I bent my 12-inch...

Was getting up from my desk and flipped my 12-inch into the air. Had to at least make a 360 degree, if not 720. It happened so fast. Landed on the front right corner (where the battery is housed). This caused the metal casing to bend in a slight fraction at this corner that is hardly even visible. What is visible, is where the casing decided to buckle because of this slight indentation:
Ouch! This was bound to happen sooner or later, as I am known to drop my laptops and it is one of the reasons that I really like Apple machines. They are sturdy. However, the metal casing of this little bugger has a notable disadvantage to the plastic shell of my old iBook: it can bend. Fortunately, it can also bend back. I shut down, took the battery out and worked at bending it back to the correct shape on that corner. The bulge is hardly visible now, although I did manage to put a nice scratch in there with some pliers (stoopid) and everything is fully functional still. But yikes what a scare!

Just a biased observation, but...

The iTunes Music Store just got a lot less cool. ;-b

Buzz2Talk

Russell Beattie has found the coolest thing ever for the 3650: Buzz2Talk. It allows for Voice Over IP communications with the 3650. Why is this so cool? Well, at its most basic level, this means you can call anyone now, whether they be on a landline, on a cellphone, or on a computer, which isn't really all that new, but it also means that you can make a data call on your cell phone and have it route the call to a long distance call overseas. Neat. Okay, but won't the data throughput still cost you nearly as much as the long distance call would? Yes. Okay. That would be true. Unless you have a 3650 and a 12-inch, and have downloaded the Share2Blue2th scripts. If that's the case, then if you are a little over your monthly minutes, or if you need to call your best friend who lives in Europe (sure you could use iChat), you can simply establish internet sharing from your computer to your 3650 and place the call using VoIP. That's friggin' cool! I'm going to start going through the necessary steps to try this all out... I'll keep you posted... UPDATE: Not as cool as I first thought. From Russell Beattie:

You hold down the joypad, talk, and it records your voice and then sends it as a package (it doesn't seem to be streamed) to the recipient. It's about 15-30 seconds from talk to receive in total. It works, but it's definitely slow and not a replacement for the telephone.

Oh, well. I guess I'll stick to iChat. I wonder if there is a way to make my 3650 the bluetooth speaker and mic for iChat. That is what I want...

KABLOG

Check it out:

KABLOG is a tool for mobile phones and PDAs that allows you to post new blog entries to blog servers such as Movable Type, blogger, B2, Blog-City, UserLand (Radio), Roller, SnipSnap, and other blog servers that support either the simple blogger xmlrpc interface or the extended metaWeblog interface. In addition, KABLOG provides extended support for posting entries to Movable Type. KABLOG does not support LiveJournal at this time.

Anybody used this? I'll give it a shot and post from it later.

Updated Read Me File

I updated the Read Me file in the Share2Blue2th (76.3KB) package. I left the old read me labeled as "OLD SUPERSTITIOUS-READ ME," just in case the superstitious among you wish to follow its more detailed and unnecessary instructions. That is all...

10.2.8 bad for 12-inch battery...

MNJ notes this in more detail, but if one of your friends says, "Hey, I have a copy of the 10.2.8 update that Apple removed from their servers! Let's load it up on your 12-inch!!!" Don't do it! It sucks the battery down at double the speed it used to suck down on 10.2.6. I get about 1:35 unplugged now... suck.... UPDATE: According to MacFixIt, this reported shortened battery time is more often than not simply an error with the notification of battery remaining, i.e. it says 1:35 but it still lasts for about 3. Good to know, as I never actually tested it.

EVEN More on KMremoteControl...

Well, I've done all the experimenting that I promised I would do in my earlier post on this. The good news: the key-combination now works, and I can use KMremoteControl to enter CTRL+ALT+DEL via my 12-inch's keyboard now when controlling my Windows 2000 print server. The bad news (not really): following Bryan Derman's suggestions for using Veta Universal on my 3650 through Romeo to control my 12-inch's mouse to then control another computer's mouse through KMremoteControl, still has the same results, where any attempts to click using the 3650, results in the pointer on the 12-inch clicking outside of KMremoteControl's window, effectively disabling the remote remote control of the other computer. *sigh*

New Nokia Gadgets...

Check out this Wired article about the new gadgets Nokia is releasing. They are all pretty cool, but my favorite is this one, which is a digital picture frame. From Nokia's site:

Receive digital images via MMS and display them in a stylish frame. Its clean design blends in well at home or in the office - your pictures are what will stand out.

That is cool! I could potentially buy my parents who live in Mississippi this frame and send them pictures from my life in New York year round. Wonder how much one of these things will cost. If my Nokia readers need someone to test one of these puppies out and post a full review of it, please feel free to contact me. ;-)

I was wrong...

Well, after having my home Airport network go down after my cable ISP went down, I had to do some extensive Airport troubleshooting to get the connection back up on my Extreme Base Station. In any case, during this hair-pulling, I discovered that no matter how much I insisted that one must make sure that the DNS fields are completed on the Mac and that the USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter Port is activated in the Network Preferences, both of these things are in fact totally unnecessary and irrelevant to getting the Share2Blue2th scripts to work. (Sorry that my superstition kept me from believing you when you told me, Jim!) So, that being said, as soon as I get the time today, I will update the readme files. Sorry things have been a bit spotty here as of late. I had a print server's hard drive fail on me at work and my entire home network fail on me at home, but hopefully things are now returning to normal. I have several bits to post about later on today, so check back in the afternoon EST. Cheers!

