Tue - July 4, 2006
Two blogs is better than one?
After over 3 years of blogging, I am over iBlog, mainly
because of the design templates, but for other reasons as well (publish time,
publishing irregularities, small community support etc). Unfortunately, I have
also discovered the limitations of exporting my 3+ years of content from iBlog
and into something else (wordpress, moveable type, blogger etc) and appear to be
up the proverbial without a
paddle.
Another reason for the change is that I really should have a work blog and a personal blog. Mainly because I want to publicise the work one a bit more and I don't want to include alot of the minor details of my life that would bore most people (the question should I be ranting about these things anyway is a whole other issue). Also the .mac homepage URL seems unprofessional and makes all my .mac stuff much more visible (not that I have anything to hide...).
So, I've gone all Wordpress with the support of the ecto blogging client app, and you'll find the new blogs here with a couple of starter entries:
Work
http://idealinterfaces.wordpress.com/
Personal
http://oliverw.wordpress.com/
Apparently, you use the same URL in your RSS feed reader with the addition of 'feed' after the url.
Bear with me, while I refine the blogs (calendar navigation, comments, no XML/RSS feed button, categories, tags etc) and expect the work blog to be more complete to start with.
Here goes...
Another reason for the change is that I really should have a work blog and a personal blog. Mainly because I want to publicise the work one a bit more and I don't want to include alot of the minor details of my life that would bore most people (the question should I be ranting about these things anyway is a whole other issue). Also the .mac homepage URL seems unprofessional and makes all my .mac stuff much more visible (not that I have anything to hide...).
So, I've gone all Wordpress with the support of the ecto blogging client app, and you'll find the new blogs here with a couple of starter entries:
Work
http://idealinterfaces.wordpress.com/
Personal
http://oliverw.wordpress.com/
Apparently, you use the same URL in your RSS feed reader with the addition of 'feed' after the url.
Bear with me, while I refine the blogs (calendar navigation, comments, no XML/RSS feed button, categories, tags etc) and expect the work blog to be more complete to start with.
Here goes...
Posted at 02:31 PM
Fri - June 30, 2006
...and Skype follows YIM by uping the ante (but not releasing yet)
After the release of the update to
Yahoo! Messenger, Skype
today blogged that they have a new Skype client for Mac in the works with
video. Apart from the
addition of video, it looks like the contact list is significantly more
minimalist. The current Skype client on Mac has a lot of wasted space and is
cluttered with things that I don't use, so the refined approach is appealing.
When you are trying to manage four different IM contact lists, all screen real
estate counts...
Posted at 10:54 PM
oooo... Google Checkout
"Read between the lines - this is
a dangerous and most brilliant assault on the “cost per click” (CPC)
plans of Microsoft, Yahoo and everyone else who is coming to the party …
late. This move is about cost-per-action
advertising. It is
about kicking up the online advertising business
… another
notch!
Lets compare the two - CPC and
CPA based ads. In case of CPA, there are no wasted dollars, no click fraud, and
all the revenues are coming from sales. As an advertiser, you have no risk. You
sell, you make money, Google gets a piece of the action.
Why
would
you bother
with
other
options?"
Posted at 11:25 AM
Thu - June 29, 2006
Woohoo! Yahoo!
Finally Yahoo! updated their Mac YIM
Client, it even uses the
iSight!
Update: The iSight use is only broadcast webcam, which is frickin useless really... And there is no VoIP support either...
Update: The iSight use is only broadcast webcam, which is frickin useless really... And there is no VoIP support either...
Posted at 11:02 PM
Fri - May 12, 2006
mmmmmm... smoooth
This
LG KV6000 is a damn nice looking phone, I had a quick play with one on
Friday. Ugly UI, but the touch interface and the hardware design is
sexy.
Posted at 10:02 PM
Thu - May 4, 2006
BT in Mac OS X 10.5?
Yes, Bittorrent is too complex at the moment
(download torrent file, open BT app, hope that the file works many of mine
don't)
Yes it should be built into the browser
Yes, it should be built into the OS
Yes it should be built into the browser
Yes, it should be built into the OS
Posted at 05:14 PM
Mon - May 1, 2006
Heh!
