John Dolan

iPhone Applications for Productivity

This is my top 10 iPhone application list.  In the list are my Top 5 Productivity Applications, my Top 5 Entertainment Applications and a few honorable mentions.  All of the applications are free unless otherwise noted.

Productivity

1. Evernote is the ultimate note-taking application for the iPhone.  Evernote's syncing and search capabilities separate it from the competition.  Notes taken in Evernote are synced to a central server and can then be accessed via the Mac or PC client or by a web browser.  I strongly encourage all of my clients to get in the habit of using Microsoft's OneNote or Evernote as their central repository for meeting notes, planning notes and other miscellaneous notes.  Having all of your notes stored in a centralized, indexed repository that one can easily search is a tremendous value both in timesaving and in preserving critical data that could have otherwise been lost if recorded elsewhere (e.g. a sticky note).
2. Zenbe is a basic task management application that can be accessed via the iPhone application or from the web.  There are number of very powerful and complex note taking applications available for the iPhone.  What keeps me using Zenbe is it's simplicity.  Define your categories then create tasks under those categories.  To access your Zenbe lists from the web (and to create your account) go to http://lists.zenbe.com.
3. Where is a location based application that provides several cool features including the following: 
   1. Eventful which provides a list of upcoming events in your area. 
   2. A Starbucks locater that also indicates if they have AT&T WiFi service (which is free for certain AT&T broadband subscribers). 
   3. GasBuddy which helps locate the nearest, cheapest gas.
4. Air Sharing ($6.99) allows you to store, view and share files on your iPhone.  Your phone must be on the same wireless network as the computer to which it is connecting and the Air Sharing application must be open on the iPhone.  Straightforward documentation is included with the product that explains its use.  If you set-up Air Sharing on your iPhone to require a password to protect access to the files you may need to install the following patch to access the files on a Windows Vista system.  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907306)
5. Google Mobile provides basic web search functionality with the added benefit of including your contacts in the search and providing auto-complete for contacts, words and web addresses.

Entertainment

1. Remote allows you to control your iTunes or Apple TV from your iPhone.  Especially useful when used with speakers connected to iTunes via an Airport Express.
2. Sportacular and SportsTap both present sports scores and news.  Sportacular has a better interface for keeping up with scores while SportsTap weekly recaps seem to be a bit more useful than Sportacular's newsfeeds.
3. Pandora is an online radio station.  If you're interested, create an account and some radio stations on your computer by going to http://pandora.com.  If you like what you hear, you can install Pandora on your iPhone and listen to the stations you have created.
4. Simplify streams music from your iTunes library to your iPhone.  It also allows you to stream music from up to 30 of your friends as well.  If you have a large iTunes library (or know someone who does), this can be a great application.
5. Aurora Feint - A very simple and addictive game.  Prior versions had tremendous stability issues which appear to have been resolved with the firmware update from Apple.

Honorable Mention

1. Bloomberg - Provides stock tracking and market news.  If you're into watching train wrecks, this is a great time to get the Bloomberg application.
2. Twitterific - If you're a fan of twitter you may find this to be a great utility for keeping up with Twitter posts.
3. Save Benji's - Ever been at a store and wanted to know if that sale price is really a great price?  Look up the product with Save Benji's and find out.
4. Bible - Of all the free Bible applications for the iPhone, I have found the LifeChurch.tv Bible to be the best one out there.  With the latest release you can now select certain versions to download for offline viewing.  Quick Tip:  By tapping More -> Settings you can change the icons on the shortcut bar at the bottom.  I removed the "Daily Read" and added "Books" which has made navigating to a specific passage a bit easier.

iPhone 2.1 now available (updated)

iPhone 2.1 is now available.  It took about 5 minutes to download and 15 minutes to install.  I have just installed it and have not yet noticed any changes.  If you have any questions on how to install the update, follow this link http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/ : 

 

My Experience (I will keep this updated over the next few days):

• Fewer dropped calls and fewer call failures.  If you still have significant issues, return your phone!
• Contacts are much more responsive
• Improved stability.
• No noticeable improvement in battery life (battery died around 6 PM today after moderately heavy use)

 

Apple’s story is that it will:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

iPhone 3G First Impressions

(Last updated 9/11/08)

I have had the iPhone 3G for a couple months now and while I miss some of the features I lost from my Windows Mobile device, I am glad I made the move.  The iPhone has some tremendous strengths, but also has some pretty significant weaknesses.  Because of this, my recommendation is to carefully consider the weaknesses before deciding to purchase this phone.

