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©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

My most favorite hunk-of-moxie, Michael Phelps, won his first gold in today’s 400m race (this is his first race out of 10) at the Beijing Olympics. GO PHELPS. His Mom, sister, and other family were in attendance as well as President Bush, Laura Bush and Barbara Bush.

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I was thinking the other day how divided this country is. For example, I’ll use my family to explain what I’m talking about. Obviously, I love my parents, my nieces, my aunt and uncle and my cousins. They are my family and I will always put them first. But as a Democrat, I’m definitely outnumbered and even though we all love each other as “unconditionally” as possible, we still have some major arguments over politics.

My perspective is that I truly believe what I believe and I will stand up for my beliefs. Some of my family members think I should believe how they believe and I just refuse to do so. I was brought up to be smart, educated and stand up for my beliefs… therefore, I do.

So, back to my original point, here’s why I am so happy the Olympics are starting. This is one of the very few worldwide events that brings our country together. Most every Democrat and every Republican will be on the same team. Team USA. The country unites, roots, hopes, prays, cries, gasps all together. And in my opinion, especially in this bitterly divisive world in which we live, this is exactly what all of us need right now.

So let me be the first to say it. GO TEAM USA!

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

So as any die-hard Apple fan knows, we’re up and running with iPhone 2.0 firmware and we now have access to the App Store via iTunes 7.7! It’s been a great day and there have been some great updates (including Apple TV update).

With that said, I thought I’d let you know my favorite iPhone 2.0 Apps thus far (6 hours into browsing the 500+ apps in iTunes). Most of these are free that I have but I decided to buy a few of them:

(1) Google Mobile – Google’s app makes searching super quick and it’s easy and effective (versus going to google.com in Safari). According to Lifehacker, Google’s app does “search-as-you-type results spin up for web pages, click-to-call business and residential phone listings, nearby stores and restaurants, and more.” This is a free app.

(2) Mobile Flickr – Who doesn’t love Flickr and especially an app where you can view, edit and upload your Flickr photos AS WELL AS take pictures with your iPhone and immediately publish them on Flickr? This cost $2.99 but well worth it in my opinion.

(3) Twitterific – Those of us who have jailbroken our iPhones know how great Twitterific is. If you use Twitter, you need this app immediately on your iPhone. Enough said. This is a free app.

(4) Jott for iPhone – I’ve blogged about how awesome Jott’s service is, so it’s a no brainer to download Jott’s app for the iPhone. You can record, listen and read your Jott messages right on your iPhone. It’s a fantastic “to do” application. It’s FREE!

(5) Remote – Every one is blogging about this app. It’s free which is awesome and the cooler part is this is the app you need to use your iPhone as a remote for your iTunes AS WELL AS your Apple TV! Done and done!

(6) Where To? - This is the 2nd app in which I’ve paid money for ($2.99) but it’s FANTASTIC. It takes your iPhone’s GPS (iPhone 2.0 and iPhone 3G) and determines where you currently are. Then, you pick if you want to know a restaurant, a shopping center, a hospital, a movie theater, a beautician… the list goes on and on AND the app will then tell you the CLOSEST “whatever you’re looking for” next to you based on your GPS location. Another cool piece to this is, lets say you’re hungry yet you don’t know where to eat. Pick Restaurants and then pick “Surprise Me” and this app will pick a certain cuisine (Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, whatever!) and then show you on Google Maps how to get to the restaurant that’s near you! It’s great!

So those are my favorite apps thus far. Obviously, the MySpace and Facebook apps are good to, but they don’t excite as much as these do.

What are YOUR favorite iPhone apps? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

PS – Check out Veronica Belmont’s favorite apps as well!

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Click here to view the embedded video.

