The demand for everything iPod is so high that even an iPod accessory was outselling Microsoft's new MP3 media player on Amazon.com. Microsoft's new Zune media player, despite heavy marketing, came in only at No. 75 on Amazon's list of 100 best-selling electronics this week. The Zune was trailing many iPod accessories such as Apple's $29.99 iPod USB power adapter, at No. 65.

But in the time since CBS Marketwatch first reported this story on Monday, the Zune has managed to gain some ground on the iPod charger. Amazon updates their sales ranks hourly but when I last checked this morning the score was 59 to 73 with the Zune in the lead. Apple fanboys will probably be disapointed to hear that the Zune is now outselling iPod chargers but some things just take time, effort, and money. Microsoft has at least one of those.

Pete Mortensen from Wired.com has this to say in his blog about these super selling iPod chargers:

"Apple is dominating digital music in a way that they've never owned a category. And what's funny is that I can't really understand why the Mac never had the same kind of runaway success. The limitations of the iPod are similar to those of the Mac, its closed architecture, cheap clone knock-offs, everything. But for some reason, Windows bowled over Apple, while the iPod continues to get more popular by the day. It's a little wonder."

I wonder if Bill Gates knows that a power cord was beating the latest "iPod Killer" from Microsoft.

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Like sunbathing naked outdoors? Who doesn't (especially Europeans). Just keep in mind that one day a satellite might fly by and capture your naked body for the good of posterity. Services like Google Maps and Google Earth have made satellite photography accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. This topless sunbather became an overnight Internet sensation, but she's not alone. Apparently the Hague is overrun with naked and semi-naked Dutch people.

So grab a magnifying glass and open up Adobe Photoshop, because here's Google Sightseeing.com's Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth!

10) This picture got a lot of people hot under the collar. Many people think she's on her front, but personally I remain unconvinced.



09) Very close to the original topless sunbather, this one is definitely female, I think. It looks like she's lying on her front, and she does appear to have some kind of top on, so keep your hair on people!



08) Just six doors down, here's a half-naked Dutch, person. Wearing a sarong perhaps?



07) This ones been widely discussed on other sites, but I personally reckon this is a guy, wearing shorts. Phew!



06) This person thinks they have privacy on this rooftop (haven't they seen Enemy of the State?) and they're definitely topless! (Sex unknown of course, but topless nevertheless.)



05) Outside a cafe on the beach (presumably before it opened that day), we find someone sitting calmly in a chair, blissfully unaware the whole world can now see them in their birthday suit.



04) The previous nudist may have also been unaware that just on the other side of the building, there was another person sunning themselves - flat on their back and completely in the altogether! Does anyone know someone that works in this cafe by the way?



03) Again on the beach, here's a couple of naked people who think they can hide behind a beach wind wall! Don't they know there is no escape?



02) Hiding away behind some bushes is no escape either. Mind you, I wish that person would keep their legs together. Yeuch!



01) Well, do you know of a better picture? I'm sure there's loads more brilliant ones yet to be found. So fire up Google Earth and start searching! Enjoy.


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Need a reason to pull your records out of storage? A company called ION has created a USB turntable called the iTTUSB. The company claims that this is the world's first USB turntable.

The iTTUSB allows you to convert your old vinyl collection directly to CD or MP3 with the included recording software (Mac/PC) and is a must have for people who don't want to deal with clumsy adapters or mismatched audio formats.

The iTTUSB comes with Audacity, a recording application that works with both PCs and Macs, as well a trial version of Bias Soundsoap 2 to clean and restore vinyl recordings.

As an alternative, the turntable also works with any other software that supports USB audio input sound cards. Once connected, the turntable transfers both 33-1/3 rpm albums and 45 rpm singles to digital formats in mere minutes.

The iTTUSB is great for all those obscure releases that never made it to CD.

More info on the iTTUSB:

• iTTUSB on Amazon
• iTTUSB homepage

You will probably either sympathize or laugh at this latest story coming from the console gaming community. According to last Saturday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), gamers are finding that the new Nintendo Wii can be a real pain in the neck... back, shoulder, elbow, wrist, etc.

In case you are unfamiliar with the Nintendo Wii, the controller it comes with is a wireless, motion-sensitive wand-like device. Gamers wave the controller around in the air and depending on the type of game you are playing, the controller can be anything from a sword, gun, tennis racket, or even a steering wheel. However, since the console debuted in mid-November, Nintendo Wii owners are complaining of aching backs, sore shoulders, and even something now called "Wii elbow."

