Although the OLPC project's $100 laptop seems so enticing at times, maybe we should just let those who really have less in life use it and we should just move on to something else.  Recently, Apple released the $899 iMac for the education market which replaces Apple's CRT computer - the eMac.

The for educational-purposes-only iMac has a 17-inch widescreen display and a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor. It is also packed with a 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 24x Combo drive, 80GB hard drive, built-in iSight and wireless networking, microphone, and speakers.

However, the new iMac ships with the integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics chipset instead of the usual and more powerful ATI X16000 found in the consumer versions of the new iMac Core Duo. The new education-only iMac configuration is available immediately from the educational Apple store.

Free Trade Agreements have been, in most ways, a disaster - at least to the workers of the world. (CEOs of transnational corporations are laughing all the way to the World Bank aboard their private jets with gold-plated bathroom fixtures - but that's a whole other rant).

However, Apple Computer (admittedly an offender as they offshore their manufacturing away from the U.S.) encountered an awkward situation earlier today - which a carefully and well-thought out Free Trade Agreement might have helped them avoid.

When their corporate website went down earlier today for a few hours people speculated that some upgrades were being done. Actually, it was a case of "downgrading" the site.

A number of features and products, including iSight Camera and the AirPort Extreme base Station had to be removed from Apple's European website. The reason: these products were not in compliance with E.U. regulations.

One can only guess at the nature of those regulations, and perhaps some of our European readers can shed some light on this matter. It is a fact, however, that unlike the U.S., most countries in the E.U. protect their industries. It was something that the U.S. did prior to 1980, and resulted in the nation becoming the leading industrial power on the planet. A quarter century of "neo-conservative" economic policy has changed this dramatically. The recent fall of the U.S. dollar against the euro, as well as an Iranian plan to start trading oil in euros rather than dollars are only two consequences of these policies.

CDpedia is the software that could bring some form of order to the chaotic world of incurable CD collectors. Compared to digital music, organizing CD is still pretty much a pain in ass. But CDpedia makes the pain go away faster than Varemoid. It retrieves information about your CDs automatically from the Internet so you can organize the entries into collections which can be integrated into iTunes.

Simply insert a CD into your computer and CDpedia automatically starts searching info on freedb.org, a free, online music database. You can add all the harvested information by searching the other 8 search sites found in CDpedia. Keyword-based searches works too, along with iSight or a bar code scanner.

With your entire CD collection stored in CDpedia, you can set as many or as little criteria as you like for each smart collection. CDpedia will sort your CDs accordingly and updates information automatically. It can also keep track of borrowed CDs - especially useful when you have friends who have a history of faking amnesia.

To get the latest CDpedia, you can try the demo version (download below). The demo is fully functional but allows you to add up to 10 CDs only. To remove the restriction, you can purchase CDpedia for $18 here.

Download: [CDpedia v3.1.2]

According to an FBI report, about 97% of all stolen laptops are never recovered. For sure, you wouldn't want your shiny new MacBook to be part of the statistics, so get yourself an Undercover. No, not those cops in civilian clothing, I'm talking about Orbicule's theft-recovery software that was designed from the ground up for Mac OS X.

Upon installation, you'll receive an Undercover ID that's unique for the Mac you are installing Undercover on. This ID enables you to start the theft-recovery process. In case of theft, all you need to do is send your ID to Undercover and it will be added to the database of stolen Macs and here's how it will work:

The next time your stolen Mac goes online (using dial-up, WiFi, ethernet, Bluetooth, etc.) it will notice that its Undercover ID is included in our database of stolen Macs. This will initiate the first phase, in which Undercover will send both network information and screenshots of your stolen Mac. The network information enables us to work with the network administrators of the ISP the thief is connected to. Since ISPs consider computer theft as network abuse, they will uncover the thief's identity. Together with law enforcement, we work to recover the Mac. If your Mac has a built-in iSight, or if the thief attached an external iSight, Undercover will send iSight pictures of the thief. Think of it as running Photo Booth in the background.

Undercover is available for $29.99.

I, like many others out there, fell in love with the Macbook when it was announced just a few days ago. The combination of a smaller size and many of the same features that are used in the larger, and much more expensive Macbook Pro, makes the little unit quite difficult to resist.

So I bought one, for the wife. Yes, for the wife, but I still wanted to check that puppy out after I got home. First of all came the glossy screen, which, I for one really like. Sure it can get a little reflective-y in some lighting conditions, but it's heaven in the dark. Looking the unit over, I really liked all the little touches, the way it shuts closed magnetically, the tiny DVD loading slot, the magsafe power connector and the iSight camera. It all just screams polish.

And then I saw the keyboard. Um, okay that looks ... promising. I didn't know what to think at first, and, sure the first few attempts at typing are a little strange with your fingers naturally searching for that little divot in the keys, something which isn't there. But, after playing around with it, I really started to like it. Aesthetically, it's just completely different from everything else out there and I think that's really where Apple excels with its products.

So, all in all, I have to say I really like the laptop. The problem now is that my wife won't let go of it long enough for me to get Boot Camp up and running.

iPatch for the iSight has begun shipping today for $10. What the iPatch is, is a cover to place over your favorite camera lens on Apple Mac's. The cover slides side to side to reveal the lens. This is an advantage for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it allows your lens to be kept dust free. Secondly, business users can use the Mac's in camera banned areas. And finally, for those scared of computer hacking and camera activation, this is your answer. Its a cheap and low cost application, and includes Perma-fix which allows the cover to be kept in place so that companies can now use Mac's without fear of picture taking.

Have a large, cluttered collection of CD?s? You may be interested in CDpedia v2.0.4 by Bruji for the Mac OS X. This CD management tool will integrate with iTunes and tell you the tracks that have been physically let out to friends. With CDpedia, entering song and CD info is a snap. When you enter a CD into your Mac, all pertinent information will be loaded from Amazon.com or Freedb.org. You can also hold your CD in front of an iSight camera and CDpedia will use the barcode to grab CD info off the net.

After the info has be collected, CDpedia will create collections of your favorite music, based on your choices, and will add to the list as more music is added. Here are the new features in this release:

• Remembers iSight window location
• Bug fix: removing the My Rating column using the view options could cause a crash
• Bug fix: to get advance search, could get stuck in certain situations

CDpedia requires mac OS X v10.2 and up.

Those interested should also take a look at Delicious Monster?s Delicious Library for Mac OS X. Delicious Library will let you iSight?scan and organize audio CDs, game CDs, DVDs and books on a graphical shelf system.

You can download the trial version below, which limits you to 10 CDs, and to unlock the full version, you can buy it.

You can get it in our iPod Download section.

Have a large, cluttered collection of CD?s? You may be interested in CDpedia v2.0.3 by Bruji for the Mac OS X. This CD management tool will integrate with iTunes and tell you the tracks that have been physically let out to friends. With CDpedia, entering song and CD info is a snap. When you enter a CD into your Mac, all pertinent information will be loaded from Amazon.com or Freedb.org. You can also hold your CD in front of an iSight camera and CDpedia will use the barcode to grab CD info off the net.

After the info has be collected, CDpedia will create collections of your favorite music, based on your choices,

and will add to the list as more music is added.

CDpedia requires mac OS X v10.2 and up.

Those interested should also take a look at Delicious Monster?s Delicious Library for Mac OS X. Delicious Library will let you iSight?scan and organize audio CDs, game CDs, DVDs and books on a graphical shelf system. You can download the trial version, which limits you to 10 CDs, and to unlock the full version, you can buy it. You can get it in our iPod Download section.