Rumor has it that the upcoming 10.6.2 build of Mac OS X has removed support for the Intel Atom CPU, which is the processor under the hood of many netbooks on the market today, including my beloved Dell Mini 9. This isn’t an issue for most Mac users, but if you’re like me and you’ve Hackintoshed your way to super-portable bliss, you might be a little worried.  See, Apple…this is why I wish you had your own official netbook!

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Where were you when you first heard about the now infamous “Balloon Boy” incident? On Thursday, October 15th, at a little past 2 p.m. Central Time, Dan and I were IM’ing when he abruptly told me to turn on CNN.

Once I did, the screen was filled with the image of a large silver balloon speeding and spinning, thousands of feet above the Colorado countryside. The balloon supposedly carried a six year old boy, appropriately named Falcon.

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Do you have summer photos just hanging around on your hard drive, abandoned now that fall is here?  (Well, or almost here if you live in Texas!)  Don’t let them get forgotten–upload them to Picaboo!

Picaboo is a service that allows you to create photo books and cards from your digital photos, starting at just $9.99 for a softcover book.

They offer easy-to-use software that guides you through the creation process with tons of  layouts, backgrounds, fonts, and sample albums to help spark ideas.  Possibly the coolest feature of the software is the ability to auto-create a photo book in just minutes, similar to the Autoflow feature when creating a book in iPhoto.

They have different book options with various cover styles and sizes so that you can find the perfect fit for your album of photos from the summer trip, taking the kids to the beach, or documenting your honeymoon.  You can also share photo books you’ve created online.

I really like the options they have available.  I am a horrible former bride, and I still need to do something special with the photos from my wedding.  I think this would be the perfect way to create a keepsake for ourselves as well as our parents.  Christmas IS creeping up a lot sooner than I’d like–a photo book sounds like the perfect gift for my in-laws!  I smell a project coming on…

Pocket Cocktails is a really fun app that I’ve loved having on my iPhone–it’s a really comprehensive library of drink recipes, complete with beautiful “action shots” of what the drinks are supposed to look like it.  I reviewed it earlier this year at Daily Tech Diva after using Pocket Cocktails to help find a signature drink for my 29th birthday party.   Not only did I find a great drink, but I really enjoyed browsing the drink library and coming up with new things to order when my friends and I go out for cocktails.  The app has a great “Mad Men” sixties feel to it that just adds to my enjoyment of the app–I love retro and vintage style!

To celebrate the one year anniversary of Pocket Cocktails in the App Store, the developers are offering the program FREE for a limited time.  If you’re in the market for a handy drink recipe library on your iPhone, why not give it a download while it’s free as in beer (or wine, or French Martinis as the case may be)?

Check it out here on the iTunes App Store.  Congrats to the Pocket Cocktails developers on their app anniversary!

So, yesterday in my daily perusal of the web, I saw that AT&T had started silently rolling out MMS functionality for the iPhone in small batches.  It didn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason–some people on iPhone OS 3.0 had it, some on 3.01, and some on 3.1, all in different locations.

Some people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were reporting working MMS, so the question at the forefront of my mind was HOW DO I GET IT!?  I’m an impatient girl, and I didn’t want to wait another 11 days for MMS on my iPhone if I could get it now!  A little more Googling and a few visits to the HowardForums gave me the answers I needed.  How can YOU get MMS working on your iPhone?  Well, I’ll show you.

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As many of you tech-loving ladies out there know, it can be very difficult at times to find a nice, feminine looking case for your gadgets.  I love clothes and accessories just as much as I love technology, and I hate putting a gadget in a boring case into a cute handbag.  I just don’t understand why tech accessories have to be boring!

When I saw the CaseCrown Alligator Slim Case, the first thing I noticed was that it was stylish looking and came in PINK…not just soft baby pink, but bright hot pink!  I knew I had to try it out. Continue Reading

I am a huge fan of IKEA, the Swedish-based furniture and homegoods company.   So, when I go to IKEA I usually have a list of items I want to purchase that I made using the website and the yearly catalog, as well as a running total in my head.  Plus, once  you’re actually in the store, you must keep track of the aisle and bin numbers for the items you want to purchase.  I’ve been half-tempted to set up an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything I want at IKEA (with blank spaces to fill in the aisle/bin while I’m actually shopping) but today I’ve discovered something a little more helpful. Continue Reading

I received my weekly email from eReader today, and for a change I was actually SHOCKED when I opened it!  Usually I find that, even on sale, eReader books are too expensive.  New eBooks often cost more than a brand-new physical copy!  Bestsellers have also been prohibitively expensive.  Well, eReader is finally answering my wishes–no book will be more expensive than $12.95.

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This is Part One in a series about my journey with my new Dell Mini 9 into Hacktinosh territory…I’ll be talking about my installation process, my impressions of the Mini as a Mac netbook, performance, software, and more.