Series 60 Platform Community Awards 2003

I was rather shocked and flattered to receive an invitation to the Series 60 Platform Community Awards 2003 in my inbox this morning. Who knew Nokia was reading this blog? From the invitation:

The Series 60 Platform Community is setting aside a day to recognize the companies who have made the biggest impact on the Series 60 Platform Community. Awards will be given in five categories that represent the different types of products and services created for the Series 60 Platform.

I'm not nominated for anything, but the invite is super-cool. Unfortunately, I will most likely have to decline, as it is being held in Nice, France, and I am in NY, working on my dissertation for my Ph.D. in English, running some computer labs for my University, with a mortgage, a wedding in the not too distant future, and little free money. Now, if Nokia wanted to pay for me to attend, or perhaps offer me a high-paying job with the company... *wink wink*

More on KMremoteControl...

Nothing convinces me that a software product is worth buying more than a very communicative developer. I received two emails today from Bryan Derman of Derman Enterprises Incorporated, who makes KMremoteControl. Evidently, they've been having mail troubles, so he resent me something that he sent a while back after my first exchange with him with the following info about using Veta Universal through Romeo to control KMremoteControl to control another computer:

I was Google-ing around and saw your posting at http://3650anda12inch.blogspot.com/. W.R.T. using VU through KMrC, you might try selecting the "Turn on only if using third-party mouse drivers..." option in the "Activation and Presentation" preferences on the "Remote Controlling" tab. You'll need to be using KMrC version 1.10 to do this.

While that option was designed specifically to work around problems a customer was having while using the Wacom mouse/tablet, what it really does is attempt to "grab control" of the mouse events "back" from applications/drivers that have done something that does not conform to the more standard/Apple-supplied interfaces for doing so. Because of what the option does, it has some positive "side effects" that may benefit you in this instance. For example (although it's still not supported!) I have, by turning on this option, been able to successfully (albeit, accidently) daisy-chain remote-controlled systems so I was controlling a system that was controlling another system(Mac-to-Mac-to-PC, in this case).

I'd be interested to hear how you make out with your VU/controller-to-conrolling/Mac-to-controlled/Mac.

Coolness! As soon as I am back to work tomorrow (as the two machines I have set up to be controlled are at work) I'll try this out and let everyone know how it works. So, I also emailed Bryan back, thanking him for the info, and asking if there were a way around the CTRL+ALT+DELETE dilemma that I mentioned the other day, and he quickly replied back:

we chose a physical mapping so:

• Mac       PC
• Ctrl === Ctrl
• Opt  === Windows
• Cmd  === Alt

So, to achieve CTRL+ALT+DELETE all I need to enter through the Key Substitution menu is CONTROL+COMMAND+DEL. Sweet!

FlashCast

Russell Beattie has a rather detailed post about FlashCast from Macromedia, which will support Flash on the 3650. Here's the direct link to the cool CNET video of the service.

Register touts 3650

The Register has a review of the 3650, positing it as the savior to U.S. mobile services.

New KMRemoteControl 1.20

There's a new version of KMRemoteControl out that lets you control multiple computers from your 12-inch's mouse and keyboard:

KMremoteControl 1.20
Keyboard/Mouse Switcher — Use your favorite keyboard and mouse for all the Macs and PCs on your desk. [Mac OS X Downloads]

It has added a key combination substitution feature that I had hoped would fix my CTRL+ALT+DELETE needs with the Windows 2000 server I manage at work, but unfortunately, it doesn't register the fn+option combination that is necessary on the Mac to access ALT, and plain old option isn't working as a good substitute.

Updated Scripts

I just updated the Share2Blue2th scripts. Thanks to Jim Wright for helping put this new set together. I included his script in the package and edited the others based on his design, so there should be no need to enter "sudo named" in the Terminal after running the connect scripts any longer. Whoo-hoo! Now if I can just figure out how to save the authentication to my keychain, so it is click and go easy... From the updated Read Me File:

UPDATE 09/23/2003: Thanks to Jim Wright, for some extra coding, the package now includes a script.app and script called "Share Internet to Bluetooth [EDIT]" that allows you to select either Ethernet or Airport each time you run the script. I also separated each operation into separate script files that are included, called "Share Airport to Bluetooth [EDIT]" and "Share Ethernet to Bluetooth [EDIT]", respectively. Jim added several pauses between the different commands that are running in the scripts that has eliminated the need to run "sudo named" from the terminal after running the connect script. Renamed the "Kill Airport Over Bluetooth" script to "Kill Net Over Bluetooth," due to the additional options available. If anyone needs this to work with their dial-up connection, let me know, and I will look into creating separate scripts for these actions. Also, as an added bonus with the new scripts, they will no longer create an alias to mrouter-control-pipe in the root directory of your hard-drive. If this file is already there and it is annoying you, and every time you try to click on it to drag it to the trash you get the spinning beach ball of death, do this: launch Terminal, type "cd /." without the quotes, enter, then type "ls" and make sure the mrouter-control-pipe shows up in the list of files displayed. To get rid of it type "rm mrouter-control-pipe" without the quotes and hit enter. Poof! It is gone. Word to the wise: Do not remove any of the other files that you are not familiar with in this directory.

Mobilized 3650 and a 12-inch...

You'll notice to the left, I have a new link to create an Avantgo capable version of this site for reading on the go on your 3650. Subscribe now!

