Back in February, I purchased a Canon SD750 digital camera. I had done extensive research on the various cameras I was interested in, and the SD750 stood out among the pack on pretty much every feature. It was clinched for me after I had the opportunity to use a friend’s SD750, and not long after that I put in my order with NewEgg. That was quite a box–it had my camera, my eeePC, RAM and an SD card! It was like Christmas!

I’ve been exploring the different options I have for recording a video podcast, as I discussed with Cali Lewis last night on Cali Live. I jumped the gun a little bit and not only registered my vlog domain, Tech Girl TV dot com, but also linked it on the blog…and then haven’t done anything with it since! Talking about it with Cali really spurred me to get back to work on developing it, so I picked my camera research back up.

I’d love to get a new camera with all the bells and whistles, but that is really not an option at the moment. First on the list of priority tech purchases is the iPhone (only 38 days left!) and then a new MacBook to replace my aging but still kicking iBook G4. I could probably get a dedicated video camera in about 6-8 months, which should be enough time for me to decide if I really need one!

I’ve considered the Flip line–specifically the Flip Mino, since it seems to be at the head of the Flip pack feature-wise–but the more research I do, the more I’m edging away from a Flip. It really fits its niche market perfectly, but as with all other things tech, I think I might end up being more of a power user.

One thing I’ve been intrigued with ever since I saw it on Lifehacker is the CHDK, or Canon Hacker’s Development Kit. It is custom firmware enhancements that run on a range of Canon cameras. They are still in development on the version for the SD750 but a beta version has just come out. The Canon seems to have pretty good video capability as it is, so I’d love to see what the video enhancements could do to make it a really viable camera for my use until I can invest in a nicer one.

My plan is to load up the CHDK on my camera in the next few days and do some testing, then share my experiences with you! Look for more blogs to come on the CHDK and my SD750 very soon.

I’ll be live tonight with Cali Lewis of GeekBrief chatting about my blogs, technology, and the eeePC.  Be sure to tune in to Cali Live at 8 PM Central to catch Cali’s live show (and me, of course)!  I’m really excited and I hope to see you in the virtual audience!

I love Linux. It’s so customizable, and I love the fact that it’s open-source. But let’s face it–the business community has yet to embrace Linux with open arms. Many of the things I do for work, whether it’s editing or creating a templatized document, or doing a quality check on a web-based training course, require Windows (or at the very least, Microsoft products such as Office).

It is frustrating, considering the only place I run Windows is at the office. At home I run nothing but OS X and Ubuntu. So, as an experiment, I installed Windows XP on my Asus eeePC 701 about a month ago to see if it made it any more useful to me.

I did a custom nLite installation of XP so that I could get rid of absolutely anything I didn’t need–this took my installation size wayyy down to just at a gig. When you’re dealing with a 4GB SSD drive, you have to make sure that Windows doesn’t eat up your entire partition! It took a while to install, but when I booted–it was FAST. It booted faster than any normal Windows installation I have ever worked with. I barely had time to blink before I was already on my desktop.

I installed a handful of programs–Firefox, Skype, Microsoft Office (on the SD card to save some space), iTunes (just because), Foxit Reader, and a ClearType utility (a must for making text on the small screen sharp!). At first I was impressed by the performance…but after a week or so with XP on the machine, I started to change my tune.

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My beloved (but sometimes also hated) i-mate JAQ3 must have heard through the grapevine that it’s getting replaced with an iPhone, because last week it decided to give up the ghost completely.  The poor thing has given me a good year and a half of hard use, so I really can’t blame it for wanting to go toe up.  I was bemoaning its loss and trying to figure out what to do in the meantime, since my husband is using my backup phone as his primary device.  Luckily I didn’t have to worry too long–a very sweet friend was able to provide me with a loaner phone that I can use until I get my precious iPhone at the end of August.  This isn’t just any loaner phone either, it’s a PDA phone with all the bells and whistles!

I’ve considered the T-Mobile Wing (aka the HTC Herald) quite a few times since it was introduced into the T-Mobile lineup, but never bit the bullet despite the temptation.  When I found out that’s what I was getting on loan, I was pretty excited to be able to try it out.  I love HTC devices, and so far this one has NOT disappointed me!

