Imagine that you have a HUGE media library and all of it is kept on your trusty PC or Mac. Now imagine that one day, your computer's hard drive crashes, and that your music library is now gone. All of the music imported off of CD's which you might have lost by now, all of the music downloaded off of free-music web sites, and most importantly, all that money spent on the iTunes Store has just vanished!

You then remember that all your music is still on your iPod, safe and intact. You plug it in, you mount it to the OS, and then you realize that iTunes only allows the downloading of music from iTunes to iPod, not iPod to iTunes. (This is to prevent the stealing of music, says Apple). Do you really want to spend hours re-importing music, and repurchasing music from the iTMS? We didn't think so.

Tutorial: Here's a detailed tutorial on how to copy music off your iPod and back onto your computer.

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Labels: ipod, tutorial

In an effort to stay competitive with revenue sharing viral video sites like Revver, Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, said that his site will start sharing profits with its millions of users. The announcement was made during Hurley's speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this past Saturday. Many active YouTube users have started removing their videos and reposting them on Revver so they can make some money off their hard work. Revver started sharing profits with their users back in October of 2005.

"We are getting an audience large enough where we have an opportunity to support creativity, to foster creativity through sharing revenue with our users... So in the coming months we are going to be opening that up" Hurley said.

How much will popular YouTube posters like The Wine Kone or Adam Wade start making off their videos? It's still unknown. Hurley didn't go into any payment details during his speech.

About 70 million videos are viewed daily on YouTube, which was sold to Google for $1.65 billion last year.

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Labels: youtube

From our friends at Woot.

Hey, thanks for coming by! Yeah, make yourself comfortable - well, as comfortable as you can in a cave, anyway. I like to think I've fixed the place up pretty nice, although let me warn you: never order from IKEA online. They think the "e" in e-commerce stands for "extremely slow and annoying to deal with," ha ha.

Life in hiding from the Feds has its downside, but all in all I've got a pretty sweet setup. That uranium I stole gives me all the electricity I need down here. Once you get used to it, bat meat doesn't taste too bad, especially deep-fried. Kinda like chicken. When I need to use the bathroom, I just squeeze through that crevasse over there and go in this huge room. Believe me, it'd take me several lifetimes of eating nothing but Taco Bell to fill that room up.

And I never, ever have to worry about ambient light when I watch movies on my InFocus IN72 DLP Home Entertainment Projector . I get the full benefit of its 900 lumens, its Pixelworks DNX technology, and its totally dudical Darkchip2 DLP processor. Its resolution is only 480p, but just tell yourself "the upconverting is working" over and over and you'll never know the difference. And that Darkchip thing produces blacks as deep and dark as an underground cave - which I guess means it's superfluous for me, but it'd be perfect for a surface-dweller like you.
Warranty: One year

Features:

* Native Aspect Ratio: 16×9
* Supported Aspect Ratio: 4:3, 16:9
* Brightness: High Bright: 900 Lumens, Whisper: 720 Lumens
* Contrast Ratio: 2000:1 Full On/Full Off
* Display Technology: 0.55” DarkChip2 480p 12° DDR, DLP by Texas Instruments
* Data Compatibility: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768
* Video Compatibility: Full NTSC, PAL, SECAM, 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1035i, 1080i, 1080p/24, 1080p/30, 1080p/50, 1080p/60
* Color Wheel (DLP Only): 6 segment, 4-speed, D65 (6500K) color calibration
* Native Resolution: 854×480
* Projector Placement: Ceiling Projection, Front Projection, Rear Projection
* SMPTE Brightness: up to 11.5’ (3.5m) wide on a 1.0 gain screen
* Lamp Wattage: Whisper: 160 Watts, High Bright: 200 Watts
* Lamp Life: Whisper: 3000 Hours
* High Bright: 3000 Hours
* Standard Lens Zoom: 1.2 : 1
* Standard Lens Throw Ratio: 1.76:1 – 2.12:1 (Distance/Width)
* Standard Lens Image Offset Ratio: 128%
* Standard Lens Projection Distance: 5 – 20 ft
* Digital Keystone Correction (Vertical): +/- 20°
* Projector Warranty: 1 Year
* Lamp Warranty: 6 months
* Accessories Warranty: 90 Days
* Typical Power Consumption: 250 Watts
* Maximum Power Consumption: 300 Watts

