Posts

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No more .Mac bookmarks

Though I do use .Mac to sync my bookmarks over several computers (with differing levels of success) I do also use the web version quite often on computers that don’t have .Mac support (eg PCs) or that I don’t own.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I received the following e-mail from Apple.

Dear .Mac member:

As you may know, your .Mac subscription is being upgraded to MobileMe, Apple’s new Internet service for your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch, and PC. This includes a new way to manage bookmarks across your computers and even push them over the air to your iPhone and iPod touch.

As part of the transition to MobileMe, web access to your .Mac Bookmarks will end in July 2008 and you will no longer be able to access or update your bookmarks at mac.com. Mac-to-Mac sync will not be affected.

To avoid losing bookmarks saved on .Mac, please sync them with your Mac before June 30. This will ensure that MobileMe can keep your bookmarks in sync going forward. Here’s how.

For more information on the transition, please visit the MobileMe FAQ.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,

The .Mac Team

I can see that it may make things better, but for me losing the web bookmarks will be inconvenient.

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Trying to download Firefox 3

Well can I download Firefox 3 on this the launch day?

No!

Everytime I go to the download page, I am only offered Firefox 2.

I will keep trying, but the last time I looked they had passed 1,000,000 downloads and over 1,700,000 people had downloaded Firefox 3.

Well they may have downloaded it, I have had no luck!

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The Cloud “killed” my iPod

Okay to say that a Cloud wifi hotspot killed my iPod is exaggerating somewhat, however it did kill Safari for a while and certainly wasn’t easy to sort out.

iPod touch

I had used my iPod touch at a free wifi hotspot which used the Cloud network.

I had signed in and used the web and no problems.

A few days later I wanted to use the web again on the iPod, but regardless of which site I tried to use whether it be entered manually or through a bookmark, Safari on the iPod just reverted back to the Cloud login page!

I couldn’t log out as I was not connected to the Cloud.

So I switched the iPod touch off and no luck, it still revered to the Cloud login screen.

Now I was getting annoyed.

I knew it wasn’t a connectivity issue, as I could use e-mail and other internet functions on the iPod, but could I use Safari? No I could not!

In the end, I worked out that if I managed to stop the Cloud page from loading, I could get Safari working again.

It was a really weird error that would  not be resolved easily, but at least I resolved it without needing to restore the iPod which is where I was going.

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MySpace to be upgraded

Changes are afoot at MySpace, as they try to attract new and keep old users.

BBC’s Newsbeat says:

MySpace is preparing a major redesign next week as it tries to attract more casual users and increase the amount of time its members spend online.

With the popularity of other social networking sites such as Facebook, sites such as MySpace need to change and alter in order to retain and keep users.

From an e-learning perspective, such changes can cause confusion for learners, and if features are removed or deleted, then it can impact on learning activities and scenarios which use such social networking sites.

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Vodafone told off on “unlimited” ad

The ASA have upheld a complaint about a Vodafone advert which according to the ASA implied unlimited mobile internet.

The advert said “Any website, any time. £7.50 a month. Make the most of now.” It was only in the small print at the bottom of the advert which said that there was in fact a 120MB limit!

The ASA said

However, we considered that consumers would also infer from the headline claim that they could access the internet as often as they liked for £7.50 a month.

We noted there was a disclaimer stating “120MB UK data allowance per month” at the bottom of the ad, but considered that this was not prominent enough to avoid being overlooked and also that it contradicted the impression created by the headline claim. We considered that the download allowance was a significant condition attached to the service and was likely to influence consumers’ decisions about whether to purchase the product. Because that information was not stated in, or immediately next to, the headline claim, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead about the nature of the service being offered.

I have to agree with the ASA, the implication of the advert was any time, any where, when ever you wanted. However a 120MB download limit in this era of photographs, YouTube’esque video, audio podcasts and other media-rich internet means that 120Mb (even on a phone) would not really be sufficient for a month, and I suspect a lot of users would go over this limit and then be hit with high charges.

Full adjudication.

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iPhone 3G available 11th July

Apple announced iPhone 3G on Monday in a keynote by Steve Jobs at the WWDC in San Francisco. It will be available in the UK on the 11th July via O2.

New features include:

  • 3G-capable. 2.8 times faster than EDGE.
  • GPS built-in
  • Thinner
  • Better battery life – 300 hours of standby, 2G talk-time 10 hours (as opposed to 5), 5 hours of 3G talk-time (competition is 3 hour 3G talk time), 5 to 6 hours of high-speed browsing, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
  • Flush headphone jack

Other new features are:

  • contact searching
  • complete iWork document support
  • complete Office document support (now includes PowerPoint)
  • bulk delete and move for Mail
  • save images you receive
  • scientific calculator in landscape mode
  • parental controls
  • language

I wonder if the Keynote (iWork) and PowerPoint support also allows you to show the presentation via an AV cable in the same way you can do at the moment with video and images.

It will be interesting to see also if iWork (or even Office) support includes editing and creating support, or is it just going to be reading, I suspect the latter.

Of course there are also all the features announced when the iPhone SDK was released earlier this year which include:

  • Exchange and ActivSync support
  • Applications
  • VPN

Downside is that you now need to activate the phone in store, so now unlocking just became a lot more expensive as you will have to buy into a phone plan as well as the phone.

