What Android Apps Should I Have?

Overview
Lots of people are seeking the "top 10" or "best ever" Android apps. However, the old saying "one man's meat is another man's poison" really applies when seeking an answer.

In this article I list the apps I use on my Motorola Milestone, with a brief explanation of why I have selected them. Unfortunately, I haven't kept track of the apps I've tried and removed...

Email
There are quite a few email apps for the Android. I use K9 for a few reasons:
- it allows me to have as many email sources as I like
- it provides a Unified Inbox feature that has all of your emails accessible in one list
- it is very easy to use and quite intuitive
- it has never Force Closed on me - so it's pretty reliable

SMS
ChompSMS is my choice here.
- it is very configurable
- has the conversion bubble UI like the iPhone
- and once again, is pretty reliable

Weather
I have the Accuweather widget installed. This gives me enough information by simply viewing the widget, but allows me to click on the widget for more information, and ultimately launch the browser with my location pre-selected in the Accuweather web site.

Task Manager
I've just recently installed this app. My main reason for selecting it was to have an easy-to-use Task Killer. I have tried other task killers and found minor irritations with them. It's a bit too early to say this is a "keeper", but it's doing it for me right now.

Astro
My file manager. Easy to use, reliable, functional - what more do you need?

Evernote
Just recently installed this as another app can sync with the Evernote web environment. Also installed Nevernote on my Linux laptop (Ubuntu). This means I can work with whatever device is at hand and access it on any other device I use - nice.

Cadre Bible
This is quite a good resource, with 3 translations available in the base install. It can sync information with Evernote and provides an easy-to-read white on black display.

eBay
If you are an eBay user, then this app is great. You can do most eBay functions with this app and it can keep you informed as to how your actions are progressing.


Aldiko
This eReader is quite good. I have read a few books using it. I'm running the free version but you can upgrade to a premium version with more content. My advice? Use the free version, read a few books, then YOU decide whether this is a medium through which you want to read more books. I think I'll be waiting for an Android tablet for that.

Adobe Reader
What else? View PDF files.

AndroidVNC
I've already written an article on this excellent VNC client. You can jump straight to the article here.

Apps Installer
Lets you install apps from your storage card.

Barcode Scanner
Allows you to scan barcodes on products then look up prices and reviews. You can also scan Data Matrix and QR Codes containing URLs, contact info, etc.

Facebook
Access your Facebook using this app.

Got Sydney
Provides timetable for Cityrail services

ICE Bot
Essential if you receive calendar invitations via email. Open the .ics attachment and ICS Bot will create/update your calendar.

NubiNews
A simple and easy to use news reader/aggregator.

Remote RDP Lite
RDP into your Windows machine.

Swype
Great text entry app. I've written an article previously on it here.

Tablets - Android, Linux, the iSlab?

Why Do You Want A Tablet?
OK, the first thing to ask yourself is why you want a tablet because, let's face it, you don't need one.
Things that you could use a tablet for:

• viewing videos
• surfing the web
• note taking
• entertainment

Viewing Videos
Well, the iPad (I call it the iSlab) certainly allows you to do this. It's display is a little under 10 inches (diagonal) and it has a 024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi). The display is a back-lit LCD. So if you are looking for a comparable viewing experience, then you need to match this kind of display characteristics.
The iSlab supports H.264 video up to 720p, whereas a lot of the HD devices are up to 1080p.
You also need to consider whether you want your tablet to potentially output to other video devices - like your HD TV...


Surfing The Web
The iSlab boasts a lot about the surfing experience, but it doesn't (and won't) support Flash (from Adobe). Their argument is that HTML 5 will provide a better solution for animation, but the fact is, there is a lot of current content out there in Flash format and it may not be cost-effective for content providers to convert current Flash objects to HTML 5.


Note Taking
You have to understand what your note taking needs will be. In another of my blog entries, I talk about Swype - it's a breakthrough text input application that I believe will make it into most Android-based phones and tablets. You can then use something like Evernote or 3banana Catch Notes to synchronise your notes with the web (or cloud). These applications also provides integration with other applications - so check out what gives you the best overall results.


