I work the 3rd shift so I was asleep for most of this blackout. I ask you this, how did it affect you? Did you learn something new today? do you understand the issues here?

What to learn MORE?

2011 gave us all some great app for our iDevices. It also gave a few people brand new iDevices. I’d Like to highlight 7 great app you should get that came out in 2011. So for fun and some for reference.

Flipboard was only available for the iPad. Now its on the iPhone and iPod Touch for FREE. Basically it will personalize news for you. You can add all sorts of news and social networks like Facebook, twitter, Flickr and instagram among others.

Roku If you own a Roku you’ll love this app. Not only is a remote control for the Roku but it lets you browse the channels and has a keyboard in it. it’s FREE

PicFrame This is that app that let you place multiple pictures into one. We see this a lot on instagram. Lot of borders and patterns are there to choose from. Lots of sharing options including email, twitter, Facebook and instagram. cost $0.99

Instacast  This is a great audio/video podcast app. If you like to watch or listen to any podcast you know that you can’t download them via iTunes when you’re not on wi-fi. This will solve that.  It also has show notes to follow, background play and a large library to browse. cost $1.99

Jetpack Joyride  This is one of those addicting games. Easy to play, just tap the screen to jump around. There are so many goals to meet that you’ll have a hard time putting it down. Basically what you do is see how far you can get with out crashing. Lots of fun power ups and skins to buy with the coins you earn in the game. Just when you think you are finished with the game it just keeps going. It’s a great quick game to play while waiting around and its FREE!

Temple Run This is another one of those quick games i love to play. It looks like Indiana Jones  except that you are being chased by scary monkeys because you stole their golden idol. You guide the guy thought this maze of obstacles like pits, fire and narrow paths. It uses the tilt feature to move from right to left. If you collect enough coins you can improve power ups and collect characters. right now its FREE.

Can I Stream It  This is a very useful app if you’re to stream movies on your tv or computer. Just type in the movie that you’re looking for and it will show you if it’s available on Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Amazon Instant, VUDU, Crackle, YouTube and Blockbuster. (Wow there’s more service around than I thought.) It will also show you if you can rent and buy them as well. You can also set up reminders and push notifications.

So there it is my favorite released Apps of 2011.

Cheers!

*update 1/12/12* Got a package from apple last week. i opened it up and there was a letter telling me that the did indeed run out of replacement 1st gen nanos. Under that letter was a new 8GB iPod nano.

About a month ago I got an email from apple stating that there is a recall on 1st gen iPod nanos. I signed up for it and about a week later I got a box to ship it back to them.

I was quoted 6-8 week return time for my replacement. No big deal on time it’s an old 2GB iPod I hardly use. It sadly collects dust on a self.

The news is out now from mashable that Apple ran out I replacement units and is now sending people a 6th Gen nano. Most likely the 8GB ( the smallest size for that model) but it has no warranty, all those nanos were out of warranty anyway.

So that’s a hook up. I basically traded up with no fees but I’m kinda bummed. The thing is I already have a newer 16GB nano. It does make a great watch. I’m going to miss that classic click wheel iPod. I also has a few accessories that only fit the 1st gen model.

12/23/11 Update

I tired for 5 days. No such luck. I looked into every option that could be on my end. Firewall, router ports windows updates and still having installs fail. I also have to hit the repair option multiple time while downloading.

I have a few options left. My brother got that game installed fine so I think I’ll bring over a HD and copy it. If that doesn’t work I can try a torrent. Last I will try call customer service.

what do I do? I doubt I can get my money back.

Update 1/9/2012

Well getting a copy o the game worked until the latest patch. Now I’m back to where I can’t patch. More failing errors and messages to repair the launcher with no success.

I was surprised when I called customer service and got through in about 10 minutes to only find that they were stumped. That’s not a good feeling.

So I wait, perhaps I’ll grab another patched copy of the game from a friend

On the night of release of Star Wars: The Old Republic I finally decided to buy the game. I was hearing too much great things. I had to get it. So I coughed up the cash and did it.

The sign up and download was painless. As far as the patching the game…ick what a mess. I work 3rd shift so I sleep during the day. I started patching the game before I went to bed around 8am. I slept like a kid on Xmas eve. I was so excited to wake up and play with my new game. When I woke up it was like Santa shit in my sock. The Patch fail. So I tried again, fail. This happened over and over and over. Best part was it was failing on a video file. Every time I pressed the repair button the launcher crashed.

