I’ve been using dozens of various RSS and Atom readers and aggregators lately. This is in no small part because it has been a requirement these days, and where I was once happy with NetNewswire Lite I have had to use various web-based, mobile, and even a few Windows (!!) readers.
Like many of you, I don’t have just one computer. I want to read my feeds on a Mac or two at home, a Mac at the office, a company-supplied Thinkpad, or my SE P910 smartphone. So it really doesn’t make any sense to use a desktop client unless I want to keep reading the same things over and over again.
So I’ve focused a lot on the web-based readers out there, and what follows is my short tale of discovery on what is out there, and why I like NewsGator Online so much.
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Updated Entry!
I have been talking to members of the ChronosTalk Google Group, as well as Senior Management at Chronos.
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New Grant System Excludes Mac Users

Indeed.
Contrast to the move that Massachusetts recently made to only use non-proprietary formats in state offices.
Sounds like a logical step for me, why should Government only be accessible to people who run Windows?
If you’re a Mac user in the United States, you should be giving hell over this. Tens of billions of dollars were spent, and apparently one of the goals was to require people to use Windows. There is no reason these days to not support standards that are cross-platform.
Some people will try to suggest that this is fine because there aren’t as many Macs deployed, but note this gem:

Ah, to know your target audience and shun half of your userbase. Thanks, guys.

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From MobileTracker: Nokia E61 shipping in mid February? – MobileTracker
The ‘Berry-esque Nokia E61 is slated for arrival in a matter of days! Its fast EDGE and 3G data connections will make a lot of people happy, and this is the first S60 device to deviate from the one-handed smartphone design of previous S60 handsets.
It is unlikely that iSync will work with this device when it gets released; most of the new SyncML devices require more than a little hacking to get them syncing up against a Mac, but I’ll probably be keeping my eyes closely glued to the E61 and the iSync supported devices page.
Not that I’m unhappy with my P910 or anything, but I’m getting tired of waiting for the P990. The E61 is coming up on MobileBee for a bargain price of USD$500 unlocked and unbranded. If a US operator like Cingular or T-Mobile carries it, expect a discount to around $300 with a new contract.
Thanks, MobileTracker, you made my day!

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Okay don’t get excited.
A user on HowardForums had an Area Information message pop up on his GSM mobile phone while walking around San Francisco that identified itself as Apple District.
While this isn’t uncommon in other parts of the world, I have never once in the United States gotten an Area Info message on any of the channels of my mobile phone. So that in and of itself is interesting, but like the original poster points out, this could perhaps be related to a pilot of Mobile Me, whatever the heck that is.
Have any readers in San Francisco recieved an Area Info message with that designation? Where were you? I invite you to follow along with the discussion on Howard Forums or in the comments here. This could be quite a fun little caper.

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Phone Scoop is reporting that RIM has licensed PocketMac for BlackBerry from the good people at PocketMac for all BlackBerry users to enjoy.
RIM is reportedly going to start offering the syncronization suite free to all BlackBerry users using Macs, which is great news for Mac users and especially good for those Mac users using the BlackBerry.
Congratulations for the team working hard over there, they make a swell product. One that is, as of today, the standard. Keep up the great work! This is also the first time in history that RIM has acknowledged that they even want to support Mac users with their devices, so with any luck this is just the beginning of the end of RIM treating Mac users as if they had the plague.
Is this a sign of the Mac getting a wider footprint in Enterprise environments?