Entertainment
You'll want to watch videos on your tablet. So how do you get them there? One solution is to download content from the web - which can prove quite expensive depending on your data plan. Another approach is to load a DVD on to your tablet. With this approach you'll need to consider the amount of on-board storage available on your tablet AND whether it supports either a built-in DVD player or has USB support. Then there's also the question of whether you'd want to output video from your tablet. Does the tablet support HDMI? Some do, so again it's up to you.


Summing It Up
Sit down with a beer/glass of wine/hot beverage, a pad (paper pad that is) and a pen, then note down all the things you THINK you want in a tablet. When you're finished, read the list again (at least a day later) to reassess your requirements. When you've firmed them up, then that's your "shopping list". My advice is to wait until 2011 (at least mid year) because there will be a huge number of tablets released as some of the vendors are waiting on Android 3.0. Also consider other operating systems like Linux. Once again, it depends on how you use to use the tablet. Before the final purchase, clearly think through how you will incorporate the tablet into your day-to-day business. The golden rule with adopting new technology is to make a firm commitment to using it in the way you planned - otherwise it will quickly turn into an expensive piece of shelfware.

Swype - the next level of input on mobile devices

Problem: typing on touchscreens is a pain

But there is a solution - Swype.

I was fortunate enough to get into the beta program for Swype. At first I thought "oh great, another company claiming to make entering text on touchscreens a breeze." So I installed the app on my Milestone with fairly low expectations; and I was completely surprised by what I found...


It's Almost Like Magic

I watched the videos, then started to "play around' with it. Whilst there are tips and techniques that come with use, Swype makes you far more productive from day1. Let's say you wanted to enter the word "won't". With normal touchscreen keyboards it requires tapping on w, o and n, then having to switch to the symbol keys for the apostrophe, then back to the letter keys for the final t. With Swype, you simply start on w and trace over o, n and t. It knows most contractions, so it simply puts the apostrophe in for you. You teach it new words by tapping on the keys to form the word, then a space - that's it.

I'm not sure whether Swype will be releasing this as a paid-for app or whether they are going after the telcos to get it baked into their releases. Have a look at some of the videos on their web site, it really makes entering information on a touchscreen an absolute pleasure.

Processing Calendar Invitations in Emails - Android

The Problem
I use K-9 Mail for email on my Motorola Milestone running Android 2.1.  I sometimes receive Calendar invitations by email and K-9 shows this as an attached .ics file.  If you try to open this, there is no base application to handle the file type, so nothing happens.


The Solution
Download and install the ICS Bot app from the Android Market.  Now when you open an email with an attached .ics file, simply click on the Open button on the file and it will bring up a new Calendar entry with the information pre-populated. Simply save the new Calendar entry and voila! It's in your Calendar.

WorkLight: Develop Once, Deploy Everywhere

I know the guys that have developed this technology.  For large corporations that want to leverage their applications into multiple channels and form factors - WorkLight makes a lot of sense...


The following information is a summary from their web site. 

Development

The WorkLight Solution provides companies with a robust, cost-effective mechanism that delivers ease of development and secure deployment of custom-built applications across a variety of mobile devices, desktop and web interfaces.
 
Using the WorkLight Ajax SDK, developers can quickly develop a custom-built application by employing commonly found web development skills such as JavaScript, CSS and HTML. Once deployed onto the platform, the code will be automatically packaged to generate additional instances, each optimized per the supported environments and designed to deliver optimal user experience.

For example, from a single application design, the system will easily generate a Vista gadget, a Yahoo widget, a Facebook application, an iGoogle gadget, an iPhone and an Android application. While these interfaces are quite different in their technical characteristics, the platform generates the appropriate native code for each environment.

Some client environments have unique capabilities, such as the mini "docked mode" of the Vista Sidebar or the ability to capture photos via an iPhone camera. Leveraging WorkLight's multi-channel approach, applications can be securely extended to utilize such capabilities without compromising their cross-environments portability. For example, the application can display only the current account balance when docked, or leverage the iPhone's camera to scan a bar code.

