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March 3, 2012

Upgrading From An Ancient Nokia To Android Without A Data Cable

My mother finally got a smartphone today. Unfortunately we couldn't find the data cable for her old Nokia (Nokia 2330c-2) and as it's quite an old model it doesn't use micro-USB.
So how could we get the contact numbers off her Nokia and onto her new Samsung Galaxy mini?

There seem to be plenty of ways of doing it if you have the data cable, but if you don't your options are very limited.

However after much gnashing of teeth and pulling out what little hair I've got left I came across Syncmate, which is a really handy bit of software. It's also free, which is a plus (not that I mind paying for software, but I wasn't even sure if it was going to work)

It allows you to easily sync the phone book of most model phones to your Mac and vice-versa. Fortunately it also allows you to set which contact group you want the imported ones to go to, so you don't end up with a load of weird contacts on your Mac - and my mother doesn't end up with all my weird contacts on her new phone.

Copying the data from the old Nokia to the Mac was relatively easy, as it does it all over bluetooth pretty seamlessly. Getting it from the Mac back on to the new Samsung Galaxy mini took a little bit more work, though that was mainly due to me not having read the instructions properly. Simply download and install Syncmate via the Android marketplace and turn on bluetooth syncing and then off you go!

Full details on the software here.

I was looking for a solution for a specific problem, but after playing with this tool even for a few minutes I realised that it could be useful for my own day to day usage (I live in fear of losing my address book!) and it has a number of interesting options such as syncing to Dropbox, Google and a few other things.

 

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December 18, 2011

Apple Christmas Ad

Short and quite amusing:

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December 18, 2011

Quick Fix – Starting Firefox In Safe Mode on OSX

Firefox is a wonderful piece of software, but sometimes it has issues.. Trying to debug the problem can be made a lot easier if you start the browser in "safe mode" ie. with addons and plugins disabled

On OSX you can do this by holding down the "option" key when starting Firefox (it's the key with "alt" on the top)

Mozilla Firefox Logo

Image via Wikipedia

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December 5, 2011

Apple’s 1984 Ridley Scott Advert

Steve Jobs

Image by Patrick Nouhailler via Flickr

I'm currently reading the Steve Jobs biography. I wanted the "dead tree" version, so I had to wait for it to arrive, so I'm probably a bit behind compared to other people.

I don't remember the launch of the Macintosh, but I do remember the Apple stand at an exhibition in Cork around the same time. I have vague recollections of a video they were playing about IBM vs Apple, so it must have been roughly around the same period, though I could be completely wrong!

The imagery in the Ridley Scott directed advert from 1984 is very strong, though any version of the video I've found is pretty grainy.

Here it is:

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October 17, 2011

Audio Dedication To Jobs

Steve Jobs shows off iPhone 4 at the 2010 Worl...

Image via Wikipedia

This is doing the rounds on Youtube at the moment and it's pretty good - only Apple sounds and the voice of Steve Jobs were used in its creation:

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October 9, 2011

Boing Boing’s Retro Hommage to Jobs

The frontpage of Boing Boing the day that Steve Jobs died:

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August 13, 2011

Apple OSX Lion Keeps Re-Opening Documents!

CUPERTINO, CA - OCTOBER 20: Apple CEO Steve J...

CUPERTINO, CA - OCTOBER 20: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the new OSX Lion operating system as he speaks during an Apple special event at the company's headquarters on October 20, 2010 in Cupertino, California. Jobs announced the new OSX Lion operating system for Mac computers and iLife 11. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

One of the new "features" in Apple OSX Lion is "resume". The idea behind it isn't bad, but the execution is really annoying.

Basically what happens is this.

Say you open a Word document and then another and another, so you've got several documents open. You might have had to review them.. who knows? It doesn't really matter.

In previous versions of OSX and in pretty much any other OS I've ever used, when you quit Word (or any other application for that matter) when you re-opened it either directly or by opening a file associated with it, it would either open without any documents or just the one you wanted to view.

The new behaviour is that it "remembers" all the documents you had open the last time you used the software. While this might be useful in some scenarios, like a power loss or if your machine froze or something, it's really really annoying the rest of the time. For example, I was reviewing ten Word documents about 3 weeks ago. Unless I actually close each one separately from within Word they will automatically be opened the next time I start Word!

However there are a couple of ways of getting around this. Thankfully.

If you hold down the option key when quitting it *should* forget the windows (files) you had open, so the next time you open it they shouldn't be there (via)

Of course you can also disable the behaviour completely, but that might be a bit extreme, as it's pretty much the "nuclear" option.

UPDATE: Jonathan Brazil suggest this preference panel add-on which allows you to customise the behaviour on a per application basis

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August 7, 2011

Roberts Stream 83i – Quick Review

I am a fan of gadgets. I guess it comes with the territory.

