Mike Wilks' Blog

I have a number of apps on my iPhone that come and go but these are my “keepers”.

• My Rail Lite
• Twitteriffic
• NetNewsWire
• 1Password

I have various gadets that need powering and I have tried multiple all-in-one battery type chargers. I also have a fascination with solar power, not because of environmental concerns but because free power is just cool.

I have way too many gadgets that I carry around so portable power is fairly important. Generally I have some or all of: iPhone (and one full charge doesn’t get me through a day), Sony Book Reader, Blackberry plus my son’s PSP.

Power Monkey - Now this is a fantastic gadget. It comes in two halves with a solar charger that lives in my office window connected to a portable battery. The kit comes with a load of different charging connectors (called monkey nuts). I love this so much I bought a separate monkey so that I can always have one on charge. I’ve had hit and miss results charging my iPhone from a power monkey until I bought a new monkey nut (which I have now broken). The biggest issue with the power monkey is that charging gadgets on the move is hard because the power tends to become disconnected when you are walking around.

Solio – I’ve had the Solio a while and it currently lives permanently in my office window. I’ve had this so long that I have lost most of the charging ends so it is used now primarily to charge over USB (and to charge my power monkies). Overall it does what it says on the tin, it sits in the window and charges from the sun’s rays. I tend to just forget about it and use it to top up Power Monkeys when it is full.

Juice Pack – This is my latest charging device specifically for my iPhone. It is a very simple idea executed well, it is effectively a holster the phone fits into and while there it is charges from the internal battery of the Juice Pack. It comes with a mini-USB cable which allows the Juice Pack to be charged from a PC. In theory you can plug the iPhone into the Juice Pack and plug in the cable and both iPhone and the Juice Pack get charged but this doesn’t seem to work on my MacBook it charges the Juice Pack only. The cable also allows you to synch the iPhone but I’ve had hit and miss results with this too sometimes getting errors from the Mac.

After I updated to 10.5.6 of OSX my MacBook suddenly denied all knowledge of having a bluetooth device. The fix was simply to reset the PRAM by holding down Option, Command, P, R while booting until the start-up sound played for a second time.

Well WordPress 2.7 is quite nice, lots different from a dashboard perspective. I’ve also updated with a new theme which I have edited slightly to remove some of the “Howdys”. I think it looks much cleaner but I suspect I’ll end up changing again soon.

I sem to be perpetually in a state of having to catch-up on my podcasts and Audible books through lack of time. My current list of podcasts are mainly CNET with some others:

The AppleByte – CNET

Apple Quick Tips – Educational stuff

Best of Chris Moyles Enhanced – Because I don’t have time to listen in a morning

Buzz Out Loud – CNET, the one thing I will always listen to even if I am days behind

Buzz Report – CNET

CNET Top 5 – CNET

Daily Debrief – CNET

Digital Planet – BBC, very good stuff which covers things missed by the US based podcasts

Documentaries – BBC high brow documentaries, not -tech related

ESPN Baseball Today – The only decent baseball podcast – that said it is ESPN

The Feed Daily Podcast – Poor Loaded substitue but not bad

Geekbrief TV - I never miss an episode of Cali

Great Speeches in History – This has been on my iphone for ages, not quite go around to them

Insider Secrets – CNET

Loaded – I never miss an episode of Natli

MacBreak Weekly – Leo Mac related goodness

Mailbag – CNET

Matt’s Today in History – I love these, educational and very interesting

Military Channel Video Podcast - Really interesting

Planet CNET – CNET

Quick Tips – CNET

The Royal Society Audio Podcasts – High-brow and interesting

Scam School – Pop TV type podcast, magic and scam related

Security Bites – CNET

Security Now - Steve Gibson and Leo, really interesting

Sophos Podcast – Essential security and tech listening

Space Place Musings – another good intentions one, not got to it yet

this WEEK in TECH - Essential listening for anyone remotely interested in tech

Wine for Newbies – Not got round to starting these yet

Wine Library Reserve – Very interesting take on wine tasting