Behold, the iCloud Cometh

A number of stories today on the new iCloud service to be offered by Apple. The announcement is planned for next Monday's WWDC keynote along with details on OS X Lion and iOS 5.

Initial indications are that iCloud provides online music storage like the Amazon and Google cloud offerings of the last few weeks. The main difference is that, Apple will be able to read your library and make the music you have purchased available without requiring an upload. Services like this were provided in the 1990s, but all were sued into bankruptcy by the music labels.

I don't see an online library and player as that big a deal. We already have an infrastructure built around the iPhone and iPod. So being able to play music from the net seems a bit redundant and not all that useful.

What we really need is the ability to sync all our devices from a central location. I want to put my music files and movies in one place in cloud. Then, use that master copy to keep all my devices synced. Hopefully that is what will be announced. But somehow I doubt the entertainment industry is ready to go that far.

Mashable: More iCloud Details Emerge
Steve Jobs Says He’ll Show Off Apple’s “iCloud” June 6 – AllThingsD

iPhone Screen Dimensions, Pixel Height and Width

While working on CSS Media queries, it came to my attention that I needed to know the screen dimensions for the various versions of the iPhone. So here they are, in a simple format.

Device	Dimensions (Height x Width)
iPhone 5	1136x640
iPhone 4, 4s	960x640
iPhone 2, 3, 3GS	480x320
iPhone	480x320

Android Honeycomb 3.1 Comes To The Asus Eee Pad Transformer

The Asus eee Pad Transformer has gotten Android 3.1. Here is the scoop.

Android Honeycomb 3.1 Comes To The Asus Eee Pad Transformer - HotHardware

iChromy: A Chrome-like Browser for the iPad

Have you ever wanted a Chrome browser for the iPad? A simple browser with tab support and great peformance? Well since Google probably can't create one, check out iChromy on the app store. It is a simple, functional and fast web browser with tab support. I would prefer it had a toolbar of bookmarks, but the drop down menu it uses works quite well.

Check it out. The App is free.

iChromy: An Alternative iPad Browser With Chrome Envy

Prisoners Forced to Play World of Warcraft

Think you have it bad at your job? Or maybe you think your parents are too tough on you? Think again.

Check out this story from China. After doing hard labor all day, prisoners at a labor camp were forced to play World of Warcraft to make virtual Gold. The prisoners were assigned quotas and if they failed to meet them, they were beaten. Kinda takes all the fun out of the game! And you thought your last pick up group was bad! Anyway, not sure I will ever report a Gold farmer again after reading these stories.

Chinese Prisoners Forced to Farm Gold in Online Games
Chinese Prisoners Allegedly Forced to Play 'World of Warcraft' | PCWorld

New Nook eReader 1 ups the Kindle

Barnes and Noble released its new Nook e-reader today. The $139 device is wifi only and has a touch interface. Battery life is 2 months compared to the Kindle's 1 month.

I really want to try this out. The Kindle is a great device, but the user interface is awful. Read Write Web has the details:

Read Write Web: Can Barnes & Noble's New Nook Top the Kindle?

Swap Control and Command Keys on a MacBook Pro Running Bootcamp and Windows 7

Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops are some of the best laptops out there on the market. Not only great for running OS X, but with Bootcamp they make great Windows laptops too.

However, one annoyance with Windows on a Macbook is the tiny little Control key on the left side of the keyboard. When you cut and paste a lot of text, like I do, pressing Control-c or Control-v can be a little difficult. Not a problem when running OS X, since you use your Command key (right next the the Space Bar on a Mac). However, once in Windows you stuck with that little Control key. Or are you?

Recently I found out there is a way to make your left Command key function like the Control key.This is not a key swap, it is really just a key reassignment. So the right command key still works like a the Windows key. But after making this tweak, your left Command key works just like the Control key making your cut and paste keystrokes a lot easier.

The key reassignment is done in the registry. However, since mere morals don't really want to work with the Registry and its nasty hex codes, there is a utilty to do this. Download Sharpkeys 3.0 from here and read the explanation of what it it does from RandyRants.

To reassign the key, start SharpKeys and click add your dialog looks like this:

Chose the left Command key as the "from" key (note in Windows it shows up as the left Windows key). And choose Control as the "to" key. Click OK.

Any reassigned keys are listed in SharpKeys in case you ever want to remove the mapping. Click on the "Write to Registry" button when you ready to make the changes to the Registry.

That's it, the changes have been written to the Registry. Logoff and log back in or reboot. Now you can cut and paste in Windows with your thumb instead of your with your little finger. Absolutely wonderful stuff! Enjoy.

du Utility for Windows

There are a lot of really cool utilities built into Unix. Found another today that has been ported to Windows. Check out the Windows version of du. Download it for free from Microsoft Technet:
Disk Usage v1.31

Very fast and useful to have for the command line.

How to Find and Stop a Stuck Process in Solaris

Sometimes an application in Solaris gets stuck when it does not exit properly. For example, you exit a GUI application in Solaris. When you try to start the application, nothing happens. The application was just working. What the heck?

Typically this is a symptom of an application that did not exit properly and is still running. So how do I find the application and stop it? Here's how.

(1) To look at all the running processes on Solaris use this command:
ps -ef

This gives you a big list of all running applications. However, we can make things a lot easier. Let us say firefox did not exit cleanly.

So to search just for firefox processes, use grep. For example:
ps -ef | grep firefox

This will show all the running firefox processes. Note the process number for each process. For example, process 5555 is stuck.

To stop it, use the kill command:
kill -9 5555

Repeat the kill command as necessary if there are other stuck processes.

