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Jobs’ keynote may have been the center of attention at Macworld 2008, but Garmin took the wraps off of Bobcat, an OS X-only application that will no doubt be the center of all things Garmin GPS-related on your Mac.

It’s a beta (sigh) and Universal application for OS X 10.4+. There is no word on whether they will be charging for the 1.0 release, but I suspect the app will remain free since they make the big bucks on the map$.

Bobcat has the following features:

• allows you to transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between your Mac and Garmin device and manage your data using your Garmin maps
• provides the ability to search for points of interest from the convenience of your Mac and then send the locations to your Garmin GPS
• serves as a backup tool for your Garmin GPS. You can receive all your waypoints, routes, and tracks from your GPS and Bobcat will save them automatically

If you want to get your Garmin maps from your PC to your Mac, they’ve put together a guide [PDF] to help you along (you’ll need MapConverter for your PC).

Here’s a look at the Bobcat main screen:

I’ll post a full review of Bobcat once I put it through its paces (loading my PC maps, importing from my various Garmin GPS devices and testing out the general functionality).

You can entertain yourself until then by perusing the new Mac section on Garmin’s site and loading some of their Mac software. If you’re at Macworld definitely stop by their booth and cheer them up (Steve can’t have all the attention there).

Technorati Tags: 2008 Apple bobcat Fitness Gadgets Garmin gps macworld os x

NewerTech announced a new iPhone dock & speakerphone combination gadget today that is priced right at $35.00 (USD) and looks pretty decent (though I hope that shiny, white polymer is not just a really cheap, plastic shell).

Drop a note in the comments if you pick one up. Very interested in the sound quality and how they’ve handled the GSM⇔speaker interference problems that plague these types of configurations.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Gadgets iphone newertech

My review of the Shure MPA-3C headset adapter is up on TAB.

A teaser for you:

One of the issues I’ve had with with Apple’s iPods is the inclusion of those annoying ear-bud headphones. From sound quality to comfort, they are without a doubt the worst part of the package. When Apple released the iPhone they did manage to enhance the wretched, white audible tether with a decent microphone and control mechanism that wound up being useless to folks like me who cannot use the earbuds. It drove some to hardware hacks (YouTube link warning) and others, like Shure to the design room and manufacturing line.

Technorati Tags: 2007 adapter Apple audio Gadgets headset iphone shure the apple blog

Packet Storm just posted four iPhone and/or iPod Touch exploits, the last of which can do a simple DoS by killing your battery.

When you rely on breaking the security of your device to do “cool” things with it, you get what you deserve. i’d like the phone to be open now and be able to write apps for it, but I’m not desperate enough to hack it and expose new vulnerabilities to the world.

Hopefully the next firmware will be out soon with fixes and some new features.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple Gadgets iphone iPod security Array

Now I won’t have to clean the gutters in the new house, thanks to the iRobot Looj.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Gadgets robots Technology

A couple more things:

• Chat client. The need Jabber & AIM connectivity @ least. If only on wi-fi.
• Full Bluetooth headset support. I paired my Motorola HT820 stereo headset with the iPhone and could use it for phone conversations, but not for music. Just plain dumb. No good reason not to support this.

I also wasn’t thrilled that my car charger/dock that also has a line-out connector doesn’t work with the iPhone (the device said so via a nicely formatted popup). It said it was charging it, but the phone got extremely warm, so I won’t be plugging it in there again.

I also had to turn the phone on-and-off again today (day 3 of ownership) since the response from the touchscreen was almost nonexistent.

I’ll keep documenting issues/requests. It was good to see that there may be Flash support coming soon.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple Gadgets iphone Technology

Two additions to theprevious post:

• Streaming radio. While they claim to have support for streaming media, it’s only through certain protocols and formats. Like the Apple TV, I still cannot play iTunes-listed or manual-playlist-generated streaming radio links through the iPod portion of the iPhone. Trying to play the stream from WHYY via Safari gave me an error message as well. I don’t think folks would mind if this were limited to wi-fi only, especially given the slow EDGE speeds.
• Blogging client. While relying on internet access and site forms for blogging is not unreasonable, a local client would be much more useful (i.e. think ecto on the iPhone).