Watching Movies on the 3650

So, you have a phone capable of playing 3GPP file format video via RealPlayer, and if you go to Apple's Quicktime site and Download the free 3GPP component to QuickTime you can export any movie file which is readable in QuickTime into 3GPP and upload it to your 3650 via your bluetooth connection. For example, I did this with my DVD of The Two Towers the other day. For quite some time now, I've been using DVDibbler, which is an advanced GUI for the Mac OS X port of Mencoder, to rip my collection of DVDs to DiVx files. Basically, I pop a DVD that I own into my 12-inch before I go to bed at night, tweak all the settings in DVDibbler, and start it up. When I wake in the morning, I have a nice little copy of the movie compressed at about 600MB to just over a GIG. Why do this? Well, for one, it allows me to reburn an average of 6 movies to one DVD. This is not only a good method of backup, but it is good for watching these movies on the road. My entire Akira Kurasawa collection of movies fits on 2 DVDs. That's nice. Also, it means that they are ready for exporting to 3GPP for watching on my 3650. So, the other night I decided to try this and it took roughly 3 hours for the 1.12GB file of The Two Towers to compress to the 98.4MB 3GPP version of the movie. Not too bad, although with 98.4MB of data to be watched, you might want to invest in some memory expansion for your 3650 and a nice easy way to transport the data to it. I only have the 16MB card that came with my 3650, so I simply opened the 3GPP file and selected my favorite scene (the one where gollum talks to himself) and using QuickTime Pro copied this into a new file which exported at 1.3MB. Loaded this up to the phone via the bluetooth and watched away. Picture came out nice, though a little squashed as I forgot to account for the letterbox to regular shift in my 3GPP conversion. The sound was audible, but much better if using a headset. Now, I just have to invest in one of those 128MB MM cards for the 3650, so I can start watching stuff while waiting in line at the meat counter at the grocery store...

Rare Saturday Post on Scripts...

Hello, and welcome to newcomers who might have found this site from this discussion thread, the Nokia 3650 forum, or from seeing my hint at Mac OS X Hints. I've received a few emails from people saying that the scripts aren't working for them, so here's some more info that I haven't managed to get into the READ ME file yet: First, start clean. Reboot both your phone and your Mac. Make sure you have the DNS fields in your network preferences on the Mac working. Make sure you have the USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter activated in your network ports, and make sure that the modem script is set to Nokia Infrared, as odd as that sounds. Then run the connect script, and after running it type "sudo named" in the terminal a couple of times. For some reason, the sudo named commands in the script itself aren't enough. Then test to see if it works. If not, then run the Kill script and run the connect script again, followed by "sudo named". Keep on repeating about three times and see if it works. For some reason, the first couple of times I did this, I had to startup kill start up kill start up kill. I don't know why that is, but now it is working without a hitch. There is now an alias in the root directory of my computer's HD that is called "mrouter-control-pipe" that suddenly appeared and that I suspect has something to do with why I no longer have to "jump-start" the connection. I also am going to look into something Jimbo posted on the first thread above about adding a very verbose parameter and increasing the timeout time in the scripts to see if that makes it work better (although, I don't know how to really test it, since the current scripts are working consistently well for me with the exception of having to enter "sudo named" in the terminal after the connection script.) Any ideas? Email me at cks3 at mac dot com.

3660

According to Gizmodo, Nokia has a 3660 coming out, which is basically the same phone as the 3650, except with a slightly better screen and a non-circular keypad. Here's the link to the Mobile Burn article that Gizmodo references, and which for some reason I cannot get to load. So if any of you like the idea of the 3650, but were holding back on adopting it, here comes the 3660. Personally, I love the circular keypad: It's retro-cool. It's actually easier to learn to enter text with this layout, if you have never accustomed yourself to entering it the other way, as you are never in danger of hitting the wrong key due to all the keys being overly close to one another as with regular keypads.

12-inch Developer Notes

If you are interested in all the ins and outs of the 12-inch, here's the relevant Developer Note in pdf format.

iCal and iSync support for 3650...

Well, this is a rumor, but according to this article over at ThinkSecret:

The new iCal will require iSync 1.2, and won't work with the older Version 1.1. iSync 1.2 will offer full support for Symbian-based phones like the Sony Ericcson P800 and the Nokia 3650, and will work with iCal's calendar.

Hope this is true. I'd love to be able to consistently sync iCal with the 3650.

Scripts updated...

I just updated the Share2Blue2th scripts to include regular scripts that are accessible via the script menu, as well as the script.apps that were already there, and an updated read me file. If anyone knows how to and / or is willing to slap a GUI front-end on these files complete with a field in preferences to insert the phone's MAC address, a run "sudo named" again button and an on and off switch, please contact me at cks3 at mac dot com.

Kids using 3650s to post to a joint Moblog...

This is pretty cool, so I thought I'd share it:

Tech-ed: Kids and collective phonecamblogs in school, in Paris
Jean-Luc, a BoingBoing ami from Paris, shares news of a fun educational experiment with young students in France:

"Xeni, have you seen the collective moblog that children from 7 to 11 years old have created (with me) at the Plessis-Trevise city (closed to Paris) where I worked. The children have done a report of their (school's) sportive outdoor centre by moblogging themselves the pics during all the day (this wednesday) from 9.00 al to 5.00 pm. they have been equiped of Nokia 3650s and all the pics have been moblogged by the children and I have helped them to configure and use the phonecams. they had not any problem in term of usability to use the phonecams. it seems to be very natural for them and they have a great dexterity with using their thumbs. this was funny (imagine 3 phonecams in the hands of children that run in playing soccer for example, at the swimming pool, etc.) and they are gonna add some comments and legends to their pics in some days at the telecenter of the city and we will edit a written newspaper of all of this."

URL of the collective moblog here, another snapshot of the kids here.
[Boing Boing Blog]

Using 3650 as a Portable Office

Russell Beattie Just posted a rather comprehensive article on using your 3650 as a portable office. It's also over at mobitopia. Pretty cool!

