Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (10 сообщений)

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  • iPhone + Disposable Cellphone + Prepaid Cards + New Activation Tool = Holy Cow

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    Holy cow. Those guys at fusion.osx86.hu/#iphone are geniuses. Late yesterday, I downloaded a copy of iASign, their new iPhone activation tool. Right now, at this second, my iPhone just made its first call using the SIM from my disposable Cingular phone with its $10 card. After, I dialed *777# and it told me I've got $9.25 left on my account. The phone number in Settings -> Phone shows the proper number for the disposable phone (versus the one I activated with the iPhone PickYourPlan).

    Continue reading iPhone + Disposable Cellphone + Prepaid Cards + New Activation Tool = Holy Cow

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  • Insure your iPhone, because AT&T won't

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    Since I've owned a variety of regular mobile phones and smartphones over the last couple of years, I wasn't surprised to see fine print during the iPhone activation process which warns users that AT&T won't offer their insurance policy on Apple's darling new gadget. I've been on nearly every major mobile phone network in the US - Cingular, T-Mobile (and VoiceStream), Verizon and Sprint - and not one of them covered smartphones with their policies. In fact, if you were upgrading an existing AT&T account and swapping out your old phone that had an AT&T insurance policy on it, you too were warned that the policy would be automatically removed from your account. Gee, you'd think these companies don't trust us with small, easy-to-drop expensive electronics. Who knew?

    To help remedy this lack of a contingency plan for the iPhone, I decided to call a few insurance companies in the Colorado area to see if they could cover it. What many people might not know is that these companies typically cover electronics like mobile phones and even notebook computers, often at prices far cheaper than extended warranty plans from manufacturers and retail stores. While I'm not entirely familiar with how fast actin' or comprehensive this kind of coverage is from every provider, I do know that mine - State Farm - will cover both hardware failure and accidental damage (though accidental damage will cause my premiums to increase, while an incident like theft will not).

    Back to getting coverage for your shiny new phone, however, the summarized rundown I got from calling three of the big general insurance providers (Allstate, Geico and State Farm) is that attaching a clause to a renter or homeowner insurance policy specifically for covering an iPhone would add only $5-20/year to a policy. Keep in mind these were estimates based on a $600 iPhone, and it appears that you can't simply ask these guys to insure a phone; you need to have some kind of a primary policy with them first, then attach this specific clause. Surprisingly, every representative I spoke with knew exactly what an iPhone was, and a couple of them asked me whether I was happy with mine.

    As far as coverage through companies like specialized electronics or computer insurance providers is concerned, I had a much harder time finding anything substantial. Most of the companies I spoke with didn't have policies in place, and only Safeware confirmed that they were "seriously considering" introducing iPhone coverage. They do, however, cover other smartphones, and a quote for a BlackBerry Curve (a $400 smartphone) was $65 for a year, covering accidental damage, loss and theft. A downside, however, is that repairs for damage have a turnaround time of 7-10 days, with no loaner options available. If being without a phone is a primary concern, the loner option included in AppleCare for iPhone might be a good 'plan b' to consider in combination with one of these insurance policies.

    Ultimately it's a good thing to at least have insurance options in addition to AppleCare, since Apple doesn't cover any sort of accidental damage. Since insuring an iPhone through one of the larger companies seems to be so cheap, it's basically a no-brainer to pick up at least some kind of a policy. If y'all have other ideas or options for insuring your shiny new iPhone, please enlighten the rest of the class with a comment.
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  • TUAW Tip: Setting Google Reader as your default RSS handler

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    I'll admit it, I goofed. The screenshot for my post on using MisFox to set your Internet helper applications shows "Google Reader.app" in the pop-up of choices for the default RSS feed reader; this got several people quite excited. "Ooo! Can we set Google Reader as default? Can we can we huh?" they eagerly asked (I'm paraphrasing). Two teensy problems with my screenshot, though: first, the app listed as Google Reader is now known as Google Reader Notifier; second, MisFox won't actually allow you to set Reader Notifier as your RSS helper app. Argh!

    Fortunately, the answer is simpler than I thought. Go ahead and download the excellent and free GRN; launch it and put in your Google credentials, and you'll immediately get the Growl notifications and pulldown menu goodness -- however, if you don't want them, go to the Reader Notifier preferences and check "minimal function mode."

