First of all, the update was free. Formerly Apple has charged iPod touch users for major OS revisions, but I was able to install it at no charge to my 3rd generation iPod touch. Secondly, the features like wallpapers and multitasking are easy to use, as long as you actually knew how to use you iOS device before. Two taps on the home button brings up the app switcher, and a tap-hold on any open app will allow you to completely “close” the app. Wallpapers are customizable for both the home screen and lock screen; when you choose a new wallpaper you can set it to either screen or both, it’s all so easy.

Pandora excites me for more than just the background play. Apple make the audio background service tie into the iPod music software, which means that the iPod controls on the lock screen and home screen work just as fine as if using the Pandora app. But the ultimate tie-in for me? My headphone remote now can pause the music. I know that sounds so minor, but working every day listening to Pandora gets a little irritating when I always have to pull it out of my pocket to pause the music when I need to have a conversation.

There are other enhancements as well, but in the meantime I am just glad that I have multitasking. It really makes a difference in ease of use.

Are we being serious, folks? You want Flash, the bane of Internet design and functionality for over a decade, and you want it on your mobile device that badly? Granted, Flash provided features that were not commonly available in most browsers or media players in the beginning, but it has been superseded now by much better browsers and programs (dare I drop the word “apps”?) that perform those functions much faster and much better. And let’s not forget that the primary use for Flash on most websites today are those hideous, annoying advertisements that get in your way, make your page load slower, and require me to use tools like Adblock Plus in both Firefox and Thunderbird (for RSS feeds) just to save my sanity. You’ve got to come up with much better reasons than games and video sites like Hulu to convince me. May I point out a few flaws in this reasoning?

Oh yes, Hulu is fun because you can watch that episode you missed last week (at least for us Americans, so international users have even less reason to want Flash.) It uses Flash as it’s sole means of operating, even when using their dedicated desktop applications (just right-click in the player if you don’t believe me.) “We want Hulu on our iPhones!” say the legions of Flash-worshiping minions. And to be honest, I would love Hulu to be on my iPod touch. But let’s look at the situation here from the correct angle: rather than adapting the delivery system, being Flash, to work on the iPhone, shouldn’t we rather request that Hulu adapt it’s content to function correctly outside of Flash? Copyrights and other issues would need to be considered for sure, but it does not make sense to have a middle-man controlling the content when the iPhone OS is fully capable of decoding video itself. YouTube has been on the iPhone from day one without the need of some arbitrary plugin. No, it does not run inside the browser or in the Facebook app (iTunes link), but it works and it works well.

Pandora is another great website that is unfortunately crippled by Flash. I love creating my own stations and listening to old favorites as well as new discoveries. But in contrast to Hulu, Pandora does not have an equivalent “web radio” feature built natively into the iPhone OS. Luckily Pandora (and its competitor, Last.fm) have released apps for the iPhone OS and even other mobile operating systems like Android and Palm’s webOS that allow a user to listen on the go. If fact, I prefer the mobile app because the advertisements are just as prevalent but less annoying, besides being able to move about the house or workplace. Considering the Pandora Radio app (iTunes link) can usually be found in the Top 100 free apps on the iTunes App Store it appears to be a better solution than waiting for Flash to come to the OS.

The Flash supporters wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if there weren’t a few other points besides media to their argument, so let’s look at the other major complaint: games. Web games were the reason I ever discovered Flash (and its neglected, somewhat forgotten sibling Shockwave) and for a long time I loved playing those games. I don’t have as much time as I used to, but every now and then I like to try out one of Download Squad’s suggested “Time Wasters”. I will concede that I have played a few that I have thought, “Wow, I’d love to play those on my iPod anytime I want!” But think for a moment about your favorite games that use Flash and then think about the control system they use. That’s right, a keyboard and mouse. Not quite what we have in mind on our mobile device.

