Air Sharing – what the iPhone has been missing

Since the day I forsook my iPod for iPhone’s shiny goodness I have missed the ability to store documents.  The new Air Sharing app from Avatron changes all this.  

Connecting your iPhone to your computer over the Wi-Fi network it allows you to transfer files making your iPhone a wireless attached drive.  In trying it out I’ve had good luck so far with everything working as expected.  While not as convenient as the iPod USB storage Air Sharing makes great strides in restoring this oft missed feature.

 

Best part is that Avatron is waiving the $6.99 cost for the app for the first two weeks it is on the iTunes store.    Go download and enjoy!

Wanted: Individually customizable SMS tones for my iPhone

Dear Apple,

I really love my iPhone. Your 2.0 update with the iTunes App store has totally transformed the device from high end phone to mobile communicator. However one of the most innovative features of the phone was present in its initial launch: visual voice mail. No longer did I have to hit next next next to skip past all the marketers to find that important message.

But SMS is the voice mail of the 21st century. With all the new ways the iPhone connects me to friends and family, for work or fun, the text messages are flowing at an incredible rate, in July I had nearly 5000. Sadly all SMS message arrive with the same ding, honk, quack, or vibrate (or nowadays silence). My twitter firehose has desensitized me and I am spending more and more time visually checking my phone for an important message from my girlfriend or Mashable.com.

Stemming the flow at its source is one option, but I’m of the mindset that my technology should adapt to my lifestyle not the other way around and you, Apple, have been strong influence in shaping that opinion. So Apple, would you add the ability for individually selectable SMS tones? I’d love to hear my girlfriend’s laugh when her SMS arrives and a robotic “tweet” with each twitter notification. In addition to happy and more productive iPhonauts you could build another wing to the iTunes store, at twenty-five cents per who could resist getting their iPhone to boink, blabble, cry, or personalize in some fashion that otherwise ethereal contact.

All the best

Rejaw.com + Ping.fm

Rejaw was added to the Ping.fm dashboard today, making it easier to add Shouts, Rejaw’s name for public messages. Private messages are available too and are called Whispers.

One of the nicer features of this newer microblogging platform is the threading of replies to your Shouts.

Rejaw’s present features remind me of Kwippy and I am interested to see how the Rejaw team distinguishes itself. Overall it’s a good easy to navigate platform. My only complaint is the lack of ability to easily post a Shout from the global Shout log.

When you stop by Rejaw Shout out or Whisper in my direction:
Rejaw – http://rejaw.com/kestrachern/

Tagga vs. Tatango: options with group SMS

 Two new group SMS startups opened their doors to the public this week. Tagga (http://tagga.com) billing itself as a location based tagging service and Tatango (http://tatango.com) designed for SMS broadcasts to an inclusive group.

Tagga generated SMS badge

Tagga allows a user to create custom tags that will return preordained information. For example selling a vehicle: text MooseB8 to TAGGA (82442). Tagga allows 80 characters in ad-sponsored mode or 120 characters if you wish to pay per each ad free SMS sent. Several preset formats exist, Standard, Website, and RSS with Voting and Newsletter coming soon.

 

Tatango embeded widget

Tatango is a push SMS service where users subscribe to groups to get updates and information based on the group administrator’s updates. Want to keep up with what is happening at Gulfport, Florida’s Geckofest visit:  https://tatango.com/join/2611-MjYxMS0   to sign up. A Basic account nets you one group with100 characters per message in ad-sponsored mode, while going Pro provides an increased number characters with no ads, more groups, integration into websites, and the ability for users to sign up using their mobile phone. Tatango also gives the administrator flexibility to send messages from either a web interface or mobile device and allow responses to be routed back to mobile devices.

 While both Tagga and Tatango can serve the same purpose, keeping users up to date with relevant information, they each take a different path to that end. Tagga allows the user to pursue the information they want while Tatango ensures users stay in the loop of information flow with pushed SMS. In either case, the end user is only responsible for the SMS cost per their contract agreement.

