Apple

Apple's "evil" iPhone update

October 17, 2007

A couple of disclaimers to start with. First I've already been called an Apple apologist for the analysis I'm about to present here. That argument may makes it easier to dismiss what I have to say but it isn't the case and in fact I still get much of my search traffic to this site from my criticisms of Apple which I'm derided for on Apple fan sites. Second, I'm the owner of an iPhone and at one time I may have had ringtones on it that weren't Apple sanctioned, rather weren't RIAA-sanctioned but we'll get to that in a minute.

Background

To be certain Apple is a publicly traded company. As such it has one real motive at the end of the day. Like all companies in a capitalist society it is in the business of making money for share holders. There are companies that pursue this goal in different ways but the profit motive is what keeps the board in place and Steve Jobs in the CEO chair.

Maddening Airport Extreme Disk Disconnects

October 9, 2007

Until upgrading to Airport Extreme software version 7.2.1 using my Airport Extreme to connect USB disks was working quite well. Now it works not at all. It turns out after spending a couple of hours trying to see what I might be doing wrong that there are many people with this problem. Sadly there are not reports of people being successful in working around it. In my case it was easy enough to swap them back to the iMac which is usually on when I want to connect to the disks. I sure hope Apple gets this fixed soon.

[Edit] -- Changed the incorrect mention of Express to Extreme per the comment.

Until they do there is a way to get back to a working version of the firmware.

  1. Open AirPort Utility
  2. Select a base station (to get mine to show up I had to power cycle it because although it was working it would not show up in AirPort Utility
  3. Hold down the Option key and choose "Check for Updates"
  4. A complete list of all updates will be shown and you can choose a previous version from the list

Getting iPhone web galleries without iLife '08

August 8, 2007

This is untested but just might work. Once you have the web gallery button on your iPhone you need a gallery setup on .Mac. For those of us in the middle of projects and unable to upgrade what if you visit your local Apple Store and put your .Mac ID on a machine just long enough to create the web gallery. Presumably one need not go back in through iPhoto regularly. There is the risk that upon upgrading to iLife '08 it won't work with the 'foreign' gallery but might be worth playing with.

People love to sue Apple

August 6, 2007

People love to sue Apple concludes a note on one of the most recent suits today. I had the same thought over the weekend. My weekend found me paying a relatively large sum of money for a new electric razor. The problem is that my old cordless razor doesn't have a user replaceable battery. If it was an iPod there'd be folks lined up to the end of the block to report how unfair the treatment and wanting to jump on a class-action law suit. But suing Phillips isn't nearly as sexy as suing Apple.

iPhone in the car

July 24, 2007

According to a comment in a post at Engadget it appears there may be a way to get the Belkin Auto Kit to work with the iPhone. I haven't been so fortunate. It appears (as the article suggests) to charge but it steadfastly refuses to play audio through the dock connector.

On the other hand having lived through Treo smart phones it is great to have a device that handles connecting and transferring Bluetooth calls as well as this does. Talk in the phone and press the button on the headset and the call is transfered seamlessly. A thing of beauty.

Airport Express gone bad

July 17, 2007

While working this evening I turned on music throughout the house. Sadly the living room didn't come alive with music. During the investigation I noticed that with nothing plugged in the Airport Express was still sending out an optical signal. After a bit of thought it occurred to me that the sensor that senses whether a min-jack or an optical jack are plugged in, was likely stuck. Sure enough a gentle probing with a small screwdriver and it was again working as advertised.

The vibrating iPhone problem

July 9, 2007

One of our iPhones was vibrating whenever you placed a call. That wouldn't necessarily be so bad but it continued to vibrate the entire duration of the call. Ever held a vibrating phone to your ear and tried to carry on a conversation? Fortunately powering off and back on solved the problem but it is odd to say the least.

iPhone impressions

July 3, 2007

So it is the thing to do these days. Posting one's impressions of the iPhone.

Oddly in explaining why he is not getting one now Adam Engst sums up much of my joy over the phone:

The cost becomes especially steep here in upstate New York, where cell service is fairly spotty. I'm sure the iPhone would get fine reception in downtown Ithaca and at Cornell, but all bets are off once you go more than a few miles out of town. Poor reception promotes a feedback cycle - if you can't rely on having access wherever you are, you stop thinking about using the cell phone unless it's absolutely necessary.

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