If you’re anything like me, you waited until the last minute to start Christmas shopping. Yea, it’s stressful and the choices are a bit more limited, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t find some good gifts.

Here are a few last minute Christmas gift ideas:

• Amazon Gift Cards – You can get them in various denominations and Amazon is offering free next day delivery for physical gift cards, otherwise you can just send a digital gift card even on Christmas Day. And who doesn’t like Amazon? This is probably one of the better last minute gifts since Amazon sells just about everything imaginable.
• Amazon MP3’s – Give the gift of music, everyone likes music, and Amazon has great deals often beating iTunes prices
• Many items from Amazon – if you select One Day Shipping and order early enough today, you can still have many gifts delivered by Christmas
• iTunes Gift Cards – You can buy these and have them digitally delivered directly through iTunes. These are great gifts for everyone that has an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or who just listens to music. The gift cards work for apps, music, books, movies, media, everything available on iTunes.
• Free Tech Support from You – If you’re out of ideas or just strapped for cash, why not offer a coupon for free technical support? Maybe you’ll clean out someones PC spyware, upgrade their Mac to 10.6, install RAM for them, whatever. This is a great last minute gift idea for those of us who are technically inclined.
• Your Love – Who needs gifts when you can give your love? Cheese alert!

Get to it, and Merry Christmas!

Hidden is theft tracking software for Mac OS X that works to help you recover your stolen MacBook Pro (or MacBook Air, MacBook, and any other Mac OS X machine really). It works by laying dormant on your Mac until you visit the Hidden website and mark your computer as stolen, this then activates the tracking software. Once activated, Hidden starts gathering a slew of information on your missing Mac, including location plotted on Google Maps (see screenshot above), photos of the thief via the built-in iSight camera, screenshots of your Mac in use and what the thief is doing, IP addresses, and more.

After you can install the app, you can test out its efficacy yourself by using ‘Test Mode’ through their web control panel, this will give you an idea of the data collected and how the app works. Hidden reportedly works across the globe, so whether you’re in San Francisco or Budapest you’ll be able to get use out of the app.

To get the most out of Hidden, the developers recommend setting up and enabling a separate password free Guest account. While this is contrary to the usual Mac security recommendations, it makes sense here, because with Hidden running you actually want the thief to be using the computer so that you can gather information about them. With all this data captured, you can turn it over to local authorities to pursue the thief.

Now here’s the best part, Hidden is free to download and install until January, after which the price is a low $20.

Update: Apparently Hidden is no longer free, the developer was swarmed with requests and had to cancel the offer. If you are looking for a free anti-theft solution, try PreyProject.

Get Hidden for Mac OS X here for $20

Check out the video below to see how the app installs, works, and what it tracks:
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The popular iPhone web browser SkyFire is now available for iPad, this means that iPad owners can now watch Flash video directly on the device by using the Safari alternative. How the SkyFire Flash player works is kind of interesting, on a page with Flash you tap on a video icon in the corner of the app and then SkyFire will download and convert the Flash video on their servers before serving it back to you in a watchable format (presumably HTML5). This has some limitations though, obviously no Flash games will work, and neither does Hulu.

SkyFire is more than just a Flash viewer though, it’s a full featured web browser with a slew of social integration and sharing features, including:

• Play millions of Flash videos – everyday, with no limits!
• All-new ‘Skybar’ toolbar gives one-click access to video and related content
• Stay in touch: Unique Facebook and Twitter ‘Quickview’ allows you to see your wall and feeds with one click.
• Universal ‘Like’: Like ANY page on the internet, with one click.
• Fireplace: See only the links shared by Friends. Why? Filter what friends did from what friends shared (which is a great starting point for browsing)
• Popular: See what Friends and the Facebook community have to say about the site you are currently exploring
• Be informed: Quick access to GReader feeds
• Be social: Share via Facebook and Twitter
• Share to more services including GReader, Instapaper, Pinboard and Read It Later
• Standard browser elements: Tabs, search, sharing, bookmarks, history, etc.
• Full screen option for maximum use of screen real-estate – with scroll to top
• ‘Desktop’ option loads pages as on a desktop browser, giving more flexibility in accessing web sites
• Private Browsing option: Browse with no history and cookies left behind

Skyfire Web Browser for iPad is available on iTunes for $4.99

Apple has released an update to the iOS Remote app and it offers some pretty significant feature updates, but perhaps most significantly is AirPlay support. This means that using Remote you can now stream videos from iTunes on a computer (Mac OS X or Windows) to an Apple TV.

