Top 5 Free Mac Software that you too could use for free if you switch to a Mac!

Up first is Camino. I use this as my everyday (actually every minute) browser. It’s built off the same engine as FireFox and has the feel of a Mac program. It also has the nice side effect of feeling “snappier” on my Powerbook than Firefox.

This is about as easy as Bittorrent gets on a Mac. With Transmission, you just download and start the torrent file - that’s it! No frills, no messy interface, just an easy download.

If you want a player that can handle virtually any audio and video file out there, look no further than VLC. This player is available for many platforms and seems to “just work” for almost every file.

Audacity is a great (and very powerful) audio editing program. We use it every week to edit The Skinny on Sports Podcast and it comes in handy for trimming lots of other audio files. A must have tool for anyone doing audio work.

Last, but certainly not least, is Cyberduck. It’s a simple FTP program with drag and drop support. Can’t ask for much more from an FTP client - especially for the average user with very simple FTP needs.

That’s my list! These little free applications make me realize everyday that I definitely made the right decision switching to a Mac!

Technorati Tags: apple, audacity, camino, cyberduck, freemacware, freeware, transmission, vlc

They say there comes a point in time for every iPod where the battery doesn’t like to hold a charge any longer. That time came before Christmas for me. I headed onto Ebay.ca and picked up a new battery for my 4G 40 Gig iPod. It arrived and then it was the fun of trying to crack it open and install the new battery (since iPods don’t have any screws, this can be a little more “fun” then you might think!)

I found these great instructions - there is a PDF document and even a video to show you how it’s done. I followed it step-by-step and didn’t seem to have any problems.

However, shortly after changing the battery, my iPod started to act a little weird. It would just randomly crash and tell me that the battery was out when it wasn’t, etc. Not fun! So, after almost giving up and possibly shipping it back to Apple to see if they could fix it, I decided to do a complete “Restore to Factory Settings” - bascially it wipes out everything and you’re left with a fresh iPod as if you just bought it. I was skeptical about this working, but I would want to do this to ship it back anyways.

So far, (and I know it’s just one day), it seems to be behaving as it should. I know that’s not the ideal situation for others that are having problems with their iPod, but as a last resort, it seems to have done the trick! I’ll post an update if things change…

UPDATE: The replacement battery does not seem to be holding a charge for nearly as long as it should and my iPod has still been randomly crashing. The guy who sold me the battery on eBay is going to let me exchange it, so I’ll wait for that before giving up and sending the whole iPod back to Apple. I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: I installed the replacement battery and the problems I was having seem to have gone away and I’m getting a good charge out of the new battery. I wanted to wait a while before posting the update since last time I said all was good, it all went bad again! All in all, besides the hiccup with what was likely a faulty battery, I’d recommend that anyone who’s iPod needs a bit of a boost check out getting a new battery.

I was going to write about my New Year’s Resolutions, but considering one of them would be to update this site more often, and seeing as it’s been nearly a month since my last post, it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.

Instead, I’ll just give a quick update on what’s been happening here in Calgary over the past couple weeks - in reality, not much! I’ve been busy with school and getting ready for another exam. We went skiing once more since we’ve been back - we hope to get out this weekend and the mountains have been getting a ton of snow. I will do everything I can to remember to bring my camera this time.

We also got a new TV (a 20″ Philips - steal of a deal from Costco) and
DVD Player. Unfortunately, we haven’t had that much time to actually test them out yet, but what we’ve seen so far is great. I know most people have a TV and DVD player, but I was using an old 13″ TV that I’ve had since grade 4 and did not have a DVD player. If you are in the market for a DVD Player and have lots of Divx or Xvid movies (if you don’t know what these are, then you probably don’t have any), then this is the player for you - it plays them all and they look pretty good!

Apple released a bunch of new products last week. I ordered the new iLife ‘06 which could have some great new tools and features to help with the recording of The Skinny on Sports. I’ll try and keep everyone posted on what I like and don’t like about it when it arrives and I start playing around with it.

I’ve discovered a new website that is quickly becoming something that I can’t live without. It’s called Pandora and it’s a streaming music recommendation service. Simply put, you go to their site, enter a song or artist that you like, and it plays you other songs that it thinks you will like based on 400 different criteria for each song. They rate each song in person and individually so it’s pretty accurate to your tastes. It gets even better at knowing what you like since you can tell it whether you like or don’t like each song - so it learns from you! You can set up multiple channels with different types of songs depending on your mood. After using it for a couple of weeks and rating some songs that it recommends, it has a pretty good idea of what I want to hear now. I just leave it on while working around the house or studying and I’m discovering a bunch of great new music. Everyone should definitely give it a try!

Alright… back to the books! I’ll try for the New Years Resolution I mentioned at the top - but no promises!

After writing about Mac’s on this website for a couple years now, and talking about them with numerous people, I finally took the plunge and said goodbye to my Windows system. Instead, I now am the proud owner of a 12″ G4 Powerbook and I haven’t looked back.

I’ve acually had the new Powerbook for almost 2 weeks now, but I wanted to hold off on posting about it until I had used it a bit and gotten a better feel for it. Things just seem “easier” on a Mac and while I was hesitant about dismantling my old system, I haven’t actually had the need for anything in the Windows world (aside from my old data files) that is making me question my decision.

Over the next little while, I will be posting more about some of the new programs that I’m really liking that are making my life easier as well as other bits of Apple technology that I’m now using around the house.