The Bloog

The new season 8 of 24 having just aired, I saw a number of interesting gadgets and I thought why not keep a list of the most gadgety ones.

The first one that caught my eye – The SpaceExplorer from 3DConnexion (that they were apparently using to control the aerial drone).

Next one up: The tiny diNovo Mini from Logitech:

On another note, while not a “gadget” for most of us, the launcher used to take down the CTU chopper seems to be an AT4-HS (could identify it thanks to my Modern Warfare 2 skills):

Feel free to add your comments and I will update the post with anything else you find.

I have been able in the past to enable Internet Tethering on the iPhone and use it to get internet access on the laptop, but only via a usb cable connection. I knew that this can also be done via Bluetooth as long as the laptop has built-in Bluetooth or if you have a USB Bluetooth adapter.

The problem I ran into was that while trying to pair the iPhone with the laptop running Vista, it would end up in a driver error. Fortunately, there is an easy way around.

1. On the iPhone, go to Settings/General/Bluetooth. This will set the iPhone in discovery mode.

2. On the computer, go to Start Menu and type Bluetooth. In the list you should see Bluetooth Devices. Click it.

3. Click Add Device and then select Phone from the new window. You will get a pairing code that you need to enter on the iPhone.

4. Once the pairing is done, you will most likely get prompted for a driver. You can ignore or skip this step. You will end with a message saying the device drivers were not successfully installed. That’s fine.

5. Now go to Network and Sharing Center. Click Manage Network Connections on the left.

6. You should be able to see a Bluetooth Network Connection that is disconnected. Right click and select View Bluetooth Network Devices. In the window that appears you should see your iPhone. Select it and click Connect.

That’s it. If your iPhone was already set up for Internet Tethering and if Internet Tethering has been enabled in Settings, then you’ll simply be able to surf the net on the computer.

This little feature of Windows 7 has made my day today. I had this disc image I needed to burn, but I was really not looking forward to having to find and install a third party piece of software.

Luckily, Windows 7 seems to have built-in support for burning disc images (an .iso file in this case).  Simply right-click the image file and choose Burn disc image. Quite a time saver.

Windows 7's Disc Image Burner feature

We use Skype and we like Skype but as of version 4′s integrated interface, many find it confusing and long to switch between conversations and more importantly, to quickly get to that new message you heard you received.

One of the ways to make things simple and intuitive again is to go back to the way Skype used to be: a dedicated contact list and individual windows for each contact/conversation. To do that, you can simply switch to Compact View. Switching to compact view is as easy as going to View/Compact View, if you can remember that that’s what you need to do, which people tend to forget.

So I get asked very often: “How do you make Skype normal again?” – “You switch to compact view”.

Today, I just noticed that there is an even quicker way to switch to compact view by clicking the dedicated button in the window title area. Once clicked, that “switch view” button can be clicked again to go back to “default view”. See screenshot below:

Use Skype's dedicated Compact View button to make Skype "normal" again.

The other issue I came across today while fiddling with Skype is that of making a test call. Usually, there is a contact in your list called “Skype Test Call”. Strangely enough, that test call contact was missing from my list. So how do you get to make a test call then? There is a way. Go to Options/Audio Settings and click on the link at the bottom of the window, called “Make a free test call”. That will automatically call the Skype Test Call contact which will also suddenly reappear in your contact list and then just as suddenly disappear at the end of the call.

How to make a free test call when the Skype Test Call contact has gone missing.

As a last quick tip, in the screenshot above you will also see an additional option highlighted. That is the Ringing dropdown menu. Up until Skype 4, you could only choose one ringing device to ring when a call would come through. If you have a USB headset like the Logitech ClearChat Wireless one, then that was a problem if you didn’t have the headset turned on and on your ears. Fortunately, as of Skype 4.0, now you can set Skype to ring on all devices, thusly increasing the chances of hearing the call ringing.

Happy Skyping!

Jawbone PRIME™ brings consumers even better audio quality, improved comfort and fresh, fun color choices. This release continues Aliph’s tradition of marrying technology and design to deliver the best Bluetooth headset on the market.

Jawbone PRIME and its EARCANDY colors are available today for pre-order here on Jawbone.com and will be sold in retail stores nationally starting May 2, 2009.

More info: Jawbone Earcandy + Prime (NOTCOT).