For the last few years I've been using a pretty awful alarm clock radio. Sure it works - most of the time, but the audio quality is pretty dire and it lacked a few features that I wanted - like the ability to have alarms only on working days. If you forget to turn off your alarm on a Friday night being rudely awakened on a Saturday morning is more than a little annoying.

A couple of months ago I decided it was time to get a better alarm clock radio, but I ended up opting for a completely over-speced solution instead - a Roberts Stream 83i.
As a bit of a geek the Roberts' radio is probably just what the doctor ordered!

The device looks pretty slick:roberts-stream83i-radio.jpg

In terms of features it's got so many that it's hard to even begin to list them, but here we go.. with the official specification:
  • WiFi/DAB/FM RDS
  • USB socket
  • Intuitive menu system
  • Listen to over 10,000 radio stations from around the world
  • Listen to previous broadcast material using Listen Again
  • Listen to Podcasts
  • Stream your music collection from your PC
  • Wired or wireless connection
  • 10 station presets
  • Clock with 2 multi function alarms
  • Audio formats: MP3/WMA/Real/FLAC/AAC playback
  • Auxiliary input socket for iPod or MP3 play playback
  • USB socket for audio playback
  • Headphone socket
  •  AC Adaptor (included)
  •  Remote control (included)
  •  Size (mm) 248w x 210h x 135d
  •  Weight 1.8Kg
Hooking it up to my home network over wifi was incredibly easy, as it the Fritzbox was able to "pair" itself with it using WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), which means you don't have to try typing in long passwords into a device that doesn't have an actual keyboard.
Unfortunately I can't access any DAB channels where I live.. though I assume that they'll become available eventually ..
The feature that I really love is the integration with my last.fm account, as it means I can listen to the kind of music I like in any room of the house, ie. without having to use a computer.
I had problems getting the media streaming working initially, but the latest version of EyeConnect works very well, so I can now listen to music stored on my home office desktop machine in my bedroom if I want. The user interface for browsing it isn't exactly amazing, but it is quite functional :)
I have to admit that I haven't used a lot of the features, such as the iPod connection etc., as I haven't had any need to.
All in all it's a lovely device and I'm happy to have made the investment.
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Written by in apple, audio, Music 0 Comments
August 1, 2011

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – My New Addiction

Ezio from Assassin's Creed
Ezio from Assassin's Creed

Ezio from Assassin's Creed

I picked up a copy of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood a few days ago as it was discounted. While the range of games available on the Mac isn't exactly stellar,  I'm not much of a "gamer" under normal circumstances and haven't even turned on my Xbox 360 in a few months..

With Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, however, I've ended up totally hooked. Again this afternoon I spent several hours leaping from buildings and killing Borgia guards as if it was the most natural thing in the world - and I won't even mention last night..

The graphics are absolutely stunning and while you can't enter that many buildings on the huge map, you can climb over pretty much everything you can see - if you can find a foothold of course. The main character you control would have been a good addition to the cast of Banlieue 13 - his free running (parkour) skills are impressive!

The trailer below gives some idea of the storyline and graphics:

I'm currently stuck in Rome trying to get get into a tower, though I keep falling off the wall :(

And yes, I will keep trying, as I want to know what will happen next!

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July 26, 2011

My OSX Essential Apps in 2011

Apple 27" iMac

Apple 27" iMacAfter my issues with the Lion upgrade I ended up wiping the hard drive on my iMac and doing a completely fresh install.

I posted previously about a "spring clean" on a Mac and which applications I considered to be "essential" (and why)

That was almost two years ago, so while it's still a handy point of reference for me it's due an update.

So my essential software list in 2011 is probably not that different, but it's still slightly different:

  • Evernote - I use it for keeping track of my "todo" lists
  • DropBox - very handy for sharing files between multiple locations.
  • Quicksilver - while Lion's "Launchpad" goes some way towards providing this kind of functionality it's still not there yet as far as I'm concerned
  • Skype - I've been using this a lot over the last year or so to communicate with industry colleagues.
  • Microsoft Remote Desktop - for accessing Windows servers ..
  • Last.fm - I listen to music while working (and playing) so Last.fm is my tool of choice.
  • Tweetdeck / Seesmic - both are social network clients. Seesmic uses Microsoft Silverlight and hasn't been "happy" since I upgraded to Lion. Tweetdeck uses Adobe Air and seems to be more stable since the upgrade
  • Pixelmator - handy for editing screenshots, photos etc
  • Flickr - the Flickr desktop tool for uploading photos
  • Blip.tv - for video uploads
  • iShowUHD - for doing screencasts / tutorials
  • Video to Flash Converter - one of my hobbies involves films, so being able to convert .mov to .flv is handy for blogging ..
  • Ecto - desktop blog software.
  • Mac Update Desktop - very handy utility / service that keeps track of the software you have installed and lets you know when updates / upgrades are available. It also does a good job of managing the downloads and installs.
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