The numbers are starting to roll in, and it’s becoming clear that Apple had a pretty good holiday weekend. Waiting for the iOS maker under the Christmas tree on Sunday was a gigantic pile of new customers, who promptly starting buying apps, playing games and shopping, according to a bunch of stats released Tuesday.

Here’s what we know so far about how Apple did this past weekend:

• People like shopping on their shiny new iPads. An IBM Coremetrics study tracking Christmas Day e-commerce found overall online shopping on Sunday was up more than 16 percent from last Christmas Day, and the dollar amount spent just from purchases made on a mobile device jumped 173 percent. But most interesting is that 7 percent of all purchases made on Sunday from a mobile device were from an iPad, the highest percentage among the mobile devices used to shop.  The IBM study tracked spending on 500 websites (excluding online retail king Amazon.com).

• Dec. 25 was the best Christmas ever for iOS and Android activations combined. For the first three weeks of December, between 1.3 to 1.8 million devices powered by iOS or Android were activated each day, according to Flurry Analytics. But Christmas Day saw 6.8 million activations, a 353-percent jump compared the rest of the month. It was also a huge leap over the 2.8 million Android and iOS devices activated last Christmas.

• New iPad and iPhone owners got down to using their devices right away. On Christmas Day, playing games and using iOS apps was up 12.5 times compared to the previous weekend.

It’s looking like Apple is on track for that record-breaking quarter top company executives predicted back in October, though we won’t find out definitively for a few more weeks.

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Thick and burly — but short

Apple’s own dock connector-to-USB charging cable is pretty thin, as far as USB cables go. That definitely helps when you’re rolling it up and stuffing it in a pocket, but it doesn’t necessarily do anything for durability. The Innergie Magic Cable is much thicker — about twice the diameter, I’d say — and definitely feels more solid. It seems to me like an animal’s tooth or errant blade would have to do a lot more damage to cause a fatal breach.

The feeling of durability extends to the point of connection between the cable itself and its USB tips, too. This is a notoriously weak point on Apple’s own charging cables, but Innergie seems to have gone out of its way to buttress and reinforce that weak point, which should do wonders for the cable’s longevity.

The only downside of the physical design of the Magic Cable vs. Apple’s own is in terms of length. The Innergie cable is just 31 inches (79 cm) long, while the Apple dock-to-USB cable is 38 inches (96.5 cm). If you find the official version short, you’ll be very disappointed in the Innergie, in other words.

Switching head

The key appeal of the Magic Cable Duo is its sliding, in-line interchangeable dock connector head, which fits over the cable’s micro USB male component. I’m happy to report that this part of the cable impresses; repeatedly pulling the dock connector part on and off of the micro USB head showed no signs of stressing or breaking the plastic that holds it in place. I was also intentionally being a little rough with it, so with standard use (i.e. switching out the heads once every day or so) it should more than meet expectations.

Charging capacity

The Magic Duo seems more than able to charge your iOS devices at a normal rate. I tested it with my iPad 2 and the standard iPad 10W charging adapter, and found that the Innergie cable charged the iPad just as much as the Apple cable during a 15-minute period. Plus, the Magic Cable Duo also worked with the iPhone 4S, the Samsung Galaxy S II, and the BlackBerry Curve 9300, although the BlackBerry did required use of a BB-designated charging adapter.

Smart and sturdy

In the end, the Magic Cable Duo is a smart, inexpensive ($19.99) upgrade that makes plenty of sense for gadget addicts with lots of devices that need charging. It’s also much less likely to get lost than Apple’s own diminutive iPhone Micro USB Adapter, which has a tendency to get lost. Plus, Innergie includes a fixed velcro cable wrap to make sure it’s easy to pack. So long as you don’t mind the trade-off in cable length, it’s a great way to spend some of that Christmas money.

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A word of caution: Some of the e-card solutions utilize a server-side service to send the cards. I’ve noticed some of these solutions ended up in recipients’ spam folders, so if you’re not sure whether the message will get through, use the solutions that let you do the sending.
For the Truly Lazy Among Us
What you’re looking for is the quickest and easiest way to let your friends and family know that you’re ready for the holiday season this year. If this is what you want, then ISBX’s Build-a-Card Holiday Edition for $0.99 is just the app for you. Simply snap a photo, choose one of the design patterns, add some props, and tweet the results to all of your followers. From app store to instant online gratification in less than five minutes.

