Getting FaceTime for Mac

This part’s easy! Just head over to http://www.apple.com/mac/facetime/ and hit the “Download the Beta” button. The download is almost 150MB, so set aside a few minutes (or hours if you have a slower connection), but the software is free, so no complaining! This though brings me to my next point, this software is in beta. I’ve been using it for over a month now and haven’t run into any serious bugs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t. You just have to keep in mind that you are using a beta product. Also be aware that FaceTime for Mac requires OS X Snow Leopard, so don’t even try installing without it, because it won’t work. Once the download is complete and the software is installed, launch FaceTime and we’re off to the races!

Creating Your FaceTime Account

The first time you launch FaceTime, you’ll be asked to create a FaceTime account. This basically just means setting up an account associated with whatever your most frequently used email address is. This way, when people try to add you, they won’t have a difficult time. You’ll assign a password to your account, or use your iTunes account information (or Apple ID) and FaceTime will import its contact list from your Mac’s Address Book.

Using FaceTime

The first thing you likely want to do is add the contact you think you’ll FaceTime most frequently to your Favorites list. This is accomplished by simply clicking the “+” sign in the top right corner of the below window, and then clicking their name.

Now that you’ve got a few contacts added to your Favorites, simply clicking one will call them. You can tell if someone is available for FaceTime by the camera indicator next to their name. The question mark means they may or may not be available, but the blank camera means they are. Click a name, and a FaceTime call is started! This means you can call people with Mac’s or iPod’s by having their FaceTime account-associated email in your contacts, or call them on their iPhone by having their mobile phone number in your book.  Pretty handy if you know a lot of people with FaceTime!

Once you’re in a call, the default view looks like this:

Just like in Skype, your picture is minimized to the bottom of the window, and your friend is the main window, making it very natural to focus on the person you’re talking to! Also take note of the menu at the top. Under Video you’ll find a few interesting perks. First is the Enter Full Screen option, giving you a much more focused, even theatre-like, experience.

This menu also offers options for switching to Landscape mode, using different microphones than that which is set to default, and muting your FaceTime call so they can’t hear what you’re saying, just like on a normal telephone or cell phone.

Wrap-Up

Actually using FaceTime for Mac is as simple as most other operations are on a Mac. The layout is simple, clean, and beautiful, and it works quite well. The downsides? In my opinion, the biggest would be that the uninitiated user would see no extremely obvious place that the contacts come from, nor would they see an obvious way to start a call with a contact. If Apple can keep the layout simple, as well as expand the user base, FaceTime for both Mac’s and all other Apple products could become a popular form of communication. Until then though, it will likely continue to be something that enthusiasts are in to more than anyone.

What do you think of FaceTime? Do you wish it were more like Skype? Where is Skype with a cross-platform (including mobiles) app anyway? Tell us what you think in the comments!

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These problems have been alleviated by the new Android app TalkMyPhone.

TalkMyPhone works by having your phone connect to your instant messaging client. The IM client then displays your text messages and other information as though it was a conversation with any IM contact. The beauty of TalkMyPhone is that it also allows you to act on the information you receive, for example by replying to a message.

Download

Homepage | AppBrain | Market

Set-Up (Computer)

There are two ways of setting up TalkMyPhone. You can either add it to your IM client as a new contact or as yourself. I have chosen to add it as a new contact on my IM client of choice: Digsby.

Step One: Navigate to https://register.jabber.org/ and create a new Jabber account.

Step Two: Add the new Jabber account as a friend on your IM client. In my case my Jabber account was test123@jabber.org

Step Three: Make sure that your new contact appears in your IM client (it may appear offline).

Set-Up (Phone)

After you have downloaded and installed TalkMyPhone on your Android phone you will have to set it up to communicate with your newly created Jabber account and your IM client.

Step One: Launch the app and select TalkMyPhone Preferences.

Step Two: Input the relevant information.

• Address to notify: enter you standard Gmail address
• Use a different account: check the option
• Login: enter your newly created Jabber account (e.g. test123)
• Password: enter the password associated with your newly created Jabber account
• Under Additional settings enter the following:
  • Server host: jabber.org
  • Server port: 5222
  • Service name: jabber.org

Step Three: Choose notification options.

I use all the notification options save for the battery state changes as this overwhelms my IM client with notifications every few minutes!

Step Four: Select Start/Stop TalkMyPhone from the apps main page on your Android phone.

The app will connect with your new Jabber account and a message will be displayed on your IM client indicating that a connection has been established.

Usage

Once the app is set-up, you can issue any of the following commands from your IM client’s conversation window:

Examples:

Sending a message to a contact

Location

Conclusion

TalkMyPhone allows me to free myself from my phone and focus on my computer when I am at my desk. It is much easier to respond to messages using my IM client than my phone. Also, it is useful to be able to receive notifications through the IM client so I don’t have to keep looking over to my phone.

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Windows Mobile can be synchronised via ActiveSync with your PC or Exchange server to keep synchonrised your contacts list, calendars and flagged emails and tasks – but tourble can arise in the shape of duplicates.

If Microsoft truly intend on aligning the Windows Mobile/Windows Phone platform to the same market spread as Apple, BlackBerry and Palm Pre, resolving the laughable situation with the contacts, calendar and tasks duplicate should be high on their list of priorities.

Until Windows Mobile 7 is released however, Trinefix is by far and away the best solution to this frustrating problem.

Available from www.trineseries.com, the download file is 518 KB and this can quickly be downloaded either directly to your PC or over the air to your phone via this link.

Once installed, it’s time to setup Trinefix to scan your Pocket Outlook items and fix your duplicates!

Using Trinefix

Before continuing, the first thing to do is configure Trinefix for use with your setup.  The Preferences screen is pretty simple and straightforward and has little to do with what the software does, more how it looks.

Configuring Trinefix for use with your setup means considering how you use your Windows Mobile phone. If you store contacts, keep calendar appointments and manage your current tasks using Pocket Outlook and these are all updated by synching to your PC or Exchange server, then a full clean-up is definitely required.

On the other hand you might just need to tidy up an individual element, such as your contacts – in this case you would only need to use the Contacts clean up. We’ll begin looking at how to use Trinefix by focussing on the Contacts tool.

Fix Duplicate Contacts

Start off by switching to or launching Trinefix and scroll down to the Contacts menu item. Each of the duplicate management tools can be accessed from the main Trinefix menu.

Four options are given:

Fix duplicates – this cleans all duplicates in your contacts list. You can designate which fields to be compared and Trinefix will display all duplicate contacts based on this field, allowing you to choose to delete.

Fix FileAs – with this option you can set the “File As” option to display all of your contacts the same way, such as surname first, forename first, etc.

Fix Country Code – allows you to add a default country code to all numbers with none defined. Trinefix can collect all numbers without a country code to allow you to set one of your choice.

Bulk Delete – this obviously facilitates a bulk removal of contacts, either based on a search term or just the whole lot. A confirmation screen allows you to double check your decision.

Fix Duplicate Calendar Items

This intelligent tool compares the start time and date, end time and date and the subject/appointment name and checks for duplicates which are then displayed and an option to delete offered. The  bulk delete option works in the same way as above.

Bulk Delete Tasks

There is no easy way to manage your tasks – Trinefix offers only a bulk delete tool that works in the same way as the contacts and calendar items bulk delete.

With all of these tools at your disposal, time spent resolving Pocket Outlook duplicate issues can be considerably reduced with this very cool freeware app!

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