Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Google GrandCentral 2.0 - Bring It

I was at a Miami Heat basketball game the other night reading my Twitter Friend's posts on my iPhone 3G and noticed disturbing tweet (no, it wasn't twitter: THE_REAL_SHAQ announcing he's in San Fran on his way to Alcatraz and he might stay) -- it was a tweet from Alex de Carvalho (twitter: alexdc) South Florida Tech thought leader and Social Media Strategist regarding the rumor that Google was shutting down GrandCentral, the universal phone number service. I immediately called my GrandCentral number that I had recently had printed on some new business cards and discovered that it was still active. If I would have continued reading Alex's Twitter messages, I would have later discovered that GrandCentral.com is not shutting down but will soon be releasing GrandCentral 2.0, that's at least the news from NY Times Tech Columnist David Pogue. http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/pogue-googles-grandcentral-not-dead-just-resting

I had significant doubts that GrandCentral would not be a repeat of the dot-com era startup Thinklink later acquired by United Airlines. I'm glad to hear that at least today's news is that's just not true!

If you don't have a GrandCentral number yet, there's a waiting list so I would advise that you reserve your number now.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Upgrading my iPhone from 2.2 to 2.2.1

Today, despite warnings from a few users not to install the iPhone firmware update 2.2.1, I went ahead and installed it. I also updated my iPhone Touch from 2.2 to 2.2.1.

I was little hesitant to update it since earlier this year I switched to a MacBook Pro after nearly decades of exclusive PC computer and laptop use. See my blog on some of my experiences in running Windows on a MacBook Pro. 


In any regard, so far both my iPhone 3G and iTouch are running on 2.2.1 without any problems. I understand there are only minor fixes (Safari stability; fixes an image image in which pictures are saved from mail and don't display in camera roll and for iTouch users a Apple Lossless ALAC audio issue) but some 3G users report improved performance.




Monday, February 02, 2009

The Google Earth Updates 5.0 Rock! (at least for Miami, Florida users)

Wow, the new Google Earth Updates for Mac and Windows totally rock! If you haven't installed them yet, you should. I also noticed at least in the Miami, Florida area, the satellite and 3D images are vastly improved!

Google Earth Mac
5.0.11337.1968 (beta)

Google Earth 5.0.11337.168 Windows