Quick Bytes

DRAM prices slump to all time lows
-The price of mainstream DRAM chips have slumped to all time lows as holiday buying slows and some companies begin to dump the chips.

David Byrne gets RIAA warning
-David Byrne -- ex-Talking Head and odd music impressario -- has been targetted by the RIAA for streaming a radio station that played too much Missy Elliot. I guess it give a new meaning to his album "Stop Making Sense".

Microsoft says that only 3% of Xbox 360s are defective
-Joystiq is reporting that despite the buzz surrounding defective Xbox 360s, Microsoft claims that only 3% of the units sold have been faulty, which is below the industry average. Yeah Right; And my father is a transformer!

Adobe expects to close Macromedia deal on Saturday
-Adobe Systems Inc. expects its acquisition of Macromedia Inc. to close on Saturday, they said Thursday.

Real estate agents now can use video iPods
-Real estate agents can now use video iPods to display properties to prospective clients.

Steve Jobs to keynote Macworld Expo
-Apple CEO Steve Jobs will once again provide the keynote address for next month's Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
Who could do a better "Job" at selling us the new iNtel Powerbook?

Apple releases update for iPod Shuffle
-Apple on Wednesday released an update for the iPod Shuffle that, according to Apple, fixes some “bugs” with that particular model. Apple did not specify what changes were made with the new software. iPod Updater 2005-11-17 includes iPod Software 1.1.3 for the iPod Shuffle. The update contains the same software versions as iPod Updater 2005-10-12 for all other iPod models. The 37MB download is available from the company’s Web site or via the software update control panel.

Adam Curry Caught in Sticky Wiki
-Former MTV veejay and podcasting entrepreneur Adam Curry appears to have been caught anonymously editing the podcasting entry on Wikipedia to remove credit from other people and inflate his role in its creation. Yes Adam life after MTV is never a easy top 5!

Mozilla's Firefox 2 Million Downloads already
-Last year, Mozilla didn't fare nearly as well. Within hours of the release of Firefox 1.0, the Mozilla site had massive availability problems, apparently a non-issue this time around.

UsedMac.ca Online Classifieds
-UsedMac.ca is a Web site that offers a place for Canadian Mac users to buy and sell used Apple and related products. It is a free service, and is categorized by product type, popularity, ect.

Koingo Software offers free Christmas game
-Koingo Software today announced that it is offer a free game for the holidays.

Peachpit ships 'Getting Started with Aperture' book
-Peachpit today announced it is shipping "Apple Pro Training Series: Getting Started with Aperture", the first book to ship on Apple's new application designed for digital photographers.

Apple To Launch A Digital Camera?
-Apple appears to be working on a digital camera. Macsimum News has the scoop on a recent patent reissue for "an apparatus and method for rotating the display orientation of a captured image. The apparatus of the present invention preferably comprises an image sensor, an orientation sensor, a memory and a processing unit." Sounds suspiciously like a digital camera; where does prior art become an issue with the USPTO? Those issues aside, this may be the first sign of an interesting new product line from our friends in Cupertino.

Mac Mini To Be Reborn In The Living Room?
-Think Secret is reporting on some additional details coming from the Macworld Expo in January. The big news is that we should expect a new Mac mini, not only with Intel processors, but featuring Front Row 2.0, which is described as a "Tivo-Killer". Very few details are known beyond this, but it adds another dimension to what is widely expected to be a very significant Macworld.

Fontographer 4.7 Supports Mac OS X
-Fontlab's Fontographer 4.7, released on Monday, finally supports Mac OS X. The professional font design application also resolves several bug fixes, supports the Euro character, supports copy and paste compatibility with Freehand and Illustrator, and more .

Apple Rates As Best Online Store
-The Apple Store was ranked as the best Internet shopping site by Consumer Reports, according to Macworld UK. Consumer Reports gave the Apple Store a score of 93 after surveying 78,000 US shoppers, beating out Dell, IBM, and others. The online Apple Store sells the full Apple product line, along with third party hardware, software, and accessories.

iPodObserver - Japan Drops "iPod tax" Plan
-Japan's Cultural Agency has decided not to implement a copyright law that would add a royalty fee to digital music players. The government chose to drop the proposed fee, or "iPod tax," because it couldn't determine a way to enforce violations, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer .

Universal tries to claim it illegal to email their execs
-A blogger named Gerard Jones has posted the email addresses of thousands of agents, producers and executives on his blog, and now Universal (and other Hollywood agencies) are trying to get his domain host to shut him down. And......ACTION!

Skype ver2.0 with VIDEO beta released
-Skype 2.0 beta with free video calling has been released.

O'Reilly Relese Makers
-Amazing People/Amazing Inventions
Flamethrowers, Monowheels, Voice-Activated Blenders, New Robots,
and much, much more! While MAKE provides the instruction for actual projects, 'Makers' shows
the inspiration of actual inventors," explained Parks. Known for
exploring the personalities behind the latest technologies. Sound to good to miss!
Makers
Bob Parks
ISBN: 0-596-10188-0

The 2005 Digital Dispatch Top 100 Buying Guide Part 3

Here it is :

079- Think Geek Power Squid Outlet Multiplier
Finally someone has felt our pain! I am talking about the power strip pain!
Most of us electronics obsessed folks know that the everyday power strip just doesn't cut it. A typical 5-outlet strip might be able to accommodate two bulky power converters, so you end up needing three of them to connect your five devices. Definitely not a pretty picture.
To solve this problem some brilliant person eliminated the actual strip and simply connected together five flexible outlets. Now your big square power converters can exist in peaceful harmony, all of them humming along in unison to the same lovely tune.

Featuring:

5 grounded adapter-ready outlets
4 foot power cord
Yellow lighted master switch with 15-amp circuit breaker
Electrical rating: 125V/15A/1875W
UL Listed
Not rated for outdoor use
Available in Yellow, Black, Silver

078- Power-UP : Kensington’s Thin & Light 70 Watt AC/DC Notebook Power Adapter
If you commute and travel a lot and you don't want to have to carry 3 or 4 different AC Adapter; Than, Kensington’s Thin & Light 70 Watt AC/DC Notebook Power Adapter is for you. You simply replace your PowerBook’s AC adapter with one that plugs into any auto, airline, or wall AC outlet. It’s thinner and lighter—although a bit longer—than the standard Apple AC adapter, so it fits into a laptop bag more easily. It also includes interchangeable tips that power your PowerBook, iBook, and iPod; tips for other laptops are available separately, and a $25 attachment allows you to simultaneously charge your laptop and your mobile phone, iPod, or other peripheral.

077-Podner by Splam Software.
Here is a true one click movie reformatting utility for your iPod. So easy it's insane. Interface remind me of Stuffit. Can be tweaked if needed. Convert just about any format into a iPod watch-able movie format. Does exactly what it claim, but is a little faster than all of the others that we tried. The cost of a license is really to low to mention. This is the one you want to get for yourself or to give to a iPod with video owner.

076-TuneTech for iPod by Prosoft
TuneTech for iPod will be what TechTool Pro is for Apple Owner. It will become mandatory for all iPod owners.
After all isn't a iPod just a great and fancy box with a interface and a Hard Drive ? Yes Hard Drive and a micro one for that matter. Now what will you use to keep it ship shape...? TuneTech is what! It delivered under our test a variety of impressive results that help us eleviate a few light iPod problems before they mutate into out of hands one.
The Must have tool of the year for iPod Owner.

075-Future Sonics EM3 Earphone
They look like hell, but sound like heaven. This in a nutshell is what to expect out of Future Sonics EM3 Universal Earphone.
They are 3 step above the standard Apple earphone bundle with any iPod. Step 1) Looking the way they do no one will try to steal them from you, but in a way it will become your own statement of non conformity. Step 2)They sound to good for the price, with a full dynamic gain one of the widest latitude we have ever experience. Step 3) They will block 80% of all outside sound, very practical and on top of it they come full equipped with transport pouch and 3 pairs of foam fitting custom cushions that are so comfortable that you will forget them and concentrate on the music.

