Google has a nice project working for OS X fans…
Hi-res beta of 2day
mytreo.net notes the Hi Res beta release of 2Day. WOW! The resolution enhancement alone make it worthwhile… looks beautiful on the Treo 650!
syncOtunes
syncOtunes seem like a great way to sync the libraries of multiple machines. It copies the files across to another machine and imports them to your second iTunes library. I have not played with it yet, but would actually prefer to see a system that simply synced the library file itself, leaving the tunes in one place. In my config I use multiple machines and essentially the same library file, which lets me mount the network drive and play anything I want. I manually sync my iPod so I can copy to it from any machine as well.
Treonauts launches Software Store
Congratulations to Andrew at Treonauts on the launch of the Treonauts Software Store. If you are looking to pick up any Palm software, you might want to take advantage of the 15% discount this month by using TN15 as the offer code.
pzizz – power napping
pzizz seems like a very cool piece of audio software to assist your napping. From the quick pass I took, it’s a combination of ambient sound with guided relaxation and was actually quite nice. The price is higher than I might like to see at $40 for a single user, but the ability to control the length (10 – 60 min), quality and type of naps seems like a very cool idea. This is no George Costanza under the desk nap, but rather true power napping designed to get brain cells recharged for the rest of a long day.
Tor
I installed and started playing with Tor over the weekend. It’s a pretty cool P2P system for anonymizing your online tracks and includes a very ease to use proxy for your online traffic courtesy of the EFF. I’ve noticed things slow down a bit – though perhaps a small price to pay for cruising around securely. My only issue is how I will need to customize the proxy (it’s Privoxy and comes with the OS X installer) to allow for ads (yes ads), referrers and cookies. Without these tools, it becomes difficult to do certain things – like edit or delete a page in WordPress.
I do like it though and have to see if after reading the documentation more deeply, I can create a balance of privacy and accessibility.
Easy DVD Archives?
If you’ve been trying to find a way to archive your collection for playback without the DVD, MacHTPC has the answer for you.
Recent Software Goodies
I’ve been pretty busy lately and have left a post hanging for a few days… I have had a chance to use with some good software and thought I’d at least share.
The team at Slashdata has been very busy.
SplashBlog is a great way to run a photo-blog from your Palm device. They have a hosted solution which works great and can upload and sync images from your SD card as well as as you shoot them if you like. At the moment the only blog software supported is Typepad, but more will likely follow.
SplashMoney has been updated though still in beta. You can now update your account info over the air which is totally cool – and secure thanks to both SSL and RSA. What’s great is that you can be free of Quicken if you want updated financial info on your accounts. There’s an excellent list of supported banks and financial institutions.
WordPress has been updated to an official 1.5 and I’ve cleared the nightlies that have run here for a long time. All seems quite solid and the update is recommended for all WP users.
Google can find your way
Google Maps looks totally awesome. You start with a map of the US, double click a place you want to see and zoom in… it’s pretty fast considering it continues to render in the window as you do everything. Currently does not work in Safari but it’s apparently on their list…
Recording Skype Calls
Webcrumbs posts a simple how-to for recording Skype calls on Mac OS X. Recommended for Podcasters and business callers looking to keep records of conversations.
Skype Voicemail Standing By…
I just updated my Skype client and browsing the prefs I came across an interesting thing…
Hopefully in the next update. Voicemail will hopefully work when you are not connected like a regular phone, making skype low-cost and useful for more than just the occasional call.
Gmail Bug Exposes E-mails to Hackers
Just in from eWeek… Hopefully this will be addressed in short order.
UNIX developers HBX Networks have stumbled upon a bug within Google’s Gmail that allows access to other users’ personal e-mails.
By altering the “From” address field of an e-mail sent to the service, hackers could potentially find out a user’s personal information, including passwords.
At first glance, to the average user the e-mail would appear normal. But by clicking “show options” within the Gmail interface, the “Reply-To” field will show HTML code that is actually a formatted version of another user’s e-mail, HBX wrote on its Web site. [eWeek]
Burning the DRM strawmen
Recommended reading from Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing who ignites the DRM strawmen, based on arguments that have been making the rounds from previous posts to BB as well as Chris Anderson’s post on his new blog, The Long Tail.
Spaminator Strikes ’em down
I’ve received several hundred comment spam attempts here in the past 12 hours and my Spaminator plugin has smacked them all down which rocks. If you use WordPress, I can’t recommend this enough!
Actually they just keep on coming… there have been at least another hundred since I initially deleted the notes in my email. Pretty amazing… mainly Poker BS. So far none have successfully posted to my blog, which is great.
RIAA goes well beyond just suing consumers
They want your machine to go down down down…
BoingBoing reports on a hole in some Windows DRM that is being fully exploited by record industry pal Overpeer to infect user machines. Lovely.
bbPress… like WordPress but for Forums
BusinessWeek on Video Blogging
With the right aggregator and enclosures within feeds, you can enjoy video and audio quite easily…
Though the movement is only in its early stages, it’s easy to imagine that video blogs could have as big an impact as the text blogs. Indeed, they’re already doing what has been the real strength of traditional blogging — promoting one another’s work. And even if the vast majority of the videos remain a novelty, the explosion of experimentation is a welcome sight. [BusinessWeek]
Slip Slip Streaming Away
Rogue Amoeba has something very nice cooking for current or future Airport Express owners…
Rogue Amoeba is pleased to announce our newest product, Slipstream. Slipstream is the first and best way to send audio from any application directly to remote speakers attached to Apple’s renowned AirPort Express device. With Slipstream, audio from any application can be sent to the AirPort Express – users longing to send audio from applications like RealPlayer and Windows Media Player need look no further than Slipstream. [Rogue Amoeba]
MetrO v5.2.7
MetrO is a great, free Palm application which can help you find your way through the subways of the world.
There are no graphical maps to see, but it’s very simple use and plan a route based on known locations if you don’t know the street of your stop. The application fills in likely stops as you enter them to help you along. 5-way support is also there for Treo and Tungsten users and there’s finally a color UI, something I don’t recall from previous versions, though it’s been a while. You can install as many maps as you have room on your device. A great travel helper!
StickyBrain 3
Chronos has updated StickyBrain and seems totally worth checking out. You can collect and manage notes from all over your system and SYNC to either your Palm or iPod. You can also link to your Address Book as well as Mail. I’ve just downloaded it and will be moving some stuff I’ve been collecting in both Omni Outliner and NoteTaker to see how I like it.
UPDATE — Stickybrain is nice, but only allows for flat or rich based text. No outlining. This is a bummer since I was hopeful with the sync option. For now, I’ll probably keep going with Omni Outliner and NoteTaker (still deciding which will be my primary tool) and Life Balance for integration with my GTD system. The nice thing about LB is that you get the same full file on both your Palm and desktop.