iPhone Dudes

How To Take Screen Shot on iPhone

2010-01-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

To capture the screen image or take a screen shot on your iPhone (with iPhone OS version 2.0 or later) press the Home button and Sleep/Wake (On/Off) key at the same time.

How To Sync Google Calendars With iPhone

2009-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

Idea Excursion posted a great article on how to sync google calendars with iPhone calendars.

This is the place to go for instructions.

One of the things the article points out is that as of iPhone 3.0 you can now integrate personal calendars with work calendars as from Outlook Exchange. This wasn't possible before (as I learned from disappointing experience).

Cool!

-Forsyth

3G Sucks

2009-05-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

A Time article today reports how 3G has misbehaved for a number of carriers.

If you're an iPhone user you may have noticed erratic behavior as I and my friends have.

As the article points out, the antics of the 3G network smear mud on iPhone apps. Regardless of whose "fault" it is the bottom line is that if you have 3G turned on you can get some flaky results using some iPhone apps and this leads to a perception, and frankly the perception of a reality, that the iPhone is not delivering for you like it should all the time.

What does it matter if the iPhone or any of the software technology that runs on it is at fault or not? That's a problem that Apple should take care of for you right?

So we then logically follow the path from the iPhone "back" through the technology and causes, find out that 3G sucks, then go back to AT&T, then go back to how 3G was selected or where the technology problems might be.

That's too far back for me to know the details but it all amounts to a disappointment on a grand scale.

I wonder who dropped the ball? Was it the giant corporation cutting corners or was it lame technologists?

I'd like to know.

-Forsyth

Options For Sending Photos From iPhone

2009-04-07T07:14:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I posted on a sort of work-around for sending photos via SMS.

Since then things have evolved considerably.

The big news is that Apple says that the new iPhone OS 3.0 will have a new multimedia messaging feature (MMS) that will let users send text message photos, calendar invites, and even contacts to another phone.

There are still other options. A few below.

First, an app emerged called Infinite SMS that was built on top of Google's Google Talk text messaging service. The app cost 99 cents and had tremendous early success. Unfortunately for the Infinite SMS folks, it wasn't from Google and in March 2009 Google put a stop to it.

"Infinite SMS is a third party app that has been using Google technology to provide free SMS to users, while we were paying for the cost of the text messages,"

a Google spokesman explained.

Flutter is a free app that claims to allow you to,

"Send unlimited picture messages and geo-tagged location to most mobile phones in the world. Have the convenience of sending multi-media messages (MMS) to virtually any mobile phone number in your iPhone contact book.

* Send picture messages from your iPhone.
* Your message can (optionally) include a link to your location pinned on Google Maps.
* Friends get a link to view your pictures and location right on their cell phones."

There are a few that specialize in sending photos directly to websites.

Another free app called Eye-Fi allows you to send a photo to your machine or to image sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa directly from your phone, bypassing the sync requirement.

Another one that costs $4.99 as of this writing called PixelCast allows you to send photos directly to your blog, MySpace page, Facebook page, etc.

One called Radar does all that and more, including bringing *in* photos from your webpage as well as sending out. Click here for an impressive review.

-Forsyth

How To Have A 5-Way Conference Call On Your iPhone

2008-12-05T14:08:00.001-08:00

This is what I'm talkin' about.

You probably already know of iPhone's "Merge Calls' feature. If you don't, it works like this:

1. Call someone from your iPhone

Once connected you'll see the options on your iPhone screen, like "Speaker", "Mute", etc. One of the options is "Add Call".

2. Press "Add Call" and dial another person's number or select from your Contact list that automatically appears.

Once connected to the second call the button area on the screen that used to say "Add Call" now says "Merge Calls".

3. Press "Merge Calls"

Now both the first and second calls are merged into one and you're on a two-way conference call.

You can repeat these steps to merge up to five calls into one!

If you have a small company and limit the number of people per conference call to five you will have free conference calling for your business.

Sweet!

-Forsyth

See Your iPhone Photos On A Google Map

2008-12-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

SmugMugs is a cool web app that comes with a free iPhone app called SmugShot. They are quality and have a reputation for presenting your photos in a way that is gorgeous. A professional photographer I've used does all of his stuff there.

In addition to gorgeous online albums they have unlimited storage, flexible privacy controls, video, and themes. They're also hip to what's going on technologically speaking.

They have a free iPhone app called SmugShot that allows you to tag your photos and upload to your online albums "in one shot." You can also upload photos "directly from Picasa, Photoshop, Lightroom, iPhoto, Aperture and many others."

They also provide "feeds, API's, tags, and all kinds of ajaxy conveniences."

You can see your iPhone photos on a map through a mashup between them and GoogleMaps

SmugMugs.com is not free but it's very cool and in my opinion a good deal for $39.95 a year (as of Dec. 2008).

peace,
-Forsyth

How To Refresh Pandora Radio Station List

2008-12-05T12:55:00.001-08:00

Pandora is an awesome web app with a killer iPhone version.

I notice though that when I change my station list through a browser on my laptop, the lists that shows in iPhone Pandora does not pick up the changes.

It should.

A simple work-around is to log out and log back in from your iPhone. All lists then refresh.

In Pandora for iPhone:

1. Go to 'Settings' in the lower navigation bar.
2. Select 'Sign out myemail@gmail.com...'
3. Select the red 'Sign Out' bar that pops up.

It will then return you to a 'Sign In' page.

4. Enter your login info for Pandora (email address and Pandora password.) If you don't remember your password you can select 'I forgot my password'. You're then prompted for an email address to send it to -- not very secure eh?)