Here are a couple WSJ quotes from Nintendo Wii owners:

Blaine Stuart of Rochester, New York, mistakenly whacked his fiancee, Shelly Haefele, while playing tennis and also accidentally hit his dog while bowling despite the message Nintendo flashes up on the screen before each game which says: "Make sure there are no people or objects around you that you might bump into while playing."

Ryan Mercer, a customs broker in Indianapolis, lifts weights several times a week. But that hasn't helped much with the Wii. After playing the boxing game for an hour and a half, his arms, shoulders and torso were aching. "I was soaking wet with sweat, head to toe -- I had to go take a shower," he says. And the next morning? "I had trouble putting my shirt on," says the 21-year-old avid gamer.

So what do the doctors think about all this? Lana Kang, an orthopedic hand surgeon, had this piece of advice, "It's just like athletic play.... Stretch out and be sure to take care of any injuries afterwards."

With the rate of obese children skyrocketing worldwide, you'd think people would be congratulating Nintendo for combining gaming and exercise, not complaining. Oh well. Grab another Big Mac and wait for the next generation of gaming consoles to come out. Maybe they'll feature 'mind control ' so you don't even have to lift a finger to play.

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Ever wanted to laser-etch some labels onto DVDs you've burned, but wanted to do it on your Mac ? Now you can.

Laser engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave, etch, or mark an object. The technique can be very technical and complex, and often a computer system is used to drive the movements of the laser head. Despite this complexity, very precise and clean engravings can be achieved at a high rate. The technique does not involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out. This is considered an advantage over alternative engraving technologies where bit heads have to be replaced regularly.

Standard cast acrylic plastic, acrylic plastic sheet, and other cast resins generally laser very well. A commonly engraved award is a cast acrylic shape designed to be lasered from the back side. Styrene (as in compact disc cases) and many of the thermoform plastics will tend to melt around the edge of the engraving spot. The result is usually "soft" and has no "etch" contrast. The surface may actually deform or "ripple" at the lip areas. In some applications this is acceptable; for example date markings on 2-litre soda bottles does not need to be sharp.

For signage and faceplates, etc., special laser-engraving plastics were developed. These incorporate silicate or other materials which conduct excess heat away from the material before it can deform. Outer laminates of this material vaporize easily to expose different colored material below.

Other plastics may be successfully engraved, but orderly experimentation on a sample piece is recommended. Bakelite is said to be easily laser-engraved; some hard engineering plastics work well. Expanded plastics, foams and vinyls however are generally candidates for routing rather than laser engraving. Urethane and silicone plastics usually don't work well-- unless it is a formulation filled with cellulose, stone or some other stable insulator material.

read more | digg story | treblemaker

Is the arrival of the iPhone, a hybrid mobile phone and iPod music player from Apple Computer, right around the corner?

According to analysts, Apple is rumored to be ready to release the "iPhone" at the January 2007 Macworld conference. "From a technical standpoint, the phone is pretty much done," said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. "It's a big endeavor and we believe it's beyond speculation." Apparently the rumored existence of the iPhone has morphed from a question of "If" to "When."

A trail of clues about the iPhone's existence have been popping up all over the Internet for over a year now:

• In June 2005, the source code of an iTunes update contained multiple references to an Autofill phone playlist function.
  
  
• In March 2006, a source at BenQ, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer confirmed that an Apple product called the iPhone was in the works. Why would BenQ leak info about the iPhone to the media? Sour grapes. Hon Hai Precision, a competitor to BenQ, allegedly won the iPhone contract with Apple.
  
  
• Apple's CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, might have let the 'cat out of the bag' on an Apple analyst 2006 Q3 conference call when he said the following: "As regards cell phones, we don't think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And [Apple is] not sitting around doing nothing."

Since Apple's introduction of the iPod five years ago, the company has sold more than 67 million of the devices and more than 1.5 billion songs from its iTunes online music store. We can only speculate what the iPhone will mean for Apple's bottom line. But as a result of all this iPhone hype and rumors, American Technology Research has upgraded Apple stock (AAPL) to a 'buy' and raised the target price to $92 (US).

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One of the most laborious tasks in file maintenance is finding out what files on your computer are taking up the most space...especially when they live deep within folders that live deep within folders that in turn, live deep within folders.

Of course, on the mac, you can use Spotlight to find files by size or a simple search...BUT, you do not get a graphical interface of what files (and what types of files) are taking up space on your drives...

