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Entries in Adam's Posts (6)

Sunday
May032009

Send Faxes For FREE!

Head on over to myfax.com/free and you can send up to two faxes a day (up to 10 pages per fax) - no credit card required!  The service supports many file formats including Word, PDF and 175 other file formats.  Try it out and let us know what you think.  This is a great solution for the occasional need to send a fax.

Tuesday
Feb242009

Free iPhone apps - your days are numbered

Here's a screen shot of my iPhone, page 3 of 4.  This screen has 15 apps on it.  No, my math isn't fuzzy . . . one of those icons is a shortcut to thedigitallifestyle.tv of course.

 

There have been many posts out there that talk about the mass downloading of Apps and then the lack of usage there after.  I took a look at my iPhone to see if I fell into this bucket and here's what I found.

 

As previously mentioned I have 15 Apps on this screen.  Of those 15 Apps I actively use 4 (from top to bottom):  Facebook, PhoneFlix, BK Run Lite [this is a good app for bathroom time (too much?) and Twitterrific.

 

Every other app on this screen I've used at one point but can't say I'm part of their active user base.  Why then can I not bring myself to get rid of these apps??  After all, I 'never' use them.  They're taking up space on my iPhone and cause me to flip through screens to get to the apps I really use (perhaps this is a personal problem . . . it's never occured to me to move apps to the front I use and apps to be back I don't . . . add it to the to-do list.).

 

Now here's the question we should all be asking . . . WHY DOES THIS MATTER.  For paid applications it doesn't, they're getting their revenue up front when you buy the app.  As long as people keep buying the app they're in good shape.  As long as the iPhone user base keeps buying iPhones, they're in good shape.

Where this does matter is for free app makers.  Most free apps these days have advertising on them to generate revenue.  They of course want you to download their free app so they can show impressive dowload numbers to would be advertisers, but they also need to show clickthrough and impressions so these advertisers continue to lineup and dish out for prime placement.  If apps aren't being used after their initial download (I'll let you do a simple search to see all the posts reporting this) then the ads aren't being seen and advertisers are pissing their money away.

What then is the solution?  Are we going to eventually have an app store of primarily pay applications?  I think eventually, yes.  The store is saturated with apps all doing the same thing.  I think users will begin to dictate which apps are best and run the others out of the store.  Do we really need 6 apps (likely an understatement) that all give me remote access to my NetFlix?  No.  I suggest you all start using the apps you feel strongly about . . . if you don't they might not be there any more.

Let us know your favorite apps in the comments section.

Monday
Feb232009

I'd like some wi-fi with my chai chai

Just over a year ago (and I'm talking JUST) Starbucks and AT&T announced their partnership to bring ATT WiFi to all Starbucks locations.  This roll out was going to take some time so now that a year has past I decided it would be time to put their partnership to the test at my local Starbucks.

 

I'd like to be able to say that no Starbucks employees were hurt during the creation of this post, but unfortunately a very nice young lady spilled my green tea (I typically get coffee but I'm feeling under the weather so I thought green tea was more appropriate) on her hand . . . OUCH.  She's now fine, but it wasn't pretty.

 

I digress . . . the first test of any Wi-Fi offering is signal strength.  If you can't get a signal nothing else matters.  We can check this off the list . . . full signal.

Next - Connectivity, or how easy it is to connect to the internet after acquiring a signal.  Upon opening your favorite web browser (mine is FireFox.  I'm rocking the new(ish) Beta 3.1 . . . it's a beta) you're immediately taken to the ATT splash page where you can create your account OR if you're really prepared you can log into your existing Starbucks account.  The process was seamless.

 

Two recommendations here:  1.  Get a Starbucks card even if you don't go to Starbucks regularly.  A once a month visit will keep your account in good standing and gives you two free hours of Wi-Fi a day.  2.  Setup your account prior to getting to Starbucks.  You'll then simply enter your username and password and then you're off.  My user name and password is...

 

 

 

Come on, you didn't really expect me to give it up did you?

 

Once connected I've found speed tests to be excellent.  My favorite website, thedigitallifestyle.tv loaded without pause, even the mogulus video player where we bring you TDL Live.  Now I must confess . . . I was the only person with a laptop open during this test.  I'm going to imagine performance might be impacted with more users on the network.  Luckily my Starbucks location only has about a dozen seats.

 

In summary I'd give the ATT Wi-Fi experience an A+.  It's far superior to the former T-Mobile hot spot partnership.

 

Have you been using ATT at Starbucks?  Let us know what you think in the comments now that a year has passed.

Sunday
Feb152009

google mobile sync - first impressions

After all the posts this week about the new google mobile sync I figured I'd see what the hub-ub was about.  Here's my first impressions:

 

The good:  Setup is simple with the instructions provided by google.  These instructions can be found here.  After setup the sync with my 1st generation iPhone went smoothly and quickly.  Important to note it will overwrite your contacts and calendars so please take their advise and backup everything before syncing . . . better safe than sorry.

 

 

The bad:  For some reason I got some double entires and sync wanted to resolve all conflicts like a good data moderator which took some time.  The double entries were a bit annoying and took about an hour to deal with (that's for about a 200 contact list . . . actual results may vary).

 

The bottom line:  After initial setup everything seems to be working nicely.  Even the images I've added to the google contacts have synced to the iPhone.  Push updates seem to be as quick as MobileMe.  If google can get exchange working for gmail it will certainly be a great alternative to MobileMe.  As web apps become more powerful and cost effective (the google suite is free) it will become more difficult to sell MobileMe UNLESS Apple enriches the offering . . . I hope they do.  For now, enjoy the new google sync and let us know how your migration went.

Wednesday
Feb112009

Out of Sync - gmail and Apple not on the same page

There's all this talk about sync these days . . . you'd think people are trying to keep a dozen machines on the same page.  Google announced it's sync this week which prompted a heated discussion about the merits of MobileMe.

 

Here's my question . . . what ever happened to IMAP just working as advertised?  I've had gmail running on my iPhone since IMAP became available for gmail.  Up until a few weeks ago I never had a problem with gmail and the Mail app being in sync.  Read a message on the iPhone, it's marked as read in Mail.  Read an email in Mail . . . well, you get the idea.

 

I'm not sure if the new sync release is related to IMAP, but I can tell you this . . . gmail and Mail are NEVER in sync now.  I get home from a long day at work and need to mark my messages as open.  Even a refresh of mail on the iPhone doesn't seem to push the changes back to the IMAP server to action the emails accordingly.

 

I haven't tried the iPhone sync released this week, but I'm disapointed IMAP seems to have stopped working as it should.  Have you experienced this problem?  Let us know