Oracle, the new king?

Oracle stock price is going up since May when Oracle announced that it bought Sun Microsystems, one of the biggest distributors and makers of Linux and the creator of Open Office the biggest competitor against Microsoft Office.

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TuneWiki for BlackBerry

I’ve had enough of iPhone this and iPhone that.  Let’s talk cool apps for your BlackBerry, shall we?  Gear Diary reported that TuneWiki is available for the BlackBerry.  What is TuneWiki?  It’s a website that plays music of your choice and displays lyrics.  It’s a community forum.  It displays maps that show what other users are listening to.  It may still be a beta, but it’s pretty darn cool!  Now they have an app available in the BlackBerry App Store (yes, we have one too).  It’s a free download, but you can upgrade to the Pro version for $4.99.  Supposedly the free version is ad-supported, but I didn’t see any.  So let’s give it a quick walk through…

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App of the Day: Copy and Paste Made Way, Way Better!

A couple days ago I presented a software program called, CopyPaste Tool, a utility that allows you to copy multiple clips of information before pasting.  I liked it, but it had some issues.  As you know, the Windows Clipboard only allows you to copy one item at a time.  If you find yourself copying then pasting over and over, then a program like CopyPaste Tool or the new one I will present, will allow you to copy many items before pasting.

Clipomatic is a free, and excellent copy and paste utility.  It blows away CopyPaste Tool.  How?  check it out.

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App of the Day: Copy and Paste Made Better

Don’t you often find yourself going back and forth, copying things from two or more sources to paste them into one?  My work database is separate from my contacts database, so I have to copy the name, then paste it into my contacts database, then copy the address, then the zip, and phone numbers.  It’s time consuming and tedious.  But I found a cool, free software that will change all that!

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1st Impressions of the HTC Touch Diamond 2

Back at CTIA last month, I was able to take the Touch Diamond 2, the Snap, and even the Touch Pro 2 for a spin. I really love all 3 and the Diamond 2 is probably the least likely of the 3 to be my daily driver. That is mainly because of not having a keyboard. Well, I have one in hand now and since I don’t have the other 2 yet, it’s feeling quite nice. I love a new phone in the morning. I will have my video online this evening. I shot the 1st 2 parts, but need to get the software walkthrough in tonight. I ran out of time last night. So, look for it late this evening. While we wait, enjoy my photos from CTIA and my 1st impressions…

The unit I got is an unlocked, European version. No 3G for me, but I am used to EDGE in my parts anyway. I popped my sim card in and went to work. The 1st thing I did was navigate to the communications settings. HTC has a VERY SLICK setup for major carriers. Instead of having to poke around and type in all the server addresses and such, you get a drop down menu asking for your country. After selecting the United States, it gave me a choice of around 20 carriers in the US that includes AT&T and T-Mobile. I clicked AT&T and I was online, and it worked.

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Top 10 disappointing technologies

 PC Authority has posted an interesting article about disappointing technologies and there are two Microsoft’s Products that are included in the list of top ten. Could you guess which ones? I’m sure you do: Vista and Zune.

Vista’s biggest problem, however, was its big appetite for hardware. Users who had grown accustomed to the low demands of XP were often shocked to realize how much hardware they would need to upgrade just to run Vista. Many of the high-end features out of the realm of even some brand new systems.
The matter was further complicated when a lawsuit unearthed evidence that the company purposely lowered some of the suggested requirements at the behest of hardware vendors.

Here is what they said about Zune:

The problem with the Zune is that it lacks any sort of killer app. The Xbox had some big exclusive titles and a superior online community. There was nothing of this magnitude to establish the Zune over its competitors. It arguably functions as well or better than the iPod in many ways, but not in any way that was good enough to really make people dump their iPods The music service for the Zune was also lacking, and it didn’t help that the thing was ugly as sin.

I would add that they did a big mistake switching from WMP to Zune Software to manage the music library. Of course I understand that they needed in some way to integrate the Zune Market Place but in my opinion that switch in the middle of the road disappointed many users including me. It was like we bought an unfinished product.

Top 10 disappointing technologies - News - PC Authority

           

Supercharge Your Outlook with Agendus for Outlook v5.41

I’ve had a Windows Mobile device since 2000.  But recently my work gave me a Blackberry 8350i to replace my aging Nextel phone.  I had the opportunity to reduce my load from two devices to one.  I had to make a lot of changes in order to accomplish my goals of continuing to carry my important business information and integrating the Blackberry into my business routine.  One big switch I made was moving from Act! Contact Manager to Outlook.  I suppose I could’ve kept Act! if I used the excellent CompanionLink software to sync my device, but I want a more direct solution.