For the Slightly More Creative

Perhaps you’ve been more than a little busy this year, and you’re still looking to add the personal touch to a holiday card. But you still want to get it out to everyone before the holidays are over. Then I’d recommend Vivid Apps Christmas Lifecards for $0.99. The workflow is very closely related to that of Build-a-Card, but you have a much greater degree of control as the templates are much more involved. Where the goal of Build-a-Card is quick and easy, Lifecards provides a much deeper and more customizable result.

The sharing options are a lot more involved, too, including the ability to email a PDF version of your Lifecard. You can also save your results in high or low resolution, post to Facebook, and even upload to Flickr or Twitpic.  With more than fifty customizable templates to choose from, you should be able to get exactly what you wanted out of this holiday card app.

For the Kid at Heart

There are several holiday entertainment apps for kids that will let you email an image of the artwork they create.  But sticking to the theme of holiday card photo apps, Oceanhouse Media’s Dr. Seuss Camera – The Grinch Edition on sale for $0.99 is a great outlet for the kid in each of us. While not quite as extensible as the other two apps (you cannot modify the text), and your only sharing options are to save the resulting image into your photo library, email it, or copy it to the clipboard, this app does have style.  It’s just as well put together as are the other Dr. Seuss apps that Oceanhouse has created.

So don’t bother ordering a set of those new fancy letterpress cards that were made available in the recently released iPhoto ’11. And forget about printing out address labels this year.  From quick and easy, to deeply creative, to childishly entertaining, these three holiday photo card apps will suite almost anyone’s holiday needs.

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Blog Pocket-lint spotted the as-yet unreleased white iPhone 4 at a press event yesterday in New York City, being used by a person who wished to remain nameless. Probably a wise move after everything that happened with the Gizmodo iPhone fiasco. Pocket-lint managed to snap some photos of the device being used, and even approached the man to find out how he got his hands on one.

Turns out the guy had contacts inside One Infinite Loop, and that friend was able to get him a white iPhone 4 because they’re literally stacked in boxes around the place. Initial shipments of the device came through prior to the intended launch, but there was a problem: The white of the home button doesn’t quite match the white of the front face plate.

Those who’ve experienced antenna problems with their iPhone 4 or heard this story about Steve Jobs’ preference for form over function that came to light as a result of that debacle won’t be surprised that a shade of color difference would prevent an Apple product going to market.

Apple’s suppliers can’t remedy the problem, at least not to Jobs’ satisfaction, so the white iPhone 4 stays off of store shelves. It’s already been delayed many times, with the latest reports putting a release date sometime around Christmas. Apple hasn’t made mention of it at all in a long time, though.

We’ve got a major Apple event coming up next week. What better time to announce a white Christmas for customers? Even though it’s a Mac-focused event, if the phone is ready for mass consumption, we’ll see it unveiled there. If it isn’t, chances grow slimmer still that we’ll see a white iPhone 4 at all.

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The attendees were not yet settled into bed;
All concerned that we only get Schiller instead.
Will there be dazzling products? What can we expect?
And will somebody get Phil a black turtleneck?

Then inside the hall there arose such a clatter
I pushed through the line to see what was the matter.
I flew like a flash on my way to the stage
As the keynote began, and the crowd was engaged.

He’s pleasant enough, this marketing guy,
And as he takes the stage we could all hear him cry
“On Macbooks, on iMacs, on iPods, on Pros,
On Minis and iPhones, who wouldn’t want those?”

Like bad rumors always before Macworld will fly
(Though we quickly forget once the keynote’s gone by),
So on the enormous screen hung from above
We watched flashing slides of the products we love.

His attire was lively, with a small dash of red,
And the clothes that he wore matched the cap on his head.
He had an extremely small bag on his back,
Had he forgotten something, what did he lack?

He had a pipe with him, but it wasn’t lit,
“Gave up smoking,” he said, “didn’t like it one bit.”
He had a round face that was pleasant and cheerful,
And a big booming voice; when he spoke ‘twas an earful!

