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Back to School 2010 Buyer’s Guide for Apple Lovers
With the next school year just around the corner, we’ve put together a list of some important products that are must haves for students who are headed off to college. If you own a Mac or even just an iPhone, there's something for you in our Back to School 2010 Buyer’s Guide. AppleCare $39 – $349 ($39 – $239 with educational discount), Apple Store The necessity of this little gem should go without saying. Students get substantial discounts on Apple’s AppleCare protection plan, so its definitely wise to invest now for peace of mind later. AppleCare doesn’t cover accidental damage, but if you’re the type that uses your Apple gear a lot and all that wear and tear can cause some components to wear out, you’ll be covered when you need it most. Extra Power Adapter $29 – $79, Apple Store From studying in the library to working out in the gym to relaxing in front of the TV, as a student you tend to move around a lot. Grab an extra power adapter for your Mac or your iPad and keep one at home and one in your bag. You’ll never end up at one place and realize you left your power adapter somewhere else. Cases $29.95 and up, Apple Store Most everyone agrees that with Apple, form exists with function. See those impressed looks you get when people see you with your Apple gadgets? Keep them in good shape by investing in a good case. I recommend neoprene cases from Incase or perhaps a tough rubberized case from Speck. BookArc $39.95 – $49.95, Twelve South To save some space in your dorm or apartment, consider the BookArc stand by Twelve South. It’ll give your device “a home” and give it some protection at the same time. If you’re using a portable Mac or an iPad, this is a great way to free up space by elevating your device and it includes several adapters for a snug fit. Bose In-Ear Headphones $89.95, Apple Store Sometimes the best time for you to study might not be the best time for others, and vice versa. Give yourself some privacy by investing in a good quality pair of headphones. In-ear headphones, like these by Bose, will give you better sound than traditional earbuds and help to block out external noise. MiFi Hotspot $299.99 (but free with contract, monthly fees apply), Sprint While its pretty easy to find wi-fi access these days, occasionally you’ll find yourself in a location where there’s no internet access. If you don’t have tethering support on your iPhone, grab a MiFi mobile hotspot. It uses the cellular network to obtain a signal and then broadcasts as a wi-fi hotspot, enabling access for your Mac, iPad or any other-wifi enabled device. Speaker Pillows $9.99, Target If you haven’t seen these yet, you’ll be surprised at how many different ones there are to choose from. Just like the name sounds, it’s a pillow that you can plug into your iPod, iPhone, Mac or anything else and fall asleep listening to tunes. Haven’t you always wanted to fall asleep listening to your recorded lectures? Talk about deja vu. Flip Video UltraHD Camcorder $199.95, Apple Store College can be one of the most transformational seasons of your life. If you don’t have an iPhone 4, consider a Flip HD camera as a way to capture some these moments. The UltraHD camera starts at $199 for a model that comes with 4GB of storage. The Flip is staple for on-the-fly filming, so you can't go wrong with this. Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS Camera $179.95, Apple Store For those who aren’t into video, a traditional digital camera could be right for you. The Canon PowerShot SD1300 packs a whopping 12 megapixels for under $200. Best of all, it works with iPhoto or your iPad with the Camera Connection Kit. Can't beat the opportunity to buy more Apple stuff to use your existing Apple stuff! Apple Store & iTunes Gift Cards Varies, Apple Store The next time Mom sends a care package, make sure she throws in a few of these. Apple Gift Cards can be used in an Apple Retail Store or online and can be used for buying iTunes gift cards. With iTunes gift cards, you can get music, rent movies or even buy books for your classes if they're available on the iBookstore. What other gadgets would setup an Apple lover for college? Share your thoughts in the comments and keep a look out for our Mac, iPhone/iPod and iPad specific buyer's guides coming soon!
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Canon releases PowerShot Digital ELPH camera
Posted by Dennis SellersCanon has released the PowerShot SD4000 IS Digital ELPH camera. It's the first of the Digital ELPH series to offer a high-sensitivity system, known as Canon's HS SYSTEM, with a CMOS sensor and bright f/2.0 lens.
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Review: Canon PowerShot SX1 IS not serious enough
Posted by Dennis SellersBy Mike Mackenzie When the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS (US$599.99) arrived, I was eager to put it to work. After all, a compact camera with a 20x optically stabilized zoom lens and RAW capture is enticing.
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'MacVoices' looks at Canon PowerShot G10/G11
Posted by Dennis SellersOn the new MacVoices, Jeff Carlson discusses his new book, “Canon PowerShot G10/G11: From Snapshots to Great Shots.”
