This means I can turn on internet sharing on the phone and get online from my laptop while on the Acela between NY and Boston, without the tether cable.

I’ve got a Dell Latitude D810, running Kubuntu Feisty Fawn, and a cheap IOGear USB Bluetooth adapter, model #GBU221.

The “bluetooth” package in the Ubuntu universe repository is a metapackage which installs the “bluez” utilities – I have that installed as well.

All I had to do to get online via Bluetooth connection was:

1. Start bluetooth on the blackjack, since I don’t normally leave it running
2. Start internet connection sharing on the blackjack
3. On the laptop, do: hcitool scan (this looks for nearby bluetooth devices – note the address of your phone, which is a hexidecimal string like 12:34:56:78:90:ab)
4. Issue the command: sudo pand -c
   
   , using the address discovered above
5. Issue the command: sudo dhclient bnep0

Of course, once you know your phone’s address you can skip step 3.

I also tried the various instructions for tethering to USB and using the Gnome PPP application, but for me this would connect and automatically disconnect. Bluetooth’s preferrable for me anyway as that way I have one less cable to carry.

Not sure how valuable the slides will be in the absence of my commentary on them, but here they are:

• Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (4.3MB, in ODP format for OpenOffice)
• Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (3.3MB, in PDF format)

Thanks to those who attended and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Go here to enter your mobile number, and they SMS you a link to download the CAB file.

Once you download and install the CAB file, at first launch it downloads a bunch of other stuff – perhaps it is keeping track of versions of specific apps?

It’s got a series of modules, many of which take advantage of your Yahoo! ID:

• Flickr, including browsing your contact’s photos
• Mail, assuming you use Yahoo Mail
• Local and Maps
• News
• Sports
• Entertainment
• Weather

It’s very nicely designed, once you get used to the Yahoo! purple, but I don’t see it replacing Google Maps on my phone any time soon. It does give a nice flickr interface and since you can set up news watchlists could be a good way to read mainstream news.

In Windows Mobile Terms, it’s like a self-induced frontal lobotomy. My phone no longer knows what applications are installed on it, doesn’t remember how to sync to our exchange server, etc.

After spending two hours last night battling the ActiveSync demons in order to connect my BlackJack to my laptop (in order to install the registry editor and certificate for our exchange server on it), uninstalling and resintalling bluetooth (twice!) in the process, and hacking registry settings to enable ActiveSync to work with our exchange server, I’m done.

Would an iPhone just work, or am I falling into the Apple hype?

Of course, what I really need is an OpenMoko. How long before I can run one of these on Cingular? Can I already?

This after the phone refused to get or send SMS/MMS messages in Austin for several days – probably the four or five days of the year where I most wanted to actually be able to get SMS messages.

Incredibly, not only did the phone stop receiving or sending SMS messages, it also didn’t tell me anything was wrong. When you send an SMS it would come back a few minutes later with “Message Sent” – no indication of anything wrong.

Seems to be getting them again now, though it isn’t clear if that’s just because I’m not in Austin anymore?

The download you need for the phone you can download from Microsoft and install on a Windows PC through ActiveSync, or you can do an over the air sync by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile.

The left soft-key is zoom out, clicking on the OK button in the center of the navigation pad zooms in.

You can have satellite view or map view, though hybrid doesn’t seem to be an option (may be dependent on level of zoom?).

Menu offers:

1. Find Location
2. Find Neaby Business…
3. Directions…
4. Change View (map/satellite)
5. Show Traffic
6. Track Location (GPS)
7. Clear map
8. Options
9. Help
10. Exit

Nice to have this and the Windows Live Search on the same phone – I’ll compare their results next time I’m looking for directions.

The device sits with your stereo, connects to a wireless network (802.11b in the case of the first generation box), finds a computer running the SlimServer, and takes audio streams from that server to your home stereo.

In and of itself, that was cool enough for me. The SlimServer software (latest release, nightlies) is cross platform and open source – so that if you don’t like the way it handles, for example, multi-disc sets, you can change it, and contribute your changes back to the community (forums, wiki, bug tracker). (It’s Perl, and in the current versions uses MySQL to store library information – does very well even with large library sizes).

There’s even a Java application, SoftSqueeze, which emulates the hardware client, so you can experience the whole thing without buying any hardware. (CharlesV has created a mashup using Netvibes along with the Slimserver – one of the unintended uses to which an open source server can be put). Now they’ve created the Transporter, a high-end ($2000 list) audio device based on the same concept, but with “audiophile” quality components.

I want one, though it would probably put my stereo to shame, and is too “high fidelity” for my Mp3 collection. (Audio purists hate it, but I’m fine with mp3 files so long as the bitrate’s high enough).

How’d they manage to develop this masterpiece as a small startup? By leveraging community contribution.

Fast Company ran an article in the December issue: “Ears Wide Open,” calling Slim Devices “a next-generation open organization where customers imagine and design the products.” See also the sidebar on the Transporter.

My only concern is that they were recently purchased by Logitech – will Logitech understand and leave undisturbed the community Slim Devices has developed?

One immediate annoyance was the way Cingular/Samsung have configured the JBlend Java Virtual Machine on the phone. That had to go, or the phone was going back to the store.

First, the background.

On a vanilla BlackJack from Cingular, when you install java mobile applications like Opera Mini, Google Maps, or Gmail, they have to ask for user permission every single time they need to make a network request.

The options you’re given when the application asks are:

• Allow and ask me next time
• Don’t allow this time
• Don’t allow for this session

The missing option, of course, is: Allow for this session. (Or even, allow and don’t ever ask me again for this app – which I’d be happy with).