He may be no Steve, but you couldn’t get mad,
And we might have been merry if we weren’t so sad.
But he just winked at us, and reached into the bag;
He knew what was coming but didn’t want to brag.

So instead he said nothing, and just showed to us all
The white Apple logo, glowing and small.
For a moment this small thing our eyes fixed upon,
Then I turned round to thank him, but he was gone.

Still the message was clear, we all knew what he meant;
Apple’s not gone, there’s no cause for lament.
It’s just Apple’s last expo, not the end of the world.
Our tantrums had made us sound like Rob Enderle.

PC supporters whine more every day:
Apple’s small market share, follow Microsoft’s way;
MobileMe is no match for MS Windows Live;
And our hardware has VGA ports from ’95;

A six hundred dollar PC is desirous,
(Though it can’t run much more than your anti-virus);
And Vista’s improving, of that have no fear,
Versions 2.Little and 2.Late are both due next year.

And it then struck us all that the sadness we’d had
Was quite trivial compared to Microsoft’s bad.
Though it’s Apple’s last keynote inside of this hall,
They’re still around making great products for all.

So we all headed home with more joy than before;
Knowing Apple’s designing cool products galore.
And I had to exclaim, since our fears were misplaced,
Happy Macworld to all…  Now where’s copy and paste?

(Apologies to Clement Clark Moore.)

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With both shopping days and budgets running short, you may be wondering what to get your friends and family members who have either just purchased or will be receiving a new Mac.

With 1-8GB USB flash drives having a street price of ~$6-$15.00 and a plethora of highly useful free software for the Mac ripe for the picking, here is a guide to putting together a relatively inexpensive, yet most invaluable gift that will definitely keep on giving. If you have suggestions for items to include, post your ideas in the comments (it has to be free, remember!).

While TAB cannot distribute a pre-loaded DMG with these items (many have license “click throughs” before downloading and/or mounting), we can get you started building your present with this handy pre-built DMG file (ZIP), complete with custom disk image, background image and folder icons, all pre-layed out for you.

Core System Elements

• Growl + Hardware Growler – Great way to receive system and application notifications.
• iStat Menus – CPU, memory, enhanced date/time with calendar and more right in your menu bar.
• Perian – “The Swiss-Army knife for QuickTime” that lets you play more media formats than you will ever need.
• UnPlugged – Visual notification when your Mac becomes unplugged.
• Quicksilver – Put almost every aspect of your OS X system components and applications right at your fingertips.
• VirtualBox – Free virtualization tool for OS X which lets you run Windows, Linux or other operating systems side-by-side with OS X.

Must-have Utilities

• Audacity – For all your sound recording and editing needs.
• Fluid – Turn any web site into a desktop application.
• HandBrake – Preserve and convert video media and files.
• SuperDuper! – Don’t rely solely on Time Machine to preserve your data. SuperDuper! puts you back in control of your backups.
• TextWrangler – Let’s face it, TextEdit just does not cut it for power editing. This baby brother of BBEdit is a great free alternative, filled with options and support for many programming languages.
• Transmission – When you need a torrent, Transmission is the best way to get it.
• VLC – If there is a video or audio file that VLC cannot play, it won’t be long before support for it is added.
• Burn – Comprehensive audio, video and data media burning software.

Security

• ClamXav – Don’t join in the misconception that OS X is safe from the evils of the internets. ClamXav is a great, free anti-virus solution for OS X.
• TrueCrypt – Create cross-platform, virtual encrypted disks to keep your private data private.
• Wireshark – See what is really going in and out of your system/network. Great troubleshooting tool as well as a security-related app.
• nmap – One of the most comprehensive network scanners available. Find out who and what is running on your network.

Communication/Social Networking

• Adium – Centralize all your instant messaging, from .Mac to Facebook.
• Firefox – Despite growing compatibility with WebKit, there are times when Firefox is needed to view a problematic site.
• Last.fm - Personalized radio stations.
• NetNewsWire – NNW puts you back in command of your RSS feeds.
• Skype – Free or cheap voice, video and text calls to anywhere in the world.
• Twitterrific – The clean and classic way to tweet from your Mac.

Productivity/GTD

• Evernote – Store notes, web clips and more right from your browser or desktop.
• OpenOffice – Full office productivity suite offering compatibility with Microsoft’s comparable suite.
• Seashore – Powerful image editor based on GIMP.

