My Gadget Life

OK youguys who know me. You will laugh at this one. I love this. It’s a free service called “Audlink.” I can call a phone number, leave a voice message, and it gets automatically uploaded to my web site, so I can link to it here. Here’s a test:
Hi everyone!

I’m just starting to think of some ways I could use this. Here is where I first read about it: How to create podcasts with a smartphone.

I’ve been playing with extensions to Firefox (my current favorite web browser). Here’s one I’ve been using for a while, ForecastFox, which displays weather forcasts and current temperature in the status bar on the bottom of my brower window. Here’s what it looks like right now:

When I hover my mouse over it, it shows more detailed info. The two icons after today’s temperature and forecast are for tonight (4 degrees) and tomorrow (24 degrees and sunny).

I’ve just recently started using Gmail for some of my email. I have two accounts, one with my real name and one with a pen name. I came across this great set of Gmail tips, which has inspired me to start using Gmail more.

One thing I love is the idea of labels instead of mailboxes or folders for storing mail. You can assign multiple labels to each message and then click on that label name to see all the messages filed in that category. I wish I had this in Apple Mail for my MIT mail! I’m always forgetting what category I filed an old message in. (could be under the project name or the person’s name or whatever).

I also love the tip about maintaining “notes” in Gmail, because I often email myself notes on things I want to remember.

Another related thing I like is the Firefox extension for notifying you if you have email in your Gmail account. You can download it from the Firefox extensions page on Mozilla.org – it’s called Gmail Notifier.

Last night I was looking around in the Apple Store and I asked them if they have refurbished products in the store or only online. They said no refurbs. So then I asked if they ever have returned items on sale, and it turns out they do! They call them “refreshed” products. And it turns out they had just what I had been thinking of buying online: an Airport Express. They had 1 “refreshed” one for $99 (full price is $129, educational price is $119). So I bought it and now I’m listening to music from my iTunes music library on my Mac cube (in my bedroom) on the stereo in my living room. This is great because it’s hooked up to speakers in the living room, kitchen, and the cellar (so I can continue to hear it when I’m down there doing my laundry).

Of course, installing it wasn’t totally trouble-free. There was a problem at first. I plugged it in near the stereo and went over to my Mac to install the software and set it up. Somehow it couldn’t find the Express using my existing wireless network. After a bit of Google searching I found this page, which had the answer. It involved updating the software from Apple’s site, updating the firmware, and then plugging it into my Ethernet cable while setting it up. Turns out third party wireless routers use IP addresses beginning with 192 and Apple’s product is set up to use addresses beginning with 10. So this workaround helped me fix that, and now all is fine.

It was great to listen to some of my favorite podcasts today all around the house while I was doing other things. Usually I only listen to them on my iPod. Of course I can plug my iPod directly into my stereo, too, but that runs down the battery, and there is a lot more music on my computer than on the pod (since it’s a mini).

The other reason I wanted an Airport Express was to extend the range of my wireless network so my laptop will work more reliably in the living room. (I have a Titanium Powerbook, which is known for poor wireless reception). The only problem is, that doesn’t seem to be working. The network fades out when my laptop is in the living room. But I’m too tired to troubleshoot that today, so it will have to wait for another time. It’s probably some setting I didn’t set up when I installed it.

At least the music plays, which is great. Oh, and I’m using Veta Universal on my cell phone to control iTunes remotely. (see previous post about that) It’s so cool to be sitting at the kitchen table with my cell phone and if I don’t want to hear a particular tune, I can advance to the next one by hitting a button on my phone (it doesn’t have to be in a line of site with my Mac, because it’s Bluetooth, which is radio waves). So that’s really cool. (Veta Universal is shareware for $8).

Last night I set up my Nokia 3650 cell phone to use as a remote for controlling iTunes on my Mac. It’s so great! I used Romeo and Veta Universal shareware to do it. Romeo installs on the Mac and Veta on the Palm or cell and now I can use either device to control iTunes and other apps on my Mac. This is great! I can control Powerpoint, DVD Player, iTunes, the system (turn volume up or down or mute, etc.), and more. Here’s what the screen looks like on my phone:

So right now I’m on a walk through the vast underground tunnels of MIT (since it’s SO cold outside today). It’s lunch time and I’m doing this for exercise, since my usual exercise classes at the MIT fitness center have ended for the semester. I’m listening to a hacker radio show in my iPod, which makes the walk more interesting. The radio show is a “podcast” from 2600.com. I’ve listened to their show for years via their web site… it’s broadcast on a radio station in New York, but they put the MP3 files on their web site to download. The show is called “off the hook.”

I’ve stopped in an “athena cluster” to see how this blog looks on a UNIX workstation. The font is nice! It’s Lucida Sans Unicode, which is set in my stylesheet to appear if the user doesn’t have Lucida Grande. Time to get off the blog now and check some other web sites I’m working on for work.

I now realize what all the hype is about. It’s one thing to read about iPods, but another to own one. It’s so great to have everything on this little device that’s always with me… not just songs, but lectures, radio shows, podcasts, exercise classes (my Pilates class from last year), copies of my old piano and organ recitals, archives of mini-disc recordings I’ve been making of Xmas celebrations for the past few years (each kid and each adult is interviewed and talks about their year and then we listen to the previous years), comedy shows, audiobooks, etc.

And the thing about iTunes and iPod together is that it’s so easy to create all kinds of playlists (that just point to 1 copy of the tune). So I can mix and match things in all kinds of creative ways… mellow tunes, exercise tunes, favorites, certain genres, etc.

I’ve been reading 2 good books for ideas about my iPod: iPod Fan Book by Yasukuni Notomi, and iPod & iTunes Hacks (O’Reilly). I highly recommend both books for iPod lovers.

The next step is to import my contacts from my Palm address book, and start playing around with text notes also. I really want to get the Style Master CSS podGuide from Westciv, which is freely available as text notes for your iPod. More on that later.