As I’ve recently been exploring the service, I setup and customized a handful of recipes. I’ve also been thinking about other things that I would like to automate using IFTTT, now that my creative juices are flowing. I’ve also been getting back to reading my Kindle, and I realized that I would love to have a way to backup my Kindle Highlights to an Evernote folder. This would be tremendously useful, as well as searchable, etc.

After a bit of poking around, unfortunately, I realized that Amazon has effectively kept these on lockdown. You can browse a page with all of your highlights, but you must be logged in to do so, and there is no RSS feed available, which is frustrating.

I thought I had found a solution tonite, when I noticed that I could tweet out my highlights. I quickly setup a new Twitter account specifically for this, and then tweeted a test highlight:

testing amzn.com/k/rROrzbZVTYeZ… If you want to interact effectively with me, to influence me—your spouse, your child, your neighbor, y…

— Ricky Evernote (@RickyEvernote) March 26, 2013

This worked brilliantly, though I was a bit disappointed in being stuck with Twitter’s 140-character limit. I was, however, pleased to see my IFTTT recipe work, with a new entry in my freshly-created ‘Amazon Highlights’ folder:

Unfortunately, the link included in the tweet doesn’t seem to work. That’s the missing part, the one I need to solve for.

I don’t understand why Amazon wouldn’t want this information out there. Providing me with an RSS feed for my highlights wouldn’t really be a major undertaking, and would honestly result in me using Kindle MORE, as I would be more inclined to highlight things, and you can only highlight things by reading things to find things to highlight.

Anyone have any ideas?

Unfortunately, when the Nexus 4 was released, it created a lot of demand for Qi-compatible wireless chargers, and the prices went up to match. I’ve been on the hunt to find a decently priced stand, even picking up a Nokia DT-910 for cheap. Unfortunately, the Nokia wireless charging stands/pads don’t charge non-Nokia devices properly, so it was a bust.

Luckily, I was able to pick up an off-brand OEM wireless charging pad on Amazon, the GMYLE T-100, for $30, so I bit and ordered the white one. It arrived today, here’s the unboxing video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etY-zsBo35M

As you can see, it’s pretty big, but my Nexus 4 fits on it perfectly. I’ll be doing some tests to make sure it’s charging at the right rate, but initially, it seems to work awesome. It definitely works through the S-Line TPU case that I have on my Nexus 4.

I’m firmly convinced that 2013 is going to be the year that wireless charging really takes off, so I’m glad to finally see these simple desktop charging pads drop to a reasonable price point.

If you’d told me 5 years ago that I would be able to just set my phone down on a surface and it would start charging, I’d have thought you were crazy. Welcome to the future.

When I built my own website, Symbian-Guru.com, it was because all of the sites IN MY GOOGLE READER weren’t reporting what I wanted them to. When Symbian-Guru.com rose to one of the top Symbian-related blogs on the Internet, it was because of my Google Reader – I had subscribed to feeds that my competitors didn’t, so I found out about news faster. I protected my OPML file as though it was a competitive advantage.

I still use Google Reader – it’s literally my homepage, and easily the most often-visited site on my browser history. It’s the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing I look at before I go to sleep. In 2009, I had over 350 feeds, and developed a really efficient way to plow through those within a few minutes.

Today, I don’t run a tech blog, I manage Social Media at RadioShack, but my Google Reader is still my favorite place on the Internet. It’s crucial for me to keep up with the latest information across nearly 250 different news outlets, and as you can see, I engage heavily with this content.

I don’t know what’s worse – the fact that Google is killing it, or the terrible suggestions that people who don’t use it have. Let’s clear a few of those up real quick:

1. First and foremost, NO social network can replace Google Reader – I use Google Reader specifically because of how it is DESIGNED. Its literally a river of news. I don’t want to see your monstrous header image, nor do I want to see a bunch of hashtags around the headline. I want to see news, and I ONLY want to see the news that I haven’t seen yet. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, none of them do this. They all focus on big graphics, and none of them let me ‘mark as read’ to get it out of my view.

2. Second, it’s in the cloud, and it’s always in sync, no matter what platform I’m on. Desktop, mobile, app, browser, doesn’t matter – Google Reader was always there, and always in sync with me.

3. Third, don’t tell me that Google didn’t make any money off Google Reader. Google Reader gave Google EXACTLY what Facebook pretends to know about me – my *real* interests. Google Reader knows what I’m subscribed to, how long I’ve been subscribed to it, and how often I skim past that news source, or how often I stop to read it. It knows how often I star, or save for later, and article, and it knows if/when I share said article. That’s really powerful stuff, and it’s something that Facebook has thus far unsuccessfully tried to emulate.

