What's on My iPhone

It's been awhile since I've written about applications on the iPhone. The last time I discussed a number of jailbreak apps that I had tried out or used heavily. However, since upgrading to the iPhone 3G, I have been running strictly legit apps. (I still have jailbroken apps on my original iPhone, but nothing really impressive.)

So what do I have on my iPhone? Here goes:

Page One/Line One:
- SMS
- Calendar
- Photos
- Camera
All standard Apple apps and in their original locations.

Page One/Line Two:
- YouTube
- Bloomberg
- Maps
- Weather
YouTube and Maps are the standard Apple apps. I have substituted the Bloomberg app for the standard Apple Stocks app because it is so much better; stores and provides more information; and is free. I don't use Apple's Stocks application. Weather is a Safari shortcut for the Weather Underground site (http://i.wund.com) and I have it set to my local weather. Weather Underground provides in-depth seven-day forecasts as well as local weather radar on the same page. I don't use Apple's Weather app.

Page One/Line Three:
- Mobile News
- Calculator
- Evernote
- Reader
Only the Calculator is an original Apple app. I have an HP-21-like financial calculator on the phone also, but find the Apple Calculator simple and reliable for most day-to-day uses. Mobile News is the Associated Press' free news application and I find it simple, and provides a great overview of world, US, political, and business news. While I still use Apple's notes app, it has been relegated to page two. Evernote is a free application that provides easy notetaking, allows voice recording, allows snapshot notes, and syncs all these in the cloud. Evernote also has Web access as well as an app that runs on the Mac. The result is information can be accessed virtually anywhere (unlike Apple's Notes app). Finally, Reader is a Safari shortcut to Google's iPhone-optimized reader page. This fills the bill for information not provided by Mobile News.

Page One/Line Four:
- Contacts
- Settings
- Twitterific
- Jott
Contacts and Setting are the standard Apple apps. Twitterific is my primary Twitter client and is used quite often. Jott is my preferred ToDo list application because it allows voice transcription of notes and ToDos. This makes it great when driving and something comes to mind that I wamt to remember.

The Dock:
- Phone
- Mail
- Safari
- iPod
These are all standard iPhone apps and in their original position.

With a few exceptions, these are the workhorse applications I use. I have a total of nine pages of apps and shortcuts, some used quite often and others that are there if I need them. Others of note include:

- 1Password for keeping track of various user IDs, passwords, and related Web site addresses.

- AppStore for keeping applications updated and installing new ones.

-AirSharing for keeping various Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files that
I need to reference on the iPhone.

- Wikipanion for looking up those quick items that don't require an in-depth Google search. It's a free app.

- Google Search with the voice recognition capability. I find that I use this app a lot more since they added the voice recognition.

- New York Times application. This fills the holes left by Mobile News and Google Reader, but the application is prone to frequent crashes.

- SportsTap, a comprehensive sports tracking application.

- iBlogger which I use to write most of my blog entries. I paid for this application and it has been worth every penny.

- i.TV for tracking what's on TV as well as finding what's playing at local theatres.

There are other applications that I use from time to time, but not nearly as frequently as the ones mentioned. I will cover some of them at a later time.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Update 2.2 Impressions

I've now have several days under the belt with iPhone OS X Update 2.2. The good is the Google Maps application with Streetview. In my opinion, Streetview works better on the iPhone than it does on a Mac or PC. It's clear, fast, smooth, and easy to use.

I also like the single-click home key push that takes you back to the first page on the Springboard. I didn't think I would use it that much, but I find I use it a lot.

The improved HTML handling in the email application is a nice touch. Whereas I used to pinch to expand a page, it seems to render that way naturally now.

The bad is that I am convinced the battery life is not as good as before the update. Apple has over their various updates made significant improvements to the power management on the iPhone. They seem to have taken a step backwards with this update. I had finally gotten to the point of getting a full day on the battery with moderate use. Now it seems that battery life has been reduced by 20% or so.