Once signed in again your radio station lists will be current on the iPhone.

-Forsyth

How To Tether Your iPhone

2008-11-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

Jerry sent me an email the other day.

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of any kind and you know that "jailbreaking" your iPhone invalidates its warranty.

"Hey dude, just tethered the iPhone.

1. Jailbreak
2. Download/Install PdaNet from Cydia
3. Create and connect to AdHoc wifi network on the laptop (Had to disable IBM Thinkvantage Access manager and use Windows)
4. Connect to AdHoc network on the iPhone
5. Run Pdanet
6. Surf

Works like a charm, super easy

J"

Thanks Jerry!

Click here for my previous post on the subject.

-Forsyth

VPN on iPhone

2008-11-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

The iPhone fully and natively supports VPN for wireless access.

It supports via Cisco IPSec for example. In the iPhone configuration screen you actually get a Cisco logo.

However, depending on the methodology used by the company you work for, you may or may not be able to hook it up cleanly.

IPSec for example where I work (S1) requires a certificate. I'm currently exploring the possibilities there but it looks grim since S1 doesn't support it. All the other data points required are available to S1 employees. Only the cert is missing.

To get a more complete description of what the iPhone supports "out of the box" click here for an official two page Apple explanation.

Or if you want the 57 page iPhone and iPod Touch Enterprise Deployment Guide from Apple, including VPN, Exchange and other things, click here.

-Forsyth

Voice Activated Calling

2008-10-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

Vic Bayus turned me on to a great, free iPhone app yesterday. It's called "Say Who".

With "Say Who" you simply say a name or number from your Contacts and it will dial it for you. No training of the phone or anything like that is required. Better still you can get specific by saying things like "Vic Bayus mobile" so that it not only finds Vic but also selects his mobile number instead of some other number.

It's also easy to turn off auto-dialing, in which case it will present you with what it found so you can decide whether to dial or not. If you like what you see you touch the number and it dials it. It doesn't present just one match but several, with the most likely on top.

I've tried it several times now and it's scored 100%.

The only complaint I have is that after you say the number you have to wait a few seconds while it searches the database. Apparently I'm not the only one that is slightly discomforted by this in our need-it-now modern world. The app makers have eliminating the wait at the top of the list of coming improvements.

Because of the wait I don't think I'll use it for anyone that I call often, i.e. contacts that I've put in my phone Favorites. With Favorites, which I limit to the number of people that can fit on the Favorites screen without scrolling, I can hit any favorite number with just three touches: two quick presses on the Home button takes you to Favorites, and then one-touch on the number. But, with numbers that aren't on my Favorites list I'll definitely be using it.

Thanks Vic!

-Forsyth

Showtimes Gets Even Better

2008-10-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

Showtimes, one of my favorite iPhone apps, has gotten even better.

As always, when you touch the Showtimes icon you're taken to a list of theaters nearest your current location. Each entry in the list has the theater name, address, and a map icon that you touch to see directions in the map app.

Under each movie entry is a list of movies and show times for that theater. I've used it in L.A. and various parts of Atlanta and it works great.

Now they've made it even better. The new version adds the following:

movie poster by each movie entry
touching a movie entry takes you to a movie detail page
detail page has links occasionally to imdb.com, rottentomatoes, and others
detail page often has play button that takes you right to the trailer

This app is free and IT ROCKS!

Score: Must have.

-Forsyth

Invisible Shield Trims Corners

2008-10-22T03:09:00.001-07:00

I posted before about the awesome Invisible Shield by Zagg.

Well now Zagg has trimmed the annoying corners of the "front" skin of the iPhone 3G Invisible Shield. These are the corners that formerly bunched up causing some users to trim them themselves with scissors.

You can buy the new front for $14.95.

Jerry Silva showed me his that he had already applied. Looks great.

-Forsyth

Wireless Connectivity Anywhere

2008-10-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

My friend Jim Worthington came up with an interesting solution that he uses himself:

1. Create a wireless network on your MacBook.
2. Create a network adapter on your MacBook that uses a cellular USB broadband card.
3. Connect to the network using your iPhone.

Pretty cool.

-Forsyth

The iPhone Photography of Greg Schmigel

2008-10-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Greg Schmigel has an interesting twist on photography: he does street photography with his iPhone and sells the prints online.

Click here for his website called "JUST WHAT I SEE | THE IPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY OF GREG SCHMIGEL".

He sells signed prints for around $50 right from his website (click here for example).

"Most of the images are sent directly from my phone via e-mail to the site, but some have been post processed to enhance various aspects such as contract, saturation, highlights, etc."

This is yet another great example of The Long Tail and simple self-distribution made possible by modern technology.

He says, "I simply like to compose the images, capture them and share them with anyone who might find my work interesting. I love to share what I see on any given day."

There's no doubt in my mind that there's a market for his work.

Welcome to the world of simple creation and distribution.

-Forsyth

Phonesaber Transformed Into LightSaber Unleashed

2008-10-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

Phonesaber is gone for good but the makers of it together with THQ Wireless, the owners of the rights to all things Star Wars and mobile, have reached an agreement. THQ is apparently the entity that forced the original maker to pull it from the app store.

The new and improved version, LightSaber Unleashed is enhanced and much better.

It also apparently ties in with a new LucasArts' Game.

Get it!

-Forsyth

Get Around "Unable to Download Application" Error

2008-10-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've been relatively annoyed lately with the fact that on the iPhone I get notices that apps have updates but when I go to install the update, it begins but then pops up and says, "Unable to Download Application" -- with a couple variations of messages.

