I got a message from Google Groups saying it was tough to reach me the past few days…. and I thought it was just a slow email day or two.
The disturbing part is that I actually have the mx record pointing through Google for the Google apps for your Domain service… so is this a DNS issue or some bump in the Google OS? I’ve been receiving batches of mail since last night around 10pm but only a few trickled through during the 24 hours prior.
This is giving me second thoughts on having Google manage things like this. If my domain pointed elsewhere I could still pull mail through Gmail with a forward, which might be safer…. a bit of redundancy never hurts.
Bandwagon which launches this week is going to enable simple point and click backup of your iTunes library to Amazon’s S3 storage cloud!! This is awesome! While I’ve got my library sitting on a local RAID, having an offsite location for over 200GB of data is a great feeling of security.
Seriously looking forward to trying this… If you have a blog and post about this page, you can get the first year free. Pricing looks like it will be about $99/year which is very reasonable in my opinion for this type of service.
Simply point your browser to http://openbossa.indt.org/canola/ and have fun. They are using the latest installer tech for Maemo, so by simply clicking the install link, you’ll have the application repository automatically added which makes everything quite nice…
Once the repository is on your tablet, you’ll be able to track updates within the application manager as well which is quite handy – especially as you install beta software.
Just a quick thank you to Verizon for knocking my phone service out today for some unexplained reason — and especially for not being able to address the problem until tomorrow.
I’ll keep this in mind the next time I see your advertising making sure I know that a phone is “always on” unlike my cable service on which I am still able to use for connectivity to write this as well as for VOIP calling…
While there does not seem to be anything official anywhere I can confirm and have seen other reports in forums that Apple’s Airport Extreme (N) does not currently support RAID disks. My Western Digital My Book 1TB absolutely does not work, period. When I connect a small portable 100GB USB disk, I am immediately prompted for my network password to access the disk.
The goal in updating my Airport was to mainly get a low-cost NAS-like service going so all my home systems could easily share photos and music as well as gain easy access to backup. I am not sure why RAIDs are not seen by the Airport, but it’s seriously limiting the functionality I’d imagine most people looking to extend network storage would want.
I’m hoping there’s a software update in my future to fix this this — until then be warned.
I am still very interested in getting this going myself, though I have yet to track down a proper ODB bluetooth device so I can pop it in my car. Vital Engineering makes the car-pal, which a small and seemingly comprehensively capable device, but I am unable to find a domestic rep. It’s available for sale overseas, but I was hoping to find something locally for that more immediate gratification…
This is seriously frustrating!! My new Airport Extreme is active as clearly noted in this pic, yet my Express cannot connect to it through the configuration software… makes me wonder how it can both see it and not see it at the same time.
I have yet to see my shared disk on the network either… argh!
While not exactly what I am looking for, this is a very cool and very compelling new use for the camera’s we have on our phones…
Bangalore based Motvik, is alpha testing their software WWIGO (pronounced ‘vigo’), which means “Webcam Where I Go”, which enables a cameraphone to stream live video to a laptop computer. [picturephoning.com:]
There’s a video on Blip if you want to see it in action.
The current alpha supports some S60v2 edition devices… I hope they’ll up things to S60v3 – but I’ll need a Windows machine in order to actually try it out which will certainly limit my abilities for now.
I’ve noticed that I’ve attracted some readers from some very interesting domains on a regular basis and thought I should mention directly that I am actively seeking new opportunities. My bio is on the about page, but here are a few bits you may have picked up from reading various posts which I think are worth highlighting:
I love technology and am usually a very early adopter. I think about it constantly and play with new gadgets and services in my free time. I tend to proactively share my views on how things work and why they might even be of interest to others.
Quite a few people actively seek my advice when it comes to purchase decisions and my co-workers generally know if there’s a some new gizmo or web technology, I’ve usually checked it out first hand.
I read constantly. It’s impossible to write about everything I read/scan as I track 680 feeds (by today’s count), but I am very aware about what is happening in the following areas (and in no particular order) web 2.0, mobile, broadband, consumer electronics, gaming, the digital home as well as specifically Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and of course Nokia among quite a few other areas of interest.
Since my background is in marketing, I tend to view things through that lens and often consider whether something is just cool or actually has a purpose that would be of interest to more than a micro-niche market. I have worked with brands on both a national and global level and understand the complexities in planning and directing multi-touch cross channel communication strategies.
I am looking for an opportunity that will enable me to combine my passion for technology, experience in marketing and my desire to evangelize the benefits of new products and services. I know that my background and experience can help quite a few of my reader’s companies. Please feel free to contact me so we can get the call rolling.
Symbian-Guru notes Nokia’s press release today which apologizes for the delay in releasing the Nokia Maps app after their initial announcement and invitation for the trial. As you might recall I ranted a bit and did an initial review when it was eventually released days later.
I’ve continued to play with Nokia Maps and definitely like it. The main weakness turns out to be my older GPS which loses signal and makes it pretty hard to track my trips and find new places to go.
The application is still technically in beta and has had 30,000 downloads to date which is pretty impressive considering the requirements to get going… (bluetooth gps for starters) When the GPS-inside phones arrive like the N95, E90 and 6110, even more people will be able to navigate on the go and I bet we’ll be seeing some enhanced services as well.
I’m glad Nokia is listening to the community and speaking back both in private (comments and emails) as well as in the open for all to see. It’s good to be heard!