What say you?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

iPhone November 2008

It has been awhile since I posted to this blog for the primary reason that I did not have anything significant to add to the conversation about what a good or terrible phone the iPhone represents. However, there are a couple of items that I have not seen mentioned that I think warrant discussion: 3G coverage improvements; iPhone battery improvements; AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots; and blogging applications.

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I first got my iPhone 3G, the 3G coverage was marginal at best. That is, in many places, a 3G signal was not available; where there was a signal, it was so weak that the phone would switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE; and when you did get a signal, it would suck the energy out of the battery in no time. Over the last month or so, that seems to have changed. With the release of the 2.1 update, the 3G radio seems more stable. In addition, it does not seem to drain the battery as fast. However, the biggest improvement appears to be the 3G network itself--finding a strong 3G signal now appears to be the rule instead of the exception. Quality has improved as has stability. Speed is exceptional.

Along with these 3G improvements has come a related improvement in battery life. I can now typically get a full day out of a charge, something I could not do just a few months ago.

Now for the bad news--AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots work terribly on the iPhone. First, the hoops you have to jump through just sign on to the hotspot is a genuine pain. You connect by Safari, fill out your phone number and agree to the terms and conditions. Then AT&T sends you an SMS message with a link to use for access. However, half the time, the link is not live (requiring you to enter a really long URL manually into a browser. Another quarter of the time, the link is bad and will tell you that you cannot connect and to try again later. If you should be so lucky to connect, the connection is flaky. That is, when I go to open another Safari window, AT&T will ask me to go through the sign-in procedure again. By this time, it is just simpler to turn on 3G.

Other than that, not much has changed. The iPhone still crashes periodically, although less than when first released. Some apps are good and some are bad. I have been trying out the free blogging applications. I tried to post this using LifeCast, but once the entry was completed it would not upload and I ended up having to manually enter the post online. Therefore I wouldn't recommend LifeCast.

WordPress is an outstanding free blog, but is limited to posting to the WordPress site only. However, it is easy to use, full featured and works well.

Finally, BlogWriter Lite works well, no labels or tags, but will allow you to compose on the iPhone and then post to a blog. I use it for a BlogSpot blog and it works great. The only problem is that it will allow the use of only one blog (I have four). I am willing to buy a blog app, but the choices at present seem to have significant bugs judging from the comments, so I will wait awhile longer.

What are you thoughts on 3G, battery life and blog applications? I would like to hear.

iPhone 3G Bug Research

Since getting my iPhone 3G two weeks ago, I have found that there are a variety of problems with it. Many of these problems have been documented as individual issues with the new phone. They have included battery drain problems, especially with the 3G radio turned on; crashes of a variety of applications, but mainly with applications added from the Apple AppStore; and a variety of memory leak problems that lead to the operating system running slower and slower until the only way to fix it is to perform a hard reboot by pressing and holding the on/off and home buttons simultaneously.

I experienced all of these problems at one time or another. In many cases, I was having to perform the hard reboot multiple times a day (not to mention frequent battery recharging). Therefore, several days ago, I undertook a series of experiments with the iPhone by turning the various radios on and off under different circumstances to see if they had any impact on the identified problems. Since I don't use bluetooth, it has always been off. However, I have worked with the combination of 3G, EDGE, and Wi-Fi in various configurations.

The results indicate that the problems occur when the 3G is on. First, with 3G off, whether or not the Wi-Fi was on, I did not experience the frequency of crashes and memory leaks that were experienced when 3G was on. Indeed, I have had 3G off for a couple of days now and have now and have not had to perform a hard reboot once. While numerous application launches are slow, they are consistently slow--there is no degradation in performance. From this I conclude that the slow application response (lasting to five seconds or more in some cases) is a separate problem with the configuration of the OS.

Battery drain with 3G off seemed to be on a par with the 1.1.4 version on the generation 1 iPhone. While this is not surprising on the one hand, it is when I have had discussions with numerous people complaining that the 2.0 version on the generation 1 iPhone seemed to have faster battery drain. My suggestion is that unless 1) you are accessing complicated, non-iPhone optimized Web pages; or 2) you have a need to access the Internet and talk on the phone simultaneously, leave 3G off. Leave it off at least until Apple releases an update to 2.0.