074-iSkin Duo & Shuffle Duo
I must say that I was not "Sold" on Silicone cases before trying the iSkin Duo & Shuffle Duo. These product are the true innovators in a market that have seen to many copy cats. The 2 key ingredients that explain the success of the iSkin duo line of product is quality material and innovative design and colors. They are a 2 parts silicone layers system to protect your nano or shuffle. If you want to keep your valuable nano or shuffle looking like new, in style the iSkin offering is the obvious choice.

073-iMaginator by StoneDesign
This is a "Quick and Dirty " powerful image processing and painting application. "Play" nice with Tiger
and give just enough of everything to free you from expensive flag ship application. This product is a great example of "why pay 100% of something you will end-up using 20% of the time at about 30% of it's capacity. If you still want a solid image processor + painting application look no further. Free up dates for life (like any other StoneDesign products) make iMaginator the "Deal of the Century". Nothing can touch it!

072-The New iMac G5
Loaded with features at a Bargain Price with a G5 Processor and all the Frills.
The Gift that keeps on Giving!

071-BTW iPod Battery
Power to the (iPod) people! This is exactly what BTW promised and delivered with it's line of iPod Battery. We are not talking internal here, we are talking about an outside solution with a cradle that you attach your iPod to and simply fire-up.
We have use for about a year with our original iPod G3 and where glad to report many times, that what BTW claimed; about 18 hours per charge was more in the range of 21 to 24 hours. Now tell me the last time you found a product that exceeded your expectations...... BTW Did just that for the iPod. Will be perfect for all new iPod 5G owners with bad watching movie habits (like me) No iPod should be without; Get this one before they sell the company to Microsoft!

070-Audible.com
We have use this service of "Book on Tape" for the past 2 years and we are still glad that we do. Perfect for the to busy to read type. Need to catch up on the Da Vinci code, or any other must read but just can't squeeze the time. No problemos!
Visit audible and select among the largest on line variety of audio books, and catch up. A super smart gift.

O'Reilly Strike Rich with new edition of Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell

The Most Comprehensive Tiger Reference on the Market
O'Reilly Releases "Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell"

The Mac isn't just for "fluffy-bunny designers" anymore,
says seasoned programmer Andy Lester--it's now "the must-have hardware and
operating system of geeks and designers everywhere." And for everything
users need to know about the Unix side of Mac OS X, there's the all-new,
dependable, and must-have Tiger guide, "Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell"

"Mac OS X initially may seem a little alien to long-time Mac users; it is,
quite literally, an entirely different operating system from Mac OS 9 and
earlier versions," says Lester. But there's a reason the Mac is now
winning more converts than ever--not just from Windows, but from other
Unix systems such as Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD: "Mac OS X brings all the
great things from earlier versions of the Mac OS and melds them with a BSD
core, bringing Unix to the masses. Apple has created a rock-solid
operating system to compete both on the user and enterprise level."

For Unix users and Unix programmers everywhere, as well as anyone, who
might offer direct support to users and programmers, "Mac OS X Tiger in a
Nutshell" is the perfect overview of Mac OS X Tiger and the ideal resource
for all the nitty-gritty hints and how-tos for using Tiger more
efficiently and smartly.

The most popular and most complete desktop reference book on Mac OS X now
systematically documents Tiger (Version 10.4), focusing on the BSD Unix
layer. It familiarizes readers with more than 300 of Tiger's Unix
commands, the Terminal application, file management, system and network
administration issues, and more.

This indispensable book delivers:

-The most complete and thorough coverage of Mac OS X's Unix commands
anywhere (even in the system)
-An overview of basic system and network administration features,
including coverage of NetInfo and Directory Services
-An introduction to using Mac OS X's Unix command-line interface, the
Terminal application
-An overview of Mac OS X's Unix text editors, including vi and Emacs
-Information on shell syntax variables for Tiger's default Unix shell,
bash

Each command and option in this book's Unix Command References section has
been painstakingly tested and checked against Tiger; even the manpages
that ship with Mac OS X can't compete in accuracy! "Mac OS X Tiger in a
Nutshell" is the most comprehensive quick reference on the market and is a
must for any serious Mac user.

Another great stocking stuffer. Not to be missed, this is our Mac OS X Tiger Bible.

Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell
Andy Lester, Chris Stone, Chuck Toporek, and Jason McIntosh
ISBN: 0-596-009437, 528 pages
order@oreilly.com
http://www.oreilly.com

Google testing new click-to-call service

Google has begun testing a new click-to-call service that lets people speak with advertisers on its search results page without having to pick up the phone and dial. Allowing customers to reach advertisers through the computer could increase the value of online ads, particularly for companies like Google, which reaps nearly all of its revenue from advertising.

Stone Design announce iMaginator 2.2

Image Processing made cheap and easy!

Stone Design, the original Mac OS X software house with over 19 years of experience, today announced immediate availability of iMaginator 2.2, a free upgrade of its powerful image processing and painting application. iMaginator provides an intuitive and easy to use interface for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)’s Core Image technology, giving both home users and graphics professionals instant access to over 108 effects, transitions, and filters. With iMaginator, users can layer images, paint and text, and apply, modify, and re-order multiple effects to achieve subtle enhancements or astounding artistic results from any photo or image. Crop, scale, rotate, flip, skew, change exposure and brighten images in real time, and then save processed images as industry-standard TIFF or JPEG files, and even create QuickTime movies showing the effects changing over time.

iMaginator 2.2 has many performance enhancements and important new features, including:

    • 12 online tutorial movies to quickly learn iMaginator
    • Adds 30 new effect chains for photo enhancement and stunning effects
    • Adds 11 Blank Paint canvases to start your painting masterpiece
    • You can “unpaint” on a paint layer to remove paint
    • Lets you inspect image properties and add 30 new tags (like EXIF & iPhoto tags)
    • Reads RAW image formats (Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Minolta, Sony, OpenEXR)
    • Preview your composition in Full Screen mode
    • Deutsche has been added to the Italiano, Français and English localizations
    • Manipulate sliders with MightyMouse’s scrollwheel
    • Runs on INTEL and PPC computers

According to Stone Design CEO and chief software architect Andrew Stone, “iMaginator 2.2 has optimized painting - and even adds the ability to “unpaint”. It’s a free upgrade for current users and everyone should download it and give it a spin. Given its modest price point, infinite expandability, and ease of use, we believe that iMaginator should be in the toolbox of everyone who uses images on Mac OS X, whether for print publications, websites or photo albums.”

Incorporates Latest Technologies

“Innovative Tiger technologies like Core Image and Spotlight make it the best platform for anyone working with digital images,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “Stone Design have done a great job with iMaginator and we're thrilled they continue to deliver creative applications for Mac OS X users.”

iMaginator takes any Core Image “Image Unit” and automatically creates an interface for accessing the unit's options. It will load and display all of the Image Units that are provided with Tiger, including blurs, color adjustments, distortions, styles, compositing effects, edge sharpeners and transitions, as well as any custom image units provided by third parties. In addition, it comes with nine custom plug-ins from Stone Design, including Mask by Color, Oval Mask, Crop Fade Mask, Make Transparent, Colorize, Fun Mirror, Grayscale and Polka Dots.

iMaginator can fit into a professional workflow, with both built-in batch processing and Applescriptability. Sequences of effects with set parameters, known as an "Effects Chain", can be saved and re-used with the drag and drop Library. iMaginator incorporates Spotlight technology for instant searching on user-supplied keywords and image and effect names. iMaginator is a LinkBack server: iMaginator images copied and pasted into a LinkBack client (like Stone Design’s flagship page layout and web authoring application, Create®) can be easily modified in iMaginator, with saved changes appearing instantly in the LInkBack client document.

Inexpensive and Shipping Now!

Stone continues, “You don't need to be a pro to make eye-popping graphics. Download and try iMaginator at full strength for 14 days free, and you’ll be amazed at what you can do to spice up your pictures. There are image apps that cost over 10 times as much, but they certainly don't have that many more features. At a price way to low to mention, with Free Upgrades For Life, it’s a must-have piece of software!” For more information, visit http://www.stone.com/iMaginator/

Anything that comes out of Stone Studio is done with hart and imagination; We highly recommend iMaginator 2.2 and guess what it's right on time for Christmas. Go 4 it!

