Enroll in a Google search experiment

Google's Experimental Search now allows users to enroll in one of the experiments. Like most people, I opted for "alternate views". Now all my http://google.com/ig searches have a new drop down on the right side that allows me to apply alternative views to my results. (This, of course, works only when I'm logged into the Gmail identity associated with my personalized search pages.)

Definitely worth doing, I don't see any downside. You can provide feedback.

iTunes 7.6 patches one of my biggest OS complaints!

I posted about one of my biggest OS X complaints a week or two ago:

Gordon's Tech: Multiuser machines and devices: the next most messed up part of OS X: "The real problem shows up with iPods however, and presumably with an iPhone as well.

Each user account tries to seize control of the iPod. So if I sync on my account, then switch to my wife's account, the iPod can go into a limbo state. It thinks it's attached, but the OS says it isn't."

Well, iTunes 7.6 now has an option to TURN OFF iPhone and iPod sync. I set that option for every user on the multi-user iMac.

Big problem made smaller.

BTW, they also fixed the $$%!$ broken smart playlist functionality.

BlackBerry Pearl, iTunes and Missing Sync play well together

This one got a delighted laugh from Emily, so I know it's good.

I discovered tonight that Emily's BlackBerry Pearl will play AAC encoded music (not FairPlay, just AAC). Who knew?

So I re-enabled disk mass storage support in the BB advanced options, reviewed the warnings from Mark/Space about USB mounting and told Missing sync for Blackberry to sync my new "BlackBerry" iTunes Playlist. [1]

Worked like a charm.

I absolutely did not turn The Beatles "Any Time at All" into a ringtone for her Pearl. I know that would bring Homeland Security to my doorstep.

Now I'm ordering a 2GB Micro-SD card and a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo out converter cable. Emily will be able to play the kids audio books on demand from her phone. Using the speaker phone if necessary.

[1] Ok, one more complication. Our iTunes music library lives in my Public folder on the iMac server. Emily has to sync the Pearl with her account. The solution is easy. I configured her iTunes to reference tunes in place, not to copy them. Then I dragged my entire music library on to her iTunes Window. Ten minutes later she had her own access list suitable for sync to the BB. Of course it won't stay in sync, but I've done this before. I just need to periodically delete all. (Actually I've done much more complex things before ...)

Update 12/30/08: Be very careful. Missing Sync stores the iTunes on your phone's main memory area -- which is pretty damned limited. If you sync infrequently, the "leave at least 5MB" default setting can start to become small, with very bad consequences ...

BlackBerry Pearl - usage tips

For us the BlackBerry Pearl is a waystation on the way to iPhone 2.0, but Google is making it at least interesting. So I went hunting for tips, and found a few on "Tong Family Blog":

• Video and music codecs
• Shortcuts

The codecs include AAC! I just tested it and they work very well.

Some of my favorite shortcuts (mostly from the Tong list but I've since added a few of my own):

• To move to the top of a screen (web page esp), press 1.
• To move to the bottom of a screen, press 7.
• To change text input methods when in a text field: Press the Menu key and then Click Enable Multitap or Enable SureType. (SureType is very unsure when entering URLs and usernames.)
  
• To switch applications, hold the Alt key and press the Escape (back) key. Continue holding the Alt key and roll the Pearl to select an application. Release the Alt key.
• To return to the Home screen, press the End (hang up) key.
• To lock the keyboard, from the Home screen, hold the asterisk (*) key. To unlock the keyboard, hold the asterisk (*) key and press the Send key
• To switch between the Default and Vibrate notification profiles, from the Home screen, hold the pound (#) key.
• To assign a speed dial number to a key, from the Home screen or in the Phone application, hold the key you want to assign. Type the phone number.
• To insert a period, press the Space key twice. The next letter is capitalized.
• To insert a period (.) in the Go To dialog box, press the Space key. To insert a forward slash (/) in the Go To dialog box, hold the Shift key and press the Space key.
• To open the bookmark list from a web page, press 5.
• To add a bookmark from a web page, press the question mark (?) key.
• To view a thumbnail version of a web page, press X. To return to the normal view, press any key. You can navigate a long web page by scrolling the thumbnail.
  
• To toggle the banner on a web page, press the exclamation point (!) key again.

