Services | Terry White's Tech Blog

Archive for the ‘Services’ Category

MobileMe is working for me (now)!

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

mobileme

In light of yesterday's post about ratings, I decided to return to a product/topic that I wanted to give everyone an update on. With each iPhone OS update that has come out since Apple switched .Mac to MobileMe I've tried to use it to wirelessly sync all my data between not only my Macs, but my iPhone as well. Each attempt in the past has lead to problems. One of the most frustrating problems I had over and over was the loss of ringtone associations with the 50+ contacts that I assigned custom ringtones too. Since you still can't assign ringtones to a group of contacts, I would have to manually go in and reassign them each time. I would typically get so frustrated that by the 3rd time this would happen, I would go back to syncing manually in iTunes.

Now it works!

Apple has been tweaking (ie. fixing bugs) MobileMe all along. So I tried it again when the iPhone OS 3.0 update came out. It's been working fine ever since. I've not once lost my ringtone/contact associations and it's been syncing flawlessly between my iPhone 3GS and various Macs. For me, it's finally working as advertised and I'm happy!

Much too often people are quick to tell you that something doesn't work! So I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you that MobileMe does work.

Yes, there is still room for improvement

Although MobileMe syncing is now working for me as advertised, that doesn't mean that the service itself couldn't be better. For example, I'm still stunned that to this day the iPhone doesn't support syncing of To Do items in iCal/Outlook without a 3rd party App (I use ToDo) and even more stunned that although you can finally sync Notes from Mail, that you can still only do so via the USB cable and iTunes. Notes themselves seem to sync up to the MobileMe cloud so why is it that we still have to plug in to get them to sync on the iPhone/iPod touch?

I could go on and on about things I would like to see implemented or improved, but for the most part I'm happy that it finally works the way it's supposed to.

You can get MobileMe here at a discounted price. It works on both Macs and PCs.

Posted in 3g, Apple, Services, Wi-Fi, Wireless, iPhone | 3 Comments »

Broadcast Live Video with Livestream.com for FREE

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

While I love recording some of my reviews via HD video and sharing them on YouTube, I can't get over this really cool service that my buddy Jack Beckman turned me on to with his review here.

What is Livestream?

Livestream.com is a website that allows you to setup your own internet broadcast channel for free. You can go on the air whenever you want and broadcast your message. It could be used for regular shows, broadcasting meetings and events, webcam monitoring, whatever you can imagine.

How is this different from YouTube, Vimeo and others?

All of the others that typically come to mind allow you to share your message, but only after you first record it and upload it as a video file. Livestream is BOTH live broadcasting with the ability to record it for later playback (video on demand VOD). Livestream even has support for multiple cameras. You can even bring in video that you pre-recorded or have posted elsewhere such as YouTube or your podcast. There's a whole studio environment included.

Why is it FREE?

Like most free services including YouTube, there is money in advertising. So while people are viewing your channel there could be ads on the side, top or bottom of the viewer window. There is a way to eliminate the ads with the paid version that starts at $350/month! Most people will be quite happy with the free version. Also there is a limit of the number of people that can watch your broadcast until your account is verified. The limit is 50. That is still pretty good for an unverified account! Verification is beyond simple email verification. You have to prove yourself worthy by putting up some content first. This gives the verification committee at Livestream a chance to see what kind of content you plan on broadcasting. I tried to have my account verified right away and it was declined because I didn't have any content up yet.

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Posted in Entertainment, Services, Social Networking | 4 Comments »

Creative Ways to Showoff Your Photography – Gallery Wraps

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

This is my 3rd installment on showing off your Photography. First I talked about Moo cards and then yesterday about Gelaskins. If you have a shot that you really want to show off in your home or office, why not go the extra mile and have it printed on canvas in the form of a Gallery Wrap? I'm really addicted to this kind of print/mounting done by MPIX.com. First let me tell you that it's not cheap! Before I even consider having a gallery wrap done, I have to really be in LOVE with the shot. Otherwise I'll just stick to traditional prints in frames. Gallery Wraps are for those shots that are really important to you. The ones that you just can't stop looking at.

