My iPhone is one of my favorite devices of all time.  The things you can do with an iPhone are nearly limitless, and many things aren’t entirely unproductive.

My only gripe with the iPhone as a music player was with the iPhone ear bud headphones.  They sound ok, but are entirely uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time. Of course, you can use any set of stereo headphones to listen to music on an iPhone, but a regular headphones lack the inline mic and the button that allows you to pause and skip tracks.

I already owned a set of ear bud headphones that fit my ears better and sounded better in my opinion, but they had a really short cord.  So I went searching for a product that would both supply the missing mic and button, but also extend the length of the headphone cord.

I found exactly what I was looking for in the Griffin SmartTalk iPhone Headphone adapter, at ThinkGeek.  At $14.99, some might think that this little gadget is overpriced. I thought so too when I ordered it, but when it arrived, I was surprised at it’s rugged construction. The 30-inch cable is sheathed in nylon braiding, which should make it very durable, and less prone to breaking. The mic/button is covered in a protective rubber-like coating, and includes a clip to attach it to your collar or lapel.  The button works exactly like the one on the original iPhone headphones, and the mic is pretty clear for picking up your voice on phone calls.

This device is available at several internet retailers, so bargain hunters may can find a better deal.

(Disclaimer: I was not compensated for writing this review. I bought and paid for this product myself. The link to purchase this product is not a compensated affiliate link.)

For those of you who work a day job at a larger corporation, you have probably run into the web filter from time to time, especially if you are trying to access a site classified as “social networking”.

There are dozens of ways to get around filters, but not all of them are feasible for every environment and some are borderline hacking.  I have no desire to visit Facebook while I am at work (I barely visit when I am home) or to visit Myspace ever, but I am fairly active on Twitter.  Most of the time I keep up with it on my phone, but that is not always feasible.

I recently discovered the twitgether gadget for Gmail, and I’ve been using that as a supplement to my phone for following my twitter time line while at work. (I’m not suggesting that you goof off on Twitter at work. But, if you have created a twitter list with your must read/follow people, you can use this to keep up closer to real time.)

As long as you have access to Gmail at work, you should be able to use this twitter gadget to keep up with your tweets, even if twitter.com is blocked by your internet filters. Here’s how to make it work:

1. Turn on the Add Any Gadget by URL feature in the Labs section in Gmail settings. (It is the last feature on my Labs list.) To enable this feature, toggle the “Enable” radio button next to the feature’s listing, and click “Save settings.”
2. Add the twitgether gadget. In the Gadgets section in Gmail settings, you should now have an “Add a gadget by its URL” box. Put this url [http://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml] in the box and click the Add button.
3. Reload Gmail.

You should have a twitter gadget in your Gmail Sidebar now. You’ll need to fill in your twitter account info – the gadget will walk you through that process.  You can update your status by using the input box in the sidebar gadget without opening a full screen. Clicking on the link in the sidebar gadget will open a full screen with your twitter timeline, with options for DM, @ replies, favorites, retweets (you can retweet the new and the old way if you like), lists and search. Clicking to open the full screen gadget obscures your Gmail inbox, though.

If you’re like me, and want immediate availability to your Gmail inbox, you can just open another Gmail session in a new browser tab and open the gadget in the new tab.

Anyone else have any “creative” solutions to getting around an internet filter?

I ran into an internet problem some time ago.  My network kept losing contact with my ISP’s (who shall remain nameless) DNS servers.  For the nerdically-challenged, DNS servers are important because they translate the web addresses we use from the text address into the actual numeric internet protocol (IP) address for the server that is hosting that domain.  No DNS server, you get a lot of “cannot contact web server” errors in your browser.

I was fed up with the continuous issues I was having with my ISP’s DNS servers, I set out to find some other servers I could use that may be more reliable. In my research, OpenDNS came highly recommended, and as a bonus they have other features that are very valuable.

And you can use OpenDNS for free. Yes, free. They also have for-pay services that appeal more to businesses or power users, but the free service gives me everything that I need.