Fitness

• TrailRunner – get into shape, track your cycling and train for that marathon.

Education

• Google Earth – Satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and more.
• Stellarium – Chart the heavens on your Mac.

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Gifts currently offered through the deal are Synergy and Enigmo 2, with two more to be announced before Christmas Day. An additional two applications are on offer, available if you refer people to join the giveaway.

It’s difficult to find any reason not to take advantage of a free software giveaway, so get yourself over to the site or follow MacHeist on Twitter for the latest updates.

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North Pole ($2.99)

I’m not really sure why this app is named North Pole. I was expecting a compass type app, but in fact, this one give you Christmas-themed bobble heads. You can choose from Rudolph, Frosty, or Santa Claus, and the motion sensitive head-shifting action is accompanied by popular Christmas tracks, which you can select in the app’s settings screen.

Holiday Mistletoe (Free)

Any excuse to steal some holiday smooches. There’s about a thousand mistletoe apps out there (Don’t believe me? Search for yourself), but this one has the benefit of being free. It also features motion sensitive animation that simulates 3D space, and real jingling sounds, so your kissee will hear you coming and have a chance to escape.

Christmas ($0.99)

It’s the most directly named of all the apps on the list, that’s for sure. Does it capture the spirit of the entire holiday in a single piece of software? Probably not, but it’s only a dollar after all. Basically a music playing app with a list of built-in classic Christmas carols. It also features a recorder so that you can add your own, and a countdown timer so you know exactly how long it is till the big day.

Nice List Holiday Gift Manager ($1.99)

I am the worst gift shopper on the planet. I never have any idea what to get anyone, and even if I have an idea, it’s completely forgotten by the time I get to the store. That’s why I used (or am still using, actually) the Nice List this year. It lets you pick people from your Address Book, add gifts to their lists, and set a price for each, and then quickly tick off when they’re purchased, wrapped, and delivered. Nice UI and icon make this one stand out from the crowd.

Are You Naught or Nice? ($1.99)

You probably shouldn’t need an iPhone app to figure this out, but if you do, this one has some decent illustrations and a pleasant interface. Also has some entertaining examples of what qualifies as a Naughty/Nice act, ie. “Returned all the presents to Whoville” and “Stole from a street Santa.”

Santa Wings: Rudolph’s Christmas Flight ($0.99)

From the makers of iPhone flight simulator Wings, Santa Wings provides a North Pole-esque landscape for you to fly over in you sleigh, pulled by five reindeer, including the most famous of all. You can adjust your speed, display or remove the cute animated reindeer and sleigh, and choose from four different holiday-themed soundtracks.

Holiday Hunt ($0.99)

I don’t condone taking potshots at the real thing, but you might be able to work off some of that holiday stress by shooting down Jolly Old St. Nick with this simple simulator. The goal is to pick off his reindeer one-by-one, which obviously can’t end well for Papa Christmas.

Starbucks Music For The Holidays (Free)

If you’re already tapped from gift shopping (and/or buying Christmas iPhone apps), then the Starbucks holiday music app will come in handy. It’ll save you a few dollars in holiday music purchases, especially if you don’t mind not being able to pick a specific track to play, since the songs play in shuffle mode only. Still, there’s nearly sixty songs, and they’re all either holiday classics or modern classics from artists like Jack Johnson.

FirePlace ($0.99)

Maybe you’re one of those people who own a virtual fireplace DVD. I’m definitely one of those people, so buying FirePlace for my iPhone was no big leap. Fireplace offers audio and video, and optional holiday music to accompany your burning former trees. It also plays in either portrait or landscape mode, depending on the orientation of your phone.

Festive Holiday Baking ($1.99)

A simple recipe app with loads of delicious looking desserts. I can tell they look delicious because the app includes pictures of all the treats, in addition to ingredients lists, yields, and directions for each item. I’m making the Peanut Butter Fudge for my own family gathering, but I wouldn’t bet on it making it there in one piece.

