Press Release: Enhance your lifestyle with Astraware
THE MIDLANDS, UK - January 27th, 2006 - Astraware is excited to announce a special promotion for their popular Lifestyle channel highlighting some of the best lifestyle applications available for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) handhelds.
From Monday 30th January 2006 for just 8 days, ‘Enhance Your Lifestyle’ will feature a different application each day with a special exclusive 24-hour-only discount of up to $10!
With many new users looking for applications for their devices and more experienced owners looking for new titles to maximise their handheld use, the Astraware ‘Enhance Your Lifestyle’ promotion will offer a selection of top applications from Chapura, Deluxeware, Electric Pocket, Ilium Software, Landware, Llamagraphics, and SplashData. All of the applications on the Astraware Lifestyle channel are personally selected by the Astraware Team from customer requests.
‘Enhance Your Lifestyle’ will begin at 8.00am GMT on January 30th, and a new application will be available from the same time each day. Make sure you check back to the Astraware website: http://www.astraware.com, to discover that day’s offer!
Press Release: VITO Taskswitcher for Smartphones released
January 25, 2006 - VITO Technology releases TaskSwitcher for Windows Mobile Smartphones. This well-known and highly efficient utility has already become popular among PPC users and now is ready to conquer the new plaform. VITO TaskSwitcher now supports all Windows Mobile Smartphones.
VITO TaskSwitcher allows you to switch easily between your running tasks or stop them from a pop-up list. You can do it using only your joystick:
- call TaskSwitcher list using the assigned button
- in the list navigate with joystick buttons (or stylus if you wish)
- to switch to a highlighted item press Enter
- Autoselect function also automatically switches to a highlighted item after 5 seconds.
- to close the highlighted application press the right navigation button.
- to close the active application or all running applications choose “Close active” or “Close all”.
- to close TaskSwitcher press the left navigation button
Useful links:
Company web site: http://www.vitotechnology.com
Buy link: http://vitotechnology.com/en/products/list.php?BID=24&ID=1549
Product home page: http://vitotechnology.com/en/products/taskswitcher_smartphone.html
Review of the BlackBerry 7100i (Sprint/Nextel) Posted
My latest review (actually the first one in a long time that wasn’t software oriented!) is all about the BlackBerry 7100i. Sprint / Nextel is offering this small and powerful phone. I like the GPS features built into it, the walkie-talkie function is cool, but I still don’t like it as much as other devices. Many thanks to the wonderful folks at Sprint for providing the test unit.
Assorted Topics
Intel iMac - I finally had an opportunity to really work with one of the new Intel Core Duo-powered iMacs. One of my clients had purchased one, so he called up to have me install the new computer and set up a home network. Initial thoughts were that it wasn’t that much different than my regular iMac G5, but once the setup was complete it was obvious that the Intel-native applications (probably actually running the “Universal Binaries”) were very fast - about twice the speed of my G5! I’m hoping that many more of my customers end up getting the new devices with built-in iSight cameras, since I can then provide support “face to face” online.
I found it interesting talking to a buddy who works at the local Apple Store yesterday. He mentioned that at the current time, Apple is only recommending the Intel devices to people who do not use various “professional” applications such as Final Cut, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, and PhotoShop CS. Basically, anyone who is a basic home or office user will have no problems, while you may see some issues if you’re using the pro apps that haven’t come out in universal binary format.
BlackBerry - Whoa. The Supreme Court turned down a request by Research In Motion to review the patent infringement suits against the BlackBerry maker. This makes the possibility of a service shutdown even more plausible than we ever thought. Apparently, if something like this does happen those who are in the emergency response / government market will still have service, while all those who live to read their email on their “CrackBerrys” are going to start going through withdrawal symptoms. Frankly, I think the worst case will be that RIM will pay NTP some sort of royalty so that the service can continue uninterrupted. Of course that will most likely be passed on to users…
Opera Mini Browser - I’ve always like the Opera web browser, although I haven’t used it recently since I became a fan of FoxFire. However, it’s a blast to try it out on different platforms, and they’ve recently come out with a version for handheld devices called Opera Mini. I downloaded the Palm version for my Treo 650, had to install the Palm Java Micro Environment, and then gave it a whirl. It worked pretty well! It allegedly compresses the web pages you’re viewing by up to 80% and reformats them using Small Screen Rendering. Pages looked great, they came down quickly and I may have to start using Opera Mini instead of Palm’s browser. You can get a copy for your device by pointing it to http://mini.opera.com and downloading it right to your device, or by going to http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/phones/ and downloading it to your Mac or PC.
