Tons of Great Apps to make your ipod better

CantoPod: get favorite lyrics on your iPod (with over 200.000 lyrics to choose from)

Dictionary: hook up your ipod with dictionary that includes over 40,000 definitions and pronunciation guide ($9.95)

Encyclopodia: this incredible tool can get wikipedia.org into your iPod, if you’re one of those who can’t imagine web without wikipedia defintely check it out

GoogleGet: weather+news combo tool. When it comes to news, best option would be to have something like RSS reader that can convert feeds into iPod readable format, however I wasn’t able to find any free tool for that, what I got is Igadget which will cost you ($15). Post it in comments in case you know about any other alternative

iDirectionz: store driving directions on your iPod

iPodGym: turn iPod into your gym advisor; iPodGym is a website where you can find over 80 exercise videos (incl. descriptions) all of which can adopted to the iPod format.

iPodwizard: windows program that let’s you change fonts, graphics and text on you iPod

Ipod-notes | Ipod-ebook-creator: these 2 nifty tools let you easily create iPod compatible ebooks from regular text files. Actually, Ipod-notes goes even further by letting you create ebook from a webpage, check it out. In case you need some free ebooks to start with, drop by Project Gutenberg Library

piPod – guide to the best pizzerias in the five boroughs of NYC

Senuti (Mac OSX): this application syncs files off your iPod and sends them directly to your iTunes library. It can also play songs directly off iPod

Weather for Me: downloads weather forecasts from Myforecast.com and puts it on your iPod

Ipodlinks: variety of icons and wallpapers

Ipodwizard: ipod themes

Video Converters

videora iPod Converter: free video conversion application, you may use it to convert regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into iPod compatible format

Media-Convert: web based media converter

HandBrake: Rip DVD movies to your iPod. (MacOS X, Linux and soon Windows)

Top 30 Mistakes Windows Users make on macs

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has posted a short story on the top five mistakes made by new mac users. It includes closing an application window, thinking it has quit, downloading software and then running it from the disk image (runs slowly, can’t eject disk image), Windows .EXE files littered around the desktop after they’ve tried to download software and install it.The comments attached to the article are entertaining, and pick up many other common mistakes.

The thing that strikes me is that most of these problems could be resolved by Apple. For example, when a user downloads an EXE file, Safari could easily give the user a quick warning that it’s a Windows program and won’t install on Mac. (Before you say, “ha! What if it’s in a ZIP file?” Safari already checks inside ZIP files to see if something is a “program” that Safari should give a security warning about.)

Here’s a precis list of things that TUAW and its users said in comments, and a few of my own:

iPhoto 101

If you’ve got a digital camera, iPhoto is the perfect companion. It enables you to import your pictures into your Mac, view them, edit them, and share them with ease. You can make good photos look stellar and turn your not-so-good ones into something better. iPhoto 6 features advanced editing tools (including RAW support) for professional photographers and amateurs alike. Here are some of the cool things you can do with iPhoto 6.

Import Photos

Once you connect your camera to your Mac, just click Import in iPhoto to download your pictures.

CDs & DVDs.: How to dress them up.

 

So here is a quick tip on a great program that helps you to design professional looking cd/dvd covers and labels.

First of all I have used dozens of programs or techniques to create nice looking covers and labels for tapes or dvds or cds. None of them have been as smooth and easy to use as this one. Disc Cover is a slick and intuitive Mac OS X software to create labels and covers for CDs, DVDs and more. Variety of professionally made designs are just fine for a quick start. The program imports data and images from iTunes, iPhoto, Finder, iDVD and many other sources. You can easily experiment with styles and graphic tools. It is a great program and is so easy to learn. Check it out.

The URL is http://www.belightsoft.com/products/disccover/overview.php

Making the Switch to Mac? A Few Tips…

f Amazon’s hot holiday seller list is any indication, a lot of you got new Macs this holiday season. If you switched to a Mac from a PC, you’ve probably noticed that there are a lot of differences between the two. To ease this transition for all of the new Mac owners out there, I’ve put together a quick guide for Mac newbies making the big switch.

Mac OS X Keyboard symbols

You’re a lifehacker and you know all the good keyboard shortcuts on your Windows PC. So the first thing you’ll want to do is get familiar with keyboard shortcuts on your Mac. This seems easy enough – except for the fact that Macs use a strange and foreign set of hieroglyphics for their shortcut keys. Some of the most familiar shortcuts are:

The Apple/Command key is the main modifier on your Mac. Contrary to its Windows counterpart, the Windows key, the Command key does much of the work that the Control key does on a Windows PC. So don’t go hitting the Apple key expecting a system menu to pop up out of nowhere, because it ain’t gonna happen. Instead, plan on using this for your most common keyboard shortcuts.

Like I said above, the Control key on the Mac isn’t used in the same way as the Control key on a Windows PC. I use it most often when I’m “right-clicking” on my Mac – often referred to as Ctrl-Click. The Ctrl key also comes in handy in a lot of other ways, like the Ctrl-Tab tab switching in Firefox.