Christmas Carols by iChristmas ($0.99)

Perfect for your holiday karaoke party. Packs over 100 sets of Christmas carol lyrics and historical background, with more than 85 providing actual audio as well. This is a multi-tasker, since it includes shakeable jingle bells and simulated mistletoe as well. Might be the closest thing to one-stop shopping on this application list.

iTree ($0.99)

Part advent calendar, part virtual Christmas tree, the iTree from sodacope changes as the Holiday season progresses. When it was initially released, it displayed a pine tree in the forest, then a stump for a while, then the same tree in a room, then a decorated tree, etc. There’s also virtual snow that reacts when you shake or change the orientation of your iPhone, snow globe style.

Fuzzle Christmas (Free)

If you haven’t tried out the puzzle game Fuzzle yet, this free holiday version might provide the perfect opportunity. Your goal is too line up five or more matching Christmas ball ornaments, but moving pieces will generate more, making it progressively harder. Use the candy canes and stars as wild cards, with the stars erasing all matching tiles on the board. Fun and free, definitely a holiday must-have.

iSanta ($0.99)

A simple game, but a pretty fun one as well, sort of like the Santa Claus version of PaperBoy. You control your sleigh’s altitude by tilting your iPhone up or down, then drop the appropriate colored gift into the chimneys of houses with corresponding window lights. Suffers from a bad audio track that had me worried my iPhone speakers were broken for a second, so you might want to play it muted.

Happy holidays, TAB readers! Remember, tis the season to pretend that January credit card bill doesn’t exist!

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If you are one to deck the halls…and the family room…and the kitchen…and the roof then you know how difficult it can be controlling all those displays. Timers are somewhat effective, but are always out of sync with each other. Simple RF remotes provide better control but must be in range or have line-of-sight to work. It really would be cool to be able to control these creations from an iPhone!

It’s A Long Way Down Holiday Road

To view the Xcode project and build the iPhone app you will need a copy of the iPhone SDK from Apple. That Xcode install will also meet the needs of the back-end server. You will need to download both the Griswold iPhone app source (ZIP) and the Griswold Server app source (ZIP).

In terms of hardware, you will need an X10 FireCracker starter kit (I recommend purchasing from X10-Express as they have better prices and no pop-ups). NOTE: You may need more X10 outlets depending on the scale of your display. Since your Mac undoubtedly does not have a serial port, you will also need a USB<->Serial adapter (SerialIO has a decent one). The FireCracker module that attaches to your Mac sends wireless commands (i.e. “on”, “off”) to the receiver which relays them to the X10 “network” of modules. This is all maintained by the server component:

The iPhone interface needs an IP address to talk to and you can use either the local or remote one, but for the “remote” one to work, you will need to configure port-forwarding on your Internet router (forward TCP port 8786 to the internal address).

Each X10 “switch” is addressed by a house code and unit code. Griswold Server lets you choose which house code your display is on and can either control a single unit code or all unit codes for a house code. You must choose the serial interface the FireCracker is connected to and you have the option of defaulting your display to “on” when the server starts up. “Seekrit” also needs to match what you enter on the iPhone.

You really do not need the iPhone controller as you can turn the system on and off right from the server console window. But that’s not nearly as cool.

The server is written using the Python-Cocoa bridge and may be a good starting point for folks who are looking into doing development on the Mac. The application has full Growl support and uses the Sparkle framework for automatic updates (in the event you want to just use the server without compiling from source, it, too, is available). You can watch for errors in ~/Library/Logs/Griswold Server and take a look at the configuration file in ~/Library/Preferences/Griswold Server/Griswold Server.plist.

For Your iPhone

As you can see below, the iPhone interface is pretty straightforward. The initial screen shows you the current status (display is on or off) and presents you with a simple, singular control to change that stats:

As noted earlier, the configuration screen asks you for an IP address and secret code (akin to “pairing”) and gives you the ability to test the connection or force the system to an on or off state.

Since the application’s main function is to pass commands back to the server and retrieve current display status, the majority of the the work is done via a very handy utility method:

       NSString *myResponse = [ NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:url
                                  encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:&error ] ;

All you have to do is create a URL and NSString takes care of setting up the connection, issuing the request, closing down the connection and converting the result to an immediately usable Cocoa string.

