What’s smaller than a breadbox and cranks out hit music, stores your favorite pictures and tracks just how far your feet are really walking? Allow me to stick my thumbs into my ears, please feel free to join me. Then in unison let’s sing … Na-no, Na-no, Naaaaaa-no.

That’s right, folks, Apple has sliced itself yet gain and the latest piece to fall off is the new iPod Nano.

It’s pretty cool as iPods go. Let’s take look at what makes this boxy little sliver of cutting edge techno so cool to its avid followers and newbies alike.

First up, this new Nano is a fraction of the size of its predecessor. Its new size is 46% smaller and 42% lighter than the previous version. Try it out at the gym, and chances are good that you won’t even be able to tell you have anything on at all.

Gone is the old wheel type user control with this new Nano. Instead, it boasts a touch screen user interface. And the display looks incredible. I wasn’t much of a fan of the wheel thingy in the first place, and I just love the ability to point, tap or swipe to get to whatever I want on any new toy.

Oh! And have you seen those really cool wrist watch bands that transform the new Nano into a wrist watch? They are pretty inexpensive to buy (around $20) and make the Nano a little more “fun” than the previous generation. Ooo and did I mention that the screen rotates as well? Very cool!

If you are looking for a super thin, light weight music player to take with you to the gym or to sneak into class with you this is the perfect one.

In the years since the unveiling of the Apple iPhone there have been some pretty cool game apps hit the iTunes store. One of my hands down favorites has been Angry Birds.

The idea of sling-shooting fuzzy little birds across the screen and sending them into walls of wood and brick has been very appealing to me. The sounds these cute little creatures make only adds to my joy.

Angry Birds was the App Store’s most popular download for quite a long time, and only in the past few months was it knocked down from its lofty little perch. So it is only fitting that the developer of the app has created a version just for the holiday season that has iDevice users flinging their way to happiness one bird at a time.

The Christmas version is filled with all kinds of flashy environments. I have to say it was fun playing this game in the snow. I only wish that there was a way to let the birds take advantage of the slick surface. I would love to see a version where we could use the birds as bowling pins and roll our way right through the truckload of pigs the game keeps in reserve throughout the game.

Seeing all of the pigs all decked out in Christmas garb strangely makes me more blood thirsty for the rascals and hungry for bacon.

Maybe a good idea for next years release would be some sort of scenario where we get to kill the pig and as a reward we are launched into another dimension of the game where we have to fight it out for a holiday ham dinner. I envision a fight to the death flinging not only the birds at the pigs but maybe even a flash food fight just to sweeten the pot a little, for the pigs you know.

All in all it’s a cool holiday app that mirrors the original version with the exception of all the holiday trimmings. Add some cheer to your holidays with some good old fashioned swine killing.

Games, games, games. “Is that all you think life is?”

Thus my mother would say to me when she was frustrated with me and my light-hearted approach to life as a teenager. Well Mom, this one is for you, because thanks to the good people over at Apple life is becoming all about games, games and more games.

With the release of iOS 4.1 early this fall Apple began to stick its neck out in the world of online gaming. They may not have a console to speak off, yet, but who needs a console when you millions upon millions of iPhones, iPads and iTouches already in the hands of game crazed consumers?

With the new Game Center you can play games online with your iDevice much like people have been doing with systems like Xbox Live. You can play games with your friends. You can play games with strangers (if you are older than 18 and your Mommie says it’s ok). And some of those strangers can live anywhere in the world. How is that for cool?

And as the 1980’s Ronco commercials would say…

But wait, there’s MORE!

Not only can you do those cool things but there are like 20 games currently available to play on Game Center with an Apple promise for lots more as the platform develops.

Have the thirst for the thrill of competition? Game Center lets you compete against both yourself and your friends for high scores. You’ll even earn game achievements along the way as you play.

The apps interface is sleek and clean looking also. It’ll show you which of your friends is currently online available to play you in your favorite game or it will match you up with random gamers if you like.

Wouldn’t Mommie be proud?

What ever happened to the days when you could just go to the store and flip through game programs and other software titles to find what you were looking for?

The fun was in the anticipation of talking to your friends at school all week about the game you were going to buy at the store that weekend. It always made for a really good time. I mean, where is the fun in sitting in your cute little panties and push-up bra with your hair flowing down your back downloading an app? Personally I think it’s much more fun to wonder if the 17 year old boy next door is going to fall out of a tree peeking in my window while I download the latest version of Words with Friends onto my iMac… That’s right I said my iMac.

In the last few weeks Apple has launched a new store just for Mac users. Seems the app world is so hot right now that Apple is going to let us play Angry Birds on our desktops.

Of course, there are those with their hesitations, as well. Current app developers are worried that, with new rules governing an app’s admittance into the store, they are going to lose touch with their customers and become nothing more than app suppliers to Apple.

I guess this makes sense in a drug dealer kind of way. It’s like when Tashauwn tells you you’re still going to be able to buy your pot from him, just that his has to put a different sticker on the bag.

Who cares?!?

