Mac Tip: Announcing the Time

Today I have a really quick tip for all of the people who use macs. That's a lot of people. I think a lot of people could put this tip into great use right away. It's announcing the time. I have this on hourly because I may get side tracked while doing some graphic design or video editing and just lose track of time. So, this tip is a very helpful one for me. 

How to do this:

Open up System Preferences. Go to Date and Time. Then go to clock and check the box that says announce the time. If you follow these steps in the order of presentation, you will be able to put this tip into great use. Now, there may be some of you out there who like a video presentation over a written one. If so, please refer to the video above. 

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AirPort Express: Ideal for a College Dorm Room

I was pondering thoughts and this brilliant idea came across my mind. Let me first say that I do not own an AirPort Express, nor am I a college student. I am currently using a Linksys wireless router and am currently in my Junior year of high school. So, why is the Airport Express ideal for a college dorm room or apartment?

First, the amount of space the thing takes up is so minimal and you can really put it anywhere. Dorm rooms are very tiny, but you will, without a doubt, find room for this tiny 3.7 x 2.95 x 1.12 inch device. It only weighs 7.4 ounces!

Secondly, the main feature of this device, the wireless internet router. Sure, you might be saying, "Why the heck would you need wireless internet in such a small room?" Here's why. College students are usually either lazy or tired, meaning they don't want to bother with all of the wires or having to sit at their desk to be online. Wouldn't they love to be able to relax on their bed and still be able to connect to Facebook? Or maybe they want to watch a movie online and they don't want to watch it at their desk. The point is, is that in a dorm room you don't want to be restricted to one place where you can use the internet.

Thirdly, the capability to print wirelessly. Most know that colleges don't make enough room on the desks for a printer and usually students have to physically pick up the printer and move it when they want to print. With the AirPort Express you can print wirelessly so you don't have to deal with cords not being long enough. It's also quite ridiculous for you and your roommate both to have individual printers in the same room. With the AirPort Express, you can share the same printer with your roommate and possibly even keep the printer under the bed and out of the way. You will also cut down on ink cartridge costs by sharing a printer and splitting the price.

Fourthly, everybody likes listening to music and how awesome would that be to play music from your computer wirelessly! Another cord elimination! Students can just hang around the dorm room playing music from iTunes and streaming it to speakers that can be all the way at the other side of the room. You can also control the music from an iPod touch or iPhone which is another awesome feature.

Fifthly, almost anybody can use it! Whether you are using a Mac or a PC you can still use this amazing device. As long as your computer has a wireless card in it and a somewhat modern operating system you can use the AirPort Express.

Well, I covered some pretty awesome features (if I may say so, myself). You can use internet wirelessly, print wirelessly, listen to music wirelessly, all from this tiny device that almost anybody with an updated computer could use. What do you think? Do you agree that the AirPort Express would be great to have in a dorm room? Let me know!

Tek Nation Episode 6: Tablet Craze

In today's episode of Tek Nation we talked about a few major headlines going on in the world of technology. I chose the title "Tablet Craze" because of the huge market for tablet computing started by Apple with their iPad. To find out more of the headlines discussed on Tek Nation this week, please take a look at the video above.

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iOS on iPod touch 3G

(This was originally posted at abrahamlpas.tumblr.com)

iOS 4.1 was released this Monday, and it has such awesome new features , but most of them are just available for the iPhone and the new iPod Touch 4G (not all the iPhone models), so today I will talk about three great features for the iPod Touch 3G.

Let's remember that you can use all the features of iOS 4.1 just in 32 & 64 Gb models, in this case I own a 32 GB version. So, the first one is Game Center.

In my opinion this is like having a little Xbox LIVE with you, but it’s good.

Then we have iTunes Movie Rentals ($.99) which is a good thing, because when we want to see something, we can go to iTunes Store and rent a movie.

And the last one is Ping, now built-in iTunes Store! The new Social Network from Apple is just some taps away!

I think that we can take advantage on this, and you will enjoy it so much!

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Stick to what you Know, Apple. Ping Sucks!

iTunes 10 came out yesterday and offered one major change - Ping. Steve Jobs touted it as "a social network for music". You were supposed to be able to follow bands and friends and share what music you were buying, listening to and where concerts were being held. Sounds cool right? Well its not. First, Facebook is blocking Ping so you can't connect with your friends. The only way you can find them is though search or emailing them directly and who wants to bother with that. Second, the software doesn't find similar music to what you like for recommendations, but instead only what's popular. Lastly, the software doesn't seem to filter spam and will let you take whatever name you want. Thus follow me, Kurt Cobain!

Apple even had Facebook connect on its own website yesterday morning. However, Facebook started blocking Ping as there was no contract in place. This would be really funny as Apple is getting some of its own medicine, but without Facebook Ping is terrible as a social network. You can't connect with your friends easily. What good is a social network if you can't easily find the people you want to be social with? When I created my profile I picked Nirvana and Alice in Chains as the only two bands I liked. So whom does Ping recommend that I follow? Lady Gaga and Katy Perry! Obviously the software is just showing you what is popular (Lady Gaga already has over 150,000 followers) rather than what you might like that is similar. Another issue is that you can pick any name so there are already six Justin Biebers. I took the name Kurt Cobain. Yes, I have taste and while I don't see myself using Ping much - follow me for kicks! The other big problem with Ping is it doesn't filter spam in the comments. I followed Rick Rubin and there were 82 comments on an album he liked. At least ten of these were "get a free iPhone at . . ." with a link to the same website. Apple needs to get this under control really fast or Ping might be their biggest flop since the first generation Apple TV. I'm a big Apple fan, but just like Google should never had tried to make a smart phone (sorry to anyone who bought a Nexus One), Apple should stick to what its good at. Unless Apple works out a deal with Facebook and gets a handle on the spam, Kurt Cobain says, "Stay Away!"

You can find other iPhone releated articles and content on my site.