Prior to calling this method, it is important to know whether one should bother to since the device may not have connectivity.

   if ([ RootViewController isServerReachable:hostnameOrIPValue ] &&
       [ RootViewController canConnect:hostnameOrIPValue
                            onPort:8786 withTimeout:5.0]) {

A quick test (the above code) accomplishes this and relies on two equally simple methods — isServerReachable: & canConnect:. The first takes advantage of the iPhone SDK “reachability” API, but that just tells you whether there is a network path to the host. The second one actually makes a TCP connection on a specified port with a timeout (to avoid hanging the UI) and lets the caller know whether full connectivity is possible.

+ (BOOL)canConnect:(NSString *)ipAddress onPort:(int)port withTimeout:(double)seconds {

    @try {

        CFSocketRef socket ;

       // We justneed a TCP socket. Nothing fancy.

        socket = CFSocketCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault,
                                PF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,IPPROTO_TCP,
                                0,NULL,NULL);
        struct sockaddr_in sin;

        memset(&sin, 0, sizeof(sin));
        sin.sin_len = sizeof(sin);
        sin.sin_family = AF_INET;
        sin.sin_port = htons(port); // port we want to connect on
        sin.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr([ ipAddress UTF8String ] );

        CFDataRef address = CFDataCreate(NULL,(unsigned char*)&sin,sizeof(sin));

        CFTimeInterval timeout = seconds ; // how long to wait before returning

        CFSocketError e = CFSocketConnectToAddress(socket,address,timeout);
        CFSocketInvalidate(socket) ;

        CFRelease(address);
        CFRelease(socket);

        return(e == 0) ;

    } @catch (id SocketException) {

       return(NO) ;

    } // if //

}

Overall, it is a pretty basic iPhone application, but it does have all the fundamental elements of a utility app including integration with the iPhone Settings (NSUserDefaults) interface.

Keeping In Control

If you just want to play and do not want to develop, then grab the standalone server app (again, Leopard-only) and e-mail me (bob at rudis dot net) your iPhone UDID (Ad Hoc Helper from the app store can help with this). I have some free ad hoc distribution slots that I’d be willing to part with.

I plan on updating Griswold Server to add more granular control over X10 modules (and update the iPhone app UI accordingly), include scheduled on/off execution and may add the option to have it rest in the menu bar vs the dock (all of which is feedback from my awesome beta testers).

If you have a Windows or Linux box, or just want to keep up with the development of Griswold, head over to griswoldapp.com or contact me for more information.

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As you do your holiday decorating this year, don’t forget to trick out your Mac, too. Fortunately, it’s a lot easier than hauling out heavy decorations or hanging 40 miles of outdoor lights in sub-zero temperatures.

I am always amazed at the creative widgets people devise and create for the holidays, and this year is no exception. Have a look at some of the festive widgets, games, and goodies that commemorate this holiday season.

• My favorite this year is Snow in the Dashboard. It’s not a particularly useful widget, of course, since it doesn’t do anything but make light snow fall across your dashboard. Since I live in Florida, though, it’s as close to the white stuff as I’m likely to get this December.
• If you’re looking for computer-based games, there are plenty of fun ones to choose from that will get you in the holiday spirit. I could try a different one every day and still not be done in time for Christmas, but I gave a few of them a whirl and found Christmas Swap and Christmas Crisis are the best bets if you’re looking for a little mindless fun. The former tests your reflexes and keeps your brain sharp, while the latter is just a fun arcade-type game.
• Children all over the world play the Dreidel Game during Hanukkah. This year, treat your kids to a version that’s played on an iPhone or iPod touch. Same great game and same great fun as when played with a real dreidel, but this one has a 21st-centruy slant. Though the Dreidel Game won’t help you trick out your Mac, it’s still a fun little app that you won’t want to overlook.
• Want to know just how many shopping days you have left before you’re out of time and have to show up at the company party with a re-gifted fruitcake? Put this Christmas Countdown on your Dashboard as a gentle reminder, or for a quick answer to your kids’ constant question, “How long until Santa comes?”
• If you really don’t feel like hanging lights all over your house, just string them across your monitor instead. NightLights Screensaver can be customized with mini or novelty lights and even lets you choose whether to let them randomly blink or remain lit . For a really festive screensaver, try 3D Christmas or Christmas Village.
• Speaking of lights, there’s a really neat Kinara widget that lets users light seven virtual candles in honor of the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. Though the widget is free to download, it’s creators request users consider a donation to the ECOLIFE Foundation.

