That was a short honeymoon, Apple
If you recently purchased a new iPhone 3G or upgraded your iPhone 1.0 to the new 2.0 firmware, you’ve probably already put it through its paces. In fact, chances are good that you’re not only over the “honeymoon phase,” you’re considering divorce.
It would appear that the new firmware is suffering from some sort of bug (maybe a memory leak?) that’s bringing everyday utilities like text messaging and calling to a crawl. Frustrated users can be spotted at every turn on the web, including here, here, over here, and here.
I’ve been experiencing the same problem, though I’ve found some temporary relief by resetting the phone (hold down power and home buttons) when the lag gets really bad. When this situation shows up, you’ll know it almost immediately: opening SMS takes 5-6 seconds, text entry lag in SMS is unbearable (we’re talking 3-4 seconds between presses), scrolling through contacts takes 10 seconds or more, and selecting a contact to call can take at least as long.
This is undoubtedly one of those “early adopter” bugs that us geeks have grown so accustomed to, and one that I’d expect Apple to have ironed out through a firmware update in fairly short order.
Now, let’s just hope that the updated firmware doesn’t destroy our ability to unlock 2.0.
Tags: 2.0, Apple, contacts, iPhone, iphone 3g, lag, sms
Get EVDO, and stop being taken
I was having a fascinating chat with my traveling buddy, Walt, yesterday. We were sitting in the restaurant of the Hilton North Greenpoint in Houston, and he asked me how the internet access in the hotel was working out.
T (Me): Well, the speed’s fine.
W (Walt): Is the wireless pretty good?
T: I suppose. It transmits data, if that’s what you mean.
W: No, I’m just wondering if it’s any better than what I went through to use on of their desktops in the “business center.”
T: I’d guess that using my MacBook is better than using a PC in any room, on any internet connection. /me grins.
W: Yah, especially at $1.50/minute.
…and this is where the rant begins. $1.50/minute? I was already paying [correction: the company was paying] $10.77/day for a connection, wireless or wired, on each device that needed one. In my case, that was three - MacBook, Dell laptop for work, and the iPhone…which made for a grand total of $64.62 in internet charges for two days. [Note: this is about $5 more than what I pay for my Sprint EVDO card/month]
Must-Have iPhone App: Stanza
It’s awfully tough to avoid the hype surrounding the new iPhone release, but so far I’ve managed to completely ignore it on this site. You’re welcome.
The silence is over, though, because I’m just totally raving about Stanza - an eBook reader for the iPhone that’s now available in the App Store. This app is taking my life by storm, and it doesn’t even carry a blaster.
For those of us that had jailbroken iPhones (pre-2.0), there was one eBook reader available. It was acceptable, made decent use of the iPhone’s scrolling abilities, and was generally pleasant to use…that is, once you got books on it. Uploading books required that you access the phone via sFTP, upload the files to a specific directory, reload, and hope. Stanza makes the old reader run for the hills.
Number one best feature: it has a built-in book catalog! You’ve probably heard about Project Gutenberg - the place to get thousands and thousands of classic (read: out of copyright) books in digital format. Yep. That’s right. With just a few taps on the phone, you can access a decent selection of free books that will download to your phone for your reading pleasure. No syncing. No FTP’ing. Just reading.
The organization of the library is also excellent, allowing you to filter through books by author, title, recently read, etc.
The Stanza guys took an interesting turn on the page-flipping idea, choosing to go with the horizontal scroll rather than the vertical scroll. Personally, it doesn’t much matter to me…but I find it to be a little less “suave” than the vertical page jump that we saw in the original eBook app.
Overall, readability is top notch, the fonts are clear, and the application loads quickly. If I have a beef, it’s that the app doesn’t remember what book you were last reading; rather, you have to select the title, and the program picks up where you left off. Using the “recently read” sort gets you back to the same spot in two taps…not too, too bad.
In summary - if you’re an iPhone user, you need this app. Now.
Oh wait…did I mention that it’s free?
Neat Trick: Two Laptops, One Without Wi-Fi?
I was recently with a buddy whose corporate laptop doesn’t have wifi, and it occurred to me to see if I could share my EVDO connection with him. Guess what? The sharing preferences on your Mac make this task a two-click process.
Connect to the internet with your mac, and you can share that connection seamlessly over ethernet, firewire, or even wireless.
I guess I always knew this was possible, but I’d never realized how convenient it was. Give it a go.
Unlocked iPhone Upgrade: links to live by
I decided to get off my butt and upgrade my unlocked iPhone from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1 last week…and it was a complete disaster. Here are some of the mistakes I made, how to avoid them, and the links which will bail you out.
- Check your iTunes version, and make sure it’s supported by iNdependence before you start. I’d become somewhat relaxed with my iTunes upgrades, only to learn halfway through the upgrade that 7.5 is not supported by iNdependence. A quick download of AppZapper to completely remove iTunes, and a download of iTunes 7.4 (you’ll have to dig around to find the file) later, I was back with a useable version of iTunes.
