a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
FrozenSilicon Labs:: PandoraBoy is basically the same as PandoraMan in look and feel, but with added (and most excellent) support for Growl Notifications, the Apple remote (MacBook Pro!) and Global Keyboard shortcuts. I can now stream in the background (over my EVDO connection!) while rating advancing tracks as I go without having to leave my front app….
Technorati Tags: Pandora
All you Windows fanatics need to get off your high horse for a second and realize what’s happening here. My name isn’t Chicken Little, and I’m certainly not alone in my belief that Leopard is far more compelling than Windows Vista. [Chris Pirillo]
Enough Said.
been wondering how this could start to work for me…
meebo me is a cool blog widget you can add to your sidebar, but I’d really like to see it work directly to all your IM accounts instead of requiring you to be logged in through Meebo.com. This is great functionality, but just not for how I use IM. Perhaps if my IM gets blocked in the future… but for now, not.
Om Malik notes and is please by the release of 30 Boxes mobile interface which is cool, but what we mac users really want is the true .Mac mobile experience. Apple already rocks the sync thing and offers IMAP/ POP mail, but the only way to get your calendar on your device is through an initiated sync. OTA is the true Nirvanna and I’d bet that the eventual Apple iPhone will include this. Apple will surely make it easy for the rest of us.
Technorati Tags: Mobile, Apple, Sync, Calendar, iPhone, 30 Boxes
Coming soon: Windows games that will run on Intel Macs thanks to TransGaming’s new Cider software. There’s no rebooting involved and no separate Windows partition to be installed. It all happens transparently. [Macworld]
If this really works a whole new world of opportunity for Mac marketshare will become available — not too mention fun! When the new systems eventually roll out powered by Intel’s latest Core2Duo, the Apple platform will be incredibly robust!
Google Mobile is starting to come together…
They currently reformat pages automatically when you simply type in Google which is handy for Search on the go, but had not enabled the Personalized portal until today.
You can login through the same URL (http://www.google.com/ig) you use on the desktop and if you’ve logged in on the desktop today, you may have noticed the invitation to personalize your mobile site. I find the experience pretty lukewarm to be honest. It’s nothing compared to way in which Yahoo has grasped mobile content (not even counting the actual applications!) and I really don’t like having to see all the “Add This” BS at the top of my screen. When I am using a mobile device, I want information as quickly as possible and well formatting for the screen. Google gets a B – I’d give Yahoo an A for their http://mobile.yahoo.com (better URL strategy as well)
What Google has done a great job with is mobilizing their Maps application which can be accessed with a click to http://www.google.com/gmm. Today’s update (need to download again) includes real-time traffic information to locations or routes if you choose. This is a great tool and works quite well on my phone. My only real ask here is for GPS integration so the routes can be recalculated as you go. It’s not very handy to manually step through directions as you need to drive. B+
Technorati Tags: Maps, N-Series, Nokia, Travel, N70, Mobile, presence, Google, Navigation, GPS
There are two interesting things breaking this weekend on the mobile presence scene…
Twittr is from Odeo / Blogger and lets you set up a simple group on SMS. It’s actually very slick especially given how simple it is. You just text your message to the universal short code – 40404 – and everyone in your social space gets the update. You can choose to share your messages on the public homepage (I’ve opted out) or not. There’s some simple lingo that lets you ping or track a friend as well as control the level of messaging you receive.
Jaiku is another app that lets you socialize your contact list on Series 60 second edition devices like the Nokia N70. I realize that’s a limited set compared to Twittr which lets you send to anyone regardless of carrier or phone type, but it’s a very interesting way to guage outside of the usual IM space what’s happening with people of interest. I’ve added my status to the blog sidebar for a bit of “flare.” I like how it tracks the cell towers and lets you give the zone you are in a name like home for example. It did pick up my city which is cool as I am in a small westchester suburb currently… My status page is here.
Technorati Tags: Jaiku, Mobile, N-Series, N70, Nokia, presence, Software, twittr
One of the things I’ve been looking for since I started using the N91 was a location manager and this seems to fit the bill EXACTLY as I would like to see. According to the release (quoted below), you can easily connect based on location or even application to the network type of your preference. This not only skips the what type of network question every online app asks, but it makes mobility that much more practical and easier for the average user.
I have yet to try this as my N91 is in a state of hurt at the moment, but I am very much looking forward to trying it out anyway. The demo is good for 30 days and then the price is 30 Euro for a year subscription. N and E Series devices are supported.
