Calendar Swamp: Calendar swamp is bornWow, this guy is persistent! I truly sympathize, though I don't have his endurance. I'll definitely add him to my bloglist.
When you're up to your necks in appointment alligators, it's hard to remember the original job was to drain the calendar swamp.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
A blog dedicated entirely to calendar interoperability
This guy's been beating the drum for calendar interoperability in a dedicated blog since June 2005!
Why the iPhone doesn't do tasks: a theory
Why doesn't the iPhone have the capabilities built into the @1990 PalmPilot? Why can't it do tasks or notes properly? These core functions are the among the demands I list on my non-tech blog:
A third explanation occurred to me, and a bit of research supports it. Scott Mace, who has an appropriately despairing blog about calendar sharing and synchronization, mentions that the iPhone's calendar synchronization with Outlook is very weak. That's a clue.
Outlook is a the 8,000 pound Mastodon in the world of calendars, tasks, and contacts. It's the immovable object, and it's not simple to synchronize with. Outlook has a very complex and kludgy way of implementing these core concepts, and Microsoft leveraged that complexity to destroy Palm. Apple may have a few Palm veterans in Cupertino, people who are warning them about what it means to try to manage tasks, appointments, and contacts on Microsoft's turf.
Most iPhones will sync with XP and Vista machines, and eventually with Outlook 2007. If Apple wants this to work half-decently (meaning better than Palm), then the iPhone has to approach contacts, tasks, and appointments in a way that's a reasonable match to a subset of Outlook functionality (the most used fields, for example). If the iPhone does this, then OS X must to.
Problem is, Apple has iCal and the (very peculiar) Address Book on OS X, and they're nothing like Outlook. So Apple needs new versions of iCal and the Address book, but that's not going to happen on 10.4. That kind of change can only come with 10.5, perhaps with a new approach to synchronization.
So my latest tortured theory predicts that Apple won't add new PDA/PIM functionality to the iPhone before OS X 10.5 ships (supposedly in October, though I doubt it will be stable before April). If I'm write we'll see something @ Jan 2008.
Gordon's Notes: iPhone: my demands:My working hypothesis has been that Apple hates me, but maybe I'm taking this a bit personally. Another theory is that the Apple has decided this stuff all has to migrate to the net and they've decided to speed up the process by eliminating all alternatives.
... Tasks at least comparable to the 1994 PalmPilot tasks.
Synchronization with Outlook at least comparable to the modern Palm OS (in other words, flawed, but useable). A 256 character limit on contact comments is not acceptable...
A third explanation occurred to me, and a bit of research supports it. Scott Mace, who has an appropriately despairing blog about calendar sharing and synchronization, mentions that the iPhone's calendar synchronization with Outlook is very weak. That's a clue.
Outlook is a the 8,000 pound Mastodon in the world of calendars, tasks, and contacts. It's the immovable object, and it's not simple to synchronize with. Outlook has a very complex and kludgy way of implementing these core concepts, and Microsoft leveraged that complexity to destroy Palm. Apple may have a few Palm veterans in Cupertino, people who are warning them about what it means to try to manage tasks, appointments, and contacts on Microsoft's turf.
Most iPhones will sync with XP and Vista machines, and eventually with Outlook 2007. If Apple wants this to work half-decently (meaning better than Palm), then the iPhone has to approach contacts, tasks, and appointments in a way that's a reasonable match to a subset of Outlook functionality (the most used fields, for example). If the iPhone does this, then OS X must to.
Problem is, Apple has iCal and the (very peculiar) Address Book on OS X, and they're nothing like Outlook. So Apple needs new versions of iCal and the Address book, but that's not going to happen on 10.4. That kind of change can only come with 10.5, perhaps with a new approach to synchronization.
So my latest tortured theory predicts that Apple won't add new PDA/PIM functionality to the iPhone before OS X 10.5 ships (supposedly in October, though I doubt it will be stable before April). If I'm write we'll see something @ Jan 2008.
Friday, September 07, 2007
New iPod video out has DRM protection built in
Apple tightens the DRM screws ...
Apple locks TV Out in new iPods, breaks video add-onsThis is a DRM move, I suspect it's related to Apple's desire to deploy HD video to iPods. This is good, it will teach people some valuable lessons about DRM ...
... Without disclosing the change to customers, Apple has locked the TV Out feature of the iPod classic and video-capable iPod nano, preventing users from outputting iPod content to their TV sets [jf: except via Apple authenticated devices] as has been done in years past. Going to the Videos > Settings menu brings up a TV Out option that is now unresponsive when clicked, showing only the word “off.” When locked, video content will display on the iPod’s screen, but not on your TV or portable display accessory.
Presently, the only apparent way to turn this feature on is if you connect your iPod to a device with an Apple authentication chip built in. Authentication chips are only available in Apple products, and in a handful of products made by Apple-licensed third-party developers
Thursday, September 06, 2007
SMARTReporter: a free drive monitoring application for OS X
I'm going to try this one. From macintouch:
SMARTReporter 2.3 attempts to warn of impending hard drive failure by polling the SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) status technology built in to most modern hard drives. This release now prints more information about the checked disk to the logfile, improves handling of hot-plugged disks (eSATA), fixes some crashers, and makes other changes.
PictureSync: photo service IDs and metadata mapping
There are five people in the universe who'd find this discussion noteworthy: PictureSync » metadata.
I'm one of 'em. Synchronization is harder than most people imagine.
I'm one of 'em. Synchronization is harder than most people imagine.
Monday, September 03, 2007
The problems with Picasa Web Albums
I pay Google for my Picasa Web Album storage.
For this I get:
I'm definitely feeling like a second class citizen on Google's Picasa web albums.
It doesn't help that Google Video is out of order today as well - no uploads (server failure).
.Mac is looking better these days.
For this I get:
Picasa Help - What are your technical requirements for uploading videos?and no status updates or acknowledgement that iPhoto 2008 has broken the Picasa Web Album iPhoto plug-in.
Video uploading is only available through Picasa.
I'm definitely feeling like a second class citizen on Google's Picasa web albums.
It doesn't help that Google Video is out of order today as well - no uploads (server failure).
.Mac is looking better these days.
Google Earth Flight Simulator
GE includes a flight simulatory game ...
Flight Simulator Keyboard Controls - Google Earth User Guide
This document describes the various keyboard combinations that you can use with the flight simulator features of Google Earth. To enter the flight simulator mode, press Ctrl + Alt + A (Command/Open Apple Key + Option + A on the Mac). Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator. To leave flight simulator mode, click Exit Flight Simulator in the top right corner or press Ctrl + Alt + A (Command/Open Apple Key+ Option + A on the Mac)...
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