Have you found other cool holiday downloads and apps for your Mac? Tell me about them in the comments.

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Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanza, there is one undeniable fact. The holiday season is around the corner, and it is time to find the perfect gift for the Mac Addict in your family.

As good as an iTunes gift card or iPod case may be this season, “Think Different” and get that special Mac Addict in your life something that matters. Get them something they will remember, and something they will use. This will add some personality, and practicality under their tree this season. So what do you get for the computer geek that already has everything?

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Today I’ll be briefly showing how easy it is to create a beautiful calendar using iPhoto, complete with all your important dates for the year and some seasonal photography.

Choosing a calendar

Once you’ve opened iPhoto and asked to create a calendar (via the small plus icon in the lower left), you’ll be presented with the following window:

Apple offers a selection of 10 different calendar styles to suit your needs. My favorites are the classic ‘Picture Calendar’, which puts the most emphasis on your photos, and ‘Colored Paper’, with a more relaxed and colorful feel. There are also a few great themes for obligatory events such as a wedding, holiday, or a new baby.

What then follows is a very handy dialogue for automatically adding some useful dates to your calendar:

You’re able to not only create the standard ‘January to December’ calendar, but can start the calendar on any month and have up to 24 months included (obviously for an extra fee!). It is also possible to pre-load your calendar with the national holidays for your country, any birthdays you’ve added to contacts in Address Book, and the events from any other of your iCal calendars. If you have already populated iCal with all the year’s birthdays, holidays, events and work it is a simple procedure to have them all added to your printed calendar without needing to copy them across by hand when it arrives. National holidays are also useful to have added, as the exact dates generally change from year to year.

On to Designing

Now it is a simple case of choosing the color scheme of each page and adding your own photos. To add an image to your calendar, you’ll need to find it in iPhoto and drag it over the calendar name in the left pane. Once you’re editing the calendar project, all the photos you’ve added will be displayed to the left, easily drag-able into the photo placeholders.

For each month, you’re able to select the number of photos you’d like to be displayed, and the color scheme (if the calendar template supports it). iPhoto has an ‘Autoflow’ feature, which will take all the images you’ve added to the calendar project and automatically fill each month of the calendar with a different layout and style. It’s a time saver, but personally I enjoy crafting each month myself!

Once you’ve added a photo to a grey placeholder, clicking it will bring up a menu allowing you to zoom the image in and out, or drag the image to reposition it within the frame. Take care that you don’t zoom in too far, as this can lead to the photo not being of a high enough quality to print. If this problem occurs, iPhoto places a yellow warning sign next to the photo to alert you.

A great tip for sourcing some extra photography to add a seasonal touch (I’m thinking Halloween, Christmas, Easter etc) is to browse through a stock photography site. Having a few photos of friends and family, coupled with a great Christmas scene can look fantastic. A few of note are:

• Stock.XCHNG
• iStockPhoto
• StockVault

Adding and Editing Events

No doubt there are events you’d like to add to the calendar which were not imported from iCal originally. This can be done by double clicking a date and entering your text. Fonts, colors and sizes can be changed by bringing up the font toolbox (press Command+T). You can also add an image to any given date — great for events and birthdays, and adding a personal touch.

Ordering & Pricing

Once you’ve gone through every month, added your photos and typed in the relevant events, it’s time to upload all that content to Apple and let them start printing your beautifully designed calendar.

Prices of calendars can be found at the iPhoto site. They cost $20, not including P+P, with an extra $1.49 per additional month (over a year). It’s worth keeping an eye open for offers run in relation to calendars — it’s common to have a percentage knocked off around Christmas time, or into the New Year.

Uploading all your photographs and calendar information can take a while, particularly on slower broadband connections, but the process is automatic and you’ll receive an email after the order completes. Delivery takes a couple of weeks, so make sure you plan ahead if you require delivery before the Christmas rush!

If you have any further calendar-related questions, please feel free to ask in the comments. In addition, do let me know if you have any other great Christmas gift ideas which can be ‘Made on a Mac’ — I’m still undecided on what to buy my Grandma…

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