A few minutes ago, Lorand Minyo uploaded Steve Jobs’ keynote from MacWorld 2008.

I can’t write more right about now as I am extremely anxious to watch it myself, so for all of you who did not see it yet, you can do it here: Macworld 2008 Keynote Address (high quality)

(outside link)

Just the other day I was flipping the manner switch on the iPhone to kill time only to notice this weird landscape-like-rotation of the ringer icon.
Of course this could mean anything from an all-landscape GUI gone wild from it’s factory OS lock, to whatever conspiracy you might want to go blurbing about. Comments section open for your ranting pleasure.

It’s true! Done! Basta! I did it! It took me less than half an hour! My iPhone is unlocked!

It’s maybe the first trully unlocked iPhones in Romania and among the few in the World by this method! But I can attest it works! Brilliantly!

Kudos to the dev team and the guys at Engadget who pointed this out. To have yours unlocked, go over to http://iphone.unlock.no/ and follow the exact steps. It’s the method I used and the one that now gives me full use on Vodafone RO and Orange. Simple!

Here’s a screenshot I took of the unlocking process:

Don’t come here! Go to Engadget! They cover this Apple event aplenty! :P
I love you, my dear readers, but I’m there as well! Or go to Apple.com and start spending.

But do come back for sugga-lovin-thrills about what the above all means! I’ll make sure you’ll find that unique insight here!

To tip you off, focus not so much on the new hardware, but drool on the new iTunes WiFi Music Store! That’s where history is now being written! ;)

I recall a few years back, when computer experts experimenting with the original xBox discovered a method by which they could replace a piece of hardware within the unit and transform it from mere gaming machine to a full-featured computer. Folks began to manufacture and distribute the replacement chip, and laypeople could modify their xBoxes to create a powerful computer for a fraction of the cost of building such a machine from component parts. Microsoft’s strategy included taking a hit in profit on the hardware of the console, betting that they would more than recover the loss in the form of licensing software games, and they were not pleased about the popularity of this modification. Microsoft got litigious, claiming that the modifications were illegal manipulation of their intellectual property (i.e. the insides of that xBox); defendants claimed that since they had paid to acquire the unit, the hardware was completely their property to modify however they pleased. It was awkward for a while, as Microsoft sought to protect their empire while alienating their supporters.

I thought of this story not in relationship to any current weirdness with Microsoft, but rather with my currently uneasy relationship with Apple Inc. You see, I want an iPhone, but I frankly don’t give a damn about the phone function itself. While I am willing to pay the hefty price tag for what is allegedly the world’s greatest iPod/mobile internet/email/PDA device (with functionality over WiFi), I am not willing to pay a dime to AT&T for service (let alone the $59 x 24 months = $1,416 for the most meager minute allotments).
Read the rest of this entry »

Yes! Finally I have my geeky hands on the all-mighty Apple iPhone! Remember the already famous “iPhone release date“? I lived to see it available then in my pocket!
I’m sorry I won’t be writing more on it but this thing is too darn addictive to ‘waste’ time blogging. Going back to playing on it! :)

Pics were uploaded via computer, but this text is *proudly typed on an iPhone*! Enjoy!

Yeah, I saw them. Also saw iWork ‘08, iLife ‘08 and the new .Mac! And you know what? I don’t wanna comment, write or review on them. Go see the special event vid here!

And.. one more thing..

the hardware era is over. enter the applications era! Mark my words!

ps: not pissed at my mac anymore. the love is back! :)

After using a new Macbook for about four months I can definitely say it’s sub-par to a December 2005 iBook I owned and exploited (this is nice talkin!) for a year and a couple of months.

I switched for all the good reasons, ranging from wider and better screen to faster system and iSight. Now all these are cool but I could not go over the fact that the overall performance somewhat degrades over time, a lot faster than in a G4-based system. I did not run benchmarks, nor will I do. But I can tell when my system is not as responsive as it used to be. And no, I don’t have a fetish installing various software, but instead I like to use a panel of tested apps from IM clients to productivity tools – all clean!

