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In my preparation for the BlogHer conference (which was awesome!), I wanted to put together several ways to share my contact information with the people I would meet. I have traditional paper business cards, of course. But since I’m a digital geek girl, I also poked into my contact card on my phone and looked into ways I could share it. I assumed that there would be an easy, straightforward way to do this. Sadly for us all, I was wrong.
Sharing contact information via a smartphone is one of those things that many people assume is a basic, standard task. Going all the way back to the days of Palm Pilot supremacy and the rise of BlackBerry, the ability to “beam” your info to another person was a nice and expected perk of having a mobile, business-focused device. I remember that the process didn’t always work on the first try, but it was there and was easy.
Fast forward to now. Last week I went into my Android phone’s contacts, found my contact card, hit the Menu button and tapped “Send My Contact Info.” The menu that came up informed me that I could send via MMS, Mail, or Bluetooth. You might think: oh, that sounds reasonable. Let me explain why it’s not.
MMS is multimedia text messaging; thus, I’d send my contact info as a vCard attachment to an SMS. Not all phones/services support MMS. I use Google Voice for texting. It does not support MMS. So I can’t use that.
The Mail option is what I wanted… except Mail does not indicate the Gmail app, it indicates the Mail app for non-Gmail accounts. I don’t have any accounts set up there because I use Gmail on my Android phone. In order to send via my Gmail account, I would have to set up that account in the Mail app then set it to not notify me when messages come in because Gmail is already doing so. Convoluted? Yes.
Bluetooth is what people meant by “beaming” in the past, but connecting to another phone via Bluetooth isn’t always straightforward. Try doing it in a conference hallway when you’re on the way to the next panel and the person you want to send to doesn’t know how the Bluetooth works on their phone. Not ideal.
So really, my phone offered little in the way of easy or viable options. Why?
The heart of the problem lies with Android. Apparently, there is no native option for sending contact or vCard data in the OS at all[1]. How is my phone able to do so? It’s all down to the HTC Sense user interface skin. Android skins do more than just change the way icons look and offer fancy widgets, they also provide deep interface functions which are sometimes fixes for things Android doesn’t provide.
Who should I shake my fist at more, Android for not having a native contact sharing function or HTC for not realizing people might want to share contacts via their Gmail accounts? I’m inclined to be a little angrier at HTC.
That’s because I also happen to have a Samsung phone. I don’t use it as a phone, only as a MID/PDA. It connects to Wi-Fi just fine, so I could send my contact info from that device. I checked, and lo Samsung’s TouchWiz UI does realize that users might want to send via Gmail and offers that option. My problem is solved.
That doesn’t solve the overall issue though, does it? It also doesn’t help if I’m not near a free Wi-Fi signal. And my HTC phone is my main device; I want to be able to share from there. That’s when I started to look for alternatives.
I’ll share what I found so far in another post. Right now I’d like to know: how do you share digital contact information from your phone? Is it easier on iOS or webOS? Have you found the perfect app for the purpose? Let me know in the comments.
Notes
- This is what I gleaned via research and appears to be true at least up until Android 2.2. Some forum threads suggest that this function is available in Gingerbread (2.3), but I have not had a chance to check this myself. [↩]
Cory Watilo via
This is a screenshot from an official promotion video of Outlook 2010. Seriously, what a trainwreck. I still remain a Microsoft fan, but this screenshot just shows the lack of any intelligent design direction anywhere in the company.
I previously wrote about the design disconnect at Microsoft here.
Gross.
Our workplace is going to move to Office 2010 soon and I’m going to be forced to use Outlook instead of my beloved Thunderbird. I want to throw up every time I think about it. This doesn’t help.
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Last week I went to a writing retreat with several writing types in a converted barn somewhere in Connecticut. It was glorious. Five days where our only job was to write and our only sin to procrastinate.
There are many ways to procrastinate in situations such as this, and a big one is undoubtedly by faffing around on the Internet. To combat this great evil, my friend Alaya Dawn Johnson employs a Firefox extension called LeechBlock, which allows one to set specific times when the browser simply will not allow you to access any web pages if that’s what you want. It’s very customizable — you can set it to block or allow only certain websites, or block the whole the ‘net, block during specific times on specific days, limit you to, say, 10 minutes out of every hour, or limit you to a certain amount of time on certain websites. So, if you need the wider web for research but need to stay off Facebook and Twitter, you can make it so. There are even more robust block options that keep the more tech-savvy amongst us from going around the block by disabling the add-on or something similar.
