Griffin Simplifi Dock – Useful!
Reduce desk clutter and combine a bunch of useful devices with the Griffin Simplifi Dock!
apple
Vacation Blogging Brought to You By…
While on my recent Socal vacation, I didn’t have access to a computer for blogging. Instead I updated Pulpconnection using a combination of mobile devices and various Internet services. Here’s a rundown.
iPhone (and built-in camera). My iPhone 3G was the primary device for getting online. I used its okay internal camera for posted pictures.
AT&T 3G Network. I must say that the AT&T 3G network worked well in Socal. Very, very few dead spots or times when I dropped to EDGE speeds. Only at the LAX airport did I have some serious 3G network slowdowns. Other than that, I preferred the 3G network even over WiFi. The free WiFi access at hotels were slow and always required a web login to initiate your session and subsequent logins to keep your session going.
WordPress for iPhone. Since Pulpconnection is now powered by WordPress, I relied on the app, WordPress for iPhone, to make significant blog posts. Though significant is relative since tapping out a lengthy post on the iPhone’s virtual keyboard isn’t the easiest thing to do.
One thing I hope the WordPress team fixes is the image handling of this iPhone app. It seems all images are added to the end of blog posts and can’t be placed within paragraphs of a post. That and sometimes the app’s UI would mess up and not display the necessary navigation buttons at the top. So I’d be stranded, not able to save my post. Fortunately, when leaving the app and coming back in, the app is able to restore my draft.
Tweetie, Twitter (with Twitpic), and Twitter Tools for WordPress. For all shorter blog posts, I used a bunch of stuff. Tweetie is my primary Twitter client on the iPhone. Combined with Twitter Tools for WordPress, tweets can automatically be converted to blog posts. I used this nifty function quite a bit.
Brightkite. To update my Socal location, I used Brightkite. The iPhone’s GPS would find my coordinates which I would check in using the Brightkite service. Brightkite integrates with Twitter and tweets my current location. And with Twitter Tools running, even these location based tweets are converted to blog posts.
So there you have it, my arsenal for mobile blogging without a computer. I will say that it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but it wasn’t so difficult to stop me. To make this a more ideal setup would be incorporating an ultra portable netbook with a keyboard and USB port to retrieve higher quality pictures from digital cameras. Ahem, Apple?
Slacking or Enjoying Life?
Took Thursday off to spend some extra family time even though we just came back from a SoCal vacation. In jest, a coworker said I was slacking via Twitter, but I replied I was merely enjoying life! What did I do on my day off?
Started the day off playing with Play Doh.
Then we headed out to Kahala Mall to dine at The Counter. No Daniel Dae Kim sighting, but the place was packed! Instead of waiting to dine in the kind-of-plain interior, we got take out. Our meal consisted of the signature Counter Burger and Taco Turkey along with Fifty-Fifty fries (regular and sweet). At the recommendation of @abaggy, we needed to try a milkshake too.
Total damage was around $30. Food was good, and I would go back but probably construct my own burger.
I managed to exchange my ultracompact USB power adapter that came with my iPhone 3G at the Apple Store. Then headed to Champs Sports to take advantage of the on-going Friends and Family sale. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything, wishing for the new Nike Air Max 2009+ (of which there’s some confusion about its release date).
The highlight of the day was meeting @NEENZ and @noe808 in real life. I’ve interacted with NEENZ online for some time, going back to her days with Truemors and now Alltop.com. We just never did meet in person. That changed today thanks to Twitter (and BriteKite) when I saw this tweet come in. We were both at Kahala Mall.
I managed to find the Chief Evangelist of Alltop sitting outside of Starbucks. We chatted for a bit about all kinds of stuff (blogging, business, finding time, family, etc) before NEENZ had to continue her social media consultation with @hazelnutcottage. Still though, it was a great chance encounter! (But dumb me forgot to take a picture)
So back to the title of this post, slacking or enjoying life? Definitely enjoying life!
iPod Vending Machine in Glendale
So Hawaii isn’t the only state with iPod vending machines at Macys stores. Yeah, Macys Ala Moana and Kahala have theirs, and if you happen to be at the Macys in the Glendale Galleria, you’ll see this familiar site.
Airplane Observations
Probably goes without saying, but there are sure a lot of iPods in use on our flight. Walking the aisles, I see a variety of models, mainly Nanos, but also Classics.
On the laptop front, there more ThinkPads on board. There are a few MacBooks around.
An Apple Store Is an Apple Store
More or less, Apple Stores look about the same. Is this one at Kahala Mall? Nope, this store is at the Glendale Galleria.
Macworld Expo 2009 Sans Steve Jobs on Tuesday
Just a reminder that the last Macworld Expo attended by Apple starts on Tuesday. Steve Jobs is not set to deliver the keynote but could he be the “one more thing” surprise of the event?
And as usual, rumors about Macworld announcements are abound.
iWeb to the Cloud?
There are rumors that the upcoming Macworld Expo will showcase a version of iWork that lives in “the Cloud” aka the Internet. Instead of being traditional desktop applications, the iWork suite will be network services much like Google Docs.
What I would like to see is iLife’s iWeb component move to the Cloud. iWeb is Apple’s web page authoring app that I use occasionally. The biggest hangup for me using iWeb is that different Macs can’t (or have a very hard time) authoring/editing the same iWeb site. iWeb on one Mac is different from iWeb on another Mac. So I can’t easily start an iWeb page or site on my home Mac and work on it using a portable MacBook Pro.
Moving iWeb to the Cloud would make it similar to the web-based WordPress and Blogger. Of course, there could be a desktop client that connects to the service as well.
We’ll see next week when the final Macworld Expo unfolds…
Working in the Dark
Power outage at work forced this situation. Flashlight, MacBook Pro with backlit keyboard, and network access!
Technorati Tags: Hawaii
The Apple Family Is Complete
With this, I think the Apple family is now complete.
The AppleTV joined the other Apple goodies like the Mac, MacBook, iPod, and iPhone. Hmmm, does the Mini count as an unique Apple device?
So far, I’m liking the AppleTV to access my music, movies, and pictures stored on my Mac. So much more convenient to watch movies and view pictures on the living room television. I might switch over to Boxee, but for now, I’ll roll with the goodness of the AppleTV.
The Simpsons Mock Apple
Apple has definitely made it big! In The Simpsons, the Springfield Mall gets a “Mapple” store which looks vaguely familiar, stocked with myPods, myPhones, and myCubes. And good ole Bart hijacks the digital likeness of his Steveness and delivers some sacrilegious comments.
Watch a portion from Hulu (sorry, screen size got chopped off a little).
Technorati Tags: Apple
Black Friday Sale at Apple Online Store Now
Available now. Go see Apple’s Black Friday deals. Hmmm, AppleTV on sale and federal discount has additional savings!… Dang, new Sennheiser MX85 Sport II earphones are $44 ($16 discount).
Technorati Tags: Apple