Back from Exile…

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I’ve been absent from the blogging scene. There have been a couple of reasons for that. The excuses range from summer to running to kids to work. They aren’t good excuses, but they are there nonetheless.

What I do want to share is what I’ve been up to and what I’ve got loaded up for you.

• WordPress 3.0 – If you don’t know what WordPress is, don’t be too concerned. It is simply the behind the scenes stuff that takes all this information that I have a makes it all pretty for you to look at. A new version is out and I’m going to be upgrading soon. Hopefully it doesn’t wreck my site!
• Sprint HTC EVO – So I’ve been a staunch BlackBerry guy for years now. But for years, BlackBerry has been standing still while new mobile operating systems like Android and iPhone OS (now known as iOS) have been making huge leaps and bounds. The iPhone is firmly planted at AT&T so that is out of the question, but Sprint, my carrier of choice, recently got a major Android phone called the EVO. I’ll fill you in on all its amazingness soon.
• Friday Night Links – This has been the thing I’ve been missing most over the past month or two. I’ve got a bunch of great stuff that I’ve been saving but just couldn’t get put up because Friday nights have been busy, busy, busy.
• offcolortv.com – So this isn’t anything coming up but my Biggest Loser blog over there had a huge thing happen. Fan favorites Sunshine and Oatmeal ended up answering questions over there for everyone. It was pretty amazing to have them there to do that. On a secondary note, I’m going to be doing admin stuff for offcolortv.com, so that would include making improvements and upgrades as well as tweaking the look. I’m trying to figure out how to put each author’s picture in their post, so if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

That is about it for the moment, but expect a second post tonight about my low-tech obsession as of late.

TQT: iPod charging…

Since Tuesday came and went without a post (actually, this entire week came and went without a post), I figured I’d try and squeeze in a Thursday Quick Tip. Let’s just say you are lucky there are two days that begin with the letter T.

Tonight’s tip refers to charging an iPod, but this advice is equally applicable to many of your electronic devices, especially your phone. The USB port on your computer can not only be used to transfer data to your mobile device, but it can also be used to charge your mobile device.

When I’m traveling, I like to do everything I can to not have to check a bag. This inevitably leads to me cutting back on as much stuff as possible. To do that, I generally take a USB cord and simply plug my cell phone or iPod into the USB port of my computer to charge. This saves me from having to take a cord with a big bulky plug with me.

Additionally, there has been a movement in the last year or so to standardize the charging ports for cellphones and other devices to use a connector called micro-USB. The beautiful thing about that is instead of taking a cord for your cellphone, a cord for your camera, a cord for your wife’s phone, etc, you will be able to just bring one cord and charge all your devices. Convenient!

Got your own tips on how to charge various devices or how to pack lighter for a trip? Let me know in the comments!

Texting Etiquette…

I’ve always wondered about and never found a set rule for texting etiquette. Perhaps no one tried because it seemed like a daunting task, considering you might have to have all sorts of exceptions and corollaries. Fortunately, I was able to find this Slate article that boiled it down to a simple rule.

If you’re in a situation where you’d excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, you should also excuse yourself before reaching for your phone. Otherwise, go ahead without asking. Either way, don’t play with your phone longer than you’d stay in the bathroom.

That is concise and really covers any situation I can think of.

• Sitting at dinner with your significant other? Generally, you wouldn’t just stand up and walk away without saying something first. In this case, excuse yourself, then fiddle with your phone. Be sure to return in a timely manner.
• Hanging out at the sports bar with your buddies watching a game? It would probably actually be rude to interrupt the game by informing your compadres that you were heading to the bathroom so feel free to text away.
• At church? It would have to be a major emergency for most people to get up and head to the toilet during church. Same goes for your cell phone. Unless someone is dying, leave it in your pocket.

Be sure to check out the article itself for more insights on the Bathroom Rule.

Got any scenarios you don’t think fit in properly here? Every been a rude texter or had to deal with one? Let me know in the comments!

Tweets by Email…

I was super busy on Monday and Wednesday this week, but don’t worry, it was work related: I had a pitch for a potential client on Monday and I helped a client with some computer issues last night.

Based on my discussions with that client, I just want to remind everyone to PLEASE stop paying for antivirus software. If you are spending $70 a year on McAfee or Norton you are wasting your money and slowing your computer down. Check out this post I wrote to learn more about what antivirus you SHOULD be using (specifically see point #5, Microsoft Security Essentials).

Before we get started, if you don’t know what Twitter is, check out this link.

If you are a Twitter user, you may receive tweets from others via SMS text message, one the web at Twitter.com, or a desktop or mobile phone application. The big hole that notification scheme is email. If you are a Twitter user and interested in receiving your friends’ tweets via email, here is how you get it set up.

