eTech n Stuff

New Apple Nono, Shuffle, iPod Touch and iTV

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:18:06 +0000

Here is the new iPod Touch – click the picture to learn more

Here is the the new Apple iPod Nano – click the picture to learn more

Here is the new Apple iPod Shuffle – click the picture to learn more

And the new iTV – click the picture to learn more

The Apple Music event is over – New Nono, New Shuffle, New iPod Touch, New iTurns and New Apple TV

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:41:04 +0000

The first new thing from Apple that they really did not talk about is for the very first time the streamed the event live! Normally one would go to the Apple bloggers and watch the blogs as an Apple event was going on. We then would play the video later, often days later before one could get access to the video. Apple actually streamed the event live. You could only watch on a MAC or Apple mobile device. The stream on my MAC was very very good. There were a few places where the video glitched for a few seconds. The audio never missed a beat. The stream on my iPhone 3GS sort of started to work on the 3G network but the video failed and it went to audio only. I switch to WiFi and for awhile the live stream ran very well on my iPhone – the iPhone was getting the same video glitches as the MAC – interestingly the iPhone WiFi stream was running about 15 seconds ahead of the MAC stream. The iPhone stream did fail for me and it appeared to start the event over from the beginning. Why does this matter? There is no way of knowing how many people were watching the live stream on the MACs and or Apple mobile devices – maybe at some point Apple will say how many devices were on the live stream. The number was probably 100s of thousands maybe a million maybe more. Point is that is a major server load – certainly far beyond anything Apple has ever done before. Obviously Apple was able to test their new sever facility in North Carolina and as an observer it looked like it went well. This mean really large events can be streamed live to very large groups of people. It also appear that the new Apple TV very well may be taking advantage of some sort of new streaming technology -. So what is new at Apple? There is a new Shuffle – the control wheel and buttons are back and the voice control is still there – it now has play lists – no display however it has voice to tell you what is playing, artist and so on. Next is a brand new Nano with a touch screen – plus the voice control is there – the Nano will show playlists, artists, albums and cover art, it also has a built in FM radio. $149 for the 8G model or $179 for the 16G model. Play time for the Shuffle is is up to 15 hours and for the Nano is up to 24 hours. Both the new Nano and the new Shuffle are really tiny – they have clips that can be "worn" – both require connecting to a computer and iTunes to get music on them. Next is a brand new iPod Touch – and YES!!! it now has both a front facing camera and a rear facing camera – looks like the same physical design as past iPod touch’s. Still has WiFi so you can get to iTunes anywhere that there is WiFi available. The touch play video as well as audio. The Retina display introduced on the iPhone 4 is now on the iPod Touch. Face time and gaming and of course Apps. $229 for 8G — $299 for 32G and $399 for 64G. The Classic iPhone has not been changed – 16G for $249 video and audio playback. The Touch and the Classic run 36 hours of audio or 6 hours of video. (the Touch actually a bit longer) The next new thing at Apple is iTunes 10. The biggest change there is what Apple is calling Ping – it is a new social network for and about music, you can follow artists, your friends, you can receive and send posts, talk about and show your favorite music, and you can use Ping on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. This could turn out to be a very powerful new social network somewhere between Twitter and FaceBook. There will be a new iSO update for the iPhone and iPod touch where some more features have been added and of course some problems have been fixed. There will be a new iPad iSO update in November where the really "neat" things that iSO added to the iPhone and iPod Touch will soon be available on the iPad. The last new thing is a totally new iTV – TV shows, and movies for rent no more purchasing media. The new iTV will work with You Tube and Netflex, and you can play media from your computer. The dropped the price to $99. So that is the news that Apple presented today.

Be sure to run over to APPLE to take a look. The video of the presentation should be up later on for those of you that use PCs or were not able to watch it live.

The Apple Music event is over – New Nono, New Shuffle, New iPod Touch, New iTurns and New Apple TV

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:34:10 +0000

Be sure to run over to APPLE to take a look. The video of the presentation should be up later on for those of you that use PCs or were not able to watch it live.