MPIX Pro

Once I got approved to become an MPIX Pro Customer, I was lucky that MPIX had a sale on Gallery Wraps. I thought this was my chance to get a few of my favorite shots mounted this way and save a little money at the same time. Whether you're an MPIX Pro customer or regular MPIX customer the quality is equally the same — OUTSTANDING! I've gotten several compliments on the ones I've gotten done so far and the next thing that they want to know is "where did you get those done?"

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Posted in Digital Photography, Services | 10 Comments »

Creative Ways to Showoff Your Photography – Gelaskins

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Yesterday I talked about showing off your Photography with Moo Cards. Today it's all about skins. My guess is that you have a cellphone, mp3 player, laptop or gaming device if not all of the above. So why not add some custom bling to your electronic devices.

gela

Gelaskins has been around for a while selling all kinds of creative looking skins for your various devices. Honestly I'm not really a skin kind of guy. The reason is that I usually don't find an image that I like so much that I want it on a device that I use/look at every day. However, once I found out that they now allow you to use YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY, I couldn't get the site fast enough.

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Posted in Digital Photography, MacBook Pro, Services, iPhone | 3 Comments »

Creative Ways to Showoff Your Photography – Moo Cards

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

As a photographer I'm always looking for creative ways to showoff my work. So I thought I would spend the next day or so showing some of the products I've recently discovered or been turned on to to do just that. It's pretty common to have photographic business cards these days. However, the hard part is picking the one or two images that you'll use. Of course the minute you submit the order, you'll take an even more impressive shot the next day. So when my buddy Scott Kelby turned me on to Moo.com I was all over it.

moo

Pick your favorite 50!

That's Right Moo.com lets you design your business cards with up to 50 different images. You can get 50 different business cards for only $21.99. Now you don't have to have 50 different images. That's the max. However, let's say that you have 10 images that you love. You can get say 200 cards with those 10 images and you'd end up with 20 cards of each image. For example, I picked 48 of my favorite images (I know, but I just couldn't come up with 2 more that I would want on a card) and I ordered 200 cards. I ended up with each image at least 4 times and two of the images ended up on 6 cards instead of 4.

moocards

So now when I want to give out a business card I can choose one based on either landscapes or portraits. The opposite side of the card, which contains your information is the same for every card.

The Quality, Cost and Ordering

The card stock used is very good. I've had as much praise over the quality of the card and printing as the images that are on them. Ordering was very easy and straight forward. I was glad and impressed that I could upload all the images at once. The prices are 50 for $21.99, 100 for $43.98 and 200 for $69.99. Head over to Moo.com to place your order. Turnaround time was very quick.

Posted in Digital Photography, Services | 11 Comments »

Don’t tell me, show me

Monday, November 16th, 2009

If you know anything about computers, chances are you have a friend, relative or colleague that knows less than you do and they come to you for help. I have a couple of friends that come to me from time to time and ask me "how do you do______ again?" Usually it's something that they actually have done before but they've either forgotten how or they've missed a step. Well if you've ever tried to help someone remotely with a computer problem before you know that half the battle is for them to explain what's going on on screen or what the actual problem is?

Look at their screen over the Internet

There's actually a way for you to see EXACTLY what's going on as long as you and your friend have access to the Internet. Adobe provides this service FREE of charge and it's called Acrobat Connect Now. As a matter of fact if you're in one of the CS4 products you can get to it even quicker by choosing "Share My Screen" from the file menu. However, even if you're not in a CS4 product and even if you don't even own an Adobe product you can still use this great service for FREE. Just head over to acrobat.com and sign up for an account. If you already have an Adobe I.D. then you're all set.

sharemyscreen

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Posted in Adobe, Services | 12 Comments »