1. Be sure you are logged into the Twitter account you want to link with your email account. You can do that at the Twitter login page.
2. Head to the TweetyMail.com home page. About halfway down the page you’ll notice a sign-in box. Click it.
   
3. You need to authorize TweetyMail to connect to your account. At no time does TweetyMail have your login information such as your password. You can deny access to TweetyMail at any time by heading to the Connections page in your Twitter settings.
4. After connecting with Twitter, you need to connect an email address to your account. It can be a different email address than you signed up for Twitter with. The TweetyMail site also includes a list of email addresses and commands you can use to interact with Twitter.

Here are a couple of the email addresses and what they do:

• latest@tweetymail.com – Sending an email to latest@tweetymail.com with a blank subject and body will send you the last 20 tweets, regardless of who tweeted them. You can added a Twitter name such as ‘thedigitante’ to the subject to get the last 20 tweets by me. You can also add a number from 1 to 200 to change the number of updates that are returned.
• tweet@tweetymail.com – No subject is needed and the body will be the tweet. It the tweet is more than 140 characters (Twitter’s limit), you will get an email telling you that the tweet did not post. You can attach a picture up to 4Mb and it will be linked in your tweet.
• message@tweetymail.com – The subject tells who to send a Direct Message to and the body contains the message you want the user to receive.
• block@tweetymail.com, follow@tweetymail.com, and unfollow@tweetymail.com – The subject is the person you want to block, follow, or unfollow, and the body is ignored.

So there you go. A service like this adds tons of convenience and flexibility to a website already is a great tool for quick, mobile communication.

Got anymore tips on how you follow Twitter? Any similar services out there that people use to email tweets?

FYIJSYK: Apple vs. HTC…

If you pay much attention to gadget news, you probably heard a bunch of stuff about Apple’s lawsuit against HTC for all types of patent infringement. So what is the story? Is Apple justified in these lawsuits? Can HTC stand up to the onslaught of the Apple lawyers? What does this mean for HTC’s phone lineup? We’ll answer these questions in the week’s FYI, Just So You Know, but you probably won’t be satisfied with the answers.

What’s the story?

Apple has brought a bunch of complaints regarding patents that they filed over the past 10 years. Some are super technical and others are just crazy, such as using your finger on a touchscreen button to unlock a screen. Umm, how else are you supposed to unlock the screen?

Is Apple justified?

Hard to tell. Patents are always a weird thing because sometimes it is very legitimate: you find a new way of doing something that is revolutionary; think inventing a CD in the land of audio cassettes. On the other hand, some companies get a way with patenting things like “how to remember things by using black liquid in a tube and creating characters of of the black liquid.” So you just described writing words with a pen. Lame. But somehow those types of patents get through, but they still have to stand up to scrutiny.

As this case is reviewed, the court will have to determine what can stand and what will not.

What about HTC?

They will most likely be fine for now. The soonest anything would come of a lawsuit like this is about 5 years. In the meantime, unless it turns out HTC is straight up making an iPhone, it should be good to keep doing business.

A majority of the hardware that contains the allegedly infringing patents are actually Android devices and the functions are core Android functions. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know that Android is developed by Google. Also, unless you’ve REALLY been living under a rock, you would also know that Google has more money that most of the planet, so defending its technology against Apple really shouldn’t be too much a chore from a financial standpoint, but as I said, we won’t know from an infringement standpoint for a long time.

This all boils down to the fact that HTC is going to have Google and Google’s money in its corner. Not a bad entity to have your back.

What’s next?

I would recommend busting out a nice, big bag of popcorn and settling in for 5-10 years of legal jargon, posturing, and losses and wins on both sides of the courtroom. In the end, I predict that there will only be one true loser: the consumer. They will get the raw end of the deal as licensing fees will increase costs or injunctions against HTC and Android will reduce competition in the market. Once again, the consumer loses again.

What are your projections of what is going to happen between Apple and HTC? Are you rooting for one or the other? Let me know in the comments.

The Digitante and the iPhone…

I recently learned about a company called Genwi and a product they came out with called iSites. iSites makes it simple to turn any website into an iPhone (and iPod Touch) application.

iSites uses the RSS feed for your site to allow iPhone users to read new articles as they are published. Recently I started publishing the articles I write in the late evening the next morning at 6:00 am and they generally show up in the feed within an hour, so the nightly post from The Digitante shows up around the same time as the morning paper.

Additionally, if you have a Google Android smartphone such as the Motorola Droid or the HTC Hero, Genwi is currently in final testing for an Android app. They plan on releasing BlackBerry and Windows Mobile versions of their product in the future as well.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you head to the Apple App Store and your very own copy of The Digitante app.

If you are interested in creating an app for your own site, Genwi charges $25. This covers all the fees to register your app with Apple. Also, according to my understanding, this should also cover the cost of the Android app as well. No word on the cost for a BlackBerry or Windows mobile version.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the new app as well as a nice download link!

