I need to setup appropriate reminders to categorize twenty “Uncategorized” posts a day until they’re all organized again, so I’m reinstalling the free version of Habit Streak on my Android phone.
Habit Streak helps you achieve your goals (or New Year’s Resolutions) in exercise, diet or other areas of your life. Each day you report on whether you succeeded yesterday, building up streaks of habits and ingraining the activities into your life.
For months, I’ve been using Wordcycler (Windows, freeware) to manually sync individual items from Instapaper to my Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi via USB cable. Now that I have a smaller number of articles to read, I’m going to try receiving new items via Wi-Fi through Instapaper.
I’ll also start trying Instapaper’s Send to Kindle bookmarklet for immediate delivery (Account > Manage My Kindle Settings).
If this works well, it’ll be fantastic not having to connect my Kindle to my computer every few days. I’d only need to worry about charging it.
The other day, Lifehacker posted about Yoink, which "[acts] as a Middleman for Dragged and Dropped Files, Is a Life Saver on Small Screens". Since I have an 11-inch MacBook Air, I’ve already found a workaround that doesn’t require additional software. Note: I’m still using OS X Snow Leopard.
With the source and destination Finder windows open, drag the file(s) to one of the active screen corners, hover over the source folder, then drop onto the active window.
P.S. Hi everybody. I’m geeking out, and I’m okay with it.
I know some other ISPs have caps, but I don’t care. I’d like to know the actual reason for our current DSL service to require a bandwidth cap. I don’t experience a decrease in speed, unlike cable users who share bandwidth.
If there’s truly a tiny percentage of users that will be affected, I don’t understand why AT&T feel the need to drive another wedge between their customers.
I don’t like hand writing as much as typing simply because I’m a slow writer. The faster I write, the less legible my words become.
It’s incredibly easy to get going with a MacBook Air (Oct 2010), especially since it wakes up from sleep so quickly.
You can type the program name after pressing the Windows key.
Once you’re done writing, Control + S to save your document, then Alt + F4 to close the program.
Which programs do I use to write? The following are essentially free simple text editing programs, designed with minimal features so you can focus on writing. If you like any of them, please donate to the developers.
I save these small text files to a dedicated folder within Dropbox[1. Affiliate link to Dropbox. "For every friend who joins and installs Dropbox, we'll give you 500 MB and your friend 250MB of bonus space (up to a limit of 16 GB)!"] only for text files, with a specific prefix to help me find it later. (e.g. BP means blog post in “BP – Pronto writing in six steps.txt”.)
Why not use Microsoft Word, Apple iWork Pages, or OpenOffice.org Writer? If you’re only working with plain text, you don’t need the extra features and bloat.
If you don’t know the HTML tags for post formatting, copy your text[2. Select All for: (Windows) Ctrl+A; (Mac OS X) Command+A], paste it[3. Paste for: (Windows) Ctrl+V; (Mac OS X) Command+V] into your blog post, then format and/or add links accordingly.
As soon as I ordered my MacBook Air, I quickly went to WaterField Designs. While I could’ve bought a case from Incase, Etsy, or Timbuk2, I chose a WaterField Designs SleeveCase[1. Horizontal, Lead Indium, add flap, no strap or Piggyback pouch.] for $52.
Several years ago, when I used a bulky Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, I also bought a SleeveCase from WaterField. I liked it’s durability, design, and simple elegance. I didn’t look anywhere else when I ordered my MacBook Air.
Even though it’s a bit more expensive, high quality means it’ll last for a long time.
Inside my WaterField SleeveCase and “Jack Pack” messenger bag, I feel confident my MacBook Air will be protected from bumps and scratches.
After much consideration, I finally bought a MacBook Air. It’s my first Mac.
I chose the 11-inch model with a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of SSD flash storage.
I almost bought my Mac from MacMall. But, when I got to the payment step, the math wasn’t correct. The MacBook Air, USB ethernet adapter[1. I bought the USB ethernet adapter just in case.], shipping, and tax didn’t add up to the estimated subtotal (which was six dollars more).
Next, I stumbled onto Oregon-based PowerMax. Their site was visually much more pleasant. After over an hour of reading through their company information about pages, warranty information, and plenty of good feedback, I made my purchase.
Another bonus: I saved on sales tax and opted for free shipping.
After two days of processing and six days in transit, it finally arrived. Thanks PowerMax!
By the way, I finally heard back from MacMall. It took four business days (six days total). While I explicitly stated I did not want to order over the phone, the MacMall Account Executive replied:
If you call my extension I will be able to place the order for you with the correct price.
Wow. No explanation about the math error. That’s a shame.
Opening the box was an elegant experience. I wasn’t rushing. I couldn’t help but snap a few photos.
I’ve been following the directions and suggestions from “How to Switch to the Mac” by Tao of Mac. To minimize any botched accounts, creating a standard user after creating the first Administrator user was stated several times in the article. Once I got that out of the way, and skimmed through the booklet, I was ready to get going.