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When the 10.5.3 update to OS X borked my iCal installation, I tried quite a few things to get my iCal back in working order.  When you clicked the dock icon, it would just bounce and never actually open the program.  I tried trashing a couple of files according to some directions I found on the Apple discussion boards, but that didn’t work either.  So I’ve just been biding my time with Google Calendar in full-screen while waiting for the 10.5.4 update to come out.

I have been busy the past couple weeks, so I just upgraded to 10.5.4 over the weekend.  I’m happy to report that iCal is now functional!  It opens very quickly and everything is just as it should be, syncing up with my Google Calendar via BusySync.  I’m so happy to have it working again, especially since it’s so nice to see my appointments and deadlines on my 19″ wide screen LCD when I’m working at home!

Moral of the story?  I’ll be backing up my Mac very, very soon (using Amazon S3 and Jungle Disk of course!) just in case any future updates don’t install correctly.

After a long, hard look at a number of VERY expensive Windows Mobile phones, and waiting with bated breath for the announcement of the iPhone 3G, my husband and I have finally made the decision to move to AT&T and get a couple of white 16GB iPhones. The one catch is that we have to wait until the end of August for our contract with T-Mobile to expire. I’ve been very happy with my cellular service on the T-Mobile network, but their phone selection isn’t getting any better, and I’m not going to spend $600 on an unlocked WM phone.

I’m spending the next 45 days leading up to iPhone Liberation Day planning out my iPhone experience–researching cases, drooling over all the new programs in the App Store, reading reviews, etc. I’ve already got a running list of the apps I plan to install on my shiny new toy to take the place of similar apps I’ve grown used to on the Windows Mobile platform:

1. Pocket Informant for iPhone - This app won’t be out until the fall, but it’s already at the top of my must-have list! Finding out that Pocket Informant would be coming to the iPhone was what cemented my decision in the great Windows Mobile vs. iPhone debate. I decided quite early on that Windows Mobile’s built-in Calendar was not powerful enough, and when I found Pocket Informant it was love at first sight. It’s a wonderful, customizable calendaring suite that is easily the most useful thing in my mobile arsenal. I am a heavy mobile calendar user (as I’ve detailed in previous posts!) so knowing that I’ll have a more robust solution on the iPhone makes me happy.
2. Stanza - One of the things I use my PDA phone for most often is reading eBooks. I have amassed quite an eBook collection over the years, a mix of current stuff from retailers like eReader/Fictionwise and classics that are readily available from sites like Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks. When I saw Stanza in the App Store and examined it a little further, the top of my head almost blew off. It supports pretty much any format out there, which means that I won’t have to convert any of my library for the iPhone. I can just use the Stanza Mac application to transfer books to my iPhone and start reading right away. I think the iPhone’s gorgeous screen is going to make it a wonderful reading device. I can’t wait!
3. Evernote - I love Evernote. It’s a great catch-all for the little bits of information that would otherwise end up on a random computer print out or scrawled on a wayward sticky note. My Evernote contains bits of stories, ideas that occur to me in the middle of the night, phone numbers, software registration information, web pages I’ve clipped, recipes…the list goes on and on. The Evernote iPhone app lets you access all your current notes, upload new text notes, use your iPhone camera to capture an image and upload it (Evernote lets you search text within photos, how cool is that?!) and lots, lots more. I’ve been using their Windows Mobile application in addition to having the desktop clients installed on both my Windows PC at work and my Mac at home. What a great application!
4. eWallet - This is another program I use extensively on Windows Mobile that is making the transition to the iPhone. It’s not in the App Store yet, but apparently it’s just waiting on Apple to put it there, so it should be out shortly. It’s a GREAT service that stores and encrypts all your important information (accounts, passwords, etc.) so that you can access them easily AND safely. It’s been a lifesaver more than a couple times for me. I’m so happy that my favorites (or great equivalents thereof) will be on the iPhone!
5. ListPro - Another favorite of mine from Windows Mobile by the same company that makes eWallet is coming to the App Store in the near future. I have a crap ton of lists in ListPro–books I own (exported from Delicious Library), things to buy, food lists, etc. I hope I’ll be able to import information like I can in the Windows Mobile version (or better yet, use the lists I already have created!) because that would make the transition just that much easier for me.

What are your go-to apps on the new iPhone?  Talk back in the comments.

