tech, news, productivity, views and stuff
I wrote earlier about how I nearly reached my broadband limit in December. In January what with no snow, no school holidays and a bit of travelling here and there, I was nowhere near my limit. Well under, about 50% of my December traffic.
So back to normal.
From BBC News.
Though I have the Tesco App on my iPhone I don’t really use it, even though I do the online shopping. I think this is more down to a behaviour thing over not wanting to use the technology.
After dismissing the nag screen once again, I decided that I would upgrade my Parallels installation to version 6
I generally don’t have problems with Parallels on my Mac, but thought that the performance improvements would be nice. I also want to try out the iPhone/iPad App and see if that would allow me to access a Java application that I need to use for work.
It was pretty easy to set up, requiring a login of my Parallels account on both the Mac and the iPad. And though Windows 7 is not designed for a touch interface, at least if needed I can access Windows through my iPad!
The key test will be over wifi outside my home network and over 3G. In the olden days in my previous job, I would VPN into my office network and use Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to connect to my office PC when I was out on the road with my (then) PowerBook. Use to do that to find old e-mails and files. Also used the VPN so I could watch BBC News on the website when I was on a trip to Finland.
Now I have a fast broadband connection at home I hope that I will find less latency problems that I had with the VPN and RDC method.
One side effect of the installation was finding out the number of virtual machines on my iMac. More than I thought I had, so a fair few were culled.
Will use it a little more and see what improvements there are with version 6
I do like BBC iPlayer and I like how it allows me to watch BBC programmes when and where I want to…
Well nearly…
There are still a fair few programmes that are only available through a traditional web browser and are not available via my iPad, my TV (which has BBC iPlayer access built in) or to download.
So for example on my iPhone there are only three films available to watch.
However via my web browser I can see six films including National Treasure: Book of Secrets which isn’t available on the iPhone.
The reason is not technical, but a rights issue. Most new BBC programmes are available in many different ways via BBC iPlayer, this is because the BBC has secured the rights to do this from the production company (that makes the programme) and (probably) the talent in the programme.
Older programmes that are repeated were made at a time when BBC iPlayer was either not technically viable or wasn’t even a consideration or who would know what was possible in the future… so such rights would not have been secured.
With films such as National Treasure: Book of Secrets when the BBC “buys” the film for showing on their channel, they don’t necessarily also buy the rights for mobile distribution or download. This means that the film is only available via the web browser. Some films won’t even be available via iPlayer.
So the solution? Well unless I go and buy the film or programme in iTunes, I will either have to watch it when it is broadcast, on my computer or record it.
Comic Life is a great app for creating comics very simply, quickly and uses a drag and drop interface.
I recently upgraded my Mac version of Comic Life to version 2 and one “change” was starting to annoy me.
In version 1 when you created a title you could then select from a drop down list and choose from a variety of styles (the deluxe version had many more than the “free” version that came with many Macs and I how I was introduced to Comic Life.
Plasq were in the Mac App Store from day one with Comic Life 2 and though I could have upgraded to 2 (as I have version 1) I decided to purchase and install Comic Life 2 via the Mac App Store. I mainly did this as it was much easier and quicker than trying to upgrade, I wanted updates to be easier and also I could in future install on other Macs as you can with apps from the Mac App Store.
With version two though when I started to use it I was very disappointed to find that the variety of styles you got with version 1 appeared to be missing in version 2!
I did try and search the FAQ, help and support without much success. I looked through the menus, and though there was a way of importing styles…
I had no idea what file I would be looking for or where I would get such a file.
After pretending to ignore the problem… I decided that there must be a way and after a recent update and still seeing no styles I decided to search and dig a little deeper and possibly even post to the Plasq forum.
In the forum though I did find a reference to styles in Magiq, that said.
When you start Comic Life Magiq – make sure you choose the Deluxe Styles template from the Template chooser. Otherwise you will just end up with a blank template with no styles.
Hmm….
Tried that with the Template Chooser and yes there are lots of styles in there….
Now the next question is how do you export those styles for use in other templates?
Well that was answered by the help in the end.
In other words you import an actual comic you’ve created to add the styles to your new comic.
All starts to make sense now…
Okay back to creating comics.
So there was me thinking I was due an update to Android 2.3 for my Google Nexus One, otherwise known as Gingerbread…
However no it wasn’t.
It was only an update to 2.2.2
Disappointed, well not really, I can wait…
Well my Google Nexus One told me today that a system update was available. I couldn’t upgrade as I was only on a GPRS connection and really you should be on wifi or a decent 3G connection, no really you should be on wifi!
I am assuming and hoping it is Gingerbread, or Android 2.3. Looking at the new features, this is no Froyo, but I am looking forward to an improved copy and paste experience.
Gingerbread 2.3 now provides support for NFC Near-field communications, however I don’t think the Nexus One hardware actually supports this.
So not many huge changes, but will be interesting to see the performance improvements.
I have been having a few issues with my MiFi, in the main it keeps dropping connections and failing to allow devices to connect.
Now I think it is a battery life issue, once the device runs out of power, it drops the 3G connection and the wifi stops working. The lights on it are never that clear about what the status, but the browser configuration (once connected) seems to work fine.
Now my MiFi is an original Novatel model and I’ve not updated any firmware since I got it, so that’s on my list of things to try.
Generally though when it does work, it works a treat. I also like that if push comes to shove I can use it as a 3G dongle via a USB cable.
There are various apps you can buy for making ringtones for your iPhone, however if you have a Mac, you can very easily use Garageband to do exactly this, it will also very easily move the ringtone from Garageband to iTunes and then it can be synced to your iPhone.
First create your ringtone in Garageband. I have used music from my iTunes collection by dragging it in and cropping the track to the piece that I want to use as a ringtone. You could of course record a ringtone, use Apple loops to compose a ringtone, or even use the different iLife effects to create a soundeffect ringtone.
Once you are happy with your ringtone, from the menu
Share -> Send Ringtone to iTunes
Basically that’s it.
Simple.
Of course it can much easier on other phones that allow you to use music tracks or mp3 files straight off as ringtones!
Took the plunge and decided to upgrade my copies of iPhoto and iMovie to the new versions. I bought the new versions from the Mac App Store. The whole process was simple and seamless with the downloads of 600MB each not taking a huge amount of time, thanks to my fast FTTC connection. I wouldn’t envy anyone trying to do this on a slow ADSL connection (like what I use to have) as it would take an age. Actually think about downloading Call of Duty 4 from the Mac App Store which comes in at a weighty 6.85GB.
I do like the functionalty of the new App Store, it is easy (almost too easy) to download apps and install them. I think Apple is onto a winner here.
Of course the App Store applications (and to be honest most OS X updates) can be very large and this means that you do need to have a fast broadband connection with a large limit. The same can be said for iTunes downloads too. It is very easy now to reach any limit your ISP places on you.
So what of the versions of iPhoto and iMovie, well quite like some of the new features of iPhoto though it doesn’t seem as zippy as the previous version. The navigation as you edit or view images does seem more intuitive than it did before.
Still have not really had a chance to play with the new version of iMovie, but pleased to see that it has enhanced audio editing tools as that was causing me a few headaches with the previous version.