- Always do option-clicks on the “restore” and “update” buttons in iTunes. I didn’t decide to upgrade to 1.1.1 until after 1.1.2 came out, and I didn’t realize that clicking “upgrade” (like all the walkthroughs will tell you to do) was going to put 1.1.2 on the phone. If you make this mistake, and have an iPhone that’s been upgraded from 1.0.2 to 1.1.2, follow these instructions to save your phone.
- Start here if you haven’t already screwed yourself up; the guys over at ModMyiFone.com will take you all the way through the downgrade/upgrade process.
- The jailbreakme.com trick didn’t work for me. The ModMyiFone guides will take you through a nifty little process that lets you visit a website from your iPhone, and jailbreak it automatically. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked for me (on two phones that I’ve now upgraded). Instead, unlock it with iNdependence, and install Installer.app manually through iNdependence.
Like I said, my phone was an absolute disaster…but I was able to upgrade my wife’s iPhone in about 15 minutes. Now, if only I could get her to consistently sync her phone…
Technorati Tags: apple, independence, iphone, unlocking
World of Warcraft: EQ of Today?
I used to be an Everquest player - back in my days at MIT. I was an officer in a guild, and my gnomish enchanter was an absolute badass. Of course, I was hyper-sensitive to the proverbial addiction risk, and bailed on EQ when I started working full time.
I’m now braving the temptations and taunts of WoW…and having a blast. The truth is that I was level 6 before I finished playing for the first time, and found myself right at home in WoW; it was just like being back in EQ.
It’s my goal to document my experiences over the next few weeks here. Sure, there are thousands and thousands of places you can read more about WoW - but I’m hoping to bring you the MG perspective. In other words: how is WoW for the casual player? How does a person with a full-time job fare in this world of addicts? We’ll see.
By the way: I just hit level 7.
Click here for the full screenshot.
Technorati Tags: everquest, world of warcraft, wow
TiVo To Go
I’ve had a TiVo for quite a while now, and it’s been good to me. As a result of laziness, my trusty TiVo has operated with a standard phone connection as its only link to the outside world; it downloads its updates in the background, and I hadn’t given it a thought.
That is, until today.
So it turns out that one of my buddies is on MTV this week, and we want to capture the show to send around (Disclaimer: this practice probably violates several content protection laws, but I’m claiming ignorance). A recent chit-chat confirmed that I was the best bet, in our circle of friends, in getting this video on a hard drive. Naturally, I turned to my TiVo.
Fortunately, I had an extra USB wireless adapter laying around…and after some USB cable jiggery pokery (can you believe it uses an A-A USB cable?), was able to get the TiVo on the network here at the house. And a whole new world opened up to me…
You might know that I have an affinity for podcasting, and it turns out that the TiVO has a “Podcaster” app built in. Yep, you guessed it: you can listen to your favorite podcasts directly through your TiVo! Rad.
Copying movies from the TiVo is a cinch with the TiVo To Go app from their website, and a slick little app called DirectShow Dump, you can quickly convert the videos to an unprotected MPEG format.
I’ve now got all of the music on my server available for perusal and enjoyment through my TiVo, as well as all of the photos in my iPhoto library.
Did I mention that there are several little internet apps on there (like weather and traffic)?
Hook up your TiVo. Seriously.
technorati tags:tivo, tivotogo, television, dvr
Quick Tip: Unplug that iPod during boot!
Here’s a quick hit for everyone. If you’re using a Mac (like my iMac), and you’ve got your iPod connected via USB - unplug it before rebooting.
I had a three or four minute extreme panic run when my Mac threw a couple of beeps out, and sat with a gray screen…three boots in a row. After some digging, it became clear that the beeps were flagging an unbootable disk; that disk was my 4G iPod, plugged in via USB.
technorati tags:ipod, boot, mac, apple, usb
Quicken, Macs, Smartphones…
For those of you who use Macs, you’ve probably installed Quicken at least once or twice. It’s arguably the only reasonable finance management program available for Mac (though there are several alternatives), for a whole slew of reasons; most importantly, it does an adequate job of retrieving transactions from online banking sites..and that’s huge.
But if you’re a Mac user, using Quicken, and also carrying around a Windows Smartphone…you may have noticed that you’re missing something.
I’m personally fond of the idea of having a mobile Quicken interface in my pocket when I’m out and about, and Windows users have been doing this for a long time. There are programs like Pocket Quicken that will let you sync your Windows Quicken up with your Windows Smartphone, and a few others that will let you sync up your Windows OR Mac Quicken with your Palm OS device. Alas, there are no alternatives (that we’re able to find) for syncing up Mac Quicken with a Windows Smartphone.
Hey, Mark/Space - can you add this to your list? Or, if you’ve got some ideas for how to do this, please fill up the comments…
technorati tags:quicken, mac, smartphone, windows, finance
When Search Logic is Funny
When Search Logic is Funny
Originally uploaded by Turnipville.
Occasionally, you do something totally natural - only to find that it’s hilarious, when taken out of context.