uninteresting :: nerd

…the mobile Internet (using cell phones to get online) market is poised to explode with a potential 4 billion cell phone users moving to smart phones.

“We believe Apple is emerging as the clear leader in the battle over the mobile Internet,” she wrote in her research note. “Smart phones are taking increasing share from traditional handsets and Apple’s iPhone currently leads market share of the mobile Internet.”

iPhone’s share of the mobile Internet market has gone from 5 percent to the current 38 percent in one year.

link: Analysts like Apple’s lead role in mobile Internet battle – Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

From Apple Hot News:

App Store Pick of the Week: Locavore

May 20, 2009

If you like the idea of eating fresher, locally grown produce, it helps to know what fruits and vegetables are in season and where you can get them. And that’s how Locavore can help. It lets you see at a glance what’s currently in season where you live and what will be in season soon. And to help you purchase the veggies you crave, Locavore helps you locate local farmers’ markets. Filed under: iPhone, iPod+iTunes. Read more: App Store in iTunes

i get sick to the stomach thinking about the hundreds (thousands?) of dollars my family has paid (and continues to pay) to AOL for *email*. there’s 3 main reasons why they don’t just switch to something like Gmail:

1. They’ve built up their address book in AOL (there is no export option)
2. They have a bunch of old mail messages in AOL (and don’t know how to move it)
3. All their friends know the AOL email address (and there is no forwarding service).

here’s how to address these issues and stop the reaming:

1. Import AOL Address Book into Gmail: there are many ways to skin this cat, but here’s the easy option i’ve found.

1. Sign up for a free account at plaxo.com
2. During the signup process, enter your AOL login and it will read in all your contacts.
3. From the main screen, select More: Address Book: Add sync point (at the bottom), then Export CSV (Outlook format)
4. Then, simply import the CSV into Gmail and all your contacts will be there.

2. Import AOL Mail into Gmail: Using Mail.app (or any other IMAP desktop client):

1. Setup the IMAP account for your AOL Mail (settings here)
2. Setup the IMAP account for Gmail (settings here)
3. Drag and drop the messages your want to import

3. Notify everyone about your new Gmail address: since AOL doesn’t forward your messages, you’ll have to do the old fashioned method of telling everyone about your new email address and ask them to use it from now on. Fortunately, sending an email to all your contacts is easy from Gmail:

1. Go to your Gmail contacts
2. Click Select: All
3. Click Groups: New Group and name it “Everyone”
4. Then, “Compose Mail”, “Add Bcc”, and type in “Everyone”. The group list will expand into everyone’s email address.
5. Then type the rest of your message, asking folks to use your new Gmail account from now on.

There ya go. Hope this helps some people out. Death to AOL Mail!

Update: it seems that AOL Mail is free on the web to everyone, even if you cancel your AOL paid membership. So now I just want to make sure that nobody is actually paying AOL for membership for the sake of having their email address. And I still recommend switching to Gmail.

And for reference: 3 Ways To Cancel AOL Account in 3 Minutes

seems like most people have a Best Buy story. mine is actually a pretty positive experience.

let me preface this with my opinion about BB: they’re a total ripoff, and whenever possible I try to buy from Amazon (which is usually about 20% cheaper with no tax and free shipping). but sometimes you just want to bring something home immediately…such was the case 2.5 yrs ago when we moved to SF and I needed a new HDTV. i bought an open-box 42″ Westinghouse 1080p LCD TV. i also uncharacteristically bought the ripoff extended warranty for $250, in the hopes that it might pay off in the future…

so we actually really enjoyed the Westinghouse a lot. it was great. one extremely minor annoyance was that every month or so, it wouldn’t turn on and you just had to unplug the power and plug it back in. I called in the warranty service on it, and after about 2 months of Geek Squad failing to fix it, they finally approved a replacement (woohoo!).

unfortunately, they only approve a replacement for a similarly spec’d model, not for the amount originally paid. so I paid like $1600 for it, but a similar model today runs $800. with tax, I got $880 in store credit to buy a replacement.

in using the Westy, i also learned that 1080p is too high of a resolution to run the mac mini from the couch – you can’t read a thing. we always down-res’d to 720p, and in fact 720p movies look just like 1080p to me. so this time around I bought another open box item (one of the few ways to avoid being ripped off even more) 37″ Samsung 720p LCD TV – for only $530! The TV is great and we don’t even notice the lower resolution & smaller size. And I’ve got like $280 left on the gift card.

all in all, spending the $250 for the extended warranty paid off, but only because i got lucky and was able to swing a replacement unit out of them. i wouldn’t buy any big ticket items from them again in the future.