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.

Your Shows May be Put on Hold…or Already Are

In case you’ve missed the news or have been left in the dark to wonder why your favorite TV shows are now in repeats, there is a little writers’ strike going on in Hollywood. It’s actually quite massive. After talks over the summer for contract negotiations fell through, the Writers’ Guild went on strike. The last time this happened it was in 1988, lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry $500 million.

The writers are hoping to reap larger royalties from DVD sales and digital downloads. While this would idealistically be nice, digital downloads have not been show to be profitable yet. TV shows don’t become profitable until reaching syndication (where the show is picked up for reruns on other stations outside of its normal viewing time). What happens is stations, locally and from other broadcasters like ABC, FOX, NBC, etc., place bids on original programming. This is why you see scrubs on Comedy Central, Family Guy on TBS, The Simpsons on ABC. You see how it goes. The magic number is 100 episodes for syndication even though some have broken this mold like Family Guy and Futurama. The only thing that might come out of DRM and DVD sales for now is perhaps lowering the magic number, but there are no extra profits to be had.

The LATimes has comprised a comprehensive list of the shows being affected. If that link doesn’t work just Google it. As you can see some shows, mainly the late night ones have already been put into reruns because they rely on current events for material. Others will take some time like primetime dramas and comedies. Even though there is material until January, it will be interesting to see a Soap Opera in repeats or even replaced with something else assuming the strike lasts that long. Other seasons will be put on hold for a while like Law and Order, Lost, My Name is Earl, etc. once their current new material is used up.

One thing to pay close attention to is shows like Scrubs in their final season. The last handful of episodes aren’t completed yet and with NBC ready to pull the plug on the show a few years ago even after an Emmy nomination, NBC may choose to just cancel the rest of the series. I hope not, but that is a likely scenario.

One thing is for sure, the television industry is going to lose a lot of money. Advertisers don’t want to pay for spots at current market price for old commodities. The audience is excited for new episodes of shows and will become disenfranchised with repeats and mid-afternoon infomercials. If the writers are able to get what they want, the industry will have to pay up but at least for now, they’re not having to pay their writers. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this. Hopefully something everyone can agree on and a return to our regular programming.

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.

iPhone Bug Thing…Maybe…iPod

I have yet to read anything else about this and I am definitely hoping it’s not just my iPhone or that it’s a twisted feature apple put into place to serve a purpose of god knows what. Follow these steps if you have an iPhone:

1. Plug your headphones into your iPhone

2. Go to your iPod in the iPhone and pick a track to listen to through the on-screen controls and pause the track.

3. Put the iPhone in your pocket and try to unpause the track by clicking once on the headphone trigger.

What happens for me is, by clicking on the trigger my playlist resets to the beginning. My list is set to random shuffle by the way, but one would think that by clicking the button, the track I selected from the iPhone touch screen should automatically begin playing instead of resetting the list. Let me know what you come up with.

This is perhaps a good time to talk a little about the iPhone. What we have all been following the most, is the unlocking of the 1.1.1 firmware. I like some of you feel prey to the upgrade. I still don’t know why I actually did it. I have a wireless iTunes store now that I will never use. You can’t even download podcasts from it. Are you looking forward to the crack or are you going to keep your iPhone pure? It should be every iPhone users’ right to add third party applications to the iPhone for a number of reasons.

One is we paid a shitload of money for this device; we own it and we pay another large amount of money to AT&T each month for their services. We don’t rent the device from AT&T or from Apple. It should be ours to do what we want with it. When the contract expires, we still have the phone. We don’t return it like a Time Warner cable box. AT&T is probably afraid we’ll install 3rd parts apps that will make calling free. Either way, they’re making their 70-100 a month anyways so why should they care? Apple was always thought to support 3rd party applications. Have you seen how many open source apps there are for OS X? Good lord!

The iPhone needs 3rd part applications. I never had the chance to play with any 3rd party applications on my iPhone simply because I wasn’t hip to the idea yet. I would have jumped all over the IM client because my last flip-phone had it and it worked pretty well. I am a firm believer that if you own something, it is your basic right as a consumer to do whatever you want to it. Like I said, it would be much different if you rented the iPhone, but you don’t.

What applications did/do you have on your iPhone and what ones would you like to have on your device?

This is a Melting Pot

Other than as a reader, I am extremely new to this whole tech-blogging thing. I’m going to give the writing part of it a shot of my own. I expect this to start off really poorly and hopefully get better as I pick up some methods for writing and refine my styles. So why am I writing this? I consume just about every type of media there is. I have two degrees in telecommunications and work for a local PBS station. My master’s degree is in media effects theory for video games. I’m going to say it once; Video Games do NOT cause kids to go ape-shit. I don’t want to hear it. Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman need to find better things to do with their time.

At home I have HDTV, lots of video game systems handheld and console, mp3 players, etc. After growing tired of building my own computer, I made the switch to mac and once Leopard is out I will be dual booting Mac OS and Windows. In summary, I consider myself relatively qualified to be making such a blog. Expect to find information from all areas including politics because what they hope to accomplish or refuse to educate themselves about has a direct influence on you. I’m hoping to differentiate myself a bit from all the rest. The last thing you need it regurgitated information from me.