Why I use OpenDNS:

• Their DNS servers are fast and reliable. Since I’ve switched, I’ve not had one DNS issue.
• They offer free internet filtering. You can use their DNS servers without signing up for an account, but creating an account allows you to turn on their filtering solution, which gives you four levels of filtering, no filtering or custom filtering(by site category). Their servers can filter out adware sites, phishing sites, botnets and pornography. This is one of the best ways to protect your personal information, and keep porn off of your network, without installing filtering software on your computer.
• It’s easy to use. Updating your home network router (or your computer, for single computer networks) with their DNS server addresses is all you need to do to use their DNS servers. If you are using their filtering service, you’ll need to install a client program on one of your home computers that keeps your home IP address associated with your settings. They have clients for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• You can blacklist and/or whitelist domains (up to 25 on the free version) in case your filtering level blocks a site you need to visit (whitelist) or doesn’t block a domain you need to block (blacklist).
• You get reports (for the past two weeks on the free version) of the top domains accessed on your network, and the blocked domains requested, all available through the web dashboard at the OpenDNS website.
• It’s Free!

Even if you are not having issues with your ISP’s DNS servers, you might benefit from the services OpenDNS provides, especially the free filtering. There are several software packages that you can install on your computer that do internet filtering (I recommend this one, if that is what you need), but you have to install that software on every computer that you own, and due to licensing restrictions, that may be prohibitively expensive. And in my experience, filtering software tends to drag down the performance of your computer (especially on older hardware). Using OpenDNS filtering allows you to filter all devices on your network, even laptops or smartphones that others bring into your home, without installing software on all of them.

Any questions? Ask me in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer all of them.

A while back, a friend of mine gave me an iBook (PowerPC 3G-600Mhz, 256MB RAM, 20GB hard drive).  It was in good working condition, running OSX 10.1.

I love technology in all of its forms, so having this as another toy to play with was fun. But I can never leave well enough alone. Since I am a glutton for punishment always up for a challenge, I set out to improve this laptop as much as I could. My goal: to actually make it more useful.

My first order of business was a memory upgrade. The one available memory slot would only accept up to a 512mb so-dimm, so I snagged one from E-bay and installed it.  Next, I attempted an OS upgrade. My research showed that anything above OSX 10.2 was too much for the hardware.  Again, E-bay provided me with a 10.2 install and I upgraded successfully.

What I ended up with at this point, was not really what I was hoping for.  My intention was to have something that would handle light web-surfing and maybe some writing.  Unfortunately, there was not a sufficiently advanced web browser that would run on OSX 10.2. For a moment, I was ready to accept defeat.

There is an unwritten rule that pertains to most all computing devices: If it has a microprocessor, there is a good chance that there is a Linux distribution that will run on it. Some further research pointed me in the direction of the Xubuntu Linux distribution, a derivative of Ubuntu, which had a port for PowerPC processors.  Xubuntu was suggested because the user interface uses less system resources than a standard Ubuntu install.

I was able to download version 9.04 of the Xubuntu distribution for PowerPC processors, which installed flawlessly on my iBook 3G, no configuration file hacking required.  Video display, wireless networking and sound worked with no additional tweaking.  Now I have an up-to-date operating system with the latest version of Firefox, and a ton of productivity applications to boot.  Xubuntu is not terribly resource-hungry either, which makes for a snappier interface than even OSX 10.1 or 10.2 in my experience.

If you’re looking to resurrect some older hardware, but want the modern features of the latest OS, Xubuntu (or many of the other flavors of Linux) may be what you are looking for. Fair warning: if you’ve never attempted a Linux install (or any other OS install for that matter), the effort involved may be more than you bargained for.  On an iBook 3G with similar specifications (or most any other PowerPC based Mac), a novice should be able to follow the prompts and have a successful install. For other hardware, it could get much more complicated, especially getting video, sound and networking operating as it should.  Your mileage may vary, Google is your friend.

Good Luck!