G-Crushing!

Last week Google came out and absolutely crushed their gMail design by changing around the buttons that allow you to send and delete emails by making them completely image less (CSS). They also created the ability to "Move To" which allows you to automatically label a piece of email and archive it in one button. Even though this may not sound like a huge thing, it breaks gMail away from the shackles of images and allows them to be easily 're-skinned' via themes. Google this week, might have one upped itself with something completely crazy for us iPhone users.

For the longest time there was only one way syncing between iCal and Google Calendars unless you relied on third party software. Perhaps a month or so ago, Google released the ability to sync both ways between iCal and gCal but since they were considered network servers, you could not sync them to the iPhone...until now. Yesterday, or today they set up an Exchange (email on its way apparently) service that allows users of gCal and Google contacts to sync with your iPhone. Unfortunately, if you do this you actually erase all of your calendars or contacts. This is fairly crap-tacular if you relied on all your calendars...however you could boot up iCal, use the collaboration tool to set up your exhisting gCal accounts and drag the local calender items to their corresponding gCal calndar. There really is not a huge work around for the contacts however, I have no need to sync my contacts.

Testing the sync over the air was great and pulled down all the needed information from the Google servers. There are a couple hickups, specifically since you can only sync up to 5 calendars and you actually need to log onto the service via your phone to allow the phone to sync even more then one calendar when you first set up the service (I got crazy tripped up on this issue...maybe I should read the full instructions). Besides a couple of minor bugs everything is syncing between gCal, iCal, and my iPhone. Kudos to Google for getting all of this stuff together and making life with calendars just that much easier. Also a huge thanks needs to be given to Apple for creating an amazing phone along with an amazing computing experience.

As you all can see I am totally psyched about this along with my pik of the day which is something I got hooked up with on the accident:

Mobile Lacie Rugged 500 Gig hard drive (Triple interface: F400, F800, USB 2.0)

An Ebook Prize Fight

Due to a ton of craziness this blog has been left a little on the dormant side of life which makes me a super sad individual. Beyond the regret, last year I produced right around 100 quality(?) posts and this year I am going to one up myself and shoot for the elusive 200. So last year basically came to a halt at 150 meaning that this year will come to a screeching halt around the 350 mark. This is an incredibly ambitious idea with the year that lies ahead but I am going to except the challenge and go at head full speed.

On a much greater not, Google has just released a basic ebook reader for the G1 and the iPhone which is a direct poke in the eye to Amazon and their upcoming Kindle 2 announcement on the 9th of February. There have been quite a few leaked pictures of what could be the new kindle. However, late last night several other pictures and an other wise recession proof price ($359) was leaked prior to the Feb 9th date. Yes it is a super sexy thin monster with all the ebooks that you can easily purchase and download from Amazon but is it worth the hefty price tag?

To start right off, yes I believe that the new Kindle or the 'Kindle 2' is completely worth the price of admissions. This is of course a very premature jump up before you wiped action, but for people who are constantly on the move and love to read this is exactly what the doctor ordered. A great example is a 4'X3' bin that I have to lug with me whenever I move because I do not want to give up the books that are inside. With the kindle, all your books are right there with you in a package that weights under 1 pound...astonishing. Anyway getting back on track, both the Google and Amazon service offer two different perspectives on reading.

Google gives you a great ability to read the tomes of yore along with a hefty amount of books that had a limited print availability. This is great if you really get down on the literature with Sense and Sensibility or Faulkner. If you are looking for a recently released title you are otherwise SOL with the Google service and should look towards Amazon's large ebook library. These differences are really the only ones that can be compared since Amazon offers hardware with their service where Google is simply the service. I am super excited to see the new Kindle in action mainly because I have always wanted one but the first iterations got such bad reviews. However, it is too intoxicating to step into a Barnes and Noble and have the new book smell wash over you. Comment up on what you love: Easiness of the ebook revolution or classic paper books?

The Dark side...or the Black Side, Whatever.

There is always some kind of black side to any business. Be it selling out to someone who has absolutely absurd ethics, being there because you 'need' the money, or simply performing actions (yourself) that is against company policy. Fannie Mae almost felt the sting of what is known as a logic bomb after they let go some of their IT employees. For a lot of people out there the word logic bomb does not set off to many sparks in your head. Because of this we have the internet (we all know my explanations are paltry at best):

From the desk of Wikipedia:

A logic bomb is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that will set off a malicious function when specified conditions are met.

In Fannie's case the specified condition was actually the 31st of the month. Luckily someone found the mischievous piece of code and dropped their balls on it...problem solved right? Well no, because this one action puts to shame the entire IT industry. IT folks usually struggle their freelance or corporate way and really do not need any kind of help when it comes to being unappreciated or taken as goof-offs. Most of us hustle like no tomorrow in order to bring people peace in the complex world of information technology. Corporate entities out there, not all of us are mischievous, insipid fools who are only looking out to screw you. A short rant and the pic is an ode to an phenomenal Lost episode on the 28th.