To be sure, I still experience crashes--especially related to Safari--but they are much less frequent. This leads me to believe that the Safari crashes are due to a cause separate from the other application crashes. (Speculation is that the other application crashes may be due to the DRM used in the SDK.)

Another issue isolated by these experiments is the communications instability. With 3G on, the iPhone appears to have significant problems locking onto a "preferred" radio--EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi. As a result, the phone experiences numerous drop-outs, causing the phone to pick a back-up communication radio and re-establish communications. My research indicates that this happens when the phone has the screen turned-off for any extended period of time. It also occurs when the signal is marginal (not sure what marginal is as yet). When the situation occurs, the iPhone "thrashes" among the various available radios. However, it seems most pronounced when the 3G radio is on. When the 3G radio is off, it will still take a few seconds to lock onto either EDGE or Wi-Fi, but does not take that long. When 3G is on, it seems to take forever to lock on. Whether this is the radio, or the handshaking that goes on after lock to establish an Internet connection is unknown.

The result of all this is leave the 3G off if possible until Apple has had time to work through the various bugs in the OS. Your thoughts?

The iPhone 2.0 Paper Cut Edition

With a little more than a week's experience on both the iPhone OS X 2.0 upgrade and the iPhone 3G hardware, it's time to list the paper cuts that are driving me up a wall. Herewith the list:

1. Battery life sucks: From everything I see, the battery problem is more related to the 2.0 software than it is to 3G. This is based on the fact that numerous people have mentioned to me that their battery life has significantly decreased on their generation 1 phones. This is definitely true on the iPhone 3G. Could it be memory leaks, background applications, or simply poor power management? Apple help!
2. Crashes, crashes, and more crashes: As with the initial software version 1.0, the 2.0 upgrade is buggy to say the least. I find that Safari once again crashes regularly (at least a couple of times per day). I have had the calendar function crash. Needless to say, most every downloaded application has crashed at one time or another. Obviously, there are significant instability issues that need addressing. This brings us to a related problem...
3. Applications rendered unusable: It seems there is a corruption problem within the 2.0 software. For example, when I turned on the iPhone this morning, neither the Shazam nor the Remote application would launch. Instead, I received a message that the "Application Cannot Execute." Redownloading Shazam solved that application problem. Turning on and off the iPhone several times seems to have solved the Remote application problem. Generally, application stability and reliability are not where they should be.
4. Slow-motion application execution: Whether the iPhone generation 1 or the iPhone 3G, there are annoying lag problems when launching applications. For example, it sometimes takes the calendar application up to 7 seconds to launch and paint the screen. It's not consistent. Usually, doing a hard-reboot (holding the on/off and home keys down for several seconds and then turning on the iPhone again) will improve performance, again leading me to think there is some sort of memory leak where programs eat up memory that should be cleared when they are exited or put in the background.
5. Network switching lag: Apple has attempted to save battery life by switching off radios as appropriate. However, it would seem that this needs to be fine-tuned. For example, at home I am on a Wi-Fi network. With the phone on, if I turn it on with the home button and go to Safari, the phone will sometimes switch from Wi-Fi (the state it was in when last used) to 3G and then back to Wi-Fi. During this time, it seems Safari is doing handshake on Wi-Fi, then on 3G, and finally on Wi-Fi, causing annoying delays in accessing Internet information. It is also noticeable with the Mail application. In addition, the same situation will occur out in the field with the phone switching from 3G to EDGE, and then back to 3G, causing the same type of delay.
6. GPS locking delay: I suspect this problem is related to the network switching delay previously noted. It appears that locating the current position--even out in the open can take minutes sometimes. My guess is that the software accesses the cell tower proximity database before turning on the GPS to get an exact location. Since the proximity database comes over the Internet, the network switching delay mentioned earlier contributes to the extended location delay.

That's it for now. I assume that the in progress update to 2.0 will fix some of these, but I am worried that some of the issues point to more fundamental OS operating constraints. Only time will tell. Did I miss any problems that others have noticed? If so, feel free to post them.

