It’s out, the new iPhone is called “iPhone 4S” and not “iPhone 5″.

Some may be a bit disappointed about the keynote today but to be honest, we could have seen that already before the hype.

Releases:

• iPhone – The initial launch of this product series
• iPhone 3G – New design, features, etc
• iPhone 3GS – Same design, enhanced features, etc
• iPhone 4 – New design, new features, etc
• iPhone 4S  - Same design, new features, etc

So as we see, this should have kept in our mind. Sure, it wasn’t that easy to keep an objective mind with all the buzz on different tech blogs or even the release of a self-built prototype.

Do we need to blame Apple for believing unconfirmed sources and new releases? No, I don’t think so. Again, we should know it better: Apple doesn’t give any tips or hints. Sometimes a lost prototype, but at the end, it’s just a prototype which does not mean it will hit the store.

The main point of this event seemed to be  showing up great improvements like a better battery (absolutely needed), better cam, more speed, iOS5 and Siri.

Siri is the real deal and it gives us just a short idea what we could expect in the future. Leave your current voice recognition system behind you and think about Siri. It will change the way you use your mobile phone from now on. There isn’t just a way back, it will take over the further development and strategy of Apple products.

Do you need to upgrade? That’s up to you and your current device. As an iPhone 4 owner, I won’t upgrade to the new one – most iPhone 3G user haven’t upgraded to 3GS.

So am I upset? No. This just shows me: Don’t follow always the stream, don’t get yourself into unconfirmed things if you have no idea about it.

But there is one good thing to think about: Now Apple is forced to blow-away everyone with an upcoming iPhone 5. Can’t wait to see this one…

What do you think? Do you upgrade from your iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S?

I’m traveling across Europe or India and got my mobile phone always very close to me. Sure, I want to stay connected to the internet to check my emails, post photos, communicate with my customers and so on.

So what I’m doing every time I arrive in a new country is the most important thing for me: Get a local prepaid mobile sim card with the chance to connect to the internet. This works amazingly well I haven’t discovered any problems so far. Sure, India supports only EDGE if you are in luck and you have to pay a daily rate for a specific amount of data but at the end, it works!

Now keep in mind that I’m using an iPhone with microsim which seems to make this a bit complicate in the US.

As soon as I have arrived in LA I headed over to the closest AT&T store to buy a prepaid card for my iPhone with internet access. Guess what, I wasn’t welcome over there with my request. I have tried the same at a Sprint and T-Mobile store but here the same story.

No support for the iPhone 4 with a prepaid sim card in combination with internet access. WOW!

I didn’t knew that this won’t be possible. I thought I’m not the only one looking for a solution. What about other tourists or business travelers? How do they handle that? Using roaming via 3G is a very expensive solution which I have used just a couple of times.

I currently don’t understand the situation about such a missing offer to customers but I really hope some mobile providers will rethink their strategy. Get your product developers back on track and find a solution for tourists and business travelers.

In India, it’s very easy, just go to the next elephant shop and pick up your mobile sim card. The sim card will automatically expire with the end of your visa! Now that is interesting!

I understand that this could be a difficult task to solve in the states as you won’t need a visa as a regular tourist. But here is the simple idea: Let those special prepaid cards expire after 30 days. Easy.

It was really frustrating to look up for the next free WiFi spot to get connected to the internet. So many missed check-ins via foursquare, unanswered mails, missed Skype calls, etc etc. I can’t imagine that there isn’t any solution for, I need to say it again, iPhone 4 users.

I wouldn’t care about cutting a regular sim card to the size of a microsim just to get it working but this isn’t an ideal solution.

Please, dear mobile providers of the US, rethink your product range and drive more customers to your business.

Social Media? Forget about it as tourist if you don’t want to end up with a huge bill from your mobile provider.

There is one thing I have to say “Thank you AT&T”. At some very touristic spots AT&T is offering free WiFi access, now that’s something I’m missing in Germany.

Let’s see what happens in the future and if any mobile provider will get down to the customer who is begging for a prepaid microsim card with internet access. Hope you can see me

Did you had any problems in the US as tourist or business traveler? What is your solution? Please let me know.