Aside the shitty slowdown that brings a dual core to its knees, comparable to an old G4, the Macbook lacks case endurance. Bye bye really space-age durable polycarbonate the iBooks had. This shit is sub-par by factor ten! The case is all scratched, has discoloration and spots all over. The iBook had not. Not even after a full year of taking it in hundreds coffee shops where smoking was allowed. The Macbook was lucky to live a near-desk life. At home -> a protective bag -> the office. Seldom WiFi’ed coffee shops and business trips. All controlled environments.

The crappy trackpad displays tracks of wear. Key caps as well. Sure, the iBook had the same problem, but not after 4 months – more like 8 months later.

Should there be a Macbook Pro with the same screen size I’d buy it today! Yeap! If you want a notebook to last and survive harsh environments, get a freakin iBook or a Macbook Pro. Sadly even 13.3″ felt big when 12″ was what I was craving for. I carry this damn machine all day long in a backpack that hangs heavy. I want a slender, lightweight road buddy. The Macbook Pro it’s definitely not that. The Macbook is somewhat there.
Would I tell you guys to stop considering a Macbook? Not really! But I sure don’t recommend it as warm as I recomended my dear Carolina, the Dec 2005 iBook 12″!

Be wise, gents! Be wise!

a picture is worth more than 1mil iPhones!
I hate you, AT&T! Apple basher!

Tonight was one of the rare occasions to play with all these beauties at once. Will spare you of too much introductory stuff and jump right into the testing results.

[+] click picture to enlarge

Toys in test:
1. Reference RDS/RCS 1Mbit cable connection via 54Mb WiFi – http://www.rdsnet.ro/
2. Vodafone 3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbs Huawei USB ‘SmartModem’ – http://www.vodafone.ro/ [product page link]
3. Orange 3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbs Option ICON II USB Modem – http://www.orange.ro/ [product page link]
4. Zapp Mobile 2.4Mbs Z010 CDMA 1xEV-DO wireless modem http://www.zapp.ro/ [product page link]

Testing machine and area:
1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo 2GB RAM Apple Macbook with a/b/g/n – enabled Airport WiFi card.
All tests were performed in a residential area in Bucharest, RO. Time 11:00ish PM. Moderate network loads.
Additional testing was performed on a WinXP Dell 1.6Ghz Core2Duo machine. Performance obtained was about 30% lower!!

Testing on:
- Local (short path) download – Zapp data driver library
Test file – Software image WL-500gx – Deluxe (v 2.1) – 1x/EV-DO [3.20MB]

- External (overseas) download – Revision3 / Diggnation
Test file – diggnation–0108–2007-07-26multipass–large.h264.mov [108MB]

- Ping to google.com

Without further ado, the results:

============================================

The control RDS cable connection needs no introduction or explanations. It performed as expected, capping out at the 1Mbs mark. Response times were great -inline with expectations- but maybe reported a tad lower as the WiFi router adds its own slowdown. This said, here are the screenshots.
Short path:

Overseas:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 67.475/68.679/71.692/1.056 ms

============================================

The Vodafone HSDPA SmartModem. I had a really good experience using this modem with speeds in excess of 300KBs (3-4Mbs). Unfortunately I was unable to replicate the performance tonight. Granted, and this goes for the other two players, the quality of the link, signal strength, network load and cell performance affect the max speeds attainable. Vodafone RO provides 3G+ (HSDPA) 3.6Mbs service in major cities and a guaranteed minimum of 1.4Mbs. What I managed to get was a not-so-flashy minimum with an excellent signal strength.
The proof-
Short path:

External:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 11 packets received, 8% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 278.274/313.286/609.070/93.856 ms

Notes: The application (Vodafone Mobile Connect for Mac) needs to be downloaded from the VF website. It weights around 15MB and it’s fairly easy to install and use. The drawback is that an additional “Activate” click has to be performed in order to enable the connection in the pref pane. The link is pushed through a VF APN proxy that strongly compresses the traffic (esp JPG images). That adds a certain lag and forbids use of some web bandwidth testing apps.
VMC:

[+] click to enlarge

============================================

Orange touts a fresh 3.6Mbs capability in its network. Although generally slower compared to Vodafone, with a poorer link quality, the very ugly Option modem has performed on par (if not a tad better) with its competitor. Here is the proof:
Short path:

And overseas:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 267.750/283.606/298.381/8.540 ms

Notes: Orange has performed notably better than VF in the response time test, with almost half the average round-trip time. Great news for VoIP applications. Its Mac application I had to request at Orange Customer Service and was later forwarded in an email. The whole process took around 10 minutes. GlobeTrotter Connect weighs around 2MB and is spartan. It required a restart (not typical for OSX) to work without asking for one. The traffic is also routed through a proxy but optimization is only provided through separate APN.
Orange took no pride in customizing the packaging of their modem, sign of eagerness to take it to the market. More so, the documentation has Mac screenshots of an app you expect to find in the package but can only get separately, on request.
Not so cool!
The app:

[+] click to enlarge

============================================

Zapp…oh Zapp…used to rock when its antenna was in good shape. Anything between 1.4Mbs and 2.0Mbs was possible. It’s generally a connection that can handle many streams at a time without degrading the ongoing transfers. It scales in an intelligent way. Plus, unlike Vodafone and Orange, the connection is direct without a pass trough a proxy for compression.
On the short path the Z010 would usually do 150KBs and on the diggnation file it would normally fly at a sustainable 180KBs!
I’ll add the screenshots though, but with a big fat disclaimer: this is not how a *healthy* Zapp modem performs!
Local (their own freakin servers):

A la longue:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 254.470/386.584/1362.356/296.632 ms

Notes: It breaks my heart to bash Zapp so badly after serving me 140ishKbs downloads for years in times when Orange/Vodafone only had shitty EDGE (150ishMbs) with this poor performance due to the faulty modem. Yet I think the ping results are relevant, the Z010 still doing good at 254.470 minimum round-trip time! Mkay… we have some spoilers here as I knew what to expect of some modems in test. Also sadly reporting that the CDMA modem was only here for a broader image of the competing technologies, less for actual results. It’s had a long service life feeding my mobile lifestyle and unfortunately it has the antenna bruised, which translates in very poor reception – read performance!
The Z010 needs no drivers for Mac running OSX, a compatible driver already rests in the OS’s library. With the connection set up in the pref pane, call is initiated in 2 clicks and established in less than 3 seconds! No other apps involved! Sweet!
Unfortunately the Z010 is no longer offered by Zapp but can be purchased by special request. It features a battery of its own that improves overall performance and lowers the drain on the notebook battery. It also has a b/w LCD screen that displays data such as signal strength, time/date and battery level. SMS can also be received on the device.

============================================

The conclusion is optional for a buying decision. Both Orange and Vodafone do well in normal-real life tests! Both offers are compelling, reasonably and approachable priced for near-unlimited traffic (8GB/month). Both modems come free with subscription and are both Mac and PC compatible. If on the PC counterpart the modems have PnP installation – the drivers are stored on the modems themselves – you’ll have a little more trouble getting them for your Mac. Be advised! Request those drivers before you are on the road and need further internet access! :)

Not surprisingly, both modems do shitty jobs on Bill Gates-flavoured machines. With Orange capping downloads at around 85KBs I went no further testing and lit up the Mac. And there numbers started looking like the ones on the marketing fliers. ;)

Overall brief: sexiness/performance/ergonomic; grades from 1-5

Vodafone 3G/HSDPA SmartModem: 5 / 3 / 4
Orange 3G/HSDPA Option ICON II USB Modem: 1 / 3 / 3
Zapp Z010 CDMA 1xEV-DO: 3 / 4 / 3

===== 5 cigarettes were smoked during the making of this review. please do not try this at home. smoking is bad for your health!! =====

What happens if you jump from entrepreneurship to full time corporate dude? First, you cease good ol’ habits such as doing email where rubber meets the road in the wireless industry – the WiFi’ed caffe!
Luckily sometimes big guys that work in tall buildings come back to the streets to smell that roasted coffee flavor and sniff those 802.11 airwaves, hopefully one of them free. Had my chance for a couple of days to bring the love back so here I am, feeding heavily on all that online stuff that makes me smarter and more competitive, at Bourbon Cocktails&Coffee in the lovely harbor city of Constantza.
Usually people would be sunbathing and stuff here but instead I’m wirelessbathing in all free nets I can find and hop on.
During my two day stay I ran across plentiful networks to do my job on, all ranging from 1Mbits to 6Mbits, all in key locations such as rep building, hotel, cafe and… parking lot!

