Keyboard Karma ~ by Helen Crozier

USE F11 FOR BIGGER BROWSING

One of my strong recommendations to anyone doing a lot of computer work is to get as big a screen as you can afford or find room for on your desk. Studies have shown productivitiy increases with more space. Some clever people actually work with two screens at the same time which is kind of cool. Sometimes however we are stuck with perhaps a smallish notebook screen or an older monitor that's not as large as we would like.

As far as surfing is concerned I constantly have to remind myself about this F11 full screen key! This works for Internet Explorer as well as Firefox and what it does is more or less expand the website you are viewing into full screen mode. In my case taking away the menu, address bar, bookmarks and tabs gives me another welcome 3.5cm screen real estate. Lovely - click here to see what I mean. Moving the mouse up to the top of your screen brings back the hidden items temporarily or just press F11 again to go back to the normal view. Great for browsing sessions when you just want to look at stuff and not particularly do anything with it. Also great for picture/video viewing.

MAC users: Firefox does not appear to have full screen capabilities for you at this stage unless you want to start writing scripts and the like (yuk) so it seems best to use Safari plus the Glims Add-on which adds a whole cocktail of features in addition to Full Screen.

Macworld Keynote Summary

Have been watching a live feed (with comments) via a twitter page. Armed with strong coffee, peanut butter toast I was almost as excited as if I was there on the ground in San Fran. I didn't set the alarm but woke up because of the heat at 3.30am so decided to stay up and observe!

To summarise we have:-

iLife 09 - with some nice improvements to iPhoto - face recognition and geo-recognition plus syncing both ways to Facebook and Flickr.

Garage Band 09 - now incorporates music lessons for guitar and piano - with additional modules for different artists able to be purchased. (Poppy would LOVE this)

iWork 09 - various improvements

Keynote 09 - various improvements including an iPhone app to remote control presentations

iLife09 is shipping end of January. iWork is available now. To run new applications however you do need Leopard. A package for the all three is being offered for $169US

iWork.com - documents in the 'cloud' - to be shared, collaborated on - free while in beta but moving to paid (similar to google docs which of course is free)

17 inch Mac Book Pro - again the world's thinnest, lightest, 8 hours battery on a single charge - battery is not removable and after 1000 charges you have to pay to get it replaced.Laptop is $2799US and I for one would NOT say 'no thanks'.

iTunes - new price tiers for songs - $69c and $99c (US) with DRM being removed and higher quality files available for the more expensive price if I gather correctly. Benefit of this? Sharing the music you buy from iTunes will be a whole lot easier without restriction from April.

Finally Tony Bennett sang "The Best is Yet to Come" but it seems the punters were disappointed. Last year's keynote set the bar too high I suspect and made everyone hungry for more. The calls of the twitter feed I was watching were mostly for new hardware - iMac, Mac Mini, iPhone Nanom a 'netbook'.... but it seems that it was not to be.

Sadly also this was the final of this particular 'circus' with Apple pulling out of the Macworld show. 

Technology merry-go-round & iPhone day 6

Spending far too much time on the keyboard as it were - sorting stuff out. Of course being the impatient one, I couldn't wait for my laptop to come back from repairs before I started using the iPhone. This was a bit silly but I suppose understandable to a degree. I was synchronising the iPhone to the old toshiba then the repaired Lenovo returned Monday morning and wanted a piece of the action. Since then I've been spending far too much time getting things 'right'. I found I was entering appointments however on the iPhone and they wreen't coming through to my Outlook. Panic stations! Have spent a lot of time today on the phone to apple who were pretty helpful. They think there was a corrupted events section of Outlook causing the issue. I'm not so certain as there were loads of people on the Apple forums complaining about similar problems. Yuck!!

I also found out this strange fact. The iPhone has bluetooth but it only works with Apple headsets - nothing else!! Go figure!. So if I want to synchronise via bluetooth or god forbid send some data to another iPhone it won't happen. Weird.

I've found a suitable Outlook tasks replacement which I'm very happy with. I'll write about it later in the week. I think it will actually work better than Outlook which is great. There's the ability to link tasks to goals which I think is pretty cool. Back to work tomorrow, no more fiddling or tweaking!

All complaints aside I'm still loving my new phone.

Sorry Palm, but I'm besotted with the iPhone

Mission accomplished this morning! Poppy & I were in the city by 8.30am and there was a fairly long queue at the Apple store - the meet & greet man said there was a 1.5 to 2.0 hour wait but in actual fact it was closer to 40 minutes in the line followed by 20 minutes doing paperwork. I signed up with Optusnet for 24 months on the plan that gives me 850mb of data. That gave me a 15gb black iPhone as part of the contract. I added insurance and extended warranty. By the time Poppy & I got to the cafe in Dymocks my number had been ported over. The very generous Dymocks had an open wi-fi network which I didn't need because the data component is completely unlimited in the first month. Still, it was good to be on the  look out of where there are these networks to email & browse without eating into my Optusnet limit.

