Got a website or blog that (you think or can prove) gets lots of traffic from the iPhone or iPod Touch? Or do you just want to place a kick-ass, custom website icon on your own iPhone/iPod Touch? This tutorial is for you my friend and fellow fanboy!

Note: Apple named this icon thing as the “Webpage Icon.” You may hear it called “Apple Touch Icon” too – you’ll see why in a minute. You’ll need some kind of image editing software like PhotoShop, Fireworks or Illustrator to make this icon.

Here’s the plan:

1. Create the image to use as the icon for the iPhone & iPod Touch
2. Save icon on the home screen of your iPhone & iPod Touch
3. We’ll quickly see how to add the “Apple Touch Icon” to your iPhone & iPod Touch for any website (if that website is cool enough to have one!) Ready to rock?…

Create Your Website Icon Image

Create the image you’d like to use as the icon. The image must be a perfect square or it will not display properly!

1. Set the image size to 100 pixels by 100 pixels. That way it’s big enough to work with and it will show up razor sharp on the iPhone or iPod.

2. Set the resolution (also known as “DPI”) to 72.

3. Set the color to RGB

*NOTE: Don’t worry about trying to make your icon “shiny” like the other icons on the iPhone & iPod Touch – It’s done automatically… you’ll see in the last step.

Save The Image As PNG!

Apple recommends saving your image as a PNG file – so do it!

Note: I’ve never tried any other file type. I might work, but PNG is great because it’s small and it looks sharper than JPG or GIF.

Rename The PNG Image

You MUST rename your image to: apple-touch-icon.png

1. You must incude the hyphens!

2. Make it all lowercase letters – just in case!

The iPhone & iPod Touch will automatically find this file on your webserver – only if it’s named correctly AND in the correct location…

Upload Your Apple Touch Icon

For this step you need direct access to the files on your website. You can use a free FTP program like CyberDuck to upload the file.

Your website hosting company might have a way for you to upload files using Safari or Firefox.

If you’re uploading the file with FTP or Safari / Firefox, you still need to get the apple-touch-icon.png in the right place. The correct location is often called the “root directory.” That’s a fancy name for the highest-level folder of your site.

Now that you’ve got the file in the root directory, skip to the next step…

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, keep reading…

To make sure you’re in the right spot – the “root” – just look for your home page file. Your home page should be named one of the following:

index.htm
index.html
index.php (shown above)
default.asp
default.aspx

If you see any of the files above, you MIGHT be in the right spot. Typically, it’s OK to upload your apple-touch-icon.png – even if it’s in the wrong spot, it’s not gonna hurt anything on your website. Just don’t delete anything!

If you’re still lost, contact your webhosting company or find a friend who can help you out.

Test It On Your iPhone or iPod Touch!

1. Go to your website in Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch
2. Tap the Plus Icon at the bottom of Safari

Add The Icon To Home Screen

Click “Add to Home Screen”

Look For The Icon

1. Make sure your awesome Apple touch icon is showing in this screen

2. Give it a name - This name will appear under the icon on the iPhone & iPod Touch Home Screen.

3. Click “Add”

Fall In Love With Your Icon

Your icon is now showing up on the home screen with the name we gave it ( AppleSlut! ). And it’s got the matching shine like all of the others. Just tap it for instant access to your website!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial!

I’ll bet you iPod Touch sales have come to a screeching halt since Monday – and that a price drop is coming soon for the iPod Touch too.

How do I know? Easy – The 8 Gig iPod Touch is now $100 MORE expensive than the 8 Gig iPhone. Who is going to pay more for less? So… unless you’re getting an iPod Touch free because of your educational discount, don’t buy the Touch in the near future – you’ll be wasting your money!

With the iPhone offering more value and more features at a lower price, Apple has got do to something to make the iPod Touch attractive to customers again.

Or don’t they?

There have been rumors on the internet about Apple’s deal with AT&T on the iPhone service. Some websites claim Apple gets anywhere between 10% and 30% of all monthly service costs on the iPhone and with six million iPhones sold, that’s a lot of cash in Apple’s pocket.

Is it possible Apple wants you to buy an iPhone instead of the Touch – simply because Apple makes more money when you include the cut from the phone contracts?

I don’t know what Apple is thinking, but my guess is they’ll drop the price of the Touch to $199 and match the iPhone. That way, customers won’t feel like they’re getting screwed out of extra features and paying more and they can continue to sell both products.

And if the iPod Touch does go on sale for $199… What happens to the Nano? And the Classic?

Sweet games for iPods are now on sale. However, these games only work with the “click wheel” iPods. That means iPod classic, third-generation iPod nano, or fifth-generation iPod.

In fact, the new iPod classic and iPod nano both come with three iPod games – Vortex, iQuiz, and Klondike! And you can purchase the greats like Tetris, Ms. PAC-MAN, and Sudoku. – Awesome!

Want to play those games on your sweet iPod Touch? Too bad. No games for you.

Same with iPhone.

These games don’t work with the new hotness.

I understand the games must be reprogrammed to work with different control schemes (click wheel vs. touch screen) and I’m fine with that.

My hope is when the games are released for iPhone and iPod Touch, and they will be, they’ll be similar to the games on the Nintendo’s DS: Learning games and brain teasers.

With a big touch screen on iPhone & iPod Touch, the possibilities are fascinating. My thought is the iPhone could compete with the Nintendo DS for that niche of games.

Think about it…

• 8 GB of hard drive space games
• touch screen (the Nintendo DS uses a “pen” type stick like the old Palm Pilot – LAME!)
• instant delivery system with iTunes
• full color screen
• headphone compatible
• internet ready to connect with game servers to track scores, progress, etc.

And of course, all the other benefits of using the iPod Touch or iPhone – Email, web browser, music, movies, photos, notes, blah, blah, blah – you’ve heard this all before…

That’s my hope – Apple’s games for the iPod Touch & iPhone will be available soon and offer all the great brain teasers that are available for other systems – Which could make the iPod Touch & iPhone even more useful. Who knew?