Category: Computers, Internet & Technology

“This is worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough. It’s tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it’s the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive.”

Steve Jobs at Apple’s iPad 2 event quoted by Engadget

As for the iPad 2. Can’t wait (and I’ve waited since last April).

I was checking on something in my files and noticed a printout I did of webpages I had built.

The printout was dated February 13, 1995.

I’ve been doing web stuff since there was a world wide web.

Among the more valuable web assistants I’ve found is Instapaper: A simple tool to save web pages for reading later.

With a free account, you can identify items while browsing, click a bookmarklet on your browser, and save the item — often even those with multiple pages — for reading later, in a better, less cluttered format. Instapaper works on your computers and your mobile devices (with the appropriate app), including the Kindle. You can save one place and read on another, like magic.

Instapaper works inside many applications and websites; for example, Google Reader, Pulse, Twitter, Slate.

With Instapaper, I find I read better and more interesting pieces — by saving for later, I avoid the “well, what’s on this link” pace of the web. And, I always have a trove of good magazine-size articles to read.

And it’s free.

(The basic iPhone app is also free. I decided yesterday the app was so useful I purchased the $4.99 version, which has more functionality, lets you create folders, store more articles, etc.)

Related to this is the Reader function in the computer version of Safari. With click of a button you get an uncluttered, exceptionally readable version of the main content of the page you are viewing (if it is a single item of more than a couple paragraphs).

Instapaper (and Safari’s Reader function) are fantastic for reading Joe Posnanski’s wonderful but oh-so-long posts.

Those of you using smart phones and other mobile devices to view NewMexiKen should now see a mobile version when you visit this site.

Just another in the many ways we serve our chic clientele.

(You may disable the mobile version by scrolling to the bottom of any mobile page and opting out.)

The domain youtube.com was registered just six years ago today.

As Ferris says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

At least there is in San Ramon, California.

Here’s how it works: locals download the free app and enable the CPR alert. In the event of a cardiac emergency, once 911 has been called and paramedics dispatched, the app also alerts people who may be nearby to intervene.

Keeping in mind the potential legal implications of citizen intervention,  the app reminds people who sign up to “respond in a safe, responsible and respectful manner.”

Using the phone’s GPS, a map tells the user where the victim is and the location of the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED). The user would then go to the person and help until the fire department arrives.

Cult of Mac

A couple of years ago I gave an external hard drive that I no longer used to my daughter Emily. Before I gave it up, I erased all the files and reformatted the drive at least once.

Recently the same hard drive became unreadable and Emily asked me to help recover her files.

Lesson 1: Never rely on one copy of ANY electronic files!

The file structure was unreadable, so I went to brute force, reading the physical hard drive file-by-file. Over 100,000 files were recovered.

Including some of mine from years ago!

Lesson 2: Erasing a disk does not erase the files — unless you use special security erasure, and even then perhaps not completely.

The recovered files do not have their former names. We have 100,000+ files with random numerical names. The files do have their extension — pdf, doc, jpg, etc.

Lesson 3: Recovering lost data is a tedious task.

You don’t have your address and phone number as part of your Facebook profile, do you?

Well, according to reports, Facebook is now sharing your address and phone number with its development partners.

And so below are 10 things to do to improve your technological life. They are easy and (mostly) free. Altogether, they should take about two hours; one involves calling your cable or phone company, so that figure is elastic. If you do them, those two hours will pay off handsomely in both increased free time and diminished anxiety and frustration. You can do it.

10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Technology

Some more useful than others, of course, but worth taking a look.

Dropbox is great. Not sure why they don’t mention the AppleTV for streaming music to stereos, though you would have to use optical-digital cabling. It doesn’t take too many photos to fill up Picasa (I have 30+ GB of them).

According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog you can get an iPhone 3Gs (that’s last year’s model) for free tomorrow only at Best Buy. It’s usually $99.

Of course, you’ll need to sign up with AT&T for two years, etc., and so on.

Google has produced a straightforward and informative look at the internet and browsers in a very, very attractive book-like format — 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web.

What’s a cookie? How do I protect myself on the web? And most importantly: What happens if a truck runs over my laptop?

For things you’ve always wanted to know about the web but were afraid to ask, read on.

You don’t have to understand internal combustion engines to drive a car and you don’t have to understand the internet and browsers to browse the web — but it’s useful knowledge. I recommend you take the few minutes and at least skim the book.

Perhaps especially useful for teachers.

I upgraded my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.2 yesterday. This is the new operating system (OS) for recent iPhones, iPods and the iPad. The upgrade is a major overhaul for iPads; most of the changes had already been made for iPhones and iPods. In all cases, it is free.

