Apple released yet another iPod today, an updated version of the iPod shuffle. What makes it so special, though, is that they added colors. The colors added include pink, orange, green, blue, and silver. Along with the colors added, the new headphones that were previously only packaged with the new Nanos and Videos have been brought to the Shuffle, and they are nice. To check them out you can head here, and to buy them check out the store.

In other Apple related news, the amount of profit that Apple makes on the the iPhone per sale, which was previously estimated at 50%, may be closer to 20%. As shown here, you can see some of the reasons why they aren’t making as much money as people previously thought. The main reasons are the cost of the touch screen, shipping, marketing, and research and development.

Windows Vista was also released recently. For Windows XP users, it’s a pretty nice upgrade, but until it’s used in many places may not be worth the purchase. I’ve looked at it and used it while it was in RC1, and liked what I saw. Most applications worked, the GUI looked nice, and is an overall nice operating system to me. From the viewpoint of an Apple “fanboy”, you could say, I think it’s a big improvement, and may use it in the future.

Another cool bit of news is a newly discovered savant, someone who has a mysterious or even genius skill in a mind that is otherwise limited, Daniel Tammet. The special thing about this savant is that he has no obvious mental disability, and can describe his thought process. He memorized Pi to 22,000 digits, showing his extraordinary skill in math and numbers, but has trouble remembering faces and other broad things. He said that while he can’t remember faces well, he can remember the details of someone, like the tie they were wearing or the number of buttons on their jacket. To me, this is really interesting and cool, and want to see more of him in the future.

A little while ago, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama said they were going to be running for President in the 2008 election. They are both strong democratic candidates, and as you can see here, they are also heavily supported.

Out of the Democrats, though my favorite candidate is Al Gore. I found this article in the Rolling Stone, which showed me a lot of reasons why Al Gore is a great choice for President. For one, he did not originally vote to go into Iraq, so he does not have to defend against people saying that it was a bad choice. He also has extensive experience in the Senate and the White House, so he knows what he’s doing. Last but not least, An Inconvenient Truth has opened a lot of people’s eyes on the dangers of global warming, so no one can argue that he isn’t working to save the environment.

There is one snag though, and that’s the fact that he hasn’t official entered the race. If Al Gore runs, there is a good chance he will win, for a few reasons. The first is that he would gain a lot of Hillary Clinton’s support, and that could push him to the lead. Another is that both Grover Cleveland and Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and didn’t win the Presidency, but won on their second tries. The 2008 election is quite far off though, exactly 644 days at this time, so he still has a lot of time to decide whether or not he wants to enter. If Al Gore doesn’t run, though, I’d be both unhappy and surprised.

PS: You may have noticed the lack of updates, and I’m sorry. But, this shows that I do need help in picking the articles, which all of you can provide. Thanks for reading, and possibly all the help.

A couple years ago, when I was signing up for a Yahoo Email address, I saw the name John Doe used, and since then it started showing up more and more. I wondered where this name originated, and I recently thought about it again. To give this site some original content, I decided I would go search.

The first place I looked was Wikipedia, where I learned that it was a placeholder named used in legal situations where the name is meant to be kept confidential, and in medical situations where the patient is unknown. The female counterpart for John Doe is Jane Doe, and the use of these dates back to 1765-9, where Richard Roe and John Doe was used in a legal situation.

This didn’t fully answer my question, because I wanted to find out why it was used in signing up for an email address and other places too.

After a bit more searching, I found nothing, so I’m just going to assume it is the placeholder name for more than legal and medical situations, and is adapted to many things.

For all you would be bloggers or writers, who want to do some writing but don’t know how to I have a quick recommendation. Instead of going to blogger or some other platform like that, I recommend you use Wordpress, like I do. You can start off with a blog hosted by Wordpress, or you can find some hosting and manage it yourself.

The main reasons I use it is because it is easy to use, easy to manage, and easy to make it look nice. There are an abundance of free themes out there for Wordpress, which you can tweak, or use as is. Plugins also make it easier to use, with things like what you are Digging, and your Flickr stream. You can have multiple authors, easy to manage sections, and much more.

I encourage you to check it out, and head here for more information.

I was thinking about the boundaries between a professional and an amateur, and I decided that what I thought was the difference was this:

An amateur can take something great, if given the chance, and make something not-so-great, while a professional can take something not-so-great and create something great.

I was thinking about this sense in photography, as you don’t need the best cameras to take the best pictures. This also applies to other things, which I’m sure you can think of.

What do you think defines the line between professional and amateurs?

Edit: Nice to see people chiming in with their ideas. For the rest of you don’t be shy, you can still comment.

I will be posting so more material soon, I just need to find some. You are welcome to email or IM me with ideas.

Hey, guess what Apple released earlier? An iPod Phone, but I consider more phone based with some Apple features. The main market is people who have or need smart phones, but want a nano without having to buy them separately. I really like the look of it, but it’s way too expensive, at $499 for 4 gigs and $599 for 8. If you had this, you wouldn’t always leave your videos and stuff on this, because it doesn’t have the space, but it would be fine for stocking up the night before with some of your music or videos.

The basic specs are:

Single front button.
3.5 inch widescreen display featuring the highest pixel density ever shipped in a portable device.
2 megapixel camera.
iPod dock.
Proximity sensor which switches between modes and screen orientation based on how a user holds it.
11.6 mm thick (.46 inches)
Syncs with iTunes
GSM/EDGE
Wifi
Bluetooth
Cingular only.
Visual voicemail - shows a list of your voicemails like you see a list of emails.
Error correcting on-screen keyboard.
Gestural interface
Mail.
Safari.
Google Maps.
Widgets.
Switches seamlessly between EDGE and WiFi.
Free Yahoo! IMAP email to all iPhone customs.
GPS
5 hour video battery life.
16 hour audio battery life.

According to this, in phone mode alone should have a very long battery life, but I’m usually doing something on it. It’s also 4.5 inches tall, and 2.4 inches wide. The screen is huge, for widescreen video viewing, and it’s so nice looking.

For more information on the phone, visit this Engadget post.

Sorry about the lack of updates, but as we all know, school (or work) is a pain.

Anyway, something came to my attention a little while ago, which was another large tale of heroism. Earlier this week, a 50 year old man with two daughters jumped into the path of an oncoming subway train, to save someone’s life. The person he helped had just had a seizure and fallen into the tracks, so the man jumped onto the tracks, and held the man down. As a reward of what he did, he was given a year’s worth of free rides on New York’s subway and buses, along with a check of $10,000 from Donald Trump. Not only that, Walt Disney Co. gave him a one-week vacation for him and his family, and scholarships for his daughter’s from the New York Film Academy. Personally, I think this is amazing, and hope everyone would try to help someone in need out, even in smaller situations.