Stop Bugging Me

iPhone 2.0 is making my phone run insanely slow after running programs. There must be a memory leak somewhere. Let’s hope for a fix soon. And I’m happy about this since it doesn’t leave me too far behind with my first gen, but why didn’t the 3g get a better processor?

Haunting From the iPhone

So I never did my PowerBook vs MacBook pro. I just stumbled for a few months. I feel like I need to find a new schtick but people are still commenting and reading. Should I stick with technology or try something else?

I just downloaded the wordpress app for the iPhone which is what I am doing now. Hard to type a lengthy post but I may update more since I have it at all times.

Another Tuesday, No MacBook Pro

The Apple store went down again yesterday, Tuesday February 5, 2008…but only in the US and Canada. Many people thought we might just get the new MacBook Pro but what we did get was a 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPod Touch. Until the store goes down across the world, there will be no MacBook Pro update so keep your fingers crossed for a worldwide Internet inconvenience. So what does all this mean?

Well, with the iPhone SDK coming out this month, people will need more space for apps, although I think and hope the 4GB will continue to do its job. Most 3rd party apps now are rarely over 1MB. Either way, the whole ordeal is not greasing my gears. What’s confusing is, why this couldn’t have been announced 3 weeks ago at MacWorld. It’s such a small bump that it could have been a top headline in the keynote and wouldn’t have outshined the MacBook Air? Maybe it wasn’t ready? Neither was AppleTV Take 2, and it’s still not ready.

The status of the MacBook Pro leaves us with more confusion. The Penryn chips are available and being shipped for other notebooks from other companies so why not for Apple’s notebook lineup? Well according to Intel’s roadmap, the Montevina chips are due in Q2 which would put the release beginning in March but for Apple more around NAB or WWDC. Remember the iPhone was released at the VERY end of Q2 of ‘07. By then this would qualify for a total overhaul of the system, but the possibility does arise that Apple will release a Penryn MacBook Pro only as a stopgap until the Montevina, kinda how the Intel Core Duo was before the Intel Core 2 Duo. It simply made the transition happen sooner.

In the end, if Apple does release a Penryn model anytime soon without overhauling other areas, it will be quickly outdone by the Montevina. So if you see a Penryn MacBook Pro soon without any other changes, just wait until NAB or WWDC, if you can. I’ll give it my best shot. So far Apple has released updates every Tuesday of this year. Mac Pro, Macbook Air, pink iPod, application updates, and iPhone/iPod touch updates. Time will have to creep up on the MacBook Pro eventually if Apple keeps up this pace. Of course 10.5.2 will be out before then as well.

5 Things to Make Me Send My iPhone Back to Jail

I am currently running version 1.1.1 on my iPhone and it is jailbroken. Oddly enough I didn’t do it for the slew of applications even though I added a number of them. There were certain things I wanted my iPhone to do that Apple wasn’t quite willing to give me. However, if Apple were to include 5 things in an update, I would happily seal off my iPhone again. This comes in light of the recent news that you can again add custom ringtones to the iPhone using Garage Band but you must be using firmware 1.1.2
1. Include MMS messaging. Why the hell can’t I send or receive pictures on my iPhone? My old Sony Ericsson even allowed me to do that and AT&T supports it through data plans.
2. Make horizontal orientation available for all iPhone programs especially for email and texting. they QWERTY keyboard works so much better when it horizontal view and with texting and mail using the keyboard the most often, it would save me tons of time.
3. Give me the ability to change the layout of my icons. The iPhone serves a different purpose for everyone. For me it is a phone first so I want most of my phone controls in the bottom bar. Others may want all their iPod features at the bottom. This also includes the ability to hide icons that I will never use such as the iTunes music store. Screw that thing and so help me god if a Starbucks icon ever pops up on that phone.
4. iChat for the iPhone. I’m gonna assume this was a decision by AT&T to disallow iChat on the iPhone but AIM comes with just about every other AT&T phone as it is, right? Sure people can use that instead of texting, but each program is for reaching different people at different times. Trying to find someone online when you need them is a gamble. It’s more of a way to pass time than anything else whereas a text is when you can talk to anyone at any given time when it’s convenient for them or you. Apollo IM also isn’t the most stable client in the world and if Apple released an iPhone flavor of iChat, then I think we’d be better off.
5. Stop automatically taking me to pages formatted for the iPhone. Sometimes it is nice like with Digg but most of the time I want the full functionality of the site. I have a full blown browser in my hand, I want to use it.

