AT&T So WHAT! Or why AT&T only.

Ok so all the reviews are out about the iPhone, and I am sure that if you are reading this then you probably have read all those…twice. The one major complaint is that the iPhone is exclusive to the AT&T network. This is interesting. And it really does not matter.

The reason I say it doesn’t matter is because look at your other choices, T-Mobile, Sprint, or Verizon. Verizon would be the next logical choice as it is the other major player in the U.S. But Verizon has one major drawback, it uses U.S. only networks, meaning that the iPhone would have to be different to work in other countries, leading way to two models. And Apple is not big on having to make their products different for different areas of the World.

Read on…

Apple Mail: A needed feature

If you read this blog at all you are aware of the fact that I use Highrise by 37 Signals. This is excellent software for CRM (I am only a customer) with a feature that allows you to BCC a drop box email address which then posts the record of that email correspondence on your contact within Highrise.

This is pretty sweet, but I have one problem. My memory. I forget to do this everytime I send and email, or reply to one. So what do I do. Miss out on a great feature that is what. I have looked around and have thus far not found a way to auto BCC Highrise when i am creating an email or responding to one.

Does anybody know of a way?

I would really appreciate this feature.

Omnifocus, a first glance.

I finally got my beta version of Omnifocus. I had a chance to play with it yesterday, and up to this point I am not ready to switch to this program. I have used every GTD program for a Mac out there, and found myself settling on Backpack. And yet I don’t really know why. Omnifocus is the best of the GTD programs that I have used. MidnightInbox is buggy for me, and very slow. I never was a fan of kGTD / kinkless, and iGTD and the others just didn’t work for me.

This is not to say that the competition is weak, but rather that it does not work for me. The reason that I will not switch to Omnifocus is simple. I cannot input things to it from my cell phone (unless through iCal but that requires me to sync my phone each time). I can do this with the mobile Backpack, which may not be the fastest but I can get things down in my system and off my mind.

Review: AT&T Option GT Max 3.6 Express

Yesterday I picked up and AT&T branded Option GT Max 3.6 expresscard to use with my Macbook Pro. When this card first came out it was not officially supported by the Mac, instead it was recommended that you buy the USB antenna, no thanks. I did something that I do not normally do, I went out and bought the card without checking to make sure that it really did work. I just remember the WWAN update that Apple pushed and hearing a few bloggers say that this card should now work.

I got the card home popped it in my Macbook Pro expecting something to pop up, and nothing. I loaded the CD, nothing for Macs. I searched the web and found the manufacturers website which would allow no downloads. I scoured forums. I never thought to check the product page on AT&T website, but had I done that first I would have seen this link.

Quick Though: Sound in OS X

One feature I love with Windows Vista is the ability to control the sound volume for each individual program, this is very nice. But one thing that OS X does that i just notice is automatically adjusts the volume when the output changes.

Meaning if I have my volume all the way down, the plug in headphones, it turns the volume back up to the last level I had the headphones at. This is very slick because my volume is off all day at work, except when I plug in headphones to listen to emailed voice mails.

Thanks Apple, nice touch. Took me a while to notice it though.

BT DUN and iPhone

I was in my local AT&T store picking up an expresscard (look for that review later today) to use with my Macbook Pro, and it dawned on me, would the iPhone support BT DUN? For those of you who don’t know BT DUN is bluetooth dail-up networking, or using you BT connection to your cell phone to access the internet. I have posted on doing this with an 8800, I also did it with my Treo’s in the past. It has never been fast (read: optimized) and has always been a pain to get working correctly.

But with the almighty iPhone coming would it allow it? I can imagine a dialog box popping up when I am on the road and I open my Mac that says “No wireless / wired networks detected, would you like to use your iPhones connect?” Clicking yes would establish the connection is seconds. Clicking No would tell you that you suck.

I really really hope that you can use BT DUN on the iPhone. Please Steve, Please.

Youtube on the iPhone

Ok so it is official Youtube will be availible on the iPhone and the Apple TV. That is soooo awesome. The only problem I see now is that battery life is not as great as it sounds, cause this is the ultimate toy, cant wait to have mine.

Also YouTube on the Apple TV, man I am one step closer to getting one of those now. I mean who doesn’t like to watch YouTube videos over and over again.

Backpack lovin it.

I am becoming a huge fan of Backpack and Basecamp and Highrise all by 37signals. One thing that I found this week that has really helped me out is the revelation that you can add iCal feeds to the calendars of both Backpack. This is awesome, because I use iCal to sync with my Blackberry (soon to be iPhone [crossing fingers]) and yet I want to be able to sync that up with Backpack. Well fear no more by publishing the iCal calendars (in iCal) you can then subscribe to them in Backpack. This is not the full synchronization that I would like, because I cannot edit/add items in Backpack on these calendars.

My solution to this problem is to add the item to my Backpack calendar, and subscribe to that calendar in iCal. This will sync with my phone(s) and provide a hassle free solution. I do not want to have Backpack as my primary calendar just yet, I am uneasy about relying on a web based calendar just yet, as I don’t always have web access, and usually always need my calendar open.

8800 and BT DUN on Mac

I have used BT DUN (Bluetooth Dial-up Networking) with cellphones before, and it never really did so well. But last week I was stuck off site with no internet for 4 hours. In order to get work done and save my sanity I needed to get work done. I was stuck in a vacant building waiting for the phone company and alarm company to show up.

So I had set up my Blackberry 8800 when I got it to work with BT DUN and configured all the settings a did a quick test, so I knew it would work, but how well?

Not fast enough by any means to use the net like I regularly do, but I was able to check email (pointless easier to use it on the Blackberry) read news feeds via Google Reader, and also manage and organize on Backpack.

It was all slow going, but well worth the time. Beats the heck out of sitting around playing chess on my Mac. This link is more or less how I got it working.

WiFi Memory Cards??

Ok so this story over at c|net talks about new memory cards that are coming to the market that would have integrated WiFi chips in them for the purpose of wireless transmitting pictures to your computer and to webpages such as Flickr.

While this is a noble idea and the memory card makers are trying to jump ahead of camera makers by using this technology. They are also trying to boost revenues. All noble causes for a business, oh and they claim to want to help consumers by eliminating the need for wires to transfer pictures.

This most certainly is the dream of the future, but it uses all the wrong standards.

Here is why…