Have you heard about Idol Gives Back?  More than likely you have.  Have you donated?  The money goes to help kids in our country and others have a better life.  Helping them out with things like books, safe places to live & play and medication.

It’s easy to give back.  You can donate online, by mail or by phone.  Details on the American Idol website.

You can also just open iTunes, click on the Idol Gives Back banner and purchase some music.  Songs from Snoop Dogg, Fergie, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, Heart and more are available.  That’s a pretty simple way to donate.

When I heard that Kid Rocks new song was going to be up next on the radio yesterday I almost switched stations. But I didn’t. What I heard was great song that speaks the truth our country, our world today.

The songs called Amen and everyone can relate to it.

Now, if I could only find it on iTunes or Amazon so I could download it. Does Kid Rock not believe in iTunes???

What’s the best way to convert a Windows user to a Mac? Give them something they are familiar with. With Mac OS 10.5, aka Leopard, Apple integrates the iTunes interface, that both Mac and Windows users are use to, into the Finder.

First off there is Coverflow, the handy little application that Apple bought from a Mac developer. It really showcases album artwork in iTunes and now does the same thing for documents and images in the Finder.

Second is the sidebar. With the same look and feel and functionality as iTunes, the Finder now replicates iTunes’ sidebar.

Garth Brooks is back on the radio with his yearly single. This time it’s titled More than a Memory.

The thought of a new Garth music shouldn’t come as to much of a surprise. It seems that with his Walmart deal, Garth gets a new product each year and those products are then promoted via a new radio single. This year the product is The Ultimate Hits and contains:

… 30 classics, 3 new songs and a bonus track on two CDs. The set also includes a DVD with 33 videos including new and ever-before-seen footage.

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.

On our weekly trip to SuperTarget today we noticed that two packs of General Mills cereal now come with two free iTunes songs. Not only that, plus you get a coupon for a $1 off a $15 iTunes card. Now that’s a decent deal. Especially since we always buy cereal.

Free iTunes Songs at Target Hosted on Zooomr

iTunes is the worlds’ largest online music store and you won’t believe some of the great music that is available. Check out these 10 hot songs available to download today for only 99cents!

10. Achy Breaky Heart - Billy Ray Cyrus
9. Macarena - Los Del Rio
8. Tubthumping- Chumbawamba
7. Are You Jimmy Ray - Jimmy Ray
6. Barbie Girl - Aqua
5. MMMBop - Hanson
4. How Bizarre - OMC
3. Summertime - Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith)
2. Anything by David Hasselhoff
1. Hangin’ Tough - New Kids on the Block

Really, it was all my fault, but Apple could do a bit better job at warning a guy.

I was playing around with the new iTunes 7 when I came across my iPod stats. Pretty nifty. I clicked on the Music tab and decided to sync a playlist. My wife hates it when she downloads or rips a song and I don’t get it on my iPod. So I decided to sync the ‘Recently Added’ playlist.

Yes, there was a warning message, however I interpreted it to be related to that playlist. After all, I didn’t click the ‘All Songs and Playlist’ radio button. Two seconds later, my iPod was wiped clean.

Apple released more than just a few things today. Now available is iTunes 7 incorporating movie sales, games (Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini golf, pac man, tetris, texas holdem, vortex, and zuma) for the iPod and bigger TV shows; 640×480 (h264), up from 320×240.

Movies are $12.99 for new releases, preorders and first week. After that up to $14.99, however older movies go for only $9.99. It’ll take about 30 minutes at a 5mb/s broadband connection. Movies come with Dolby surround sound and are near DVD quality. Heck, you gotta risk something for getting them on demand and cheap.

The week of August 2nd 2005, iTunes’ free single of the week was a song called Bad Day by unknown artist Daniel Powter. A few months later, American Idol shot the song to #1 by using it as the shows signature song for the 2006 season.

Before American Idol though, there was a very clever music video that includes a guy and a girl who seem to be stuck in a rut. And yes, they do hook up in the end.

Check out the video (with no American Idol references).