Features of Remote 2.1 are:

• AirPlay video support so that you can stream iTunes to an AppleTV using the Remote app
• Internet radio control for streaming radio within iTunes on the computer to an iOS device
• Control iTunes on your computer from an iOS device to play movies, TV shows, and other content from the iTunes Store
• Several bug fixes and stability and performance improvements

As usual you can still control iTunes on your computer from an iOS device too, which is why it’s called Remote in the first place.

Remote is a free download via iTunes App Store and runs on all iOS hardware running 3.1.2 or later. If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you should grab this, it’s a great app.

How does an SSD stand up against a stock MacBook Pro hard drive? Watch the video and it speaks for itself. 48 applications are launched simultaneously, with the SSD all the apps launch in an amazing 18 seconds. The stock spinning drive? A laggard 198 seconds to launch the exact same app.

This video shows the same MacBook Pro 17″ 2.5Ghz Core i5 model with an SSD OCZ Vertex Series drive vs the stock Hitachi 500GB 5400 RPM drive that comes standard. The disk was cloned (presumably using Carbon Copy Cloner) so everything is identical except for the drives themselves.

You can grab the OCZ 120 GB Vertex 2 Series SSD for $220 on Amazon with free shipping.

18 seconds vs 198 seconds… if that isn’t a compelling reason to upgrade I don’t know what is.

This video was found on Twitter via AppleSpotlight

PatentlyApple is at it again, this time they discovered a patent for automatically updating Mac OS X menu items. The idea is somewhat simple; given items in pull down menus would be actively updating, and text or data would scroll in that menu item.

The concept is not limited to pulldown menus, as PatentlyApple describes:

Although embodiments of the present invention are described primarily with respect to pull-down menus, it will be appreciated that embodiments of the invention may be implemented within other types of graphical user interface menus, such as, but not limited to, menus in which options are highlighted by a bar that is moved from one menu item to another, pop-up menus (e.g. a menu activated by clicking an on-screen button), contextual menus (a menu that appears temporarily when a mouse button is right clicked on a selection; once a selection is made from a contextual menu, the menu usually disappears), cascading menus (a submenu that opens when a choice from another menu is selected), tear-off menus (a pop-up menu that can be moved around the screen like a window), etc.

As you can see in the picture below, the patent application shows an example using a status item where the message would be too small to fit without scrolling. Additionally the menu items content is presumed to update live.

While not quite as flashy as the spiral interface that may replace Cover Flow, this would be an interesting feature to have in Mac OS X Lion. Remember, a patent does not guarantee an appearance in anything so this feature should be considered a rumor at this point.

You can see more pictures and read more about the discovery at PatentlyApple.

The popular real time strategy game Starcraft 2 now has a demo version available for Mac users. You might want to check out the Starcraft 2 Mac system requirements before getting the demo, but it’s safe to say that the newer your Mac the better it will run.

Download Starcraft 2 Demo for Mac

You can download the Starcraft 2 Mac demo at Blizzard’s BattleNet page. You don’t need a Battle.net account, but you will need to fill out your name, email address, and birth date to get the Blizzard downloader app which installs the Mac demo for you (same thing for Windows too, for that matter).

The demo offers the first three missions of the campaign and solo skirmish play as Terran vs Terran, there are no time restrictions but it appears that there is no support for multiplayer gaming in the demo.