I honestly don’t know what to do at this point. Obviously I’ll have to find another solution. But it still hurts. I’m still in shock.

In the meantime, go sign these petitions. I did.

TweetDeck isn’t entirely going away – Twitter has stated they’ll be giving lots of attention to the web versions, including the TweetDeck for Chrome app. I’ve already got this installed, so I figured I’d dig in and see if it has the features I’ve come to rely on.

I don’t care for the interface, but I was able to find one feature that I haven’t been able to find in any other Twitter client, regardless of platform – the ability to match keywords in a stream.

Sounds silly, right? Here’s the use-case: SXSW. I’m going to be there, and I’d love to be able to connect with people that I follow on Twitter who are also at SXSW. The problem is, the #SXSW hashtag is completely ridiculous, and not something that anyone would want to follow.

So how do I see what people in my timeline that I’m following are doing at or saying about SXSW?

Most Twitter apps have a mute filter, but they don’t have a match filter, which TweetDeck for Chrome does. To set this up, simply add a new column of your timeline. Then, click the ‘Edit’ button in the top right of the column, and you’ll get these options:

As you can see, I’ve put the ‘#sxsw’ hashtag in the ‘matching’ field. This will strip out any tweets in my timeline that don’t include that hashtag. Because it’s not a search stream, it won’t show all the other nonsense that people tag with #sxsw, just the tweets from people that I follow.

This will also be awesome for product launches – I don’t care about the 15 articles from The Verge (note: I love the Verge), or the promoted tweets from the manufacturer. I want to know what my timeline is saying about this product.

Here’s a side-by-side of my normal timeline vs my ‘#sxsw timeline’

How will you use matching in your TweetDeck streams?

But that’s not the best evidence. The best evidence is Facebook’s treatment of Instagram since they bought the service in spring of 2012 for $1 billion (yes, the final amount was a bit less, by the time the deal went through, but whatever, it’s close, and was the original amount offered).

Before Facebook bought Instagram, the service was growing and growing, and was a mobile-only experience. They started with an iOS app (iPhone, specifically – they still don’t have an iPad-optimized version), and then last year at SXSW, they announced that Android support was coming, and it did, indeed, launch shortly thereafter, much to the chagrin of arrogant iPhone users across the Internet.

Through all of this tremendous growth, there was one thing that stayed the same – Instagram was purely a mobile-only experience. Sure, there were offshoots like Statigram and Webstagram that used the API to build desktop interfaces, but that was it.

Since Facebook purchased Instagram, we’ve seen them gradually backfill the desktop experience. First, they just spruced up the photo permalinks. Then, they gave everyone’s profiles a dedicated page. While I appreciated that move, as a brand, it signaled the oncoming shift back to desktop. More recently, Instagram announced the ability to view your stream from the desktop, including liking and commenting, as well as a few other barebones features.

Interestingly, in the blog post announcing the latest desktop-friendly addition, co-founder Kevin Systrom takes time to clarify:

We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime.

It’s still not as robust of an experience as Webstagram or Statigram, or whatever other one you prefer, but it’s a shift, nonetheless. Instead of focusing solely on the mobile-only experience that Instagram built themselves on, and making that a better experience, they’ve been wasting resources building a desktop interface that already existed through 3rd parties.

Brilliant.

UPDATE: Just caught wind of this great post on ReadWriteWeb about the same thing. Glad to see I’m not the only one.

Of course, to those of us who ‘grew up’ with Symbian devices and in the Symbian enthusiast community, it was quite a nostalgic announcement. Sascha at PCMag took the opportunity to list out his top 10 Symbian phones of all time, so I figured I’d put mine together, as well. I owned or used pretty much every Symbian device after the 6620, so I’ve got a pretty good bank of experience to lean on.

1. N95-3 – the N95-3 is the 2nd best Symbian device of all time, to be honest, but its inclusion of U.S. 3G support earned it a special place in my heart. I still have mine, and though there’s a few issues with the display crystals, it still works like a champ. Sometimes, I even pop my SIM in there for a weekend of ‘good old times’.

2. N79 – this was easily one of the most underrated Nseries ever. It basically had the guts of the N95, but in an extremely small, slender, and sexy body. Nokia also released it in a couple of configurations, one of which included a Bluetooth heart rate monitor that you could pair with a special version of SportsTracker. Good lord, I loved this little phone.

3. N73 – the N73 was one of the first ‘real’ camera phones, with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera and a sliding back cover that would automatically launch the camera when you opened it. I searched high and low to finally find a white/mocha color combo, and that phone captured a large part of my life.

