June 2009
How to make iPhoto work with Android phones
by Volker Weber
When I plug an iPhone, or any camera for that matter, into my Mac, iPhoto loads and offers to import the pictures. Not with the Android G1 though. iPhoto loads, but it cannot find pictures. The reason is that it is looking in the wrong place. There is a directory called DCIM on the SD card and inside that directory is another one called Camera, which contains the photos.
You need to do two things to make it work:
- Make sure DCIM is not dcim. The G1 does not mind, but iPhoto does.
- Create a link from DCIM/100ANDRO to DCIM/Camera.
On a Mac that is pretty simple. Open Terminal and, assuming your SD card is called G1, enter:
cd /Volumes/G1
mv dcim DCIM
cd DCIM
ln -s Camera 100ANDRO
Or, if you prefer to use the Finder, create an Alias 100ANDRO for Camera:
iPhoto will now look into DCIM/100ANDRO and find the photos in DCIM/Camera. Bingo.
Hold your Firefox 3.5 upgrade
by Volker Weber
That is if you use Google Gears. Current version is 0.5.21.0 and it is not yet compatible with Firefox 3.5. If you are adventurous you may want to switch off compatibility check. Go to about:config, add the property "extensions.checkCompatibility" and set it to false
Who said Microsoft is not helping?
by Volker Weber
When we announced Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook a few weeks ago, we committed to improving it over time to make the Outlook experience on Apps as similar to the experience on Exchange as possible. We first focused on making mail, contacts, and calendar work really well, because those are the features that the more than one hundred companies who tested Apps Sync before launch asked for. Today we wanted to share a couple of updates on our progress in improving compatibility.
We worked closely with Microsoft to address two issues that we shared recently, and we appreciate their help.
Only in the UK
by Volker Weber
A medic at Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, has advised men against attempting DIY circumcision with nail clippers, after a young man who'd decided this was the best way to go roundhead was admitted for emergency treatment
Be careful with your data at LotusLive
by Volker Weber
As you may recall, my LotusLive trial recently expired without notice. It just would not let me in anymore. Today I searched for myself at a page which is linked as "Find people who are using LotusLive" from here. The interesting result:
Clicking that link took me here:
So, IBM keeps your data, but you can't remove it, since you no longer have access. Be careful out there.
Miles away
by Volker Weber
Why is this thing so expensive?
by Volker Weber
50% more than its ugly twin. How hard do we have to slap some designers so they finally understand that their job is to remove stuff, and not add it. Remove the Leica badge and the writing around the lens, and it would be even nicer!
Minus one
by Volker Weber
I am going to count the bodies.
Alex Kassabov: LotusLive – SaaS without the service
by Volker Weber
Out of all the purchases I’ve ever made in my life, buying a LotusLive subscription or a license is the most complicated one. I rank it somewhere between buying a house and getting a GreenCard.
Interesting but not surprising read.
[Don't follow the comments. They are all spam.]
Fehlerkette
by Volker Weber
Aus meinem Posteingang:
Hast Du einen Datenrettungs-Spezialisten für mich? Die Fotographen haben eine 4 GB Karte aus Versehen formatiert :-(
Uh oh. Das sieht nicht gut aus. Eine formatierte Karte ist eigentlich kein Problem. Sofort ein Image ziehen und dann mit diesem versuchen, die Daten wiederherzustellen. Niemals mehr auf die Karte schreiben, bis die Daten gerettet sind. Aber ich kriege so einen Patienten immer erst zu sehen, wenn er nicht nur erschossen wurde. Zur Sicherheit wird er noch erhängt, vergiftet, gevierteilt und die Reste verbrannt.
Dabei zeichnete sich die Katastrophe schon während des Shootings ab. Zwei Fotografen arbeiten zusammen, einer mit Canon und einer mit Nikon. Die kennen sich schon mal nicht mit dem Equipment des anderen aus. Dann sagt X plötzlich: "Oh, Karte voll, da muss ich mal Y fragen". Y war gerade am Arbeiten, also abgelenkt. Rückt trotzdem Karte an X raus. X legt Karte ein und formatiert zur Sicherheit mal. Und schiesst dann ein paar Dutzend Bilder.
Was macht man mit einer versehentlich formatierten Karte? JPEG Header suchen und alle Sektoren dahinter bis zum nächsten Header verketten. Dafür gibt es simple Werkzeuge. Dummerweise haben X und Y nicht nur zu wenig Karten "am Mann", sondern füllen die Ruckzuck auch noch mit Raw statt Jpeg. Ken hat dazu eine Meinung.