For Mac users who want to make the jump into what is currently available for business-class mobile devices, there are the usual options such as the Treo and the BlackBerry, and then there are the glitzy handsets from Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
The BlackBerry and the Treo are staples in the enterprise market. You can’t swing a fist in a conference center and not knock one out of the sweaty hands of another attendee. These devices do what they do very well, but there are other options available that you may find more interesting.
In particular, the BlackBerry really has no media capabilities to speak of, and the Treo is still showing its age, like a has-been supermodel who can’t stop telling you how hot they are. I’m not about about to start using Windows Mobile on my mobile devices, so this brings us right to the doorstep of Symbian.
There are a lot of different flavors of Symbian. There are the Nokia Series 60 devices, which are the one-handed smartphones you see plenty of. Then there are the UIQ devices from Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and others, which offer a touch-driven display. And there are also the Series 80 devices from Nokia, such as the Communicator line.
Nokia and SE are both renovating their flagship smartphone lineup. Sony Ericsson as recently demonstrated the Sony Ericsson P990 smartphone at the big show two weeks ago, and a lot of people are very interested in it. They should be. Its a great device.
And Nokia is making some changes as well – their two newest Communicators, the 9300 and 9500, are getting some changes as they position them in the US market. The 9300 is now getting WiFi added to it, for example, so that Cingular can more effectively market it in the US, and this incarnation of the 9300 is the 9300i .
All have push email capability, from BlackBerry via BlackBerry Connect, or other solutions from a variety of vendors. I am more interested in solid IMAP compatibility, though many corporate users may already have a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) which means a BlackBerry Connect option for these devices is the prefered method of getting email.
So how well do you fly when you fly business class? You may be surprised.
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Apple’s first steps into home media management don’t have to be yours too. There are a variety of methods out there to watch your videos, view your photos, and listen to your music.
Front Row. Center Stage. Elgato’s EyeHome. All are mac-centric ways to get media into your living room.
My leap into home theater integration with my iLife has led me to an unlikely place – the Microsoft XBox. Before you get too squeamish, keep in mind that Microsoft loses money on hardware sales, and if you’re buying an Xbox for a project like I’m recommending, and you aren’t especially interested in playing games, building an XBox Media Center is a great way to stick it to the man.
Apple’s Front Row isn’t a bad first try. The downsides are that it doesn’t support many formats for content you come into contact with every day, and you can’t buy it without getting an iMac included. While the iMac is a swell computer, and a lot of people are going to love Front Row, if you weren’t in the market for a new iMac, you’re probably not going to think of getting one just because it has Front Row.
Good for you.
Click the headline for the rest of Emory’s story…

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The reason I don’t see any purpose to owning a new Motorola ROKR, as I said before, is that it isn’t innovative. It does, however, make the final step of getting music onto the handset trivially simple, but any number of devices have great media playback capability and using the fantastic SyncTunes means any device with removable storage can get in on the action.
Using SyncTunes will let you push items from iTunes of your choosing to a removable storage card, such as an MMC, Memory Stick Duo Pro or SD – making it simple to manage content on your device.
There are literally dozens of devices from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and others that have playback of MP3 and AAC audio, as well as MPEG4 video!
Nokia has even re-released the 6630 under the 6630 Music Edition name. Not only does the device have multi-media playback of a variety of formats, but it also is a 3G handset! Don’t drink the Motorola ROKR kool-aid until you’ve taken a look at the much better and sexier options from SE, Nokia, and even Palm!

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I was writing a report last night in Pages and had used the word “misconfigured” to describe an instance of IIS 6.0 on a Windows webserver. Pages gave me the red underline telling me it didn’t like the word, but didn’t offer up any suggestions that I thought were appropriate. I’ve used the word hundreds of times and read it thousands, and on a whim I decided to try out the “Look up in Dictionary” context menu item.
Dictionary.app launched and queried my phrase using the Oxford American Dictionary. To my delight the word not only checked out with Oxford, but it had a very relevant definition as well!

So there I sat, in my livingroom, laughing at my PowerBook. But how appropriate! Google returns only 8 instances of “Misconfigured Mac” and half of those were about MAC addresses on ethernet interfaces. “Misconfigured Windows” on the other hand turns up thousands of times. “Misconfigured’ seems to be a word that dovetails with the phrase “Microsoft Windows,” and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that reads this website.
You may click the thumbnail for a full-size version, or merely run Dictionary.app yourself and check it out. Fantastic!

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