Just a quick post to share a VERY humorous item I ran across. I just used the Mail portion of the MobileMe web apps and typed a message. It performs a spell check automatically before sending and I was extremely amused when it didn’t recognize “iPhone”.
That’s right – Apple’s BRAND NEW service and collection of web apps, MobileMe, doesn’t even recognize the name of APPLE’s hottest product!
Too funny!
While I’m not one of the reported 1% of MobileMe users affected by a massive email outage/loss, I’m still having problems.
The service took the better part of a day to get setup correctly. After getting my contacts perfect on my iPhone, I synced them to Address Book on the Mac only to find out that the format was slightly different on the two devices. I spent a fair amount of time editing contants for companies, for example, to “file” correctly.
Then, thinking that everything was going to align perfectly again, I synced with MobileMe…only to find that the format was just a bit different again. Arrggg! My APPLE Mac, my APPLE iPhone, and my APPLE MobileMe service all have different formats for contact information?!? Come on, now! Seriously.
The fun didn’t stop there. I got all of the APPLE products looking nice and then (bravely) decided to bring Microsoft’s tools into the mix. You guessed it!
This is why it took so long to get my contacts groomed. All 504 of them (down from 628 after removing duplicates, etc.). I played that game a few times until everything was perfect. I won’t even tell you how much of a hassle syncing the calendars was!
But, for all of that pain in the butt configuration, MobileMe has turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. My email, contacts, and calendars (all four of them) are all perfectly synced and available where ever I’m at – on my Windows Vista laptop, my Mac Mini, my iPhone, and even on the web. Nirvana does exist!
Don’t get me wrong, I still have some problems, but I’ve learned to live with them. For example, if I read several messages on my iPhone and delete them, they may pop back up a minute or two later. A simple tap of the Refresh button trashes them again – and for good this time. I shouldn’t have to do that, but it seems a small price to pay to be able to use all of the great Mac apps like Mail.app and iCal and still have the ability to use my laptop to read filed emails.
Let’s hope Apple continues to work on MobileMe to make it more consistent and reliable. Otherwise, “Exchange for the rest of us” is going to look more like Microsoft Bob….
I installed the new version of WordPress this afternoon. Why is this so “complicated”? I put that in quotes because it isn’t really that complicated, just complex. Does that make sense? Basically, I’m saying that the instructions aren’t very good and leave a few steps out. Why can’t you just create an installer, WordPress?
After installing the new version – 2.6 – I was going through all of the Settings and other Admin menus, like a good nerd should. I ran across the Settings where the blog title and other things are kept and decided that I needed a “real” name for the blog. Until then, it was just called KevinHarter.com.
The new – perhaps temporary – title of this blog is BDK’S Random Thoughts. That sounds pretty generic, I know, but I it does a good job of accurately describing the blog. I really don’t have a central topic that I discuss – I’m just as likely to talk about iPhones as I am about my family. And to put my whole nickname in the title (BigDaddyK) would make it incredibly long.
Oh, yeah, I also now own the domain bdk.me. I’m going to be pointing that domain to this blog soon, so I thought it would fit nicely.
So what do you think of the new name? Do you have a better idea? Leave a comment and tell me!
I tried out the new Release Candidate 2 version of Firefox 3.0 beta the other day and I’m hooked. I love listening to Buzz Out Load from CNET and have been intrigued for quite some time with all the talk about Firefox and its “add-ons”.
Wow. There are add-ons that do all sorts of cool things for Firefox. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you can find programs that do the same or similar things in Internet Explorer or Safari. But the way that the add-ons are presented and actually ENCOURAGED in Firefox makes them very easy to try out and use.
And I really like the interface on the Mac. It’s clean looking with a smart layout that is very intuitive. The largest button on the toolbar, for example, is the most often used one – the back button. You can use a Google-Reader-like star to record the current page as a favorite instantly. A double-click on that same star will allow you file it away in a folder for all you weird people that actually organize things. In addition, the browser seems to be quick to load and use.