Patient tot. Kennt jemand ne Software, die Nikon Raw auf formatierten Medien findet und assembliert?
Empowered Notes users
by Volker Weber
There is an interesting thread on Ed's about the applications people use stand-alone on their Notes clients. Read the comments. "I wrote this little application", "Journal can be easily customized" and so on. Do you see the pattern? It seems that all Notes users who love the platform are empowered. They can customize their experience to their personal needs. They can write their own application, how small they may be. The most vocal fans are fully empowered. They can write the most elaborate applications themselves, they have their own servers to deploy them on.
And they are a very, very small minority of the Notes users out there.
Pillepalle
by Volker Weber
Ich habe mir das jetzt dreimal angeschaut und bin auf keine andere Überschrift gekommen. Aber ich habe ja auch schon Second Life nicht kapiert.
Using Tweetdeck on the iPhone
by Volker Weber
One of the benefits of hosted services is that you can often swap clients without much fuss. In case of Twitter, just enter username and password, and you are in the game with a new client. I have used quite a few on the iPhone, currently Tweetdeck. Many people looked at it just briefly and decided that the fonts on the user interface are too small. Well, just tap on the screen and it zooms in on the card.
And it stays that way. I guess Tweetdeck just wants to educate you on the columns it presents, but you can swipe left and right in the zoomed state as well. Works very well for me.
Manager Achieves Full Mastery Of Pointless Managerial Jargon
by Volker Weber
During what was described to them as "a look-forward meeting to discuss and evaluate the company's event-chain methodology," MediaLine employees stood with mouths agape Wednesday as they witnessed the very moment at which project manager James Atkins attained complete mastery over the fine art of meaningless corporate doublespeak.
[via Haiko]
Running Notes in your company? Check out iFidelity!
by Volker Weber
Genii Software is pleased to announce the immediate availability a pair of products, iFidelity for Lotus Notes 3.0 and iFidelity Gateway 3.0. From the makers of the widely recognized and acclaimed CoexLinks, iFidelity is designed to revolutionize the seamless fidelity of email between in-house IBM Lotus Notes/Domino email and external email systems, whether they utilize Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook or web based email interfaces. To facilitate the rapid adoption of this exciting new technology, Genii Software is offering a free iFidelity 3.0 mail server license (enough to handle most small companies) to any IBM Business Partner who sells or works with IBM Lotus software.
iFidelity fixes all those issues you have with formatted emails. Ben showed it to me at Lotusphere, and I was truly amazed.
Does this remind you of Lotus Notes
by Volker Weber
I mean back in the days, when you could slap together a small form-based app and put it on the server? Well, now you can do it again. Just somewhere else.
iPhone 3.0 enterprise integration
by Volker Weber
I was just reading through the Enterprise Deployment Guide for iPhone 3.0. It lists quite a few new feautures that have not been reported so far. Since the guide only talks about Exchange I'd suggest to test them against the Domino 8.5.1 beta with Traveler to see which of them are working:
- CalDAV calendar wireless syncing is now supported.
- LDAP server support for contact look-up in mail, address book, and SMS.
- Configuration profiles can be encrypted and locked to a device so that their removal requires an administrative password.
- iPhone Configuration Utility 2.0 now allows you to add and remove encrypted configuration profiles directly onto devices that are connected to your computer by USB.
- Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) is now supported for certificate revocation.
- On-demand certificate-based VPN connections are now supported.
- VPN proxy configuration via a configuration profile and VPN servers is supported.
- Microsoft Exchange users can invite others to meetings. Microsoft Exchange 2007 users can also view reply status.
- Exchange ActiveSync client certificate-based authentication is now supported.
- Additional EAS policies are now supported, along with EAS protocol 12.1.
- Additional device restrictions are now available, including the ability to specify the length of time that a device can be left unlocked and disabling the camera.
- Local mail messages and calendar events can be searched. For IMAP, MobileMe, and Exchange 2007, mail that resides on the server can also be searched.
- Additional mail folders can now be designated for push email delivery.
- APN proxy settings can now be made specified using a configuration profile.
- Web clips can now be installed using a configuration profile.
- 802.1x EAP-SIM is now supported.
- Devices can now be authenticated and enrolled over-the-air using a Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) server.
- iTunes can now store device backups in encrypted format.
