Peter Vatistas

Finally a solid and customizable alternative to Apple iTunes! Just like Firefox, Songbird is community powered, open source, cross platform media player from the creators of Firefox, supporting a variety of media devices including ipods and MTP devices.

Personalize your player:

Discover music:

Sync your device:

Click here to learn more and download Songbird.

For those of us who have the older versions of the iPhone (1.1.1 - 1.1.4), Apple wants us to wait until tomorrow before we can upgrade to 2.0 firmware. Well, here’s how to backdoor the upgrade process and get 2.0 installed on our iPhones NOW!!

Before we start this process, please sync your iphone with the current version of iTunes to make sure all your data is backed up.

1. Open iTunes and click Help, then Check for Updates. Let iTunes upgrade to 7.7.

2. Download the iPhone 2.0 firmware (225MB - .ipsw file ). If by chance it has a .zip extension at the end (after the .ipsw extension, just remove it).

3. Connect your iPhone to your computer and select it in iTunes. Hold down the shift button (Windows Vista) and select the restore button.

4. Once the browser window pops up, browse to the .ipsw file you just downloaded and select it.

5. Now iTunes will upgrade your iPhone and should take 15 +/- minutes.

6. After the iPhone has been upgraded, iTunes will ask to setup as a new iPhone or restore from a backup, click restore (will use your most recent sync data).

Your all set!! Now head into the App store in iTunes and download all the killer apps!!

Unconfirmed Microsoft Windows 7 Screenshots - Microsoft plans the release of Windows 7 in 2010. The part that makes me laugh about this is Windows 7 development should be Microsoft’s last concern… Vista doesn’t even work right and application coders are still hesitant to adopt it.

Apple is definitely earning more market share each and every day; Microsoft is obviously trying to follow in Apple’s footsteps by releasing operating systems every couple years. The only difference between Apple and Microsoft is OS X Leopard works perfectly, even on my HP Laptop, Dell XPS, and Dell Dimension! I have yet to see any machine run Vista flawlessly.

This is an awesome application that allows you to plug your Mac formatted and partitioned hard drive (internal & external) into your PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista. I had several external hard drives that I formatted and partitioned on OS X Leopard. I brought one of the drives home to grab some data off of it on my Vista box when I realized there is no way to view the data. After searching for a few hours I found MacDrive, the exact solution I needed for this situation. MacDrive came recommended by some very reputable members on the Microsoft IT Advisory Council (thanks guys!).

MacDrive gives you access to all your Mac-formatted disks from Windows and even the Mac partition. You can access files on the Mac disk just like you would with a Windows formatted disk. Open files from the disk or from within a program. Mac files automatically get the right icons and file name extensions under both Windows and Mac OS.

Click here to read more and download

This is actually quite a simple task yet I’ve received several emails recently about how to burn an ISO to disc in Leopard OS X. I totally understand the reason for this question from the general OS X user because to do this you have to know the tool to use and normally it is used by the intermediate/advanced user.

So, how do you burn an .iso image to a CD or DVD in OS X?

Insert the CD/DVD into your Mac, locate your .ISO image and follow these very easy steps:

Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities and run Disk Utility (Disk Utility.app)

In Disk Utility, go to File > Open Disk Image and select the .ISO you want to burn to disc

Now click Burn

Thats it! Now you should see a little box pop up with the status of your ISO image being written to the disc.

Apple has released the 1.1.3 firmware update for the iPhone - get it and check out all the slick new features!!

A few of you wanted to know where you could find Apple’s OS X Leopard Server wallpaper, well here it is (click image for 2560 x 1600 Leopard Server wallpaper):

Here is a sneak peak at what Apple may be cooking up. There are several sites that did a decent enough write up so I will just provide links. When this thing hits the market I will be the first to buy one - I LOVE THIS IDEA!!

Gizmodo

Engadget

I get a lot of emails from people whom want to know which applications I prefer in Windows. Although this is both a loaded question and a very broad one, I will try to answer this the best I can and will definitely update it from time to time.

Favorite FTP Application: WinSCP

Favorite Telnet & SSH Application: PuTTY

Favorite Internet Browser: Firefox 2 & Safari

Favorite Imaging Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Open Source: Gimp

Favorite Instant Messanger: Application: Trillian - Web Based: Meebo

Favorite Text Editor (HTML, CSS, etc): Edit Plus 2

Favorite CD/DVD & ISO Software: MagicISO

Favorite Office Suite: Microsoft Office 2007 - Open Source: Open Office & Star Office

Favorite Compression & Encryption Software: WinRAR

Favorite Blogging Software: Windows Live Writer

Favorite AntiVirus/Malware Software: Eset NOD32

Favorite Email Client: Microsoft Outlook 2007 (for exchange) - Open Source: Mozilla Thunderbird 2

Favorite BitTorrent Application: Azureus

This list is way from a complete one and to be honest I have been moving away from Windows all together and replacing them with Mac’s. Sorry Microsoft guys - I have been bit by the Apple bug. I also have a laptop running Fedora 8 and I’ll make sure I write a favorite’s list for both Apple and Linux soon.

I just got turned on to this neat little application and I am hooked!

Music Rescue is an application that allows you to copy your (or anyone else’s) tracks to any computer you choose. If you’re not allowed to install iTunes (like at school or work), simply install Music Rescue onto your iPod at home and it’ll be available wherever you go - Mac or PC.

I installed Music Rescue on my Mac and all I had to do was plug in my iPhone and it transfered everything over, in MP3 format!! I grabbed my buddies video iPod and downloaded his entire library - all 22,000 MP3’s (which I quickly deleted because that is considered illegal… LOL). I now have a little over 44,000 MP3’s and growing! I totally recommend this application for any of you who have been burned by iTunes (I have lost hundreds of songs in the past and I can’t re-download them) or for the guys who just want to build their library like mad!!

KennettNet’s Music Rescue