Before anyone says, “You have a touchscreen, you don’t need a mouse!” or, “There’s a virtual keyboard available,” think back to how you control the games. I have two examples of this huge flaw, and both of them come from Download Squad’s Time Wasters feature. (If anyone knows great, inspiring games, it has to be Download Squad.) The two games are Continuity and Starlight.

Continuity is an amazingly simple but truly fun experience. My description won’t do it justice but you move tiles on the screen which represent your playing environment with the goal of obtaining all the keys to open a door somewhere in one of the tiles; it may sound easy, but it is not. Now, the primary input device is a keyboard. In order to successfully navigate the tiles, you usually need at least two keys pressed at the same time, and the tiles zoom out when you need to rearrange them. Let’s look at how this would work on an iPhone: if the game ever loads with a decent speed, I have to popup the keyboard somehow (not sure how you would do that in Flash considering it comes up for text inputs only) which will take up half of the screen space in either orientation and which currently has no arrow keys. Before taking into account any other issues, that alone would hinder this game from being played. I will concede that the iPad has a keyboard accessory that could provide these functions and not take up screen space, but that is all moot when you consider that there is an iPhone OS version of the game being developed. Funny, I recommended that Hulu create an iPhone OS-specific app before…

Now take a look at Starlight. This game basically is a filed of star rotating on a single point in a 3-D plane. You use the mouse only to rotate the screen. Once the stars are aligned to a certain constellation, usually a famous figure or everyday object, you proceed to the next round. There are no buttons to press or click, so this makes it really impractical on an iPhone. Since Mobile Safari interprets movement as page scrolling, it would never be input into the flash game. And even if it were, the iPhone and iPod touch screen size would make it difficult to play still. If it ever were to be playable on the iPhone OS, we’d either have to make serious changes to the way the OS interprets hand gestures or the game itself would have to be adjusted to use such a setup, thus negating the reasons to not develop an iPhone OS version.

I do understand that not all Flash games require any input besides the click of a mouse (or tap in the case of iPhone OS) but in that case why have it be Flash-based? There are much more intuitive, simpler and OS independent alternatives for such simple games. Until Flash has some legitimate function that can not be easily or, more importantly, better implemented in the OS, there is no point in having it ported to iPhone OS.

Finally, I’m going to repeat a lot of the claims used by the opposition to Flash: HTML5 makes Flash unnecessary, no one wants those resource-hogging advertisements on pages, and websites that require Flash for “design reasons” should not exist in the first place. I do believe Flash has a place in the world, and that place is on real computer. If Adobe truly wants Apple to rethink their situation, they’ll have to do much better than post screenshots of blue blocks, most of which are either advertisements, improperly configured video streams or ridiculous Facebook “apps”. (Come on, Farmville? I’m already trying hard to remove all traces of it from my Facebook feed, I really don’t want to be able to run on my iPod.)

I just barely got back into the craze of online chat. Years ago my family and I used Yahoo! Messenger to keep in touch with my brother while he served in Iraq. We were on dial-up trying to video chat, but it worked okay. Since then I haven’t had much use for instant messaging, but recently I found it useful for collaborating and tech support. Since I started using Twitter yesterday (yes, yesterday) I found the beta helpful for tweeting from the desktop without needing another app or browser window open. The beta is really stable, so if you want to enable Twitter support visit the Adium Beta page to download the latest release. And remember: it’s free!

It is exactly this latest search that has brought to my attention a few peculiar auctions. I’m not talking about ancient heirlooms, works of abstract art, or grossly overpriced political souvenirs. No, these auctions are suspect of some kind of shady business tactic, the only problem I have is that I can’t tell whether it is from a company or a few individuals.

Take a look at eBay auction 130352382036, which is for a slightly used 2nd generation iPod touch. It looks like your typical used iPod touch: the headphones and charger (charging cable, actually, it’s just USB) are missing, but there are some silicone cases included, since the seller won’t be needing them anymore. Oh, and free shipping, that’s a nice selling point. Totally worth $1009 at the end of the auction.