Outlook excels at email, but is not a great contact manager.  Act! is a great contact manager but does not excel at email.  Hmmmm.  If I downloaded the Business Contact Manager for Outlook add-on, I’d have to use CompanionLink, so I felt stuck.  That is, until I demo’d Agendus for Outlook.

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Attention Phone Makers: Make me this phone please?

I need a special phone. This phone will need to have 2 sim slots. Yes, I know, there is something like that out there. Mine will be a little different. Like I said, it needs to have 2 sim slots. One for my personal sim with data plan and all and the other one for a “work” sim so I can get company mail, pages, and calls. Why? I DON’T WANT TO CARRY TWO PHONES ANYMORE! There are things I want to be able to do with my personal number that I don’t want to do on the work number and vice versa.

This phone would need to be a Window Mobile Phone. It would need to have custom software to allow for each sim to be able to ring in and have a different ring tone depending on which line is ringing. It needs to have a special version of Outlook that allows the exchange mail accounts to be different and definitely not merged together.

Now, let me get picky. I want this on a slide out QWERTY style device. Just throw this all into the HTC Touch Pro chassis and I will be happy. I can settle for my 2nd favorite form factor too, something like the Propel Pro or the BlackJack. I do very much prefer the touch screens, so ya.

Come on Samsung or HTC. Can ya hook a geek up? I don’t wanna carry two phones anymore.

           

Hell Ya CTIA… Let’s Standardize Charging

OMG. One of my biggest gripes is when a company uses a proprietary charging connector. *cough cough… Samsung… Cough Cough* Well, I love Samsung products a lot, they are very close 2nd to HTC personally, but they choose to use a proprietary connector that sucks. Luckily they stick with the same connector so going from Samsung phone to Samsung phone isn’t a challange, but seriously, we need a standard. With the announcement from the CTIA yesterday, we might be closer!

“Earth Day serves as a great reminder that the wireless industry and all of us have a role to play when it comes to taking care of our planet. We recognize the need and the responsibility we have to help create a low-carbon economy, and the initiative to adopt a ‘Universal Charging Solution’ is an important step in the right direction,” said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association. “A universal charger will not only be more energy efficient, it will also make life easier for consumers by allowing them to use the same charger for future handsets.”

What do you think, you want to see a universal standard for charging and syncing? I talked about this already back in February when a similar announcement was made by the GSMA and I also made a big rant back in 2006.

Source: IntoMobile

           

The Pirate Bay founders going to jail

I have not covered this event at all because I’m of those thinking that when you talk about these kind of sites basically you are helping them indirectly to be known and in their activities. But this is a news that have left me speechless because European lawmakers always have been really soft ruling against copyright violations and piracy. But not this time.

In what’s being described as a landmark verdict, four men responsible for assisting throngs of dubious internet users to download all sorts of copyrighted material are being ushered off to prison cells for twelve whole months. The Stockholm district court in Sweden found the defendants guilty not of hosting materially illegally, but of "providing a website with sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and a tracker linked to the website [that helped users commit copyright violations]."

will this ruling be the end of The Pirate Bay?

Via: Engadget

           

Convergence is Child’s Play

I have tended to pride myself on my level of technical savvy for some time now. At work or at play, I have more CPU power in my gear bag then would have been available in an entire office building from my father’s generation. Notebook, netbook, smartphone, MP3 player, PMP, portable game system, portable hard drive…I am a walking computer lab. I select my devices carefully and love each of them with a probably unhealthy fervor, but I have been eagerly awaiting true convergence and the ability to combine these devices effectively into a single package that could serve all my needs, all the time. Convergence, the holy grail of gadget fans everywhere.

Sure there have been a number of strong stabs at a truly converged device, but I have not been satisfied with any of them yet. I have been assuming that a true “all in one” device and usage profile is still a few years around.

It seems I was wrong. Such a technophile’s dream is NOT a few years away, rather it can be found today, right now, in your neighborhood grade school. How do I know? I was recently educated by my son’s fourth grade classmates.

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Hey Dell, Can We Talk?

