Techie Links, 5 May 2008

A few tech links that may be of interest to you:

Super-techie Werner Ruotsalainen gives an exhaustive review of the HP 210 Pocket PC. If I were in the market for a Pocket PC, this review, plus my own past experiences with the HP 4700, would definitely convince me to get an HP 210. It sounds like a superb device.
The Cranking Widgets Blog as an in-depth writeup on 37signals’ much-praised Backpack. The review is entitled Getting Things Done with 37signals’ Backpack - Why I’m Switching Back, and discusses why the author has changed from the Remember The Milk application to Backpack. I’ve personally been pretty pleased with my RTM Pro account, especially now that it syncs to my BlackBerry Curve (and from that to Outlook) and also because of the excellent interface it has on my iPod Touch. But, Backpack does sound interesting. Any of you using it?

Gear Diary notes that it AT&T seems to have disabled iPhone access to free Wifi at Starbucks. As noted there it is not clear whether this is temporary. Whether temporary or not, this is no doubt disappointing to those of you who have an iPhone and frequent Starbucks (which I suspect is the case with many of you).
Michael Arrington notes that urgent changes are needed to Facebook messaging. Amen: he brings up some significant issues with Facebook’s current messaging platform. Now, while I do not have the magnitude of problem that Michael has, because I do not have a ton of people contacting me to write about their products or to link to their site, I not like to check multiple places for messages. I you want my attention on something, it is best to email me. You can email me directly or use the contact form available via the nav menu at the top of the page … this form is emailed to me at my gmail address.
Matt Cutts gives an up-check to O’Reilly’s new Google Apps Hacks book. I have not purchased the book yet, but like Matt, I am a fan of O’Reilly publications. Matt notes that this book is intended for web-savvy users, and many of you certainly fit that category. He also notes that an excellent book for those who are not web-savvy is Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet—Better, Faster, Easier.