Roberto Mateu

Great tip to make Gmail work more like Opera Mail (the most powerful email client IMHO).

I’m still a LaunchBar user, but Alfred keeps getting better and better.

Not bad.

Would be great if it had a bookmark let and an icon that wasn’t made by Barbie.

Taking a trip. iPad and Kindle are all packed up.

See you in about a month.

Phred Dvorak, on WSJ.com:

RIM said the BlackBerry network was set up so that “no one, including RIM, could access” customer data, which is encrypted from the time it leaves the device.

All good right? Many (including myself) have been working under the assumption that BlackBerry devices – specifically their communications tools – are always encrypted.

However, something seems iffy when Bruce Schneier writes:

While the data is encrypted between RIM’s servers and the BlackBerrys, it has to be encrypted by RIM — so RIM has access to the plaintext.

This is similar to how Opera Mini handles encryption: although everything coming to and from Opera servers is encrypted, the servers themselves need see what’s going on to do its magic.

Note that I don’t think BlackBerry has a security issue. But by making a statement that seems technically inaccurate they’re setting themselves up for scrutiny from the users that should be supporting them right now.

Cory Doctorow, on Doctorow’s First Law:

Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you, and won’t give you a key, they’re not doing it for your benefit.

Although Doctorow is an extremist, he’s a rational one. Most of the things he gets worked up about – not using Macs anymore because of DRM – are things I can understand.

And while I still don’t agree in practice with him, more often than not, I agree in principle.

BlackBerry Torch in AT&T for $199.99:

As a refresher, the specs for the Torch 9800 look like this: 3.2-inch 360x480 touchscreen, 4.4” (5.8” open) x 2.4” x .57” and weighing 5.68 ounces, an optical trackpad, 4 GB of flash memory built-in as well as a 4 GB MicroSD card included with the phone, 5 megapixel camera with flash capable of shooting 640x480 video, BlackBerry 6 OS, and the usual smartphone features like Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

A modern device, with a modern OS – by 2009 standards.

For me this doesn’t mean that BlackBerry is in trouble. They are just not innovative for the end consumer. Other than the huge network effect of BlackBerry Messenger and their superior mail experience, they really bring nothing new to the market.

As long as these are the things that people want, no problem, if Apps, Browsing, Media, etc, keeps reaching mainstream, then somebody is in trouble.

The Ghosts of World War II’s Past.

Taking old World War II photos, Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov carefully photoshops them over more recent shots to make the past come alive. Not only do we get to experience places like Berlin, Prague, and Vienna in ways we could have never imagined, more importantly, we are able to appreciate our shared history in a whole new and unbelievably meaningful way.

Impressive visually, technically and historically.

Trip Gabriel, on the NYTimes.com:

The Internet may also be redefining how students — who came of age with music file-sharing, Wikipedia and Web-linking — understand the concept of authorship and the singularity of any text or image.

I may be a supporter of the Rip. Mix. Burn. school of thought, but still, the Mix part involves producing something. You can stand on the shoulders of others, but you need to add value – even if it’s crap like mine – and always give credit.

This is not a problem of a digital-enabled confused generation, this is just lazy persons.

Being Geek, by Michael Lopp

Instantly added to my to-read lists. His previous book, Managing Humans is tech company must have.

Julie Bosman, on NYTimes.com:

The new display space would be much larger, and it would be located next to each store’s cafe, to encourage customers to stop by the Nook space, coffee or tea in hand. It would also sell more than 100 accessories for the Nook, like padded covers designed by Kate Spade and Jonathan Adler.

The Nook has two things going for it: prime physical presence in stores and the accessories.

I do believe that Barnes & Noble has a good device and it’s actually being very bold in pushing forward its eBook strategy without much concern for the brick and mortar stores – as it should be.

Beautiful movie industry rant by Joe Queenan, on the WSJ.com:

What does it say about the current season that the third installation of “Toy Story” is better than the first installation of anything else? Or that people are actually looking forward to a sequel to the 1982 flop “Tron”? Does this mean that a sequel to “The Rocketeer” will soon be on the way?

