Rich Mintz  

We have a MacBook Pro that (based on our research at home) is apparently suffering from the Nvidia graphics card defect described here. (More from Apple here.) The Apple Store diagnosed the problem tonight, took the computer with a promise of return in 5 days — then called a couple hours later and said it would be ready tomorrow, no charge. Nice!

I think the machine is out of AppleCare at this point, not to mention out of warranty, so I’m particularly impressed. When those people are good, they’re good.

The new version of the WordPress app for iOS (including iPad) is out tonight in the App Store. I’m trying it now. It promises to fix a bunch of bugs, including copy/paste (confirmed fixed), “can’t change category after saving to server” (confirmednot fixed), drafts handling (we’ll see), and a lot of other stuff. So far so good.

UNC social media researcher Fred Stutzman (glamour shot at left) this week announced the release of Anti-Social, his social media-blocking productivity software for Mac OS X.

I have friends who swear by Freedom, Fred’s previous creation (for Mac and Windows), which disconnects the Internet on your computer entirely, for whatever interval(s) you specify, so you can get work done without distractions. Anti-Social is a narrower tool, locking you out of social media sites in particular, but leaving the rest of the Internet available.

We will leave as an exercise for the reader the question of Where This All Might Lead.

Enough said.

Been hacking around on this blog for 3 or 4 hours now, and I’ve discovered a few things:

1. I remember more PHP than I thought. When I dug into the theme files to make a few UI changes, just by examining the context, grepping in the theme directory, and combining some simple trial and error with light Googling, I was able to figure it all out. I cleaned up half a dozen small things that had been bugging me for ages, and uncovered a few more to deal with later.
2. WordPress functions seem well thought-out and well-documented.
3. Boy, do I need some CSS training. Trial and error works, but it’s not the most efficient way to figure out what the hell is going on.

I also had some fun at ColourLovers.com, browsing other people’s palettes and experimenting on my own.

I try not to write too too many posts of the “wow, isn’t (blank) amazing” variety, but allow me this one.  “Freedom Is Wireless,” the current TV ad from CTIA, the Wireless Association — the industry trade group of wireless telecommunications companies — is really, really good.

It’s incredible to me that only three or four years ago, I was still waiting out my 2-year contract on a Nokia e62, a smartphone only in name, with a slow and unrewarding email client and a temperamental browser, really best suited for, you know, “talking on the phone” (remember that?).  (Although before that I had a Sidekick, just like Paris Hilton! Remember her?) I could not wait to get free of that device — which, ironically, I acquired in the first place because tech-savvy friends of mine told me I’d love it. Some friends. (Guys, if you’re reading this — I forgive you.)

Now I have the whole Internet in my pocket: the Web, Twitter, Foursquare, maps to everywhere, document readers, and so forth.  The screen is small, but it works. And in another device a little smaller than a magazine, which I can tuck under my arm and carry everywhere, I have a full-screen experience, including data entry and manipulation ability that’s more than adequate for light tasks, even over an extended period.  And it’s all so purty!

Last weekend I had my first experience in ages (how long? 3 years? longer?) of going away overnight, with some serious business obligations to take care of, and leaving the laptop at home.  The iPad was more than adequate (much improved by the Macally BOOKSTAND case, which I can’t believe I’ve only owned for 8 days).  The quantity of “mobile Internet” I’ve consumed in a month or so on the iPad vastly exceeds the quantity I consumed in two years on the Nokia e62, and the user experience is vastly more rewarding. And, except when I’m in Canada (which is a conversation for another day), I almost never need to keep track of how much data I’m using.

So thanks, CTIA and your member companies, for making all this possible.  I realize you’re gigantic faceless corporations, but thanks anyway — this revolution wouldn’t be happening without you.

Hat tip: Michael Rose.

YouTube – CTIA: Freedom is Wireless

…with the Evernote Web Clipper Firefox add-on!

Install it; then, anytime you want to save copy from a Web page into your Evernote notes stash, just highlight it on the page and click the Elephant button.  A note goes directly into your Mac desktop Evernote client (and is then synchronized elsewhere), with the URL and everything!

If I love a software product so much that I’m willing to spend $25 on the company’s promotional merchandise, even though their free product version is perfectly adequate, I feel I should say something.

That product is Evernote, and you should go download it right now on every device you own. More about why in a future post; in the meantime I’ve got to go finish purchasing my “I (Evernote) NY” T-shirt and my “I’m not being rude, I’m taking notes in Evernote” laptop stickers.

Household battery packaging always carries a scary warning imploring you to REPLACE ALL BATTERIES AT THE SAME TIME. Is this really important, or is it a fiendish plot to get you to buy more batteries?

After exhaustive research, I’ve concluded that it probably doesn’t matter in normal household use — the risk of truly negative consequences from mismatched batteries (e.g., your Apple MagicMouse explodes) is vanishingly low, and the incremental energy savings probably isn’t noticeable. (Really, if you asked me “how long do your mouse batteries last?” my guess would probably be wildly inaccurate.)

However, I have no practical way to know the “residual voltage” left in each of the batteries in a device that’s stopped working. And batteries cost like 50 cents each! So, Duracell, you’ve won this one by default, it seems…

I’m trying to get through a full 3 hours on the train, productively, without pulling out the laptop. Given what i do, most productive time amounts to “doing email.” Observations so far:

The ergonomics of the pad are much better for a train seat than the laptop. The Macally BOOKSTAND case helps a lot with both typing angle and lap slipperiness mitigation. Internet throughput feels exactly the same (or maybe better) than 3G on the laptop.

The Gmail app for iPad is good but not great (in trying to fit all that Gmail goodness into a small screen, they’ve had to make things too small for my fat fingers). So I mostly am using the built-in mail app, which is quite good but involves efficiency tradeoffs. (No threading, and message archiving is 2 or 3 clicks instead of 1.)

Very hard to do composing on the pad, hard or impossible to do things that involve multiple apps or windows.

I’m still getting a lot done — I would say I’m 80% as productive as on the laptop, while being 50% as distracted, which is not a terrible tradeoff for these 3 hours. And the physical experience of using the thing is itself pleasurable.