JeffCroft.com

Link // 07.13.2008 // 2:54 PM // 3 CommentsBlackBerry Thunder

RIM’s soon-to-be-released “iPhone Killer” is pretty interesting. It features a multi touch screen with tactile feedback. Apparently, when you press an on-screen key, the screen actually depresses slightly and provides haptic feedback in the form of a buzz under your finger where you pressed on the screen. Just hearing about it, I’m not sure it’s something I’d want, but I’d love to feel it for myself. If it work well, it could be very cool. It uses WebKit for its browser. I also like how the phone does full QWERTY in landscape and RIM’s SureType in portrait — clever choice. Visit site »

Link // 07.13.2008 // 2:47 PM // 1 CommentHarper Reed on web hosting

Harper Reed of skinnyCorp gives a rundown of web hosting companies he’s had success with. He gives my personal favorite, WebFaction, an absolutely glowing review, and also has nice things to say about Mosso, MediaTemple, FDCservers, and Rackspace Visit site »

Link // 07.13.2008 // 2:42 PM // 0 CommentsAuthentic Jobs: Lead Designer at SEOMoz

I’ve met several of the SEOMoz crew in Seattle, and they seem like good people. If you want to work for one of the few SEO companies with scruples, here’s your chance. Visit site »

Link // 07.13.2008 // 1:41 PM // 0 CommentsDjangoCon 2008

The first annual DjangoCon will take place September 6th and 7th at the Googleplex in Mountain View. It will coordinate with the 1.0 release of the popular web application framework, and will include a release party on Saturday night. There is only space for about 200 attendees, but the conference is free (you are, however, encouraged to make an optional donation to the Django Software Foundation to help cover costs). Visit site »

Link // 07.13.2008 // 1:37 PM // 10 CommentsMobileMe doesn’t push from Mac to Me.com and handheld devices

Turns out, MobileMe doesn’t “push” changes to calendars and contacts made on your Mac to the Me.com web apps and your handheld devices. From an Apple Knowledgebase article:

Changes made on your computer will be synced to the MobileMe “cloud” once every 15 minutes (or every hour in Mac OS X 10.4.11).

Changes to calendars and contacts made on Me.com or on your iPhone will be pushed to your Mac immediately, but the reverse is not true. Strange. From Apple’s MobileMe features page:

MobileMe stores all your email, contacts, and calendars in the cloud and pushes them down to your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. When you make a change on one device, the cloud updates the others. Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously. You don’t have to wait for it or remember to do anything — such as docking your iPhone and syncing manually — to stay up to date

Emphasis mine. For many people, including me, a 15 minute sync time is probably just fine in real-world usage. But, it definitely seems contrary to how the service was promoted and demoed at the WWDC keynote, and I can definitely understand why so many people are complaining about it on the MacRumors forums and across the Internet. This sort of reeks of deception.

A couple things worth pointing out about this, for those wondering why it’s a big deal:

1. It’s an especially big deal for laptop users, who are prone to opening their laptop, adding a calendar event or contact, and then closing it again. If MobileMe really “pushed” from Mac to the cloud, then this behavior would be fine — the update has already made it to the cloud by the time the laptop is closed. If a user has to sit there, laptop open, for at least 15 minutes, to ensure the sync takes place, that sucks.
2. MobileMe isn’t all about the iPhone. It’s supposed to keep all your devices instantly in sync, including multiple Macs. Someone who doesn’t have an iPhone but has two Macs might want to keep their laptop in sync with their desktop. The old .Mac did this at a 15 minute interval, and MobileMe was promoted as an improvement that made the sync near-instantaneous. In reality, for this user, MobileMac is not an improvement at all — and that also sucks. Visit site »