But no more!

I have just been converted into a HUGE fan of what is probably the slickest and easiest way to create an iPhone ringtone I’ve seen yet, Ringer from Pixel Research Labs Inc.

In fact I cannot believe just how easy it was – as soon as I launched Ringer, the main window instructs me to “drop a music file here”……you can also use a movie file, but I just tried with a song I like that reminds me of a friend of mine (Greg I’ll bet you’ll never guess which song I used for you!!)….

(click on photo for larger image)

After that it’s SO intuitive that I didn’t even look at the instructions – I just grabbed the blue highlight area and dragged it to the section of the song that I wanted to use, stretched it a bit to the right to cover roughly 18 seconds of the section, and clicked on “Create” – that was it! (did I mention Ringer is easy to use?)…. it automatically added a brief fade in/fade out and launched iTunes, placing my new ringtone in the Ringtones section, ready to be synced to my iPhone. Still waiting on a Ringtone creator for T-Mobile Blackberry phones, until then, blackberry users need to stick to their boring ringtones…

How’s that for easy? I don’t think it could get any easier unless you’re buying ringtones directly from the iTunes store, but with it’s VERY reasonable $15 price tag, Ringer is a better option if (like me) you like to have different ringtones for everyone in your contact list (or at least the important people).

DOWNLOAD Ringer Here

I give Ringer TOTALLY 5 paws!
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

All that being said – I have 3 recommendations for you:

1. If you have non-Apple-installed RAM, replace it with your original RAM (if possible) before updating
2. Be SURE that you do a complete backup using the backup mechanism of your choice; and
3. Consider downloading the 10.5.6 Combo Update instead of using Software Update;

I screwed up and failed to do any of these, having been lulled into a false sense of security by the ease of the last 3 updates (10.5.2,.4, and .5 all went without so much as a hiccup)….and I wound up spending almost two full days getting my computer back to normal operations.

What happened – if you’re interested – is that the update seemed to go fine at first, but when I restarted the laptop as required, I got the message saying that the “update could not be installed and that I should contact the manufacturer”, and after clicking “OK” (really, like you have any other choice but to say Okay?), nothing would actually work – trying to launch ANY app resulted in errors (“The application XX quit unexpectedly”….even the crash reporter wouldn’t work. Repairing the disk and permissions didn’t work. Re-applying the update didn’t work. After more than 24 hours of troubleshooting and research it came down to reinstalling from the original Leopard DVD……aaarrggh!

I managed to get thru an Archive and Reinstall so thankfully I wasn’t forced to erase my old data (which hasn’t been backed up for a couple of weeks due to a problem I’m having with a brand new Airport Extreme fighting with my Time Capsule for superiority). Then I applied the Combo Update, and after verifying that all was working, I reinstalled my newer RAM, so now I’m back to where I was a couple of days ago.

Updating is not supposed to be this difficult, but one of these days I’ll learn to do it the right way. I hope you can benefit from my mistakes…….good luck!

The book being offered is “The Art and Science of CSS” – I own this book and refer to it often since it’s packed full of well-written instructions on using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to create stunning design and effects and to solve design problems and challenges. Having it in the PDF format also makes it even more valuable since I can continue to refer to it even when I’m on the road (I tend to work wherever I can find a power outlet and internet connection).

The book is worth $29.95 so this is a great freebie – to get it all you need to do is follow @sitepointdotcom on Twitter. SitePoint is having what they are calling a “Twitaway” for the next two weeks only, so don’t miss out! And if you don’t Twitter (is there anyone who doesn’t Twitter these days?) they’ve got you covered – you can still get the free download here: SitePoint Twitaway

Happy Web Designing!

For anyone who is not yet familiar with the AMBER Alert System, it’s a “quick response” system developed to get the word out when a child has been abducted. Authorities say that the first three hours after a child has been abducted are the most critical hours in which the chances are greatest for a rescue, so spreading the word quickly is vital.

