Circumventing SMS - Nokia takes on Blackberry Messenger

Nokia has launched a push email/IM service called OVI. It is a very smart move for Nokia, as they have 200M handsets worldwide and they have just opened the door to low cost or free federated text, media and presence connections between all of them.

One of my absolute favourite features of my Blackberry is the BB Messenger application - it is a great IM/File transfer/Voice Note Sender/presence app., exclusively for BB owners on any network anywhere, you exchange PINS and you're good to go. Until you start using it, it is hard to explain how handy and productive this application is. It provides INSTANT communication with other BB users, it is so handy in the office, a tradeshow or an airport - you can't believe it. The best part of course is it is completely free for anyone who has a Blackberry, no bandwith charges - only a small user fee per month on most carriers worldwide.

Now that Nokia is rolling out this OVI service globally (Australia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and Venezuela to start) it will take very little time for this to start resonating with there customer base - I expect Apple to follow suit with something for iPhone users as well.

Long live the unfederated IM networks.

Gapless Playback is irritating...

My love affair with my new Mac continues, but there are a few things that are a bit irritating. iTunes insists on running a process called "Determining Gapless Playback Information" - this process looks at all the albums in your collection and with some algorithm allows you to play them back with no crossfade gap. Good in theory, but bad if you have a 250 GB music collection on a shared network drive. There is no way to turn this feature off, and it basically renders iTunes completely useless while it runs.

It will probably take 2 days to chug through my collection, and once finished; since I don't rip entire albums for the most part, it probably won't have much effect.

I also have all the album art for my collection, but iTunes seems bent on downloading it again, I can't seem to get it to 'see' that it already exists.

I think there are some ways to tinker with your iTunes folder, but I haven't figured out quite everything.

Transfer your Skype IM history from PC to Mac

Having recently made the jump to Mac (and loving it) the first thing I installed on my new MacBook was Skype. It is fantastic on the Mac by the way - with the built in iSight and screaming fast processor - the HD video and voice sessions on the Mac are incredible. The omni-directional mic is just fantastic. The Mac was built for Skype.

Much like my Outlook .pst file, I wanted to transfer my chat/IM history to my Mac. It is quite simple and here are the steps.

First - on your PC go to: C: > Documents and Settings > "username" > Application Data > Skype >"username"

and copy the entire "username" file that you want to transfer.

Copy this information to a thumbdrive and transfer it to your mac desktop to which you have Skype already installed. Place the folder on your Mac desktop and open Finder.

Navigate to "Username" > Library > Application Support > Skype and then drag your username file from your desktop to the Skype folder and replace the folder with the new one you are dragging.

Presto.. start Skype and you have your IM history.

I did get an odd "password is incorrect" notice on my first boot of Skype, but after I entered it - I had my IM history intact.

I have been Liberated - the Mac switch is done. Microsoft officially sucks.

A quick post to hereby declare my Apple Fanboy status. After much deliberation, thought, and planning - I have made the 100% switch to Mac.

I can't really put into words how much I love this new MacBook - the trackpad is just fantastic. Until you use one and see your productivity skyrocket you can't fully understand.

One hiccup during the switch that I must say was most irritating, and I do apologize to the CSR @ Microsoft I probably made cry last week, was that Microsoft Entourage isn't compatible with Microsoft Outlook. I am not kidding - you cannot import your inbox/sent items .pst file to Microsofts very own product on the Mac. They provide no conversion tool, you are just SOL. There is a complicated and time consuming method of importing to Thunderbird then exporting to a Mac friendly format - but if (like me) you live inside your PST file, I strongly suggest paying the 10$ for O2M - this software from LittleMachines did exactly what it was supposed to do and converted my entire .pst folder to mBox.

Apple isn't perfect, but compared to Microsoft - they are in a league of their own.

Google save the Queen

Google UK, had a regal visit from H.R.M. Queen Elizabeth. In honour of the visit, the Google UK home page paid a little homage to her Majesty.

Tip top!

Canada's Do Not Call - Do Not Work !

Well today Sept. 30th the NDNCL - National Do Not Call List is to go live, and allow people to start entering phone numbers so they stop receiving telemarketing calls.

I won't weigh in on how flawed this legislation is from the start - there is no shortage of information and opinion on that. I will however point out that the site simply is not finished, nor' updated.

So, all that great taxpayer money we have spent to get it up and running is for not, as the CRTC seems to have dropped the ball on even launching it. You can't enter a number and none of the navigation links work, other than those to .gc.ca sites..

Great Job CRTC, great job.....

UPDATE = the site is up and running now - the CRTC underestimated the demand and the servers crashed.. if we had politicians with any guts at all, it should have been an opt-in to calling.

Apple Developers need to Chill - it will get fixed

I have been watching the fervor over Apples less than ideal NDA and vetting process for the iPhone app. store. All I have to say is CHILL out people.

I am not defending Apple's mismanagement of this issue, but everyone needs to relax. Apple will fix this, what they have accomplished in wireless space in just over a year is astounding. They built an ecosystem, market and handset, redefined carrier handset relationships - while their competition collectively stares in awe with soiled pants trying to figure out how to catch up.

As big as they appear on the outside, the iPhone is just one division of Apple, and it competes for resources internally with the other highly profitable areas of the company. When the cycles are available the app. store will get a face lift and the issues will be addressed. I know for a fact the team is going a million miles an hour in hundreds of directions.

It isn't perfect, but compared to the other options - it is really the only game in town.