I’ve been a little overwhelmed with my day job lately but I’m trying to get back on track with regular articles here at TechTraction.  Therefore, without further delay, here is today’s Friday Find.

Found an interesting and useful article about sneaky fees and how all of us are starting to pay more and we might not even know it. Even though I enjoyed the article, I have to admit I was pretty depressed when I was done.

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Back in January of this year I wrote an article addressing the question of whether it was possible to clone a SIM card from a GSM cell phone. The article explained why such action wasn’t possible with a SIM card reader and basic software. Since that article, the reader comments have been consistently flowing in and the article remains one of my most frequently read items. Despite my explanation, some readers have claimed that they have succeeded at what I said was impossible. Unfortunately, when pressed for details, responses where either nonexistent or lacking critical details. Fortunately, all that changed on 9/26/2008 when reader DonJuan posted a detailed response that might have solved a nagging cell phone problem.

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Have you looked in your Windows Control Panel recently and noticed an icon for Apple’s MobileMe application? If you installed or upgraded to Apple’s iTunes version 7.7, then whether you wanted it or not, MobileMe was also installed. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you might want to try this new “cloud computing” style service from Apple. Of course, if you don’t have either of those devices, and have no interest in MobileMe, then you’ll probably want to remove this application and here’s how.

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Do you use DVD43 and Handbrake to convert DVD content to a format suitable for viewing on your iPod? If so, you might encountered a Handbrake hang when you tried to convert an unencrypted DVD. Try as you might to kill the DVD43 and Handbrake process, both keep on running. And while you can still use your computer, Handbrake is stuck and the only way to “unstick it” is to power off your computer. Is it possible to avoid this problem?

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It all started with an article I wrote describing how to import an audio book from CD into iTunes. Part of the instructions used iTunes’ default Smart Playlist, “Recently Added,” as a way to quickly find an imported audio book. Unfortunately, one of TechTraction’s readers deleted the Smart Playlist and needed a work around for that part of the audio import instructions. Rather than create a different step, I simply described how to recreate the deleted Smart Playlist. Those instructions worked well but now the audio book appears in reverse order (last disk appears first, etc). While I’m not aware of all of the details of the readers particular problem, the following 4 suggestions might fix his, or even your, iTunes sorting problem.

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Sure, you can buy an audio book, but did you know that there several resources on the web that offer audio books for free? Of course some of these free audio books are meant to entice customers to sign up for a pay service, but there are also completely free sites with a limited selection. Diplomaguide.com has compiled a list of 25 online resources for free audio books. Recommended for audio book lovers.

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It’s been rough trying to get back into the swing of posting 3 times a week; however, I’m slowing starting to transition from my vacation-frame-of-mind back to a serious work-frame-of-mind. Hopefully I’ll be completely ontrack next week. In the meantime, if you like to customize shortcuts for common Windows tasks, there are a few add-on applications to help fine tune your customization. Likehacker has a nice application round-up and review in a recent article.

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Back on June 9th of this year I wrote an article detailing the steps for importing an audio book from CD into iTunes and making it appear in the audio book section. In those instructions I describe how to use the “Recently Added” playlist as a quick way to find the imported audio files. A recent reader unfortunately removed that default playlist and now needs to know how to complete my instructions without that playlist. The easiest way is to simply recreate the missing playlist, and here is how.

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Do you routinely need to ship an item and wish you could quickly comparison shop for the best shipping rates? If so, then ShipTool is for you.

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Dying to hook your iPod into your car stereo but don’t want to use one of those FM transmitters? Well, according to the August 2007 issue of Wired magazine all you need is a small adapter cable that converts two RCA jacks (two raised plugs – one red and one white) down to a single 3.5-mm stereo jack. Connect one end to your car stereo and one end to your iPod and you’re in business. If it were only that easy. In nearly all cases the instructions from Wired simply won’t work, here’s why.

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