10 Reasons why I love the Mac over Windows

Before I give my top ten reasons why, I just want to share a bit of why I'm posting this blog.

For two days now, I've been fidgeting and enjoying my new MacBook whilst watching Friends on DVD - amazing I am already onto Season 2... And I have to say with something like a Mac, it certainly makes you forget everything for a while...!

If some readers are wondering where there isn't a post every day now, I urge you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by RSS to your reader (see links to the right), or BOOKMARK this website and just check periodically.

Thank You.

10 Reasons [no particular order of importance :-)]

1. Those inbuilt Mac applications - Disk Utility, Stickies, Spotlight etc.
2. How much easier it works with those Mac gadgets of yours like iPods and iPhones.
3. The fact that you can have Windows XP/Vista on your system AS WELL - surely a sticking point.
4. The coolness of the webcameras with the Mac and the coolness of the effects!
5. The smoothness of OSX (Mac Operating System) over Windows' dire, dire Vista incomparison.
6. Applications for the Mac are just better - think Pages, GarageBand, Last.fm.
7. Games look cooler on the Mac - Football Manager is my personal choice.
8. The superiorness of the trackpadon a MacBook to a conventional Windows laptop - you can do cool things on it with all 4 fingers on the pad at once.
9. The 'cool factor' of being on the Mac in a dark room with the Apple glowing into the darkness.
10. That after two days, I'm also posting how I've become a convert, and I've barely yet scratched the surface. Already though I want to erase everything Bill Gates and Windows from my mind and replace it with Steve Jobs and Mac!

iPhone ringtones in 17 steps - no downloads required!

I was looking for ways to get ringtones after a Facebook friend had asked me how it is done. As it turns out, very easily - with no downloads, at all (though you can get applications for your Windows and Mac that do this for you).

To find out how, it was as easy as a google search, credit goes to e-How.

Once you have done it once, I would say its easy enough to keep doing it. So here we go:

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• iPhone
• iTunes
• Mac or Windows Computer
• Non-DRM song (i.e. one not bought from the iTunes Store)

Step1

Open iTunes.

Step2

Find the song that you want to make into a ringtone.

Step3

Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.

Step4

Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

Step5

Right-click the song and select "Get Info."

Step6

Click the "Options" tab.

Step7

Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Start Time" in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 2:01) format.

Step8

Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Stop Time." Make sure the ringtone is no more than 40 seconds long.

Step9

Click "OK".

Step10

Right-click your song again and select "Convert Selection to AAC". Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.

Step11

Right-click the ringtone and select "Delete".

Step12

Click on the "Keep Files" button.

Step13

Find the file. It's usually in your User folder under Music > iTunes > iTunes Music and under the band's name. It will have an extension of "m4a."

Step14

Replace the "m4a" extension of your ringtone with "m4r". You can either double-click slowly to re-name your file, or right-click and select "Get Info" on a Mac or "Rename" on a Windows PC.

Step15

Click "Use .m4r" or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.

Step16

Double-click the ringtone file. ITunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes Music Library.

Step17

Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.

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Easy as pie. I've gone and put the guitar riff from Scary Kids Scaring Kids cover of Losing my Religion as my ringtone. Brilliant.