Phill Ryu started his new blog in a blaze of glory, starting it off with the famous list of Top 10 Most Beautiful Mac OS X Applications that got him off the ground, but shortly thereafter announced the Fake Leopard (codename for Mac OS X 10.5, slated to come out before the end of this year) Screenshot Contest. The contest went on, and the winners have finally been announced, and some of these screenshots are really convincing. Including goodies that some people have been convinced will make an appearance in 10.5, like a tabbed finder interface and special finder views for media like photos and movies, many of the entries sport some really attractive design that’s not just convincing but also attractive; I wish some of these folks worked for Apple!

Included with the images on the blog (each entrant offered up several fake screenshots, take a look through them all) is commentary by the judges (all developers who worked on some of the best and most attractive and useful Mac applications, sometimes they’re impressed, sometimes they’re just snarky, but it’s definitely an entertaining look at what OS 10.5 might possibly look like, or perhaps at what a few of hope it’ll look like.

[ Phill Ryu's Blog :: Fake Leopard Screenshot Contest Winners: Better Than the Real Thing? ]

Popular Mechanics has an excellent how-to guide for troubleshooting your HDTV picture when you see strange things happening on your screen. From strange “clouds” of “dots” around fast-moving objects on screen to horrible image quality when viewing standard definition content on an HDTV, the tips just keep on going and the fixes are right there, from the inexpensive to the “just deal with it” to the “this is incredibly expensive.”

A lot of people have probably come across issues like these, but the article explains some of the things you can do to fix the problems and which problems just can’t be fixed; if you don’t have an HDTV yet, keep these issues and their solutions in mind when you’re purchasing one. Good stuff.

[ Popular Mechanics :: What's Wrong With This Picture? ]

Let’s face it, we all have to deal with Microsoft Word at some point or another, even if it’s just a matter of having to deal with documents that were created in Microsoft Word. Most of us will use Microsoft Word, and frequently at that, and this list of timesaving tips and tricks is pretty useful if you’re eager to spend less time sitting in front of a screen with Word open and more time outside playing after having finished that paper you had to write.

Some of the shortcuts are the kind you probably know already, Ctrl+N opens a new document, Ctrl+O opens a document, but some of them are much more obscure and interesting. For example, Ctrl+Shift+D double-underlines text, Ctrl+1 sets single space line spacing, and so on. Definitely a few good tips in there worth remembering for common use.

[ Internet 4 Classrooms :: Keyboard Shortcuts to Use in Microsoft Word ]

Ah, Digg. [ http://digg.com/ ] Glorious glorious Digg. Don’t get me wrong, I love Digg as a news source, and the stories are definitely interesting and sometimes offbeat that I wouldn’t hear about otherwise. But don’t get me started on the Digg community and the commenters; they’re a holy nightmare. But anyway.

The “Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing Blog,” (which is really a horribly way too long title for a blog, but whatever) has a wonderful list of the complete Digg tools collection; from the Digg Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X to the Digg IRC channel to even something as out there as the Digg PSP browser for those times when you absolutely HAVE to Digg from your bathroom, the list of tools is pretty extensive, and for as much as I’m being silly about it, it’s a really good list for those of you out there that definitely love Digg. Take a look and see if anything there is for you.

[ Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing Blog :: The Complete Digg Tools Collection ]

(image courtesy of Businessweek Online)

The ToiletPod, shown above, takes the cake for me. The peripheral is designed to dock your iPod and play your tunes out of the speakers on the sides while simultaeously being an incredibly expensive toilet paper folder. Hey, why not-get one of these for every room in your house and who’ll need radios in the bathrooms anymore? Just buy an iPod per bathroom and load it up with playlists for pooping!

Okay, I jest. But there are plenty of others on Business Week’s list of some of the oddest iPod accessories they’ve ever seen, from the iPod handbag to the iPod case-plus-wallet leather dealie that I would never put in my back pocket, to more entertaining ideas, like the “iPod Nano Thong” which is as hilarious as it sounds, and the belt-buckly iPod holder that everyone’s probably seen by now. Intrigued? Would you like to know more?

All the photos are in the article, links to where you can buy the products are too, if you actually think any of these are up your alley. And if you do? You likely have way too much money, but hey-I applaud you. Enjoy!

[ Businessweek Online :: 10 Oddest iPod Accessories ]

(image courtesy of Lifehacker)

When I heard over at Lifehacker [http://lifehacker.com/ ] that they had found an application for the Macintosh that opened a separate window and kept your Google Calendar open in it all the time, I was pretty impressed. I mean, the application is pretty much a web browser that can only display your Google Calendar once you’ve logged in, and that’s great all by itself. I tend to use iCal on the Macintosh, but since I do like to use my Google Calender for cross-platform web-based scheduling goodness, I thought it was a pretty cool download. Mac users out there, if you use your Google Calendar and don’t feel like keeping it up there among the other tabs in Safari or Firefox, give this application a try!

