Category Archives: Software

Software, Technology

Goodbye Windows Mobile…

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So I’ve been a faithful user of Windows Mobile since 2002 or so and the SPV 100 first launched, an underpowered but otherwise apparently well specced and capable phone. For me its ease of use, the instant familiarity of the OS and the fact it synched with my desktop were all strong motivating factors, and I was especially fond of the pre-emptive dialling feature, where you typed a contact’s name in numbers and it found it for you and let you dial them from the homescreen… Making it useful as a phone as well as a primitive Internet device – astonishing at the time.

Today, despite having used a succession of ever better designed devices, I bid it farewell. Despite the fact that the HTC Touch Dual, my last phone, was the first phone i haven’t immediately retired on becoming eligible for upgrade, it was no longer up to the job. It wasn’t really geared up for touch, had lagged behind with its Internet capabilities and the newest incarnations have shown little improvement (WM 6.5… Really?) so I’ve had to jump ship. The fact with hundreds of different Windows Mobile devices and millions of handsets, both the iPhone and Android are ahead in mobile Internet access kind of underlines the point, as does the fact that most of this post was drafted on the bus on the way to work using the new handset, the iPhone 3GS, with a WordPress app. Outstanding.

I’m not an Apple fanboy (seriously, I resisted this purchase like you wouldn’t believe), but for now, this fits my purpose. If Microsoft start innovating again (and not just relying on their hardware vendors to fix the problems in the underlying platform with innovative ‘skins’) then I will look at them again (Zunephone, please). But I suspect that both Android and Apple have stolen a lead that MS will never recover from…

Software, Technology

The shine of Chrome

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Disclaimer: Google Enterprise is a client. This isn’t really my clients’ beat but its not unconnected given how much faster Chrome is with Ajax/Javascript than most things, and therefore Google Apps. Well, until Firefox 3.1. Maybe.

I love Firefox. I love Chrome. I’m switching between the two interchangeably at the moment. Here’s the good and bad of Chrome and why I haven’t given up on FF altogether.

Good
Fast!
Less resource hungry – no more memory leaks!
Clean interface
More stable than FF & IE!
Windows only (I maintain my view that Apple Macs suck, and am not bothered that Google hasn’t yet released non-Windows versions. I’ve read that they will, so that’s good in principle)

Neutral
Still can’t save passwords for Yahoo (FF can’t either). Why not?
Can’t distinguish between different Google Apps profiles (again, FF can’t either). Why not?

Not so good
Shortcuts go weird (e.g. CTRL – minus in Google Docs to delete a row doesn’t work)
Needs an IE rendering plugin, and lots of other plugins, which will come in time…
Some websites go bananas
Needs nicer animation around the shortcuts toolbar

Internet, Software

Twitter’s usefulness diminished by good intentions

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I’m sure these guys meant well. They’re trying to explain the micro-blogging Twitter service to people — whether because they were paid to, or because they just want to promote it… but: it wholly misrepresents the usefulness of Twitter.

I do like the style of the video, though

Sure, there’s times when its helpful to know the minute details of the lives of the people you follow – but mostly, it’s a fantastic collaboration tool. Does anyone know… Can anyone recommend… Has anyone done… Can anyone make it to… Once you have a network of people in place you get wholly enlightening and entirely useful responses.

Oh – I’m here.

Internet, Software

Twitter trolls

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I got a bit overexcited earlier today and posted disagreement with Kate Bevan’s piece in yesterday’s Guardian on Twitter troll & spam, which I’ve since taken down.

It turns out I agree with her, if I think she used a (IMHO) misleading headline (“Why are there no spam or trolls on Twitter”) — whilst there are plenty of ‘friend whores’ on Twitter, as I commented yesterday, the extent to which they irritate consists of occasional emails as Twitter notifies you that you’ve been added by someone completely random, not the relentless onslaught of botnets sent to drown you in waves of computer generated link-hogging spam. But anyone who uses Twitter with any regularity will have experienced the troll-like idiocy of the friend whores and therefore be confused by the headline. But maybe that’s the point…

Thanks to DoctorVee for pointing me to the story. I hope no-one works out a way to turn it into a spamfest, as I’m rather fond of Twitterland.

Internet, Software

Damnit, Plaxo

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I’ve been using Plaxo on and off for a few years now. It started off as a contact management system, which was useful, and a social network of sorts. Then it added calendar synchronisation, also good. Its latest incarnation, Plaxo 3.0, aggregates feeds from ALL your contacts social networks and plays it back to you…. which, of course, makes it completely useless as you get far more information than you need. With Scoble, Calacanis in my “network”, and people like Simon and Chris, I get far more updates than I could reasonably shake a stick at. Seriously, I start shaking the stick and it just shatters under the weight of Twitters, Flickr updates etc. etc.

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about, pointless though Plaxo Pulse is. This post is about the “known issues” with Plaxo that have forced me to abandon my $50 investment in the service. The known issues are…

1) The de-duper also deletes random contacts for no reason other than, well, it feels like it
2) Calendar synchronisation over multiple PCs in the same timezone results in recurring appointments sliding further and further back in time
3) And not an issue, but could I sync my contacts with Google Mail, please?

Repeated searches through the forums flagged both of these as recurring issues for some users, and therefore you’d have thought they’d be addressed… sadly, not. I should probably log them as faults and see if I can reclaim my investment, but I suspect they’ll put it down to the vagaries of my system configuration… which will do me precisely zero good, yet waste me considerable time.

sigh. Well, my Google Analytics referral list has taught me that blog posts will sit up here and gather traffic like dust on a pile of messy PC cables, so I’ve at least put this out there for others who experience similar issues. If any of you find a solution, please let me know!

Internet, Social media, Software

Social Memedia revisited

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Drew B asks if the ‘top 5’ social media tools I listed last year have changed.

In 2006, they were:
WordPress – my blog platform
Wikipedia – everyone’s encyclopedia
RSS – which makes the news go around
Delicious – which keeps my links in check
Skype – connecting people

In 2007, they are:
Facebook – yes, you know I love it.
Google Reader / RSS – not much change there
WordPress – or there
Twitter – Microblogging fun
Delicious – linklove still in there

I’d also add
Pokerstars
Skype – Not today. That’s a big outage.
Google Mail – Ajaxy email goodness

I am fad-tastic. In truth, not a huge shift, but social networks have really come on in the last year, and I’m a big fan of Facebook’s ‘open’ approach. How about you?

Software

Microsoft Outlook + Google Desktop = bad

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My work email has been mullered by a bizarre conflict between Google Desktop and Microsoft Outlook. If you’ve been unable to right click on emails, or forward emails as attachments, you might have the wrong version of Google Desktop installed. Upgrade!! They’ve fixed it.

More on the problem here, if you’re interested. Without search, email is that much less useful: one of the reasons why I love Gmail, and the new search features built into Vista and Outlook 2007.

Internet, Personal, Software

Web 2.0 software wishlist – party and holiday planning

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Ok, Lifehacker. I throw down a challenge.

I would like a web tool that helps me organise a night out where I need to check everyone’s availability, take suggestions for what to do and (democratically) or otherwise choose the best course of action for a group. I know about evite and mypunchbowl, but when you don’t know what the date is going to be, how do you avoid those reply-to-all-fests?

I would also like a piece of software to help me organise holidays. Gauge requirements, collect details where required, check dates, budget, etc.

If these don’t exist, would someone start something that does them quick and let me know? Rather than trying for another social networking site or social bookmarking site… etc? I’ll probably even pay to use one if there’s a decent, not-too-expensive one out there.