Alright Dell. Now that I have your attention. Let me tell you, in case you were unaware, that Mobilitysite was a spin off of Aximsite. Aximsite was a loyal site to your Dell Axim. Aximsite was full of loyal Dell users that picked up the Dell Axim. Most bought the Axim initially for a couple reasons, one was the price point and the other was because DELL MADE IT. Dell, you guys have a loyal following and I think your “Jump on the boat too late” stance has really lost a core group of these supporters. I don’t think I can put it any better than Msliberty put it in a recent comment here…

True, breley, they missed the boat on this one. Coulda been a contender, right from the start…Also, with their mini. They should have been first, not 9th. They could have made the ultimate UMPC.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda…. Too bad, Dell makes a good product, but doesn’t know beans about marketing or how to make a hoopla.

So, we have some recent rumors that Dell was shopping prototypes to carriers and were shot down, calling the prototypes “boring”. I don’t know if I believe the rumor, but it’s out there. The very next day, there are multiple reports of Michael Dell running around in Taipei and Tokyo with different stories. Engadget made a post yesterday that was a clear as mud on this matter…

DigiTimes has Michael Dell paraphrased as saying in Taipei that Dell will not delay its smartphone lineup and is on schedule to release devices in line with its internal roadmap. The IDG news service, however, has him in Tokyo just hinting at smartphones. “It is true that we are exploring smaller screen devices,” said Dell, adding, “We don’t have any announcements to share today but stay tuned as when we have new news we will share that with you.”

So, for years we have heard that Dell “Might” get into the phone market. There are so many rumors and speculation that I have posted here that never materialized that I could link each work in this sentance with one and still have some left over for the next sentance. It’s really lost it’s luster with me. I would have been all for giving any device that DELL MAKES a whirl a year ago, today… eh… Not so much. Do us a favor Dell, get with it. Please?

           

Windows Mobile Marketplace Concerns

Long Zheng over at iStartedsomething has a wonderful commentary up regarding issues with the Windows Mobile Marketplace that Frank (Ctitanic) was complaining about a couple weeks ago.

Following the confirmation that developers submitting free applications are not given exceptions to the cost of submission, I’ve also received word from Microsoft “application updates will count as new application submissions, and therefore will count towards the first 5 free submissions, or will cost $99 each after the that”. That is, every new binary is treated as a new application.

Update: I’ve also learnt that Microsoft will charge developers for resubmitting applications if their prior submissions was rejected.

Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to see this succeed, but I am not very optimistic based on what we have seen thus far. Microsoft needs to be kissing the small to medium developers asses in hopes that they will continue to develop for a platform that many are losing faith in, not charging a $99 BS fee. I can see the fee if it were a 1 time fee to help keep some garbage out, but this “5 free submissions” is bad news.

What do you think? Should Microsoft be charging the 99 bones in the 1st place or should they be doing all they can to save all the faithful WM Developers from jumping ship alltogether? I do realize $99 is not that much to spend, but it’s the principle to be honest.

Source: iStartedsomething

           

iPhone’s Fring vs.WinMo’s Fring. Fight!

Well well well, if it ain’t that rumble again: iPhone vs. WinMo.

So far, every time I make a comparison between phones or OS I get spanked by one of the sides; furious Android fans, fanatic Apple freaks, etc.

I decided to stop doing that, but after a while (10 seconds), I got bored again, so the hell with it! I’m continuing my clashes between different devices and different OS - you are all invited to spank!

Today I would like to compare between Fring for the iPhone and Fring on Windows Mobile. Both, are great free applications which I use.

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First parameter will be the user interface!

I believe you will have to agree that the iPhone version looks much better than the WinMo one. The UI is designed better, it has those finger friendly iPhone’s scrollable lists and some nice tabs images in the bottom, switching between subjects.

The WinMo version, on the other doesn’t look that bad, but those ‘not-so-good-looking-saying-the-least’ tabs in the bottom makes it a bit pale comparing to the fancy iPhone UI…

iPhone 1:0 WinMo [Read more]

           

Mobile tech 2010: Five trends that will change our lives

The next two years will bring a slew of advances for mobile workers. Here are five that will make life on the road more productive.

Here’s the list
1) High-Class Netbooks.
2) Solid State Storage
3) Better Batteries
4) Online Everywhere
5) Smarter SmartPhones (As if they weren’t smart enough as it is!)

Read the rest of the article here or click on the ComputerWorld logo below.