Paul Jacobson

I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that is 2010 tomorrow. I realised that according to some popular science fiction stories, we should have ships somewhere in orbit around Jupiter by now.

Science fiction stories like 2010 are curious stories. 2010 was set in the context of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The movie features the famous HAL 9000 artificial intelligence and pseudo-villain of the story. In our time we have barely left Earth, might be returning to the Moon some day and Mars looks like a destination we might reach in a few more decades.

When it comes to our technology, we don't really have AI in our daily life but who knows what the military is playing with. We could have a HAL 9000-SkyNet slowly waking up. Then again, we might be a few more innovations away from Google's various services meshing together and becoming self-aware. That is probably just bad science fiction but the year ahead doesn't seem to be as advanced as science fiction would have it in some respects and yet, in other respects we seem to have even more advanced technology.

I guess that is the problem with science fiction that is set in the near future. More often than not we get to that point in time and still don't have flying cars, hoverboards or super smart, connected data networks.

Oh, wait ...

The only thing Twitter has been consistent about is its failure to scale and develop a stable platform given its growth and all the hype about the service. How can Twitter not be able to handle search after 3 years in operation and $155 million in funding?



Yes Twitter helps people reach out to millions, get links across and it is being regarded as a pseudo-utility but in the absence of a stable infrastructure Twitter is a disaster waiting to happen. It is a bit like building on top of a fault line, in this case a fault line supporting in excess of 50 million users. Its all good till that big one hits and Twitter experiences the ultimate fail whale.

I'm tempted to say I am not against Twitter but I am increasingly disturbed by an apparent failure or inability to build a stable platform for this service. There are still regular outages (is that a feature and not a bug?) and basic features are still not working. What is going on here? How many times have you seen Facebook go down in recent years?

Its rewarding using Twitter and building your Twitter network but make sure you have a backup of not only your Twitter stream (there are a couple ways to do this - subscribe to the RSS feed or use a service like Backupify to backup your Twitter account). If Twitter does actually experience a major outage there are going to be a lot of people suddenly finding themselves in virtual silence, disconnected from what were previously regarded as invaluable communities.

I came across this great email tool from Vibealicious a little while ago which works nicely if you have a preference for Web mail apps like Gmail, Google Apps mail and other Web-based email services.



Notify takes the form of an email notifier which Gmail Notifier users will be familiar with (it works similarly). One of the big benefits Notify has over similar notifiers like the Gmail Notifier is that Notifier supports multiple email accounts (although Gmail Notifier also notifies you of upcoming calendar events).

Notify enables users to really customise their email alerts for each mail account, compose and reply to emails within Notify and preview messages. These last two features are only available if you opt to buy a pro license for $10 but the free version offers a range of functionality that makes it a great choice. As a bonus you have trial access to the pro features for the first few days after installing Notify so its a good opportunity to try them all out.

I came across a great tip which you might find useful. If you are a Mac user and you use Web-based email as your primary email option, set Notify as your default mail application in Mail.app's preferences. This should redirect you to your Web-based email when you click on a "mailto:" link rather than your desktop email apps.

There are a one or two things I'd like to see improved on. The one thing that immediately comes to mind is only relevant to the pro version which enables a preview of emails in your inbox. It would be more consistent with the Mac UI if I could preview an item by hitting my space bar instead of right clicking and clicking on the "preview" option. Well, it would be great if the preview option worked too ... Update: The preview feature was fixed in version 2.0.7 and is triggered by the space bar like Quick Look.

Update: Evernote Support got in touch pretty quickly and I've been sending them reports from Activity Monitor and Console. Hopefully they will help.

I updated my Evernote app on my Mac to what I believe is version 1.6 (for reasons which will become apparent in what follows, I haven't been able to check this within the app). Since that update the Mac app has become a memory sink of note, so much so that I just posted the following to the user forum:

The latest Evernote for Mac update is a shocker! I upgraded when I was prompted to do so and found that the app typically takes a few minutes to load and become usable (before then it is either unresponsive or I get a spinning beachball). It starts up using around 300MB of "Real Memory" (I believe that is the correct metric) and as I type this it is using around 435MB and the app still haven't become usable yet. I left the app running on my MacBook during the day yesterday or so and found it was using around 700MB. This update seems to have converted Evernote into a memory sink.