Enter Disk Inventory X...a one trick pony that does what it does well. Just click on those big blocks after opening the program, and it will show you the biggest files on your hard drive. Delete if you don't need it. Back it up if you feel it's necessary...Do whatever you want, but rest assured now that there isn't some large file buried deep within your files that is clogging space...

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Tired of the boring Macintosh OS X login screen? Seeing the same thing every time you turn on your computer can get a little monotonous.

This hack not only lets you change the text on your OS X login screen, but gives you step-by-step instructions on how to change the general appearance.

You can even replace the silver Apple Computer logo with a Lauren Weiss photo if you want.

digg story | methodshop

In a battle of audio formats, one would think the iPod would easily outdistance the soon-to-be antiquated cassette tape. Au contraire, mon frere.

Daniel Turek (aka No Name No Slogan) performs a pictorial comparison of the two, including life span, price, repair, the drop test and more.

See who wins, then see yourself heading down to the gas station to stock up on cassettes.

Check it out here.

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I guess the Internet video battle between QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media is over. Who won... none of the above. Sites like MySpace and YouTube have made Flash the standard flavor of video on the Internet. Even Microsoft has thrown in the towel. Their news website, MSNBC.com switched over to Flash in October.

It was probably a painful decision for Redmond to admit defeat, but they were losing eyeballs and ad revenue on a daily basis. If you wanted to watch video on MSNBC.com's site, you had to be using Internet Explorer on a PC. But as the Macintosh user base grew (thanks to the iPod) and more and more people started using the FireFox web browser, Microsoft saw their audience start to shrink. Microsoft had to finally face the fact that they needed a cross-platform video player that worked with other web browsers.

Charlie Tillinghast, president and publisher of MSNBC.com, had this to say in a company email "We have been pushing for a player that works on Mac and Firefox for a long time and are eager to see it launch... Some people assume that Microsoft, and by extension MSNBC, are anti-Mac, but it should be noted that Microsoft makes an outstanding version of Office for the Mac, including the Entourage email system. I purchased a new iMac in anticipation of this release and we have several in use at MSNBC itself."

Is it me or did hell just freeze over at Redmond?

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Do you suspect that your iPod has a hardware problem? The iPod's built-in diagnostic mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a "bad" iPod.

How to Turn on iPod Diagnostic Mode

The following procedure will activate the iPod Diagnostic Mode with the following iPods (Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini).

• Turn off the "hold switch"
• Press and hold "Menu" and "Select" buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
• The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold both the "Back" and "Select" buttons at the same time.
  
• You will hear an audible chirp sound and the logo should appear backwards. Let go of the "Back" and "Select" buttons. You are now in Diagnostic Mode.

Once your iPod is in Diagnostic Mode, you will be able to run a series of tests. For more info on the types of tests and what they exactly do, check out this MethodShop.com iPod Diagnostic Mode Tutorial.


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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.

digg story | methodshop.com

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.

digg story | methodshop

The new Bose Triport IE headphones are guaranteed to give you excellent quality and real sound as one would wish for but generally at the cost of wearing bulky and flashy headgear. But there are the times when in-ear headphones are more welcome for many reasons. Thankfully, Bose have come out with its Tri-Port in-ear headphones. The issue of different ear sizes is settled with these headphones coming with 3 different sized end plugs. These plugs are tender to feel and use, being made of soft silicone. Now experiencing good quality music from iPods , DVD players and other music systems with small and sleek headphones, can make listening to music a completely new blissful (and lighter) experience.

A new standard for in-ear headphones

Bose research and engineering are at the core of the remarkable performance of Bose in-ear headphones. They incorporate our proprietary TriPort® acoustic headphone structure, for example, for greater low-frequency output from a small headphone. This technology helps create more balanced, lifelike sound. You hear your music with more range, realism and clarity than commonly found with conventional earbuds.

Better sound, better fit

Bose in-ear headphones are designed to remain comfortable and stable in your ears for hours. Many people have experienced the discomfort and instability of traditional earbuds, especially after long periods of listening. But Bose engineers developed innovative, soft silicone tips shaped to rest gently and securely in the outer bowl of your ear.

Removable S, M and L tips are included, so you can adjust the size for a more accurate fit. The washable tips are color coded to make it easier to distinguish among them. You may find using a different size tip for each ear the most comfortable and secure option.

Better on the go

Bose in-ear headphones are engineered specifically for portable audio devices like MP3 players, and CD and DVD players. They come with a small carrying case that protects the headphones when not in use. The sleek, black case also helps keep the cable organized and tangle free.

More pics and information here.


read more | digg story | treblemaker.com

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.

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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.

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