Starbucks used to be an official T-Mobile Hotspot. Whatever agreement Starbucks and T-Mobile once had, it’s now over and Starbucks has turned to AT&T to provide in store Wi-Fi access. The new offering is more affordable, but it’s NOT free as some news sources are reporting. For a nice write up on the [...]

Filed under: Friday Finds

You might have already noticed but I’ve added a few new elements to the sidebar. Subscription information, Bookmark TechTraction, and Article Categories have been here since the original site redesign; however, here is a quick list of what I recently added to the sidebar and why:
Recommendations: This is a short list of products and services [...]

Filed under: TechTraction News

Even though I previously described how to copy DVD movies to an iPod in a 3 part series, I understand that some people don’t mind paying for a movie a second time if it means they only have to point and click to get what they want easily on their iPod. If you’re one of those individuals, where can you turn to get the movie you want with the press of a button? The iTunes store is the obvious answer, but is there another option?

Filed under: Tech Commentary

Lots of people are running various types of web sites today in an attempt to earn a little extra cash. Some individuals are highly successful with their sites and earn enough to make running their site a full time job. Others earn nice “curtain money” (as the old saying goes). And others, [...]

Filed under: Friday Finds

The day I discovered Google Maps was the day I stopped using Map Quest. And the day I loaded Google Maps for Mobile on my Blackberry 8700c was the day I had found the “killer app” for my mobile device. I’ve become very reliant on both versions of Google Maps for a variety of uses [...]

Filed under: Tech Commentary

In some respects, the Internet is the “wild west” of bits and bytes. Anyone that steps into this digital frontier runs the risk of becoming a victim of some type of personal scam, malicious computer virus, or insidious malware undermining their computer. And with an individual’s increased involvement in the “digital wild west” comes an increased risk of falling victim to some cyber annoyance/crime. Blogging is one of the ways of increasing your risk to becoming a cyber victim; however, there are some steps bloggers can do to “beef-up” their security.

Filed under: Friday Finds

Last week I wrote a 3 part series explaining how to copy (a.k.a. rip) a DVD movie to your iPod:

The first article listed the two pieces of necessary software (DVD43 and Handbrake)
The second article described how to install and use those two applications together to decrypt and then copy a DVD movie into a format [...]

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips

Silicon Alley Insider reported on Friday (2/8/2008) that Amazon’s Kindle (eBook reader similar to Sony’s eReader) has not ignited the sales of ebooks. The headline is meant to be nothing more than eye-catching because there is no substance in the story itself. SAI admits that it’s too early to say whether the Kindle is a success but they did manage to get this empty statement from Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of e-book publisher RosettaBooks:

“…so far he’s seen “no evidence” that e-books formatted for the Kindle will generate more revenue for him than Sony Reader-compatible formats in 2008.”

Okay, so it’s too early to determine whether the Kindle is a success and RosettaBooks is making the classic empty-statement statement. So what does any of this mean?

The Kindle isn’t doing any better than Sony’s eReader but both devices have incredible potential, and I believe their greatest potential is one that remains untapped — education.

Filed under: Tech Commentary

In the first article in this series I identified the basic free software you need to rip a DVD for your iPod (DVD43 and HandBrake). In the second article I gave instructions how to install and use these two pieces of software. If you’ve been following the series since the beginning, you should have successfully ripped a movie from a DVD. Also, if you got that far in the process, you’ve probably already imported that movie into your iTunes library and synced it with your iPod; however, just in case you haven’t done that last step, this article will walk you through the final piece of the puzzle.

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips

This is the second article in my three part series on how to rip a DVD for your iPod. The first article in the series outlined 3 available options for putting movies on your iPod. Then it focused on the third option and listed the 2 pieces of software needed. In this article, it’s time to install those two applications and learn how to use them together to rip a DVD movie for iPod viewing.

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips