In April, I posted a Sansa SlotMusic player review, and I really liked it. Unfortunately, I really only listen to music on my computer at my desk or in the car and my new car has a built in hard drive for my music, so the poor little music player has been collecting dust in one of my review bins. It’s time to set him free to someone who will fill him with music and take him on adventures, but you must be a good listener… get it? Anyway, to give this awesome little player away, I’m having another contest.
There are three ways to enter this contest:
1. Subscribe by email. Just click here to subscribe to this blog via email. I review lots of cool stuff and give some of it away to lucky readers, so you should subscribe anyway. This will get you two entries!
2. Tweet about it. Just send the exact text below in a tweet and you’ve got an entry. (once per day, and your account must have had its first tweet prior to this post)
I just entered to win a @SanDisk Sansa SlotMusic Player from @JoeTech and http://lnk.gd Enter here: http://lnk.gd/5s #contest
3. Use Lnk.gd in a tweetLnk.gd is my new URL shortener that adds tracking and any other features users suggest. If you’re going to include a link in your tweet, just use Lnk.gd to shorten it and you’ll get another entry in this contest. (up to four entries per day)
That’s it! You don’t have to do all of the above, but if you do, you greatly increase your odds. Entries will be accepted from now until 11:00 AM (GMT-7) Thursday, June 25, 2009. Enter often and spread the word.
Here’s the fine print: The contest is open to all parties in all countries where it is legal for you to participate and for me to send the prize. Also, I may disqualify any entrant or entry at my sole discretion if I feel the entry or entrant results in or is the result of unfair practice.
Like probably 10 million others, I updated my iPhone today to the new 3.0 software. The download and process was pretty fast, but getting my phone back to life still hasn’t happened yet.
The symptoms
- Your iPhone displays “slide for emergency” message and only allows emergency phone calls.
- Your phone no longer drops down for options in iTunes
- You see the following error when you connect the phone:
The cause
It would appear that the iTunes store is just overloaded. I’m only speculating here, but I imagine the connection to the iTunes store is to validate and update any apps you’ve purchased and downloaded. If iTunes needs to re-download any apps for any reason, you can imagine the rush on the iTunes servers with everyone upgrading all at once. This looks like something Apple may have overlooked.
The solution
If this is, in fact, an issue of Apples iTunes store servers simply being overloaded, the solution will be to just wait. Unfortunately, those of us with now “bricked” iPhones are left without service while we wait for Apple to fix the problem or for the swarm of requests to Apple’s servers to die down. Either way, it feels like incredibly bad planning on Apple’s part. To get it to come back to life, just repeat the following process until it works:
- dismiss the error message
- eject (See the second update below first)
- unplug
- plug back in
The most frustrating part is that I can’t use the phone at all now. I’d be ok with not getting to some of my apps for a while, but this is just crippling.
UPDATE: After following the above process a few more times, it came back to life quickly. If your iPhone still doesn’t work, just keep trying the above and it should be back in no time.
UPDATE 2: While linking back to this post, Mashable pointed out that there’s another way to force iTunes to try again and again. Just click the iTunes Store and then click the phone again. My process worked for me, but Mashable points out that it comes with the risk of data loss. I partly assumed that everyone does a backup first. In any case, keep that in mind.
Tweetdeck has been my desktop Twitter application for some time now. Today, I started seeing tweets about a new version coming out and an iPhone version coming soon as well. I was skeptical about another iPhone Twitter application being able to get me away from Tweetie… especially after having paid for Twittelator and then paying again for Tweetie when I liked it more. Honestly, I cringed a bit at the idea that Tweetdeck for the iPhone might be even better and I’d have to shell out another five or ten bucks. Instead, I was met with a best case scenario. Not only is the desktop version loaded up with some very cool new features, but the iPhone app is just as cool and useful and it’s FREE. Sorry, Tweetie, but you’re getting kicked to page five of my apps like Twittelator so I can put TweetDeck on page one.
Notable new features in the desktop app:
– Multiple accounts – We’ve been waiting for this for a while. Finally, I can add multiple accounts very easily. Not only that, but I can send a single tweet from all or just a couple of my accounts. Just make sure you unselect all the accounts when you’re done.
– Sync and Backup – Now you can sync and back up your settings. This is handy because now my TweetDeck at home will finally match my office TweetDeck.
– Twitscoop and Local – Keep more on the Twitter pulse with local search and trending topics
– Spam reporting – Another highly requested feature, you can finally report spam easily right from the app.
Notable features in the iPhone app:
– Multiple accounts – Manage all your accounts at once
– Multiple columns – So far, I have about 8!
– Updating – Continuously updates between your desktop and iPhone.
More than anything, the two things that stand out for me are the UI and the multiple account approach. The UI is just smooth and easy… What else can I say. The Multiple accounts are handled by adding them and then just adding the columns for the information you want displayed This means I never have to switch accounts like I had to in Tweetie and that’s a big bonus to me.
In recent years, it seems like there is a huge push to be green. It’s not a bad thing, though. I’m not one of those people who turns his nose up at someone who drives a gas guzzler and I use up my fair share of electricity, but I applaud the growing segment of today’s society who pitch in where they can to help protect our Earth’s future. Be it the purchase of a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid or just shutting it all off for 60 minutes when Earth Hour comes around, every little effort to reduce your footprint on the planet is a step in the right direction.
Enter The Smart Home : Green, powered by ComEd exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is a fully-functioning, three-story modular and sustainable “green,” structure designed to showcase the many ways people can make eco-friendly living a daily part of their lives. Designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and built by All-American Homes, MSI put together this smart home with WIRED Magazine serving as the technology and automation advisor.
The home comes complete with software to not only help manage the electricity and all the devices, but also to show the energy consumption and production. The whole thing makes me wish I was in Chicago right now so I could take a tour through it in person. Entry is $23 for adults, $22 for seniors and $14 for children 3-11.
From the press release:
The home will feature two computers from MSI, the Wind Top AE1900 All-inOne PC and X340 Ultra-Slim Notebook. The AE1900 offers green-minded users a PC that uses 80% less power than a normal desktop computer. Similarly, the X340 notebook features an Intel ULV (Ultra Low voltage) processor that use just 1/6 the power of a standard mobile CPU.
“We chose products that showcase the engineering, design, and ecopreneurism that challenge conventional wisdom and give us practical tools to live healthier and more productive lives,” said Howard Mittman, Publisher of WIRED.
This is a great model on which my dream smart home setup will eventually be built.
