Back to Basics: The Subtler Differences Between Cameraphones and Digital Cameras
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:42:32

Discussions (and sometimes rants) about camera phone photos usually steer towards pixel count, clarity, and color. However, there are subtler differences between camera phone photos and digital camera photos. Take the two photos above taken using a T-Mobile Dash cameraphone (left) and a Canon Powershot A710IS point-and-shoot digital camera. I’ve resized both photos from their […]

---

OLPC XO Build 656 and WiFi WPA
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:39:56

I finally got around to playing with the OLPC XO in an effort to get it to work with WPA on a wireless LAN. It turns out that the build 656 update back in January added WPA support. The OLPC wiki has detailed instructions at… Olpc-update …but here’s the condensed version. Open up terminal window (scroll right to […]

---

Windows Mobile 6: Connected Applications
Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:33:58

Did you know that there is an Encarta encyclopedia bot that you can talk to on Windows Live Messenger? That’s just one of the tips I wrote about in this new article on Microsoft.com’s Windows Mobile website area. Introduction to Connected Applications: Applications That Plug You in to the Wireless World

---

Windows Mobile 6 Excel Mobile: Transform Your Day with Top Spreadsheet Tips
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:55:43

Here’s another article of mine that is now live in Microsoft.com’s Windows Mobile area… Transform Your Day with Top Spreadsheet Tips In addition to some basic and tips, I spent a bit of time to discuss the differences between the versions of Excel Mobile available on Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition and Professional/Classic Edition devices.

---

Windows Mobile 6 Word Mobile Tips: Write Down Great Thoughts While They Are Fresh
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:25:32

One of the articles I wrote for the Microsoft.com Windows Mobile site just went live. This one has tips and information about Word Mobile for Windows Mobile 6. Write Down Great Thoughts While They Are Fresh Let me know if there are other aspects of Word Mobile you’d like expanded on for a future article.

Here’s what I looked at last week: HWMonitor PC hardware monitor, Google Docs right-click save-as, Apple Safari 3.1 web browser, and OpenDNS.

---

CPUID HWMonitor 1.08: Voltage, Temperature, Fan Speed Information
Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:30:23

CPUID HWMonitor 1.08 is a Freeware Windows utility that shows you some basic but useful information about your PC: Voltage, temperature, and fan speed. Version 1.08 was released on March 14.

---

Google Docs Right Click Save As
Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:03:22

I’m probably the last person to notice that a right-click on a Google Docs file list results in a pop-up menu that lets you, among other things, save the Google Docs file to your local drive.

read more

---

Apple Safari 3.1
Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:21:55

Apple released their Safari 3.1 web browser for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. They claim it is 3 times faster than Firefox 2 and 5.5 times faster than Opera 9. I haven’t done any rigorous time tests. But, I can’t say it seems all that much faster than Firefox on my Mac.

---

OpenDNS: Faster and Safer Web Browsing?
Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:53:35

I’ve been wrestling with a weird network problem with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) for the past couple of weeks. It looks like part of the problem may be related to the way Leopard handles DNS queries. I still haven’t found a fix, but it looks like…

OpenDNS

read more

CNET’s Matthew Miller Posted a Redfly Video Demo
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:47:39
CNET’s Mobile Gadgeteer Matthew Miller posted an informative video demo of the Redfly Windows Mobile Smartphone Companion at… Can the REDFLY Windows Mobile Smartphone Companion succeed where the Foleo couldn’t? The Redfly is actually LESS than what the never-launched Palm Foleo was supposed to be. The Redfly does not have any internal functions. It is just an […]

---

Website Exploit Can Freeze or Crash iPhone/iPod touch
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:47:27
According to CNET… A new exploit will either lock up your iPhone or iPod Touch or crash your Safari browser on your PC or Mac OS desktop if you simply visit a maliciously coded Web site. Web code locks up iPhones and iPod Touch The current workaround is to disable Javascript in the Safari brower. Yuck. CNET’s […]

---

ActiveSync/WMDC and Zune Sync: Birds of a Sync Feather
Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:35:09
The Zune 2 firmware upgrade turned my 1st generation Zune from a moderately useful MP3/video player to a decent media player with a screen I prefer to my iPod video’s screen (though nothing can touch the iPod touch’s display - pun intended). With its 30GB hard drive (compared to my iPod touch’s 16GB) and the […]

---

Notebook Too Hot? Try a Newer Notebook Model
Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:05:38

