I just downloaded the wordpress app for the iPhone thinking that “hey this will come in handy some day”. This post is written in the app and overall I’m pretty happy with it. Setup was easy and adding posts is a snap. The bad part is a you can see from my typos is the touch keyboard. I can only type in portrait mode and am spwnind more time correcting than typing. The built in spellcheck does ok but as you can we it doesn’t get everything. I’m thinking that if I could have at least types in landscape, like I can in the browser, then most of these typing issues would disappear. Now that I think about it, I can’t believe that I can’t just turn the phone and start typing. After all that has been a common complaint in the email app as well.
Maybe next time but for now I am happy just being able to simply shoot this post up into the ether. Do you use any kind of mobile app for blogging?
If you’re like many who are now wondering where their time goes in a day, a week and even a month, then you know how hard it can be to keep track of the many tasks and projects and other little things you do that suck up your time. You use calendars and lists to help schedule your time in hopes of maximizing each day and making sure you accomplish tasks to achieve goals. Some days you go right through the list, other days it seems like there just isn’t enough time. I spend most of my day online, whether it be designing a site, working on a blog, reading other blogs and news sites …I am online 80% of my day. I can say that I have wondered off into some tangent in my browsing adventures. What I have been looking at are various ways of keeping track of time I spend on my computer in hoes of being more efficient. Rescuetime.com is free web based time management software and it is here to help you and me.
What does it do? Rescue Time’s software collects data on the different applications you use, sites you visit such as the ip address and time spent on application. A snap shot from the day doesn’t typically prove to be very useful. The big deal is the tracking over time. You can log into your free account from any computer and see charts and graphs displaying where your time is being spent. To get started, you download a tiny application that runs in the background to collect data that is transmitted to Rescue Time. What this does is give you a real picture of where you are spending your time. Once you start to see patterns you can set goals to help recapture some of the time that had otherwise been lost. By the way, their software is supported on Windows and Mac machines.
Apple well known for its elite marketing and huge product launches has somehow missed the target on all fronts today. We had the official release of the 2.0 iPhone firmware, the 3G Iphone release and MobileMe. All of which have had issues getting out. MobileMe took 2 days to finally get up and running albeit still a bit sluggish, the firmware update was pretty smooth until the country started to try and activate new 3G iPhones and no one could update or activate for a few hours (some iPhones getting bricked in the process).
I was looking at ways to download streaming video today and then I was asked to review software that does just that. Of course, I was happy to do just that.
The software is called TubeTilla and can be downloaded from tubetilla.com via c|net downloads. You all know me and I’m a Mac convert and didn’t even dawn on me to read the description, this is a PC only piece of software. No worries, I flipped into VMware and installed.
Installation is simple as any software these days should be. You get the standard screen letting you know you are about to install the software, legal repsponsibility and that’s it. A double click on th eapplication icon presents the user with a simple interface. You are now only a few steps away from accomplishing your goal.
Enter the URL of the video you want to download
Click on the web icon to the left (you see a progress bar showing the downlaod)
Decide what format you want and click the appropriate icon
Enjoy!
Now you are ready to take the video anywhere with you, such as PMP or just on the hardrive for a long trip.
Oh, did I mention the software is FREE? You can get your copy at TubeTilla YouTube Downloader . The author is also giving away a few copies of the Pro version, details are below.
I was a bit concerned that Contribute did not have the ability to edit entries offline. To my surprise, I found that it does allow you to create entries while off line and saves them locally. It still feels a bit heavy compared to MarsEdit but I’m getting used to it. Today I had to insert some HTML and found I had to use a feature similar to iWeb’s way of inserting HTMl. It seemed to work but I don’t particularly like not having full control over placement and coding of the entire post. Maybe I just have control issues when it comes to coding
I just posted my first post using Contribute and it felt very strange to do it. So to get that strange feeling out, I had to come back to MarsEdit and post something so I can have a direct comparison. Daniel over at Red-Sweater.com was kind enough to help me out in renewing my demo version so I could properly try it out.
I’ll be using both programs over the next few weeks to see which one I really want to use. I can already say that I am biased towards MarsEdit. I like the archival option as a means to backup.
If you have any experience in using either, please chime in. I would love to hear form others and your experience with the two programs.
I picked up a copy of Adobe Creative Suite last year so I could have my Dreamweaver on my Mac and I coudn’t beat the fact that Photoshop and Acrobat were included as well. I just started using some of the other programs in the past month, namely Illustrator and now Contribute.
