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One feature missing from the iPhone and iPod Touch is Flash support for MobileSafari. Go to a page with an embeded YouTube video on it and all you get is a broken plugin icon. iTransmogrify! is a browser bookmarklet that allows embedded YouTube videos to play in the native YouTube player on the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can see it in action in the video above. Until Flash is officially supported, this is the best way to view embedded YouTube videos.

Tags: iphone, youtube

2007 was the first year I used Twitter extensively. I started off heavy, lost interest then picked it back up in the middle of the year thanks to programs like Twitterrific and Twitterberry. Now thanks to Damon Cortesi, who hacked up a quick and dirt script, you can see a visualization of my Twitter activity for 2007 above.

Feel free to add me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/the8thsign

Tags: 2007, twitter

01: Blogging Software

The most important piece of software bloggers use is the software they write in. A lot of people use their blogging platforms built-in tools but that doesn’t allow for offline writing. Any word processor will do, but software like MarsEdit (Mac) or Ecto (Mac/Windows) is specifically designed to integrate with all the major blogging platforms to allow offline editing, direct posting and uploading pictures and files.

02: Digital camera

No fancy DSLR here, a Point and Shoot is what you want. Something small and light they can carry at all times. I current use a dated FujiFilm V10 but newer cameras like the Canon SD850 are a great choice.

03: Flickr Pro account

A blogger will store a lot of photo’s over the life of a blog. Where better to store and share them than Flick. A Pro account will set you back $24.95 for a full year but allow for unlimited uploads, storage, bandwidth and photosets.

04: 1 Year of Webhosting

This can work two ways. First, if the Blogger in your life is using a hosted service like Wordpress.com or Blogger for their blog, then give then the gift of their own server and URL. Two of the most popular webhosts are Dreamhost and Media Temple. Both provide an auto install of different blogging platforms for quick setup. If they already have their own server, then purchasing an addition year from their webhost is a great gift.

05: I’m Blogging This T-Shirt

The “I’m Blogging This” T-shirt (men/women) from Thinkgeek lets the world know they are next to be blogged.

06: Blogging Heroes: Interview with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers Hardcover

Blogging Heroes is a new book by Micheal A. Banks featuring interviews with some of today;s top bloggers on what sets them apart in the blogging world. Interviews with bloggers from Lifehacker, BoingBoing, Joystiq and many more.

07: ASUS Eee PC

Sometimes you just don’t want to carry your laptop everywhere you go and forget about typing out a blog post on the iPhone. Enter the ASUS Eee PC. A 7″ ultraportable laptop weighing just under two pounds. Its comes with Linux installed but includes drivers for Windows XP. If your adventous enough, you can try installing Mac OS X on it also.

08: Timbuk2 blogger bag

 

The on-the-go blogger is going need something to carry their laptop and other goodies in. What better bag than the Timbuk2 Blogger. Its a vertical computer bag with a padded compartment for a laptop. Its waterproof and quite roomy.

09: Blub to turn blog into a book

Blurb allows you to transform blog entries into either a 22 page softcover book for $12.95 or a 40 page hardcover book for $22.95. It supports all the major blogging platforms including Blogger, Tylepad, Wordpress and Livejournal.

10: 3G Card USBConnect 881

Having always on, everywhere access is still a few years away but for now AT&T’s USBConect 881 3G card hits the spot. Its fast and portable so no matter if your lugging your Macbook Pro around or just decided to toss the Asus Eee PC in your pocket, you will always have a fast internet connection with you wherever you go.

11: RSS reader

While there are some great online RSS readers, the ability to read RSS feeds offline plus OS and application integration is perfect for productivity. My two favorite standalone programs are from Newsgator, FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for Mac both which sync to Newsgator’s free online RSS reader.

Tags: christmas, gifts

I few weeks ago I discovered Jott, which I found to be amazing convenient when on the run. While it was good for sending me reminders and the occasional Tweet, the one thing I found myself wanting is a way to Jott to my todo list. My todo list of choice just happens to be Remember The Milk. I tried to hack a Jott to RTM using my RTM email but that was a failure. So I sent an email to Jott a few weeks ago and lo and behold, they added a Jott Link for Remember the Milk today. It uses the RTM API so you can select where your tasks are saved. Right now it supports the task name, when it’s due and what it’s tagged with. If your a Remember the Milk user, the ability to call in your tasks epic.

Tags: jott, rememberthemilk

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Leopard is a milestone, not just for Apple, but for me too. Leopard is my first operating system I’ve ever purchased. I’ve played with a few beta’s, both fresh installs and upgrade and it was something I was excited to see. When it was delayed, I let out a collective “sigh” as it was one of the things I’ve been looking forward to this year. Well the time has come and Leopard is my new operating system.

