Over at http://ipxsync.com/ there's information about a new service, listed as currently in beta, that will allow you to get your Exchange information on your iPhone. Appropriately dubbed iPXSync, it's offered SaaS style and they say will be simple to set up and get running.

UPDATED: Someone from iPXSync sends along this link to a FAQ page (nice that they're watching the discussion and participating!), and Kevin over at JKOnTheRun also posted about this, and has posted a follow-up that helps to answer some of the same questions I have.

All security concerns aside (the iPhone has quite literally no IT controls available for it in case you lose it or something), it's an interesting possibility and it'll be fun to see how they deliver this. I'm hoping it's what people are assuming - wireless connectivity to the information on Exchange in the actual installed apps on the iPhone, although without proxying and (therefore) potentially storing highly sensitive information on the service's hosts, that might be really hard to do (and a big red flag for any corporate user with half a brain). So, I hope they have something really smart and secure dreamed up. We shall see. I am also wondering how they'll deal with tasks from Exchange. And that makes me wonder if this will all be browser-based, or if they'll be app-tapping their way in, or what (in which case iPhone OS upgrades become a concern).

Ahh, questions abound. :)

From the web site:

iPXSync provides iPhone users with real-time m

obile access to all of their critical Microsoft Exchange Server information including email, message folders, calenders and tasks.

iPXSync is a zero-installation solution that requires no special software, hardware or configuration changes on the Exchange Server.

iPXSync is offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), which means it is immediately available with no expensive upfront fees, and you can be up and running in just minutes.

Navizon is a cool company that has some great technology that takes data from your mobile device - such as cataloged WiFi access points and cell towers your phone can "see" - and then uses that data to triangulate and plot you on a map.

There's a new third-party app for the iPhone that runs Navizon and connects to their service to use the data from the iPhone, and which then feeds your location to the Google Maps app and pinpoints you. Nice. Requires the AppTap installer, of course.

Not nearly as good as something like TeleNav, but very cool and useful nonetheless. It gets you fairly close, especially where WiFi access points are used for reference. I have installed the app on my iPhone and am trying it out today. It was able to find me accurately within a city block earlier, and other times it reported there was no known data points visible to the service. At least so far all it has used is WiFi access points to get a fix, not cell towers, so there might be something I need to change or set up, not sure.

Expect their service to be a little bit overwhelmed with excited iPhone users today and in the near future, in the event you experience problems signing up for a Navizon account.

Reference: iPhone Atlas

I was chatting with my friend John Batdorf the other day ...

[EDIT: Actually it was several days ago, because I lost this post twice and didn't realize it was not already on the blog, so it's being posted again late - But I've made some edits below to include more info from him]

... about home Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions. I have a 750GB Seagate drive that I use via USB2 to store all kinds of stuff on, but you have to plug it in, unplug it, take it to the next machine, etc. And I use a laptop a lot, so it's extra clunky to have to plug in a big external device and corral it up if I want to move, and I move a lot. A network-based mass-storage device would be great for me. And it turns out John is was also looking for something similar.

We discussed some of the requirements. For me it needs to have some redundancy and fail-safe capabilities built in. I have been burned too many times by single-point-of-failure drive crashes. I've almost always been able to do some heavy-lifting and time-consuming recovery (I've learned a few pretty crazy hardware tricks for recovering data over the years), but I really have been quite fortunate not to permanently lose any important data. It's a miracle, really - a lot like dodging bullets. Anyhow, I need RAID and all the good sleep and awesomeness that goes with it.

We both really wanted a true NAS solution providing direct network attachment from anywhere on the LAN, and preferably the flexibility to connect from a variety of common platforms: Windows, Mac OS-X, Linux, Vic20, whatever. Okay not that last one, but the others for sure.

I asked John to send me a summary of his requirements, and here is what he came up with:

Network Attached Storage Requirements on my 10/100 wired network

The primary goal of this purchase is to get all the iTunes media off of my laptop and desktop home systems. It would be a good place to store all my photos (gigs) too. The last ‘goal’ is to be able to backup said laptop and desktop (data files) somehow. It would be cool if the Xbox could access it too, but I think you have to run the connector software to do that.

Necessities:

• iTunes Library shared between multiple computers
  • Should be fast enough to support music transfer with no problems.
  • Would be great if it could do video too.
• Store photos
• The device must be able to be mapped as a drive in windows with no software installation
• 500GB storage
• Price point under $300 for WAF.

Nice to Have:

• Backup software/solution
• Xbox Connectivity
• USB port to add other drives

Not a bad list. Starting with John's list, here is what I would add/change for my needs:

Greg's NAS Requirements List for a 10/100/1000 wired and Wireless-N/G Network

Everything on John's list, with these changes:

• RAID disk subsystem controller
• 1TB+ total storage, which will be divided for RAID purposes (if I can afford it I'd like to get 1TB usable space, but we'll see)
• Hot-swappable drives are a big plus
• Web-based connectivity from the Internet is nice to have, but it must be properly secured
• Skip the WAF since I am not beholden to that, but I want to keep it as low as possible - best bang for the buck

So, it turns out John ordered and just set up a 500GB LaCie Ethernet Disk mini NAS system for under $200, and he likes it a lot so far. It's does everything he needs it to do, it's fast, and it took him literally just a couple minutes to set up and start using it. That's a good sign. Read about his day-one impressions on his blog.