I updated from Mac OS X 10.6.5 to 10.6.6, plus a slew of other updates, totaling 529 MB. That took about 40 minutes. After rebooting my Mac, an iDVD 7.1.1 Update (36 MB) also needed to be installed.
Another security measure for working at public WiFi hotspots is to configure PPTP VPN to connect to my DD-WRT router at home. (See DD-WRT PPTP Server Configuration for Mac OS X. I needed to force encryption on my router. I should probably update my router firmware, then use OpenVPN.)
I’ve installed the following:
The boot and wake speeds are ridiculously fast:
With Google Chrome, OpenOffice.org, Bean, Stickies, iCal, and Activity Monitor open, my system is using 1.66 GB of memory, leaving 2.34 GB free. I would be usually running Thunderbird, too, and possibly iTunes. The best part: the system feels incredibly snappy. (I don’t think it’s just cool and new to me. Honest!)
Easter Egg: If you’re on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6), try holding Shift while clicking a stack or folder in your Dock for some slow, smooth opening action.
I wanted a MacBook Air since it was first released January 29, 2008. With the switch to SSD, it was even more tempting. I don’t need a lot of storage space this laptop won’t be my primary computer.
With a few textbooks, my messenger bag was already heavy. I didn’t want to carry a separate bag for my laptop, nor did I want to lug around one huge bag.
Furthermore, I’m not necessarily biased toward PC or Mac. I see strengths in both. While you can get a PC for much less than a MacBook Air with similar or better specs, it’s not all about specs. It’s a beautiful feeling to put my laptop to sleep in a couple seconds or less, then to jump back into my work much later without missing a beat.
After reading Marco Arment’s thoughts on the 2010 MacBook Air, then trying the 11” MacBook Air at the Apple Store, I felt pretty confident that sacrificing screen size wouldn’t affect my usage. I love that it has a full-size keyboard.
So far, I’m extremely happy with it. I write, read (Google Reader or Instapaper), and check email. Speed isn’t a problem. Even right now, I’m typing this blog post from Bean while relaxing on my couch. The screen brightness is set at “4” and I can see everything on my screen pretty comfortably.
As I get accustomed to Mac OS X, you’ll probably start seeing related posts in the near future, so I’m stoked for another layer of diversity here.
If you have any articles for new Mac users, recommended software, or other usage tips, please leave them in the comments.
I haven’t written about my Android in awhile, but I’ve been messing with it a bit more lately. The following has been rattling around in my head for the past few weeks. Please excuse the partial lack of structure.
Some background:
I’ve since purchased the Seidio extended battery, I can get between 30-48 hours of battery life, depending on usage. While I haven’t been keeping track like before, I’ll just say that I’m around 60-65% after being unplugged from 07:00 to 13:00 (six hours). Using the with the stock battery, it went down to 20-25%.[1. The six hours comes from being at school, using Audiogalaxy, Google Voice, and TweetDeck heavily between classes.]
More recently, Marcus demonstrated some features of CyanogenMod over a Monday lunch at school. A couple days later, my phone is running CM6.1, but I’ll probably upgrade to CM7 RC1 for kicks. (Interested? Backup first.)
With a rooted phone, PicMe and ShootMe are two awesome screen grabber (screenshot) apps.
I didn’t realize that the Mount USB Storage option in ClockworkMod Recovery allowed my to plug my phone to my computer with the USB cable, then copy files off my SD card. I copied my ROM backups to my computer for safekeeping. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have a way to revert back to the stock ROM since my 8 GB MicroSD card died, and I didn’t know about this feature. (I hope I won’t need to do that, though.)
Oh, and use Titanium Backup to uninstall apps you don’t want. (Why? I believe Twitter and Facebook were only included because of the Google Apps install. Oh, I nuked YouTube as well in favor of HTML5 videos.) No need for Terminal, unless that’s how you roll.
Finally, some screenshots:
My 8GB MicroSD card on my Android phone basically died on me a few weeks ago. I’m glad I save my photos and sync my text files to @Dropbox.
You really should get a free Dropbox account, especially since you get 2GB free. (Disclaimer: That’s a referral link. If you use my link, I get 500 MB and you get 250MB of bonus space, up to a limit of 16 GB.)
I’ve given up on extending my battery life by means of software, such as JuiceDefender. Maybe I need more patience to configure it, but sometimes, I just want it to work. From what I’ve been reading across various blogs and websites so far, the iPhone holds that title.
I’m going to buy an extended battery. I’ll be alright with the bulk.
When I’m away from home[1. School, primarily], my usage consists of:
After six hours, I’d find my battery around 20-25%. Boo. (Yes, I adjust my screen brightness as low as I can tolerate and usually keep all GPS-related features disabled. WiFi is usually disabled.)
On a few work days, when I forced myself to use my computer for Google Voice and TweetDeck, I didn’t touch my phone and it barely got to 85% after eight hours.
Specific Android app-related posts to come. Sit tight.
