Every once in a while i get this message in Windows XP VM “Network connection has limited or no connection”. Some people suggest to turn your VM settings to NAT. However, this was already set to NAT. To fix the problem, quit VMware, delete the plist files in your ~/Library/Preferences/

com.vmware.fusion.plist
com.vmware.fusionDaemon.plist

This should restore your network connection.

Mac fonts have to be converted first via command line. Use the following in a new terminal window:

cat “MyFontReg/..namedfork/rsrc” > “MyFontReg.dfont”

If you’ve just installed Adobe CS3/4 you may be wondering why your Safari on OS X can’t display PDFs anymore.

It’s because Adobe mucked up the plugin which tells Safari to choose an application to view the PDF files.

To fix the problem go to:
/Library/Internet Plug-ins/

and delete the file:
AdobePDFViewer.plugin

Restart Safari and you will be looking at PDFs in a snap.

Growl has finally updated the notification for Apple Mail on Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6)
http://growl.info/growlmail/

Apparently Apple have been hooking up the antenna incorrectly to some MacPro computers.

Mine, a 2x 2.8ghz quad core Xeon (from early 2008) had built-in Bluetooth but not Wifi.

I’ve just installed a 802.11n card and noticed that the antenna cable to the Bluetooth was incorrect. I found out about this from Kirk McElhearn when looking for the correct antenna connections.

Now my MacPro can connect to my Mighty Mouse and not drop connection. Also I’m connected to my Wifi box – although it’s 802.11g :(

That will change when we move into a new flat, new Apple network, new movies to stream over the air!

To cut the story down to bare facts – i first ordered the Nokia E71 at the start of November from Amazon Market Place. A month later, no contact from the seller and i’ve been ripped off. Well, the dude tried to rip off Amazon. I’ve filled a claim for my money back which i shall hear back from shortly. Since the filling, I’ve bought a new one, direct from Amazon. Yesterday i received an email saying it had shipped, and then moments later (literally) it turned up. Think the email was delayed as it stated it was shipped on the 27th.

And was I happy. Although i was at work and couldn’t really drill into all the features. Never before have I been that excited over a phone. But there was so much build up to it, and after using the iPhone for almost two years, my tactile sense has been virtualised and abandoned. I’ve been in dire need of a click to know i’ve pressed a button. And boy does the Nokia E71 have buttons.

Apple hate buttons. In fact, they acknowledge this with every product they make. Making them minimalistic as possible. And it looks good too. However, there is a downside to having minimal buttons. For example, the iPhone has four mechanical buttons. Sleep, Vol up, Vol down, and Home. The touch screen is used to have virtual buttons and control the device.

This is a horrible way to type though. Touching an area on a piece of glass to activate a function has no physical feed back. It’s the exact same idea as those horrible see-through calculators from the late 80s. The buttons wouldn’t respond if you didn’t touch them precisely and you had to look at the calculator all the time.

Nokia E71 has a full QWERTY keyboard, cramped it may be, but surprisingly usable. I’ve only misspelled a couple words so far.

BTW, this shouldn’t be taken as “I hate iPhones, i hate Apple”. I still have my iPhone and will probably keep it to use as an iPod touch. It’s a great device for surfing the web. Safari is the best mobile browser out there. Perfect for what the touch screen interface is designed for. Same with iTunes. Best mobile media player with beautiful cover art. There are also games on the iPhone are amazing. But when it comes to writing emails, attaching documents, downloading unknown file types, having a filesystem to do this all – iPhone is left for dead. Also, when i refer to iPhone, i’m talking about my iPhone 3g. Not the latest iPhone 3gs, as that costs about 3x the amount of my Nokia and runs a bit smoother than it’s predecessor.

Here are some of the features i’ve been missing from my iPhone and that Apple will probably never bring:

• battery life – since charging it last night and using it all today, making calls, texting, checking email, using bluetooth, it’s at about 85% capacity
• you can tell it when to check for work emails, mon-fri, between the hours of 8am and 6pm)
• it turns off things that drains power when it about to run out of juice, such as data comms (bt/wifi/3g/gps/email) and screen brightness, leaving enough juice to make and receive calls
• text-to-speech – reads messages (not email though?), menu items and announces who’s calling when the phone rings.
• maps – seriously, awesome. Apple did a great job at google maps, but what they failed at is caching. If you go out of reception or roam, you don’t get any maps or they’ll cost you. Nokia allow you to download (for free) most of the world. UK files are about 230mb, whereas NZ is a paltry 17mb. Included with maps is turn by turn navigation for proper GPS navigation (car usage)
• message notification – a light flashes when a message hasn’t been read.
• applications such as Fring! (VOIP) allow you to use VOIP over 3g/edge.
• can take videos
• has a flash on the 3.2mb autofocus camera
• the home screen has information displaying calendar events, latest messages etc
• voice dialling is pretty accurate
• hspda modem
• web page loading and downloads are very fast compared to the iPhone (even though it’s the same network/account)
• there aren’t any cutesy riffs/sound effects. All notification’s can be customised.
• voice quality is awesome, crystal clear phone conversations
• paring with OS X was fine, although PC suite software is Windows only currently, however they are developing a Linux and OS X version which sounds like it will be out early 2010
• PC suite was surprisingly awesome for a Windows application

