Tag: google

End User: Goodbye, Operator

Published in San Antonio Current, October 13, 2007. This was my last column.

Many users miss technology that’s right under their fingers. While everybody “gets” the internet, and cell phones, and even GPS navigation for their car (those who can afford it), there’s a whole slew of people who have never sent or received a text message.

So I just had to write this. For anyone still dialing 411 on their phone — and getting charged up the kazoo — or calling movie theaters to get showtimes, or even leaving short voicemails that have to be listened to and dealt with and deleted, listen up:

Text is now a verb.

Got text? I have a couple of friends who don’t have text messaging on their mobile plan. They get charged even if they unwittingly receive a message. Do yourself a favor and call your mobile provider. Like, yesterday.

The thing is, text is civilized. It’s quick. It’s efficient. It promotes good manners. It can even be hot if you do it right.

If you don’t yet know how to send a text message, I promise you it’s built into your phone. Look for the “messages” menu or something like it. Some phones call it by its proper name, SMS, which stands for “short message service.” SMS is a protocol built into all modern cell-phone networks, though it can also be used from some websites or to send an email.

Hey, for kicks, try that last bit. Send a text message to your own email. Then you’ll know your phone’s email address. That could come in handy.

Now the part where I save you time and money: Send the word “help” (no quotes) to the number 46645. That’s GOOGLE, and the great Goog in the sky will send you back a short set of instructions for using its SMS-based info service. If you send “m 78229” you’ll get movie showtimes in your area. “W 78204” will get you the weather. “Pizza 78209” is a beautiful thing. And by the way, if you first send “location 78209,” well by gum, you won’t have to type your zip code each time. Killer.

Now I blow your mind: “2*8” will return “16” and if you send “15 miles in kilometers” you’ll see “24.14016 kilometers,” which, by the way, works in a Google search, too.

“T” is for “translate.” I sent “t por supuesto from spanish to english” (caps unnecessary), and within seconds got “by all means.”

I update my Twitter feed by text. I can send “dinner with Michael 7pm tomorrow” to 48638 (GVENT) and it will add that event to my Google calendar, which in turn synchronizes via Plaxo and fairly quickly makes its way to my phone.

Finally, this tip isn’t about messaging, but you should call 800-466-4411 right now. That’s 800-GOOG-411. Free information, powered by Google. No ads, yet. Speak clearly, and Google’s friendly robot will connect you to the business of your choice.

So may I request that the phone company not send the big yellow book to my house anymore? I’m covered. •

End User: Breaking the Chains

Published in San Antonio Current, September 19, 2007

Following up on my discussion of the auction of the wireless spectrum: Google had asked the Federal Communications Commission to impose four requirements on whoever won the use of the 700Mhz bandwidth: open applications, open devices, open services, and open networks. Of those, the FCC accepted open devices (e.g. unlocked phones) and open applications (such as Skype).

If you can’t join ’em, sue ’em: The wireless carriers — our great benefactors — are obviously unhappy with any of those requirements; the end of their inflated fees and shackling contracts may be nigh. Verizon has petitioned the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to make the FCC ditch the open-access mandates altogether. Google has expressed disappointment at Verizon’s move; Google’s head of special initiatives, Chris Sacca, blogged, “Once again, it is American consumers who lose from these tactics.”

Apple has reportedly been “studying” the ramification of joining the auction itself. Having finally acquired an iPhone, I can envision all the more clearly a near future for the clever devices — from different manufacturers, all unlocked, and many installed with open-source Linux — roaming a giant gas cloud of wireless internet.

Meanwhile, Google the Instigator has reportedly been collaborating with mobile-device-maker HTC on the rumored Gphone. HTC has already released the HTC Touch, a very sleek Windows Mobile smart phone with specs similar to the iPhone. I would be stunned if Google wants to put the terribly clunky Microsoft operating system on their first branded hardware; I will hope for a very hackable G-flavored Linux.