I discovered yesterday afternoon that my iCal appears to be broken. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and explore the problem yet, but when I click on the iCal icon in the dock, it bounces up and down, appears to try to open, and then shuts itself down again. Rebooting did not fix it.

I’d heard reports of the new update borking people’s wireless Time Machine backups, and even totally crashing their machine, but I haven’t heard of iCal breaking yet. I know there were some significant iCal updates in the 10.5.3 upgrade, so I’m hoping that my upgrade wasn’t messed up. I had heard that the download for the upgrade would be in the 420 MB range, and mine only downloaded 198 MB. So now I’m totally paranoid that it didn’t do a full upgrade!

I haven’t backed up my Mac yet. I know, I know, bad, irresponsible computer geek. I just signed up for Amazon S3 (which I’ve been using with JungleDisk on the eeePC) but I haven’t set it to back up the Mac yet. I should probably do that, then tackle the iCal issue. I really don’t want to have to rebuild this Mac from scratch.

My Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone is practically attached to my hand. I was lucky enough to win the i-mate JAQ3 in a contest over at Gear Diary last year, and ever since then the JAQ3 has been my go-to mobile device. It has some clear shortcomings, most obvious being poorer call quality than I’m used to, and although I do plan on replacing it later this summer when my tax stimulus check comes through, I have gotten totally spoiled to having a full-featured Windows Mobile phone.

The best parts about having a WM phone are the always-on email and web connectivity and having my full calendar and contacts lists available to me no matter where I am. I am constantly going to client meetings and working off-site, so the ability to access my email and calendar on the go is huge to me. Since things always change, I needed the calendar and tasks to be in constant sync with my other computers. Thanks to the great mobile software community, I was able to figure out a quick and easy way to get my Windows Mobile phone to sync with Google Calendar over my T-Mobile GPRS connection:

1) Pocket Informant - The built-in Calendar, Tasks, and Contacts apps are good, but they’re just not quite as robust or as sleek as I want them to be. That’s why I’ve been a user of Pocket Informant almost as long as I’ve had a PDA. The latest version, Pocket Informant 8, has added a lot of features that make it great for a touchscreen PDA phone. It allows me to manage my calendar, tasks, and contacts any way that I want–it’s very customizable and I love that! I have my personal views set up for easy access to all my important information at a glance.

2) GooSync - GooSync is the best free solution available for syncing your Windows Mobile calendar with GCal. The free version of GooSync allows bi-directional sync of one calendar, which is all I’m rocking at the moment. In the future, I might like to separate my calendars into business vs. personal, or even break down my work calendars by client or project. If I end up doing that, GooSync offers a yearly plan that allows you to sync multiple calendars, as well as contacts and tasks. I may upgrade just to get the auto-sync feature enabled on my GooSync account–my only complaint is that you have to manually sync instead of just counting on it to sync in the background. GooSync is also available for many other devices, including any mobile phone that can run Java programs.

3) MilkSync - Since I’m such a big fan of using Remember the Milk for managing my tasks, I upgraded my RTM account to RTM Pro.  It’s only $25 a year, which I consider to be a web service sweet spot. RTM Pro adds a great advanced feature set, including MilkSync for Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices. It allows for bi-directional sync of tasks between the task application on the WM device and the web-based RTM account. I have it set to do a background sync every two hours so that I always know what I have on my plate.

These programs work seamlessly to keep my calendar and tasks updated on my Windows Mobile phone. I could not be happier with the solution–now I can walk into any meeting with confidence, and work off-site without worrying that I’m forgetting an appointment or deadline. Syncing my information without having to use a go-between (i.e. ActiveSync or Missing Sync) means that I’m never tied down.

How do you keep your devices and your calendar in sync? Talk back in the comments.

I was pretty excited to hear that the new OS X upgrade, 10.5.3, would allow Address Book to sync with Google Contacts. Since I’ve been syncing everything else through GMail and GCal, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get my contacts all straightened out.

I spent a LOT of time last night updating my address book. I printed my contacts from GMail and updated Address Book accordingly, then I totally deleted my Google Contacts in anticipation of a nice, clean sync. Then I start downloading the update, which took a long time considering it was 198 MB. While I was waiting, I did a little surfing only to discover that the Google Calendar sync option was only for iPhone and iPod Touch users. ARGH! I was really annoyed.