He goes a bit overboard. But I agree with the essence: movies don’t blow your mind anymore, while Jurassic Park didn’t need an amazing plot because of the special effects, nowadays those effects are a dime a dozen. However, the plots are staying as stupid as ever.

Every time I leave the movie theater something similar to this pops into my head:

It says an awful lot about the industry that the most intelligent movies being released today are animated films like “Alice in Wonderland” and “Toy Story 3.”

How come Pixar can do movies that are entertaining for children and adults? Yet movies just for adults are so dumb?

From the guy who brought you Helvetica and Objectified, now comes Urbanized:

The third documentary in this trilogy is about the design of cities. Urbanized looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design, featuring some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Release is next year, so don’t get too excited. But this could well be my favorite trilogy ever (ok, second).

/via kottke.org

Domino Box HD for iPad.

I wouldn’t trust any of my knuckle-head friends with slamming their hands on my iPad. But it looks like a cool thing to carry around for a rainy day.

Great overview of historious by Jarel Remick, on Web.AppStorm:

historious‘ concept is quite simple really; instead of bookmarking sites you want to read later, “historify!” them and go back to them later via your personal content search engine.

I’ve been using historious for the past two weeks and I really like it. No need to add tags to your bookmarks, it’s like leaving breadcrumbs all over the net, and then being able to search them.

Unlike with Pinboard, I’m still not sure that I trust them with all my bookmarks in case they loose them, but I haven’t experienced any downtime yet.

Marco Arment:

The iPad is a great casual computer, but the Kindle is the superior reading device. And there doesn’t need to be any “killing”. If you really like an iPad for its other uses, now that a Kindle’s entry price is $140, it’s perfectly reasonable to have both.

Agree completely.

I had assumed that after a few weeks of using the iPad, the Kindle would be sold. Now, the only reason it could get sold, is if I buy a new version.

New Amazon Kindle.

Better screen, smaller and cheaper. This one is going to be remembered as the iPod of eBooks.

Just Mobile Xtand. Pretty.

/via Gizmodo

Apple today launched the Safari Extensions Gallery:

Extensions are a great way for you to add new features to Safari 5.0.1.

Most of my favorites aren’t available yet, but can still install if you enable enable developer mode. My top extensions:

• AdBlock for Safari

• NoMoreiTune

  NoMoreiTunes is an extension for Safari 5 which disables the script that tries to start iTunes when you visit a link to the iTunes Store.

• EmailTabURLs

  This extension adds a toolbar button and contextual menu items to Safari. Selecting one composes an email containing the URLs of all open tabs in all windows, or the active window

• SafariRestore

  Automatically restore your previous or saved browsing session, for best results, set Safari to open new windows with an Empty page.

• Gentle Status Bar

  Gentle Status Bar is a lot like Chrome’s status bar, but has been styled to match Safari and the standard bar’s behavior when modifier keys are pressed.

Adam Spooner

A more philosophical approach for achieving productivity.

The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer.

For some time I’ve always connected my MacBook to an external monitor when at my desk. This implied that I used an external keyboard and mouse, but every time I moved my hand to the right to use the mouse, my brain wished there was a trackpad there. I imagine that if you have to do design work, the precision of the mouse is still unbeatable, but for me, this the first Apple mouse I’m going to buy.

Apple also announced updated iMacs, Mac Pro and Cinema Display, but since I’m not getting any of those, no big deal.

Some good tips from Clay Johnson. Although turning off your mouse is just over my limit.

Daniel Lyons, on Newsweek:

I suggested to Bezos that maybe Amazon didn’t care about selling Kindle machines, that maybe the device wasn’t important. He said that wasn’t the case, but that “our goal with the Kindle device is separate from the Kindle bookstore.”

This sounds like a good strategy for Amazon. Let the Kindle device team go after what he calls the purpose-built reading device market, while the Kindle software team tackles the best reading experience in all platforms.