Notes on upcoming events – SIMPLE II – Word Press Creation Workshop

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:04:36 +0000

There a couple of upcoming opportunities that I want to make certain everyone is aware of. The first is SIMPLE II by Bob the Teacher. This a live event that will be in Baltimore MD and will be held on Sep 24-26. SIMPLE II will consist of 3 days of intense learning taught by Bob Jenkins. This 3 day workshop is highly recommended!!!

The second event is online. If you find you are having to rely on a web master to make even simple changes to your web site you might want to think about doing your own web sites with Word Press. Christina Hills will be offering her excellent Word Press Creation Workshop beginning Sept 27. This online class runs for 8 weeks and during that time Christina will help you set up and launch your own Word Press website. You will no longer by “stuck” with a web master, you will be able to set up and manage your website by yourself. Word Press is not real difficult to work with and the online workship will save you a lot of time learning to use Word Press on your own. Plus Christina will work with you individually as well as the group of students when you have questions or need things clearified.

Chained to your Webmaster?? You can do you own site

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:03:22 +0000

Business Owners – you do not need to be chained to a webmaster to create and manage your web site. The key is learning how to use Word Press and doing your site yourself or in house. Christina is offering her excellent Word Press Creation Workshop once again. Her course is time and money well spent. Christina works with her students to help them use and develop Word Press based sites, even if you are a complete novice. I highly recommend this course.

Christina does some very unique videos to promote her course here is the First One for the new class WORDPRESS CREATION WORKSHOP

New Yard Garden Windmill Site – Coming

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:54:33 +0000

I am putting a new Yard Garden Windmill Product site together. I am using the DREAM THEME from Go for Your Dream. So far I am really liking this theme. This is a Word Press Site. Come on over and take a look or even better come back and watch the site come together. YARD GARDEN WINDMILLS. If you use Word Press be sure to subscribe to the free Word Press Tip of the Day from GFYD – amazing, invaluable information!!!!

Keyword research – really made simple

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:20:27 +0000

I just purchased and listened to a really fantastic panel discussion on keywords and keyword research. Key words to me have always been at best confusing. I know I need to use keywords, I know I need to do the research on everything from eBay listings, to web pages, to blog posts – I know there are tools that help and use a number of these tools however until I heard this panel discussion I really was not clear on exactly what keywords are and how to use them. This is a 90 minute lecture – yes there is a small cost involved ($17) – the bottom line is this has to be one of the very best discussions about keywords that I have heard. I highly recommend this one. And I really thank Kristen Eckstein for making me aware of this really great discussion.

KEYWORD RESEARCH – just click the link and take a look.

Laptop Failure

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:58:44 +0000

One of my laptops – a Dell 620 Latitude failed a few days ago. Apparently it had a hard drive head crash which destroyed part of Windows XP. This is normally not a problem – get a replacement hard drive and reload Windows. Actually things were going fairly well with the replacement Hard Drive when the machine froze. It got so the bios would not come up – that is not good news either the processor was failing or the motherboard. I was able to find refurbished replacement at Micro Center at a good price.

New Apple Store Lexington KY

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:07:57 +0000

I just learned Lexington KY is getting an Apple store!!! And it is opening Saturday. Fayetteville mall area

From my iPhone

Hard Drive with iTunes Failed – the one the sychs with an iPod – So you get a new computer – BE CAREFUL!!!!

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:31:48 +0000

A clients laptop hard drive failed and nothing on that drive could be recovered. The client got a new laptop. The laptop that failed was the one this client used to synch to her iPod touch.

The first thing to know is NEVER synch an iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad to a different computer unless you know exactly how iTunes works.

You can be in a situation where the only place where your photos and music, and videos and all the other stuff you put on you iPhone, iPod or iPad only exists on the Apple device. In the case of this client that was her situation.

