.Mac Sync keeps pretty much everything in sync between my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. Sometimes one will wipe out the others address book or something silly but that’s why I back up nightly with SuperDuper, too. 
For most of my purposes, .Mac Sync works but I’d love to see more remote disk space and a little better robust services for weeding out systems and preventing them from stepping on each other.
AppleScripts menu item gives me easy access to my scripts which is nice. I guess I could disable the menu item and just use Quicksilver, but when you have a 30 inch screen, who cares.
Speaking of that 30 inch screen, I really don’t know why I have Spaces on my Menu Bar. I really don’t use it. I guess I figure if it’s there, I’ll end up using it. I never really got into virtual desktops not even back in my X-Windows days on top of SunOS. I’ve tried using it even on my MacBook Pro, but old habits die hard. Maybe someday I’ll use it.
System volume is self explained. It raises and lowers your volume. I keep it up on my Menu Bar so if my music doesn’t play and iTunes is all the way up, I can quickly look at the Menu Bar and see, “Aah, it’s muted!” Sure, I can figure that out by just pressing my volume key on my keyboard, but hey, I’m visual. I’m a guy.
Last, but not least, I use Spotlight. I never really used it until Leopard. With all its added features and neat tricks like performing mathematics (try putting this in: pi/-4), I use it all day long. It finds files fast and has even shown me some things on my hard drive I forgot about! Hopefully Apple will put advanced features in a future release, but for now, I’m happy with it.
So, there’s the gloss over stuff. I’ll be talking about my other menu items in the coming week, so stay tuned!
Having just finished my PB+J (Jif and grape) sandwich, I had to share this comic Shane sent me months ago. It was on my MacBook Pro and I forgot all about it until I backed it up last week before dusting it and re-installing Leopard on it.
Anyway, this comic totally made me LOL (for real!). You’ll have to be using that thing called the CLI (command line interface) in either UNIX (you OSX users) or Linux to get this. I can’t tell you how many times a day I try to do something on my Mac in Terminal and I get the dreaded “you’re not important enough for me to listen to” error. It’s almost to the point I’m prefacing every command with sudo now. Ya, I know, dangerous, but it still prompts for the password at least.
Enjoy the joke and if you know if more geeky jokes like this, let me know in the comments.
If you are ever wondering what this tech-gadget loving guy may be doing through the day, then check out my Twitter account. I’ll be using the site to also post some sites of interest and it will be a great place for you to get some “behind the scenes” stuff I may not get onto SvenOnTech. There are a lot of sites I go to in research for posts here but due to the time it takes to actually type the stuff out, a lot gets lost to the ether so to speak.
Beyond that, you’ll also get some of my witty commentary on just life. I promise, I’ll try to abstain from the gross, though I am a guy so sometimes I may stumble. So please accept my pre-emtive apology.
Oh, try to figure out what my account name, 7mary4, is about, too. I’d love to see if you can figure that out. (It’s not that hard to figure out with Google, folks. )
See you on Twitter…
Proporta sent this to SvenOnTech today so we’re passing it on to you. We love Proporta and even though they are based in the UK, it does have very economical shipping rates world wide. Take a look and see what a great selection of protection they have for your device. And now, without further wait, Proporta….
It’s an exciting time next week for Proporta who are releasing new products for three of the latest Smartphones to hit the market: the Samsung SGH-i780, E-TEN Glofiish M810 and the i-mate 9502. Wow, what a week :o)
For a bit of background on these devices the Samsung i780 is a 3G Smartphone, which comes with easy to use business features and high performance technology.
The E-TEN M810 is targeted to chatters and bloggers - the sort who want to stay online at all times. It has a QWERTY keyboard for quick text input and runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional. It features GPS, WiFi and 3G HSDPA data for that all important high-speed internet.
The Ultimate 9502 is a no-compromises messaging device with a high-resolution touch screen display. It also includes wireless connectivity and even has integrated GPS for mapping, navigation, and a plethora of location-based services.
