I am amazed. I figured out if I went to itunes store and picked All Applications and then sorted them by "release date" I can keep up with whatever new apps are released each day. I have to say the amount is enormous. On Monday, it was at least 30, although this includes updates as well as new apps.
The number of updates is also getting a little over the top. I have been installing on average 4 or 5 updates to apps each day. I find it much faster to do the install in itunes and then sync it then to try to install the updates over the wireless.
I just counted to do's adds/updates and it was 100 apps!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
screen protectors for the iphone
I bought a polyurethane skin for the iphone the day i got it and it came with a plastic screen saver. I am a bit worried about these because i once put one on my ipod video and left it on there for a few months. When I finally removed it, it left a really stick film on it that i couldn't get off. And Ironically, scrubbing it to get it off, i actually scratched my screen.
So although wary, I knew I would be touching my screen a lot and that it is dangerous in my pocketbook to all types of screens, so i decided to try the one that came with my skin i bought at the att store. I figure it is practically an authorized screen cover. :) This was not very successful. I guess i suck at putting on these things, because no matter how much i fussed with it, i couldn't get all the wrinkles and air bubbles out and it looked bad.
So I bought some more at the ATT Store when I went back to get my husband's iphone. Didn't do much better with these. Although I do admit the old ones came off easily and without leaving a mess. They new ones were too thin and very sticky as well. Also they didn't fit exactly right. But also at the ATT Store I bought a second skin, for myself, thinking i would give the black original one to my husband. This one came with a really nice screen saver. It was also a Casemate It was a stiffer plastic and it had just a tacky side to it. Very easy to position and I only had to remove about 4 air bubbles which was so easy to remove.
It looks better than without one. Very sleek and shiny and you can't even really tell that the screen is covered. And the touch seems to work perfectly through the plastic.
So I felt bad that my husband now had one of the bumpy bubbly ones so I tried ordering a pack from apple. These are as good as the ones I got with my case. Installed it in seconds and it looks and works great.
So although wary, I knew I would be touching my screen a lot and that it is dangerous in my pocketbook to all types of screens, so i decided to try the one that came with my skin i bought at the att store. I figure it is practically an authorized screen cover. :) This was not very successful. I guess i suck at putting on these things, because no matter how much i fussed with it, i couldn't get all the wrinkles and air bubbles out and it looked bad.
So I bought some more at the ATT Store when I went back to get my husband's iphone. Didn't do much better with these. Although I do admit the old ones came off easily and without leaving a mess. They new ones were too thin and very sticky as well. Also they didn't fit exactly right. But also at the ATT Store I bought a second skin, for myself, thinking i would give the black original one to my husband. This one came with a really nice screen saver. It was also a Casemate It was a stiffer plastic and it had just a tacky side to it. Very easy to position and I only had to remove about 4 air bubbles which was so easy to remove.
It looks better than without one. Very sleek and shiny and you can't even really tell that the screen is covered. And the touch seems to work perfectly through the plastic.
So I felt bad that my husband now had one of the bumpy bubbly ones so I tried ordering a pack from apple. These are as good as the ones I got with my case. Installed it in seconds and it looks and works great.
Bluetooth
I have to say that i'm a bit disappointed with the bluetooth on the iphone. It seems severely crippled and the only thing it seems to be able to let me do so far is connect it to headsets. My computer has bluetooth and although it recognizes the iphone connection, it doesn't seem to let me use it as a modem or any of the more advanced bluetooth features. I would love to be able to sync with bluetooth or to be able to print to my bluetooth printer.
Another thing that is disappointing is its ability to remember bluetooth settings. In my blackberry, it works just like wifi on the iphone. If it senses a bluetooth connection that I have already paired with, it just automatically connects. The problem is that I have two cars that both have blueset handsfree set ups. After a few tickets when they changed the law in connecticut to make it illegal to talk on the cellphone whlie driving, we sprang for the built in system on our toyota and bought our grand caravan with the built in Uconnect system.
For the first two weeks, I have had a really hard time moving back and forth between cars. Each time I switched cars, I couldn't get the iphone to recognize the other car unless i unpaired the first bluetooth connection, rediscovered the new one and reentered the passcode. This sucks!
Today for some weird reason, I was able to pair the motorola bluetooth with my iphone without unpairing the Uconnect. I'm going to take the other car tomorrow and see if it remembers the Uconnect settings or if i'll have to reenter them again. I honestly don't know what I did differently this time. I forced the motorola bluetooth into discovery mode and it just popped up.
