Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

I’ve had a half dozen blog posts waiting in the wings lately, but at this point I think it’s better to just combine them into one ‘what’s going on’ post, rather than 5 or 6 separate posts. Enjoy.

Mass Transit

Over the past month or so, I’ve really started to try to ride MARTA to work every day. So far, it’s been fairly successful, and it has saved me a lot of money in the process. Now, there are problems with this decision. The main issue is that fact that I live in North Fulton - not exactly MARTA country. To get to work using mass transit, I have to drive 7 miles from home to the park/ride station on Windward Parkway, take the bus to the North Springs station, then ride the train to the Buckhead station. From there, i walk the mile or so to work. As you can see, it’s not exactly a commuter’s paradise. However, if current gas prices were to hold, I would be saving around $70 a month on transportation costs. That doesn’t even include the decreased wear and tear on my car, so it’s not a bad deal at all really.

The funny thing is, due to the awful traffic that exists on 400, it takes nearly the same amount of time to drive from Alpharetta to Buckhead as it does to drive to a station, get on a bus, drive to a train station, take the train to Buckhead, then walk a mile to work. Sad, but true.

While MARTA is far from perfect, I do like avoiding the stress of sitting in traffic in the AM. I replace that with reading news on my iPhone, listening to music, and reading books. It’s also nice to take a little stroll in the morning on the way to work. I always feel a lot more relaxed and ready to go when I get in now. Hopefully the daily afternoon thunderstorms don’t ruin this for me. I figure that if I can make it through August okay, I’ll be on easy street after that.

finding a house / apartment

Speaking of Alpharetta’s insane distance from downtown, Michelle and I have started talking about finding a place to live in the spring. That’s obviously very exciting news for a number of reasons, and I hope that we do end up a lot closer to downtown than where we’re at now. She works up in Alpharetta, so I’m sure we wont’ be too far south, but anything is an improvement. I’m hoping for somewhere in the Sandy Springs area, near the MARTA line, to keep up my good habit. It’s still a ways away, so we’ll see what kind of places we find. I am excited about getting out, closer to Atlanta, and living with my ladyfriend.

football season

With the start of August comes the excitement over football season. For the third year in a row, Erik, Bonnie, and yours truly will be attending GT football games this fall. However, to add to the wonderful addition of Michelle from last year, we have now brought in the duo of Rick and Becky, further bolstering our tailgating crew. We have basically the same seats at last year - which I thought were pretty solid for the price. I think after a year of learning from our lack of tailgating gear and experience, we’re now ready to rock.

Last.fm

I’ve gotten hooked lately using Last.fm, and I recommend you jump on board as well. It’s a really neat way to keep track of what your (and your friends’) music listening trends are, and to get personalized recommendations based on those trends. I’ve found a number of smaller artists that I’d never even heard of, and it’s really nice to use the software to listen to your ‘radio station’ - a personalized internet stream of music you’ve listened to - at work. You can even listen to a ’station’ of your recommended artists using the software, so it’s a neat way to check out new artists before buying. Join, and add me!

MobileMe

With the release of the new iPhone software a few weeks ago, Apple released their MobileMe ‘cloud’ (I hate that word) service. Now, calendars, contacts, bookmarks and emails modified on your phone are (nearly) instantly reflected on the me.com website, your desktop computer(s), and other iPhones if you have them. Even though the service has had some uptime hiccups so far, I haven’t really experienced much of it other than the first day (where NOBODY could get online). The main reason that I bring this up is that I’ve changed my default email address again. You can reach me at daniel@danielandrews.com or cdanielandrews@gmail.com, but they’ll just forward to daniel.andrews@mac.com.

July notes and news, over!

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Posted on August 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

Allow me to be the last blog owner in the galaxy to write a post about the iPhone apps that I’m using, and a few that I’d love to see come to fruition in the near future. I’ve been really impressed with the first batch of software released last week, but a few have really stood out:

Twinkle - Twinkle is a really cool Twitter app that also shows you folks around you that are posting to the service. Stalker-ish, but not too terribly much as it only gives the city and how many miles (roughly) they are from you. The UI is kind of lame, but overall a nice product.

Facebook - the 1.0 release was kind of weak, but by 1.1 they have really put out a solid version that quickly allows you to update your status, look at other’s profiles, and upload photos and whatnot. Pretty cool stuff if you’re a Facebook user.

OmniFocus - I have a tendency to forget things if I don’t write them down and keep them super organized. OmniFocus for the Mac lets me quickly enter my thoughts, assign them to contexts, and remind myself to get things done when they need to be done. Having a mobile interface for the same program is excellent, as it insures I can always enter those random thoughts into my OF database.

BofA - The Bank of America app isn’t all that pretty, but it does what it’s supposed to do, and rather quickly. A UI refresh (it currently looks just like the mobile version of the website) will surely improve that.

Remote - A cool app that allows you to control any iTunes installation on your LAN, or an AppleTV if you have one. Great for when I’m playing video games and want to change the tunes on my Mac.