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been given a fantastic, new opportunity that I’m very excited about: writing PC news articles for PCAuthorities.com! PC Authorities is dedicated to bringing you the best PC performance tools after they’ve thouroughly tested them with their own software engineers. They offer fantastic, free PC tech tips as well which all of us will need from time to time. I’ve been given the opportunity to write their Daily PC News three times a week, so please help support me by visiting their site!

I know I’ve been accused of focusing primarily on Mac topics as of late, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to give my PC-lovin’ viewers some exposure to some great tips, news and help for your PC.

So check them out! They’re a great site for all of your PC needs!

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

So any die-hard Appleholic knows that next week is a big week. Why? Apple has their annual WWDC meeting where Steve Jobs will announce Apple’s new products/plans/updates. I must admit, I feel like Christmas is on Monday (when Steve Jobs takes the stage). This is a big deal for all of us who love Apple. Thanks to some of the insider blogs (Engadget, Gizmodo, TUAW), here are the rumors of what’s to occur next week. Will they be right?

(1) iPhone 3G – according to many insiders, Apple will announce their 2.0 iPhone which is rumored to have GPS, 3G capability and several more features. Read more here.

(2) iPhone Applications (iPhone SDK) – for the rest of us who already have an iPhone and don’t plan on shelling out another rent payment to get a new one just yet, the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) is supposed to be announced. Some sites report that we will be able to purchase 3rd party applications from iTunes as early as Monday.

(3) Snow Leopard (10.6) – Several sites are reporting that Leopard 10.6 will be announced (otherwise known as Snow Leopard) which will improve speed and security for Mac’s successful Leopard operating system. Click here to read more about that.

Needless to say, next Monday will be an exciting day as will the rest of the week when the world will see what Apple is going to announce. I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting on pins and needles!

Which rumors do you think will come true? What else have you heard that Apple will announce? Leave your comments below!

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In what could possibly be a historical making event, the Mars Phoenix Lander has literally landed on ice! This is a huge find as scientists have theorized that Mars’ soil was full of ice but until now, they’ve never had actual proof. What’s even bigger than this is if there’s ice, then that means the Earth isn’t the only planet with water. This literally could be a science-book-changing event happening right in front of us!

For an exact timeline and the mission of Mars Phoenix Lander, check out this awesome video here.

Check out this picture taken from Phoenix in which scientists believe shows a huge piece of ice that was uncovered by Phoenix’s rocket boosters.

In what could be a crazy picture, if not defined correctly by scientists, here’s the first impression made by the Phoenix Lander on Mars’ soil. It’s titled, brilliantly, “Yeti” (as in Bigfoot).

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

There’s not a major news site or science website that hasn’t covered yesterday’s history making event, but do you know what happens next? How long will Mars Phoenix Lander be working? Did you know that NASA is running against a clock?

Thanks to NASA’s JPL team, here’s a phenomenal video that explains the mission, what will need to happen next, and the challenges that still lie ahead of Mars Phoenix Lander:

Click here to view the embedded video.

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I can’t think of a greater post to write on this Memorial Day than what just occurred, yesterday, when NASA/JPL realized their Mars Phoenix Lander successfully landed on Mars.  Many congratulations are in order to America as well as SEVERAL other countries (Canada, several European countries) for making this an awesome mission!

As you know from my previous post, it was a “nail biter” yesterday when I was watching NASA and the Mars Phoenix Lander control room with over one thousand other Ustream fans. And I will also say it made me feel very proud to be an American when we got the word that the Mars Phoenix Lander had successfully landed.

This video below shows exactly what it took for this robot/probe to get on to the ground. Check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pretty amazing stuff, right?

Now comes the reward. Mars Phoenix Lander will be probing the north, icy plains of Mars for weeks if not years to come. Pictures are being digitally sent over to Earth every 7 minutes so in the next few days, check back here for more discoveries.

I’ll leave you with the video below, when American’s NASA control room got the word that their painstaking mission was a success. God Bless America!

Click here to view the embedded video.

©2012 Jeff McCord's Blog. All Rights Reserved.