Today, I don't even know what I did differently, I was able to add a second pairing to my iphone without unpairing the first device. I will see tommorrow if it will simply work in my other car or if I'll have to do something again. From having to play with this so much lately, I also wish it wasn't buried so many levels in the settings menu. I wish bluetooth was at the top of the settings menu with wireless.
Another thing that is disappointing is its ability to remember bluetooth settings. In my blackberry, it works just like wifi on the iphone. If it senses a bluetooth connection that I have already paired with, it just automatically connects. The problem is that I have two cars that both have blueset handsfree set ups. After a few tickets when they changed the law in connecticut to make it illegal to talk on the cellphone whlie driving, we sprang for the built in system on our toyota and bought our grand caravan with the built in Uconnect system.
For the first two weeks, I have had a really hard time moving back and forth between cars. Each time I switched cars, I couldn't get the iphone to recognize the other car unless i unpaired the first bluetooth connection, rediscovered the new one and reentered the passcode. This sucks!
Today for some weird reason, I was able to pair the motorola bluetooth with my iphone without unpairing the Uconnect. I'm going to take the other car tomorrow and see if it remembers the Uconnect settings or if i'll have to reenter them again. I honestly don't know what I did differently this time. I forced the motorola bluetooth into discovery mode and it just popped up.
Today, I don't even know what I did differently, I was able to add a second pairing to my iphone without unpairing the first device. I will see tommorrow if it will simply work in my other car or if I'll have to do something again. From having to play with this so much lately, I also wish it wasn't buried so many levels in the settings menu. I wish bluetooth was at the top of the settings menu with wireless.
Friday, July 25, 2008
My husband got his Iphone yesterday
He ordered it July 13th and it came in yesterday, the 24th. Not too bad. Interestingly enough, I was able to share all the apps I had purchased with him by just synching it to the same machine. I also downloaded the guitar toolkit for him, since he is a guitar player. It is pretty cool. It gives you one display where you can play a note and the app will identify the note and sharp/flat. Another display shows a set f guitar strings and you can play them and pluck them and it looks like, you can try out chords. The third display is a metronome. The fourth display allows you to select a chord and it will show you a visual image of where to hold your fingers to play it. Very nicely done.
So far he is pretty fascinated and can't wait to get his new mac so he can start creating games for it. We had a mac cube but the SDK requires an intel based Mac. So we decided we could use a new mac and I just ordered a new imac today. I will blog how using the iphone with a mac compares with using it with a pc.
So far he is pretty fascinated and can't wait to get his new mac so he can start creating games for it. We had a mac cube but the SDK requires an intel based Mac. So we decided we could use a new mac and I just ordered a new imac today. I will blog how using the iphone with a mac compares with using it with a pc.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Using Mobileme to sync my contacts and calendar
I decided to try mobileme. I like the idea of having all my contact lists synced and my husband just bought a mac so we got a discount on the family price. This will let us have 5 people use it with the one license. It only costs $50 dollars more for the family plan and you get a $30 discount when you buy a mac. Since my husband and I will both use it for iphones and it is cheaper than buying two separate subscriptions.
First I synced and backed up my iphone one last time.
Next i synced my pc with mobilelme. It was pretty easy to set up because you just need to register and create an account. This lets you get an email address and an account name and password.
Note: If you start this in Itunes, you get two months free trial right now.
The software was already installed (came with itunes) and all i had to do on my pc was go into the control panel and open the MobileMe Control Panel item. This allows you to associate your account info and setup the sync.
You can schedule it to run daily, hourly, every fifteen minutes, as needed. It will sync the contacts on my pc with the contacts stored out there on the mobileme Cloud each time it runs.
You can also store files that you want to share across multiple computers using the idisk feature. I put a file out there for some software i have that doesn't have a smart sync and I am going to try to share that file between computers.
On my iphone, You set it up like you do an email account.
*Under Settings/ Mail, Contacts, Calendars menu you tap the Add Account list item and then pick mobileme from the list of email types on the next screen.
*You will get prompted to put in your mobileme account name and password.
*Next you have to decide what you want to sync. Your choices are Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Bookmarks. There is no idisk options here so there is no way to access those shared files that are stored on mobileme as part of idisk. At least I haven't figured out how to do it yet. You also define how often you want your iphone to sync.
