MacBook Pro Firmware Update

Today I installed the first firmware update since I switched to a MacBook Pro, earlier this year. The update is promising to improve the performance and reliability of Intel Core 2 Duo processors and fixes issues with Boot Camp for MacBook Pro computers. I haven't found more specific information about what specific reliability issue this update is fixing.

I experienced pretty significant stability problems since I started to use this machine. The symptom is always the same: a complete freeze of the OS; the screen does not refresh even if applications still seem to be running (e.g. iTunes would continue to play music). I have been having those freezes about every two weeks. So this hasn't been a total killer, but it has been very frustrating. Especially considering that I never had any stability problem on my previous Windows laptop.

Hopefully this update will do it!

D-Link DUB-H7: Not Recommended

This hub has 7 ports, and is quite compact. Those are all things I like. However, I have found it to be unreliable. From time to time, one device connected to the hub will stop working. You just disconnect and reconnect the device, and everything gets back to normal. The interval between two incidents can be of a few hours or a few days. I have a keyboard, mouse, headset, printer, and scanner connected to the hub, and never have any problem like this when they are connected directly to my laptop.

For a while I thought this was maybe a problem specific to my Windows machine. Lately I got a MacBook Pro, and was surprised to have exactly the same problem. So this is definitely some problem with the hub, or with the interaction between the hub and the devices I am using.

• Bottom line - I can't use this hub.
• Verdict - Not recommended.
• Question - Is there any USB hub with at least 5 ports that you would recommend?

Gmail Mobile Missing "Report Spam" on the iPhone

I mentioned yesterday that the Gmail Mobile site was improved to expose more of the functionality you get in the full HTML version. I loved the Report Spam button, which you can use to quickly report all the checked messages as spam. But this morning, I notice that this button is gone:
But is seems to be only gone from the interface when you access it from the iPhone. Access the same site from a desktop browser (or another mobile browser), and you will get a slightly different UI with the Report Spam button:

So Gmail seems to be serving a different page for iPhone users. Nothing wrong with that, but please, provide at least the same amount of functionality in the pages you build for the iPhone as in the pages built for other devices!

Gmail Mobile Improved

Great news for those of us who are using the Gmail Mobile site: the site has been revamped and the changes became visible to me this morning:

• You can now select messages and perform an action on those messages (for instance mark as spam). Previously you could not mark a message as spam from Gmail Mobile. Instead, you had to click on every single message and then click on Trash message. This was slow, and still not equivalent to marking as spam.
  
• Pages have been changed slightly to take into account those of us using a tap interface (think: iPhone). Previously the action Archive was so close to Forward and Mark unread that hitting the right action required some skill. Now some space have been added between those links, which makes Gmail Mobile much more usable.

This is some great news for those of us who want to access Gmail from our iPhone. I am thrilled! It still isn't as good as the actual Gmail Mobile application (which I used to run on my Nokia E62, and which runs on most phones where you can install applications), but this is a very nice step in the right direction.

You don't do projects, you do next actions

Kelly reminds us of the difference between an action item and a project. If each item on your next actions list is not simple enough that you can just do it, that is not a next action. Chances are it is a project.

This has been an opportunity for me to go through my next actions and ask myself that question for each next action: is this simple enough that I can just do can just do it? Or do I need to first think about it? Many "next actions" fell in this latter category. Try it on your own next actions list, and see how much clean-up you can do.

Basecamp Message Categories

We use Basecamp a lot at Orbeon, and we love it. Basecamp is simple, which is most cases means that there is a default way in which things work, and you can't change it. The beauty is that Basecamp gets the default right, most of the time.

Message categories are unfortunately one of those times where the default isn't right. When you start a new project, Basecamp provides 3 categories: Assets, Code, and Miscellaneous. Then when you create a new message, it picks by default the first category in alphabetic order: Assets. More often than not, this is not what you want.

So here here is what you can do; after creating the project:

• Remove the Assets and Code categories, if you don't need them.
• Create any category you might need (such as Issues, Releases).
• Rename Miscellaneous and add dot in front of the name (.Miscellaneous).

This will guarantee that whenever a new message is created, it will be by default in the .Miscellaneous category.

Those Zunes Must Be Hard to Sell

The Zune 30 GB was on Woot at $150 a few days ago. Compare that to around $200 at Amazon, and $250 for a 30 GB iPod. Now $150 should be a good deal, shouldn't it? For sure, those Zune must be hard to sell, and I am not sure that lowering the price will help much.