Speaking of, I’m well pleased by the hackability of the iPhone’s OS — you know, the one that Apple has supposedly blocked from accepting third-party applications? Just in the last couple of weeks, these hacks have come into their own, involving a simple initial “unshackling” or “jailbreaking” procedure. I’ve hacked the heck out of my iPhone with freely available apps, including games (not that I want them sucking on my precious battery), a Flickr uploader, a task list (which the iPhone so far lacks), and a simple word processor. One also gets access to the Ringtones folder to upload any MP3 in one’s collection.

I’m hoping all of this spells the beginning of some real and significant changes to the iPhone’s software. It’s an amazing device — it took my Treo out to the back shed and spanked it till it squealed — but there’s so much unrealized potential.

Finally, my personal chain-breaking story: In July, Palm released a software update for the Treo 700p. I followed the slightly Gordian instructions to install, and it promptly broke the phone’s internet connection. Meh. I had to take the Treo offline and then back online every time I wanted to use the speedy internet, the one I pay an absurd fee for every month. Oh, yeah: The Treo was also still hanging periodically (what the update was supposed to fix) and it synched all my calendar events into the wrong time zone.

Seven hours of tech-support calls later, and I was out of my Verizon contract with no termination fee … and back in another two-year contract with AT&T. Hello, iPhone. Hello, shackles.

End User: White Light, White Heat, White Space

Published in San Antonio Current, August 15, 2007

Urban dwellers now take their broadband for granted. Whenever I talk to folks who live near places like Floresville and La Vernia, rural communities not far from SA, I’m reminded to be grateful for my speedy connection. Outside the city limits, one has to go to weird lengths to get a decent signal, including renting a big dish that talks to another big dish far, far away. That ain’t cheap, but it’s actually cheaper and faster than satellite internet.

You may recall a few columns ago, I wrote of my frustration at lacking a Verizon phone signal in much of West Texas. The solution to blanketing America in broadband and phone access may be around the corner. Bear with me: There’s some science coming up, and some strange business happenings, but the results might be spectacular.

In July, Google made public its intent to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s January 2008 auction of the 700 MHz spectrum, the “white space” where the traditional analog TV channels 2 through 51 currently live. Google, in characteristic egalitarian spirit, asked the FCC that the frequencies be reserved for “open access” by wireless devices, a notion in line with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s call for a “truly open broadband network.” And Google tossed out a figure: $4.6 billion (that’s billion with a B). Damn.

Observers speculate that Google is scheming to pit itself against current mobile-phone providers. The term “Google phone” gets batted around a lot, and it’s funny how positive everyone seems to be about the notion of the big G becoming our new mobile master. But who on Earth gets good vibes from Sprint, Verizon, or — sheesh — AT&T?

Notes: Television owners learned a couple years back that those VHF and UHF broadcast channels are going away in 2009, to be replaced by digital TV. Also, the 700 MHz spectrum actually comprises frequencies between 2 MHz and 698 MHz. One can find a complete chart of the radio-frequency (RF) spectrum online — and it’s a yummy chocolate geeksicle, broken down to the third decimal place between the big services, including AM and FM radio, broadcast TV, cellular and cordless phones, and good stuff like “maritime mobile,” “aeronautical radionavigation,” “radio astronomy,” and “earth exploration satellite.” Briefly as I can, however: Each service is assigned exclusive portions of RF, but those portions aren’t continuous. AM, for example, gets 153 to 279 kHz, 520 to 1,610 kHz, and 2.3 to 26.1 MHz. And FM radio actually occupies frequencies between TV channels 6 and 7. (These numbers are specific to the U.S., dontcha know.)

Hours before I started writing this, Sprint released its second-quarter earnings: $19 million, down 90 percent from $291 million the same period last year. Damn. The explanation is that Sprint spent $51 million on their WiMAX initiative.