Live! from the Gizmo Ranch Podcast - New Episode
This is the first iTunes Enhanced podcast I’ve done, so those of you who are listening to the podcast with iTunes for Windows or Mac, QuickTime, or feeding your brain through an iPod nano or iPod with video, you’ll actually see the pictures change as the topics change. You will even be provided with links to the items I’m talking about. Pretty cool, eh? Note that this file is in M4A (MPEG 4) format, so if you can’t listen to it, you’d better download iTunes, make sure you’re using the QuickTime plugin for your browser or buy yourself an iPod.
My trip to MacWorld Expo in San Francisco is the topic this week. Of course I talk about the new MacBook Pro laptop, the new Intel Core Duo-powered iMac, and all of the updates to Apple software. I also found time to trash the BlackBerry 7100i (a device that just didn’t do it for me…) and talk about the Garmin GPSMAP 60cs GPS receiver. This was done on-the-fly, so you’ll have to excuse the recording if it sounds a bit raw and unrehearsed (mainly because it WAS unrehearsed!).
As usual, you can either listen to the podcast directly by clicking here or you can subscribe to it by entering the following URL in your podcatcher software:
http://gizmoranch.podbus.com/gizmo.xml
Press Release: BlackBerry to Offer Mac Support
January 12, 2006 — Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) and Information Appliance Associates (IAA) today announced a licensing agreement whereby RIM will offer ‘PocketMac® for BlackBerry®’ to Mac users, free of charge. PocketMac for BlackBerry is a desktop application that enables Mac users to synchronize data between their BlackBerry devices and Macintosh applications including core OS X version 10.4 “Tiger” applications and Microsoft Entourage.
“The worldwide popularity of Mac OS X is driving the creation of many exciting new products and significant growth in the Apple development community,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations. “We’re thrilled that IAA and RIM have collaborated to better support mobile Mac users with easy-to-use BlackBerry synchronization.”
“PocketMac for BlackBerry is easy to install and allows users to synchronize email, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes with popular Mac applications,” said Terence Goggin, CTO of Information Appliance Associates. “We are pleased to work with RIM to provide this robust solution to Apple’s mobile customers.”
“This licensing agreement will help expand the reach of BlackBerry to another important market segment,” said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. “There is significant interest in BlackBerry from Mac users and we look forward to delivering PocketMac for BlackBerry to customers around the world.”
RIM has licensed the complete version of PocketMac for BlackBerry from IAA and the companies plan ongoing product development collaboration. PocketMac for BlackBerry synchronizes the email, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes of Microsoft Entourage, OS X’s Address Book and iCal, Now Contact and Now Up-to-Date, DayLite, and Stickies, among other applications. This easy-to-access solution for Macintosh synchronization is expected to be available as a free download at www.blackberry.com beginning in February.
Further details of the licensing agreement were not disclosed.
Huzzah! for Portland, Oregon
Finally, a city that got it right.
I was happy to find out that the WiFi at the Portland Airport (www.flypdx.com) is free! It’s nice to see a city that realizes that they can provide a service to passengers without nailing them with ridiculous charges or requiring them to have an account with T-Mobile or CIngular.
The next big breakthrough will be when all airlines start providing WiFi on all flights. There, I wouldn’t mind paying a bit extra (even as much as $10 for a domestic flight) to be able to surf while flying.