Second, the solution.

Thanks to IBM, this thread on Google Groups, this thread at HowardForums and this post at MS Mobiles, there is a way around.

In essence, this involves installing IBM’s WebSphere Everyplace Microenvironment, an alternative JVM capable of running J2ME applications conforming to the MIDP 2.0 spec.

The easiest way is to use one of the J9.cab files, from the Howard Forums thread or here.

In addition, you need to copy the tahoma.ttf and tahomabd.ttf fonts from a Windows machine into the \Windows\Fonts directory on your BlackJack. I found that Opera Mini didn’t work otherwise.

Using one of the .cab files rather than IBM’s default mechanism for installing includes adjustments to font paths, as described in the Google Groups thread, and has the added benefit of making the association between .jad and .jar files and J9, so from now on you can install Java apps just as you would with the default JBlend JVM. Finally, it installs an icon for the J9 as an application in the menu, rather than having to dig down into File Explorer to get to the new JVM.

So I’m trying to decide whether I’m finally ready to bring my phone into the 21st century. I have, and generally carry with me on trips, a cell phone (Nokia 6200), an iPod (4GB Nano, 1st generation), and a digital camera (Powershot SD200).

These three devices could be replaced with one – the new Samsung Blackjack, available from Cingular (my wireless carrier).

In the process, I’d get slightly less space for music (I could get a 2GB microSD card for the Blackjack, as opposed to 4GB in the iPod), fewer pixels in my camera shots (the BlackJack is a 1.3 Megapixel camera, the SD is a 3.2 Megapixel camera with zoom – but I’m not really taking advantage of that generally anyway).

But I’d also get mobile access to internet, email, and calendar (synched with desktop PIM), 3G-speed data access (UTMS), and bluetooth, which none of the old devices have.

In the process, of course, I’d also add more cost per month ($40?) for the data plan.

So, I guess in the end it comes down to whether or not it is worth it to be able to get email/calendar/internet while on the road – otherwise, I could just get a phone with music capabilities and a camera, without a data plan or internet access.

Given that I travel a fair amount these days, I’m definitely giving it serious thought – no more buying Wifi access in the airport, for example, though I don’t spend $40/mnth on that now.

I could also use the phone as a modem for my laptop, in areas where 3G networks are available.

Two jobs ago, I used to carry a CrackBerry, and definitely got used to it. But is that a good thing, or a capitulation to the always-on society?

Would my 2 hours a day on the train (when not traveling but commuting to work in Boston) be so much more productive?

Would my traveling (with many hours of waiting in airports) be more enjoyable?

Or do I need to that time for crossword puzzles and other non-work relaxation?

Also, can I deal with Windows Mobile 5.0? I haven’t seen a smartphone yet from a commercial carrier that’s running Linux, and so long as the Windows Media based player on this phone doesn’t *add* DRM to my files (Zune style) I don’t think I will mind.

According to this post today on ArsTechnica, Zune doesn’t actually change the shared file:

Trusted sources tell us that Zune’s wireless sharing feature, which requires Zune’s DRM to function, will only monitor the presence of shared songs for the purposes of controlling playback. Files themselves will not be modified, either on the player or on a local PC.
We also learned that users cannot share files that they have received by sharing.

Sounds to me like a distinction without a difference. Sure, the device doesn’t change the recieved file, but it also doesn’t allow you to share that file with anyone else, and after 3 days or 3 plays it will no longer allow you to play the file someone shared with you.

Can you take a file you recieved via sharing and move it to your PC, and play it forever? Unclear.

Cesar Menendez, who runs the Zune Insider blog, and was the source for Medialoper’s original post, tries to clarify here – but I still don’t see any concrete answer on what happens to a file I create, license under Creative Commons, put on my Zune, and then share to someone else’s Zune, after three days. They can’t play the file, that seems clear – can they move a shared file to their PC? Seems unlikely, since that might enable you to bypass the DRM – unless, that is, the host PC is assumed to apply whatever DRM the file started out with?

-End of UPDATE-
Microsoft’s long rumored iPod-killer, codenamed Zune, will include “social networking” features, according to this blog post at Read/Write Web.

The problem is that I can’t find any real indication of what that might mean. The Microsoft press release does describe Zune as “an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music” but it isn’t clear how that might be any different than the iTunes store, which also arguably helps people discover new music, both in the same way that any store can be said to help people discover new goods.
One feature which is described in the press release is the wireless sharing capability:

Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.

Unfortunately, as Medialoper points out, in doing so the Zune player will wrap in DRM any content you’ve put on it, even if that content is explicitly licensed under, for example, creative commons, or is in the public domain.

At least my iPod doesn’t add DRM to non-DRM-tracks I put on it – and using Rockbox I can easily share with anyone with a USB connection.

So last Wednesday night, while I was travelling on business, I realized that my cell phone battery was dying, and I wouldn’t be home until Friday.

Unfortunately, I’d left my charger (normally packed in my laptop bag) plugged in to my desk at work.

On a whim, I decided to try the front desk, to see if one of the employees might have a Nokia charger I could borrow for a few hours.

The front-desk-person (what’s the appropriate polite term for these folks today?) told me to come on down and look through “the box.”

Turns out not only did they have a Nokia charger, which she informed me I could either take with me or just leave in the room when I checked out, they had two large plastic bins fulls of chargers.

Today I found this lifehacker post (yes, I am behind in reading my rss feeds) recommending the same.

Is lifehacker following me around, or am I just having a snowflake epiphany – one of those moments where you realize that you are not nearly as unique as you thought?