The strength of the iPhone is doing a few things very well.  A few of the key strengths are listed below.

1. The user interface is what sets the iPhone apart.  Apple has given the iPhone a great user interface that makes for an improved user experience over other portable devices.  Emails are easier to read, applications are easier to navigate to and the web browser is the best I have seen on a mobile device.
2. Exchange Syncing works great with Calendar, Contacts, Emails and the Global Address List.
3. The Application Store provides a wide arrange of applications for use on the iPhone.  A number of these provide syncing between a web application you can use on your computer and an application that runs on your phone.  I will soon post another blog entry covering a few useful iPhone applications.
4. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, .PDF, Pages, Keynote, & Numbers documents can all be viewed on the iPhone.
5. Note:  MobileMe has no impact on Enterprise use!

Several weaknesses:

1. Poor battery life.  A car charger is a necessity with this phone and you may need to learn to turn off 3G, WiFi or Bluetooth depending on your usage.
2. No cut/copy and paste functionality.
3. Email cannot be moved or deleted without an internet connection (Edge, 3G or WiFi).  Sent Emails are stored in the Outbox until the phone has an internet connectivity.
4. Limited Search of content on phone.  No means of searching Emails or searching calendars.  Windows Mobile and Blackberry are far superior with regards to search.
5. No means to edit documents on the iPhone.
6. Limited Exchange syncing
   1. No task or notes syncing with Exchange.
   2. No syncing of categories
   3. Items can't be flagged on the iPhone
7. Touch keyboard is difficult to get used to.  Apple did a great job implementing the touch keyboard, but its still more difficult than a tactile keyboard for most people.
8. Only a limited number of apps switch from portrait to landscape viewing mode.  Would like to be able to view email in landscape mode, especially when replying.
9. I have to occasionally reboot my phone due to application crashes.  For a brand that sells itself on everything just working, this is a bit disappointing.
10. No Turn by Turn navigation.  It is rumored this will be coming, but at present it's not available.
11. If you have existing iPod/iPhone accessories that charge/play music, they may not charge the iPhone 3G.  In the past there were two ways of charging the iPod/iPhone.  Apple has eliminated one of those protocols, and unfortunately that was the protocol of choice for a number of accessories.  I have an iPod dock for my car and house and neither of them work with my iPhone 3G.
12. Less control of form and function than what one gets with a Windows Mobile device.

With all of those weaknesses, why did I choose the iPhone?  Apple majored on the majors and did those items very well.  They spent a great deal of time making sure the key items worked very well and they simply left out the other stuff.  At the end of the day I want a phone that works great as a phone, is easy to navigate, and allows me to stay on top of email.  This is where the iPhone excels and that is why it is my phone of choice at this time.

Is it time to switch from IE to Mozilla Firefox?

I am a longtime Internet Explorer user.  I have tried using Mozilla Firefox in the past, but have always stuck with IE due to the large number of websites that just didn't work with Mozilla.  With the release of Firefox 3, they have provided a number of compelling reasons to make the switch.  Mozilla has released a great browser and with the addition of some key Add-ons (also called plug-ins) that have made it my web browser of choice.

Firefox has done a great job of improving its feature set while reducing the number of websites with which it isn't compatible.  The improvements include better security, better tab management, improved zoom, and an address bar that does a great job of figuring out the website you are typing.  However, what makes Firefox my web browser of choice are the add-ons.  Below are a list of key add-ons followed by easy instructions for their installation.

Adblock Plus - Adblock Plus does a remarkable job of eliminating the annoying ads that cover the vast majority of websites we visit.  This does a great job of making it easier to focus on the content of a website.  It also helps silently blocking pop-ups without interrupting your work.

