Here’s a good way to get discounts from Apple. I am listing a few links here. Just accept the agreement and check out the discounts you can get.

• http://www.apple.com/eppstore/officemax
• http://www.apple.com/eppsotre/bestbuy
• http://www.apple.com/eppstore/qwest

Just as an example, using one of the links above, you can get a MacBook starting at $939.00 vs. going to http://store.apple.com and getting it for $999.00. Hey $60.00 saved is an extra $60.00 in your pocket.

By now you should get the general idea. This information is listed for informational purposes only. You should adhere to Apple’s Employee Purchase Program and only accept the terms if you meet the criteria.

Just thought I’d share some knowledge with all the Apple Fans

Just finished compiling a list of 10 free Mac OSX Games that are in my opinion definitely worth downloading and playing. So without further ado, here is the list:

1. Frets on Fire – If you are a Guitar Hero fan but are tired of playing the same songs over and over and would like more of a variety of songs then give Frets on Fire a try. They have versions of their software for Windows, Linux and Mac and best of all, its open source so its FREE !

 

2. MAME OSX – Are you a fan of Arcade Games ? You should check out MAME OSX. MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. You can download the emulator for free and then search on google for the games, here are a couple of sites you can get ROMS from: ROM World | ROM Nation | ROM Hustler | Free ROMS. These are sites that I trust and recommend.

 

3. Frozen-Bubble – Do you like puzzle games like Tetris and Zuma ? You should check out Frozen-Bubble. You control a small canon, shooting bubbles and trying to hit other bubbles so to create groups of 3 or more bubbles of the same color. Originally developed for Linux but ported to work on MAC OSX

 

4. Pac The Man X - Who doesn’t love Pac-Man ? Well, I know I do and if you do, then you need to check out Pac The Man X, developed by McSebi Software… Pac The Man X is a perfect clone of the original Pac-Man game and is sure to keep you playing for hours and hours.

 

5. Bull Frog – Are you one to get addicted to games ? If you aren’t then be prepared for Bull Frog, you are sure to be addicted to this game in no time. You’re a Bull Frog trying to eat all types of insects. Definitely give this game a try, it is sure to wipe out your boredom and maybe even consume a small part of your life.

 

6. Mac Solitaire – Is it Solitaire that is keeping you from getting rid of that pesky PC and switching to a Mac, well you are out of excuses now. PCV – Soft has developed a version for the Mac of this popular Windows based game and best of all its free.

 

7. Quinn – A Tetris style game developed specifically for MAC OSX. It features a clean, elegant user interface, beautiful graphics, and smooth, subtle animations for fluid gameplay. Instead of reinventing the game with yet another variation of the rules, the goal of Quinn is to combine the simplicity of the original idea with the genuine Mac experience for perfect user enjoyment.

 

8. Enigma - Enigma is a puzzle game inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock’n'Roll on the Amiga. The object of the game is to find uncover pairs of identically colored Oxyd stones. Simple? Yes. Easy? Certainly not! Hidden traps, vast mazes, laser beams, and, most of all, countless hairy puzzles usually block your direct way to the Oxyd stones … ( Versions are available for Windows and Linux as well )

 

9. One Card - OneCard is a Cocoa card game with rules similar to Uno. It is fun for all ages from 5 up. In OneCard you try to play cards which match another card in colour or value.  There are also special action cards such as Wild, Skip, Reverse and Draw cards which make the game more interesting.  The first player to get rid of all their cards wins the round.  The winner then scores points based on the cards left in other players’ hands and the first player to reach the goal score wins the game.

 

10. Oolite - Oolite is a space sim game, inspired by Elite, powered by Objective-C and OpenGL, and designed as a small game that is easy for users to pick up, modify and expand upon. Almost every aspect of the game can be changed by using simple, free graphics packages and text editors. Originally written for Mac OS X, and under continuous development for over four years, Oolite is available for Mac OS X (10.3.9 and higher), Windows XP and Vista, and Linux. It requires at least a 400 MHz processor, 256 MiB of memory, and a graphics card capable of accelerating OpenGL graphics.

 

Now I know I said 10 games but I just thought of another great game that I just can’t leave off the list. Without it the list would be incomplete so here it is, the 11th game on the list:

• Farmers Mahjong - FarmersMahJongg will create a game setup from which you must try to remove all tiles. You can only pick them up in pairs by clicking the first and double-clicking the second tile. Removable tiles must lie along the edge of one of the tile levels. You can undo a move or let the computer suggest possible moves. If you failed to solve a setup you can decide to restart the last game in order to try another solution. But remember that currently there is no guarantee that a board really has a solution!

 

So here they are, a list of 11 great games for Mac OSX, hopefully you’ll have as much fun as I do, playing these games. Comments are welcome, and please feel free to contribute to the list but please only list freeware games.

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Have you ever stressed out about all those duplicate songs on your iPod. I know I have and I’ve recently done some research to help remedy the problem. I found a great free tool for Mac’s that removes duplicates from your iPod and also allows you to copy songs from your iPod back to your Mac.

You can download the program here: YamiPod

Download the software, mount the DMG and the copy YamiPod to your Applications folder. Run the YamiPod Application if your iPod is disconnected you will get the following prompt

 

 

Connect your iPod and you will be prompted with the following screen

 

 

Select your iPod and type in your FWID also known as the serial number. You can find this ID by following theses steps.

1. From the apple menu ( top left of screen ) select About this Mac and click More Info
2. In the left column select Hardware and then USB
3. In the USB Device Tree you should see your iPod listed, select it
4. The FWID is the Serial Number listed in the lower box

Once you enter in the FWID and click OK you may be presented with the following warning

 

 

Ignore it, click on Continue, at this point you should have a window with a list of all the songs on your iPod.