I haven't had time to really test it yet, but i'll give you an update when i find out.
First I synced and backed up my iphone one last time.
Next i synced my pc with mobilelme. It was pretty easy to set up because you just need to register and create an account. This lets you get an email address and an account name and password.
Note: If you start this in Itunes, you get two months free trial right now.
The software was already installed (came with itunes) and all i had to do on my pc was go into the control panel and open the MobileMe Control Panel item. This allows you to associate your account info and setup the sync.
You can schedule it to run daily, hourly, every fifteen minutes, as needed. It will sync the contacts on my pc with the contacts stored out there on the mobileme Cloud each time it runs.
You can also store files that you want to share across multiple computers using the idisk feature. I put a file out there for some software i have that doesn't have a smart sync and I am going to try to share that file between computers.
On my iphone, You set it up like you do an email account.
*Under Settings/ Mail, Contacts, Calendars menu you tap the Add Account list item and then pick mobileme from the list of email types on the next screen.
*You will get prompted to put in your mobileme account name and password.
*Next you have to decide what you want to sync. Your choices are Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Bookmarks. There is no idisk options here so there is no way to access those shared files that are stored on mobileme as part of idisk. At least I haven't figured out how to do it yet. You also define how often you want your iphone to sync.
I haven't had time to really test it yet, but i'll give you an update when i find out.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Don't overlook those new iphone earbuds
If you are like me, you look at the iphone headphones and leave them in the box. However, it wasn't until i started reading the manual (ughh) that I realized that these headphones are not the typical ipod headphones. They come with a special switch/microphone that lies between the earbuds and the place where the two separate wires join together. You can use this switch to do all sorts of things. And it even works when the iphone is locked.
When you listening to music
* Click once to pause, and again to play.
* Click twice quickly to skip to the next track
If you get a call while the headset is plugged in, you can hear the ringtone through
both the iPhone speaker and the headset. HERE IS THE COOLEST PART. If you are listening to music when the phone rings, The music pauses itself and then resumes when you hang up.
When the phone rings
* Click once to pick up the call. The microphone allows you to talk with just the headphones on.
* You can also reject the call. Press and hold for about two seconds, then let
go. When you let go, two low beeps confirm you declined the call. (you can also do this by pressing the on/off button at the top of the phone)
When you are already on a call:
*Click once to end a call
When you are already on a call, and you get a second call
*Click once to switch to an incoming or on-hold call and put the current call on hold. Click again to switch back to the first call.
*Press and hold for about two seconds, then let go to switch to an incoming call and hang up the first call. When you let go, two low beeps confirm you
ended the first call.
When you listening to music
* Click once to pause, and again to play.
* Click twice quickly to skip to the next track
If you get a call while the headset is plugged in, you can hear the ringtone through
both the iPhone speaker and the headset. HERE IS THE COOLEST PART. If you are listening to music when the phone rings, The music pauses itself and then resumes when you hang up.
When the phone rings
* Click once to pick up the call. The microphone allows you to talk with just the headphones on.
* You can also reject the call. Press and hold for about two seconds, then let
go. When you let go, two low beeps confirm you declined the call. (you can also do this by pressing the on/off button at the top of the phone)
When you are already on a call:
*Click once to end a call
When you are already on a call, and you get a second call
*Click once to switch to an incoming or on-hold call and put the current call on hold. Click again to switch back to the first call.
*Press and hold for about two seconds, then let go to switch to an incoming call and hang up the first call. When you let go, two low beeps confirm you
ended the first call.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Iphone radio
There are several cool radio apps out there, but I am pretty impressed with Pandora. You set up an account or login to an existing account. If you set up a new one you have to go to the web page and enter a code that is displayed on the iphone. Not too hard.
Once you get into Pandora, you can create your own radio stations by giving them a song or artist that you like. They use what they are calling the music genome database to stream you music that you will like based on this pick.
I created them on the web, but they showed up on my iphone within seconds. Once I picked a station to listen to, it started to play the songs. On the iphone you have thumbs up and thumbs down icons that you can tap to let know Pandora know if you liked the song. They will then use this info to better refine the music they stream to you for that station.
Very cool.
It strikes me as strange that I can listen to music on my iphone that i havent downloaded and paid for. I could get used to this. Rather than constantly changing what I am syncing to my iphone, I can just listen to the stations.
