Boydo's Tech Talk

Here’s a quick one for tonight.

In amongst the melting pot of social media sites is a new social image sharing site called Pinterest. As the name may imply, this service allows you to pin images and videos of interest to one of your virtual pinboards. Probably the easiest way to pin stuff to your Pinterest account is to use the Pinterest bookmarklet which will find all the pictures and videos on a page and let you choose which one you want to pin to a board along with a short blurb. Some sites also offer a “Pin It” button so you can do it right from the page itself.

However, you should also be aware that websites no also have the power to prevent their content from being pinned to Pinterest. Now there could be good reasons to prevent pinning but in most cases I would see benefit in allowing people to pin content as it would drive additional traffic to your site as Pinterest does provide that link back capability.

For the time being, if you’re interested in seeing what Pinterest is like you can check out my page here and, if you like the look of it, sign up for an invite to join Pinterest here. Or, if you ask nicely, I could perhaps give you an invite as well.

I’ve been on a bit of a weight management thing lately (i.e. getting out and exercising instead of sitting on my butt all the time) and part of that is obviously tracking and recording your stats to make sure things are going in the right direction.

Anyway, I’ve had my Fitbit for a year (still going strong) which has been great to track my activity throughout each day and historically. Here are some stats I have collected using the Fitbit:

• I have walked 2,398,407 steps since I received it,
• Those steps equate to around 1,336.41 kilometres,
• The day with the most steps was March 20, 2011 with 26,483 steps (or 14.57 kilometres),

I reckon that’s pretty neat!

Anyway, Fitbit announced that they are releasing new Wi-Fi scales called the “Fitbit Aria”. Essentially, these are like regular scales but with Wi-Fi built into it along with the capability to link it to your Fitbit account. All you need to do is hop on everyday and it will send off your stats for you to track online.

It even works with up to eight people with a clever way to work out who hopped on the scales most of the time. It manages this by keeping track of last known weight for each person and then allowing for a suitable tolerance around that weight to make an educated guess as to which record belongs to which account. However, if the Fitbit Aria cannot definitively work out which person to assign a given measurement then it will send the data to all linked accounts (which could be embarrassing - it would have been better only to assign the measurement to accounts it believes are potential candidates given tolerance). You can claim or assign a wayward measurement online through your Fitbit account.

Anyway, the Fitbit Aria is released in April and I’ve ordered a white one (because it matches the bathroom, not because it’s white). I’ll be sure to unbox and preview it when it arrives.

For more info, check out the Fitbit Aria product page here.

Stay tuned!

Here’s something I found out the hard way.

I wanted to brush the dust off my old Flickr account and I noticed that it has the option of Facebook authentication. Given how rarely I use Yahoo services I thought it’d be a neat way to avoid remembering another username and password combination (not that it’d be a burden with LastPass).

Anyway, if you want to use Facebook authentication do not sign in with your Facebook account unless you have already linked it to your Flickr account. If you do, then you’ll end up creating a second account.

What you should do is:

1. Login to your Flickr account,
2. Go into your account information by clicking your username up in the top right-hand corner of the screen,
3. Click on the “Sharing & Extending” tab,
4. Click the link to link your Facebook account.

Once done, you can login either with your Flickr username and password or provide Facebook authentication.

Just one final thing, if you did create a new account by accident you can disassociate your Facebook account from it but you need to wait 24 hours after account creation in order to do so.

Here’s a software pick for those looking for a Twitter client for Windows other than TweetDeck.

MetroTwit is a Metro styled Twitter client for Windows. For those that don’t know, Metro is the interface found on Windows Phone 7 and will also be the interface for Windows 8 tablets. The Metro design language basically gives you a grid of tiles (or varying sizes) with clean typography that are easy to touch with a finger whilst also stripping out the graphical chrome that added little value. Live tiles are an evolution of this language which allow tiles to show useful information without actually having to open an app.

For instance, the icon for the weather app on an iPhone or Android device doesn’t tell you anything apart from the fact that it’s an app. On a Windows Phone, you could see the current temperature, forecast high and low temperatures or other metrics of interest. Being able to glance and determine if you want to find out more rather than hop in and out of apps to gather all of that information is far more efficient.

Anyway, we’re going to see more of Metro and for those wanting to get a feel for it without getting a Windows Phone can try it out with MetroTwit.

MetroTwit

It’s quite similar to TweetDeck with the ability to add and remove columns of interest but the headings are very much set out in the Metro style. Even the settings screen is reminiscent of Windows Phone.

MetroTwit Settings

As far as it goes in terms of a client it seems to do what it’s supposed to do as a Twitter client. The only drawback maybe the amount of memory it uses on your system as it is using 670MB on my system with 12GB RAM. I’ll see how it pans out but the memory usage hasn’t affected the general responsiveness of the application. However, you will need .NET Framework 4.0 to run it but you’ll be prompted to install this if your system doesn’t already have it.

For those looking for multiple account support, you might want to check out the beta version of MetroTwit called MetroTwit Loop but beware, there could be bugs.

You can get MetroTwit here and installation is a snap.

Here’s something that might potential float your boat or sink it depending upon your inclination.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has launched a new “meet and seat” service which allows people to select “seatmates” by looking through the social profiles of other passengers who have selected the same flight. Your individual social profile is created and enriched by logging in with your Facebook or LinkedIn account. Passengers are able to select how much or how little information they would like to share including languages spoken (which is probably an important thing if you’re going to strike up a conversation). Otherwise, if the whole idea turns you off you can skip the opt-in and choose a seat anonymously.

