Mobile Me adds Google Wave and Voice access to usurp Apple MobileMe.

Digital media software developer Babya  today issued a bold challenge to rival Apple,  by upgrading its Apple MobileMe rival, Babya Mobile Me to include quick access to Google Wave and Google Voice.

If you happen to own a Mac AND subscribe to their $99 MobileMe service you may not be aware of all the features that you are getting.  Most people don’t see the use of spending a C-note on an email service.  Well, it’s much more.

In the episode of the Lynda.com Video Training Podcast (subscribe), Nick Brazzi shows us how to share a screen from a remote location so that you can keep working even though you are not at your primary computer. [view tutorial]

MobileMe Essential Training with Nick Brazzi

For quite a while now I’ve been neglecting my blog. With the growth of facebook (in particular) and twitter personal blogs seem to have become a thing of the past. If you don’t have something to share with the masses, then social networking sites really do seem to be a better way to share with your friends, especially friends who aren’t techo nerds.

But the social networking sites don’t really allow you to tell stories in the way that a blog does either. facebook might have ‘notes’, but the functionality just isn’t quite the same.

So having decided there is a benefit to maintaining a blog I have just created this new WordPress-hosted blog to, hopefully, overcome the other reason I’d neglected my blog—that being my previous blogging software and hosting. Previously I’d been using an application called RapidWeaver to maintain my blog, which was published to my MobileMe account. RapidWeaver is an excellent web site creation tool, but as my blog became larger it was harder to publish—RapidWeaver blogs are made up of static pages, rather than drawing on a database to store the posts. As a result, when publishing a new entry it was necessary to republish every existing entry, which was a fairly clumsy exercise. But with no database or php support on MobileMe my only other alternative was iWeb, which shares issues that limit the spontaneity of posting.

These issues made me realise I needed a database-powered blog, and preferably one that facilitated spontaneous posting. Having looked at some of the available options (e.g. WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace) I’ve decided on WordPress for the time being. This decision was based mainly on cost (I’m still paying for MobileMe), features (e.g. ability to have additional non-blog pages, flexibility in the layout of blog entries, and blog comments), and the ability to post more spontaneously (from the web, my iPhone, or from a native OS X application—I’m testing out Blogo at the moment).

The test now will be whether I maintain this new blog or whether it also falls into disuse (for the time being my old blog can be found here—I’ve yet to decide whether to try and migrate my old posts).

]]> http://macsolvers.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/textexpander/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:24:08 +0000 admin http://macsolvers.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/textexpander/ http://chimac.net/2009/11/16/mobileme-is-mobileslow-today/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:12:04 +0000 chimac http://chimac.net/2009/11/16/mobileme-is-mobileslow-today/

Nothing new here.  I have moved away from MobileMe.  Loved it when it was .Mac because at least you could send email with it.  Right now it is worse than useless since it doesn’t deliver emails and doesn’t notify the person who sent them.  Click here to read the complaints if you want.

Credit: Kevin Dean (www.betaart.com)

So, I’ve got a Mac Mini at home, a Mac Mini at work and a MacBook Pro that I carry around with me for both. Oh, and an iPhone for personal use and a Nokia 5800 for work. I’m on Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn and MobileMe, and at work most colleagues have google calendars (as do I, for my work appointments) and use Yammer.

The question is “How do I sync all my contacts and appointments efficiently and effectively?“.

At the moment, everything’s screwed: my iPhone has duplicate (and even triplicate) contact entries; my work appointments are being duplicated on my laptop (but not anywhere else); the list goes on. (I won’t bore you with it.)

The reason for all the mess is this: I’ve made a stupid mistake.

I don’t have a consistent ‘master’ copy of the data – different machines are syncing in both directions and everything’s getting confused.

I’ve decided to ‘bite the bullet’ and start from scratch. So far:

• I’ve stopped all my syncs on all my machines; nothing is talking to anything anymore.
• I’ve stripped my laptop back and installed BusyCal (which is fab, BTW).
• I’ve logged into MobileMe and ‘refactored’ all my contacts (which basically meant deleting a lot of duplicates created by my sync setup and redundant crap that Daylight had created – sorry MarketCircle, but I gave up on it).
• I’ve forced my contacts down on to my laptop from MobileMe, and switched on syncing of these.