Tepache Batch 07 – Bottling Update

After the initial 48 hour fermentation the two portions of this batch were combined before bottling.

Yeild 14L
Taste: Sweet so far,with a more distinct cinnamon flavor.

Comments: One batch has some residual sugar/molasses at the bottom. Nothing noticeable in the other. Cinnamon flavor likely due to the use of cinnamon as a substitute for canela in one of the batches. Did not measure cinnamon when added, but estimate was in the neighborhood of two teaspoons. After bottling 2L was taken to Jeannie and1L to Rich for independent taste report. Both given instructions to leave open to the air for 24 hours then chill in the refrigerator before opening. In hindsight it may have been better to let fermentation finish at my location for quality control, but I was anxious to share and garner feedback.

Garden Report

The watermelon is starting to take over. It has been growing an inch or more a day… I expect to see the Audrey III waiting out there some morning.

Tomatoes are transplanted and growing again. I waited way to long to move them to larger pots.

I picked up some more seeds this weekend, peas, beans, corn, pickle cucumbers, and turnips. Plan on getting a few of them started this week.

The grapefruit and lemon trees are coming along, about 3 inches. Lemonade is a ways off.

Time to go water.

Tonight’s Tepache – Batch 07

Tonight’s recipe is as follows:

2L water
1 stick canela
3 cloves
2 cups sugar
2 Tblspn unsulphured Molasses
1 pineapple

I made 12L in 2×6L batches. I’m planning to let it sit for 48 hours before re bottling it.

Changes for Batch 07
1 cup less sugar per instance of recipe
1 tablespoon less Molasses per instance of recipe
slightly less pineapple per instance of recipe

For coming batches I’d like to start measuring mass of pineapple to get more consistent.

Switching from brown sugar to white sugar and molasses has improved the taste.

Complete Social network management

I’ve recently started exploring SocialThing! (http://socialthing.com) and find it is quickly becoming my favorite lifestreaming app. I am very fond of how it dynamically updates and sorts postings from all my friends, allowing me to post individual responses or a more broadcast style ala Ping.fm

I’d love to see more competition in this area. had I the resources I would acquire Ping.fm or Hellotxt.com and merge services with Lifestream.fm chi.mp or friendfeed.com

More and more sites are copping up every day that will show you your online presence.. A lesser number are providing user the ability to post/update their status, microblog, and blog sites.

Remember the search engine competition that effectively ended when google came online? I’m seeing a new race begin as social networking sites vie to be the most polished, easiest to use and having the greatest number of diverse services.

It’s not just the Hoff

In my exploring of social networking and social media sites the US, specifically the San Francisco Bay area, continually is the most prolific area for startups and ideas. However I have been finding that Germany (and I’ve not pinned down a specific locale but Berlin in prominent) is pushing forward with almost as much tenacity and creativity.

Some of the recent startups are innovative, http://ping.fm/8utS2 some are pushing along similar lines http://ping.fm/7NnkD and others are direct copies http://freundenews.de when there is no German language support in the original.

I’m going to watch Berlin closely the next few years in hopes that it will become a nexus of Internet creativity as San Francisco did in the late 20th century.

iPhone upgrade shenanigans

When I went to the local Apple store last week to upgrade my existing iPhone to the extra specially shiny 3G version everything went very well (hardly any line, lots of phones on hand) until the credit card was run. My bank would not process the card leaving me no option other than to cancel the sale.

By this point in the process AT&T had disabled my original phone’s sim card and replaced the original billing plan with the new required 3G version. Worst of all was the removal of eligibility for an upgrade discount.

Although I am frustrated with my bank, Apple and AT&T’s arrangement left me bewildered.
Waiting to have the iPhone activate and switching the billing plans until the purchase was authorized by the bank would have save heartache on my part and hours of work on the part of the Apple and AT&T representatives.

Last Friday I was told the problem would be resolved in 72 hours… today is Wednesday and I’m still waiting for the last portion of the problem to be reversed.