I honestly couldn’t care less about who is where in the food chain. I think Apple has done Mac users a tremendous service by creating the Mac App Store.

GOOD JOB, MAC!

The world is getting one step closer to holograms and George Jetson flying cars. Case in point: computers now take dictation. Software developer Nuance Communications has created a version of their Dragon dictation software that is compatible with the latest Mac OS. Early reviews by consumers are on the plus side and, as I once heard a TV Grandma yell at her hubby: “This dictate good!” (Guess that, plus the Jetson’s reference, should give you an idea of my sometimes juvenile tastes in television, yes? But I digress…)

Dragon Dictate is a speech recognition program that takes your voice, runs it through a recognition engine that use volumes of dictionaries to translate what you say to your computer screen.

I am already salivating at the thought of telling my computer what to do and where to go. It’s time to take back control!

Dragon Dictate seems to have ability superior to almost all of the similar programs on the market. That we are finally seeing this supercool tool find its way to the Mac platform is seriously badass.

I have seen commercials for the Dragon software on television and I have to say in the right situation it could be a lot of fun to have around and use. You can literally speak your way through programs and menus instead of doing it, what is surely to soon be, the old fashioned way with the click of a mouse.

The learing curve for Dragon Dictate might be a little daunting, the user guide for the program boasts in excess of 170 pages of instructions. Gee, I wonder if they have shortcuts in there as well.

Once you read all 170 plus pages and committed them to memory, or at the very least short term memory, you’ll be ready to lay the sound padding in your room.

The Dragon software, like many of its competitors, is only as good as the person using it. The room you are in needs to be pretty sanitary as far as the level of noise is concerned. You’ll also want to have a good microphone handy when you are ready to use the software.

Should be a joy for all who decide to buy it.

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Wait… rum? Oops, wrong blog.

But then again, rum could be made to work just as well yes? It is, after all, the holidays and there is nothing that goes better with my grandmothers fruitcake than booze. In fact, the ONLY thing that gets gram’s “classic” fruitcake down at all is booze. Lots of booze. Fruitcakes always creeped me out anyway. It’s like the Olsen twins got sick in a hat and they baked it. Ewwww, right? Exactly my point.

Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, iDevices and the holiday season.

What in the heck are all of my gizmos and thingamabobs good for at Christmas anyway, besides keeping the kids occupied in their bedrooms?

Hold up– Push pause.

Kids in their rooms is a good thing.

Play

Anyway, I did manage to think of a few things an iDevice could help me with this holiday season. My iPhone (the iPhone 4, for those of you who are wondering. Because Momma has to have the very latest) is going to provide me with a lot of help for the next few weeks.

First off, I am going to saddle up and strap this thing on for all of my holiday shopping. Mindy over at the coffee shop told me all about how she saved loads of time and money on Black Friday by using her iPhone to find the coolest and best deals. If her plan works for me I am going to recommend her for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Holiday shopping is TOO combat!

I’ll also be using my sweet little treat to make sure that my know it all husband doesn’t get us all lost after just leaving the Bat Cave on the way to his mothers house… again. Last year I could have sworn we drove in a circle for the better part of three hours and passed twelve gas stations.

Cooking!! I love to cook and there is no better time than the holiday season to explore new and time honored recipes. There are a gajillion cooking apps out there on the App Store just waiting for me to buy and download. I heard there is one out there for America’s Test Kitchen. I so LOVE that show.

I am sure there are a lot more great uses for iDevices this holiday season but I just wanted to hit the ones most near and dear to the hearts of women like me

Hello Mac lovers… Did you miss me? For those of you that noticed my brief absence, allow me to begin my saying that I am ok, and no, I was not abducted by an angry mob of PC enthusiasts for a quick round of torture and brainwashing.

While that certainly would have made for some seriously entertaining blogging, the truth is much simpler—I’ve been under the weather. Oh, and for those of you who have ever wished horrible pain and maddening discomfort on me, congratulations. It’s called trigeminal neuralgia, and short of maybe Osama bin Laden and maybe the Night Stalker or Charlie Manson, I hope that no one else ever has to deal with what I’m pretty sure is the most evil, vile, sinister pain known to mankind.

It didn’t take me long after the diagnosis to realize why they call it “The Suicide Disease.”

Ok, well, enough about why I have been out of commission. I am back now, and ready to go. Look out for many a blog coming at you in the next few days on anything and everything Mac related. I’m coming back with a one-two punch against the evil PC world, because I don’t know how, but something tells me that they were behind this whole thing…

Ok, so I found this story and had to share it with you guys. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

“Amanda is a seventeen year-old princess, drama queen, techno geek, puppy dog eyes using, must have the latest and greatest type of girl. She also happens to be my kid sister. Being the baby of the family she tends to avail herself to my stuff, Mom’s stuff and at times Dad’s stuff (she’s a bit of a tom-boy) without so much as a whisper.