And here is the background image for the feed:

I would highly recommend you check it my application and PLEASE let me know what you think of it! Are you using it yet? Know anyone who could use an app like this? Just send them the link: http://thedig.in/iphoneapp.

Friday Night Links (1/22/2010)…

I am ready for a big weekend with the Colts playing the Jets, a birthday party, and maybe a bit of relaxing. But first things first: we need to talk about some links. From the looks of it, I am hungry!

• Bing Recipe Search (http://thedig.in/a3) – Heading to sites like RecipeZaar and Food Network is good for getting a few new recipes, but if you want to cast your net a bit wider, you can try out the new recipe search feature on Bing, the search engine by Microsoft. It provides everything you need to know right in the search engine itself once you click the recipe you like. You can find nutritional info plus it gives you a little bar indicating whether it is high in fat or calories.
• Five-Minute Sorbet (http://thedig.in/a4) – I know it’s blazing hot outside (a toasty 36F out here), but you probably could use some sorbet. Sorbet is great because it is a nice light desert that is low in fat. All you need are two large ziploc bags and some fruit juice, ice, and rock salt. Shake it around and you’ve got yourself some sorbet. Don’t forget to rinse the salt off the inner bag before you eat.
• Crowd-Source Coverage Maps (http://thedig.in/a5) – The number of cities is limited at this point, but if you live in an available one and want to help your fellow humans find a cell phone provider that give a great signal, you should grab this app and get to recording your signal strength. You can also sign up for notification when they move into your town. Go Indianapolis!
• Edibility Testing (http://thedig.in/a6) – Afraid of being stranded in the wilderness? Me too. But now you will at least know how to test out plants before you go just eating all willy-nilly. I’m not really sure about their techniques on selecting plants since one of the bits of advice is to rub a plant on your wrist for 15 minutes. Ok, sounds good. Then they tell you to wait 8 hours to see if there is a reaction. Umm, I’m starving in the wilderness! I’m not sure what I would actually do in that scenario, but I doubt I’m going to chill and drink water for 8 hours before eating.

Internet Backup Plan…

There is a blog that I read on a regular basis called Chicago Carless. The premise is that he writes about his life as a 39 year old who has yet to own a car or even learn how to drive. Instead he has stuck to walking, busing and subwaying his way around New York City and Chicago.

Recently, he has been going through a bit of a rehab in his digital life: he dumped his Mac OS, jailbroke his iPhone, and moved way from AT&T internet and got Clearwire instead. Apparently most of it has been clear sailing, but recently, the Clearwire portion has not been good.

The growth of telecommuting for those in the corporate world, blogging as a business, and remote working for freelancers has turned the internet connection that most of us think of as a convenience and a treat, into a commodity. Without a solid internet connection, workers end up wasting a vacation day or losing out on business opportunities.

What are the solutions? We’ll cover a couple of ways to protect yourself from missed opportunities when your internet is temporarily not available.

Free WiFi

If you live near a library, coffeeshop, or other establishment that has free WiFi, you might try to take advantage of that. This is very cost effective (depending on how much coffee you drink while hanging out). The rather large drawback is that you have venture out into the world of loud-cellphone-talking guy, grimy tables, and limited seating. Being at your home in your normal, quiet working environment is the best place to be.

On a temporary basis, you may be able to piggyback off of a neighbors internet net connection assuming you can get a signal from them and they do not have a passcode set up. If you do this, it really is a form of stealing and common courtesy might dictate that you ask your neighbor if he would mind you jumping on his connection the next time yours gets flaky. Chances are, if he doesn’t have a password in the first place, he probably isn’t going to care.

Getting mobile

I’ve posted in the past about finding internet while traveling, including using your phone as a modem. Connecting to the internet via your phone can be very effective. You already have a cellphone, so hooking it up as a modem would be trivial if you are already doing so on the road.

Unfortunately, this is also a very cumbersome process. You have to activate it when you want it by calling your cell phone carrier, otherwise you are charged each month, even if it goes unused. You also have to carry a cord around or deal with slow Bluetooth connections. Not to mention, you might not even be able to tether your phone if you have an iPhone, Palm Pre, or any number of other smartphones.

The next option is to have a USB mobile broadband modem. If you go with the traditional USB stick, you will end up typically paying $60 a month plus you have to sign a two-year contract. A simpler way to go is to get a prepaid solution: Virgin Mobile allows you to purchase a USB stick for $99. You can then load prepaid minutes on in increments from 100Mb up to 1Gb. UPDATE: Virgin Mobile also added a WiFi Hotspot router as an additional option for those with WiFi connected devices such as laptops and the iPad. They have also included a new 5gb plan for $60 if you need plenty of data. No contract required but you have to pay full price for the device ($149.99).