The biggest decision with any new operating system is to update your current setup or do a fresh install. While the beta’s updated without an issues, I decided to go a fresh install. I always welcome fresh starts and it would give me a chance to streamline my application needs. The couple days before Leopard was released I spend time cleaning up my hard drive so it would fit onto a 120GB external drive. After making the room, I used SuperDuper! to clone my Tiger install. When installing Leopard I did a Erase and Install and planned on using the Migration Assistant to copy my information back.

After Leopard installed, I decided I wasn’t going use the Migration Assistant because I didn’t want all my old settings back. I still needed some data thought and I just copied stuff like my iTunes and iPhoto libraries back. My goal is to try and streamline my computing needs so I’m only installing programs as I need them. I hope to move to online services like Google Documents for some of my needs instead of keeping 2 or 3 different word processors on my hard drive like before.

After getting some essentials installed, it was time to play around with the new features. To be honest, there wasn’t too much right off the bat for me. I haven’t tried Time Machine yet as my external HDD still is housing a image of my Tiger install. I moved back to iChat but I don’t do any video chats and I still prefer Firefox over Safari. Obviously some of these might be useful in time but for now, I just don;t use them. That being said, the things I do use have made this upgrade well worth it in gold. First off is Spotlight. I used spot light as an application launcher and Apple has tweaked it so it now shows Applications before searching. This makes it on par with Quicksilver in application launching and with no software to install. But my favorite thing is the new Finder. I love this thing. Quicklook is by far the best feature in Leopard. The new iTunes like source list in Finder is much better than its predecessor. The fact you can see network shares in the source list is epic, very 1990’s, but still epic to see in Finder finally. I’m loving the new iCal thought RememberTheMilk’s feed does not seem to be updating now.

I’ve not been without my problems. Mostly minor like applications such as Popcorn not running. One thing that got me worried was last night. I shut my laptop lid and my laptop went into sleep. About 10 minutes later I keep hearing the sound the DVD drive makes when it checks for a disc. After about the 4th time I got up and looked. After a few minutes, the DVD drive would check for a DVD like it was waking up and I’d see the Apple light up. For some reason, the laptop was trying to wake up then go right back to sleep every few minutes. I opened the lip and shutdown the computer and left it. I’ll see what happens tonight.

Overall I’m very impressed with the update. Stuff like Time Machine I know I’ll love when I start using it and as more applications are released to support it, the application compatibility issue should go away. As soon as Google enabled IMAP on my account, I’m going to start using Mail and kick the tires on that for awhile. There is some stuff that still doesn’t make since to me like iChat not being about to handle AIM and Jabber lists in one window and Safari not being about to open links in tabs. Stuff like that was fixed with 3rd party apps in Tiger and I’m sure those apps will be updated for Leopard soon.

Tags: apple, leopard, software, tech

I never posted here when I got my iPhone for some reason. But now I’m on my 2nd iPhone and guess I should take the opportunity to talk about it.

After Apple’s last major announcement, I was sold on the iPod Touch. I’ve written here before about my decision to not go with the iPhone but the Touch was perfect for me. Everything I wanted in the iPhone without changing cell phone providers. A few weeks later, the iPod Touch’s were released and I was one of the first ones out of my local Apple store with one. The iPod Touch was the sexiest piece of hardware I have ever owned. After a few days of using it, I wanted more. WiFi access wasn’t enough, I need always on access. All of a sudden the newly price dropped $399 iPhone was attractive. After a day of getting up the courage to switch carriers, I went to the Apple Store and returned my 16GB iPod Touch for a new 8GB iPhone.

Within a few hours, I had hacked the iPhone and enjoying 3rd party software along with my now always on access, Mail and other goodies like hacked ringtones that the iPod Touch didn’t support. A week later, Apple release iPhone firmware version 1.1.1 and knowing it would kill my 3rd party apps, I installed it ASAP. For me, the 3rd party apps were a work in progress at best. There were a few apps I liked but none I couldn’t live without. Even today I don’t feel I’m missing out especially with Apple announcing official 3rd party support in February. Hopefully native apps for IM and Twitter will finally be a reality.

Enter my 2nd iPhone. A friend of mine who bought an iPhone at the same time I did, was having issues with “negative blacks”. He pointed me to a website that tested for this and sure enough, I was affected too. Most stuff was OK, but movies like 300 really showed the problem. I wasn’t in too much of a rush to get my iPhone replaced so I waited a few weeks until I was going to be at the Apple Store again, for the release of Leopard.

Before the Apple store closed to prepare for Leopard, I made a Genius Bar appointment and had them look at my iPhone. I showed him appleservedup.com on my phone, he checked his and I had a new phone within a few minutes. I checked the site for blacks and dead pixels before I left and everything was perfect. Now I can finally apply my Invisible Shield thats been waiting patiently for me.

Tags: apple, iphone, ipod