Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas’ Giveaway provides one free download every day between 26 Dec and 6 Jan. Yesterday, Apple were offering a music video of ‘That’s Not My Name’ by ‘The Tings Tings’ (number 1 back in May) and today, a free episode of ‘Derren Brown’s Mind Control’.

iTunes users in the UK need only click this link to access the giveaway!

Rumours exist that Apple are planning this giveaway in France, but I am unable to confirm whether it is there. Unfortunately for Americans, Apple has confirmed it won’t be happening outside of Europe!

Another unfortunate thing about this giveaway is that iTunes is needed to download them; making it impossible for Linux users to access.

The giveaway is worth checking out as you may find a TV show, movie or song you like for free!

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The basic steps are similar to Elf Yourself. You start by picking the number of characters that should appear on the eCard. You can pick between one to five. Dragging and dropping the three available character models is the next step. Available are one female and two male models.

The real customization begins in step three. You need to upload pictures of faces that are placed on the characters heads. The software makes it really easy to adjust the face so that it fits nicely on the models.

When all photos have been uploaded and adjusted it is time to set a background and pick a music for the eCard. The last step allows to add a personal short message to the eCard.

You do not have to enter your real credentials if you do not want. The name however is shown beneath the message when viewing the eCard. Options are to embed the card on a website, to send it to someone per email or to send the link directly.

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In Northern England, we have been ‘fortunate’ enough to have had quite a bit of snow this week. Not everyone is as lucky though, and Snowflakes is an application which ensures those at lower latitudes won’t miss out. Snowflakes allows snow to fall either on the desktop or, should you really need reminding, in front of all windows. The speed and number of the snowflakes can be modified. It is a little distracting even behind all windows, as the snowflakes falling can be seen in the space just above the dock.

Mac users love widgets and fairy lights. Festive Lights is a widget which allows you to ‘decorate your dashboard’. Users have several options: festive lights can surround the dashboard, or only hang from the top; they are available in different colours; mistletoe can be added; and the pattern which the flashes follow can be selected.

Fairy lights are also available for the desktop. One way would be to drag the above widget to the desktop (a little hack required). Another option is Xmas Lights, a standalone application which allows lights to appear behind and in front of windows. Several lights are available and more can be added.

Christmas Countdown is another useful widget which does what it says on the tin, displaying the amount of days until Christmas in the form of a Christmas Tree.

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This year the Elf Yourself website has been redesigned. There is a bit more of advertisement on the website but also additional content to make up for it. Don’t worry! There is still the classic elves dance for those who might have missed it last year or cannot get enough of it.

In addition though you can now see them dance Disco, Country or Charleston as well each with a unique stage and effects. The music is obviously also different on every stage.

The developers have added possibilities to download the videos to the desktop or post them on various social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. Expect a huge increase in Elf Yourself appearances on those sites.

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With Animated Christmas Tree for Desktop 2009 you get an assortment of eight animated (that means blinking) Christmas trees for your computer desktop. The Christmas trees require no installation and can be executed after unpacking them on the computer. They are always on top by default and can be moved freely around on the computer desktop.

The choice ranges from smaller sized Christmas trees to deluxe and even magic trees. The transparency of the Christmas tree can be configured by right-clicking it. The same menu provides access to the always on top parameter.

It is possible to launch copies of the same tree on the computer desktop or add another type of tree. It might be to much of a distraction for users working regularly with the computer but it might be just the right thing for children or users who work with it only occasionally.

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Users can upload up to four images, portraits preferred, and put the heads of the people on those images on elf bodies who will perform a short dance. A friend of mine was sending me a choreography that he created from pictures of his family and it was hilarious.

I did the same for my family and everyone liked it a lot. Heads can be scaled and rotated to match the body of the elf. Dots which can be partially moved are used to outline the head in detail. A outlined mouth has to be placed on the mouth of the person on the image as well.

It is possible to add and edit up to four pictures or use random images (from a preselected pool) to fill blank spaces. Voices can be added as well by dialing a phone number in the United States, probably a bit unpractical for users who do not live there.

