On Sunday disaster struck, my hard drive corrupted and OS X wouldn't boot. I feared the worst but had been backing up for the past two years using OS X Time Machine. Could it be as simple as restoring from backup to a new drive?

My first job was to install a new hard drive, this is easier said then done in the all in one iMac. Fortunately this video from camodesto went through step by step, first removing the glass front, then the aluminium case and then the screen. Finally you can replace the hard drive, I opted for an upgrade to a 1TB drive.

After booting from the Snow Leopard DVD I created a partition on the new hard drive then restored from Time Machine. The process took around seven hours to copy my 300gig of data from the External drive.

When I rebooted my Mac had been restored to 5pm on Sunday, 90mins before it had died. All my files were restored, even my Firefox tabs were saved.

On Friday I received my iPhone 3GS fresh from O2. I've had my 2G for around a year now and with my Tmobile contract expired it was the perfect time to upgrade.

Aesthetically there is not a big difference between the 3G and 3GS however the phone is a lot quicker compared to the 2G, applications load quicker, text messages and emails load instantly and moving around the interface seems a lot more smooth.

Simcity was the most power hungry application I had on my 2G and it took a mean 34 seconds to open, on the 3GS it takes a more reasonable 17 seconds making the 3GS twice as quick.

The camera is a small improvement and works slightly better in low light but is still one of the iPhones weaknesses. The upload to YouTube feature is a nice touch however I've yet to find something interesting enough to upload. 

The majority of other improvements come in the 3.0 software (rather than updated hardware) with the wide keyboard on text messaging being one of the best improvements. Copy and paste works well though is a bit fiddly. Being able to buy music, videos and apps over 3G will hurt the bank balance I'm sure.

 
Details of the new iPod Shuffle are now on www.ipodhistory.com.

Apple's home multimedia suite iLife was recently upgraded, while all apps (iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, iPhoto and Garageband) got an upgrade iPhoto got the best and most significant new features. The most useful of these is Faces.

Faces

For a long time now you have been able to tag people on social networking sites such as Facebook linking them to their user profile. Facebook has the ability to detect faces however cannot match them meaning you have to tag every person in every photo. iPhoto takes this to the next level, after first scanning your entire library to detect faces (a job which took around 90mins on my 8418 photos on my 2.4ghz C2D Intel iMac) you have the ability to start tagging people.

Above: iPhoto scanning my library looking for sexy people

Once you have tagged a person in a couple of photos iPhoto will start to suggest similar photos, at first some of the suggestions are wild guesses but by simply clicking a photo once to accept or double clicking a photo to deny makes it very quick and easy to work through your library.

Above: Single click to accept a picture, double click to deny.

The majority of my photos contain people, often from nights out in fancy dress. iPhoto struggled with some of these photo at first and I found myself having to tag photos so that iPhoto could detect the rest.

Above: After a couple hours of tagging I now had a selection of Pete photos. I had to tag myself on numerous occassions, iPhoto could not automatically detect that baby Pete (top right) was the same as sumo Pete (bottom middle).

Above: I now have my three friends tagged in iPhoto.

Tagging photos is all very good but its what you then do with these photos that is interesting. For instance what if I want to see all the pictures of me and a friend or with valentines day approaching all the photos of Laura and myself. I can create a smart album, just as you would in the older versions of iPhoto but this time you have the option of specifying names.

Above: A filter in a smart album.

Above: The filter results of pictures of Laura and myself.

It doesn't end here as iPhoto then lets you print or order items based on those photos producing an instant valentines day present.

Above: Three years worth of presents.

With iPhoto 09 you also have the option for automatically uploading photos to Facebook and Flickr.

Tagging takes several hours especially if you have a large library but its well worth it.

Our sister site www.ipodhistory.com has been updated with the latest iPods announced last week:

iPod Nano Forth Generation

iPod Touch Second Generation

iPod Classic 120gig

Which one will be on your Christmas list?

Have you ever heard a song whilst you were out and wondered what that it was? Well the free Shazam app will listen to the song then let you know what it is.

When you open the Shazam app it lists your previously discovered songs.

Hitting Tag Now will start the detection process.

The app listens to a few seconds of the song.

Then sends it off to its server to see if its on record.

If it is then a few seconds later it tells you the song and gives you the option to buy it.

The song has to be playing at a reasonable volume with little other background noise for it to work. I tried it in a pub on Friday and it was unable to detect the song but while sitting in front of the TV or listening to the radio it worked fine.

It's been a year in the coming but finally I have an iPhone. I managed to find one at a reasonable price and have unlocked it to use T-Mobile (so I don't need a new contract with O2).

I've been wary of smart phones since I had bad experiences with the MDA Vario, it wasn't that it was a bad phone hardware wise, it was the laggy software that let it down. I recently had the chance to play with a HTC Diamond whilst setting it up for a client, it has the stylish looks but again the Windows Mobile software let it down. The lag was still there when you tapped the screen (often twice or three times) and having to use the pen every time you wanted to use the phone was another annoyance.

Fortunately the iPhone makes up from where the other smart phones are let down. The phone itself looks great with a big scratch resistant screen. The software works well and when you press a button (with your finger) it works instantly.

Unlocking was very easy, much easier than with a Nokia or Sony Ericsson, you just download an application called ZiPhone and click 'Do it all', this upgrades/downgrades the firmware, activates and unlocks the phone.

It also installs Jailbreak which allows you to install third party applications and games. I installed a useful one that automatically uploads pictures to Flickr when you take them on the camera.I was expecting it to be slow to type on the iPhone but the speed is very similar to other phones.

If you can pick up a second hand iPhone then I would recommend unlocking it as its so easy to do!