faster.better.smarter

Cheap stuff is usually better than expensive stuff. I purchased my first Mac (the mid-grade MacBook, if you must know) earlier this year. After looking around on the site I discovered the refurbished products page and discovered that I could save 200 hundred bucks by buying refurbed. Considering that you get the same warranty that brand new mac owners get, this is a good deal.

Today I discovered a nice widget that monitors the store and reports what the current deals are. This is great if you are in the market for a new iMac or Apple TV but don’t want to have to check back on Apple.com on a regular basis.

I found it on TUAW. You should check it out, if you haven’t already.

I have to admit that I was incredibly skeptical when I first heard that Amazon was launching a mp3 download store. I think that the main reason that the iTunes Music Store has been so incredibly successful is that is so easy to use. You shop for a song, click to download, and within in a few minutes its in your library ready to be synchronized to your iPod. Easy, easy. The reason I haven’t bought any music from iTunes in a few years is that I hate DRM.

I used eMusic for awhile, and while I loved the the lack of DRM, the download process was not as automatic and I frequently would forget to pick my 40 songs during the month, losing what songs I didn’t download.

Amazonmp3 seems to be a nice midway point between ease of use and DRM freedom (not to mention great pricing).

I sat down this evening to test it out and fully expected to browse through the website looking for a song that I wanted, then go through a long purchase process, then get the standard “save to disk” dialogue, and then have to drag the song into my iTunes, and then look for artwork and maybe rename the file.

I was very surprised with what I discovered. I admit that it wasn’t as easy as iTunes. I did have to update my billing information because I haven’t purchased anything from Amazon in a long time. But it was pretty easy to setup. I downloaded the Amazonmp3 downloader and installed it. It looked like your basic download program.

Then I took a peak at the preferences for this little app. Not too much there, but the most exciting part was the option to add the tracks directly to iTunes. I didn’t expect that it would really work.

After the installation I went back to the site to discover that I was being offered an opportunity to download a track by the Apples in Stereo to test out the new site. So i clicked on the link and a file popped for download and asked me where to save it. Ridiculous! But then I realized that it was Firefox asking what to do with a new file type. I told it that it should always open this file type with the new Downloader program and clicked ok, and it immediately loaded the song into the downloader. In a few minutes the song was downloaded.

So there was my new file. And when went to iTunes, it was already there with high quality artwork.

I don’t think this new service is going to take down iTunes anytime soon. But with albums priced between 5.99 and 8.99 and single tracks at .89, this is where I’ll be looking first for new music.

Now if only that unbox thing could work as nicely.

I just discovered a great side by side comparison at TUAW

Which is better, the iPhone or the BlackBerry?

As much as I enjoy Apple products, I LOVE my blackberry. I have played with the iPhone and I prefer the productivity features that I have set up on the Blackberry Pearl, over the elegance of the iPhone.

I have always setup Mail.app with my email account so that when I click on a mailto link, it will actually allow me to send an email. Now that I have Webmailer, I can set gmail as the default email client. Of course, the Google Toolbar will already do this, but this allows me to click on an email address in a pdf or word doc and Firefox opens gmail in a new tab. Also works with other webmail accounts. A great find and well worth checking out.

Simple Help is great site with lots of useful tips