Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple

If you're a fellow "Machead" like me, I bet you'll want to know the breaking news about Apple.

Steve Jobs, the co-founder and two-time CEO of Apple, offered his resignation to the board this Wednesday.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

No matter how "magical" the Apple products are... it looks like they haven't mastered the feel healthy ap. Poor Jobs has been suffering from poor health for quite a while now. It looks like he already took a medical leave in January and came back in March to help out with the iPad 2 launch.

The torch of tasty Apple goodness has been passed off to Tim Cook, formerly the CEO of the company who has been standing in for Jobs since January. Mr. Cook also had Apple's back in 2004 when Jobs dealt with pancreatic cancer. I hope Tim can cook up some more "magic" for the world while we wait for Steve to feel better. The word on the street is that Steve Jobs isn't gone for good. The whole world will be rooting for you Steve!

Hidden Print Cost Secrets!!!!

Being an awesome graphic artist, photographer, and cool person in general I come across the issue of needing to print things off, a lot. If you're like me you just find the closest and fastest place and print your documents off, thinking your getting a smoke'n deal. Odds are you're paying more than double the price! Are the tears rolling down your eyes yet? Grab a tissue and read below and get ready to save the big bucks!

I used to go to FedEx Kinkos for my printing but after making some calls for a friend who needed a lot of posters printed, I found out that Staples is seriously 1/2 the price! CHA-CHING BABY...can you feel the cash making your wallet bulge open? Can you even believe it? Staples is 1/2 the price in everything I needed and they also make rubber stamps [same day] which is total radness in my book! I think the final price for a laminated poster was around $30. The only bummer part about Staples is that they don't have their print stuff really on the web and their emails don't accept big files either. You'll have to use yousendit or something to get them your stuff if it's too big and they wont accept stuff on your server due to security reasons [or so they said to me, maybe I sound sady on the phone]. They did however except yousendit, so consider this your heads up. Staples really needs to get with the technology with an ftp uploader like everyone else [Maybe that's why they are so cheap?].

I recently found out another print secret from my friend Chris. I needed some extremely large photos printed off for a photography competition and he let me know that you could print cheap at Costco. He gave me the hook up and I ended up paying $20 for 4 16"x20" photo prints. As previously stated above, I would have gone to FedEx Kinkos and the price for one that big would have been around $30 and their quality is always iffy.  I got photo quality prints for more than 1/2 the price. Totally Brill printing price secrets right here!

It would be great if you could post any printing tips below so everyone can find the best deals around! Maybe we could be saving even MORE money!!! I could finally buy my pimped out VW beetle with an iPhone adapter stereo system. Consider this blog post an early Christmas gift to you all!

Here is a screen shot of the prices and options at Costco:

How to Make Custom iPhone Ringtones for Free!

So you bought an iPhone. You're in love with the phone and all its ninja like features features, but wish you didn't have to pay for your songs twice to get a ringtone - SUPER LAME!  There are plenty of songs in your music library, but no way to make ringtones from any of them. Or is there? Actually, with a little bit of trickery [nothing illegal, of course], you can create custom ringtones from any one of your non-DRM songs in your iTunes library easily and for free.

Note: This should work on both Mac and Windows PCs. =)


 Step 1

• Open iTunes.

Step 2

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

Step 3

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

Step 4

• Write down the start and stop times of the clip.
• You can also Edit one of your favorite songs in a music editing program to the exact time beforehand and to add fade in and fade out effects. [Audacity is the program I use and it's FREE]

Step 5

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

Step 6

• Click the "Options" tab.

Step 7

• 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.

Step 8

• 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 or it will not work.

Step 9

• Click "OK."

Step 10

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

Step 11

• Right-click the ringtone and select "Delete." [If you do not do it this way, it wont work]

Step 12

• Click on the "Keep Files" button.

Step 13

• 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.

Step 14

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

Step 15

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

Step 16

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

Step 17

• Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.