The source of the problem, or should say "catalyst" since it's really a bug, is having installed apps under one OS, updating to a new OS, and then trying to update said apps.

There are a couple of work-arounds but here's the easiest:

Attempt to download the update. After the download fails, the updated app icon will be sitting there not fully installed, and the icon for the previous version of the app will still be sitting there as well.
Delete the icon for the original version of the app (by holding down an app icon for a second or two until they wiggle, pressing 'x' to delete on the app you want to delete, then pressing 'Home' to return out of "wiggly" mode.)
Now touch the icon for the new version of the app. It will install and all will be well.

-Forsyth

Recall of USB Power Adapter of 3G

2008-09-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

The compact USB power adapter that came with the iPhone 3G has been recalled due to potential safety issues. Apparently some have reported that the metal prongs have broken off when removing the adapter from power plugs. The pieces that remain in the power plug threaten electrical shock.

Macworld announced it, and today Apple is sending text messages to iPhone users telling them to go to a special link on the Apple website for instructions on how to get a replacement.

I went to the website. It gave me two options: go into an Apple store beginning October 10, or submit your request via the web for them to send it to you. I chose the latter. It asked for my Apple ID, had me confirm my address, and told me this:

Thank you.

Your replacement request has been submitted. Apple will send you a new power adapter to the address below, along with instructions for how to return your original power adapter to us.

It is very important to return the original power adapter to Apple. We will provide you with pre-paid shipping materials for the return.

Your new adapter will ship in approximately 3 weeks.

I'm happy.

-Forsyth

2.1 Experiences

2008-09-15T08:22:00.001-07:00

Everyone that I have talked to personally has had a very positive experience with 2.1. Several functions seem to run snappier, and the whole 3G/EDGE disconnect problem appears to have gone away. I've also experienced the same.

Siskel and Ebert give it two thumbs up!

-Forsyth

How to Reset Your iPhone

2008-09-12T07:24:00.001-07:00

My iPhone completely hung on me for the first time. It was during my trip this week to L.A. I was riding in the cab from the airport to the hotel and checking my emails when it just froze. No key would work, and I couldn't turn it off -- hard or soft.

I tried something I vaguely remembered which was to hold down the Home and Off keys at the same time. I tried that and it didn't work. When I got to the hotel I browsed the web on my laptop and found that I was on the right track but you have to hold the two down for at least five seconds. The effect is that it simply turns your phone off.

I did it, turned it back on and all was well.

There's apparently a very hard reset that Apple tech staff do but it's such a hard reset that your iPhone isn't even sufficiently aware of your carrier anymore after it, so they don't give it out to the general public.

-Forsyth

My Delta Experience With iPhone Boarding Pass

2008-09-12T07:03:00.001-07:00

In a previous post I said I would attempt to use my iPhone as a Delta boarding pass. Well this week I traveled and here's what happened at Hartsfield airport in Atlanta (where I live.) The summary of it is that it's not ready to go, at least with Delta, in Atlanta.

First problem I encountered was when I went through the first round of security. That's where they look at your license, then look at you, then look at your boarding pass... When I came up to the security dude I pulled up my pass on my iPhone and asked if he would take it. He said, "How would I check it?" The procedure is that they mark your boarding pass with a permanent marker. Presumably, at the second round of security (the partial strip), and at the gate they check to see if your pass has "the mark."

By the time I was boarding at the gate I had given up, although I did notice that they were scanning barcodes by placing them under a scanner that was elevated by an "arm." So, if we could work out the checked pass it could surely be scanned at the gate.

Maybe this marking of the boarding pass could be avoided if you use Clear. Clear is a company that has a contract with the feds to do pre-screening so that when you go to the airport you don't have to wait in the long security line. All you do is go straight to Clear's entry, present your Clear card, and do a fingerprint or iris scan. Then you're on your way. Jerry and KJ both have an account and love it. Clear explains how it works on their website. KJ tells me that with Clear you bypass the first security dude altogether -- the one that marks your boarding pass.

You can check which airports have a Clear lane on their website as well.

So if you use Clear (when it arrives soon in Atlanta), you might be able to use your iPhone as a boarding pass, at Delta, at Hartsfield in Atlanta.

[update 10.1.2008: Local Atlanta news reported today that Clear stations opened today at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport.]

Of course I'll try it and let you know.

-Forsyth

Delta Rolls Out PDA Boarding Pass

2008-09-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I talked about using your iPhone as a boarding pass for flights. There I mentioned that American Airlines and Continental were jumping on board -- and speculated about Delta. I wasn't aware that Delta had also announced a similar program a couple of months ago.

Not only might Delta be able to read your boarding pass barcode as I described (if they have a barcode "gun" or "wand" anywhere) but now they're explicitly testing the idea in New York's La Guardia. Delta posted a blog entry on their site dated June 24th that reads,

"Just last week, Delta Air Lines, in partnership with the Federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA), began testing paperless mobile check-in for customers traveling from New York-LaGuardia (LGA) to any U. S. destination. What this means is that you have the option of bypassing the lobby by using their PDA and other Web-enabled device to check in for domestic travel from LGA to any U. S. airport. How great does this sound? You can use your electronic boarding pass, displayed on your mobile device - no paper! - to proceed to the security checkpoint, and then straight to the gate to board your flight."

The author, Brian T. Rutter, Director - Sales & Marketing for Delta in New York, says they're anxious to get feedback and roll this out across the entire United States:

"After the test is successfully completed in LaGuardia, we hope to leverage paperless check-in across our domestic system, to and from any U. S. airport.

"If you’re heading out of LaGuardia on Delta, first of all, thank you. Secondly, experience our newest check-in technology by giving paperless mobile check-in a try. And let us know how what you think. We’re listening."