To do:

• Similar to above on my other computers
• Then iPhone
• Then turn on Plaxo syncing (but on which computer? Need to determine which will be the ‘master’ – the changes should then just trickle through MobileMe to the others).
• Then start thinking about the Calendars(!)

Watch this space.

My fiancée works out of her home. We’ve spent the evening brainstorming on ideas for her work and designing her websites. She has a few sites, Twitter accounts, a Vox blog, etc. We are looking at the best ways to market yourself online. There are vast resources on the web but wading through it all can be overwhelming.
Looking at websites selling similar products and services can give you some wonderful ideas. I prefer clean designs with simple straight forward navigation. One pitfall I’ve encountered in the past was trying to include too much which added up to a workload to great to sustain on a regular basis.
Everything is shaping up well and we will be sure to include links to her various sites once they are up and running.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated ))
Namaste – William
Hope everyone has a peaceful Remembrance Day

Cell phones are key catalysts of the e-memory revolution. They record video, audio, take pictures, and track location. They receive text messages and emails. So, of course, you want to take right steps to manage your cell phone’s e-memories and make sure you don’t lose anything.

Some offerings in this space: Apple’s MobileMe, Best Buy’s mIQ, Microsoft’s My Phone and Nokia’s Ovi. These services do more than just backup; they help you share, communicate, and even find lost phones. The trend is clearly towards more and more effortless creation and enjoyment of e-memories on your cell phone.

From Total Recall blog

Good article on Apple’s MobileMe service.

Apple has finally assembled a set of features for its hosted MobileMe service that makes it worth its subscription fee for the right user. As a critic of the service in the past, I find myself with naught but praise these days.

The purple Ws denote using the web interface, the red Xs denotes using Webdav disk or other method to access documents on iDisk.

Notice that there’s one component I choose to keep consistent across every item: calendars. It’s amazing that any change made on any of the 10 devices will show up on the others in just a minute or two. Yes, it “just works”.

And setup is a breeze. Tying this all together was little more than visiting a system preference on the Macs, logging into MobileMe, and checking a few boxes. On the iPhone it’s pretty much the same, and on the PC there’s a MobileMe control panel to install. You set, then forget, it just keeps in sync after that; I never have to think about it.

I’m not even using every sync feature. I could also sync Dashboard widgets and Preferences across the Macs. I don’t do so only because the varying screen sizes means I use different widgets and prefs on these machines.

Further, I use other features not listed on the chart, like the excellent “Find my iPhone”, and the ability to wipe data off a device. I have these features enabled on all four mobile devices. It’s great.

Some people balk at MobileMe because they claim Google or Yahoo or Microsoft provide email, contacts and calendars for free. True, but MobileMe does so using powerful native apps on Macs and the iPhone, and is so much more than just email anyway.

Bottom line is I’d have to collect numerous third-party apps (e.g., mail, drop box, Google sync, etc.) to try to get all the above items in sync, and they still wouldn’t cover all the bases or be anywhere near as easy to administer. I consider MobileMe a bargain, and can’t imagine my computing/mobile life without it.

Posted via email from The Small Wave.

Nice speculation.  We can only dream that these are true.  Click here to read.

False error message.  Check if the movie has uploaded in a few minutes or several hours depending on its size.  Click here if you want to read the Apple support article.

Mac OS X Hints has a ton of great suggestions.  They really can make things easier if you know just enough technology to be dangerous.  Click here.

This article explores why it hasn’t been updated in over 2 years and refers to a re-branded service of MobileMe.  Click here to read.

One of the reasons that I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard (s aapl) was the new ability to sync the Mac OS X Address Book with Gmail’s (s goog) or Google Apps’ Contacts. This function has been around for a while, but for some reason, it was previously available only to iPhone users.

