De-googling Part 2

In Part 1 of my de-Googling experiment, I described how I'd moved from gMail to Office 365 and was looking at alternatives to Google for stuff other than email and "Office" type applications.

What with the recent panic regarding the changes to their privacy policy (and, it must be said, they're being quite open about it - I think the main issue is that it's made people realise exactly how much info the Big G holds on us), I've decided to extend the de-Googling to see how I get on.

Good timing, as Firefox 10 came out this past week, so I've been giving that a try, in preference to Chrome. So far, it's going fine. It doesn't seem any better or any worse than Chrome, so I'm happy to stick with it.

I've also started using DuckDuckGo (surely one of the easiest domain names to type wrong and then definitely get something you weren't intending to - or perhaps you were), following this post from MacSparky. It takes some getting used to. Not because there's anything wrong with it. Quite the contrary, in fact. It's just that it isn't that same old Google Search I've been using for the past countless number of years.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that the trickiest part of de-Googling for me was probably going to be finding a replacement for Google Reader. Well, I've found a solution to that, too. I've stopped reading RSS feeds. A bit of a drastic step (for me), and I was getting withdrawal symptoms at first, but I have either/both my iPhone and iPad with me at all times, and Zite and Flipboard are doing just fine as replacements.

So, what's left of Google that I'm still using? Docs, mostly, and I've got a fair bit of shared stuff in there, so that's the next thing I'll be looking at replacing. And Picasa, which I'll probably shift to Flickr. There's also Google Analytics, but that's not so much of an issue, as I'm a fan of GetClicky and Piwik.

Why am I doing this? Well, for the same reason a lot of people are unhappy with Google at the moment - the realisation of just how much data they have on me and the use of that data to target ads to me that I don't want. I'm more than happy to pay the 4 quid a month to Microsoft for Office 365 to not have any ads coming my way. Apart from that, I very much prefer the Office UI. Despite efforts to "tidy up" gMail, I actually find it hard to see the content of the email these days what with all the crap that surrounds it.

So, it's going well. I'm not missing Google in the slightest, much to my surprise. I'm not so naive as to think that I'm not being tracked, recorded, measured, targeted etc on virtually every site I visit, but it's nice to at least feel like I have some measure of control.

Okay, what magic sauce does Netflix use for streaming?

I've tried a multitude of video streaming services over the past few weeks, all using my 3 MiFi.

Sky Go just pauses every few seconds, making it unwatchable. LoveFilm does the same, and often just stops playing completely. iPlayer will often work fine for an hour or so, then I'll just get a black screen (but audio continues).

Yet Netflix just carries on regardless. It degrades the video quality should the net speed drop, but that's fine. That's how it should be. It's far less distracting than losing the video completely.

Whatever they're using, I'm pleased they do. (And I suspect it's this).

OmniFocus for Mac - Should I Get It? (Yet)

I’m considering getting OmniFocus for the Mac. I’ve already got it for the iPhone and iPad. However, I’m a bit cautious, as it’s at version 1.9.4, so I’m guessing V2 won’t be too far away and I don’t want to pay the not inconsiderable cost only to find I’ll have to pay full price again for V2 in the not too distant future.

Any advice?

I don’t doubt it’s capabilities and I love the iOS apps, I just don’t want to end up paying twice in too short a time. If I knew it wasn’t coming out this year, I’d definitely buy V1 now.

iCloud Mail - Is It Just Me?

Am I just unlucky, or does it simply not work on iOS devices?

Every few days, I'll switch it on on my iPhone and iPad and watch it do pretty much nothing at all. I get the headers, but no messages ever download.

I see plenty of discussion on the forums from people with the same issue, but there doesn't seem to be any definite way of making it work.

Surely, if I'm not an isolated case (and I'm not, according to all the forum posts), this is a big issue, yet nobody seems to be making much of a fuss about it.

What am I missing?

Logitech Mini Boombox

I've been after a wireless portable speaker for some time to go with my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air, particularly for use whilst I'm working away from home, to listen to music and, more recently, for use with Netflix for watching movies etc.

I'm no audiophile (I havent got the best hearing in the world), and I wasn't prepared to spend a huge amount of money on it, so I was interested to hear about Logitech's new Mini Boombox, at a rather reasonable 65 quid or so.

Promptly arriving from Amazon, it's presented in the usual Logitech style, but I'm not big on packaging (except where Apple products are concerned), so I quickly discarded all the plastic and plugged it in to the mains for its first charge. It'll charge from either the mains cable or USB (both supplied) and then keep going on the batteries for a claimed 10 hours or so.

Whilst charging, I began pairing it via Bluetooth with my various devices, trying out the iPhone first.

Woah, this tiny thing is impressive (as the actress said…)! As I mentioned above, I don't have the best hearing in the world, but I do know good quality (at least, to my ears) when I hear it, and this certainly delivers the goods. It's not as good (nor would I expect it to be) as some of the £150 + items you can pick up, but for the cost, it delivers nice audio. It transforms watching a movie on the iPad, or listening to music from the iPhone or MBA using Spotify.

There's no lag at all, so no sync problems between video and audio. It can get its knickers in a twist if I try and use it with, say, the iPad after I've been using it with the iPhone, so I tend to manually disconnect from the previous device if I intend to use it with another. A bit of a pain, but not a huge problem and certainly not unique to the Boombox.

I'd thoroughly recommend it. For me, it's being mainly used whilst I'm stuck in hotel rooms, but it'd be equally handy to take on holiday, use at the BBQ etc.