WirelessDoc

Tab Mix Plus for Firefox

This is an add-on that I really like. Right now I have 25 tabs open in 3 rows at the top of the browser.

If you're blogging, that means you have to refer to a number of open tabs besides the ones that you normally like to keep open. When you're furiously surfing, 25 is not a stretch.

There are other settings, such as opening the new tab next to the one where you click. This makes a big difference in jumping back and forth between the tabs you're working on.

Just download it.

NB: I'm categorizing this as "GTD" because it really streamlines the process of getting things done online.

Palm will report a loss; SVP engineer departs

Palm has warned that it might show a slight loss for the first fiscal quarter.

The company’s outlook for the quarter represents a substantial drop in earnings from the year-ago period, when the company had a profit of 16 cents a share, or 21 cents when special items were excluded.

The NY Times story reports that "Palm shares lost 29 cents in after-hours trading Wednesday."

Michael Farese, Palm's SVP of engineering, has accepted the position as the new CEO of BitWave Semiconductor.

Google Your Shared Stuff: social link sharing service

Here's the example that I set up for my last blog post.

I don't see much originality over del.icio.us. Yet another namespace for all your tagging pleasure.

It's explained more fully at Google Blogscoped.

Cellular service for NYC subway platforms anticipated

Yesterday, the NY Times reported:

All 277 underground stations in the subway system are to be wired for cellphone use, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced yesterday.

An interview with TA spokesman Paul Fleuranges on WNYC this morning revealed that text message alerts for subway disruptions will also be in the plan.

Transit Wireless, a consortium of companies, will pay New York City Transit $47 million over ten years, and will recoup this outlay along with the cost of constructing the infrastructure estimated at $150 to $200 million by billing the cellular carriers who use this service.

Here are the details on the Transit Wireless consortium:

Transit Wireless is a joint venture involving Nab Construction, Q-Wireless, Dianet Communications and Transit Technologies. Nab Construction and Transit Technologies have done other large-scale construction projects in the subway system, and Dianet has been involved in designing and installing cellphone antenna systems in buildings and airports. Q-Wireless makes software for wireless systems.

This system is long overdue, despite all the complaints about the "loudtalkers."

UPDATE: The report mandated by Gov. Eliot Spitzer about last month's subway problem due to the heavy rain finds: MTA failed in the flood.

Walt thinks iPod Touch has some down sides

Walt mentions some downsides about the Touch:

It's the first iPod model I've ever tested that fell significantly
short, in my tests, of Apple's battery-life claims. It's also the first
iPod that lacks any physical buttons for controlling music playback.

Walt found it lasted 17 hours instead of the rated 22 hours for music playback, and just over four hours of video playback instead of the promised five, on one battery charge.

Also, there's no e-mail program. You're stuck with an online service like Gmail. It's as if Apple wanted to reduce the competition with the iPhone.

He still thinks it's "the best end-to-end portable solution for playing and purchasing music and video."

He does suggest something that others and myself have said: if this had VoIP and a microphone it would truly be a remarkable device.

Personal Technology - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: iPod touch, apple, mossberg, WSJ

PDF Download for Firefox

I've been having the worst time closing a tab in which a PDF was opened in Firefox.

With the latest upgrade to Firefox 2.0.0.7, I see they're suggesting something called PDF Download that should fix the problem.

PDF Download solves the problems everyone has about handling PDF files with Firefox. This extension, every time you click on a link, checks if the target is a pdf file and in this case let you choose what you want to do (open pdf file inside or outside Firefox, download it to the filesystem or view it as HTML).

Here's the dialog box that pops up when you click on a link.

UPDATE: It's works great.

Is the Web 2.0 "bubble" about to burst?

Fred hears rumblings.

"So let's talk about it and if it comes to pass, let's make sure we handle it better than we did last time."

Doc Searls says that blogrolls are dead

Here's his rationale.

And, here's the e-mail I just sent to him:

The Web should be about featuring ideas and not
people. This the problem I had with Facebook, and I've
since inactivated my account.

My answer will be to have a featured blog post which
remains at the top at all times. The extended post
will contain the list of topics I'm following. Next to
each topics I'll provide the latest links that I think
are relevant. As time goes on, I'll replace the links
with better ones.

This will also show your readers see what topics you are
researching.

This human created directory is what Google can't do,
but what Mahalo wants to do with the entire universe
of Web knowledge.

Even though social media is supposed to be the big
thing now, the ever-growing, static list of "friends"
is a relic of the past.

How is Palm standing up to the competition?

There has been much criticism of the lack of innovation at Palm with some saying that the Treo should be thinner or that the Garnet OS should be upgraded to allow more sophisticated functions. The Foleo also worked against the brand as a whole. I think there have been so many complaints about sync'ing problems that they wanted to offer a solution that didn't involve having to sync with a PC or a Mac. But they were wrong in thinking that people would resort to buying another device, with another set of power cords, batteries, chargers, etc. to deal with.

Certainly the new iPhone and the iPod Touch has revolutionized the touchscreen handheld. And with the full-featured (except for Flash) Safari browser, they are very attractive as connected handhelds. (They would be better media players if they had more memory, though.) But when it comes to managing contacts, I think Palm's simple but elegant OS gets the job done. Unlike the Apple products, there is plenty of third-party software and media available. I'm still using eReader to read the books I purchase on my Treo.

What prompted me to write this was a post I read at Laughing Squid, where Scott Beale describes a new online to-do list program called Todoist that works great with his iPhone. I tried it out both on my pc and my treo, and I have to say that Palm Desktop and the task manager on the Treo easily outshines this Web-based solution.

It's hard to leverage function over style, but this is what Palm needs to do. It's also hard to produce a full-featured browser on the screen the size of the Treo, but they can improve the Blazer browser to work even a little better.

Dossia Network will provide online health records for major employers

The Dossia Founder Groups is a consortium of large companies dedicated to providing an independent, lifelong health record for employess, dependents and retirees.

Intel Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and six other big employers are expected to announce today they will fund the Children's Hospital Informatics Program, to take over development and eventual operation of a Web-based health-records effort called Dossia Network. The switch came after the consortium had a falling-out with the group it retained initially to develop the software.

I've been reading a number of stories about companies providing financial incentives as well as penalties for their employees to meet different health standards such as blood pressure, weight and lifestyle issues such as smoking.

This follows the trend toward patient-centered healthcare, but in this case, these major employers are being proactive in having their employee take a aggressive role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle whether it be conscientiously managing chronic disease and their behavior.