Once you get into Pandora, you can create your own radio stations by giving them a song or artist that you like. They use what they are calling the music genome database to stream you music that you will like based on this pick.
I created them on the web, but they showed up on my iphone within seconds. Once I picked a station to listen to, it started to play the songs. On the iphone you have thumbs up and thumbs down icons that you can tap to let know Pandora know if you liked the song. They will then use this info to better refine the music they stream to you for that station.
Very cool.
It strikes me as strange that I can listen to music on my iphone that i havent downloaded and paid for. I could get used to this. Rather than constantly changing what I am syncing to my iphone, I can just listen to the stations.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Voice mail rocks
When you get a voicemail it shows up on a list just like email. There is no special number to dial. No codes to remember for navigation. You simply click on the call item in the list to hear the message. You can pause it and restart it over and over. Delete it by simply tapping on the trash icon.
Very simple interface besides that. There is a convenient speaker button on the screen to make it easy to hear your messages through the external speakers. You record and change the greeting by tapping a Greeting icon and speaking into the Microphone.
Very simple interface besides that. There is a convenient speaker button on the screen to make it easy to hear your messages through the external speakers. You record and change the greeting by tapping a Greeting icon and speaking into the Microphone.
Getting the volume right
I have noticed some different behaviours with the volume. Using the volume rocker most of the time raises the volume system wide. When a song is playing, even when the ipod screen isn't up, the rocker only affects the music volume. In Youtube, if you are actively playing a video, the rocker only increases the video volume.
I love the mute switch right above the volume rocker. Very nice way to toggle between totally off and normal volume settings.
I love the mute switch right above the volume rocker. Very nice way to toggle between totally off and normal volume settings.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Speed Dial
Everyone is talking about the iphone lacking cut/copy/paste, but what i missed most was speed dial. I found a work around that gives me what I want. In the contacts app, I used the favorites option to pick all my friends and families numbers. Then in settings, i set it so that double clicking the Home button brings up the favorite panel. Then just hit the person/number that you want to dial. Takes a double-tap and a tap each time, but still works well.
App store update app featue
I like how the app store icon changes to display the number of updates available for the software you have already downloaded. Simply go back to the app store and click on the download icon in the lower right corner and say download all to apply all the available updates.
The same holds true for updating the firmware/OS. I sync it and Itunes just lets me know that I have to update it. I was having problems with my blackberry once and I wanted to see if there was a patch for it. I had to start at the RIM page, find my way to the AT&T page, navigate through model lists and current version lists to find the OS. Then I had to download it and use a special download function in my blackberry sync app. Needless to say, I haven't done it since. Maybe that is what they want. For us to not download patches. They make it so hard to do and find.
Not entirely related, but it just occurred to me today, is that I also like how you can sort apps in the App store when you're looking in the top 25 section by Top Paid and Top Free. I also like the search feature so you can just search on a name or a word in the name. I know Apple makes money off the software that is paid and not the free software, but they are making it easy for us to get the free stuff anyway.
Publishing to this blog with my Iphone now
I got iphone blogging down now. Blogger.com lets you associate a phone number with a blog (a few validation steps in there though) and when you email to go@blogger.com and it detects your phone number, it automatically adds it either a new blog it creates for you or you can pick a blogspot.com blog you already started. This is cool because it will let me add stuff here as i think of them while playing with my phone.
Sent from my Iphone 3G
Sent from my Iphone 3G
We are going to be a two person iphone household
My husband just decided to get an iphone too. He is a game developer and is itching to get an iphone game out there. He has a really good idea too, but I can't tell. We ordered it on Tuesday from our local AT&T store. I'll let you know how long it takes to arrive.
I have been showing him the quality of the games and he has been pretty impressed. I think the accelerometer and the crisp color screen make it a great gaming platform.
Plus I like the idea that when i am bored, stuck in an airport somewhere, I can play games. Once my friend Jonathan and I got stuck in St Louis for about 7 hours and we played this really wimpy version of trivial pursuit on my old verizon phone for several hours. That is how bored we were.
I have been showing him the quality of the games and he has been pretty impressed. I think the accelerometer and the crisp color screen make it a great gaming platform.
Plus I like the idea that when i am bored, stuck in an airport somewhere, I can play games. Once my friend Jonathan and I got stuck in St Louis for about 7 hours and we played this really wimpy version of trivial pursuit on my old verizon phone for several hours. That is how bored we were.