Sounds like a great idea to me!

Thanks Nina for the heads up!

[Please see the follow-on post with my later personal experience.]

-Forsyth

Tris or Crack?

2008-09-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Watch out. Way back in 1989 I forced myself to remove Tetris from my home desktop -- sort of like going to detox. Clean break you know? It had a grip on me!!

So the other day I'm showing a buddy who's considering the iPhone how the App Store works. I randomly pick a game called "Tris." You guessed it. Now the little bugger is on my damn phone and keeps calling my name whenever I'm somewhere waiting on someone or the like.

It's good.

It's Tetris.

It's addictive.

-Forsyth

Your iPhone As a Boarding Pass

2008-09-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

Apparently some have successfully used their iPhone as a flight boarding pass. Some have reported that they've successfully done it on American Airlines, and Continental. In fact Continental has launched a specific initiative to allow paperless check-in via mobile.

So how does it work? The key is to be able to show the boarding pass barcode on your iPhone screen. When it comes time for them to scan "your boarding pass" you simply present the pass/barcode on your iPhone, they scan it, and you're on your way. Really it should work with any carrier as long as they don't need to retain the boarding pass, and all they need to do is scan the barcode on your pass.

I'm going to try it with Delta, but I'll bring my paper boarding pass just in case. (At this stage you should probably bring the paper with you regardless of carrier.) With Delta I get the boarding pass online anyway and print it out before going to the airport. So, why not just bring the exact same image up on my iPhone screen and use that instead? A scan's a scan right?

This supposedly should work for any PDA that can show a barcode on the screen, as seen above. I would imagine that the iPhone should work better than most due to the nifty pinching, screen zoom feature thereby making the barcode pretty much as big as you wish.

So as soon as I give it a whirl with Delta I'll let you know. I seem to remember though that when you board on Delta they put the paper in a device that sucks it in, reads it, and spits it back out -- clearly not a viable option for the iPhone. Don't know if they have a scan "gun" as a backup. Hopefully my joy won't be spoiled by them sending me to an additional and more thorough security search :). If you try it out let me know how it goes.

peace,
-Forsyth

How to Eliminate 3G Dropped Calls Problem

2008-08-29T09:01:00.001-07:00

Recently I posted about what seems to be the source of occasional call dropping with the 3G's that have bothered people across the country. Supposedly Apple will provide a software update to some third-party firmware to fix the problem. In the meantime I have 3G turned off unless I need it at a particular moment. This also helps battery life somewhat as well -- particularly if you're using email "Push" (more costly) instead of "Fetch".

To turn off 3G,

1. Go to Settings app
2. Select General
3. Select Network
4. Set "Enable 3G" to OFF

If I'm out somewhere I use wireless if available, EDGE if sufficient, and 3G as a last resort.

-Forsyth

How to Enable Voicemail On a Used iPhone

2008-08-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

If you get an iPhone from an existing iPhone user with cellphone coverage you'll find that the visual voicemail button doesn't do anything when you press it. You can't set up voicemail because you can't access the voicemail screen. This happened to me after I was using a 1G, bought a 3G, and gave my 1G to a friend. This can also happen if you get an iPhone off of eBay or the street that was formerly used. Here's what I did to enable the voicemail button:

1. Go to your phone app.
2. Call the following number from the troubled iPhone:

*5005*86*8882888893#

This will enable the voicemail. Now you need to reset your voicemail password.

3. Call 611 or 800-331-0500 (a voice menu will guide you)
4. Enter your wireless number starting with area code.
5. Press 3 to “get help with voicemail”.
6. Press 3 to reset your VM password.
7. Enter your Billing Zip code.
8. A text message will be sent to your wireless handset with your new password.

Now you're good to go.

9. Go to your phone and press the voicemail button.
10. Enter the password they just text'ed you.

You're golden.

-Forsyth

Battery Life: Fetch Works!

2008-08-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

I just got my 3G. Funny but in the days preceding my older iPhone wouldn't make it through the day on one battery charge! Damn it to hell. Seemed also to be highly variable. When I got my 3G I brought my charger into work and braced for a recharge midway through the day. To my surprise my 3G easily makes it through a day with, I mean from my wake up to sleep, with no recharge.

There was only one significant difference in my settings. I know this because when I set up my 3G I restored from a full backup of my original iPhone and only changed the settings for my two email accounts to 'Fetch' every 15 minutes. Before that they had always been set to 'Push'. (Click here for an earlier post on this topic from Jeff Mason.)

So my 1G had much poorer battery life, usually fizzling out by afternoon, when my gmail and Exchange email accounts were both set to 'Push'. But my 3G with all other settings equal, except the two email accounts set to 'Fetch' every 15 minutes lasts an entire waking day.

-Forsyth

Bluetooth Development Blocked on iPhone

2008-08-15T12:30:00.001-07:00

Inside sources tell me that Apple currently blocks access in the SDK to any interesting Bluetooth functionality. Therefore developers will not be able to do anything interesting, and we do not have anything interesting from Apple for the time being.

An earlier post of mine wondered whether the lack of Bluetooth functionality was due to Apple blocking or third-party developers simply not getting around to it yet. Now we know.

-Forsyth

Source of 3G Connectivity Problems Discovered?

2008-08-15T09:14:00.001-07:00

Business Week reports that the source of occasional dropped calls, and seemingly random switching to Edge network that iPhone 3G users have reported may be due to the Infineon Chip that is apparently suffering from faulty software that Apple says it will fix with a software update.