ENJOY! Hopefully this will work for you!

iPhone Apps for Graphic Designers

Tick Tock... Tick Tock... The clock is ticking away... Has the Apple iPhone come out on something other than AT&T yet, so I can get one?

It's not like anyone needs another reason to lust after the Apple iPhone, but I found some applications that are made specifically for graphic designers that will make you druel [Which makes me want it that much more, lol]. There are more apps that I will need to download when the day comes, but these are specifically meant for the coolest people that walk the earth [graphic designers, duh] and I thought I would share the good findings.

Let the downloading begin!

Ruler 

Very simply, Ruler is a… ruler and it's on your iPhone or iPod touch. Works in centimetres and inches and can save your latest measurement. This will come in handy even if you aren't a graphic designer. Whoo Hoo!

Palettes 

Palettes is an iPhone App for creating color schemes. With Palettes, it is possible to sample colors from websites, iPhone photo album images or other color schemes. It will import and export color palettes to and from Adobe Photoshop and supports a number of color modes, including RGB, HSV, HSL and CMYK. There is also a Lite version of Palettes, which does not cost anything, but has some features removed (such as importing and exporting palettes from Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other programs. This is pretty cool, I cannot wait to get my hands on this one!

Things 

Things is a productivity application, or task manager. Things allows the creation of to do lists and allows the prioritisation of items. For example lists can be created for items to be done today, next, or at scheduled times or dates. I will be using this one left and right, I am a note/list maker and lover.

Color Expert 

Another color-based app, which functions by providing a swatch library and interactive color wheel to help enable creatives to select, showcase and identify colors. Color Expert includes various Pantone swatches, web safe and HTML colors. It is also possible to add custom colors and email Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) files. Nifty Stuff, I tell you what!

Caliper 

Caliper is another measuring tool for the iPhone, but this App uses caliper jaws to enable measurement. The upper and lower caliper jaws can be moved independently or together and measurements can be taken in pixels, as well as centimetres and inches. I would like to see this one in action, wow.


I cannot wait until my day comes when the iPhone will be MINE. For now I have my dreams and my daydreams.

Who's excited for the iPad??!! Only 2 days!!!

Hey!!! I bet there are tons of you out there waiting to buy the new iPad by Apple, am I right? It's like an iPhone on steroids, who wouldn't want one?  I guess I don't really want one, it would be fun but the touch screen would hurt my wrists to type. Since I'm on computers all day my wrists hurt if I don't use a split keyboard or a fluffy mouse pad.  Even the Kodak kiosk's at the store hurt me after a while passes. What a bummer! No iPad dreams for me, lol.

That's ok! I'm just fine and dandy with my powerbook, it's by far my most prized possession. If my apartment was going down in flames I would do all I could to save my powerbook "my baby". I would also try my best to get my hard drive filled with photos and all of my graphic design projects. Sigh... lets just hope there aren't any fires anytime soon! I would prefer it that way, and I bet my neighbors would prefer that too!

I do love my apple products, but I think it's a drag that I'm not excited about this iPad. What kind of apple representative am I? I don't really have anything cool to say about how it makes my worries go away just thinking about it. I guess I'll have to see one to believe it. I should go to the store and play with it, then we'll see how badly my wrists will hurt. COMING APRIL 3RD!!!!!!

That takes me to the conversation of the iPhone. Oh, how I've longed for the iPhone before it was even invented. I remember telling my friends how I wish there was something with a camera, phone, and iPod all in one.  They DAY the iPhone came out i was sitting in a puddle of drool [Gross! Not really... lol]. Well, lets just say I was VERY excited but at the same time I was sad because it was $600 or higher [I don't remember]. All I know is that it was TOO much for me so I continued to carry all of the goodies of mine in a purse. [camera, cell, iPod, gum, chap-stick, cash, id cards, and who knows what else]. Ok, a big purse. Haha

I believe my iPhone adventure will be taking place very soon. Check out this link about the new iPhone soon to be released:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304370304575152242601774892.html

