Mac Classic back to life! iPad has a house.

Well, as much as I am kinda against people slashing these things to pieces, this is a lot better than a fishtank!
It's awesome how neatly the screen fits. Almost as if it was the plan all along. I know Apple are forward thinkers, but not this much.

I implore everyone to do this. It makes my Mac Classic more valuable.

http://bit.ly/ipad-classic

Weebly website maker 1 month free

Weebly is a pretty bad-ass tool for making a website. It has a drag and drop interface, you just drop boxes of 'text' or 'image' or 'video' onto the page like building blocks. The output is actually quite pretty html (shockingly) and it's pretty SEO friendly too, particularly the file structure. Basically it's great to the point that I can't be bothered with fiddling around in notepad++ anymore.

More to the point, you can have a month free (and me too) if you sign up through tbtgta (yes that's us, to be this good takes ages... I'd like to pretend it's an homage to TMWRNJ but it's not).

Click to sign up. Making sites is totally free, you can even point your owned domains at it via a records (easy to do), the only 'con' is the little 'made with weebly' tag at the bottom. If you upgrade to a paid subscription you can lose that, and it's only $70 for 2 years with 10 (count 'em) sites included so it's a pretty good deal.

Check it out. 2 million people use it, they can't all be idiots. Ok they can, but they're not. Because it's good.

weebly : stupidly easy site maker

For nice tips once you've signed up, try http://weeblyforums.com/

[edit]
HEY READ THIS:
weebly discount voucher, 33% hosting discount!
Patience really pays of with these guys. If you open a free account and create your site (really, do try it, it's super super easy and pretty fun), after about a week you are very likely to receive a 33% off voucher for upgrading to 'pro' (host 10 sites, no 'weebly' link on the pages, custom video player, other nice stuff). I just bought 2 years of hosting (for 10 sites, remember, no size or traffic limits) for just over £30 (about 50 bucks). That's a great deal even without the awesome page builder tools.

'neXtBox' (see what I did there?) 6 times as powerful

“More power!” You can imagine Steve Ballmer yelling it through Microsoft’s halls but that’s exactly what is happening with the Xbox 720, according to reports from IGN.

The next Xbox — rumored to be the “Xbox 720″ — will ship to retailers in late October or early November 2013 and have six times the processing power of its predecessor, the Xbox 360, sources close to the project toldIGN.

The next console will use the AMD 6000 series, which should run similar to the Radeon HD 6670. That all sounds a bit jargon-y but essentially it’s a super-fast processor that supports DirectX11, multi-display output, 3D and 1080p HD. Production of the GPU should start by the end of this year.

All that anticipated extra power on the fabled Xbox 720 isn’t just about graphic fidelity. It allows games to have more detailed environments, longer draw distances (think open world games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), better enemy artificial intelligence, faster multiplayer experiences and the ability to cram more stuff on the screen.

Please forgive me for sending you to Mashable. I know how shit and whiney and Apple-horny they are, but occasionally there's something of interest over there.

mashable.com/2012/01/25/xbox-720-rumor/

Kodak trying to sue itself out of bankruptcy

Eastman Kodak is suing Samsung over claims its patents have been infringed. The US camera and printer maker said the complaint relates to five of its digital imaging technologies. It is the latest in a series of patent lawsuits filed by the firm since the start of the year.

Kodak said on Wednesday that it was seeking bankruptcy protection. That followed an announcement in July that it was looking to sell or license about 1,100 digital imaging patents. Kodak has also filed lawsuits against Apple and HTC involving the same five patents. In addition it is suing Fujifilm over a separate, but overlapping, set of claimed infringements. Kodak alleged that the Japanese company had made use of its technologies including the "quick review of last captured image" and "user selectable image record size".

What I can gather from all this is that the best way to make money these days is to go back in time and make a really loose patent application for, say 'a portable box from which video and audio eminate', then come back to the present and just watch the money roll in through your solicitor's office.

Also Kodak is going out of business because they never managed to make a single half decent digital camera, and all their products since 35mm film have sucked. As far as I can tell, companies that make stuff that sucks go out of business. It's a crazy world out there.

bbc.co.uk/news

Best Xbox Live Gold price

Ok I seem to remember I posted about amazon being cheap for xbox live membership. Well mine came up and this place is cheaper:

http://electronicfirst.com/cheap-xbox-live-codes/12-2-xbox-live-gold-mw3-avatar-download-code/

Obviously I'm only posting about it because it came through and is entirely trustworthy. If you don't trust me (WHAT!), simply google them. I got the 'MW3' one, which gets me some kind of avatar thing (...). There's also a GOW3 version which gives you a special gun or something. I dunno, I'm only in it for the 14 months of gold. Enjoy, folks.