You will need the iPhone Configuration Utility 2.0 which runs either on Mac OS X 10.5 or Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1, both with .NET Framework 3.5 SP 1, to create the configuration profiles. The document is also a very good resource for those who want to manage iPhones from their Domino configuration solution.
Eclipse publishes Galileo
by Volker Weber
The largest annual release so far. 33 projects with more than 24 million LOC.
HTC announces third Android smartphone HTC Hero with HTC Sense interface
by Volker Weber
Outlook's broken
by Volker Weber
Microsoft have confirmed they plan on using the Word rendering engine to display HTML emails in Outlook 2010.
This means for the next 5 years your email designs will need tables for layout, have no support for CSS like float and position, no background images and lots more. Want proof? Here’s the same email in Outlook 2000 & 2010.
Outlook 2010 is still in beta and Microsoft wants your feedback. It’s time to rally together and encourage Microsoft to embrace web standards before it’s too late.
Let’s use Twitter to send a clear message to Microsoft.
Socialtext collaboration free for up to 50 users
by Volker Weber
A free, hosted Socialtext account for up to 50 people from your company. It is private between co-workers. You and your colleagues get private, "Twitter-like" micro-blogging, social networking, and a shared wiki workspace. And you each get your own personal home page. If a collaboration network already exists for your company, you will be added to it. If not, one will be created.
That's how you get the word out. Let small groups work with the service and make money as they grow.
Here is what happens if your LotusLive trial account expires
by Volker Weber
And what happens after seven years?
by Volker Weber
Quo vadis, OpenNTF?
by Volker Weber
When IBM announced in January it was going to help OpenNTF, this was not what I had hoped for the site: committees, working groups, meetings and conference calls. These are the last five headlines:
- Announcement: IP Working Group Conference Call - Friday, June 19th, 2009 - 10 AM EDT
- OpenNTF Alliance Steering Committee Meeting Minutes from June 8, 2009
- OpenNTF.org Alliance Steering Committee Meeting Minutes from May 28th, 2009
- Summary of Inaugural Meeting of the OpenNTF.org Alliance Steering Committee
- Bug submission fixed in Projects DB
"/Internal/home.nsf" says it all. Try to sit through this.
PS: You can't make this up. The next entry on planetlotus.org:
For your next party
by Volker Weber
From my inbox
by Volker Weber
Hello Volker,
My name is xxxxx and I work for the UK Publisher, yyyyy, a unique publishing company with a focus on specialized IT books.
Hello xxxxx, from yyyyy.
I came across your weblog VoWe.net via Google search; I personally think that it acts as an excellent resource to Lotus Notes users.
Oh, thank you.
yyyyy is giving away "Upgrading to Lotus Notes and Domino 7" eBook written by several IBM experts.
You must have a lot of those eBooks sitting in the warehouse since 2005.
Expired
by Volker Weber
I was still getting a connection request today, so I checked whether the accounts was still active. Turns out it expires now. Google Sites, Docs, Skype, Teamviewer, that's what has served me well so far, so I am not going to miss anything.
Lotus wants to give software away for free
by Volker Weber
"IBM is delivering on its commitment to free businesses and consumers from having to pay licensing fees over and over just to access their own personal or company information," said Kevin Cavanaugh, VP of Lotus Software.
You may want to keep this quote for your next negotiations about Lotus license payments. Why would you want to pay licensing fees over and over just to access your mailboxes, your calendars, or any other company information.
Office 2007 and Symphony on Netbook
by Volker Weber
For no particular reason I had the urge this morning to install Symphony on a netbook. It was a goner in a matter of 10 minutes. But I thought I'd share some screenshots comparing the user interfaces.
I need a distraction free environment. That's why I hide the ribbon with Ctrl-F1 when typing text. Did the same for Symphony with the sidebar. While Word renders the text very well with and without the ribbon, Symphony's readability is very poor with the sidebar on such a small display. No wonder, if it's automatically resizing to 92 and 118%, where Word uses 130%.
What's the real competition? Microsoft Word 2000. Has all the features I need, looks like Symphony without sidebar, renders text much better and loads in a fraction of a second. And I have a few copies on the shelf. Once again, the real Office competitor is an old copy of Office.
BTW: Why do UI designers still use floppies as a symbol for "Save"? They are long gone.
Harald Martenstein: Es ist so einfach, gut zu sein
by Volker Weber
Wo stehen Sie eigentlich politisch?, wurde ich gefragt. Ganz einfach, antwortete ich. Mein Platz ist auf der richtigen Seite. Ich bin bei den Guten.