It reminds me this Logitech USB speaker phone, which I saw "sold" for $0 after mail-in rebate at Fry's a few months ago. It looks good in picture, but the product is apparently flawed. Shoppers were not duped: even for free after mail-in rebate, a big stack of them were still waiting to be picked up at the store I went to. Of course, those who bought it and resold it on eBay might after all have done a good deal.

The iPhone Jack Connector

Reading from all the people who are complaining that their current headphones can't be used on the iPhone I though that the iPhone would come with a 2.5 mm jack connector. That connector is smaller that the more usual 3.5 mm jack connector that is used on most headphones, and it is often used on smart phones, including Treos and some Nokia phones. I owned a Nokia E62 that comes with a 2.5 mm, and finding 2.5 mm headphones or a 3.5 to 2.5 mm adapters has been notably hard.

But the iPhone has a 3.5 mm connector. However, normal headphones won't fit that connector, not because this is some time of special 3.5 mm connector, but because the opening on the iPhone is not large enough. How stupid is that? Fortunately you can easily get around this. Don't get one of those ridiculous Belkin adapter. Instead just cut a little bit of plastic off the end of your jack connectors. I did that on a couple of headphones and it works like a charm!

Long Weekend in Havasupai

I will be taking a long weekend going to Havasupai in Arizona. I haven't taken any real vacation since the Holiday, so that will feel like a mini-vacation.

I heard great things about the hike, the falls, and in general about how gorgeous the area is. Really looking forward to it!

iPhone, Wait no more

I have to admit: I now have an iPhone. I got it as a gift from my wife for our one-year wedding anniversary. Thank you Yue, this is one of the best gifts I have ever received! Woo-hoo! :D

(And if you thought that I was posting too much about the iPhone already, now beware, it can only get worse.)

Google Reader's Search Field

Gérard mentioned a few weeks ago that Google Reader doesn't have a search field. I didn't believe him! So I had to go check for myself. But Gérard was right: there was not search field in sight, and I couldn't find anything about this on their help pages. Can you believe that?

A few days ago Google added a search field to Google Reader. Woo-hoo! Now Google Reader is back in the race, and I can now seriously consider a switch from the excellent rssfwd+Gmail combination to Google Reader.

Norm's Mac Love

Welcome to the Mac world, Norm! It is hard to resist to those shiny MacBook Pro, isn't it? Here at Orbeon, I made the switch a few months ago and Erik did a few months earlier. Yes, the Mac is a very nice machine. And Mac OS X also has a lot going for it. But is it perfect? If you ask me, far from it. Very far. One day, when I feel brave enough to confront feedback I might get from the Mac zealots, I will post about some of the darker sides of Mac OS X ;).

BlogRovR: Blog posts related to the web site you're looking at

Activeweave pushed has a new version of BlogRovR. BlogRovR is a Firefox extension which, as you browse a site, provides a small panel displayed on top of the page showing what blogs are saying about the site you are on. The interface of the Firefox extension and the BlogRovR site are very polished. This is some nice work!

Jean Sini showed me his work a few years ago when it was still a Greasemonkey script. Since then his company has focused on enhancing your browsing experience by providing relevant information about the site you are visiting, first with Stickis and now with BlogRovR.

Now, I would love to see BlogRovR evolve into a platform, like Facebook did. Is knowing what the blogosphere is saying about the web site you are visiting that important to you? It may or may not be. But imagine you could have much more. For instance, I would be more interested in looking at what comments users have left on del.icio.us about that site. Or what other web sites are related to this one (information which can for instance be extracted from del.icio.us), and for each one of those sites I'd like to see right away how much traffic it has, how long it has been there, and links to relevant snapshots on The Wayback Machine. Possibilities are infinite. And starting with a niche application, executing it well might be a wise choice.

Seen through TechCrunch

A Real Skype Client for the iPhone

We have seen at least one company that lets you place Skype calls from your iPhone. But so far, this has been been through a call-back. This is not end-to-end VoIP. You are still using your airtime. Because of this, I am sure AT&T doesn't mind too much.

What I hope to see in the near future is a true Skype client running on the iPhone. I don't expect it to work well over GPRS, but you will be able to use it over Wi-Fi.

Because the iPhone is a closed platform, creating a Skype client for the iPhone will require a number of hacks. This means that most likely we won't get an "official Skype client" for the iPhone. And because the Skype system itself is closed, we haven't seen a lot of third-party Skype client for any platform. Creating one for the iPhone will be a double-challenge!

But ultimately, this will be done. And at that time it will be interesting to see how Apple and AT&T react.