Tag Archives: calendar

Nano Downgrade

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By Jeffrey the Barak

The new September 1st 2010 iPod Nano, 6th Generation.

Yesterday, Apple unveiled the 6th Generation iPod Nano. Following the keynote announcement, I went to Apple.com and bought the 5th Generation Nano at a third off.

Two days ago, this was the new one, but now it is not. So why did I do this? Did I really need to save $50? Well no, but there is a background to this.

I recently looked at my phone bills, and I was on my second iPhone, and I realized that although I make between zero and three calls a day, and never send text messages, and cannot see Internet on a phone sized device, I was paying a lot each month for a telephone, albeit a nicely designed one.

And then Google put Voice Over Internet Protocol, VOIP, into Gmail, which is where I live for most of the day anyway.

So I sold my iPhone and reactivated my old Motorola Razr non-smart mobile telephone, and I couldn’t be happier.

But the only things I miss about the iPhone, besides some music-to-go, are the portable viewable copies of my iCal calendar and my Address Book. Contacts and a date book are things I’ve had in my pocket since the Palm Pilot days of the Nineties seduced me away from Leather Filofaxes and Date Runners.

And so realizing that the iPod Nano 5th Generation Nano had this info synced to it via iTunes, the Nano 5th Gen puts this data back in my pocket, just in case I need it and I’m away from a computer.

2009's Apple iPod Nano, 5th Generation

The new 6th generation Nano, does not seem to have contacts and calendar, and the interface is approximately 35% obscured by any finger that one uses to interface with it, so even the well-presented unveiling at the keynote did not make it look like much of an upgrade to me. Besides, this 5th generation Nano will be my first device with an Apple Clickwheel, and I wanted to experience that interface before it is superseded forever by touchscreen alternatives. I am assuming that after a few minutes of familiarization with the Clickwheeel, which most of you have been using for years, I will be able to control the 5G without looking at it, or inside my pocket. Try that with a 6G!

I think that I have picked up a $99 bargain!

Jeffrey the Barak is an Apple fan, who besides having had two iPhones, has never had an iPod, until now.

Where is your stuff?

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By Jeffrey the Barak

Stuff? That could mean anything but more often than not these days it means your information, not so much your pictures and music, but your contacts, and your calendar.

Back in the paper and leather era, we could lose our Filofax and lose all, but with today’s synching and backing up, only an exceptionally careless person would lose his or her vital information. The choices today are more focused on local versus cloud storage of this valuable data. If you have a PC (trying not to laugh) then it is likely you keep your calendar and contacts in Microsoft Outlook, part of Microsoft Office for Microsoft Windows, a big old Buick of a program responsible for devastating data loss each time the single “pst” file is corrupted.

Or if you have a Mac, you probably use the Address Book and the iCal calendar and you may keep them in synch with your iPhone via iTunes or Mobile Me. Of course if you also use Google, and I wonder why anyone would not be using Google as much as possible, you can, with a little research and study, find a way to import and synchronize your contacts into Gmail contacts, your calendars into Google Calendar, and your most important documents and spreadsheets into Google Docs, so even if you lose every piece of equipment when a mountain flattens your town, you still retain all in the cloud. All you have to know is your gmail email address and one password and there it all is.

There are of course many choices when it comes to hardware, operating systems and software, cloudware etc., but as these options develop and multiply, there are still people who lose their phone and lose their stuff in the process. It’s akin to keeping all your money in your pocket. Sooner or later you’ll lose it.

Currently I use Apple’s iCal and Address Book and I have Mobile Me to keep my iMac, Macbook and iPhone in sync, and I also export to Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar. Plus I have a folder in my address book called notes, which uses the contacts program to record lists such as to-do, waiting-for, sizes, etc.

We have feedback and comments here at the-vu, so If you have any different ways of keeping it all, let us know!