Extensis Portfolio 8 Centralizes Key Digital Assets for Easier Sharing Across Workgroups

Extensis, a division of Celartem, Inc., today announced the availability of Portfolio 8, a major advance in its digital asset management (DAM) solution. The new version of Portfolio provides industrial-strength workflow features to organize and share digital files with visual catalogs and embedded metadata, making it easy to quickly find, route and distribute valuable branding collateral like images, brochures, layouts and logos within asset creation workgroups and externally with global partners. The Portfolio 8 product family includes a standalone version, Client/Server solution, as well as NetPublish and SQL Connect Modules.

”Your number one business asset is your brand -- it pays to invest in a comprehensive solution to keep track of critical creative assets and help teams company wide work with those assets effectively and efficiently,” said Dan Harlacher, Portfolio product manager for Extensis. “Portfolio 8 was created for companies that want to organize, find, and distribute key brand assets. Portfolio 8 is our best effort to help companies to thoughtfully manage their brand to remain a market leader or, for that matter, to become one. Portfolio allows them to create and distribute approved branding assets both internally and externally with partners, and maintain up to the second control over these critical business components.”

Portfolio 8 provides built-in workflow tracking out-of-the-box. And with its new ability to add cataloging presets to AutoSync folders, users can add files to Portfolio with predefined metadata and move them through a workflow simply by dropping them into folders on the file-server. The new Portfolio can also keep track of a job's status and help communicate with and route files to other team members.

Portfolio 8 makes it easy for new users to get started and find guidance when needed. For instance, a new series of sample catalogs are provided for specific tasks like professional photography, stock-image management, and document routing and approval. The new fast-cataloging feature lets users quickly add files to the Portfolio catalog and start working with them right away while other cataloging tasks continue in the background. Additionally, Portfolio can now use automatically created Screen Previews to create CDs, DVDs, websites, and emails, making the process of sharing even offline files significantly faster.

Other improvements in Portfolio 8 include private galleries, accessible only by the original creator, and scratchpad galleries to easily collect items from several different locations and organize them for printing or other activities. Portfolio 8 users who utilize the NetPublish plug-in can create dynamic searchable websites powered by their Portfolio catalogs and even control which assets are viewable by simply changing metadata. Significant improvements in speed, workflow and metadata handling, make it easy for companies to implement a full-featured DAM solution without extensive disruption and retraining.

Pricing and Availability
Portfolio 8 for both individual users and workgroups is currently available for download and purchase from the Extensis website.

Portfolio 8 is also available in a single-user version. Portfolio catalogs can be published to the web by adding a Portfolio NetPublish license (includes five concurrent web connections). Upgrades to Portfolio 8 are available from Portfolio 6 and 7.

French and German language versions of Portfolio are also available now for download from the Extensis website. Japanese language versions of Portfolio are available from .

For information on where to purchase the Portfolio family of products visit http://www.extensis.com/portfolio.

Apple releases Broadband Tuner 1.0

Apple today released Broadband Tuner 1.0, a new system utility designed to take full advantage of very high speed Internet connections that have a high latency (5 Mbps or greater). Apple's documentation says that the "installer tweaks some system parameters. There is an optional uninstaller that can be used to restore the settings that were in effect at the time just before the system parameters were changed....The installer increases the default values for the size of the TCP send and receive buffers. With larger buffers more data can be in transit at once. A startup configuration file is also updated so that these changes will persist across restarts." The file is 320KB and available directly from Apple. Be carefull with that one!

Apple Updates GarageBand to 1.1

In the most significant update yet for Apple's GarageBand Software, the company announced that it has released a version 1.1 update. According to the release note, the upgrade "addresses isolated performance and stability issues, allows per-track Echo settings similar to other effects, supports loop libraries in other disk locations, supports importing unprotected AAC audio files in addition to AIF and MP3 files, and addresses issues with ReWire support, moving GarageBand songs between different computers, Help support, fixing the timing of individual notes (as well as entire regions), and dragging entire tracks in the timeline."

XtremeMac Announces MicroShield for iPod with Video

XtremeMac announced its first accessory for iPod with video today, a clear protective case called MicroShield. This two-piece case snaps onto the front and back of the iPod, providing the body and screen with protection from scratches while highlighting its sleek design.