WHAT?! $1009? The seller doesn’t even have any feedback rating, he/she’s never done any business on eBay before! Let’s get real, folks: This item was $229 when it was new, and it’s current equivalent is $199 new. How on earth is this worth 5x the current price? Let me see… no, it’s not laced with crack (to our knowledge) and it doesn’t have have any charitable recognition.

Oh, that’s right, maybe it was just a bad bid and it was all a mistake. Let’s go check the bid history, that’ll explain everything! Uh oh, the person originally bid $900, and someone overbid them by $990, so they had to outbid them again. Now this is just weird.

Oh, and before we start trying to rationalize this as some kind of fluke, let’s not forget auction 180444077200 which ended only twenty-four minutes earlier. Again this one sold for the price of $1009. And the seller has no prior feedback, and wouldn’t you know it, the same two bidders bid the same highest three bids. Notice a pattern?

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but this just irked me. How is that two auctions from unknown sellers manage to attract the same two bidders to place bids well over any reasonable amount for used and outdated gadgets? It’s all rather suspicious.

Crazy conspiracy time! 1. These auctions actually were for crack cocaine/mail-order brides/foreign slaves/etc. Illegal goods being paid off in the form of multiple accounts and auctions. (That one is rather crazy, but I’ve seen crazy stuff in my life.) 2. Someone is trying to raise the average selling price of iPod touches. It could be Apple, or an agent of Apple, or some crazy Apple fanboy. The significance is that eBay has a tool to rate the average price an item based on previous auctions’ ending bids. At least two auctions for 8 GB iPod touches at $1009 certainly could raise that average, even if only by a few cents overall.

Who knows? I’m just seriously concerned and interested to know what these auctions were really for. I hope this doesn’t become a big trend on the site; it’s already hard enough to find any model for a decent price, I’d hate to only see prices higher than they are new.

For items that are returned to a manufacturer, those items are inspected, any problems fixed, and put back out on the market. But don’t expect to find these returned units back on store shelves, at least not in the same place and in the same spot. See, it’s against the law for a retailer to sell an item that has been returned as new, since it isn’t, well, new anymore.

No one wants to buy a previously handled device for the same price as a perfectly new one, so most stores discount these items. You may have seen a bin at Walmart or another retailer full of small gadgets that have been opened before. But for larger and more expensive items, like computers and media players, they usually get sent back to the original manufacturer, who then resell them directly. And that, my friends, is the focus of this Tech-on-the-cheap article.

An item that has been repaired to work like new is labeled as refurbished. Refurbished goods are awesome because they are usually just like they were new, but at a big discount. For example, I’ve purchased a few computers from Dell Outlet. These computers are fully inspected and functional when purchased, but all were previously purchased by another person who returned it for various reasons. My latest deal, which was a Dell Mini 10v netbook, (at that time and it’s exact specifications) normally retailed for $330, but the refurbished unit was marked down to $199. Add a 15% coupon to that and I had it down to $165. That’s half price! And it looked just like new, with all of the normal accessories and software. In fact, it is the computer I am typing on right now. I also bought a gorgeous 17 inch display that was refurbished, and they have many more hardware items available. They also sell computers that were returned without even being used, and ones that were used lightly with a few minor blemishes, but all work great.

This isn’t a secluded practice. Apple, one of the most notorious tech companies in the industry, sells refurbished hardware as well as new. They don’t advertise it as well as they used to, but on the store’s homepage you can find it near the bottom. This is also a great opportunity to find models that are no longer available, so they are doubly discounted. Better still, they offer refurbished iPods, AppleTVs, and displays.

Many manufactures follow this practice, even if they don’t sell them directly. It can be hard to find out where to purchase refurbished items (they usually aren’t advertised next to the latest and greatest new items) but no company wants to lose money on what is usually a cheap fix. You can benefit from this practice on almost any tech you want. You may not always save 50%, but every little bit counts.

