This was a very successful WWDC in my opinion. There were two main topics that were talked about during Steve Job’s keynote. Of course the much anticipated 3G iPhone was given its release date, along with the 2.0 firmware. Steve also talked about Mobile Me. Mobile Me is to take the same role as .Mac, only add a bit more features.

3G iPhone

When Steve Jobs talked about the 3G iPhone, I was very surprised, as well impressed. First, I could not believe the price would drop all the way to $199 for the 8GB. This is huge! The 3G iPhone will have 2 download speeds of two times faster than the current iPhone, GPS, longer battery life, and a new color (white).

The 3G iPhone got a new design too. It still may look the same to you, but the corners are a little different, its thinner, and the back is one solid color now.

I am really impressed, I like this iPhone better than first generation iPhone. The price is unbelievable, you get more features, and much much more.

The new iPhone will be released in the second week of July. That is when I expect firmware 2.0 to be released as well

Mobile Me

For those that do not use .Mac, you probably are not fully aware of what Mobile Me is. Let me teach you exactly about what .Mac is first. .Mac helps synchronize your computers, and holds your information on your own .Mac account. What do I mean by information? Your calendar, contacts, email, bookmarks, and many other things. So if I am at somebody else’s house, I can access all my contacts from his computer. Then if you have two computers, you can have it so when you add a contact on one computer, it will do it automatically on your other one.

Now, Mobile Me will replace .Mac, and at the same time add a few features. First, I want to talk about the email. Right now, I am currently a .Mac subscriber, meaning I have a .Mac email. Since I am, I will get both email address, .Mac & .Me. I am really excited about this. This will allow me to switch an email once my current email is filled up with spam.

Next, you will get a few more GB of space. Last time I checked, .Mac users have 8GB of space; once .Mac switches over to Mobile Me, all users will have 10GB of space. This is always nice, I am only using about 1% of my space now, but it never hurts to have more.

Mobile Me should be in full running shape sometime in early July.

My Thoughts

I believe that this was a very successful WWDC. There was also some talk about Mac OS X 10.6, code name: “Snow Leopard”. I love Leopard, I think it is much better than Tiger, and I cannot wait to see how the next update is going to be.

I have been considering selling my iPhone so I can upgrade to the 3G, but I have yet to decide. I want to see some reviews before I make that jump.

iTunes is one of the greatest, if not the greatest music player for your computer. For over 7 years, iTunes has been improving itself, and having amazing features that make listening to your music so much easier and cooler. They made it really user friendly so you can do many easy things, like burn CD’s or find what song you are looking for.

Like it was said before, iTunes has some pretty amazing features; which of these features however are the most underused. You would be surprised at what exactly you can do on iTunes that you may not know you could do.

1. Browser

You may not have known that your iTunes had a browser did you? Well this is great for really finding the song you want. Maybe you want to listen to only acoustic music, and just from certain people. The browser on iTunes will sort all your music to the mood you are in.

2. Equalizer

If I ever wanted to be a DJ, I wouldn’t spend money on all that music software, I think iTunes would work just fine. With equalizer you can fully customize how your music sounds; so maybe you want to really emphasize the guitar or maybe pump up the bass.

3. Rating

Rating is really helpful when you want a good song to listen to. Some people organize their music by Artist or Song Name, but I organize it by Song Rating. This way I know where all the songs that I usually listen to are, and not the ones that I do not really listen to. If you have a lot of songs, and do not want to go through every single song, a great program that does it all for you is AutoRate. They rate your songs really accurately too.

4. Smart Playlists

Maybe you want a folder of just Frank Sinatra or the Beetles. Why should you have to add every single song at a time or whenever you add a new song to your library? When you have a Smart Playlist, it will do it all for you. You can customize the playlist for whatever you want, based off rating, how many times the song was played, you name it.

5. Album View/Cover Flow

Now, the main library should always be in List View (which it usually is); however you can spice up your library for the smaller folders and playlists. Maybe you have a playlist of many different artist, you can look through your folder in Album View or Cove Flow. Doing this will really help your library look a lot cooler.

6. MiniStore

Since iTunes has one of the largest music stores on the web, you can almost download any band and song that you want. Maybe you are getting sick of your music, and want to find new music. Well by using the mini store, you can do just that. With MiniStore, you can see what other songs are played by the Artist, what other Albums they have, and what other Artist’s people bought with the same music taste as you.

7. Change Columns

Now, I am sure you are like me, and do not care what album it is from or what genre it is. What I care about mostly is the name of the song, the artist who sings it, the rating it has, and the number of times it has been played. Now you can add many columns to your iTunes library, which will cause your library to stretch. So you can organize your columns so the most important ones are what you see first.

This question was asked: Should I buy an iMac with a 500GB HD now, or should I wait to buy it later when they upgrade?

The answer to this question was you should definitely buy it now. Apple just upgraded the iMac’s not to long ago, and I do not see them being updated for a while now. You also asked if you should buy it not, or wait to buy it with your student discount. Just like I said in the video, you should buy it now because no matter what you should be able to get an iMac with your student discount, not matter what the year is.

