So here it is, December 31st, 2006; Another year of Wired For Gadgets. I suppose this is the part where I recap what happened this year, and what I’ve got planned for next year. Well, here it is: A best of 2006 roundup.

Best Homework Help site: SparkNotes

SparkNotes books and SparkNotes.com exist to help students learn and practice basic skills, write a paper, study for a test and achieve their academic goals. Created by Harvard students for students everywhere and geared to what today’s students need to know, SparkNotes study guides are the perfect aid for studying and writing papers…

Best iPod Tip: iPod Accessory Replacements

Say that you are walking down the street and all of the sudden, your headphones blow out. You can go to Best Buy and buy a new pair, but you want the famous Apple white iPod Headphones. Below, I’ve listed how to get replacement Apple Headphones and replacement black ear pads… free…

This post is extremely notable. This post was featured on many other blogs. Unfortunately, you now have to send the old ones back in. You are all welcome.

Best Windows Tip: Improving the “Send To” Menu

…there is no “My Pictures” on that handy “Send To” menu by default. So I have to drag the pics over. Or, you could add a “My Pictures” command yourself. Not only does it make life more efficient, it’s easy to add…

Best way to wast time: Linerider

The basic concept is to draw one or more lines with the mouse on which a small character with a sled can ride. The game includes a physics simulation, which means the track must be sufficiently smooth to prevent the character from falling off the sled…

Most Humorous Post: Apple Computers wins over Beatles’ Apple Corps

Despite “Coming Together” and working “Eight Days a Week”, the Beatles’ Apple Corps has now seen the end to the “Long and Winding Road” in the Apple Computer vs. Apple Records case. “Yesterday” (Alright, I’ll stop), A British judge ruled in favor of the American computer company over the British record label…

Hey, I thought it was funny at the time.

As for next year, I’m definitely going to get retro’d going again. Other than that, I hope to bring you another year of great content. See you in 2007!

- Jake

As we all know, 2006 is drawing to a close. Time has put together a list of the top 50 Websites of 2006.

We evaluate hundreds of candidates—some suggested by readers, colleagues and friends, others discovered during countless hours of surfing. Many of this year’s choices are shining examples of Web 2.0: next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips. Think we missed one? Send us your thoughts and we’ll post a selection of your comments online. There’s always next year.

Notable sites on their list are Digg and YouTube. It their “Time Waster” category, they failed to mention my personal favorite time waster, Linerider. Anything you thought got left out? Share your thoughts in the comments.

50 Coolest Websites [TIME.com]

Since Apple doesn’t offer a dvorak keyboard on the MacBook, Flickr user sjwalsh384 decided he’d fix that. He simply rearranged the key caps on his MacBook (their square shape makes this relatively easy).

He’s posted some photos on his flickr site (link below). If you want to convert you keyboard, or just want to see what the keys look like, this is worth checking out.

Dvorak Keyboard on the MacBook [Flickr via TUAW]

The Hole – video powered by Metacafe

Hearing some click in whirls out of your iPod? That’s a sign that your hard drive is about to give out. One way to see what’s wrong is through the secret, but very useful diagnostic mode.

This metacafe video shows you just how to do it. Just restart the iPod (MENU + Select), then when it’s restarting, hold down the Previous Button and the Select button, and a diagnostic mode will appear. From there you can check on the USB/Firewire port, the click wheel and the headphone jack, Hard Drive information, HD SMART data, and Power Supply info. You can also do an auto test to check all aspects of the iPod.

All of these tests are very useful to show how much a used or refurbished iPod has been used, or if you current iPod is about to bite the dust (though it will not tell you if it needs to be serviced).

How to run your iPod in diagnostic mode [Lifehacker]

As all Mac users know, the dock is a great place to keep the applications you use on a regular basis, such as Firefox, Mail, iTunes, etc. But say you want to access an application you don’t use on regular basis, such as iStumbler. Then you have to go to the finder, then to Applications, then scroll through the multitude of apps to find the one you want. Or…. you could put your applications in the dock. I don’t mean all of them, I mean the folder.

It’s easy to do, and it’s the best thing since sliced bread (Well, not really, but you get the idea). Just go into the finder, click on your hard disk, and just drag the applications folder to the dock (You can’t drag it from the sidebar, that justs takes it off of the side bar, and makes more work for you later).

