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If you have an Iphone or Ipod, and a wireless network at home, and a PC (Mac or Windows) hooked up to a TV, you should check out the Mobile Air Mouse application.

I have a laptop hooked up to one of our plasmas, and I use it mainly for watching Netflix streaming movies, but we play the occasional game on there as well, or look a family photos/videos. I have an old wireless keyboard and mouse I've been using for years, that just BARELY have enough range on them to be useful. It's a struggle to get the signal to work sometimes and I'm constantly jockeying for the sweet spot on the couch to get the mouse to respond. It's a real pain at times.

I've debated about trying to buy a newer wireless mouse/keyboard combo, but every review I read leads me to worry about the range of the device, and if my setup will be too far from the receiver to be useful. Not to mention, these combos are not cheap ($50+).

I then read a blurb about the Mobile Air Mouse app for the Ipod/Iphone, and thought what a clever idea. It basically uses your wireless network to connect your Ipod/Iphone to some server software running on your Windows or MAC PC, and lets the Ipod/Iphone act as your wireless mouse and keyboard. And the best part is, it only costs $2! I decided to give it a try and I have to say it works pretty amazingly well! I installed the software server on my laptop, ran it, and the brough the app up on my Ipod. It automatically found my PC and connected to it (thanks to the integrated Bonjour software) and I was immediately able to move the mouse around on my PC by touching the screen on the Ipod. I brought up the keypad and the typing worked great as well! Since it uses wifi, as long as you've got a good signal, it just works, so no worries about range limitations like you traditionally get with wireless keyboards and mice (which employ proprietary RF technology typically).

Now obviously no one wants to dedicate a $200 Ipod/Iphone to being a remote control for the computer all the time, so you probably still want some sort of backup solution for when your device isn't available (or fully charged), however this is a great, and cost-effective, solution when you happen to have your Ipod/Iphone nearby. Give it a shot!

If you used Windows Mobile 5.0 or higher, you'll need to download and install a patch from Microsoft to handle the Daylight Savings Time switch this weekend.

You can download the patch, and get more information here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/microsoft/daylight-savings-update.mspx

I have a couple of Google Wave Beta invites if anyone is interested in checking it out. Let me know!

I've been a big fan of Trillian, the IM client, for many years now. So much so that I've paid for the Pro version for a long time. There's a new release of Trillian being worked on called Astra that adds many exciting new features and functionality, and I've been helping them beta test for awhile. They've decided to expand the beta testing recently and I have some invites available. Drop me a line if you'd like one. I have a limited number available so it's first come first serve.

You can read more about Trillian Astra here: https://www.trillian.im/.

I've always been one to keep a tidy desktop. I hate the clutters of icons filling my screen, I'm a neat-freak, I like organization, what can I say?

One of the things I've struggled with is how best to make frequently-used applications easy to access, without cluttering my desktop with shortcuts. I came up with a cool way to keep my apps in an easy-to-use menu system, and it works pretty good, but lately I've been eyeballing Mac's desktop dock with more than a little bit of envy.

I decided to set out and see if I could find something similar, and find it I did.

Enter RocketDock, the free Windows-based dock utility that has more customization than you can shake a stick at. There's similar commercial products but RocketDock is FREE, and does a pretty bang-up job for most of my needs. They even have customer-submitted add-ons and enhancements that make it even more powerful (the Mac OS theme and Stacks Docklet are two of my favorite).

Give it a try and see what you think.