I really appreciate well-produced synchronization, because I’ve experienced firsthand how difficult it is to get right. It seems that software developers can never quite agree on how to organize contact information, so everyone’s databases are different. For a long time, for instance, one of the major makers of financial management software didn’t even create city, state and ZIP/postal code fields, opting instead for an address field where all of that information was run together, making the data very difficult to parse.

So I’ve been pleasantly surprised with Snow Leopard’s “sync with Google” function, especially because I have a fairly large address book, and most of its entries have photos associated with them, something that very few sync solutions even try to support.

With a little planning, you can easily sync your address book with Google. Here are some tips — some of which are also applicable to other synchronization systems, such as the one available for synchronizing data between Google and Thunderbird’s Address Book on a PC.

1. Clean up your contacts. It’s easy to get sloppy about how we enter information, so it’s worth looking through your Address Book to make sure that your data is accurate and well-formatted. Putting first names and middle initials together in the first name field can produce amusing results, as can forgetting to check the “company” box for such entries — I had one card titled “Daily, Web Worker”! I also discovered a bunch of messed-up entries that had apparently been caused by previous experiments with sync software and services. One such service must have been European, because I found lots of entries where the postal code preceded the city, as is standard in France, but which isn’t correct in North America or the UK. Be careful with international phone numbers, too. If you don’t precede country codes with the plus (+) sign, some programs will try to format the numbers in North American format.
2. Back up your data! At the least, use Address Book’s Export function, and save a backup in Address Book Archive format. If you want added safety, use a program like Address Book to CSV Exporter to save your data in CSV format, which can be read by lots of other programs.
3. If possible, don’t try to sync two sources with different data, at least for an initial synchronization. You’ll get best results if you can clean up your data in the Mac Address Book, and completely erase all your contacts in Google. However, if that’s not possible, the charmingly named Conflict Resolver will spring into action during the sync, and give you the choice of which records to keep.

Once you’re ready, enter your account information into Address Book’s Preferences. Go to Accounts, check the “Synchronize with Google” option, click “Configure,” and enter your Gmail or Google Apps email address and password. That’s really all there is to it. I’ve found that you need to be logged out of the Google web interface for the sync to start. You might also need to make a change to your Mac Address Book in order for the sync program to become active, but once it begins, the process is surprisingly fast.

The Mac-to-Google sync system does have limitations. It can sync with one Gmail or Google Apps account at a time, and although it offers sync with Yahoo Mail’s contact lists, I’ve never been able to get Yahoo sync to work. Sync is also available with Apple’s MobileMe service, but I haven’t tried that.

All in all, I’m quite pleased with the results, and am happy that I can have immediate access to my contact information in several different places. As far as I’m concerned, one can never have too many backups of this vital data.

How do you keep your contact data synchronized?

Kinda cool.  It works great and even shows you the insides of the most popular formats like .doc or PDF.  Click here to read more.

Ik heb mijn laptop niet meer. Daar had ik mijn iPhone tot nog toe op gesyncd. Dus ik trek de machtiging in en meld me af in iTunes. Dat moet. Maar ik heette volgens iTunes daar de Beheerder. De eerste gebruiker zal ik maar zeggen. Dus ik heb een backup gemaakt eerst van alle aankopen tot nog toe, op twee volle dvd’s. En toen dat intrekken en afmelden natuurlijk.

Dus ik loop met mijn externe harde schijf en die twee dvd’s naar mijn desktop pc. Daar installeer ik eerst de twee dvd’s in iTunes. En ik synchroniseer mijn iPhone. Prompt heb ik twee Agenda’s, een gelijke Op alle iPhones e 1 gelijke in MobileMe. Zo ook met de contactpersonen. In Outlook en MobileMe komt dit alles maar 1 keer voor, maar op de iPhone twee keer. En als ik een agendapunt bijmaak, synchroniseert iTunes/|MobileMe die niet met Outlook/MobileMe. Dus de hele functionaliteit van MobileMe is zoek. Nu gebruik ik de afgelopen twee dagen mijn iPhone enkel nog als mp3 speler. Had ik nu maar een Touch!

