The Family Calendar Blog

Mediabee Web Access represents the beginnings of the second-generation of our user interface. You’ll see the changes here first and then they will also appear in the Mediabee Desktop Client at a later time. From a data perspective, Mediabee Desktop Client will provide you with richer views into your data for the time being - but eventually you won’t see much difference between the capabilities of the local client and the web access client.

We’ll quickly highlight the main features of Mediabee Web Access here. The philosophy that drives this user interface is “everything you need easily accessible from one place & updated in real-time”.

Get ready access to your home calendar from anywhere - with just a browser. And one-click access to your local (home) weather information.

Get Breaking Headlines from important news sources - updated every few minutes:

Get Health News from MedicinNet® - updated throughout the day - on medical topics of interest to you:

Surprise recipes of the day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, of the low-carb, low-fat, and vegetarian kind - from some of the best sources:

The hottest deals on the net delivered to you fresh for the picking:

Instant access to the Family Calendar Blog:

We’re just warming up! The little search box on the corner can bring you some amazing stuff with the absolute minimum of effort!

More to come in a future article.

What is Mediabee Web Access?

Mediabee Web Access (MWA) is a “light” version of the Mediabee Desktop Client. This is a quick write-up of MWA. This and other material will be incorporated into the existing help documentation over time.

What do I need to run MWA?

To run MWA, you must first have Mediabee installed on a Windows XP or Windows 2000 machine. (A Linux version is expected to be released in the not-too-distant future.)

MWA is completely browser-based and can be used from any system that has Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Mozilla/Firefox 1.0+.

Does it work the same as Mediabee Desktop Client (MDC)?

MWA does not offer all the functions of MDC, but it offers some of the key functions that users have been asking for. MWA is meant for people who’d like to access their home calendar from work or vice versa. MWA could also be used, for example, to check on your children’s homework completion or your elder relative’s medication compliance (all standard disclaimers apply) - assuming that the children or your elder relative are checking off their completed tasks.

On what systems should I run MWA as opposed to Mediabee Desktop Client (MDC) or Mediabee Thin Client (MTC)?

As stated, you can run MWA anywhere. Let’s say you have a home network with some PCs, Macs, and Linux machines. You would run MDC on one of your PC (Windows) machines. Then you could run MWA on the other machines. MWA is light on system resource consumption, and can run on any operating system (OS) - including some older Windows machines.

Will MWA work with older versions of Mediabee?

You will need Mediabee Version 1.1 or higher to run MWA. You must be a registered user. If you registered Mediabee V1.0.13 or lower, you must re-register. To re-register, you should change the “location” field in the registration screen and click on the Register Now button.

How do I login to MWA?

Visit http://www.mediabee.com/login and you will see a button for Mediabee Web Access. Click on the button to open up a separate browser window from which you will login. You will need to have the following items from your Registration screen handy: email address, password, phone number, and location. The password and location are case-sensitive and must be typed in exactly as it appears in the Registration screen.

I’ve done everything, but it doesn’t seem to work?

If you see the message “Login failed. Try again.” then you should double-check the details from the Registration screen. You may need to re-register if you first registered using an older version of Mediabee.

If the browser appears to hang, it is likely that MDC is unable to connect to our server. This could be because your system or your firewall is preventing MDC to access port 5222.

If this error is happening immediately after you first tried to access MWA after you installed Version 1.1, you may need to reboot your system.

If you’re still having issues, please send an email to support@mediabee.com. As you know, this is still beta software, an we would appreciate your cooperation in ironing out any potential bugs.

A new version, 1.1, of Mediabee has been released! It will be available on download.com starting on March 8, 2005.

Three major enhancements have been made:

1) Performance and stability. Mediabee 1.1 will use fewer system resources and offer better stability than its predecessors.

2) Web Access! Now you can access your home calendar from work or on the road - using just a browser. (You can also use this method of access on older Windows 98 or ME computers that are not supported by the desktop application - so long as you’ve installed Mediabee on another system.)

3) More robust list sharing. We’re still enhancing this feature to iron out the last few remaining bugs, but V1.1 is more robust than its predecessors in list sharing. This feature is cool because it allows you to permit someone else to write into your calendar and vice versa!

Watch this space for more information on this download. If you cannot wait to try this new version, email support@mediabee.com.

Thanks for your interest. If you like Mediabee, don’t keep it to yourself - spread the word! The more users we have, the more we can innovate. Some truly outstanding features will be available in the coming months - we ain’t just a purty interface!

