But the mobile Web means different things to different people. For more affluent populations, it generally means wireless access with a laptop computer. For poorer people it means a cellphone, which is not a perfect replacement for other forms of online access, said Mr. Smith and several others who study social issues related to technology.

From yesterday’s New York Times blog post Mobile Web Use and the Digital Divide by Joshua Brustein. [via @negrophile]

Also see: Mobile Access 2010 from The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Mac users can replace XAMPP with MAMP.* For portable apps, there’s the OS X Portable Apps suite.

If you need an offline blogging tool, you can try the ScribeFire extension for WordPress.

What are your tips for web-working without a connection?

*Yes, Mac OS X has a web server installed, but MAMP makes things easier in my experience.

So I ask you: What are your favorite Android applications?

Please share:

• The name of the application
• What it does
• Whether it’s free, paid, and/or open source

I’m looking for a great to-do list / task manager (GTD not necessary) in particular.

The basics

The N800 runs a flavor of Linux known as OS 2008. Several software packages come loaded with the N800, including a full-featured web browser (with Flash!), e-mail client, media player, and instant messaging application. Perhaps most notable is the inclusion of the internet telephony service Skype. Pair your N800 with a Bluetooth headset and a WiFi connection and you almost have a phone. You can also choose to install Gizmo.

It’s an “internet tablet,” which means it is WLAN / Wi-Fi capable. You can also pair the N800 with an internet-enabled GSM phone via Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the N800 does not have a SIM-card slot so you can’t connect via GSM/GPRS directly.

There are 128 MB of DDR RAM installed — the same amount as the iPod Touch — but only 256MB of storage. Two internal memory card slots are available, and they support cards with up to 8 gigabytes of storage.

The N800 also comes with an integrated VGA (640 by 480 pixel resolution) web camera for video calls and chats. Install some additional software, and you can use the camera to capture stills as well.

Using the device

I could not successfully set up the e-mail client to work with my Gmail account. I’m not entirely sure it works with secure IMAP connections. It does, however support regular IMAP and POP connections. Its email client is easy to use, once configured. Oddly enough, the N800 does not have a pre-installed calendar application. It’s a curious omission, in my opinion. You can, however, install one.

There are three input options on the N800: a full(er)-screen finger-sized keyboard, a stylus-sized keyboard, and handwriting input. I found the handwriting recognition system a pretty easy system to train, though as with any such system, you may also have to retrain yourself. The way I write my lower case T made the N800 think I was entering an X. Once trained — I only tried two characters — the tablet was able to recognize most of my non-cursive input.

Typing on it the full(er)-screen keyboard is easier than using the stylus keyboard, but you can’t see all of what you’re typing at once. I also don’t like hunting-and-tapping with a stylus for input. Two-thumbed typing using the stylus keyboard actually worked pretty well for me. In fact, I found that the touch-recognition was at least as (if not more) accurate as my iPod Touch, even though the stylus keyboard has smaller ‘keys.’

The N800 uses physical buttons for zooming, scrolling, and toggling between full-screen and partial screen. Being able to toggle between screen modes is an excellent feature, especially for watching videos. But it’s a feature I would look for in the application menu or on the screen rather than the top edge of a touchscreen device. Overall, the combination of a touchscreen and buttons is an incongruous one.

So is this a computer or what?

Feature-wise, I’d say it’s most comparable to the iPod Touch and the Sony PSP. Think of the N800 a mini-computer that’s been optimized for the Internet. The iPod Touch is a first-and-foremost a music player and the PSP is primarily a gaming device. The N800, by comparison, is made for surfing the web, checking e-mail, and communicating via IM and VoIP.

Internet communications is not all you can do with the device, however. You can also play music and videos, and install a range of software. That brings the N800 a little bit closer to the world of ultra-portable laptops such as the ASUS Eee PC.

In other words, the N800 is a bit like a smart phone without the phone or a computer without much software. And that’s kind of the problem with it. It occupies a weird niche that makes less and less sense when you consider the availability of ultra-portable notebooks like the OQO and Eee PC, devices like iPod Touch and PSP, and smart phones such as the iPhone or Nokia’s own N80, N95 and N96.

Will it fit in my pocket?

In terms of size, the N800 is slightly smaller than the PSP, but significantly larger and heavier than the iPhone and iPod Touch. I was able to fit most of it in the front pocket of my jeans, while standing, but it wasn’t a good fit. It’s weight also makes it awkward to carry in a hoodie or jacket pocket. If you plan to keep it with you, also plan on carrying a purse. Men may have slightly better luck since their pants tend to have deeper pockets.

Is it worth the money?

Price may just be the N800′s killer feature. As of this writing, you can buy an N800 from Amazon.com for about $250. That’s at least $100 less than most smart phones. I see the advantages of the N800 for globetrotters who want to stay connected, yet don’t want to carry a pricey, heavy laptop, or don’t have a GSM-enabled mobile phone.

But the N800 is only $50 less than the Eee PC Surf, which has four times the RAM, a larger screen, full keyboard, and a faster processor. Plus, since it’s a full-fledged computer, you can be productive without a WiFi connection. When compared to the Eee, the N800 doesn’t look so appealing.

Is it worth it? If you want a small, connected device, and $250 is your absolute limit, yes. But I say spend the extra cash to get a device that’s smaller (iPod Touch), more capable (Eee PC) or both (most smart phones).