For basic web browsing and writing a blog post, 100Mb should be sufficient for one day of work. If you are going to be downloading large amounts of data, you may want to bump that to 250Mb.

As an added bonus, once you have this USB modem, you can then take it with you when traveling and enjoy the convenience of the internet on the road.

Extreme measures

For those who absolutely must have a connection at all times, the above solutions may not be coverage enough. As a final step to ensuring you have internet when you need it, you can simply pick two unrelated internet service providers and purchase internet from each. Each will act as a back up to the other.

The obvious drawback to this method is the cost. However, if you business relies on your being on line or things simply don’t get done or you don’t make money, then perhaps an extra internet bill is a small price to pay.

Do you have any tricks you use if your internet goes down? Do you fill your internet downtime with other activities (running, putting together puzzles, training to be a ninja)? Tell me about it below.

The Digitante's Password System…

After taking my sweet time in implementing some stronger passwords, I wanted to make sure I could develop a system that I would stick with and wouldn’t be so cumbersome that I would want to stab myself in the foot.

Here are the tools that I ended up using to get things going:

• KeePass – I wrote about this last night. It is super easy to use and gets praise from all corners of the web.
• KeePass Mobile App – I downloaded the version for my BlackBerry, however, you can get it for the iPhone, PalmOS (should run on the Pre), Android, and there is even a J2ME version which should run on most mobile phones that aren’t smartphones.
• Dropbox – I wrote an initial Dropbox article and then followed it up with some updates including access to Dropbox Mobile. Get a Dropbox now if you don’t have one already.

Get it all setup

The first thing you need to do is when you are setting up KeePass, save your database to your Dropbox. This will allow your KeePass database to be accessible on all computers you have your Dropbox on (the laptop and desktop at my house), as well as via the web and mobile Dropbox (m.dropbox.com).

While that is syncing up, you can install Dropbox and KeePass on any other computers in your household. Additionally you can get your mobile KeePass application installed on your phone. If you have an iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, or Android phone, you should be comfortable with installing apps on your phone. If you have a regular flip, slide, or candybar phone, you might not be used to installing applications, but it is fairly quick and painless. Simply navigate to m.keepassmobile.com. Note if you don’t have a data plan, you may get charged for data, but the amount of data will be tiny and it shouldn’t cost more than about 10 or 20 cents.

Finish up

Now that you have Dropbox, KeePass, and KeePass mobile installed, wrapping up consists of loading the database which is in your Dropbox into KeePass. On your mobile phone, you will need to take one extra step and download the database from m.dropbox.com first before loading it into KeePass.

If you ever add a new password to the database, it will automatically show up in any other KeePass instances that are directly linked to your Dropbox. However, you will need to re-download the updated database to your mobile phone and re-load it in KeePass.

The concern

As I was talking with colleagues about this setup, concerns kept coming up about the security of keeping your passwords online.

What you need to realize is that your passwords are already stored online. Every site that you login to has your password stored on their server. They should have it encrypted and the company’s employees should never have access to it, but not all companies follow these rules very closely.

As long as you have a strong password on your Dropbox (layer one) and a different, strong password on your KeePass database (layer two), you should be in good shape.

Using strong passwords and keeping them accessible and safe can be a daunting task. Hopefully this will make things easier on you.

Anybody have any recommendations for making this easier? Anybody want to be the tester and get it working on a regular flip phone? Let me know in the comments if you do.

Friday Night Links (1/8/2010)…

Man, I am so far behind on my reading, but as usual, I found some links for you that you are going to love.

• Pigs (http://thedig.in/9b) – Ever wonder about pigs? Well, now you can stop wondering.
• Best Time to Buy (http://thedig.in/9c) – Ever think about buying a winter coat during the summer? Ever think about picking up a pair of flipflops in the dead of January? Those are pretty obvious, but Get Rich Slowly has a more complete list: Mattresses? May. Car? September. Jewelry? Not the holidays. Get the full rundown.
• TetherBerry (http://thedig.in/9d) – You may remember my internet on the go post from when I got home from San Francisco last summer. I described why I couldn’t use Phone-as-a-modem with my cellphone for getting access to the internet on the go. The answer is a program called TetherBerry which essentially links up your computer and your cellphone so you can surf the web on your laptop without WiFi. Normally it is $50, however, they are currently launching some new changes to TetherBerry.com and changing its name to just Tether (they are adding Android compatibility). To celebrate, they are selling Tether for half off. The link above links to CrackBerry and they are actually giving 60% off so you can get it for $19.95. An amazing deal. If you have a BlackBerry, you should get this program.
• How 3-D Works (http://thedig.in/9e) – Ever wonder how 3-D actually works? Me neither, but I’ve provided you with the link anyway. Gizmodo’s feature Giz Explains is a great read that comes out every month or two. You can check out other Giz Explains posts as well.