I was pretty early to jump on the netbook bandwagon.  When I saw the original 7″ Asus Eee PC for the first time, I knew that I had to have it.  I had been lusting after computers like the Sony Picturebook for a long time–something that could fit in my purse and go with me everywhere!  As a writer, having a full computer with me at all times really appealed to me.  As a geek, having a full computer with me at all times appealed to me even MORE!  So, imagine my dismay when, as much as I tried to make it work, my precious Eee PC really didn’t cut the mustard.  The keyboard was too small, the screen was too small and dull, the battery would barely last two hours, and the CPU was underpowered.  I had it tricked out with a nice, stripped down installation of Ubuntu, but even that performed poorly on the Eee PC.  So, what’s a geeky girl to do when she is disappointed with her technology? Continue Reading

The Cocoon Innovations netbook case is pretty much my ideal netbook travel case.  It’s durable, shock absorbent, airport friendly, comfortable, and it features a unique organizational system that I have never seen before in another bag.  There are a few key things I wish I could tweak a little bit, but otherwise I was very impressed by the Cocoon netbook case.

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Belkin has announced a pretty awesome sounding product coming this fall.  The TuneCast Auto Live FM transmitter for iPhone is a GPS-enabled FM transmitter that automatically finds the best FM station based on where you are.  It uses the GPS to determine your location and then, using the ClearScan Live iPhone application, tunes to the right frequency for the clearest FM transmission. Continue Reading

The sad rumor that I heard this weekend was confirmed today on the Direct2Dell blog…Dell is discontinuing the Mini 9.  They are pushing the Mini 10 and 10v as the replacements to the popular 8.9 inch laptop, Dell’s first in the hot new netbook genre.

I am pretty bummed about this, though I am glad that I got my hands on a Mini 9 before they were phased out.  I am constantly getting compliments, questions, and requests for netbook buying advice based on people seeing my Mini or knowing that I own one.  The fact that I have been able to Hackintosh it into a perfectly functioning Mac netbook certainly adds to the charm of the Mini 9.  I know that the uber hackability of the Mini 9 was a big draw for many geeks.

The Mini 10/10v seems like a viable replacement, but I’m of the opinion that anything above the 8.9 inch form factor is pushing the netbook envelope. 10 inches and above is really toeing the line between the netbook and a full-size laptop.  I mean, my beloved iBook was 12 inches (and feels like a beast compared to a netbook!)  The computer industry seems to disagree with me, since the 10 inch netbook seems to be the current sweet spot, but I am incredibly happy with my 8.9 inch (purse-sized!) workhorse.  I’ll miss being able to recommend the Mini 9 to my friends and interested parties at Starbucks!

via Direct2Dell

Netbook popularity continues to grow every day, but cute netbook cases are still pretty hard to come by.  I love my tech toys, but I also love to accessorize them.  I like cases that look fresh and feminine, something different than the traditional, boring flat black leather or neoprene.  There is no reason that cases can’t be both functional and attractive!

There are a few companies out there that understand the desire for a pretty laptop case, and CoverBee is one of them.  CoverBee is a company from Holland that is dedicated to creating functional, fashionable cases for laptops of all sizes.

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One of the neat things about Gear Diary is that Judie has gathered a collection of writers who use a wide range of devices. While we all share a passion for gadgetry, the way we express that passion is quite different from one GD’er to the next.

As I was working on a review of my new LiveScribe pen earlier today I wrote the sentence

“With the exception of my various Apple devices this is by far my favorite gadget purchase in a long, long while…”

It got me wondering what device (that is CURRENTLY IN OUR POSSESSION) we are each most excited about. I’ve always loved Mad-Libs and so I sent the following to everyone and asked them to fill it in.

My favorite current gadget is ______. I’ve had it for _____ and love it because it ____ and ______. It is definitely something I would purchase again in _________.

The result… the first “Gear Diary Gear-Libs”.
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When I am loading up eBooks onto my iPhone, Microsoft LIT files are my favorite.  For those of you new to the eBook scene, Microsoft LIT is the eBook format used for Microsoft Reader on the PC and Windows Mobile.  There used to be a Microsoft eBook store that sold DRM-locked LIT books, just like eReader/Fictionwise/Amazon.  You can still purchase LIT eBooks from online stores such as Powell’s or Diesel, but on the whole they are getting harder and harder to find.

I have a ton of non-DRM LIT files that I have converted from text (mostly Project Gutenberg classics) or downloaded from manybooks.net, and they just read so beautifully in Stanza.  I never have any issues with weird spacing or line breaks that look fine on my computer but horrible on the phone, which I have run into with plain text files and other formats.

The more LIT files I load onto my iPhone, the more I have grown to love the way they look.  I barely ever used MS Reader files when I was reading eBooks on my Pocket PC, and now I wish I had appreciated them when they were around.  I never thought I’d say it, but I’m a little sad that LIT as an eBook format is being phased out.

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