'Free' phone dock from two bulldog clips

This is pretty nifty

The endlessly versatile binder clip is one of our favorite tools for MacGyver-like inventions, and reader David writes in one of his favorite creations: a 5-second smartphone dock.

flickr.com via lifehacker.com

Create an iTunes account without entering a credit / debit card

I just had to open an iTunes account to use the App Store on an iPhone I inherited. I didn't want to enter my credit card just to open an account I don't plan to buy things from. The Apple website has these cunning tips to open an account without adding payment details, which is nice of them! I've copied them here:

If you already have an account, open iTunes. From the menu bar choose Store > Sign Out.

Click iTunes Store (on the left side of the iTunes window) and pick your country by clicking the appropriate country flag located in the bottom-right corner of the main iTunes Store page.

Navigate to the App Store by clicking on App Store from the top navigation bar.



Important: Before proceeding to the next step, you must download and install a free app. To find a free app, navigate to the Top Charts column on the right hand side of the App Store window. Scroll down until you can see the list of Free Apps. Select any app by clicking on it, then click Free App underneath the app icon. 

In the pop-up window, click Create New Account.



You are directed to the "Welcome to the iTunes Store" screen. Click Continue.



You'll need to read and agree to the iTunes Store Terms & Conditions. Make sure you check the box next to where it says "I have read and agree to the iTunes Terms and Conditions."

Click Continue.

Enter your email address, create your password, continue to create and answer your security question, then enter your birthday. Click Continue.

Select None as the payment option.

Continue to fill out the required name and address fields.

You'll then see a screen that says 'Verify your Account'. Click Done and then check your email for a verification email from iTunes Store.

Open the email and click the link enclosed in the email to activate your account.

Once you click on the link, iTunes should then prompt you to sign in with your account name and password.

You'll then see the below "Congratulations" screen. Click Done to be taken to the App Store home page.

support.apple.com

Xbox live cheaper at amazon than on the xbox...

Odd.

£30 on amazon, http://amzn.to/weNSdf
Yes it's my renewal day... shopped around and amazon is the best combination of cheap and trustworthy.

There are a few 14 months for £32/33 but the websites look too shady for my liking *shifty eyes*

TIP: Log into xbox.com and TURN OFF auto-renew, otherwise they'll just charge you whatever they chose to charge at the time your subscription comes up for renewal. Bastards.

Great BBC documentary about Steve Jobs

As a British ex-pat (kinda) I regularly get recommendations to watch things that don't appear on my tele. This was one and, luckily, it's available here:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/steve-jobs-billion-dollar-hippy/

It's on youtube but it seems to have lasted quite well so hopefully it will remain. Very interesting, especially to see that whilst he may have been a very impressive man he wasn't the angel many claim he was. He was even mean to our beloved (hmm..) Mr Gates!

Anyway, a good documentary and well worth a watch. Of course I hope he is resting in peace.

Xbox live hacking going on? EA/FIFA to blame?

Another compelling reason to support PES over FIFA.

On December 20, my Xbox Live account was hacked. The breach was sophisticated, more so than Microsoft wants to acknowledge, but at the heart of it is EA's popular sports franchise FIFA. This breach isn't a new, hip hack that is sweeping the net, it has been happening for quite some time. My Xbox Live account housed over 3,000 MS Points and in one fell swoop, my balance was wiped clean.

Utilizing FIFA 12, players can purchase and trade digital cards with other Live members. Though this feature is also available in games like Madden NFL 12, the worldwide popularity of FIFA 12 has made it a breeding ground for criminal scum. Players get into Xbox Live accounts, purchase card packs, trade them to other accounts, and later sell the content for real money. Xbox Live breaches are not new, but the FIFA 12 hack is putting everyone on Xbox Live at risk in a new way.

Many of us will have a credit/debit card associated with our live accounts. This raises quite an issue if people are out hitting live/hotmail accounts hard trying to break into them. Unfortunately, Microsoft have decided that if we have used our card to purchase Xbox Live (i.e. it is 'associated' with our membership), we are not allowed to remove the payment details from our accounts.

However, you can CHANGE the details. You can even change them to something wrong. So if you want to remove your credit card details, simply edit it and put in a completely made up number and expiry. Of course, when it's renewal time you will need to correct it again. Might give a bit of piece of mind though, that if you are hacked they can only steal the mspoints you already have (in my case, 80... moneybags me eh?)

shacknews.com

Find the best wireless channel for your network

Got myself a new 'n' router as a late Christmas present / new year sales treat, and decided I should try to get the best reception around the house possible. There are many other wireless networks in range, since I live in a small apartment block right next to another small apartment block.

Net Stumbler was the old preferred program but it's starting to creak with age now. inSSIDer is a nicer looking and feeling program with just as much usefulness.

I only wish I had checked before, and I would have put special attention to buying a 'dual mode' router that could operate in the 5GHz spectrum. No-one else seems to be using it at all, which would have been great (although the range is lower when using 5GHz).

Anyway, channel 11 seems a favourite around here. So I switched to channel 1.

If I said the difference was in any way noticeable I would be lying. But it can't be a bad thing, can it?

inSSIDer - worth a download if only to give credit to the clever name.