August 2006 Archives
Incase you missed the news, on September 12 DVDs with both the original cinematic and enhanced versions of the Star Wars films will be released. Amazon.com has them available for pre-order. And, yes, I've pre-ordered mine. Jealous?
By now most people have heard about the Apple battery recall. Well, yours truly is one of the unlucky ones. It'll be interesting to see how they handle this.
The Verizon Wireless LG8500 Chocolate has been marketed as a phone, travel companion, and mp3 player. They use the phrase mp3 player in their commercials. This begs a question - can it really play mp3s? All of Verizon Wireless's other phones have been crippled so they can play wma files only.
Just wondering.
I've been writing a bit about Google's eMail and calendar solutions lately, and in my last post I mentioned that Gmail doesn't provide IMAP access. I think of this as a down side to Gmail and a black mark against it as I work to decide whether or not I want to use this as my primary source of eMail. I decided to ponder the reasons why a bit and eventually the answer seemed to present itself.
In my last post, I also mentioned that Gmail uses labels rather than folders. Google doesn't want an IMAP user creating a folder that their webmail application doesn't support.
I think the end of the story is that Google needs to release an API so that users can write a plugin for their favorite email client to allow access. Only time will tell whether or not they do it.
In the mean time, my decision has not yet been made.
I spoke earlier about the .Mac versus Google debate. In the end, I suspect that .Mac will win out six months down the road. Today, however, Google is winning out because it's free and provides the features I'd actually use. Tonight I'm looking at Gmail. I'll leave gCal for another day.
Gmail is Google's answer to email services. Google gives its members two gigabytes of storage - ample space for nearly any user. Its webmail software is excellent, providing many features one would find in a desktop-based application including threading and a separated spam folder.
But what if you, like me, prefer the use of a desktop mail client when it's readily available? Don't despair. Gmail happily provides users with POP3 access. It's not IMAP, and in their FAQ the answer to the question of whether or not IMAP is supported is a very gentle 'no.' I suspect we may see that support some day, though. Not today. In the mean time, Gmail does allow the user to toggle a setting leaving mail retrieved via POP3 in the webmail inbox. Handily, one does not have to leave messages on the server from their desktop client. While I have not yet tested my suspicion, I'll bet users still need to toggle this in their clients to use multiple clients.
Finally a word on labels. Gmail uses labels rather than folders to sort email, leaving everything in the inbox. This is a similar tactic to Mail.app's suggestions when they rolled out Smart Folders. Unfortunately, Gmail doesn't embed any headers in labeled mail like Mail Tags does so your tags don't get transferred down to your Desktop Client. That's a bit of a shame, but all in all no big deal.
I can't think of much else to say about Gmail, so I'll stop here.
The .Mac versus Google argument has gone back and forth ever since Google launched Gmail. With gCal, many agree that Google has beaten out .Mac. The only thing that gets me is the lack of two-way calendar syncing. I'd love to see Google implement CalDav when iCal does. That'd sell me in about half a second.
Today at work, as I listened to my iPod on random play, Vanden Plas popped up. It was a refreshing reminder on just how much I like these guys. I just felt like mentioning that.
Bugs. We all like squashing them. Mike Pinkerton has squashed another bug. This one improves the functionality of single window mode in Camino to the same point as Firefox's - new windows open in new tabs but popups are still popups. This is great for me since I love this feature and have been waiting for this fix to turn it on for at least a month. Who knows? Whenever I last wrote about it.
It's not secret that I dislike Verizon. Their policies and the way they restrict their phones' software disappoints me in ways only Microsoft can rival. Unfortunately Verizon has been a necessary evil here in Vermont because of poor coverage for other providers.
With other providers improving their coverage and features I'm getting curious: who do you like and why?
The Burlington Free Press posted an article noting that Comcast has completed the purchase of Adelphia here in Vermont. This is great news for any Vermonter with cable because, quite frankly, Adelphia has been extremely sub par. It's going to take some time before the merge is complete and all, but at least it's a step in the right direction. And one more nice thing mentioned in the article: nobody working for Adelphia is being fired; Comcast is retaining all existing employees.