Inputs and Outputs

* DVI: 1
* M1: 1
* HDMI: 1
* Component (RCA): 1
* VESA (HD15): 1
* S-Video: 1
* Composite (RCA): 1
* Standard Definition TV: Inputs: Component RCA, S-Video, Composite RCA
* Enhanced Definition TV: Inputs: HDMI, Component RCA, M1-DA
* High Definition TV: Inputs: HDMI, Component RCA, M1-DA
* Computer: Inputs: M1-DA
* HDCP Support: Yes
* 12v trigger for motorized screens (3.5 mm mini-jack)

You might remember hearing about a wave of wounded people when the Nintendo Wii first came out last November. A combination of physically unfit Wii owners and a weak Wiimote strap was causing people to accidentally do things like punch their dogs or dislocate knees. Well apparently everyone’s wounds have healed and they’re starting to experiment with their new gaming systems.

One ambitious Wii owner even decided to make his own steering wheel and upload a picture of it to GoNintendo.com. The official Wii steering wheel is included with most racing games like GT Pro Series and Monster 4X4: World Circuit; but why pay extra for a game bundled with a wheel when you can just make your own?


While this particular DIY wheel leaves a lot to be desired (especially when it comes to style points), I'll give this lumpy homemade masterpiece an A+ for effort.

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Labels: games, wii

If you've been wondering exactly how the iPod nano works with Nike's running shoe, check out the Nike+iPod demo video below.





Your iPod nano will actually talk to you while you're running. It lets you know exactly how far you've run and how far you have left. It will even synchronizing the beat of the music to your footsteps.

Once you get back to your computer, just dock the nano and it will give you a detailed readout of your stats during the run. Pretty high-tech stuff for a sneaker! I wonder what happens if it rains while you are running.

Before you can start using your Nike+iPod kit you will need to update iTunes to version 6.0.5 or higher. iTunes 6.0.5 allows you to sync your Nike + iPod workout data to nikeplus.com, where you can easily track your progress and set training goals.

If you need fuel for your workout motivation, there's a new Nike Sport Music area on the iTunes Music Store where you can download workout mixes, Athlete Inspiration playlists and Nike Podcasts.

For more info on the Nike+iPod, check out Apple's special Nike+iPod page.

[Via ipastudio.com]

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Labels: review

Looking for something different to feed your iPod with? How about a string quartet tribute to the Foo Fighters?

While so many musicians have petered out over the years, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters have managed to lay waste to any preconceived notions of what success means in this day and age. Forget about sophomore slumps, critical failures and artistic misfires; they do not apply when it comes to the Foo. For more than a decade, Grohl and company have been churning out some of the most amazing songs to hit the airwaves.

In honor of this incredible career, Vitamin Records has released a string quartet tribute to the boys in Foo called Ordinary Heroes. Rockers and weepers alike are given their due and transformed into sweeping string arrangements. For fans of the Foo, this quartet is willing to bleed it out, note for note.

Track List:

1. Best of You
2. My Hero
3. Big Me
4. All My Life
5. Resolve
6. Everlong
7. Monkey Wrench
8. Learn to Fly
9. I'll Stick Around
10. Have It All
11. DOA
12. For All the Cows

Fans will love this string quartet's take on all of the Foo's hits from bold-faced ragers, bubblegum ditties, and even the passionate, acoustic anthems. It's a nice new take on some familiar favorites that will make you, and your iPod happy.

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Labels: music, review

Have you already ripped all your DVD movies and copied them onto your iPod? Are you still hungry for more?

Public Domain Torrents has 800+ free public-domain videos from cult classics like Night of the Living Dead and Swamp Women to animated features like Gulliver's Travels.

Not only are these movies all free, but many of them have already been encoded into iPod Video format! Don't have an iPod? There's also Zune and PSP video versions for many of these films. But don't expect these movies to download as fast as content from the iTunes Store. In fact it may take several hours, or even an overnight session, to download these movies via BitTorrent.