Random Musings While Traveling
My short stay at MacWorld Expo is over - I’m heading off to Portland, Oregon to train a group of students for one of the classes I do for ASPE Technology (http://www.aspetechnology.com). Now that I’m traveling more for my business, I tend to see some rather interesting things that either annoy or amuse me. Here are some examples:
1) Annoying IBM ad in airports. Have you seen this sign in airports for “the other IBM” (IBM Consulting - the former Price Waterhouse Cooper Lybrands Innagaddadavida Baby whoever)? It shows some middle-aged businesswoman who looks like she has frequent bouts of painful constipation pontificating that “I have theory…I need results” or some crap like that. Gimme a break. What she needs to do is lighten up and work with her employees instead of acting like a bitch and outsourcing their work to IBM Consulting.
2) Still no universal WiFi. I really, really hope that Google’s plan to provide free WiFi / WiMax throughout the known universe happens. Why? I think it still sucks that I have to pay for WiFi service in most places. I would use my Cingular service and a Bluetooth connection through my Treo, but I can’t get it to work right now. Grrr. Would it kill some of these airport restaurants and bars to put in a little wireless hub so I can drink another beer and update my blog?
3) Kudos to CNET. Hey, guys - I liked your free WiFi service while I was in SF. My hotel was right next to your office and I was sooooo happy to see an open network.
4) More kudos to the MacWorld Expo folks. Wow. My choice of WiFi networks at Moscone Center! Free! That’s why I was able to post three updates yesterday.
5) When is a non-smoking hotel room not a non-smoking hotel room? When it’s at the Courtyard by Marriott San Francisco Downtown. Nice hotel, crappy policy. The non-smoking floor I was on smelled like a freakin’ ashtray. Their idea of a non-smoking floor is spritzing some air sanitizer in a room between guests. The room still had an ashtray in it, for dog’s sake. Last time I’m staying there…
6) PodZinger is a cool service. I met this morning with the head of PodZinger.com, Alex Laats. This is “not just a podcast directory”. PodZinger.com is a subsidiary of BBN Technologies and this service is a commercial application of what BBN has been selling government agencies for years - the ability to take broadcasts and convert them into searchable text. This technology has been used for intelligence work in the past, for instance listening to Arabic phone conversations and converting them to text files that can then be processed to search for certain patterns or phrases. Now they’re using the technology to actually search podcasts! Live from the Gizmo Ranch and The CacheCast are both scanned by PodZinger, so you can search their directory by a phrase (i.e., MacWorld Expo) and chances are very good that you’ll see my podcasts.
You can also use PodZinger to create a “series” - a special podcast search that creates a feed of all podcasts that have to do with a particular topics. Not only can you search the podcasts, but PodZinger provides links to the specific point in the podcast where you said a specific thing. Great technology and a fantastic application.
7) Regional jets are a crappy trend. Regional jets are a good thing! OK, I sound bipolar here, but for a reason. I like the fact that many airlines are now flying regional jets to locations where they used to fly those terrifying little prop planes. But on the other hand, I’m starting to see a lot of flights that used to be handled by larger aircraft (i.e., MD-80, 737, etc…) getting pushed over to the little Bombardier CRJ-700 type jets. They’re somewhat cramped on the inside, they don’t have the amenities of the larger aircraft (Frontier Airlines, I love your DirecTV service at every seat!), and your carry-on luggage gets “gate checked”. Unfortunately, this is not a trend that’s going to change soon - in fact, we’ll probably see MORE regional jets in the future.
A lot more PowerBooks / iBooks / MacBooks Pro. Maybe it’s just me, but I see a surprising number of business travelers using Apple laptops. When the speedy and lightweight Intel-powered MacBook Pro starts shipping next month, it’s one more reason for businesspeople to buy Macs. My only problem is that my 800 MHz PowerBook G4 is still a surprisingly spritely laptop thanks to Mac OS X, so I’m not sure I want to spend $3,000 (hey, I get ‘em loaded) on a new computer unless I use it for my sole machine. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll sell the PowerBook and my iMac G5, then get a MacBook Pro, a large Apple display, and then set up a Mac mini as a home server and backup machine.
