For those of you who cannot wait for the imminent appearance of the iPhone in the Apple stores or in some case do not want to pay out the $400 or $500 for the phone. Well there is an alternative. Phone software developers have created a graphic interface, which looks remarkably like the graphic interface of the iPhone.

There are some subtle changes, where a couple of the icons have been changed to serve another program but essentially it looks like the iPhone.

Impress your friends and work colleagues by showing the display, will they be green with envy or be worried for your sanity? Despite its fun factor, the program is being further developed into a serviceable program, which can turn a PDA into an iPhone looking device.

The application should be finished by mid 2007 and the price? Well you will like this one, its completely free!

Product Page [iPhoney v0.2]

If you are tired of paying Apple to download their television content via iTunes, here is an alternative (and legal way).

BroadClip MediaCatcher is a non-subscription service that allows you to fill your portable devices with television shows for free. The package is specifically designed to help schedule and record television shows for your portable media player devices.

Current supported players include the iPod family, and nearly all other portable media players, including Zune, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, Creative Labs Zen, and SanDisk Sensa.

With MediaCatcher installed on a PC, you simply:

- Schedule the shows you want to record using an online web interface

- Leave your computer on during those show times and watch it automatically record and convert the shows

- Sync the shows to your iPod via iTunes

The BroadClip software bundles for $39 but comes with desktop and laptop packaged bundles at $99/ $149 respectively. No more fees and licenses to pay after that. Krunker reviews the bundles and software installation in detail.

Product Page [Broadclip] Via [Krunker]

If normal backup media doesn’t suit your liking for some odd reason, try this - backing up your data files onto a digital video tapes using a camcorder. Windows, Mac and Linux computer systems should be able to backed up in this way without any problems.

Shareware packages available …

For Windows: Firestreamer and DVSstreamer
For the Mac: DV Backup
For Linux systems: Dvbackup

A rule of thumb would be about 10 GB for every 1 hour digital video tape you use. There might be compatibility problem with using a different camera to read back the data from the one used to record it - so there aren’t any guarantees.

I love movies, but my favorite part about going to the movies is, of course, the previews. And I love the fact that there are numerous sites on the web that offer movie previews to watch in the comfort of your own home without paying $10 to see them in the theater. I’m a Mac user, so I frequent the trailers provided by Apple, and now I know how to save those trailers so I can watch my favorite ones over and over again, without having to wait to download the 120 MB 1080p HD files.

You’ve got 3 options for getting the job done.

• Use Quicktime Pro and save the trailer (Quicktime Pro costs $29 from Apple)
• Visit the iTunes Music Store Movie Trailer section and download the trailer for free (but in iPod format)
• Use this tip by Krunk4ever to dig into the HTML code of the trailer web page and use a little command line action (not easy and probably downright scary for some)

You decide how you want to save your trailers, easy and free, easy and $29, or not-quite-so-easy and free. Since I’ve already got Quicktime Pro, I’ll get my trailers delivered in HD, thank you very much.

Read [TUAW]

MediaFire is a free, ad supported file hosting/ sharing service that lets you upload 10 files at a time with no file size limit.

Once the file is uploaded, the system will scan your files to ensure it is virus free. After that, you can share the file via your website, blog, email, Yahoo Messenger, AIM by using the given HTML link code. Signing up is not mandatory, but they highly recommend it so that you can manage your files once they are uploaded.

There is no time limit or expiration dates for any uploaded file(s). This allows your file to virtually stay on their server forever, but may be removed if there are long periods of inactivity. You also get the freedom to use Download Managers of your choice where the resume feature function is supported.

Overall, MediaFire is a handy tool for those wanting the cheap and efficient route in sharing and hosting files.

Via [MediaFire]