Review: iPhone 3G

In my last post, I discussed only the iPhone OS X 2.0 software upgrade and the AppStore. This post is about the new iPhone 3G hardware only. As you will see, it is a short review.

First, why should you upgrade? The following are the only reasons I can think of:

1. You don't have an iPhone currently, are eligible for an AT&T upgrade and you have been lusting for the iPhone.
2. You currently have a generation 1 iPhone and are running out of memory (you have either a 4GB or 8GB model) and you are eligible for an AT&T upgrade.
3. You are on another wireless carrier and simply want an iPhone.

Now, why would you not upgrade?

1. You could care less about the iPhone.
2. You have an iPhone and it basically meets your current needs.
3. You have an iPhone, but you are not in the AT&T 3G coverage area (and this is quite a bit of the AT&T coverage area).
4. You think 3G is going to work miracle speeds on your email and browser.

With that background, the iPhone 3G is lighter and better shaped than the gen-1 model. However, browser speed improvement is a factor of both the 2.0 software (also available on gen-1 phones) and 3G. In my opinion, if you are accessing iPhone optimized Web sites, you are going to see little difference. If you are accessing normal Web sites, you might see a significant improvement, but remember the software upgrade is responsible for part of that. Also remember that loads on the site impacts speed; you can have the fastest Internet service in the world, but a Web site under heavy load or using a small server will be slow--whether on dial-up, 2G, 3G, or an OC3 line directly connected to your computer. Therefore, unless you are a heavy non-optimized Web site user, you may want to hold off buying the 3G.

The other key difference is the A-GPS. I find that it works great when it works. However, there are times when it can't seem to get a lock on my location. When it works, it is fun watching the little blue dot move as you move. In my case, it will actually move from the front to the back of my house which isn't bad.

With that said, I have to honestly say that if you are still lost using the gen-1 location services, then you probably should not be allowed out alone anyway. GPS is nice, but not a good reason to upgrade in my opinion.

The microphone and the speakers on the 3G both have been improved. However, not enough to justify an upgrade.

My net out. If you just want the 3G to have one, if you need extra space, or you just have $300 to burn, then go for it. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to justify the upgrade.

How about the rest of you who have upgraded? What are your thoughts?

iPhone OS 2.0 Review

Okay, it has been awhile since I last posted, primarily because there was nothing to report other than rumor. Now I have some useful information.

I bought the iPhone 3G 16 GB on Monday, July 14th (because I was traveling the previous week and in a location that did not have an Apple or AT&T store). Therefore, I have had a week of experience with it. In addition, I also upgraded my generation 1 iPhone to OS 2.0 so I had a good reference model with which to compare. With that background, here are my perspectives on the the operating system.

1. Mass email delete/move: iPhone OS 2.0 provides a number of additional features that make it worth the upgrade. Among those are mass delete of emails which was a pet peeve from the older version. The feature was implemented simply and elegantly using an "Edit" button which allows you to select multiple emails by tapping radio buttons. Then when finished with selections, you can choose either "Delete" or "Move."
2. Multiple calendar support: The calendar function now supports syncing multiple calendars between your Mac/PC and the iPhone. While this was not on my wish list for upgrades, I have found it useful for keeping personal and business todos and appointments separated.
3. Screen capture: An undocumented feature of the upgraded OS is the ability to capture the current iPhone screen by quickly pressing the home button and the on/off button simultaneously. The screen capture application on my jailbroken generation 1 phone was one of the most used applications I had. You would be surprised how often you want to show someone who is remote what your screen shows. This capability simply solves that problem. Once you have captured a screenshot, it can be found in the Camera Roll under the "Photos" icon.
   