Just recently Chris Brogan posted on Google+:

Mmmm. Yummy salad from Subway! (not an ad)

So what? Just a statement, nothing wrong right? Yep, we are in the same boat.
But some users thought they need to pin this post as an advertisement. I guess Chris knew that already before and tried to take distance with the addition: “(not an ad)”

The result: He had to mention it again and again: It’s not an ad.

It is interesting, as a public person you always have to watch our for your posts. What do you post and what do you mention.

Remember the big story about Chris actually making money in his life? Hint: Webinar!

I need to be honest and maybe I’m not making new friends but I had a very good laugh about that. I wonder how some other guys survive their day without making money…

Is a public person allowed to use a brand name within it’s posts? Do we see this as an advertisement?

Honestly, I don’t care! But it seems quite a lot other guys do care about this. Just a few seconds ago there has been a new post published by Chris.

It really seems some guys have uncircled him cause he told his followers what he was eating today…

Well, what should I say about this?

I follow his input and posts and I don’t care about mentioning Subway’s or any other brand in his streams.

What did Guy Kawasaki mentioned in one of his recent posts:

Last time I checked, this was my feed. I believe in freedom of feed. “

So let it be!

Let’s get inspired by those guys who we are following and leave the “Don’t make money!” or “Don’t mention the brand of your food” stuff behind us.

Right, I’m Nick Rock, I love McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, etc and I took position, now uncircle me. Oh wait, I’m not a public figure so you even wouldn’t care…

There was just one drawback in using Dropbox: The folder structure

In Dropbox you have to create  a single folder which is taking care of all your files. So if you want to get your files into the cloud, you have to move them into the Dropbox folder. This was not enough for my needs, I wanted to keep my own structure on my Mac.

Just a few days ago I have found SugarSync (referral link) which comes around the corner with some great features. By the way, I have a great offer for everyone who is interested in SugarSync – more at the bottom of this article.

You should know that you have to download a client of SugarSync as well.

To give you a quick jump-in, have a look at their (!) comparsion chart:

The list looks pretty amazing and so far I’m really quite happy with it.

Most features are speaking for themselve so I’m not going into each feature.

To be honest, I could write down a whole manual which would be actual good for my writing skills and comment attraction but SugarSync is really really easy and I found myself quite happy each time I have found a new feature. So I will leave you with your own impressions.

Again, what I really love is choosing different folders and keep my own structure, it is that simple, have a look at the slideshow:

I just made a clean install with my MacBook and added it to the device list on SugarSync. All folders which I have connected to my MacBook have been automatically created and downloaded. So this IS pretty easy and fantastic.

Everything has something missing in it’s features list and the same goes with SugarSync:

Your files are encrypted on their server via 128bit AES protection only, which is in fact great but some competitors offer 256bit AES encryption. While talking with their support team, they have mentioned that this will maybe upgraded soon. So it is up to you if 128bit AES encryption is enough or not. Before uploading your files to their server via TLS encryption they get already temporary encrypted in SugarSync’s local database.

There are some filetypes not supported by SugarSync:

Snippet from their website:

SugarSync has also a “Magic Briefcase” which is simillar to the Dropbox folder, it get’s synced everywhere. Other folder have to be given the permission manually. A great thing as you won’t replicate all your data on all devices.

So far that’s all I have found out during the past days.

Now let’s get back to the above mentioned offer.

I hope you found a useful alternative here, if you use any other service, please let me know via your comment.

Let’s take an example: Foursquare lets you checkin to different spots and you are able to spread the word about this to all your foursquare friends and linked services such as Facebook. So all your friends actually know where you are at the very moment.

So what’s the story about Forecast?

As you may guess from it’s name, it creates a forecast of all your upcoming check-ins which is broadcast to all your Forecast friends.

Let’s take an example:

I’m going tonight to a Mexican Bar in Frankfurt and would like to have my friends joining me over there. So all I do is creating a forecast with the information that I will be there around 9pm. Now my friends will receive a push-notification about my upcoming checkin at Sausalitos (the Mexican Bar).