I also find that the Mac app is incredibly sluggish for me. I have roughly 4 500+ notes and of those notes, around 3 500 to 4 000 are PDFs (I scan straight to PDF using my ScanSnap). The app is very sluggish when I try accessing notes, navigating to other notebooks and search for notes. I don't know if the PDF volume impacts on this or not or whether this means the underlying database is bloated/broken but the end result is that Evernote is becoming more of a chore to use than something I want to use every day, all the time. I haven't been able to load the app and view the version number for the purposes of this post so I have included the file name in the subject line.

Heck, this morning I wanted to type up a shopping list and it was quicker to open TextEdit, type up the note, print it out and give it to my wife than it was to open Evernote and create a new note.

Evernote is supposed to be my constant companion on my Mac. I used to have it open automatically when I booted up my Mac because I use it for everything. One of the reasons I have so many notes and PDFs at that is because I have been dumping all my old documents into Evernote to make it all easier to find and more useful to me.

This sluggish behaviour isn't new to this version. I just noticed I filed a similar post for version 1.4.9 and I was told that the app would "pause for a bit" when loading large PDFs. This isn't pausing "for a bit", it is stalling and crashing. It is also tremendously disappointing. I have been evangelising Evernote here in South Africa and a number of people have started using it because I have been so passionate about the app and the service. Surely this must be something you can fix?

This is what my memory usage looked like shortly before I force quit the application (it was not responding):



This screenshot is a reading that was increasing steadily towards 1GB. Not good.

Google Chrome OS attracted a huge amount of attention and continues to do so. As you may know it is a Linux-based operating system developed largely by Google and which will be released in about a year.



It is touted as the next Next Big Thing and, like many Google products, it will apparently solve world hunger, water shortages, bring about world peace and make it so much easier to do stuff. As things stand now, the OS is designed to run on fairly specific hardware (SSD and not traditional hard drives, for example) and its apps are really Web apps so it seems that you either need to be online or using Web apps that support some sort of offline functionality. Presumably Google will have updated its apps to support HTML 5 offline capability by the time the OS ships or the OS will have Gears support.

A ChromeOS powered device will be light, fast and will be geared for the Web-based stuff many of us do all day without needing a larger device. You could (and probably would) use ChromeOS on a netbook or something smaller and lighter than your usual laptop. All this is great and mobile workers are celebrating but I just wonder why this is so much better than an OS like Ubuntu Netbook Remix.



ChromeOS is basically the Chrome browser as an OS. Google has boasted that there are so many apps available for ChromeOS already because ChromeOS runs Web apps. Well, so does pretty much any modern browser and given that Chrome (the browser) is available on Linux, why not run Ubuntu on your netbook instead? You have all the benefits of the Web apps through Chrome or Firefox and you have the added ability to use installed apps that don't require you to be online to use them effectively. You could choose between Google Docs or OpenOffice/Abiword/etc. When it comes to IM, you have a number of options available on Ubuntu whereas you are limited to Google Talk or a Web-based alternative on ChromeOS (did I mention apps aren't really intended to be installed on ChromeOS devices, as I understand it?).

It is possible that Google will optimise its apps for ChromeOS with the result that ChromeOS users will have certain additional functionality or an improved experience but short of that sort of benefit (ok, and a 7 second load time for ChromeOS ... does a few extra seconds or a minute or so make that much difference if you are running an Ubuntu netbook?), I think users are better off using a netbook running Ubuntu or even Windows 7 for a little extra.

There are more benefits to using Ubuntu (I'm going to focus on Ubuntu but Windows 7 probably has similar benefits) on your netbook instead of ChromeOS. For one thing I am not sure that a ChromeOS will be able to support much media on the device running it. I haven't seen a media application which you can use to play some music you transfer or download to the device. I could be wrong. What I do know is that there are a number of media applications in Ubuntu. I also recently heard that Ubuntu users are going to be able to buy music from Rhythmbox on their Ubuntu machines a little like iTunes or something similar.