    Now, in your browser of choice (works for me in Safari 2, Safari 3 beta, and Firefox 2) go to Preferences, go to the RSS/Feeds section, pick the Reader Notifier application (in FF, you'll have to click "Choose Application" and select it)... and there's no step 4. From that point on, clicking the feed link in the browser's URL field will automatically open the feed in Google Reader rather than in your local feedreader.

    For the record, of the helper-app preference panes I tested, MisFox and MoreInternet could not set Reader Notifier as the RSS default, but RCDefaultApp did it with no problem at all (not to mention it has plenty of other functionality). Enjoy, and my apologies to everyone who got hot under the collar from the original screenshot.
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  • Web Development for iPhone

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    Lest you think I hate web development for the iPhone, I thought I would point out this section on Apple's Developer Connection. The iPhone section deals with developing web applications that play nicely with the iPhone. Included on the site is sample code, video of the WWDC session called 'Designing Web Content for the iPhone' (you'll need an ADC membership to download it though), and a number of tips and tricks about how the iPhone handles websites.

    I couldn't help but notice that Apple stresses the important of web standards in these guidelines, and no where do they suggest redirecting people based on browser type (other than using some CSS methods). Interesting, don't you think?
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    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/18/web-development-for-iphone/#comments



  • Ask TUAW: RAW support, Randomized Playlists, recovering songs from an iPod and more

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    After a nice break I'm happy to be back. Many thanks to Mike R and Chris for their excellent pinch hitting. This week in Ask TUAW we'll look at camera RAW support, getting the Shuffle into the iPhone, recovering songs from an iPod to a new Mac and more. As always please leave questions for next week in the comments to this post.

    Unfortunately we can't always get to all of the questions, but many times your fellow TUAW readers will have insightful advice as well. Now, let's get to it!

    Continue reading Ask TUAW: RAW support, Randomized Playlists, recovering songs from an iPod and more

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  • iPhone Troubleshooting: How to Restart, quit frozen apps and Reset iPhone

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    I'm starting to think there is some sort of bad luck attached to my iTunes Store account, as tonight I experienced the third iTunes Store song that completely locked up an iPod - only this time it was my iPhone. While listening to 'Again with the Subtleties' from the Yppah album You Are Beautiful At All Times (US iTunes link) in my iPhone's iPod app, the phone completely locked up at the end of the track with an almost-faded out display. What was worse, the iPhone became completely unresponsive - the display wouldn't accept any of my taps, and even the external buttons were ignored. Momentarily wishing I could simply yank the battery to cut the power and reset the phone, I realized Apple must have some sort of a contingency in place for lock-ups like these.

    Fortunately, I was right: The iPhone troubleshooting section of Apple's main iPhone support site contains a walkthrough for situations like this, complete with instructions on how to restart the phone, force quit a frozen app or reset the phone in cases like mine where it has completely locked up. Here are these steps in a nutshell:
    • Restart your iPhone: Most people probably already know how to do this, but just in case, you can simply hold the sleep/wake button on the top for a few seconds to bring up a red slider at the top of the display which allows you to power off the phone.
    • Quit a frozen iPhone app: I know it's a crazy thought, but it is entirely possible that Apple's wondrous iPhone apps can lock up from time to time. In this case, simply hold the Home button when in the app for about 6 seconds to kill the app. You should be able to jump back into the app without restarting the phone itself.
    • Reset your iPhone: Note that this is not Restoring your iPhone; that's the button in iTunes that wipes the iPhone and all your information on it. Resetting an iPhone is nothing more than a hard reset or a forced reboot - you're simply cutting the power and making it reboot. To do this, hold the sleep/wake button and Home buttons simultaneously for a few seconds; the display will quickly wipe itself and you should see the black background and white Apple logo, signifying a reset well done.
    Fortunately, that reset fixed my problem and I'm jamming again with my iPhone as I write this. Still, you can be sure that I'll ping iTunes support to find out what's going on with these files, as this is the third one I've downloaded from the iTS that's caused an iPod to stop dead in its tracks. Anyone else experience something like this? You know where to sound off.
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  • Connecting the iPhone to Exchange with Synchronica

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    We've already mentioned a couple ways for iPhone users to get access to Exchange mail servers (which the iPhone does not support natively). Now comes word of another possible solution from the UK firm Synchronica. The Synchronica Mobile Gateway apparently acts as a go-between, connecting to the iPhone via standard secure IMAP and SMTP, while communicating with the Exchange server via "secure Outlook Web Access." This allows iPhone users to access their Exchange email without IT managers having to provide IMAP support or open their firewalls. Basically if secure web access is available, Synchronica will provide over-the-air email to the iPhone without any further holes in the firewall.