If you’re into Photoshop or Lightroom or HDR, you must have come across Matt Kloskowski’s  useful tips or training videos somewhere. As one of the Photoshop guys on Photoshop User TV, Matt also has a blog called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips.

Recently, as I was reading through some of his older posts, shamelessly, yet thankfully, downloading all the Lightroom presets he makes available on his blog, it occurred to me of a little useful technique I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere so far: quick adjustment brush adjustments.

So I sent Matt a message about it and today he was kind enough to post a video describing and showing the tip to the masses. Yet another great little video tutorial. Thanks Matt.

Follow the link to the Lightroom Killer Tips blog to see the video tip.

See the video here: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips » Video – Adjustment Brush Adjustments.

I had previously reported that Skype for iPhone was not available in Canada. It still isn’t and apparently that is due to some codec related patent issues.

However, there is a way to get downoad Skype for iPhone even if you are in Canada.

See the steps to follow here: Skype for iPhone Blocked in Canada.

Themes have been available for a while for regular gmail accounts. But for those having their own domain name and thus using Google Apps, themes have not been available (officially, from Google). While other solutions exist to customize your Gmail inbox, like the free Gmail Redesigned extension for Firefox, they were only limited to certain browser. Having native themes support in Gmail allows for the customization of your Gmail inbox in any (desktop) browser.

Themes can be easily enabled in your Google Apps Gmail account like in any ordinary Gmail account. Go to Settings > Themes and pick a theme.

(See update at the end of the post)

Today, all of a sudden, I noticed the iPhone was no longer connected to the wi-fi network at home. I went to Settings/Wi-Fi and it wouldn’t even detect the network. Occasionally, it would show up, I would select it, enter the password and give the error “Unable to join the network <”SSID Name> “.

I tried connecting with the laptop to the wi-fi and it worked fine. I tried resetting the router, but still, no success in connecting with the iPhone.

I googled this problem and tried one of the suggestions:

- Go to Settings/General/Reset and Reset Network Settings

I tried that a few times and nothing. Then, I disabled the wireless security on the router and I was able to connect with the iPhone. But that wasn’t good enough a solution because I need the security enabled. So I turned it back and again, the iPhone wouldn’t connect or even see the wireless the network.

In trying to determine whether it’s a router problem or a phone problem, I setup a secondary wireless router I had as a spare. The laptop could see the second wireless network, but not the iPhone.

Frustrated and confused, I started changing whatever came to mind. I set both routers to wireless-G mode only, from the Mixed mode they were both on. On my main router, I also changed the password (I am using WPA2 Persnal with TKIP).

After a couple of minutes of “thinking”, the iPhone saw the second router all of a sudden and for the first time. I selected it, put in the password and connected successfully. Then, it started seeing the main router/wireless network also. So I selected that one also, put in the new password and also connected successfully.

Great! Makes sense? No. I cannot see any logical explanation to this, but it worked. This is, however, very common in the computer troubleshooting world. If all made sense initially, then the problem probably wouldn’t exist in the first place.

Somewhat scared that I may lose the wi-fi again, I went to the main router and changed the password back to what it was initially. I also changed the network mode back to Mixed. On the iPhone, I went to Settings/Wi-fi and chose to forget the network so that I can connect to it again and put in the new password. It worked fine.

Now the iPhone sees both wireless networks fine and can connect to either one without problems. My Wi-Fi is back! I hope some of this may help you in case you have similar problems. Good luck!

UPDATE 04/23/09: Eventually, the wi-fi died altogether. I thought it was a hardware problem, maybe with the wi-fi module. I gave up on it and got an iPhone 3G. I was getting ready to sell the original iPhone since everything else was working just fine, until…. I saw light at the end of the tunnel. I came across a post at the ModMyI forums of a user experiencing the same problems I had with Wi-Fi. Fortunately, that person solved it eventually and posted back with a link to a guide. So here it is:

How to fix your iPhone 2G if you have Wi-Fi problems: http://www.modmyi.com/forums/general-iphone-chat/441981-not-finding-wifi-iphone-2g.html#post3984881

It is a little involving, but it works! It was a software problem after all, probably somewhere at the baseband level…

My iPhone is fully functional again

First, it was Fring that allowed us to make the first calls to Skype contacts on the iPhone. Now, Skype announced they will release their own iPhone application that will do exactly that. I can’t wait.

Report: Skype coming to the iPhone | Wireless – CNET News.