Birdstep has created a hosted roaming service allowing Nokia E-Series users to enjoy seamless mobile connectivity across Wireless LAN and GSM/GPRS/UMTS networks, independent of operator or subscription type. The SmartRoaming Client ensures secure and automatic network identification, user authentication and continuous network connection without application downtime or the user needing to know what network is available, how to connect or worrying about security risks. Through setting SmartRoaming profiles the enterprise or individual user can define network preferences based on policies that make sense for work efficiency and cost management.
With the help of the SmartRoaming service and the Birdstep SmartRoaming Client you can browse the Internet, send and receive email or access your net bank securely and easily, wherever you are. Your network connection may be provided by your home Wireless LAN, a secure wireless LAN at your place of work, a GPRS operator service while traveling or a wireless hot-spot in an airport, coffee shop, and hotel or conference area. As a SmartRoaming user, however, you won’t need to know or care how your device is connected: the SmartRoaming service will take care of it all for you. The client on your device always chooses the best connection for you and ensures that your applications stay connected.
technorati tags:N91, E61, NSeries, ESeries, Nokia, Smartphone, Mobile, Roaming, WWAN, LAN, 3G, software
BMW has launched a site promoting 4 new audiobooks, which I’ve just downloaded. This is a joint promotion from Random House, though BMW retains the branding on things… I’ve yet to listen, but am syncing to my iPod for the train home. This seems like a nice brand extention idea – mobile content to enjoy while driving or just on the go.
technorati tags:BMW, Audiobooks, Branding, content, marketing, mobile
WidSets is a pretty interesting java application for mobiles that lets you use and create syndicated access to sites you like. As you can see from the sample I’ve got loaded below, there’s a mix of blog, news and pretty much any RSS capable info you might like.
The application syncs in real-time to your web browser on the desktop if you are making changes which is pretty cool. I don’t know how truly useful this will end up being but it’s pretty interesting regardless. The phone’s layout is exactly like what the image from your browser is like. You basically fly around the space (based on the screen size of your device) and select what you want to view.
technorati tags:widset, flock, n91, java, mobile, ns, widget, rss
I’ve previously stated what I think about Sharepoint, but that has no bearing on the fact that I have to use it almost daily. A particular pain for Mac users is that the file browser – Open in Explorer – is not available at all so large folders of files must be downloaded on a single file basis. This is particularly painful when you have a project with a complex tiered folder structure… I think you get the point. This morning I decided to try something and am amazed it works so I’m sharing here to perhaps enable others to take advantage of this likely little known method.
Once you’ve browsed to a project and are about you open a folder link, instead copy the path to your clipboard. In my case the project has a number of folders and I wanted to use the top most available level to potentially freely browse the entire project site area. The folder link I initially copied looked like this – https://mysharepointaddress.com/files1/PWIKC06016181/Folder_Name
I switched to the Finder and chose Command+K (Go Menu – Connect to Server) and pasted in the path from my clipboard. I actually deleted the Folder_Name portion of the path and hit return. After a few seconds of thinking, the system prompted me to accept my security certificate which I accepted followed by a login prompt. I entered my domain, username and password and was happily surprised to see a Finder window open full of the folders I had just been reviewing in my browser.
This is amazingly helpful for me and hopefully for others as well. One caveat seems to be that this only seems to work on file browsing from within a project – you can’t browse the whole Sharepoint directory openly. I guess that would be asking for access to areas potentially beyond your level of security, though I even tried it from the “My Work” level and was rejected. For now it’s a project only view – but still an excellent help for Macs. I’ve dragged a link to the folder down to my dock for quick access as well…
While I still don’t really like Sharepoint, this certainly makes daily work a fair bit easier.
Just joined Radar.net. If you know me and want to share access to photos, drop a line.
Radar is a private photo sharing network for friends. By default, all your images are set to private and only viewable by Friends you set. The Java app rocks on my N91…
technorati tags:radar.net, photography, moblog, Nokia, n91, ns
While I really dig my N91, I’ve been frustrated that I have not able to have my full contact list because I could not add the phone to iSync. As you might imagine without your contact list dialing and caller ID might be a tad more challenging.
After much searching I was able to locate a few tips and a piece of software which I think finally did the trick, though nothing worked the first time and even after a few syncs there are some quirks.
If you are feeling brave, you can manually edit a file buried well within the iSync application package. It’s not hard, but there’s always risk when you hack / alter a how things came from the manufacturer.
Be sure you start, make sure iSync is not running or syncing in the background. If you’ve already paired your phone and tried to get this working, you might want to remove the pairing from both computer and phone and start fresh — a reboot might even help.
