Impressions: MobileMe and Me.com

If I’m on a computer, it’s usually my MacBook, which I carry with me most of the time. I also always have my iPod Touch with me, so I wasn’t that excited about Me.com of MobileMe. I just couldn’t think of any situation I’d be using it.

In the past few weeks, there were actually two occasions I used Me.com.

• I was at my friend’s house working on my MacBook. I was getting ready to go and had put everything away. And I remembered a to-do not yet scheduled in my calendar. I was too lazy to take my MacBook out, so I borrowed my friend’s computer and used Me.com to add the to-do. 
  
  
• For some reason, 9 out of 10 ten times when I open up my Address Book application, my Mac becomes sluggish, which is why I avoid using the Address Book whenever possible. It came to me that I could use Me.com to manage my contacts until I figure out what’s wrong with my Address Book or until I reformat my MacBook.
  

Here are my impressions of Me.com:

Better Navigation
Compared to its predecessor (Mac.com), the navigation is greatly improved. From the top navigation bar, you can access Mail, Contact, Calendar, Gallery, iDisk, and Account.



All the applications are rich and offer drag and drop user experiences.

Contacts – Gets the Job Done
Me.com’s Contacts lets you add and edit contacts as well as manage them with groups. Unfortunately, you cannot view, add, or edit smart groups.

Calendar – Pretty much the web version of iCal
Works like its Mac desktop counterpart iCal. Unfortunately, subscribed calendars and birthday calendars don’t show up.

Gallery – Pretty nifty, but not sure if I’ll use it often.
You could manage you photo albums on MobileMe here. You can drag photos around to switch their ordering. I don’t think I’ll be using this too often because I’ll probably be managing my photos on iPhoto.

Mail and iDisk 
The features and functions in Mail are basic. Mail rules and smart mailboxes are lacking. I’m also used to the “Organize by Thread” view in my desktop Mail application. It would have been neat if they had this feature.

iDisk is presented in the columns view similar to Mac’s Finder window. A surprise was that you can actually compress and create zipped files on Me.com.

Some Thoughts

Although I won't be using Me.com too often, it's surely handy at times.  It's a great move by Apple in that it'll get non-Mac users accustomed to the Mac interface.  This will mean the switch to Macs from PCs will be easier for Me.com users.  

Now, if Apple could get online web counterparts of iTunes and iLife.  That'll be cool.  

Freestyle Solo Keyboard: It’s a keyboard split in half!

I saw this one in Mac Fan (Japanese magazine about Apple stuff). The Kinesis Freestyle Solo keyboard is separated into two halves so you can space out your hands when typing. It comes with hot keys and uses a USB cable to connect to your computer.

It’s also great for traveling since it’s like folding your keyboard in half. Too bad it’s not wireless.

The Freestyle Solo comes in white for the Mac and black for PCs, and can be purchased for 99 dollars on their website.

Link:
Kinesis Freestyle adjustable split keyboard homepage

Mac Tip: Find out what time is an event in another time zone with iCal

For people that deal with time zones in their work, time zone support is a neat feature in iCal (Leopard) I accidentally came across. By turning on time some support, you can view an event in a different time zone and add events in a different time zone.

An Example
So for example, let’s say someone schedules a conference call at 9:00 am on Tuesday in Tokyo. See screenshot below.  


Now I might want to know what time is that in Los Angeles, so I just choose Los Angeles from the time zone pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the iCal window.  See screenshot below.


The calendar will then shift to the time zone in Los Angeles, and I learn that the meeting is at 4:00 pm on Monday in Los Angeles.  See screenshot below.

Here’s How

1. Click on the iCal menu next to the Apple icon.
   
2. Click on Preferences.
   
3. Click on Advanced Tab.
   
   
   
   
4. Check on time zone support and close the window.
   
5. On the top right, you will see a time zone pop-up menu. Click on it, and choose Others to configure another time zone that will display in the pop-up menu.
   
6. To switch time zones, simply click on the time zone you desire.

Overlooked Features in iPhone 2.0 Software for iPod Touch

The major features of iPhone 2.0 Software may be the App Store and MobileMe synchronization, but there are some other features that may have been overlooked.

In addition to the App Store, Exhcnage support, and MobileMe support, the following are features that I think are significant:

1. Multiple calendars
   
2. Save images to photo library from Safari and Mail
   
3. New languages, dictionaries, keyboards and input methods (The Japanese Kana input keyboard is a good addition although there are still areas to be improved)
   
4. Mass delete and move of messages
   
5. Microsoft PowerPoint and iWork attachment viewing (Finally!)
   
6. Contacts search (no need to scroll through contacts to find someone)
   
7. Tapping the status bar scrolls to top of page (very nifty)

Here are screenshots of details of the what's inside the iPhone 2.0 software in iTunes. Most of the time I don't read the contents and just press next, but this time I actually took the time to read it, and found it quite informative.  