My only suggestion is that if you want to wait, you should wait for a few months, that way you can get a more powerful computer at the same price if you buy it refurbished. I usually do buy refurbished products from Mac because they are extremely cheap, and they are as good as new. So this is to everyone out there: If you want to get a more powerful computer for a cheaper price, look at the refurbished section!

MacMost is a blog that talks about Mac related news, gives amazing tutorials, and talks a lot more about the Mac. I first found MacMost on iTunes, when I was trying to find more Mac related podcasts, I found Gary’s podcast and I was hooked. I get a few videos a week into my podcast folder on iTunes, and I learn great tips on what I can do on the Mac.

Here is the video that I want to talk about:

In case you cannot see the video, here is a reason why an iPod is more than just an MP3 player:

Alarm Clock: This is a great tool, I too use this on my iPod, wether your in a hotel or at home sleeping, you can use the iPod as an alarm clock. Just plug in your headphones or set up to some speakers and you are good to go. It’s also great for using on the road, because you can add different time zones to your iPod.

Calendar Synced: This is another great feature that I use everyday. I am a huge sports fans, so I got my favorite teams schedules right on my iCal. When I am at a friends house, all I got to do is check my iPod, and this tells me when there playing, what channel there on, and who they are playing against. Remember though, you can add anything you want to your calendar.

Contacts: Having your contacts can be extremely useful; lets say that you are at a friends house, and your computer is no where close to you. Now your friends want to order pizza maybe, but do not know the number. All you need to do is look at what you have the pizza contact on your iPod, and you are good to go. You can have anybody you want in your contacts.

Photos: Nobody can say that think photos on the iPod are a bad idea. I have lost track, of how many times I have showed somebody a picture on my iPod when I am out and away from my computer. I am sure you have too!

Games: You tell me what other MP3 player has the game selection as the iPod does? Games are great because they can really burn time when you need to. Now I am still in school, so whenever I want a class to go by faster, I can just whoop out my iPod and start playing some games. This can be used for anybody too, whether you are in the car waiting, or at home doing nothing, games on your iPod is great for burning time

Podcasts: Ah, Hello! The reason I say this is because this is exactly how I found out about MacMost. I listen to the podcast on a regular basis, as it gives a lot of information on the Mac. You can put all of your favorite podcasts right on your iPod!

AudioBooks: Now if you are like me, you are probably not a big reader. I have never liked reading, but when there is a great book out that everybody is talking about, I have to get involved. So instead of reading it, I just search the iTunes store for the book, and I can have it read to me instead of reading it myself. I enjoy this much more than actually reading it.

Reading: Thats right, you can now read on your iPod. You can read anything from books, news articles, or even short little stories. All of this can be done as long as it is a text file. Have you ever thought about using your iPod as a notecard when giving a presentation? Just keep all of the notes on your iPod and you are good to go!

iTunesU: The reason that this is on here is for one main reason: to learn on your iPod. Maybe you are going to give a big presentation, or you want to learn about something new. Well now you can learn on your to work or school, while you are in the car, or while you are just listening to your iPod at home. iTunesU is great for learning more information.

Video: Probably the most used feature on the iPod. Ever since the iPod video came out, it has been like a dream come true. I travel a lot, and believe me, I hated lugging my MacBook around, it was always such a hassle. I took on planes and in the car to usually watch videos to make time go faster. Now I can do all of this on my iPod, so instead of lugging a big old MacBook around, I can just cary all my entertainment in my Pocket :-)

Concluding Thoughts

Ever since I first discovered MacMost, I have really learned a lot more on what my Mac can do. Here is just 10 reasons the iPod is more than an MP3 player. Chances are you knew about all of these already, but where not as informed; take me for instance, I plan on using iTunesU now to study for a class, and get ahead of my work, you can do the same too!

So take a time, and look around at the MacMost site, I am going to supply the links so you can more informed of what MacMost is all about.

• http://macmost.com/
• http://youtube.com/user/macmostvideo

What is your favorite feature of the iPod? Do you have anything to add on to this? Leave your thoughts!

In my last post I showed you how to download youtube videos really easily. I wanted to have some fun with the video that I downloaded, so here it is. Subscribe to the RSS feed if you want more from Travis Reynolds.

There actually is a very easy way to download youtube videos, and you can watch them on your iPod, all you need to do is press a few buttons to download the video and convert the flash using iSquint. I want to show you just how easy it is, so here is a video on how to download youtube videos.

This is what you do, you go to the video that you want to download, for example mine was 15 Mac VS PC ads. Once you know what video you want to download, press: Option + Command + A, this will bring up the activity monitor. From there you choose what you want to download, and usually it is the biggest file on there. Double click it and it will begin downloading.

Once it is done downloading, you drag the file into iSquint where it will convert it to mp4 for you. This allows you to watch on your mac and as well import it to your iPod. All you need to do for that is drag it into your iTunes.

Other Thoughts

This is the best way to download youtube videos in my opinion. I have seen sites and programs that say this is the way to go, and I have tried them. Take my word, this is the easiest way. If you are having trouble just email me or leave me a comment and I will help you. Check back as I am going to modify that youtube video we just downloaded :-)

I love youtube videos, I try to post a good youtube video I like as much as I can.

This is a really good one, its 15 Mac vs. PC commercials, my favorite is when he gets a virus and when apple was at a meeting. What was your favorite? Does anyone have the UK versions?