1. My BlackBerry won’t mount on my Mac as a Mass Storage Device
Mass Storage Mode allows your phone to mount as any USB hard drive or flash drive would thus allowing you to copy files back and forth between the phone and your computer. Firstly, the phone needs to have Mass Storage Mode enabled. This is done by going into the phone’s options menu and then selecting “Memory.”

• Media Card Support: On
• Encryption Mode: None
• Media Transfer Protocol (MTP): On
• Mass Storage Support: On
• Auto Enable Mass Storage Mode When Connected: Yes or Prompt

If you have these settings and your phone still won’t mount, the likely cause is a carrier unlock. Unlocking your phone disables Mass Storage Mode. To remedy the problem, iCrack has a patch to re-enable it. However, the patch runs on Windows only and doesn’t work in all circumstances. To manually enable Mass Storage Mode, you need to enter what’s called the Engineering Screens. Follow the directions from BerryReview to access the escreens:

To access the escreen, access the device “Help Me!” screen. For QWERTY devices, perform the key combination Alt+Shift+H on the home screen. For SureType devices, type Alt+EACE on the home screen. For SurePress devices, hold the Escape button, and tap the screen upper left, upper right, upper left, and upper right corners in that sequence.

The “Help Me!” screen contains the application version, PIN, and current up time. Without leaving the “Help Me!” screen, enter that information into the generator. The generator will give you the 8 digit code for the current “Help Me!” screen. If you close the “Help Me!” screen, the device uptime will no longer match the uptime used to generate the code.

Type the 8 digit code into the “Help Me!” screen. You will not see the digits as you type them, but once all 8 correct digits are entered, the escreen will activate. Make sure to use Alt for the numbers on QWERTY devices. Make sure to use multitap to enter the digits on SureType devices.

Once activated, the escreen will replace the “Help Me!” screen for the duration specified when generating the code. You can close the escreen earlier by setting your device clock ahead past the expiration time, reactivating the “Help Me!” screen, then setting your device clock back to normal. Note: Devices with a vendor ID of 1 (RIM engineering sample devices) will always have the escreen open.

Obtain the 8-digit code with this generator.

Once you’re at the escreen, click “OS Engineering Screens” and then “USB.” Select the seting for “Mass Storage (MS)” and click the BlackBerry button and choose “Toggle MS.” Now your BlackBerry should connect to your computer with no problem.

2. My BlackBerry experiences random sync errors telling me to “Retry Sync”
I really don’t have a good explanation for this one. Sometimes syncing contacts (or anything else) with BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac works, and other times, the sync fails telling me to retry. When you are receive an error message, hold down the option key and click on the sync services icon in the menubar and select Reset Sync Services. If you don’t have this menubar icon, go to System Preferences>MobileMe>Sync>Show Status in Menubar. Doing so will probably prompt you to reconcile some sync conflicts but hopefully you’ll only have to do this once.

I hope this helps any other BlackBerry and Mac user who’s experienced the same problems.

Email and instant messaging were invented over 30 years ago when computers and networking technology were in their infancy. Email and IM both mirrored traditional communication channels: snail mail and face-to-face conversations. In many circumstances, this paradigm breaks down. Google Wave assumes today’s technologies (Wikis, cloud data, stronger search algorithms etc.) as the basis for a communication platform.

It is important to note that Google Wave is not designed to be just another Google product but rather it is an entirely new protocol. Anyone could setup their own wave server if they choose to. On that note, it is also important to note that the wave protocol is still under development and is a long way from becoming an email replacement (if it ever does).

The main screen

After signing into Google Wave, you are greeted by three-column interface similar to Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007. Anyone who’s used an email client shouldn’t have too much difficultly figuring this out. I’d say the UI is a bit more intuitive than Gmail’s. The real conceptual difference people need to get used to is the idea that conversations are hosted in one location. Gone are the days of sending emails out to multiple people which usually ends up in a mess of reply chains. Once a wave is started, people can be added as participants who can make changes to any part of the ongoing discussion. In a way, this style of communicating is reminiscent of a discussion forum, however it is much richer thanks to “gadgets.” Gadgets are mini-applications for polls or maps you can put right in the conversation. Ultimately, wave works much better than email for groups of people. The fewer participants a wave has however, the less obvious wave’s benefits are. Also, the built-in chat function behaves in the same way a full wave does. It’s not enough like chat nor is it differentiated enough from a regular wave to really make much sense.