NOTE: Popular films, like Bruce Lee the Invincible, will have more torrent seeds and download much faster.

So what can you expect to find in this treasure trove of free films? There's a lot of silent-era stuff, but you'll also find some classics from director Ed Wood (Plan 9 from Outer Space), George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) and a weird Russian sci-fi film called Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women.

The IMDB.com review for King of Kong Island might be a good example of what you can expect from these movies:

An Italian Spanish Co-production with America's own Dick Randall involved in the 'presenting' - King of Kong Island mixes horror movie, nudie-cutie and jungle adventure with toppings of National Geographic stock footage- all set to a jungle beat of exotica. [IMDB]

You will need a BitTorrent client in order to download these films. If you are unfamiliar with BitTorrent and how to use it, please check out this MethodShop.com BitTorrent tutorial.


Video Torrent Files Mentioned in this Article:

• Plan 9 from Outer Space
• Night of the Living Dead
• Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
• King of Kong Island
• Gullivers Travels (Animated)
• Bruce Lee the Invincible
• Swamp Women
  

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Heroes is going digital. The hit American TV series on the the NBC network is relaunching its Web site with new interactive features coinciding with a batch of new original on-air episodes. NBC hopes the multiplatform strategy will deepen the "Heroes" mythos with additional content for Internet and mobile applications.

Some of these new digital offerings include a real-time, two-screen application that plays out on the PC along with each episode, commentary from cast members set to streamed episodes, and mobile content.

NBC is even making special viral clips to help promote Heroes on video sharing sites like Vmix and YouTube. The latest Heroes clip is a parody called "Zeroes" about ordinary people with relatively pointless abilities. Check it out on Vmix or YouTube. If you are a fan of the show you'll really enjoy it.

Videos by VMIX Member: NBC

Jeff Gaspin, president of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Digital Content had this to say about the new online presence for Heroes in The Hollywood Reporter: "Heroes has proven itself a hit on-air and online, and these extensions of rich, original content will allow our audience unprecedented access to new levels of the show as they dig deeper."

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.

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Labels: video

Apparently Steve Jobs was holding back at last week's Macworld Expo. Apple's new iPhone can do a lot more than just play music, movies and make phone calls.

As you can see from this video, the research staff at Late Night with Conan O'Brien were able to uncover all of the iPhone's features including camera, movie player, remote control, electric razor…



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.

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Labels: iphone, youtube

The rechargeable batteries in MacBooks, iBooks, PowerBooks and iPods are categorized as "lithium-ion." Lilon batteries, as they're often called, provide reliable power for everything from cell phones to laptops, supplying significantly more power than nickel-based cells. Basically, Lilons are not your father's Duracell.

The following tips will extend the life of any Lilon battery whether it's playing games, answering e-mails on your laptop or watching a movie on your iPod or iPhone.

Tutorial: Maximizing iPod and MacBook Battery Life

The tutorial above even shows you how to use the Terminal in OS X to check your current battery capacity and help you figure out when you need a new battery for your laptop.


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Labels: tutorial

Do you have any old floppy disks lying around? Why let them just sit there collecting dust when they can boldly go where no floppy disk has gone before?

Pay a tribute to another thing of the past (or, the future?)--The Starship Enterprise--and you can reminisce and recycle at the same time!

Tutorial: How to Make a Starship Enterprise Out of a Floppy Disk

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Labels: star trek, tutorial

The MoGo Wireless Mouse is a business-card sized, Bluetooth-enabled mouse that stores and recharges neatly inside (yes, inside…) your laptop's PC card slot. To recharge your MoGo Mouse, just slide it into the empty PC card slot in your laptop. It will fully recharge in less than an hour and provide you with enough power for about 8 or 9 hours of use.


As you can imagine, the MoGo Mouse is specifically designed for people who spend a lot of time traveling like writers, reporters and sales reps. Other mice, even those meant for travelers, usually don’t cut it. Mini-mice (aka “walnut shells”) get lost in your hand and are difficult to maneuver, and the idea of carrying a full-sized mouse defeats the entire purpose of mobility on the go.

