Historically, I have basically poo-pooed any type of device case/skin. But I must that say these are pretty awesome.
Archive for the ‘iPhone’ Category
I’m tempted to get one of these skins
Thursday, August 12th, 2010WWDC keynote upcoming thoughts
Monday, June 8th, 2009Well, the keynote will take place in a couple hours and though I find myself in California, I’m not at the Moscone Center standing in line. Though I think the keynote and the whole conference is a fun event, I’m happy to not have the stress of working on a must-do side project.
All that being said, I think I will write down my predictions and see how I do. To be fair, I have read a lot of the web sites and it is only 3 hours before the keynote, but better late than never.
I think we will see the following bits related to an iPhone:
- 32GB storage
- Increased RAM: 256M total with half available for developer usage
- Video features (video recording and perhaps a second/swivel camera for chat)
- Faster Processor
- Magnetometer
- Some preview of background processes
- New app organizer (either via iTunes or actively on the device) — Personally I’m hoping for a ‘today’ screen when the device is locked. I really think that would be quite useful.
- More APIs to in the SDK: iCal event programming, address book features, etc.
Do I think that Steve Jobs will show up? I tend to doubt it, but it might make an appearance and show something if Phil Schiller does a ‘One More Thing’. It would be a strong ending into what might otherwise be a lame keynote.
Doesn’t all useful technology arrive a little too late?
Thursday, March 19th, 2009In the new 3.0 version of the iPhone SDK, it appears there is now a “find my iphone” service enabled via mobile me.
Apple Insider has more info here.
*sigh*
I guess I’ll take better late than never. Hopefully nothing bad will happen with my 3G iPhone until the 3.0 OS is deployed.
Back to the land of the iPhone
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009Well, I went about a week+ to see how my life would be without the light of the iPhone. I was hemming and hawing quite a bit on whether or not get a new iPhone. Why? Here are the reasons:
- I need more space than 16GB to just store my music and only the iPod Touch was being sold with that amount of memory. What would be the point of upgrading if I still can’t have all of my music on the device?
- You say the new iPhone has GPS. But Apple did such a good job with the upgraded software that the cell/wifi location mechanisms work pretty awesomely. So much so that the Apple Store guy last night was trying to convince us that the Touch had a GPS chip (which it doesn’t).
- For some reason, they no longer bundled the SMS plan in the monthly data plan. Now I wouldn’t have minded so much if Apple had delivered the Push Notification Service; alas, that project has blown up and so SMS or email is the only way to get notified if those applications are not in the foreground.
So why did I break down and get a new iPhone last night? Here are the reasons:
- The major reason was predicated on the fact that I had an old iPhone and feature to feature it was good enough.
- Have you tried SMS on an old style phone? It’s brutal. T9 helps, but the menu navigation is really tough.
- I miss the alarm system. I was forgetting to do things because my alarms weren’t firing.
- I couldn’t play games on the train.
- For listening to music, I had an old classic classic iPod and that was annoying because the pause button on the headset didn’t work. I still had to unlock it and use the wheel.
- It would be more convenient to do iPhone development rather than just using the simulator. That being said, I probably could have borrowed the girlfriend’s iPhone, but I wasn’t really comfortable with that.
- I had to use the Apple TV IR remote which just isn’t as cool or usesful as the Remote program
Were there an positives of the old phone?
- SMS messages were sent faster. Took about 1 second whereas an iPhone takes a couple seconds (probably just to animate that bar).
- I don’t get the double SMS message, which seemed to plague the iPhone
- My battery charge lasted most of a week.
Final thoughts? Well, the week was rough but I made it. I was kind of disappointed that the Apple Retail Store dude didn’t know the product line. And yes, I locked my iPhone with the code and the erase after 10 retries so that I won’t have to worry about my data again.
Farewell iPhone — I hardly knew ya
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009Well, today I got my iPhone stolen.
To say that I’m angry doesn’t really tell the whole tale. I use the device for a lot. Hopefully at this point, I’ve disabled all the accounts/passwords/etc. that are on the device. Let me tell you. I’m feeling pretty stupid for not having the pin code + erase after 10 bad pins settings enabled. I really don’t like the idea that someone else can see all of my data.
But wait, you say, doesn’t AT&T already know if the phone is being used and can’t they triangulate to find them? Can’t Apple use the serial id of the phone to see when it’s connecting on a wifi hotspot? The answer is of course they could, but they don’t want to get into all the privacy violation scenarios (at least that is my guess). I can’t even do a remote wipe because it isn’t an enterprise phone. I thought the whole point of Mobile Me was that it would be exchange for the masses. Well, I’m part of the masses and not being able to do that just tweaks me.
Anyway, in the hopes that Apple/AT&T will actually put some procedures in place to find the device in the future, here is the relevant info:
| serial No. | IMEI |
|---|---|
| 7S726MT0WH8 | 011245002821849 |
Black Friday Sale for iTasteWine
Friday, November 28th, 2008Grab your copy of iTasteWine now for $4.99!
Update All is back
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008I’m not sure of the exact firmware update, but at some point “Update All” was removed from the App Store. With apps updating all the time, it was incredibly annoying to have to click and wait for the app to download/install before being able to click again. With firmware 2.2 it appears that Apple has heard the pleas of all the users who have installed apps that appear to be heavily updated. To be sure, there are more updates than I would expect (and I know those iTasteWine users are anxiously awaiting more functionality), but that’s no reason to penalize people who want to update.
Anyway, I had four apps update yesterday and I used the “Update All” magic and the world was good again.
WordPress is everywhere
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008I just downloaded wordpress for the iPhone and I must say: it just works. In fact this post is being written from my iPhone. So now I hope to post more frequently about anything and everything.
iTasteWine 1.0 released!
Friday, October 24th, 2008Finally, after several weeks in review, the app is now available in the App Store. You can buy it for $9.99 right here.
I want to think Su, Kevin and Chris for all of their help in designing, implementing and testing the app.
iPhone apps — next steps
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008So now that I have finished rev 1.0 of my first official iPhone app, I ponder which app is next. Assuming I get some love for the first app, I will of course keep adding features. I have a ton in mind, but I would like to base future functionality more on feedback rather than just do whatever peaks my fancy.
From an *easy* point of view, I could create iTasteBeer (or something like it since that domain is already taken). In a lot of ways, it makes sense; however, I think it would have to change a bit because beer is simpler and there would have to be more value added screens.
I’m still amazed that someone hasn’t written an address book app that ‘beams’ contact info from one iPhone to another. It’s pretty easy, and I might do it because I think it’s so useful.
I had started a prototype of iRemote. This was before apple released Remote (which I must say is pretty cool for all the music management). The goal of this was to create a universal remote with state (very similar to what logitech harmony does. I had this working with some special hardware that emits infra red and a java server. This was done before I focused more fully on iTasteWine. I’ve seen some interesting home automation iPhone apps come out, but nothing that would handle the scope of what I wanted to accomplish.
Thoughts?