Oh No, Battery won't charge!
I just had a bad scare with my iphone. I charged it this morning and was using it for about 15 minutes when it shut down on me. I rebooted it and it came up and said battery was less than 10% charged and it would shut down. The battery had a small thin red line. I didn't have my charger so I used my friends charger later that day and it wouldn't charge at all. It would work plugged in, but the battery stayed empty.
I tried charging it again with my cradle when I got home. Nope. Not going to charge. My husband suggested it wasn't the battery but the battery indicator, but I figured it didn't matter because either way it shut down.
I tried using the apple support web page, but it was pretty frustrating. it took me to a web page where I had to pick my problem from a list to continue and "battery won't charge" wasn't on the list. So I picked "adaptor broken". The next dropdown box wanted to know what part i wanted to replace and again no good choices. Every part but the iphone itself was listed.
So i called the main apple support line and waited on hold for about 20 minutes until I got a human. She said it would take a day to send me a box and then about three more days to get me a new iphone. I was bummed because after all it took to get one and get it activated, and synced, i would have to go phoneless for 1/2 a week and then start all over again with a new iphone.
I asked if I could give a credit card and they could ship my new iphone to me rather than wait until i got the mailing box and then sent it back, but she said no. Nicely she even asked her manager but still no. But good news! While talking to her manager she talked to a tech guy and he said to try hard booting it and that if it was the battery indicator, it might clear up the problem.
Here's how you hardboot the iphone: Press and hold the menu button and power button simultaneously until the silver apple appears.
This worked. When it rebooted the battery showed a 3/4 charge and synching in the cradle has caused it to continue recharging.
I am a bit too happy. Can't get attached to a device here :)
I tried charging it again with my cradle when I got home. Nope. Not going to charge. My husband suggested it wasn't the battery but the battery indicator, but I figured it didn't matter because either way it shut down.
I tried using the apple support web page, but it was pretty frustrating. it took me to a web page where I had to pick my problem from a list to continue and "battery won't charge" wasn't on the list. So I picked "adaptor broken". The next dropdown box wanted to know what part i wanted to replace and again no good choices. Every part but the iphone itself was listed.
So i called the main apple support line and waited on hold for about 20 minutes until I got a human. She said it would take a day to send me a box and then about three more days to get me a new iphone. I was bummed because after all it took to get one and get it activated, and synced, i would have to go phoneless for 1/2 a week and then start all over again with a new iphone.
I asked if I could give a credit card and they could ship my new iphone to me rather than wait until i got the mailing box and then sent it back, but she said no. Nicely she even asked her manager but still no. But good news! While talking to her manager she talked to a tech guy and he said to try hard booting it and that if it was the battery indicator, it might clear up the problem.
Here's how you hardboot the iphone: Press and hold the menu button and power button simultaneously until the silver apple appears.
This worked. When it rebooted the battery showed a 3/4 charge and synching in the cradle has caused it to continue recharging.
I am a bit too happy. Can't get attached to a device here :)
Maps and traffic
I love the google maps app. I love the fact that I can see the urls, phone numbers and directions to and from a marker pin on the map. I was finally in an area yesterday where I could see the traffic. for those of you who haven't discovered that feature, navigate on the map to the location you want, and then hit the overlay icon in the lower right corner. Then Press traffic button. if it isn't available, the button text says something like "traffic information not available". When it is available you will see a red or yellow highlight on the roads where there are traffic.
Not as fancy as my gps but the data is cool and if they could write an app that lets us report traffic to the service from our iphone, how cool would that be.
Use two fingers to double tap the map to zoom out and one finger double tap to zoom in.
See this page for an explanation of what the map traffic colors mean.
Not as fancy as my gps but the data is cool and if they could write an app that lets us report traffic to the service from our iphone, how cool would that be.
Use two fingers to double tap the map to zoom out and one finger double tap to zoom in.
See this page for an explanation of what the map traffic colors mean.
Home screen
Got so many apps now that my home screen is getting hard to navigate.
I love the fact that iphone creates panels automatically when you fill
up a panel. However it just adds new icon to the end of the current
panel.
Here's some tips for moving icons around.