IE Tab - IE Tab allows you to open a tab in Firefox using the IE engine.  For the occasion where a website does not perform its best in Firefox, you can open the page in IE without ever leaving Firefox.  Just right click the link and select "Open in IE tab".  This tab is essential to me as we rely heavily on SharePoint at Viant which performs best in Internet Explorer.

PDF Download - When you click on a .pdf you are presented with 5 options including "View as HTML" which opens the document in a Firefox tab rather than having to view the .pdf in your external pdf viewer.  Not very flashy, but very helpful.

GooglePreview - On the Google results page, this add-on provides a small image to the left of each add-on displaying the destination page.  This is a great help with searching and helps improve the efficiency of my searches.

FoxyTunes - If you use a media player on your computer, this add-on is a great plus.  It provides controls to your media player on the status bar making it very easy to pause, skip tracks, etc.

How to install the Add-ons:

1. Download and install the latest version of Firefox from http://mozilla.com
2. Open Firefox and use Google to search for "add-on".  Click the first result which is a link to the Firefox add-on page.
3. From here all you need to do is type the name of the add-on you would like to install and then click "Add to Firefox" to install the add-on.

Details on a few great features in Firefox

1. Zoom - Simply hold the Ctrl key while using the scroll wheel on your mouse and the entire page will zoom or shrink (not just the words, but the words and the image will shrink or zoom as a single unit).
2. Search - Ctrl+F brings up the find bar at the bottom.  You can use the "Highlight all" option to quickly see all instances of your search.
3. Bookmarks - Click the Star in the address bar to add a page to bookmark a page with a single click.
4. Arrange tabs - You can click drag a tab to rearrange your list of tabs. 
5. Bookmark a tab - Click and drag a tab to your bookmarks bar or to the bookmarks option in the menu bar to quickly bookmark a tab.

Home Entertainment System - Part 1

For the last 10 years I’ve wanted to purchase a home entertainment system. For my birthday this year, my wife let me get a TV, receiver and speakers! This was an amazing gift! I did a bit of research before making this purchase and so the next two blog entries will be a basic buyer guides for these items.

The first purchase was the TV. In selecting a television, there are three items you want to consider. The first consideration is the resolution of the TV (720P/1080i or 1080P). The second item to consider is the brand of television. The last item to consider is the number of connections.

Television resolution is measured in terms of number of horizontal lines drawn on the screen. Originally, televisions generated an image by first drawing the odd lines and then drawing the even lines, this is called “Interlaced” (i). Newer televisions can display all the lines at the same time which is called “Progressive Scan" (p). When considering your television, don't worry about the number followed by the “i”, what you care about is the number followed by the “p”.  Interlaced signals are still in use and have a variety of applications, but this is a very simple buyers guide and so we won't bore you with those details.

In deciding 720P v 1080P, there are a few items to consider. If the television is less than 40” in size, you most likely will not be able to tell the difference between 720P and 1080P. Cable, Dish and Broadcast HD are broadcast at 720P (or 1080i). Today’s DVD’s are recorded in 480i.  At present, the only time you will enjoy the full 1080P image is when using a gaming consoles or playing a Blu-ray DVD. So, you most likely won’t get much benefit from a 1080P television at this time. However, if you’re like me and tend to keep your television set for 5-10 years, you may be glad that you bought the more future proof 1080P system if you have a set larger than 40”; especially if you will be viewing your television from closer ranges.

More important than the resolution of the television is the brand of television. This is VERY important! There are a number of manufacturers coming out with very cheap 1080P television sets. You will be in better shape with a nice 720P set over a cheap 1080P set. The best place to look for reviews is: http://reviews.cnet.com/televisions.

The last item to consider is the number of inputs and outputs the television has. If you are going to purchase an up-converting receiver, then you only need a couple HDMI inputs. If you will be plugging your components directly to the TV, then you need to make sure your television has enough inputs to handle the items you want to plug-in to your TV. Listed from highest quality to lowest quality, the type of input signals are: HDMI, Component, s-video and Composite. Additionally, if you will be plugging items directly into your television, ensure that your television has an optical output and HDMI output.

When it comes time to buy your television, I have heard from a number of people that Amazon has the best prices.

I hope I’ve provided you with the information needed to make a good decision without killing you with the details. If you'd like more details, check out CNet's HDTV world.  I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions, just let me know.