4. Direct access to contacts: By default, the 2.0 OS places a contacts icon on the iPhone springboard. Again, it was one of the additions I used to have on my jailbroken iPhone that saw a lot of use. It reduces access to contacts by a keystroke and when you are in a hurry to get to the information, the improved access is noticeable.
5. Contacts searching: When you have a large number of contacts like I do, the contacts search can be a real productivity improvement. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have found the feature to be buggy. When first accessing the contacts application, a search line is provided at the top of the screen. The problem that I have found is that many times when you tap into the contact, the screen does not respond. After a few moments, the query field vanishes all together. However, when you tap the bar at the top of the screen, it will come back and works fine.
6. Save photos from email: Another nice feature is the ability to save photos sent to you in an email to your Camera Roll. This is particularly handy when you want fast access to the photo and don't have time to sync and then move the photo on your Mac/PC.
7. Save photos from Safari: Similar to saving a photo in email is the ability to save a photo from a Web page in Safari. While I don't have a frequent use for the feature, it is a nice touch none-the-less.
8. Multiple SMS addressees: While I don't have the occasion to use it all that often, it is a nice touch. My guess is it would be nicer if Apple provided MMS so photos could be sent. I could see myself using that more often.
9. Scientific calculator: By simply turning the iPhone horizontal, the simple calculator becomes a scientific calculator. While this is nice, I would like to see a financial calculator (which I have need of more often) as an alternative to the scientific calculator. However, the scientific calculator does provide a number of functions that can be useful.
10. The AppStore: At last! With the opening of the AppStore and the ability of OS X 2.0 to take advantage of these applications, I see little need to jailbreak a phone. To date, I have added some 46 applications and have kept 43 of them on the phone. Thus far, I have only selected free applications as I want the pay applications to mature a little before I start putting out hard cash. With that said, my favorite applications are: Twitterific ( a great, simple, and useful Twitter client--follow me on wwcasey on Twitter); Boxoffice (movie schedules and reviews from RottenTomatoes.com--easy to use); Jott for iPhone ( a great interface to the Web-based Jott application as well as a great voice recorder that will transcribe your recordings); Shazam (will "listen" to a music clip and return the name and artist--again, it works and I am surprised by how often I use it); Apple Remote (only because it is cool and allows me to scare my wife when I am out of the room...); SportsTap (provides sports scores and standings for virtually any sport you want); PhoneSaber (being a Star Wars fan, a must have); and iBeer (great little accelerometer game and graphics demonstration.
    

Now for the complaints. First, the upgrade is buggy. I find that many of the features regularly crash by dropping back to the home screen. Hopefully, these will be chased down and fixed in the next release (just as was done with version 1.0).

Second, as has been pointed out by virtually every blog and review to date, the OS 2.0 is still missing the copy/paste capability. I find this to be the biggest failing of the current release and would have placed the priority above virtually every feature mentioned above except perhaps the bulk email delete. There are numerous times where a phone number is embedded in a document, and it is not hyperlinked to phone application. A second situation is where you want to extract a sentence or paragraph from a Web page to email to someone, but you are currently forced to send a link to that page. As a result, you cause work for the reader to find the text you wanted them to see in the first place.

Third, even though html email uses the Safari engine to render, you can rotate the message to the horizontal so you can get more of it on the screen. I find this to continue to be a major annoyance.

As a result, of the top 10 issues I had with the generation 1.0 software, only the bulk email delete has been addressed. Not a really good track record.

What are your thoughts--good and bad--about the OS X 2.0 software?

The Pixel Isn't Dead After All

I had written previously that I had discovered a dead pixel on my iPhone screen. In discussions with my son--who also happens to have an iPhone--we discovered that it is actually a speck of dust that has gotten underneath the screen's glass. When looked at from an angle, the speck moves in relation to the screen (a dead pixel would not do so) and if there is a light background, the bottom of the speck will actually glow from the screen's light.

This then brings up two additional questions: 1) how can the screen be sealed so as not to allow dust to accumulate beneath the glass; and 2) is there any way to remove the dust from underneath the screen short of taking the iPhone apart (which is sure to end up adding more dust instead of removing it--no electronic clean rooms at my house).

Any ideas anyone?

My First Dead Pixel

After attempting to remove a speck on my iPhone screen, it has become clear that I have a dead pixel. I have no idea how long it has been there, so it may have been there since I bought it last July. Unfortunately, my eye goes right to it now, so I notice it every time the iPhone is turned on.

