Monday, August 17, 2009
Any power user of email on the iPhone knows that one feature sorely lacking is true push email notification , at least where Gmail is being used as the mail provider. GPush is an app that looks to bridge that gap.
The UI is simple. Basically the end user enters his or her Gmail login ID and password, and awaits a confirmation from the GPush servers that the configuration is accepted. GPush encrypts login credentials for those who may be concerned with secure transmission of user ID and password.
GPush does exactly what it claims to do. When an email reaches the GMail account, a push notification is sent to the user's iPhone. This is a feature we in the enterprise space have come to expect from email clients on mobile phones since the advent of Blackberry and ActiveSync technologies. Why Apple didn't integrate IMAP push is anyone's guess, although I suspect battery life was a concern.
However, the GPush app should if anything improve battery life by allowing users to disable email polling on the iPhone client side. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen, as I have just implemented GPush on my own device today.
I like what I see so far, but I do have some requested enhancements. First of all, I'd like to be able to configure GPush for multiple accounts. It does not appear to allow me to do that. Secondly, I'd like to have a button on the push notification that automatically opens the mail client instead of simply showing me an OK button which really does nothing but close the dialog box. As it is now, I have to close the box, open GMail and refresh the client. And lastly, I'd like a way to clear the badges off of the GPush icon other than turning them off entirely.
All in all, GPush is a great app for GMail users. I think $0.99 is a stellar price. I'd like to see Apple eventually build this into the mail client, but until they do, I expect GPush will stay prominently on my iPhone.
UPDATE: it seems that I am having to reauthenticate into the GPush servers every 30 minutes or so. Tweets from the GPush team indicate that they're working on some issues, so I will assume they know about this one. Hopefully they've rectified it soon.
.: posted by
Dave
9:52 AM
Saturday, August 08, 2009
It's funny how one program's screw up can have unintended consequences, leading to a chain of frustrating events. That happened to me recently as I encountered an issue with Firefox 3.0.10 on my Hackint0sh netbook. It appears that Firefox 3.0.10 has something of a Flash stability issue. The only way I was able to fix it was to disable Flash. which didn't work when I actually wanted to view Flash content. So, I resolved to try something I had not done before - restore from Time Machine, Apple's robust built-in backup solution. My first attempt was to simply call up Time Machine, find the last backup before the Firefox issue, and roll back to that point. Sounds easy, right? Well, it turned out that I had permissions issues in restoring my Library folder. Library contains all of your user settings for every program you have installed. Without that folder's contents, you essentially have to reconfigure and re-register every program you have installed. I proceeded to repair the Mac OS permissions database, which ostensibly should have given me rights to restore my previous Library folder to the OS. However, this didn't work as I had intended. It restored only a subset of settings. I was flummoxed.
So, I decided to try a full restore using the Leopard install disk. Using the USB keys I had created for the original Hackint0sh install, I booted to the install disk and selected the option to restore from Time Machine.  I selected the proper Time Machine image, waited about 35 minutes, rebooted, and...
Doh!  For whatever reason, the Mac wasn't able to find the boot partition. I hadn't counted on this issue coming up. I was able to use the USB bootloader to direct me to the right partition, but not without it.
 After days of frustration, I came across a suggestion in a forum online that I reload the DellEFI bootloader from the GUI. I did so, rebooted, and that fixed the problem.
So, it turns out that Time Machine does play well with the DellEFI for the Mini 9 Hackint0sh. It just required a little research, and some patience. And now, I have a pretty straighforward way of restoring from Time Machine backups in case my Mini has a HD failure, or if I decide to upgrade.
Labels: Hackintosh, Mac OS X
.: posted by
Dave
4:44 PM
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
If you are in need of some new software for your Mac, or if you're a bargain hunter like me, you'll be interested in the Macweed Creative Bundle, available at macweed.net until August 10 for only $49.99.
.: posted by
Dave
10:32 AM
Monday, July 27, 2009
If you're an iPhone power user, you've no doubt ran into this problem:
OMG, my battery is almost dead!
With my old Treo 680, all I needed was an aftermarket battery that doubled the device's capacity and all was well in the world. But Apple, being the proprietary junkies they are, have stuck the end user with a non-replacable battery. Of course, there are always enterprising individuals out there who are willing to provide an alternative solution, so if you look hard enough, you can find an aftermarket battery replacement, but until I've had my iPhone a bit longer, I'm not willing to do something that will void the warranty. So, enter the external battery solution. To that end, I chose the Incase Power Slider (retail $89, on sale at Target for $62).