I also liked the pointer to the 2GB Sandisk microSD card with an SD adapter.

Now that I've shown the BB really can play AAC I'll get a 2.5mm to 3.5 mm stereo out adapter and a 2GB SD card.

Time to switch to Nikon?

The new Digital Rebel is out.

Prominently missing from the marketing blurbs is anything like "greatly improved light sensitivity".

The ISO range is unchanged from the last two releases:

Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi: Digital Photography Review

• ISO 100
• ISO 200
• ISO 400
• ISO 800
• ISO 1600

So it's 12 megapixels now. Big whoop.

Nikon is kicking Canon around the ring, so I won't be buying a new Canon dSLR this year. Instead I'll be seeing what the new consumer end Nikon looks like. I can probably get a decent price for my Canon IS lens ...

The laptop stand, a tripod and a treadmill - exercise for geeks

Andrew routinely violates Gordon's Laws of Acquisition.

This is good, and I thank his suffering spouse for her patience. Andrew is my one man research department. Today he brought me a great one.

Andy has assembled several pices into an obviously practical geek exercise solution:

1. The Laptop Stand from from Pfeffer Industries: $35
2. A camera tripod - thereby justifying purchase of a good tripod
3. Netflix video-on-demand
4. iTunes sharing (podcasts)
5. A laptop (OS X needs Parallels or VMWare and XP to use Netflix's evil XP-only VOD solution)*
6. A treadmills or eliptical trainer (Our ancient Nordic Track will, alas, strike the tripod).

* OS X users who are not current Netflix customers are probably going to substitute Apple video rentals, but note that the Netflix solution is a "freebie" for Netflix current subscribers. Apple video rentals cost money.

The key is the stand fits a rugged tripod quite well. Andy certifies it works in practice.

This might just cost justify our purchase of both an elliptical trainer and good tripod.

Google's Photos Screensaver

This is bundled in Google's "Pack", but I think you can now download only portions of the pack -- like this:

Google Photos Screensaver: "Google Photos Screensaver turns your computer into a digital picture frame that lets you:

• Display photos from your PC and photo sharing sites
• Stay connected to friends and family with photo feeds
• Watch cinematic slideshows with the new Pan & Zoom transition
• Flip through photos with easy on-screen controls

For years I've used an old version of gPhotoShow to display images (later versions had malware features). It adjusts to multiple displays, but the regular XP screensaver only puts an image on one screen.

I'd like to see how well this works. If I get a chance to try it I'll report back ...

Remote desktop control market improving

There's not much I envy from the Windows world, but Microsoft's (was it a Citrix offshoot) superb remote desktop protocol is on the list.

It was a work of genius. I don't have OS X 10.5, but I suspect the VNC dervied remote control features there are a pale shade of terminal services.

So, yes, I'm jealous. On the other hand, the good news is the remote desktop marketplace is expanding. Maybe news like this will convince Apple it's time to build a XP quality remote control solution for OS X.

In the news recently:

• WebEx PCNow: Costs $13/month, no per-use cost
  
• CoPilot is now free on weekends

I'd like to try out PCNow, but I didn't see any hint of a trial version.

Nokia 6555b: the pleasant surprise, and its iSync Plug-in

The euphoniously named Nokia 6555b was to be a brief engagement after my divorce from the Motorola RAZR.

Ahh the RAZR. A pretty thing, but beneath the smooth face a twisted psychopath with a borderline personality disorder. Mercifully the memories are fading.

The Nokia isn't angular and slim. It's a bit lumpy in the pocket frankly. And yet ...

It's warm. Comforting. Smart. Most everything has been well thought out. (Note to Nokia: The quick dial UI fails when two numbers for the same user are entered. You're missing an iconic indicator to distinguish the user-number relationship.)

And, rather to my surprise, I was able to easily sync the Address Book with my OS X Address book using the free Nokia 6555 iSync Plugin by Code Crazy (see [3] to obtain).

Even the Blackberry won't sync to the Mac using Bluetooth, though it DOES have a nice, standard, USB cable. I have to buy one of those $5 Motorola Micro-Mini USB adapters for the Nokia so I can travel without the charger. Yes, it will apparently charge from the micro-USB port. It even has a standard 2.5mm earset jack. A good alarm clock. Vibrate mode. Even some sample games for the kids.