Now, you have two options you can do with this. You can, first off, just click on it to pull up the application folder (just saving you a click or two). The other thing you can do is click and hold for a second, or ctrl+click, or right click if you have a PC mouse hooked up, and select what you want from the menu (As shown in the screenshot above). The best part, you can do this with your documents, or you music. Heck, you could just drag the whole hard drive to the dock while your at it.

Why make finding a file harder than it is? It’s really just a click away, literally.

Have you checked your URL lately? Notice it doesn’t say blogsome? That’s right. Wired For Gadgets is now on it’s own server! That’s what I’ve been working on this last weekend.

You’ll notice nothing too different about the site except for the URL, the load speed (which will be WAY faster), and a slight layout change. Other than that, it’ll be what you’re used to. The archives are here too. As a heads up, though, everything before February 1st is an abbreviated form that I imported. Any post before then didn’t display correctly since the last time I switched sites. If you want to know about any of the older posts, drop me an email and I’ll send the post to you (I’ve got ‘em saved somewhere).

So that’s what’s up. If you have questions or if you see any bugs, leave a comment. Enjoy!

- Jake

PS – Today’s post is below.

If you have a crunch for Hard Drive space, then podcasts probably are not your thing. But a nice little feature in iTunes will allow to delete old podcasts.

To enable the feature:

1. Open your iTunes preferences (located under iTunes in OS X and Edit in Windows).
2. Click on the “Podcasts” section.
3. Drop down the menu under the “Keep” option.
4. Select how many episodes you want to keep at a time.

The only problem is that there is no way a saving certain podcasts (Although you could copy the file and move to another part of the hard drive). But for someone like me who likes to have a lot of hard drive space, this is just the ticket.

iTunes Tip: Delete Old Podcasts [WireCatcher]

Even Tux enjoys the holidays. Merry Christmas!

If you haven’t gotten your shopping done yet (as much as I hate to say it), you’re outta luck. But don’t give up hope. Here’s some last minute iPod Accessory ideas that any iPod owner will love.

Gift Card: Nothing accessorizes an iPod better than music itself. You can pick up gift cards at many major retailers like Target in a variety of attractive patterns for as little as $15 worth of tunes.

Docks: Docks provide convenient stands for your iPods to keep your desk neat during re-charging. Standard iPods come with docking connectors but not with docks themselves. Many simple third party docks are both inexpensive and extremely useful. You can pick up a low-end dock for under twenty dollars.

Battery boosters: A rechargeable battery booster can really make a difference when you’re traveling with your iPod, especially when you play games or watch video. You can purchase a Belkin Tunepower, for example, to provide rechargeable on-the-go power for about sixty bucks.

Noise-canceling Earphones: Noise canceling earphones do not get rid of all noises like conversations or that crying baby. They do cut down on a certain type of repetitive ambient environment sounds like the kind produced by airplane engines. The upshot is that you can lower the volume of your iPod and save your ears a bit by using them. For people who do a lot of airplane travel, a good quality set of noise-canceling earphones can be a great iPod accessory for under fifty dollars.

Battery-free speakers: Rather than carry around a normal large and awkward set of speakers to use with your iPod, you can find inexpensive speaker add-ons that plug directly into the connection port at the bottom of your iPod. (The one shown here is from FifthUnit). Yeah, the sound quality is not optimal but it’s nice to be able to have the whole thing work as a single unit. Expect to pay about ten to twenty dollars.

These also make great stocking stuffers. Whether you haven’t gotten your shopping done, or you just need a stocking stuffer, these gifts will please any iPod lover. As for me, Besides a “Merry Chirstmas” message on the 25th, I’m taking a break for the weekend. I’ll be back on Tuesday with new content. And since I’m off from school until January 2nd, You’ll be seeing new posts everyday. Until then, have a Merry Christmas everybody!

Five Last-Second iPod Accessories

Want to always have a certain tab open in Firefox? Permatabs will do just that.

PermaTabs is an interesting extension which adds the ability to turn tabs of your choice into permanent tabs (”permaTabs”) that can’t be closed, and stick around between sessions. Useful for keeping URLs you use often, always one tab away. Also, useful for picking up articles where you left off, between sessions. I was looking for this extension since long time, since I always keep some tabs always open to check email, post to my blogs … Something I didn’t like even that the author add it for fun, that it installs three default sticky tabs. I just didn’t like because before restarting firefox I have about 20 open tabs and after it I lost all urls ! So be sure that you bookmark your link before restarting firefox.

Like all Firefox extentions, it’s free. This is great if for you always want to have Gmail open.

Permatabs, Create Permanent tabs