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Wordpress 2.3 was released yesterday and using the Automatic Upgrade plugin, the upgrade was fast and painless. The only plugin I needed to upgrade was Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator. I’ve added tag support into the sites theme and I’m slowly moving categories and old technorati tags over to the new tagging system. So expect some weirdness for the next few days as I go through 400+ posts and tag them. I’ll be completely dropping categories in favor of tags as soon as I’m finished.

Since Blackberries do not support HTML email, I’ve been using Empower Mail Viewer as a plugin to help format and view HTML links in my emails. Recently I was shown BBSmart Email Viewer which is another plugin to help format and view HTML email. After installing BBSmart, it was very similar to the look and feel of Empower. At first, it was hard to tell a difference between the products. So I uninstalled Empower and used BBSmart exclusively to get a real feel for the product.

After receiving a few emails, it become very clear that BBSmart loaded HTML emails much quicker than Empower. While its loading, BBSmart gives you a progress bar showing how much has been loaded, which is a nice touch. Just like Empower, BBSmart also gives you the option of changing the background color, text color and fonts used when displaying emails. Empower seemed to have a little better font selection but I quickly found a font and size that worked for me. HTML formating was very clean and smart. All html links are marked accordingly, which is a nice addition. Any link will show up with the type after it in parentheses. As an example, web links show up as (link) and PDFs will show up as (pdf). This helps to know what your clicking on when your stuck on a EDGE connection. The one feature that had me hooked and sets itself apart was the ability to convert emails as either to-do’s or calendar entries. Being able to quickly turn any email into a to-do or calendar entry while on the move makes me much more productive. I live off my to-do list and this keeps me out of my Inbox and spending valuable time completing tasks.

The downfall for these features is the price, $24.99 where as Empower is $9.99. If your into GTD or highly productive, the ability to make emails into to-do’s and calendar entries is epic on a Blackberry. The price is easily justified and willmostly likely pay for itself. If your only after HTML support, while BBSmart does a better job of loading and formating HTML, the lower priced Empower will probably be enough. For me, I’m sticking with BBSmart Email Viewer.

In part 2 of “My Tech”, I will go over some of the software in use on a normal basis. I run Mac OS X but I have an install of Vista Ultimate installed on a Boot Camp partition. My need for Windows declines each day. I’ve gotten to the point where I no longer have Parallels installed.

What’s in my Menubar:
Last.fm
Twitteriffic
Soundsource
Bandwagon FTP
DeskLickr

Desktop Apps:
AppZapper
Autorate
Disco
Handbrake
IEatBrainz
Linkinus
MacTheRipper
MetaX
Popcorn
Pukka
Skype
Tangerine!
Transmission
Transmit
VisualHub
Wednesday List
Spanning Sync
Connect360
Missing Sync for Blackberry

Web Apps:
Gmail
Google Reader
Google Calendar
Google Documents
Remember the Milk
Meebo
Backpack
My Pull List
My Mile Marker

Has Apple blown its load too early? Its been a hell of a year for Apple to say the least. iPhone, AppleTV, redesigned iMacs, Leopard, full iPod refresh including the long awaited iPod Touch. But what’s left? We are only 4 months from Macworld 2008 and I cannot think of what Apple has up its sleeve. There are a few product lines that could use a refresh, Macbook/Mac Pro, but redesigns would hardy be Macworld worthy. Either Macworld 2008 is going to be lackluster compared to the last few years or we can expect some big surprises.

As of today, I will be dropping Technorati tags in my posts. They have become too much of a hassle with very little benefit. I’ve been planning on doing it for a while but a recent blog post on Skelliwag gave me the push I needed. In addition I’ve made a few other small changes that should help with navigation.

Decisions, decisions. Apple revamped their entire line of iPods yesterday and introduced a new model, the iPod Touch. The iTouch, as I call it, is the iPhone, without the phone. To me that translates to “everything I wanted in the iPhone without losing my Blackberry and switching carriers”. And speaking of the iPhone, they officially discontinued the 4GB model in favor of the 8GB model, then lowered the price by $200. iPhone now costs $399 which is very attractive but also at the $399 price point is the new 16GB iPod Touch.

iPod Touch:
I haven’t been this excited for a product in awhile. In a previous post I stated I would pass on the iPhone. My dependance on my Blackberry and switching to AT&T were really my only reasons not to purchase one. Otherwise I thought the iPhone was amazing. Now Apple has all the amazing without any of my worries. Without a doubt, I’ll be picking up the iPod Touch the day its released. I went as far as to pre-order it from Apple.com last night but when I seen they charged me sales tax, I said screw it and I’ll just pick one up at an Apple store when they are available. I’m all about instant gratification. Its just my luck that the only product that wasn’t in stores already was the iPod Touch. Apple’s site says it ships by Sept. 28th. That’s along time to wait when you want something today. That’s around the same time the T-Mobile Blackberry Curve is rumored to be released so I should have some new toys to play with at the end of this month.

iPod Nano:
The Nano’s got a major overhaul with a new design, interface and video support. Unfortunately it seems the Nano is the sleeper product of the day being overshadowed by the Touch and the iPhone price drop. If the Touch wasn’t released, I would have ran to the store to pick up a new Nano without a second thought. $199 gets you a 8GB Nano that plays video. That’s epic.

Afterthoughts:
The 2-3 week wait for the iPod Touch is actually good for me. It will give me time to sell off my G1 Nano and my AppleTV to make room for the new iPod. My decision to sell my AppleTV stems more from my currently living situation than the new iPods. My HDTV has died and only have access to an SDTV so the AppleTV will do nothing more than collect dust for the next few months. With the Xbox 360’s support for SDTV, h264 and the help of Connect360 for my Mac, I don’t lose much from not having my AppleTV. Don’t worry little AppleTV, we may one day meet again.apple

I get a lot of questions about the kinda of hardware I’m running these days. I thought I’d do a few posts about the hardware, software and everything in-between that I am currently using. With the exception of the Router and NAS, most of this I carry with me all the times in my Timbuk2 Blogger.

Hardware:
Macbook 2.0Ghz/2GB RAM/250GB HDD
Western Digital Passport 120GB USB External HDD
Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS
Linksys WRT56G running HyperWRT 2.1b1 +tofu13c

In My Bag:
iPod Nano 4GB w/ Nike+iPod Kit
Nintendo DS Lite + games
Sandisk MicroCruzer 1GB Flash Drive
Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000
T-Mobile Blackberry Pearl
Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS
FujiFilm V10 Digital Camera

Home Entertainment:
Norcent LT-3222 32″ LCD TV (Slowly dying)
Microsoft Xbox360 Premium
Apple TV 40GB