Today's proliferation of devices, operating systems and development tools would challenge any organization attempting to roll-out a single application across multiple channels. Using the WorkLight Solution, developers can create native applications without any familiarity of the technical aspects of the different environments.

The WorkLight Solution is future-proof. As new channels become popular, WorkLight will automatically provide support for these new services allowing organizations to further extend their reach of customers, partners and employees. Application developers will not have to retro-fit their applications to add support for the new interfaces.

Security
Online and mobile consumer channels are not designed for sensitive and personal information. Typically, these services do not incorporate security mechanisms of any kind, and are not suitable for sensitive data delivery. Syndicating sensitive and proprietary business and enterprise application data in these channels poses many unique security challenges.

The WorkLight Solution addresses these challenges, meets the strictest requirements, and is field-proven at global companies. This includes user authentication and access authorization, secure application provisioning, protection from client vulnerabilities, phishing prevention and protection from many new threats inherent in consumer interfaces. WorkLight-powered applications adhere to existing security policies and regulation and are designed to leverage existing security infrastructure whenever possible.

WorkLight addresses the following critical security aspects:

Authentication – Every connection to the platform via any online channel is encrypted and authenticated. This is typically achieved by integrating with existing enterprise authentication facilities for which WorkLight provides a library of connectors. Single Sign-On (SSO) is facilitated across all channels for transparent user experience. Multiple authentication schemes are supported for widgets, including in-widget, pop-up and redirection to login page. The platform also supports strong multi-factor authentication, and multiple authentication schemes for the same application, e.g. depending on the transaction type.

Secure Provisioning – When using consumer channels, users expect to install and use applications in a familiar way, e.g. adding an iGoogle gadget or bookmarking a Facebook application. The platform includes a secure provisioning server that seamlessly integrates with existing aggregation sites, and facilitates the familiar "add to" experience is a secure manner. For increased security, the platform generates a unique application instance per user, and verifies the association on every access to prevent unsanctioned duplication and distribution.

Attack Mitigation – With the advent of new online channels like widgets and social networks, new attacks become possible and familiar attacks require special consideration. The WorkLight Application Platform addresses all these attacks so that consumer online channels become as secure as well-protected traditional web applications. This includes thwarting impersonation, framing, XSRF, JavaScript Hijacking, SQL Injection and XSS.

Client Protection – Applications syndicated by the platform are consumed via a variety of client runtime environments, such as a browser-based personalized homepage, desktop widgets and the iPhone OS. Those runtime environments expose the application to an additional set of vulnerabilities, such as easy access to JavaScript source code and services shared between multiple widgets on the same page. The platform addresses these vulnerabilities by providing an SDK that ensures isolation of the application code from the host environment and facilitates secure connection with a set of server-side runtime services.

Anti-Phishing – New types of consumer online channels potentially open the door to new phishing schemes, such as widget impersonation. The platform addresses this by extending the SSL trust model to encompass off-portal artefacts. Users are directed to look for the same authentication procedure and visual trust components they are familiar with today.

Access Control – WorkLight's patented technology enables controlled access to data via multiple channels without duplicating existing access control logic or requiring credential caching. WorkLight accomplishes this by integrating identity and role information from user directories and back-end systems. The platform associates this information with retrieved data items and with known user records to efficiently determine whether a user is allowed to access a data item.

Integration

The WorkLight Solution is designed to easily fit in any enterprise environment and channel its inherent services and processes to end users regardless of its level of complexity.

The system includes rich capabilities that support an efficient integration with a wide variety of backend systems and security infrastructure components, enabling the productive access and interaction with enterprise applications, middleware products, databases and directories.

Our solution provides XML-based configuration tools and a developer UI that facilitate sophisticated mashups incorporating multiple information sources using server-side JavaScript and automatic Ajax client-side code generation.
WorkLight integration is based on pluggable adapters, configured via XML.

Adapters can be both synchronous and asynchronous, and can support both retrieval of data and transaction issuance. Further customization of adapters is possible using server-side JavaScript. If needed, the platform can be extended with additional adapters using an adapter development SDK. Some of the standard adapters that are provided with the system include Web Services, XML/HTTP, SQL, LDAP, SAP, MS SharePoint, JMS, RSS and IBM MQ. 