Last.fm - Streams music over WiFi, EDGE, or 3G to your iPhone from the excellent Last.fm service. Unfortunately, as of now it doesn’t submit songs played thru your iPod to the online service (yet). Fingers crossed on that.

Yelp - Yelp is an excellent service for finding ratings and info on local restaurants. This application finds your location and shows you the top rated places around you. Very cool, especially when you’re lacking inspiration on where to eat and need a nudge in the right direction.

Exposure - Nice app by Frasier Spears (of FlickrUploadr fame) that allows you to browse your Flickr library and view and comment on other’s. Very nice app.

NYTimes - A very straightforward app that allows you to browse the NYtimes site and customize what type of news you see when you launch the app. It has a customizable bottom row of icons, much like the customizable iPod app’s buttons. If you don’t care about political news and want to see an editorial menu items instead, so be it.

Shazam - If you’ve ever been out and wondered what the song on the radio or in the store was, Shazam can help. Simply open the app and press the ‘tag this song’ button, and after about 20 seconds, Shazam will record the audio, send it to their server, analyze the waveforms, and send back a result. I’m yet to stump this app with any songs in my iTunes library. It’s truly amazing how far technology has come.

Other apps I’m using

Here are some other great applications I’m using on my iPhone right now. Some of these I either don’t use much, or are rough around the edges and need some work.

• AIM
• Twitterific
• NetNewsWire
• Instapaper
• Jott
• CheckPlease
• Mobile News
• Scribble
• SportsTap
• Loopt

Apps I’d love to see

Amazon.com barcode scanner - Let’s say that I’m at my local Target, Barnes and Noble, or some other retail establishment. I’m browsing around, and see a book that I’d really like to get, but not today (for whatever reason), or that I just cannot carry at the moment. It would be amazing to have an app that let you use your iPhone’s camera to scan the barcode, and either a) buy it now or b) add it to your wishlist. Someone would make a killing off of the referral cash alone.

Fantasy football app - Once fall gets here, I will be playing Yahoo! Fantasy Football. I would love an app (even if it’s only for the paid members) that allows you to quickly see lineups, player news, and league standings.

And Finally…

I’m really excited to see where the software development community takes us as the platform matures, and competition begins to spring up. I think that the iPhone OS will be the dominant Apple OS within a few years, and this is going to be a huge cash cow for them. Moreover, I can’t fathom what type of amazing technology is going to be in our hands within the next 5 or so years. The iPhone 3G and the iPhone OS 2.0 is just the beginning.

Posted on July 20th, 2008 | 6 Comments »

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

One of my biggest complaints with the first-gen iPhone was it’s weak ringer volume. I’d miss a ton of calls when walking around (maybe 1 in 10 - although I only get about 10 calls a year anyway, so…), and it really started to annoy me. That’s when I decided to take a look and see if it was the ringer, or the actual ringtones that were at fault. As it turns out, most of the sounds that come with the iPhone are just pathetically quiet. With a little time in Garageband (or QuickTime Pro), you can have some ringtones on your Jesusphone that are substantially louder than the default ones. Honestly, the first time I gave this a test run, it scared the hell out of me it was so loud.

The first thing that you do is find a track that is to your liking. If you have Garageband installed, there is a good cell phone ringtone in /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/iLife Sound Effects/Work-Home/ and it’s called ‘Cell Phone Ringning.caf‘.

I made a copy of this file on my desktop and opened Garageband. From there, I just dragged the file onto the stage, clipped out the deadspace, and bumped the master track volume to the absolute loudest it would go. I exported it out to the desktop as an AAC file, and then opened up MakeiPhoneRingtone.app, which can be found here for free. Drag the exported song onto this app, and you’ll have the new ringtone in iTunes.

From there, you just sync up the new ringtone to your phone and change it in your iPhone’s system prefs. If you’re lazy, I’ve attached the m4a of the ringtone that I created. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags:
apple, applications, iPhone, macintosh, software, gadgets

Posted on July 1st, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

I had mentioned this a few weeks ago, and I finally took the plunge and bought a Flip Video Ultra. While I have a larger camera, I wanted something smaller that made more sense for me - having the larger camera was nice, but I never used it. I’d rather take quicker little videos when convienient and deal with the negatives of a smaller camera, rather than lugging around a beast of a camera but never really getting a chance to use it. When I saw the Flip was on sale on Amazon for $119, I took the plunge.

The Hardware

I was instantly pleased with the packaging. It felt like something that you’d see an Apple product shipped in, and the unboxing experience was just as pleasant. The first thing you see is the camera sitting there, and below the tray holding it is the other accessories and materials. Very Apple-like. Finally companies are realizing that first impressions go a long way.

Once I got the camera out, I quickly put the two AA batteries that were included into the camera, and I was on my way. If you don’t know much about the Flip Video Ultra, it’s premise is that it is a very simple point and shoot camera, and you can be up and shooting within a few minutes. I took a few quick shots of my dog and tested out the low light / bright light shooting conditions.