-Forsyth

Best Buy First U.S. Independent iPhone Retailer

2008-08-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Best Buy stores will begin selling Apple’s iPhone 3G next month, becoming the first national retail chain outside of Apple and carrier AT&T to offer the wildly popular device.

Starting September 7, the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs will go on sale at 970 Best Buy stores and 16 smaller Best Buy Mobile stores, the retailer said. The deal is a coup for the Richfield, Minn.-based chain, which has been expanding its wireless offerings and introducing cell phone departments to its U.S. stores.

“It solidifies us as the place to go for the cool stuff,” Best Buy Mobile President Shawn Score to Reuters in an interview. “Our customers are looking for this product.”

The new distribution channel could help Apple could help achieve its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. Apple announced in July that it had sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs through Apple and AT&T stores during its first weekend on the market.

The move could also help more people get their hands on the device. An AT&T representative confirmed last month that most of the company’s stores ran out of iPhones the first day the devices were for sale. The current waiting period for iPhones at AT&T stores is about 7 to 10 days for customers, the company has said.

In keeping with Apple’s long-standing retail pricing policy, Best Buy’s iPhone prices will mirror those at Apple and AT&T: $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. Best Buy customers will also still have to sign a two-year contract with AT&T.

The distribution deal is an expansion of an existing relationship Apple has with Best Buy, which now sells Macs and iPods.

-posted by Forsyth, drawn from AP

George Lucas Forces PhoneSaber Out of AppStore

2008-08-12T12:22:00.001-07:00

George Lucas apparently doesn't have enough money and power so he's forced Apple to pull PhoneSaber from the AppStore. According to Forbes he's worth $3.9 billion. So we can all imagine what a threat the dangerous PhoneSaber must be to him. Anything that could bring that much free, and innocent joy to fans around the world must be considered a threat and must be destroyed immediately. Yah, yah, yah, I can already hear the logical arguments in support of his move, like, "well you know if you let one thing go," or "he does own the idea," etc. But you know what? Let it go. Nobody was making any money off of it. It was just some good, clean fun.

You know, Lucas on his own is not that good as a filmmaker (but does a great job running a special effects company.) For me the only really compelling and soul-drilling parts of Star Wars were all the concepts that came from Lucas's consultations with Joseph Campbell. Dude was deep -- and righteous. From him (originally from Carl Jung) came the archetypal material that is the core stuff of all powerful mythologies. After Campbell only the archetypal elements that Campbell had embedded in the story, and the special effects kept the franchise going strong.

First Ewoks (teddy bears in space) started to mess with my enthusiasm.

Then Jar Jar Binks really fucked it up. (I never knew that beings living on other planets out there in space spoke with Jamaican accents. Wow!)

Now forced removal of the PhoneSaber?

No more George Lucas for me.

-Forsyth

Portable Charger Solution to Extend iPhone 3G Battery Life

2008-08-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

contributed by Jerry Silva

Ecosol’s Powerstick charger for iPhone 3G. Cl ick here for official website.

Price: $69.95
Shipping: $16.18 for 3 day ground service
Total $86.13

I was looking for a portable backup power source for the iPhone given the tales of short battery life. Airports in particular scare me – I didn’t want to be one of those guys bent over by a pillar with my 3 foot power cord plugged into my device while I had a conversation.

A little research pointed me at this little device.

The Powerstick is a USB device that contains a lithium polymer battery, just like the one in the iPhone, rated at 700mA. The iPhone 3G seems to charge with anything from 500mA to 1A. It comes with 10 different dongles you can hook up to various devices. I haven’t tried any other than the iPhone.

When it’s empty, the LED panel on the front looks like this:

That’s the power button on the right that you hit when you’re connected to the iPhone and ready to charge. I found that after you’ve charged it, the panel goes back to looking like empty, and hitting the button shows you how much charge there is at any time.

You simply plug it into a USB port (I used my laptop) and about 90 min later, the stick is fully charged (8 bars). Again, after a few seconds unplugged from the USB port, the LED display will be blank, and hitting the power button brings up the current charge status.

To test, I let my iPhone battery run down to 20%, had everything on, Bluetooth, location services, 3G, WiFi, etc…

Then I plugged the Powerstick into the iPhone. The connector doesn’t feel like it’s supposed to plug into the bottom of the iPhone, it took more muscle than you’d think (or want) you don’t get a satisfying click when it’s connected, and when you finally have it in all the way, it kind of sticks out of the bottom at a slight angle to the face of the iPhone. I’m hoping over time it’ll seat a little smoother.

Then I hit the black button on the face of the Powerstick and the LED display starts flashing and the iPhone battery indicator shows that the device is charging. The LEDs will flash in order from 1 to 8, then 1 to 7, etc as the charger empties into the phone. It took about an hour to empty the charger, and the LED display was blank again as in the previous picture.

After that hour, the iPhone seems to have taken a 70%-80% charge. Not full, but certainly enough to survive another hour or two of intense use – and more if you shut some of the services down.

Not a bad device to keep (always charged) on hand. I didn’t try making calls during the charge, but Ecosol’s literature claims you can use it while it’s charging.

I’ll be testing this with my BlackJack, LG Chocolate, and any other devices I have at home in the coming weeks.

-Jerry

Send a Photo To a Friend Using SMS from iPhone?

2008-08-08T09:28:00.001-07:00

Note: This is a work-around posted in August 2008. Work-around is still valid. However, please also see a more recent post here that describes a few more options - Forsyth.

Well, sort of. "No" from the SMS app, but "Yes" from the Photo app.

We know there is no support currently for attaching a photo an SMS message via the SMS app on iPhone. But you can send a photo via SMS through the Photo app. Here's how.