Scalability

Enabling transactional capabilities to end-users by allowing access to backend systems via multiple channels can deliver real business value to existing customers as well as attract those interested in such innovative offerings. But companies planning on doing so must be prepared to support high volumes of transactions at extremely high frequency. This situation typically occurs due to the "always-on" nature of mobile, desktop and web applications which enables users to constantly access current and relevant information.

The large number of requests generated by Ajax clients and RSS polling coupled with increased user-base and the variety of access channels can result in higher processing loads and resource consumption of backend systems, a situation that can lead to overall performance degradation.

The WorkLight Solution addresses these issues, scaling to support millions of users and multiple applications while maintaining predetermined performance and load levels. This is achieved by decoupling back-end information retrieval from actual client serving and utilizing a flexible cache scheme.

Configurable policies define maximum load permitted on back-end systems, possibly varying by day and time, concurrency limits, expiration of cached items, and granularity of data retrieval.

The Future is Almost Here - Flexible Screens

OK, so I'm just talking about flexible screens... But the word JUST is probably not applicable to the breakthrough from Sony.

You can read the full article from WIRED: Gadget Lab but if you don't have the time, just check out this short video clip.



The production method is closer to printing than classic electronics manufacturing, so the price will probably come down quickly.  Just imagine picking this up when you leave home with all your reading pre-loaded.  Roll it up & stick in a pocket, unroll it on the train, bus, wherever and start reading or even watching a video!

Android 2.1 Upgrade Breaks Multimedia station

The Problem


Last week I accepted the upgrade to Android 2.1 on my Motorola Milestone (Droid in the USA).  Some time later, when I put it in the Multimedia station dock, I noticed that the Multimedia station app would not start.


After some reading, the solution is simple, yet in many places it's not quite correctly described.


The Fix


On your Milestone/Droid open Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, then tap the menu spot and select Filter. When the Filter sub-menu pops up, select All.  You will now see more applications listed.


Scroll down to the Multimedia station and tap on it.  Now this is where most of the "help" is incorrect.  They tell you to "clear the cache", but on my Milestone (and others by my readings) the Clear Cache button is greyed out.


What you need to do is to tap on the Clear Data button.  You will get a "panic" pop-up screen asking you if you are sure.  Well of course you are - after all, you want it to work again!  Don't worry, it doesn't delete the app.


That's it.  Dock you Milestone/Droid and it should fire up OK.

Lucid Lynx - First Impressions

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)


For those reading about Ubuntu and wondering what the LTS suffix means - it simply stands for Long Term Support. Normally the desktop release is supported for 18 months, but with LTS, Canonical provides three years support on the desktop, and five years on the server.


It boots quite quickly.  On my laptop (Toshiba L355D - AMD Turion(tm) X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72, 4GB memory) after GRUB it loads in 10 seconds.  It's even faster closing down.


I found a problem with my windows losing the top bar - so no minimise/maximise and close buttons.  I have fixed this by adding "metacity --replace" as a startup application - System > Preferences > Startup Applications


For some reason, the Ubuntu team decided to move the minimise, maximise and close buttons to the left hand side of the top window bar.  You can move it back to the right hand side by doing the following:

• Open the Configuration Editor (Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor
• Click on "apps", then "metacity", then "general"
• Locate the item "button_layout" click on the data field to the right, delete the contents and replace it with "menu:minimize,maximize,space,close"

Done!  Now your windows should look like they normally do.


There's a few new apps added in, but I haven't played with them yet.  OpenOffice 3.2 is there and works well.  A few of the standard games have either gone - or had their name changed...


Once I get a bit more time with the new bits, I'll add some more comments.

Ubuntu DVD - remove region on copy

My goal:
copy a DVD and remove the region code

I have a DVD with a region code that won't play in my DVD player.  I tried a few solutions, but they did a full copy, including the region code!

Then I tried k9copy.  This can be loaded from the Ubuntu Software Center.  It installs the k9copy application and the k9copy assistant application.

