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TheAppleBlog
TheAppleBlog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
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iPhone 3.1: Unresponsive and No Vitals, But Not Dead?

iPhone coma. Two words you never want to see in the same sentence! Yesterday I went to pick up my phone, and it wouldn't unlock. Weird. I figured maybe the battery had died. That's a common problem with the 3.1 iPhone software update. After 15 minutes I still had no response. What is even stranger? MobileMe said the phone was online, so I went ahead and called it. My iPhone never rang, yet the call didn't go to voicemail until the fifth ring.

As Zapp Brannigan might say, “Kiff, we have a conundrum.” And it turns out I am not alone.

Apparently one of the new "features" of the iPhone 3.1 update is severe narcolepsy, colloquially called “the iPhone coma.” iPhones running 3.0 or 3.0.1 software are not affected, and the coma appears much more prevalent on the iPhone 3G than the 3GS. This issue seems somewhat widespread and there are several threads about this issue on the Apple discussion boards.

My particular situation of a locked phone that refuses to wake up or ring is but one of the many manifestations of this bug. Depending on when the iPhone becomes comatose, the screen may be on or it may be off. If the screen is on, the display may continue to update (i.e. the time changes) but the phone can’t receive incoming calls, nor do the physical controls or the touch screen actually respond to user input. If the phone is in locked mode (i.e. screen is off) then a comatose phone will show itself as being unable to be woken up by clicking the physical controls. In other words, it will have a black screen.

Triggering the problem is random. Since I updated to iPhone 3.1 on Sunday night, I've had the problem about three times a day. It's never been in the middle of a call and it's always been as I pick up the phone to make a call that I notice it won't turn on. My observations of randomness and repetition are consistent with other reports on the web.

The short term fix to resolve the problem is to force a hard reboot by holding down the top and home button down for 10 seconds until you see the chrome Apple. This does not erase the data and the iPhone will reboot and be able to receive calls after a couple minutes. Removing the SIM card or restoring the iPhone from backup had no effect. Unfortunately, Apple does not provide any supported way to revert the phone to the coma-free 3.0.1 software, so unfortunately, iPhone users stuck with narcoleptic iPhones will need to wait for the bug fix from Apple.

If you rely on your iPhone 3G and haven't installed 3.1 — wait. You’ll miss out on a few new features until Apple provides its fix, but that is a small price to pay for a reliable working phone! Those of you running 3.1, has your phone gone comatose or has it happily remained fully conscious since the update?

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Google Picasa 3.5 Takes Some Cues From iPhoto '09

In case you’re an Apple user who isn’t on board with iPhoto ‘09, Google has just updated its own free image management software, Picasa, which shares its name with the web-based Flickr rival. Picasa 3.5 for Mac takes a lot of direction from iPhoto ‘09, borrowing at least two major features from Apple’s own software.

Picasa web users will recognize the “new” features for the desktop version, which haven’t previously been available on locally installed instances of Picasa in the past. They include face recognition, which Picasa calls “Name Tags,” and support for geotagged photos with location data.

With Name Tags, Picasa will analyze your photos and group them according to faces it find in them, at which point you’re able to assign names to these faces, and then search your library based on people you’ve tagged. If it sounds like Faces in iPhoto ‘09, that’s because it is, with the exception that when signed into your Gmail account with the app, Picasa will offer auto-complete suggestions of names you start typing.

Google also baked-in location support in Picasa 3.5, which resembles iPhoto ’09’s Places organizational feature. That means photos with embedded geotagging EXIF data, like those taken with the iPhone’s built-in camera, or using an Eye-Fi Geo card, can be optionally displayed on a map in Picasa 3.5. If you’ve taken your photos without embedded location information, you can simply drag them to the appropriate location on a built-in Google map to achieve the same effect.

Version 3.5 also brings an improved importing process, so that you can star your favorite shots, upload to the web, and share with your Google contacts all in one fell swoop. Tagging is also better than it was before, with better batch tagging, quick tags, and tag counts for image groups.

If you’re looking for an alternative to iPhoto, and you’re already very plugged into Google via its various personal information management apps, Picasa is a good choice. It isn’t much of a resource hog, it’s very good at combing and organizing your computer’s image files without much intervention on your part, and it plugs into your existing Google account information to fill in a lot of blanks. If I weren’t a MobileMe user (which I might not be for long after yesterday’s announcement), I’d definitely consider using Picasa as my full-time solution.

Picasa 3.5 is available now for Mac and PC, though not for Linux, and it’s an English-only download. It’s completely free, which is something iPhoto ‘09 is not, if you haven’t purchased a new Mac lately.

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USB Forum Sides With Apple Over Palm

After months of software updates by the respective companies to disable and enable the Pre syncing with iTunes, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has ruled on the issue.

Palm loses.

The standards group has not only rejected Palm’s claim of anti-competitive behavior by Apple, but says that it is Palm that’s violating the USB-IF Membership Agreement, John Paczkowski at Digital Daily reports. The Pre’s touted “feature” of
media syncing with iTunes is accomplished by spoofing Apple’s USB vendor ID, in effect making the Pre appear to be an iPod.

In its letter to Palm and Apple, the USB-IF noted that “Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm's usage. Usage of any other company's Vendor ID is specifically precluded.” Further, the USB-IF has asked Palm to clarify its “intent and respond to this potential violation within seven days.” Palm’s immediate response was to pontificate, asserting that the company believes “consumers should have freedom and choice in how and where they use the non-rights managed media they already own.”

And they do. The Pre is perfectly capable of managing media by drag-and-drop all by itself, and if Palm is all about “freedom and choice,” then where is the support for Zune software? Clearly, this has never been about consumer choice, but rather a beleaguered Palm maximizing its potential customer base with minimal development effort on its own part.

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iTunes 9.0.1: Return of the Mini-Player

Two weeks after introducing iTunes 9 at the “It’s Only Rock and Roll” music event, Apple has released the first update to the software.

Version 9.0.1 of iTunes cryptically addresses performance and stability, as well as resolving unnamed issues when browsing the iTunes Store. Syncing issues related to applications and Podcast playlists have been addressed. The Genius now automatically updates to show Genius Mixes, and the issue of sorting albums with multiple discs has been fixed — finally. Lastly, there is the matter of the zoom button behavior.

Through iTunes 8, clicking the zoom — green — button brought up the mini-player. This contradicted Apple Human Interface Guidelines, which states that the zoom button “toggles a window between its standard state and its user state.” With iTunes 9, the decision was made to make the behavior of the zoom button consistent with other applications. Accessing the mini-player window was done by holding the Option key while clicking zoom.

Were Ralph Waldo Emerson alive today, he might have said something about foolish consistency and iTunes 9, and it’s highly likely a lot of people did because Apple has restored the previous behavior. Clicking the zoom button toggles between a normal window and the mini-player window. Holding down the Option key and clicking zoom toggles between normal window states.

Available for both the Mac and Windows, including a 64-bit version for Vista, iTunes 9 can be had through Software Update or downloaded directly.

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