[ Chip.Cuccio.Us :: Gcal.app ]

(image courtesy of Lifehacker)

And when I noted at Lifehacker that I like the idea of the GCal app but wished it were over on the windows side so I could have an application that gave me instant access to my Google Calendar, (since there’s nothing like iCal available for Windows, and GCal is the best thing yet) a fine cheeseburger (man…okay, a gentleman named CheeseburgerMan) emailed me to say that he went ahead and created GCal.win! How cool is that?

You’ll need to install the .NET 2.0 components in order to run the application, but its essentially the same thing, a browser that will let you log in to Google Calendar, and it’ll display your calendar in a small window completely independant of any other browser you have open. Awesome! It’s a teensy little .exe also, so it doesn’t leave a big system footprint or eat up a lot of memory. Head on over to download it now, and check out CheeseburgerMan’s other projects while you’re over there, like a similar tool for your GMail!

[ Burgerblog :: GCal.Win ]

Got yourself a pretty decent digital camera, or even better, shelled out for a fancy digital SLR? Don’t know what you’re doing with all of that awesome equipment? Yeah, you’re not alone. And that’s why Kurtis Kronk, writing for The Tech Lounge [ http://www.thetechlounge.com/ ] has put together this beginner’s guide to “manual photography.” Now don’t be confused, “manual” doesn’t mean “not digital” or “with film,” it means that you control the elements of the photograph; shutter speed, aperture, things like that.

Kronk walks us through how to get our camera prepped to take some awesome photos, some tips to remember when you’re shooting your kids running down a soccer field or you’re trying to capture a majestic bird that’s just taken flight, and ties it all together with some things to remember. It’s definitely in-depth, but it’s not horribly long, and its written for the non-professional photographer. Just make sure to keep your camera close by while you read it, and don’t be afraid of doing some thinking for yourself-the tips are definitely not one-size-fits-all, so you’ll have to tweak to get the best results in your photos. But this will definitely get you (and me) going on the road to taking much much more exciting photographs!

[ The Tech Lounge :: The Beginner's Guide to Manual Photography ]

Over at Gearlog [ http://www.gearlog.com/ ] we find an unusual piece of gadget geekery; 10 gadgets to wear around you neck. Seriously! From neckties that you can toss an iPod Nano or Shuffle into, to kinda attractive wooden USB keys like the one shown above, Jennifer DeLeo has 10 items that you can toss around your neck to increase your geek cred and show the world that yes, you realy are a gearhead and you definitely love your gadgets!

Check it out-I mean there’s a personal cooling system for goodness sake, that’s just plain cool. Prices, more information, and links to places you can get the gear are all in the article at Gearlog. Now then, I think I could go for one of those iPod ties.

[ Gearlog :: Neck Tech: 10 Items for the Head Stem ]

(image courtesy of Lifehacker)

iColorFolder is a neat little application that allows Windows users to do something Mac users have been doing and loving for a long time; color their folders to organize them. Red for hot items, blue for low priority issues, green for completed items, whatever you’d like to do, you can organize the folders the way you like! To that end, you can also colorize folders you access often to make it easier and faster for you to click through windows and folders to get to common locations. This is definitely a useful tool.

On top of that, the installer comes with a variety of icon packages that allow you to change the look of the folders in windows, to either duplicate the expected design of folders in the upcoming Windows Vista, make them look like folders in Mac OS, and more. There’s even an extra folder skin pack available for download from the developer’s site.

One caution though-when you go download it, and you will, make note that installing the application will completely rearrange the icons on your desktop-that is, if you have your icons organized in groups or around the screen in places you like them, installing this will bunch them all up in order on the left side of the window. Just take a screenshot and reorder them when the install is through. Enjoy!

[ iColorFolder.net :: iColorFolder ]

And the duds just keep on rolling! PC Mag has an excellent roundup of some of the worst products to show their faces in the technology marketplace this year, including the Mobiblu B153 2GB flash music player, which sports amazing battery life but absolutely horrendous sound quality, and other losers like the Helio Kickflip phone which betrays its cool and stylish appearance with horribly buggy software and the Polaroid PDC 5080, a cheap digital camera that gives new meaning to the word “cheap.”

All of the products have full reviews behind their links, so feel free to check out what you won’t be buying anytime soon, and while you’re out there look around for other excellent products on the market that you’ll see while browsing around. And while you’re window shopping, laugh at how silly some manufacturers really can be. Ah well, they all had the best intentions, I suppose.

[ PC Mag :: The Worst Products of Q2 2006 ]