You’ll need to control-click on iSync to Show Package Contents. You’ll notice a new window opens and you can begin to explore… here’s the exact location you’ll need to end up:
/Applications/iSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns/PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/MetaClasses.plist
The MetaClasses file should be open in a text editor so you don’t mistakenly add any strange characters. I’m using TextWrangler. I suggest making a backup of the original before you rush to open and edit it. When you have the file open you’ll see it’s really just a massive XML file. I’ve inserted a piece of code for the N91 at line 3136 which is right after the section on the N-Gage and was the last Nokia phone listed. It seemed logical to me… your mileage may vary. Simply paste the following in and hit save:
com.nokia.N91
Identification
com.apple.cgmi+cgmm
Nokia+Nokia N91
Nokia+Nokia N91-1
com.apple.gmi+gmm
Nokia+Nokia N91
Nokia+Nokia N91-1
InheritsFrom
family.com.nokia.serie60v2.3
Services
ServiceName
com.apple.model
ServiceProperties
ModelIcon
NOKN91.tiff
ModelName
N91
If you’d like the actual Phone icon as indicated in the code, here it is (option+click to save it directly). UPDATE – I’ve also just posted my metaclasses.plist file (option+click to save) for people having trouble. I’d recommend you move yours to a safe location before replacing with mine.
I did this before I tried the plugin since this is essentially the same trick that allowed my N70 and N90 to work in iSync, but it did not seem to happen for me. I actually tried pairing my phone a few times to now avail and finally made the move to purchase the plugins…
For the easier and probably more mass recommendation, I’d suggest paying to purchase a copy of the iSync plugins from nova media. Installation is not complete for the N91 until you run the 2 other packages that appear in your Documents folder once the main piece is installed. There is no warning or suggestion to install these, but I found that things worked after I installed both. The installers (and the uninstaller for the plugins) are located within your ~/Documents folder.
/Users/*yourusername*/Documents/nova media phone plugins/SyncML-Version for Communicator+Smartphone /
/Users/*yourusername*/Documents/nova media phone plugins/Nokia-Agent-Version for Communicator+Smartphone/
A gentle warning — Nova media could definitely use a few lessons in customer support. For starters, they might want to try answering email to support. I know it’s the World Cup and they are in Germany, but perhaps an auto-responded would be nice if business has to shut down when games are on.
I spent some good time searching after failing a few times and discovered that there is a another application from nova media (Free, but not on their website anywhere!) called Sync Repair, that I think repairs permissions on the MetaClasses.plist. Once I ran this I was able to add the N91 and begin to Sync!
This was a considerable effort for me as there is no consistent way to get this to work until Apple natively supports the phone in iSync which as of today’s Mac OS X update to 10.4.7 (and iSync 2.3) is still not there. I hope you find this helpful – happy syncing!
Update — Nova Media has updated their plugin for iSync 2.3. So far it’s the same for me. Works mainly – with an error as noted above on some syncs.
Technorati Tags: iSync, N-Series, N70, N90, N91, Nokia, Sync
Websites as graphs is a website with a Java applet will generate a graph of a website. It looks at the tags in the html and creates the graph.
Paul’s Time Sink | Websites as graph.
Pretty slick… here’s mine:
technorati tags:websitesasgraphs
Google Browser Sync is a new Firefox extension that as you might expect allows you to sync settings across computers. This is a super cool feature if you work on more than a single computer as I do and could be the final push for me to only use Firefox.
I’ve really enjoyed how passwords have been shared from either Safari and Camino through the Apple Keychain and synced via .Mac to my various systems, but this actually takes it up notch by syncing AND encrypting cookies, passwords, Bookmarks History as well as tabs and windows so essentially you can just head to another system on which you’ve installed this extension and keep on going as if you had already been working there.
This could be a killer feature for people who work more in the cloud than locally… for me, it’s just great to know that this (apparently) just works.
I was just catching up on some email with Chappelle Show on in the background and caught a Wyclef Jean performance I had actually seen previously and really liked. He sings an acoustic version of President, which is a heavily political song as the name implies.
If I was president / I’d be elected Friday / Assassinated on Saturday / Buried on Sunday / Get the truth back on Monday
Wanting to snag a copy, my first instinct was to hit iTunes. There’s an EP there, but not with the version I wanted. (I actually just went back and picked up the Reggae version for .99) Next stop Google… even with an advanced search, I could not find the track in a form I wanted. I did find a low-res live acoustic version (MP3) from a John Kerry rally, but the quality was actually pretty bad. Then I thought about You Tube! Search on Wyclef and voilá! The exact clip I had just seen was there… though only in flash. A quick stop to Keepvid.com with a paste from Youtube and I was able to download an FLV of the show. FLV is not really the most ideal format, but one more stop to iSquint and a few minutes of conversion and my song in video format was waiting in iTunes ready to sync.
While this seems complicated, it’s actually not bad and really did not take very long once I realized where to look for the file.