The k9copy Assistant

Screen 1 - selecting the source

Notice there's a Settings button in the bottom left hand corner.  I'm not going to show you all the settings - but you have plenty to play with!

Screen 2 - selecting the activity

In my case, I selected the Rip and encode DVD.  This allows you to copy a DVD to a blank DVD with a lot of control.  If you take the default settings, it works very well.

Screen 3 - select the destination

k9copy assistant will choose a default folder and filename.  I left this unchanged, but it's up to you.

Screen 4 - select the elements you want to copy

Now we're getting somewhere.  You select/deselect by clicking the grey square next to each title.  If you want the whole DVD, click each one.  By clicking on a line, you can preview it in the small window - this makes it very easy to copy only what you want.

Screen 5 - confirmation

Your selected elements are shown, together with the language option you have chosen (in Settings).

Screen 6 - copy options at element level

You now have the ability to fine tune exactly how you want to copy each element.  The only default option I chose was 2 pass option, which is slower but performs an improved, constant quality encoding.

From here on, k9copy provides the status of the operation and prompts you when it's time to load the blank DVD.

In Summary

I found the k9copy assistant is very easy to use. There are a myriad of options that provide control over just about anything you would wish to change.  However for straight copying, just leave the defaults.  Once you get used to it, try using the straight k9copy application.

androidVNC + DynDNS + X11vnc = accessing my laptop from my phone!

The goal: "to be able use my phone/PDA to access my Ubuntu laptop at home as if I was sitting at it."

OK, so over the past few posts I've covered things like Ubuntu, Android on my Motorola Milestone and a few other topics.  This post brings a few of these themes together into a very useful capability.

Have you ever been somewhere and thought "I've got that on my PC at home.  I wish there was someway I could get to it."  Well now you can.  The diagram below provides a graphical view of how the solution fits together.  I will cover the technical aspects in words and links.

The ingredients are:

• Motorola Milestone (or any phone/PDA running Android)
• androidVNC, a free application available in the Android Market
• Ubuntu on your PC or laptop (most Linux distros supported)
• X11vnc, free server software (author would like donations) for your home machine
• DynDNA, a service that gives you a free URL to point to your home network
• Port forwarding on your router

And this diagram provides a high-level view of the solution...

Overcoming Challenges

I tried several free apps from the Android Market and, whilst they all work, I found that I preferred androidVNC because it had a better selection of settings to alter its performance.

On the Ubuntu side, I tried several of the VNC solutions like Vino, vnc4server, etc.  The problems I found with these solutions is that, although they displayed the initial screen on my laptop OK, they never refreshed it.  I eventually settled on X11vnc (created by Karl Runge) after wading through a lot of dismay from people, like myself, who are running Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).

How do I make my machine available from outside my home?

I'm using the Broadband cable service from Optus (Optusnet).  It is connected to a D-Link DIR655 Router in my home.  The router provides both wired and unwired connectivity.

Step 1: Port forwarding

Port forwarding allows you to direct certain network traffic from/to a machine on your home network.  I'm not going to go into each detail here; suffice to say you need to forward ports 5500, 5800 & 5900 to your machine.  The Port Forward web site provides excellent advice for most routers.  You will also need to configure your router to set a fixed (internal) IP address for your machine.

Step 2: Finding your network from the Internet

Telco providers assign a single IP address to each of their customers.  Unless you have a business pack, the IP address is not fixed and it can change at any time; you will not know when or how often.  The solution?  DynDNS!  DynDNS provides free and paid DNS services.  The free service is more than enough for our needs.  Simply register at http://www.dyndns.org/ and select your URL from a large list.  The URL will point to the IP address of your home network.  But hang on!  That can be changed at any time by your telco.

Correctomundo!  So that's why you install the free software from DynDNS that you can configure to run on your machine.  It checks to see whether the IP address of your network has been changed by your Telco.  If it has been changed, it tells DynDNS, who immediately point your URL to the new IP address - wonderful!  DynDNS provide 2 software clients, I used the "ddclient" option.  They provide online examples on the configuration file.  Start off using the basic example to get going.

