IPhone on Miro's World

Weird Rogers 3G network error - fixed ?

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:34:20 -0500

Just tried out to switch the iPhone to automatic Date and Time setting with 3G on. The time jumped from 11:31 to 11:30 (my iPhone was about 1 minute too fast) and STAYED THERE.

This could mean that the issue is finally fixed. Can anybody confirm that ?

Calendar synchronization between iPhone, Google calendars and iCal

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:08:08 -0400

Here is my situation: I am using three different Macs (Macbook Pro and two iMacs - one at home and occasionally second one at work) and need to keep the contacts and calendars synchronized at least between two of them (MBP and home iMac). I use iPhone which also has calendar and contacts. And in the cloud, there is Google calendar. Actually, more than one: my own calendar and company shared calendar of my colleagues from Thinknostic. Quite a challenge to keep it all in sync.

More on kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Error 302

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:38:19 -0400

A friend made me aware of this (thanks, Peter):

The Inside Deets on iPhone 2.0.2 and Dropped Calls
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/08/28/the-inside-deets-on-iphone-202-and-dropped-calls/

Sounds like plausible explanation.

It is not the network that is fault but the interaction of the bad
power control algorithm in 2.0 and 2.0.1 software and the network that
is at fault. The sooner everybody is running 2.0.2 software the better
things will be. Having seen the graphs the 2.0.2 software has already
started to make difference.

Rogers, iPhone and the dreaded kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Error 302

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:57:15 -0400

Many people recently (including myself) had experiences difficulties with Web access on the iPhone. Quite often the following error message pops up:

Usually repeating the web page access helps. Sometimes you have to try third time or wait few minutes.

This has nothing to do with signal strenght - as you can see, there are 4 bars and 3G is on. I saw it happen on Edge as well. Reseting the phone sometimes helps, but it is hard to say whether because of the reset or time delay ..

iPhone 3G first impressions: Applications

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:09:00 -0400

Having used Touch 2.0, I managed not to install everything I found in AppStore. Majority of which is crap anyway - people are still learning how to use the platform properly. Pretty soon though, all those flashlights, tip calculators and similar pointless-ware will be replaced by apps that make sense. I hope.

Just for the reference: here is my iTunes snapshot as of today:

Some applications are pure time killers (when waiting in line and there is signal to read news online) but some are actually very useful. Few comments to those I actually use are below - actually, first three of the apps are below - I will get back to few more in subsequent posts:

How to make screenshot of running application on iPhone 3G

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:04:37 -0400

It is sooo simple:

1) Run the app you want to get screenshot of

2) Press the home button at the same time as On button. Screen will flash white for a sec

3) Find the picture saved in your photos.

This is second amazing thing I have found out about iPhone in last few days. First was hidden button on the headphone mike that can start/stop running iPod music, pick up the ringing phone or (doubleclick) advance to next song. Very useful while walking ...

Good hard shell case for iPhone 3G

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:35:12 -0400

After carrying in my pocket for 3 days, I have decided to get something to prevent my smallest Mac from scratches and breaking when drops (I did drop the iPod touch and it was close call: one of the edges was scratched and slightly damaged).

It took some time to decide, but at the end I settled for this one:

In white, of course. It is a bit tricky to put it on, but it feels very solid and does not slip.

How to kill iPhone battery in less than 2 hours

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:58:44 -0400

This may be a random event, but here is what happened:

1) Switch on camera and and take couple of pictures

2) While camera still on in taking pictures mode, switch off the phone (by the switch on top).

After doing that, about 1.5 hour later I took out the phone to check the emails. Phone was very warm - not the kind of unpleasantly hot you get from Macbook Pro battery when rendering movie on batery power , but still much warmer than ever. Camera was still on. The battery that was two hours ago fully charged was on less than 10%. Strange.