Related posts

• Why I ditched Skype for Gizmo Project*
• My essential mobile applications

Related sites

• Maemo
• Nokia N-series
• WOM World

I half-assedly make DVD backups of my blog data and important files. But that stuff changes so frequently that a DVD system is really inadequate. An external hard drive is great for on-site backups, but hard drives and DVDs are subject to the same vulnerabilities. What do I do if:

1. the hard drive fails or the DVD gets scratched?
2. the hard drive gets lost or stolen?
3. the hard drive or DVD gets destroyed in a fire?
4. I do some dumb sh*t like accidentally knock over a glass of wine onto the hard drive.

Yeah, an external storage solution is so the right idea.

Enter Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service, part of the company’s web services offerings. Until recently, the program was only useful for developers. S3 uses REST and SOAP to send and retrieve data. If you didn’t know what to do with either of those, good luck taking advantage of the service.

Since S3′s launch, however, a few companies and developers have created easy-to-use interfaces for interacting with S3. Now just about anyone can take advantage of S3 to store data.

Why would you do such a thing? Three words: S3 is cheap. You can calculate just how cheap. Simply pay for what you use. And unlike with most online backup services, you have the added ability to manipulate your data using standard protocols. There’s some serious media serving potential there, particularly if coupled with Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud.

For storing and retrieving data you have quite a few options. Here are four of my picks:

JungleDisk

• Operating system(s): Mac, Windows, Linux
• Cost: $20; unlimited installations
• Basics: Mounts like a disk drive, allowing you to easily upload and download files.

S3 Backup (Beta version)

• Operating system(s): Windows
• Cost: Free for now. Beta versions have set expiry dates.
• Basics: Easy-to-use upload/download utility. Interface operates much like any other FTP software.

Transmit 3.6

• Operating system(s): Mac OS X
• Cost: $29.95
• Basics: Fabulous FTP software for Mac with support for S3 in the same familiar Transmit interface.

Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer (S3Fox)

• Operating system(s): Mac OS X, Windows, Linux — any platform that can run Firefox
• Cost: Free(-ish; Don’t be a freeloadin’ jacka**. Make a donation)
• Basics: A Firefox extension with an interface similar to FireFTP. It functions in much the same way.

Do you use S3? What tools have you used to store and retrieve data? Do you prefer another online storage service? Make your case in the comments.

• Support for plain text
• Syntax highlighting for HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, SQL, Java, and Perl.
• Limited auto-complete
• Ability to connect to multiple FTP servers at once
• Ability to upload, download, rename and delete files.
• Line numbering

Now what if this was all available in a web-based application? Enter WorkSpace.

WorkSpace — which currently is currently in limited beta testing — is an online text editing environment with an eye towards web development. You can create documents and save them in your hosted sandbox, or directly to your server via FTP.

Uploading files, creating new files and editing existing files is an easy, intuitive process. Copying files is a little bit trickier. You can’t, for example, copy a file to the same folder. You must select the file, choose to copy it, then paste it in a new directory. Compare this to, say, Transmit which will automatically save the duplicate file in the same directory as “filename copy.extension.”

Moving a file takes some creative thinking as well. Much like the *nix command line, WorkSpace does not allow you to move files, per se. Instead, you have two options:

1. Copy the file to a new directory, then delete the original.
2. Use the ‘Rename’ command and prepend the new path to the file name.

For example, to move “colors.css” from the root directory to “styles/,” for example, you can just rename the file “styles/colors.css.” A better interface, in my opinion, would include “Move” as an option for managing files, and handle the how behind the scenes.

WorkSpace also doesn’t yet offer version control or (to my knowledge) integration with a versioning system. You also can’t share access to a particular workspace, which makes this app fine for individual developers, but not for teams. Another “would be nice to have”: some sort of debugging or error-checking interface. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, to see these features in a final release version, or in WorkSpace 2.0.

Let’s not forget the big, honking issue with WorkSpace: security. I don’t mean to state that the site is insecure. But it does raise some basic questions of trust and protection. Are you willing to give a third party the user names and passwords of your servers? What kind of encryption do they use to connect to your FTP server? Where’s the indication that the communications between your browser and their servers are encrypted? Are their servers well-protected against intrusion? If you delete a remote WorkSpace, what happens to that user name and password data? Those are questions that aren’t answered anywhere on their web site.

I do like the idea behind WorkSpace. It gives users the ability to code from any computer with a browser and an internet connection, but without requiring extra software. The downside is that you’re trusting a company with all of your web site data. I’m not sure the slight gain in the ability to work remotely is worth the trade-off of giving WorkSpace server access.

I’d really like to see some clarity about what WorkSpace is doing to protect user data. Show me that you’re at least trying to keep my FTP user name and password from getting jacked in transmission. Or alternatively, offer a self-hosted option for those who don’t trust third parties with their sensitive server data.

If you’d like to give WorkSpace a test drive, you can sign up for a beta testing account on their web site.

It’s a … well I’m not quite sure what to call it (it’s not an emulator, and not quite a clone). It’s much like the original Pacman, but the mazes change and each level gets faster. Not only that, but a version of Ms. Pacman is included, as well as a two player Ms. Pacman – Pacman combo game (not quite sure how to play this with one keyboard though).

There are 25 standard board levels and four levels of difficulty. Plus you can create your own set of levels using the game’s level editor.

It’s an updated version of the arcade classics, and a fun app to have on your machine.