Keeping up with the 2009 Tour de France is easy with iTunes. The ITV Tour de France Podcast provides you with daily stage updates, behind the scenes interviews, and commentary on the days action. If you’re looking for a quick recap of the Tour de France action, I highly suggest this great podcast!

Friday the Wall Street Journal reported that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant in Tennessee “about two months ago”. In the WSJ article, there was very little details about the source of the information.

Today, the program director at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute confirmed what some had suspected, that Steve Jobs received a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital. Citing the patient’s private health information, no additional details were available.

Get well soon Steve!

Unless you have been under a rock lately, you probably heard of this little conference last week called WWDC. At said conference, Apple announced that iPhone 3.0 software will hit iTunes June 17th. June 17th is THIS wednesday!

I’m glad Apple decided to release the new iPhone OS and the new iPhone 3G S on separate days. The simultaneous launch of iPhone 2.0 software and iPhone 3G was a disaster.

I’m excited about iPhone 3.0 software because I’m not yet sure if I’m going to upgrade my original iPhone to iPhone 3G S. I plan on running iPhone 3.0 for a few weeks to see if I need to upgrade to iPhone 3G S.

Oh yeah, CCP stands for Cut, Copy, and Paste. Finally! What feature in iPhone 3.0 software are you excited about?

Nambu has changed the way I interact with Twitter. You can see a picture of Nambu in use below.

What’s so great about Nambu?

• It’s free
• Multiple account support
• Easily view DM’s, @replies, and Favorites
• Threaded @replies
• Ability to group people to more easily view tweets
• Link organization
• Tr.im support
• And more!

What I like so much about Nambu is that you can easily slice up your Twitter stream nearly any way you like. If you are only following a few people, Nambu may be overkill. If you have multiple accounts, are following many people, or have a very active stream, you should really give Nambu a try.

One cool section of the Apple website that you may not know about is the profiles section. On a semi-regular basis, Apple showcases companies or people and how they use Apple technology. There are two of these sections, one for Pro and the other is Business.

Recently, Apple profiled the hottest company on earth, Twitter. The profile on Twitter talks about some of the Apple technology they use and mention some third-party software tools too. If you’re interested in seeing some of the Twitter office and reading about how the company uses technology, you should read the profile.

One of my favorite profiles from the Pro section is the Washington Post. The Washington Post profile is in video form too!

[Via Daring Fireball]

Newsweek posted an article late last week about the U.S. military’s use of the iPod with soldiers. The iPod is replacing hardware specially built to military specifications. Here’s the money quote if you ask me:

Typically sheathed in protective casing, iPods have proved rugged enough for military life.

If it’s tough enough for the U.S. military, it’s probably tough enough for your use!

[Via Daring Fireball]

While Cha-Ching for iPhone is a completely stand alone application, the real power of the application lies in the integration it has with the desktop application. My review will concentrate more with the total Cha-Ching package (iPhone and Mac) than just the iPhone application by itself.

Once you have data in the desktop application or the iPhone application, you can begin using them together. To sync your data open both the iPhone application and desktop application. Go to Settings in the iPhone application and then hit Sync. Once you touch Sync, you’ll get the below screen telling you how to proceed with the sync on your Mac.

Currently everything is synced between both applications except for Budgets. Why? The budgeting function is being overhauled in the desktop application so right now they aren’t compatible. The budgeting function is a critical feature of any money management application so I hope the feature will be working within the next few beta releases of the desktop application.

Entering transactions on the iPhone application is a breeze. After hitting the New Transaction button, choose from a payee or add a new one. Once the payee is chosen, just enter in the amount and choose Income or Expense and click done. It takes just 3 taps to enter a new transaction!

Cha-Ching for iPhone allows you to schedule transactions, create new accounts, add notes to transactions, password protect the application, is location aware, and much more. Cha-Ching for iPhone currently costs $2.99 and requires iPhone software 2.2.1.

The verdict: Cha-Ching for iPhone is a winner. The application itself is gorgeous, intuitive, and features killer syncing with the desktop application. The ease of use is incredible. In fact, I actually prefer to enter transactions on the iPhone vs. the desktop application because the iPhone application is that easy to use. Currently the only downside is the lack of budget support with the desktop application. The budget feature is currently being worked on so it’s only a matter of time before that downside is erased. In short, Cha-Ching is the preferred method to track my family finances.

If you’ve been holding out for an official Skype application for your iPhone, the wait is about to be over. Skype is set to release the iPhone and iPod touch application sometime tomorrow (March 31st).

The application will be free and will have one fairly significant drawback. As with other VoIP applications on the iPhone, Skype will only work while connected to a WiFi network.

[Via New York Times]

If you’re familiar with MacHeist, you probably know that the whole point of the event is to sell lots and lots of software bundles for an insanely low price. Each bundle as a few killer applications that for most people, make the decision to purchase the bundle a no brainier. Oh wait, you don’t know what MacHeist is? Visit the MacHeist website for details.

Without further waiting, here are the contents of the MacHeist 3 bundle:

• iSale
• Picturesque
• SousChef
• World of Goo
• PhoneView
• LittleSnapper
• Acorn
• Kinemac
• WireTap Studio – Unlocked after $100,000 is raised for charity
• BoinxTV – Unlocked after $100,000 is raised for charity
• The Hit List – Unlocked after an unspecified goal is hit
• Espresso – Unlocked after an unspecified goal is hit
• Big Bang Board Games – For the first 25,000 buyers only

The bundle is cheaper this year, only $39 USD. The entire bundle retails for over $550 so if you find one or two applications you want, the bundle is probably worth it. Me? I’m not sure yet. I have many applications that are similar to those offered in the bundle. For the time being I’m going to wait and see if anything is added to sweeten the deal.