WiMAX is the intended successor to WiFi, the kind of wireless network that you can set up with a $40 router, getting you a range of 100 or 200 feet, depending on your building’s structure. WiMAX is intended to travel a bit farther, going the “last mile” of network, say from a tower to your home. Similar to DSL, the speed of a WiMAX connection decreases over distance.

Sprint is set to roll out its WiMAX network in 2008. They are partnering with a mobile broadband provider named Clearwire, and with — yup — Google. Clearwire has already received FCC approval for its WiMAX card for laptops, which would provide greater speeds than do mobile broadband cards currently offered by Sprint and its competitors.

Now comes the other possibility for that coveted 700 MHz.

Back in March, a coalition of tech companies, including Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Philips, and — yup — Google, presented a prototype white-space wireless-broadband device to the FCC. (A second prototype was submitted in May.) The Commission will spend the next couple of years testing the technology, checking, among other things, that it doesn’t interfere with TV signals, as digital TV will continue to operate between 54 MHz and 698 MHz.

So here’s science: WiFi operates at 2.4 GHz, which has a limited range and has trouble going through walls. This is why some buildings need more than one wireless router. WiMAX works at 2.5 GHz and above, and again, WiMAX will only get to you a couple of clicks from each tower. (By the way, Sprint collaborator Clearwire purchased the 2.5 GHz spectrum from AT&T in June for $300 million.)

Broadcast TV, however, shows us that 700 MHz signals can span many miles.

Ah-hah! Could this be the beginning of internet phone everywhere? Could we finally get unlimited calling and see the end to those stupid minute-usage plans that are gouging our wallets every month? Will Sarah finally admit that it’s not Jack’s baby? Stay tuned, and rural America, hang on to your downloading hats. •

End User: The Internet Giveth, and …

Published in San Antonio Current, September 5, 2007

In May, I devoted a column to griping about how difficult it has been to keep one’s calendars and contacts synchronized between devices and online services. I am super-jazzed to say that our wait is officially over, and I’m wearing my party hat. Plaxo, whom I mentioned at the time, has released a preview, or beta, of its revamped service, which now offers syncing — of both calendars and contacts — between Outlook, Outlook Express, Mac, Yahoo!, Gmail (calendars only, for now), and several other databases. And not only does it work beautifully, but it has already saved my butt when my calendar got corrupted.

This, finally, is one completed lane in a bridge to a unified online experience, where we can use all the available tools, and our data is available in any one of them.

Run, don’t walk, to Plaxo.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Another service I want to mention is GrandCentral.com, where you sign up for a phone number for life, for free, to be forwarded to any other phone number you choose. Voicemail and everything. This is the latest über-cool web technology that Google has acquired. They have it in beta, and one can sign up to be invited to join. Now we get to wonder how Google plans to tie GrandCentral in with the rumored Google Phone …

… and the internet taketh away.

End of summer is typically a slow time for tech, but this month screeched to a halt a couple of times, forcing us to become all too keenly aware of our reliance on the internet.

On July 24, a power outage in San Francisco took out services at a major colocation facility at 365 Main St. Colocation, or colo, is a business that offers rental of a server in a secure, climate-controlled, 24/7-staffed, and yes, power-redundant building. Colo might mean sharing a single server with other folks, or having one, or two, or a gajillion servers all to yourself. One might own the server, or just rent it. To ensure that your website shouldn’t ever go down, you should host it on a colocated server.

(Bringin’ it back home: San Antonio’s Rackspace, for example, is a colocation agency.)

Apparently, 365 Main’s “continuous power supply” was not exactly that, and consequently, some of the web’s most popular sites — Netflix, Craigslist, and Technorati, to name a few — were out for several hours. It was money down the “series of tubes,” and at least one service’s user base is said to have been permanently damaged by the failure.

Then Skype went down on August 16. Skype is the incredibly useful voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) service that lets one have audio and video conversations around the world for free, or on the cheap if one needs to call a conventional phone. For two days, 220 million users were blocked from logging into the Skype servers.