Here in the greater Phoenix area the DOT has put up a number of special signs along the freeways as well as major streets, that flash Amber Alert information as soon as a report is called in. It will generally display information on a make/model/color of a vehicle if witnesses can report that, sometimes even a license plate number, other times just a description of the child and/or the suspected abductor.

But what about when you’re not in your car driving around to see the signs? Or not watching the news stations? How about if you’re at the mall, ballpark, beach, or elsewhere? Getting these alerts on your cellphone could possibly help save a child’s life. Sure, cell phones give us a lot of convenience, but I can’t think of a better use for technology than helping save someone.

Signing up is easy – I just did it…….you just enter your cell phone, accept the terms, enter from 1 up to 5 zip codes (if you travel extensively you may want to enter more than 1, but only your home zip code is needed to enroll for the whole city in which you live). That’s it – they’ll send you a text message to confirm your enrollment.

Technology is a wonderful thing…….even better when it can help reunite abducted kids with their families.

Grab this freebie, The Photoshop Anthology (101 Web Design Tips, Tricks, & Techniques), while you can – it’s a limited time offer, so don’t delay. Did I mention that it’s FREE?

The author, Corrie Haffly, is an expert Photoshop user, author, and regular contributor to SitePoint. I love Corrie’s advice and tips in the Design View e-newsletter I subscribe to, and her articles on the SitePoint website have taught me a lot about graphic design.

For anyone who is not a regular reader of this site, SitePoint is my favorite resource for web design books, video tutorials, and general reference material. I own (and use almost daily) many of their books, learn something new from them with nearly every issue of their newsletters, and I use their HTML Reference pages and CSS Reference pages on a regular basis. I especially love their Reference pages because I can use them when I’m on the road (and don’t have their books with me) and need to look something up. Every Web Designer should be a regular visitor to their site!

It’s been a bit over two months now since I hooked it up, and it has been hard at work backing up both of my Macs on an hourly basis, without fail, since I installed it. I have to say I really do like this nifty contraption, and I sleep much easier at night now.

I went for the 1TB model since I have two computers to back up, and for various reasons I don’t use the Wireless feature, instead I use Time Capsule as a “bridge” (hub) to which I have connected my two Macs and a PC via the ethernet ports on the back of the Time Capsule, and the Time Capsule is, of course, connected via ethernet to my firewall/router from which I get my internet connection. This means that my backups are performed at the highest possible speed, and don’t interfere at all with my normal use of my Macs as I’m working. A lot has been written about the (very good) suggestion to connect via ethernet for your first backup when you set it up – since it can take quite a bit of time to make an initial, full system backup (some users have reported that when creating their initial backup via Wireless it took overnight). Using the ethernet connection my PowerBook (with approximately 45GB of data) took just under ninety minutes for its first backup, and my PowerMac (with nearly 120GB of data) took roughly 4 hours to backup the first time. Now both run their hourly backups in only a couple of minutes.

Another nice feature is the USB port that can support either a printer (effectively making it a network printer if you have multiple computers that need to share a printer) or a second external storage drive, which would increase the storage capacity of the Time Capsule, allowing Time Machine to keep additional backup sets before overwriting the oldest ones.

For Mac users who also happen to be computer novices, or for any Mac user who just doesn’t want to fuss with tech stuff, it doesn’t get any easier than plugging in the Time Capsule. In my case, given that the Time Capsule also acts as my hub, I think it was well worth the $499 price tag. Not everyone will take advantage of it’s full wireless, router, or hub capabilities, so if you’re only looking for an external drive to back up to, and won’t use it wirelessly, you should factor that into your decision before buying one, as external storage drives can be had for less, and as long as they are directly attached to your computer, they’ll work as well with Time Machine.

If you’re interested, you can read my review of Time Machine here.

So I’ve been thinking about it a lot, because I work in a small office environment in my home – we have around nine or ten computers, most with multiple monitors, along with a variety of peripherals – printers, routers, hubs, phone systems, etc. A couple of these do need to stay on at night as they run application 24×7, but most are just left on for convenience sake. On occasion I get up at night, and it’s astonishing just how much ambient light is put out by the various LED power indicators that are on. We don’t need night-lights.