I know some of you reading this are thinking: “Why go through all that? Why not just have discipline and not look at the web?” It’s easy to say such things, not so easy to put it into practice. Besides, not all of us have wills of iron. There’s nothing wrong with employing some technological help in these cases.
I’ll admit that I’m completely guilty of messing around on the Internet when I’m supposed to focus on writing. I used to dismiss cafes for satellite writing/freelancing if they didn’t have free wireless. Now I’m trying to build a list of places without wireless just so I won’t get tempted. But even in places without Wi-Fi I’m in trouble because now I have a smart phone. And not only does my phone access the web, it’s also a mobile hotspot.
Leaving my phone at home when I go out writing isn’t an option, so I went looking for something like LeechBlock but for Android phones. I found a few, but the only one that didn’t have a lot of issues was StudioKUMA AirPlane Scheduler, which turns Airplane Mode (no cell, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi radio) off at a specified time, then off again automatically. The major drawback is that it’s not designed to keep you away from the web, just to save battery, so there are no restrictions from turning Airplane Mode off or anything. However, sometimes having willpower just requires a little bit of restriction to remind you that you’re supposed to be working, not obsessively checking your notifications.
What tools do you use to keep yourself from procrastinating and foster more laser-like focus?
A few months ago I started using Scrivener as a writing tool because I was going to review it for Laptop. In order to try it I had to borrow one of our MacBook Pros because the program is only for OS X, not Windows. This normally would have been enough to keep me from caring, but all of the writers I know who use the program absolutely love it and would never give it up for anything. This program is so good that several friends have actually switched to Mac just to use it.
Now that I’ve used Scrivener I can definitely say that it’s great and I love using it. (A fuller review will come, as soon as the story I was writing it for is taken off hold.) I don’t know that I would switch to a Mac for it. I like my netbook, for one thing. And I don’t have money to spend on a $1,000+ computer for just one purpose.
There is another alternative, though. You could always turn a netbook into a Mac.
How, you ask? Hackintoshing! This age-old process of fiddling with OS X until it will install on a non-Apple system wasn’t invented for netbooks, but has definitely found a slew of new adherents in the past couple of years. And since Apple is determined not to give the people what they want, the people will have to get it themselves.
Used to be that Hackintoshing required a lot of dedication, forum-lurking, and some soldering skills. But a new website called MyMacNetbook aims to make the process a bit less opaque. Right now there are a few step-by-step guides for some systems, but the real goodies lurk in the compatitility chart. This is where you’ll find a long list of netbooks and the hardware features that work with OS X out of the box. You’ll note that the MSI Wind is about the perfect hackintoshing netbook.
Writers who’re jonesing for some Scrivener but don’t have the money for a Mac but do have the money for a netbook, this is your best bet. And if you’re a Mac lover who longs for the portability of the 10-inch form factor, now you don’t have to pine (or settle for an iPad). Many of the netbooks that work without too much fiddling are older, so you can probably find them at a deep discount these days.
I’m conducting a bit of a survey and I’ll need your help. It’s all about Firebox, the browser I love, and how it breaks my heart every day. Do you love Firefox? Then please help me with an intervention.
If you have Firefox open now and you’re running Windows, go to your Task Manager[1] and click on the Processes tab. Look for the process called firefox.exe and make a note of the number in the Mem Usage column[2]. Then go to your Firefox toolbar, click Help, then About Mozilla Firefox and make a note of the current version you’re running. Then come here and post this in the comments along with the number of tabs (or tabs and windows) you currently have open. Would also help if you said which OS you’re running.
Update: Adam provides instructions for Mac: you can find the memory usage by opening Activity Monitor (in utilities), looking for Firefox in the Process Name column, and seeing what the Real Memory usage is.
Eric provides Ubuntu instructions: you can check out the memory usage under System > Administration > System Monitor, but you’ll have to convert the stats from MiB.
You don’t have to restart your computer or browser or anything like that. I just want to get a snapshot of how much memory Firefox uses for different people. The more data I can collect, the better. I’ll start:
Memory Usage: 920,200K | 11 tabs | Firefox 3.5.7 | Windows XP
Yes, that memory usage is real. Remember the days when Firefox would only use around 300,000K? Or even the long ago when 100,000 was reasonable? Ah, nostalgia.
