stuart test blog

The push notifications aren’t really a big deal for me, as I get email alerts for the notifications which I want from Facebook. But the contact-syncing feature is extremely useful, and if you sync your iPhone contacts to another source (in my case Google Apps) you’ll have consistent information there too.

And Push Notifications aren’t the only new feature of 3.1. There is also a new way to sync your Facebook friends with your iPhone’s address book. This includes replacing contact photos. Pretty nifty.

via Facebook’s iPhone App Finally Gets Push Notifications, Contact Syncing .

Fascinating insite into corporate PR:

Often Apple has a need to let information out, unofficially. The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple’s consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products. I know, because when I was a Senior Marketing Manager at Apple, I was instructed to do some controlled leaks.

via How Apple Does Controlled Leaks | Analysis | The Mac Observer.

Sounds like Microsoft will be revealing a fairly standard HP tablet/convertible notebook at CES. That’s a shame…

As much as BoomTown likes a good computer tablet faceoff, sources with knowledge of the situation said that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will not be whipping out the secret “Courier” slate PC, which the company has been noodling on, in his keynote speech opening the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas tonight. Instead, he will be showing off a new Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) slate that runs Microsoft (MSFT) software.

via No Microsoft “Courier” Slate PC at Steve Ballmer CES Keynote | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD.

Children are posting videos on the internet showing them choking other youngsters to the point of collapse, in a craze that doctors warn has led to brain damage and death.

via Shock over deadly internet choking craze – Web 2.0 – NZ Herald News.

This is a unique take on the media center remote which so many others have failed at. The QWERTY keyboard on the revers of the remote makes so much sense.

When we started designing the Boxee Box remote we wanted something simple like the 6-button Apple Remote.  As we began adding features to the Beta it became obvious that for people to really get the most out of the box it was going to need to do more than just point and click.  Rather than subject anyone to another on-screen keyboard we decided the Boxee Box should benefit from a full QWERTY keyboard like you might have on a mobile phone.

via Boxee Blog » By the pricking of my thumbs, something awesome this way comes. .

As much as I like Boxee, and hope they succeed, this is really a dumb hardware design. I can understand wanting a unique design so that the box stands out, but this just looks like it hasn’t been thought through properly. There is a good reason why most AV equipment is flat, rectangular, box-shaped: so that you can stack them, fit them onto shelves, or stand them vertically &endash; this crazy shape can do none of that.

Just as we’d heard, the asymmetrical streamer will be sold by D-Link for under $200, and it’ll support a wide range of formats, including DivX, VC-1, WMV, H.264 MKV, and Flash 10.1. Service support is equally broad, with Pandora, Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, and Flickr all integrated — and there’s obviously Boxee’s app platform for additional apps, plugins, and games.

via Boxee Box officially announced: under $200, Flash 10.1 support — Engadget.

Gina Trapani (ex-Lifehacker, and now <a href=”http://smarterware.org”>Smarterware</a>) created an interesting tool for Twitter power users.

ThinkTank is an installable web application that captures and organizes replies to your status updates on Twitter.

via ThinkTank – Ask Your Friends.

If this is true, I’m betting that it will be the same Courier device that Gizmodo featured last year. And if so, this could seriously be a threat to whatever tablet Apple are going to release.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, will unveil a novel take on a slate-type computer during his evening keynote at the Consumer Electronics trade show in Las Vegas, according to people familiar with Microsoft’s plans. The slate will be made by Hewlett-Packard and possibly available by mid-year, these people said.

via Microsoft and H.P. To Reveal Slate PC Ahead of Apple – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.

BetterTouchTool allows you to fully customise the trackpad behaviour on your MacBook Pro. One, two, three, four, or even, five, finger swipes are all customisable.

Better multi monitor & multitouch experience for Mac OS X by Andreas Hegenberg » SecondBar & BetterTouchTool Blog .

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch reviews the Nexus One. Note that Arrington dumped his iPhone for a previous Android device just so that he could use Google Voice. Keep this bias in mind when reading his review.

Overall the Android is a superior mobile device, particularly when paired with Google Voice. Google is calling this the first of the Super Phones. And they may not be exaggerating all that much.

via Google Nexus One: The TechCrunch Review .