Inspired

It is very 'un-often' that something strikes me upside the head in such a way that it actually inspires me to sit down and toot about it. However, since the demise of the 1up show along with Lan Party I have been in a bit of a dump when it comes to gaming podcasts. I had downloaded Rebel Fm and the Geekbox and both of them were easily better then the 1up shows even with horrible audio equipment and limited mics. It was not until Robert Ashley released A Life Well Wasted that I truly understood and lamented the loss of such an amazing job that these guys have recently felt.

Some of the fondest memories of my childhood (early 90s) were reading through EGM and Computer Gaming World which for some reason just kept coming to my house, month after month regardless of a "known" subscription. Robert put it best in his podcast saying that at that time it was completely uncool to play video games and if you did you were automatically labeled as "one of those people" and ostracized throughout your school. The magazines gave us hope and relief that there were people out there that shared the same kind of passion as us kids did and actually got paid to do it.

For a while game Journalism will be a little darker however, we can and should not grieve over the issue at hand. All of these people have gathered an enormous tribe behind them and with that alone they will succeed as long as they themselves want it. Sure it might not be quite the same easy lifestyle enjoyed before, but you must remember that there will always be a market for video games. I say keep writing, podcasting, living and breathing video game journalism and people will be there every step of the way. Keep up the good work all and we will hopefully get to listen to the shananigans that will be every week, peace!

In addition: Jeff Green said it best: "Boobs in barrels."

Kindle 2.....um, hear those people cheering? I don't

This really would not be much of a tech blog if we did not give Jeff Bezos the kind of props that he deserves for his big keynote next week (Feb 9th) at the famous(?) Morgan Library and Museum in New York. The kindle has been as bad as the Nintendo Wii when it comes to finding one actually "in stock." This could definitely be due to the titanic following spurred by the spur wearing Oprah, or if you are from the south O.f.rah. A lot of heresay has been thrown around the web today mainly from the hands of venturebeat and Kevin Rose about the likelyhood that this will be the Kindle 2 debut.

You would kind have to be living under a rock for the past 5 or so years to come out and say that this is not a the new kindle. And if perhaps it is not the new kindle and in fact some kind of other, unknown hardware anoucement then huzzah for Bezos. So since we basically have it down that the new kindle is comming, who believes that it will be anything like the pictures Boy Genius posted a while back? If you actually take the time to read around apparently the big problem on the old kindle was keyboard placement and wonkiness. However, making medicine pill buttons will not solve this problem; nor keeping the fugly if-white color. What the new kindle really needs is the ability to share annotations with your friends who have the same ebook. This annotation sharing could turn into a sort of open forum about certain instances in each ebook and would lead to an amazing community all centered and talking about books. Basically it would allow you to have an infinite amout of people book club which would be so cool that it is almost mind blowing. Oh yeah Bezos, make it affordable huh? Keep the books around 9 bones but cut the cost of hardware. How does 150 sound? Pretty friggin amazing to me, peace all.

PixelSpills

I am potentially psyched to bring the readers of this blog another blog specializing in Web-bey-tastic design at www.pixelspills.com. If you do not already know, Pixel Spills is my business that makes me real world money. Pixel Spills has always been about crushing people's mindsets when it comes to the staunchy world of IT and Social Media Consulting however, now we are going to start (or try) doing what I have always truly held close to my heart, web development. This new blog will be incorporated right into the Pixel Spills web page and will hopefully begin some type of video or podcast about design subjects. All of the video (even the stuff that I post on this site) will be all done through Viddler. In addition to this, and if you read perhaps a couple blogs down I am beginning the process of doing free IT consulting on Sunday afternoons. All of this footage will be Ustreamed as well as being done through a medium called Copilot. So I want you to tell your friends, your family members and everyone! Be there or be square all; oh and do not worry this blog will be kept alive and focus on hilariousness and stupidity found within the world of IT, tech and gadgets. Peace all

Flying High on 4's

No everyone, the title should not allow you to fly in to a drunken stupor about how one should not drive and drink even though you are actually driving in international waters. For everyone else please feel free to beat the crap out of me due to my lackluster support of this (and for any) blog over the past week. What I have been doing though is an amazing testament to the amazing-ness of the capability to learn...with your brain. The test is to be able to learn 4 different things, each over the course of 1 week and spend 40 hours a week on it. This is all on top of actually working part time running an It and Social Media consulting business and designing web experiences on the side. Oh, and also trying to level myself on the way to the new cap in the 'time be damning' World of Warcraft. So what has my amazing brain absorbed in the way of learning this week? The simple answer is Cocoa and Objective-C development.

The complex answer would of course be the total crazyness that is Apple Frameworks and how to develop for a platform that is built on a language that I have really never coded for. All in all the idea was great but things were so complicated that they got changed and re-morphed twice over the span of the week. Happily though, I will be spending the 4th week on re developing my ideas on the entirety of Cocoa programming. The other two weeks will focus on Wordpress development and PHP which should be an equally less daughnting issue. Everyone needs to get totally pumped because it is the weekend and you should have an unlimited amount of time to crush any and all things they love. Continue to be happy all.