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Bad JooJoo

A long time ago I resigned myself to the fact that I will buy the long fabled Apple Tablet if it is ever emerges from the land of make believe. So my observactions of the whole JooJoo fiasco have been sporting at best. Andy Ihnatko, as usual, nails it.

Holiday Wallpaper

lifehacker has a nice collection of wallpaper for those of you feeling festive.

"Mac at Work" in Irvine, December 16

I'm looking forward to giving a warm-up of my "Mac at Work" presentation on December 16 at the Irvine Spectrum Apple Store at 8:00 a.m. Yes, I know it's early but at least the store will be quiet and free of shoppers. See you there. 

Mac Power Users - Scrivener

Episode 15 of the Mac Power Users is up. In it we spent over an hour on how to squeeze the most out of Scrivener. Skype did not play nicely and the recording could be better but the content is still good, particularly for writers.

Apple Bends, Slightly

Reports are coming out that Apple has softened its stance toward third party iPhone application developers. It has begun to approve video streaming applications (bet I'm not the only one waiting for Qik) and Macworld reports Apple is even letting applications with private API calls through (temporarily at least). While this is great news for developers, I suspect Apple's laser focus on the user experience will prevent it from ever opening the floodgates like other mobile providers are doing. That is a good thing for those of us who like things to work. Still, it is nice they seem to be backing off some of their more jack-tastic moves of late with respect to the App Store. At this point they've had long enough to sort out the deluge. Let's hope this is the first step.

TechShow 2010 Speaking

I will be speaking again at the American Bar Association's TechShow in Chicago March 25-27, 2010. For any tech-minded attorneys or legal professionals, this conference is ground zero. Every year they assemble a fantastic group of speakers and vendors that help you find out how to practice more efficiently and take advantage of the most recent technology.

My sessions this year will include using a Mac in a PC firm and using technology for settlement and mediation. I will also be participating in the open forums concerning the iPhone and other Mac related topics. You can learn more about the conference here.

Dragon Voice Dictation on iPhone

I am a big fan of the voice recognition software. I use Nuance's Dragon Dictate on the PC and MacSpeech Dictate on my Mac. I was very pleased to see that Nuance, the developer of the Dragon engine, has released a Dragon Dictate iPhone app. For now, at least, it is free. I immediately downloaded and tried it out. Indeed, this post was written using it.

With no training whatsoever, the application immediately began recognizing my speech. This application does not perform the speech recognition on your iPhone but instead sends the voice file to the Dragon servers which do the heavy lifting and then send it back. It is all rather seamless. However, in order to work, you must be on a wi-fi or internet connection.

The only frustration is that it only works in short bursts. After two or three sentences, it will stop, send the voice file to the Nuance servers, processes your blurb, then be available for you to resume dictation. It also doesn't like swear words, as discovered by Andy Ihnatko.

If you've ever been curious about dictation software, go download it now.

Update on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 10:01AM by David Sparks

The license agreement requires your consent to upload your contacts to their servers. I presume this is to help with the speech recognition but be warned.

BusyCal Update

BusyMac recently released version 1.1 of BusyCal. I really like this release. In addition to ironing out the wrinkles, BusyMac added 64 bit support, a mini-month calendar and three finger scrolling. The three finger scrolling in iCal  (try it sometime) quickly became second nature  on my laptop. I'm glad it is now in BusyCal.

Dexim BluePack S3 External Battery

 

Dexim, who also makes the Richard Solo iPhone batteries has expanded its line to include the new BluePack S3. This device is different from the earlier iPhone specific offerings in that it does not have a built in iPhone dock connector but instead a USB connector and the necessary cables to charge most of your portable devices.

In the Box

The BluePack S3 is about the thickness of an iPhone but narrower and shorter. The design is black with silver accents and, after banging around in my bag for a month, shows no scratches. Also included is an AC Adapter and cable to charge the BluePack and three cables (iPhone/iPod, MiniUSB, and MicroUSB) to charge your devices. There is also a nice pouch to carry it all. Dexim always does a good job of giving you everything you need. The cables are short but rugged and the USB cables carried enough current to also drive my portable USB drive.

Using the BluePack S3

There is nothing to using the BluePack S3. You recharge it by connecting it to the AC adapter or your computer. The charging cord includes two USB plugs so when charging it off a computer you can double up the power. The power connector going into the BluePack S3 is not USB so if you are going to charge it on the road, you need to bring the cable.

Charging your devices simply requires you to plug the device into the BluePack. The BluePack has a series of three lights to indicate battery power. It also has an LED flashlight powered by holding down the battery indicator button. There is no power button so if you leave your device plugged in after it gets the full charge, the BluePack will continue to trickle charge.

What Can You Charge?

Because the device is not iPhone specific you can use it to charge just about anything in your bag. Since most manufacturer’s have adopted USB charging standards, I was able to charge and use my iPhone, iPod, Richard Solo phone charger, Verizon MiFi internet device, pocket camera, Livescribe Pen, and Plantronics wireless bluetooth headset all off the Dexim device. It also charged my wife’s (ack) BlackBerry. In short, if it plugs into USB or an iPod connector, the Dexim will give you juice.

How Much Juice?

The BluePack includes a 2600mAh Polymer Lithion-Ion battery. This is a substantial bump over the 1800mAh in my Richard Solo phone charger. In my testing I got about 1.75 iPhone 3GS charges. It gave several recharges on my various iPods and extended the life of my Verizon MiFi.

Recommendation

There are several vendors selling portable battery packs. I really like the Dexim product for its attention to detail and build quality. The BluePack S3 feels solid. The carrying bag and included cables are good quality and are a great addition to your bag. It is really nice knowing that when you forget to charge, you’ve got a spare tire. The package retails for $80 and can be found from several online vendors. It is also available from Amazon.

You can listen to this review on the MacReviewCast Podcast.

Disclosure

The above is based on a review unit provided by Dexim.