Archive for April, 2006

Apr 28 2006

Yahoo Go’s identity crisis: Windows-only but wants to look Mac

Published by Eric under Macintosh, Nokia & Symbian, Web 2.0, Windows

I read this Digg today about Yahoo Go competing with TiVo. I don’t really care about the TiVo part but browsed around to see what Yahoo Go is all about. From their web site:

Introducing Yahoo! Go – a new suite of products and services for your PC, mobile phone and even your TV.

According to this the service is only compatible with Windows but something wasn’t right. Didn’t I see a 12′ PowerBook on their home page? Here’s a another shot. Someone tell me this is a Fujitsu laptop which just looks suspiciously like a Mac.

I realize the graphic artist doesn’t need to know (or care) the technical specs of the Yahoo Go service, however using a stock photo of a PowerBook for a generic laptop is a bad choice for a product which is clearly not Mac compatible. Maybe I’m being too anal?

No, because they got it right with the Nokia 6880 image which does support Yahoo Go. If Yahoo had used a MacBook Pro image we could stretch our imaginations because of BootCamp’s ability to run Windows.

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Apr 23 2006

How to configure NewsGator Mobile for HTML

Published by Eric under Blackberry, Web 2.0

I’ve been a long-time user of NetNewsWire, an excellent RSS reader for the Mac. Since their acquisition by NewsGator I was looking forward to synchronization with NewsGator’s online service. As I was playing around with the latest beta’s sync ability I stumbled on a reference to “NewsGator Mobile.”

Always a sucker for making my mobile phone (Blackberry 7100t) do things it wasn’t desgined to do well, I tried it out. Well, tried to try it out but I couldn’t find how to get it working.

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Apr 15 2006

In our litigious society not even a 9-year old is safe

Published by Eric under Musings

According to this story, a 9-year old wrote a letter to Apple Computer suggesting improvements to the iPod Nano. Honestly, listening to the video the ideas were nothing which hasn’t already been thought of, however it was the response from Apple’s legal department which ticked everyone off.

Simply stated they don’t accept unsolicited ideas and asked her to discontinue sending them. The language was probably a little cold for a kid, but that’s the harsh reality. It works the same way if you’re trying to send a script to a production company (although some do accept them). So what do we learn from this?

First, the young girl’s teacher who suggested sending the letter should have known better — we don’t live in Pleasantville. Second, suppose Apple did accept and acknowledge the idea for consideration in future products? One day this girl’s parents see the new feature and call Apple asking for a royalty and then what?

I don’t blame Apple for their response but let’s suffice to say that lawyers can be the meanest lot around.

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Apr 14 2006

A big day for the little guy

Published by Eric under Junior

Today was a day of firsts. My dive instructor has been asking when Junior will be “getting wet” and this morning was his first swim class. I had two concerns going into this:

  • What does he wear as a diaper?
  • What if he doesn’t hold his breath?

The answers after the jump.

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Apr 12 2006

Digital SLR photography, here I come

Published by Eric under Art & Photography

Last night I placed an order (from Dell) for a Nikon D50 with 18-55mm lens. My trusty (and old) Olympus C3000 Zoom broke a couple of years ago and after the first repair I didn’t feel like dropping the cash for another repair. That Olympus took nice photos for a point-and-shoot but I disliked the shutter lag. The matching underwater housing started losing its appeal when all I got was missing fish with a backdrop of coral.

The idea of spending $400-$600 on another consumer point-and-shoot digital seemed like a waste of money when a digital SLR could be had for $600 to $1000. So after many reviews against the Canon Rebel XT and comparing against Timbo’s Nikon D70 and his friend’s Canon EOS 20D I went with the D50. It’s a solid camera in the hand with imaging quality almost identical to its older brother, the D70. I’m looking forward to fast shutter speed and real macro photography…until I see the cost of the lens.

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