Software

Apps Found on My iPhone 3G

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I have been using my iPhone 3G for a few weeks now. So far I am a fan! There are still a few things it cannot do (call recording!) but overall it is a great phone. I have downloaded a ton of free and paid apps. Some of my favorites installed on my phone now are:

GrandDialer – Basically an app that will do GrandCentral's click to dial. I haven't used it that much yet, but so far it is really cool.

Weather Bug – because I like to know the weather.

iTrans NYC – fantastic NYC subway maps, plus transit alerts

Facebook – because I got addicted to it back in May!

iDrink – You never know when you need the ingrediants to make a fantastic drink

GoContact – send contacts details quickly. It is amazing how often I need to do this

Loopt – Location based stuff is just fun. I just wish anyone I know used it

aSubnet & Instant Byte – Subnet calculator. I also have some unit converter software specifically for technology. Very helpful. I am waiting for an SSH client, and a cheap FTP program (the only one out there is $10).

iNetwork Test – runs a test of my wireless connection and keeps track of results and the locations they were taken. Very cool.

Mobile News & NY Times – my fix of the news.

1Password – website password management on my iphone. I love this on my Mac and it works great on my phone.

SplashID – I had this on my Palm for ages, and the concept is the same. My password library with me anywhere i go, but in a nice secured format.

Remote – iTunes / Apple TV remote that just works.

PwGen – random password generator. I have a program like this on my Mac, but a portable one is cool. In my job creating passwords happens all the time!

BigTipper – I hate calculating tips, this makes life easy.

Flashlight – It is just cool!

and More…

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Personal Wiki

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Years ago Gus showed me a personal wiki software package. I think it was active words. I am not even sure if you would call that a wiki, but it was a personal organization program. At the time I wasn’t interested. Recently however I have wanted to have a place where I can put important or repetitive personal information in. I had been keeping notepad items on my smart phone for years, but when I last looked I had like 50+ notes. It was too much to manage in that system. After some searching my favorite productivity sites (Lifehacker, 43 Folders, etc.) I stumbled across VoodooPad for the Mac. I actually remember reading about it a while back but never used it. This week however I downloaded the free version and I already moved all my notepad items into it. I am about ready to buy the paid version to get the extra features. I like its functionality, and also the ability to export everything to XML, TXT, or HTML. With that option if I ever feel like leaving the program I am not locked into some proprietary format. I like that.

More opinions as I use the software.

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Deduplicate Photos

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My entire childhood memories are stuck on 35mm slides and tons of photos stacked in baskets at my parents house. The storage of the photos has caused allot of damage to the photos. It has also caused everything to be disorganized. I have tried to get my dad to scan as many slides and photos into the computer as possible. I have also taken as many photos as I could and scanned them. I figure i have the ability to do it, so why pay someone to do it. The issue is it is time consuming and not a perfect system. I have had a problem with duplicate photos in my photo archive for some time. It has been really annoying, but I haven’t put any effort into fixing it. This morning after cleaning up my apartment I decided to figure out how to solve my issue. 5 minutes of google searching later I found Duplicate Annihilator for iPhoto.

One dry run with their shareware version of the software got me hooked to buy the full software that will scan my entire iPhoto library. For $7.95 it was worth it! My only issue is that I keep the original photos and my iPhoto archive. I don’t trust a program that won’t let me get easy access to my original data. My paranoia paid off a few months ago when my iPhoto library got corrupted and i needed to restore an old one and then re-import the more recent files i created. Once I am done de-duplicating my images I now need to export what I have from iPhoto to replace the stand alone files.

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I Want A Time Machine

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Since I cannot afford a Tardis, I am settling for the Apple version of a Time Machine. After much delay (October) I finally am setting up Time Machine. The delay was not really my fault. I didn’t want to use Time Machine on a local disk attached to my Macbook, but Apple hadn’t released the software to allow you to backup to a remote share. Yesterday they finally updated the software on the Airport Extreme base station to allow this neat function. Firmware 7.3.1 now lets me use Time Machine to a 250gb drive plugged into my base station. I had to plug my printer directly into my Macbook to free up the USB port but it should be worth it.

