However, after I got the marketplace running, I realized I’d have to do more work to get Google’s Android Calendar software and Contacts software running on my system (I actually got Go Contacts running after installing the Sync application).

I ran into a bit of trouble with the permissions system and getting things onto /system/app but solved that problem using “Root Explorer” from the Android market. I also installed a couple keyboards using the same method of /system/app

Now I pretty much have a planner I can write on with eInk and it’s wonderful. I’ve run into two problems:

1. USB host mode doesn’t work, so I can’t connect a keyboard to it (but these guys are working on it).
2. Apps that rely heavily on scrolling (like Evernote and Gospel Library) are unpredictable (I hope to get this working for Gospel Library on this thread). I solved this problem for the Kindle app by over-riding the physical buttons with NookTouchTools.

I’m so happy with my solution so far. I just hope to solve the problem with the scriptures and I’ll be very happy. I manage to get by with everything else.

Thanks to this Old House for posting the video to help me solve my problem. The final product shown on the right above.

“You need to write a VNC viewer for kindle touch (there exists one for
kindle keyboard, but no touch controls). Then you create a wifi
hotspot on your phone and start a VNC server on the phone. Then you
can use the kindle to VNC to the phone. Speed will be an issue. So
will battery life. Good luck.”

“If you want to write some kernel drivers, sure.”

I may just get a nook and root it and use the Android system that it has. Then I’ll use my Note for its camera and phone and Internet connection.

I’d love to hear if anyone has ideas for better how to achieve turning a kindle or a nook into a reliable screen/interface to a better device or operating system.

Today, after hearing all the Kindle announcements, I thought to call Amazon and see if I was still on warranty. I called them at 12:59pm and by 1:02pm I was off the phone with a tracking number, my replacement Kindle on the way.

With that kind of customer service, I’m reminded of friends who’ve tried to replace their iPhone screen with Apple (same service with iPad). Nothing but complaints.

Now that people weigh Kindle Fire against the Apple iPad, customer service will increasingly become part of the war. And right now, Amazon is definitely winning that battle.

• #25 EcoScraps – compost systems
• #24 bambooHR – simplifies HR process
• #23 izatt – iPhone and iPad apps / milebug is a top seller
• #22 Zylun – provide access to offshore work force
• #21 Launch Leads – gets leads for other businesses
• #20 Bluehouse Ski company – sponsor local skiers
• #19 Omnia Alliance – marketing management tools
• #18 Avantar – local mobile search – Pay for Performance
• #17 ClearCenter – IT of distributed teams in small company environments.
• #16 DrivingSales.com – collect business intelligence and market data across the automotive industry
• #15 Professional Cable – data connections for the Internet?
• #14 Orabrush – that’s us
• #13 Job Match – iApplicants solutions
• #12 SweetToothFairy – nailed QVC
• #11 CFOWise – ton of clients
• #10 BizVision – creating, managing and delivering webcasts for corporations
• #9 KT Tape – for treating and supporting sports injuries.
• #8 mediaFORGE – transforming online advertising based on previous browsing and shopping behavior
• #7 Fiftyfilms, LLC – My girlfriend’s boyfriend
• #6 Experience Dental Studio – great smiles.
• #5 SEO.com – was #6 last year.
• #4 Campus Book Rentals – 50-80 percent discount on textbook rentals. Saving students millions.
• #3 qivana – dietary system to stabilize and revitalize their health. All natural products.
• #2 simply mac – apple specialist
• #1 Orange Soda – online marketing with a fiz

Last time I attended this an MLM called Xango won.

On a day when, at UVEF, we celebrate the triumphs of 25 Utah companies and their growth, it is healthy perspective for us to remember a few excerpts (emphasized below) and lessons from this famous poem.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

To those of you who are new, or disaster stricken or veteran entrepreneurs (and I suspect each of us has or will or will again be part of all three groups), as we navigate triumph and disaster, may we not let either imposter change our “will…to…hold on,” and may we “fill [every single] minute with 60 seconds ‘worth of distance run.”

I thought it would be slick to do it with Prezi (our favorite presentation software at Orabrush), but the videos didn’t seem to embed with Prezi (probably because Prezi.com doesn’t encode the video during the file creation process, just includes whatever video you give it).

Then I tried adding the mp4 videos via iTunes. Nope. They wouldn’t transfer because they wouldn’t play on the iPad.

I almost had to buy Wondershare’s convertor for $40, but the video team told me that Final Cut files would work. I tried to use the mp4’s from Final Cut rather than from YouTube downloads. Nope.

Our editor showed me how to use Final Cut to create an mp4 with iPad settings. I did that (took hours to encode 5 videos) and then installed the videos onto the iPad.

I downloaded Keynote and created my presentation. When I tried to add the videos to the Keynote, it would only allow me to select from the photo album. So, I went back to the Mac and discovered that I would need to add the videos to iPhoto (that’s intuitive) and sync the iPad again.

Then the videos were available, but as I added them to my presentation, Keynote had to encode them again! More time waiting.

Finally, I had to deploy them to 4 iPads, a couple iPad 2’s and a couple iPad 1’s. Because the file was huge, I had to track down the computer that each iPad syncs to and use a thumbdrive to sync the file. One guy had never synced with iTunes and so his iPad software and iTunes were out of date.

Two days later, I have the slickest presentation that will be at NACDS

Would have taken me two hours to do with a regular computer and Prezi.

iTunes is a bloated mess and the shackles of syncing for file deployment make me want to pull my hair out. There has got to be a better way to do this Apple!