You know, maybe I'll wait a bit on the iPhone. We've turned Emily's Blackberry Pearl into a proto-Android, and it works pretty well that way. So we have a data phone with Google Maps, Google Talk, Google Mail and some other odd Google things.

And ... EDGE on the BB, it turns out, is damned slow. The iPhone deserves better. I'll have to keep carrying my Tungsten E2 for a while anyway -- the iPhone doesn't do tasks or much of anything without a data connection.

The 6555b doesn't need an expensive data plan to be happy.

This could last until iPhone 2.0.

Or beyond. After all, GSM does facilitate polygamy ... [but see the March 2009 update! Evil.]

Update 2/4/08:

• The phone continues to work well, but at times the battery has drained faster than expected. I'm going to turn off bluetooth and see what effect that has.
  
• I installed an old 64MB memory card (2GB is $25, this was lying around) which enables mounting as a mass storage device via USB (below) on a Mac [1] (On a PC it's supposed to enable sync with Windows Media Player and to work with Nokia's desktop apps.).
  
• I ordered the Motorola micro USB (EMU) to mini USB adapter ($3.50 + $6 shipping from an Amazon affiliate). I found with this cable that while the phone does not display a charging icon, it does indeed appear to charge when connected to a Mac. [2] This cable also supported USB mounting [1]. It did NOT, however, support iSync connection via a USB cable. So my iSync connection is Bluetooth only.
• More on music and AAC support on this phone.

Update 2/18/2008: I really don't like the startup/shutdown fanfare; I've learned to palm the device to suppress them. Can't figure out a way to turn 'em off. There's more than a few things on the phone you can't do anything with, such as assign some useful function to the Push-To-Talk button AT&T promotes heavily.

Update 3/5/2008: From the comments: "To disable the startup jamboree, go to menu/settings/phone settings/startup tones and turn it off. easy!". A great tip. There's a similar setting on the same menu to disable the shutdown song. Now I don't have to smother the phone between my hands when I'm flying.

Update 4/24/2008: Contrary to my initial impressions, it doesn't charge via the USB port, at least when I use the Motorola adapter. I'm also finding more holes in the UI. Muting is pretty awkward, for example. It's also easy to end up in a UI state where you want to exit out to the primary phone screen, but there's no way to do that without closing the call (there's no universal "escape" button.) I continue to be annoyed by the hard-coded buttons designed for services I don't want, a sign that Sprint was too involved in the phone design.

Update 3/24/2009: There's a dirty little secret to all Nokia phones. They have a particularly evil approach to unlocking. I'm not buying Nokia again.

Update 4/15/09: I've made my copy of the Code Crazy iSync Nokia plug-in available. See [3], below.

[1] Settings:Connectivity:USB data cable:Date storage.
[2] In the past I've found that a Mac or PC won't power a USB device unless it has some device driver integration. It might be that installing a memory card, and then mounting via USB, is required to provide USB power. I have not yet tested with a USB charger.
[3] The Code Crazy domain is gone and the associated iSync Plug-In seems to have vanished. I've made my copy available, though of course if the author asks I'll remove it. A couple of people have tried this and it didn't work for them. I used it with a G5 iMac and 10.4, I no longer use it. It is probably not compatible with Intel machines and/or 10.5.

Missing sync for Blackberry on OS X vs. PocketMac

PocketMac's OS X sync software was bought by BlackBerry, it's a free download. Missing Sync for BlackBerry is made by the same team that produced Missing Sync for Palm -- which we've used for a couple of years. That software costs $40, but I'm eligible for a $20 side-grade.

Both require a USB connection, they won't work with Bluetooth. Both come with ominous warnings of known issues. Only the PocketMac product supports direct software installation, but most BB software seems to be "over the air" anyway.

PocketMac seemed cruder, and it doesn't use a standard OS X installer. That makes me nervous. Sync software is ugly stuff anyway, non-standard installers add risk to risk.

I paid the $20 to MarkSpace. First sync had lots of warnings and issues, but at least the address book sync worked. There's no way a non-geek could ever use these products.

BTW, Missing Sync for BB is not a very trusting product. You must register over the net, and it stores your ethernet card address. One machine only!