Another feature not documented here is that you have the ability to send mail from different accounts.

FMV-Deskpower F/A50: Fujitsu says we got style too to iMac

This shiny white computer from Fujitsu comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse to keep your desktop clean. Plug in the power adapter and you’re ready to go.

It’s all about the design

• The stand is built from stainless steel
  
• To preserve the smooth surface, this PC doesn’t come with the conventional buttons. The power button, DVD/CD eject button, and brightness controls are all controlled through touch sensors. 
  
  
  

Basic specs

• 16-inch wide monitor and allows for swivel, tilt, and height adjustment
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor – T8100 (2.10GHz)
  
• 2GB ram
  
• 250 GB hard disk
  
• Wireless LAN (IEE802.11b/g)
  
• Built-in stereo speakers
  
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
  
• Windows Vista Home Preimium with SP1 aand Office Personal 2007 Service Pack 1
  

On the right side

• DVD-R drive
  
• USB connector
  

On the left side

• PC card slot and SD memory card slot
  
• Mic input and headphone output
  
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
  

On the back

• 2 USB 2.0 ports
  
• LAN port
  
• Power plug
  

The Deskpower F/A50 has a suggested retail price of 169,800 (about 1,700 dollars). If you order from Fujitsu’s online store (Japanese), you can get it in pink and also customize the specs for a lower price.

If I weren’t an Apple fan, I might consider this computer. However, they really need to come up with a better name. Who’s gonna remember FMV-Deskpower F/A50?

Link:

FMV DESKPOWER (Japanese)

Record an entire week of TV programming with SPIDER zero

This beautiful white box is like the time machine of TVs. Specifically for Japan, it records all the TV programs from one week ago. There’s a catch though; in Japan cable and satellite TV is not all that popular, and the majority of people watch only 8 basic local channels. (Yes, maybe that’s why in Japanese, the term “channel surfing” doesn’t exist.)  So TV in Japan means 8 channels.  

Nevertheless, the concept is bold and revolutionary. It lets you envision a future where you can backup all the TV programming up to, let’s say, five years.

On its website it claims that the SPIDER zero will:

• record one week worth of TV contents
  
• up to 8 channels
  
• simultaneously
  
• automatically
  
• deletes old contents while it’s recording
  

In addition, SPIDER pulls schedules and information of TV programs from special servers through wi-fi. The information enables you to search through the programs you recorded.

Powerful searching
You can search by keywords, titles, and names of people starring in the shows, but that’s old stuff. You can also search by time with a cover flow-esque interface. (see below)



Features for the commercial lovers
If commercials are your thing, then you’ll love this. First, the Spider zero catalogs the commercials, and informs you which commercials are new. You can also find out what songs and who stars in the commercials as well. In addition, you can register the names of your favorite companies and products, and you can pull up commercials for those.

Saving and writing to DVDs
The SPIDER has set aside storage for you to save TV programs you want to keep. In addition, you can transfer the programs to DVDs.

It ain’t cheap!
The 1.3 terabyte version costs 300,000 yen (about 3,150 dollars) and the 2.5 terabyte version costs about 399,000 yen (about 3,990 dollars). On top of that, there is an annual service fee of 12,000 yen (about120 dollars). The service fee is for the downloading of data for TV programs’ schedules and info.

It does make you think, what if you could record all the TV contents there ever was and search through it like how you google something…


Link:
SPIDER zero website (Japanese)

Kor One: Water Bottle 2.0

Yes! Finally a water bottle that goes with your Wii and other shiny white gadgets.

Actually the company prefers not to call the Kor One a water bottle, but rather a “hyrdration vessel.”

What’s cool about Kor One:

• It’s white and sports a clean, simple, yet elegant design
  
• You only need one hand to open the bottle. According to the Kor One’s website, it “swivels open with a press of a button and a twist of the wrist.”
  
• Supposedly it’s made of materials that won’t contaminate the water like most other water bottles.
  
• You can personalize the bottle by putting a message (for example, a self motivating / inspiring message) under the cap. The message is printed on an oval-disk shaped, biodegradable, water-proof token. Every time you drink some water, you’ll see your personalized message.
  

The Kor One is available in August and will cost you $29.95 in US.


Sources:

• Uncrate
  
• Treehugger
  
• RKS Design
  
• Kor One