The app takes all necessary spot information from foursquare and it will show your favorite checkins as well.

You can leave a message to your forecast as well and your friends are able to communicate with you.

Here are some screenshots, courtesy of Forecast:

The idea is great and a fantastic addition IF:

• You have only close friends on foursquare
• You have friends on foursquare
• You don’t mind leaving some privacy aspects behind you

The service is currently in beta and invitations are only sent via foursquare friends.

One thing needs to be mentioned: If you have, let’s say, 20 friends on Forecast, there is a big chance that you will receive notifications again and again. To prevent this, go to the settings menu and just mute some heavy Forecast friends or those who you are not interested in.

The app is currently only available for iOS.
iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foreca.st/id442637569

Let the spontaneous meet ups begin. What do you think about this new service?

Since Mac OS X Leopard I was a huge fan of a well structured dock with a little trick.

If you have a lot of programs apps in your dock, it could be possible that you may have lost the overview from time to time. It looks sometimes a bit messy and you have to hover again and again over the icons to find the desired application.

As I’m currently in progress of getting my environment back after a fresh Mac OS X Lion install, I thought about sharing this little trick with you guys. I guess already some of you knew this from previous OS X versions, but maybe I catch some new guys as well.

Now let’s have a look at my dock (click to enlarge):

As you can see, I have grouped my apps to give me a personal better overview. I find the need apps faster in that way. I know there is Launchpad but I’m a fan of “one-click”-action so applications I use very often are placed within the dock..Sure, this WILL expand your dock! But you are able to resize it. Currently I haven’t added all apps yet so my dock will change within the next days. Enough about my dock, now let me show you how to get this done for your dock as well.

Fire up terminal – Path: Applications – Utilities – Terminal

Just type in the following code or use copy and paste:

Hit enter and type in the next command:

Hit enter and your dock will flicker for a second as the process is being restarted. Now you should be able to see the added blank space. Here comes the trick:

Just click on it and move it like any other app in your dock. Place it where you want to have it. Repeat above steps if you need some more. If you are going to add a bunch of them just repeat step one again and again until you have reached your number of wanted spaces and than head over to step two so you don’t have to kill the dock every time.

Oh, if you want to remove a blank space, just click on it and move it from the dock and will get deleted like any other app in your dock.

I remember that there are some apps available to get this done as well but I don’t see any need for them.

Hope this little trick helps you as well, if you have any other way to organize your dock, please let me know via your comment.

Welcome!

New blog? Yep, new. My old blog just went to dev/null.

Wednesday the 20th July – A great day for every Mac user, Apple finally released Mac OS X Lion, yeah!

I was so excited to get my hands on that I have may missed an important thing: Think twice!

There is no excuse or someone else to blame for this whole story, just my own failure.

During the download of Lion, I have started to move my old domain to another server and made a backup on my iMac. So after downloading those files I just used

as always to clean my server directory, no worries  - I got my backup.

40 minutes later the cat has arrived and everything was ready to go. CCC and Time Machine backups were done already one hour before. Let’s get Lion on my new system via a fresh install. 3, 2, 1, Roaaar.

After restarting my system I had to setup my domain first and check Lion later. Now I guess you already know what happend.

Remember? I made my last and final backup 20 minutes BEFORE I have started to download Lion and taking a backup of my blog. So this backup is the only file which I have lost as it was not included in my iMac backup.

Even my Hostgator server backup won’t work as HG is limiting the size for server backups and unfortunately my needed storage is bigger than their backup offer.

I can’t believe this happened to me. Since almost 20 years I haven’t lost any file which I didn’t want to delete. I was just too much into the Lion euphoria and now I got a great and shiny new OS on my iMac but paid with my blog for it.

Do yourself a favor: Think twice BEFORE deleting any important thing and forget about multitasking at this point.

Now here starts something new: My new blog on another domain.

I’m still busy with my theme so please bear with me but for now, let’s started.