Cute Cell Phone Covers
When we wrote about the best solutions to make your cell phone look cooler we forgot to mention one thing - funny plush covers – so let’s take a look at some models from NewYorkCellphone!When you add such an accessory your cell phone becomes cuter, and this is a solution destined not only to kids but also to those adults who still like to feel
Mobile Search: Nearest Restroom
Taken straight from MizPee Homepage:"Do you ever find yourself desperately looking for a clean toilet in the city?
MizPee finds the closest, cleanest toilet and gives you entertaining reading material once you get there. Since the service is cell phone-based, it's always with you, when you really need it."
Point your mobile browser to: www.mizpee.com and find that nearest clean restroom. What a concept! Thanks to my friend Paul C. for this tip!
BMW 335i Failed Fuel Pump
*Note - I know this post is not really "mobile" related, but I am hoping that by posting an entry about this problem to bring some attention, it can help attribute to a faster resolution to alleviate the frustrations and agony suffered by most BMW 335i owners.
After six months of ownership and 2,500mi later, our 335i began to have startup problems. It would take an unusual amount of time (approx. 4 - 6 seconds) to ignite the engine. After a quick research:
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2488526315747010378
http://www.topix.net/forum/autos/bmw-335i/T0OJ7C7DMQJ7ERRUF
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=713381
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67313
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68332
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70744
I found out that this is a common problem and lots of people are complaining. The problem: Failed Fuel Pump! The biggest frustration is that this fuel pump is on a nationwide backorder, some owners have expressed that they've been waiting for 2+ months. And sure enough, this is exactly what my dealership - BMW of Manhattan is telling me.
This fuel pump design must have been so flawed to generate this type of volume of failure thus causing a backorder of this degree. At this point, nobody knows when will these fuel pumps arrive and I am starring at a payment stub as I am typing this blog entry. Very disappointing. BMW NA - Please act quick before this becomes nasty problem on your hands!
Update: BMW of Manhattan and my service rep is superb. During the entire time, they've arranged BMW loaners to ensure that I am staying happy. I even got a \5 series sedan loaner at my request. On top of that, they took care of the payment for the one month that my car was in the shop. Overall, I am very satisified with how BMW of Manhattan handled the situation. New Pump has been working great since the installation
After six months of ownership and 2,500mi later, our 335i began to have startup problems. It would take an unusual amount of time (approx. 4 - 6 seconds) to ignite the engine. After a quick research:
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2488526315747010378
http://www.topix.net/forum/autos/bmw-335i/T0OJ7C7DMQJ7ERRUF
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=713381
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67313
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68332
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70744
I found out that this is a common problem and lots of people are complaining. The problem: Failed Fuel Pump! The biggest frustration is that this fuel pump is on a nationwide backorder, some owners have expressed that they've been waiting for 2+ months. And sure enough, this is exactly what my dealership - BMW of Manhattan is telling me.
This fuel pump design must have been so flawed to generate this type of volume of failure thus causing a backorder of this degree. At this point, nobody knows when will these fuel pumps arrive and I am starring at a payment stub as I am typing this blog entry. Very disappointing. BMW NA - Please act quick before this becomes nasty problem on your hands!
Update: BMW of Manhattan and my service rep is superb. During the entire time, they've arranged BMW loaners to ensure that I am staying happy. I even got a \5 series sedan loaner at my request. On top of that, they took care of the payment for the one month that my car was in the shop. Overall, I am very satisified with how BMW of Manhattan handled the situation. New Pump has been working great since the installation
Taking the week off
Just a short notice: I'm taking this week off for a short vacation at the sea. I'll have internet access, but I'll try to avoid it if possible (my wrists really need some rest), thought I'll probably post little updates on Jaiku. I already have some great books packed, and I really can't wait to relax on the beach and enjoy the sea air. I'll be back in the digital world next week, so stay tuned! :)
Join us at Bloggers Cafe!
In case you haven't heard yet: edubloggers now have a new place to get together in Second Life at the brand new Bloggers Cafe.The Bloggers Cafe is an attempt to keep the conversation that started at this year's NECC going (and it is of course a great opportunity for all of us that missed NECC to join in the conversation). You can visit the Bloggers Cafe on Eduisland II, on land that was kindly offered by Ryan Bretag (aka Existential Pain). Also, don't forget to join both the SL and the RL group (set up by Jennifer Wagner) and have your blog added to the virtual blogroll at the Cafe.
The virtual blogroll wall at the Cafe
For more info about how the Bloggers Cafe started and where it is going see Ryan's blog. See you all the Bloggers Cafe! :)
The virtual blogroll wall at the Cafe
Why is Apple porting its browser to Windows? To take over the world, of course.
