Avery the company that makes all those useful labels, blank business cards, binder dividers, greeting cards, and iron-on t-shirt transfers, has released a free application called Design Pro for Mac.

I usually use Disclabel ($29.95) or Disc Cover (part of Roxio Toast) to design and make labels, but having a free alternative is nice. Design Pro contains over 2,000 clip art and photo images, as well as over 1,300 pre-designed templates. It integrates with iPhoto and with your Address Book for doing mail merges.

Apple has announced that movie rentals in Canada and the United Kingdom iTunes Store. One point that may upset U.S. users is that the rentals ill have 48 hours to finish a movie once they start watching it. That’s twice as long as U.S. customers have. The 24 hour limit has be criticized as being too short by many users.

Verizon has announced they will be adding “more than” 25 HD channels by summer, and should have more than 150 HD channels by the end of the year to their FiOS TV offering. This should make FiOS customers happy as they probably see their HD TV sets get what Verizon’s fiber had promised.

Continue reading Verizon FiOS To Add HD Channels…

Guess Verizon Wireless wanted into the “circle” so bad they are buying it. This will make Verizon Wireless the largest US wireless carrier.

On Monday June 9th beginning at 10:00 AM (PST) at San Francisco’s Moscone West, San Francisco Steve Jobs is expected to take the stage once again to wow the sold out World Wide Developers Conference crowd.

The rumors and guesses are all over the map with expectations running high for the next insanely great “one more thing” from Apple. As usual, expectations may be running a little bit too high. But I do expect some very important moments to transform our digital world.

What is expected depends on what you read, who you believe and what you are hoping. Here is what some are saying with some analysis from me.

Continue reading WWDC Keynote Monday June 9th Expectations…

It is no secret that Windows Vista has not exactly started the “Wow” it promised with users, especially business users.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, responding to a question about the support for XP off the shelf, said that customers can buy Vista, then downgrade to XP for free. “I don’t know how you can do better than getting both,” says Ballmer.

I DO, stay with XP and buy nothing! Or buy a Mac, of course.

Vanity Fair, to commemorate the 50th anniversay of ARPA, has posted a “must read” for anyone who is interested in the creation and history of the Internet called How the Web Was Won.

I have been a fan and buyer at Wolfgang’s Vault where you can listen for free or purchase downloads live performances by classic artists like Aerosmith, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Buffet, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Rolling Stones,Grateful Dead, Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and many others.

Now Wolfgang’s Vault has a deal with Universal Music Group to make available vintage concert performances from artists such as The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley adding to the almost 500 recordings they currently available for download.

Continue reading Universal and Wolfgang’s Vault Make a Deal…

Pandora has released their own free desktop application based on Adobe Air technology for Mac and Windows users.

Pandora is free personalized Internet radio, that uses trained music experts who can recommend music you will probably like based on a song, artist, or lyrics that you choose. You can see what is playing, change channels, or create new ones. In the past you needed to use a flash enabled browser or a third-party desktop solution. It is nice to see Pandora providing a desktop app themselves.

AT&T has announced a boost of the 3G HSDPA speeds delivered to Laptop Connect customers now that the latest round of HSUPA upgrades are complete. The service’s downstream speeds, previously ranging from 600kbps to 1.4Mbps, have been boosted to between 700kbps and 1.7Mbps. The service’s upstream speeds, previously ranging from 500kbps to 800kbps, have been boosted to between 500kbps and 1.2Mbps. The speed boosts (should you actually see them in real world conditions) come at no additional charge. All ready for a 3G iPhone?

AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network is available in more than 275 major U.S. metropolitan areas. Later this month, AT&T will become the first U.S. carrier to have fully deployed High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology across its entire 3G network. By year-end, the company plans to offer 3G service in nearly 350 major metropolitan U.S. areas.

Apple started a back-to-school promo offering a free iPod touch to faculty and students buying a Mac through either the online Apple Store or retail stores. The promo offers a $299 rebate equivalent to the price of an 8GB iPod touch if both the iPod and the Mac are on the same order. Upgrading to a 16GB or 32GB iPod touch allows buyers to apply the full $299 discount. Those who prefer the iPod nano can opt for an 8GB model at a reduced $199 rebate. The promo runs to October 15th.

Amazon has announced a deal with publisher Simon & Shuster that bring 5,000 more books to the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic book reader. This brings the number of books available to 130,000 on the wireless device.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said the Kindle e-books now account for 6 percent of sales among the previous 125,000 titles available on the site in both print and electronic formats.

Seems like a trend. Famous band from the 80′s needs new lead singer and they turn to YouTube and MySpace for help.

Journey’s needed a lead singer to replace Steve Perry and Neal Schon found Arnel Pineda on YouTube. Of course there is only one Steve Perry, but Arnet filled Perry’s stylings pretty, Faithfully.

Next it was Boston’s Tom Scholz who needed a singer to replace Brad Delp who tragically committed suicide last year.

Continue reading 80′s Bands Find Lead Singers on the Internet…

Starting Tuesday at Starbucks:

Complimentary WiFi for Starbucks customers When you register your Starbucks Card and use it at least once a month, you’ll receive two consecutive hours a day of complimentary WiFi, courtesy of AT&T.

Oh, how delightful. Hewlett-Packard has agreed to make Live Search the default on its consumer PCs along with a toolbar that uses Microsoft’s Silverlight starting in January. No word on how much Microsoft paid for this.

Much was made about Apple pulling out of NAB 2008 in April. Well seems Apple will not be present at the Apple Expo 2008 in Paris, France in September 17th – 20th.

Apple planning on opening the first official Apple Store in France, located at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. The store should occupy two floors and 7,700 square feet. The location is of strategic importance, as some 9 million people are said to visit it annually, including 40 percent of tourists.