And then Elton John claimed the internet is destroying music. He wants the internet taken down for five years. Sir Elton may be off his piano bench, but Web heads obviously can’t take anything for granted these days. •

End User: Music, Stat!

Published in San Antonio Current, August 1, 2007

Once again, the government wants to kill our good time. Last week, the House Government Reform Committee called peer-to-peer file-sharing software such as LimeWire a “national security threat.” LimeWire and the Gnutella network it uses are a popular means to share music and video — often copyrighted — across the internet. Chairman Henry Waxman and his peers warned Mark Gorton, CEO of LimeWire, that his software could turn a computer into a weapon.

The Committee’s concern stemmed more from an accidental misuse of the software than from any deliberate leaking of sensitive material. LimeWire would be a pretty dumb tool for terrorists, but it is also a really dumb thing to install on a computer that contains classified information. Of course, there are a gajillion other ways to get files across the ’net. The mere act of connecting Microsoft Windows to the internet can compromise your digital stuff. Why wasn’t Bill Gates in this hearing?

While the recording industry does not seem to be directly involved with this particular attack on LimeWire, the RIAA has made 2007 its banner year to prevent you from actually hearing the music it records. It has threatened internet radio [“Dead Air,” July 11-17] and sued college students for sharing music. So this seems a fitting time to list some more above-board, even legitimate, ways to get great tunes for free.

First I’ll list some “streamed music” services. Streaming typically means that you can listen in one direction only — forward — and that you don’t get to store the music unless you use a parlor trick (easily learned) to record the audio your computer is receiving. I love turning people on to Pandora. This site asks you to create a “radio station” by entering an artist or song. Pandora then uses its database of “music genomes” to construct a list of songs related to your original selection. Pandora is one of the most high-profile services imperilled by the crackdown on internet radio.

Wolfgang’s Vault is a crazy good time. Bill Sagan discovered and bought the collection of concert recordings and memorabilia of late legendary rock promoter Bill Graham, and Sagan’s company has spent a considerable amount of time and resources documenting all of those recordings and posting them online for your listening pleasure.

Real.com offers Rhapsody, a neat subscription that lets you choose from millions of tracks, store and share your choices. You can pay for “unlimited” access. I know many people who dig Rhapsody, though I found the site more clunky than others, and it crashed two of my browsers and wouldn’t work with the third.

Now comes the double-plus fun. Without installing any security-menacing software, you can find MP3s from all over the internet, yours to keep. Google can track down music files. You can look up the tricky syntax for the searches (Google “how to find mp3 with Google”), or use a site like http://www.b3ta.cr3ation.co.uk to do the geek-work for you.

Somewhat newer to the scene are music or MP3 blogs, where fans discuss music and post listenable and viewable files. Sites such as Hype Machine (hypem.com) and Elbo.ws scour, track, categorize, and sort the content of these blogs.

But here’s the magic: Whenever you do a search in Hype Machine, a link to a “feed” is generated for you. You can ask iTunes (or another music app) to subscribe to that feed. Click “Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast …” and iTunes will start downloading the top song result from your search. Then you can ask it to grab more. A constantly refreshing set of songs from your artist is downloaded daily (or hourly, weekly, etc.), ready to be synced to your iPod (or another portable music device).

Hype Machine was the recent discovery that made me get up and do a little dance. (No, I didn’t post said dance on YouTube. And by the way, if anyone says “cat playing piano” to me again, I’m gonna drink Drano.) They let you play your search results in their own little window, but the ability to find and keep a track you like is just golden. And it’s just the kind of gold that the music industry wants to deny us, even though it ultimately attracts ears and purses to their product. So take a cue from Janis, and get it while you can.

GrandCentral “Call Me” badge

GrandCentral is a pretty neat service, recently purchased by Google. I signed up, and while I’m not giving the number out because I mostly get spam on it, I have put this badge on my web sites. Click it and check it!

http://embed.grandcentral.com/webcall/071fe538d56953e40a549d85beede31d

End User column: Out of Range, Out of Mind

No, it has nothing to do with the iPhone. Yeah, right. Next time there will hopefully be something else to talk about.