Dell Support and Windows Live Writer

A while back I purchased a Dell D630, which has been a great system for me.  However, over the last few months it's begun running hot.  Very hot.  So, I called Dell and they said it wasn't safe and they wanted to get it fixed as soon as possible.  Three days later, a brand new D630 showed up on my doorstep.  With a faster processor, better graphic card and larger hard drive.  Wow!  That is great support.

I've been using Vista for a while now, but as I'm setting this system up I am taking my time and digging-in just a bit more.  First thing I've noticed is Windows Live Writer.  Very easy to setup, just typed in the name of my blog and my login after which it connected to my blog, downloaded some stuff and now I'm creating my first blog on Live Writer. 

So far, it seems easy to use and is a welcome change from using Word or typepad to create blog entries.  It also makes insert pictures very easy, see:

Time to get back to the Lakers v Celtics game and a bottle of Dogfish Head IBA.  But don't worry, more observations are coming soon.

Viant's Award Winning Staff

I'm very proud to announce the latest award won by Viant personnel.  Richard recently entered three beers in the 15th Annual Peach State Brew Off.  One earned the Blue Ribbon, another a Red Ribbon, and the third wasn't all that bad either.  Richard competed against a number of Beer Clubs and came out ahead of them in his very first competition.  Needless to say I was quite impressed.  You can read more about Richard's brewing ventures on his blog.  You can see results of the Brew Off HERE!

AT&T DSL and Static IP's

Last week I did something I've never done before.  I set-up an AT&T DSL line with 5 static IP addresses behind an enterprise firewall (Astaro).  Setting-up multiple IP's behind a T1 is a walk in the park.  Behind a DSL line, not so much; unless of course, you know what to do.  Just know the average AT&T/Bell South tech will not be able to help you out very much as this just isn't something they encounter very often.

I wrongly assumed that once the Netopia modem/Router was put into bridged mode and the PPPoE info was put into Astaro firewall, the Astaro would be assigned the first of the Static IP Addresses with the appropriate subnet mask once.  This is not what happens.  If you do this, your firewall will be assigned a dynamic IP Address. 

After many support calls, support tickets, escalations and all the rest, I learned that when you have multiple IP Addresses, you can't set your Netopia router in bridged mode.  You use the Netopia in standard mode and then set it to pass the Static IP Addresses to the internal network.  Bell South will ensure that your statics are routed to your Netopia, and once it is configured as below, the Netopia will send a broadcast request to the internal side of your network to determine if/where it should route those packets.  So, you don't have to tell the Netopia where to route the packets, but you need to tell your firewall to receive them. 

Ok, enough delay, here is the documentation I received from Bell South for the configuration (if you need the associated images just let me know).

Configure Static IP on Bell South Moden/Router

I am certain this applies when configuring multiple IP addresses at a single location.  I do not think it applies when only one IP address is assigned.

1. Surf into the Netopia 3347W/3347NWG interface using the 192.168.1.254 address in a web browser and login.

NOTE: Depending on the firmware currently installed on the Netopia router there may or may not be a login prompt.

2. On the left hand side of the screen, click on the link that says Expert Mode.
3. Then click on Yes to proceed.
4. On this screen click on Configure from either link.
5. From here select LAN.
6. Type in first available IP address in your range as the LAN IP Address and type in the appropriate IP Netmask. For example - if your IP range is 65.15.150.220 to 65.15.150.227 then your LAN IP will be 65.15.150.221 and the Netmask will be 255.255.255.248.
7. Click Submit.
8. Click on DHCP Server.
9. Type in the Starting IP Address and the Ending IP Address. For example, if the customer’s IP range is 65.15.150.220 to 65.15.150.227 then the Starting IP Address will be 65.15.150.222 and the Ending IP Address will be 65.15.150.226.
10. Click Submit.

