I think it’s just a little to coincidental that they will be ending their service right before Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC).

Apple acquired Lala back in December 2009 and since then there have been plenty of rumors that Apple would be moving iTunes to a cloud based service.  With this recent announcement from Lala it seems that Apple will likely be making some announcement at WWDC about how they will be implementing Lala features into iTunes and I’m sure it won’t be called Lala anymore.

With the 4th generation iPhone prototype getting leaked and this recent announcement from Lala WWDC should be interesting.  We’ll just have to wait and see what Apple has up their sleeve this year.

Here’s the e-mail I received:

It all started when I was introduced to Twitter.  I was late to the game but since I am always trying to find out about new, interesting, cutting edge things I jumped on board right away without even knowing what I was getting into.  I didn’t have any friends on Twitter at that time so I started by following some well know technology people.  It was great to have updates about what was going on around the technology industry and after I hesitantly setup my cellphone to work with Twitter it became an instant real-time information portal for all the things I was interested in.  It was even more addicting once they allowed search results to be pushed to us.  As Twitter began to grow it became more apparent that it wasn’t going to be able to handle the load that was required to supply all this information to so many people at one time so Twitter had to shut down the instant push search results and messages which hurt them but also helped the whole real-time internet expand and grow.

Since Twitter turned into more of a pull service, like RSS, Twitter clones started showing up everywhere.  Plurk and identi.ca gained a little traction but I didn’t really see it grow like Twitter.  One service that did start to gain traction was Friendfeed.  Friendfeed started out as a simple way for users to share there own personal information via RSS feeds but has evolved into a service that allows instant, real-time access to the information you want via the website, instant messages or their own desktop application.  Friendfeed is kind of a crazy place at first but once you get a hold of how to use all of it’s functions it can be very helpful in finding anything and everything you are interested in.

There are many ways that you can get access to what you are interested in on Friendfeed.  One way is to subscribe to people, groups and websites that you are interested in that are already sharing on the site.  Once you do that the column, aka the stream, in the middle of your home screen will started to scroll along as more updates come in.  If you subscribe to a lot of different things your stream will scroll by fast and you may miss some information.  To stop the scrolling you can hit the pause button at the top or move your mouse over the stream and that will cause it to pause.  Another option is to group your subscriptions into separate lists.  This will allow you to organize your information into there own little streams so you won’t go crazy.  But my most favorite feature is the real-time searches that can be saved.

Friendfeed’s real-time search is one of the best things to happen to the internet.  It’s really easy to use and has many different uses.  You can use it to keep up on breaking news, reviews, coupons etc.  The possibilities are endless.  I use it to find free iPhone applications and beta invite codes to new sites and services so that I can try them as soon as the come out.

Friendfeed is still going strong but it did get acquired by Facebook.  Some people are worried about this acquisition.  Friendfeed said they are going to stay the way the are for awhile but it seems like all the functions that are in Friendfeed will eventually be merged into Facebook to help it evolve.  Most people don’t know this but Facebook already has real-time updates of your friends status and other sites are starting to show up with real-time information that you are interested in thanks to a new service called PubSubHubBub.

PubSubHubBub turns RSS into a push service instead of a pull service.  So as more services (WordPress) and sites (Lazyfeed) start integrating it you will have instant access to everything you are interested in pushed right to you instantly.

Yes, I am addicted to real-time information.  I don’t see that as a problem.  I see that as being well informed.

I am going to walk you through a series of steps to share your printer out so other computer on your network print without having to be directly connected to your printer.

Sharing Your Printer

These first steps are done on the computer that the printer is going to stay connected to.

1. Once you have your computer started click Start then Control Panel.

2. Locate the icon/option labeled Network Setup Wizard and open that.

3. Once the Welcome to the Network Setup Wizard window comes up click Next.

4. Before you continue… Just click Next again.

5. Select a connection method. Select This computer connect directly to the Internet through a residential gateway or through another computer on my network then click Next.

6. Give this computer a description and name.  Located the Computer name box and type in a unique name for your computer that you will recognize then click Next.

