a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
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!
I was just reading a piece on Forbes.com and was caught by sneak attack ad two different expanding ads opened on me at the same time. This is the worst ad-based user experience I’ve seen in quite a long time.
The remaining content is only about 20% — 80% is ad. I was watching a slide show and found that on the image prior, a Pfizer ad had been playing and was actually trying to expand on me as well. When I clicked to view the next image I thought things would improve, but as you can see it clearly got worse!
Technorati Tags: Marketing
This is a great walk down memory lane…Â What’s amazing is experiencing it today over broadband. I recall some serious modem based page loads in pre-1.0 Mosaic!
I ordered the WirelessMighty Mouse when it was announced yesterday and I love it. I’ve usedother wireless bluetooth mice, but this is a keeper. It’s very simple (Apple style) and yet has a great deal of functionality baked in. The stealth second button is pressure sensitive and it magically just works when you click down on the right side. The scroll ball is very slick. Imagine a scroll wheel that clicks, spins and slides any direction you need it, plus provides another button for launching apps – the default is for Expose.
As you can see from the control panel, there are quite a few options for making this more personal. I know this is nothing new for users ofmore advanced pointing devices, but it’s great to see from Apple and again, it’s a really nice mouse. The laser tracking actually enabled me to use it without mouse pad on my marble kitchen island. This has been impossible with every other device I’ve tried.
technorati tags:apple, hardware, mightymouse, mouse, Bluetooth
You will not be able to stop yourself from laughing.
I received my new Nokia BH-800 headset last night and man is this thing small. In addition to the diminutive scale, the build quality is excellent and most importantly the sound quality is very strong. I have not been able to test outdoors (the usual killer for headsets) but thus far my calls have been very clear for both me and the other party.
As you can see in this lovely phonecam shot, it’s very small…
I’ve paired the headset with my N70 (N91 in for repair) and it works very well – reconnecting even if you walk from the room and return while it’s in your pocket. The device itself supports Bluetooth 2.0 which is more future-proofing at this point as I don’t think I have any other 2.0 devices that I am aware of… My MacBookPro seems to like it and I’ve made a call through Skype as a test.
In the box was a necklace that allows the headset to clip-in for easy carrying, but when I put it on I got the “What the hell” is that reaction from my wife, so Nokia fails the WAF (wife approval factor) test on their fashion accessories. There was also a suede pouch for said necklace and headset as well as a small travel charger which as you would hope also works for the phone.
I’m very pleased with this purchase as I continue down the road of my full Nokia conversion.
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
The N93 is the successor to the N90 and whoa has it got the goods! I’d love to check it out and can only hope the Nokia Blogger Program hooks it up…
The N93 is Nokia’s top of the range convergence device boasting a 3.2 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus and 3x optical zoom), MP3/AAC/WMA media player, multiple connectivity options (GSM, WCDMA, WLAN, USB, Bluetooth, TV Out, UPnP and Infrared), and the S60 3rd Edition software platform running on Symbian OS 9.1
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
Just spending some time in my backyard, streaming GrooveSalad and catching up on news….
Jews for Jesus kinda creep me out (full page recruitment ads in the WSJ among other things) in general, but this pamphlet (PDF Download) is simply amazing.
Technorati Tags: religion, Jews For Jesus, Marketing
Scanner Darkly Preview:
The first 24 minutes of Richard Linklater’s Scanner Darkly is available to view courtesy of IGN.
Technorati Tags: Movies
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
I am not really sure what’s wrong, but my N91 is no longer functioning in a way that enables me to use it. This is seriously disappointing as it is my favorite N-Series unit to date. The N70 has been called back into action from the sidelines…
The N91 seems to be buggy around the notion of multi-tasking which is supposed to be one of the key strengths of the Symbian platform. What I experience is that my phone starts up, connects my email in the background and seems to be working fine otherwise. If I pick something to do though the screen does not properly refresh most of the time (locking me from that next action) or it will allow my choice to be made, but then fails to complete the action. Here’s an example — I’m sitting in my Kitchen at the moment and a family of deer strolled in. There were two adolescent and two very small deer which I thought would be cool to get some images or even some video for my daughter. As the N91 started to record the video it simply froze up.
I’m not sure what short of a firmware flash is going to rescue things here…
The singer, 60, who suffered from an LSD-induced breakdown while at the peak of his career in the Sixties, died last Friday (July 7). It has been reported that he died from complications related to diabetes, however, other reports suggest the cause of death was cancer.
NME.COM – News – Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett dies
technorati tags:music, pink_floyd, Syd_Barrett
I decided recently to use the 4GB drive to store my email as opposed to the (other) internal device memory as I felt it might be best to leave the device RAM open as much as possible…
Today, I tried for the first time in a while to connect the N91 via USB to transfer a few files and found that I can’t because my Messaging application is using the drive. The N91 suggested I switch the memory store back to the phone… I don’t understand why even after I disconnect my mailbox the drive is unable to be accessed. Seems like a form of protection – though I can’t figure out from what. When I tried to switch the storage for Messaging back to internal, I was told I was out of memory. Lovely.
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.
Photodoto Review: Rentglass.com lens rental service John Watson offers up a review of Rentglass.com’s new service which is offering the amateur and pro photographer the ability to rent high end lenses pretty cheaply. Right now they are just renting lenses for Canon digital SLRs, but will begin offering Nikon lenses later this month. [Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection]
This rocks Thomas – Thanks for the pointer! I can’t wait to try this when the Nikon supply comes online…
technorati tags:digital_photography, Nikon, Lens