NOTE: If and only if the customer explicitly requests that the Netopia's DHCP server be disabled can the help desk do so. The customer should be made aware that doing so is a non-standard configuration for the Netopia, that support will be limited and that it may be necessary to temporailily re-enable DHCP in order to troubleshoot any problems with their DSL service. If the customer still wishes to have DHCP disabled document it in the call notes and proceed with the following steps:

JD Note:  I reccomend doing this

1. Choose Off from the Server Mode drop-down list.
2. Click the Submit button.

11. Click on WAN.
12. Click on PPP over Ethernet vcc1.
13. Uncheck the box next to Address Mapping (NAT).
14. Click Submit.
15. Click on Security.
16. Click on Stateful Inspection.
17. Click on Exposed Addresses.
18. Click the Add button.
19. Type in the first usable IP address and the last usable IP address of your IP range in the Start Address and End Address boxes. For example, if the customer’s IP range is 65.15.150.220 to 65.15.150.227 then the Start Address will be 65.15.150.221 and the End Address will be 65.15.150.226. Leave Protocol set to Any.
20. Click Submit.
21. Click on the yellow Alert Button.
22. Click on Save and Restart.
23. Verify that the Netopia reflects the changes by renewing the IP address. The gateway and IP address should reflect the static IP information entered into the Netopia. If the changes didn't take, the process needs to be repeated. A reboot may be needed to refresh the IP if the renew command continues to be unsuccessful. 
24. Verify that the exposed IP addresses are now reachable by performing a ping command on the exposed IP addresses.

NOTE: If the ping returns all packets then the IP addresses have been exposed successfully. If the ping returns Request timed out or Ping request could not find host, then the IP addresses are not exposed properly and the process for exposing IP addresses needs to be done again. If the customer's IP address is still unreachable after performing these steps then check for the following:

• Go back to step 19 and type the full static IP range assigned to the customer instead of the usable IP range.   
• Verify customer's static IP addresses have been setup properly on Netopia.
• Verify customer is actually online.
• Check for firewall (software and hardware) and disable / unplug from the network.
• If possible isolate network down to just 1 computer and the Netopia to rule out 3rd Party CPE configuration conflicts (Routers, Switches, Hubs, Firewalls)

If unable to resolve the issue, escalate to Tier2 / Product Specialist.

XO Buyer beware

It's hard to know how good a relationship is until you have your first fight.  That's when everything comes to the surface.  Do they really care, or are they simply providing lip service.  The same is true of a phone/data vendor.  You never know how good they are until you have your first set of issues.  If someone tells you how great a phone vendor is because they've never had any issues, don't pay them any attention.  They are still in the honey moon phase.

One of my clients just moved to a new location.  They decided on XO as their phone/data vendor.  I can't tell you enough how grately I regret that decision.  XO has provided some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced.  The Data line was over a week late, and they still haven't completed the port of the phone numbers which they had weeks in advance!

Through it all they demonstrated no sense of urgency, no desire to go the extra mile and no desire to make any effort to make it right.  A great example is that when we pointed out that based on the timeframe they explained, we should have the line live on Monday rather than Wednesday, it took about 4 emails before they finally came out and said "we don't work weekends."  After 3 urgent requests to have a Reverse DNS entry set-up, they finally responded with an 800 number to call and provided an incorrect account number to reference.

All of the phone lines still haven't ported over and they are still asking if dates 1 week out "will be convenient for us."  No it's not convenient!  Can you at least demonstrate that you understand the pain we are in?  I would love to post the emails I've received from them, but I'm cocerned about legality, so I'll just leave you with a friendly caution.  I would rather have BellSouth DSL with one analog line before using a T1 and PRI from XO.  Buyer beware.

Excel 2007 Opens Very Slowly

Microsoft Excel 2007 Opens Very Slowly

Extended title:  Microsoft Office 2007 or Excel 2007 opens very slowly when I click on an icon to open a document.

A client was having extreme delays when opening Excel 2007 documents on all of their computers.  My search led me to a two part solution.  The second part came from this blog.

First, check the XLStart menu under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\XLSTART.  We had PDFMaker.xla which was causing some issues.

Next try the following.  This made the largest performance improvement.

      1)      Open Windows Explorer and go to Tools -> Options and then select the “File Types” tab

2)      Click Advanced

3)      Click open and then select edit

4)      Now click open and then select edit.

5)      Add "%1" (with quotation marks) to end of the “Application use to perform  action:” and then click OK.

6)      Mine looks like the image below with the highlighted text being the text I added