Reports are coming out that Apple has softened its stance toward third party iPhone application developers. It has begun to approve video streaming applications (bet I’m not the only one waiting for Qik) and Macworld reports Apple is even letting applications with private API calls through (temporarily at least). While this is great news for developers, I suspect Apple’s laser focus on the user experience will prevent it from ever opening the floodgates like other mobile providers are doing. That is a good thing for those of us who like things to work. Still, it is nice they seem to be backing off some of their more jack-tastic moves of late with respect to the App Store. At this point they’ve had long enough to sort out the deluge. Let’s hope this is the first step.
TechShow 2010 Speaking
I will be speaking again at the American Bar Association’s TechShow in Chicago March 25-27, 2010. For any tech-minded attorneys or legal professionals, this conference is ground zero. Every year they assemble a fantastic group of speakers and vendors that help you find out how to practice more efficiently and take advantage of the most recent technology.
My sessions this year will include using a Mac in a PC firm and using technology for settlement and mediation. I will also be participating in the open forums concerning the iPhone and other Mac related topics. You can learn more about the conference here.
Dragon Voice Dictation on iPhone
I am a big fan of the voice recognition software. I use Nuance’s Dragon Dictate on the PC and MacSpeech Dictate on my Mac. I was very pleased to see that Nuance, the developer of the Dragon engine, has released a Dragon Dictate iPhone app. For now, at least, it is free. I immediately downloaded and tried it out. Indeed, this post was written using it.
With no training whatsoever, the application immediately began recognizing my speech. This application does not perform the speech recognition on your iPhone but instead sends the voice file to the Dragon servers which do the heavy lifting and then send it back. It is all rather seamless. However, in order to work, you must be on a wi-fi or internet connection.
The only frustration is that it only works in short bursts. After two or three sentences, it will stop, send the voice file to the Nuance servers, processes your blurb, then be available for you to resume dictation. It also doesn’t like swear words, as discovered by Andy Ihnatko.
If you’ve ever been curious about dictation software, go download it now.
BusyCal Update
BusyMac recently released version 1.1 of BusyCal. I really like this release. In addition to ironing out the wrinkles, BusyMac added 64 bit support, a mini-month calendar and three finger scrolling. The three finger scrolling in iCal (try it sometime) quickly became second nature on my laptop. I’m glad it is now in BusyCal.
Dexim BluePack S3 External Battery
Dexim, who also makes the Richard Solo iPhone batteries has expanded its line to include the new BluePack S3. This device is different from the earlier iPhone specific offerings in that it does not have a built in iPhone dock connector but instead a USB connector and the necessary cables to charge most of your portable devices.
In the Box
The BluePack S3 is about the thickness of an iPhone but narrower and shorter. The design is black with silver accents and, after banging around in my bag for a month, shows no scratches. Also included is an AC Adapter and cable to charge the BluePack and three cables (iPhone/iPod, MiniUSB, and MicroUSB) to charge your devices. There is also a nice pouch to carry it all. Dexim always does a good job of giving you everything you need. The cables are short but rugged and the USB cables carried enough current to also drive my portable USB drive.
Using the BluePack S3
There is nothing to using the BluePack S3. You recharge it by connecting it to the AC adapter or your computer. The charging cord includes two USB plugs so when charging it off a computer you can double up the power. The power connector going into the BluePack S3 is not USB so if you are going to charge it on the road, you need to bring the cable.
Charging your devices simply requires you to plug the device into the BluePack. The BluePack has a series of three lights to indicate battery power. It also has an LED flashlight powered by holding down the battery indicator button. There is no power button so if you leave your device plugged in after it gets the full charge, the BluePack will continue to trickle charge.
What Can You Charge?
Because the device is not iPhone specific you can use it to charge just about anything in your bag. Since most manufacturer’s have adopted USB charging standards, I was able to charge and use my iPhone, iPod, Richard Solo phone charger, Verizon MiFi internet device, pocket camera, Livescribe Pen, and Plantronics wireless bluetooth headset all off the Dexim device. It also charged my wife’s (ack) BlackBerry. In short, if it plugs into USB or an iPod connector, the Dexim will give you juice.
How Much Juice?
The BluePack includes a 2600mAh Polymer Lithion-Ion battery. This is a substantial bump over the 1800mAh in my Richard Solo phone charger. In my testing I got about 1.75 iPhone 3GS charges. It gave several recharges on my various iPods and extended the life of my Verizon MiFi.
Recommendation
There are several vendors selling portable battery packs. I really like the Dexim product for its attention to detail and build quality. The BluePack S3 feels solid. The carrying bag and included cables are good quality and are a great addition to your bag. It is really nice knowing that when you forget to charge, you’ve got a spare tire. The package retails for $80 and can be found from several online vendors. It is also available from Amazon.
You can listen to this review on the MacReviewCast Podcast.
Disclosure
The above is based on a review unit provided by Dexim.
Macworld Warm-Ups
I have agreed to do a few public speaking gigs in preparation of my Macworld sessions. They should be a lot of fun in a geeky, propeller beanie sort of way. If you are in southern California and interested, you can get the details here.
Free iPhone Games – Appvent Calendar
There is a popular iPhone game promotion this holiday season at appventcalendar.com. Every day they unveil a new (normally paid) iPhone game that is marked down to free for one day. Thus far, all of the games have been good and it is always fun getting free stuff.
TextExpander Learns New Tricks
Today TextExpander released a particularly tasty update. For Gmail jockeys, there is now support for rich text and image expansion in web-based tools. I’ve already shown how to do this in Apple Mail.
My favorite new feature allows you designate a portion of your snippet to be selected following expansion. So what does this mean exactly? Well if I create the following snippet…
Your %|(Windows 2000)%\ PC has a virus.
… when you expand it, the term (Windows 2000) will be selected. You can then type in something else, i.e. “Windows XP”, to insert a different name.
Take a look at your existing snippet library. This is really useful. My latest text expansion project is building a library of my most frequent OmniFocus entries (more on this later). The new syntax is going to make this even better.
Scrivener Power Tip – Binder Symbols
One of the great features of Scrivener is the binder, in which you can dump research, web pages, pictures, and video. When doing legal research I will often collect case decisions as individual research assets. I like to insert little symbols into the entries to help me remember. An arrow up for a positive case or down arrow for a negative will suffice. This could be used for other writing applications as well. To insert the symbols, activate the Character Viewer in the Language & Text/Input Sources preference pane and you are good to go.
Gift Recommendation: 1Password
I wrote up a small bit about 1Password for ThinkMac.net. Giving a password app as a gift you ask? Well friends, that is just how I roll. There are some several gift ideas there from other Mac podcasters as well.