Keep that feedback coming! Remember, even though we have done a lot of testing, deploying software to thousands of users still isn’t a science. There are so many differences in the ways systems are configured and used! We value any and all feedback - help make Mediabee better for all.

Over the next few days, as we roll out the enhanced List Sharing functionality, you are likely to experience some hiccups in our service. The application should work as normal, but you might see Javascript messages relating port 5222 not being accessible off and on.

New users trying to register the application may not be able to successfully register their application at certain times. Should this happen, just try to register at a later time.

Within the next few days, we will be releasing Version 1.1 of our software which will make list sharing a lot more reliable. We will make an announcement as soon as it is available for download.

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out some of the sizzling hot deals that are available on http://mediabee.com/hotdeals.

We updated mediabee.com today to include links to some “hidden” areas of our website throughout the site:

mediabee.com/forum provides a forum for you and us to discuss issues such as announcements, installation, and usage.

mediabee.com/blog quickly gets you to this page.

mediabee.com/weather links you to rich up-to-date weather information. This is the same information that’s available within the application. Go ahead - give it a try now if you haven’t already.

mediabee.com/recipes brings you the following recipes of the day: Breakfast, Main Course, Vegetarian, Low-Carb, Low-Fat, and Dessert. A fresh new recipe in each area every day - from the finest recipe sources on the web. Bookmark it now. (Clicking Recipes within the application will also bring you to this page.)

mediabee.com/health brings you the latest health headlines (powered by MedicineNet®) - updated throughout the day on a wide variety of topics ranging from Allergies to Diabetes to Heart Health to Weight Management. The clean layout helps you to get to this information quickly and choose just the topics you’re interested in. Check it out today!

mediabee.com/hotdeals brings you up-to-the-minute hot deals from our sponsors. Whether you’re looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift, or the hottest notebook computer deal, you’ll find a deal that you can’t resist here.

We release a minor update to Mediabee V1.0.13 on Feb 8, 2005. (This fixes the button issue mentioned in the earlier blog entry.)

It was available for a brief time before the link was broken and the download was no longer available. We’re working with download.com to figure out why it happened. The download is now available again - our apologies to anyone who tried, but failed, to download the application today.

We have learnt that on some high-resolution screens, people may have a problem seeing buttons on some of the screens (including, unfortunately, the registration screen). We’ll be releasing a fix for this soon.

In the meantime, here’s how you can work around the problem. After you make entries on the appropriate forms, just use the Tab button to go to the next entry in the form. Hitting the tab enough times will reveal the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

If you recently upgraded to V1.0.13 and you’re unable to see the correct weather information for your area, then make sure you use this technique on the Registration screen (Main Page->Settings->Registration) and click on Register Now after you’ve selected your weather area. That should fix that problem.

We regret the inconvenience.

Do you love a bargain? We do. Every day, we’re scouring through hundreds of bargains on the net to bring you the hottest deals. Today, we’re officially launching the Deal Bee - you can reach it on the net at http://mediabee.com/hotdeals or from within the Mediabee application.

Why shop at mediabee.com/hotdeals?

At Mediabee, we want to create an application that you can live in - and live out of. We’re bringing your life together into one manageable piece. And we want to keep bringing you the service for free. By shopping at our store, you’ll be supporting the service. It costs you nothing - and our sponsors will continue to support us and the service.

So go ahead and get your loved ones something precious - there are literally hundreds of the hottest bargains to choose from!

Not interested in Valentine’s day gifts? We have lots of other categories to choose from. Here’s a sneak peek:

We’re pleased to note that SoftPedia has certified that our application contains no spyware, adware, or malware. Go ahead, click on the image to find out what this means.

If you’re a user, you already knew this, of course.

Look for V1.0.13 to appear anytime now on download.com. This version has one major enhancement: WEATHER. To get a preview of how cool the new weather pages are, visit http://mediabee.com/weather.

If you like the page, bookmark it - after you’ve entered your own zipcode or, if you’re from outside the U.S., the “ICAO” code (to find out what it is, click on Global Weather).

This implementation is based on the great work done by the folks at Hamweather, LLC.

To make this change effective, once you’ve downloaded the new version, go to Settings->Registration and make sure that your zipcode field is correctly entered. If you’re not in the U.S., be sure to select your nearest weather station so that the left-hand-side panel shows you the correct weather info. Also, clicking on the weather icon will now automatically bring you the correct weather information - is that cool or what?