Joelle Tessler, also on AP:

The decision to allow the practice commonly known as “jailbreaking” is one of a handful of new exemptions from a 1998 federal law that prohibits people from bypassing technical measures that companies put on their products to prevent unauthorized uses.

This is great. Every geek knows that when you buy an electronic device it’s yours to hack, but this adds some support to the assumption.

Other interesting exemptions mentioned:

• allow owners of used cell phones to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers.
• allow people to break technical protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws.
• allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.
• allow computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices called dongles if the dongle no longer works and cannot be replaced.

Again, great news. I find the used mobile phone unlocking exemption specially interesting. I’m going to try to never buy a locked phone ever again, even if the initial price is higher.

Adam Schreck, from AP:

The United Arab Emirates has declared BlackBerry smartphones a potential threat to national security, saying the devices operate beyond the jurisdiction of national laws and are open to misuse.

Great example of when technology gets so far ahead of politics that by the time it catches up, it’s too late.

I get the feeling that at some point before 2012, we’ll see a similar story in Venezuela.

The great Aza Raskin, on his blog:

With one keystroke Tab Candy shows an overview of all tabs to allow you to quickly locate and switch between them. Tab Candy also lets you group tabs to organize your work flow. You can create a group for your vacation, work, recipes, games and social sites, however it makes sense to you to group tabs.

Unlike some of other concepts, Tab Candy is being targeted for Firefox 4.

I feel that Firefox is in the spot Opera was a year ago, an older rendering engine with a bunch of innovations on top. I keep hearing complaints from users regarding the responsiveness of their Firefox 3.x install. If they can’t overcome this technically, or at least the perception, I’d worry a bit.

All this aside, Tab Candy could be the first real innovation to tabs in a production browser in a long time.

What’s New in Xcode 4:

Xcode is the complete toolset for building Mac, iPhone, and iPad applications - and with Xcode 4, the tools have been redesigned to be faster, easier to use, and more helpful than ever before.

Looks very interesting. Although by the time I finish downloading the 3GB file, Xcode 5 would be out.

From the Skype Blog:

This means you can receive Skype calls while other apps are running, even when your iPhone is locked. And during a call, you can keep the conversation going while you switch to another task, such as checking a movie listing or reading an email.

If Apple comes out with an iPod touch 3G, things are going to get pretty interesting.

Flipboard for iPad

Designed from the ground up for iPad, Flipboard creates a magazine out of a user’s social content. Simply launch Flipboard and “flip” open the cover to get started. From the Table of Contents readers can view their sections and personalize the magazine.

Lots of hype around surrounding this app today. But after some use, it really is impressive.

All-Time Record Revenue:

Apple sold 3.47 million Macs during the quarter, representing a new quarterly record and a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 61 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.41 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of 3.27 million.

Even without a full quarter, the sold almost as many iPads as Macs. I do hope they keep selling trucks for a while longer.

Jeff Bezos, in an Amazon Press Release:

[…] the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189.

Now imagine what would happen when you go to $119? or the mythical $99?. Of course, you can’t forget these things cost money, but I believe Amazon should focus on bringing the price down as the way to compete with the upcoming iPad/tablet wave.

Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books—astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.

This speaks more to eBook adoption than the Kindle itself –Amazon doesn’t break down how many book where bought on the Kindle or the iPad– but they’re right to mention a tipping point.

Arik Hesseldah on BusinessWeek:

Released in 1984 with the Mac, it is fondly remembered not only by those who used it, but also by computer scientists for numerous first-of-a-kind innovations.

Source code as history. I love this era.

Joshua Topolsky’s very in-depth preview:

Windows Phone 7 is easily the most unique UI in the smartphone race right now, and the real perk here is that it doesn’t just seem like an arbitrary decision to make things look different than other OSs — there is real purpose and utility to a lot of what Microsoft has come up with.

Say what you will about Microsoft, but Windows Phone 7 is a brave departure of everything they have done before. Don’t know if it’s too late, but it still going to be interesting.

