LittleTechGirl's Website

Gmail Voice & Video Chat

kcain — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:46:58 +0000

Well, I always joke that Gmail is taking over the world, and here they go again. Now, right in your gmail window, while chatting with a friend, you can do a video chat.

I have not tried it out yet. I need to get a guinea pig on the other end. The only drawback I see though is that you have to install a browser plug-in. This is not a problem for most folks, but some cooperate users like gmail because their company allows them to use it without needing to install anything on their machines, so if they are interesting in video chat, they will not be able to use it.

I will post more once I have tested it.

iPhone 3g USB Adapter Recall

kcain — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:58:04 +0000

Order your new one: http://www.apple.com/support/usbadapter/exchangeprogram/?sr=hotnews

The Great iPhone Photo App Roundup

kcain — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:23:46 +0000

I had thought about doing something like this myself, but Matt over at Photojojo has done a fine job of it! Check out his list and review of all the iPhone photo apps. Of course new ones are being released every day, so i am sure that he will update again when the time is right.

iPhone - Email (MMS) a large pic - using Ezimba Photo Editor…

kcain — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:51:58 +0000

In some cases this will not work. I have run into trouble as I stated below sending a 300k file to a friend on more than one occasion. There are no editing tools on the iPhone to shrink the file, or anyway to view the file size for that matter. So, the other day on the app store a nifty program popped up. “ezimba“. It is a free online image editor.

So, now I can take a pic, shrink it down to say 50% and send it off to a friends phone via email. I am still testing to try to see what size gives the best quality but still makes it. You can also do all kinds of other nifty things to the pics. Since the processing tools are online, it can be a slow process. It works best if connected via Wifi, or if you have a nice strong signal and 3g is active.

iPhone MMS - lack of it, workaround, and issues

kcain — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:37:18 +0000

Ok, it’s true, the iPhone does NOT have native MMS. Why?? There are sooo many theories. None of them make sense to me. The fact that it’s missing is just plain stupid! And I don’t want to hear (yes, this gets me steamed LOL) that was some support issues with it with ATT. ????? Every other phone that you can buy from ATT does it, so why would that be any different on an iPhone? Yes, there is a hack for that if you jailbreak you 1G phone, but I have also heard that won’t work on ATT. WTF??? Why not? I wish someone with “authority” would just make an announcement and explain that whole thing.

Anyway, as stated all over the web there is a work-around. BUT, this will NOT work for everyone and every phone. Why? well, from my short experience in testing this, here is what I have found, the iPhone has a 2mb camera. The average file size on a pic is around 300-400k. That is too large for some phones to handle. Most “regular” phones have very small memory. Other smartphones have a sd card installed and possibly the ability to save the mms attachment to the card. I have tried sending a 300k or so file to a friends phone, the pic never made it. See the next post for a workaround for that.

But, if you want to try it, you need to know your friends phone email address. This is dependant on the carrier. Here is a list of US ones (from here):

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
AT&T for SMS phonenumber@txt.att.net, for MMS phonenumber@mms.att.net
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: for SMS: phonenumber@vtext.com for MMS: phonenumber@vzwpix.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

where phonenumber = your 10 digit phone number

Now, this will help you send a pic to your friend (maybe if it works), but you still cannot receive and you will have to deal with the dreaded “viewmymessage.com” site which I hate. Most times the point of someone sending you a pic is that they want you to see it and keep it! On that site it goes away after 7 days. There should at LEAST be an option to forward to your land email. Geez.

iPhone 3G

kcain — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:21:04 +0000

Yes, I am late jumping into this discussion, but hey, I’ve been busy!

I had the joy of testing out a first generation iPhone with the 2.0 beta software on it over the past few months through my job. It was quite interesting. Since the 3g version came out on July 11, I was lucky and got to trade it in for a new one. And I must say, this thing is pretty darn sweet!

As you know if you read my blog, I am a phone junky. I have gone through several over the past few years, some as part of my job testing, some personally because I just love gadgets. My most recent phone before this one was the ATT Tilt, which I still keep in my purse as a backup. I still LOVE that fun, but I have to admit that since the new iPhone came out, I have left the battery on the 3g die, and I have only touched it once!

Now as all iPhone users probably know, there are still a few shortcomings on the iPhone, but so far I have been dealing with them. My want list includes:

MMS Messaging (yes, I know about the workarounds, but it is still stupid as he** that the phone does not have it, and don’t tell me that MMS is not needed, or that “maybe apple is rewritting mms even better, or that most people use email these days, cause it is still not right!) - more on that later
The ability to forward an SMS
Copy and paste
A few camera options
Video camera

Now, ALL of the above have been covered by either jailbreaking your phone (first generation, that stuff is not yet on the 3g), or installing apps from the App store. But really??? If it’s a smart phone and the “most technologically advanced phone ever it should have that stuff. Yes, I am complaining, but I still love it.

Another Wordpress upgrade issue

kcain — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:01:31 +0000

Geez… all my categories have disappeared. I tried a couple of fixes found on the Wordpress site, and they did not work for me. So, I am rebuilding my categories. Sigh…

Master Mike

kcain — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:35:59 +0000

Michael is the son of the director of my kids daycare center. Over the past 3 years I have seen him transform from short little boy to tall teen. He is a very, very sweet, well mannered kid, and he can play the HELL out of the drums, as you can witness in this video.

ShareThis plugin issue

kcain — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:08:58 +0000

I love the ShareThis plugin. I have been using it for quite a while. Also, I notice that it is taken over the web. I believe it started as a plugin by Alex King. Now it’s has it own identity, community, website, forum, etc. Wow!

I upgraded Wordress from version 2.2 to version 2.6 yesterday, then I upgraded to the latest version of the ShareThis plugin. It went fine, but now you will notice that I have that ShareThis icon way up at the top of my blog. Yeah, umm… it does not belong there.

I checked the forums and I see that it’s a common issue with certain things. I am just hoping to find a fix, cause it’s just not right

Crawling out of the woodwork.

kcain — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:51:12 +0000

Yes, I’ve been busy. But I am vowing to myself to blog about something at least a couple of times a week. How hard could that be right? :)You will notice that i have removed all the PPP (Pay Per Post) stuff from my blog. I haven’t done that in ages, and I found that Google must have took away from page rank because of it. That’s not cool. I used to be a 3, now I’ve been at 0 forever. Hmph!So stay tuned, lots of interesting posting to come… right after I update Wordpress. This blog is WAY behind.