4. E90 – I was always captivated with the Communicator series, but they were never within my grasp. When I did some contract work for the S60 Ambassadors program, my boss at the time gave me an E90, and I loved it. I actually built an entire presentation on it once, when I was travelling for work and my laptop died. I ended up selling it on eBay, and I wish I’d kept it around.

5. E71 – The E71 was a tank of a phone, and nearly brought Nokia back, if it had launched in the U.S. a bit earlier. It took all the popular features of BlackBerries (which were insanely popular at the time) and made them all improved. My wife carried the E71 for a long while, and she beat the snot out of it, it still runs like a champ.

6. 6620 – Possibly one of the ugliest Symbian phones ever, this was my first. It boggled my mind that I could get email on my phone, and I could toss a movie on my phone and play it back anytime, anywhere. I was lucky enough to receive one of these as a gift a few years ago, just for old time’s sake. It was also one of the first mass-market Symbian devices in the U.S. when AT&T launched it.

7. N86 8MP – In my opinion, this was the last true Nseries device, before Nokia started launching touchscreen Symbian devices and ruined it all. Killer camera, unique dual-slider, excellent T9 keypad, and brilliant design. The N86 8P was everything that Nokia had ever promised for the Nseries lineup.

8. N82 – True story – I actually live-streamed my wedding (in 2007) with 4 N82′s, the Nokia DT-22 tripod, and a ClearWire modem and Linksys router, using the now defunct Flixwagon service. The N82 was the ultimate camera phone crammed into a small candybar form factor. The presence of an active lens cover and a full Xenon flash made the N82 replace many an owner’s point-and-shoot cameras.

9. N93/N93i – The N93/N93i were the first true camcorder phones, and came out when Nokia (and others) were still experimenting with form factors, before everything became a sheet of glass. This unique phone had a twisting display that allowed you to hold it like a traditional camcorder, and even had optical zoom – a first for cellphones. It was also the reason that the Nokia DT-22 tripod was created, which is reason enough for it to be on this list.

10. N-Gage QD – the first real gaming phone, the original N-Gage launched Nokia’s first attempt at a mobile gaming service, similar to Xbox Live. The original N-Gage had some really terrible design decisions, but the N-Gage QD solved most of those. It was also a really awesome smartphone. I used to use it in college in conjunction with an app called ControlFreak that connected to my PC running Winamp. I would slip my laptop under the couch during parties, and use the N-Gage QD as a portable DJ station. Awesome stuff for the mid-2000s (pre-iPhone).

What are YOUR top 10 Symbian devices of all time?

The camera itself has a wide-angle lens, and only a few buttons. There’s a giant pause/record button on the back, along with a handy ‘hold’ button to prevent accidental shooting. There’s a small display on the side, with ‘previous’ and ‘next’ buttons for navigating through the menus, and that’s about it. The included battery is rechargeable via microUSB, and the camera uses microSD cards (though there wasn’t a memory card in the box, which baffles me).

I’ve always been fond of Klout’s packaging prowess – check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vftiRelFXO0

So, included in this perk is:

Sony HDR-AS15 WiFi-enabled actioncam
Waterproof housing
Extra sticky-mounts
Headband mount

And all the cords/cables that come with. I’ve got a few ideas for how to test this bad-boy out, but I’m open to more. Knowing the mounts I have…

How would YOU test the Sony HDR-AS15 ActionCam?

I normally go for an Otterbox Commuter – they’re relatively cheap, not too bulky, and offer 2 layers of protection. Sadly, Otterbox doesn’t make a case for the Nexus 4 (yet – there’s a petition here to encourage them to do so). There were a few threads on XDA about the S-Line TPU case, so I figured I’d give that a shot.

I ordered the S-Line TPU case from Kay’s Case on Amazon, primarily because I could use Amazon Prime for free 2-day shipping. The case is available for cheaper elsewhere, but I was tired of waiting.

TPU stands for Thermoplastic Urethane, which is basically a plastic-rubber material. It’s firm, not like the ‘gel’ skins that used to be all the rage. The case arrived quickly, and I shot a quick overview video when it came in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roDx8HxiWpA

As you can see, it’s a decent little case for under $15, and it provides plenty of protection for the Nexus 4. The corners are all covered, the holes for the various ports are appropriately cut (if not a little too large for my tastes), and it adds a lip around the front screen, to protect it when you lay the phone face-down on a table.

The added grips on the side are a nice touch, and I like that they split the volume button, as well. Overall, I would definitely recommend this case, until Otterbox releases their Commuter for the Google LG Nexus 4.