My old Dell Latitude D600 notebook was too hot to work on the keyboard all day long. I bought a USB keyboard to use with the D600 to avoid touching it during the day. As you can see, the hottest area on the keyboard side of the D600 got up to 109 degrees F. The […]

Here’s what I looked at last week: TrueCrypt 5.1 update, ActiveState Komodo Edit goes Open Source, Live View 0.6: Forensics Virtualization Tool, and UNdata…

---

TrueCrypt 5.1 is Out
Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:39:38

I noticed the other day that although TrueCrypt 5.0 came out just a little while ago, there was an announcement for…

TrueCrypt 5.1

…on March 10. Surprisingly, this is not just a bug fix release. There three new features and a bunch of feature improvements. The link above take you to TrueCrypt’s version history page so you can get all the details.

---

ActiveState Komodo Edit 4.3
Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:47:03

The ActiveState Komodo Edit 4.3 programmer’s editor is now an Open Source product. It is available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. You can find a longer form commentary on the product that I wrote for O’Reilly Media’s Mac Center.

ActiveState Komodo Edit Now an Open Source Product

---

Live View 0.6: Forensics Virtualization Tool
Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:55:18

This is definitely a tool with narrow interest. But, I found it interesting, so here it is…

Live View 0.6

read more

---

UN Data: United Nations Data Site
Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:35:45

Here’s something a bit different…

UNdata

This site provides UN data in categories such as agriculture, education, energy, health, and trade. Some items are viewable online in a spreadsheet like table format. This kind of table data can also be downloaded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file.

So, go forth and data mine.

SmartPhoneThoughts.com: Paul Thurrott to the Windows Mobile Team: “Screw ‘em!”
Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:12:29
Found this reference one SmartphoneThoughts.com (I’ve been telling Jason over there that he needs to rename it StandardEditionThoughts.com to stay in line with Microsoft’s branding SmartPhoneThoughts.com: Paul Thurrott to the Windows Mobile Team: “Screw ‘em!” …to a statement made in the Windows Weekly podcast by Paul Thurrott and Leo LaPorte. I guess I’m not the […]

---

Back to Basics: Assigning Apps to Buttons
Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:16:21

The blog item I wrote earlier about Google’s tip for assigning Google mobile applications to a Samsung Blackjack’s key pointed out that not all Windows Mobile Smartphone (AKA Standard Edition) devices have this feature. However, all Pocket PC type devices (Professional Edition, Classic Edition) have this feature baked in by Microsoft. The problem is that […]

---

One-Click Access to Google Mobile Apps
Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:23:12
The Google Mobile Blog has a tip for Blackberry 8800, Samsung Blackjack, and Nokia N95 owners… Fast tip: one-click access to Google mobile applications on your phone My Dash (Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition) does not have the option to assign buttons or other physical inputs (volume slider) to applications. However, all Professional Edition (Pocket PC Phone […]

---

Sprint HTC Mogul EV-DO Rev. A Upgrade
Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:30:40
I don’t have an HTC Mogul. But, if I did, I’d be pretty happy after reading this report on Wired. Sprint Phone First to Use Fast Network Sprint said Monday it was releasing a software update for the Mogul phone, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan, that will enable the phone to connect at Rev. […]

This week… Weekly Free Amazon MP3 downloads, Google Calendar syncs with Outlook, Zoho Writer with Google Gears support for Windows Mobile smartphones, SpikeSource WISP packages, Revo Uninstaller 1.50.

---

Weekly Free Amazon.com MP3 Downloads
Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:16:03

Most of you probably know that Apple iTunes features two free music downloads every Tuesday and sometimes features a new free video download (usually a TV show episode or music video). But, did you know that…

Amazon MP3 (Amazon.com)

…provides free DRM-free MP3 downloads. If not, head over to the link given above and see if any of the freebies interests you.

I’ve bought a couple of DRM-free MP3 songs from Amazon MP3 and have been very satisfied by the purchases. The songs import fine into iTunes for transfer and playing on an iPod.

