Having spent Tuesday evening in New Jersey attending a big Acer/Gateway press event at the Liberty Science Center, I arrived home to find the first back-from-hiatus episode of Fox's sci-fi (or is that "syfy"?) show, Fringe, waiting on my Time Warner Cable DVR (hey, that's far from the nerdiest thing that goes on in the CNET halls).
Here's the problem, you've got this DVR set to "evil."
Unfortunately, the preceding program, a purportedly popular show called American Idol, ran long (once a relative rarity on network TV outside of sports broadcasts, but becoming more common with live episodes of reality shows), meaning the DVR recording was offset by about 9 minutes. The end result -- the episode cut off early, and right in the middle of a dramatic door-opening reveal. Several Twitter and Facebook updates from other viewers confirmed this was a widespread problem.
The question naturally arises: Since my cable company has access to all this TV show schedule metadata, why can't Fox push through an update when a live show runs long (something I'm told has happened before on Idol), allowing my cable provider to update its program guide, so that a DVR will know to offset its recording time?
Fortunately, the last few minutes of the program were only a Hulu click away, but it's telling that I find it easier to keep up with programs on Hulu than to cross my fingers and hope the DVR works correctly. I'm curious -- has anyone else had similar problems with their TiVo, PC-based PVR setup, or cable provider?
Update: A reader who says he works for Time Warner cable offered this explanation of the problem:
I work for Time Warner in their technical department. Guide data is published 14 days in advanced so there is no way to publish an update to lets say about 100,000 set top boxes (stb), and successfully push it out to all STB's, especially on late notice. You can configure your recordings to run longer via the recording options from guide(highlight the show and hit ok/select) and change the end time.
Cellity Communicator (download) is an e-mail, SMS, and calling client and service for Java cell phones that's better than it looks. That may not sound terribly heartening, but it's no derisive knock. Designing an app that crams phone calls, conference calls, various tiers of texting, and e-mail into a mobile application and still manages to look simple is quite an achievement.
It is arguably overly so. Compared with other mobile communication applications, like EQO and Fring, Cellity Communicator reveals a rather dressed-down interface that requires a few too many clicks to get contacts added and messages started. To Cellity's credit, the interface can be expanded to include more options with an expert mode. Higher-end Java MIDP2 phones support contact-importing, but BlackBerrys don't, so those folks will labor to enter contacts by hand.
(Credit:
Cellity)
When it comes to performance, Cellity Communicator does deliver on promises of sending and receiving e-mail and SMS messages through various approaches, and of providing cheap international calling through purchased credit. At this point, phones calls are placed through a ring-back bridge.
Cellity's selection of text services is wide, but potentially confusing. Besides shooting an e-mail to a contact's address, there's free SMS texting to other registered users using Cellity's integrated FreeSMS product, and a glorified version of FreeSMS that is positioned as an e-mail message one addresses to a cell phone number. Nonregistered users receive teasers from these two message types with a prompt to download the communicator. Sending a regular text message is a workaround, though depending on your plan, Cellity's charge could exceed your carrier's cost.
Since Cellity Communicator begins by giving you a unique Cellity.com e-mail address, the app could function as a person's only e-mail client. However, there's not much in the way of message management, so I'm hesitant to recommend it for those with other options. The program also supports Web mail-forwarding and replying through another e-mail address.
Sounds like a fine app, right? It is, at least on paper. Despite its demonstrable uses for both low-end and high-end devices, Cellity Communicator simply fails to grab me. It doesn't help matters that a couple of obvious bugs have been allowed to slip through and that I'm biased against multiple clicks to accomplish a simple task. All things said and done, it is a quite decent app that has a strong following and could secure a stronger future, but which still feels more unfinished and less engaging than its peers.
Good things happen to software publishers that listen to their users.
Fring, an aggressively growing company that builds a chat and cheap calling application for Symbian, iPhone, and Windows Mobile platforms, heeded a swell of feedback from iPod Touch users who had been using the pre-release iPhone version for jailbroken iPhones on the voiceless iPod Touch (review). On Friday, Fring announced a new pre-release version for the iPhone that also fixes a bug found when using the application on the iPod Touch.