Thankfully, Lifehacker also posted a workaround for non-iPhone users that allows you to access the sync function, although supposedly it may break after a couple of syncs.  I followed the directions and STILL got no love, so by that time I was steaming mad. Why should non-iPhone users be locked out of such a useful feature? Almost everyone I know uses GMail, not just the few of my friends who currently rock the iPhone.

After I recovered from my righteous anger, I exported my Address Book to Google-friendly CSV using the handy little tool A to G, then imported it into my Google Contacts. It worked just fine, and so I went about the business of syncing my Windows Mobile phone via Missing Sync.

Lo and behold, I get a bunch of conflicts when my contacts try to sync to the phone–Google Contacts conflicts! Apparently the Google Contacts sync is tied to Sync Services, so when I tried to sync my phone, it went ahead to sync my contacts to my Google account. Double ARGH!! I wish I’d known that before I imported all my contacts and then had to work through 134 conflicts.

So, seriously, Apple. I know you want people to buy the iPhone, especially with 2.0 right around the corner. I was briefly a convert to the iPhone kool-aid, before I realized that it didn’t offer a robust enough feature set for my needs. It’s a beautiful, well-done device, but let’s face it–not everyone’s going to own one. So why lock down such a universally appealing feature? I call weak sauce.

One of my daily tech drivers is my 4G Asus eeePC 701. I use it for quite a bit of my web surfing, chatting, email checking, web research and writing. It’s perfect to curl up with in my favorite living room chair or carry along with me to a coffee shop. I also carry with with me when I go to business meetings, because it is so much easier to tote along than a huge laptop. Plus, the sassy pink color just makes me happy next to the big hulking silver and black monsters everyone else has!

I wanted to make sure that I always had access to my schedule and tasks on the eeePC, and that any changes or additions I made on my calendar there would be reflected across all my devices. So I set out in search of the perfect Ubuntu solution for my eeePC, and this is what I ended up with:

1) Thunderbird + Lightning - I already used Mozilla Thunderbird for my email needs, and had tried its partner Sunbird (the separate calendar tool) with little luck. I just can’t stand having separate programs on such a small device. I don’t want to have to move to another window or virtual desktop to go between my mail, calendar and tasks. So, I decided to try the Thunderbird calendar plugin Lightning to bring the calendar functionality of Sunbird right to Thunderbird.

Right away, I liked Lightning better than Sunbird. Sunbird never seemed to work quite right for me–the views were all off and it froze up on me a lot. I really liked having it integrated into Thunderbird, which I always have open on my second virtual desktop.

However, due to the limitations of the eeePC’s smaller screen, I had to adjust things so that I would have the best possible layout. Thankfully, one of my favorite extensions for Firefox on the eeePC is also available for Thunderbird–Tiny Menu consolidates the menu bar into one small drop-down menu. Once I had Tiny Menu installed, I re-arranged the toolbars until I had all the icons I needed for email, calendar, and tasks on one row. That freed up a lot of visual space and made Lightning much more usable for me.

2) Google Calendar - GCal is the syncing conduit for all my devices. There is no “perfect” solution, but thanks to GCal I feel like my system comes pretty close. I really appreciate that they open up their API so that people can create syncing solutions that make it simple to keep everything updated.

3) Provider for Google Calendar - Once I had Lightning all set up, I had to figure out a way to get it to sync with GCal. The expandability of Thunderbird and Lightning once again saved the day, and I installed the Thunderbird add-on Provider for Google Calendar. It requires Sunbird or Lightning to be installed, and enables bi-directional sync between the calendar program and GCal. It works effortlessly for me.

4) Provider for Remember the Milk - The one fault with Google Calendar is that it doesn’t have an integrated task list. However, there is a fabulous web-based task manager called Remember the Milk that fills the gap nicely. It has also offered up its API so that people can create great applications that interface with the web tool. Thunderbird add-on Provider for Remember the Milk allows you to sync tasks in Lightning with your task list in Remember the Milk. It’s not perfect–things like tags don’t carry over, for instance, but it is more than functional for what I need. I look forward to further development that will hopefully do things like sync tags in the future.

So far the only problem I’ve had is a recurring appointment not showing up correctly. Otherwise, it’s worked flawlessly with GCal and my other devices. How do you keep your life in sync? Talk back in the comments.