As we know, you can email a photo from your iPhone in just a couple touches. (Pull the photo up, press the icon at the button with an arrow in it, press "Email...") All cellphones have an associated email address that can be used to send a SMS message via email. So what you can do is email the photo to a friend to their mobile SMS email address. Tried it out today with a friend (thanks Eric!) and it worked great. He was AT&T Cingular and we used @txt.att.net.

In addition, if you add that email address to the entry for your friend in your contact database you can of course look it up by name when the Photo app takes you to compose an email.

Below is a list of carriers I found that seems fairly accurate. If one doesn't work for you, check with your carrier:

T-Mobile
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ tmomail.net
Example: 3335551111@tmomail.net

Verizon Wireless
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ vtext.com
Example: 3335551111@vtext.com

Rogers Wireless
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ pcs.rogers.com
Example: 3335551111@pcs.rogers.com

Sprint PCS
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ messaging.sprintpcs.com
Example: 3335551111@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Cingular Wireless
Format: 1 + 10-digit cell phone number @ cingularme.com
Example: 13335551111@cingularme.com

AT&T PCS
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ mobile.att.net
Example: 3335551111@mobile.att.net

Bell Atlantic
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ message.bam.com
Example: 3335551111@message.bam.com

Bell Mobility (Canada)
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ txt.bell.ca
Example: 3335551111@txt.bell.ca

Cellular One
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ mobile.celloneusa.com
Example: 3335551111@mobile.celloneusa.com

Comcast
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ comcastpcs.textmsg.com
Example: 3335551111@comcastpcs.textmsg.com

Fido
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ fido.ca
Example: 3335551111@fido.ca

Telus
Format: 10-digit cell phone number @ msg.telus.com
Example: 3335551111@msg.telus.com

If one of these doesn't work for you check with your carrier (and add a comment below!)

-Forsyth

Transfer Photos from iPhone Using Bluetooth?

2008-08-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately not. iPhone does not currently support sending files or photos via Bluetooth. It would be great to transfer photos to one iPhone directly to another for example. iPhone does support bluetooth headsets and that's about it. Apple even sells a bluetooth headset for iPhone.

Word is that there's no explicit block on the functionality, but there just aren't any apps written yet to support other Bluetooth features. One iPhone dude lists the 25 bluetooth profiles and questions whether the iPhone is deliberately crippled or not. Apparently there are only two bluetooth profiles supported by iPhone:

Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
Headset Profile (HSP)

There are twenty-three bluetooth profiles not supported by iPhone:

Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)
Basic Imaging Profile (BIP)
Basic Printing Profile (BPP)
Cordless Telephony Profile (CTP)
Device ID Profile (DID)
Dial-up Networking Profile (DUN)
Fax Profile (FAX)
File Transfer Profile (FTP)
General Audio/Video Distribution Profile (GAVDP)
Generic Access Profile (GAP)
Generic Object Exchange Profile (GOEP)
Human Interface Device Profile (HID)
Intercom Profile (ICP)
Object Push Profile (OPP)
Personal Area Networking Profile (PAN)
Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)
Serial Port Profile (SPP)
Service Discovery Application Profile (SDAP)
SIM Access Profile (SAP,SIM)
Synchronisation Profile (synch)
Video Distribution Profile (vdp)
Wireless Application Protocol Bearer (WAPB)

Whether this will be solved by third party developers or whether it requires Apple to "uncripple" the phone I don't know. [Please click here for a 8.15.2008 answer to this question.]

-Forsyth

How to Stretch Battery Life on 3G

2008-08-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jeff for turning us on to an article on ways to "wring more battery life" out of your 3G. It's not uncommon for it to pooter out half way through the day.

You could summarize the recommendation as Jeff did, "Turn everything off."

But here are the main bullets:

Turn off push e-mail
Dim the screen
Turn off location services
Switch on "Airplane Mode" in low- or no-signal areas
Install new iPhone apps over iTunes
Get an external battery pack
Kill runaway background processes

-Forsyth

Killer App for iPhone Golfers?

2008-08-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Plum Caddy just posted today on App Store. Summary says:

"Personal golf scoring, mapping and GPS for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Crisp and beautiful graphics help you lcoate and track all parts of the game. Recall every stroke and each club on every hole for every course you have ever played...remembers exactly what happened when you don't...

"Scoring...

"Mapping - Not just a scoring app but full mapping templates for holes on any course in the world.

"GPS - locate and automatically calculate distances between shots.

"Historical record of past rounds...

"Easily record the club used for each shot...

Damn! Can't wait to try it.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284975476&mt=8

-Forsyth

iPhone Protectors

2008-08-04T07:57:00.001-07:00

Noticed various protectors people are using.

Gus and Daniel have hard cases.

Jerry has a hard case but it's temporary until he gets the InvisibleShield military grade film from Zagg made of material designed to protect friggin' helicopter wings. Chris, Jeff and I use that one. Jerry says he used it on his Blackjack (each model is fitted precisely to a specific hand-held device), dropped it and swears that it "bounced" when it hit the edge. Demo on website shows throwing it in a plastic bag with nails and bolts, and shaking it up without a scratch. Chris tried scratching it with a key and couldn't do it.

Personally I just can't do the form factor of the hard shells. Defeats the purpose a bit for me. But I'm interested in hearing pros and cons of some of the hard shells. Any takers?

-Forsyth

How to Sync iPhone Contacts With Gmail Contacts

2008-07-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

Warning: These instructions are only for Mac users that sync to Address Book. I don't know the dynamics if you're syncing your contacts with Exchange, or otherwise syncing on a PC.