Blockbuster, it’s the internet stupid

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

bb-express-digital

When I saw this story come across my RSS reader, I almost spit out my drink. It seems that Blockbuster (in an attempt to remain relevant) is trying all kinds of new things. Let's face it! Netflix kicked your butt and you're in a fight for your survival. I get it. However, you have to realize that while you were hell bent on charging me obscene(more than the movie cost) late fees back in the day that someone (Netflix) figured out a way to eat your lunch by letting customers keep their movies as long as they wanted for one flat rate. Netflix continued to grow their business by moving BEYOND THE DISC (MEDIA) MODEL and partnered with every company they could on delivering (TiVo, Sony, Microsoft, etc.) streaming movies.

The fact that one of your newest ideas involves customers walking up to a kiosk and downloading a rental or getting a rental on a memory card shows me that you still don't get it. The "drive to my local movie rental store to pick up media" model has a very short life ahead of it. Maybe it's just me, but I think you should be investing more towards getting movies into the hands of your customers via the Internet and on mobile devices. You made a great first step by hooking up with TiVo. Although I'm happy with Netflix and iTunes I did cheer for you. You should really continue in this direction!

iTunes isn't going away!

The fact I can rent a movie right on my Apple TV in my living room should make you guys really nervous. Partner, Partner, Partner. This will be the key to your survival. Look at the boxes people are buying and hooking up to their HDTVs and do whatever it takes to get on those boxes at a reasonable price to your customers. Competition is great! Compete!

Posted in Apple TV, Entertainment, HDTV, Services | 16 Comments »

iPhone MMS is here for AT&T customers! Sigh…

Friday, September 25th, 2009

carrierupdate

As promised (late!) AT&T/Apple released the necessary Carrier update to allow MMS (Multimedia Messaging) on the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

When you plug your iPhone 3G or 3GS (not compatible with the original iPhone) into iTunes, and check for updates you should now see the update for Carrier Settings is available. I downloaded and installed the update which only took literally about 10 seconds to download and install.

updated

I didn’t notice any change at all until I powered the iPhone off and back on again. Once the iPhone came back up the preferences were there for MMS as well as the Camera icon in the Messages window.

It’s not soup yet

MMSprefs

As I expected everyone must be doing this all at once and of course testing it all at once and the servers are slammed! From my iPhone 3GS I get an error each time I try to send an MMS message although regular SMS messages go through. AT&T warned some customers (via an SMS message yesterday) that it may take time for the feature to actually work and it wouldn’t affect sending SMS. Well I’m seeing that "not working" that they mentioned. I tested another iPhone here and tried using it to send my iPhone an MMS and while it did send, I still haven’t received it yet on my iPhone 3GS (10 minutes has past). So once again we/I wait….

MMSsending . MMSerror

UPDATE! Turns out my initial sending problem was AT&T account related (old data on the account). Called them and they corrected everything. All set now.

What’s your experience been with this update/feature?

Posted in 3g, Services, Wireless, iPhone | 14 Comments »

iPhone App of the Week – Taxi Magic

Friday, September 18th, 2009

taximagiclogo

I’ve spent the better part of this week doing a 3 part series on some of my favorite travel tips and accessories (see Part 1, 2 and 3). So I thought I would wrap things up this week with one of my new favorite Apps: Taxi Magic.

True Story

I was in a meeting in San Jose and during one of the breaks I checked my Genius App Recommendations and one of them was Taxi Magic. So out of curiosity I decided to take a look. First off, this app was getting hammered in the reviews. However, I didn’t let that stop me since the app was free and also one of the biggest complaints was the $1.50 charge if you pay for your Taxi with your credit card. I wasn’t too worried about that, so I downloaded the app.

At the end of the day I needed to go from the office in San Jose to the San Jose airport and I was going to go by Taxi. So I decided that this would be as good of a test as I could give it. I didn’t have much time and quite frankly if the app didn’t work, I may have been late/missed my flight. Risky, I know.

taximagic