One of the most anticipated features of the new iPhone OS 3.0 has been “tethering,” or the ability to share your iPhone’s 3G Internet connection with your laptop, via Bluetooth or USB.
For web workers — “the great untethered” — iPhone OS 3.0’s tethering represents an opportunity to work with greater freedom, mobility and flexibility. Even for those already using 3G datacards and dongles, the feature means you have one less device to carry. Official tethering has been a long time in coming. Unofficial iPhone apps such as Nullriver’s Netshare and PDANet have provided tethering capability to jailbroken iPhones for some time. Netshare was an official App Store release for a while, until Apple forced its withdrawal due to the lack of tethering rights in AT&T’s terms.
Here in the UK, O2’s tethering support for iPhone launched today, coinciding with the launch of iPhone 3G S. Sadly, despite the fact that O2’s iPhone contracts include “unlimited” data usage, tethering will cost an additional £15-£30 ($25-$50) each month, with no pay-as-you-go option. It’s worth noting that this pricing is identical to O2’s standalone 3G data charges. Read the rest of this entry »
Though the demise of Portland, Ore.’s Cubespace coworking community represents a sad development in the nascent history of coworking, the region’s vibrant Silicon Forest will give rise to other coworking options in due course.
In the meantime, there are ongoing successes elsewhere, notably in Italy, with Rome, Milan and Genoa playing host to no less than eight coworking communities.
Last week, I got the chance to speak with Massimo Carraro, one of the leading Italian evangelists for coworking and a phenomenal source of experience and expertise in bootstrapping multiple coworking communities. Read the rest of this entry »
One of my favorite blogs recently has been The Art of Manliness. It’s not a boneheaded celebration of dumb machismo, rather a thoughtful exploration of what being a man can and should mean in a post-feminist world. With values anchored in equality, the writers explore everything from employment and relationships to parenting, grooming and etiquette.
Last month, in response to the deepening recession, one contributor wrote “How To Network Like A Man.” It’s a great essay on networking, oriented around the story of a man losing his job and immediately putting to work his network of professional relationships to find new work. The advice in the essay isn’t gender-specific, and applies pretty broadly to almost anyone in a professional context — for web workers, good networking skills are even more valuable than understanding CSS or Photoshop inside out.
Here are some of the key points to take away from the piece: Read the rest of this entry »
The practice of wireframing is common to most web production professionals. Oddly, there’s no clear market leader or category-defining product in this space; even solutions such as Adobe’s Creative Suite lack dedicated wireframing or rapid prototyping tools.
There are, however, a number of useful smaller options. Late last year, Mike Gunderloy evaluated the popular Balsamiq Mockups and its deliberately sketchy wireframes. I recently discovered FlairBuilder, another up-and-coming wireframing tool which, like Balsamiq, is based on the Adobe AIR platform.
While lacking Balsamiq’s cutesy, sketchy style, FlairBuilder has a number of interesting features useful for wireframing: Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been said that the apps that break out at Austin’s South by Southwest festival are those that help festival-goers navigate and orient themselves within the sprawl of parties, panel sessions and gigs.
The 2007 edition of SXSW was Twitter’s big moment, the tipping point for the now iconic service. The following year, many thought that SCHED*, a web-based event calendar and agenda builder, would be the breakout service of 2008 — the “new Twitter.”
Though such expectations were inflated by the media, SCHED* provided useful personalized schedules that have endured through two editions of the festival. The latest edition of the app now includes mobile support, iPhone compatibility, and the ability to integrate with iCal and Google Calendar. Read the rest of this entry »
As the first generation of coworking spaces, such as IndyHall, Old Broadcasting House and others, enter maturity while new locations and communities start up, it’s useful to reflect on some measures and metrics of success.
Marc Harrison at the Urban Workspaces blog — seeking to establish a local coworking space and community — recently published some thoughts on measuring the success for his proposed space. Marc’s goals are very personal, though universally applicable to anyone looking to bootstrap a coworking community for themselves.
Here are Marc’s key indicators of success: Read the rest of this entry »
From Reware’s solar-powered Juice Bags to Noon Solar’s range of solar handbags, some of our regular readers may have detected that I have a bit of a “thing” for solar power. I’m sure this is an enthusiasm shared by many web workers: When your working life is governed by the proximity of electricity and availability of connectivity, free solar power would be very welcome!
Sadly, most solar charging products — like the aforementioned Noon Solar and Juice Bags — unnecessarily bundle solar chargers with some other product, like a bag! Fortunately, standalone solar charging products are beginning to find their way to the marketplace. Some of the most intriguing are found in Suntrica’s range of SolarBadge and SolarStrap chargers. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this month, O’Reilly Media published its latest title in the “Missing Manuals” series, Josh Clark’s “iWork ‘09: The Missing Manual.” It throws a spotlight on Apple’s office suite, with how-to guides for the Pages word processor, the Numbers spreadsheet and the Keynote presentation app.
Even as a devoted Apple user, no matter how much I want to, I can’t quite make the psychological break from Microsoft Office. I’ve nothing against the software giant’s office suite — even the 2008 Mac edition I use is a great collection of software, although it is perhaps a little over-featured, lacking the intuitive web collaboration of Google Docs and not quite as elegantly Mac-native as I’d like.
Apple’s iWork ‘09 fares no better on web collaboration than Microsoft’s offering, but it’s certainly more Mac-native and tantalizingly low-priced, though it’s not as full-featured and lacks tutorials for new users switching from Office.
Read the rest of this entry »
