I have had an on again off again relationship with my Palm Pre. Lately it’s on again. It’s Monday and that feeling is subject to change at any moment.
One of my favorite features of the Palm Pre is the touchstone charger.
It’s very nice to be able to lay your phone on the charger and it start charging. I know that sounds like a lazy man talking – too lazy to plug in a cable. Stay with me. I really enjoy having one at the office. When the phone is on the charger – the time display stays lit up – and incoming messages are shown. And to answer a call I just lift the phone off of the charger. If you are on a call you can sit the phone on the charger and the call transfers to speaker phone mode. The phone can also be placed in portrait or landscape mode so that you can watch videos while the phone is charging. The angle of the touchstone seems to be perfect for this.
I have not looked at the prices of the touchstones for a while. I got one for Christmas and then picked up another one with a gift card. It won’t be long until this technology catches on and we start seeing it on other smart phones.
Throwing this one out there – in case you are ever looking for a free piece of software to burn CDs, DVDs, ISOs or what ever. The software is CDBurnerXP (the link goes to CNet). There maybe others out there but this one has saved my bacon on more than one occasion.
Here is the description:
Though this multifaceted burning tool won’t win any beauty awards, it has almost everything Windows users need to create CDs and DVDs. One of the most glaring needs for Windows XP users is a DVD burner, and CDBurnerXP Pro fits the bill well. Despite a slightly confusing interface, this freeware tool should not disappoint users who take the time to familiarize themselves with its functionality.
The core of the program’s feature set consists of three main tasks, which are prompted via a wizard upon start-up: writing data CDs and DVDs, creating CDs for audio playback, and ripping music from CDs or editing ID3 tags. Canceling the wizard results in a rather blank blue screen with only a few selections in the toolbar. In order to work on a new project, you’ll need to select one of the options, which can be brought back via the “New document” icon in the upper left. Unfortunately, you can’t even open an existing project without selecting one of the wizard options first. The program supports both burnproof and on-the-fly disc writing, as well as bootable ISO files, but it cannot burn double-layer DVDs, a feature promised for version 3.5, which is currently in alpha development. While it may take users some time to learn how to use it effectively, CDBurnerXP Pro is a competent tool and a great value.
And a note from the publisher:
CDBurnerXP is an application to burn optical disks including cd, DVD, H-DVD, Blu-Ray Disaks. It can create ISO and multilanguage interface.
It is able to burn audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks. Data verification can be done after burning process. The software also can be used as bin/nrg to ISO converter and can used for simple cover printing.
One of the tools I use the most on a day to day basis has to be Dropbox. If you have not used Dropbox before and you use multiple computers – you should give it a shot. It’s like a network drive – but you can get at it from just about any where. No matter what computer I am on – work, home, laptop, or netbook – I always have that one folder (Dropbox) that is available to me. I use it mostly to keep work files on that I would need to access from a different location. I also keep website backups on it as well as a few pictures/PDF files you get the idea.
What do you use to make files available across multiple computers?
Sorry – no Flash game this week, but something tons more interesting.
Check out this article with amazing pictures.
This is a storm drainage system built for water issues surrounding Tokyo. But it looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
From the Sprint Fourms, posted by admin of the forum:
On 2/26, Friday evening, Pre and Pixi device users will receive an Over the Air (OTA) notification to download the new 1.4 webOS software release.
This release includes both fixes and feature updates (listed below).
Fixes:
- Time Zone bug fixed
- Network time sync bug fixed to reflect accurate Network time
- Bluetooth car-kit transition to device corrected
- No EV icon bug fixed (random)
- Random browser formatting bugs fixed
- Fixed bug that incorrectly displayed Sprint when actually was Digital Roaming
- Missing Contact issue specifically with swap down to 1.2.9.1 or less
Feature Updates:
- Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
- Adds Video Capture capability & edit
- Calendar Enhancements
- Messaging Enhancements
- Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
- Email Enhancements
- Notification Enhancements
- Adds Adobe Flash 10.0 (Pre Only)
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- NOTE: The 1.4 software adds the ability to use the Flash 10.0 Adobe plug-in which will be available shortly from the Palm Appl Catalogue.
UPDATE
Looks like for some reason Sprint pulled that off of their forum. Over at PreCentral there are lots of reports of people already getting the upgrades.
WebOS 1.4 should be dropping any time now according to the rumors. Once out we should see video capture and Flash support. They are also suppose to fix an issue with BT car kits and the transfer to one and back off from one. My Jabra car kit does not go well from the phone playing music to the BT device taking over playing the music.