At this point, wave is really just a toy. Many of the features (such as contact management) are still very basic. Also, if wave wants to stand any chance of being adopted, it needs to have some backward compatibility with email.

Aditional Reading:
Google Wave and the Dawn of Passive Aggressive Communication
WSJ: The end of the Email Era

Stalker screenshot

WordClock by Simon Heys is simple, yet elegant screensaver I found that serves also as a clock. It can be customized in a variety of ways. Check out the video to see what I mean.

Word Clock for Mac, PC, iPhone from Simon Heys on Vimeo.

This is a problem that users of all platforms share, however here I’ll be focusing on what I did for my MacBook Pro. On my Mac, there are a few programs I always have running besides Mail, my web browser and any documents I may be working on. These include Dropbox, Quicksilver, and Twitteriffic. One solution would be to disable all these programs from running at startup. Doing this would mean that every time I turn on my computer, I would have to open all those programs manually; something I’d rather not spend time doing.

I had seen Windows applications that allow you to specify a time-delay for startup programs so your system doesn’t get bogged down trying to launch everything at once. I didn’t find a program like this for Mac, however the Mac Tips and Tricks blog pointed out how you could write your own such program easily using tools already included with the OS.

Their solution was to use either Applescript or Automator to force applications to start after a pre-set delay. I won’t repeat the instructions as they are available here. Currently, I am using the Applescript solution as the Automator (while easier to do) resulted in my apps’ menubar icons being placed awkwardly in the middle of the menubar as opposed to their usual spot near the system clock.

All in all, I think this is a pretty cool trick and has prompted me to play around a lot more with Automator and Applescript. Any ideas or suggestions?

Upon further thought, my understanding of how most other people view Facebook, is very ironic. As I’ve previously pointed out, Facebook is a social networking tool. This is where most of misunderstanding is happening on the part of all the Facebook haters. Talking with people about the Facebook changes and taking into consideration previously known statistics, I realized something that should have been much more evident to me sooner. Given the number of photos hosted by Facebook, Facebook is one of the top (if not the top) photo-sharing site on the web. People seem to be viewing Facebook as a photo repository; people primarily view others’ photos (a relatively uninvolved activity). The second most used function seems to be events. Facebook events are a good way to organize things on a limited scale. Again, this is activity requires minimal interaction with others. With these as the primary activities people engage in on Facebook, the backlash against Facebook’s changes are better understood.

Most of the major changes were implemented by Facebook to enhance the social activity of the site. When the News Feed debuted, it provided a simple way to see what your friends were up to. Facebook users however were quick to label it “creepy.” The irony here lies in the fact that people appear uncomfortable with the fact that their activity is viewable by others so easily. Such anxiety completely defeats the purpose of using Facebook as a social tool. The most recent change puts the home page’s focus on status updates, much like Twitter. Facebook actually attempted to buy Twitter at one point, but couldn’t reach a deal; the latest change reflects Facebook’s response to a Twitter-like service. The latest Facebook update orients users around status updates in a conversational fashion. This sort of dialogue is clearly much more social that users merely lurking on the site. People dislike this change because it takes the focus off of what they cared about before: photos and events. This isn’t gone, however. The highlights section on the right side shows is meant specifically for photo albums and events to be shown. It could work better than it does, so there is a legitimate point where the new Facebook haters aren’t entirely wrong.

Ultimately, what Facebook’s mission, and what people actually use Facebook for aren’t quite the same. Overall, the concept of the social web is still very new and I think that fact plays a large role in understanding people’s stances on how Facebook has evolved. Hopefully as people begin to better understand what how they want social media to work for them (learning to use privacy features, moderating self-disclosure, choosing not to participate at all, etc.), there will be less hating on change. The web is the antithesis of static; hating on change just because of change represents a high degree of laziness. It will be interesting to see how Facebook (and other social networking services) continues to evolve as mobile web access becomes more ubiquitous. What’re your thoughts on the new Facebook?

The iPhone isn’t the only contender to be my most desired smartphone. While the Google G1 and the Android platform looked promising, it’s first iteration didn’t really live up to it’s full potential or hype in my opinion. The second generation Android phone doesn’t change much. With my general dislike of BlackBerry or Windows Mobile based devices, I was thrilled with what the Palm Pre has to offer. Reading about it really doesn’t do it justice; you need to watch the demo of the new WebOS to really get a sense of why it’s so cool and how Palm has positioned itself to be the most legitimate iPhone competitor.