Scripts for Internet Sharing to your 3650 via Bluetooth

Alright, it's working for me, so I put these scripts together with an instruction read me file. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with this, either via email or on different discussion boards. If anyone has anything to add, please let me know.

It's working again!!!

I'm not entirely sure why it was working then it stopped working and now it is working again, but here is my current hypothesis:

1. If you have connected this way to the 3650 since the last time it was restarted, you have to restart the phone.( Although, I am going to test to see if simply turning Bluetooth off and then back on on the phone will have the same effect.)UPDATE: no restart or resetting bluetooth necessary.
2. It will only work if you have the USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter activated as a port in your Network Settings on the 12-inch.
3. It will only work if you have DNS servers listed in your network settings (even though this is optional for the 12-inch to work on the net).
4. After running the compiled script that I will post later, or after going through the command line steps noted in the link below, you need to open the terminal and enter "sudo named" at least one extra time. I have no idea why this is, as I have "sudo named" written into the script, and even bothered to add it additional times at the end. Thanks, Terry, for the helpful email about this!UPDATE: This seems to only be necessary if you have restarted or put the computer to sleep since the last time you established a connection with the phone.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Neko for 3650

Get it! It's a little cat for your 3650! Found the linkage over at Russell Beatie's site.

I jinxed it...

All that YEEAH and YEEHAAAAWW and YAHOOOOOOing evidently jinxed things. I had the one wonderful session with the 3650 connecting via the 12-inch, and I haven't been able to replicate it. wtf?

IT'S ALIVE!!! INTERNET SHARING OVER BLUETOOTH IS ALIVE!!!

K. Finally got it to work! Mucho thanks to Terry and Jimbo. I basically followed the directions here, but I ran the kill commands FIRST to make sure that my system wasn't running anything. THEN I ran all the start-up commands, substituting my phone's MAC address and cutting out the "-p800" part of the first command. Then I substituted en1 for en0, b/c I am on Airport here. So anyway, I got it to work. I am going to write up step by step instructions specifically for the 3650 and the PB 12-inch, and then I am going to try to put all the command line stuff into two scripts. One to activate and the other to deactivate. If I manage to get this done, I will post the results here. word Also, killing all processes before you running made Avantgo sync like a charm. Of course, my subscriptions were skeletal. I am going to try upping them to the limit of what is allowed in the free account and try it all again to see if there is any sort of time out die out like Terry and Jim have mentioned in emails to me. //over

New 12-inch

So, in case you haven't heard, Apple announced new 12-inch Powerbooks today, along with updated 15-inchers (finally!) and 17-inchers. Sure, the DVI-out is cool. And so is the slightly faster processor. But, why is there no FW 800 or backlit keyboard?!?! That would have persuaded me to sell my puppy here on ebay and do a slight trade up, but as is, who cares? USB 2.0? pfffft! Of course, that's my opinion. The big question is: Has Apple resolved the warping issue with these new 12-inchers?

Sharing 12-inch internet with 3650: Part 2

So, I received an email from Terry Chay (thanks, Terry!) pointing me to a comment by Jim Wright at the end of this Mac OS X Hint's comments about how he was able to ping between his phone and his Mac, but couldn't get the DNS to resolve. So I emailed Jim about this and he said that it has started working for him, albeit sporadically, and for some reason Avantgo syncing fails. Jim continues:

Here's a thread I've been following, the terminal commands towards the end from JRLove are what I'm using now that work.
http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?128@32.fWEhamLwdSl.0@.3bbfa8fe
Let me know how this works on your end if you get it going.
Jim

The thread looks interesting and promising, so I will delve into it a bit deeper and let everyone know what I come up with. Thanks, Jimbo!

Using 12-inch as Internet Provider for 3650

I've been pouring over this hint over at Mac OS X Hints, trying to figure out if I could adapt it to work with the 3650. Why would I want to do such a thing, you ask? Well, the first time I synced Avantgo on the 3650, I managed to blow through my pre-purchased data for the month (1mb) in one fell swoop, doubling it, in fact. Now that is going to make my bill a little larger than I wanted this month, but it also lets me know that I need more bandwidth purchased up front if I am going to use Avantgo. Or, I can figure out a way to share my internet connection on the 12-inch with the 3650 via bluetooth. I mean, we already figured out that this connection works one way. How do we reverse it? Any ideas?

Set Address Book to auto-connect to 3650

1. Launch Terminal. 2. type this: defaults write com.apple.AddressBook ABCheckForPhoneNextTime -boolean true 3. Hit enter. Next time you launch the Address Book it automatically connects. You can deactivate it by repeating the steps and changing the "true" to "false." This is totally lifted from Mac OS X Hints. But it is easier than butter, so I thought I'd post it here...

Using 3650 as a bluetooth modem for 12-inch...

So, I won't do this much as it simply isn't needed (plus it would cost an arm and a leg), but I followed Nik's instructions and now have a profile called "Cellmodem" in my network locations, which I switch to via the Apple menu, then click connect in remote access, and I'm up and running in no time. Actually with AT&T, I didn't have to configure anything on the 3650. In Network Preferences, once I eliminated all other ports and only had USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter, all I had to change from the default settings was to ad "*99#" in the phone number to dial field. So insanely simple! I think I thought it was going to be way more difficult to set this up, and that is why all my previous attempts had failed. I was over doing it, when all I needed to know was the phone number code for the default GPRS connection in the 3650. Crazy... Now I can have internet anywhere! Bwah hah ha ha!