Some other features would be nice too like in SMS, I wish it would take me to the SMS home screen instead of the last previous conversation. I can’t tell you how many times I have been talking to someone thinking it was someone completely different. A digital zoom for the camera would be nice too. The volume button would work perfectly. A hardware update that I would like to see is the ability to go backwards when listening to the iPod using the provided headphones. I sometimes like to hear a song more than once. Maybe all of this will come along eventually. It will be interesting to see what programs Apple allows 3rd parties to create come next year after the SDK is released.

Scroll to the top of a Safari Page on the iPhone

Tired of scrolling back to the top of the page in Safari for your iPhone? While playing with mine today I accidentally stumbled upon a neat way to immediately go back to the top of the page. Simply tap anywhere in your iPhone status bar when in the browser and it will immediately take you to the top of the page. Simple as that. I tried tapping to the left of the back arrow to see if it would go to the bottom of the page with no such luck. Maybe it might work for you.

Pandora Now on Sprint and AT&T Phones

I just received an email saying I can get my Kalmah channel from Pandora on my AT&T phone. Holy freeholies…death metal on my iPhone all day long. Have I been blessed? No I’ve been cursed. Of course this is only available on certain phones. Once again, Apple’s total lack of app support has shafted us iPhone users again, but this is still really good news.

For anyone familiar with Pandora already, you know how awesome it is. For anyone else, Pandora is a streaming music service where you pick the genre by artist or song. Pandora then searches the music genome project to find similar artists and styles. You just sit back, listen, and rate the music. With each rating, thumbs up or thumbs down, you build your list of the music you will enjoy and discover many artists along the way. It’s a wonderfully amazing service and it just keeps getting better.

So if you have a Pandora account and one of the above AT&T or Sprint phones, check out the site for a free trial. At this time, I’m not sure of the future costs.

P.S. This would rock the iPhone with the unlimited data plan. Come on Apple!

1.1.2 Broken Already?

For the iPod Touch perhaps. Even before it’s official release, TUAW is reporting firmware 1.1.2 has already been jailbroken perhaps with the iPhone coming soon. There is no mention of what the exploit to allow this is or if it’s a single step process or a length of steps as we first saw with 1.1.1. Assuming this is true and easy to do, this would pave the way for an easy upgrade to iTunes 7.5 and iPhone/iPod Touch firmware 1.1.2.

Stay tuned for more info but for now I recommend ignoring the update and just relaxing with your cool 3rd party apps. Stay tuned for more.

Go Directly to Jail iPhone

According to t3.co.uk, the UK version of the iPhone will be shipping with firmware version 1.1.2 which will fix the tiff exploit in 1.1.1 that allowed developers to jailbreak the iPhone to install custom applications. This firmware update should be making its way around the world soon. The firmware update also has support for more languages and alphabets in the keyboard. While Apple may be hoping users will update their iPhone, a good number of them won’t be. Updates are voluntary. Although you’ll be hounded to update, you’re not required to do so.

The current tiff exploit took some time to find and with the new update, the iPhone will most likely be sealed for good. iPhones across the world will be all exactly alike again until Apple launches their third party applications sometime in 2008 following the SDK release in February. A majority of people will simply upgrade who haven’t hacked their iPhones, but I urge you think twice about it. Saying no to the update will show your support for the development community. Apple began with the mindset that the users and the developers should be at the heart of the OS. This appears to have changed, at least for now, for the iPhone. Even if you don’t want to upgrade out of fear something might happen to your phone or simply want to stick with Apple’s plan, find someone with a hacked iPhone and talk to them about it. A lot of great work has been done and I personally would hate to see it thrown aside.

So keep checking your software updates and read them carefully to make sure you get the ones you want and say no to the ones you don’t. It’s your phone and you have a choice.

Jail Buhroken! What a Beautiful Clutter

By now, you must have hear iPhone firmware 1.1.1 has officially been jailbroken, by AppSnapp. It can now be done with a single, and incredibly easy install without all the backdoor methods we have seen over the previous weeks. The second jailbreak by the iPhone goes on to prove that it’s more than an iPod, a phone, and an Internet communications device. It’s also a handheld game device, a movie player, an instant messenger and by god something you can use your own ringtones on.