No wonder everyone's afraid of the iPhone.

ePocrates on the BlackBerry Pearl

Ok, so one of the factors in the big switch was that my wife needs a phone that does ePocrates, and we didn't want a modern (yech) Palm device. So we got the BB Pearl.

Turns out ePocrates on the Pearl ain't quite as sweet as on the Palm. You need a data plan for one thing -- no installing via the BB desktop. So no buying BB without a data plan in the hopes of having a relatively cheap ePocrates platform! I wonder if ePocrates gets a kickback from AT&T for doing it this way, or whether the BB platform really doesn't support desktop installation.

In this case we have the unlimited data plan, so I'm downloading as I type. There are a few other caveats around the 9MB install:

Software Options

From the BlackBerry device's main menu, tap on the 'Options' icon, then click on the 'Status' item on the list. In the Status screen, the File Free number shows how much free main memory you have. If you have nearly enough memory, we recommend that you still try the installation, as your BlackBerry device will automatically remove unused hidden files.

Memory cards are not supported on BlackBerry devices at this time.

Emily's Pearl looks like it comes with about 28MB free, and ePocrates will use 9MB. I have a cheap 64MB Micro SD card installed, but it looks like that's only used for media. Shades of the Palm.

The iPhone will be a different story. I've a hunch we'll be selling the Pearl in a few months ...

Update 11/28/08: Years later, still suffering. The Pearl is a toy. ePocrates on the Pearl is a train wreck. Do not do this. Please don't. If Apple were to get their iPhone app together I'd switch Emily to the iPhone immediately.

Update 4/23/09: We finally deleted ePocrates from Emily's Pearl. The phone is useful again. What a bloody wreck. A colleague of mine with a corporate BB (also EDGE) had a similar experience. Don't install ePocrates on a Blackberry.

Is it Firefox, or is it me? Something's wrong.

I've used Firefox for years, and it's never been as flaky on OS X as it's been for the past month or so.

Of course I don't know whether the problem is Firefox, Google's web apps, or OS X 10.4. All I know is it's getting miserable.

Firefox loses track of the cursor position in wysiwyg edit boxes. Firefox pegs the CPU. Firefox sucks memory. Firefox crashes.

If Safari worked with Google I'd switch. I may try Camino again, though it uses the Firefox rendering engine.

I don't see many other complaints, so if you're having trouble leave a comment or two. Maybe it's just me.

Update 2/28/2008: I had to go back to Firefox -- at least for Google properties. Safari has too many problems with Blogger, and it doesn't work at all with the page editor. Some of the problems, such as pasted text showing up outside Safari's rich text editor, have to be at least partly Safari bugs.

Update 3/4/2008: Now I'm trying Camino, which has gone through a few point updates since my last try. It certainly feels bloody fast, and so far Google is treating it like a first class client. It would be nice if it has fewer memory leaks and SPBDs than Firefox.

Google App services for Blackberry - yes, they exist

Ok, so we made the big switch, and now I have to make my wife's Blackberry tolerable before she kills me.

I know she's going to hate the keyboard - at least for a while. She and I are both pretty good at Graffiti, and it's great to be able to scrawl a quick "ink" note on the screen. There's nothing like that on the BB. At the moment I doing text entry at about 1/10th the speed of non-predictive Graffiti 1.0. The prediction engine is really struggling with URLs and other non-word strings. It doesn't help that the manual has gone missing.

So I was looking about for ways to ease the pain, so I figured I'd try the Gmail client. It installed, but it doesn't work with Google Apps. It directed me to the web UI for her Google Apps Gmail. Yech.

Happily, I persisted. It turns out that there IS a version of the client for Google Apps Mail, and for other Google App things besides -- including synchronization with the Google Calendar ...

Gogle Apps Mobile

... Gmail mobile application for BlackBerry® smartphones

... BlackBerry® smartphone users can access their mail around town with a slick new Gmail application. Download the free application by browsing to http://m.google.com/a from the internet browser on your BlackBerry® smartphone. Within minutes, you'll be sending and reading messages, just like you can from a standard computer browser. It's fast, and allows access to your entire message archive. You can even open attachments, like Microsoft Word documents, PDF files and photos.

...Google Talk mobile application for BlackBerry® smartphones

You can also stay connected your contacts while you're away from your computer with the Google Talk application for BlackBerry® smartphones, offered by BlackBerry®. Just browse to http://www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk to download the free application...