In David’s column, he mentions a couple of nifty gadgets to help with this – the SurgeArrest Essential from APC (about $28) that has outlets that can be turned off by a Master switch, leaving some on for those items that can’t be powered down, while cutting power to those that can. He also mentions the PowerKey Pro USB for Mac users that does that and more using software along with it’s power strip, letting you control things with a few key strokes. It’s quite a bit more expensive ($199 for the lesser expensive of two models, $299 for the other), but it could be a good choice if your priority is convenience and features.

I took stock of everything that’s plugged in here, to see what could be unplugged at night with little inconvenience (such as monitors, printers, paper shredder, etc). Even my Time Capsule can be shut down at night, since it backs up every hour, and if I’m not changing files on my computer at night, there’s nothing new to be backed up anyway. There’s enough to shave a few dollars off our monthly electric bill and reduce our energy cost, possibly even enough to pay for one or two of the APC SurgeArrests over the course of a year. For me personally, it’s less about reducing our energy consumption and more about helping the environment – my significant other and I are passionate about trying to reduce our carbon footprint – so I don’t mind the extra cost of the PowerKey Pro USB and would use the extra software features.

I’ll keep you posted on which one we go with (who knows, maybe we’ll try both), and I’ll keep track of our energy savings as well so I can let you know in a few months what impact it’s having on our bills.

Read the Announcement

Shop The TidBits eBook Catalog

I’m a long-time subscriber to their regular e-newsletter, which I love. Every issue is packed with information and reviews on Mac applications and utilities, current happenings at Apple and in the Mac community, and interesting technology news. On occasion they offer opportunities to win some terrific 3rd party apps (I’ve been the lucky winner twice – yaay!). I look forward to, and thoroughly enjoy, every single issue.

Their eBooks are extremely well written guides to a wide variety of [mostly] mac-related subjects, with clear and easy to follow tips and instructions. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about your operating system and applications, how to make a podcast, or getting the most out of your iPhone, you should check out these eBooks (they have a lot more subjects too). The best part is that even at their normal prices they are a terrific value, but at these sale prices they should not be missed. And when you buy one, they have an embedded link you can click on to check for updates, which makes it easy (and often free) to stay current.

If you’re fairly new to web design, The Usability Kit is a really good primer on how to do things the right way, whether your building a blog or a full-blown commercial site. It will teach you how to ensure that your site is not just completely standards-compliant, but really and truly user-friendly as well.

And if you’re a fairly experienced web designer who wants to go into business for yourself, then the Web Design Business Kit is a must-have. This one will teach you everything you need to know about being a self-employed web designer, from preparing proposals to developing milestones to delivering your finished product. It will help you avoid mistakes that many new entrepreneurs make.

For anyone who needs (or just really wants) to improve traffic to their site (in particular anyone who sells products on the web) you can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars by learning to do your own Search Engine Marketing instead of paying someone else (who may not even be doing it right), you really nee the Search Engine Marketing Kit. The company I work for used to spend over $6000 per month to a SEM firm, but now we do it ourselves for a small fraction of that.

And last but not least, any commercial site should have a good email marketing campaign – it’s important to avoid doing common things that can get you labeled as a spammer, and to know the laws of email marketing, which is where The Email Marketing Kit comes in.

I don’t normally like to “plug” products, but these kits are such a good value normally, and a great value right now, that I wanted to share them with you before the sale is over. According to the email they sent me, quantities are limited so don’t delay! (Now that’s an example of a good email marketing technique!

All of them have Sample chapters that you can download to preview before buying if you choose to.

I just love this site GeekCulture.com and in particular their Joy Of Tech cartoon…….it always helps to start my day off on the right foot.

Click on the image at left to open the original at the JOT site in order to read these funny warning labels…..caution: some of these may remind you of you…..