Gelaskins – Pretty cool stuff if you like cluttering up your beautiful
mac or iPhone. I don't know who was asking for something like this but
I'm posting this for you!
Be still my camera
My first macworld post
I made it in (not for free because I forgot to register early) and am
walking around now… The first thing that caught my eye was in honor
of my fiancé, Crystal: an alarm clock! I'm sure I'll see more of them,
but this $90 beauty is small and pretty and works well with iPhone…
And crystal can see what time it is when she wakes up in the middle of
the night!
The future of Grand Central?
I’m still worried about Google’s acquisition of Grand Central, a “personal pbx” system that gives you an online voicemail box and rings as many phones as you want with one phone number. It’s a visionary service that promises to change the whole game of phone numbers that people use… with Grand Central you can have one phone number that you keep forever, no matter where you move, or what your cell phone company does.
This great Web 2.0 service has been completely stagnant since Google purchased them 18 months ago. No updates, no support, no communication with users and lots of service issues. Since I rely on this service for my business, I’m very worried about its future. Until now, I’ve been optimistic that Google will do something great with it, in due time. But this WSJ article about Google’s recent cutbacks strikes new fear into my heart:
To better manage projects in development, top executives asked engineering vice presidents to rank the 20 most promising projects within their units; those that made the lists were granted the bulk of the resources, say former Google product managers. Projects not on the lists were far less likely than before to get technical support.
Is Grand Central one of the top tier “potentially profitable” projects that they’ve got going? I sure hope so. I know I would pay $10-20/month to have a premium version of this ad infinitum. If there were a free version I would sign up all of my friends, too!
The possibilities for Grand Central’s use are endless. You could turn the G1 into so much more, you could beat out upcoming competitors like Ribbit, you could have a freaking iPhone app besides just a dialer, you could integrate it into Gmail/G-chat to form one cohesive communications product… the list goes on!
So if someone from Google is reading this (Wesley Chan, Product Manager?), please know that there are Grand Central fans out there who believe in this project. Please let it thrive!
justin bradshaw
2 Great things that suck together: iPhone and MobileMe
There are many many things I love about my iPhone. They are too great to list here so I won’t… but I do want to bring up how the combination of two great things combine to make them both SUCK.
First, Ringtones. I love these things. I love being able to make them myself in a variety of ways (check out my recent post on the many ways to do so). Consequently, I have over 15 Ringtones that are assigned to different people. It is fun and it lets me know who is calling me before I even look at the phone… which is especially great if I’m handsfree on a walk or a bike ride.
Second, MobileMe syncing. It’s also pretty great. It syncs my contact list (and my calendar) with the “cloud” and then to my iPhone and back to my computer. I LOVE not having to sync every day and could never go back to manually syncing with my computer (even though just that is far more than most people can or will ever do with their cell phones… but they should!).
THE PROBLEM IS THIS: Sometimes MobileMe seems to just erase all of the contacts on my iPhone. It’s temporary so I don’t freak out. Just yesterday I was listening to a voicemail and when I switched over to recent calls they were just a bunch of numbers instead of the names… meaning that I’d lost all of my contacts. Since this has happened several times before and they always come back, I didn’t worry too much about it and just postponed any phone calls I was about to make. This by itself is no big deal to me. I understand that glitches happen. But this one is starting to really get on my nerves because….
See, the BIGGER problem is that when this MobileMe glitch happens it also deletes any and all ringtone assignments that I’ve made. All of my custom ringtones stop playing when my friend calls and I’m forced to re-assign them one by one… a process that takes several minutes when you’re using about 20 of them! It seems to me that the ringtone assignment should be a field that is stored in the MobileMe AddressBook database rather than only in the iPhone. This way when the glitch happens the ringtone assignments will be saved along with all of my even-more-important phone numbers and email addresses!
Or they could just fix MobileMe. Ah, but now I ask too much?
Are you having this problem too? Let the world know with your comment!
justin
A great new social community
Everyone knows Facebook and MySpace. Before that, some of us used Friendster and AOL chat rooms or Yahoo member boards. When we think back on how the social aspect of digital media has changed us… some of us yearn for more personal interaction. Sure, Facebook is great for keeping in touch with old friends from high school or inviting people to your dinner party… but the potential for social media goes so much deeper than that.
Imagine you were just diagnosed with cancer. Yeah, worse than the recent financial news, I know. Now imagine what your first actions would be. You might cry, scream or look deeply inward for a while… but chances are the next thing you’d want is information. You’d crave connection and comfort in the knowledge that other people have and continue to go through the same thing you are. You’d probably call your uncle, mother or friend who has already battled it and you’d surely spend hours on google to get more information.
Now imagine there was one place you could go for all of that. Think of it like a niche Facebook. It doesn’t have millions of users and you’re not going to get tons of spam from it but it does have a very focused goal: to help you survive. The numerous and growing number of users at Surviving Cancer Whole share their stories, ask questions and provide insight to whoever needs it. They also have established themselves as a place to get crucial news stories about Surviving Cancer that you’ll want to keep up with.
They have a new blog to accompany the website which you should subscribe to… and if you’re a survivor or current patient you’re questions and/or answers will prove valuable not only to you, but the others in the community.
It’s beyond Facebook and Web 2.0. It’s Web 3.0: Niche social networking at its best! So if you or anyone else you know would be interested in this community, click on over and check it out!
justin
IMAP… not your father’s email
I’ve been explaining the value of IMAP email to clients for years. It’s far superior to POP, especially when you check your email from more than one computer or mobile device. Plus, if your computer crashes and you have no other backups, at least your email is safe! I set up pretty much all of my clients with it.
Now, Apple and MobileMe have done a good job explaining it too. In this article, they explain why your MobileMe account uses IMAP over POP. It’s worth a read… and if you’re still using POP, think seriously about switching!
justin
Don’t kill the Mac Mini!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2418&tag=nl.e550
Recycle your computer.
It may be a little later than our Greenpeace friends may have liked, but Apple has mostly gotten its act together on recycling. When you buy a new Mac, you can send or bring them your old one for proper disposal… at no cost to you. That’s a huge step and as this Macworld article details, a very welcome one in a growing number of options for high-tech disposal.
So please, DO NOT simply throw away that old Macintosh or monitor or even cell phone. (That’s actually illegal in California) Pass it down to a less-discerning friend or relative if it still works… and if it’s broken, find a place to recycle it.
There is a great facility for Los Angelinos to use in Glendale. Just drive up there on a Saturday or Sunday morning and drop off pretty much any and all of your old electronics with peace of mind. I did it, and it’s very very easy. But if you don’t want to do it, next time you see me I’ll take it for you and bring it on my next run!
justin