Create own ringtones for iPhone 3G

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:48:00 -0400

One of the many things that I never did before was actually customizing the phone. Neither of the songs that I really liked for ringtone (and were unique enough) were available of course. I found this website: http://audiko.net/en.html that allows to take an MP3 (one that you legally own, of course) and convert it to ringtone.

Here is how it works:

1) Find a suitable MP3

2) Go to above website, upload MP3

Test of the Wordpress and Smugshot applications for iPhone

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:50:57 -0400

Does it work ?

We'll see - blogging from the train

All the above - including the picture was created and posted on iPhone, using the Wordpress Application (thanks to Peter K. to make me aware of it). I have not used it much, but the first impressions are certainly positive: it works and allows to compose reasonable blog entry, including images on the go. As long as you are fast typist on the miniature keyboard - which I am not, so I will still prefer for longer text the great comfort of Macbook Pro keyboard (probably the best keyboard I have ever used so far). But it can be handy for short posts so I am going to keep it. Price - zero Alexes ((C) Macbreak weekly) == $0. Free. Not Libre, not opensource - thanks anyway ...

iPhone 3G first impressions: Phone, Battery Life

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:02:56 -0400

Phone

The sound of the iPhone is much clearer and generally better than my old RAZR.

What I really like is a built-in microphone in headphones that allows making and answering calls without holding phone next to your ear. Second is handling of the incoming call while listening to podcast or music: it fades aways and after finishing the call, it slowly fades back in. Very nicely done.

But the best phone feature is seamless integration with my address book, which thanks to synchronization that works very well always the same as address book on my Mac. It offers classic "wheel search", list of recent calls, list of favorites and dial keyboard. What is really awesome is the easy to add or update information: for example, you receive a call from a friend that just got a new phone. After hanging up, with single click on the recent entry you can assign the just received number to an existing contact. And it is always that single address card you use - with address (that you can show in Google map with another click) or email addresses that you can fire up with single click..

iPhone 3G first impressions: Email, Web, Camera, GPS, Data Plan

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:01:48 -0400

continued from here

Email
My email information was transferred from Touch as part of the activation process and started to work right away. Very good and functional user interface.

I also found the mobile Google page (http://www.google.com/m) to be very useful - it adds easy access to small screen optimized versions of the Calendar and Reader. I use Reader a lot, the best feature being that articles I read on ANY device (MBP, Linux desktop, iPhone or even some of the many VM's I am using)
will be marked as read ...

iPhone 3G first impressions: Activation

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:28:21 -0400

There more than enough reviews and opinions on the coolest gadget in the telephony space so what is point o adding another one ? I was originally quite anti-iPhone anti-Rogers for - IMHO - pretty strong reasons, so it is interesting to review them and see how they survived the reality check.

That maybe not be the strongest reason ... but am going to do that anyway.

Activation

I have ordered the phone by calling the 1-888-ROGERS1 and as I mentioned, the shopping experience was for a change a great one ... That was Tuesday morning and to my big surprise, the phone was delivered n Thursday afternoon.

iPod Touch eBooks reader - problem solved

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:31:03 -0400

As I noticed on Apple Website, the SDK for developing 3rd party applications for iPhone/Touch will be available in February. This solves the biggest problem - offline reading - because with SDK, storing a downloaded copy will be trivial. It also will most likely fix the annoying lack of updatability of calendar and add few more interesting apps.

It is only matter of time until the other eBook formats will be be readable on iPod - such as CHM or PalmDoc (non-DRM-ed version).

iPod touch - finally !

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:23:42 -0400

So, I have finally got it. Only the 8 GB version as the 16 GB were sold out, but I just could not wait for another week :-). After playing with it for about 1.5 hour, I like it even more. The readability of Safari Web sites is excellent - I started to put together some links. Did not try too many sites yet, but the Dzone reads OK :-). Also the PDF book reading is very good - but that is no news. I guess I will have to put up some internal Apache access to my PDF eBooks from my bed :-).