Of couse both my N70 and my HSDPA SmartModem from Vodafone could have taken over in case there was no WiFi to grab. But for some reason I love WiFi and simply like to enable the Airport on my Mac and enjoy it from there.

Now missing a more portable device to play with nets for when taking the Macbook out feels cumbersome. I’m considering one of those new HTC touch smartphones. Anyone tried one?

The Safari browser from Apple is now also available for Windows Users.

For those unfamiliar with Macs, Safari promises to be the fastest browser on any platform, a clean interface so you can focus on browsing, uncompromising security and of course the usual browsing standards like pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing. You will also familiarize with nice Aqua elements like the nice blue scrollbar.

Keep in mind it is still in Public Beta.

Grab a bite of Apple! Safari for Windows is available for download here.

The Apple Store now offers three slightly more powerful versions for their almost a year old line of portables, the Macbook.

The new models include 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 4MB CL2 processors (no more 1.83Ghz with 2MB CL2), 1GB RAM standard and 80GB HDD for the same $1099.

Of course, all that RAM/HDD upgrade is nothing major and, since retail prices are forever dropping, they feel natural. The only non-replaceable component is the Core 2 Duo processor, which boosts the overall performance of the Macbook by a few procents due to its larger level two cache.

This intermediate upgrade is a silent “keep your interest” move on Apple and probably outlines the fact that there will not be any new ultra-portable in Apple’s offer soon. Or quite the opposite. We’re anyway talking about Cupertino.

Almost everyone who got a second generation iPod Shuffle complained they had to carry the bulky dock with them to be able to transfer files or charge the minute mp3 player. Apple decided to drop the big USB jack the previous version had and go for a weird 3.5 audio jack port that transfers data to USB.

If Apple would have listened to their users nobody would have liked to get a simple USB to 3.5 cable in the box instead of the shiny dock. “Oh, Apple drops costs by shipping the thing with this cheap cable”. Some, though, did consider that a small cable was a more convenient to carry around. Myself included. But instead of buying a Proporta $20 cable or alike I decided to take the time and make one myself.

Searched the net for diagrams and pin-outs and found a couple of good articles on such fabrications. Since no store had the much needed 4-pin 3.5 jack for sale I went for one of those A/V cables ($2ish) and cut the jack off. A USB cable extender one can find bundled in just about any USB WiFi adapter for example, which I have in abundance laying around, made for the actual USB link.

Past the careful soldering time and my clownish wire switch that almost fried my Macbook’s ports, the project took no longer than an hour to complete. The cable is about 2 inches long and is really convenient to carry in a pocket. It even looks good! (see the picture with the ‘baby iPod’ connected through it). And it was so much fun and relaxing. Yeah, you there! Pick up that soldering iron once in a while and mod smth! :)

Apple released a new 700KB patch regarding the functionality of Macbook and Macbook Pro batteries. It’s not a usual type of update and that makes is worth mentioning. According to Apple:

Battery Update 1.2 updates battery firmware and improves battery functionality.

After Battery Update has been installed, each battery you insert into your MacBook or MacBook Pro will be updated automatically. Your computer’s power cord must be connected and plugged into a working power source.

For further information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n305256.

The Fon Spot for Mac and what’s inside it

There hasn’t been much Fon news or related lately but we couldn’t miss the fact that
– Time Warner opened their doors to broadband sharing in the US and
– The programmers in Spain finally came up with a beta version of the FON Spot Mac / Linux

What this software does is that it turns your Intel-based Mac into a FON hotspot. If you use a 3G or EvDo modem this software will turn your Airport into a Access Point-like WiFi adapter and start sharing your connection around.
It’s not a new concept for Mac users as by default Macs let you share your modem connection in three clicks anyway. But FON saw this was an opportunity that could not be missed to expand their service and brand where conventional hotspots do not protrude. Shrewd!

