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I bought a Time Capsule (an AirPort Extreme is essentially the same, just missing the harddisk) and it’s working flawlessly, after a little work on setting it up. The following article should make it clear how to  set up the router (Siemens) that is provided by the German DSL provider Alice (Hansenet).

To set up the TC, simply follow the explanation given in the setup guide. If you can’t be bothered to read that – and I assure you I know that feeling – just plug in your ethernet cable and install the software that came with your device, as weird as that may seem. I didn’t install it in the first place but was warned that I have an older version currently running. After installing it, I went to:

Applications -> Utilities -> AirPort Utilities

Just click yourself through the process. If you should encounter issues or have questions, this may help (and eventhough it’s quite old, it sure helped me). The most important thing to set up is DHCP. Even if you have PPPoE in mind, just use the suggested option. Now your internet should be up and running (because you Mac will still connect via your entered PPPoE network settings, as the cable is still attached).

Now log in to your Siemens router that Alice sent you, by visiting the following IP with your preferred web browser:

192.168.1.1

Then set up your login details:

Username: YourTelephoneNumber@alice-dsl.de

Password: YourBirthdate (ddmmyyyy)

While you’re at it, set up a password for your router, if you haven’t done so already. Nothing is worse than setting up a secure network and leaving the router open for others to change the passwords.  Simply save your configuration and you’re basically good to go. Basically. You will also need to log in to your own, just created wireless network with your Mac. Now you can plug out your ethernet cable if you made the initial backup already. Otherwise I’d suggest leaving it plugged in until you finished that. I then restarted my Mac, but it should work without doing so.

As you can see, there isn’t much to it. I expected it to be either really difficult or impossible, after reading many discussions about this online. If you still encounter problems setting it up, or if you have further questions, please leave a comment and i’ll get back to you a.s.a.p.

Since I got an invitation to Google Wave and didn’t have much time to test it properly yet, I decided to start a public wave for blogable.eu readers.

To find the wave simply search for:

with:public “Welcome to the blogable.eu reader public wave”

If you encounter problems (like not finding the wave) I’d like you to let me know, since I also just started testing it. The wave is supposed to let blogable.eu readers test Google Wave, experience the possibilities and share the experience with other readers.

Hope to seeing you there soon.

From the first day mobile phones allowed multiple numbers and further information to be stored under one name, I wondered why it wasn’t and still mostly isn’t possible to automatically add details such as birthdays from the contacts’ details to the mobile phone’s calendar.

Using Google and its products finally solved that for me. Entered contact information such as birthdays are automatically syncronized with Google Calendar. All you need to do, is to enable that calendar. To do so, please follow these steps:

0) Create a Google account, if you don’t have one already.

1) Visit Google Calendar via your Gmail account or visit Google Calendar.

2) Click Settings and visit the Calendars tab.

3) Now follow the Browse interesting calendars link.

4) Under the More tab you will find Contacts’ birthdays and events.

5) Subscribe and enjoy.

Syncronizing your mobile phone contacts and calendar with Google is a great way to keep track of birthdays and other events you entered into your contacts’ details. No need to create an extra calendar entry any more. Was about time someone solved this gap between the calendar and contacts syncronization if you ask me.

Since the beginning of mankind, people tried to communicate as efficently as possible and the introduction of the e-mail, which enables us to share information worldwide, sure had a massive impact on how we see and live communication today. Google intends to take it a step further and creates something new: Google Wave.

If you don’t know what Google Wave is, watching the following (unofficial) video may help:

I was happy enough to receive an invitation and currently I’m trying to understand all the features and possibilities that Google Wave offers at the moment. A nice to know information for new ‘Wavers’ is the following search:

search:public

This will enable you to find publicly written waves, as you may not know many people that have an invitation yet. This way you will get to know the features and can help to make this preview a beta soon.

If you still have no idea what Google Wave is, where it fits in between Facebook and Twitter, or if you simply would like to read more about it, you will find a good article here.

At the moment it’s quite slow and I encounter some issues once in a while. Nevertheless, this seems to be the next big thing and I’m looking forward to seeing the impact it will have on the communication over all and for me.

Just one more thing.

The so-called Web-Apps for the iPhone aren’t really newsworthy, but in regards to Google Wave it may be interesting to know that an added Google Wave home screen bookmark will not show the Safari wrapper, but look like an independent app.