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  • The long goodbye to an old gadget friend: Suuntu N3i Microsoft SPOT Watch

    Gadgets, for some, are replaced on a regular basis. A phone, for example, may serve for its two-year contract and then be replaced. While periodicity differs, the same goes for desktop computers and notebook computers.

    Some gadgets, however, have the longevity of a good friend. A good pen, for example, is something you can use forever (assuing ink refills are available). And, the same goes for a watch (for the few of us who still wear them). Two of my watches are in their final weeks of life as they were designed because Microsoft is turning off the MSN Direct service that provides their intelligence on January 1, 2012.
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  • Usability expert Jakob Nielsen does not like the Kindle Fire

    Jakob Nielsen took the Amazon Kindle Fire through its paces and doesn’t seem all that impressed.

    Kindle Fire Usability Findings

    His complaints:

    • Heavy
    • Lack of physical buttons
    • Miserable magazine reading experience
    • Slow screen updates
    • Bad UI design (e.g., graphic buttons that are too small)

    My take based on a brief (about an hour) use of the Kindle Fire is that it is a pretty good tablet experience for the price ($200). I would recommend it to people who don’t want to spent $500 or more for an iPad. The Kindle Fire may be the best Android tablet available at the moment in my opinion.

  • Free Windows Phone TouchDevelop script that looks at calendar & makes voice call with conference ID information

    This is an awesome sounding (I have not tried it) free user contributed TouchDevelop script by Peter Heldens that looks at your Windows Phone calendar and parses the phone number with conference ID for conference calls. As with all Microsoft TouchDevelop user contributed scripts, the full source code is available for study and installation.

    My Online Meeting

  • Apps updated for my iPhone & iPad in the past week: 46


    I wrote for MobileAppsToday which folded into MobileContentToday which folded into ThinkMobile which became a vertical section within Social Times for three years and three months. For much of that time I posted a list of updates for my iPhone and iPad in the past week. My run at Social Times ended last week. However, I found reviewing the app updates each week interesting So, I plan to continue this little weekly project here. FYI: My final weekly update for Social Times can be found here.

    Forty-six of the apps for my iPad &/or iPhone were updated in the past week. Apps that do not have comments in the list below indicates that the update is simply a bug fix release or an Apple iOS 4.x compatibility update with, perhaps, some bug fixes.
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  • Xbox Companion for Windows Phone Scheduled for Dec. 6 Release

    Source: Microsoft.
    Microsoft Director of Programming for Xbox Live, Larry Hryb (AKA Major Nelson) announced that:

    Xbox Companion for Windows Phone coming December 6th

    The free app for Windows phone will provide the following features:

    • Xbox Companion search powered by Bing
    • Search the unified Xbox catalog for movies, TV shows, music, games and apps using the Windows phone
    • View a detailed unified results page across all content providers.
    • See recently played games and apps and browse the Zune video catalog

  • Speed up the Kindle Fire browser by turning its acceleration OFF

    Here’s an important tip for Kindle Fire users from stevesounders.com. You can speed off web browsing on the Fire by turn acceleration OFF

    Silk, iPad, Galaxy comparison

    His results showed the Kindle Fire Silk browser performed better for ever site tested with acceleration turned off. Silk performed well with acceleration turned off when compared to the iPad 2 and Galaxy 10.1.