At first I was very pleased with the Power Slider. It added a lot of bulk to the iPhone which will turn off some users, but that's fine with me as I use mine in a manufacturing environment. The case fits snugly and definitely offers a high degree of protection for the device.
The external battery has to be charged for several hours before initial use. This isn't such a big deal unless you're absolutely dying for some juice to your iPhone on the spot. Once charged, just slide the phone into place, and you're good to go.
Now, as I said, I was pleased "at first". What turned me off of the Power Slider? For whatever reason, the case severely inhibits the signal strength of the iPhone by about 3 bars on average. In fact, in the factory and offices in which I work, I have zero coverage in about 3/4 of the area. For someone who relies on push notifications and network connectivity no matter where I am, this is unacceptable.
I don't quite see in the case's design where and why it is causing such a reduction in reception. As far as I can tell, the antenna is only covered by the plastic case.
To Incase's credit, they have offered a full refund based on a one year warranty on the case. I don't want to return it, as it offers solid protection, but I don't have a lot of choices here.
So, my question is this: what battery/power solutions do others use for their iPhone? Does anyone recommend an alternative case/battery combo that does not inhibit the mobile signal?
.: posted by
Dave
1:34 PM
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Truth be known, there are some things I miss about the Treo series of smartphones. One of the most obvious things is ZLauncher, a customizable app launcher. The default offering for the iPhone is just too limited.
What a power user needs is a tabbed launcher that contains only the apps for that particular tab. For example, I would like to have a tab for Utilities, another for Games, another for Productivity apps and so on. What the iPhone offers me is space for 176 apps plus 4 in the Dock, with no way of titling the individual panes that contain the apps. This just isn't very efficient.
What I and many other users would like to see is a dropdown or tab where i could assign apps to those panes. Given this functionality, I would be better able to find the app I need and the desktop would be more aesthetically pleasing and better organized.
For now, I find that I am forced to manually drag apps to different panes to organize them, and even then there is no way to title those panes, and I am limited to the screen real estate of 16 apps per pane.
Why doesn't Apple offer this out of the box? I have no idea. Why hasn't another developer provided such a solution? Likely because of Apple's imposed limitations on background processes that can or cannot run on the device.
Regardless, I'm hopeful that Apple finds a way to incorporate a more robust launcher into the next version of the iPhone software, or at least I'm hopeful that a third party can find a solution that will please Apple and iPhone users alike.
.: posted by
Dave
12:38 PM
Yes, I'm new to the iPhone. Yes, I'm pretty pleased with it so far. And yes, I often find some things that are a bit perplexing.
This morning I was looking at the iPhone Settings and i inadvertently clicked an unknown slider. Later, I noticed a mysterious phone icon in my system tray. Anyone know what this is and how to turn it back off?
.: posted by
Dave
10:24 AM
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
 Apparently, retailers aren't going out of their way to accommodate potential customers these days, especially loyal ones who have charge accounts there. You see, I went to Target tonight (which is much preferred to the alternative, Walmart)
Now I've been a long time patron of Target, even to the point of once holding two charge accounts there simultaneously. Currently, I have only one, which has not been used in many months. As such, I could not locate my card, and I was wanting to make a reasonably sized purchase. However, I was told that I needed to report the card lost, and wait 7-10 days for its arrival. When I asked why I couldn't just use the existing account, they said there was too much potential for fraud. "How do we know it isn't stolen? How can we verify the identity?", they asked. When I produced the account number along with 2 photo IDs, they were unfazed. So, just so we're all straight here... Target and their financial subsidiary have the belief that a customer who can recite their account number, and produce two photo IDs is quite possibly a fraudulent patron, while a person who has nothing more than a Target card in hand, with no semblance of an ID, cannot possibly be a thief. Sigh. It is no wonder so much waste exists in the credit card industry.
Labels: Financial, Poor Customer Service
.: posted by
Dave
10:34 PM
Thursday, May 28, 2009
If you're like me, you do a lot of your personal computing on a Dell Mini tricked out as a Mac. While this setup is terrific for the most part, there are sometimes some challenges. One such issue is with streaming Netflix movies.  It seems that Netflix hearts Silverlight, and Silverlight does not heart Power PCs. Or, more correctly, Silverlight only hearts particular Intel devices. Whenlight plugin the Silverlight plugin is installed, if you're running a Dell Mini, you see the error to the left.
Now, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this would matter, so I checked the package contents for clues. I found this:  Installation check? How quaint. I removed that file, and voila... we have Netflix on the Dell Mini running Mac OS X.