I showed you mine, now show me yours.
Notes
I thought that when I left my job working for a fashion magazine behind I wouldn’t have to care about Fashion Week anymore. But given that tech companies seem to think that FW is a great time to introduce new gadgets to the world, I’m starting to fear that I’ll be covering events over at Bryant Park in the near future. The increasing partnership of fashion and mobile tech isn’t completely unwelcome, but I have little patience for the number of waify models lying around on couches wearing tons of makeup and holding netbooks like works of art. Yes, it’s pretty, but can I use it?
The idea of a netbook as an accessory to your busy or even not-so-busy life is a fine one. But the Samsung promo video I posted over on LAPTOP’s blog today has me truly mystified.
Brad Linder claims that it’s supposed to highlight the netbook’s all-day longevity. Could have fooled me. All it seems to highlight is that model’s ability to stretch her lanky body and possibly to warn young ladies from trusting that their boyfriends will pick them up at the train station as promised. Seriously, go look (and please comment there, I am eager to watch you all apply your creative minds to the plot and message).
When I compare that video to this one Nokia did for their new netbook, I find myself much more drawn to the Booklet 3G. This video tells me what this device is, what it does, what makes it special, and even includes some heart-tugging music that somehow makes me want it even more.
But if we must have models, here’s what I’d like to see: women actually using netbooks in some way that shows off what netbooks are good for while providing the eye candy that someone is convinced consumers need. That way it appeals to those of us to buy tech for what it does and those of us who buy anything because hot women are peddling it.
Being an iTunes hater can be hard. Okay, perhaps ‘hater’ is too strong a word. But I refuse, under any circumstances, to use iTunes for my audio media management. I don’t like the way iTunes is all up in one’s business — it’s too involved with my music for my tastes. I want a robust audio player that has a lot of functionality but doesn’t try to go autonomous on me. I also want something that will help me manage my library better and, if possible, tag/re-tag and rename individual tracks for better organization.
For a long time, I stuck with MusicMatch Jukebox, a player that sometimes came free with new computers and to which I became very attached. I liked the way MMJB displayed and organized my library, plus it had a ton of options. The best one was a feature which would help me identify the ID3 information of a track by looking it up on a CD database and tag it accordingly. This tool also conveniently renamed tracks, individually or in swaths, based on the tag information. I was in the process of cleaning up my moderately-sized MP3 collection when MMJB completely died on me one day.
Under normal circumstances this would not be a problem — just re-install or download again. But no. You see, many years ago Yahoo purchased MusicMatch (which was also a content site with the ability to stream stations of music by similar artist or genre, similar to Last.fm today) and that eventually became Yahoo!Music. Along with the site came the player, and soon I began to get random pop-ups informing me that MMJB was now Yahoo Jukebox (or something, I admit I was too angry to pay close attention) and that support for my version of the program would end soon. I didn’t want the new, intrusive and horrendous Yahoo version of the player, so I stuck with mine. Eventually support ended and the popups mostly went away.
But then the program itself began to break down.
It wouldn’t start properly every time — sometimes looking for updates to software on servers that probably didn’t exist anymore. Shutting down always required intervention from the Task Manager. One day I stopped having the ability to burn CDs.
I finally had to give the program up.
In my search for a replacement I discovered something about music and media players: a lot of them suck!
Before MMJB I used RealPlayer, but that had pretty limited functionality, horrible library management, and no tag tools to speak of. Windows Media Player wasn’t much better, but it was okay in a pinch. WinAmp failed to impress me, as did Songbird (that app is really not ready for prime time). I despaired of finding a comparable program and started to investigate re-downloading an old version of MMJB, even if I couldn’t activate the Pro mode.
Then someone suggested MediaMonkey. That person saved my musical life. Continue reading »
A couple of days ago Brad at Liliputing talked about how netbooks are a better platform for touchscreens than regular laptops. I agree that the future of touch is probably going to be pioneered by netbooks, but that future won’t be exciting until software makers step up their game.
I don’t know if it’s an issue on the hardware or software side, but I suspect it’s more software side, especially considering the capabilities we’ve seen in touchscreen smartphones like the the iPod. Every time I’ve ever used a touch notebook I’ve found it nice, but limited. Yes, I can hand write text into documents, but I haven’t seen a program that allows me to draw on or create notes in the margin of documents like I can with a pen and paper. This may exist and I’ve missed it, but I feel like something of that nature should come standard with every touchscreen computer. It’s a basic need from my perspective.
