Posts Tagged ‘TWiG’
“The Swype package you installed does not match the screen size”
February 22nd, 2010, 10 comments
If you tried out the excellent (and unofficial) Swype beta for your Nexus One--the keyboard replacement that makes touch-typing much easier--you may be getting an annoying popup about how the Swype package you installed doesn't match the screen size. I love Swype so much I've been putting up with the error for weeks, constantly dismissing it. Turns out a better version for N1 users kills the error. I uninstalled my error-prone version and installed this one yesterday; happily there are no more errors.
October 4th, 2009, 5 comments
Founder of the TWiT Netcast Network (and my co-host at This Week in Google) Leo Laporte did a fantastic talk for the Online News Association last week about his path to starting TWiT. Laporte's goal is to create a live news channel for techies online: content for smart, devoted people who are conversant in this stuff, not the mainstream BS tech coverage you get on TV. There are several gems in this talk, especially for folks wondering about the economics of niche publishing online. My favorite, however, was this part. Leo says that back in the day, after explaining to a TV exec that it's worth targeting a small group of smart computer enthusiasts, the exec told him:
Advertisers don't believe it's worth advertising to smart people, because smart people don't pay attention to brand. Smart people make an actual choice, they can't be tricked or convinced. They research. So we can't sell ads to a network for smart people.
Then Leo said, "Suddenly television makes sense, doesn't it?" to a great big laugh.
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October 3rd, 2009, 16 comments
If you already own a domain name like yourname.com, you want to use your personalized email address--but you don't want to advertise to the world you're forwarding to and sending those messages from Gmail. While you can manage multiple email accounts inside Gmail by using forwarding, the POP fetcher, and different reply-to addresses, there's an easier way--especially for groups like your family or small business. Google Apps Standard Edition (formerly known as "Google Apps for Your Domain") can host your personal email at Gmail, but without tying you to a gmail.com address for free. Obviously you'll need a domain to use this service, which will cost something to register. When you sign up for a Google Apps account, you'll have to set your domain name's email MX record to point to Google's servers (you'll get instructions on how to do that when you sign up). Once that's done, you've got Gmail behind your personalized domain name. The Google Apps Standard Edition includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Sites (for simple web pages).
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September 15th, 2009, 10 comments
I'm not dead. I've just moved into a new place where there is no internet connection yet, which is the equivalent of dead when you work and live online. Up until now I've resisted "rooting" my Android phone because I didn't want to go down the iPhone jailbreak road. (A major reason I have Android is so I don't have to jailbreak my device to get it to do something interesting!) But desperate times call for desperate measures. Living somewhere with no computer internet connection is a really good reason to root your Android phone. With a rooted phone, you can tether your Android device to your computer and get some internet love wherever you are. (There are quite a few other good reasons to root Android, too, not the least of which is speed boosts and early Donut access.)
If you're paying attention and reading the instructions, the rooting process isn't that difficult. I made the mistake of trying this out without my phone's USB cable (which was still packed away in some box) and in a loud sports bar during the first Chargers game of the season, with one eye on my screen and the other on my beer. Things didn't go so well. This morning I was able to finish up the process and get tethering working just fine. Here's what (and what NOT) to do when you root your Android phone.
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September 5th, 2009, 16 comments
On each new episode of This Week in Google (details) I’ll highlight a tip for using cloud/Google apps smarter, faster, and better. I’ll document those tips here.
If you've upgraded your Mac to Snow Leopard (10.6), it's now dead simple to synchronize iCal with your Google Calendar. While in Leopard you had to either know detailed CalDAV settings or install a helper application, in 10.6's iCal you can just open up the Preferences pane. Under Accounts, click the + button to add an account. Enter your full gmail address (you@gmail.com) and your Google Account password, and iCal will detect and configure the CalDAV settings for you. This is full two-way sync, so changes you make to events in iCal show up in GCal and vice versa.
Pro tip: Google Apps account users, iCal won't automatically detect you're using a Google Account. From the Account type drop-down, choose "Google" and then enter your full email address and password to get your GCal in iCal. This also works for Yahoo Calendar, Exchange 2007, and any other CalDAV server as well.
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August 29th, 2009
On each new episode of This Week in Google (details) I’ll highlight a tip for using cloud/Google apps smarter, faster, and better. I’ll document those tips here.
This week Gmail engineers added a richer contact interface for filling in the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields when you're composing a new email message. While address auto-completion has been available for some time now, the new Contact Chooser lets you check multiple recipients off a list. Click on the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: field names (which are now links) to try it out.
Click to enlarge the screenshot on the right to see this in action. You can search for contacts by keyword, or just show names in contact groups by choosing it from the drop-down. Then, check off all your recipients from the list and click the Done button to add those recipients to your message.
I still rely heavily on auto-complete as-you-type since I usually send email to one or two frequent contacts, but the chooser pop-up comes in handy when you've got a long list of folks to email and you need some help finding them in your contacts.
August 22nd, 2009, 14 comments
On each new episode of This Week in Google (details) I’ll highlight a tip for using cloud/Google apps smarter, faster, and better. I’ll document those tips here.
You use Firefox, you keep Gmail and Google Reader open at all times, and you wish they didn't take up so much space in the tab bar. (Maybe you're on a netbook, or maybe you've always got a dozen tabs open at once, so real estate is scarce.) You can permanently affix the Gmail and Reader tabs in your tab bar, reduce them to show the tab favicon only, and display the number of unread items in each using a collection of Firefox add-ons. See what it looks like in the image above: the Gmail and Reader tabs are on the far left, icon-only, with unread item counts--19 unread messages and 1k+ unread items (yikes!)--on the icons themselves.
To reproduce this setup in your own copy of Firefox, you'll need four Firefox add-ons which I've put all together in a single collection. Install all the add-ons in the Icon-Only Perma-Tabs for Gmail and Google Reader collection. Restart Firefox.
Then, in Better Gmail 2, make sure "Unread Message Count in Favicon" is checked. In Better GReader, make sure "Show Unread Count in Favicon" is checked. Open Gmail and Google Reader in new tabs. Right-click on those tabs, and choose "Faviconize tab." Then, to make them permanent (i.e., open automatically every time you launch Firefox), right-click again and choose "Permatabs->Permanent Tab." Once you're done, whenever you launch Firefox or even hit "Close All Tabs," your icon-only perma-tabs containing Gmail and GReader will persist. (Hat tip to the Lifehacker reader who reminded me of this cool trick!)
August 15th, 2009, 4 comments
On each new episode of This Week in Google (details) I'll highlight a tip for using cloud/Google apps smarter, faster, and better. I'll document those tips here.
The J and K keys navigate through lists of items in Gmail, Google Reader, and even Google search results--without getting the mouse involved, which saves you point-and-click time. J goes to the next item down the list, and K the previous. J and K aren't easy for your brain to remember, but they are for your fingers: most keyboards have a little nubbin on the J key, and if you're a touch typist, your right hand's forefinger rests on the J key. The J and K shortcuts move the cursor up and down in other (some old school) software too, like vim. Here's how to give your J and K keys a workout in Gmail, Google Reader, and even Google search results.
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