Your finances have just gone mobile. Midnight Apps, makers of my Mac money management application of choice, have just released Cha-Ching for iPhone (iTunes link). You no longer have an excuse for not knowing if that debit or check will clear your bank account.

Cha-Ching for iPhone itself is a standalone money management application for iPhone. The real benefits of Cha-Ching for iPhone however come with the syncing capabilities of the upcoming Cha-Ching 2 for Mac. You can download a free copy of the Mac 2.0 beta from the Midnight Apps website.

I was lucky enough to beta test Cha-Ching for iPhone so I’ve been using it quite frequently for about a month. My full review of the application should be coming in the next several days. Bottom line, I liked Cha-Ching for iPhone enough to put down my own money and buy a copy.

Cha-Ching for iPhone is currently at an introductory price of $2.99 USD and is available now from the App Store.

Did you miss the news about the iPhone 3.0 software today? The iPhone 3.0 software will fix MANY of the gripes about the iPhone. I’m very excited about some of the new iPhone 3.0 software features!

If you want to watch the iPhone 3.0 presentation Apple held today, Apple has posted the video online.

The only part I didn’t like about the event today was the iPhone 3.0 shipping date. Customers can expect the iPhone 3.0 software “this summer”.

If you’re not familiar with Tower Defense, The goal of the game is to try to stop enemies from crossing the map by building towers which shoot various weapons at them as they march across the screen. When an enemy is defeated you earn money or points, which are used to buy or upgrade towers.

I like TapDefense because it involves strategy, has nice graphics, and is easy to play in small batches. For instance, I can play a level or two in the amount of time I’m standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for the train to arrive. The game will save your levels so you can easily stop play and pick your game up later.

I’ve been able to beat the game on Easy and Medium, but Hard has proved to be quite difficult. The mid 20’s levels (23-26) on Hard have given me trouble. I’ve been able to come up with a few tips to help you beat the game. I’d like to share them with you.

Tips:

• Use your points to upgrade your interest rate early on in the game
• Try to use the least amount of weapons to beat the level you’re on; the money you save earns more interest
• Plan your Tower locations carefully. Use the corners on the map to hit enemies as they come to and pass you
• Don’t be afraid to sell Towers that are no longer killing enemies with ease

Overall, TapDefense is a great time waster. It’s fun, easy to pick up, and provides enough difficulty to keep you playing. If you have any tips to beating the mid 20 levels on Hard, share them in the comments!

If there is one thing us Mac users can count on, it is that every couple months there will be some kind of software bundle/deal offered. The deals vary in applications and methods. Some deals are a flat fee and you get the entire lot of applications. Other deals give a sliding discount based on how many applications you buy, the more applications you buy the bigger the discount.

The Mac Bundle Box is the former type of deal. For $49 you get 13 applications. The entire bundle is valued at over $300 and includes:

• Relationship
• Code Collector Pro
• DrawIt
• Espionage
• Cover Stream
• DEVONnote
• QuickScale
• Project Calculator
• Transcriva
• Magnet
• Involver
• Stuf
• Blog Assist

If you in the market for a few of these applications, it makes the price of the bundle very attractive. I don’t need any of the applications myself so I’ll pass on this particular bundle. The folks behind Mac Bundle Box are donating %5 of each sale to charity: water. charity: water is a non-profit devoted to bringing clean water to people in developing nations.

The bundle will run for 11 days according to the website, but I don’t see a mention on when that “timer” started.  If you’re interested in a few of the applications, it’s probably better to buy early than later.

My wife is not going to be happy. Just last week I showed her how to use Boxee on our Apple TV to watch her favorite TV shows via Hulu. Tonight, I had to break the bad news to her. Boxee is being forced to remove Hulu from their application. This situation upsets me greatly.

Hulu has a post on their blog about the situation. As you can see from the picture above, Hulu and Boxee are no longer friends. Ok, so I made that part up. The crude pictures help me cope OK.

Sometimes, OK often, I just don’t understand the media companies. You don’t want people to pirate video/music so you give us a legal way to obtain your content. Just as adoption rate of this new method starts to take hold, all the sudden that method is not good anymore. The viewing experience with Hulu and Boxee was working just fine! I didn’t mind watching the ads. Perhaps BitTorrent traffic will tick up because of this.

Hulu says their content providers “requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product”. So basically all is fine and dandy as long as you can’t watch Hulu on a TV? I can just hook my Mac to my TV video input and watch Hulu on my TV. Why is it any different if I’m using an application to do the exact same thing?

As to my wife and Hulu? We’ll they have broken up too. She’s not going to watch her TV shows on her laptop via Hulu.com. There goes at least one set of eyeballs!

Are you upset about the Boxee and Hulu situation? Write Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, at Jason@hulu.com. He’ll be seeing my email soon.

I’ve been using the Mac for just about two years now. For the longest time I missed my Windows delete key function. You know, the delete key by the insert, end, and home keys.

I finally decided I needed to find out if such a keystroke was possible. A quick Google search later and I found my answer. For those of you wishing to have a Windows like delete key on your Mac, use the following keys: fn + delete. So very simple. I’m mad that I didn’t look this up sooner!