9) SFO and San Francisco a lot easier to get around now. My last trip to San Francisco was ten years ago or so… I like the fact that BART now goes to the airport, since I was able to do a round trip to/from the airport to downtown for $11.00. The regular taxi fares are somewhere around $33 per way minimum! Congratulations to BART on not knuckling under to the taxi companies and for installing the key link to the airport.
10) Smartphones? Pocket PC Phones? Bah! Maybe it’s just in the San Francisco area, but I’ve been seeing many more Palm Treo 650s than Windows Mobile devices. I can see why. Hell, I had a situation today where I was riding on BART and got an email from a Podbus.com client who wanted to change his domain name. Using the Treo, I was able to send him a quick email telling him what I was going to do, and then use the Treo’s browser to go to my administration page and get the work done. Sure, I could do that with a WiFi connected laptop or even a Pocket PC Phone (I tried with a Windows Mobile Smartphone and it did NOT work), but it works easily with a Treo. I’m even willing to bet that the Treo 700w isn’t going to be as popular as the PalmOS version (I won’t bet money, however…) .
Live from MacWorld Expo III
It’s hard to explain how happy I am right now.
Google just made me ecstatic by shipping Google Earth for Mac. I’m running it on my old PowerBook G4 (800 MHz) and it runs very well. This will be a valuable tool for geocaching and just plain havin’ fun. The screen shot shows the area where the Gizmo Ranch is located (for reasons of paranoia, I’m not revealing WHICH house is mine!).
Great stuff!
Garmin announced that they’ll have all of their products available for Mac by the end of 2006, also a great piece of news for a geocacher like me.
iSee is a pretty cool device that turns just about any iPod (including the nano) into a video recorder / player. (Note - their website isn’t handling the load today…)
Micromat has come out with a tool for Mac service and support personnel called the TechTool Protege. It’s a 1 GB FireWire “flash drive” containing the latest version of Mac OS X, the latest version of TechTool Pro, and the DiskStudio drive utility. They’re selling it at the show for $215.
Cool stuff, Maynard!
Live from MacWorld Expo II
After a couple of hours on the floor at MacWorld Expo, here’s an update:
1) The new iMacs are FAST! I tried out both the 17″ and 20″ Intel iMacs and they are much more responsive than my iMac G5. While the true power of these new machines won’t be realized until all software for them is Intel native, they’re already showing how the Mac platform is going to absolutely make Windows look like crap. Oh wait - Windows already looks like crap! Anyway, just wait until Windows Vista comes out and needs a much more powerful machine to do half of what a Mac can do today.
2) Cool product - Browseback from SmileOnMyMac software. I had read about this product and was singularly unimpressed, mainly because I couldn’t visualize what the package did. It essentially takes a copy of each and every web page you visit and can save them in PDF format for searching by Spotlight. All of those pages are kept in a thumbnail image that you can click on to see the full-size page. This would be a great tool for keeping track of web-based research, as you can click on the document to go the original page, email a page, save to PDF, etc…
3) I finally got to meet the folks who host my servers - Jay Menna and Patrick Dayton of MacMiniColo.net . I’ve talked with Jay a number of times over iChat AV; it was nice to actually meet him in the flesh.
4) Had a great meeting / party with my fellow Take Control authors! It was an honor to finally meet Adam Engst, since he’s responsible for me getting on the Internet back in 1993 through his book and disk “The Macintosh Internet Starter Kit”. Tonya Engst was my editor for “Take Control of Your iPod: Beyond the Music” and she deserved a hug last night when I finally got to meet her in person.
5) ACN’s rule! I’ve been meeting a pile of Apple Consultant Network folks today. Since I’m a certified Apple Consultant, it’s been fun to talk to others from across the country. Tonight we’re “partyin’” at a mixer to be held at a company downtown.
More later!
Live from MacWorld Expo
Apple continued their tradition of innovation at MacWorld Expo 2006 in San Francisco with several outstanding announcements.