Let's see where we are so far.  You have a your own URL that will always point to your home network.  VNC traffic (that uses ports 5500, 5800 & 5900) will hit your router and be directed to your machine.  Now we need some software...

Step 3: X11vnc Server

NOTE THAT THIS SOLUTION IS FOR THE GNOME DISPLAY MANAGER (GDM).  YOU WILL NEED TO MODIFY IT FOR KDE

For Ubuntu 9.10, you need to install version X11vnc-0.99.  Kamal Mostafa has done an excellent job of packaging this up for Ubuntu 9.10 here.  Since we want the server to start automatically, then we need to do some work. Here are the instructions to achieve this (acknowledgement to ErikTheRed - original post here) - my comments are in RED:

 1. Install the package

Code:

sudo aptitude install x11vnc

 2. This step no longer required

 3. Add x11vnc service to xinetd

Code:

sudo nano /etc/xinetd.d/x11vnc

Enter this into the new file:

Code:

service x11vnc
{
        port            = 5900
        type            = UNLISTED
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/bin/x11vnc
        server_args     = -inetd -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -many -bg
        disable         = no
}

I have changed the value after -auth in the server_args parameter as with GDM it is a static file.

4. Restart xinetd

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd restart

We now have X11vnc running on our Ubuntu machine and it can be accessed from the Internet.

Step 4: androidVNC
To download this app, simply open the Android Market app on your Android phone/PDA and install it.

The cake is now baked - time to eat it.

Fire up androidVNC and connect.  Here are some screen shots showing you some typical settings.

Note: in the screenshots below, the shaded area followed by ":5900" is the URL you defined at DynDNS.

Once you have connected to your machine, you have other androidVNC settings to play with.  I am not going to explain the whole application as it's pretty intuitive.

I strongly advise you to leave your machine in Locked Screen - which means your password has to be provided in order to access Ubuntu.  If you want additional security you can configure X11vnc to prompt for a password or you can even use SSH to create a secure connection.  When you have finished, simply Lock Screen, then disconnect the androidVNC session by selecting Settings on androidVNC, click on More, then Disconnect.

Enjoy!

Sikuli - Does that mean it's "sick" AND"cool"?

Image-based Scripting

OK - so what does that heading mean?  Well, over the years (decades) there have been many ways - mainly proprietary - to automate the things we do on our PCs.  These solutions are quite often command line interfaces that do not work well in today's ultra-graphical user interface (uGUI - yep, that's mine, just coined it!)

So what do we need?  We need something that works across the PC operating systems like Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

Well the bright ones at MIT have a project called Sikuli that provides a new way to approach scripting or rather automating tasks based on graphical or image matching.  You capture the graphical area on the screen then paste that after an action like "click" in the Sikuli editor.  For instance, say you want a way to script your username/userid and password for any graphical application INDEPENDENT OF THE BROWSER YOU ARE USING - then you could do that with Sikuli.  You can fill in forms, automate menu traversal, etc.

But, don't be limited by my explanation, have a squizz at their demo.

This means you can save scripts (or should this be albums/galleries?) of automated tasks like opening up your email, setting admin attributes on/off, etc.

If have just downloaded and installed the Linux version and will update this post with comments after I have taken it for a test drive - stay tuned...

Got my Motorola Milestone

Android Phones

My family members have iPhones - and they look great.  They seem to perform well, the user interface is superb - another great example of Apple's excellent design and business execution.

However, I quite often like to walk to the beat of a different drum.  Since I run Ubuntu on my laptop at home, I have always planned to get an Android phone.

Why Android?

When it was first announced that Google was creating an Open Source operating system for phones/PDAs - I was immediately interested.  I believe there are a number of issues around how Apple controls the applications that are available for downloading.

Oh, and you HAVE to buy their hardware to get their operating system...

Which Device?

That's a hard one.  I have just bought a Motorola Milestone (Droid in the USA).  It has a screen that appears a smidgen longer than the iPhone.  After using it for a few days, my immediate thoughts are that it's a pretty good platform.  It also has the benefit of a side-sliding keypad if you want to write longer text input.  It has multi-touch AND it uses Corning's Gorilla Glass - so it's a lot tougher and scratch resistant.