Today saw the release of Thunderbird 3.0. It’s been a long wait for a number change, and perhaps there isn’t much to show for it. But it’s still nice to see progress made in the software. I’ve noticed on my end that it does seem faster than before, albeit by not much. The look is really nice, with all of the inboxes for my multiple accounts being combined into one smart folder, and I can always separate them back out with the click of a mouse. And of course, you can’t really beat free, not even with a stick.

The only major flaw I’ve found so far is my upgrade from an old 2.0.x version has somehow messed up my RSS feed settings, but I don’t think too many actually use Thunderbird as an RSS reader; I’m kind of in the minority there. Overall I’m satisfied with the new version, even if there isn’t much to brag about. If you are as into POP mail as I am, it would be worthwhile to check out Thunderbird.

[via Download Squad]

Okay, so that was a long time ago, but since then we have seen the evolution through color, connectivity, PDA phones, and now smart phones are the personal data assistants of this age.

Odds are that somewhere along the road you have acquired a few of these devices that fit into this category. But it is also likely that you do not use more than one or two at a time. Here’s a few ideas for that aging PDA that’s just dying to be used again.

1. Alarm Clock
A modern cellphone works great for an alarm clock, but sometimes you want something more reliable. Something… bigger. Most dedicated PDAs had decently large, backlit screens that work great in the dark. It may be a waste of horsepower, but I’ve found old PDAs to be very useful alarm clocks that don’t glow obsessively in the dark.

You can also set multiple alarms, usually by using the calendar app. Have a different schedule on Sundays? Set a recurring alarm for Sundays only.

Newer (not really old) PDAs should also allow you to use your own music, albeit with a little help from additional software.

2. Photo Frame
Looking for a small digital photo frame? Me neither, but for some reason people keep buying the little buggers. I can’t understand paying upwards of $40 at a regular store for a 3.5 inch display. I have a 3 incher on my PDA!

Obviously you’d want a color PDA, since photos don’t usually look so hot on the older monochrome screens. If you don’t care what it looks like, a cradle (which usually came with most PDAs) would do just fine. But if the cradle doesn’t sound too good, you do have a few options for your frame: wood/metal photo frames cut to fit, gluing a small stand to the back of the PDA, or just some really good adhesive. The latter two are fairly easy, since you are just sticking something to the back, either for wall mount or table display. The wood or metal frame is more tricky; rarely do photo frames match the screen size, so will probably have to disassemble it and cut to fit. But all of those options are as cheap as $1, so the cost still isn’t high.

Make sure that whatever option you choose will have power. Some PDA cables are rather clunky, but if you’re going cheap you sometimes have to make sacrifices.

The added bonus of this setup are possibilities for video and music playback. Not all models support those features, but it is more common. Speaking of music….

3. MP3 Player
When I was using an old Tungsten T during high school, I was shocked one day to realize I hadn’t used it for anything except music for a whole week. I was still glad to have it over a dedicated MP3 player since it did have games and productivity software, but it was still a shocking realization.

If your PDA is MP3 capable, why not use it as an MP3 player? These make great starter players for kids, and since they normally use flash memory they can be used while running or jogging.

4. Universal Remote
I remember when I first heard of Logitech’s Harmony remotes. I thought they were cool, but the first one I saw started out at $100. Yikes! Nowadays they still start at $100 and go clear up to $400, just for a remote! But long before I had heard of the Harmony, I had already converted my PDA into a cheap universal remote.

This one is really going to depend on the hardware. Most older PDAs have infrared transceivers, usually for sharing data. (That was way back before Bluetooth and Wi-Fi were common.) The great thing is that most televisions and compatible media players use infrared for their wireless remote controls.

Software such as NoviiRemote can receive the IR commands from a remote and then repeat them on your command. You can even customize the layout of the remote and store hundreds of different remote profiles. Now some new televisions and media devices use different technology for their remotes; the PS3 uses Bluetooth so this won’t work for PlayStation 3 fans. But most other devices will work just fine.