Unfortunately, the Windows version I immediately put on my Vista laptop left a lot to be desired. The interface, while it attempts to imitate the Mac version, is clunky in comparison. And it seems to be quite a bit slower than Internet Explorer.
For now, I’ll stick with Internet Explorer on the Vista machine, but Firefox has replaced Safari on my Mac’s dock.
Okay, this is almost painful to say, but I need to say it: “I really like my Mac.”
When did I become an Apple fanboy, you ask? Well, I wouldn’t go that far. One of the things I “really like” about the Mac is the fact that I can run Windows apps through Parallels. It’s so cliche, I know, but it IS the best of both worlds. By purchasing a Mac, I got some quality hardware – maybe a little expensive, I understand – and the ability to run pretty much anything out there.
Using Boot Camp, I can boot into Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or almost any flavor of Linux you can imagine all at the touch of a button. All of that functionality comes with the Mac for free. And if you don’t want to be bothered with all of that “rebooting into a different OS” jazz, plop down 70 bucks on a piece of virtualization software (like Parallels) and you can have BOTH operating systems open at once!
(For maximum fun, try Coherence mode. I have both the Mac OS and Windows taskbars on the screen at once. Click on the start button to launch a PC-based program or the Dock for a Mac app. Way cool indeed!)
Now, keep in mind that my first computer was a Commodore 64, NOT an Apple II. I was the geeky kid with the “My Commodore eats Apples for lunch” t-shirt. Really. So, I wouldn’t call myself a fanatic about Apple products. But they have slowly invaded my digital life. An iPod nano turned into a newer iPod nano turned into an iPhone turned into a Mac Mini….
I’ve been using computers for almost my entire life and I know my way around the Windows registry and such. So the allure of Mac isn’t necessarily the “don’t look behind the curtain” ease of use. I would say it’s the simplicity. And those aren’t the same thing.
When I talk about the simplicity aspect of my Mac, I’m talking about the fact that most applications install by simply dragging the app into the Applications folder. I’m talking about UNinstalling that same app by – you guessed it – dragging it OUT of the Applications folder and into the trash. Why does Windows require a trip to the hidden Control Panel, display a warning or three about how this will permanently remove your beloved program from the system and question you, the user, if you really want to remove this DLL file or if it’s used by another program, to do the EXACT SAME THING?!?
Now, my Mac isn’t perfect. Remember the whole Parallels thing? I need that to run a few apps that I either can’t run or didn’t want to repurchase for the Mac. In fact, I use QuickBooks for the accounting system for my business. I could either buy a Mac version for an extra $200+ or buy Parallels for $70 to run my already-owned PC version. Duh! Come to think of it, I really should blog about how great Parallels is! In time, in time.
I’ve grown tired of trying to find a video driver for my PC laptop that doesn’t spontaneously change resolutions every third boot. It’s depressing to see how much of my day is wasted by the excruciatingly long time it take Outlook to download 10MB worth of email spread out in 100 messages. And why isn’t Time Machine available for the PC? Seriously.
Well, enough of my thoughts. I mean, I’m acting like this is my blog or something! I just wanted to a write a little love note to my Mac. I’m not giving up my PC – I just want BOTH.
What OS do you like best?
I read yet another review of some web app for the iPhone that touted the streamlined interface as free from ads. ”See,” said the reviewer, “the site loads quickly and is clean and easy to use because it doesn’t have all the crap as the normal site.”
My question, other than the obvious (“If all that other crap ugly-fies the site, WHY put it there?”), is this: Are these sites included in the hits or session visits used by web sites to show how popular they are to potential advertisers?
Is this a grand loophole in web stat reporting? If a user goes to the mobile version of the site (WAP, iPhone-optimized, or otherwise), does that count as a visit to the site in general? If so, advertisers could get ripped off more and more as these mobile devices become even more popular. The site may be visited BUT the ads are not shown. When the stats are used to set the price to current and potential advertisers, the inflated numbers don’t tell an accurate story. Advertisers think their ads are reaching for more users than they actually are.
I’m sure this has been addressed somewhere, but I haven’t seen anything in my (admittedly limited) research. If you know anything about this, drop me a comment, please.