This brings me back to my original point. The Pre is being released exclusively on Sprint. Sprint (like Verizon) uses CDMA technology, one of the main reasons for my general Verizon-bashing. Why is CDMA so bad, you ask? Gizmodo summed it up, saying:

Sprint and Verizon’s Secret Shame: CDMA

To the end user, CDMA and GSM don’t seem very different—Sprint, a CDMA carrier, offers the same services as AT&T, a GSM carrier—except when it comes to how they handle phones.

GSM phones are identified by the SIM card that they carry, which can be moved between phones at the user’s will. Not so with America’s other wireless standard. Effectively, a CDMA phone is like a GSM phone with the SIM card welded to its socket. Your CDMA phone is permanently locked to your carrier, and your mobile connection is permanently bound to your handset—unless your carrier is kind enough to authorize a transfer to another phone.

The presumably intentional effect is that there’s no market for 3rd party hardware in CDMA, which is fine for carriers, shitty for customers. Worst of all, there’s no good reason for this. CDMA SIM cards exist. They’re called R-UIM cards, but US carriers are in no rush to implement them.

Furthermore, CDMA severely limits my options for using my phone abroad. I realize that the cell phone companies would rather me use my plan and rack up ridiculous international charges instead of simply replacing my SIM card with one from a local provider but Verizon’s poor selection of phones (each with the same terrible UI) and their general Mac-unfriendliness don’t help their case either.

Ultimately, do any of these networks really offer such better service than the other that compels me to use one over the other. I’ve heard all the arguments for Verizon’s network being “better.” I’m much more skeptical of these claims. Even in upstate New York, I never had a problem with AT&T really. I think Verizon’s reputation of network availability is somewhat exaggerated and doesn’t come near to outweighing better pricing schemes, the flexibility of GSM, or my satisfaction with a phone I actually like. I think will only continue to see increasing parity in terms of quality of cell coverage from the major players (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon).

What are your expierences with any of the phones or networks? Is the coolness of the Pre worth going with Sprint’s CDMA? Anyways, I have six months to wait and see.

Cult of Mac: Advice for Mac-toting students
The Apple Blog: Mac Tips
TUAW: Back-to-School
TUAW: Mac 101

I’ll start off with a name everyone recognizes. Google. Aside from Google search, Google provides a number of staggering number of services ranging from Picasa and YouTube, to Google Docs, and Grand Central. However, Google’s shining star (aside from their search of course) is Gmail. In the free webmail arena, Gmail is the clear cut winner, scoring major points for innovative features and UI and also keeping everything free (you have to pay Yahoo for anything “advanced”). Another strength of Gmail is that you can port it for use on your own domain name. Anyone who’s used the webmail interface provided by their web host can appreciate Google Apps. I’m assuming most people have already experienced for themselves the power of Gmail; and since I have enough to say about Gmail to merit its own post, those who are unfamiliar can read up about Gmail at Lifehacker.

Mint Logo

The next app, Dropbox (still in private beta but I have a few invitations available…) is one of those tools that you’ll wonder how you lived without. In my quest for a free iDisk alternative, I found this nifty app that seems to be much better implemented than services such as Box.net and free unlike SugarSync. Another plus is that the developers seem extremely in tune with the user community, in terms of addressing concerns, feature requests and being active on the Dropbox forum. It’s sort of hard to explain exactly how Dropbox operates, so I’ll just let you watch yet another screencast (I promise it’s worth it).

While those are the web apps I use on a daily basis, there are still many helpful apps out there I haven’t mentioned:

• http://epassportphoto.com/ – Essentially free and instant passport photos
• Pandora – Must have if you like music (who doesn’t?)
• Hulu – Free, fast and legal web TV.

As you can tell, I basically live on the internet; computers do everything for me. But hey, what’s wrong with that? I hope you find these web apps useful, or if you know of any better ones I’d love to hear suggestions. Do you have any favorites I missed?

Another iSlayer Widget that many Mac users swear by is iStat Pro, which provides lots of useful and not-necessarily-useful statistics about your computer. And Windows users needn’t feel left out this time either. iSlayer makes similar widgets for Windows Vista’s sidebar as well as Yahoo’s Widget Engine (formerly known as Konfabulator).

Now with the amount of time I spend on my computer, this widget eliminates any excuse for me being late or not getting things done.