Yes, and you should know that
by Volker Weber
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
IBM is afraid of Microsoft who is afraid of Google who is afraid of Facebook who is afraid of Twitter who is afraid of whales.
— Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research
IBM acronyms MIA
by Volker Weber
Alex has a great collections of photos from Lotusphere 2006. They show the pre-OGS entertainment, where IBM has some fun with their own acronyms. What's most interesting is how many of those acronyms are no longer relevant. Can you spot them?
Google updates Maps on Android phones
by Volker Weber
Search for Maps in the Android Market and install the 3.1 update to get new features including voice search, public transit and walking directions, and a beefed-up Latitude.
Why I love Top Gear
by Volker Weber
Top Gear dwarves all other car shows. I advise you to spend 11 minutes and 16 seconds watching this proper road test to understand what it is all about. Favorite quote: "You don't want any more than that on marble." Next season starts Sunday.
[via John Gruber]
Lotus Traveler - it's complicated
by Volker Weber
At Lotusphere 09 IBM announced that Lotus Traveler would get Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support, which has the potential to open Domino up to the many mobile devices that come with an EAS client. This was a smart move, but it was also the only move left, after IBM failed to establish their own protocol with device vendors.
There is some duplication of effort, since IBM also has Traveler clients for Nokia S60 and for Windows Mobile. And as Alan pointed out, the new Nokia E72 will ship with the Traveler client, which gets installed when you setup a Domino account.
Although I know that there are many versions of S60, I was mildly surprised by Thomas McErlean's comment:
The Lotus Traveler 8.5 email editor application does not have Touch UI support, IBM development are working on adding 5th edition Touch support and officially supporting in the near future.
With the Nokia N97 and 5800XM devices you cannot compose a new mail and if you reply, the cursor will be in the email body automatically and you can type, but cannot move between fields.
The 5800XM is probably not an issue, but the N97 flagship most likely will be. Well, at first I thought that one could solve this by forgoing the Traveler client, and instead use EAS. Unfortunately Traveler only supports the iPhone and the iPod touch over EAS, but not Mail for Exchange, which is being used by the Nokia phone. What happens if you try any of the other EAS devices, like the new Palm Pre?
Installing Brightkite Beta on Android
by Volker Weber
Techcrunch has instructions. And it's quite an experience. First step is to use Barcode Scanner to read the URL from the screen:
This will extract the URL from the QR Code:
Nokia announces the E72
by Volker Weber
I am pretty sure it is going to be even better than the wonderful E71. If they'd only get a new o/s. From the press release:
... we included the desktop like email experience from the Nokia E75 and gave it a new optical navigation key for more intuitive scrolling through menus, emails and fast panning of images. We also upgraded the camera to 5 megapixels and added a standard 3.5 mm audio jack.
Deadline
by Volker Weber
Microsofties lose their iPhones
by Volker Weber
Microsoft's cost-cutting measures are costing more than just jobs at the software giant - staff are also having to give up their iPhones and BlackBerries.
More Safari than Internet Explorer
by Volker Weber
Just looked at my site stats and was surprised to find that Safari has surpassed IE on vowe's magic flying circus.
A little behind on my reading
by Volker Weber
Yes, and back on the Bold. This time I lasted four days. But the Storm is still getting too much in the way of doing things. Love the display, but not the user interface.
Samsung to launch Android phone tomorrow
by Volker Weber
This is going to be the Android phone you want if you need to buy one soon.
Update: On second thought this might not be about the 7500 Galaxy, but rather the Omnia Pro, a Windows Mobile device. The Galaxy specs are out, so there is not much reason for this PR effort.
Update: Apparently they were talking up another proprietary dumb phone, the Samsung Jet. Yawn.
Did you grab your Facebook vanity URL yet?
by Volker Weber
Ars Reviews the Palm Pre, part 1: the BlackBerry killer
by Volker Weber
Since the Pre's unveiling at CES 2009, the tech press has been caught up in the Rocky-like narrative of a former champ, now fallen on lean times, who tries to recapture his former glory by stepping in the ring with a make-or-break, high-profile exhibition fight against the reigning titleholder. But there's a serious problem with how this narrative has been presented, and specifically with the mobile device that has been cast in the part of the young, strutting, seemingly invincible heavyweight titleholder. See, the Palm Pre isn't out to KO the iPhone, but rather it's swinging at the real reigning champ: RIM's BlackBerry.