First, much to the surprise of all of the attendees, Steve Jobs introduced the first Intel-based Macs. The PowerBook line has been replaced by the MacBook Pro since the “Power” portion of the name no longer makes much sense in light of the Intel CPU. These devices run 4 to 5 times as fast as existing PowerBooks, and also feature built-in iSight videoconferencing cameras. The Intel Dual Core CPUs are being used, making these the first two-processor laptop computers in the world. These new laptops are expected to ship in February of 2006. The iMac has been replaced with two Intel-based models, a 17″ and a 20″ - both run about 2 - 3 times as fast as their PowerPC counterparts.
There were also a number of software announcements. iLife ‘06 was announced with major upgrades to iPhoto, GarageBand, and iMovie, as well as a new feature called iWeb. iPhoto gained speed and the ability to handle up to 250,000 photos, new tools for formatting, and a “photocasting” feature. GarageBand now features a built-in podcast tool that will make all the other tools (i.e., Podcast Maker) obsolete. iMovie has a ton of new themes that are animated and that make it very simple to create professional looking videos. iWeb is a tool very much like RealMac Software’s RapidWeaver, that allows quick development of complex and good-looking websites. It has full integration with the rest of the iLife suite, so sites can be developed by simply dragging and dropping content. Minor additions to the function set of iWork were announced.
Microsoft has announced that by June they will be shipping an Intel-native version of Microsoft Office. For now, Office 2004 for Mac will run under the “Rosetta” tool which allows non-Intel software to run in a PowerPC emulation mode at PowerPC speeds. All of the new versions of Apple software are universal binaries that will run on older or new Macs.
That’s it for now! More later!
Fun things in store for .Mac?
Since I got back into the Macintosh world in 2003, I’ve used Apple’s .Mac service for email and as a great place to back up my important files. They’ve made some interesting changes over the years, including increasing the storage amount up to 1 GB (nothing great there….) and bumping bandwidth up a little. Well, something is going to happen on Tuesday, since they’ve made the following announcement on the .Mac site:
Strangely enough, the Steve Jobs keynote address is right in the middle of that “scheduled maintenance” window - 9 AM PST on 1/10/06. That indicates that something BIG is going to happen with .Mac.
There are some rumors that they’re going to bump up monthly bandwidth to a terabyte, but I seriously doubt that. I sell bandwidth as a podcast host, and a terabyte ain’t cheap! My guess is that the long rumored “iWeb” application has some sort of links to this new system, so it will be down while they get the new system online. I’ll let you know what I hear at the keynote on Tuesday.
A New Year, A New Live! from the Gizmo Ranch Podcast
Hey, it’s only been about 2 months! Yeah, I’m out of my self-imposed moratorium on doing any podcasts, and I actually managed to get some GREAT material for this episode. I talk about Astraware’s fun new games for Palm and Pocket PC (Chuzzle and Moonfighter), my new Treo 650, what I’m going to do at MacWorld Expo next week and a number of other topics. Who knows? If I have a few spare minutes next week I may actually do a ‘cast from the floor at the Expo.
As usual, you can either listen to the podcast directly by clicking here or you can subscribe to it by entering the following URL in your podcatcher software:
http://gizmoranch.podbus.com/gizmo.xml
An Interesting Couple of Weeks
The first two weeks of January should be a lot of fun - first, there’s CES in Las Vegas (1/5 - 1/8), then MacWorld Expo in San Francisco (1/10 - 1/13). I’ll actually be at MacWorld Expo this year, so if there are any announcements about Intel-based Macs, new iPods, etc…, I should be able to post some info rather quickly.
I’m NOT going to post a lot about the parade of devices coming from CES, unless there are some truly groundbreaking gizmos that I feel justify the attention. For the most part, it sounds like this year it’s going to be a lot about video - except for the launch of the Windows Mobile powered Treo 700w on Thursday. Bill Gates is probably going to make a lot of Palm fans unhappy, since I’m sure that his keynote will be rubbing the Palm community the wrong way.
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