---

Google Calendar Syncs with Outlook but Now Hates Firefox (Erratum)
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:09:22

read more

---

Zoho Continues to Impress: Zoho Writer Adds Offline Viewing for Windows Mobile Smartphones
Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:06:14

Zoho is simply amazing. They keep moving far ahead of what Microsoft and, even, Google itself offers in terms of rich web services for the desktop and smartphone. The most amazing thing about this innovation is that they are using the Google Gears for Windows Mobile introduced on the same day. I’m guessing that Google is close to buying up Zoho. I hope Zoho doesn’t disappear or get dumbed-down like JotSpot. You can read about my Zoho Writer on Windows Mobile experience at…

read more

---

SpikeSource Offers WISP Packages. What’s WISP? Read On
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:28:18

You’ve heard of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl). You may have also heard of WAMP (substitute Windows for Linux as the OS platform). WISP is Windows, IIS, SQL Server Express (or full package), and PHP. SpikeSource put together a bunch of pre-built WISP bundles that include preconfigured applications of various kinds: WISP+phpBB, WISP+Moodle, etc. I’m doing some blogging for O’Reilly’s Inside Port 25 site. You can read what I had to say about SpikeSource’s WISP bundles there…

read more

---

Revo Uninstaller 1.50
Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:05:40

I just ran across and mentioned Revo Uninstaller 1.42 just a little over a week ago. They released…

Revo Uninstaller 1.50

…shortly after that on Feb. 28. The link above takes you to the version history so you can see the changes.

read more

ActiveSync for the iPhone? Keep in Mind it is Exchange ActiveSync, Not Desktop
Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:16:32
Apple announced that they licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft to let the iPhone directly sync with Microsoft Exchange. I could make some snide remarks about ActiveSync here (all well deserved). But, the thing to remember is this: They are NOT talking about syncing an iPhone to a PC using ActiveSync. This is purely an over-the-air sync […]

---

Google Greasing the Path from Windows Mobile to Android
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:14:21

No one has ever accused the folks at Google of being dumb. And, despite their stock (along with nearly every other firm’s stock) tanking lately, the Googlelonions are still a smart bunch. On Tuesday, they provide Google Gears for Windows Mobile. This sure looks like a testing ground for preparing people for working with Google’s […]

---

Zoho Writer + Google Gears Mobile + Windows Mobile = Winner
Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:37:36

I installed Google Gears for Windows Mobile today and tried out the Gears-enabled Zoho Writer on a Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition (an HTC TyTn) device. The result is not perfect but is far far ahead of what anyone else (including Google and Microsoft) have available for Windows Mobile. After installing Google Gears Mobile, I went […]

---

Google Gears for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 (this is huge!)
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:39:05
This is huge news in so many ways… Google Code Blog: Power up your mobile web applications Google Code: Google Gears on Mobile Devices Google Gears is an API for creating rich web applications and provides the ability for taking those rich web applications offline. Google Gears on Mobile Devices supports Windows Mobile 5 and 6. A […]

---

Bind Bluetooth to MyBlogLog? Sounds Scary
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:56:23
If you head over to the mobile version of Yahoo!’s MyBlogLog service (I use the regular web version of their service here — look at the left sidebar)… http://m.mybloglog.com/ …you will find they say this about their mobile service: Bind your Bluetooth address to your MyBlogLog account and discover others nearby and find out if you have […]

---

HTC Advantage 7500 Camera Went Bad
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:50:44

The main camera in my HTC Advantage 7500 (1st generation) went bad about six weeks ago. The rest of the system is fine including the secondary camera next to the LCD. I’ve tried the obvious remedies like wiping the camera lens area and performing a hard reset. Never seen anything like it before. Switching to […]

Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 Weirdness on both Mac OS X and Windows Vista
Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:12:23

Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (actually most of the 2.x releases) has been behaving very weirdly on both Mac OS X and Windows Vista boxes. The weirdness is slightly different on each system but has the common element of auto-deletion behavior. Here’s what I’m seeing on two different Windows Vista PCs and two different Macs. The email servers are IMAP4 mail servers.

Vista PC 1: Does not move messages tagged by SPAM Assassin to the trash folder as defined in Thunderbird’s settings.

read more

---

Google Sites: JotSpot Takes a Giant Step Backwards
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:11:33

read more

---

My 15 Seconds of Fame on Microsoft.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:08:11

FYI: I’m one of the people profiled on Microsoft’s (Open Source) Heroes Happen Here site. So, I guess I have achieved my 15 seconds of alloted web fame. And, yes, I know that I have a “face for radio” and a “voice for blogging.” :-) So, if anyone is interested, you can hear (and, unfortunately, “see”) me ramble on my thoughts of why I want Open Source and proprietary software to work together.

read more

---

Zoho Notebook: Like OneNote on the Web
Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:56:14

I think I may have mentioned Zoho Notebook in passing a while back and said that I had hoped it worked more like Microsoft OneNote but did not. If so, I retract that statement now. I was just about ready to fire up Microsoft OneNote for a research project today but decided to take another look at…