Ubuntu users have more flexibility with their hardware requirements and a pretty broad selection of applications, both installed and Web-based. There are probably a number of other benefits I just haven't thought of yet ...

Am I just missing something significant here?

Update: Take a look at this post on JK on the Run titled "What ChromeOS Looks Like as a Primary Operating System" to get an idea what the OS will look like when it releases next year. The video is worth watching!

I've had a Nokia N900 for a couple weeks now. Initially the idea was to try it out and share my thoughts and experiences but with the understanding that the N900 would not be available in South Africa for sale. That changed shortly afterwards and I received word from Nokia's Tania Steenkamp that the N900 is going to be on sale in South Africa in the second quarter of 2010, thanks to efforts by Nokia SA's general manager, Mathia Nalappan, to have stock allocated to SA.



I adopted an Andy Ihnatko approach to the N900 and switched to it from my N97 completely for the first few weeks. I put my N97 back in its box and did everything on the N900. I posted my initial experiences to a FriendFeed channel which I embedded in my first post and, as you can see, using the N900 was a mixed experience. Rather than using devices like the iPhone or Android devices as a comparison, I used my N97 which is/was Nokia's flagship device. If you are familiar with the current Symbian UI, this video is a great introduction to the much improved Maemo 5 UI:



As you can see from the video, the N900's interface is pretty different to Symbian devices. In fact, it is a real improvement and one of the reasons I am really going to miss the N900 when Nokia prizes my fingers open and takes it back.

From a hardware perspective the N900 feels solid (I'm not going to rehash the specifications so take a look at thedetailed specifications on the N900's site). Its viewable screen area is roughly the same as the iPhone/iPod Touch and wide than the N97's screen. The N900's screen resolution is fantastic. Everything looks sharper and richer on the N900's screen (according to the Nokia blog, the N900 has a 267 pixels per inch pixel density, compared to 165 PPI on the iPhone 3Gs and 210 PPI on the N97).

The device feels more substantial than the N97 and, as small as it is, you can definitely feel it in your pocket. It feels compact and substantial. I think about the E71 when I think about the N900's build quality.

Like the N97, the N900 has a fold out keyboard but unlike the N97, the N900's keyboard is flat, relative to the screen, and a little more compact. I had the usual finger confusion when I started using the N900's keyboard and kept typing the wrong characters because my fingers were used to a different layout. I eventually got used to the keyboard and while I don't think I type as fast on that keyboard as I do on my N97, it works pretty well. You can also enable an onscreen keyboard if you prefer not to slide the physical keyboard out all the time (or at all) but I found the onscreen keyboard a little confusing (it isn't very intuitive).

The camera is important to me because I tend to use my mobile phone's camera a lot. It is, after all, the camera that is always with me. The N900's camera is almost the same as the N97 (5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens/es) and easily a replacement for your little point and shoot.



One aspect of the device that really impressed me is the GPS capability. The N900's GPS locks pretty quickly and while I don't know if this is due to the N900's ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor doing the necessary work behind the scenes that much faster but it is a welcome improvement over my experience with the N97. The GPS ties in with the camera and geotags photos really nicely. The only time I had a problem with the geotagging was when I had no network signal at all! When you take a photo, it will be tagged with your location on a local, regional and national level. You have the option of limiting the geotags or removing them altogether.

On the subject of photos and sharing, the N900 has much improved sharing options over the Symbian Share Online app. There are configuration options for services like Evernote, PixelPipe, Flickr, Ovi and other services for the N900. The Evernote option particularly appeals to me and it doesn't seem to be available on the N97 (strong possibility I just haven't figured it out or found the configuration file). The N900's share functionality works really well to boot and its very easy to use.

One of the N900's best features, from my perspective, is the Conversations app. This is the N900's messaging hub and it combines sms and instant messaging updates into a single conversation for each contact. It is brilliant and it annoys me that the Conversations app isn't available for my N97.

