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Technovia

Ian Betteridge on Macs, mobiles, and technology

Kiwi: The best Mac Twitter client yetYesterday

As you’ll know if you follow me or this blog on Twitter, I’me a voracious Twitterer. I also can’t stand Adobe Air applications, which means that my options for Twitter applications are somewhat limited.

There’s a few around, of course. Tweetie is good, but hasn’t been developed for a little while and lacks support for “modern” Twitter features like lists and native retweet. Echofon has a lot going for it, but its support for multiple accounts is limited and, I find, a bit frustrating. And Socialite frustrates me, as it often seems to make my Mac show the beach ball of doom.

Looks matter

Given this, I’m quite surprised that Kiwi managed to evade me for so long. In its default state, Kiwi looks lovely – and you can skin it to make it look like pretty-much anything you like, too. Themes are created using HTML and CSS, so even non-coders like me can create something unique if they so wish.

Sync your Mac with an LG phone with FoneSyncYesterday

Shocking as this might sound, not everyone wants an iPhone. And if you have a phone from LG, you might want to check out FoneSync, a new application from Novamedia which lets you sync contacts and calendar information from your Mac to a variety of LG phones.

At present, only three phones are compatible: The HB620T, KF750, and KU990. However, other LG phones might work, and Novamedia is offering a PhoneInspector application which you can download to check if your phone is supported.

FoneSync costs €19, and is available now.

HTC Bravo head-to-head with Google Nexus One?Yesterday

When I predicted that Google wouldn’t launch its own phone, one of the reasons I believed it was unlikely was that everything pointed to it being a rebadged HTC Bravo (otherwise known as the HTC Passion). While I was wrong about Google launching its own phone, I was right about the rebadge job – and it seems that it may be the Bravo, not the Nexus One, which is heading into the UK retail market.

The HTC Bravo, of course, will feature the company’s Sense UI, as featured on the HTC Hero (video below).

Worst iPad reporting everFebruary 4

This article by Jonathan Zittrain is why it’s wise not to let law professors write about technology:

If Apple is the gatekeeper to a device’s uses, the governments of the world need knock on the door of only one office in Cupertino, California – Apple’s headquarters – to demand changes to code or content . Users no longer own or control the apps they run – they merely rent them minute by minute.

I know he’s striving for an analogy here, but putting in an analogy which suggests you simply don’t know what you’re talking about isn’t exactly good practice.

CrunchGear catches the TechCrunch bullshit bugFebruary 1

Apparently, Apple is now responsible for via killing hardware innovation throughout the industry, at least according to John Biggs.

Remember when Apple bought up all the Flash memory? Well, Apple has also cornered the market in touchscreens. A few months ago I spoke to one inventor who had a horrible time trying to grab capitative touchscreens for a project, even at the smaller electronics markets. Manufacturers knew that something from Apple was about to drop so they drove up prices, resulting in a standstill in innovation.

By pricing the iPad at about $500 on a good day, Apple has forced Asia’s hand. The company clearly did plenty of deals with Foxconn and the rest of the suppliers down the line and while folks like LG are making a mint on screens and other components, they have essentially closed the spigot overseas leading companies like Asus and Acer to announce that they won’t try to compete.

This also explains why other companies just couldn’t get past the resistive touchscreen for so long. Suppliers knew that Apple was sniffing around and so they kept prices high. As a result we had almost two years of me-too garbage coming out of Samsung, Sony, and Nokia until �