There are so many interesting things going on in the industry that it's frustrating, because I don't have time to write about them all.
Jerry Yang is now in charge at Yahoo, which in my opinion means a lot because a founder is often much more willing to revisit old assumptions and make radical changes than is someone who came in after the fact. (I know the stereotype is that founders resist change, but I've found that the exact opposite is often true, especially if the founder is moving up after spending time lower in the management chain.)
Google bought Grand Central, which underlines their interest in providing client software for mobile phones. It's a significant change for Google because up to now they have focused mostly on providing mobile versions of their existing web apps, like Maps. Grand Central is different; it's a call management system that embeds Google deeply in the life of a mobile user. It implies a much tighter relationship between Google and the user than most other Google products, and it's not something that you can easily monetize through advertising -- which makes me wonder whether Google is planning to run it standalone or integrate it into something bigger.
But the strangest recent development was Apple's decision to port its Safari web browser to Windows.
It is not easy to port a browser to a new platform. There's a huge amount of programming involved -- to do the actual port, to debug it, and to maintain and upgrade the code as people identify small incompatibilities and ask for new features. I lived through PalmSource's effort to get a good browser for Palm OS, and talked with the Be veterans about their browser work. The quick summary: it's a huge pain in the butt.
What's Apple hoping to get? The engineers at Apple who are spending their time on Safari for Windows could be creating new features for the iPhone, or helping to finish the next version of Mac OS X. Although Apple is rich enough to hire a lot of engineers, the supply of really good ones is limited, so Apple's definitely paying a price to do the port. And for what? To get people to use an alternate browser, you have to give it away for free. So there's no immediate benefit to doing the port.
A lot of Apple enthusiast sites have asked what's going on, but I'm not persuaded by most of the answers they came up with. For example, a site called Apple Matters gave four possible motivations: for bragging rights, to show Windows users what it's like to use a Mac, to give iPhone website developers a tool to test their sites, and to get revenue from search referrals to Yahoo and Google (link).
Apple Matters seems like a very good site, and to give them credit, even they were skeptical about some of the possible explanations. None of them work for me. Apple doesn't need more bragging rights, a browser is a very awkward way to show off the Mac UI, iPhone developers can buy an iPhone to test their sites, and the search referral fees from Yahoo and Google can't be all that big or everyone would be writing browsers.
I think the motivation runs deeper. It turns out that Apple didn't just port the browser to Windows; it ported the browser, the underlying Web rendering engine, and the Mac OS X programming frameworks that the browser relies on. In other words, Apple ported an entire OS layer onto Windows, and the browser is riding on top of that (link).
Now that's interesting. Apple is backing into the cross-platform OS layer business. Maybe the OS layer is just a convenient way to do the browser port. Or maybe the browser is just a trojan horse to get the OS layer on a lot more systems.
Add to this situation Apple's other recent strange announcement -- that it's "enabling" iPhone applications development by supporting Ajax web software on the iPhone. The problem with Ajax/Web2 applications is that they rely on a constant network connection in order to work. They're just thin clients to a server on the Web. Considering the iPhone's lack of true 3G connection speed, and AT&T/Cingular's well-documented data coverage limitations, Ajax-style development is about the worst thing you could do on the iPhone. What the developers wanted was the ability to create native Mac OS X applications, and Apple blew them off.
Why piss off the developers, and why put such a huge handicap on people supporting your critical new product?
Maybe the iPhone is so screwed up internally that it can't support third party apps. Sure, and maybe Apple wants to port Safari to Windows just for ego.
If you want a single idea that explains both actions, it's this: Apple realizes that in the long term, the development platform that matters is not the OS on the hardware, but the software layer that the web apps run on (I believe that; you can read more here). Apple realizes that this layer will eventually become good enough to displace native personal computer apps. Web apps then become both an opportunity and a challenge for Apple. The opportunity is that they're a way to take down Microsoft. The challenge is that the same process that obsoletes Windows obsoletes other PC operating systems, including Mac OS.
This makes it vital for Apple to create its own Web apps layer, so it can control its own destiny and increase its power. That goal would be so important that Apple would be willing to handicap iPhone apps development in the short term in order to make developers focus on the web apps platform in the long term.
If that's Apple's thinking, then the next thing to watch for will be Apple gradually adding more features to its OS layer, in the guise of browser APIs and feature enhancements. Those features will be deployed at the same time on the Mac, the iPhone, and Windows Safari. And Apple will start evangelizing web app developers to use them.