Once you set this up, when you're in Gmail and go to address any email Gmail will include all of your iPhone contacts in the list of contacts that it searches to auto-fill any of the address-to fields. Also you'll be able to search your contact database no matter where you are using Gmail's flexible contact search. This is nice given that iPhone doesn't yet have a contact search feature.

You sync iPhone contacts with Gmail contacts by telling Address Book to sync with Google Contacts, the ones used in Gmail. There are actually three stores to sync up:

1. iPhone
2. Address Book (Mac)
3. Google/Gmail Contacts

The sync between iPhone and Address Book is already solid and automatic. The rest of this post is all about the sync between Address Book and Google Contacts.

First I want to say that I did have problems when I first sync'd. The problems were between contacts that I already had in Gmail that also related to contacts I had in iPhone. I got duplicate entries. It was problematic to get those cleaned up so I ended up simply deleting all my Gmail contacts, cleaning up everything on iPhone, then syncing. All was well after that.

Once sync'd up my tests showed that when you add, delete, or edit a contact on any of the three stores the changes are indeed reflected on the other two.

So here are the steps I recommend:

1. Delete all of your Gmail contacts by going to Gmail, going to Contacts, selecting "All", and then clicking on "Delete contact" button.

2. Now in Gmail click on "My Contacts" and uncheck the checkbox that says, "Automatically move suggested contacts into My Contacts if I frequently email them." This should avoid unwanted and sometimes duplicate, contact entries on your iPhone. It also forces you to explicitly add new contacts.

3. Now's a good time to optionally clean up your contact list on your iPhone.

4. Now go to Mac Address Book and tell it to sync with Gmail. On your Mac open Address Book, go to Preferences, check "Synchronize With Google", click on the button right there that says "Google...", and enter your Google username and password.

5. Sync your iPhone using iTunes.

Wahlah. You should now see all your contacts under "Contacts" in Gmail. From now on all three stores should automatically keep up with any change to your contact list no matter whether the change is originated on your iPhone, in Address Book, or in Gmail.

The sync will occur from now on every time you Sync your iPhone with iTunes.

-Forsyth

Pandora - Best Free App?!

2008-07-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Pandora is number 5 today on the top downloaded free apps for iPhone.

Pandora is a great free iPhone app. If you're not familiar with pandora.com you should be. It's been one of the best ways, if not the best way, to listen to music on the web. The basic idea is that you create your own online radio stations by "seeding" a station generator with a song or an artist. (You can add to your seeds later if you want.) You can have as many stations as you wish, email your stations, etc. It calls itself the "Music Genome Project" because its algorithms are based on applying criteria ("DNA") from a list of hundreds of critieron to each song and artist of its tens of thousands of songs. I've had terrific results on my radio stations and a couple are absolutely killer.

So with the release of iPhone OS 2.0 and the new App Store Pandora has provided a free client with a killer interface that looks (is?) like the iPod interface, and shows album covers and the whole nine. Hooked my iPhone up to a Bose Wave the other day and got terrific, quality music for a couple of hours.

Two thumbs up!!!

-Forsyth

Movie Showtimes -- Great Free App!

2008-07-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Installed "Showtimes", a free iPhone app that uses your current location to bring up theaters and showtimes that are near a location, your "current location" by default. Downloaded and installed in 30 to 60 seconds, and within two or three touches I found my movie and had a map with pins and directions sitting in front of me. Very cool, simple, and intuitive. I won't be using the browser-based apps to find movies anymore!

-Forsyth

How to tether your iPhone 3G and browse the web using your 3G connection

2008-07-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Some iPhone dudes tell you on their blog how they've figured out how to to tether their iPhone 3G for internet access. Be warned: it involves "jailbreaking" aka "unlocking" your iPhone which will invalidate your warranty.

Thanks for the heads up Buddhi!

-Forsyth

Fix for iPhone 3G Not Finding Current Location

2008-07-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Apparently sometimes the new iPhones don't find the accurate current location. The fix seems to be to turn 3G off. Once you get a good fix you can turn it back on. At least that's according to one Apple discussion board post. There's also a little more description at iPhone Atlas.

Record High Res Video from DVR for iPhone

2008-07-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Nitin figured out how to record High Res Video from Comcast HD-DVR (Moto with firewire out) to MacBook then to iPhone. He showed me the quality of picture and sound on both his MacBook and his iPhone. It was AWESOME.

1. Login to ADC (Apple Developer Connection -- registration needed)) and download the Firewire SDK from the SDK download site.

2. Install the FireWire SDK 26 and launch AVCVideoCap (app included with the SDK.)

Plug the firewire cable into your HD-DVR then to your MBPro. The DVR will show up as a device in the AVCVideoCap dialogue. If EMI status says “Copy Freely” (most broadcasts and live feeds) you will be able to record on your MBPro. When you are ready to record click on the “Capture From Device” button. That leads you to another dialog that asks for the channel and start and end times. It can actually schedule a recording of most feeds, and will change the channel for you when recording starts!

The captured file will have a .m2t (Transport stream) extension and will be huuuge so before starting ensure you have sufficient hard drive space ( 6min footage = 626 MB for reference). To play on a MBPro you'll need to download VLC.

3. Download iSquint and install

Drag the captured file (*.m2t) to iSquint dialogue. Select “Optimize for TV” radio button and “Add to iTunes” and “H.264 Encoding”. The output file will be *.mp4 and will be added to iTunes under movies.

Sync your iPhone and enjoy!

Thanks Nitin!

Battery Life and the 3G

2008-07-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

There's a question about the battery life experience on the 3G.