Zoho OneNote

read more

---

SpywareBlaster 3.5.1
Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:54:37

read more

---

Streem.us: Tumblr with Comments
Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:40:03

read more

via Tim Sneath,

Secondly, the real Scott will be sharing Wednesday’s MIX keynote with Ray Ozzie and Dean Hachamovitch (GM for Internet Explorer). If you’re into web development at all, that keynote is going to be required viewing - we’ve got lots of new announcements, some great demos, and one or two surprises. You can watch the keynote live at 9:30am Pacific / 5:30pm GMT by clicking on one of the following three streams: 750kbps, 300kbps, 100kbps.

So as many of you will know I’ve been a *HUGE* fan of both Peter Fisk and his Vista Smalltalk project here on this blog. The problem is that, as some of you will have noticed, as of July 5th, 2007 there’s been no sign nor trace of Peter OR Vista Smalltalk. Well, that’s not completely true. I did exchange a few emails with Peter in or around August of last year, all of which seem to have suggested that both he and Vista Smalltalk would reappear after he finished a “move to a new city” and the next release of Silverlight came into being.

But that release came and went with September of last year, yet no sign of Peter or VST resurfacing for air. When I queried the Vista Smalltalk list on September 19th regarding the whereabouts of Peter, I got the following in reply a day later from Gal Zsolt, another VST list member,

2008 Daylight Savings Time Fixes for Windows Mobile 5 & 6
Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:30:15
I thought this Daylight Savings issue was fixed in last year’s patch. Guess not. Here are the links for the CAB file download as well as the desktop (setup.msi) installer version. Update for Windows Mobile for PC (KB949168) (SETUP.MSI) Update for Windows Mobile for PC (KB949168) (WMDST2008-1.CAB) FYI: I just installed the CAB file installer version on my […]

---

MSNBC Reports AT&T Wireless & Sprint As 2 & 3 in U.S. ID Theft Victims Numbers
Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:09:30
MSNBC: Which firms have the most ID theft victims? MSNBC reports that Bank of America is #1 in U.S. ID Theft victims. But, what interested me was that A&T Wireless was #2 and Sprint PCS was #3. Verizon Wireless checks in at #7 while T-Mobile USA is at #11.

---

WiFi Shirt
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:12:09

Someone I know won one of those WiFi detecctor t-shirts as a door prize the other day. The plate on the front of the shirt (the detector itself is a little box connected via cables to the front plate) actually works. It went all blue (no WiFi) in a known dead-spot and lit up (four […]

---

US-CERT: WinCE/InfoJack Trojan
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:58:02
Hmm… US-CERT has an advisory about a Windows CE Trojan. Here’s the list of things it is said to do on a Windows CE device: spreads via seemingly legitimate application installation files installs as an autorun program on the memory card installs itself to the device when an infected memory card is inserted protects itself from deletion by copying […]

---

Ubuntu Mobile
Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:45:36
Ubuntu announced their mobile version of Ubuntu Linux Ubuntu Mobile …targetted at the UMPC sized devices with flash storage (instead of spinning hard drives) that started to gain popularity with the release of Asus Eee PC and OLPC XO last year. Microsoft needs much lighter weight version of Windows Vista if they intend to stay in the […]

---

If Microsoft Buys Yahoo!, Yahoo! Go Must Go Away
Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:45:17

Yahoo!’s mobile sites are great. But, for some odd reason, its Yahoo! Go Mobile client for Windows Mobile is just awful. Its navigation is non-intuitive and it is unbelievably slow when it actually works. If Microsoft acquires Yahoo!, I sure hope they keep its mobile-friendly websites which are more content rich than Microsoft’s sites. But, […]

---

Linkedin Mobile Looks So Much Better on an iPhone/iPod touch
Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:24:21

Linkedin is the latest big social network site to mobile enable itself. You can find the mobile friendly site at… mobile.linkedin.com It would have been nice if they adopted the “m.” prefix to reduce the amount of tapping on a small keyboard or screen. But, oh well… The real story here though is that once again the barebones […]

---

Motorola T305 Bluetooth Hands Free Speaker
Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:36:54

I really don’t like using phone headsets. I’ve bought a couple of and have used them sparingly. But, they are just plain uncomfortable in warm weather environments. And, I can’t hear my podcasts clearly when listening to them in the car with one ear blocked. So, I finally got around to buying the Motorola T305 […]