Tips and Tricks

In Mini-Podcast 14, I tested a tip given to me by LiveScribe Marketing Manager Karen Lee during our conversation in Podcast 37 (recorded on October 23, 2009). The tip was that since the the microphone in the LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen's headset is actually in the earbuds (stereo microphone), you can use it to record telephone conversations by simply placing the earbud in the ear and holding a conventional telephone handset (wired or wireless) up to that ear.

I asked my co-worker, Daniel Tian, to call me from another room using his iPhone 3GS. I spoke to him over a conventional landline office telephone. The sound quality is not as good as podcasts recorded using Skype. However, I think it is good enough to use when people are unable to use Skype because of company policy (this has been an issue several times over the past year).

Mini-Podcast 14 is 3 minutes and 39 seconds long. The LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen recorded segment is in the last 45 seconds or so of the podcast.

- You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
- You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
- You can also point your smartphone's browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

OK, so people like John Gruber (Daring Fireball) are reporting that AT&T is definitely behind Apple pulling or rejecting Google Voice related apps from the iTunes App Store...

Apple Rejects Google Voice Apps From App Store

This doesn't mean you're completely locked out of using Google Voice from your iPhone though. For example, I pointed my iPhone and Windows Mobile based HTC TyTn (Windows Mobile doesn't have a Google Voice app either) at...

google.com/voice

...and saw the mobile friendly web pages you see above (iPhone on the left, Windows Mobile on the right). You can see that you can manage Google Voice voice mail from these pages. And, in fact, you can play and hear your voice mail on the iPhone. The audio file plays through Quicktime. Unfortunately, the same is not true for Windows Mobile where clicking on play results in... nothing... However, as you may note from my screenshots, you can read the voice mail text transcription. And, you can, of course, call your Google Voice number to listen to voice mail the old fashioned way.

I've had my LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen (2GB model) for a week now. It won't get a real-life field test until next week. So, I've been using this time to figure out how make the best use of it. One of the first things I learned that I was wrong in assuming that it could only sync its data (ink and audio) with a single computer. I've been syncing with three computers for the past week without any issues (Windows Vista desktop PC, Windows 7 netbook and a Mac).

The next issue that only occurred to me after getting the pen was: How do I just record ink (drawing and writing) digitization WITHOUT recording audio. Pre-purchase my main focus was the audio recording capability that synced with the ink (writing and drawing). After receiving my pen, the obvious struck me: It is nice to just capture ink without audio as when I'm writing notes.

I couldn't find this feature in LiveScribe's various documents, how-to videos, or knowledge base. So, I tweeted @livescribe to get advice and was told that solution was simply to do nothing but write. Yes, that's right. All I had to do was NOT press the Record "button" on the bottom of each note page. Pressing the Record button begins recording audio synced with ink. I assumed that the pen ink activity was not recorded unless that button was tapped. This, however, is not the case.

As you can see in the image above, I digitally captured my writing by simply writing on the microdot paper without pressing the Record button. The only requirement is that the pen is turned on. The writing seen in the image above is, by the way, not a photograph. It is a screen capture of the synced digitized data on my Mac. Pages can also be saved as PDF files.

If you view a web page not designed for the iPhone, you might see narrow text columns with tiny text that is too small to read. Double tapping the column will automatically resize it to fit the width of the iPhone or iPod touch's screen. This works in both portrait and landscape viewing modes.

Keep watching until the end of the brief video demo for a bonus second tip there.

After reading about Ubuntu Netbook Remix's (UNR) desktop interface design that seemed to feature single full-screen windows, I was not sure I would like using it. It seemed to resemble the OLPC XO's Sugar OS graphical interface which I do not like at all. To my great surprise, however, I've found UNR's desktop mode very usable on my Acer Aspire One. However, if you prefer's the conventional Ubuntu Gnome based graphical interface, Ubuntu does not force you to use the netbook optmized default desktop.

Here's how you switch to the conventional desktop GUI:

- Select Preferences in the left sidebar
- Select the Switch Desktop Mode icon
- Select Classic Desktop in the window that pops up
- Click Apply

I'm sticking with the default UNR netbook-tuned desktop for now. But, if you don't like it, you know how to switch away from it now. Happy UNR netbooking!

I haven't been following Palm Pre nitty-gritty detail since I'm not sure I'm going to buy a Pre for myself yet. But, I was found this item over on MobileCrunch interesting enough to take note of it for future reference....

How to take screenshots on the Palm Pre

It's the first Palm Pre tip I've seen (I'm sure there are others on Pre focused sites). MobileCrunch's tip says Pre screenshots are made by pressing three keys simultaneously: Orange (left side of keyboard), Sym and P (both on the right side of the keyboard). A tip of the hat to MobileCrunch. Screenshots are something mobile tech writers/bloggers like myself make all the time. Great tip!

With all the hoopla surrounding the $199 price tag on some 3G iPhones and the tiered data plans announced by AT&T, a little company called BillShrink has launched a free service to help consumers figure out how much of a strain a new iPhone will put on their wallet.

Users just answer a few questions about their cell phone usage and the system comes back with the iPhone data plan and add-ons that best fit their needs. BillShrink examines such data as who you call and how often, what networks they're on and when you call them. It also looks at such things as early termination fees, available coverage, sign-up fees, one-time costs, family plans and all those other details carriers toss around to confuse you. To get some of the more advanced answers, you can upload a recent cell phone bill and BillShrink will suck out all the info it needs.

The service doesn't just work for the iPhone, though. BillShrink collects and processes millions of data points for all cell phone plans, but with the impending iPhone 3G storm, it has created a dedicated to AT&T-iPhone page.

Can't find all those books you picked up during your last self-help craze? Don't have the time or money to spend on a seminar to learn how to become spiritually or financially wealthy? Don't worry. Help is on the way.

The Learning Annex has teamed up with mobile content provider Twistbox to bring help and advice from some of The Learning Annex's 8,000 annual self-help seminars to the mobile phone.

Soon, consumers will have access to snippets in such areas as health, wealth, spirituality, relationships and even advice from psychics, Mobile Entertainment reports. The new partners will take advantage of Twistbox's on- and off-deck distribution platforms to deliver the video-rich content and mobile workshops to users worldwide.

Either the new iPhone SDK ain't all that easy to use, developers with PCs want to build some iPhone apps or hackers just want to have fun, because Silicon Alley Insider reports that the new book from O'Reilly, "iPhone Open Application Development," is already sold out on Amazon.com.

The book, which just went on sale this month, is the top-selling book in Amazon's PC section and third among Mac books, the article says. Its overall rank is 1,694.

All About Symbian reports that Nokia has opened the beta for Widsets 2.0, allowing developers to download and work with the new version. Widsets are these nifty mobile widgets that make it possible to get Web content onto a mobile phone.

According to the post, new features include "better integration between Widsets and the rest of the device, including the ability to initiate a phone call or open a browser window." It says the new version also loads faster and results in widgets that look more "polished."

The Web site has a number of pictures demonstrating the new features.