The war to come. This could set up a brutal competition in software layers, between Adobe Apollo, Microsoft Silverlight, Sun's revised Java, Firefox's platform, and Apple. Google fits in there somewhere as well, but it's not clear if they'll try to create their own platform or work with several other players.
I think this is where the most interesting action's going to be in applications development in the next few years. Stay tuned.
Jerry Yang is now in charge at Yahoo, which in my opinion means a lot because a founder is often much more willing to revisit old assumptions and make radical changes than is someone who came in after the fact. (I know the stereotype is that founders resist change, but I've found that the exact opposite is often true, especially if the founder is moving up after spending time lower in the management chain.)
Google bought Grand Central, which underlines their interest in providing client software for mobile phones. It's a significant change for Google because up to now they have focused mostly on providing mobile versions of their existing web apps, like Maps. Grand Central is different; it's a call management system that embeds Google deeply in the life of a mobile user. It implies a much tighter relationship between Google and the user than most other Google products, and it's not something that you can easily monetize through advertising -- which makes me wonder whether Google is planning to run it standalone or integrate it into something bigger.
But the strangest recent development was Apple's decision to port its Safari web browser to Windows.
It is not easy to port a browser to a new platform. There's a huge amount of programming involved -- to do the actual port, to debug it, and to maintain and upgrade the code as people identify small incompatibilities and ask for new features. I lived through PalmSource's effort to get a good browser for Palm OS, and talked with the Be veterans about their browser work. The quick summary: it's a huge pain in the butt.
What's Apple hoping to get? The engineers at Apple who are spending their time on Safari for Windows could be creating new features for the iPhone, or helping to finish the next version of Mac OS X. Although Apple is rich enough to hire a lot of engineers, the supply of really good ones is limited, so Apple's definitely paying a price to do the port. And for what? To get people to use an alternate browser, you have to give it away for free. So there's no immediate benefit to doing the port.
A lot of Apple enthusiast sites have asked what's going on, but I'm not persuaded by most of the answers they came up with. For example, a site called Apple Matters gave four possible motivations: for bragging rights, to show Windows users what it's like to use a Mac, to give iPhone website developers a tool to test their sites, and to get revenue from search referrals to Yahoo and Google (link).
Apple Matters seems like a very good site, and to give them credit, even they were skeptical about some of the possible explanations. None of them work for me. Apple doesn't need more bragging rights, a browser is a very awkward way to show off the Mac UI, iPhone developers can buy an iPhone to test their sites, and the search referral fees from Yahoo and Google can't be all that big or everyone would be writing browsers.
I think the motivation runs deeper. It turns out that Apple didn't just port the browser to Windows; it ported the browser, the underlying Web rendering engine, and the Mac OS X programming frameworks that the browser relies on. In other words, Apple ported an entire OS layer onto Windows, and the browser is riding on top of that (link).
Now that's interesting. Apple is backing into the cross-platform OS layer business. Maybe the OS layer is just a convenient way to do the browser port. Or maybe the browser is just a trojan horse to get the OS layer on a lot more systems.
Add to this situation Apple's other recent strange announcement -- that it's "enabling" iPhone applications development by supporting Ajax web software on the iPhone. The problem with Ajax/Web2 applications is that they rely on a constant network connection in order to work. They're just thin clients to a server on the Web. Considering the iPhone's lack of true 3G connection speed, and AT&T/Cingular's well-documented data coverage limitations, Ajax-style development is about the worst thing you could do on the iPhone. What the developers wanted was the ability to create native Mac OS X applications, and Apple blew them off.
Why piss off the developers, and why put such a huge handicap on people supporting your critical new product?
Maybe the iPhone is so screwed up internally that it can't support third party apps. Sure, and maybe Apple wants to port Safari to Windows just for ego.
If you want a single idea that explains both actions, it's this: Apple realizes that in the long term, the development platform that matters is not the OS on the hardware, but the software layer that the web apps run on (I believe that; you can read more here). Apple realizes that this layer will eventually become good enough to displace native personal computer apps. Web apps then become both an opportunity and a challenge for Apple. The opportunity is that they're a way to take down Microsoft. The challenge is that the same process that obsoletes Windows obsoletes other PC operating systems, including Mac OS.
This makes it vital for Apple to create its own Web apps layer, so it can control its own destiny and increase its power. That goal would be so important that Apple would be willing to handicap iPhone apps development in the short term in order to make developers focus on the web apps platform in the long term.