Another great quote, Guy
Kawasaki talking about Viral
campaigns:
"Anti-example: Have you ever wanted to post a comment to an MSN-hosted blog only to be confronted with the message that you have to sign in with a Microsoft .NET Passport? That's not virality--that's innoculation."
"Anti-example: Have you ever wanted to post a comment to an MSN-hosted blog only to be confronted with the message that you have to sign in with a Microsoft .NET Passport? That's not virality--that's innoculation."
Posted at 09:54 PM
Thu - April 27, 2006
Quote of the Year??
Tom Coates, in talking
about the BBC and other media organisations trying to deal with
tech change says:
"My sense of these media organisations that use this
argument of incredibly rapid technology change is that they're screaming that
they're being pursued by a snail and yet they cannot get away! 'The snail! The
snail!', they cry. 'How can we possibly escape!?. The problem being that the
snail's been moving closer for the last twenty years one way or another and they
just weren't paying attention."
Brilliant :-)
It's a must read piece!
Posted at 06:20 PM
Mon - April 24, 2006
Video Interview with Helio
Intro to the Helio handsets
and services to be launched in the US in spring.
Some interesting stuff.
Some interesting stuff.
Posted at 05:56 PM Read More
Thu - April 13, 2006
It's a newwwww phone
Despite
owning 4 mobile phones for various telcos and reasons, as well as having those
that telco's lend me, I bought another one today, the Sony
Ericsson W810.
So after a couple of hours of play, here are some first impressions:
- The screen is very bright and clear
- Shozu is on but I'm worried about taking big picks and sending them to my Flickr account with Australian data charges
- Opera Mini is beautiful :-)
- The News Reader (RSS) looks on on first glance
- Bluepulse won't download to it (maybe it's too new to have a profile yet, but I've had trouble before with my T630 - but success with my Nokia 6680)
- It doesn't display Optus Zoo Live TV - heh!
- The camera seems to work OK
- The friggin power adaptor has changed compared to my SE T630 and SE Z1010 - bastards
- it doesn't have a mini USB plug (like the Motorola V3 & L6)
Mac things
- Although it's not a phone on the official iSync 2.2 list, there's a hack to make it syncronize perfectly with my Mac for both address book and calendar
- I'm going to check out how to try and get it to appear in iTunes or at least make it easy to move music across (Update: iTunesMyWalkman does this very well, it downloads your photo to iPhoto as well!)
- On first glance it doesn't seem to appear as a USB drive to load stuff on via the USB cable provided. (Update: Yep works fine! In fact both the Memory Stick and the phones internal memory show up as different volumes)
- It works fine with Nokia Collector, so I can auto-bluetooth my images to my laptop
The main reason I bought it was because it's got a 2MP camera, the Walkman uses Memory Stick Duo Pro, you can use your own headphones and 'cause it is a wicked satin black. Oh and it gives full address details in the contact (though for some strange reason to view the address info you have to select the 'Edit Contact' option...)
So after a couple of hours of play, here are some first impressions:
- The screen is very bright and clear
- Shozu is on but I'm worried about taking big picks and sending them to my Flickr account with Australian data charges
- Opera Mini is beautiful :-)
- The News Reader (RSS) looks on on first glance
- Bluepulse won't download to it (maybe it's too new to have a profile yet, but I've had trouble before with my T630 - but success with my Nokia 6680)
- It doesn't display Optus Zoo Live TV - heh!
- The camera seems to work OK
- The friggin power adaptor has changed compared to my SE T630 and SE Z1010 - bastards
- it doesn't have a mini USB plug (like the Motorola V3 & L6)
Mac things
- Although it's not a phone on the official iSync 2.2 list, there's a hack to make it syncronize perfectly with my Mac for both address book and calendar
- I'm going to check out how to try and get it to appear in iTunes or at least make it easy to move music across (Update: iTunesMyWalkman does this very well, it downloads your photo to iPhoto as well!)
- On first glance it doesn't seem to appear as a USB drive to load stuff on via the USB cable provided. (Update: Yep works fine! In fact both the Memory Stick and the phones internal memory show up as different volumes)
- It works fine with Nokia Collector, so I can auto-bluetooth my images to my laptop
The main reason I bought it was because it's got a 2MP camera, the Walkman uses Memory Stick Duo Pro, you can use your own headphones and 'cause it is a wicked satin black. Oh and it gives full address details in the contact (though for some strange reason to view the address info you have to select the 'Edit Contact' option...)