KMremoteControl

I discovered this program yesterday from the Mac OS X Downloads page. It's a pretty cool, immensely useful, and relatively inexpensive program that allows you to use your 12-inch (or any mac for that matter) to remotely serve as the keyboard and mouse for multiple other computers (PC or Mac) that are running KMremoteControl, as well. It works great for my work scenario, where I have a desktop G4 that is basically acting as a file-server and Airport base-station to my 12-inch alongside a Windows 2000 Print Server. Now, I can control both computers with ease from my 12-inch, all for under $30. Not too shabby at all. Having Romeo installed on my 12-inch and Veta Universal installed on my 3650, the next logical decision was to try using VU's remote control of the mouse functions on my 12-inch through the 3650 to actually control one of the other machines through KMremoteControl. Surprisingly, it works . . . sort of: for some reason it controls the mouse simultaneously on both the 12-inch and the remotely controlled computer, and as a result clicking outside of KMremoteControl on the 12-inch makes the click register on the 12-inch, rather than on the intended icon on the remote system. :-( Also, I cannot get CTRL+ALT+DELETE to work on the Windows 2000 machine when controlling it with the 12-inch. I also cannot get that right-mouse click effect by CTRL-clicking. So the functionality there is a little hampered, but for the most part, it is a great program that enables me to use my favorite keyboard ever, the tactile aluminum-looking one on the 12-inch, to control all my computers. Now if I could just figure out how to get the Internet sharing over Airport to startup automatically with my G4 Tower, I could unplug that keyboard for good... UPDATE: I emailed the makers about my desire for CTRL+ALT+DELETE functionality and received an informative email from Bryan Derman in reply:

The bad news is that the current version (1.10) does not have a solution for the Ctrl-Alt-Delete when using a PowerBook/reduced keyboard (at least none that we know of). The same is true of the right-mouse issue when you're using a single-button mouse [wish Apple would wake up and start shipping at least a 2-button mouse ... personally, I've used a 3-button mouse for years, with the middle button mapped to a left-button-double-click].

The good news is that the next release (1.20) will have a solution to both these issues (and a little more). We'll have that release out near the end of September (perhaps even a week sooner than that). [I also just realized that I forgot to put the right-mouse-to-PC issue on the web site ... I'll fix that, today.]

Less than 3 hour response time. Not too shabby!

iSync recovery...

Well, I was able to fix the problem, but then I decided to try the iCal iSync hack one last time, and ended up in the same situation. Had to erase all the iSync preferences, remove the 3650 from my device list, sync to .mac alone, and then add the 3650 sans hack and sync. Now everything is back to normal and working again, but man, do I want iCal to sync!

Forever Sync...

I reinstalled Bluetooth. I reinstalled iSync. I chose to "reset all devices" the sync handles the address book synchronization lickety-split, but now it has been spinning nothing on "Synchronizing calendars and To-Do Items..." with no progress for the past 19 minutes according to the log. wtf? Any ideas on how I can fix iSync?

iCal Syncing...

In his long, helpful email, Nik notes:

Just activated iCal synching using the tip on MacOSXHints.com. (Got the tip from your site, thanks!) Works fine. Yes, dates on repeating annual events don't work right, and I'm pretty sure leap years are at fault. The same thing happens on the PalmOS and has never been a problem for me.

The question is: do I dare and do I dare? hmm... If I do I'll report the results. Here's the link to the Mac OS X How To, again. Update: So I went ahead and did it. Make sure you make backups of your Calendars and the preference file that you are hacking. It worked like a charm when I synced only the 3650. Then I put my .mac space back on line, synced all 3 together (.mac, 12-inch, and 3650) and it went through once with just a few little niggling conflicts, then asked to resync after I picked the 12-inch to be the rod by which the others were to be measured, and then it got about two thirds of the way through the process and hung. I forced iSync to quit, but the little iSync in the menu bar keeps spinning. As a result, every time I tried to restart iSync, it would immediately attempt to continue the sync I had forced to quit. SO now I am using Process Viewer to force the SyncSystem to quit. Re-opening iSync. Resyncing. Stuck at "Getting changes from 3650 (8K Downloaded)..."; there weren't any changes though. Hmm... More when I figure this out... 2ND UPDATE:Man am I glad I backed up everything. The good news is I now have all my calendars on my 3650. The bad news is I disabled the calendar syncing now and I haven't been able to sync nicely since I attempted the hack. Right now, I'm running a regular sync just between the computer and .mac. See if everything gets back to groovy. It is taking forever though. The first time through with the calendar syncing between the phone and the 12-inch worked fine, but once I put .mac into the mix it fotzed everything up. Dagnabbit! Anyway several force quits and a few restarts later and I'm in the process of trying to recover everything back to how it was before. iCal launches without any calendars and then loads them after a moment (if there is no syncing going on). I may have to reinstall iSync. It told me the sync database had become corrupted at one point. Moral of the story: backup backup backup. Other moral of the story: hack this at your own risk. I'm going to restore everything back to norm and then leave it be until Apple release an update to the software that enables it. DO IT APPLE! DO IT NOW!!!

I just had to force the 12-inch to reboot...

...and I bet any of you other 12-inchers out there can guess why! That's right! You guessed it! The damnable screen dead at wake from sleep bug! Hey, Apple, fix this already! Protected memory doesn't amount to a pile of poop if every time I put this laptop to sleep I have to force a reboot and risk losing anything and everything I was working on. Next generation OS, my ass...//rant off.