Kevin Kelly, on the Smithsonian Magazine:

Screens provoke action instead of persuasion. Propaganda is less effective in a world of screens, because while misinformation travels fast, corrections do, too. On a screen it is often easier to correct a falsehood than to tell one in the first place; Wikipedia works so well because it removes an error in a single click. In books we find a revealed truth; on the screen we assemble our own truth from pieces.

Almost poetic article on the future of reading. Really wish I could write like this.

From the company blog, BlackBerry 6: Another Sneak Peek

Looks like a solid upgrade, but unless they have something still under the covers, it’s definitely a catch-up to iOS4, Android 2.2 and webOS.

On related news, the blog also showed the upcoming BlackBerry Protect:

BlackBerry Protect allows you the ability to wirelessly backup, restore and locate your BlackBerry® smartphone.

Again, a catch-up to Find My iPhone, although free.

Now all they need to do is release the damn things, so it counts for real.

My favorite Mac troubleshutting tool now works with Mac OS X 10.6:

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can’t load the GUI, or don’t have a startup CD handy.

It’s a command line tool, but it always works great when my Mac is acting up for whatever reason.

New MobileMe Calendar Beta

First with MobileMe Mail and soon the new calendar, MobileMe webapps are leaving their native Mac counterparts in the dust.

Updated Kindle DX

Lower price ($379.00), beautiful graphite dark look and better screen.

Nice device, but a very tough sell against a 16GB iPad at $499.

Daring Fireball review of iPhone 4:

The overall build quality seems impossibly good. The iPhone 4 is beautiful to behold and feels like a valuable artifact. It’s like a love letter to Dieter Rams.

If you want the inside Steve Jobs head review, this is it.

Also, take a look at Andy Ihnatko’s review, for the most thorough one.

Alex Faaborg on Why Tabs are on Top in Firefox 4.

Forgot to post this last week. I always like how Faaborg frames the UI issues –extra kudos for giving Opera credit–.

Jeff Keller’s from Digital Camera Resource Page.

Top choice:

[…] the Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS Digital ELPH. It doesn’t go overboard with features, but it does the basics very well, with very good photo quality, limited manual controls, fast performance, and a stylish design.

Close second:

[…] the Pentax Optio H90. While it’s photo quality isn’t as good as the Canon’s, it does offer a ton of point-and-shoot features, a bit more manual control, a customizable button, and a 720p movie mode.

Read the whole thing if you’re considering a cheap camera.

/via Engadget

Amazon finally released the Kindle App for Android.

Very similar to the iOS version, without the new embedded video and audio clips.

This week I got my new personal business cards. I went with COLOURLovers, This Is Not A Rainbow ready-mades from Moo.com.

I had two objectives:

1. Cards needed to be ready in a week.
2. The couldn’t look like they came from Staples.

Since the last time I designed my own business cards it took me about a week to have the design ready, I just choose the most colorful/conversation starting design I found.

Very happy with the results,for $22 (50 cards), I think they would do just fine.

Trailer for Somewhere by Sofia Coppola.

The most beautiful trailer I’ve seen since the original Where the Wild Things Are one.

Jumping over the Atlantic

It been about a month since I arrived in the US after leaving Norway.

The first week in Boston with my family was a welcomed vacation. The days leading to it where tiring mentally and emotionally and the safety of being with my parents and sister was uplifting.

Boston sans University

Boston holds a special place in my heart. My two years there where really amazing, and most corners have a fun memory attached to it. This was my first time after three visits that nostalgia didn’t get the best of me. I just looked back and smiled.

I like nostalgia. It’s usually is the result of a extremely happy memory that is not easily replicated. It does hurt a bit, but in a good way.

Grunge and Starbucks

After Boston it was off to Seattle, where the most concrete part of my almost non-existent current plan lies. The results won’t be seen for some time, but the trip was still worth it. It reminded me lots of Austin -with its yuppie feeling- and any city with such a great science fiction museum¹ gets my eternal love.