Google Calendar synchronization tool for BlackBerry® smartphones
mobile calendar sync

With Google Sync for mobile, your BlackBerry® calendar application stays synchronized with your Google Apps calendar. Appointments added or changed online will be reflected on your BlackBerry®, and changes you make on your BlackBerry® will show up in Google Calendar. Just go to http://m.google.com/sync from your BlackBerry® browser to download and install the Google Sync for mobile application...

Google Docs access from mobile browsers

Access and view your Google Docs on your Blackberry®, iPhone®, Windows Mobile phone or other phones which support the Webkit browser...

Update 1/26/2008: More here, with some editorial comments on where this is going ...

OS X video encoding for Blackberry Pearl

My current plan is that tomorrow we will switch from Sprint to AT&T, and from my despised Motorola RAZR and my wife's beloved ailing Samsung (PalmOS) i500 to a pair of Blackberry Pearls (cute, eh?).

In February/March I will switch to an iPhone and my Pearl will be an unused (subsidized!) backup phone.

Once ePocrates runs on the iPhone, and the 32 GB GSM-high speed iPhone 2.0 is released, the iPhone 1.0 will go to Emily, I'll get iPhone 2.0 and we'll sell one Pearl and keep the other as a backup phone (gotta love GSM card swaps).

Anyway, more on the move with full details this weekend. In the meantime I was intrigued to come across an obscure reference to an OS X application that uses FOS tools to transcode video to run on a Blackberry. Potentially handy for keeping the kids amused in an emergency:

• Encoding videos for BlackBerry Pearl and Curve at Aqua 211
• Blackberry Mac Users forum

The BB Mac forum looks useful. In preparation for this migration I've added the Blackberry Mac forum to my custom OS X search.

A deal with the Devil: We move from Sprint to AT&T and towards an iPhone

We have completed Phase One (!) of the family migration from Sprint (Motorola RAZR (yech) and Samsung Palm OS i500 (lovely)) to AT&T (BlackBerry Pearl and Nokia 6555). Phase II will replace the Nokia 6555 with a February iPhone. Phase III will replace iPhone 1.0 with iPhone 2.0 and the Blackberry Pearl with the used iPhone 1.0. Somewhere along the line either the Pearl or the Nokia will be sold.

The transaction was about as fraught as buying a new home from a crooked realtor using an adjustable rate mortgage. On a coastal bluff. (Update: crooked as a three dollar bill.)

How complex was the deal? At the start of the transaction I thought we were getting two BlackBerry' Pearl's, but then I found out that the great deal price ($100 after rebate for the two) was dependent on a 6 month data contract. I only wanted the data contract on one of the Pearls.

Wicked.

I'm going to tell the story here, as there may be some general lessons to draw. First, the Goal and Motivation. Next how it turned out, with my best estimate of prices.

Goal and Motivation

• John to get an iPhone if the SDK turns out to be real- preferably iPhone 1.1 (ex. with 16GB of memory)
• Emily to replace a much loved but dying Samsung (PalmOS 4.x) i500. There's no modern equivalent, so the move had to be another Palm or a BlackBerry. The new phone had to run ePocrates.
• Since the iPhone has no subsidy, pick up a "free" phone as a backup phone -- and a phone for times the iPhone is too expensive to risk. Note: the iPhone comes with a SIM card too, so I'm told I'll have two phones with two active SIM cards sharing my number.
• Take advantage of my employer's "personal service" option. (15% monthly service discount and 50% off any post-contract phones).
• Family plan with about 1000 any time minutes.
• Any phone (with the notorious exception of the iPhone) should have a standard earset mini-jack, and a charge/sync with a mini-USB cable. [ONLY the BlackBerry phones meet this standard. It's not well documented, but the Nokia 6555 may come close. It has a 2.55 mm earset jack and charges with a micro-USB cable.]
• Disposable phone should have vibration mode and an alarm clock.
• All things being equal, I'd prefer to get away from Palm. Palm is like a barber who was once pretty good, but has since gotten into beer and meth and can't be trusted with sharp objects.

Outcome

In theory you can do all of this stuff online and save $25, or if you don't need a corporate discount you can do it through Amazon and sign up with their oddball contracts.

Good luck.