Press and hold your finger on an icon. The icons will start to wiggle and some of them will little red x's in their upper left hand corner. This means you are navigate mode and shows the icons are ready to move. Now you can drag any icon to a new
place. Drag it off screen to move it to a new panel.
Tap on an x in the upper left hand corner of an icon to delete it and
uninstall an app.
Press the home button to exit the wiggle mode and go to normal navigation.
You can add icons that represent web pages through bookmarking. In any
web based app, tap the + button in the tool bar and select
Sent from my iPhone 3g
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Installing applications
I have been having a blast installing apps. Some of the coolest ones so far are:
Where To: Gives you a dial where you can quickly pick what layer you want to see on the googlemaps. You can pick restaurant, theater, Airports, Hospitals, Grocery stores, Schools etc. After you pick the layer, it takes you to a screen where you can specify an address or say "use current location". Then it takes you to google maps and shows you your location and bunch of pins to each of selected places. Tap on a pin and you can see the phone number, url, and address for the place. Just like on my Garmin Nuvi, but the data directly linked to google maps and live so it is much more up to date. You can do this without this app in the map app but this is just a quick shortcut for displaying different types of places.
Shazam: Allows you to hold up your phone to a music source (radio, speaker, etc) and it will record a few seconds of it. It then sends it to the internet server and comes back with the name of the song and artist and link to sample the song or buy it on itunes.
AIM: The aim client is very nice and easy to use. Gets right to the point.
Box Office: Based on your current location shows you what movie theaters are close to you and what movies and movie times are showing at them. Cool app but did reboot my iphone at one point.
Remote: With a simple download and entering a number into itunes, I am able to control what is playing at my desktop on itunes. It works through wireless. You can pick songs, stop and start songs, move to next track, previous track. After you install it, it displays a number code. You sync it on itunes and you will get prompted to enter the code. Enter it and thats it. Very cool. Works for us because we have a computer in the kitchen that has speakers upstairs and downstairs. I can sit downstairs in the living room and change what is playing throughout the house.
Kenkou - allows you to track health data. I am a diabetic and was always looking for an app on my bb that would allow me to track my glucose AND my weight AND other things like cholesterol and and BP. This tool has it all. Lets you also graph it. Wish there was a way to enter past data quickly so I could back fill it with the info in my little log book they gave me. One less thing to carry around. Cool!
Splash ID - Allows you to store all of your passwords and accounts, credit card info, etc. I use one on my desktop called Password keeper, but i needed it at work and other places sometimes. Tried to keep my work one and my home one is sync was a pain. Splash ID allows me to wireless sync to my desktops every time I change it on my iphone. Very cool. Was easy to setup and it really works. Comes with a desktop tool to make it easier to enter them, but I didn't like that i had to pay for that too.
Poker
Very fun game that rolls dice by shaking the iphone. Beautiful graphics as well.
Etch A Sketch - I had to buy this because I loved the idea of it. Draw using two little on screen knobs or your finger and then shake the iphone to clear the screen. Hahahaha!
Where To: Gives you a dial where you can quickly pick what layer you want to see on the googlemaps. You can pick restaurant, theater, Airports, Hospitals, Grocery stores, Schools etc. After you pick the layer, it takes you to a screen where you can specify an address or say "use current location". Then it takes you to google maps and shows you your location and bunch of pins to each of selected places. Tap on a pin and you can see the phone number, url, and address for the place. Just like on my Garmin Nuvi, but the data directly linked to google maps and live so it is much more up to date. You can do this without this app in the map app but this is just a quick shortcut for displaying different types of places.
Shazam: Allows you to hold up your phone to a music source (radio, speaker, etc) and it will record a few seconds of it. It then sends it to the internet server and comes back with the name of the song and artist and link to sample the song or buy it on itunes.
AIM: The aim client is very nice and easy to use. Gets right to the point.
Box Office: Based on your current location shows you what movie theaters are close to you and what movies and movie times are showing at them. Cool app but did reboot my iphone at one point.
Remote: With a simple download and entering a number into itunes, I am able to control what is playing at my desktop on itunes. It works through wireless. You can pick songs, stop and start songs, move to next track, previous track. After you install it, it displays a number code. You sync it on itunes and you will get prompted to enter the code. Enter it and thats it. Very cool. Works for us because we have a computer in the kitchen that has speakers upstairs and downstairs. I can sit downstairs in the living room and change what is playing throughout the house.