If that's Apple's thinking, then the next thing to watch for will be Apple gradually adding more features to its OS layer, in the guise of browser APIs and feature enhancements. Those features will be deployed at the same time on the Mac, the iPhone, and Windows Safari. And Apple will start evangelizing web app developers to use them.
The war to come. This could set up a brutal competition in software layers, between Adobe Apollo, Microsoft Silverlight, Sun's revised Java, Firefox's platform, and Apple. Google fits in there somewhere as well, but it's not clear if they'll try to create their own platform or work with several other players.
I think this is where the most interesting action's going to be in applications development in the next few years. Stay tuned.
What a wonderful Second Life!
Yesterday I had one of the most magical days in my Second Life thanks to some really great people and a bit of magic coincidence. I haven't had much of Second Life lately due to different first life obligations, so yesterday I had a great chance to do some catching up, and I was really reminded of why I still believe in the potentials of Second Life. Mostly, I was once again reminded of the unique way in which Second Life is able to bring people from all over together.
First, I meet up again with Eyebeams Electricteeth (of Learn 4 Life), who has great ambitions and plans to make SL more popular among UK educators (and also abroad) and is working on some interesting projects in SL (you'll probably hear more about that in the next months).
Unfortunately, he had some other things to do, so I moved on and asked to meet Desi somewhere, as we haven't seen each other in ages (my fault). After mentioning that I still don't have any place in SL, Desi kindly offered to let me use some space in their new Literature Alive! HQ on Eduisland II. So, we went to check out the place (2nd floor), Desi brought in a couch (with one really funny sitting pose ;) ), and we started talking. She also invited KJ Hax over, who invited Any Ixchel, and what happened was real serendipity. Later on we were also joined by Corwin Carillon, Eloise Pasteur, and Butch Dee, and we had a really inspiring discussion. We talked about Second Life in general, avatars, identity, and we also shared some useful SL tools (thanks for the tip about the MystiTool HUD! It's just amazing!). It was a real pleasure meeting you all!
After the discussion Anya, Desi, and I went to do a bit of gadget shopping. Soon Anya's friend Aiji Ducatillon joined us, and we went to Anya's place to do some hang gliding, and playing with toys (Aiji thanks for the ride and the massage; Anya thanks for the giraffes and the cats! :) ). It was a lot of fun, and I surely hope we can do this again sometime (I'm glad I now have some friends from down under I can hang out with in EU friendly times :) ).
I spent rest of the day in my new "office" space Desi has kindly offered to me. I brought in a big and comfy couch, a cookie and coffee giving table (just touch it :) ), and an info point that can tell you whether I'm online or offline and will open my blog when touched. I hope you'll all come to visit me sometime (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/196/219/47), and that we'll be able to have more serendipitous moments in that space. Feel free to use the couch any time, and don't forget to invite your friends over! :)
Come over any time
First, I meet up again with Eyebeams Electricteeth (of Learn 4 Life), who has great ambitions and plans to make SL more popular among UK educators (and also abroad) and is working on some interesting projects in SL (you'll probably hear more about that in the next months).
Unfortunately, he had some other things to do, so I moved on and asked to meet Desi somewhere, as we haven't seen each other in ages (my fault). After mentioning that I still don't have any place in SL, Desi kindly offered to let me use some space in their new Literature Alive! HQ on Eduisland II. So, we went to check out the place (2nd floor), Desi brought in a couch (with one really funny sitting pose ;) ), and we started talking. She also invited KJ Hax over, who invited Any Ixchel, and what happened was real serendipity. Later on we were also joined by Corwin Carillon, Eloise Pasteur, and Butch Dee, and we had a really inspiring discussion. We talked about Second Life in general, avatars, identity, and we also shared some useful SL tools (thanks for the tip about the MystiTool HUD! It's just amazing!). It was a real pleasure meeting you all!
After the discussion Anya, Desi, and I went to do a bit of gadget shopping. Soon Anya's friend Aiji Ducatillon joined us, and we went to Anya's place to do some hang gliding, and playing with toys (Aiji thanks for the ride and the massage; Anya thanks for the giraffes and the cats! :) ). It was a lot of fun, and I surely hope we can do this again sometime (I'm glad I now have some friends from down under I can hang out with in EU friendly times :) ).
I spent rest of the day in my new "office" space Desi has kindly offered to me. I brought in a big and comfy couch, a cookie and coffee giving table (just touch it :) ), and an info point that can tell you whether I'm online or offline and will open my blog when touched. I hope you'll all come to visit me sometime (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/196/219/47), and that we'll be able to have more serendipitous moments in that space. Feel free to use the couch any time, and don't forget to invite your friends over! :)
Come over any time
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