I am currently running my first backup now. Lets see if this touted feature is really worth it. Time Machine wont fully replace Synk just yet. I will need Synk to continue to backup data I have on an external drive.

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Can I Find The Right Phone? Part 2, The Nokia E61i

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I have been using the Nokia E61i for a few months now and I like allot of features of the phone, but its shortcomings are starting to bother me allot. Where the Treo 680 would freeze for a few seconds every once in a while, the E61i’s biggest problem is just slow all the time. Launching applications or moving through screens is noticeably slower than on the Palm OS, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry. The E61i is very stable. I almost never have to restart the phone. In fact it was almost 2 months after I got it when the phone froze on me. I think the problem was related to something I installed that was a Beta. I removed it and have been fine since then. The other issues I have with the E61i is it’s PIM functionality. More specifically its tasks program is horrible. The phone doesn’t support categories, the search functions are all but useless, and it takes me around 5 times longer to enter a task on the E61i than it did on my Treo 680. Because there is no category support for the PIM (Personal Information Manager) Software, I cannot easily filter calls with calling groups out of the Address Book. I also have to edit every single calendar entry I make on the phone to put it in the correct calendar on my computer. The lack of a touch screen bothers me, but is a minor issue compared with all my other issues. I haven’t found a good email program, but I limp by with what comes pre-installed. What is good about the E61i is it has no issues syncing with my Mac, especially over bluetooth. It works flawlessly with Bluephone Elite, the phone control software I use on my Mac. It also has great internet functionality especially since it has built in Wifi. Bluetooth also works flawlessly. I paired my Motorola Bluetooth Headset to the phone with no problems. I am able to turn on the headset and it always finds the phone and works. I stopped using Bluetooth headsets on my Treo because it wouldn’t work all the time and I would lose calls because I tried picking them up with the headset.

To sum it up the E61i is a nice reliable phone with a decent selection of software, but its basic functionality is lacking and the phone is just slow. If I could fix most of my issues with the tasks program I might be able to overlook the other issues I have with the Nokia’s Symbian S60 software.

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10.5 Compatible Applications Follow Up

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When I first installed Leapord (OS 10.5) I wrote about the compatibility issues I had with some programs that I use. Well it has been almost two months and allot of those issues are resolved with one or two still lingering.

I found out that the ecto beta for 3.0 is a free upgrade for me since I owned 2.x. So far 3.0 is working fine in beta and thankfully isn’t crashing so I can write this blog entry without aggravation.

Mark/Space has published a beta of the Missing Sync for the Palm that works with 10.5. I had issues with it like I did with the original version of 6.x. It stops syncing tasks and calendar items from my Treo. Thankfully since I wrote the first post and now I have switched phones to a Symbian based Nokia E61i so I don’t need to rely on this software.

PGP Desktop may be the de facto standard in security products but it is not cheap ($70 or so for 1 year). Add the fact that they didn’t have a working product (even in beta) when 10.5 came out I began looking for other products. I have looked into Knox several times before I went with PGP Desktop, but now I took another look at the product that is basically an add on to Apple’s DMG file format. Knox gives me all the functionality I want, plus added features that a simple encrypted DMG file does not. I gave the trial a go and already bought myself a license (only $34.95 for a license not a one year subscription). I have let my PGP subscription expire and so far I am happy with my choice. Converting the encrypted stores I had took some time but I think I am finally done.

Mactheripper is a totally different story that I wont go into now. I don’t want to write that much.

Marketcircle has had several beta’s of Daylite 3.6 out. Their latest still has sync problems with Apple Sync services. They have been very responsive so I am patient for now. I can use the program but I can’t use alarms, or I can’t sync it with my phone. This is probably the most frustrating issue i have right now.

Other than that I have not had many issues with Leopard. I am not using all the new features that I thought I would, but overall it is a great OS.

AOL For Free?