With that said, now that I've notice it, I've inspected the whole screen and the one pixel appears to be the only one dead--it is in the lower left corner of the screen and most often appears in the applications controls bar. Therefore, it does not impede viewing in most applications. It is not even noticeable in the YouTube application.

Anyone else seen this? I seem to recall that the warranty allows for a certain percentage of dead pixels.

The Apple iPhone Software Roadmap

As you might guess, the blogs are buzzing with the news that the SDK along with a number of enterprise enhancements to the iPhone will be available in June. To recap, the iPhone will natively support Microsoft Exchange Push "everything" (mail, calendar, contacts). Also supporting the enterprise IT organization will be the capability to remotely configure iPhones to a standard enterprise template, the ability to securely communicate using Cisco's VPN, and the ability to remotely wipe the iPhone in case it is lost, stolen, or an employee should leave the company. Also buried in the presentation was the announcement that the June iPhone software update--iPhone 2.0-- will provide parental controls that can be set to restrict access applications such as the Safari browser. Finally, the SDK-developed applications will be available exclusively through a new AppStore that will enable the user to wirelessly download and install the applications.

Most of the buzz is about the enterprise and SDK features, operation, and availability. However, what I found to be the most interesting was a discussion by John Doerr of the venture capital organization Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) announcing the formation of "iFund" a $100 million investment fund for start-up organizations specifically focused on the development of iPhone applications. The iFund opens up a vast applications pipeline supporting the iPhone that will enable the iPhone to quickly capture market both from consumer applications such as games, but also commercial applications supporting a variety of enterprise needs. With the combination of the SDK being made available in beta to a large number of developers today; making the final SDK widely available in June; providing an application distribution approach mirroring the iTunes Store; engaging name companies including Electronic Arts, Sega, Salesforce.com, and others to develop enterprise and gaming content; and KPCB fronting $100 million in seed money for iPhone application development, the stage is set for the iPhone to challenge RIM, Palm, and the numerous Windows Mobile devices on both the enterprise and the consumer front.

This alone gives the existing iPhone legs well into the remainder of the year. However, I expect that on the heels of the SDK release in June, the next generation iPhone with 3G should be hitting the market. The 3G should have at least 32 MB of storage for all those new applications and locally stored content as well as an improved Internet experience. The combination will make the iPhone well positioned for the enterprise.

The Missing iPhones?

There is a lot of discussion among analysts and bloggers about the missing--some say up to 1 million--iPhones that cannot be accounted for through sales in the US, UK, Germany, and France. Explanations range from phones in the channel to phones that have been unlocked. I tend to think that most are primarily in the latter category. If you head over to The Apple Unofficial Web Site (TUAW) at http://www.tuaw.com/photos/iphones-around-the-world/, you will see 84 (at last count) of the iPhone being used around the world. For example, there are pictures of the iPhone on local wireless carriers in Russia, the Czech Republic, Iran, China, and Viet Nam, Brazil, and Mexico among many others. Of particular interest was one of the pictures from Viet Nam: You can count at least 30 iPhones on a wall in a wireless store. If this is any indication, a million iPhones could be spread across China alone.

With that said, I would think this creates a problem for Apple. They are missing out on recurring revenue from such unlocked phones. On the other hand, the carriers are getting they revenue, so they may be less likely to sign a restrictive deal with Apple. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Jailbreak 1.1.3 -- Just Don't Do It

Over the last several days, I have used the "Nate True" soft upgrade to 1.1.3 and have attempted to upgrade using the "official dev team" upgrade. My experiences are as follows:

First, the Nate True soft upgrade worked as described. However, since I had a number of jailbreaked applications on my phone when I executed the upgrade, they all vanished from the summerboard. When I used installer, I could see the package logged as installed. Most of the packages could be uninstalled and then reinstalled and they appeared in the summerboard and worked as before the upgrade.

Unfortunately, there were several that would take a "script error" and would not delete (from memory, two were the Guitar and he HP21 Calculator). Since the installer thought they were installed, I would not reinstall them. It was for this reason that I decided to use the dev team's "official" upgrade.