I bought a hot pink neoprene case which is a snug fit and does the job.  I had fun taking photos during the shopping trip and on the ferry home. There have been grizzles about the quality of the camera but I found it to work well in low light conditions and the images seemed sharp to me.

Here is a shot from the ferry. Nice day for all the World Youth Day kids to be in town! This afternoon  I  set up email, itunes etc and added varous nifty applications. On the whole I'm incredibly happy with the decision to change over. I'd been dreaming of the iphone before it was even invented so to finally have my own is really great. I find that compared to the Treo 680 the large screen is the bonus. It does take a bit of  getting used  to entering info with the digital keyboard. I seem to misjudge the spot and haven't quite worked out which fingers or thumbs are the most accurate  ones to use! I was pretty shocked as well to find out that while the iPhone synchronises to Microsoft Outlook Calendar & Contacts - it does NOT synchronise Tasks and Notes from Outlook. I have to get my head round this as I've been using the task side of things for years. There are plenty of applications around that I could use instead however and I will just have to investigate which of those will be the best.

Oh... while I was out the service centre called me about the Lenovo -  they were asking me if it was OK to reformat because they couldn't turn it on. I asked them to try to save the data on drive D as there were a few documents I would like to have - they then said "Not sure if that will be possible..we will try.. but if not is it ok to reformat?" What could I say? NO?

Back to the store again hoping to bag an iPhone

Yesterday Poppy & I popped into the Apple Store because she hadn't seen it yet. The city was abuzz due to the presence of World Youth Pilgrims and it's fair to say there were a lot of them in the store taking advantage of the free internet flowing from all the iMacs & laptops on the first floor. However I was a bit slow to work out what the queues were for.... silly me.... it was people lining up to buy the iPhone!!

I had been sitting on the precipice of decision making  with regard to that - partially because I was sort of married to Vodafone until December 6th however having touched and played with the iPhone in the store yesterday I was sold. Today I called Vodafone and it will be a relatively minor divorce settlement so Poppy & I are catching the early bus (well early for school holidays anyway) back into town to get one of those phones.

I'm a geek so I'm allowed to be excited! I saw Rove and his colleagues bagging the iphone on his Sunday night television show and I think he's being poor spirited :-).  The enthusiasm I have for this gadget is far greater than what I felt with the launch of the early Palms - yes it's sad but I was given a Palm 501 for Christmas in 2006 and I could have jumped for joy! Tomorrow I will be as reserved as I possibly can.

Aside from this move reducing the number of gadgets I often carry with me I'm really looking forward to exploring and learning about all the apps (software ok?) that are available. Now off to bed.... big day tomorrow! I hope I'm not disappointed and stock runs out just as my number comes up!

iPhone Australia: Telstra yes but what about Three?

Surprisingly the latest to joing the iPhone gang has been the first to provide pricing details.

Released on tonight's Sydney Morning Herald website.....

Telstra joins the iPhone club

Asher Moses

June 30, 2008 - 5:45

Telstra has announced it will be the third mobile carrier to offer the iPhone when the handset launches in Australia on July 11.

In doing so it has become the first carrier to unveil pricing details for the device. Telstra's two-year iPhone plans start at $30 a month with an upfront cost of $279 for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model.

Those who opt for an $80 a month plan will receive an 8GB iPhone at no cost, while those on the $100 a month plan could get either the 16GB or 8GB models at no cost....

read more here....

Three seems to have been left out in the cold - but I suspect not for too long. They have set up a 'blog' asking for expressions of interest in the iphone via their 3g service. Publicity stunt? Perhaps..... It's definitely interesting watching what will unfold over the next couple of weeks.

Most common agreement on the blog front is that you're mad to race into a contract or deal with any of them until the fever has died down - those 'needing' the iphone in those first few weeks will surely be paying a premium. Market forces should surely bring down the price making it more affordable for those with a little patience.

iTunes Australia - some TV shows arrive!

The Australian iTunes store has quietly released some television shows - @ $2.99 per show and from $21.99 per season. ABC/Channel 9/Disney etc - not a huge selection but perhaps a taste of what is to come. Still obviously cheaper to purchase a DVD but just occasionally you might need to catch up on a show or two while doing a long commute or sitting in a waiting room. Of course it's leading up to making the purchase of the Apple TV box finally worthwhile.... as we saw in the Steve Jobs presentation earlier in the year. All very exciting.....

Apple Store opening confirmed/iPhone

Well great buzz today..... the Sydney Apple Store opening has been confirmed as 5pm Thursday 19th. Gives Apple a few weeks to get settled in before the iPhone is available on July 11th (so far Optus & Vodafone only). No prices yet for Australia - I don't expect it to be as affordable as in the USA but let me be surprised please!!! I'm very keen on seeing the new store for sure but not so mad to get caught in any mayhem to do with receiving the first iPhones off the boat!

Optus are willing to take a deposit with the offer that it will make things easier on July 11th. LIfe Hacker have kindly written some words of advice for those thinking about giving such a deposit and/or facing the madness......  here's the link to their article Things to Remember when pre-ordering an iPhone.