That is not to say that the product is perfect, however. Quickly I noticed that there is no battery indicator, so you’re left to guess how much time is left. From what I’ve read, 5-7 hours is a pretty reasonable estimate of what you’ll get. The nice thing is that you can bring along two AA batteries and you’re set. No silly cables or chargers. Not the most eco-friendly solution, but it’ll do. I’ll probably invest in rechargeable batteries at some point for the Flip. Another thing that I noticed is how awful the digital zoom is. I didn’t expect much, but the thing is a total waste of time. They should have not even included it as an option. The ‘flip’ out USB drive is a really nice touch, and it makes it simple to get your video onto your computer from anywhere. Again, it’s one less cable to carry around.

Video Quality

Here is a quick sample:

I feel that the quality is about exactly what I expected. It’s solid, it handles well in low light, and the colors are pretty accurate. However, the framerate isn’t always up to par, the video can look really washed out when the lighting isn’t great, and sometimes you can hear machine noise when the camera is running. Additionally, the microphone is pretty weak and doesn’t really allow you to pick up any dialogue from folks more than a few feet away.

More examples can be found on my Flickr page.

Software integration

The software (on the Mac at least) is pretty second rate, but still a nice effort at making a clean experience. The one thing that does deserve kudos is the fact that the codecs & software live on the camera, not on a separate disk. This will prove to be very valuable when I need to watch or download a movie to another computer. Before you can watch a movie in QuickTime, you have to install a supplied QT codec, which only takes a minute or two. From there, you can run the included movie management software or you can simply drag the movies out of the mounted drive on the desktop. I chose the latter.

If you’re an iMovie user, iMovie HD works by default with the .avi movies that are on the camera. iMovie 08, on the other hand, will not accept .avi movies and requires a conversion before digging in to the editing. A free utility that works great is iSquint, or if you want to pay for more advanced features, Visualhub. A quick conversion and the videos are ready for iMovie 08. Apparently Apple and the Flip Video folks are working to make this process a bit friendlier to us Mac users.

Overall, the experience is pretty straightforward, and if importing to iMovie 08 is ever resolved, Mac users everywhere will rejoice. I’m a Final Cut Express 4 man myself, so the videos import without a hitch for me.

Overall recommendation

The Flip Video Ultra is exactly what you’d expect from a camera that retails for less than $150. It’s a cheap, lightweight camera that makes shooting video easy and fun, and leaves out fancy features that you’d see on nicer cameras in the name of making a simple user experience. Frankly, I think that for it’s indented purpose, it’s hard to beat the Flip. It’s not perfect, but you get what you paid for and a whole lot more.

Technorati Tags:
applications, reviews, software, apple, videos, iMovie

Posted on June 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

Monday, May 26th, 2008

A few weeks ago I decided to give Brightkite a try, and had a mixed experience with it. What is Brightkite, you ask? It’s another social-networking type service, very similar to Twitter and Pownce that focuses on small ‘micro-posts’ that your friends can subscribe to. One of the things that make Brightkite different is the fact that it focuses on your location, not just your friends. Using either the web or the mobile application, you can enter in where you are currently located, and see what folks around you are doing. For example, here is the ‘placemark’ for Times Square in NYC.

One of the major plusses is the ability to quickly post a photo to the service, and say ‘this photo is from ________’. All too often, with a photo-equipped, email-enabled phone, you see something you want to photograph and share with your friends, and Brightkite definitely makes that possible. Word is an iPhone application is on it’s way that will plug into the Google Maps triangulation feature iPhones have - that will make ‘checking in’ to locations, and posting geo-tagged photos a lot easier. I’d really be pleased if there were a way to post photos to Flickr automatically as well, but that may or may not be in the works.

I think Brightkite is certainly a neat idea, especially if you make sure to apply the proper privacy settings (you can set levels of privacy based on whether you ‘trust’ a friend or not to know your exact location, just the city you’re in, or just to read the post you’ve made). Of course, the fact that most of my friends do not use this service make it’s usefulness a bit less than someone whose friends were the social-networked, mobile-app using types. When it’s just you and maybe 2 or 3 other folks broadcasting their location and photos/posts from that area, it quickly loses steam. At least Brightkite allows you to also send your posts to Twitter when you make an update - that’s definitely a nice touch.

While I really like the interface of Brightkite (much more than Twitter or Pownce), content is king. As long as everyone I know is using Twitter, I can’t really justify moving over to another service just because it has a slightly nicer interface and offers some neat location-based stuff. What I really hope happens is that Twitter borrows some of the ideas from Brightkite and implements them (on an optional basis) into their service.

Anyway, if you’re looking to give the service a try, either post a comment here or drop me a line and I can send you an invite.

Here’s my profile.

Posted on May 26th, 2008 | 2 Comments »