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Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time I haven’t got my Christmas tree yet, but today I spotted a couple of very cute and geeky ideas for Christmas tree decorations. Pictured is an example of the range of decorations sold by Nigel’s Eco Store out of the UK. They’re made from recycled computer parts, if that’s not obvious. :) If you’re a DIY type with a lot of old computer bits lying around, I’m sure you could have some fun making something similar. (link courtesy of the Geek Dad blog).
And for the real DIYers out there, check out the Christmas tree and reindeer designs you can download and laser cut, courtesy of Ben Arendt. (link via the MAKE blog).
If you have kids, helping them make Christmas decorations can be a really fun thing to do. If you have any other DIY Christmas decoration ideas, please share in comments.
If you’ve been plagued with BitTorrent downloads that won’t finish, unplaying videos, or—worse yet—videos that claim to require special players, weblog TorrentFreak has put together an excellent guide to avoid downloading fake and junk files over BitTorrent. Some of the tips are common sense, like reading the comments on a torrent before downloading, while others—like getting to know trusted BitTorrent users—might be entirely new to the BitTorrent neophyte. Still not sure how BitTorrent works? Check out our beginner and intermediate guides.
Stop Downloading Fakes and Junk From BitTorrent [TorrentFreak]Not only did Google add coloured labels to Gmail today, they’re rolling out AIM compatibility in chat, too. The new AOL Instant Messenger support lets you log into your AIM account to chat with your AIM buddies right inside Gmail. Not sure yet if your AIM chat history is stored in your Gmail account the way GTalk convo’s are. Update: AIM chat history does indeed get stored in Gmail. Rock! We’re not seeing it just yet, but being an AIM over GTalk user, I’ll keep refreshing till I do. To try it out you’ve got to be using the new version of Gmail in IE7 or Firefox 2. Sign into Chat and hit the Options menu to see the “Sign into AIM” option. Any readers out there get AIM in Gmail yet? Let us know how you like it. Image via Zoorgloob.
About AIM in Gmail [Gmail Help Center via steverubel] Gmail + chat + AIM = crazy delicious [Official Gmail Blog]If you like to decorate your desktop for the holidays, check out the previously mentioned Tinseltown Firefox theme or one of these fun holiday downloads.
Microsoft released an update to the Xbox 360 today that introduces several feature updates to the Xbox, most notably support for DivX and XviD video playback without the need to transcode the video to WMV format. The good: You can now easily stream and playback those BitTorrent videos on your Xbox without running third party software like Transcode 360 or TVersity, and apparently the results are stellar—making this update extraordinarily exciting for video lovers. Unfortunately it’s not yet as fully implemented as it should be.
If you’re running your Xbox as a Media Center extender, DivX and XviD aren’t natively supported. That means that if you like watching your downloaded videos with your Xbox Media Center extender instead of from the Xbox dashboard, you’ll still have to use one of the third party transcoders mentioned above. Fingers crossed that the extender will support more video formats in the future, but in the meantime the dashboard video update is still pretty killer.
A Fistful of Features in the December 2007 System Update [Xbox.com]If you’re looking to put your empty cigarette light to good use, the Spotlight LED flashlight fits snugly in your car’s cigarette lighter outlet and recharges with the power of cigarettes. The clever little Spotlight costs $14.95, comes in 12 colors, and looks like an excellent stocking stuffer or Secret Santa gift. Let’s hear other ways you put your cigarette lighter outlet to work for you in the comments.
Spotlight [JTSpotlight via Gizmodo]The future of Firefox may see online services that tackle features like profile syncing to multiple computers. Until that day comes, you can still sync your profile to multiple computers with a little elbow grease. [via]
With a new generation of iPods on the market this holiday season, your reliable old iPod may not seem as shiny as it once did. But with the help of third party applications and utilities, you can unlock tonnes of useful functionality you never knew was there and revive that aging iPod so it doesn’t look quite so bad next to its successors. Whether new or old, the following 20 iPod utilities can help you get the most from your iPod.