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Gearing up for Macworld: My 5 apps & packing list
Filed under: MacworldHitting the road for a week or more can be daunting enough when packing for a regular business trip, but when the itinerary includes the hustle and flow of Macworld Expo, I start to think a bit more seriously about exactly what I'm taking and why. The good news is, of course, that a few well-chosen apps can substitute for destination guides and navigational help. The bad news... there's still a lot of stuff to bring along. Here are five-plus apps I loaded specifically for this trip, and a few hardware items that I couldn't do without. The Apps As many times as I've been to San Francisco, I still don't have a firm notion of the city's geography outside the immediate vicinity of Moscone Center (don't blame SF -- I still get lost in my own home town, too). To help me get around, I've tried iBART, BayTripper and the free, location-aware nextbus.com mobile site. Still, I come back to two tried-and-true tools every time. For public transit and walking directions, the Maps app does a great job; bus timing may not be precise, but you get where you're going. If your transit needs are a little more personal, the astonishing Taxi Magic app gets a ride to wherever you are in no time flat -- and with no additional fee, if you pay in cash. Honorable mention: the Zipcar app, if you need wheels of your own in a jiffy. Before boarding the plane to come out to the West Coast, I checked that my two favorite air travel apps were loaded and ready. The Tripit app (paired with a Tripit Pro subscription) keeps my itineraries right at my fingertips, including the ability to search for alternative flight reservations. While I'm hopping through the airports on either end, Gate Guru helps make sure I don't skip past the best place to eat while I'm meandering towards my gate. Keeping with the travel theme, two of the nodconcept travel apps -- Travel Assistant and Rooms -- have found a place on my iPhone. Travel Assistant syncs my trips with the Tripit service but adds a rewards account database, travel log and packing/activity list manager to the function suite; it also scrolls directly to the current date when viewing a trip, which is very handy if you forget which city you're in. Speaking of forgetting, since the days of having your room number actually printed on your hotel key are long gone, you'd better have another way of tracking that bit of info before you find yourself blankly staring down the hallway at 2 am. Rooms ups the ante from the original Room app, which badged its own icon with your room number for immediate reference; you can now track the room numbers of several traveling companions, as well. Beyond those travel basics, I also loaded up Pzizz, for catching up on scarce sleep; Foursquare, for keeping track of my fellow TUAW night owls; Happy Hour and Good Food Near You for balancing my diet; the KQED Check, Please podcast for restaurant reviews from real San Franciscans; iMacworld, for knowing what's going on when; and the closed beta of VoiceCentral Black Swan edition, for the best Google Voice client on the iPhone so I can keep my voicemail sorted out while I'm on the move. Now onto the hardware... The Gear My most essential road accessory, without question, is my Belkin mini surge protector. 3 grounded outlets + 2 USB charging ports in a compact, friendly package has made me a happy man. 2nd most essential, and certainly the cheapest, is an Ezonics SD card to USB adapter. I think I might have paid all of $7 for it, and it has served with distinction for photo offloading and in-a-pinch flash drive duty. I've got a few SD cards to swap in and out of cameras, and a quick and accessible reader is vital. The only drawback is that the reader is wide enough to block the other USB port, so I usually bring along a short M-F USB extender cable as well. I normally use a Verizon MiFi card to provide mobile internet access, but for this trip I'm carrying a Sprint Overdrive 3G/4G wireless mobile router (I had a stop in a 4G-capable city before coming to SF, but the unit only works on 3G here). Sprint thoughtfully includes Sierra Wireless drivers to allow Mac users to tether the router over USB, which is handy if you're trying to conserve laptop battery power by turning off Wi-Fi. Storage is always at a bit of a premium, so I'm offloading some of my bulkier files (older movies, photos and music) to external drives for the week. My LaCie 500GB Little Disk is a loyal pal, and I've got a few other drives in the bag, including a borrowed and super-fast WD Firewire 800 MyPassport Studio drive that I'm loath to return. A random assortment of USB flash drives accompanies the bigger media, but I'm putting small stickers with my phone number on them to make sure they find their way home. I've also got more cables than I need, even though I tried to double up on USB cords; they just seem to multiply in the bag. Fortunately I have several small photo kit velcro-seal pouches to keep the mess under management. Another thing that gets kept in those pouches: cameras. It seems that every year I bring another different camera to Macworld Expo, and every year the one I use most frequently for video and photos alike is my steadfast Canon PowerShot SD600. It's now verging on four years old (that's almost middle-aged, to you and me) but it's still perfectly capable of delivering sharp 640x480 video at 30fps with remarkably solid sound, not to mention clear 6MP images. I'd love an SLR but I know I wouldn't love lugging it around the show. Meanwhile, my Aiptek Action HD camera (otherwise known as 'Crappy, the World's Worst Cheap HD Video Camera') usually stays in the case. This year I am also carrying an original standard-def Flip Mino for quick, impromptu videos like this one; since my iPhone is a 3G I don't have native support for good video capture, and as you can tell by this motley assortment of old and inexpensive cams, I'm something of a skinflint when it comes to spending money on cameras. Finally, yes, a close eye on the picture above would reveal both my iPhone 3G (sporting the 'rugged' Case-Mate Naked Case, with electrostatic screen cover for hard duty, and supplemented by a Monoprice external battery) and another phone: an HTC Droid Eris on Verizon, which I'm testing out this week just in case I get stuck in some AT&T dead zones. Just don't take any pictures of me using it while I'm wearing my TUAW staff shirt, OK? What items can't you do without when coming to Macworld? Let us know below!TUAWGearing up for Macworld: My 5 apps & packing list originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments San Francisco - Universal Serial Bus - Macworld Expo - USB flash drive - Moscone Center
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iLife '10? No, Just An iLife '09 Update
Apple released new downloads today to upgrade various aspects of iLife '09 in what some are dubbing the iLife '10 update. There are updates for RAW format compatibility with several cameras, as well as system improvements affecting Aperture 03 and iPhoto 09 to improve slideshow support and integration with the Media Browser. Some Aperture 3 users had been reporting problems with video clips in slideshows after upgrading to Snow Leopard, and this update addresses that. For those wanting the very best quality from their digital images, the RAW format produces files with no loss and maximum quality. The update allows Aperture and iPhoto to handle RAW files from these cameras and formats: Canon PowerShot S90Canon sRAWCanon mRAWLeica D-LUX 4Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3.
