My technical meanderings and other nonsense. Published since 2002. No, really. I'm *that* internet-old. I remember the days of One thing that irritates me about Facebook’s many interfaces is commonly-used features that are buried. Pages are something that are often hard to find – specifically pages you’ve created. On the Facebook iPhone app, there is no icon for “Pages” on the main screen/desktop: Rather, you have to search for Pages, even your own: Once [...]
Monthly Archives: December 2009
“200%”: The Richard Solo mobile battery charger
Have you ever plugged your battery-drained mobile device into your laptop while out and about? Maybe you are not near a power source, so you weigh the importance of having power in one of your two devices – either your laptop, or your phone. Charging your laptop is out of the question, but at least [...]
New on Facebook: comment on items by replying to email notifications
I just noticed a new feature of Facebook – the ability to reply to email notifications to comment directly on the item in Facebook: This is a nice touch – something I’m noticing many services doing more often (see using email to send SMS with Google Voice). I’ve always been a proponent for “smart” emails [...]
New TextMarks usage policies – keyword expirations
Last year at this time, TextMarks announced new pricing policies, and account keyword limitations. The new pricing policy said that all “short” keywords (three or four characters), and all accounts using more than three separate keywords, were required to purchase the “pro” plan – a monthly fee based on usage patterns for your individual keywords. [...]
Amazon Web Services: free inbound data transfer until 6/30/10
Amazon did this last year, at least for their S3 service, and they’re doing it again. From now until June 30, 2010, any inbound data transfers are free of charge. For example, using the S3 service, it’s normally 10 cents per GB transferred. This applies to Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Relational Database [...]
Send and receive SMS through email with Google Voice
Among the many great calling features of Google Voice is continually-improving SMS features. You can opt to receive SMS solely on the web, thereby reducing your need for an SMS plan with your cell phone network provider. But, until recently, it’s been somewhat redundant to have to leave open your Google Voice inbox alongside your [...]
Simplicity sells
Simplicity. Do you know what it looks like? Do you know what it feels like? It’s amazing how many companies/products do not embrace simplicity. Simplicity is right in front of our faces. It’s everything that’s needed, and nothing that’s not. It’s that moment of connection and understanding that comes with something that is made to [...]
How Amazon wishlists have altered the meaning of Christmas
It’s December, meaning I like to discuss and analyze the concept of sharing and maintaining wish lists, as we approach the Christmas holiday. In the past, I’ve shared some wishlist tips, and discussed Amazon’s “universal wishlist” feature. Today I’m eager to discuss arbitrary wish lists, and how we should revert back to sharing these types [...]
Archiving Gmail on iPhone through IMAP
I love Gmail’s web interface, and in most cases I prefer to use that over a dedicated email desktop client – except on the iPhone. The iPhone’s Mail client feels much more responsive and easier to access than having to load another Safari tab for Gmail’s web interface. One aspect of Gmail I missed when [...]