Another Month, Another Winner

It’s March, and you all know what that means - it’s time to pick another winner in our ongoing blog contest, and give stuff away!

 This month the lucky winner is Kay, who commented on the post Spread the Word - it’s National Consumer Protection Week. Congratulations, Kay! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it just reply to this post and let me know.

To everyone else, it’s March 1st and time to start all over again. Keep the comments coming and maybe this month, the winner will be you!

Another Smartphone Tip

I’m seeing a lot of Smartphone tips published lately, so am jumping on the bandwagon and adding one of my own. And since I’m suchan advocate of simplicity, mine is a very simple one. It even works on any cellphone, not just Smartphones.

When setting up any kind of off-site meeting, appointment, or date, send the person you’re meeting your cellphone number. When they send theirs back (which everyone does, if you write “in case anything comes up, here’s my mobile number”), put it into your cellphone. It takes about 20 seconds, and if something goes wrong - either on your part or theirs - you have a very easy way to reach them.

If you don’t want their number stored permanently you can always erase it after the meeting (I usually store one-time numbers in the “Temp” category, and just clean them out when I’m stuck in a waiting room.)

I thought most people did this already, but am realizing that’s not true. If people sync their phones with their desktop contacts, and everyone puts their mobile phone numbers in their contact info, this becomes automatic, but it’s clear to me (from seeing and hearing other people in public) that this isn’t the case right now.

I know this isn’t extremely specific to our software or our site, but it’s such a simple way to avoid problems, it seemed worth mentioning.

OpenDNS for More Reliable Internet Access

At home I’ve had pretty unreliable Internet service through the local cable company. Turns out they have a tough time keeping their DNS server(s) up and running so when I type “www.iliumsoft.com” into the browser, they often can’t translate the domain into the IP address and send me to the correct web page. Yesterday I read about an interesting solution to this kind of problem on Scott Hanselman’s blog, called OpenDNS.

After reading Scott’s article and the responses to it, I thought I’d give OpenDNS a try. The service is free and has some interesting side benefits if you register, including auto-correcting some common spelling errors when you type in a domain name and anti-phishing at the DNS level. The part I really like: no software to install. The instructions are very good – I ended up changing two DNS settings in my Linksys router and now my whole family can take advantage of the new service.

Want more information on their service or just on DNS in general? Check out their FAQ. So far their service seems pretty zippy and it has got to be more reliable than what my cable company is dishing up. Check out the service and let me know how it goes.

Daylight Saving Time Update for Windows Mobile

You may have read about the changing going into effect in the United States, Canada and Mexico this year with Daylight Saving Time: DST will now start three weeks earlier and will end one week later. The newly announced Windows Mobile 6 devices won’t require an update but earlier devices including Windows Mobile 5.0, 2003 and 2003 Second Edition will require an updated DST table to automatically switch to and from DST on the proper dates. The good news is that there are information and tools available on the Windows Mobile site to help with all this now. You can find it all on the new Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time page.

Do Me a Favor, Will You?

I just uploaded a new little trick for the home page of our site. It is now set up to magically send you to the mobile site if you’re browsing on your PDA. But that’s not all! If you decide, for whatever reason, that you want to visit our “big” web site from your PDA instead, and you click the “Visit Main Website” link in the mobile version, you should magically not be sent back to the mobile site. So, here’s the favor I need….

Can you let me know if it doesn’t work? We tested it a lot last week, and everything seems to be fine, but looks can be deceiving, can’t they? I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but if you’re ever trying to browse our site, and you end up at the mobile version when you really want to be on the “big” version (or vice versa) just do me a quick favor and drop a comment in this post letting me know what you were doing so I can fix it. Thanks!

This Just In: Software Site Goes Nuts for NewsBreak

The site FreeFunFiles.com has just chosen NewsBreak as the February winner of their Golden Acorn Award. They’re nuts for software over there (get it, nuts, acorn…ah, you get it) and they think NewsBreak is a pretty cool app. After hearing the good news, NewsBreak excitedly cheered “I’m going to Disney World!”

You can visit our site to find out more about NewsBreak, our news feed reader that helps you stay informed on your favorite news, sports, weather, and blogs (like this one!) wherever you go. Try it free for 30 days on your Pocket PC or Windows Smartphone and see for yourself why the Golden Acorn has now been added to its list of awards. Oh, and I’m having NewsBreak bring me back a pair of those mouse ears from Disney World, so if you want anything, let me know….