We think it's safe to say that we've all played around a bit with iTunes' EQ settings at one time or another. Some knew exactly what they wanted and how to do it, while others were just trying to find something that makes the music sound halfway decent.

Thanks to Method Shop, we now have a guide that can show us exactly how to get the most out of iTunes' EQ settings. If you don't even know where to find it, the EQ can be activated by enabling "Show Equalizer" under the View tab. Once it's up and running, you can whip out Method Shop's handy guide and voila! You're well on your way to better sound.

The guide itself is actually quite short and simple, just the way we like it. It gives a brief overview of iTunes' graphic equalizer system, paying attention to the details such as what exactly those little numbered bands mean. It also touches on the EQ presets included in every copy of iTunes, as well as giving a few pointers on how to make your own iTunes EQ presets.

Check out the guide by clicking the "read" link below.

 

It came to our attention that Mac OS X has this "Summarize" feature that is very valuable. Quite unfortunately, it's such a waste that only a handful of people notice it. In simple terms, the "Summarize" feature takes a selection of text and generates a very precise summary of the text.

If you know about this already, consider yourself lucky. If not, then this is news for you. Here's how to access the above mentioned feature:

1. Open the program that holds the text you would like to summarize (it doesnÂ?t work on some programs, it works best on Mac programs like Safari, etc., but read below for a tip on how to make it work with any text)
2. Highlight the text that you want to summarize and click the program name you are using in the menu bar.
3. Navigate down to the services selection, and in there you will find Â?SummarizeÂ?.
4. After you click it, a window will instantly pop open with your summary in there. There are a few customizable options such as going from sentences to paragraphs, but it is pretty simple.

Lastly, to those who don't have support services, you can actually copy the text into a TextEdit. It can be found in Spotlight, by the way. Once you've copied it, summarize as you please.

Try this feature. I'm the type of guy who never explores his computer much. My fellow blogger Max F. and I were talking the other day regarding Firefox's' Bookmarks option and using keywords for efficient searching (sorry, I'm a Luddite). But the Mac OS X "Summarize" feature is something I was able to figure out right away.

Perhaps the world has moved on to the new iPod Nano. Still, there's an entire legacy of iPod minis out there to deal with (heck, the mini gave the new-gen Nano its scratch-proof metal skin. How's that for legacy?).

So, aside from turning minis into flashlight stereos, aircraft black boxes - or, for some weird and psychotic reason, flushing them down the toilet, why not recycle them, and/or turn them into the subject of a mod experiment, as one from the Geek Technique blog has done?

Because the microdrive in a mini is a storage device with moving parts, sooner or later (likely later), that drive will run down and conk out. What this geek did was to swap the 4GB microdrive for a Compact Flash card. He used a 4GB card, but as he pointed out, maybe even bigger "since the CF-standard is able to support capacities up to 137 GB." Hmm... maybe Apple SHOULD go flash for the next generation of video iPods.

Full how-to of modding an iPod mini's memory in ways Steve Jobs hasn't thought of, until perhaps just recently, at the Read link below. And, once recycled and sporting a muy-streamlined flash card, please don't suddenly flush this into the toilet as well. The only iPod that could probably fit with zero damage to the pipes is the Shuffle, anyway. Maybe even survive, too.

If you've got a brand new Apple 802.11n AirPort Extreme (or if you're looking to get one soon), you might have noticed that it doesn't connect with the Xbox 360 - unless you bust out a few tweaks. A recent post on 25experts.com comes to the rescue of gamers who have yet to make the setup work.

There are actually two ways to do this: the easy way, and the safe way. If you don't give a rat's behind about wireless security and all that jazz, this is really easy. Just turn the wireless security feature off and you're good to go. Running an non-secure wireless networks is a bit of a risky move, though, so here's the nifty workaround from 25experts:

In Airport Utility, Option-Click (or alt click on windows keybaords) the radio setting button to get the hidden choices, and select "b/g compatible", NOT "n (b/g compatible), just straight b/g. That will limit each device to 54 Mbps, which is fine.

Next, Option-Click your encryption setting button and select "WPA Personal." Go into the Internet:DHCP settings (I think) and reserve an IP address for your 360 based on it's MAC settings to make sure it gets the same IP all the time. In the NAT options, select that IP as the "Default Host" so as to cause no issues with XBox Live functionality. Restart the Apple Extreme.

After it's up and running, start your XBox 360, go to the last blade of the Dashboard and select your network settings - it should let you select your new WPA-encrypted network and you're good to go.

Try it out and let us know if it works for you. Don't hesitate to leave a comment below.

FrontRow is a Mac app that acts as a front-end for Quicktime, iTunes, and iPhoto libraries. It also allows Mac users to browse media on their computers using the Apple Remote. Despite being over a year old, FrontRow still doesn't have an option to play internet radio. If this issue has been bugging you for quite some time now, then don't worry, because EntertainMac has a nifty little solution for it. Here's how:

First, you have to look for an internet radio station that you want to listen to. Just navigate through iTunes (which has a pretty extensive list even though FrontRow doesn't recognize them) or find any M3U stations that spark your interest. Next, you have to add them to the Library. You can do this by simply dragging the radio stations to your iTunes library. By doing this, iTunes will save the M3U files locally as an iTunes track.