Unfortunately, after a day of attempting to use the directions found on http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/01/27/guide-jailbreak-any-iphone-with-113-macwindows/, I did not succeed. On top of that, I have had to restore the phone and lost all contacts, calendar, stock, weather, and notes entries. While I can recover much of this information, I cannot recover all of it.

As a result, unless you simply want to hack the phone for the "fun" of it, I HIGHLY recommend that you leave the phone as Apple intended it. With each subsequent upgrade that Apple releases, the corresponding steps to jailbreak that phone become increasingly complicated and subject to numerous errors. My net out is that the effort is simply not worth it. If and until such time as a jailbreak method becomes MUCH simplified and provides the capability to recover previous data, I am sticking with what Apple has provided.

More Info in Google Reader Update

I also just noticed another change to the Google Reader application. When you click on the "See original" link in any article, instead of moving you to that page, it now opens a new page to present the original. As a result, your reader stays at the last article you were reviewing.

Again, nice touch.

Updated Google Reader

Amid all the news last evening on the availability of jailbreak 1.1.3, a neat update went unnoticed: Google made yet another update to their iPhone applications. This time it was the Google reader app. Google has now made it possible to add subcriptions directly from the application (see image below).

When you touch the "Feeds" button, a new button is available, "Add subscription". When this button is pressed, the user is taken to a new screen that provides a search and add capability.

Nice feature and nice touch Google.




posted from iPhoneSlide.com

Jailbreak 1.1.3 Problem -- Anyone Seen This?

I think the news on the jailbreak for update 1.1.3 has been adequately covered in a number of other blog posts. However, when I ran the Windows version (using iBrickr), it did not quite install correctly. Granted, I now have 1.1.3 on my iPhone and have the ability to add and run third-party native apps. However, when the update was installing, it took a script error. Then when I restarted the iPhone, the only third-party app that showed up was the installer.

At that point I went to reinstall the third-party apps I had previously placed on the phone and they did not show up! Out of curiosity, I went to the uninstall button on the AppSnapp application and the various applications showed up there. That is, they did not show as installed (and they could not be found on the Springboard), but they did show as able to be uninstalled.

At that point, I began uninstalling the applications. However, there were several that would not uninstall because of a "Main script error." Of the ones uninstalled, when I went to reinstall them, they installed and work just fine. There were a few exceptions where the application was designed for 1.1.2.

However, there are some really great applications that I would like that will not uninstall. Anyone have this problem? Anyone have any idea how to go about a fix without downgrading and starting all over again?

MobileCast

I would love to move to Update 1.1.3 because I don't particularly like being an "outlaw." The iPhone provides an outstanding user experience, but there are some features available through jailbreaking that I have become dependent upon. One of these is "MobileCast," a simple podcast downloader and player.

The reason it has advantages over iTunes? First, you don't need iTunes. MobileCast manages direct RSS podcast feeds. Second (and most importantly), MobileCast allows the user to download over Wi-Fi. This is a major advantage because the user can download content anytime and anywhere there is an Internet connection--even over EDGE although I don't advise it. The iPhone is about convenience and MobileCast is a major enabler.



posted from iPhoneSlide.com

MacWorld Prediction Accuracy

Okay, I took my guess just like a lot of other people. So how did I do? Let's see:

1. An iPhone 16 Gb. MISSED
2. Early introduction of the SDK along with the announcements of a number of new applications immediately available through iTunes (new release 7.7). MISSED Sort of. There was a new release of iTunes (7.6), but the SDK is now "late February.
3. iPhone email Exchange compatibility. MISSED
4. Update 1.1.3 (or perhaps a 1.2.0) that will incorporate the teasers seen in the leaked video of the release as well as much-needed enhancements. SPOT ON. Indeed, only the things in the leaked video were in the release.
5. Enhancements to the Wi-Fi iTunes store that will enable podcasts and videos to be downloaded wirelessly. MISSED
6. Among the videos that will be available, Apple will announce its agreement to carry movie rentals--they will be available through the Wi-Fi store or iTunes directly to a home machine or a souped-up AppleTV. GOT ALL EXCEPT THE WI-FI ACCESS.
7. Joint announcements by Yahoo!, Google, and perhaps others of significant extensions of their Web sites to accommodate the iPhone format. MISSED
8. Announcement of an agreement enabling extended Wi-Fi iTunes store usage at airports, certain hotel chains, and perhaps additional business establishments. MISSED
9. Joint announcement of the availability of the 3G iPhone along with AT&T's announcement of rapid expansion of its 3G network. MISSED