Posted at 07:36 PM
Tue - April 11, 2006
Looks like a much beter approach to selling mobile phones
Ever thought that buying a mobile phone could be a
much better experience.
Looks like Orange UK are experimenting with an approach which includes (and wait for these novel concepts)
- rewarded on positive customer feedback, not number of sales
- education of the phones functionality
- cleaning and charging service
- a well designed environment
(via Cool Hunting)
Looks like Orange UK are experimenting with an approach which includes (and wait for these novel concepts)
- rewarded on positive customer feedback, not number of sales
- education of the phones functionality
- cleaning and charging service
- a well designed environment
(via Cool Hunting)
Posted at 08:43 AM
Sat - April 8, 2006
Tom's joined the club
"I've just crossed over to the dark side, swapping my
Nokia N70 for a Sony Ericsson K750i - and I have to say I'm mightily impressed.
The form factor is way superior, it's lighter, battery life is significantly
better (though it's GPRS as opposed to 3G), and the real killer... it actually
syncs with my Mac. The N70 had started dropping contacts, losing them, failing
to sync calendars, and so on.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find some solid UI
improvements over Nokia, particularly in choosing destinations for text
messages, handling missed calls, and so on. So 3 days in I've no regrets; I
suspect there'll be some native Symbian apps I miss one day, but not
yet..."
As a long time SE user, I agree wholeheartedly with
Tom. However, I do have a couple of gripes. The first is the breadth of
Symbian apps available compared to those for the SE's. The second is that the
SE browser is notorious in it's rendering of XHTML. Having been involved in the
design of a carrier mobile portal, the SE's probably gave us the most grief.
My favourite short-cut is the press-and-hold for
finding contacts in the phone book really quickly.
I'm thinking my next upgrade will be to the SE
W810
Posted at 09:28 PM
Opera Mini = Carrier Revenue
I am a huge fan of this. Give the customers a choice,
I don't see how the carrier can lose, they still get the data charges which,
especially in Australia, are high and customers get to use THEIR device, for
whatever they want...
Posted at 08:57 PM
Fri - April 7, 2006
Mandatory Reading
Including:
"For people in the market for a new laptop and who are
at least somewhat curious about Mac OS X, what reasons are there now not to buy
a MacBook? (Feel free to use your imagination to fast-forward a few months to a
time where Apple has a range of MacBook models available.) The primary reason
(not to buy a MacBook) that comes to mind is “Well, I can save a few bucks
with another brand,” but Apple doesn’t really want customers like
that anyway — people who shop primarily based on price are generally lousy
customers."
Especially if the Mac
Book runs their Windows apps faster than standard PCs do
:-)
and let's face it the Mac's have by far the nicest
hardware (inc. build quality and customer service) of all the
manufacturers.
and....
"This is a move of supreme confidence — Apple
relishes the comparison between Mac OS X and Windows XP, and Microsoft has shown
enough of Vista via its widely-available beta seeds that Apple quite obviously
isn’t afraid of that comparison, either.
Windows is so ubiquitous that the vast majority of Mac
users are already quite familiar with it; I see no chance that Boot Camp is
going to cause any Mac users to realize that they’ve been missing out on
something better. But from the other side, Apple is confident that most Windows
users who give Mac OS X a shot are going to prefer it — again, much in the
same way that most long-time Mac users preferred Mac OS X to the old Mac
OS."
So now the reasons to buy a Mac are:
1. The best hardware (fastest,
best looking, virtually
indestructible)
2. The most usable apps included (iLife etc)
3. The best OS with Mac OS X (and if you don't agree,
use the Windows bit, but if you give it some time, you'll find yourself booting
into the Mac side of things more and more...)
You can't lose...
BTW Apple shares up another 6% :-)
Posted at 09:26 AM
Thu - April 6, 2006
He he...
Apple continue to take the piss out of Windows with
the following two bits of information on their 'Boot Camp' information
page:
"EFI and BIOS
"EFI and BIOS
Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology
called EFI to
handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the
1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly
in both centuries."
"Word to the Wise
"Word to the Wise
Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a
PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the
Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows
security
fixes."
Posted at 08:05 AM
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Published On: Jul 09, 2006 08:26 PM
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Published On: Jul 09, 2006 08:26 PM