Finally, it's time to organize. EntertainMac cautions that finding these stations in FrontRow "can be difficult, especially with larger libraries." To make things easier, create a Smart Play list based on "Kind" and set it to look for "MPEG audio stream." This will find all of your Internet radio stations. All you have to do now in FrontRow is to pull up the correct play list and you're good to go.

From the same guys who brought you Ubuntu right on your OS X desktop, a new guide tackles installing the PC newest flagship OS, Vista Ultimate, into your very own Mac box - more appropriately, your MacBook Pro.

Now the capability of Apple's newer systems to run Windows isn't new news: Apple's move to Intel has made that possibility a lot easier to imagine.

But installing Windows instead of OS X is a lot different from installing Windows on OS X. Simplehelp presents a step-by-step guide for installing an OS over another OS, using a nifty little Virtual Machine (VM) software, called Parallels Desktop for OS X.

It was done before, yes, but this time it's the monster pack Ultimate that gets touchy-feely with its Apple side. Of course, there are problems that will ensue from installing Vista Ultimate on Mac (including hardware requirements).

So run over to the "Read" link and see how to do it. Remember, you will need Parallels Desktop and any Mac similar to a MacBook Pro, so the procedures will pretty much stay the same.

DJ and Kingstone from iPodWizard.net have just come up with a way to change the background of your iPod Nano into any image that you want. This is perfect for those who are getting a bit bored of the Nano's stock background. You can check out the images below for a few examples (they're quite fuzzy, however).

  

To change your Nano's background, download the required iPod Nano Firmware below. You can change your background picture by loading that firmware binary in iPodWizard (you can get it through the "via" link below) and changing index 78 picture. Read on for the instructions.

1. Extract the zip file to C:
2. Go to run and type "cmd"
3. Type "ipodpatcher -w 1 nano"
4. Unhook your iPod and let it update

Kingstone says that there are still a few small flaws, but improvements are on the way. Support for 5th-gen iPod Nano users is also being worked on. If you're wondering where the title bar went after changing the background, DJ says that "there is no title bar because the only thing we could do was stretch that and replace it."

Download: [iPod Nano Background tool]

Chad Ohman posted something pretty useful for those Apple fans who want to get the most our of their tech. In this case, it's a quick guide to opening up and cleaning your Mighty Mouse.

Doing so is rather inexpensive, compared to buying a new fifty-buck mouse for your Mac. All you'll need are some cotton buds, some rubbing alcohol, a ball-point pen, a thin knife, a Phillips screwdriver and some super glue. Total cost: mostly free, if your family's the sort that owns a lot of common household items.

While cleaning Apple's special mouse does seem a bit more difficult than your standard ball-scrolling low-tech mouse, the commenters have said that it makes it almost brand new. You'll have to remember that doing so will void your warranty, but if you're cleaning it anyway, it's probably a last-ditch effort to make it usable again, right? So just head over to Ohman's blog for some step by step instructions. Happy tinkering.

So you've gotten your brand new 2nd-gen iPod Shuffle out of the box, like *nathan did. What else can you do besides loading it up with, uh, I dunno, the High School Musical soundtrack, clip it on your bag strap, and catching the bus to school? Well, take a cue from iFixit, those handy-dandies who just love to take anything that starts with an "i-" apart, and take your Shuffle apart!

It's not exactly Swiss-watch precision - the Shuffle's still larger than the Swiss watches I've seen disassembled (usually by giant sledgehammer), but you get to see how much Apple has packed into something that's no longer than one and a half inches, about as wide as an inch, and less than a quarter of an inch thick. And iFixit notes with admiration:

Apple has done an impressive job of packing functionality into the headphone jack. The dock plug has three conductive strips, plus the ground post. It's safe to assume that the plug is multi-modal and switches between USB, analog audio, and possibly power modes. The separate power mode may not be necessary if they can get enough juice off a 4 conductor USB connection.

Check out the disassembly process at the Read link, or enjoy seeing the guts of a Shuffle splayed out before you below.

   
  

"Strap your headphones tight. Prepare to gain newfound control over your music collection." You've probably done some research yourself and are able to tag your music downloads, no sweat, without using Qloud. But for those who'd like to know more about tagging their iTunes files, then read on.

The Qloud for iTunes plugin gives you a better view inside iTunes to organize and control your library in a breeze. To open the Qloud view, click the Qloud button. As you browse through your library and listen to tracks, you can add "tags" or keywords to tracks. Tag with whatever comes to mind! You can also tag entire albums or artists at once.

So what are all these tags good for? Obviously, they act as keywords to identify the genre of music that you like to hear that is not otherwise provided by iTunes. You can use tags to find the songs you want to hear when you want to hear them. You may search for more tags as many as you like until you hit the right songs in the playlist. Gain a new level of control over your music library.

As for the moment, you can only download the Windows version for the Qloud tagging tutorial. The Mac download is coming soon.

Download [Qloud Tagging Tutorial]