Posted By Ragart on Saturday, August 30, 2008 under General | 2 Comments
30
Aug
So my best friend was whining to me the other day about how low I was speaking on my iPhone. I chided him for his comment and thought to myself: excuse me, that’s because I’m a really great and polite person and I try not to speak too loud on my phone in public.
Later on, another friend called me up (I have more than one friend!) and she told me to speak up some more. I had to start shouting at home (so much for being polite…) just so she could hear me say “OK”. Obviously something had gone amiss in iPhone Land.
I started looking around online and found an Apple support ticket. Article #4 about Lint or dust covering the speakers and mic were of particular interest to me. I set off to investigate the issue with a toothpick, but it wouldn’t fit through the stupid micro holes. Then I took up the threader I use for flossing, then micro tweezers – but nothing could fit into the stupid holes enough to really get the gunk out. Then I got a set of hand needles for sewing and set those bad boys into the holes like a cellular acupuncture session.
It worked! I wouldn’t exactly recommend this to anyone, since pressing too hard might just damage something, but I thought I’d share my quick experience. I just stuck the needle into each of the holes (even the speakers – they’re loud as they were when I bought the iPhone six months ago). The needle felt like it was piercing layers of dust at some points…as if the stuff was caked underneath the black grill. I might still have to open the iPhone to clear it all out, but for now I’m fine having poked holes right through the dust cake.
First generation iPhone users like myself are used to the idea of adapters for use with the iPhone. After all, Apple, in all of their infinite genius, decided to make the 3.5mm port for earphones too bloody small for a large number of earphones on the market. Their solution? Hey, use an adapter (or buy an iPhone 3G)!
Another thing Apple kinda skipped out on with the iPhone (3G version included) is Bluetooth a2dp, which allows for wireless stereo sound on your compatible stereo Bluetooth headphones. You can pair headsets with the iPhone natively, but only for the making of the phone callings. Forget music – unless you count your ringtone.
But there’s got to be a way around, right? Like maybe Brando’s INFINXX Bluetooth Adapter that snaps onto the bottom of your iPhone? Something like that?
Posted By Ragart on Sunday, August 24, 2008 under General | 8 Comments
24
Aug
Alright, not too much info to give on this one aside from the video. The application that’s shown doesn’t seem to be out yet, and it’s more of an art piece than a functional piece of software – but that doesn’t detract from its cool factor. I love the green glow in the background! The app is still incomplete (not even sure it’s going to be finished per se), but the vid is awesome!
Posted By Brandon on Saturday, August 23, 2008 under General | 4 Comments
23
Aug
Alright - long story short since I’m getting ready to head off to my daughter’s first soccer game of the season - I’ve got some cash (iTunes gift card) burning a whole in my pocket and I can’t think of anything at the moment I’m missing on my iPhone. So, I thought why not see what you folks are considering buying, but would like to have a review of before you decide to toss down your hard earned money. Just let me know in the comments what you think I should look at - maybe I just might!
Over the past couple days you’ve likely read a couple posts by me complaining about some terrible advice that is being handed out by the blogs and forums around the interwebs. I’m not going to say I’ve never given out terrible advice either - hell I’m (in a short while) going to explain to you why I plan on jailbreaking my iPhone and (possibly) voiding my warranty - but in those posts I really gave no other alternatives than to call Apple. Today I want to tell you why I’m jailbreaking - and why it just might be a good idea for you to do so as well.
Quick show of hands - how many people have 3rd party applications installed, which in one way shape or form have data in them? I’m guessing from the breeze I just felt - pretty much everyone. Think about it for second - applications like Moleskinery+, 1Password, eWallet, Shazam, FuelGauge, and countless other applications all store your data. I’ve got data in all of them. But there’s a problem … when my iPhone takes a dump and I have to restore it my only option is to rely on what has already proven itself to be a flawed system - namely iTunes.
If you’re here reading this you’ve most likely already had a restore issue, or you’ve already seen reports of it. Along with the failed restore issue, there’s other problems with restoring - things like what if I don’t want to restore everything on my device, only the data from a single application? For example - I just deleted a note in Moleskinery+. What if I want that back? Should I have to restore everything back to how it was last night (and possibly lose other data) just to get back a single note?
It’s almost like Apple completely forgot about how backup and restore works in the real world. I’ve RARELY restored an entire server, it’s almost always one or two files from a directory. Backup and Restore on the iPhone is inherently flawed and Apple needs to fix it. But given the fact that Apple seems to want to try and forget everything it knows about basic system administration - read on past the break to see what you can do to keep from becoming just another lost data statistic.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a billion times - protecting your device from scratches is extremely important, and almost every time I’ve said something like this, InvisibleShield is one of the names I mention that I put my complete trust in. Recently I’ve had my eyes opened to a couple other great brands that provide very similar protection (review coming soon) - but today, what was one of the best promotions around appears to be back on - The Zagg 50% off ’showspecial’ promo code!