In the free market, ingenuity is driven by competition. When the iPhone came "locked" to 3rd party developers the original break-in was found and people were free to intensify their own user experience. With firmware 1.1.1, those who were sucker enough to "upgrade" found themselves temporarily in the dark until a new solution was created. Feeling the pressure, Apple caved and announced an SDK for the iPhone due out in February with the first applications not due for another couple months and primarily adopted through the iTunes store. "Why wait?" thought the hackers and the new installer.app was released. Apple bred its own competition or what I so lovingly call its actual user base. Those that saw the immediate promise of the iPhone and all the power and glory held within.

So what makes the iPhone so perfect for this development aside from 4-8GB of storage. It’s the nihilism of the device: one button.  The hardware is set for years, all functionality changes from within. Developers can make the screen do and show whatever they want to. Why should users be relegated to the icons given by Apple and a standard order to them? My device is primarily used as a phone so why shouldn’t all phone functions be at the bottom dock? Why shouldn’t all the iPod functions be made readily available from the home screen for those who primarily use it as a music device ? Why do we always have to return to the home screen just to get to another app?

 

Who knows what will happen when the iPhone SDK is released and programs begin to role out through iTunes? Through Apple’s own doing, it is facing its toughest competition through its own partners, the developers. Apple will be the first to admit, its greatest resource is the developers who also make a great percentage of its users. Telecommunications researches are all seeking the unified theory of communications, the Holy Grail that just explains everything. Shouldn’t we seek the same in our devices? If the capability is there, should we not use it?

It’s now Apple’s turn. The developers answered the call for competition and now Apple needs to see what it can do to satisfy users. It’s time for Apple to unleash the greatest multimedia device applications ever. Locking the users out is not the answer.

People are a Talkin’

I’m basing this on one post, but it’s looking like people who pre-ordered Leopard WILL receive it on October 26th (please spare me the hate mail if I’m wrong because since I pre-ordered it, I will be equally as pissed). It looks as if that order is going to Hong Kong which explains why it shipped 3 days in advance and mine has “yet to be shipped” as its status. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. UPDATE: My status has been updated to “Prepared for Shipment.”

UPDATE 2: My shipping method has been updated to “Priority Overnite.” Glad I didn’t pay for next day shipping.

Early reviews are beginning to trickle in from developers and from an apparent Internet copy making its way around. The build being 9a581, although we’ll see what the version we get is. So what are we hearing? FAST!! Insanely fast in all areas. Programs are opening up in no time including mail. Time machine works instantly auto-detecting hard drives. Although what leads me to believe that this isn’t the final build is a comment about Finder hanging at first load. Although this could be related to hardware or fixed with a simple 10.5.1 update, I think it could be part of a bad setup file or it not being the final build of Leopard.

Tom Yager is calling this an “engineering achievement that dwarfs iPhone, iPod, Windows and Linux.” (I have an iPhone and it is definitely an engineering marvel, although the software needs to be hammered out). It also sounds like Mr. Yager is unable to fully disclose as much information as he would like until the official release, so he’s holding back. Yager has a great point when he compares the release and adoption of Vista as largely “incidental,” to being bundled with new computers whereas Leopard will see it’s primary adoption from OS X users going to the store or an online retailers seeking the upgrade, a level twice that of the release of Tiger and growing.

As I listen to MacBreak Weekly, the chaps are discussing what they are looking forward to the most. For me personally, there are things I look forward to to use all the time and a few things I am looking to try out. I will probably still never use iChat. I think AdiumX is the best out there even though it doesn’t have video chat which I don’t really need. Come my installation, I will finally begin using Apple Mail as my email client. (For anything I mention, check out the Apple site for more info, ot stayed tuned for my review in the coming days). Time Machine, oh lordy, Time Machine. I used system restore in Windows XP once and if it’s anywhere near the same in Vista, Apple has trounced the competitor. There is one thing I am eager to try, the new Automator.

Apple introduced Automator in Tiger. It is an application to make the system do chains of tasks automatically for you. I opened it a couple times, shrugged my shoulders and closed it. It’s difficult for me to tell a computer to do something the way a computer does it. With this new feature, you can turn Automator on, tell it to record, and it will follow what you’re doing until you tell it to stop such as opening a series of apps or working within an application like Photoshop or Pixelmator. I’ll be sure to let you know what I think of it. Of course, the worst part in all this would be if the install totally craps out, but I don’t expect that to happen.