The only “gotcha” it seems is that you can’t prevent a particular person from sitting next to you. So, if you found someone you thought was an absolute nightmare you couldn’t absolutely prevent the possibility of ending up sitting with them (unless you chose another flight or gamed your profile to make yourself look as unappealing as possible).

Personally, I couldn’t think of anything worse as an introvert. Being stuck in a cylinder hurtling through the air with nowhere to escape I am more than happy amusing myself for the duration of the flight. That said, I’m sure there are many people who would love this idea. Being able to meet and talk to people that you might not have otherwise come across in your part of the world might be a good way to learn about other cultures or subject matter.

You can read more about it here.

Whilst Windows Phone has Windows Live Messenger and Facebook Chat built in it does leave you disconnected from another major IM network in the form of Google Talk. I think it’s realistic to say that we probably won’t see Google Plus let alone Google Talk functionality included natively in the Windows Phone OS but there are apps that will fill the void for you.

Once such app is Gchat and it does what you would expect compared to the official Google Talk client on an Android device except for video and voice chat. Gchat will also give you the option of setting up push notifications and you’ll get a toast notification on your screen when a new message arrives. It’s fairly simple and will do the job keeping you connected with your Google Talk buddies.

Gchat is free on the Marketplace but there’s also a paid version to thank the developer for their work.

For a lot of people using Windows the Twitter client of choice is TweetDeck however it can be a problem to get running if you are unable to install Adobe Air on the computer (which is often the case in corporate or enterprise environments). Otherwise, if you are staunchly against installing Adobe Air on your computer you might find this alternative more ideal.

What you can do is instead go to http://web.tweetdeck.com where you will need to login with your TweetDeck account but if you don’t have an account you can create one on the page. Once signed up, you can then start linking your Twitter and Facebook accounts to your TweetDeck account so all of the updates appear in the one place. Otherwise, if you already have an account, your saved configuration will be used.

The only problem with using the TweetDeck web client is that it only works under Google Chrome or Safari with Firefox and Internet Explorer users left out in the cold. Typically, businesses may not allow Chrome or Safari to be installed as Internet Explorer offer far more flexibility in the way it can be locked down and restricted through system policies. Furthermore, the pace at which Chrome is updated often outstrips the ability of the IT department to undertake proper compatibility testing before allowing updates to be deployed to company assets.

However, for the rest of us at home, the TweetDeck web client is perhaps a good way to keep track of Facebook and Twitter updates on your Windows machines if you want to reduce the range of software installed on the,

I’ve shared this on Facebook and Google Plus already but I have to mention it here as well.

Today, I had my first post published on the Panasonic Australia blog as Insider Guru and, to say the least, I’m quite stoked about it! It’s also my first post on a blog other than my own which was a new experience for me. I’ll have future posts coming on the Panasonic Australia blog so make sure you go check it out. I’ll also be cross-posting to Facebook and Google Plus when a new post goes up as well.

I guess for me I have always liked to be able to share thoughts, information and solutions with others and help them to get an understanding of how stuff works or how a problem came about.  This blog has been a natural extension of that intent which had a fundamental basis of trying to help people find some answers to their questions. At the very least I’ve wanted to give visitors to this blog some food for thought when they are considering their next tech purchase or looking for some guidelines on various topics.

Of course, I don’t claim to know it all but I do know that I don’t know it all. The great thing is that learning about new stuff is all part of the fun of trying to fill in all the gaps and maybe falling down a rabbit hole or two that might get you into something really interesting.

Even if you find technology as a whole confusing or overwhelming then just start with something small to get a hold of first. It could be something as simple as learning how to use copy and paste using keyboard shortcuts or how to reset all of those flashing clocks after a blackout or maybe reading about how something works. You might be surprised by how much you might pick up by taking your time and investigating things that pique your interest!

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is always an exciting time of year on the geek calendar and this year has already unearthed a few things of interest.

MySpace (for those of you who still remember it) had most of its users pulled over by the enormous gravity generated by Facebook. This left Myspace as a ghost town for social interactivity unless you were a small time music artist trying to get your big break in the industry.

In a move that reinvents Myspace as an “entertainment experience” it  seeks to steer it away from its heritage of traditional social interactions and toward sharing your various media experiences. It could be a particularly funny part of a comedy, your favourite part of a music video, a memorable clip from a movie or just one of those legendary sporting moments. The service will also allow you to see the sorts of content, genres and artists that your friends like as well as how media across these categories are trending (a bit like trending terms for Twitter).

The kicker is that not only will you be able to use this on your mobile phone, tablet or computer you’re also going to be able to use this on selected Panasonic Smart VIErA televisions through the VIErA Connect platform using the “Myspace Companion app”. You’ll also be able to do things like watch a sporting event with your friends at the same time and chat with each other during the event. There was also mention of being able to video chat while you are playing video games.

To me, Myspace TV seems a bit like GetGlue on steroids and I’ll be very interested to see how this new service from Myspace takes off.

Here’s a quick tip for tonight.

Twitter has recently add a new function on the web to quickly find mentions of your Twitter handle as well as a history of who has followed you.

Simply go to Twitter and under the tweet box you’ll see your username (so mine would be @boydostechtalk). Click on this and you’ll see all of your mentions and follow history. If you just want to see you mentions, just tick the box next to “Show mentions only” and it will filter out the follows.