Ik heb in iTunes met de iPhone aangesloten een diagnostische test volbracht. En de eindresultaten geknipt en gepakt in Kladblok, wat bleek: de Gebruiker van deze computer is alleen Gebruiker, geen Beheerder. Waar en hoe kan ik weer Beheerder worden over mijn eigen iPhone op mijn eigen computer?

Op internet kon ik niets vinden aangaande deze nieuwe Shit. En in iTunes kon ik dat ook niet instellen. En als je een bepaald programma wilt opstarten, en op het icoontje van dat programma muist, kun je rechts klikken en staat er vaak Uitvoeren als Administrator (Vista HP). Maar niet bij iTunes, hoe word ik weer Beheerder. En als ik met de sim-unlockmethode aangereikt door TMobile mijn iPhone wil unclocken, kan dat dan wel of niet als Gebruiker, of moet dat als Beheerder?

Vanochtend had ik een verfrissend gesprek met mijn jongste broer, en op weg terug fietsend van Zeist naar huis, bedacht ik me in Alle Programma’s in Vista, met rechts te klikken op het Originele Icoon (dus niet op de Snelkoppeling in het Snelstart menu). En daar ontdekte ik wat.
Wat, dat laat ik zo zien in screendumpjes.

P.S. Update 22/10/09: Door het kwaad de-installeren van ALLES waar maar een Apple logo op staat, verloor ik natuurlijk ook de kans om, achteraf nog die screendumpjes te maken. Maar het komt hier op neer. Je gaat naar Windows Start / Alle programma’s, klikt met je rechtermuisknop op de regel iTunes, Eigenschappen en Beheer, daar kun je wonderwel als Gebruiker, en hoef je nog niet eens Administrator/Beheerder jezelf meerdere toegangsmogelijkheden geven door die simpelweg aan te vinken.

Als je een diagnostische test maakt zónder, zie dat er uit met weinig informatie (want je BENT niet de Beheerder van je eigen iTunes! ). Als je dan meer bevoegdheden hebt, na die handelingen en instellingen te hebben gewijzigd, ZIET die er echt heel uitgebreid uit.

Dus nu ben ik weer beheerder. Vanavond (vroeg in de avond) kies ik in iTunes voor Herstellen van de iPhone. iTunes gaat de nieuwste firmware (nog eens) downloaden en verfrist het OS op de iPhone, na een tijdje krijg ik de melding die ik niet verwachtte, met de T-Mobile SIM IN de iPhone. Ik moet de SIM unlockcode van de simkaart opgeven, dat mislukt drie keer, zwarte schermen op de iPhone. En dan opeens staat er in iTunes “Gefeliciteerd, u heeft de iPhone zojuist met succes ge-unlockt”.  Nou, dat is dus al gebeurd, IK BEN de Beheerder weer!

Dan gaat iTunes uit zichzelf synchroniseren en probeert AL MIJN APPS te installeren, ik denk nog, ik heb maar een 16Gb iPhone, dat past er niet allemaal op. En mijn muziek dan?

Dan blijkt dat hij niet weet wat hij bij Info moet doen, er staat dat dat pas gaat werken als je de volgende keer synchroniseert, dus ik vink alle Apps die ik NIET wil op de iPhone af. En vink aan bij Info dat ik zo’n beetje alles wil syncen met Outlook, en dat hij alle gegevens op de iPhone moet vervangen met deze nieuwe. Als je iTunes zo gebruikt moet je je eerst aanmelden, maar dat had ik een paar maanden geleden natuurlijk al gedaan. Dus ik kies voor Toepassen in de gedachte dat hij eerst deze sync afmaakt, maar hij begint opnieuw en wist alle Apps die ik niet wil. En synct met Outlook al mijn data, nu is hij mijn podcasts en video’s en muziek aan het syncen; wordt het wéér een latertje vanavond!