Of course you can always just buy the full version of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty from Amazon for $10 off, I’d be impressed if you could play the demo and not get thoroughly sucked into the addictive gameplay. Multiplayer is even more addictive than the singleplayer campaign.
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Remember when Windows would crash so amazingly well that you could paint with the error report windows? That sure was fun, wasn’t it? Maybe one of the more entertaining aspects of running Windows when it crashes, so the next time your Mac friend brags about their computer… ask them, BUT CAN YOUR MAC DO THIS? I don’t think so!

OK so you may file this under “Things your Mac can’t do” – not that you’re particularly disappointed by that. This almost makes you miss those Windows crashes… well, nah, not really.

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Secret of Mana has been released for the iPhone and iPod touch! Secret of Mana (or Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan) is an epic action role playing game from the early 90’s that was a huge hit on the SNES, and now it’s available for a whole new generation to enjoy on the iOS platform. If you’re a fan of RPG’s, classic SNES games, or Square in general, Secret of Mana is a must have.

Secret of Mana on the App Store for $8.99

Check out some screenshots and the game trailer below:
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For the next 48 hours, Lonely Planet is offering a selection of guides to various European cities for free via the iTunes App Store. Lonely Planet guides are fantastic travel companions and these are usually $6 a pop, so head over to iTunes and get them all now while they’re free.

Amsterdam
Berlin
Copenhagen
Dublin
London
Moscow
Munich
Paris
Prague
St Petersburg
Stockholm
Vienna
Warsaw

The guides are offered for free in honor of all the travelers stuck in Europe due to weather, but whether you’re stuck at a European airport or not you should grab the guides while you can.

Apple has released a new iPhone 4 ad for Christmas, featuring a kid hiding under his bed covers using FaceTime to video chat with Santa Claus.

In the background the classic song “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” by Nat King Cole is playing.

The name of the TV ad is “Under The Covers” and looks like it’s airing everywhere now.

This really gets you into the holiday spirit, doesn’t it?

Enjoy the commercial!

Have you broken your MacBook Pro screen? The cost to replace a cracked or dead screen of a MacBook or MacBook Pro can be very expensive, but instead of considering the broken MacBook Pro useless, just turn it into a desktop Mac!

Equipment necessary to use a broke screen MacBook Pro as a desktop Mac:

• External LCD Display – Any external LCD display will do, I like the HP W2338H 23 because it looks similar to the Apple Cinema Displays, and it’s a fraction of the price. Other great brands are LG, ViewSonic, and Samsung. Just be sure to get something with a resolution that your MacBook/MacBook pro supports.
• External Video Adapter to hook your MacBook / MacBook Pro to the external display – This is going to depend on your MacBook or MacBook Pro, so you’ll need to find out what the video out port is. It could be a DisplayPort to DVI adapter, a mini-DisplayPort to DVI adapter, or others.
• External Keyboard and Mouse – Of course you can still use the built-in keyboard and trackpad, but if you want to the headless MacBook Pro to perform like a real desktop Mac, just grab an external keyboard and mouse. I’m partial to the Apple Wireless Keyboard and wireless Apple Magic Mouse to get the full desktop experience.

Once you have all the necessary hardware, do the following:

• Hook the LCD display to the Mac with the appropriate adapter
• Hook up the external keyboard and mouse (optional but recommended)
• Boot the MacBook with the broken screen, then close the screen during boot

This will automatically boot your Mac to use the attached external screen. Your next step is to set as the primary display to the external display, so that the menubar will appear on the external display and not on the dead internal display. This is very important otherwise the broken screen will still hold your menubar and will be the default location of new windows if the lid is left open.

The picture above shows a MacBook Pro with the broken screen completely removed, but this isn’t necessary because you can use the MacBook Pro with the lid closed whether the screen works or not. Just be sure an external monitor is hooked to it.

Thanks to Andy for sending in this picture and the idea!

Remember the old clamshell iBook? The precursor to the MacBook, the weird looking multi-colored iBook was large, bulbous, and…. unique.

