Nine days after the iPhone 3g launch I decided to see if my local Apple Stores had any in-stock.  Using the nifty iPhone 3g availability tool I sadly found out that there were none remaining in the State of Washington.  Next I decided to try out Oregon which is just a couple of hours away, no go there either.  So just for grins I decided to checkout California’s inventory levels.  I mean there would have to be plenty of phones in stock in Apple’s home state, right?  Wrong.  As of Sunday, July 20th, only one store in California, the Pleasanton store (which only had 16 GB black).

Being intrigued I then decided to look at all the other Apple stores in the US and was surprised to find only two additional store in the country had stock: the Salem, New Hampshire store (16 GB white only) and the Fifth Avenue store in New York (16 GB white only).

It obvioulsy makes sense that nearly everywhere is sold out tonight since most commercial shippers don’t ship on Sundays, but it was still and interesting thing to see.

At least I now know that I am one of the few people who found the strength to actually return my iPhone 3g a couple of days ago.

Filed under: iPhone | 1 Comment

I officially have a new favorite toy: ping.fm.  It basically allows you to update to all of your social networks at once without having to go to each one.  Right now it only support status updates and micro-blogs, but today’s post on their blog promises a central upload for photos too, which is something that is sorely needed.

Right now there are 19 social networks and blogging platforms it interacts with, but it also allows you to setup custom URL’s in order to post to any site you want.

I highly recommend trying it out.  It is in beta right now, but you can use the invite code “pingyoulater” to get signed up.

Filed under: Social Networking, Web Applications | Post a comment

I just found out that today that Google Browser sync was being discontinued and was forced to use an alternative, Foxmarks.  Foxmarks provides pretty much the same features as Google Browser Sync, but is a little more user friendly and can even be setup to be hosted on your own server, which is a big plus.

So far, I have been pretty impressed with it and welcome it to my family of Firefox plugins.

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So I like the idea of a handsfree set in the car, but really hate the popular bluetooth earpieces that are so popular.  They are generally uncomfortable and look silly.

I think that the perfect solution in a car are the integrated bluetooth modules that most new cars are implementing, however, buying a new car is certainly a pricey phone accessory.

Looking around online there really aren’t a lot of options for in-car bluetooth kits.  The main kits you run across online are the Parrot and Motorola models.  Both look decent, but are fairly bulky and pricey.

I was intrigued when I ran across the BlueTrek Surface Compact kit.  This kit is completely wireless and has a large flat speaker integrated into a slim and fairly sleek design.  At a price of only $60 and a positive iLounge review I figured I had to try it out.  Read more…

Filed under: Hardware Reviews, iPhone | 1 Comment

I have been a heavy Firefox user for a couple of years now on both Windows and OS X machines.  I rarely stray from my bread and butter unless I need to; however, my lackluster experience with the Firefox 3 Beta has really gotten me to look at other alternatives, specifically Safari.

In the past I have shied away from using Safari, because I have felt that it felt slow and seemed to never render pages correctly, this is not the case with the most up-to-date version of Safari (3.0.4).  If you really want a speed boost try out the new WebKit release that dramatically increases speed over the current Safari 3 and blows by Firefox 3.

Even with the current WebKit version, Safari seems to be fast, render pages correctly and offers a couple of other polished features that surpass Firefox.

Some of the other small features that I feel really set Safari apart are:

•  A more usable page search: I seems to always use page search to help me get to content faster.  In Firefox, the search is good as it highlights the term/phrase you are looking for; however, it is a little hard at times to see all of the terms on the page as the highlighted search phrases don’t have much contrast to the page.  Safari 3, refines this task by dimming the the page and highlighting the searched for term with a subtle animation and bright yellow box.

Read more…

Filed under: Blog, Software Reviews | 1 Comment

I ran across a somewhat old, but very useful site: CSS Zen Garden.

Originally started to show the benefits of CSS based layouts and standard compliant markup, the Zen Garden now has over 200 user submitted showing off the power of CSS.

The most amazing thing about this site is that every one of the layouts is applied to the same HTML file.

This is a great resource if you are trying to overcome some sort of strange CSS technique, because odds are if you can think of it, it has been done in the Zen Garden.

If you haven’t already checked it out, I encourage you to do so: CSS Zen Garden

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You gotta love the Sara Silverman, Matt Damon skit on the 5th anniversary of the Jimmy Kimmel show:

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So I back after a great three days in Canada for Web Directions North and I have a couple of final thought pertaining to the final day of presentations.

Dynamic Web Interfaces

Cameron Adams of a Man in Blue gave a great presentation on what he calls “dynamic web interfaces.”  The presentation was essentially focused on giving users more control over their information they have submitted to a site, particularly on social oriented platforms. According to his view these dynamic controls become more important the more a user visits their site.

Example included

•  The Beta version of the BBC homepage
• Apple Mail’s pane structure
• Netvibes homepage
• Yahoo Pipes

Cameron also gave a brief overview of some browser vector drawing protocols link Canvas.  Technologies like Canvas create a great opportunity to build more dynamic web interfaces because the specifications are built into the browser and not built in via a plugin like Flash. Read more…

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Well, day one of Web Directions North presentations concluded a couple of hours ago and I have finally had the chance to sit down and think about what I learned today and what I am excited to play with. Read more…

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I love the bluetooth keyboard that came with my Mac Pro; however, I hate how the clear border lets you see every little crumb or piece of dirty that may have fallen in there, especially when you have spent a lot of time on that keyboard.

Determined to get my keyboard back to square one, I started to see how difficult it was to get underneath the keys.  After a couple of minutes of poking at it I realized that the keys popped off easily.  All I had to do is gently pry them off with a standard flat head screwdriver.

Read more…

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