BTW, I’ve helped two clients work with three iPhones, and they do rock, but we’ve definitely run into some limitations. I’m looking forward to the software updates, and to the next generation.

Published in San Antonio Current, July 4, 2007

Roswell, NM, two days before release of the iPhone — Yes, I asked if this motel room included wifi. Today, I asked. Yes, they have it, or at least they feature it, but today, it’s out. You’ll like this: They claim it’s out due to “a few car accidents.” I’m still picturing that.

Phone signal’s gone, too. I’m writing from a dial-up connection. Feh.

Thankfully, I have saved upgrading my notebook until autumn; some modern laptops don’t even include modems anymore.

Sunday, July 1 — Now we know: Should you buy an iPhone? If you’re a person who would right now spend $500 on the coolest gadget on the planet to entertain yourself, hie thee to the Apple Store. At just the right size and weight, the device does what it does marvelously. I found it responsive — snappy, says the geek — and almost tactile. Browsing the web on the big, bright screen kicks butt, typing works pretty well, and the audio/video experience cannot be beat. The iPhone owners I have talked to this weekend knew what they were getting, and while some had to overcome minor hurdles to get going with it, they’re generally very pleased.

If you wanted, however, to consider that $500 a business expense to make you a better, stronger, faster thing-doer, then you might want to wait. Among the iPhone’s failings, for example, the fact that it won’t cut, copy, paste, or even select text tops my list. I’d go crazy not being able to grab a snippet from a web page or easily forward just a portion of an email. Very strange, Penny Lane. So, I didn’t buy one, and I’ll have to wait for 2.0.

OK, no more iPhone today, I promise.

Avoid the worst day of your life: File this under “mundane, but vital.” If you store anything of value on your computer, you should know that storage is doomed to fail. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, Ilsa, but hard drives (the main storage mechanisms inside computers) are extremely delicate, and many are faulty right out of the factory.

Please, please, please backup, backup, backup: Always keep multiple copies of everything, and in at least two different places.

To start with, do yourself a favor and go to Mozy.com to sign up for 2 gigabytes of free online backup for personal use. They offer very smooth software for Mac and Windows that waits until you’re not touching your computer, then it backs up any files, or categories of files, you choose.

Extra cool: If you refer a friend to Mozy, they should enter your email address when they sign up, and you will each get an extra 256 megabytes of free storage.

Mozy Pro for business use starts at only $4.45 a month for 1Gb. One lovely alternative is, surprisingly, Amazon’s S3 (“Simple Storage Service”), which costs $0.15/Gb/month. Other online backup services exist, but they tend toward pricey.

It would take too long to back up your whole computer across the internet, so I encourage (read: rabidly demand) that everyone buy at least one “external hard drive” to sit next to your machine and receive daily automatic backups. CompUSA carries several models, as does the Apple Store. Then it’s best to download and set up software to make the backups happen for you. Grab a geek if you need help there.

(Microsoft Windows has semi-OK backup software built in, and Apple’s next version of Mac OS X will include something new and purportedly very snazzy called Time Machine.)

Finally, to be thorough, upload all those precious photos to a site such as flickr.com or picasaweb.google.com. They offer more space than most people will ever need, and you can make images either public or private.

Then kick back and congratulate your wise self. You’re safe to surf.

Next time: nothing about the frickin’ iPhone, maybe.

Jonathan Marcus publishes online at themacwhisperer.blogspot.com.

End User: The Littlest App

Published in San Antonio Current, June 20, 2007

I wanted to like MySpace. But it’s atrocious: ugly, clunky, ad-ridden, the polar opposite of Google. And like so many atrocities, it’s hugely popular. I got nothing from MySpace, however, except spam from pretend women, and as all the tech podcasters I listen to have shunned MySpace and emigrated to Facebook or Virb, I thought I’d give the former a try.