Both sides were pleased that the initial experiment had worked, Fring reports, but not quite satisfied with the results.
(Credit:
Fring)
It turns out that when applied to the iPod Touch, whose specifications were never considered when designing the iPhone version, Fring IM was a little rocky. Users who had tried it out couldn't see the text they'd punched in until after the message was already sent. The update, available through the application called Installer, should rectify the surprise oversight.
In a video tutorial on the Fring blog, iPod Touch users are reminded that the iPhone cousin is a silent device. Since there is no built-in microphone, Fring's international VoIP service is suspended on iPod Touches, leaving Fring for iPod Touch as a cross-platform IM service. There has been forum chatter about forging a workaround with the Touchmods microphone application, but forum contributors have attempted it with no luck.
As one contributor, blueridgebruce puts it, if Fring were to succeed to give the iPod Touch a voice, "iPhone users will love you...BUT...Touch users will worship you!"
This morning I've been playing with the prerelease version of Fring's talk software for the iPhone. It enables users to place VoIP calls in place of their plan minutes, giving people a cheap international calling alternative to their carrier's expensive per-minute charges. The one caveat (besides the need for a "jailbroken" handset) is that it requires the thick river of data only available over Wi-Fi, which means you won't be able to make or receive VoIP calls without being in range of a hotspot.
Besides VoIP, the app excels in instant messaging. You can live text chat with buddies on MSN Live Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, as well as post and read messages to and from Twitter. Fring also lets you do voice chat with MSN, Google Talk, and ICQ.
To instigate a call, you simply have to hit a large green call button after hitting a buddy's name on the Fring contact list (see photo below). There's no minute counter, hold button, or anything else you might be used to with a regular phone--it's just a quick and dirty call that with a good connection sounds downright decent.
If a buddy is on one of the chat networks that includes voice chat, you can skip the finger strokes and use your voice instead.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The one service I ran into problems with was Skype. The app lets you plug in your Skype credentials and hook up your phone to your account--a move that enables the use of SkypeOut minutes to make calls to landlines. Some of my Skype contacts would show up, but not all of them, even when they appeared online in the desktop application. I also was unable to place an outgoing call to a landline using SkypeOut, despite being able to call up someone on my Skype buddy list using the free Skype-to-Skype connection.
What makes Fring particularly unique is that will run in the background, so you can hit the home button and do something else while the IM and telephony continues to send and receive data. It's something that won't be possible from the apps found in Apple's directory later this year since Apple is not letting third-party applications run as a background process--a stipulation of the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines that were released with the first version of the SDK.
Whether or not this application will be included in Apple's hand-picked directory later this year is doubtful. Giving paying AT&T customers an easy way to save some money that comes out of the pocket of the telecom giant is probably not in Apple's best interest, which is why I think the company released this as a direct download instead of trying to go official channels.
[via TechCrunch]
Pedestrians repeatedly thumbing their cell phones could be playing the latest mobile game, but it's just as likely they're microblogging addicts updating their Twitter accounts. Twitter's short-form service makes it ideal for two-sentence contributions from mobile phones, IM services, browsers, and desktop apps. Here are a few ultraconvenient third-party Twitter-updating apps.
From the phone
Twitter's mobile site, m.twitter.com, offers simple cell phone tweeting, and it's easy to set Twitter updates to your phone or IM. But on a BlackBerry, nothing is simpler than updating your feed than TwitterBerry, a bare-bones app that nevertheless keeps you logged into your account and keeps data transfers low. Your friend feed looks good too, with above-average image rendering.
Call, IM, and Twitter from Fring.
Fring is an international dialing and IM service that includes Twitter as one of its network services that users can communicate with via Fring's interface. While the app isn't necessarily convenient for those uninterested in out-of-country calling, it sweetens the deal for those Twitterheads already looking for dialing deals. Fring has versions compatible with most handsets.
iPhone users can always visit Twitter's site directly, but they should also try out Twitter on Thin Cloud, which boasts enlarged buttons, a beatific interface complete with thumbnails, and optimization for EDGE.
