Things are looking up for my iMate JasJar, which has gone largely unused due to it not doing anything I really need it to do.

First off, real "push" email is finally available with the latest firmware update from Club iMate:

Microsoft™ Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP): • Addition of the MSFP allowing Direct Push email, remote device wiping, security policy enforcement and Global Address List Lookup for customers using a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2. Note that Push email will use GPRS connection even when connected to a WiFi network.

Not that I have anything to connect to at this point (the free Club iMate Exchange server doesn't seem to support DirectPush). I may have a look at one of the hosted Exchange providers if I can find one that seems reputable and supports Direct Push. Promising development though; it seems we've been hearing about this and waiting for it for years...

Secondly, The Missing Sync now supports Windows Mobile 2005 units in the new alpha version. It works very well (at least for me) and I'm now happily synching and installing from my PowerBook.

On a side note relating to the JasJar, I read the Business Week article regarding HTC with a some interest. Certainly they're pretty much single-handedly saved Microsoft's ambitions in the Smartphone market (and by Smartphone I actually mean Pocket PC Phone Editions). For all their self proclaimed passion though, I really do wish someone in the company would actually read some of the instructions that they give people:

(Hint: only one of the conflicting directions for resetting the unit actually work)

StoryGrinder has been updated to version 0.8.7 with the following changes:

• Web archives for scraps in the Scrap Box must be are managed separately from temporary scraps associated with stories. This means that the cache referenced from Preferences refers only to data associated with stories, and clearing the cache will no longer remove cached Scrap Box items.
• Spurious reloading of scraps in scrap box upon selection should no longer occur.
• The sort order of the Scrap Box list is now saved between sessions.

You can download StoryGrinder here.

I started writing StoryGrinder over a year ago now, because I wanted some specific functionality in regards to Web Writing. By "Web Writing", I mean, in general, anything that gets posted to a blog, web site, bulletin board, etc. Basically, I wasn't looking for a "blogging" tool, I was looking for a writing tool.

Specifically, I was looking to:

1. Capture scraps of information (text) or web pages (reference material)
2. Be able to refer to the snippet or web page while writing, and without having to switch between a browser and editor
3. Save the reference material along with the story itself for future reference
4. Perform transformations of the text I was writing into properly formatted HTML (or, perhaps, something else)

What I've ended up with in the latest StoryGrinder is pretty close to what I originally wanted. So:

1. I can capture text or web pages to a Scrap Box where I can categorize the information, preview it, etc. I can send the scraps or links to the Scrap Box using AppleScript or the Services menu. Better, in the case of web pages I can cache a webarchive of the page which lets me keep it even if the original link disappears.
2. I can view text or a web page at the same time as editing a story. In fact, in the viewing pane, I can navigate HTML links on a page and perform the same kind of simple web browser actions as in, say Safari.
3. The scraps and links I've used for a story get saved along with it.
4. In addition to being able to insert HTML tags (and BBCode tags), I can use Perl scripts to perform custom transformations. For example, I can write a complete article without concern for paragraph tags, and then run a Perl script to insert them in the proper locations throughout the story.

At this point, being reasonably happy with the progress so far, I'm interested in having others try it and (undoubtedly) suggest improvements. I'm not sure as yet if this will become a for-cost product, a shareware product or a free product. I'm leaning towards shareware rather than full commercial.

You can download StoryGrinder here. Please also see the "Getting Started" document on the same page. I'd be more than happy to hear comments, suggestions, bugs, etc.