Wat ik alleen vreemd vind, is dat hij de gemaakte foto’s niet uit zichzelf backupped naar de pc desktop, en ik kan dit ook nergens in iTunes instellen dat hij dat moet doen! Misschien dat hij na deze synchronisatie, waarna ik de MobileMe weer aanzet en instel, ik weer synchroniseer dat wel uit zichzelf gaat doen, anders moet ik gemaakte foto’s eerst vanaf de iPhone uploaden per email, of naar Flickr of naar MobileMe uploaden.

We zullen zien. Ik heb de Archos5 Internet Tablet besturdeerd, de handleiding dus, maar daar zitten geen Contactgegevens en Agenda’s te syncen met je computer op, dat is fraai. Dus de Archos valt al af. Dán wordt het toch een Touch, want andere mp3 spelers lijken shit. Dat mijn iPhone nu unlocked is, nodigt me wel uit de Telfortkaart vast te gebruiken, ik betaal er immers nog abonnementskosten voor, voor iedere maand 150 belminuten, als ik er een data-abonnement bij neem voor een jaartje, zou dat kunnen en ben ik mooi van die T-Mobile af!

Mac OS X Snow Leopard έκδοση 10.6.2 – MacLife.gr Forum

Η Apple την Παρασκευή έκανε διαθέσιμη σε επιλεγμένους προγραμματιστές την δοκιμαστική έκδοση για το Mac OS X Snow Leopard στην έκδοση 10.6.2.

Η συγκεκριμένη είναι η τρίτη κατά σειρά δοκιμαστική έκδοση (build 10C527f) και μεταξύ άλλων περιλαμβάνει διορθώσεις για το Quicktime, το iChat και το σφάλμα με τον λογαριασμό Guest, όπου αρκετοί χρήστες είχαν αναφέρει την απώλεια των δεδομένων τους με την χρήση του εν λόγω λογαριασμού. Οι προγραμματιστές αναφέρουν επίσης πως η έκδοση 10.6.2 περιλαμβάνει διορθώσεις και βελτιώσεις σε 13 διαφορετικούς τομείς, και συγκεκριμένα βελτιώσεις σε iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, iDisk και Safari plug-ins. Επιπλέον περιλαμβάνει οδηγούς για διάφορες κάρτες γραφικών, διορθώνοντας σφάλματα που σχετίζονται με αυτές.[next]

Try this suggestion from Macistotle in this post.  “Quit iCal.  Then navigate here: home_folder > Library > Calendars >  Now delete any of the files with “Cache” in the title.  Restart iCal.”

Die Idee ist sicherlich nicht neu aber grade durch Dropbox wieder sehr IN. Man hat auf 2 verschiedenen Computern den selben Ordern und möchte den Inhalt Synchron halten.

Man packt den Ordner in eine Cloud, und zeigt dann per Softlink auf diese Cloud bzw auf einen Lokalen Ordern der Cloud.

Im Detail: Ich habe meine Dokumenten Ordern auf meine iDisk kopiert (iDisk ist ein Webdienst zum abspeichern von Datein, Cloud eben ), erstelle eine Lokal Kopie der iDisk auf meiner Festplatte und baue mit in HOME/ eine Softlink auf /Volumes/iDisk/Documents. Das mach ich so auf beiden Rechnern. In meinem Fall mein MacBook und mein Hackintosh.

Wenn man nun etwas auf dem einen Rechner ändert schiebt er das in die Cloud, alle anderen Rechner holen sich von da dann die geänderte Version. Klapt super.Aber….

Es gibt eine nicht zu unterschätzende Zeitverzögerung. Er schickt die Daten sofort in die Cloud, aber von da nicht direkt auf die anderen Rechner. Das dauert ca 2 – 5 Minuten. Kein Ding, ich kann damit leben. Aber Theoretisch könnte es damit Probleme geben. Aber eben nur theoretisch ^^

Wer kein MobielMe und damit kein iDisk hat kann das ganze auch per Dropbox verwirklichen. Dropbox gibts mit 2GB Cloudspace umsonst unter www.getdropbox.com

Das ganze geht so auch unter Liunx, ob Windows damit klar kommt…ich denke schon. Einfach mal mit einer Verknüpfung versuchen ^^