How to Set Up a Nokia 3650 as a Modem for the Mac

But I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here. The internet here has been down and it just came back up, so if you sent me an email, I'll get back to you soon. Also, one reader, Nik Friedman, sent me a behemoth of an email with all types of useful information for 3650/Mac-users, that I will be filtering out over the course of the next few days. Here's a rather large sampling:

How to Set Up a Nokia 3650 as a Modem for the Mac

Bluetooth-only: Pair your devices so that they're always trusted between each device. This is probably already done if you have iSync set up.

Now go to your Network setup and add a new port. (Either USB Bluetooth modem or an IRDA port, depending on your setup.)

In that port's setup tabs, set up TCP/IP to configure via PPP.

In the IRDA/Bluetooth Modem tab set your modem as "Nokia Infrared" (regardless of whether it's a Bluetooth or IRDA connection); turn off error correction/compression; and turn off "Wait for dial tone before dialing."

In the PPP tab click on "PPP Options..." and set PPP Echo Packets OFF; TCP header compression ON; and terminal window OFF. The rest of the advanced options can be set however you wish, but unless you have unlimited internet/airtime, you may want to have a "prompt to maintain connection" and various auto-disconnect options set.

Now, in the basic PPP options, just set up a service provider and phone numbers as needed for your PPP connection. If you're using T-Mobile Internet (which I'm pretty happy with, at $20/mo; plus they have a nice proxy which resamples images before sending them to you so that you can browse faster), you want to leave your account name and password blank, as set the Telephone Number to "*99#" (without the quotes, naturally).

From here, you're done with your Mac if all you need is a Bluetooth connection. If you want an IR connection, then you'll want to activate IR and probably have it show up as a menu extra.

From here, we go to the phone...

If you're using GPRS internet (rather than just a PPP dial up through another ISP), do the following:

Go to Settings: Connections and set up an access point for GPRS internet. (If you're using T-Mobile, your AP name is "internet2.voicestream.com", it's a GPRS data bearer, and has no user name/password/etc...) You can name your AP whatever you want. In Settings: Connections: GPRS, set your Access Point to the same thing as your GPRS AP.

Now, to enable modem connections with your phone:

Go to "Bluetooth" (in the Connections folder, by default) and turn on Bluetooth; or go to Infrared (same place) and turn it on.

If you're using IR, you need to do a little song and dance each time you set it up as a modem: Line it up with the IR port on your computer while your computer's IR port is active, then go to Connections: Modem: Connect via Infrared. You'll see "connecting via IR". Now immediately attempt an IR modem connection via your Mac. It will attempt to connect, and then fail, but you WILL see an active IR connection on your phone (and the "connecting via IR" will persist indefinitely). This little trick forces your phone and computer to recognize one another.

Now, all you have to do is initiate a connection (or a new connection if you're going over IR) and everything should work fine.

Thanks, Nik!

Also, my friend erik sent this link from Mac OS X Hints.

Check out this rather detailed 3650 discussion...

Found this over at randomwalks. Pretty cool. Says that he's got iCal working with the 3650. I want this! Is it the OS X Hints hack that I mentioned before though? I'm worried about some of the cautionary comments about the hack gone wrong... Anyway, in the comments to this post, I found this set of links to 3650 related shtuff and a cheat sheet and this article. Coolness...

This warping thing...

I'm a member of Yahoo Groups! 12inchpowerbooks, (and I stole the above post title from a post by someone else on that group's page) and I have to tell you a large number of the posts on the list either deal with complaints about warping 12-inch Powerbooks, or people who have come up with creative ways to deal with the warping (everywhere from the somewhat dangerous solution of "bending" the PB back to shape by hanging one corner off the desk and applying pressure to buying little adhesive gummy feet from Home Depot to balance it). My first 12-inch wobbled when placed on a flat surface, so I took it back to the Apple Store in the Westchester Mall in White Plains, NY and pleaded with them until they agreed to replace it with a new one. While waiting for the replacement, I noticed that one of the display 12-inch PBs was also warped, but they had cleverly disguised this in-house by ripping off one of the little rubber feet, so that it didn't wobble. An interesting thing about this situation is that at first I thought that the new one they gave me was also warped (because it wobbled on one of their in-house tables), and when I demonstrated and complained, the manager's response was, "I just gave you a replacement. I cannot give you another. Take it home and if it still bothers you after a couple of days bring it back and we'll see what we can do." When I got it home, it didn't wobble, so I was glad. It felt more solid and better put together than my first one. What irks me is the attitude I was met with by the manager, and the attitude that many people on the Yahoo Group displayed. A sort of, well, it's an Apple. It's still better than any other laptop. Why are you complaining and causing trouble? All you have to do is either bend it on the corner of a table or put these little ugly feet on it and it will work fine! All of this is dead wrong. I'm buying a product from Apple. Apple should make sure that their products are not suffering from production defects, such as warped aluminum chassises. If you have one of these warped things, you should complain and complain and complain some more to Apple, so that they will correct these production problems. It is your duty as a good consumer and it ensures that Apple continues to be better and grow. All the people that are discovering little workarounds to live with this defect are doing their fellow consumers a huge disservice. Recently the grumblings on the Yahoo Groups! board have gone so far to suggest the possibility of a class action lawsuit against Apple. I, for one, hope it happens. This new 12-inch is a great little machine that I love, as was its predecessor, but all things said, I am happier and more satisfied with one that doesn't wobble from side to side as I type (although after a month of use, I do find that the battery isn't sitting in its socket as firmly as it used to, and it wobbles from time to time because of it). I find myself worrying that this one is developing a warp to it, as others have reported. I shouldn't have to worry about this. Apple should be producing non-warping laptops. //rant off

Must Haves for 3650

Interesting list of software for the 3650 over at PDA Buyer's Guide. I think I will hold off on buying anything else for now. Just going to dig around for some more freebies...

