Wow, it’s been a pretty slow week literally. Now much happening in the tech news that really stuck for me. However most of the slowness feeling has been from my success rate at troubleshooting tech issues:
GMail IMAP Palm Treo:
There is still no resolution from either Google or Palm to get IMAP working on the Palm without resetting the device. Now that Bell have dropped the 700P. Further more my relationship with the Treo has been further strained by the lack of phone book integration in the GMail Java applet. The fact that their is no provision for Copy and Paste is very aggravating as well.
Assisted GPS for Google Maps on the Palm Treo:
It simply does not exist… Another deliberate move for Google to abandon half of it’s mobile user base? I don’t know, but the Palm is a no show for Google’s last two big updates.
Palm Treo Bluetooth:
IT SUCKS. I used to think it was a headset issue: The Gennum NX 5000/6000 never played fair, and would drop calls or never even pick them up. The Motorola Flips (HS850/700)would not close the connection when you flipped the boom, so the battery would run itself down. It worked great with the Motorola phones and even the BlackBerry. I now have a cool Jabra JX10 with Bluetooth Hub for my land line.The unit itself is slick, it even comes with a handset lifter awesome. Except that it’s Bluetooth Class 2 and although it pairs with the Treo just won’t switch between the Treo and hub without turning the headset off then back on again. Finally, the 2 second bluetooth press on the Treo has never ever done anything: No Redial, No Voice Dial… It’s just lame. Funny enough A2DP works a treat, but it’s a $20 add on from Softick and they only do the A2DP, I had looked also looked into seeing if they had a HS headset replacement too.
Conclusion the Palm Treo Bluetooth protocols: Good for FTP, OBEX and DUN. Sucks for headset HS and handsfree HF. Great from A2DP (stereo output) if you buy 3rd party.
Facebook:
I have to log in every 2 to 3 days to decline thirty invitations to really crappy applications. Only because Facebook automatically preselects 20 people to annoy for you and most people either don’t bother to modify the list or they can’t see the opt-out/skip button because the application is so crappy you can’t see it. And there is no way to tell Facebook that you want to opt out of any application where someone has not personally add specifically single you out. The other annoying thing with Facebook is the amount of BACN it sends out. Outside of Denmark and Canada, Facebook has to be the biggest exporter of BACN in the world. I have already set my privacy settings to stop send me an email whenever someone pokes me or send me a message, I have some smart SMS text messaging set up for really important poke wars (You who you are Nick ad Jenn!). However Facebook insists on needing to tell me when new applications what FART in my directions or Superpoke me. This is just plain old annoying and figuring out how to remove the BACN is so much more work than setting up a GMail filter or a Maill.app rule. IT should simply be easier to say no to unsolicited applications. The Internet is not Facebook. I still have to set some of day aside to Twitter, Viddler, Pownce, Jaiku, Digg, Flickr, the 3 Blogs I look after and YouTube.
Twitter:
Which brings me back to Twitter. I like Twitter a lot, maybe because of the all the time I have spent in UK pubs texting orders to the guy closest to the bar. It’s simple, easy to use and it stays so close to it’s original raison d’être. Quick 140 character updates of your thoughts, ramblings, location updates, and even quick useful links( http://tinyurl.com). But alas something still went wrong. First a guy a few 2.0 gurus like. Leo Laporte, iJustine, Amber Mac, Veronica Belmont, Merlin Mann and John Gruber, to name a few, started using it and then everyone else in the world joinned in. This made Twitter really fun, then the servers got a little strained, IM stopped working and SMS got flakey. Then Leo left, Jaiku and Pownce got into the game a little. Facebook Mobile took some strides and the Twitter usability got a little better, but they never managed to properly fix SMS and IM support. I plodded on with Twitter because the Twitterers I follow are still there and active but the SMS service has never come back online for me. I have my theories as to why but that is for another time. Meanwhile, I’d really apppreciate it if Biz Stone and the gang could look into this SMS issue.