I discovered Carman on Maemo Garage last night…
I am pretty sure that most cars built in the US after 2000 have the required connector under the hood to send the data to your Nokia Tablet with an additional bluetooth device. I’m not that much of a car geek, but I could see myself becoming one very quickly with this…
Makes me want to revisit integrating GPS, Music and Phone (now telemetry) through a nice touch screen. Carputer here I come!
I honestly have no idea how much the OBD-II device costs, but I am off to investigate!
Does anyone know if it’s possible to use the video calling feature of Nokia’s N-Series phones for calls over wifi? I can’t figure it out but think it would be a great way to do enhanced VOIP chat… similar to what the N800 can do, but using the N80 or N93…
I was thinking initially that Fring might be able to do it with one of their supported services (GTalk, Skype and MSN) but don’t see the option…
I was (finally) able to download the Smart2Go application today have spent some time playing with it on my N73. You’ll need to have at least 3MB free for the initial install and will certainly want to have space on a memory card for downloaded maps and local info. You will also want to be sure you are good on your data plan as this baby is downloading constantly while you move around.
I opened it up at home and had it quickly running in the car. From what I can tell, it looks a lot like the Maps app that I’ve seen in N95 demos which is cool that it’s being shared across devices. As you can see below there are both 2D and 3D views, but there is no way to adjust the manner in which the maps scroll, so if you are driving south you are moving down. In other in-car navigation situations, I’ve typically switched that view to be heading up regardless of compass direction which can make it easier to quickly scan where you are heading — which by the way is amazingly difficult and dangerous on a phone if you are the driver. Safety First!
2D and 3D views…
Search by Category…
In general, I like this application. There’s quite a bit here as far as geographic and local info for free. You do have to upgrade if you want turn by turn navigation (about $90/yr or just over 100 for 3) and about $10 for detailed city guides. I’m a tad skeptical of how good the information in both will be based on my usage.
The local information seems to have some pretty big holes. I was at a Chase bank today and tried searching for an ATM. the nearest one was revealed to me miles away. I then headed to a shopping center which had both a Target and an A&P Grocery store and was not able to find either… when I searched directly for A&P I was not able to find ANY grocery stores with that name (there are at least 3 within 15 minutes) and Target showed up about 25 miles away. These are not reasons to avoid this software, but be aware that the information you get may be far from complete.
If you’d like to see how things work, I’ve made a video to share. I recorded this several times actually due to some lovely technical issues with my camera and recording setup so if it’s a bit rough or uneven that’s just the way it is today.
Ari Jaaksi the lead on Nokia’s Internet Tablet project has once again written an informative post about the direction of the platform.
Short term
In a few weeks (I hope) we’ll release a new version of the OS2007 with a
better Flash performance
better video performance and quality
longer usage times i.e. better power management fixes here and there
These are still in the owen so wait and see.
Mid term
Then later this year we ‘ll have an
updated browser with better WEB 2.0 support and other goodies
improved multimedia support with more formats supported
improved package management to better enable sw upgrading
interesting 3rd party software such as Skype and Real Rhapsody
more apps & stuff downloadable from http://tableteer.nokia.com/ (can be accessed with an internet tablet, only ….)
I am very excited for the near term release and hope that the combination of better flash and video performance combined with enhanced power management will make a considerable release. From what I’ve gathered in the community, there is still quite a bit to learn in order to really take best advantage of the hardware we’ve got.
The next phase speaks to continued enhancements – I particularly like the more formats supported mention in multimedia support. Additional codecs will really help – Quicktime and WMV please. Unfortunately it looks like the release of Rhapsody and Skype are slipping if I read between the lines. Thought both were due in either February or March…
Ari also mentions looking to better embrace the community’s support making it easier for people to contribute. This is an open source project after all… I like hearing this and look forward to even broader support and community developments. One things Nokia could do better where possible is really help people know where the good stuff is… while the device is initially appealing to geeks, it’s still pretty hard unless you really explore to find the mailing lists, the feeds from active community members and of course the applications and updates – you can subscribe to projects of interest in case you’ve missed that ever so subtle detail.
I know I read a while back that the US was a big target for Nokia… They’ve certainly made a nice splash with the N-Series and even with a few key retail showcase stores, but the only real device to have been noticed on a grand scale is the E62, which is the EDGE sibling of the E61 and only supports EDGE for Cingular AT&T. I’ve now had the pleasure to use the N70, N90, N91, N93, N73 and N80 as well as the E61. Not one works on the US HSDPA frequencies which means that as great as they are to use, there’s no 3G for you.
I’ve been enjoying reading the reports from 3GSM and there are some really nice things coming from the Fins, yet again — not a single device will work on the 3G capable US network. Where’s the love Nokia?
It’s hard to deny the appeal of the new Nokia E90 Communicator. It does everything. Connects to QuadBand GSM, handles 3G speeds, WiFi, GPS, dual-screen, full QWERTY keyboard etc etc…
The main hitch I see and it’s a biggie is the price — $1000!!! Whoa – that’s serious. For that kind of money S60 is competing with UMPCs and Laptops — not just Blackberry.
Regardless, it’s a gorgeous device and now that I’ve used S60 for a while I can appreciate how much I could be getting done with something like this in my possession.
John Tokash notes that CeBit is denying bloggers journalism passes this year which is very disappointing to hear. CES had just enabled a slew of people to cover the show very effectively bringing quite a bit of news from the floor to our attention.
absolutely does not work, period. When I connect a small portable 100GB USB disk, I am immediately prompted for my network password to access the disk.