What type of case do you prefer for your phone?

For $18, you get three lenses, two of which attach to one another, so you really only have 2 things to carry around. There’s a magnet on one end, which works great to attach to the metal camera mount on the iPhone, and reportedly, the Lumia 920. It works, but it’s not very strong – the fisheye lens only stays put when you’ve got the phone in portrait mode, which we should NEVER use for photography. Luckily, the packaging also comes with separate metal rings that have a strong adhesive on the back, so you can place it around the camera lens on your phone, like this:

These little rings work really well, and don’t seem to damage the phone at all with the adhesive. However, they’re very shoddily cut, so the edges are rough, and I found them somewhat annoying. A few extra steps to smooth the edges would have gone a long way, but for the price, it’s tough to complain.

The Lenses

Fisheye

The fisheye lens was my favorite, and it works surprisingly well. Of course, you get a much smaller frame, but I was pleased to see that, at least in the center of the lens, objects were still in focus, and the photos turned out rather good.

Wide-Angle

The wide-angle lens had promise, but I found it really frustrating when trying to focus. More often than not, I was unable to get anything in focus with this lens, so I didn’t use it as often. The Lumia 920 has a decently-wide angle anyways, so there wasn’t much to gain.

Macro

The macro lens is part of the wide-angle lens, it just twists out to be a separate piece. It’s great for REALLY macro shots, but it didn’t do anything to help the Lumia 920 in photos where the subject was more than half an inch away from the lens. I don’t often take photos that close, but the few samples that I did take turned out quite impressive. The photo above is taken with the Lumia 920 on close-up mode, with no lens attached. The photo below is taken with the Lumia 920 and the macro lens – you can see the lens allows you to get much closer and capture more detail.

The lenses come with little plastic caps, which is a nice touch, but they don’t attach, so they’ll probably be easily lost. There’s also a keychain solution with a small metal disc that attaches to the magnet portion of the lens, and then has a little strap. It’s secure enough to use to protect the lens, but not something I’d use on a keyring, for fear of losing them.

Overall, for $18 on Amazon, this was a bit pricey, considering I didn’t get much use out of the wide-angle or macro lenses. However, if you have use for those, the fisheye is really plenty of fun, and takes great photos. I do recommend using the included metal rings to attach to your phone, for a much more secure and less frustrating photography experience.

What would YOU take pictures of if you had a set of these lenses?

After being on backorder for a few weeks (during which I used the Lumia 920), my Google LG Nexus 4 finally arrived. I did a quick unboxing just to capture the packaging:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5XlfQATync

Having used the Google LG Nexus 4 for a few weeks now, I’m completely impressed. The build quality feels really strong, with barely any hint of the cheap plastic I’d come to hate on my Samsung-built Galaxy Nexus. I’m very aware that the back panel is glass, though – I went ahead and bought a case (more on that soon), but other than that, the physical aspects are great.

The Google LG Nexus 4 shipped with Android v4.2, Jelly Bean, and for once, I only rooted it, but am running the stock ROM (I threw a custom ROM on my Galaxy Nexus before I even put my SIM in it). There are a few things that I miss from Custom ROMs, such as a more customisable lockscreen, so I’m sure I’ll put one on it soon, but for now, I’m pretty satisfied with a rooted stock ROM.

Some of the improvements in v4.2 that I’m enjoying include the ability to swipe to the camera from the lockscreen – it’s quick as lightning and has made it possible to get shots that my Galaxy Nexus would have missed. Speaking of, the camera app is improved, sort of. I still believe the HTC Sense camera app is superior, but the stock Android one sucks a lot less now.

Google Now is becoming more and more useful every day, and the Nexus 4′s quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM make this thing SCREAM through most tasks that I throw at it.

Battery life has been something that most reviewers complain about, and it’s a mixed bag. I get about 10-12 hours out of my battery, with normal usage. That’s comparable to what I got with my Galaxy Nexus, and it’s just enough for me, since I’m at a desk most of the time. I don’t have a compatible wireless charging pad (yet), so I can’t really comment on how that works.

Pretty much everything I hated about my Galaxy Nexus has been fixed with the Nexus 4. That includes slowness, cheap plastic feel, camera quality, loudspeaker volume, and display brightness.

There’s also been a lot of hoo-hah about the lack of LTE support on the Nexus 4. I’m using StraightTalk, which is an MVNO that runs on AT&T (or T-Mobile)’s HSPA+ network. I wouldn’t get access to AT&T’s 4G LTE even if the phone supported it, so it’s a moot point for me.

Overall, I’m absolutely loving the Google LG Nexus 4, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially for the price.