From an online app
Track Twitter topics on Gmail.
Flock is a Web socializer's dream browser; so regarded by us CNET editors since it integrates Facebook, Flickr, and, yes, Twitter into an interactive side bar.
Constant Gmail and Gtalk users will want to know about Twitter tracking, which, once you've added Twitter as a contact, lets you track tweets on topics you specify. This is actually an extension of Twitter's service, but one that plays a role on Gmail's site.
From the desktop
Mac Twitterlings should take heed of Twitterrific, a sleek app with a short, scrolling interface for reading and publishing tweets. The free version serves ads hourly (though unobtrusively, it claims,) but for a $15 investment, your desktop twittering can be ad-free.
Flock integrates Twitter into its browser design.
A Windows widget, Twidget, comes courtesy of Yahoo's Widget Engine and provides a snappy way to update Twitter first thing, without waiting for your browser to launch.
If widgets are too limiting, desktop apps like Twitteroo offer more interaction and control. In addition to reading and submitting updates, users can enjoy customizing the app and reducing the browser's CPU usage through the client's only-occasional Web access.
Spaz (for Mac and Windows) and Snitter are two Twitter-enhancement apps built on Adobe's AIR platform (for Windows and Mac). These are desktop apps that Webware.com founder Rafe Needleman has tried and liked for live Twittercasting.
Do you have a favorite Twitter companion? Share your preferences in the comments.
If IMing friends from mobile to mobile is faster and cheaper than sending SMS messages, then IMing photos, videos, and music clips is even better.
Fring announced this week an update to its Symbian 9.1 and Symbian 9.2 offerings (sorry, Windows Mobile) that lets registered members swap files. This is the first I've heard of file-sharing from any mobile IM service, though saving the best perks for members is common to others, like EQO, that have far grander ambitions than simple all-in-one chat.
Share photo and videos files with fring friends.
Much like file-sharing from desktop chat apps, fring (it really is lower-case) files ride the Wi-Fi, 3G, GSM, GPRS, or EDGE wave between phones, but for fringsters only. Fring will ferry files over to the computer, too, via an Internet connection and MSN. Fring's neat, attractive offering clearly shows the direction in which mobile phones are headed: away from syncing, MMS, e-mailing a file to a middleman uploading service, and pushing media to a Web site. Though fring doesn't yet offer any of those forms of mass socializing, it does share media on an exclusive, individual level that's a good choice for users who prefer their privacy, and who can also convince their friends to use one more social service.
If that's not enough fringing for you, fring friends can stalk you through a fringME! widget you embed on a Web site, blog, or profile, which will disclose your whereabouts and give buddies an easy way to chat from their desktops. The updated Symbian version also uses its artificial noodle to determine which one of seven languages the user may need, and install accordingly.
Windows Mobile users (review) can still make free international calls to other fring members, IM through major chat networks, use Skype, and read and update Twitter.
The fring application is free to download from the PC or over the air, though carrier charges apply. If you're planning to try fring and don't have an unlimited data plan yet, now's the time to upgrade.
Here's a twist on the all-in-one cell phone chat client--make it call your contacts too.
Fring is a free VoIP and chat client. The downloadable app harnesses your cell phone's Internet connection into phone calls and chats with buddies on Skype, Twitter, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and ICQ. Your carrier will slap you with no accruing SMS fee, but you'd better have Wi-Fi reception or an unlimited data plan if you want to chat freely and stay in the black.
Fring groups all contacts, including those in your phone's address book, into a single list, highlighting icons at the top to indicate the service your buddy patronizes. You can click a buddy's name to call them, and choose the method of telephony--Fringo, GMS, Skype Out, or SIP. You can also select your service of choice from the call menu. To reach out and ping someone, you select the "chat" option from the menu and begin typing into the narrow field.... Read more
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