Screenshot of Mac’s WiFi sharing enabler

Let’s analyze if this would really work in real life past the obvious geeky sexieness.
Having a Fon hotspot ‘built in’ your Mac is neat if you’re a big fan of the service and really want to take it everywhere with you. Maybe you have a flat mobile broadband connection anyway and you don’t mind sharing but you’re missing the credentials for your signal. Or maybe you just don’t mind doing it. Any case you chose it’s fine!
But in all other cases you’d be simply sharing your connection as is or no sharing it at all. Eventually it all comes down to FON’s business model. Share WiFi and get WiFi for free elsewhere in FON hotspots, as a Linus. Or share your WiFi for some money. These cases are based on a permanent presence in a determined location. Usually one would use a fast connection they don’t really mind sharing.
What happens when you share your crawling 3G/EvDO? Those pipes are not that large, your connection is not in a specific connection and does not provide service 24/7. That does not make for a compatible service with FON’s, which anyway is catchy because it brings advantages both ways.
Based on how FON Spot for Mac works the only winner here is.. FON! You would likely not share that limited bandwidth (I’ve done it oh so many times with my EvDo) and not agree FON is using your expensive connection for self-promo and Alien (non-member user that pays premium for access) money milking.

Running c*free, a free hotspot operator, I’ve often used Mac’s WiFi sharing to promote the brand at different events or ingenuous places. Hell, I’ve shared that signal a couple of years ago when I was still using Windows through an Ad-Hoc profile and later using a USB kit called c*free mini.
Yet, I still don’t know how this would go beyond such use!
Most folks who have/use a mobile broadband connection pay a shit load of money on it every month. They are usually business/entrepreneur/SOHO types that
- care for their data and its security
- pay for the 3G / EvDo for a precise purpose
- are time critical
- don’t have time or interest in playing with gizmos and hacks such as FON Spot
- are energy-conscious, meaning they would power their WiFi only when in the range of a signal they would use.

It’s unclear to me how this hack will make it in the real world. It might! But as it stands, incentives – even ones like the principle of sharing in exchange for free connectivity (wait!! Free WiFi? Why, when you already have the darn 3G?) – are low or inexistent!

For the techie ones I opened the installer and below is a screenshot of the package contents. I did not install the hack on my Macbook for it’s still beta and I rely on being able to use my Airport card. Those of you who have the time and curiosity are welcome to post their experiences in the comments section.

Use your mobile setup!
It’s really rare that we get to experience grid failures these days. And so it should! This is 2007!!!
Oddly enough we had such a power outage today and, from what we’ve been told, the grid failed in almost every corner of the city! If your business is in tech and telco you probably rely on more than one computer, a good connection to the Internet and a big load of office gadgetry that is energy-dependant.
In a few seconds I realized that the cable modem and the WiFi router are off so there’s no connectivity. Luckily my setup is mobile so here’s how I got back online in minutes:

- I work on a Macbook and, if unplugged, I get about 3-4h of work time on one charge.
- If WiFi or the ISP fail, there’s a backup connection at hand – a mobile 2.4Mbs EvDo USB modem from Zapp Mobile.

While the outage lasted about 30 minutes and it took the cable company an extra 15minutes to re-broadcast, I should have been offline and out of business for about an hour. Plugging the USB modem and clicking connect was easy. Sure, some have redundant connections and UPS power savers in their offices. Albeit being able to save work and wait for the power to bring back the net is not the way to go.

Both ends meet when I saw that the mobile setup I use when out of the office took over the local setup with flying colours! This is so 2007! :D

Yes, my dear followers, for the past year I’ve been using the last incarnation (mid-2005) iBook 12″ from Apple that was phased out in early 2006. It was a great road buddy and my life on the go has been taken to another level using it. Its awesome portability (12″), great battery life and unbelievable power from such an obsolete configuration allowed me to roam hundreds of hotspots, record podcasts and edit demanding video. I browsed maybe a million websites, configured around a hundred WiFi routers, sent 5000 emails and received twice as many, blogged hundreds of posts, beta-tested around 200 Skype builds, delivered a few world-class presentations and played a few days Unreal Tournament 2004 with the little devil.

