iPhone

iPhone software gets 2.2 update

2008-11-21T15:08:29-07:00

Apple rolled out an upgrade to iPhone software today. Version 2.2 includes some great new features like the ability to access public transit maps on the phone.

The update brings a welcome change, the ability to download podcasts directly to the phone. Unfortunately while this functionality is welcome it is also incomplete. The downloaded episodes are added to the iPod but there is no way to subscribe to a podcast from the phone.

Apple has previously denied applications for podcatcher applications based on this now-released functionality being forthcoming. At the time speculation centered on the likely restriction of Apple's app to WiFi only and not the cellular network. That, however, proved to not be a limitation with today's release.

However the disappointment about the podcatcher app is lost as soon as one launches the map application. The addition of public-transit maps alone is an awesome feature. However the feature where one is likely to loose much more time is Streetview. Find a location with streetview and the phone browsing experience is everything that browsing with a mouse can't be.

A few other interface changes are welcome. Safari now puts search and the address bar on a single line. This makes navigation much simpler.

Apple Remote

2008-07-11T09:58:00-06:00

Unless one has been living under a rock the coming of iPhone 2.0 software and the iPhone 3G are well known. Apple has a free Apple Remote application that allows an iPhone user to control their AppleTV or iTunes using the WiFi connection from the phone. This is all well and good. The application is great. Uncharacteristically for Apple there is a big gaping hole in the application. It is not a security hole but is a major piece of the application that is missing.

The application provides for the ability to search one's library which is nice. However it has no means to use the phone to make purchases for the AppleTV. This matters so much because entering text to search the store via the standard Apple Remote is a painfully slow experience of choosing a single letter at a time on screen. How cool it would have been if the remote application made finding and purchasing things on the AppleTV possible.

However lest anybody think the iPhone isn't bringing new folks to Apple there was the guy in line this morning extolling how he not only uses Exchange but does so willingly and runs his own Exchange server who was there to buy an iPhone. Worse yet he was bragging about convincing small businesses that Exchange is a good investment for them. Sigh. Now back to saving the world one server at a time...

Check iPhone minutes using only SMS messages

2008-02-09T12:28:13-07:00

While I love my iPhone it has been frustrating that there wasn't a quick way to check minutes from SMS. The phone tells you there are two ways to check minutes (which amount to the same thing). One method is to navigate to the phone preferences, then AT&T and finally to the button to check your minutes which actually sends the *646# code to get the SMS message. So there is obviously the option of adding a "View minutes" user to the contact list and bringing it up that way. For me the annoyance has always been that I wanted to send an SMS to get this information.

Sometimes the obvious solution is just a little too obvious. When you invoke either of the prescribed methods you get a message back from 1 (02). It turns out that if you text "min" to 1 (02) you get a response with your minutes. In fact it seems that anything you text to that SMS short code will get your minutes. This makes a couple of things easy... One is that if you have a "conversation" open with your minute balance you can check your balance with any reply. The other is to add it along with your Google, Twitter and other SMS short codes as a contact in your address book so you can SMS to "View Minutes" or "Minutes" or whatever you want to call it, perhaps "Addictive evil phone company overlords"... you get the idea.

iPhone, gPhone, Androids and the company you keep

2007-11-07T13:45:48-07:00

So the much awaited gPhone, nee the Android OS for the open handset alliance, debuted this week. Yawn. So Google's going to hock an OS that while it has the trendy underpinnings of Linux and the Open Source code-word attached won't at the end of the day (or year rather) give us much more than we already have on our Blackberries, Treos and iPhones. (Not to even mention the plethora of Windows Mobile cell phones with these capabilities).

So the iPhone doesn't allow third party applications (yet). On that note I wrote recently why Apple has been forced down this road. It seems Macworld's Jason Snell has similar thoughts. By the Android rolls around there will be millions upon millions of handsets on the market that do much if not all of what it will. Perhaps the oddest of all is a passage in the announcement video about wanting to have a cell phone with a shared family calendar. Huh? Perhaps before touting this need they should head on over to Google Calendar and take a look at this announcement from over a month ago which even includes a picture of Google Calendar working on the iPhone. (It is by the way a great way to have a shared family calendar on a cell phone and it is available today not a year or more from now.)

Google became great because they solved problems for users. Search was a mess and they sorted it out. Now, however, there seems to be a rash of Google announcing projects to solve problems that others have already solved. In some cases "others" are apparently other projects at Google.