The only not-so-cheap problem here is that not all remote software is cheap or free. The Novii software starts at $17, but it seems to be the best I’ve found. (Not that I’ve looked too hard, it’s been a while since I went shopping for remote software.) Search around a bit, and maybe you can find equivalent software for free. Heck, if you’re lucky some of the Sony Clie line had the software built-in.

One of my recent passions has been the most low-tech innovation of the past three years: netbooks. In theory, netbooks should never have been successful: paying close to the same price as a normal laptop for inferior hardware? The old me would have said, “No way, Jose,” but after actually owning one for a year and becoming immersed in the the Mac netbook scene I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of function-over-specs.

One huge problem with netbooks is that they really are limited in their modern capabilities. For example: Adobe’s Flash Player software, commonly used on YouTube and online games, is just barely functional on most netbooks. Soon newer models with new processors and video technologies will lure a lot of current netbooks to ditch their old model for an upgrade.

So what’s a person to do with an underused netbook? Here’s a few ideas to keep you netbook in practical use beyond just the normal e-mail and web browsing.

1. Portable Video Player
You know those little portable DVD players that you can buy at most retailers? They are usually junk unless you start getting into the $150+ range. By that point you can almost pay for a decently-discounted netbook! So why not make your netbook a non-DVD video player?

Despite the diminutive specifications, netbooks make formidable video players. (Well, except for Flash video, but I digress….) Even when encoded in high definition, most popular netbooks are more than capable of playing most video files.

Use video conversion software, such as the excellent Handbrake, to convert your DVD’s to MP4 files. They’re smaller and easier to transfer over to a netbook. Heck, you could even use your netbook and an external DVD drive to do the conversion. (That will be slower, but you won’t be using up valuable resources on a more powerful computer.)

There are two more major advantages to this setup for parents. How many times have your kids grabbed a DVD with slobbery, food-encrusted hands, while scratching it across a hard surface? There’s no physical media to worry about with a netbook video player. And what about those forty+ cartoons that the kids can never leave home without? Now they’re all stored on the hard drive, without the need to swap discs mid-trip.

2. Teleprompter
(I got this idea from a system utilizing an iPhone, as reported on Make: Online.)
Giving an important presentation? Creating your own video podcast? You’ve got yourself a great prompting system waiting for you on your desk.

Unlike conventional laptops, netbooks are usually really small and light. This makes them ideal for setting in peculiar places, like on a shelf. Using a presentation program such as PowerPoint or OpenOffice you can view your notes in large words (as compared with an iPhone teleprompter) without having to shuffle papers. This is especially important for podcasts, no one wants to see a stack of papers on the screen.

This idea really comes into fruition if you use a netbook with a webcam; you can record your podcast with the same screen that you are reading your script from.

3. Really Expensive Wireless Adapter
This one was almost too ridiculous to mention, except it is exactly what I have been using for Xbox Live the last month or two.

While most modern technology have 802.11 technology built-in, there are still some useful products that don’t. Notably, the original Xbox and the current Xbox 360. Yes, you could buy a dedicated wireless adapter, but both consoles’ options are fairly expensive. And sometimes you need a quick temporary solution for a desktop computer in a remote spot of the house. You’ve got a netbook that isn’t getting used much, why not put it to work?

It’s really simple; just set your operating system to share the wireless connection with your wired ethernet port; Windows provides a fairly simple check box for this. It may not be as simple, elegant, or beautiful as a dedicated adapter, but it gets the job done.

Another related trick is for travel. I visited a hotel last year that used powerline networking, which required an adapter in the hotel room. The adapter only had one ethernet port, but we had two computers. We simply hooked one to the adapter, set Windows to share the ethernet’s connection with the wireless, and connected via ad-hoc. No need for a router, we were both able to surf the web off one ethernet adapter.