I  love the web, but there are some things about it that really annoy me. The most prominent thing is content made from Adobe Flash.  You've seen it - as soon as you get to a website a video starts playing automatically, an ad superimposes over the content you are trying to see, all kinds of annoying things like that.  

While flash is great for these things, it also decreases how fast you can load a web page. In fact, poorly encoded flash can even crash your web browser.

Click2Flash to the rescue. 

Essentially it is a plug-in that will allow you to block flash content in Safari.  When there is something you want to see, you simply click on the area that is blocked and then it will start to play.

Click to read more ...

If you use iPhoto to import your pictures you may not know exactly how much info is available about them. Each photo has Extended Info attached by your camera  and also data you've entered into iPhoto that can tell you a great deal about them.

Here's how to do it:

1. Open iPhoto

2. Click on a photo to select it

Click to read more ...

I recently was having trouble with my Apple ID and couldn't purchase anything in the iTunes Store. I tried Apple Care, but they couldn't help and had me fill out a form online.  After speaking with them, I found Apple's MY INFO page, that allows you to update the information that is associate with your Apple ID.

Even if you aren't having trouble with your ID, it's a good idea to login and check it out and make sure everything is up to date.

How to do it:

1. Open you browser and go to myinfo.apple.com

2. Enter your location, language, and apple ID credentials.

3. Once you login you can then update several pieces of information. The Email address associated with your Apple ID, your primary address and Shipping address, phone numbers - in case Apple needs to call you regarding a support call, newsletter and email subscriptions, and the different types of ways you allow apple to contact you, such as Email, snail mail, or phone.

Since the update to iTunes 9, my smart playlists have been scrambled and not syncing in the order I tell it to. I called Apple support and they couldn't offer a solution. However, they were very nice and informed me it wasn't the iPhone firmware, but it was an iTunes 9 issue. I had hoped iTunes 9.01 would fix the problem, but alas, it didn't. 

I needed to come up with a work around, since I use two very important smart playlists -- recently added & 25podcasts. Essentially I have a playlist that shows the recently added stuff, from newest to oldest.  I also have a 25 podcasts lists, that sort, you guessed it, from newest to oldest. The syncing problem was shuffling them all around and sometimes not even putting the correct content in the list. 

Here is a temporary work around:

1. Open iTunes 9

2. Edit your smart playlist (control-click or right click on it).

3. Enable live updating so that it will show the most recent content.

Click to read more ...

Listen to this episode of MTD.

Want some detailed info on your MobileMe Syncs? It's easy.

If you have the iSync icon in your toolbar, simply 'Option-Click' and you will get some detailed info on when your selections you've chosen to sync on MobileMe are done.