7. Name your network.  The Workgroup name should default to MSHOME you should leave that the alone then click Next.

8. File and printer sharing.  Make sure that Turn on file and printer sharing is selected then click Next.

9. Ready to apply network settings… click Next.

10. You’re almost done… Select Just finish the wizard; I don’t need to run the wizard on other computers then click Next.

11. Completing the Network Setup Wizard.  Click Finish.

You may now be asked to reboot your computer, is so, do it then continue with the next steps.

12. Click Start then Control Panel once again.

13. Locate Printer and Faxes and open it.

14. Locate you printer click it once to highlight it then click File and choose Sharing…

15. Select Share this printer and give your printer a name that you will recognize then press Apply and OK.

Adding The Shared Printer To Your Other Computers

Before following these next steps you will need to run through Steps 1-11 under the Sharing Your Printer section on the computers that are NOT directly connected to the printer so that they are part of the same network and all communicate with each other.

These next steps will walk you through adding the printer you just shared out on the other computer that are NOT directly connected to the printer.  First you must run through Steps.  Make sure that the computer that IS directly connect to the printer is turned on.

1. Click Start then Control Panel.

2. Located Printers and Faxes and open it.

3. Double click Add Printer.

4. Welcome to the Add Printer Wizard.  Click Next.

5. Local or Network Printer.  Select A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer then click Next.

6. Specify a Printer.  Select Browse for a printer then click Next.

7. Browse for Printer. Click on MSHOME then find the name of the printer you shared out and click it once to highlight it then click Next.

8. Default Printer. If you would like the printer you are adding to become you default printer then choose Yes other wise choose No then click Next.

9. Completing the Add Printer Wizard. Just click Finish.

That’s all.  It does seems like a lot but once you have done it many time over and over like myself you find that it actually is pretty easy and there is really no reason that everyone should be able to share out there printer.  The wizards are there to help then they work so use them.

I hope this helps some people out and maybe even saves on some headaches trying to figure it out on your own.

He has an 1st Gen iPhone and just updated to version 2.0.1 and wanted to download some free application on the iTunes Store but it was asking for him to enter a credit card before he could download anything.  So I did some searching online and found some instructions on how to sign up for a iTunes account without having to enter any credit card information.

1. First you need to generate a redemption code from http://www.tunecore.com/freealbum
   
2. Open iTunes.
3. Click iTunes Store under the STORE Section in the left column of iTunes.
4. Once the iTunes Store Homepage loads you will need to click Redeem on the far right side located under the QUICK LINKS Section.
   
5. Enter the code you generated in Step 1 into the box provided then click the Redeem Button.
   
6. iTunes will prompted to log into your account.  This is when you want to choose to create an account.
7. Follow through all the steps until you arrive at the Payment Method.
8. At the Payment Method fill out all the information and choose the new payment option of None at the bottom.

That’s it!

You will need to click Redeem again on the iTunes Store Homepage and enter the code you generated in Step 1 if you want to download a free album (not of your choosing).  I have been told this only works in the U.S. Store.

Now you have an iTunes Account without having to enter any personal credit card information!

While surfing around the Internet the other day I stumble upon a service called IM Feeds and it “delivers RSS updates to your Instant Messenger”.

So I decided to throw together this tutorial showing you how to use IM Feeds, Twitter (or any other service that provides RSS Feeds), and Twitter Search to regain tracking of information you are interested in.

1. Sign up for IM Feeds (currently in beta)

2. Goto Twitter Search & search for what you want to track. Add quotes around your search term if you want the whole term and not just the the individual words to be searched for.

3. Copy The RSS Feed To Use With IM Feeds

4. Take the copied RSS Feed and add it to your IM Feed Subscriptions

That’s it.

I have been using this since I found it and I have to say that it works farely well. The only thing that you loose in using a service like this is the fact that you don’t get instant notification as soon a message is posted but when IM Feeds checks for updates (I think about every 1-5mins) you will be sent the messages and you can continue to track the information that interests you while Twitter tracking and IM service is down.

I hope this is useful for some people. If you know of any other services that provide the same services please head over to my Friendfeed room and join the discussion.

http://friendfeed.com/rooms/jeffblais-com

Just follow the link below or click right on the image to watch the video.

Sync to your iPod