One of Facebook’s features is to scan your address book and look for email addresses of existing Facebook users. Also, searching in Facebook is more efficient, and within two weeks, I got howdy-do’s from three different high school classmates, all of whom I’m glad to hear from.

Turns out that one of my old ’mates, John Lilly (not the late Day of the Dolphin guy), is now COO of Mozilla, the non-profit org that manages development of Firefox, the free, open-source web browser that currently enjoys about 15% browser market share in the U.S. (“Mozilla” was the codename of Netscape Navigator, the first popularly available web browser.)

If you own a Windows computer, and you still use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, your fly is open and waiting for some nasty digi-bug to crawl into your PC’s trousers and have its way with you. Plus, you’re missing out on blocked web ads and saved browser sessions. (If you rock a Mac, you’re safe on the ’Net, but you should check out Firefox, or Camino, a browser made for the Mac on top of the Firefox engine.)

Coincidentally, my reconnecting with John came at a fun time for browser buffs. First of all, Firefox 3 is on the horizon, with some lovely features such as private browsing. Next, this last Monday, June 13, Apple Computer made a couple of piquing announcements: It has released for Windows a beta version of Safari, the web browser that comes with every Mac; and the iPhone (June 29, y’all!) will run a full version of Safari, supporting Web 2.0.

I hear ya: What the @#$% is Web 2.0? To oversimplify, it’s the movement to make the web less boring than it used to be. You know how, on Netflix, you can put your mouse over a film’s name, and a little balloon pops up with plot and director info? Or if you go to http://www.apple.com, there’s a search blank at top right that now drops down search results as you type. That’s all Web 2.0. Google Documents and Spreadsheets are pure Web 2.0. Which means that, if Apple’s promises are fulfilled, then boom, the iPhone has word processing… IF you have an internet connection. And you will, and it will cost you.

The latest versions of Windows and Mac OS X also have mini apps, called “widgets” or “gadgets,” depending on who you ask. Many of these are created with the same kind of code that makes Web 2.0 tick, and I sniff that Apple intends to make these insta-apps playable on the iPhone.

In his presentation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented his vision for the web’s future, in which Internet Explorer and Safari will dominate to the exclusion of all other browsers. So I couldn’t resist asking John Lilly what Mozilla’s thoughts were on Apple’s news. He first got me a very diplomatic statement from Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering: “Mozilla’s mission is to promote an open, interoperable and participatory Internet. We encourage Apple to put their weight behind open standards and the open Web to help ensure all browser users, regardless of operating system or browser, can enjoy the best possible Web experience.”

I suspected that somewhat stronger feelings ran through the Ethernet at Mozilla HQ. John confirmed this with a post on his blog: “There are a couple of problems [with Apple’s view]. The first is that this isn’t really how the world is. The second is that, irrespective of Firefox, this isn’t how the world should be. A world of tight control from a few companies … destroys participation, it destroys engagement, it destroys self-determination. And, ultimately, it wrecks the quality of the end-user experience, too. Remember when you had to get your phone from AT&T? Good times.”

Yes, I remember that, and I also remember the browser wars between Netscape and IE, when you’d find the words “This site best viewed by Internet Explorer.” To paraphrase Bill the Cat, pppphptpt! I found a thing I wrote about the browser wars back when I didn’t get paid to do so, on a proto-blog in 1998: “Computers connected to the internet will not be truly functional until they all speak the same language.”

I tried Apple’s new Safari, and am pleased that it works better on sites with which Safari used to have problems, sites that until now I have needed Firefox to view. So now I have more choice, and that’s fine. If Apple is simply encouraging development for cool little apps on the iPhone, I like that, too. But if the goal is control, I’m gonna start using Firefox more.