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I went online tonight to do some research for my mom and dad regarding their AOL accounts. First I realized that my dad has been a member since 1996. Wow, time has flow. I was poking around his account for him so I can figure out how to keep his email address (and my mom’s) but not pay the BYOP monthly charge of $14.95. They have been paying that to keep the simplicity of AOL for years after they switched to Road Runner cable. Now a days they don’t use the service for anything more than checking email, so why pay for all those extra features. It turns out that AOL got wise and is now offering a basic BYOP plan for free, as long as you don’t use any premium features. That works perfectly for them. I was set to move them to google apps. I even had a domain name bought and configured for them before I figured out I didn’t need to move them. Lets hope that there is no hidden gotcha’s to this change, but from AOL’s web page it doesn’t look like there is.

Not having to cancel their account is also very helpful for me too. I totally forgot that my AIM screen name is in fact an screen name attached to my dad’s account. The screen name pre-dated my use (or the existence for that matter) of AIM. I used to use it for some web hosting back in the day. I haven’t logged into the AOL software in so long (for the record it hasn’t been on my computer in years) that I forgot that it was a screen name and not a stand alone AIM name. I might have had problems if i canceled the account and wanted to use the screen name for AIM. Not having to deal with the issue is a good thing, especially since I don’t really want to change it. It is like a phone number, it hasn’t changed in years and everyone I know has it.

10.5 Compatible Applications

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Since I was upgrading to Leapord I knew there might be issues with the new OS and applications I typically use. So when I was upgrading this week I also got a small portable hard drive that I replicated my existing Tiger install onto using Carbon Copy Cloner in case I need to use applications that don’t work with the new OS. I am glad I did that since there are several key applications that I use that don’t work just yet. So far out of everything I use the following don’t work or have trouble working with 10.5:

ecto: 2.x doesn’t work so thankfully I am writing this with a trial beta of 3.0.

Missing Sync for Palm: It doesn’t work, and Mark/Space recommends waiting until a working version comes out. They claim this will happen in the next 90 days.

PGP Destop 9.x: Pieces of it might work according to the forums I read, but it was recomended not to try to use it since it might cause issues with encrypted disks I have. A beta of the latest version that will support 10.5 is supposed to come out in November, so that means in 30 days or so.

Daylite 3.5: The awsome support guys at Marketcircle have a beta (3.6) that will work with Leapord but hasn’t publicly released it. They said if you ask nice they will give it to you. Since I was dealing with someone regarding a problem with syncing in 3.5.x I asked for and got a copy of 3.6. Unfortunately all the problems they were able to fix for me in 3.5.2 are back in 3.6 (or what appears to be the same issue). I can use the application but I can’t sync with Apple sync services. Another separate post on this is pending since using this program is changing how I am productive. The breakthrough was when they released version 3.5 with access to sync services, but as I said more on this later.

Mactheripper: I am not even sure if this application is supported anymore but I love it. Unfortunately it crashes allot now. Not sure what to do with it just yet.

VMware Fusion

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I haven’t written about it for a while, but I am still heavily relying on virtualization on my Macbook to do almost everything. There are several work programs that must run in Windows, plus Quicken for my personal stuff, etc. I am sorry to admit that I upgraded to Parallels 3.0 right before VMware announced the pricing and pre-ordering of Fusion back in June. When VMware announced pre-order of Fusion I also got that. Lets face it i haven’t settled on either product just yet.

I have been using Parallels since they announced their product, and upgraded since I couldn’t wait for the final version of Fusion. Parallels 3.0 has some nice features, like multiple snapshots (like VMware Workstation, but not Fusion), and the ability to open windows files from the Mac OS. That is the dilemma. Now that Fusion is out, I am running it. I will admit it is noticeably faster (to me) than Parallels. That and the fact that i can use all the existing VM’s i have (and i have allot) is very compelling. I just wish Fusion could do some of the things Parallels can do (multiple snapshots and launching programs from the Mac OS). If it had those two functions it would be the perfect product (for now). Even with those shortcomings, i will say that Fusion is the only virtualization software currently running on my Macbook. Parallels has a new beta out that addresses some of their performance issues and other features so i may switch back, who knows.

With all my existing VM’s, my use of VMware Workstation on windows, and ESX server at work I am firmly wanting the decision to use Fusion over Parallels to be good a no brainer! Right now that isn’t the case, but the performance difference (to me) keeps it running on my Mac.

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