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[Captain Aaron] Miller is still not happy with how much the system weighs. “Look, I need this like I need a 10th arm,” he sighs. And all this stuff (Land Warrior does), my cell phone basically does the same at home.“
(emphasis mine)
So Apple’s announcement yesterday of the $200 iPhone price drop didn’t anger me as it seems to have done for many others. When I bought it, I knew the price would drop before the holidays so I wasn’t taken aback and good on them if they can afford to drop the price that much, it’ll get more out the door. I still love my iPhone and consider it worth the money I spent. Then I read this open letter from Steve Jobs promising a $100 credit for all iPhone owners.
This offer is why I continue to stick by Apple in spite of very unfriendly actions like charging to use the new ringtone feature in iTunes. Even that, I’d imagine was the best deal they could wrangle from the record companies, one that took several weeks to hammer out which is why it wasn’t available when the phone launched. Personally I don’t plan to use that feature (though it is wonderfully implemented). Instead I tried out a program last night called iToner. All it does is handle the install (having Quicktime Pro I can easily chop down any files to ringtone length), but it did so fast and easy. Haven’t decided yet if it’s worth the cost (I don’t see myself using it too often), but Ambrosia is one of those companies that, like Apple, I’m happy to support.
I keep up with the world via Google Reader (as you may have discovered when I posted a link to my shared items in the last post). I also store bookmarks on del.icio.us. So I was quite excited (in a geeky sort of way to which I will only admit here where few will see it) a while back to discover that Bill Burcham had written up “a Google Reader Del.icio.us Tagging bookmarklet — a Gordita” which allows one to bookmark any post or article from inside of Reader. (A bookmarklet, for those of you who don’t know looks like any other bookmark in your browser, but is actually a bit of Javascript that does something cool. Or maybe something annoying, but the cool ones are better.)
As I’m also planning to breath a bit more life into this blog, I decided I needed a bookmarklet that would work similarly only sending the info to that wonderful blogging software, ecto instead of del.icio.us. While ecto provides it’s own handy “ectoize” link, using that would just grab Google Reader, not whatever bit of brilliance I was reading inside of it. As I am far too confident in my coding ability (see, I can even speak of it with a straight face) (well, of course you can’t see because I’m too lazy to include a picture, but if I did…), I dove into those two jungles of javascript, hacked, slashed, and returned with what I refer to as gorecto. Nothing too amazing, but if you also use Google Reader and ecto, hopefully it will be of some help. (Thanks to Bill for Gordita and Adriaan Tijsseling for ecto!)
So why am I posting this somewhat non-entry? Because I’ve recently fallen for a new photo website, zooomr and they have offered up free “pro” memberships for any bloggers. While flickr still wins in the “posting from my phone” category (the last time I tried posting to zooomr from my phone the photo never showed up), the one feature that hooked me is the ability to “geotag” your photos, linking them to a specific place. So if you looked at all of my highland games photos, you can actually see on a Google map where they were taken and check for any other photos geotagged as being nearby. I’m not yet ready to really pimp the site, but once I get a chance to kick the tires on the new version launching Friday, I may start talking it up to everyone the way I’ve been trying to push 30boxes (go and use it, your life will thank you).
Next up though will be my thoughts on what it was like to be camped literally five feet from where the pipers and drummers would play after the day’s events were over.
This tiny tale which I am about to relate is why I get a kick out of technology.
Those people who have known me for a long time, know of my fondness for the Charlie Rose Show. (For those that don’t know and don’t want to click the link, the show is broadcaster Charlie Rose spending an hour interviewing one person or several people about subjects ranging from baseball to Iraq to the New Yorker magazine to telecommunications in France. Hands down the best interview show on tv today.) As I don’t really watch tv much anymore, I’ve not really been watching the show lately. The few shows I do watch, I download (legally if available or, well, *cough*). While Google Video has episodes available for sale for .99 (used to be 1.99, they’ve wisely dropped the price since I last checked) and, as I’ve just learned, the previous day’s episode is streamed for free, I want something easier than having to check that site each day though.
Well, as I mentioned just a couple days ago, I’ve signed up for a trial membership at Audible.com. One of their offerings is a year long subscription to an audio version of Charlie Rose. At $50 (taking into account the discount I get with my trial membership), it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than paying a buck an episode at Google. When I first saw it the other day I hesitated though. I figured I’d have to log in to the Audible site each day to download the new episode, which isn’t how I think technology should work.
Quick aside, how I think technology should work. Short version: however the hell we want it to. Slightly less short answer: Technology should adapt to our needs and we shouldn’t have to alter our routine or life to accommodate it. I’m willing to go halfway, in other words, sit down in front of a computer or pull a phone out of my pocket. It should do all the rest of the work though, bringing whatever content or information I want to me automatically. It should also allow me to put out whatever content or information I want without me having to put a leg behind my head and stick a finger in my ear. I type a little and click and stuff should just happen.
So back to Audible and Charlie Rose. Turns out that Audible offers a podcast of any subscription content for which you’ve signed up. iTunes has built in podcast receiving capability. iTunes syncs with my iPod. Thus, I pay for a year of Charlie Rose. Click click. I then add the podcast to iTunes and, a couple more clicks later, that’s all I have to do. The technology does the rest. Each day, a new show is downloaded. It’s on my iPod or computer. I can listen when I want, where I want, without having to do anything more.
As for the show, go to the Google page for it and watch the most recent episode. Don’t worry if it’s not a subject in which you’re interested. He’ll either make it interesting or there’ll probably be something on tomorrow that you will like. Give it a try though. Your brain will thank me.