While I was repairing files and setting permissions and closing all other programs I was also searching to see if I was alone on this issue. Oh no….many others had this exact problem. The only good thing about that is that I knew it most likely wasn’t my PC. Searching the forums only made me more upset. Just the thought of all these other people out there who probably took the day off to play this game only to fight and fight with it.

I figured it was a server load issue but I still continued to try to download and apply the patch. I guess I really wanted to go to bed aggravated and I did. It is a new day though, most players are most likely in game now so today might be a better day to try again.

The web site is yes.thatcan.be/my/next/tweet

It’s good fun. Basically it grabs random words from your past twitter updates and makes a sentence or two. A very incoherent sentence. They read as If you just learned English.

There is an app for ios and android. I grabbed the iOS app and well it’s need help on the posting to twitter part but for .99¢ it’s a good time. You’ll laugh and laugh at the updates it produces.

So I recently picked up a used iPhone 3GS for cheap money. I already have an iPhone 4 as my primary pocket gadget. This one is for fun and to save battery life on my iPhone 4 while playing many podcasts during my work day.

This 3Gs is a bit tired. Soon I’ll be making a purchase through CNN for some parts. They sell lots of mobile device parts for great prices. you just have to wait a couple of weeks to get your parts from china.

So I decided to go ahead and jailbreak the 3Gs. I must say it was very easy to do with the Red Sn0w app on the Mac. So far with this jailbreak I must say that I’m not that impressed. The biggest features that I found useful was a couple UI tweaks. Let me note that the 3Gs has no cell service and I do not plan to get any. Perhaps if this was my primary phone I’d be more interested in other features.

I had always thought that jailbreaking got users a ton of free apps and features. It looks to me that it’s just another app store filled with apps that apple has rejected.

With all these new feature with iOS lately I guess I see the point or I’m just use to the look and feel of the stock iOS.

I’ll give it a couple of weeks maybe I’ll find something great for me or maybe I’ll return it back to stock.

I was looking through the settings and here’s where I went. General>Accessibility there I found something new. Custom Vibrations.

Now this is pretty neat I must say. We can have a custom vibration for each contact. So what you have to do is turn this on. Then close out of the settings app. Next head over to a contact and press the “edit” button. Once you press this you’ll magically see an option that says vibration. Its set to the default.

Go ahead and press the vibration option you’ll get options to choose what kind of vibration you want for that contact. iOS 5 comes with some good preinstalled vibrations. We also get the option to create a custom one. The method for creating is pretty cool too.

Just start by tapping the screen, you’ll see ripples on the screen. Once you’re done creating the vibration you can play it back, save it and give it a name.

This feature is great. Not so great if you’re the baggy pants kind of a person. Just keep in mind that if the vibration you make is rather intense it could put a damper on the battery life.

Prep

Ingredients

• Four artichokes
• 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 of greek olive pitted (optional)
• olive oil

You will need a large pot with a cover and a streamer to place at the bottom.

First you will need to cut off the stem of the artichoke so they sit level. Then take a little off the top (about 2 inches) just enough to remove the sharp tips. Once they are all cut place them in a water. This will help the artichokes open up.

While they are soaking you can combine 1 cup of parmesan cheese and the 1 cup of  bread crumbs. I use a cookie sheet. Then slice the olives.

Next we get to get the artichokes ready to stuff. To do this you’ll need some force.

First shake the artichoke to get any water out thats in it. Then grab it by the bottom and slam it into a clean flat surface.

This is an important step in order to filled the artichokes up with the stuffing. You may want to use your figures after to open each one up a little more.

Now we stuff them! I like to pour the stuffing over them first. Then I go in and work the stuffing into each leaf. Simply take your time checking each leaf and add the stuff when needed. When you’re done stuffing pick up the artichoke and give it a little tap on the counter to lightly pack the stuffing in.

Stuff it

The olives are optional. You don’t have to go crazy with them, just a few here and there. Once you are happy with the amount of olives grab the olive oil and drizzle over in a spiral motion.

Finally place the artichokes in pot with a steamer. Not a lot of water is needed just enough to almost come though the steamer is ok.

Cook on medium heat for 40 minutes.

Cook them!

I’ve cooked artichoke for 40 minutes, I’ve also cooked them for a hour and a half. You really can’t over cook them. The worst that could happen is that you’ll run out of water. So keep an eye on them. 40 minutes is a good time, if they seem tough you could try cooking them longer but most of the time it’s the artichoke. There’s some tough ones out there.

I hope you try it.

For now here’s some hard disks!