But, for my purposes I still have some researching to accomplishate before gearing my brain-organ into the decisionation phase. So, Dear Reader (I always wanted to say that), what do you think is the best way to go about this and stay within the requirements? What requirements have I missed?

Here's a run-down of the couple things I have under consideration so far, but don't let my little list limit you, and feel free to comment on these as well as provide your own ideas:

• A Windows Home Server setup (probably home-grown, but who knows)
• One of these fine Lacie products

I am sure people who read this will have plenty of other ideas to suggest, as well.

Ready?

Discuss!

Something appears to have changed today with Google reader. I was looking at the screen and something felt, well, different. But I couldn't place it. Then I realized - the "Labs" label seems to be gone. Wow, that was quiet. And there I thought it has already moved up and out.

And it looks like the Google Reader blog explains it. Well, kind of explains it. No more "Labs." Nice job.

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2007/09/breaking-up-isnt-hard-to-do.html

I use Google reader almost exclusively now. To be honest, it took more than a year to grow on me, and only when I got to a point where I wanted to be able to access it from anywhere did it really get interesting.

As I mentioned the other day, my iPhone dropped in a partially-broken fall (bobbled with one hand but not caught) from about the height of my knees or slightly above down to the ground, and dented the case so the button that switches off the display and power and provides reboot capabilities, etc. no longer works. The plastic is jammed and prevented from moving by the tiny piece of bent metal case.

I'll be taking it to the Apple Store this afternoon to see what - if anything - they are willing to do for me. Their service coverage specifically says they won't cover damage due to accident or neglect, so I will cross my fingers (it was such a short drop), but not hold my breath. The non-warranty repair costs they quote are high enough to make me consider just buying a replacement phone. Of course we would have to see what AT&T has to say about that, as well. We'll see.

UPDATE: After dropping the Apple Store and setting up an appointment, I waited for my time to come up and then spent a total of about five minutes with one of the service employees there. I briefly explained what had happened, he showed it to the service manager, and they immediately arranged for a replacement. Wow. I'm floored. So much so I started looking at more products in the store and seriously considering them.

At any rate, on the Boy Genius Report site I just saw this gray anodized replacement cover for about $47.00. Hmm. It's interesting to me when I think about taking the thing apart and fixing it myself, since the one thing that worries me the most about doing that is the lack of a suitable replacement metal case part.

In the pictures it's apparent that there's no metal supporting pieces in there, it's just the metal case skin, and from this article (great detail and pictures there) it looks like there's a lot of glue to dissolve in the process of moving parts, but it's entirely possible. Plus a black case would be, well, cool. Heh.

Hmm, a decent disassembly tutorial video too. Heh. Use at your own risk. I like the lowered and faster-paced voice for the disclaimer at the beginning. Classic.

I won't undertake a tear-down-and-rebuild yet. Apple Store gets got the first shot, and won hands-down. But it's interesting to see what the community is doing and what the self-service, warranty-breaking, hardware-hacking options are.

I was trying to figure out why my clock was not getting properly synchronized with the default Network Time Protocol (NTP) server this evening because I noticed my home router (which also has NTP sync enabled) was a couple minutes ahead of my laptop.

UPDATE: I've made a very quick-and-dirty screencast (typing errors, 'umms' and all) showing how to change the Time Server settings in Windows, which you can view in your browser by clicking here. I incorporated a couple readers' thoughts from the comments into the video, as well.

Since I am running Vista, I went to the Change Date and Time settings dialog for the clock, then I clicked on the Internet Time tab, and noted that "time.windows.com" was selected as the NTP host to sync with. The only problem is, it looks like that host is not working. In fact, if I tried to select that host and do an update the system dialog would hang until it timed out:

So, I changed the NTP host to "ntp1.dlink.com" (same one my DLink router uses) and saved it, and instantly the time was updated on the Windows machine.

I went with the DLink time server after messing with a few of the other NTP host options (the NIST ones) available in the configuration list, some of which worked at the time and some of which didn't work too well or at all.

Anyone else having problems successfully connecting via NTP at time.windows.com? It will be interesting to see if this problem still exists tomorrow or not. At least one other person I just checked with has the exact same issues as of the time of this writing. Bummer that the default Windows Vista time service is not highly available (or at least appears not to be, so let me know if I am wrong here). Seems like it should be. Time sync issues across an ASP.net web farm for example can wreak havoc with an app, and try getting a domain controller's time out of sync with member servers. It can be a whole lot of not-fun. Of course, perhaps relying on time.windows.com is not the best way to ensure stability when you really should be running your own enterprise time services keyed to GPS or atomic clock, but you get the point.

For what it's worth, here is how to synchronize Windows Vista with an Internet time server, as cannibalized from Windows Help:

You can synchronize your computer clock with an Internet time server. This means that the clock on your computer is updated to match the clock on the time server, which can help ensure that the clock on your computer is accurate. Your clock is typically updated once a week and needs to be connected to the Internet for the synchronization to occur.

1. Open the Date and Time dialog.

2. Click the Internet Time tab, and then click Change settings. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. Click Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server, select a listed time server or enter the name of the one you want to use, and then click OK. Test the connection using the button provided.