Proporta have designed their highly acclaimed Alu-Leather Case and Advanced Screen Protectors for all three of these devices to provide you with essential and well-deserved protection for whichever one you’re lucky enough to own.
The Alu-Leather Case, like many of Proporta’s cases, is hand crafted to meet the exact specifications of your device and features their trademark ‘Screen Saver System’ using a sheet of rigid, lightweight aircraft grade aluminium to protect your device against crushing and impact shocks.
Such a convenient little product, there’s no reason to ever have to remove your device from the case as all the necessary cut outs are provided to give access to all ports and controls.
A Proporta Advanced Screen Protector is also a must-have if you want the precious screen of your device to stay in pristine condition. Proporta have been able to improve the thickness of the high-clarity plastic that they’re manufactured from, without impairing screen brightness or quality.
P.S. This Dual Power Car Kit supplies you with everything you need for charging your devices whilst on the move in your car.
Effective immediately, DBL will begin marketing SPOT-1 to customers nationwide. This state-of-the-art personal messenger with GPS tracking, once activated by a satellite subscription, will send the exact coordinates of your location to International Emergency Response Center or 9-1-1. If your exact coordinates cannot be obtained, the device will send a distress signal instead. Other excellent features include personal messaging capabilities that reaches out to friends and family to request for help or to let them know you are okay. In addition, SPOTcastingSM sends a message to your account every 10 minutes, allowing your friends and family to view your entire route through GoogleMapsTM. Designed for maximum reliability, Spot performs a self diagnostic test every time it is powered on. It works worldwide and even in the most remote areas where cell phone service is scarce.
“This new and innovative product and technology introduced by Spot has revolutionized the navigational market,” stated Tim Coakley, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for DBL Distributing. “Its tremendous versatility coupled with its unique functionality greatly appeals to customers within our navigational product segment.”
SPOT-1 was included in DBL’s new Spring/Summer catalog featuring nearly 520 product lines, 5,200 new items and over 20,600 products. To order SPOT-1, please call DBL’s dedicated sales staff at 800.733.6766 or order online at www.dbldistributing.com.
I bet there are a lot of you starting to get jealous of those other people that can listen to their tunes from their Bluetooth device, such as a smartphone, right on their car stereo without every plugging in a wire to anything. With rumors of the iPhone update supporting full Bluetooth stereo, the doors may just be blown open wide real soon with Bluetooth audio.
Now if you’re one that spent all their cash on such a device and can’t yet afford the upgrade to a nice slick Alpine or Pioneer that supports Bluetooth connectivity, then maybe you should take out that old mix tape and throw in the Flexii Bluetooth Cassette Adapter. With this sweet adapter, you’ll be able to do what those other cassette adapters for portable CD players did and play music from a really cool high tech gadget! Cheap. For $40, you’ll get to play jams from your PDA, smartphone, or laptop all without a single wire. In fact, the Bluetooth Cassette Adapter has a built-in rechargeable lithium battery that will give you up to 5 hours of play time. The included USB cable lets you charge that bad boy in not time!
So now enjoy your high tech gadget on your “low” tech radio. Bring your car into the future, baby!
) To get a closer look of what’s on the bar, click the above image and see it in its 100% pixel glory on our Flikr account.
So, I guess the easiest way to start is to simply go left to right. Thus we start with Remote Buddy. We previously touched on this application in a post before, so you should already be familiar with this groovy application. Basically, Remote Buddy allows you to use a slew of devices, including your iPhone, to remote control your Mac. Remote Buddy allows you to run through a presentation in either PowerPoint, Keynote, NeoOffice, Adobe Reader, or even Preview all from your remote in your hand. Since this is your buddy, it goes even further and allows you to control iTunes, DVD Player, VLC, and more than 100 other applications. Yes, that is not a typo, it is 100. As we stated in our last post on Remote Buddy, you can now watch movies, listen to music, and such all on your iPhone right from your Mac! You can even take a look to see if anyone is sitting at your chair via tapping into your iSight. Slick stuff indeed.