SyncML

On Nokia's Free Software for the 3650 page there is a program called SyncML, which "enables you to synchronize your calendar or contacts using a data connection to a remote server." Hmm... Is there a way to configure this to work with Calendars that I have published to my .mac space using iCal? If it's possible and if I can figure out the settings in SyncML, I'll let you know...

FExplorer

This free little piece of software for the 3650 was the one thing that I was missing about this phone... Get it.

Nokia problem become Apple problem...

So, from what I have read, Nokia's bluetooth implementation is a bit on the sketchy side of things. This is one of the supposed reasons why iCal sync with the 3650 is not functional yet. It would also, I guess, explain why when I choose "Browse device..." from the bluetooth menu on my 12-inch, I am able to see the 3650, connect to the 3650, but no files show up and any sort of get / put functionality fails. What it doesn't explain is why trying all this just a minute ago, caused not only Bluetooth File Exchange to freeze, but when I attempted to force quit out of it, caused my entire system to hang. Not a kernel panic, but the little spinning lines that you get at start up and shut down sometimes in the middle of the screen. I had to force the computer to power down and then reboot it to get things back to normal, and even then, in the process of booting, the PB rebooted one more time. That's a little scary, and very unexpected for OS X, which is supposed to protect us from such things. That plus the strange networking interference that happened when I lost Airport connectivity the other day while playing around with bluetooth makes me think Apple has a bit of work to do on their bluetooth implementation as well... /rant off

Veta Universal Update

Version 1.0.1 is out. According to the developer page:

Update Veta Universal today to version 1.0.1 and you can
Use number keys to select menu items 1-9.
Use the # key in the dialogs.
Look at the About box.

After installing, I find that I suddenly have two copies of Veta Universal on my 3650 with only the newest version showing up in the App. manager program (/Tools/App. Manager) on the phone. How do I uninstall the old one? UPDATE: Well, it seems that it overwrites the old one IF you install it in the same place. I tried to install it on my memory card instead of into the phone's internal memory (which is where v1.0 sits). Un-installing and reinstalling in the correct place fixed the problem. Also, Victor Kulesh, who makes VU, was very quick to reply to my panicked email about the VU doppleganger situation. Thanks, Victor.

Why the 3650 over a Sony Ericsson?

My friend, Jason Ball, wrote a rather thorough Sony Ericsson T610 review and has been having a great deal of trouble understanding why I would go with the Nokia 3650 over the T610, being a Mac user and all. Here's my reasoning:

1. I like the retro circular keypad: I know this is a big wtf? for lots of people out there, but this little circular keypad is not only retro-cool, but it also makes more sense for text messaging. I never got into text messaging with my old cell simply because my big hammy fingers aren't good at hitting little keys that are all lined up in row on top of row. This makes more sense, and it's still familiar, in that I have used rotary phones before.
2. The biggish size is good for me: I am a big guy and most cell phones feel like toys in my hands and up against my head. Feels like I have to move it between my ear and my mouth. This thing feels me-size.
3. SymbianOS kicks ass.
4. The 640x480 cam and videocam capabilities of this thing kick ass.
5. The 3650 is the perfect balance between phone and pda: It has a memory expansion slot and more capabilities than any of the old Palms I used to own or my PocketPC, and it is a phone. At first I thought it was a little too much of a pda, but then I bothered to read the instruction manual that came with it and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it has all the cellphone features I've always needed and grown accustomed to (different profiles that are easily switched between, quiet modes, an alarm, fast and easy key lock and unlock, customizable ring tones, real-time adjustable volume for calls).
6. I like Nokia: Good company. Not that SE isn't, but Nokia being just Nokia and not a part of Sony makes me feel like it's less a part of "the man."
7. Although the 3650 lacks iCal sync, all the fields that are completed in Address Book sync flawlessly with the 3650 (even the person's picture icon), unlike the T610, which according to Jason is missing the ability to sync the actual address of the people in Address Book.

But, man oh man do I really wish I could have that wonderful iCal sync that Jason has. I must say, that I get the impression that the email with the SymbianOS is a little bit more user friendly than the experiences Jason has had with the SE. That's all for this rant...

Needed things...

1. iCal compatibility through iSync with the 3650. Sure, I could follow these instructions, but the comments following them make me nervous. Hopefully, this will be forthcoming with Panther. 2. Need to figure out how to use the 3650 as a wireless modem for my 12-inch. I have not figured out how to do this yet, and I realize I would probably never use it, but I need to have it configured and ready to go for that time when I do suddenly need it. 3. Some way to completely backup the phone's data to the Mac. Not just a sync, but a backup and restore utility. 4. A Mac-native 3650 emulator to test stuff out on before I load it on the phone.

Ask and ye shall receive...

So, in my last post, I noted how I wish there was a 3650 faceplate that matched my PB. After publishing, I noticed the blogger ad at the top of the page, and clicked, and discovered this: Do I dare and do I dare? The "Actual item may look different." note on the item has me feeling cautious...