Though O2 do say they will be offering it on a Pay As You Go contract in addition to the Pay Monthly contract they had with the old iPhone.

Overall I am tempted by the new iPhone, it’s certainly a much

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Free iTunes TV Shows (on UK iTunes Store)

I was looking at what new films there were in the UK iTunes Store and noticed that some classic TV shows had been added.

Looking at the four shows, there were Charlie’s Angels, Starsky and Hutch, I Dream of Jeannie and Shatner classic T J Hooker.

Free iTunes TV Shows (on UK iTunes Store)

Checking to see how much they were I was surprised and pleased to see that the pilots for both Charlie’s Angels and Starsky and Hutch were free!

Well I downloaded them didn’t I – actually downloading as I publish this blog entry.

Charlie’s Angels pilot.

Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith star as beautiful ex-policewomen Sabrina, Jill and Kelly, who are hired as private investigators by a mysterious man known as Charlie. All arrangements are made by phone, or through Woodville (David Stiers), the only person who knows Charlie’s identity. The other male on the private-eye team is Bosley (David Doyle).

Starsky and Hutch pilot.

“Starsky and Hutch” is a dynamic new police drama series about a pair of young plainclothes cops. David Soul stars as the soft-spoken Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson and Paul Michael Glaser is the irrepressible Dave Starsky. Bernie Hamilton also stars as quick-tempered Captain Harold Dobey and Antonio Fargas is Huggy Bear, friend and confidante of the two cops.

I like the fact that the info says “dynamic new police drama series”, how new is 1975?

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Should I be running a hidden or closed wireless network?

So should you be hiding your wireless network? Should you be closing your Airport network? Should you be not broadcasting your SSID (service set identifier)?

Some people do this to make their network invisible.

Should I be running a hidden or closed wireless network?

Most people are not aware that hiding your SSID or “closing” your network, does not in fact make your network invisible.

All it does is stop broadcasting your SSID (network name).

Your network is still broadcasting and therefore detectable.

I have a (modern) Sony VAIO which can pick up closed networks without any extra software – the ability is built into the latest intel chipsets.

As well as your network still broadcasting your network will also “broadcast” your SSID everytime a client joins your network.

Why?

Well you want to join the network, so you tell the router that you want to join.

You tell it the SSID, it says okay and lets you join.

When you told it the SSID, this was broadcast in the clear and can be easily picked out by “sniffer” programmes.

Exactly the same process can be used to sniff out the the authorised MAC address if you use MAC address access control.

Unfortunately “Closed” networks, MAC access control lists, and reduction in transmission power are all more “feel good” security rather than real security. All these various approaches are dated and mistakenly lead to overconfidence.

They’re like putting a brown paper bag over your wireless router to “secure it”, it may make you feel better, but adds no security whatsoever.

WPA is your friend if you value wireless security.

Photo source.

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Fans Flashback

This evening using my MacBook Pro I had a fans flashback to the days when I had a G5 PowerMac.

I really liked the G5 PowerMac, it was a huge beasty, but a very powerful beasty.

Though now and again it would do a jumbo jet impression and try and to set the fans going so fast that it sounded like it was trying to take off!

I believe that this was a bug caused by the PowerMac failing to realise how hot it was and setting the fans to maximum to try and ensure that it didn’t overheat.

Quite a few updates were sent out by Apple to try and fix it, but as I recall not all those fixes worked.

I have been finding that if I push my MacBook Pro I can make it get very hot quite quickly. Even quicker if I have the battery in and even faster than that if I am charging the battery at the same time.

This evening I was using the MacBook Pro and was watching a video whilst doing some simple web browsing, when the fans kicked in. Now the battery was fully charged so I was quite surprised. Charging the battery and using the MacBook Pro is a simple way of getting the fans going. However this time the battery was fully charged!

The fans just got louder and louder…

Eventually I decided enough was enough. I shut the lid, turned the MacBook Pro over and waited until the fans stopped (nearly 30 seconds or thereabouts). I then removed the battery and turned back over. Opened the lid and continued where I left off.

No fans, but still quite warm.

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iTunes Movies in the UK – hmmmm

I was quite pleased the other day to hear that movies films would be available in the UK iTunes Store.

iTunes Movies in the UK - hmmmm

At the time I had a quick look over the store and saw lots of films. The number one film was (at that time) I am Legend, I was quite impressed that the price for the film was only £6.99 – and that seemed to explain why it was number one. I was also interested to see that National Treasure 2 was also available and thought “I’ll rent that”.

At that time I was busy with work so knew I would leave until later to get them.

So today I upgraded my version of iTunes and decided I would buy I am Legend and rent National Treasure 2.

So you can imagine my disappointment, to see that I am Legend had gone up in price to £10.99. So why was it cheaper to begin with? Why has it gone up? Was it a mistake that Apple has now corrected? Or did I imagine it all?

Ah well so not to worry I’ll rent National Treasure 2 instead. Even with the rental limitation, I was fine with that, I could always transfer the film to an iPod and connect the iPod to my television.

Oh.

No.

Yes, though I can buy National Treasure 2 for £10.99, I couldn’t rent it!

It’s suppose to be a reasonably fun film, worth renting, but not worth buying it and certainly not worth paying £10.99.

So my first proper attempt to get films off the iTunes Store was not a great success, ah well maybe next time.