I never considered trying this online. I had the good fortune to work with Josh M. at the Roseville AT&T/Cingular store - about 3 minutes from my office. That was worth much more than $25

I needed the following:

• a copy of my last Sprint statement (with the account number)
• my corporate "FAN" number, so I could I couldn't find this out (AT&T drives corporate accounts to do all the purchases online) but Josh found it for me quickly.
• credit card
• driver's license

I ended up with the following devices, I'm sure I'll have more comments on them in future posts (Update: the "rebates" come in the form of restricted use AT&T debit cards.)

• BlackBerry Pearl (for Emily): includes an earset and a fairly compact mini-USB charger/data cable. This cost $100 with a 2 year contract and a 6 month BlackBerry data plan; there's a $50 rebate coming in 6-8 weeks. The BlackBerry apparently needs an additional 1GB micro-SD card to be fully useful.
• Nokia 6555: includes a fairly compact proprietary connector charger. In theory will charge and sync with a micro-USB cable. Vibration mode available, has alarm clock. Cost $50 with a 2 year contract (no data); $50 rebate coming in 6-8 weeks.

I ended up with the following charges and plans (AT&T documents this pretty well -- after you commit. The process, however, is so complex that we missed on the final handout pages.):

• Two year service contract. $175 early termination fee for EACH line.
• Family 1400 minutes $80/month: We wanted 1000 minutes, but the choices are 700 or 1400. Funny how that works! We'll pile up tons of unused rollover minutes over the 11 month rollover cycle. Oddly enough those rollovers will make it somewhat tempting to add a third line for a child phone. (I'm sure AT&T never thought of that.)
• Second line charge: $10 a month.
• BlackBerry data plan for Emily: $30/month. $50 penalty for early termination. Note this is a slow speed EDGE phone.
• Activation fee of $36 on the first line $26 on the second. I couldn't negotiate out of this, but I'm a poor negotiator. This is annoyingly high for getting a new customer from Sprint. I suspect the fact that Sprint is hemorrhaging customers has something to do with the high activation fee.
• Additional minutes: 40 cent/min (unlikely to need)
• Text messages: 15 cent/msg. (we did this rather than buy a flat allotment until we see how many we use)
• Canada calling: $4 /month. Costs is then 19 cents/minute to Canada and a discount on roaming. Sprint was 12 cents/minute with no roaming. It turns out that for us this may be a rather significant cost increase as I often call my parents during my daily commute.

There are two rebate forms (total $100). Josh assembled them for me, but I have to mail them in two separate envelopes. First bill includes one month billed in advance.

The transition from Sprint, preserving our original numbers, is supposed to take 3-24 hours. At the 4 hour mark I can use the new phone to call and the old phone to receive.

We wont' get much of out the Rollover minutes given the high threshold plan we had to get, but here's the contract languge:

Rollover® Minutes : Rollover® Minutes accumulate and expire through 12 rolling bill periods. Bill Period 1 (activation) unused Anytime Minutes will not carry over. Bill Period 2 unused Anytime Minutes will begin to carry over. Rollover® Minutes accumulated starting with Bill Period 2 will expire each bill period as they reach a 12 bill period age. Rollover® Minutes will also expire immediately upon default or if customer changes to a non-Rollover® plan. If you change plans (including the formation of a FamilyTalk plan), or if an existing subscriber joins your existing FamilyTalk plan, any accumulated Rollover® Minutes in excess of your new plan or the primary FamilyTalk line's included Anytime Minutes will expire...

And it looks like when I get the iPhone I'll get hit with yet another activation fee ...

Wireless ...A pricing plan designated for one type of device may not be used with another device...An activation fee of up to $36 may apply to each new data line...

I think I'd rather take my chances with the crooked realtor really. I'll update this post when I find out what the REAL costs are -- with the first few months bills. I suspect AT&T will turn out to cost us rather more than our former Sprint contract, but it won't be easy to tell for a while.

Update 1/26/2008: Check status of the faux-rebates here.

Update 7/30/08: Whatever AT&T may claim, they always set your "contact options" to "I want every form of spam invented by man". You need to go into your AT&T customer profile and turn them all off. I suspect you probably need to do that every few months. Or just give up.

Update 3/25/09: Not necessarily AT&T's evil (though they have plenty), but the Nokia I got turns out to have a deeply evil streak.