Click on through to slickdeals.net below and then click on through the link they have on that page. The site won’t look any different - until you look at the price tags. By the way - I wouldn’t hold off on this one too long. Last time I thought I’d try to find a better deal, I missed the promo ending by two hours.
Ok - Sorry for what’s about to happen. Typically, I am not prone to directly calling out bad advice, but its not like I haven’t already asked my fellow bloggers to stop giving terrible advice.Today’s OMFG moment just came to me a few minutes ago while I was going through my Google Reader feeds and came across this little gem.
On the host computer, in iTunes, navigate to Applications on left-hand bar.
Click on any application, select all (command-A),and delete them (command-click on any one). When the options window comes up, select move to trash. Empty the trash.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
DO NOT DO THAT!!
Aside from the fact that in reality - yes - you can go back to iTunes and re-download everything one by one that you have already downloaded and likely paid for (much time wasted) you have to ask the question - Why would this make any difference? I can see maybe doing it with one or two applications that might be having issues - but asking the average first time iPhone owner who is having problems to straight up delete everything is just terrible advice. And then, my second question is this:
Are you - giver of terrible advice - going to be the one to replace those applications that the person just deleted that they can’t get on the Appstore anymore? For example… what if I had followed said horrible advice. Would this particular blog be willing to replace this?
Yes, its real … I mean Cali wouldn’t lie to us … and two, given how its implemented it apparently does not violate the SDK so it looks like one guy with a great idea has completely kicked ass over all those well paid Apple employees and figured out copy and paste without running a background process!!
Posted By Brandon on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 under General | 4 Comments
19
Aug
Alright - look what I’m about to say is going to come with a bit of controversy.. and before I go any further please understand that I really want to post a lot of fixes for the recent issues, but I think we will all get a lot more benefit from what follows than me giving you a list of little tips and tricks. The first thing I wanted to say is aimed at the blog-o-sphere as a whole and hopefully may save you from some trouble, so here goes:
My fellow bloggers — PLEASE stop telling people to restore their iPhone and then set it up as a new device. A couple months ago this would have been perfectly fine and the best way to resolve an issue because it was a simple matter of just re-syncing on their contacts, calendar and media (all of which were on their desktop system anyway) - but that time has come and gone.
We can’t keep telling people to do this - because now when people restore and setup as a new phone they actually LOSE personal data and possibly business data as well. For example in my case, I started getting an error where the crash reporter tool would crash every time I plugged my iPhone into iTunes. Unfortunately in my searches of the interwebs I ended up following some bad advice (I knew better) and lost all my Moleskinery notes, FuelGauge MPG data, regular notes, level 40 something on Enigmo and who knows what else.
So unless we’re going to provide people with a way to get all of their fricking data back … please STOP giving what amounts to nothing but sh!tty advice. We’re really screwing people on this stuff - and what’s worse is were actually keeping the problems from getting fixed.
If (people) have problems, I personally love that the blog-o-sphere is trying to help since google is usually my best friend - but some steps that are being offered solve the initial problem, then create even bigger problems for the people we’re trying to help. The only way this debacle is going to get fixed is when Apple has so many phones ringing off the hook that they can’t afford to keep hiring more support staff. Ultimately, we need a way to backup Non-Apple data for 3rd party apps and we need a way to restore that data separate from the OS restore process.
So, again my fellow folks in the blog of sphere - stop telling people to setup their devices as a new phone/iPod. Yes, it typically solves the issue, but since the advent of the Appstore it now creates more problems at the same time. If all the other steps (like re-installing iTunes) don’t end up working - advise them to call Apple. If Apple says to restore and setup as a new iPhone/iPod then its up to Apple to provide a way for that end user to restore their personal data.
And - since you possibly ended up here trying to find some actual assistance for your crashing issues — click on through to the link below. They’ve got some other good steps (just skip the step I was griping about). By the way … This rant was not directed at any one blog - we’ve made the same recommendation in the past - but no longer.
As with any app, and perhaps especially with a voice command program, your mileage may vary a whole lot - but I honestly felt the last few days like I wanted to turn into the Verizon TV ads guy, and just ask Voice Dial ‘Can You NOT Hear Me Now???“ — Patrick’s Voice Dial review
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- or how about this - 