If you do away the who-kills-whom story, there are some interesting insights in this story.
Best new iPhone feature
by Volker Weber
Hardly ever mentioned, the landscape keyboard in Mail is the best new feature for me. Much easier to type on with fat thumbs. Most important new feature probably is Spotlight search across all apps and data:
Quickly move files in and out of Quickr places with PandaBear
by Volker Weber
PandaBear™ (Beta) for Lotus® Quickr™ is a free desktop application that lets you easily upload or download files from a Lotus Quickr place using an intuitive, friendly interface.
Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux because it is built with Adobe Air.
Site was down 4.5 hours
by Volker Weber
Wow, that was a long nap: 12:48 to 17:17 CEST. All bytes are lined up again, the cables have been sorted, and the server should be squeaky clean now. Root cause was a hardware failure.
Thanks for all the phone calls, instant messages and emails.
TomTom for iPhone
by Volker Weber
New iGoogle for Android and iPhone
by Volker Weber
oday, we're excited to roll out an improved beta version of iGoogle for the iPhone and Android-powered devices. This new version is faster and easier to use. It supports tabs as well as more of your favorite gadgets, including those built by third-party developers. Note that not all gadgets — like those with Flash — will work in mobile browsers.
And look, what you can have in iGoogle:
This isn't yet the full experience, but at least you can look up your buddies, who use the full version of Latitude.
[Thanks, Stefan]
Why mobile matters
by Volker Weber
While talking about something completely different, Jeff Smith remarks:
I tend to think of it this way. Years hence, we will think of the PC and the Internet as staging areas for a digital revolution that reached its true potential when it was untethered. The PC era taught us how to deal with computing devices, interfaces, etc. The Internet taught us how powerful data can be and how accessing it can be user-driven. The mobile age takes those fundamentals out into the world. It knits computing power, a massive digital database, and real world and immediate situations together into something that will be powerful in ways we can't quite imagine until we start playing with it more.
There you have it. That's why I am so interested in mobile apps. It's not the gadgets, but how we use them.
The Naked Truth
by Volker Weber
My favorite feature missing from the iPhone
by Volker Weber
As I go back and forth between Android, BlackBerry and iPhone, there is one feature I am missing from the iPhone, and that is the backtrack button. On Android it lets you go back to where you have been before. Follow an http link from Google Talk to a browser, and then just go back.
Some applications on the iPhone have a backtrack button. But that only works in the application. As soon as you switch to a different app, the old one dies and you can't go back.
Short update on the Netgear 9150 Digital Entertainer
by Volker Weber
It's been about six weeks since I got the player, and I love it. Recommended if you like to play lots of videos. Not so much for photos or music. It's faster than the 8000 and has enough power to stream HD over 802.11n. I am driving my Bravia with 1080p and it's upscaling videos very well.
If Netgear would invest into a better user interface, that would be very welcome. But I have zero gripes about the performance as a video streamer.
Editor-refuses-to-give-it-back award with flying colors!
Download podcasts over WiFi
by Volker Weber
I am not that into podcasts, so I did not know you can download them directly from iTunes store to your iPhone/iPod touch. Andrew was asking me, if the iPod touch updates itself when connected over WiFi, and the answer to that seems to be "no".
Since I charge most of my devices directly at the desk when connected to the iMac, I never tried. Dock it, and it updates itself over iTunes. That does not work over WiFi, and I think it really should.
Another Storm ride
by Volker Weber
RIM continues updating the Storm firmware, so it's time for another trial run. I am currently on 4.7.0.141 as supplied by Vodafone Germany. And it is much, much better than anything I have seen so far on the device. I have one weird bug: I cannot go into the screen/keyboard preferences. But other than that, I am liking it. Switching from portrait to landscape is superfast, and I am seeing less issues than before.
I am toying with the idea of updating to the Vodafone image with .148 but am not sure whether that is going to fix the minor issue.
What I am still trying to figure out is how selecting text works. I am still being a bit clumsy when I am not sure whether to just touch or press the screen:
It's also kind of dangerous to use the Storm and any other touch device since you tend to press too hard on the other screens.
Update: One reboot later I was able to access the screen/keyboard preferences panel. I actually provoked the reboot with trying to make the screenshot above. :-)
Reality check
by Volker Weber
The Lotus Symphony 1.3 experience is so much better - i just built a presentation with no hangs, lockups, or screen freezes. Love it!