When I fire up Contribute, I saw that it could handle blog updates and figured I would give it a try. I really haven’t heard anything on the tubes about using Contribute in this manner but I figure ‘Hey, i own it so lets try it out’. So far I finding it a bit clunky but I’m sure it’s just the curve I need to get past. I’m using it right now for this post. I’ll let you know what I think of it over the next couple weeks…stay tuned
The strangest thing happened to me. I ordered a replacement fan for my MBP and had just finished the check out process when I noticed that my fan was no longer acting crazy. Any of you that have one of the 1st gen MBPs know what I mean buy the crazy fan. For those of you that don’t, the first gen MBP’s fans were notorious for braking down or just making incredibly loud noise. I liken it to the noise a playing card might make when inserted between the spokes of a bicycle. I ordered through iFixit.com and the order was easily cancled. The process ws so easy and they provide such a great service that I will definitely be returning.
A friend of mine asked me why I wasn’t running a temperature monitoring program. I said “what?”. I was then given a lecture on how I should always be monitoring my CPU temperature since the MBP does run hot. I really wasn’t so concerned about CPU temp but looking at one of the programs he suggested, I saw a nice feature that monitored fan speed and allowed me to adjust it. I had seen something similar when I visited the Genius bar one time and watched as the Genius throttled my fan speed up and down to confirm a problem (different fan). You can download the programTemperature Monitor 4.4 This program is awesome! I can actually set the minimum speed of each fan and even rev them up when you want. I really only use it to make sure the fans are spinning. I’m guessing that if one fan failed, there would be a noticeable spike in temp (both of which can be monitored form the menu bar).
I’m trying out VMWare’s Fusion since it supports dual core processors. I used Parallels for a few months and was happy with it. However, I upgraded to Leopard and found I needed to use the latest offering so I find myself back in the market. I’ll report back on my opinion shortly bu int he mean time. Which one of the two are you using?
Those of you that know me, know that I am an Apple convert. It’s been nearly 2 years since I purchased my first mac and have been in a’mored ever since. The only caveat is the office suite available for the mac was a bit old and crude in its implementation. Don’t get me wrong, even as old as it was it still seemed far more advanced than at the time office 2000. But wanted something that was fully integrated with my OS and a bit speedier I switched to the “office suite” from Apple. This time around they included a spreadsheet application (not quite as good as excel) but was a welcome addition since there wasn’t a spreadsheet application before. I found that the interfaces were as slick as one would expect from Apple and the software ran great. The bad news is that some of the features that I had become accustomed to in Microsoft’s office suite were not available still. The one big missing feature was the ability to do a mail merge form a list of names. Sure you can do one form your address book but if your pulling names form your website or have a list that you market to, you may not want to have those names in your address book just to do a mail merge.
Needless to say, I still like the offering from Apple as the footprint is small and the software does just about all I want it to. If I could get better exchange server support in mail.app then I would be in heaven. Today Microsoft will launch its new office suite for mac and it looks to be a serious contender. So much so, I may have ot switch. Strageny, just like there vista, the office suite comes in a variety of flavors and looks like it has to do with exchange server support in entourage. I think we’ll have to wait and see from the release what the real differences are. Check out the video below and I think you’ll agree that the updated suite looks good, but lets wait and see how well it is integrated into OS X
Ph? (Vietnamese pronunciation in IPA: written pho and pronounced "fuh" IPA: /f?/ in English) is a traditional Vietnamesenoodle soup dish. ~wikipedia.org Ok so I'm not some restaurateur, I'm just an average guy who likes his gadgets for what they do to make life better and otherwise bring a smile when opening a box for the first time. This blog is simply the recording of many of my adventures/mishaps with gadgets and my foray into the blogosphere with an occasional side of something special. I do a bit of web design and most recently my focus has been on Wordpress customization. You'll probably hear a lot regarding Apple products or products for my mac. I'm a recent convert after being in the Windows universe for many years. My first computer was vic20, upgraded to the 64 and then I purchased my first desktop (Yeah, I remember having to make that boot disk to make certain things run right). I was convinced to try out a mac last year and the new macbook pros with their Intel chips left me with no reason not to. I have ben ecstatic ever since (I don't think I qualify just yet as fanboy status but I'm getting their). Yeah, I drank the Kool-Ade and am waiting for a refill ;)
What does it do? Rescue Time’s software collects data on the different applications you use, sites you visit such as the ip address and time spent on application. A snap shot from the day doesn’t typically prove to be very useful. The big deal is the tracking over time. You can log into your free account from any computer and see charts and graphs displaying where your time is being spent. To get started, you download a tiny application that runs in the background to collect data that is transmitted to Rescue Time. What this does is give you a real picture of where you are spending your time. Once you start to see patterns you can set goals to help recapture some of the time that had otherwise been lost. By the way, their software is supported on Windows and Mac machines. 
I just posted my first post using Contribute and it felt very strange to do it. So to get that strange feeling out, I had to come back to MarsEdit and post something so I can have a direct comparison. Daniel over at Red-Sweater.com was kind enough to help me out in renewing my demo version so I could properly try it out.
I picked up a copy of Adobe Creative Suite last year so I could have my Dreamweaver on my Mac and I coudn’t beat the fact that Photoshop and Acrobat were included as well. I just started using some of the other programs in the past month, namely Illustrator and now Contribute. 