Beyond that, I’ve not been bown away with any touch software ideas or concepts. Why bother having a touchcreen at all if it just means that you can write in small, yellow boxes that have to be cleared periodically, anyway?
Before touch can blow up on any laptop format, someone has to make touchscreens worth having. The iPhone did, and it rode on the coattails of other smartphones and PDAs that tentatively pushed the touch envelope before it came along. For once I feel like Apple’s insistence on controlling both software and hardware was the right move.
I love open source and free software, I really do. I dream of a world in which I no longer have to deal with the likes of Microsoft Office and instead blissfully use OpenOffice all the live long day. Heck, if I could leave behind the Microsoft OS completely forever and ever, I would. I long to ditch Photoshop for a fully-featured and free open source replacement every time I see the price tag.
However, I feel that these blissful days are a long way away. Because even though programs like the OpenOffice suite and GIMP emulate the non-free programs in broadstrokes, it’s always some small, seemingly marginal function that’s missing or doesn’t work as well that puts me right off. I find myself even angrier, because I want to shake the open source community and scream “Why do you tempt me with a brave new world and then smack me in the face?!”
For example: OpenOffice Writer. In many ways the parallel of MS Word. I can create and format documents just the same in both programs as far as I know. When I’m doing basic to intermediate tasks, Writer serves me well.
But then.
I want to do something that is really easy to do in MS Word: find paragraph marks and replace them with two sequential paragraph marks, thereby inserting a line between every paragraph. This is especially useful when posting things to blogging software. In plain text mode, two line breaks means insert a p tag.
In MS Word, it’s very easy and quick to do this. You click Find & Replace and, if you don’t know the code for “paragraph mark” by heart (it’s ^p) then you click More>> and you’ll see a dropdown for special characters — paragraph marks, tabs, em dashes, a whole long list. If you want to insert two breaks, you put ^p in find and ^p^p in replace. Simple, easy.
Not so with OpenOffice. Not only is there no helpful dropdown in the Find & Replace window, the method for doing the operation I described above is completely counter-intuitive and flawed. After over an hour searching I was able to learn a bit about Regular Expressions and how they applied to the Find & Replace process. In order to get something approximating the simple process of finding one paragraph break and replacing it with two, I had to look through 7 web pages and I still did not find a method that produced completely satisfactory results.
And forget about doing my other oft-used Find & Replace maneuver: find all text formatted a certain way (ex: italicized) and put certain text or characters on either side of said formatted text (like HTML code). This is another fairly simple process in MS Word. I spent 3 hours trying to find a way to do this in OpenOffice one day. I gave up.
Another aspect of OpenOffice that bugs a lot of users (though not so much me) is the inability to have a “normal” page view. Not the Print Layout or the Web Layout, just straight text all the way down with a little dotted line indicating the page break. MS Word has this and OpenOffice users have been clamoring for it since 2001, apparently. And yet there is no satisfaction. Sad.
This kind of thing means that I can never use OpenOffice as my primary office suite. I will continue to need Word. I don’t want to need Word! And I should not need to take a course in programming in order to do really simple tasks.
I could spend another 1000 words talking about the problems I have with GIMP over Photoshop or even Paint Shop Pro 6. I feel like every intermediate or advanced function of GIMP takes more steps or requires more hunting than is necessary for an image program. And having the tool menu in a separate window from the window with the image is maddening. Every time I have to use GIMP to do something as simple as crop then resize an image my blood pressure rises.
Take those frustrations with individual programs and apply them to a whole operating system – yeah, I’m looking at you, Linux. As Laptop Magazine commenter Gary Reaves so elegantly put it:
How would you like to own a toaster that requires you to design a timing circuit switch every time you want a piece of toast? Try marketing that to consumers. That’s basically what Linux Distros are all about…
Most problems don’t quite reach the timing circuit design level of complication. Still, any time a simple function or feature isn’t there or requires a lot of work and research to do, users are going to be unhappy. Heck, even non-free/open source software and operating systems run into this problem. Windows Vista, anyone? How about Office 2007? (That travesty of an office suite has kept me using Office XP for almost a decade now.) But Microsoft is the dominant force here. They can afford to pull crap like this (somewhat).
If open source software wants to play with the big boys, the programmers need to step up their game. It’s not the broad strokes of functionality that are going to make or break you with consumers, it’s the little things.