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Apple offers 2 software updates
Filed under: iLife, Multimedia, Software UpdateWell, it's Tuesday, and Apple's favorite day to update software. Today we get an iLife '09 update, and a bunch of camera RAW updates. Here's what Apple has to say about the iLife update: Provides system software resources that are shared by iLife and other applications. This update improves overall stability for the Media Browser and iPhoto slideshows. It also provides compatibility between Aperture 3 and the Media Browser. The update is recommended for all users of iLife '09, iWork '09, and Aperture. And the camera updates: This update extends RAW image compatibility for Aperture 3 and iPhoto '09 for the following cameras and formats: Canon PowerShot S90 Canon sRAW Canon mRAW Leica D-LUX 4 Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 It's not earthshaking, but will be welcome for heavy iLife '09 users. You can get these from the software update option under the Apple menu.[Thanks Michael for the tip]TUAWApple offers 2 software updates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments iPhoto - Apple - iLife - Aperture - Unofficial Apple Weblog
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Canon unveils new PowerShot digital cameras, new Rebel DSLR
Posted by Dennis SellersCanon USA has announced the addition of four new PowerShot Digital cameras: the PowerShot SX210 IS, PowerShot SD3500 IS, PowerShot SD1400 IS and PowerShot SD1300 IS.
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Dozen Daily Deals for December 26, 2009
Filed under: Deals'Tis the season to shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we'll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won't. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get 'em while they're hot. Enjoy! AT&T Wireless: [iPhone] Refurbished Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB for $49 + free shipping, 32GB for $149 OfficeDepot: [Office & Supplies] Office Depot coupon: 10% off select items in-store eForCity: [Electronics] eForCity.com Boxing Day Sale: Free shipping sitewide HP Home & Home Office Store: [Mice/Trackballs] 2 HP Wireless Optical Mobile Mice for $5 + $5 s&h, 3 for $8 Shop4Tech: [iPod Accessories] Nyko iTop iPod Button Relocator for $2 + free shipping ThingFling: [802.11g Wireless] Philips 802.11g Wireless LAN 3.5dB Desktop PC Antenna for free + $6 s&h Dell Home: [46" - 47" LCD TVs] Samsung 46" 1080p Widescreen LCD HDTV for $778 + free shipping Best Buy: [23-Inch LCD] Acer 23" 1080p Widescreen LCD Display with HDMI for $140 + pickup Verizon Wireless: [Bluetooth Headsets] Jawbone Prime Bluetooth Headset for $64 + free overnight shipping Abe's of Maine: [Digital Cameras] Canon PowerShot A1100 IS 12MP 4x Zoom Digital Camera, Case for $120 + free shipping Dell Home: [23-Inch LCD] Dell SP2309W 23" Widescreen LCD Display with Webcam for $219 + free shipping eBay: [Plasma TVs] Panasonic VIERA G10 46" 1080p THX-Certified Plasma HDTV for $1,050 + free shipping TUAWDozen Daily Deals for December 26, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments IPhone - Apple - IPod - Verizon Wireless - Dell Home
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Macsimum review: Canon PowerShot D10 the compact camera for the adventurer
Posted by Dennis SellersBy Mike McKenzie The Canon PowerShot D10 (US$329) is billed as a rugged camera for the adventurer, and it certainly looks and feels the part. The D10 is waterproof to 33 feet, shockproof to 4 feet, and freezeproof to 14 Fahrenheit. It incorporates important features, such as a 12.1-megapixel CCD sensor,...