But I was never really happy with the performance when I had to record a live skype conference call for a podcast or when the whole thing slowed down because of the 30+ tabs open in Safari, a few IM clients running in the background, the RSS reader, the email app and maybe iTunes streaming a chill out online radio station. Maxing out the RAM to 1.5GB did not help much either so I always had to chose judiciously what apps to run simultaneously.
Of course it’s a great machine for basic web browsing, normal IM and now-and-then Skype calls, some basic editing of the last vacation video and such. But we take mobile computing serious here at wirelessisfun.com as following the crazy www demands insane multitasking and multithreading.

The most relevant feature, though, is the ability to cover all or most wireless standards. The iBook could “see” 802.11b/g networks but the very new ‘n’ and the isolated ‘a’ running on 5Ghz standards were things I couldn’t really experience. You can laugh, but NASA still uses 3×86 computers in their space missions, okay?! :)

I just bought a brand new Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook that has no problem connecting to 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi networks and, should cables really really really be needed, it can do Gigabit Ethernet! I completely love it! It’s not the black one (because Macs are historically white) and as a matter of fact it’s that machine one can get for around 1060 Euros in Europe.
I’ll provide it with some extra RAM soon and cap it at 2GB (it now has 1GB) so I can effectively run multiple apps and XP decently in Parallels.

The new Macbook is the 5th mobile machine I own in 5 years (I change my laptop almost every year). An older post about the previous ones here! Good times for Wirelessisfun.com! Stand by for an Airport Extreme Base Station review in the next couple of days!

“Vista sucks, there’s no need to rush”

Can’t remember where I read this statement, but it’s one absolute truth hidden behind a joke! :)

Paul Miller from engadget writes about the Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) being postponed to October. It’s a sad day today for the Apple enthusiasts who were waiting for the spotted OS, but Apple blames it all on the iPhone. They had to move some of the key software engineers from the Leopard developers team to the iPhone developers team.

This is good news according to engadget because this will guarantee that many glitches will be removed from the iPhone in this process.

On another note, here at WiF:)) we decided to have a little bet about the iPhone. No, not about the release date, but about it’s looks and style… This came up because of all the iPhone replicas that started to appear on the market since Steve Jobs’ keynote at MacWorld. We think they will make it different from what we’ve seen, and it probably will have an edge to all the products appearing like mushrooms all over.

Read  more about the leopard on engadget

No, you cannot preorder the iPhone yet! But a sponsored search result on Google returns “Preorder in Amazon Available from June 2007″. And, as we posted before, it will be released in the US on June 11, about two moths from now, at a price of around $499 (8GB) with Verizon 2-y contract.

Please be patient :)
We are.

*about half of the traffic wirelessisfun.com gets is because of this string:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=iphone+release+date+&btnG=Search

I bet you didn’t try the all new Yahoo! Widgets 4.0 yet!
Ok, I’ll wait! The 11.3MB installer should take you no more than two minutes to download and about a minute to install! Got it?
Good! :)

Let’s get down to business, shall we? Are you a Mac user? You’d better be, I’m biased here! I assume you are familiar with the Dashboard that comes preinstalled with all Macs OSX 10.4ish onward. It’s great and I use it frequently. But PCs did not have the ability to display widgets like Macs did before Konfabulator, later bought and made more friendly by Yahoo!. Starting with version 3.0ish I begun using this cross-platform environment because I found it was surprisingly easy to design and code widgets for. More so, it allowed those widgets to be run on Windows machines too.
And I needed to reach a broader audience. Granted, Yahoo! did not make such a big fuss around its widget environment so the awareness is scant. But there!

Up until v4.0 it was just another application I’d bring up at times. Now it comes with a redesigned interface, more glam-bam-bam, a more consolidated library (yes, I’d spread my widgets all over the harddrive and once deleted or moved they’d be orphaned) and a neat sidebar. The sounds that go with it are also cool. I mean, hey, any PC or Mac you can think of can be pimped like nothing just by installing this piece of software (a no-brainer anyway, very intuitive).

