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Over the past 12 days we’ve recommended 12 different retailers to you for Christmas present ideas.  As we are at the end of it all we thought it would be a good idea for us to do a quick review of who the 12 retailers were.

1. Apple
2. 123-Reg
3. Dell
4. Amazon
5. AVG
6. Misco
7. CD WOW
8. Dabs
9. HMV
10. PC World
11. The Carphone Warehouse
12. I Want One Of Those

Which retailers have you used?  Who is your favourite retailer?

Our fourth recommended retailer for Christmas presents is Amazon.co.uk! You name it, Amazon sell it! Amazon have a wide range of products available for very reasonable prices! Products vary from Books to DVDs to Cd’s to Games Accessories to Garden Equipment to Jewelry and much more! A great way to get your last minute presents is their voucher system where you can choose to either email, print off or have your vouchers posted to the recipient.

Check it out!

Over the next 12 days we are going to have a retailer of the day.  For each retailer we’ll give you a quick idea of what they sell and why we think that they are worth checking out for Christmas ideas!  Our first retailer is Apple.

Apple are probably best known for their iPods, iPhones and Macs.  iPods are more than likely to be a very popular product to have this Christmas.  A bonus from buying from Apple is that you can personalise your products (e.g. have your name engraved into the iPod).

They manufacture great products for everyone!

A slightly different tip this week..it is for those of you looking at some of the Apple hardware! No matter if you are interested in the latest ipod touch, imac or xserve Mac Rumors is a great site for all the gossip on what is happening in the world of Apple!

The best and in my mind the most useful page on the site is the Buyers Guide, it advises you when updates to Apple products are due for release and also has posts about what the updates are likely to be. Apple tend to change their products at regular intervals so it isn’t to hard to suss out when a new update is due and that it is not wise to buy just before they release that update! So check out the MacRumors Buyers Guide for all the news from Apple including the iPhone

Maybe we should have had this as site of the month one time..

Apple have released the latest version of the music software iTunes.  iTunes isn’t something we give much time to but credit has to be given to Apple really because it is a brilliant bit of kit and if you have an iPod it works seemlessly. Allowing you to fully manage your music, videos and podcasts!

Their latests version I have to say I am very impressed with, which is why I thought it warrented a mention in today’s tip!  I haven’t played with it properly but iTunes Genius claims it can create great playlists based on the song you are listening to! So far I have been impressed but let me know what experiences you have had!

The other thing they have done is changed the way we browse our music, implementing a grid view which is far more graphical that the old big long list!

But this is a quick tip…head over to the Apple iTunes Site and download it for yourself, or just read about it

Enjoy!

I think a large majority of us have downloaded a track or two in the past before buying it but there are some who download a little more than one or two tracks!

You are probably aware from the press this week that the government is talking about plans to require Internet Service Providers to take action on users that are downloading music and films illegally. Will it happen? I will believe it when I see it, however I do think it would be a good thing!

People just say that the record labels and some artists are just being greedy but in my opinion they are working for that money and none of us would be hugely impressed if we weren’t getting money for work we were doing!

After listening to a show about this on the radio during the week I thought I would share some of the “excuses” that people give for downloading illegally and my responses!

• I don’t want to spend money on a whole album when I only like a few of the tracks.
  • Download legally from somewhere like iTunes then!
• Record labels and artists are loaded, they don’t need the money
  • True there are some very rich artists and record companies, and I believe it is their responsibility to use that money wisely and generously. Not our right to prevent them from having it. Plus what about the little record labels and new artists…
• I have an 80GB iPod and it would cost thousands of pounds to fill it.
  • So over time spend the money or don’t have a full iPod. The 80GB iPod has the ability to have movies on it as well as music and photos so how about putting some pictures of your loved ones on there. <note sarcasm>

Ok, so my responses might be a bit harsh there, but I just thought those excuses were the ridiculous!

My advice…get itunes and an iPod and start downloading a few at a time! If you are used to downloading all the latest albums as soon as they are released then it is time for a change of mind unless you have a large amount of disposable cash!