icons

How to add colors back to iTunes 10 sidebar

One of the changes Apple made to iTunes that several people have been disappointed with is the app's lack of colors in the sidebar, making the window look out of focus and a bit bland. Some people have looked into hidden settings and other ways to modify iTunes to bring the colors back.

Unfortunately, changing the sidebar contents is not as simple as entering a command in the Terminal. Instead, you must alter the ".rsrc" file in the program package, which is not a very straightforward task.

Luckily, some people have tried this effort and made their … Read more

High-end audio on the cheap from NuForce

NuForce makes pricey preamplifiers and power amps that sell for thousands of dollars, but it's one of the few American high-end audio companies that also offers truly affordable gear. Most of the products NuForce sells are upgradable; it provides its customers with the most up-to-date technology, as well as value.

The NuForce uDAC-2 is a tiny (2.75 inches by 1.5 inches by 0.75 inches) USB Digital Audio Converter (DAC) that connects your personal computer's audio with your home stereo, desktop sound system, or headphones. The uDAC-2 processes incoming data via a USB audio receiver, which … Read more

Aliph adds A2DP to the Jawbone Icon

Aliph Jawbone Icon owners rejoice: you will now be able to add A2DP or stereo Bluetooth functionality to your Bluetooth headset for the unbeatable price of zero dollars. All you have to do is plug in your Icon headset to the computer, log on to Aliph's MyTalk Web site, go to the "Innovations" section, and then add the new A2DP feature. This lets you stream music or any other audio from your phone to your headset.

We were already big fans of the Aliph Jawbone Icon--the variety of the Icon's designs, its features, the audio quality, … Read more

Link locker

Although many people are devoted users of a single browser, many others find themselves switching back and forth between different browsers, depending on what they're doing. We tend to favor Firefox, for example, but we often find ourselves testing add-ons for Chrome and Internet Explorer and then--in the case of Chrome, anyway--hanging around in that browser for a while. This gets to be a problem when we want to visit a site we have bookmarked, only to find that we never bookmarked the site in the browser we're using. Link Commander Lite is a simple solution to this … Read more

Quickly create alpha images from icons in Preview

Have you ever wondered how MacFixIt gets all those cool icons to start each of our articles? Even if you haven't, this is how you can do it, quick and easy. This tip is great for bloggers who write about applications and don't want to go searching online for an image of the icon from the app they are writing about.… Read more

Make your desktop shortcuts work for you, not against you

I once worked with a woman whose office looked like a hoarder's attic. Apart from very narrow passageways, every inch of space was piled ceiling-high with paper of every sort. The desktop of her Windows PC was similarly strewn with more icons than would fit on a single screen.

She claimed to be able to find exactly what she was looking for with little hunting, both in her office and on her desktop. The woman obviously had found a system that worked for her. If you find yourself struggling to manage the shortcuts and other items on your desktop, … Read more

Mozilla weighs privacy warnings for Web pages

Unless you speak lawyerese as a second language, a Web site's privacy policy can seem as incomprehensible as the loudspeakers on New York City subways.

The organization behind Firefox, the world's second most popular Web browser, has embarked on an ambitious project to change this. Instead of forcing people concerned about privacy to scroll through pages of "notwithstanding anything to the contrary," the Mozilla Foundation is designing a standard set of colored icons to reveal how data-protective--or how intrusive--Web sites are.

It does seem a bit odd that, in the era of the iPad and cars … Read more

Aliph Jawbone Icon boasts industry-first software platform

Aliph has just unveiled the Jawbone Icon, which promises to be the company's most sophisticated Bluetooth headset yet. We had a chance to really put the headset through its paces for the past week, and we have to say it absolutely delivers. Not only does it look and sound great, it offers more flexibility than any other Bluetooth headset due to an industry-first software platform.

It's called MyTalk, and the Jawbone Icon has what Aliph says is an operating system on a chip. This lets Aliph do some really interesting things with this headset. For example, when you pair the Jawbone Icon with the Apple iPhone, you'll see a visual battery meter of the Icon right next to the iPhone's own battery meter on the upper-right corner. This way you can easily check on the Jawbone Icon's battery status. While this may strike some people as a small thing, we think it's pretty cool.

The big news with MyTalk, however, is that you can plug the Jawbone Icon into your computer and customize it with a variety of Audio and Dial "apps." Simply log on to the mytalk.jawbone.com Web site (which will be live shortly), plug in the headset via a USB cable, and the Web site will automatically detect it. You can then customize it with a variety of Audio apps, which are essentially voice profiles of different personalities.

There are six voice personalities--The Ace, the Hero, the Thinker, the Bombshell, the Rogue, and the Catch--plus a default that comes with the headset. The voices range from a deep male baritone to that of a sultry female. You can also have it in French, German, or Spanish. The different voice profiles are used for spoken alerts on the headset that announce things like incoming caller ID and the headset's battery status.

As for the Dial apps, they are essentially speed dial numbers you can map to the Talk button on the headset. Some of the Dial apps include Voice Dial; Directory Assistance; 1800Free411; Jott (a service that lets you dictate notes, reminders, and more); and Dial2Do; which is similar to Jott. Though calling these personalization options "apps" is a bit of a stretch, we really have to commend Aliph on the intuitive interface of the MyTalk Web site. Perhaps the best thing about the MyTalk software platform is that Aliph can easily send out firmware updates this way.… Read more

Icon's Rogue 2 flashlight can also protect you

I'm a big fan of flashlights. This is not a secret as I've written about a lot of them--from one that hugs you, to one that can stick to anything, to one that doesn't contribute to the greenhouse effect.

Earlier this week, however, I ran into a torch that instantly became my most favorite: the Rogue 2 from Icon.

Unlike other flashlights I've written about that come in unusual shapes, the Rogue sports the same tube shape as most traditional flashlights. But that's the only thing traditional about it.

First of all, according to Icon, the Rogue 2 is equipped with a microprocessor-controlled LED that produces an intense yet smooth beam. I don't know about smooth, but when I tried it out it was indeed intense, possibly the brightest I've seen among flashlights that use two AA batteries.

Fortunately, the Rogue 2 comes in two modes, one that shines at 100 lumens and the second at only 10 lumens, low enough not to hurt the eyes. You can toggle between these two modes and the off state with the tail-cap switch. It's too bad, however, that it doesn't have a third mode that shines at 50 lumens, which is as bright as most AA battery-based flashlights.

The second impressive thing about the Rogue 2 is its body, which is made out of super durable aerospace-grade aluminum with an open architecture design. The new design creates openings along the flashlight's body to offer a better grip, even when your hand is wet or oily. According to Icon, this also makes the torch virtually indestructible. You can drop it or even strike it into the wall or let it get run over by a truck and it will supposedly still work. … Read more