The first thing to know about iTunes is iTunes is used to upload music, movies, apps, and photos to Apple mobile devices. iTunes is NOT to be used for downloading to a different computer. iTunes has a number of libraries – music, playlists, movies and so on. iTunes is designed to move this media to an Apple mobile device. It IS NOT designed to move media from the iPhone to a different computer.

If you put iTunes on a new computer, all of the media files are empty. If you connect your iPod, iPhone or iPad to the new computer and synch it iTunes will erase everything on you Apple Mobile device and upload what is in the libraries of the computer. A new iTunes install has nothing so you will end up with an iPod with nothing on it.

If your old computer synched to you Apple Mobile device is working you just go back and synch it to the computer that has the libraries with your music and movies, playlists and photos and all is well.

If you find yourself with an iPod, iPhone or iPad full of content and media and the computer you used to get that stuff on you Apple device fails you MUST get that content and media saved and added to your iTunes libraries and iTunes is not the way to do that.

First step is to have some way to back up all of the files on the Apple Mobile Device. iPhones, iPods and iPads do not store media like you might think. All of the music and media on the Apple Mobile device are indexed data bases, not music files.

The way to back up an iPhone, iPod or iPad is to use third part software and you must make certain when you plug your Apple mobile device into a new or different computer that iTunes does not synch.

I have used several 3rd party software programs in the past with my old iPad and my new iPhone 3GS. These programs made a back up of the iPhone files and I was able to import the back up files to iTunes on a different computer and thus save an use the content on the Apple mobile device. I of course did that first with the clients iPod. I backup up every folder and file on the device.

I tried a new set of 3rd party tools today. These from CopyTrans – (Remember the first thing – back up the Apple Mobile device first – there are several ways to do this.) First I tried CopyTrans – they have free versions – however not all the features work – so buy the software and be sure to activate it with the key before you use it. Load it into the new computer where the new totally empty iTunes is located and will be the new home for your music, media, and photos for you Apple mobile device. Next I connected the iPod – CopyTrans brought all of the media, and the play lists and movies from the iPod to iTunes. Great first step.

Next come photos, these are not dealt with like music on Apple devices. The photos are stored in the photos folder. CopyTrans Photo will solve the photo problem. Download it to the new computer. Connect the iPod (or other Apple mobile device) and you will see all of the photos and albums of photos that are on the iPod, iPhone or iPad.

Main thing to know is on your PC you will need to create albums (create new file in the photo folder) that matches the files on the iPod or other Apple mobile device. You can right click on the iPod side and choose all and then move the images to the PC side. You must then use the transfer button. Do this one file at a time from the iPod or other Apple mobile device and you will end up with all of the photos from the iPod on the new PC.

The CopyTrans Photo program is a great way to move photos the other way – from a PC to an iPod, iPhone, iPad also.

Once you have all of your photos on the new PC in albums in the photos folder and your music and movies and books and all that other stuff we all put on our iPhones and iPods into iTunes then you are all set. Go ahead and authorize the new PC to work with your device and you can synch it and when you do this everything get erased from your iPod, iPhone or iPad and the libraries are now put back on the Apple Mobile device. Synch the other things, the books, podcasts and so on and the picture from the PC photo File and your are done.

The thing to know is iTunes transfers from your PC to you iPod, iPhone, and iPad. iTunes does not transfer from your Apple Mobile device to your PC. The best way to backup, copy and save the information and media that is on you Apple mobile device is to use third part software that can copy and save the information on your Apple Mobile device. While I used to use another brand, today I learned that the products from CopyTrans work and work well.

So the end of the story is this, a client lost her computer that had all of her photos and music and movies and playlists that she used to add content to her iPod Touch. She now has all of that content that was on her iPod now on her new computer and the iPod is synched to that new computer. She can add music and photos to her PC and these will synch and go to her iPod.

This is one of those situations you need to know exactly how to do to avoid losing all of your music and photos. Main thing to know is never connect an iPod, iPad or iPhone to a different computer than the one that has your iTunes libraries unless you know exactly how this all works.