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Entries in How-To (8)

Monday
Jun142010

iPad 3G Streaming

DateMonday, June 14, 2010 at 11:33PM | AuthorJason Spruance

I just received my iPad 3G today after selling my Wifi a few weeks back.  It has been a hard time and I missed the iPad very much, but after playing with it today, it was well worth the wait.  Since I ordered the iPad before June 7th, I was able to get the unlimited data plan.  Once you quit the unlimited data plan though and opt for one of the lesser plans, you never have the option to go unlimited again.  So for the summer at least while I travel, I will be using the unlimited.

I have already done a few videos on the iPad like the iPad Unboxing and the iPad Breakdown where I breakdown various apps I love.  This video is all about the 3G and the practicle uses of the 3G. Specifically I take it and stream video from multiple sources like CNN.com, Airvideo from my house, and Netflix. Airvideo is a brilliant piece of software consisting of a process running on your home computer that serves up videos to your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad over the interent.  With this and Netflix, we will be able to have the hundreds of kids videos I have one our home machine available for the kids while on the road. 

I also show you how I can use VPN (virtual private networking) to connect to a Windows system at my office and how I can support network equipment from anywhere I can get a GSM signal.  Enjoy the video. 

 

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Tuesday
Jun082010

Cycling Tech

DateTuesday, June 8, 2010 at 8:43PM | AuthorJason Spruance

I am riding in this years MS Ride "Venture the Valley" and I am a tech nerd.  So how can I incorporate technology into my ride?  Well for me it all starts with my iPhone.

Venture the Valley is a 150 mile, two day bike ride where the proceeds go to MS research.  First things is first, if you would like to donate to the cause, please follow this link.  I committed to raising $300 for the event and anything you can give is greatly appreciated.

I mount my iPhone to my bike using the Bicio GoRide bike mount.  To track my rides and my progress this summer, I am using an iPhone app called Cyclemeter made by the guys over at abvio.com.  Cyclemeter tracks your ride progress and gives you feedback.  I wear my bluetooth headset when riding and if you follow the same course, it can be set to give you ride statistics at periodic increments during the ride, updating you of your progress versus your other rides.  For me I have it set to five minute increments which means I can concentrate on riding and not looking at the screen.  Another nice thing is does is automatically send out emails, twitters, and Facebook updates with your statistics and a map of your ride.  I have it set to send an email to my wife every 5 minutes so that if something happens, she knows what area I am in and can come find me.  You can check out one of the sample maps of my rides it sends out here.

But a 75 mile bike ride creates problems for me.  This program will drain the battery in about 2.5 hours and I need it to last 8 hours or more.  To combat this problem, enter the Satechi iCel 4800mAh battery extender.  It can charge any portable device that can charge with a USB cable.  I have it setup with a charge cable running under the frame of my iPhone and into my saddle bag where the battery is placed.  It gives me an extra 8 hours or so of battery life for those long rides.

Check out the video below for my setup.  

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Friday
May212010

Charge Multiple Devices at Once

DateFriday, May 21, 2010 at 9:00AM | AuthorJason Spruance

Do you carry a lot of gadgets and travel. Carrying all the cables to charge the devices can be a pain. Checkout the a device called Callpod at callpod.com which can charge up to six devices at the same time.

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Tuesday
Mar022010

How-To: Uninstall Adobe Air

DateTuesday, March 2, 2010 at 11:03AM | AuthorJason Spruance

I have recently had issues with Tweetdeck and they recommended uninstalling Tweetdeck and Adobe Air then reinstalling.  Problem is, I had a bit of a hard time uninstalling Adobe Air since they don't give you any instructions on how to do it.  On the Mac, most programs allow you to just delete the application, but Air installs some extras and you need to run the uninstaller.

Windows:

  1. Download the Air Application from http://get.adobe.com/air/ (Note the locations you saved it)
  2. From the command prompt, or Start->Run menu type the following:
    • c:\<Directory where you saved Air Installer>\AdobeAIRInstaller.exe -uninstall

Mac OSX:

  1. Download the Air Application from http://get.adobe.com/air/ (Note the locations you saved it)
  2. Mount (Open) the DMG
  3. From Terminal:
    • sudo "/Volumes/Adobe AIR/Adobe AIR Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe AIR Installer" -uninstall

That should take care of it.  Note that I didn't test the Windows install but this should be pretty acurate.  If you have trouble on the Mac, after step 2 it may be easier to:

  • cd "/Volumes/Adobe AIR/Adobe AIR Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/"
  • sudo "./Adobe AIR Installer" -uninstall

 

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Wednesday
Feb242010

iPhone Tip: Make Voice Control Work Better

DateWednesday, February 24, 2010 at 12:10AM | AuthorJason Spruance

Do you have few names in your iPhone address book that voice control just can't seem to figure out? Thanks to this little trick I learned from Donald Bell at CNET.com you can make that run more smoothly.

The iPhone gives you the ability to add phonetic spellings of names as well as nicknames. For this tip I use the name of T.J. Houshmandzadah. If you saw the ESPN commercial from a few years back, you know why. Obviously I don't know Mr. Houshmandzadah and this is not his real phone number.

1. Open the contact in contacts and click "Edit"

2. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select "Add Fields"

 

3. Select "Phonetic Last Name", "Phonetic First Name", or pretty much anything you want to add. I chose Last and Nickname. 

 

 

 

4. Spell it phonetically the best you can. While the iPhone does offer accented characters (long a, etc), I tested it out and they don't seem to work with voice control.

 

 

 

5. Click done and and spell more names phonetically if you choose more than one field to add. For the nicknames you should also try to spell those phonetically.

 

 

 Now give it a try by holding down the home button for a few seconds until voice control comes up, then say "Call.." and the contacts name or nickname.  The iPhone will repeat back their first and last name.

You can catch the fill CNET.com for reference here.

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