To make sure the stuck process has been removed use ps with grep again.
ps -ef | grep firefox

There should only be a listing for your grep command line.

That's it.

JavaScript: Now powerful enough to run Linux

Yes someone went and did it. Fabrice Bellard to be specific. He has written a version of Linux using JavaScript. Yes that's right. Javascript. Wanna see? Check it out!
Click to Boot Linux!

Pretty amazing stuff. CNET has the whole story here:
JavaScript: Now powerful enough to run Linux | Deep Tech - CNET News

Lookout iPad, a Family of Amazon Android Tablets on the Way

This story broke at the end of last week and over the weekend. Amazon is readying a family Android based tablets to compete with the iPad.

Will Amazon make a tablet? 'Stay tuned,' says Jeff Bezos
Tom's Guide: Amazon Says ''Stay Tuned'' On Tablet Front
ReadWriteWeb: Will Amazon Become the Dominant Player in the Android Ecosystem?

This has probably been in the works for a while. Given the success of the iPad. Both Barnes and Noble and Amazon realized they should be in this space. However, with Apple's new requirement that any in App purchases go through the App Store, book retailers would be required to give Apple a 30% cut on any book sold. This wipes out any profit for a book retailer and has already put small book retailer iFlowReader out of business. Apple has not yet blocked the ebook reader apps from Barnes and Noble or Amazon. But they could, and both book retailers know it.

To me, the in app purchase policy is not a smart move by Apple. Up until now, they have had very little real competition in the iPod and iPad space. Now they are creating 2 very large and highly motivated competitors. Apple's own actions are creating the competition for their devices. Plus, Apple is also opening themselves up to anti-trust scrutiny with this move.

The stories indicate Amazon is creating a whole family of devices. Mainly tablets from 7" to 10". Don't be surprised if this move includes iPod touch like music and movie playing devices as well. Amazon has to protect its business anyplace you would read a book, listen to a song, or play a movie.

So if you are thinking about getting a tablet or an iPod touch. You may want to wait a few months. The hounds of competition are about to be unleashed.

Posts from 5/12 Deleted

My post from yesterday was deleted by Google while they were doing some system maintenance. So I have reposted it. If for some reason, the post for 5/12 re-appears and I have 2 dup posts on the iPad 2, that is why.

Original iPad Case for iPad 2

Ever since I received my iPad 2, the new fancy magnet cover has not been to my liking. Yes, the Apple iPad 2 cover is cool and innovative with automatic on and off etc... However, it is also flawed. I find the cover does not help me hold the iPad 2. It flops around if you leave it completely open. If you fold it in half, this eliminates the flopping around, but you must unstick the magnets when you close the cover. In addition, I always feel like I am gonna rip the thing off since it is only held on by magnets at the top. And since I spend most of my time holding the iPad 2, the flaws get annoying over time.

For me, the Apple case for the original iPad worked great. Simple, easy to use, and functional.

So I have been looking for someone to come out with the an original style Apple case for the iPad 2. Griffin Technology, makers of many accessories Apple, has done just that.
Griffin Elan Folio Slim
Best Buy: Elan Folio Thin

I guess the case has been out there for a few months, but I just ran across it in Best Buy yesterday. The case is very thin with a fake leather cover. Personally, I prefer the more polyurethane feel of the original Apple case, easy to hold onto, and sticks better to table tops. But the Griffin case is a big improvement over the cover. Please note that in the Best Buy reviews, several customers reported quality issues. I have not experienced any, but will update this post if I do.

Bottom line, if you want the old style case for your iPad 2, this seems to be the best option.

Google I/O Live Blog: Google Launches Music, Movies, Android 3.1

Google IO is today. Read Write Web has the details.
Google I/O Live Blog: Google Launches Music, Movies, "Ice Cream Sandwich" & More

Microsoft Buys Skype

Microsoft has purchased Skype. Let us hope they keep supporting Skype as the great cross platform tool that it is. Who knows, maybe they can fix the terrible user interface on the Mac? :)

VC Ben Horowitz on Selling Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 Billion | Ben Horowitz | Voices | AllThingsD

Firebug Developer Leaves Facebook to build more Tools

The developer of Firebug, Joe Hewitt, is leaving Facebook to develop mobile and HTML5 development tools. This should be a good thing for anyone developing web apps. Details at Read Write Web.

Creator of Facebook iPhone App Leaves to Build Mobile & HTML5 Creative Tools

Updated my Story Feed

I have updated my story feed again (upper right hand corner of page). For the last few months I have been using a Tumbler blog. It works fairly well, but its not ideal. To get to the story is always two clicks. Once to the Tumblr blog, then to the story.

So with word that Delicious is gonna survive, I have switched to that. The delicious feed takes you right to the story. Plus there are a lot of nice social features by using delicious.

I am considering moving to a paid service like pinboard. Looks like that integrates really well with delicious so we will see.

Best Mobile Apps List by Gizmodo

With hundreds of thousands of mobiles apps out there now it is getting harder and harder to find the good ones. The editors at Gizmodo are trying to help by creating a list of them for each platform. A must bookmark for anyone with a mobile phone or a table.

The New Essential Apps April 2011: iPhone, Android, iPad and Windows Phone
Best apps of 2011: Gizmodo’s got ‘em for top platforms | TechBlog | a Chron.com blog: "this excellent roundup by Gizmodo of apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone 7"

Delicious Lives!

Earlier this week, it was announced that the founders of You Tube were going to buy Delicious from Yahoo for their new company Avos. Read Write Web has the details in the following story. In addition, there is a link to a story on how they use Delicious to find new stories and blogs. Definitely worth a read.
Why Every Single Person Should Take 30 Seconds to Opt-in to the Delicious Data Transfer