Motorola Milestone

The Future?

At present the number of applications for the iPhone exceeds those for the Android, but think about it a bit more...  You have one platform where a company controls the applications that get listed, and another platform that has both an organised marketplace AND the ability for companies to publish their own applcations.

Many of the useful applications for the iPhone have already been made available for Android phones.  Last night I installed Shazam - an application that "listens" to some music that's playing (not on your device - as long as it's audible), then tells you the name of the song, the artist and a load of other information - amazing.

One last thing.  Like Ubuntu, Android is based on Linux - so it has to be good.

;-D

Configuring the Milestone for Optus

I use Optus as my carrier.  When I connected to the Optus network, it didn't auto configure my settings for Internet access, etc.  For those of you who gt a Milestone on Optus, here is what you have to do (credit to GeekyGirl in this post)

Name: Optus

APN: internet

Proxy:
Port:
Username:
Password:
Server:
MMSC:
MMS Proxy:
MMS Port:
MCC: 505
MNC: 02
APN Type:

Name: Optus Internet
APN: yesinternet
Proxy:
Port:
Username: * -- just an asterix here nothing else

Password: *

Server: *

MMSC:
MMS Proxy:
MMS Port:
MCC: 505
MNC: 02
APN Type:

MMS Settings -

Name: Optus MMS
APN: mms
Proxy: 202.139.83.152
Port: 8070
Username: *
Password: *
Server: *
MMSC: http://mmsc.optus.com.au:8002/
MMS Proxy: 61.88.190.10
MMS Port: 8070
MCC: 505
MNC: 02
APN Type: mms

Unlimited FUN with Funambol!

:: Limited Time Offer ::

OK readers here's the deal.  The first 10 people who email me at peter@thetyrrells.id.au will be granted UNLIMITED Funambol accounts.  At present, when you sign up you get a 90 day trial account.

This offer is on the Funambol web site BUT IT ENDED on 1 JANUARY 2010.

I have been given a brief extension, so get your request into me.  In your email just supply your name and email address (you will later register for Funambol using the name & email address you send to me).

First in, best dressed!

For Multimedia Lovers

Serious or Fun - Ubuntu Studio is for you
If you are think of taking the plunge into the world of Ubuntu - that's great.  If you like to tinker with audio, video or graphics then wait!

Don't install the standard Ubuntu before you have a look at Ubuntu Studio.  This community has done all the hard work for you.  They have selected the best Open Source software and packaged it into Ubuntu.

Please note I haven't used Ubuntu Studio myself as I'm not into the audio & video editing, etc - but I have read quite a number of articles that give it the thumbs up.

Funambol - sync everything!

Sychronisation made Easy

I've been using Funambol for a few weeks now and I'm impressed by its capabilities.  I'm running Ubuntu Linux on my Toshiba laptop (64 bit).  I use Mozilla Thunderbird with the Lightning plug-in to handle my Contacts, Calendar and Tasks.

On my PDA (HTC Touch 3G) I'm running Windows Mobile 6.5.  Now I have tried various methods to synchronise between these 2 machines using a USB connection and I have had some success.  But it all seems a little cludgy.  Then I found Funambol.

What is Funambol?

Funambol is a web-based service that allows you to synchronise information like Calendars, Tasks, Contacts, Notes and "Briefcase".  It supports many different connections such as Linux (Thunderbird, Evolution, etc), Windows (Outlook), Mac, Windows Mobile, iPhone and soon Android.

Funambol provides plug-ins for these platforms that allow you to perform the synchronisation.  Various settings give you control over how the synchronisation process works, etc.

You can register for free (see the Funambol logo on the right hand side bar).  Registrations up to 31 March 2010 will be free (see conditions on their web site).  If you choose to be part of the Funambol community, you may be eligible for unlimited access.

My Thoughts

I have found it a very easy process to register, download and install the plugins - and make it work.  You can even elect to upgrade your support and the Funambol functionality, but the free functionality works fine for me.

Happy funambulating!