But one new feature for all of the devices is Air Play.

With a $99 Apple TV connected to your television and/or home theater, you can play the media on your handheld device on your TV (and/or sound system).

• Want to listen to the music that’s on your iPad/iPhone/iPod, let it fill the room.

• Want to show photos to your visitors, show them on your 50-inch HDTV.

• Want to watch that movie you ripped from a DVD, play it on your home theater (directly from your i Pad/Phone/Pod).

Now there have been various ways you can do all this with computers and iPod docks, but this is the beginning of the way it should work. Wirelessly, for one (this discussion assumes a wireless home network).

In addition to the Apple TV, you’ll also need an HDMI Cable and, if you want separate sound, a Toslink Digital Audio Optical Cable. And your TV and/or receiver will need to accept these cables. The Apple TV will also stream media directly from iTunes on your computer.

“Analysts expect Apple to sell 11 million to 12 million iPads this year, more than double many initial estimates, and reach 20 million next year.”

WSJ.com

“The sales rate of the iPad after one quarter matches up with the DVD sales rate after five years.”

TUAW

“Apple sold 3 million iPads within the first 80 days of launch.” Compared to one million iPhones in their first quarter; and compared to 375,000 iPods in their first year.

She didn’t need to. Dervishaj’s entire grade 7 math class has been outfitted with “smart pens” made by Livescribe, a start-up based in Oakland, Calif. The pens perform an interesting trick: when Dervishaj and her classmates write in their notebooks, the pen records audio of whatever is going on around it and links the audio to the handwritten words. If her written notes are inadequate, she can tap the pen on a sentence or word, and the pen plays what the teacher was saying at that precise point.

Dervishaj showed me how it works, flipping to her page of notes on exponents and tapping a set of numbers in the middle of the page. Out of a tiny speaker in the thick, cigar-shaped pen, I could hear her teacher, Brian Licata, explaining that precise problem. “It’s like having your own little personal teacher there, with you at all times,” Dervishaj said.

Kind makes me want to go to college all over again.

Read more at Livescribe, the Pen That Never Forgets.

“According to New Hampshire’s WMUR Channel 9 News, three local men, Mario Rojas, Leonardo Barroso and Victor Rodriguez, have burglarized more than 18 homes in the Nashua area of New Hampshire simply by checking status updates on Facebook and then pillaging houses of victims who announced on the social network that they were not home.”

Bits — NYTimes.com

“Dear Apple Customer,

“Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.

“As of today, we have automatically processed your refund.”

Email received this evening from Apple.

Makes me happy. I am completely satisfied with the iPhone and I like the bumper and $30 saved is $30 earned.

And nothing required on my part.

Found on Twitpic thanks to Mike.

Scott Adams of Dilbert takes a fascinating look at Apple’s reaction to the iPhone 4 problem. An excerpt:

I’m a student of how language influences people. Apple’s response to the iPhone 4 problem didn’t follow the public relations playbook because Jobs decided to rewrite the playbook. (I pause now to insert the necessary phrase Magnificent Bastard.) If you want to know what genius looks like, study Jobs’ words: “We’re not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy.”

Jobs changed the entire argument with nineteen words. He was brief. He spoke indisputable truth. And later in his press conference, he offered clear fixes.

Really. I figured it out.

I took the bumper off and, as before, in my poor reception house the signal drops to no signal if I hold the phone comfortably in my hand.

But, if I hold the phone gripping its upper two-thirds instead of normal bottom two-thirds, the signal does not drop. That’s because my hand is not conducting the signal from one antenna to another.

There are three antennas on the iPhone. One begins on the top near the headphone jack and goes most of the way down the left side. Another begins at the same place on the top — there is a slim black separator between them — and goes most of the way down the right side. The third antenna curves from the lower left around the bottom to the lower right, again with a separator between it and the others on each side. See illustration below.

Normally you would hold the phone with your hand around the bottom two-thirds. Then if the phone slips, there is a margin to catch it. And it seems balanced that way. But that is where the separators are. And if you hold the phone in a way that conducts the signal across the separator, the signal drops.

It seems to me this could be resolved if Apple put the antenna that’s currently across the bottom, across the top instead. Then the separators on each side would be well above your fingers and palm in a normal grip.

Could it possibly be this simple? (I realize it might require re-arranging the insides.)

What should I charge Apple for my consultation?

Note the three separators: one near the bottom on each side, and one just to the right of the headphone jack on the top. It’s the bottom left separator that — when covered by your hand so that the signal is conducted — seems to diminish the reception.

I love the iPhone 4 and I’m getting $30 back for the case I bought (and like).

Win-win as far as I’m concerned.

UPDATE: Had my first Face Time phone call today. Very cool.