 

 

To remove duplicates follow these steps

1. Tools -> Advanced -> Remove Duplicates
2. By default everything being compared will be checked, you can uncheck anything that you don’t want YamiPod to compare, I usually leave defaults.
3. Click OK
4. If any duplicates are found it will show you which ones it found and give you the option to remove them

To copy songs from your iPod to your Mac follow these steps

1. You’ve got several options here, you can copy all the songs from your iPod, a particular album, a particular artist, or a single song.
2. In the top left pane you’ll see your artists, select one and it will show you all songs by that artist in the bottom pane, you can Right Click ( Control-Click ) on a song to save a single song or you can Select all and then right click again and click Copy Song To, this applies for any of the configurations in step 1.
3. After clicking on Copy Song To, you will be presented with a window with options. Leave the defaults then click on Destination, a window will pop-up that will ask you where you want to copy the songs to.
4. Select your destination and click copy.

This software has many other useful features, have fun exploring. Hopefully this tutorial was helpful.

The choice is simple

 

So you’re wondering if you should get a Mac or a PC ? Perhaps you already own a PC and are thinking of switching to a Mac ? Consider the image above, pretty self explanatory that a Mac would be a huge space saver and would also keep you from cluttered cables.

Cluttered cables while a good reason, is not the only reason to help you make a decision. In my own opinion Macs are far superior to PC’s, especially when it comes to stability.

Consider this, Mac has software that will allow you to run any version of Windows in parallel with the Mac Operating systems, so you can run Mac OSX and Windows XP / Windows Vista at the same time !!! As of this writing there is no software on the market that will allow you to run anything mac on a PC running windows. So if you want to limit yourself to a single operating system, then purchase a PC, but if you want limitless possibilities then Mac is the way to go.

Everyone says that Mac’s aren’t capable of contracting viruses from the internet, this is simply a myth. Any operating system can be infected with a virus but because Mac OSX runs on-top of Darwin a BSD Unix system, it is better protected against harmful viruses and spyware.

The list goes on, but I think I’ve covered the most important bits of information.

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I’ve had lots of people ask me, should I purchase a white MacBook or the new Aluminum MacBook. I thought it might be worthwhile to do a side by side comparison to help consumers make an educated decision with their purchase.

Price:

The new white MacBook’s start at just $999.99 while the new aluminum MacBook’s start at $1,221.00. Pricing is a very important factor for some people but what’s more important are the feature differences between the 2 which I believe is well worth the extra $200.00

Features:

Let’s Talk about the similarities first:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1066MHz frontside bus 3MB shared L2 cache
• Screen Size: 13.3-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen
• Software: Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
  • Time Machine
  • Mail
  • iChat
  • Safari
  • Photo Booth
  • Front Row
  • Boot Camp
  • iLife ’09
    • iPhoto
    • iMovie
    • GarageBand
    • iDVD
    • iWeb

Now for the differences:

• Memory: While both MacBook’s have the same amount of memory ( 2 GB ) and can both be upgraded to 4 GB, the speed of the memory is quite different. The white MacBook supports 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM while the aluminum MacBook supports 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, which is quite a bit faster but would not be a reason for me to spend the additional $200.00 to purchase the aluminum MacBook
• Hard Drive: The white MacBook comes standard with a 120GB Serial ATA 5400 rpm drive and supports up to a 320GB hard drive. The aluminum MacBook comes standard with a 160GB Serial ATA, 5400 rpm drive and supports up to a 320GB hard drive, much like the white MacBook but it also support the new 128GB solid-state drives. This is definitely a reason to purchase the aluminum MacBook over the white one.
• Display: While both MacBook’s offer the same 13.3-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen with a 1280×800 pixel resolution, there is one major difference that the aluminum MacBook offers which is that the screen is LED-backlit which helps with power consumption and longer screen life. This is definitely a big plus for the new aluminum MacBook and is also a reason I would spend the extra $200.00 
• Graphics Card: Both the aluminum and the white MacBook have an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB shared but since the memory is shared the GeForce in the aluminum MacBook uses DDR3 vs. the DDR2 that the white MacBook offers. Not really a reason to spend the extra money though, in my opinion.
• Battery: According to apple, the battery in the white MacBook lasts 4.5 hour while the one in the aluminum MacBook lasts 5 hours. I’m thinking that there is no real difference between the 2 batteries but mainly the LED display that the aluminum MacBook uses that prolongs the battery charge.
• Enclosure: Not too much to be said about this other than the white MacBook has a Polycarbonate enclosure and the aluminum MacBook has a precision aluminum unibody enclosure. In my opinion, more stylish and more durable.
• Weight:  The white MacBook weighs approximately 5.0 and the aluminum MacBook weighs 4.5 pounds.
• TrackPad: The TrackPad on the aluminum MacBook seems to be far superior to the old style used on the white MacBook. My favorite feature is that the TrackPad is glass and doesn’t wear down like the ones on the white MacBook’s. It also offers Multi-Touch gestures and what’s best of all is that the whole trackpad is a clickable button, so you can click anywhere on the trackpad. In my opinion this is one of the best features of the new aluminum MacBook and is definitely worth the extra money.

Overall in my opinion I would definitely spend the extra $200.00 on the aluminum MacBook unless you really like the white color, I would recommend the new style and the extra features speak for themselves.

Hopefully you enjoyed this article and it was somewhat educational to you. Please feel free to comment and ask me any questions you may have.

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