The installer already has a bunch of widgets to suffice for everyday use. But the beauty is just begining. Point your browser to the Yahoo! Widgets Gallery and a full catalog of free widgets open before you eyes. Anything from weather snippets to wifi status monitors. Pick one, download it (they’re really small), and Yahoo! Widget Engine takes care of it for you – it moves it to the designated directory and places it in the convenient sidebar where you can activate it at any time.

This glossieness and web2.0ish interface is really eyecandy but all that comes with a price. Yeah, you guessed: system resources. It runs a little slow on my G4 iBook, a tad slower than the Dashboard I bring up by pressing F8, but not below usability. The app itself takes no more than 7megs but be prepared to guard your RAM: every widget you power on takes around 7megs by itself. So choose only the ones you want to have running.

About a year ago I designed a WiFi connectivity monitoring widget that has been downloaded more than 29.000 times so far. Just search “wifi” in the gallery and “WiFi Status” will show up first in the list. The widget displays the SSID of the base station you are associated with and the signal strenght, in both percentage and intuitive graphics. The tremendous amount of times it has been downloaded and the fact that it bears the c*free logo makes for really cheap and efficient marketing. It took no more than a couple of hours to design and code, but brought good visibility to our WiFi service.

My good friend Robert Muresan of MobileGround.com took the widget to another lever, creating one of the coolest tricks in WiFi history: a real time wireless conectivity/awarness service. Do you want your blog readers, fellow forum users or website visitors to know where you are online? Just install his widget you can download from this address, create a free account, and follow the steps to place the status badge on your blog or website.
You should get a badge looking like this:

We only scratched the surface of this environment and have not really devoted much time to development. There’s plenty of free templates really easy to customize. One can, say, brand their own RSS reader widget that displays the latest blog entry or news. Or can make a widget useful in their field, of course branded. If you’re not skilled in coding or design there’s plenty of freelancers and small companies that will be happy to provide you with a cheap, customized widget. Remember, anyone from Skype to Google has a free widget they tout in their “download” section. It’s a proof of good conduct, if you want. A complementary Mac-compatible Dashboard widget would be a smart thing to do also. Anyone in search of a great way to advertise their blog or whatever should ty the marketing power of widgets.
Take some time to play with the new Yahoo! Widget Engine v4.0! You’ll be sold! Trust me!

Apple reports they just sold their 100 millionth unit of their world famous mp3 player, the iPod! WOW!

Now since there’s AppleTV, the iPhone and the Airport Extreme Base Station, we expect the wireless iPod to emerge out of Cupertino soon too.
Now, plllllleeeeasee Steve, don’t replicate Sansa and Zune’s flaws and mistakes. Mkay, tie it to the iTunes Music Store but pppppplllllleeeasseee let me enjoy my wireless freedom and beam my music back and forth at will. Will you? Please?! Pretty please?! Thank you!

Make good use of your iPods people and get the WiF:)) podcasts (below) on them NOW! ;)

June 11 2007

Now here’s some fresh Joost vs Apple news! Yeah, ‘I told you so’ is on my lips. Remember the article ‘Joost should be under FrontRow?‘ we published a little ago?

Well, Joost doesn’t play in FrontRow, but it does in BackRow :)
The hottest WiFi gadget around, the AppleTV, has been hacked to support Joost! Hell yeah!
As a matter of fact I’m starting to be interested to getting one even if I don’t have a HDTV nor do I have a lifestyle wrapped around watching TV!
Was planning to write on WiF:)) about the AppleTV when I learned they hacked it to run Firefox or an Apache server on Apples media hub. But you gotta give’em credit, the Joost thing is just amazing! Go on! Go, check those witted guys over at appletvhacks.net!
Pssst! Btw, they run a $500 bounty for the first team to get the open source PBX system, Asterisk, running on an Apple TV.

Cut it out, people! Yeah, you! Stop searching for…the iPhone release date in Google instead of going to apple.com! While looking at some stats I found out that a great deal of people end up on wirelessisfun.com because of typing “iphone release date” in the famous search engine! *grin*

Ooook. Here’s the date for ya: June 2007. Put that in red in your calendar and Google no more!

