The self-proclaimed definitive list of push-capable apps over at AppAdvice is very neatly organized and provides direct links to the iTunes store for each of the apps listed. Overall a well put together site with several other app lists.
Archive for the 'Geekdom' Category
I recently took a look at Beejive IM for the iPhone. While the latest version supports push notifications, it’s really not going to fill the niche that I had hoped it might. Not at all to say that it’s a poorly written piece of software — it definitely isn’t — but it’s lacking just one feature that I’d need in order for it to completely satisfy me: an always-enabled push notification relay that never disconnects from IM services, no matter how often (or seldom) I use the program. Though this may seem relatively simple, the technical details bring about some interesting difficulties. Continue reading ‘Beejive and the Shortcomings of iPhone Push Notifications for Instant Messengers’
Feb '09
24
SafariStand and Safari 4: Still Working!
I’m happy to report that in my short experience with Safari 4 (released as a public beta at time of writing), the tab sidebar at least seems to work beautifully still. ‘Top Sites’ tabs show a black thumbnail but everything else with regards to the tab sidebar seems to be in perfect working order.
Unfortunately, I have noticed that separator bookmarks (-:-) do not appear as menu item separators within the bookmark menu anymore. I have no doubt that this functionality will return soon in a future update.
Jan '09
28
Philips SRU-8010 Not-So-Universal Remote
I’ve had the Philips SRU-8010 Universal Remote for quite some time now, but never really got it working quite well with my Windows Media Center Edition USB Infrared receiver (or cheap knockoff). I got the receiver working very well on my Gentoo Linux HTPC with LIRC’s mceusb2 driver but wasn’t able to get my remote to play perfectly with the whole setup. I was able to overcome the issue with a roundabout strategy and am pleased to report that I now have my whole media center, including my HTPC, TV, and sound receiver working together via universal remote. Read on for the details.
Continue reading ‘Philips SRU-8010 Not-So-Universal Remote’
I’ve been using Fring to make SkypeOut calls over WiFi. Not only does this shave billed minutes off of my phone bill, but what with the iPhone’s 3G chipset being unreliable as all hell, I honestly prefer to make some of my calls via Skype anyways as long as I know I’m going to be in WiFi range for the duration of the call.
Here’s how to get Fring to work with SkypeOut: prepend the call number a + followed by the country code of the recipient of the call. For example, when calling a phone in the U.S. add +1; (800) 867-5309 then becomes +18008675309. To get the +, I simply press and hold the 0 key on the dial pad in Fring.
I’m not sure that this was always required, as I could have sworn that Fring used to ‘just work’ most of the time, but maybe I’m mistaken. Either way, I’m glad to have it working again!
Aug '08
22
iPhone 3G Dropped Calls: Solved?
As a follow-up to my previous post on dropped calls with the iPhone 3G, I’m happy to report that I no longer experience the issue. I haven’t had any major problems with dropped calls on my iPhone 3G, including while switching between EDGE and 3G networks, since I got a replacement unit under warranty from Apple. The ‘Genius’ at the Apple store gave me a bit of hassle the first time and sent me back home with a re-imaged/flashed phone but was happy to replace it right away when I brought it back in the next day with 20% of my calls dropped since the previous day. The replacement unit’s been much better so far — I think now I’m just experiencing the same poor reception that the rest of the iPhone 3G market is stuck with. Hopefully Apple gets their act together soon on this one; it’s been a pretty dismal last few months for them with new launches.
Aug '08
12
Dropped Calls, the New iPhone, and 3G
Since I got the new iPhone 3G, I’ve been getting a whole ton of dropped calls. Not just the normal amount that I used to get on the old iPhone’s crappy reception, but even more weirdly so, calls would drop immediately without any warning — no silence on the other end, no garbled sound, no period of inactivity, nothing other than three maddening beeps and a “Call Failed” message on the phone. It seems that others on the Apple support forums are having the same issue and provide some insight as to what might cause it.
Continue reading ‘Dropped Calls, the New iPhone, and 3G’
Aug '08
10
Allowing Access to FTP Disk Only Via FTP
For bandwidth shaping reasons, I wanted to be able to allow access to my FTP disk (mounted at /var/ftp) only via FTP (hosted by ProFTPd). As it turns out, this is quite easy to do using a couple of UNIX permissions tricks and some ProFTPd voodoo. Read on for the basic description of how I’ve done it. Continue reading ‘Allowing Access to FTP Disk Only Via FTP’
Aug '08
8
FTP Server Back!
Since I’m now back on Comcast as my backbone to the great intertubes, I’m able to re-enable the FTP server. I’m proud to announce that the FTP server is back and is available for immediate consumption. This should provide an added benefit over SFTP/SCP in that resuming transfers is easier; especially helpful since I get a great deal of dropped connections (Comcast, are you listening?) on long-lived and/or heavy-traffic sockets. Continue reading ‘FTP Server Back!’
Apr '08
13
iPatch and NuclearMouse Incompatible
When trying to install some software updates deployed using iPatch, I found that the updater(s) would display their license/readme sheet and then exit as soon as the sheet was closed, presenting only for a second the usual ’select application’ dialog that we’re all used to. It turns out that NuclearMouse was to blame – as soon as I disabled it, iPatch applications worked again!
So, a hint to those with similar issues: disable (or uninstall) NuclearMouse before running iPatch update programs. To do so, simply drag the NuclearMouse.bundle out of your SIMBL plugins directory.
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