Symphony 1.2 must have been a great experience. I seem to be very spoiled to take these things for granted. Actually, I never had a hang, a lockup, or a screen freeze while building a presentation. But then again, I am not a Symphony user.
Lotus Symphony 1.3 available
by Volker Weber
Half a dozen clicks later you can download the latest and greatest. No IBM ID required, just some bogus registration info. No, still not on OOo 3.x codebase.
The text wiggling is gone, but it's not perfect yet:
developer.symbian.org opens up
by Volker Weber
Next thing you will hear is how many registered Symbian developers there are. Because you cannot even look inside without registering.
Latitude on iPhone
by Volker Weber
Missing in action: Latitude in the iPhone Maps application. It's now available on all other smartphone platforms but not the iPhone. From the Google mobile web site it appears that Google will deliver this in a browser application. Not what I was looking for.
I wonder how they are going to update your location when they don't have an app that can run in the background. Only Apple provides this capability in their own apps so far.
Find My iPhone is live
by Volker Weber
Just tried it on MobileMe, and it found the iPod without difficulties.
Upgraded Stocks app in iPhone 3.0
by Volker Weber
The new stocks app is one of the features that hasn't been talked a lot about so far. It gives you a much better chart and also lets you pull up some other vital information. This is going to make the Bloomberg app redundant for me.
Google plugs Outlook into Apps
by Volker Weber
Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, a name that could have been invented by IBM, will let you use Outlook as the frontend to Google Apps. It syncs mail, calendar and adresses from Google Apps into Outlook. That is going to lower the barrier when going from Exchange to Google Apps.
No, Notes isn't even being mentioned.
Nokia E75 software version 110.48.125 released
by Volker Weber
This software release includes several email improvements (setup, sync, connection reliability and readability) and automatic lookup added to Contacts. VoIP and Wi-Fi also have stability improvements. To get this software through your device, type in *#0000# on the home screen or go to Device Manager. Select Options > Check for updates and follow the on-screen prompts.
Very painless over the air update. All settings and data were preserved. First time I did that. Well done, Nokia.
Han Solo, P.I.
by Volker Weber
Young ones can compare here.
New poll: Which Smartphone do you want?
by Volker Weber
Now that all the cards are on the table, which Smartphone do you want? One of the Android phones, a BlackBerry, an iPhone, the new Palm Pre, one of the Nokias on Symbian or a Windows phone?
Results:
Apple WWDC keynote roundup
by Volker Weber
Well, that was the most content ever in an Apple keynote. Short summary:
- New Macbooks, lower prices: 13" is now also called "Pro", new screens, backlit keyboard, SD slot across all lines. Huge price drop for the MacBook Air. For me, the 13" is still the best.
- Safari 4.0: ships today free on Tiger, Leopard and Windows. Fastest JavaScript performance. Passes Acid3 test.
- Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6): ships in September, upgrade for $29. Faster, smaller better. Adds Exchange support across the board in native apps. No need to run huge ass client. Requires Exchange 2007. OS is must have upgrade, especially at this price point.
- iPhone 3.0 software available June 17: free for iPhone and 3G, 10 bucks for iPod touch. Cut&paste and MMS finally, tethering if your carrier allows it, support for Google Maps in applications, including turn by turn instructions, purchase content from within apps.
- iPhone 3G(S), also available June 17: same design as 3G, faster, more memory, 7.2 Mbps HSPA, new camera with autofocus, tap to focus, captures video. Phone adds voice control, not only dialling. New phone supports data encryption.
Notable:
- MobileMe adds remote management to the iPhone: "find my iPhone" will display its location on map, can make it ring even if set to silent and lets you wipe device remotely.
- TomTom comes to the iPhone this summer. Will sell an accessory that safely attaches an iPhone to a car, provides more accurate GPS, speakerphone, plays iPhone media on car stereo, and charges it.
- 50,000 apps on iPhone, 4,900 for Android, 1,088 for Nokia (total), Blackberry (1,030), Palm (18). Looks like Apple is afraid of the Pre. ;-)
Manchmal muss ich laut lachen
by Volker Weber
Eben im Westen gelesen:
Berlin. Nach dem Wahl-Debakel räumt die SPD eine gewisse Ratlosigkeit ein. Irgendwas sei schief gegangen in den vergangenen Tagen, kommentierte SPD-Chef Franz Müntefering das Ergebnis. Die SPD werde trotzdem in der Krise weiter auf staatliche Hilfen für die Wirtschaft setzen.