My new tech column – End User: That syncing feeling

The San Antonio Current has asked me to pen a bi-weekly column. Two have run so far, and I’m enjoying the project. I used to be arts editor, and later production manager, for the Current, and I’ve kinda missed the gig. Fine, I’ll say it: I’m a byline whore. But I always felt a bit of a dilettante writing arts reviews and features, so this tech bent feels more legit.

{OLD VERSION: Dontcha know the iPhone has been on my mind, and this first jaunt is really a two-parter: here and here.}

So here’s the first one:

Published in San Antonio Current, May 31, 2007

If you want to practice swearing for an hour, try getting your contacts from your Gmail to your Yahoo! address books. Then try migrating your calendar.

It’s doable if you, the trained Googling bear, want to Google through a few hoops to get it done. None of the hoops are on fire, but you might still feel burned on your beary behind.

Wait, now comes the trapeze act: Try syncing your address book or calendar between Outlook and Gmail and Yahoo! accounts. By “sync,” I mean having your information flow, in both directions, between one or more devices or databases. Make a change in one address book — on your phone, say — and that information shows up in Gmail, and Outlook.

Believe it or not, more than one internet page refers to this idea the “Holy Grail of synchronization.”

Now, if computers can make Britney Spears a singer, could this syncing thing possibly be that complicated?

More mysteries: Sometimes I wait 15 minutes for my Treo to sync to my Mac. Sometimes it duplicates every contact in my address book, or every calendar event, or just makes multiple copies of the email addresses in each card. That’s a real laugh riot when I’m trying to get out the door. So I make backups almost every day, before I hit the sync button.

To be fair, Windows has long had nearly instantaneous sync with Windows Mobile devices. Plug a Windows-based smart phone into your computer, and pop! your data is the same on both. Also, Apple offers a $99/year online service called .Mac (“dot Mac”) that will, albeit slowly and not dependably, keep your address book, calendar, and bookmarks synced between Macs.

Stray just a little, however, from Apple’s or Microsoft’s closed systems, and you find yourself inventing new swear words.

I have found a couple of pages that discuss methods to attain the “Holy Grail,” using software and services with snappy names like GcalDaemon, Funambol, and ScheduleWorld. I messed with GcalDaemon, and it works, but it involves command-line heavy lifting — sudo chmod -R yadda yadda — that would daunt any non-geek. Even I didn’t enjoy it.

Another semi-option is Plaxo, a useful online address book that syncs Macs and Windows with Yahoo!, but only imports one way from Gmail.

iWait

So what’s to come? Speaking of holy grails, we return to the iPhone, that obscure object of desire. We still don’t know if the damn thing works, but here’s my latest penny for the iPhone wishing pool (I’ll probably end up throwing my Treo in):

Yahoo! is offering free mobile-syncing mail accounts with the iPhone. Google has teamed with Apple to make a cool Google Maps program for the handset. I would love it if these three entities have put their brains together, and will release an open system for syncing, one in which everyone (except probably Microsoft) agrees on the fine points and plays well together.

I’ll have bunting and confetti and party hats and T-shirts that say “Sync This!” printed and waiting for the day.

(Side note: One netizen has created a contest called the “notMac Challenge,” to offer a cash prize to anyone who develops a viable and easy-to-use replacement to .Mac.)

Not using Apple Mail

This has been a little weird, but I’ve recently had to play with browser-based email because my PowerBook died. Also, the Bigfoot mail server that I’d used since 1996 also tanked, which inspired a migration to Gmail. So while my little aluminum baby was away at Apple (you DO have AppleCare, don’t you?), I actually moved away from Apple Mail, and I’m stunned how easy it was.

One thing I found, however, was that Safari didn’t work so hot with the Gmail interface, so I use the free Camino, which is based on Firefox but made for the Mac.

If you have a yahoo.com address, you might try the Yahoo! Mail Beta in Camino and see how you like it. And check out Plaxo to sync your Yahoo! contacts with Apple’s Address Book. (Plaxo doesn’t sync yet with Gmail. Check my recent article in the San Antonio Current for some of my thoughts on that matter.