Yes!!!! The new iPhone could end AT&T's U.S. Monopoly! I'm so excited to see they might be branching out to all carriers! I don't know who you're cell phone carrier is, but I was/have been with Alltel for more than 10 years now. I didn't want to switch because they were such a great company to be with [good price, great customer service].  Alltel is now Verizon, and I'm cool with Verizon as well so far. I cannot wait to get the iphone with Verizon, that is going to be awesome. Lets hope they get the new iphone soon! I mean, that is the one reason that I would actually consider changing carriers - iPhone. The great and powerful iPhone.  It wins my heart over all other phones!

Mirror Mirror on the wall...who has the most gadgets of all?

I think the response I would get from the mirror would be, you do Heather. 

I really enjoy my little gadgets including: 7 USB Drives [including a bracelet version], 2 MP3 Players, 2 iPods, 2 External Hard Drives, 2 Mini SD cards, a Mini SD card USB reader, and who knows what else I have that I didn't see for the photo-shoot. Tehe!

I've been called the girl "MacGyver" and the gadget master in my day.  I've had friends tease me that I should design purses that have a spot for all of my gadgets. That sure would be convenient for me! I should one day, who knows what other "girl nerds" are out there like myself.  These days you are lucky to find a purse with a pocket for your phone! Uggg!

Funny comment about my gadget collection - I don't really use the USB flash drives anymore.  I recently got an external hard drive and now I'm in business for totally huge files. Knowing I WONT run out of room, makes me smile. I wish I would have had it earlier, it's so great! Design College would have been totally different, in a good way. 

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE = Life Changing!

It is funny looking how far technology has come. Who remembers records, tapes, zip drives, floppy disk, and everything else?  Now we are uploading thousands of songs to our ipods/Mp3 Players in the blink of an eye. Also saving HUGE files on hard drives the size of a wallet. That's some awesome technology updates over the years! Oh, Don't forget cameras and Mp3 players inside your phone! What a totally brill idea! Whoo Hoo!

Funny, it feels just like yesterday when I was in the backseat of our van on vacation with my huge case of CDs and my discman. Man, I thought I was something cool with all of my CDs in my hard leather case! Do you also remember going through 800 batteries during a trip? I sure do! We are so lucky now that our iPods/Mp3 players can just charge up or plug into the cigarette lighter port. Let the good times roll!

So, who's up for a challenge?? Who has more gadgets than me?  Post a photo or a list of your gadgets... this should be fun to see! 

Apple Computers vs. PC Computers

I'm 100% Team Apple. What a way to start off a blog, am I right?  Truthfully... I've been in many arguments regarding this topic in my days and I thought it would be fun to write about it.

Through the years I've come to love Macintosh computers over PC computers. It's been a long time feud though, I've gone back and forth several times.

My very first computer was the [I think] 1990 Macintosh Classic. I guess you could say I was a graphic designer in training back in 7th grade because I was always using this "high tech" program similar to Paint. Haha - Go ahead and have a laugh at that comment [I did]! I would make cool banners and print them off left and right.  *HEATHER'S ROOM* Either way, I loved my computer and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread! I played games, wrote letters, and made some AMAZING graphic design banners. Custom birthday cards here we come!

It was all fun and games until I went to a friends house and saw they had these crazy things called CD's that had better games and software that sure wouldn't work on my computer. Lets just say I was really dig'n these PC computers with their crazy power, CD drives, and color screens.

Well... down the road we got new PC computer... Then I got one of my own in high school that hooked up to the INTERNET. Wowza! PC's, Internet, and CD burners ----- OH MY! So, other than school everything was now PC wherever you looked.

Off to college! I got a brand new PC [Compaq Presario] with Windows ME! I really loved my computer but gosh golly did it break down a lot! Late nights calling a computer whiz friend to help you get back up and running. Headache Pain! Then there was always the friend who said they would hook you up with Windows XP. Oh wow! Didn't it look cool with it's glossy buttons? Of course they never got around to it... Stuck with a horrible operating system - Tears!  Even with those hick-ups I was still pretty content with my computer, making mixed music CDs and doing homework.