The MoGo Mouse is a natural fit for road warriors. Storing it inside you PC Card (PCMCIA) slot is pure genius and the fact that it charges there is just the icing on the cake. The only thing I'd like to see in future models is a scroll wheel. I know that the size of it makes it hard to have a wheel but maybe a touch wheel, like one some laptops, could have been possible.

"an excellent tool for the road warrior or... minimalist." ~ GetUSB.info

If you spend a lot of time on the road with your laptop, then the MoGo Wireless Mouse will just make your life easier.

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Labels: review, usb

American Idol judge Paula Abdul canceled a string of media interviews last Friday when an online video emerged of her slurring and gesticulating her way through a TV interview.




By the way, Abdul just announced her new reality show, Hey Paula, last week. The show will air on Bravo and will provide viewers with an "insider perspective" into Abdul's daily life as an American Idol judge, movie producer (Bratz), and purveyor of perfume, jewelry and clothing. If she's drunk the whole time I guess the show will be all the more interesting. I can't wait.

You might want to copy the video off YouTube before her publicist has it pulled. Here's a tutorial on have to save videos off YouTube and convert them for your Video iPod. Enjoy.

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Labels: youtube

If you were paying attention to all the hype building up to the Apple iPhone announcement on Tuesday, then you might recall the little snag concerning who actually owns the "iPhone" name.

Even though Apple unveiled the iPhone in San Francisco this week, Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems Inc., announced a product called the iPhone on December 18th, 2006. The Linksys iPhone is a Web-enabled telephone handset capable of making calls over the Internet using voice over Internet protocol (VOIP).

So how can two different companies lay claim to the "iPhone" name? That's the problem... they can't.

Linksys, actually owns the "iPhone" trademark because of a Cisco acquisition. A company called Infogear registered the "iPhone" name in 1996. Then Cisco then absorbed the "iPhone" trademark when it acquired Infogear in the year 2000.


So what happens now? It's all up to the lawyers. Cisco filed a lawsuit against Apple yesterday in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Basically Cisco and Apple need to reach a settlement or Apple will have to call their iPhone something different like iChat Mobile.

According to the NY Post, Cisco thought it had reached a deal with Apple. The two companies were reportedly engaged in heated talks over the "iPhone" name the past few weeks leading up to the Apple iPhone announcement.

"We sent them final terms on Monday, but we never got approval back," Cisco spokesman John Noh told The Post. "We're very open to sharing the trademark. We made that clear. But then they went ahead and used the name without our permission."

Apple has been trying to get the iPhone name away from Cisco since 2001 when they first released the iPod. Will Apple finally be successful? They obviously have something up their sleeve or they wouldn't have halted talks with Cisco and just announced the iPhone this week. It will be interesting to see what happens these next few months.

Apple plans on releasing the iPhone in June 2007.

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Labels: iphone

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
  

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Labels: apple tv, iphone

On last Thursday's episode of Mad Money, host Jim Cramer selected Apple Computer as his #2 growth stock of 2007.

Cramer picked Apple Computer over Microsoft and decided to vent his rage against Microsoft by smashing a new brown Zune with a baseball bat. In case you missed it, the Zune smashing video is now on YouTube.

Although Apple's up more than 175% the last two years and more than 50% since July, Cramer believes Apple Computer will move higher because "picking stocks is not like flipping a coin." There's no balancing out that occurs, he said. Instead, "winners keep winning and "losers keep losing."

Cramer considers Apple a winner that has changed the way people listen to music with the iPod and the iTunes Store. "Not only is [Apple] a brand people trust and love, but it is cool... Microsoft's Zune MP3 player will not be able to push past Apple."



Cramer went on to say that there are always bears and short-sellers, but in Apple's case "they are wrong and should get buried... [Apple] has a winning formula, and nothing is going against it."

You can subscribe to the Mad Money "Lightning Round" video podcast in the iTunes Store here: Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer - The Lightning Round

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Labels: ipod,