I work from my home office, which obviously has many advantages, but being able to connect to co-workers and others across the United States, or the world, can sometimes pose a challenge.  E-mail and Instant Messaging is essential, but being able to send large documents and media has always been a bit of a catch.  It’s hard to know what the attachment limit is for the e-mail provider you use, and I can’t count how many times I have e-mail rejected because of large file attachments.  

There are several ways to upload files and get them to another person.  The first thing that comes to mind is FTP, but not everyone has their own server, and for some FTP might be too complicated.  There are also many sites you can upload files to, but I just don’t trust these services especially with sensitive information.  Another issue is even if you upload the file somewhere, figuring out the exact link can also be a bit of work aadepending on which solution you use.  I often have to transfer large media files via FTP to a colleague, and with all the sub-directories I have the file is usually translated into a very long url.  Not real friendly.

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At WWDC this year all the attention and hype was dedicated to the iPhone 3G, but think many overlookedthe announcement of MobileMe.  MobileMe was announced as the replacement for .Mac and introduced many new features and labeled it as “Exchange for the rest of us”.  I was never a customer of .Mac, I just personally didn’t see the value in it unless you had several Macs to keep synced, which I did not.  MobileMe caught my eye mainly for the fact that it will sync my e-mail, contacts, and calendars among multiple devices, including the iPhone and my Windows PC.

Apple also showed off the new web applications that will be launched with MobileMe.  This really peaked my interest as it has a unified interface  so regardless of what platform I am on, I will have the same experience.  At least that is what I am hoping.  That pretty much convinced me that MobileMe would be worth the investment, so my step was a trip to the Apple Store.

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I noticed last month that Delicious Library 2 was released by Delicious Monster, and this was anotherapplication I was anxious to try out.  Delicious Library can best be described as an application that lets you easily catalog all types of items like your music collection, DVD’s, software, and more.  Why is this useful you might ask?  Well first off, having a complete inventory of items is very important if they were to ever be stolen or destroyed.  Keeping a detailed record of your items is essential for insurance recovery.  Secondly, if you are like me, you have some type of OCD where you need to keep a strict record of everything you own.  Regardless of the reasons, Delicious Library is the most efficient way I have found to accomplish this task.

The UI of an application is always something I instantly scrutinize, and Delicious Library has an impressive design.  The most noticeable is the bookcase-like window that not only has an attractive appearance, but makes browsing the libraries efficient.  There are a few ways to add items, one of which is manually adding them.  Just select the type of item, such as ’software’, and type the title in.  It will then search a database and if it’s there, will present the choices from which you can select.  I had no trouble finding and adding various items in several of the categories.  For the few items which weren’t found, it was simple to add a blank item and enter the relevant information from there.  You can also search for items and have an option to buy them from Amazon.com too.

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By Wardy Miller

Almost a year ago Apple released the iPhone, I was one of the guys they filmed standing in line to get one of the new shiny Apple goodies. Steve Jobs said it would be the coolest phone ever, and he didn’t lie. The iPhone 1.0 is the best phone I have ever had. Now at WWDC, Steve has demonstrated, iPhone 2.0 software which looks AWESOME. In addition to that he showed iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G looks so cool, It should be called the iPhone speed, because that is what it is all about. The blazing fast speed of the 3G network, or GPS, the iPhone v2 is very interesting. Not to mention the super price point of $199.00 for the 8 gig and $299 for the 16 gig.

Now here is my dilemma, and I am hoping that the readers of iBam can help me out. Even though I already have an iPhone, how do I justify to my wife the need for me to get a new iPhone? What about you? Do you have an iPhone v1? Are you going to get a v2 iPhone. 

If you plan to pass on the iPhone, what is stopping you? 

Today was the day that many people have been talking about, and that was the keynote at this years WorldWide Developers Conference in San Francisco.  Speculation has been growing for months about a new version of the iPhone, and just in the last couple of weeks there has been many rumors about .Mac being updated and rebranded.  Well it seems both of those were confirmed today in the keynote by Steve Jobs.

First up is the .Mac rebranding, which is now called MobileMe.  Aside from the name change this seems to be a significant update to the service.  One of the biggest surprises for me was the fact that this service will now sync with Windows, including Outlook.  I still need to catch up with all the features, but basically it’s a huge way to sync all your mail, contacts, calendars, and more between your Mac, iPhone, and even the PC.  A guided tour is available which gives a great overview of what’s new.  It will be available in July and I for one can’t wait to get my hands on it.
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