Genau. Immer feste weiter gegen die Wand.
Watch Yann Arthus-Bertrand's movie HOME
by Volker Weber
HOME is an ode to the planet's beauty and its delicate harmony. Through the landscapes of 54 countries captured from above, Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes us on an unique journey all around the planet, to contemplate it and to understand it. But HOME is more than a documentary with a message, it is a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth - our Earth - as we have never seen it before. Every image shows the Earth's treasures we are destroying and all the wonders we can still preserve. "From the sky, there's less need for explanations". Our vision becomes more immediate, intuitive and emotional. HOME has an impact on anyone who sees it. It awakens in us the awareness that is needed to change the way we see the world.
You can watch it on YouTube until the end of the week before it disappears in cinemas.
New record
by Volker Weber
20233 spams in 30 days, that is a new record. That is almost one spam message every two minutes. Thank you for filtering them all out.
Here is a little Lotus challenge
by Volker Weber
Can you come up with an old slide, that just had "Lotus Workplace Messaging" instead of "LotusLive iNotes"?
In any case this looks like a heck of a marketing effort to explain the different offerings Lotus Notes, Lotus iNotes, LotusLive Notes, LotusLive iNotes, LotusLive iNotes Lite, Lotus iNotes Ultralite, some of them based on Domino, some not.
Palm Pre first-boot welcome video
by Volker Weber
Can't touch this
by Volker Weber
Small site changes
by Volker Weber
I made two changes to the site today:
- The main RSS feed now contains the full text of the last ten posts.
- This became necessary since I replaced the old picture with a current one as of today. :-)
Update: A small poll ended in a tie:
1&1 Werbung jetzt mit Abmeldung
by Volker Weber
So sah die 1&1 Werbemail vor zwei Tagen aus:
Und nun:
Einmal klicken, und dann kommt ohne weitere Nachfrage das:
Prima. Das ging aber fix. Eigentlich hätte das immer schon so sein sollen, aber ich freue mich, dass 1&1 die Anregung so schnell aufgenommen und umgesetzt hat.
Kids, don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Walt Mosberg on the Palm Pre
by Volker Weber
I consider the Pre to be potentially the strongest rival to the iPhone to date, provided it attracts lots of third-party apps, which it sorely lacks at launch. Its design is much better than that of the two other main iPhone-class competitors: the T-Mobile G1, which uses Android, and RIM's touch-screen BlackBerry Storm.
I had the opportunity to play with the Pre for a little and I agree with his assessment. The device is much smaller than an iPhone and holds very nicely in your hand.
Please be aware that you cannot use a Pre as sold from Saturday in GSM/UMTS networks. It uses a completely different technology and it does not even have a SIM reader. Palm has not made announcements when and if they will ship a version compatible with our networks. They eventually will, but currently there is no published roadmap. It may actually be to your advantage not to buy a Pre right now, since there is not much software available today.
Google Wave - a developer's eye view
by Volker Weber
Last week, Google announced Wave, a new communication tool presumptuously described as "e-mail, if it were invented today." Now, it's a coming of age for technology companies to write a collaboration tool, put a good spit-shine demo on it, and call it a revolution. The idea is nothing new. In the 80s, we called it Lotus Notes. As of recent, we called it Microsoft Sharepoint. Today, I guess, it's Google Wave.
Funky search result on Google Squared
by Volker Weber
Google has started its new service Google Squared, which returns search results in tabular format. Here is what it returns for the search query "american vice presidents":
Well, there is George Clinton and there is George Clinton. :-)
Treadmill
by Volker Weber
1&1 Werbung automatisch verarbeiten
by Volker Weber
1&1 belästigt seine Kunden gerne mit Mails, die über tolle Angebote informieren:
Blöderweise steht in diesen Mails nirgends drin, wie man diese wertvollen Informationen abbestellen kann. Erfreulicherweise steht aber drin, wer dafür verantwortlich ist. Und das kann man ausnutzen:
Klickt man auf Message, dann kann man noch eine kleine Grußbotschaft voranstellen:
Aber mal im Ernst, so wird man die Mails endgültig los. Man schicke eine Mail mit diesem Aufbau:
In die erste Zeile kommt der eigene Name, in die zweite die Kundennummer. Die findet man ggfls. bei login.1und1.de. Danach sollte Ruhe sein. Wenn das nicht funktioniert, hilft diese Insiderinformation:
Jeder 1&1-Mitarbeiter ist dazu verpflichtet, Verlangen nach Streichung vom Verteiler anzunehmen und an die intern zuständige Stelle weiterzuleiten. Verweisen an den Support gilt in dem Fall nicht.
