The last thing a Mac ever displays…

For computers today, backing up a hard drive is easy. Really easy. Macs – you have Time Machine; Windows – dozens of alternatives. But, chances are, YOU, the teenager reading this – don’t. Because, you (like me) are lazy. After all, the backup popup (“You haven’t backed up your files in a while – would you like to now?”) serves to annoy and is ignored more often then not, and the odds of YOUR hard drive failing – when does that happen?

The point of all this? Well, actually, there is one. See, about two weeks ago, my laptop’s hard drive failed. Everything – gone. 3 years of schoolwork, documents, pictures, projects, movies, music, applications – everything from the template to my school’s newspaper to my pictures from summer camp – totally gone. I suddenly was that guy – and man, did I wish that I had backed up some of this stuff – schoolwork especially.

If I can, through these years of writing, get one thing out to you, it is this – don’t mess around with backups. Yes, I know that many of you reading this won’t care – the odds are against it – but trust me: you don’t want this to happen to you. If you don’t want to do a whole backup drive – use a flashdrive to hold your most important stuff, or use Dropbox and store it in the cloud.

But seriously – learn from my mistakes. TeenTechBlog exists to help you – teens – with tech. I’m trying right now to help you – I had a few files on Dropbox, which at least had some recent school stuff. If your computer goes down, you don’t want to deal with data loss too.

But go now – open your document folder, and copy some stuff to a drive. You won’t regret it.

Cramberry. Online Studying, with Awesome.

Finals season is coming, and that means its time to break out the books to cram, with of the famous rubber-banded decks of flash-cards. Which brings me to this post.

I use flashcards a lot, especially on vocab or language tests, requiring memorization of large amounts of words. However, I also don’t like flashcards – I hate making them, I hate when I lose one or two and miss studying those on a test, and they’re just overall annoying.

Enter Cramberry.net – an online flashcard site that allows you to make flashcards digitally, and study them there. The site is very simple, and very smooth, allowing you not only to easily create your own deck of flashcards but share them too- with your classmates, or the world- via posting a main site, accessible to all; if you need a set on U.S. State Capitals, for examples, you’re in luck: you can find it without writing a word. It also tracks progress on the cards as you review them, and shows cards you get wrong more to help learn them. Furthermore, through a compatible iPhone app called Flash-Me, you can access your cards on the go (costs $4, though, and I haven’t been able to try it out).

Interested in making your own? Easy. Just make an account, and create a new deck. Then write up the front and back of each ‘card’ in your deck, and the site offers a quiz in which they randomize the cards and present either the front or back of each card, you testing yourself to know its other side. As you’re going, it even slips in the ones you initially answered incorrectly to guarantee you know the cards and will ace the test. Also, foreign languages work, so you can study for language classes without hassle, which is a nice plus.

In short, Cramberry is a simple, useful tool that allows you to study flashcards easily and effectively- and its free. So check it out and good luck on those finals.

ooooooo – Colorful.

Alrighty everyone, the biggest news of the week just landed. As Apple tends to do around the pre-holiday season (like now), they announced today the new updates to their iPod lines.

Nano:

Among the several updates to the product line is the heavily rumored 4th generation Nano, which I think is awesome (Orange iPods = Awesome). With a screen long enough for wide screen video and photo playback yet a continuing the slender design of the 1^st and 2^nd Gen Nanos, it looks really good– and ridiculously thin, as in paper thin.

It turns on it’s side to watch movies, using an  accelerometer (like the Touch/iPhone) that senses when you turn the Nano on it’s side for features like Cover Flow. The accelerometer also brings a “shake to shuffle” feature that shuffles your music when the iPod is shaken (very fun and cool). The software remains mostly unchanged from last year’s iPod Classic/Nano software, with the exception of a new “Genius” playback software, which automatically generates iPod On-the-Go playlists based on similar types of songs found on your iPod. And not to fear: all the old games from the last Nano still work on this model.

Prices were changed as well.  For $150, instead of a 4 GB of the 3rd gen, your money now buys an 8 GB version, and a new 16 GB version goes for the extra $50 ($200 total), that previously would’ve gotten you an 8 GB. Both are available in an astounding 9 colors. (Once again, Orange iPods = Awesome!).

Touch:

Also coming out today is the new iPod Touch. Since Apple’s spent the past year or so developing the software ecosystem for the Touch and iPhone, obviously it stays the same. However, new features were added with built in Nike+ iPod Touch support– no little plug on the bottom of the iPod needed though you still must purchase the shoe receiver separately. The Touch also received physical volume control buttons similar to the iPhone, receiving speakers (FINALLY!) and an even thinner design then ever (yes, appearently thats possible).

Price here was cut to $230 for 8 GB, $300 for 16 GB, and $400 for 32 GB. The iPod Touch and iPhone also get the 2.1 software update, available free for iPhone owners and purchasers of the 2.0 update (C’mon Apple, stop charging for software updates already–its just plain ridiculous.), which adds the new Genius feature (see above) to the Touch and iPhone, as well as fixing numerous bugs, especially those regarding applications and dropped calls on the iPhone (we know you iPhone users must have had some of them).

New iPod Touch, with Nike+ Application on left, but notice the thinness!!!!

iPod Classic:

The iPod Classic was also updated today with a bump in storage for the old 80 GB, now boasting 120 GB for the same price as its predecessor– $250. Attention all Storage Lovers: the 160 GB model has been discontinued– buy them while they’re still in stock (at a lower clearance price too ).

Itunes:

You wouldn’t think good ‘ol iTunes would be left out in the ‘Let’s Rock” event would ya? iTunes also received an update with iTunes 8, which includes the “Genius” playlist generator (see above) that in addition to making entire playlists in iTunes based on a specific song, it will recommend similar songs from the iTunes Store (nice way to make a sale Apple ). iTunes also gets a new visualizer and a different album view called Grid (similar to Cover Flow except better formatted for non-touchscreen devices. Instead of scrolling horizontally, you just go through a list by the Album art). Also, NBC returned to iTunes (Heroes and the Office are back. Woohoo!) and HD TV shows were added as well.

For some hands-on reviews of all these Apple announcements, see here.

WOW!! Lot of stuff here. Anyways, stay tuned for our own review of iTunes 8 (which is available now- click here), and feel free to sound off in the comments on what you think of these new Apple announcements, as well as if you’ll be springing for one of these new iPods.

Pix and Info from Apple.com

Want to be the next TeenTechBlog? Dont count on it lol, but for those among us who share our desire to express ourselves to the broader world despite not yet even at drinking age, we would like to inform you about about an incredible institution, TeenInk.

Founded in 1989, TeenInk publishes submitted work written by teenagers (at no charge for submission) in their national monthly magazine, their website, and if you’re good enough, their books of collected works. Sorry– they dont pay you for your work.

But if it offers any consolation, we don’t make a penny off this blog either. Check it out! And if you do write something, or have written for them in the past, let us know in the comments.

Picture of Books published by Teen Ink