And the total is: 2 of 7 of 29%. Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful.

iPhone/Apple Goodies at MacWorld Expo

Well, since everyone else appears compelled to weigh in on what will be announced at the 2008 MacWorld Expo, I thought I might as well provide my prognostications to the pile appearing in the blogosphere. Herewith are my predictions:

1. An iPhone 16 Gb. This is logical allowing the top end of the iPhone line to be filled-in and perhaps allowing the 8 Gb to see a price drop, perhaps to $299. The phone will come standard with the 1.1.3 update. The 16 Gb iPhone will not have a replaceable battery.
   
2. No iPhone 3G. If one is introduced, it will be introduced as debuting with 3G service to Japan or a similar announcement. This will place the machine coming to market in the Spring at the earliest, Summer more likely, or Fall (before the Christmas rush) as the most likely. It also gives Apple time to determine whether to put it at a higher price point, or to retire the 8 Gb model. Either way, there will be both a 3G and a 2.5G model on the market at the same time. If the 3G model is introduced, it will not have a replaceable battery.
   
3. Early introduction of the SDK along with the announcements of a number of new applications immediately available through iTunes (new release 7.7). I would expect that many of these applications are available from installer.app developers (let's face it, some of this stuff is great, especially the games, and they pose no threat to Apple).
4. Flash availability on the iPhone. There doesn't seem to be much discussion of this topic anymore, but it would be an easy addition that would significantly extend the functionality of Safari considering how many sites use Flash. It would also be a logical early SDK-developed tool.
5. iPhone email Exchange compatibility. This one will come from either Microsoft or one of the many companies providing these capabilities to Palm and others today. Again, this is a logical SDK-developed tool.
6. Update 1.1.3 (or perhaps a 1.2.0) that will incorporate the teasers seen in the leaked video of the release as well as much-needed enhancements. Among this are: a) icon management as seen in the video; b) Google map location as seen in the video; c) custom pin placement as seen in the video; d) bookmark as icon application on the springboard as seen in the video; e) copy-and-paste; and f) flash-disk storage.
7. Enhancements to the Wi-Fi iTunes store that will enable podcasts and videos to be downloaded wirelessly.
8. Among the videos that will be available, Apple will announce its agreement to carry movie rentals--they will be available through the Wi-Fi store or iTunes directly to a home machine or a souped-up AppleTV.
9. Joint announcements by Yahoo!, Google, and perhaps others of significant extensions of their Web sites to accommodate the iPhone format. These would go far beyond what has been announced by Yahoo! and Google recently. Indeed, they may take the form of additional custom applications available as a result of the SDK.
   

These latter predictions are the result of this being Apple's show, but they will not want to leave out the content providers that make the iPhone so functional. Therefore, they will be involved in some type of joint presentation. Then there are the reach predictions. Not sure whether they are realistic at this time, but I would predict they are coming:

1. Announcement of an agreement enabling extended Wi-Fi iTunes store usage at airports, certain hotel chains, and perhaps additional business establishments. The latter would be tied to Apple's existing contracts with AT&T, O2, Deutche Telekom, and Orange.
2. Joint announcement of the availability of the 3G iPhone along with AT&T's announcement of rapid expansion of its 3G network.

Those are my thoughts. What do you think I have wrong. What have I left out?

Blogging from the iPhone

I just happened to come across a nifty little Web 2.0 (sort of) application that is optimized to take emails from an iPhone and post them to a variety of different possible blogging sites. The service, called "iPhoneSlide," is especially nice is that it allows the blogger to insert photographs into the blog posting. Below is a screenshot of the iPhoneSlide Website found at http://www.iphoneslide.com.



posted from iPhoneSlide.com