    Unfortunately this does not come cheap, with a 25 user license running € 2,122 (~$2925). I suspect you'd have an easier time convincing your IT people to give you IMAP access. On the other hand, this may be just the ticket for the security conscious with deep pockets.

    [via MacVolPlace]
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  • iPhone: The Missing Manual available in August, PDF bundle available now

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    The venerable David Pogue has worked his relentless magic yet again to conjure up yet another manual that apparently should have been in the box with iPhone: The Missing Manual (though one could certainly argue that there would have been no way to fit a typical book in the iPhone's impressively compact packaging anyway). As the promo email that I just received states, Pogue's iPhone coverage is summarized into four primary categories: the phone and organizer, the iPod, the Internet, and the hardware and software. Pogue even tackles such issues as synching an iPhone with multiple machines and ways to solve the iPhone's lack of a spam filter. Heck, Mr. Pogue is so into the iPhone, he even sang about switching to it.

    If you're already hooked and itching to both buy and read, O'Reilly is offering a bundle deal right up your alley: though the $20 book doesn't ship until sometime in August, you can purchase a $24.99 bundle to get a PDF copy right now. Either way, you can find out more details at O'Reilly's product page for iPhone: The Missing Manual.
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  • iPhones bedevil Duke

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    Well apparently things aren't so rosy with iPhones at Duke University. Their IT managers are reporting that iPhones are actually causing many of their wireless access points to shut down for 10-15 minutes each. Because of some sort of misconfiguration involving the Address Resolution Protocol the iPhones "flood the access points with up to 18,000 address requests per second, nearly 10Mbps of bandwidth, and [monopolize] the AP's airtime."

    The article notes that all of this is being caused by only ~150 iPhones, and the IT folks are worried about what's going to happen when the school year starts and hundreds, if not thousands more, show up on the campus network. Apparently the Duke folks are convinced the problem is not with their Cisco equipment and have been in contact with Apple, but they have not gotten much of a response. If this is in fact a problem with the iPhone's design we should expect to see more of this kind of thing on large wifi networks. Have any of you noticed any kind of problems like this on campus or at work?

    [via MacVolPlace]
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    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/18/iphones-bedevil-duke/#comments



  • The strange case of 'Made for iPhone' websites

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    Apple trumpets the iPhone as bringing the 'real internet' to your pocket. This ain't no watered down Internet, says Apple (though Apple tends to avoid the use of double negatives). It is true that the iPhone version of Safari, dubbed MobileSafari by some, is a fully featured browser (with the exception of plugins, but who uses those anymore? Oh, right.) and can render lots and lots of the web just fine, thank you. Despite this fact, iPhonified websites are booming. Oddly, instead of using the iPhone to browse the 'real internet' users are pointing MobileSafari to more and more iPhone specific websites (which smack of the 'mobile web' to me). What's the deal with that?

    Furthermore, I find it odd that many of these iPhone specific apps are not only being embraced by the Mac community, but being created by some heavyweights in the web design arena. Why do I find this odd? I seem to recall that for many years the Mac community bemoaned the practice of designing web apps that only worked in a particular web browser (like, say IE6 for Windows). This painful practice has found new life in the form of iPhone-only apps. Nothing irks me more than browsing to a site only to be greeted with a page that, based on the user agent my browser supplies, keeps me out. Try going to some of these new iPhone webapps in Safari 3 on a Mac or PC and that's just what you'll encounter. Why? These apps will run just fine on my desktop, and yet I am left out of the fun. (Why would anyone want to browse lightweight pages on their computer, you ask? Being a member of the AOL family, one reason springs to mind immediately: dial-up users).

    Is this a double standard -- bad if it hurts Mac users, but just fine if it works on Apple's new gizmo? Do Mac users have short memories? I don't have the answers, but I think these are questions worthy of thought. Am I the only one?

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