June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date

As the official release document from Apple says:

Getting a job in the Internet era is trivial if you’re serious about your skills and really want to go the next mile. It’s a personal matter to choose fun over paycheck, relocation over your home town or country, alternative crew or 9-5 army. Since I deal with the following companies in various ways, I’ve settled on which I’d say yes or no to if they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Not all of them are in the wireless field, but they are all Internet players.

The beloved-

1. Skype, because they preserve identity and stimulate individual development, while managing to hold a functional team. Plus, working for Skype is fun.
2. Moo, because they use Macs, are innovative and have a good sense of humor.
3. Meraki, because they’re still young and I could get there in time to make them work.
4. Apple Inc., only if i took Steve’s job. It’s the only decent/thrilling job in Cupertino.
5. A Chinese OEM. I bet that’s fun! :)

The ‘no so much’-

1. Google, because they’re big and matte. Individual identity? What’s that?? So what if they pay, give you free candy and loundry? The paycheck should cover that plenty anyway.
2. Yahoo!, oh no! These guys have lost touch with the 21st century realm.
3. T-Mobile, too big and slow moving, lost in the incumbment’s junkyard. I’d say yes only if they gave me an innovation team to work with and took us seriously.
4. Fon, because they’re only cool on paper. I’m into really changing the WiFi world!
5. Cisco, because only the Japs know the secret of the do-it-all company.
#. Dell, nope! Don’t ask!
#. Boingo. Nope! Innovation??? Ring a bell?
#. Vodafone and the like. No way! Clock tickin for you guys! ;)

I’m off to my favorite caffe downtown to sip on a latte! Which employer would let me out of the cubicle before 5pm?

Update:

I knew my friend Dennis of wirelessjobs.com, senior recruiter at T-Mobile USA will have a word against my “uncool employer” tag next to T-Mo’s name. :)
I give him that! Plus, he makes my point shake further by touting a 4PM out-of-the-office Latte! But still, have any of you ever used T-Mobile hotspots in airports or caffes around the world? Don’t you just hate those hours you have to keep an eye on the bill instead of staying productive or simply relaxing online? Yeah, WiFi should be free! Or nearly! Not 8 Euros an hour ($6 in the US)! I just love Budapest’s Feriheghy Airport where there’s a T-Mo hotspot and a *free* Pannon aside! :)
Since Fon wants to place a router next to every Starbucks in the US I fear T-Mobile has to figgure out something else for their WiFi branch. I haven’t seen a counter-move on their behalf, the one and only reason I placed them in the “not so much” section of my picks list.

Off the record, Dennis: make me an offer I can’t refuse and I’ll prolly say yes! :) But make sure we fix that 20th century pricing. This is 2007!

Apple and Cisco have agreed to both use the iPhone trademark in a confidential out-of-court agreement. One statement is that the two companies will “explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, consumer, and enterprise communications.”. Cisco, the world’s largest computer-networking equipment maker and Apple who expects to sell 10 million WiFi enabled iPhones in 2008, are probably looking for profit from interoperability between their devices and technology. Which may have been Cisco’s intention from start, after all, iPhone looked very promising if we analyze the media coverage after official announcement week at Macworld 2007. Why not ask for a piece of the pie in the future? :) And so they did!

A couple of days ago, John Gruber, from The Daring Fireball has posted an extremely comic translation of Macrovision’s CEO Fred Amoroso’s reply to Steve Jobs and his thoughts on DRM and music. Don’t hesitate to read it, but beware for a certain amount of fowl language.

It’s like the coolest gimmick I landed on in days! The guys at Art Lebedev design studio in Russia have thought of a freakin cool way to help you get the iPhone!! Preorder their Superbitus, a one-piece bomb-shaped ceramic money box. Supplied with a white marker to write the purpose of savings, highly motivating for jotting down “iPhone”, it’s the funniest way to effectively store that change later to be redeemed into the all mighty Apple phone. Around $25 a week, that is. And you know what? You’ll have the $$$ by summer. Haha, great job, Art!