Posted By: Katie

I just got back from a trip to my local Apple Store to check out the new iPods (living just a few miles away is a very dangerous thing). My first impressions overall were much more positive than when I saw the keynote presentation. Specifically I was surprised by the Nanos. I was expecting not to like the new design, we kept hearing it being called the "stubby pod" or the "fatty pod." but make no mistake, this Nano is till...well, nano.

(Story Continues...)
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More than once it has been asked how to make Audiobooks that they imported on CD to show up in the Audiobooks category in iTunes. Here are the step by step instructions:

1) I'm assuming you have your audio files in iTunes already, if not go
ahead and import them at the desired quality. I suggest that when you
do this you have your iTunes preferences set to keep your iTunes
folder organized and copy files to your iTunes Music folder when
adding to their library.

2) Now you need to change the extensions on all of those audio files.
You'll want to find the location of where all the files are because
you'll also use that in step 4 below. If you keep your iTunes library
organized, they should be in your iTunes music folder in the
appropriate sub-folders. You can also select a track and right-click
and choose "Reveal in Finder." Remember this location, or keep the
window open in the background, you'll need it in a minute.

 The easiest and most user-friendly way to convert the file formats is
to use the "Make Bookmarkable" script from Doug's iTunes Scripts
(http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/) simply download the script and
follow the directions to install and run.

3) After the script has run, it will appear in iTunes that nothing has
happened. That's because the script has made changes to the actual
files and iTunes needs to be updated. To do this highlight all of your
audiobook files and remove them from your iTunes library. However- DO
NOT DELETE them from your computer. The easiest way to do this is to
select all the audiobook files and press the delete key on your
keyboard. When it askes you if you would like to move these items to
the trash- select NO (if you accidently say yes, that's fine just
don't empty the trash!)

4) Now we have to pull those files back into iTunes. Remember where
those files are located (back in step 4) and take those original audio
files and pull them back into iTunes. Simply select them, and drag
them into an iTunes window.

That should be it- Good Luck!

This afternoon I turned on my MacBook and saw this frightening icon showing that my battery (although right where it was supposed to be) was not recognized by my computer. My mind immediately jumped to the worst as we have all heard the stories of problems with Apple Batteries recently. In particular, there are reports of MacBook and MacBook Pro batteries, while not dangerous, failing and occasionally causing damage to the computer that requires more than a mere battery replacement. In fact, my friend Melinda, has been plagued by battery issues on her own MacBook which means that until she can get the problem corrected she must operate her laptop while plugged into a power outlet or it immediately shuts down. This of course negates many of the advantage of having a portable computer! Read More...

There's been a lot of talk recently about Apple's recent recall of nearly 2 million iBook and PowerBook batteries as well as frustration among the mac community with the battery failures in the MacBook and MacBook Pro models. While I don't believe there is any cause for panic, as there is a potential safety risk you do want to take this battery recall seriously.

What's Happening?
First, a few details about what happened and why all these batteries are being recalled. Many of the batteries used in the PowerBook and iBook computers were manufactured by Sony. It came to light recently that there were problems in the manufacturing process after reports of batteries overheating and catching fire, particularly with Dell computers who also used Sony battery technology, a recall was issue. Dell was the hardest hit with this recall and in the past month has recalled over 4 million batteries. Of course, when Apple recalls batteries it makes front page news and the Dell battery recall is only casually mentioned. As I write this blog post, there has only been one confirmed case of an Apple battery catching fire, this was about a month ago in Japan and thankfully there was no major property damage and only minor injuries to the person who tried to remove the battery from the computer. There have, however, been multiple reports of batteries overheating and causing damage to the computer and minor burns to people and property. Of course, the worst damage would have been done to the computer itself. Read More...

Hard drives, like all technology, will eventually fail. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when, and how bad the data loss will be. Think for a moment about all the data you have on your computer. Family photos, financial information, personal documents. How upset would you be, if you turned on your computer one day, and all that data was gone. That very thing happened to me just a few months ago. One minute I sitting in a class typing notes when my computer froze. I restarted my computer, and nothing happened. For whatever reason, my hard drive picked that very moment, to have a catastrophic failure. Everything was gone. Most of the time, there's no way to detect or prevent a hard drive failure. The only thing you can do is to make sure that you have a backup of all your important files so you can recover once a failure has occurred. My MacPeople friends have lovingly called me the "Backup Queen" and thankfully when my hard drive failed, I had complete backups in place and only lost about an hours worth of information. While I admit my backup plan borders on the edge of obsessive compulsive, perhaps you can modify it to suit your needs. Read More...

I walked into Office Depot the other day and had the good fortune to find they had some very nice DayRunner brand planners on sale for a fraction of their original price. After a little inspecting I found that these were brand new planners that had been put on sale because they contained 2002 inserts. I use my PowerBook for most of my scheduling and have a Palm Zire while on the go, but I must admit that I am horribly inept at the “graffiti” writing style to input data into my palm, and a black leather planner looks much  more professional for a soon to be lawyer. So I picked up a $125 high quality planner for only $25.
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