The various pieces of the application are slowly coming together nicely!

Expect another major release within a few days to make the list sharing behave more predictably and also so you can (if you choose to turn it on) access your home calendar from work or on the road with a browser.

If you like Mediabee, please be sure to tell all your friends about it. Better yet, please email them the following sentence:

“Check out this cool application! http://mediabee.com”

If you’re having any trouble with your application, remember, we’re here to help. Don’t automatically assume that we’ll eventually get to it! If we hear from you, we can prioritize our development accordingly. We’re VERY responsive, as some other customers who’ve complained will tell you. You can contact us by putting in a note on our forum http://mediabee.com/forum or sending us email at support@mediabee.com.

Here are some sneak peeks at the new weather pages:

Just saw this great recent article by Steve Grant of The Hartford Courant on Organizing Your Life.

In this modern, multitasking world, the to-do list is essential

All users are encouraged to download this release asap.

In addition to a number of minor bug fixes, this release features the following improvements:

1) Slightly better (but not complete) support for international users
2) Better disk usage. On Windows 2000, the application was causing disk fragmentation due to the caching of photos that were constantly rotating. This problem has been eliminated.
3) Main Page now features a preview of upcoming functionality that will allow you to manage ALL of life’s needs better. (download to find out what it is )
4) Weather panel should work now. If it doesn’t, visit Settings->Registration, make sure your zip code shows up correctly, and click on Register Now. For international users, the weather panel will be just a picture. But the weather icon on the tool bar should bring up your country’s weather page.
5) The photo panel will no longer automatically show pictures from My Pictures. Visit the Settings->Photo Gallery area to select the main folders from which to display pictures. Or create a Mediabee folder under My Pictures and put the pics you want in there.
6) A new version the thin client installer is available at http://mediabee.com/download/Mediabee_Client-1.0.12.exe.
7) Every main application is also now a thin client - meaning, you can have multiple Mediabee installations on the same local network, and you can change the server by visiting Settings->Server Settings. This process is a bit slow, but it works. Just make sure that the client and server versions are compatible.

We got a 4-Cow rating at Tucows. We almost got to 5, but they’d like us to better integrate support & do a little better cleanup on uninstall before we can get there.

We’re happy as clams, but you ain’t seen nothing yet. There’s some truly awesome stuff coming down the pike that will show you what Mediabee is all about. Stay tuned.

http://i-newswire.com/pr2243.html - eMarketer’s predictions for 2005 - with the top one being, of course, that 2005 is going to be the Year of Personalization.

Mediabee’s vision is to bring together all the information relevant to your family together in one place. The fun has just begun!

The concept of the Control Journal is awesome! Now you can keep one not in a 3-ring binder, but right on that computer you have in your kitchen. What good is a computer and a broadband connection if you still have to use a 3-ring binder to keep control of your schedule?

http://www.flylady.com/pages/cjmain.asp.

We love the FlyLady. She has great suggestions on how to take control of your busy life. Look at the following article, for instance: http://www.flylady.com/pages/FLYingLessons_UsingCalendar.asp.

Then use her tips with the Mediabee application so you don’t have to keep copying things on paper all the time.

Coming soon: articles on how you could follow some of her suggestions with Mediabee.

A CNET downloader (”Damon”) made the following negative comment (exact quote): “…There are features that obviously require communication with the internet like weather, ect. but I decided it wasn’t a good idea to have a personal planner with my whole family’s personal information and plans communicating with the internet…Not for me.”

The downloader is apparently fearful that we’re storing the family’s schedules on the Internet. This is simply not true. If you use a web-based calendar such as Yahoo® or MSN®, those services depend on hosting your data on their servers. Not so with Mediabee. If you look at our privacy policy, we clearly state what is sent to our servers and what is not. Very little of your information is kept on our servers. All of your scheduling information is actually kept on your machine.

As the user himself admits, we access weather information from the Internet. We also keep a connection to the Internet in case any of the calendars you subscribe to changes and your copy needs to be updated.

Please send a note to support at mediabee dot com to request the thin client installer. You can use the thin client installer for client-only installations in a home network where one machine already has the standard Mediabee installation.

The thin client will work on lesser machines, because, obviously, it’s less demanding than the full install.

It took them several days to publish this due to the holidays, but it is finally out there. Please upgrade if you haven’t already.