A link is generated which can then be send to friends and relatives as a pleasant surprise.

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The Jigetiser jigsaw puzzles display 18 different Christmas themed pictures and are available in five difficulties each. The first two difficulties use only a few big tiles and are perfect for children of age 4+ I think. The other three difficulties are for advanced users who have some time at their disposal. The tiles are smaller and of course there are more tiles.

The preview image will not be available on the last difficulty, all other difficulties show a preview image. Pieces are connected to each other by moving them next to each other. They can also be rotated clockwise by holding them with the left mouse button and pressing the right mouse button as well.

All 18 jigsaw puzzles offer family friendly pictures. The only distracting element is the advertisement on top and in the jigsaw puzzle itself. Still, the look and feel of this jigsaw puzzle game for the computer is very nice. And best of all, my nephew likes it.

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It is still a lot of work and I collect unique gift ideas throughout the year to be prepared to buy a gift that is unique and special. Here are five unique gift ideas that make a very special gift for people that you care about. I hope you do find at least one gift idea to be good enough.

1. Custom Jewelry:

I start with the most expensive gift idea, don’t worry the others will not be that expensive. Paragon Lake is a company that creates custom jewelry. Customers explain what they would like and Paragon Lake creates a 3D design of the jewelry which will later be used to create the jewelry. This will of course only be created when the customer is fully satisfied with the model.

Paragon Lake Homepage

2. Blends for Friends

A truly unique gift for tea drinkers. Alex Probyn is a professional tea tester who creates custom blends using information that you provide about the person. He needs as much information as possible about that person. Everything is important and could include hobbies, colors, job, unique stories, experience and so on.

The tea will be neatly packed in a unique presentation gift box, a decorative tin, recipe descriptor referencing the personality traits of the recipient and a booklet. Each blend gets a unique id which makes it possible to order additional amounts.

The first is sold for £27 plus postage and additional ones cost £7 plus postage. That’s about $55 for the first one.

Blends for Friends Homepage

3. RideMakerz

Create custom cars for kids of all ages. You choose the car, paint jobs, tires, rims, engines, radio control, stickers, music and a personalized license plate. Prices start at $19 plus posting.

Ridemakerz Homepage

4. Art Toy USB Drives

A gift for geeks, especially female ones I think. Unique usb devices that cost a little bit more because of their uniqueness. You can buy some characters from Star Wars, Happy Tree Friends and unique creations that look cute, oh so cute..

Mimoco Homepage

5. My Food Home

This is actually a pretty unique idea. You pay a monthly membership fee of $9.99 to join the food community which gives you the support and knowledge to analyze and change your eating habits. This is done by taking pictures of the food that you eat which is then analyzed by experts and other community members.

My Food Home Homepage

Mimoco Homepage

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I’m going to write about three computer programs / scripts that are going to help you create a great Christmas gift. I think that those methods work best for presents for people that you really care about: close relatives, partners and children for example. All you need besides those programs is some time, a printer and a picture or video of something that the recipient likes. Let us start..

• Create a Poster from an Image

You only need a picture that would make a great poster. Download PosteRazor and run it. Select the picture on your computer, specify the output size and a pdf file will be created that contains a number of pages that are the poster. Print those pages and you have a great personal gift. Use large images for best results. Available for Windows, Mac and as source code.

• Create huge rasterized images from any picture

PosteRazor is cute but has limitations. If you want huge, and I mean huge, outputs that can decorate a wall in complete width you need to use the online script Rasterbator. The output looks really incredible, please note that it is up to you if you want to define borders in the final picture. You may also download an offline version which does not have the size and resolution limitations of the online script.

• Create a Flipbook

Flipbooks are great gifts especially for children (and women). All you need is Flipbook Printer created by my friend mouser from donationcoder. You obviously need a movie for this to work. Just load the movie, define start and end and let the program do the rest. All that is left to do is to print the results and join the results together.

I would love to hear about your ideas and other programs or scripts that do something similar. So, if you know something please let me know.

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