Labels: Hackintosh
.: posted by
Dave
11:14 PM
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Today was a pretty rotten day as days go. The morning at work presented some issues caused by typical ineptitude. When I arrived at my office, I discovered that I had forgotten my breakfast. An email from our credit union loan officer disclosed to me that mortgage rates are .6 % higher than when I started my refi application only days prior. A billing snafu led to us having our water turned off until tomorrow... sometime. My Speedpass wouldn't work at the local Exxon. And my dog barfed on the carpet for the second time in 24 hours. Indeed, days have been better. However, days have been much worse, and could be. Cases in point: one of our beloved church members died this weekend at the age of 50 of a sudden heart attack. Another had a leg amputated and is still sick in the hospital. Another friend has a child not much older than my oldest who has been diagnosed with three types of leukemia, and his survival odds are limited. It was not that long ago that my own grandmother lay dying in a hospital, while my newborn son struggled in the NICU to take a single breath on his own. Somehow, I don't feel like I have the right to complain. By the standards set above, I had a pretty fabulous day, I think. Perspective. It's all in one's perspective. Don't forget that however bad your day is, someone else's is likely worse. Keep that in mind the next time your dog pukes, or your water gets cut off, or you get cut off in traffic.
Labels: Thoughts
.: posted by
Dave
10:46 PM
Some friends of mine in the MIS world were discussing home computing issues this past week, and one that we all encountered was how best to access old emails from previous accounts. The traditional thing is to archive old email within the confines of a desktop client, whether that is Outlook, Express, Eudora, or something else.  Several years ago, on April Fool's Day if I recall correctly, Google changed all of that by introducing GMail. GMail gave the user gigabytes of storage, and coupled that with their well-developed search feature. At the time, GMail was web only, and had no real facility for interfacing with the desktop. Since then, Google has given the end user both POP3 and more recently an IMAP implementation (albeit somewhat quirky).
Of course, many users have stuck with their old ISP email, which ties them to a single provider unless they archive it. Once archived, email is often handled within the email client, which is most likely a proprietary format. So the discussion topic that evolved from all of this was - how can the end user move old email from PSTs, Eudora archives, etc. into GMail? Gmail already has the feature of importing existing POP3 mail from active accounts, but we're talking about archive files here. Lots of tools exist to accomplish just such a thing, but require a new app to be installed (which is platform dependent, naturally), or require translation of the archive file into another format. But the solution we liked best was simply to use the tools we already have. If you combine your existing email client, its archive files, and a separate mapping to GMail as IMAP, the process is pretty straightforward. - Open up the archive file.
- Copy the emails that you want to move to GMail.
- Paste into the appropriate folder in GMail.
Sounds easy enough, and I wonder why I never gave this much thought in the past. Now, I have an archive of about 6 GB of mail dating back to 2004, all searchable, all labeled, and all accessible from any browser on any major operating system, not to mention the space freed up on the network.My only hope is that Google keeps expanding the size of their mailboxes. Otherwise, I will have to create alternate usernames for storage. UPDATE: Someone asked me about offline access. In this case, I would either use GeeMail, an Adobe AIR client that runs on Linux, Mac and Windows, or enable Google Gears for offline Gmail access.
Labels: MIS
.: posted by
Dave
9:08 PM
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
It has been... oh, about ten months since I last posted to my blog. This after being a prolific poster for most of the last seven years. I know some people blog for money, others for fun, still others for vanity. Me? I did it because I had something to say and wanted to say it. But... I have to say that a lot of what I opined about was political in nature, as the lion's share of blogs seem to be. But standing on the political fence and yelling, and being yelled at, is so arduous these days. Society has become so polarized due to politics. There's a lot of what masks as debate, but it really is nothing more than oneupsmanship, name calling, and epithet hurling. It's like reading Crossfire, or the McLaughlin Group. So, I stopped. Cold turkey. The opinions stayed, but not the constant attention to the news cycle. Issues matter. Politicians and their antics, I can do without them. And the Kossacks and the Freepers... it just doesn't appeal to me. Anyway, I'm considering coming back to blogging, just not predominantly about politics. It doesn't do me any good to vent, really. There is no catharsis, no purge of the soul. So, in the coming weeks, I think I'm going to start hitting the little keyboard, talking about tech, and other stuff. And maybe someday soon, this blog will grow up, and move onto something else. In the meantime, go look around the web, find something that interests you, and talk about it. And if it starts to feel like work, stop doing it, and move onto something else. Blogging should be fun, not a task.
Labels: Blogging
.: posted by
Dave
8:32 PM
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