You can connect to a number of popular IM services including Skype, Ovi, Google Talk, Jabber and SIP in Conversations and both sms's and IM messages from your contacts will merge into a single contact-based conversation. You can also set your availability status in the N900 like most IM apps and, when you are online, you can also see which of your contacts are also online or available. IM integration extends to the address book where you have the option of contacting your friends via sms, email, IM and good old voice telephony (oh, if you use Skype, you can also call them via Skype from your N900 - haven't tried this though).

Another favourite is the N900's Mozilla based web browser. It is a full browser, not a pared down mobile browser and that, oddly, takes a little getting used to coming from my N97. Instead of loading mobile versions of some sites, the browser loads the full web page. This makes it possible to access your favourite sites on this little device and have a pretty good experience at the same time. You can also install a Firefox beta version but I found myself going back to the Maemo browser for most of my Web browsing. Take a look at this video, below, for an introduction to the browser:



Real geeks are going to love some of the geekier apps like the terminal app that comes with the device. There are a couple other geeky apps you can install which I don't really understand or appreciate nearly as much as a geek who believes that Alpine is the best email application on the market today.

Overall this device is a great device although it isn't without its shortfalls. I will write about some of those shortfalls in a follow up post in the next day or so.

I received a heads up from G-Connect's agency, Emerging Media, about a special offer for the holidays a couple weeks ago. You may know that G-Connect is one of the broadband providers I use although mostly while I am on 3G. I use Afrihost as my main provider because its ADSL is cheap and can accommodate multiple concurrent connections. That being said, I often think my G-Connect connection is faster than my Afrihost connection when I do use G-Connect ADSL. I don't know if it is actually faster but it certainly feels that way. If you are interested in my thoughts about these two providers in particular, check out my post about them.

Anyway, the special offer is pretty appealing and probably an attempt to deal with the explosion of ADSL providers offering prices even lower than Afrihost's R29/GB although with mixed results. Here is part of the press release I received:

Adding even more fuel to the debate around the price of broadband Internet connectivity in South Africa, WirelessG has launched a promotion on their G-Connect product that sees it slashing pricing on ADSL, Wi-Fi and 3G Internet access by as much as 59% between the beginning of December 2009 and the end of January 2010.

The preferential pricing is available as part of a promotion the company calls its ‘30-Day Broadband Pass’ and as its name suggests, differs from the company’s G-Connect prepaid Internet offering and offers users the opportunity to get substantial discounts of between 39% and 59% on all access mediums while having a cap of up to 9GB for only R200. The effective price on ADSL is as low as 2.2 cents per MB while 3G is 28 cents per MB. However, when using this convergence bundle users will be required to consume their entire data allocation within 30 days of its purchase.

“While the promotion won’t see any data capacity rolling over from one month to the next, as is the case with the existing G-Connect product , the big win is that the offering is unlimited in the sense that existing and new users can purchase as many of these ’30-day passes’ as desired. They will further have the freedom to access mobile and fixed line networks which will be a specific requirement in the festive season with users travelling to holiday destinations. With this kind of product, families can hammer the networks at prices almost half of their existing bandwidth costs”, explains Carel van der Merwe, CEO of WirelessG.

“We believe that the promotion will do wonders for opening the market’s eyes to what’s possible with substantially larger data capacity limits and more cost effective pricing,” he says.

“This exercise will also give us and the market a view of what’s to come in the near future,” he adds.

Van der Merwe says that the ‘30-Day Broadband Pass’ promotion can be done due to the ease of use of our service and is a result of a temporary set of price reductions. “It is not designed to mislead the market, but to offer something special to satisfy the need of the December to January holidaymaker,” he says.

This announcement follows last week’s G-Connect price drop where the normal G-Connect ADSL rate was lowered by 29% to as low as 3.5c per MB. Prepaid users will therefore also qualify for lowered rates regardless of whether they purchase a ‘30-Day Broadband Pass’ or not.

G-Connect could do a couple things to improve its service, generally speaking, including its hit-and-miss Connection Manager which can be pretty temperamental. If you are away from your usual ADSL connection over the holidays and your mobile provider is still ravaging you with high mobile data costs, take a look at its pricing and this special offer. It may be worth your while.