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple Gadgets iphone Technology

So, I wound up getting an iPhone. Goodbye, Verizon. Hello, AT&T.

You can (and probably have) read all about Apple’s latest device, so I won’t bore you with the standard list of features. Overall, the device is the best phone I’ve played with, and I’ve seen them all: from first-model BlackBerry units to the RAZR to all of the various incarnations of Windows mobile devices. They all were horrid and unintuitive - apart from just plain dialing, and even then the Windows mobile units were just plain ugly even doing that.

The iPhone is just big enough, just small enough, just heavy enough and just light enough to carry around and use regularly while still feeling like a solid piece of engineering. It fits into all of the designed-for-cell-phone pockets I have on various pieces of clothing and hasn’t broken since Monday (it’s Wednesday, so that’s a good run for me with a device with so much glass on it). While there is more than just one physical button, Apple kept them to a useful minimum and I don’t have any concern about hitting the wrong one, ever. The majority of the device operations just make sense and work extremely intuitively. The camera is great in decent light (640x480 resolution) and the Internet experience on both wi-fi and EDGE are quite tolerable. Videos look great and music and calls sound clear and distortion-free.

So, what does Apple need to do for firmware version 1.1?

• Make contacts a primary widget. It’s trivial, but having to go to the phone app then to the contacts is one step too many. I’m thinkin’ something called “Address Book” on the main page (or just “Contacts”).
• Enable video capture. It’s a great camera, limited to just still pictures. It’s a no-brainer to allow shooting video and they need to enable this.
• Overhaul iPhone mail app. The mail app works OK. My biggest gripe is the lack of a delete all function (deleting multiple msgs is tedious). My second biggest gripe is no landscape mode for mail. Which is a good segue to…
• More apps need landscape support. I want to be able to rotate any app, especially to use a keyboard with more real estate. It’s a GUI inconsistency that Apple needs to remedy.
• Stabilize Safari and add Flash support. The browser crashes on complex sites and has no Flash support. For a modern web experience, both need to be looked at and addressed.
• Include an RSS widget. Google Reader in mobile mode works OK, but a solid, local app would work even better. The iPhone is yearning to have one. You can just hear it asking.
• iTunes ringtones. While I’m fine with a beep or two, it makes no sense to not allow the selection of a ringtone from the library on the iPhone.

That’s all, so far. And, if that’s the worst of it, then Apple did an amazing job with this new gadget.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple Gadgets iphone Technology

A reader (yes, a reader of at least one of these blog posts…hard to believe it, eh?) pointed out in a comment today that Montebello Software makes an interesting app called Ascent which seems to fill in many of the gaps Garmin left with it’s new OS X Training Center, and provides some extra functionality to boot.

Alas, you’ll have to wait for a review since I won’t be able to play with Ascent until tonight or tomorrow. It’s nice to have options, tho, and it’s great to see another GPS-enabled OS X app out there.

Technorati Tags: Apple Cycling Fitness Gadgets Garmin Hiking os x Running training

Since I posted a somewhat-disparaging commentary on the sorry state of the Sony CONNECT store & software, I wanted to update the site with at least one or two positive comments.

Sony seems to have listened to their users and the CONNECT store is vastly more responsive both in browsing and searching. Their search algorithm could still use a bit of tweaking - I searched for “card” under authors and it came up with nothing, despite new additions from Orson Scott Card.

They also seem to have added a slew of books and included more popular authors (like the aforementioned Orson Scott Card).

The software is still Windows-only and I cannot order books from the web-based one, only browse. Unlike iTunes, however, I can at least browse without the app.

So, kudos for speed, selection & some some parts of searching. Now, get to work on the OS X port!

Technorati Tags: Gadgets Sony Personal Reader System (PRS-500)