MicroShield comes with one front and two rear panels: one with an integrated, low-profile belt clip, and one without. This design offers the flexibility of using the front and rear panels separately or together and provides users with the option of using a belt clip or not. When used together, the front and rear panels encase the iPod in a hard plastic shell that provides unobstructed access to the Click Wheel, Dock Connector, and earbud jack. In addition, the design of the rear panel accommodates the iPod with either end up—allowing users to position the earbud jack either at the top or bottom—a feature that will be appreciated by those who prefer to use the belt clip with this case.

"The design of the new iPod is so striking that we decided to build a protective case that truly showcases it," said Gary Bart, CEO of XtremeMac. "MicroShield has been our most popular case for the iPod nano, and looks to be just our leading case for the new iPod."

MicroShield is available in 30GB and 60GB models to accommodate both sizes of the new iPod with video. It will be available in stores and online in one to two weeks. For more details and images of MicroShield, or to place an order, visit www.XtremeMac.com.

Apple releases OS X security patches

Apple Computer has issued "highly critical" security updates to address more than a dozen vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system.

Apple released on Tuesday security patches for Mac OS X 10.4.3, otherwise known as Tiger, as well as Mac OS X 10.3.9, dubbed Panther, according to the company's advisory.
Thirteen security flaws were found in areas related to the Apache 2 Web server, curl technology and the Safari browser. The vulnerabilities ranged from potentially letting an attacker launch a denial-of-service attack to taking control of a person's system remotely.
"The most severe of these are the vulnerabilities found in curl and the PCRE library used by Safari," said Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer for security site Secunia, which rated Apple's updates as "highly critical"--the second-highest danger ranking.
A large number of applications could be affected by the vulnerability in the PCRE library used by Safari's JavaScript engine, Kristensen said. People who inadvertently click on a malicious Web site with their Safari browser could find the flaw exploited, leading to a remote execution of code on their system.
A flaw in Apple's curl technology, which is a library frequently used to download large files and pass them along, could be exploited if visiting a malicious Web site. The site, once detecting curl technology is present on a user's system, can take advantage of the security flaw, Kristensen said. That could result to a remote execution of code on a computer.
One security flaw addressed in the update involves a boundary error found in WebKit. This marks the second time in four months that Apple has addressed a flaw in WebKit, Kristensen said.
This latest flaw could let an attacker launch a buffer overflow, or denial of service attack, that could also lead to a remote execution of code and control of a person's system. The earlier flaw in WebKit dealt with the handling of PDF documents.
The new Mac OS X patches follow one issued earlier this month by Apple to address vulnerabilities in four areas of its operating system.

Fontlab announces the release of Fontographer 4.7 for Macintosh

Native on Mac OS X and with many functional and interface improvements, including:
# native support for Mac OS X,
# support for the Euro character,
# updated encodings,
# copy-paste compatibility with new Illustrator and Freehand versions.

Please browse to http://www.fontlab.com/Font-tools/Fontographer/

My "New Life" With the iPod 5th Gen: Part One

Wow!

What a difference a few days make. Here I am no longer frustrated, sitting down and writing about my experience with my new iPod with Video, or if you prefer the iPod 5th Generation. Ok it's black and incredibly good looking. It has a impressive 30 Gig Hard Drive, a color screen that is slightly longer and larger than the 4th Gen one, to enable you to watch Video. Speaking of watching Videos, the fact of the matter is that even if the screen is about 2" by 3" (or something close to that) the resolution and brightness is stunning. When you do plug a descent set of ear phone/over the ear phones/headphones/speakers, you get pull right into the action. Real good I tell you. My previous iPod was a 3rd Gen, and so for me everything seems new; Color screen, more options in the menu such as New Games, Notes, Stopwatch and Screen Lock. The main menu is now divided in sub cat.: Music, Photo, Video, Artists, Extra, Settings and of course Shuffle Song. Everyone of them is divided again in more sub menu. Just a whole lot of "Toy" for your Money. I just want to do everything at the same time, that is how much I am excited about my new iPod. So I settle to:

Do a little bit of a lot !