Sydney Apple Store! When can we drop in?

Rumours abound about the new Apple store opening. Earliest date I've seen is 9th (yes one week away..) - another date is 20th June - then just to drive us crazy 'some time in August'. Whenever it takes place, the opening is sure to be grand - the store covers three glorious white levels. It seems a guarantee that the opening will co-incide with the Australian launch of the 3G iPhone and possibly if we are lucky a visit from Steve Jobs. Something to brighten up the winter perhaps.

iPod Touch doubles storage to 32gb

Seeing as I scored a new little blue nano last week for my birthday I doubt Valentine's Day will bring the new iPod touch!! Funnily enough I had been canvassing opinions of the 'touch' in the last few days and the general thought was 'really nice but not enough gigs....'. The classic has 80 or 160 - really you can store your digital world on something like that but the 16GB touch was just not quite enough. Hot off the press Apple have introduced not only new applications for the 'touch'  but also doubled the storage capacity up to 32GB. New apps - mail, maps, weather, notes & stocks. Not bad...... a cool $629 at the Australian Online Apple Store.  Don't forget if you buy through the Apple Store you get free shipping for orders over $50 and also free engraving.

AirMail Notebook Sleeve: how fast was that?

So less than two days after the witnessing the MacBook Air announcement two bright young things come up with THIS.

A notebook sleeve to replicate the Steve Jobs manila envelope.
Called AirMail and selling for $29.95US. Innovative huh?

MacBook Air: painfully thin!!

Steve Jobs pulled this little beauty out of a brown manila envelope at the MacWorld Expo this week causing more than a few "oohs and aahs" I would imagine. According to the guys in the local apple store this MacBook Air is possibly arriving before the end of the month.  As always a stunning piece of equipment  - 13.3 inch display, full size backlit keyboard, 1.9cm  thin, 1.3kg and 2gb memory etc. Price of base model here in Australia $2499 - gets more expensive of course if you want the extra doodahs. If money was no object and all that :-). Positive thing is that the price of the standard Mac Books will no doubt drop significantly as soon as these skinny numbers hit our shores.

Mama Mia, I understand your technology rage!

Poor Mia Freedman. I felt sick when I was reading this in the Sunday paper (yes paper, not online - Sunday was my 24 hour tech-fast which thankfully I survived!). It has prompted me to really get going with my Backup Before You Crackup online learning sessions asap!!

Mia was trying to update her operating system, seduced no doubt by the mesmerising spots of Leopard (and who wouldn't be!!). She may well have been over the recommended blood alcohol limit for doing so but what the heck.... it was after all Friday night. Unfortunately she had not done a backup before attempting the upgrade and next morning was unable to access her system or data at all. She was then held ransom at the Apple support centre - "several hours of labour at $160/hr and we can't guarantee it will work". Four days later and $600 poorer poor Mia now sleeps with her laptop under her pillow!

The subject of backup can be daunting - mostly because it's hard to choose the best way of doing it. A couple of years ago I thought I had the perfect backup system in place. I was saving all of my data to an external hard drive. Unfortunately my laptop chose to crash big time. It was away at the doctor's for 10 days and everything was lost. I wasn't too panicked knowing I had a 'system' in place for such dramas. Laptop came back. I went to retrieve my data from the safety vault and guess what? The safety vault decided to chuck a wobbly and crash itself. I managed to get back all my digital photos but nothing else before it died a slow and painful death. I was so desperate to try to get my emails and documents off it I even tried the 'put it in the freezer' trick. I felt so stupid wrapping it up in a ziplock bag and placing it next to my filo pastry but what did I have to lose apart from 5 years of emails and documents?

Needless to say it didn't work. That stupid hard drive sits on the top shelf of my office - I keep hoping/thinking someone will be able to do something with it eventually - by which time the data will be of no relevance anyway!

So from that experience I've looked at alternatives. Portable hard drives seemed atractive at one stage but they are now so small that they are probably quite easy to lose. For the last year or so I've been experimenting with  a combination of portable hard drive AND online backup systems. Mozy offers online backup for Windows & Mac. The process is automatic and happens in the background, updating your backed up files as you change them. If you are that rare animal with less than 1gb of data the backup is free. For unlimited data backup the cost is $4.95US a month. Small price to pay for insurance of your digital life.

I empathise with Mia and her story of technology rage. I'm supposed to be the Calm Tech Coach but even I wish I had a punching bag downstairs that I could kick when technology starts mucking ME around!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Mozy - I have tried it and it worked for me. A plethora of online backup systems exist some of which I have tried and will comment on in the near future.

MAC OSX Leopard: Opening Files is so 2006

Apple have done it again. Leopard is their new operating system with such a long list of features (300+) even the journalists don't have enough enough space to describe! Here is Quick Look. It gives you a sneak peek of entire files - even multiple page documents without even opening them. I'm going down to the Apple Store Monday to have a play!