The Menu Item basically gives you quick access for pairing devices and configuration of Remote Buddy. It’s also a nice reminder that it is running and you are in control of your Mac…from afar.
Verizon Wireless announced today it has purchased the wireless assets of SureWest Communications, operating as SureWest Wireless, for $69.0 million.
The purchase includes SureWest Wireless’ spectrum licenses, and network and operations assets in the greater Sacramento area. The licenses, which cover a population of 3.8 million people and overlap with areas currently served by Verizon Wireless, will expand the company’s capacity in that area.
Verizon Wireless will transition SureWest Wireless’ approximately 50,000 customers to the Verizon Wireless network by late summer, after a billing system conversion has been completed. Customers will enjoy service on the nation’s most reliable wireless network, including the company’s high-speed broadband network for accessing the Internet and e-mail, and downloading music, games and videos.
Verizon Wireless will notify customers in the coming months about new services and options that will be available to them when the transition is complete. Until that time, customers will continue on their SureWest Wireless plans.
Verizon Wireless has invested more than $45 billion since it was formed – $5.5 billion on average every year – to increase the coverage and capacity of its national network and to add new services.
Do you find yourself often wondering where a good place to dine or maybe where to get some great souvenirs in a city you may be visiting for work or leisure would be? Is your GPS just not cutting it for you? Too timid to ask a local for suggestions? But wait! You have an iPhone and Google Maps seems to be working for you. Well, kind of. No worries, mate, SvenOnTech just discovered Schmap! While the name makes me think of having a shot of peppermint schnapps, the new city guide made just for the iPhone goes live with its public beta Monday that’ll help you with all your city guide needs.
With Schmap, you’ll be able to find a nice place to dine, attractions, stores, and many other easy to find items from the simple laid out iPhone-like interface. Drilling down to a place that fits your desires, you’ll be able to find the address, phone number, email address, and web site of the place all with a tap of your finger. Tap on one of the items and the corresponding iPhone application opens it. From dialing the number to showing you where the place is on Google Maps, you’ll be quickly on your way to your new found Point of Interest, or POI as us geeks call it. If you’d rather stay in Safari, just turn the iPhone onto its side and Schmap presents a map of the POI right there befor you! It looks just like Google Maps on your desktop computer. Reason being is, well, it’s powered by Google Maps. Nice! You will also be able to do local city searches once the service is fully initialized.
What I really liked about Shmap is how light-weight it is. EDGE connections are not spiffy by any shot and thankfully the folks at Schmap not only gave us a familiar interface but one that loads quickly, too. Anytime you tap on a form element that needs a number only, a keypad comes up, not the regular keyboard. Yes, a basic thing for any iPhone developer, but man, I can’t even begin to tell you how many iPhone “ready” sites are missing this little thing. Schmap didn’t forget us keypad tapping folks.
Overall, the site offers some useful information for the average tourist but I did find some more mainstream names missing such as Starbucks and Peet’s from the Coffee/Tea category. Donald McMillan of Schmap explained this is because, “The current content does tend to focus on more unique/independent locations”. Don’t worry though, you coffee snobs, McMillan said the local search will kick back your well branded caffeine hits once it is up and running. I noted that also omitted from the Shopping category is malls. I was told by McMillan that malls can be found in “Stores & Arcades”. Both Sacramento and San Jose did return a good sized list for the “arcades”.
Schmap is in beta, so this means things can change, be added, removed, or just plain fixed if there are bugs found. Give it a spin on Monday (www.schmap.com) and be sure to let the Schmap team know what it can do to improve the city guide experience. Until then, take a look at the preview page on your big boy Safari (or other browser.)
Now I need to satisfy this peppermint craving….
Friends of the Proporta Facebook page (we believe you can never have enough) can enjoy access to a special promotions area, the latest product reviews and sneak announcements of products not yet launched. Those joining the Proporta Facebook page will also be able to communicate with each other and Proporta directly.
To celebrate the launch of the page, Proporta are offering all their friends a 10% discount off all Proporta branded hardware. Simply enter the promotion code FRIENDSFOREVER at the cart page.