This year for Christmas, my wife got me an iPod Touch! This little device is extremely cool and I’m completely addicted.

I now have an iPod that plays videos and Handbrake will become my new friend. It also has a calendar built in with two way syncing with iCal. Cool!

And lets not forget Safari. I sit at home on it and surf the net. I’ve already spend hours looking up iPod Touch (or iPhone) web apps. I just wish there was a way to download them and use them offline. I guess I’ll have to wait until February when Apple should start letting developers build offline apps for the iPod Touch.

With Apple’s new announcement of iPod touch, I’m ready to buy! (Wife, ignore that.)

iPod touch is basically an iPhone without the phone. Perfect for me as I don’t want to go with ATT. It has a multi touch interface, Wi-Fi and iTunes Store on the iPod! I think I’m in love.

Even better yet, with the Wi-Fi you basically have a PDA. Just go over to Netvibes use that to create notes, checklists and so much more. I don’t see eMail integration, but as long as you can get to the web, you can check webmail. Right?!?!

When I decided to backup my iPod today, I found out my Life2Go application has quit production and was unable to read the music on my iPod. So I went out to MacUpdate to find another. That’s when I came across YamiPod.

YamiPod is a free application for Mac, Windows and Linux that will manage the music on your iPod. I downloaded it, exported all my songs to a DVD and am burning a backup disk as we speak. This is a great example of a free application that just works.

I was reading over at TechCrunch that Google personalized homepages were re-launching as iGoogle. When I logged into my account, sure enough, there it was; iGoogle.

iGoogle Hosted on Zooomr

Now, most things that start with an i followed by a product name remind me of Apple. I think it was that iMac that started it all and of course the iPod, iTunes and wealth of other i stuff. Is Google keen on Apple? Well probably not.

The old personalized homepages were known as ig - http://www.google.com/ig - so they just expanded upon that and spelled it out; iGoogle.

The announcement today of the Apple iPhone is amazing. The little device that can do phone, music, videos, tv and so much more blows me away. All this with no buttons, just a touch screen. It’s basically like a Mac Nano. It’s almost perfect. The main, and killer, downside is that it’s Cingular only. I’m not switching to them anytime soon and I really wish they could have partnered with Verison or a few cell companies.

It’s an un-official Apple holiday today! Today is the bi-annual Apple Expo day where Steve Jobs gets up on stage and announces what’s been happening at Apple and where they are headed.

One year ago, Apple announced the Intel processor, iLife 06 with iWeb and lots of RSS and Podcast integration, the official FM transmitter for the iPod and minor updates to iWork. In September’s show, Mr. Jobs told us about iPod games, the movie store in iTunes, new Nanos and previewed iTV.

Christmas was good to me and this year as I got a Bose SoundDock!

Bose SoundDock Hosted on Zooomr

After I worked out a few issues with my iPod, it now works great and I love it. I’m all for filling the house with my music and the SoundDock is great as it also charges my iPod.

Other cool gifts included a new watch, the Muppet Show season one, Shaun of the Dead and iTunes gift cards to name a few!

My wife also got a cool iPod accessory, but I’m waiting for her to post about that.

I’m in need of a bit of iPod help. I have posted my issue at MacOSX.com and Apple’s site with no answers.

I have a 20 gig iPod that does photos and music. It works great, however if I try to set it on the dock, and then use the line out in the back of the dock to my speakers, it’ll only play for about 90 seconds (or so) and then it’ll go silent. The iPod will still be playing, but the speakers won’t omit any sound.

While surfing though iTunes this morning I came across the just released Chris Daughtry album. The American Idol contestant is the second (?) artist from the 2006 season to have an album out. I just downloaded it and am listening to it now.

You can download Daughtry on or purchase from Amazon.

Daughty Track Listing:

1. It’s Not Over
2. Used To
3. Home
4. Over You
5. Crashed
6. Feels Like Tonight
7. What I Want (featuring Slash)
8. Breakdown
9. Gone
10. There And Back Again
11. All These Lives
12. What About Now

Introducing the iPod Nano Completely Remastered desktop pictures.

I really like Apple’s new ad, however I was unable to find any good desktop pictures to go along with the ad. So I took the time to create six desktops based off Apple’s new iPod Nano ad.

Desktops ~ 1MB Each:
Pink, Blue, Green Dark
Pink, Blue, Green Light
Blue
Green One
Green Two
Pink
All Zipped Up - 4.5MB