Walt Disney World Secrets just got some extra secrets, were you aware of that already? I guess not... To be more accurate, we're talking about over 180 secrets, a Hidden Mickey tour and a bonus 200 Fun Facts, all for TimeStream Software's popular "Walt Disney World Secrets" Notescast for the iPhone and iPod Touch, of course!

Such applications really make maps useless, because the "Walt Disney World Secrets" Notescast allows guests to wander around the Walk Disney World Resort without getting lost. The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios, they're all at your disposal with the help of your little gadget and this extraordinary little helper, namely the "Walt Disney World Secrets" Notescast, obviously.
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According to Mike Westby of TimeStream Software, "It's really an all new way to see and experience Walt Disney World Resort. With their iPhones in hand, guests can see the parks with all new eyes as they discover one new secret after another, many of which they have probably walked right by before without ever noticing."

The price of this luxury? A mere $0.99! Requiring at least iPhone 2.1 Software Update, the "Walt Disney World Secrets" Notescast can be purchased from the App Store. Unfortunately, tickets to those Disney locations are not included with it... ;)

Did you manage to lose some weight lately? I guess most of us need that, and if you want to lose more weight than you did in the last few months, you need to go with a scientific approach... or not. For example, I am planning to drop some weight by the end of the summer, and since I am not going to watch my diet, my choice is to go out and move as much as possible, on foot, with a bike, running in the woods... no special choice, just doing what I forgot to do lately - enjoy myself and what's left of the ecosystem around me.

Unfortunately, not everyone is seeking to reconnect with nature, so we get to see so many wrong solutions for losing weight - pills, surgeries, and other such things. When talking about the iPhone, if you didn't manage to lose more weight because of the problems you encountered with it, I think I may have a little piece of code to help you with that... lose more weight, instead of having iPhone problems to "help you" do it, of course!
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If you can also donate for charity while helping yourself lose more weight, that's even better. Here's the story - "iHanWel today announced that it will donate an equal amount of half of all proceeds from the sale of its iLoseWeight application to the Food for Life and Terre des Hommes aid organizations. This effort is to assist them in their battle against child hunger around the globe. The campaign, which will run indefinitely, offers users of iLoseWeight the opportunity to contribute to a good cause while getting in shape and improving their own health."

iLoseWeight is especially developed for the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch, and currently available in English, German, French, and Spanish. Its price is only $0.99, and you can easily get it from Apple's iTunes App Store.

Although I've been using Windows for most of my time, today's personal story could also be useful to Mac users. For a while, I only used a basic antivirus solution. Then, I switched to antivirus+firewall+antispyware proactive solution, just to return to the antivirus only approach some months later. To be honest, I understand the usefulness of a firewall, but I found no use to it. Really, it could have been the fact that my network is well protected... I just don't know, but if you're looking for a firewall for Mac, I got something for you!

The thing I got is, apart from knowledge, a firewall for Mac, but information comes first, so here you have it - during my Mac OS X months, I never used a firewall, and - just as it happened with my Windows computer - I didn't run into trouble at all. That's it. Now, let's take a look at NetMine, today's firewall for Mac, shall we?
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Coming from ProteMac, NetMine 1.2 keeps its eyes on all incoming and outgoing traffic on your Mac, preventing unauthorized program activity and unwanted intrusions, such as malware/Trojans. Its features list includes the following:

- Protects against viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, worms, bots, and rootkits
- Stops threats at point of entry with a quiet two-way firewall
- Blocks browser, OS, and application threats; protects against infected Web sites
- Helps secure and monitor your home network
- Intercept unwanted network connection attempts
- Detailed information of all incoming and outgoing network traffic
- Two-way firewall
- Network Monitor for visualizing network activity in real-time
- Internet Worm Protection
- Controls incoming and outgoing TCP/IP traffic and data
- Intrusion Prevention
- Protects against spyware and Trojan horses
- Protects against all kinds of intrusions
- Protects against network attacks
- Protects against ping floods, port scans, and more
- Simple and advanced firewall modes

This advanced firewall for Mac works with Mac OS X Version 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard and later, and only requires 10 MB of disk space. The best part of it all is that NetMine comes as a Universal Binary, so PowerPC-based Macs should run it as well as Intel-based ones!

Currently priced at $29.95, NetMine can be downloaded and purchased directly from the ProTec website.

Reading ebooks on anything else but a computer monitor seems really evil to me, especially since there are no eye implants that work as your own eyes, and trying to go as far as grabbing ebooks for iPhone or your media player seems a bit strange to me. Don't get me wrong, I understand those who really have no other choice in some situations, but I think most of those reading ebooks on devices with screens below 5" do it to show off...

On the other hand, I would really like to get some ebooks for iPhone or a media player, as long as I can listen to them. No, I am not talking about audio books, but regular ebooks in TXT or PDF format, books that are being read by some piece of software installed on the device. Now, that's really interesting, don't you think?

Read 2 Me is a new app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and its purpose is exactly that one that I described above - to allow its users to listen to their ebooks! Using Acapela-Group's text-to-speech synthesis technology, Read 2 Me comes from Retinal Media, and offers productivity and accessibility features in the same package, for a pretty good price.
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The features of this ebooks for iPhone tool include:

- Optimization for Gutenberg.org plain-text ASCII files
- Optimization for ANY.txt file (UTF-8, Ascii encoding) at any web-based URL
- Prev/Next custom bookmarking navigation
- Elegant scrolling text view of imported text with line break optimization for ease on the eyes
- Automatic scrolling of the spoken text
- Easy navigation of sections of texts, saved bookmarks, and library content

Priced at $6.99, Read 2 Me is available via the Apple iTunes App Store, and it only requires iPhone or iPod Touch 2.2.1 or later. Unfortunately, it seems PDF files are not supported, but I guess they'll solve this issue in a future version. After all, we're talking about a program that's brand new on the market here, so... welcome to the world, Read 2 Me! ;)

As AT&T is starting to sell 3G netbooks across the US, news about a new assault reached me, and I must say that, despite this so-called crisis, things seem to go extremely well for some companies. Obviously, Apple is one of them, since more and more of those retail chains still standing are probably thinking to get some sort of deal going with them. Best Buy did it already, and now Wal-Mart is next in line.

According to various sources, Wal-Mart has started a major overhaul operation, involving a few thousand of its locations. To be more accurate, we're talking about approximately 3,500 stores, including 2,600 Supercenter locations. The reason? Well, Circuity City went down, leaving a large slice of the TV market for the taking... and that should be enough of a reason, don't you agree?
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Ben Reitzes, Barclays Capital analyst, thinks this move is the last step before Apple products will invade Wal-Mart. "We believe Wal-Mart is actively pitching Apple to carry more products. With Wal-Mart improving its retail displays, we believe that the mega-retailer could eventually earn the right to sell select Mac products without diluting Apple’s brand," he said.

Since exposure is what Apple really needs, I am sure that being able to reach areas where its own distribution points aren't present is a really tempting thought, especially because many Wal-Mart stores are located exactly where Apple doesn't have any of its own stores - in rural areas.

Until now, Apple has been extremely careful when choosing who sells its Macs, but if the Cupertino-based company really wants to keep its growth rate, some of its own rules will have to be broken... or they should be happy with keeping a constant customer base and doing the best for them. After all, there doesn't have to be only one...