Well, now you can use that very iBook as an iPad stand if you really want to, maybe hollow out the screen and stick it in there. A bit of the old and new, all in one. Looks interesting, huh? Interesting idea, anyway.
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Apple’s newly released iAd Producer aims to ease the iAd creation process with a set of powerful tools that allow Mac users to create compelling interactive advertisements fit for the iOS platform. iAd Producer features an easy to use visual editor that manages the creation of all HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript behind the iAd, greatly simplifying the development process. Advanced developers will be pleased to learn that they can also dig behind the easy interface and directly edit and debug the code on their own.

iAd Producer features include:

• Over a dozen page templates for drag-and-drop creation of interactive advertisements
• Component library of prebuilt interface elements and items
• Built-in animation and transition effects
• iAd Simulator to test the iAd directly on your Mac or iOS device
• Asset library of all your iAds visual assets
• Advanced Javascript editor and debugger with code completion, syntax coloring, breakpoints, code stepping, and more
• Project validation to ensure iAd compatibility and proper configuration
• Automatic optimization includes Javascript minification

iAd Producer requires Mac OS X 10.6.5, Safari 5, and iOS SDK 4+, if you want to test iAds on an iOS device, that device requires iOS 4 or later.

You can read more about iAd Producer and download it for free if you’re in the iOS Developer program by visiting the iOS Developer Center.

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I’ve always liked the way Cover Flow looked and I found it a pretty nice way to flip through albums in iTunes and files in Mac OS X. Well, Cover Flow’s days may be numbered, as a recently discovered Apple patent reveals a touch responsive spiral user interface to navigate through iTunes albums, and possibly, files in both Mac OS X Finder and iOS apps.

As you can see in the patent image above, the items in the file spiral will be touch responsive allowing someone to ‘grab’ one of the items in the spiral and manipulate it in a virtual 3D space. It looks like the patent is specific to iTunes playlists, but considering Cover Flow is included in iTunes, iOS, and Mac OS X, it’s quite possible this touch spiral could appear everywhere that Cover Flow currently exists.

The patent also details an alternative “V” style interface that may look and function similar to how the Time Machine interface works, with items moving back and forth in a virtual space. Here is the patent image of the “V” style UI:

Uncovered by PatentlyApple, they interpret the patents use as follows:

At the end of the day, I think that both the sprial and receding-v designs have their place. The receding-v design would appear to be a natural for replacing Cover Flow in Apple’s Finder. It’s not overly drastic and would provide us with a superior viewing angle, which is the purpose for the change to begin with. Apple’s proposed Spiral design is more geared for iTunes. Apple could simply make it another viewing option or replace Cover Flow. It appears to be geared for a touch display like the iPad where it’s better suited. It would provide more room to maneuver than an iPhone. So it’ll be interesting to see how Apple introduces these new UI elements in the future.

Assuming this spiral and V UI does appear in Mac OS X, I imagine it would respond to both multitouch input devices and a mouse by using the scrollwheel to navigate through the spiral, just like the existing Cover Flow interface does.

Sometimes you will run into a song that plays notably more quiet than other music in iTunes. Rather than turning up your speakers for just one song, or getting frustrated at a particular songs audio level, you can manually adjust a songs volume level directly in iTunes. This is by far the easiest way to boost a songs audio level to make it play louder, it’s done in seconds, and it works on Mac and Windows iTunes.

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How would you like a 5 in 1 connector kit for your iPad? It has USB, Micro-USB, SD, Micro-SD, and a TV connector. Discovered by GizChina, it looks like this is only available in China at the moment. Let’s hope someone brings it to the rest of the world, I bet this would sell quite well.

This is just one of many cool Apple add-ons and gadgets you can get in China but you can’t get here, including the elusive white iPhone 4.

Amazon is at it again, this time they’re offering the newest iPod touch 8 GB for $210 with free shipping plus a free $25 Amazon gift card.

• iPod touch 8 GB for $210 – includes free shipping
• $25 Amazon.com Gift Card – free at checkout

Add both items to your cart, and the $25 Amazon gift card becomes free at checkout.

Ordering today (12/19) guarantees delivery by December 24 with the free shipping, so if you’re shopping for last minute Christmas gifts, this is it.