Viel Erfolg.
Update: Das Abmelden hat nicht funktioniert. Dafür hat 1&1 eine kleine Anregung sofort aufgenommen und umgesetzt. Lesen Sie hier >
TomTom White Pearl
by Volker Weber
TomTom announces a special Lady's edition of the TomTom ONE. For 20€ more you get a sperm white case and screen mount, a silk bag, and a special set of POIs, including cafes and designer boutiques. Don't know about you, but I find this offering a bit offensive.
Tax inspector
by Volker Weber
At the end of the tax year, the Tax Office sent an inspector to audit the books of a Synagogue.
While he was checking the books he turned to the Rabbi and said, 'I notice you buy a lot of candles. What do you do with the candle drippings?'
'Good question,' noted the Rabbi. 'We save them up and send them back to the candle makers, and every now and then they send us a free box of candles.'
'Oh,' replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer.
But on he went, in his obnoxious way:
'What about all these bread-wafer purchases? What do you do with the crumbs?'
'Ah, yes,' replied the Rabbi, realising that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. 'We collect them and send them back to the manufacturers, and every now and then they send us a free box of bread-wafers.'
'I see,' replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all Rabbi. 'Well, Rabbi,' he went on, 'what do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?'
'Here, too, we do not waste,' answered the Rabbi....
'What we do is save all the foreskins and send them to the Tax Office, and about once a year they send us a complete prick.
[via Wild Bill]
Why, oh why
by Volker Weber
Login is prevented for this browser. For Windows computers this website supports Internet Explorer version 6.0 and higher. For Apple computers this website supports Safari 2.0 and higher. Please visit www.microsoft.com for free downloads of the latest Internet Explorer version or visit www.apple.com for free downloads of the latest Safari version.
That's what you get with Firefox if attempting to access extranet.tomtom.com
High Music is winning by popular vote
by Volker Weber
I am happy to hear that the two records Heiko sent me last week are winning. Congratulations to Ohm-G, DJ Jondal and Heiko.
Notifications on Android
by Volker Weber
Android, other than the iPhone, lets you run stuff in the background. And these applications need a way to notify you of things happening. New chat messages, new mail etc. For that, Android has a notification area in the upper left corner of the screen. You can then pull down that first line and expose what the notifications are:
From the notification screen you can then jump directly to the application that has notified you, or you simple delete all notifications if you want to look at the apps later. Here I am jumping directly into GoogleTalk:
Most applications that use the notifications lets you set what events you want to know about. It's one of the real nice touches in Android.
Android network traffic counter
by Volker Weber
If you need to keep track of your bandwidth usage, NetCounter is your friend. It runs in the background and counts the data exchanged over WiFi and the mobile network. Please keep in mind that your carrier counts in blocks of 10k or even 100k, so your actual mileage will be higher. NetCounter lets you set the start of your month so that it is in sync with your contract.
Cherno Jobatey am Morgen
by Volker Weber
Cherno moderiert morgens von sieben bis neun eine Fernsehshow. Zu spät für Ute und ich schaue morgens kein Fernsehen. Aber ich lese ihn:
Wie bildet man sich eine politische Meinung? Immer wieder fragen mich das vor allem Jüngere. Meine Antwort: Lesen und zwar viel! Dabei aber konträre Blickwinkel im Auge behalten. Die Welt ist gar nicht sooo groß, wie man zunächst einmal vermutet... Inspiriert von diesen Ratsuchenden entstand die Idee eines Kommentar-Überblicks.
Was Cherno hier liefert, ist kein Hexenwerk, sondern ein Abfallprodukt seiner eigenen Leseleidenschaft. Und ich lese es gerne, weil es mir sehr schnell einen Überblick über das Tagesgeschehen gibt.
Last.fm, CBS Unequivocally Deny TechCrunch Story on Sharing User Data With RIAA
by Volker Weber
Either Mike Arrington has uncovered a major privacy violation and cover-up, or he is a complete shitbag who has shredded the meager remains of his credibility.
If I would have to place a bet, it would be the second option.
Mac Spud - I want one
by Volker Weber