Now to Design College, where all of the magic happens. Naturally, the school was all Mac based running OS 9 at the time. Sometimes it was a headache to work at school and come home to my PC and it wouldn't be compatible. ERROR 7... ERROR ERROR...  This was about the time where my fellow classmates were updating to macbooks and powerbooks running OS 10.

As a college graduation gift I received a brand new powerbook [2004]. I've been running the same computer with ZERO problems up to this date - That's 6 YEARS. I've NEVER had a virus, I've never had crazy screens of death, basically up and running fast since 2004!  The hard drive did go out, but it was covered by applecare and the keys are wearing out but that is it - All wear and tear! No annoying slow stupid virus stuff. No late night calls to IT friends. I think the biggest problem I had was trying to hook up a wireless router to my mac. Nobody at Cox Cable had a clue how to help a mac person [skkk skkkk we are breaking up Ma'm... hello... apple what?? I'm in a tunnel...Thank you for calling...]. That is the only time I really needed a IT friend, but that worked out because that is how I met Adrian [We have been dating ever since -- Whoo Hoo to non-responsive wireless routers!] <3.

I have more to add about the awesome-ness of the new Apple computers vs. PC computers.  Ok, like I mentioned before my little powerbook was from 2004.  It hasn't been the "newest computer" for several years but it still ran like a champion, better than any PC! At my previous employer they had the "state of the art" PC computers with chips and rams filled to the top.  Might as well of been chips and DIPS.  I don't know if it was the security software, servers, or just lack of IT knowledge but these computers were SLOW and almost always broken. For about 2 years I would get this error message that popped up every-time I started up my computer. Virus infections... Slowness... Photoshop Freeze Drama... There was in no way possible you could run Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark all at the same time... without a lot of freeze action.  I couldn't even pull open 10+ photos into Photoshop without a horrific freeze if not a whole computer shut down freeze of doom. BLAH! Don't even get me started on my attempt to run iTunes...

MEANWHILE, I would come home and use my 6 year old mac and I would zoom all over the place with ease. I could have all of the programs open... no worries.  A folder of photos open in photoshop, YOU GOT IT! I'm sorry... but I don't think I would ever like to own another SLOW virus prone PC ever again.  I mean it's as clear as night and day in performance.

I'm not really a "gamer" and most games are for the PC... So, I mean that doesn't count in this argument. 100% I think for designers - If you're not on a mac... your computer is gunna make you slack.  I know Macs are more money, but it is well worth it! No headaches! Plus, you'll make up for it in the time not spent on dinking around with virus weird stuff.

I also think mac is so easy that it is humorous. Sometimes it's so simple I cannot figure it out. Haha! I think macs would be great for people who aren't as computer savvy. It is sure easy on the eyes and mind, that is for sure!

Summing it up: Macs running OS 10 and higher really rock my socks off.  Not only is it beautiful, it's a strong stable OS, and it's so simple I think everyone can use them.  You can say whatever you want about Macs... but I'm a believer in the product as far as computers go.

PC Lovers, try to argue yourself out of performance! What? You enjoy viruses and drama? Be my guest!

Ha! This is why many of my friends say I would be a PERFECT candidate to work at the Apple Store. I could convert people left and right! The product could sell on it's own, but I'd be sure to aim people in the right direction. Yeah, working for apple would really be a dream come true for me. Not to mention, iPhone discounts... yum yum!

LONG LIVE MY FELLOW MAC HEADS!

PS I haven't really used Linux, so it wasn't included in my article. From what I can see... It isn't too bad! The only problem I've heard from people is it's hard to get drivers and the wireless internet to work. I've also heard that Mac OS 10 is based off of Linux... So, I'm pretty sure I'd like Linux too! Wow, someone is nerdy tonight... I think I should go watch Star Trek now.