The downside of things i’ve noticed are:

• headphones are 2.5mm (not the standard 3.5mm) and make crackly sounds
• sound quality for media is horrible
• email was pretty hard to get sorted. After playing with it last night it said, “do you want to install Nokia mail?” even though I thought I was setting Nokia mail up?! Then all of a sudden it worked awesomely.
• Initial setup of networks was frustrating and kept asking “do you want to connect?” but it hasn’t asked me today
• themes are kinda shitty, nothing compares to the iPhone UI

To sum it up, I’m very happy with my Nokia E71. The downsides such as music quality/headphones etc – it’s not a toy like the iPhone. It’s a tool. For more than half the price of an iPhone, and for far more features its worth getting. If you want a smartphone for playing with and being amazed by pinching auto rotating etc – get the iPhone. If you want a smartphone to use for business and not to autorotate (especially when lying on your side in bed reading news) with great features.. get something like this.

here’s the amazing PC suite app (Windows only):

I thought I posted this ages ago – maybe i didn’t…

Here’s how to show ‘hidden’ applications in the OS X Dock:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

I made the decision to drop my iPhone and go with a phone that i can actually use. The Nokia E71 has many benefits over the iPhone, such as a physical keyboard, longer battery, actually make and receive calls.

It should be arriving within the month, so i’ll post how great it is then.

Until then, check out the review

Updated:
Ali asked me, no.. Ali slandered me before leaving work this evening saying how much i’ll miss the iPhone. Well here’s some reasoning to my decision:

Nokia does everything the iPhone can but has;

• Physical keyboard
• Dual modes (work/personal) to separate work from fun
• Faster 3g hsdpa
• Camera with autofocus & flash
• Flash (lite?) support
• Zip/Unzip
• Java apps
• Longer battery life (6 days heavy use)
• Fully customisable alerts (SMS/mail appear on sleep screen, light glades every 10sec for unread message waiting)
• Proper mail formatting
• Read, Edit save documents

Things I like about iPhone that I’ll miss;

• iPod
• Google Maps (but Google Maps & Ovi is available for the Nokia
• Safari (best mobile browser ever to date)
• Apps, app/music store – but hardly ever use 3rd party apps, purchase over the air
• Interface is awesome

Things I don’t like about iPhone;

• Heavy lag in cold boot (startup time is about 1min 30sec, then about 10sec resting/freeze before login)
• Some lag when multitasking (listening to iPod while composing this message, keys freeze/can’t answer calls about 1/10 times)
• It’s stupid auto orientation (sometimes I don’t want it to go landscape)
• Not very accessible (have to look at the screen to type, have to turn on and unlock to check mail/messages)
• Camera sucks and no flash
• Reception is rubbish for wifi/voice/data
• Can’t save/edit/format documents from mail
• Touchscreen is easy to navigate but cumbersome at times
• Battery life suuuuucks (iPhone can’t sleep to save battery when in standby!?)
• Looking like a bellend typing with one finger, uncontrollably focused on the iPhone

Maybe some of these issues are because my iPhone is jailbroken and or it needs a reset. I accept that. But I end up getting more upset with the iPhone, expecting it to do something which i suppose it’s not really supposed to do.

Things that won’t be good on Nokia:

• Media player won’t be as good as iPod
• Camera is 3.2 but some uploads on flicker look blueish

These reasons made me make my decision.

In summary, i think the iPhone is a great toy/media/web tool. It’s fancy looking and does neat tricks – but when you actually need to do something that YOU want to do, it fails on so many levels.

Someone at work has been secretly posting cartoon dead birds on the windows and a colleague has made a photoblog about it. Pretty funny stuff.

http://totalbirdcarnage.tumblr.com/

Just found this free header image spinner made in Flash. Not normally a big fan of Flash, but clients are. And often ask for rotating header images in a fancy manner mostly requesting Flash. Sometimes it’s appropriate to suggest a simple jQuery slider, but this adds 3D/neat transitions which could be good for your next project.

Made by progressivered.com, view the demo