I finished reading Enders Game on top of the Space Needle, this is something I will never forget for some reason.While I don’t know the significance, someday I hope to find out (or make it up).

Train South

Since I was already on the West coast, and I still had the adventureness feeling that Wolf and Nav radiate, I decided not to fly straight to Miami and take a train to San Francisco.

The Coast Starlight boast a scenic route all the way down to Los Angeles. The views are pretty, and the train itself is not half-bad, but what it lacks in speed and amenities compared to any European train, it makes up for in the friendliness of almost every passenger.

I got to met some interesting people along the way, among them: a surfer dude on his way to pick up all his stuff to move back to Portland and help his mom, and older guy who reads Greek novels and visited Caracas 30 years ago, or a sad looking girl that really doesn’t seem to want the train to stop ever, but has a lot of Kindle questions.

I don’t know if I never tried hard enough in Norway, or if I was in a very touristy train ride, but I never experienced this easy friendliness back there.

The City, for a Day

Afterwards, San Francisco was as inviting as ever. A city that looks you in the eye and tells you:

“I know you don’t want to be a tourist; stay a while longer”.

But isn’t the right time yet, or so I hope.

Welcome to Miami

Bienvenido a Miami, a place too messy to be American, but too organized to be Latin. Accents, customs and food seem all-too-familiar, yet at the end of the day, it’s a very different place.

Everyone is pretty, too pretty. The boundaries of sexiness are pushed at both ends of the age range. Some want to start right away, and others don’t want it to ever end.

While people in Oslo seemed to be fit so they could enjoy life, here it seems that fitness is a byproduct of trying to be beautiful.

Facebook Live™

The good thing is that there are friends here, great ones. The Internet let’s people keep in touch, but distance matters and changes things. You need to see people, friends and family in real life, not just in HD or commenting on their photos.

✈ to Home 1.0

On Friday I head to Caracas. My best friend is getting married and I couldn’t be happier about his happiness.

Plans continue to happen around me, and it makes me a bit envious. But that doesn’t change that I like what I see.

Saint-Tropez → Andorra → Barcelona

Genoa → Saint-Tropez

Genoa

Zurich → Genoa

Paris

Amsterdam

Call it Europa, Continental Europe or whatever, over the next two weeks I’ll be backpacking and road-tripping around Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Genoa, St. Tropez, Barcelona and Madrid. With probably a few stops in between.

I’ll be going with some good friends, some new ones and visiting some old ones.

View Eurotrip 2010 in a larger map

Going to try some post along the way, depending on Wi-Fi availability and energy levels at the end of the day.

Press read more if you’re curious of my backpacking checklist, could be useful to someone else.

Clothes:

• T-shirt
• Long Sleeved shirt
• Polo shirt
• Sweater
• Jackets
• 6 pairs of socks and underwear
• Two pants
• Hat
• Shoes and sandals

Gadgets:

• Camera
• iPhone
• extended battery w/light
• Chargers and plug adaptor

Logistics:

• Documents
  emergency number, insurance, passport, flight details, , etc.
• ATM and credit card
• Some emergency cash
• Wash kit:
  shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant/antiperspirant and a toothbrush + razor
• Sun glasses
• 1st aid/medicine kit

Tidbits:

• Small Moleskine
• Pen
• Packet of tissues
• Towel
• Sleeping sac
• Earplugs, eye mask

Carry:

• Money belt
• Mini padlock
• Drawstring bag
• Tie wraps
• Backpack

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Official Trailer

This is exactly why I love watching trailers. With a tagline like:

An epic of epic epicness You can’t go wrong.

★★★★★

Loved this film. It’s typical a Wes Anderson movie done in animated stop-motion. If you like his style, then you are in for a great time.

I loved the whole feel of the movie, and the way Anderson makes you love flawed characters. As most of his films, there is no universal measure of good or bad, no real heroes or villians, just life, with people (and animals) experiencing it.

Highly recommended.