When it comes to her cellphone she can remind you of a striped pajama wearing little red head in pigtails half asleep in a rocking chair next to the Christmas tree battling to stay awake just long enough to see Saint Nick shimmy down the chimney. Starry eye’d when it comes to the newest cellphones.

Allow me to describe the morning my parents plopped her new iPhone 4 up onto the table midway through breakfast.

Let me set the scene for this memorable event:

My father did not want to get up that fine morning. Seems dad was up late watching reruns of Manswers on Spike and was a wee bit groggy to say the least.

Mom was her usual chipper self, dressed in her now famously retro June Clever house coat complete with a hairnet she must have stolen off a dead high school cook.

Me? I was in a bit of a hurry to get to class that morning so I was interested in bacon and toast and not the least bit in the box setting at the corner of the table in-between the OJ and the pancakes.

Amanda was in a rush as well; no big surprise since she hadn’t been on time for anything a day in her life. This morning would be no different.

Until she saw the box…

See the new iPhone had been the subject of many a dinner table conversation, be it breakfast, a Saturday lunch or weeknight dinner. It was only fitting that she receive this gift as we ate breakfast.

Amanda bust out the puppy dog eyes and asked, “Daddy, is that for me?”. My father, who must have been made from butter, melted and passed her the box.

She had no idea at all what was in that brightly colored box, complete with ribbons and all the trimmings.

As she began to open the box you could almost taste the excitement racing through her as she ripped into the wrapping paper. And then it happened.

The look on her face was priceless… and then it was a look of surprise… and then it became a look of shock… and then of utter embarrassment.

And as she stood at the breakfast table, one foot on the floor and her knee on the chair we all sat there as shocked and stunned as she was.

See we knew it was a phone. What had us so stunned wasn’t the unveiling of a new iPhone, it was the puddle of pee that sat below my baby sisters feet.”

Ever since the first caveman clubbed his betrothed over the head and dragged her back to his love den, men and women have been looking for love. Some quests lead to the real thing, others to a quick friendship, and still others to the most casual of all casual encounters, the bed buddy.

But luckily, we’re a long way from billy clubs and dirty caves. Thankfully, today we have technology on our side. Say goodbye to lonely nights and hello to a crop of dating apps you’re going to love.

Gate Guru
Designed for the traveller who spends more time waiting in line for a flight than for a cocktail and some sexy conversation, Gate Guru is an app for daters on the go. Airport hookups are becoming more en vogue these days, and this little beauty can help you find others who have time to make you Miss Right Now (or their Mister).

Little Wingman-
Left alone to conquer the hottie in 4B? You’re never without a wingman (or woman) with this app. Need a clever line? Can’t find a good way to break ther ice? One trip to the App Store may be all that separates you and a night of slippery satin sheets and a sinful delight.

Charm Him-
This devil of a helper shows you the way to keep the man of your dreams. It’s filled with advice on how to take charge of any room you walk into, get your man deeper into you and prefect the art of attraction.

Date Check-
This app is my personal favorite because it’s calculating, coniving and stealthy, just like me. So you think you’ve found Mr. Right? Need a quick background check and financial report? You have found your secret sleuth right here.

There is no doubt that when it comes to dating that the advent of the Mac and iPhone has added a few very interesting new angles. We used to have to depend on our girlfriends and buddies to give us the 4-1-1 on a potential match. Today we can certify our dates within minutes and avoid the messy breakup because he’s a deadbeat that would happen down the road without such cool technology at our fingertips.

When will the PC world ever get it? Mac’s are superior machines… period. Nothing makes this more apparent than the host of dashboard widgets available for your Mac. What is a widget you ask?

Widget (wij-it) a miniature computer application installed and executed on the desktop of a personal computer.

The cheaters over at Microsoft stole our widget idea for Window’s Vista (ya we all now how well THAT worked out). With a new OS come some even cooler widgets for the Mac world. Here’s a look at a few widgets I think you’ll love.

Currency Converter- Free widget for the world traveller, or for those of us who just like numbers. Converts over 200 world currencies.

WeatherBug Local Weather-Weather geeks will love this little gadget. Includes current local conditions, detailed forecasts and current radar along with severe weather alerts.

iStat Nano-Keep your thumb on your computers pulse with sleek system monitor. Stats include CPU, memory and storage usage along with internal temperatures.

Countdown X-Who needs an egg timer when you have this bad boy on your dashboard. Simple design with a small footprint and the price is right!

YouTube-Pretty much self explanatory. Put the hillarity of some of the funniest videos on the net at your fingertips.

College Football-Intercept the schedule of your favorite college football team and pass it to your dashboard for display. This widget is a touchdown for college football fanatics.

News-You’ll find just short of 300 widgets dedicated to feeding you news from all over the world. Mainstream to niche news you’ll find it easy to stay on top of current affairs.

Boredom Button-When you’re about to start climbing the walls of your home office, the Boredom Button comes to the rescue. BB gives you instant access to the web’s funniest content to help inspire you to greatness.

You’ll find more cool widgets at the Apple Store. Peruse the web and you’ll find an endless stream of widget flowing about. Enjoy!