MacSkinz

So, I ordered the $20 clear MacSkinz for the 12-inch last week and it came in today. Why would I waste my money on such a cheap plastic cover for the 12-inch, when it comes with such a naturally wonderful aluminum shell? Non-permanent customization, baby! That's right. Also, it changes that natural matte finish to a nice glossy finish! So, my impression: It's cool. I can stick stuff underneath it. If I want I can use the 4 little sticky pads that came with it to make sure it stays on, but it seems to sort of hold on its own rather well. Right now I have a little business card that I designed stuck in between the clear shell and the PB. Is it worth $20? No. I'd say they should price point it at closer to $5-8 for the clear model and $10-12 for the models that come with graphics on 'em. Feels a little flimsy on its own, although solid on the PB. Also, it isn't as form fitted as I would like: there is a slight lip over along the left side, where the MacSkinz protrudes past the PB casing by about 1/16 of an inch near the top to about 1/8 of an inch near the bottom. Nothing too obscene, but still: it's a little bit on the poor show side of things. Then again, maybe there would be no lip if I actually used the little sticky feet that came with it... [UPDATE: SO I broke down and tried the little sticky feet and they seem to have eliminated the majority of the lip, although there is a little bit of a lip near the bottom. *harrumph*] Also, the instructions should mention this need to use the sticky feet to avoid a lip, if it is in fact the case, and should state "12-inch Powerbook" on them rather than "iBook" as my instructions stated, since after all it is a separate model. When I was reading the instructions and encountered "iBook," for a second I panicked, thinking that they had sent me the wrong product. Now if only someone would come out with an aluminum faceplate for the 3650 that matched the finish on the PB. That would be cool!

A few slight problems with Romeo...

Romeo is a great little app. But, it did cause me a little bit of headache the other night. I had the "proximity mode" activated, which lets your 3650 running Veta Universal and Romeo connect automatically whenever they are both running and detected via bluetooth. Only problem was, I wasn't running Veta Universal; I was trying to figure out how to use my 3650 as a wireless modem for my 12-inch. For some reason, Romeo just kept on scanning and scanning and it not only caused problems with me trying to get the wireless modem thing to work (still haven't managed that one yet), but it also caused disruption in my wireless Airport connection, which is very very odd indeed. It took me a while to discover that Romeo was indeed the culprit, but as soon as I quit the "proximity mode" all my connectivity problems disappeared. So, word to the wise... My only other gripe with Romeo and VU, is that besides the Mouse controller, none of the other programs have a means to cancel them out and switch back to VU, without closing out the entire program, having to relaunch, and reconnect to Romeo. That is on my wish list for things to be fixed in the future, if, by any chance, any one involved is listening...

How do you carry a 12-inch and a 3650?

I have had an older design incase designs laptop bag that was designed for the first 12" iBooks. They don't sell it anymore, but their MoyaPak would appear to be its direct descendant. However, of their new designs, I think I like the Sling Pack best. It also sports the cellphone/iPod on the strap compartment that my older model MoyaPak has. In any case, they produce durable, small, and useful compartmentalized bags. Highly recommended.

The first pic is of my bag closed, and the next is of the bag open. ;-b

Now if I could just get one of those new 40GB iPods to replace my current 10GB iPod, I'd be totally and sleekly mobile...

Welcome Mac Net Journalers!

Looks like I have my first ever referrer. And a good one too! I just started this blog two days ago, so please be patient while I get comments, redesign, etc., all tweaked. In the meantime, I'm all about sharing the stuff I discover day to day about these two devices, and I have a bit of a backlog that I will be slowly blogging out over the next several days. Why oh why do we have to have jobs that distract us from our blogging about extremely esoteric geeky, gadget-stuff?

Veta FTP

I really want Veta FTP to work with my PB and 3650, but for some reason it just plain doesn't. Any ideas from anyone who has played with this before? Do I really need it, seeing as how the "Send file..." function works (albeit with an error telling me that the phone says it won't understand the file type, even though it does). Anybody know how to get rid of this friggin' error message?

Get it...

Well, since we have Nokia phones, there is no Salling Clicker support, but you can get Romeo for your Mac for free (although you can donate money toward the author's iBook fund), and purchase Veta Universal for the 3650 for $8, and have pretty close to the same functionality of Salling Clicker. The good news is that people are continuing to write new plugins for Romeo, and you yourself can contribute if you have the gumption...

If you cannot connect your 3650 via Bluetooth with your Mac...

You should check out this Knowledge Base Article and this one. I was having trouble syncing Address Book and the Nokia 3650 via bluetooth with iSync at first. Both devices saw the other and were paired, but every time I tried to sync I received an "Unable to establish connection" error. Turns out it was a firewall problem. Rather than entirely disabling my firewall, I followed the 2nd part of these instructions:

Turn off the personal firewall setting in System Preferences:
1. Choose Apple > System Preferences.
2. Choose View > Sharing.
3. Click the Firewall tab.
4. Click Stop to turn off the firewall.
Alternatively, configure the firewall settings in step 4 to open the port to the phone. Click New and enter these settings:
Port Name: Other
Port Number, Range or Series: 3004
Description: Bluetooth

Now it works like a charm...

.wav ringtones

I just realized that any .wav file can be my ringtone. So, here's what you do: Download WireTap from Ambrosia Software. Launch it and launch iTunes. Play your favorite song, and click the little red record button in WireTap. Record a bit. It will be in aiff format. Open it in Quicktime and export to .wav. Send it to your phone. Save the file once the recorder program comes up. Then, go to profiles and change your ring tone to your newly uploaded song file. woo-hoo! You can also use the record program on the phone to record anything that you want to be a ringtone. You can also download Audacity for OS X and create your own song to export in .wav format.

Welcome Symbian / Mac users!

Hello, all. I just got a Nokia 3650 with AT&T service to go with my 12-inch Powerbook G4 and have found lots of useful information on using bluetooth phones with Mac and using the 3650 with PC, but virtually nothing of much use on using the two together, so I thought I'd start this site and share what I find in this journey of trying to get these two powerful devices to play nicely together. I hope someone out there finds this useful...