I transfer pre-downloaded and formated movies (Fight Club, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lost). Great Start. Now I must own about 200 DVD. So How Do I get them from this state to more iPod acceptable format ? Search the net, read a whole bunch of treads on various forums to learn a few things. Firsts you need to convert you originals to: a)mp4 or b)H.264 . They are codec and these are the only two formats that your iPod will playback as far as movies/tv show are concerned. Ok then what do you use to convert a DVD to mp4 or H.264 ? First and foremost you have to get your hands on Quick Time Pro. Simple to set up, but (and may this be clear) it is slow as Molasses, but will do a great job. H.264 is slow but the quality is STUNNING (but man is it ever slow). As a example, a 30 minutes sitcom will occupied your Mac anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. So can you imagine converting a 2 1/2 hour film? Promising Shareware are among contenders to consider, specially if you have non-dvd formats that you want to playback on your iPod like .avi . Here is my list of what I have tried and the results:

HandBrake
(To Transfer from DVD and Encode to iPod )
Great Little piece of Shareware, not 100% User friendly, you will need to read a little about various options that this software offer but ounce it's done you will get great quality results.

Diva
(To Transfer From Various Sources to iPod)
Using 3ivx in the codec, Diva set itself apart from the rest. But it's far from being a "One Click" operation. Long set-up make it hard to grasp. Great Quality but left me luke warm in term of functionality.

Movie To Go
(To Transfer from DVD and Encode to iPod )
A simple batch processing freeware application for converting QuickTime movies into iPod friendly 320x240 MPEG-4 and H.264 movie files. Like that one very much. Does what it's name implies. Also to slow but it's 100% Free. Yes Free for the download. Don't miss it!

iSquint
(To Transfer From Various Sources to iPod)
Again here a simple batch processing shareware, with a great interface and ease of use. Due to lack of patience we have not had one success in our quest to encode one full movie yet. Still not to be blame iSquint is a great shareware.

Video2Pod
(To Transfer From Various Sources to iPod)
Super interface does everything that the others do, but with a whole lot more flair. Much easier to use; a two click process and you are done; Plus as a bonus it's the fastest of the gang. Our Favorite Shareware to encode to iPod so far.

Now let's talk about:

More iPod stuff; Companion stuff.

I need a real protective case for my new iPod. Not to many manufacturers have products ready just yet. The trend seems to be for iPod nano or shuffle, even iPod mini.

We have received countless fantastic cases for these (I am thinking of iSkin's shuffle Duo and Duo for nano, or how about the ones from sf bags or Matthias iPod Armor or even Contour Design Sportsuit or Otterbox or Xtreme Mac...) Wait I found one that seems that it might just fit: The Contour Design iSee-20. Originally design for a iPod 3rd Gen or 4th Gen 20 Gig iPod, it's will now be the new home for my new iPod. Ok it's not perfect I can feel the iPod being slack inside the iSee-20, but it's better than nothing. Note to self: "Write to iPod case Manufacturer in the hope to test and review the perfect iPod 5th Gen case"

Speaking of companionship;

I just received the brand new 2nd edition of Scott Kelby The iPod Book "Doing Cool Stuff with the iPod and the iTunes Music Stores. From Peachpit Press ISBN 0-321-42228-7. The fun is back! If you search this news site you can read the review of the Scott Kelby first edition of the same book that i had praised. It was and still is The Book To Get If You have or consider the iPod Experience.

But

What's new this year is this FANTASTIC book From No Starch Press (ISBN 1-59327-066-6) that will do for the iPod Fans what The Cult of Mac Book (also from No Starch Press ISBN 1-886411-83-2) Did for Mac Lovers; It will become indispensable.
Same Author Leander Kahney, great design and as always tons of color photos, and true to life facts that are presented to us in the spirit of setting the record straight, with a sprinkle of controversy. The chapter on the true iPod "Father" is worth the price of the book alone. Man did I ever had a great time with this one. Totally Recommended!

Almost Done:

In the mail today (also) The New Prosoft Baby: Tune Tech For iPod. Talk about Right On The Money Timing !
The Tune Tech For Ipod seems to be what Disk Warrior is to Disk but for iPod. Great Interface with many options.
It's looks like this could be my Insurance policies for my Brand New iPod. Will test and let you know in a few days.
Thanks Prosoft!