Please share your own experience, short or long, by adding a comment to this post.

thanks!

Microsoft Exchange Stories and Questions

2008-07-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Nitin says his iPhone buzzes with email notification before his PC-based Outlook client gets the email from the Exchange servers! Pretty cool.

So Nitin just showed me which server name to put in for the "Server" field for S1 when you enable Microsoft Exchange. Cool. All was well.

I get to the screen that asks me to choose to sync Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.

I chose them all.

Then it pops up and says,

Existing contacts and calendars will be removed from your iPhone

...followed by the buttons "Sync" and "Cancel".

I hit cancel because I currently have a ton of private contacts and some calendar entries that currently sync with my MacBook.

Any one know what to do? Use ActiveSync first to get my existing iPhone contacts and calendar into Outlook, then try it? Would Mobile Me do anything for me -- perhaps in place of ActiveSync in said scenario?

SIM card swaps out with other phones just fine!

2008-07-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

Nitin reports:

"Buddhi and I just did a quick test, took the SIM card out of the new iPhone and tried it on my 3 year old Moto Razr, it worked!"

I believe Chris pulled a SIM from an old phone he'd been using, tried it in the iPhone and it also worked!

Nitin and Chris, which information came across? Was it just the contacts?

-Forsyth

Reported signal problems on new 3G

2008-07-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Users in some areas report having to turn off 3G and go to EDGE to get bars. Swapping phones out doesn't help.

iPhone App Crashes and logs

2008-07-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

iPhone Atlas posted an informative article on app crashes on the iPhone that goes into more detail than I had imagined, including details around crash logs, root cause analysis, and remedial steps.

iToner (custom ringtones)

2008-07-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

Earlier I said,

"I also use a product called iToner that lets you assign any ringtones you want on your iPhone. There are various reviews of it around the web. I've found it to work great. Don't know how it will work with 2.0. (It got wiped when I upgraded.) Use at your own risk. Apparently some dude got denied on warranty for doing such things but..."

Since then I've found out that there's a new release of iToner that works with iTunes 7.7 and iPhone OS 2.0.

Voice Recorder

2008-07-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Looked at several.

There are several voice recorders in app store -- some free, some not. Settled on and bought "QuickVoice" for $9.99. Fantastic! Checked Circuit City a few days ago and digital voice recorders begin at $39.99. This one has everything you need and works great. See more in description on app store. You supposedly get free desktop software with iPhone purchase too.

Flashlight

2008-07-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Jim turned me on to Flashlight (John Haney Software). Description in app store: "Flashlight fills your screen with bright white light to illuminate your world..." As one who has used my iPhone to navigate in the dark this is very cool, very simple -- and FREE!

Push email services

2008-07-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

From Jeff:

I've been experiementing with the various "push" email services. I don't know if Microsoft ActiveSync is just part of exchange or if S1 IT has installed it, but I definitely get push email from S1.

I ran several tests and I get S1 email instantly from other accounts.

Here's the rub so far, still trying to figure out the correct balance, but with push mail turned on my battery life on the 1G iPhone is terrible.

Now I have two push email accounts, .Me and S1 with GMail being a fetch account. With both .Me and S1 set to push on Monday of this week my battery barely lasted 6 hours with little or no phone usage.

I can't believe that this should be the case because push email should be on getting mail when it's triggered by an alert from S1's exchange server or .Me.

Today I set push off for everything and at the end of the day still had around 40% battery life with fetching every 30 minutes.

Tomorrow I'm going to go for fetching every hour then after that test, turn push on for just S1 to see if it's .Me that is the culprit and then vice versa.

I've heard numerous issues with .Me so that's why I'm turning off push on .Me 1st before S1.

Anyway, push mail on S1 is great, just need to find out what is sucking the life out of my battery before upgrading to firmware 2.0.

Greetings iPhone Dudes

2008-07-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Intro

Found out there were several people at S1 that were iPhone users like me and thought it would be cool to have a place to share stories and info.

First things

For starters here are some things you might find of interest:

* Chris Arnette turned me on to a skin for the iPhone that is incredible. Totally transparent and tough as nails. Technology supposedly developed by U.S. military to protect helicopter wings. The demo video on the website is killer. Also you can barely tell that it's on there. I had to get it myself! It's called Invisishield. Very cool.

* Daniel Kim has some kind of friggin military grade box around his. Looks weapons grade. (Right Daniel?! :) Says its because the majority of breaks are when the iPhone lands on its edge and cracks the screen. Never thought of that...

* Jeff Mason is rumored to be a master of all things having to do with sync'ing iPhone and S1 Exchange servers.

* Gus turned me on to the built-in Cisco VPN support on 2.0. I would never try such unauthorized things. I'll keep you posted.

* I'm excited to try Apple's free "Remote" app together with Airport Express's hooked up to speakers. Then I'm pretty sure you could control the music sent to any set of speakers in your house from anywhere in your house -- for not that much money -- using your iPhone, MacBook, and Airport Express's.

* Can report that Pandora is now a free iPhone app and it's sweeeeet!!! Works just as well as the browser-based version but presents album covers and such like the iPod on iPhone.

* I get an RSS feed that has lots of useful info, RSS feed, etc. It has a cracker/hacker bent. It's called iPhone Atlas.

* I also use a product called iToner that lets you assign any ringtones you want on your iPhone. There are various reviews of it around the web. I've found it to work great. Don't know how it will work with 2.0. (It got wiped when I upgraded.) Use at your own risk. Apparently some dude got denied on warranty for doing such things but...

RSS

In order to have the most interactive experience please set up an RSS feed to this blog.

Extro

Enjoy!

-Forsyth