Kenkou - allows you to track health data. I am a diabetic and was always looking for an app on my bb that would allow me to track my glucose AND my weight AND other things like cholesterol and and BP. This tool has it all. Lets you also graph it. Wish there was a way to enter past data quickly so I could back fill it with the info in my little log book they gave me. One less thing to carry around. Cool!
Splash ID - Allows you to store all of your passwords and accounts, credit card info, etc. I use one on my desktop called Password keeper, but i needed it at work and other places sometimes. Tried to keep my work one and my home one is sync was a pain. Splash ID allows me to wireless sync to my desktops every time I change it on my iphone. Very cool. Was easy to setup and it really works. Comes with a desktop tool to make it easier to enter them, but I didn't like that i had to pay for that too.
Poker
Very fun game that rolls dice by shaking the iphone. Beautiful graphics as well.
Etch A Sketch - I had to buy this because I loved the idea of it. Draw using two little on screen knobs or your finger and then shake the iphone to clear the screen. Hahahaha!
Playing with Safari
Things that I have learned about Safari so far.
Tapping twice on a web page in the Safari browser zooms in on the page. Tapping twice again zooms out again. Tapping with two fingers zooms out even more.
Clicking the page icon at the bottom of the safari browser, lets you thumb through the open web pages, much like tabs to in Mozilla.
I can't figure out how to cut and paste, but clicking on the little x on the address bar in Safari, clears the current contents.
Tapping on Edit in the Bookmarks link and then tapping Edit lets you set up folders for your bookmark structure.
Tapping in a text field, zooms the field and brings up the keboard. Previous and Next allow you to toggle between the fields on the page.
Tapping twice on a web page in the Safari browser zooms in on the page. Tapping twice again zooms out again. Tapping with two fingers zooms out even more.
Clicking the page icon at the bottom of the safari browser, lets you thumb through the open web pages, much like tabs to in Mozilla.
I can't figure out how to cut and paste, but clicking on the little x on the address bar in Safari, clears the current contents.
Tapping on Edit in the Bookmarks link and then tapping Edit lets you set up folders for your bookmark structure.
Tapping in a text field, zooms the field and brings up the keboard. Previous and Next allow you to toggle between the fields on the page.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Setting Up my email
I added all my email accounts and it was pretty easy except it said that hotmail wasn't supported. I searched on google and found an article on MSDN that said to set the pop3 server to pop3.live.com and the Outgoing Mail server(SMTP) to smtp.live.com. This seems to have worked. I can see my hotmail inbox, but not any of my other folders. Good enough for now. No problem setting up gmail and or my isp provider email. Worked great.
Things I have noticed so far about email:
Cant figure out a way to delete all the contents at once. I have a spam folder in gmail and i want to just say delete it all. Can't get that to work. Although you can tap Edit and then select emails and then say Delete to delete a bunch of them at a time. Problem is that it will only display so many on the screen at once and it is a bit clumsy trying to select and scroll.
You can drag your finger in a left to right motion across an email in the inbox list (kind of like drawing a line through it) and a delete button appears on the right side of the mail item. Tap the delete button to delete it.
You can also delete pretty quickly when you are inside an email. Tap the garbage can at the bottom of the email. After the current one is deleted, it moves you to the next one. Tapping the garbage can is easy, but it takes a bit of time between taps.
Under settings \ Fetch New Data you can control how often the Iphone goes out and fetches new mail or you can leave it at Manual to save connection charges.
If you are having sending mail, you can switch off your outgoing smtp server in the Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen and turn on the ATT SMTP server. Pick an email account and then scroll down to Outgoing Mail server and pick the SMTP cascade menu. Toggle your smtp off and the AT&T SMTP Server on.
Clicking on a from or To name in an email brings you to screen where you can create a new contact or Add the address to an existing contact. That is a feature i have waited for for a long time.
Things I have noticed so far about email:
Cant figure out a way to delete all the contents at once. I have a spam folder in gmail and i want to just say delete it all. Can't get that to work. Although you can tap Edit and then select emails and then say Delete to delete a bunch of them at a time. Problem is that it will only display so many on the screen at once and it is a bit clumsy trying to select and scroll.
You can drag your finger in a left to right motion across an email in the inbox list (kind of like drawing a line through it) and a delete button appears on the right side of the mail item. Tap the delete button to delete it.
You can also delete pretty quickly when you are inside an email. Tap the garbage can at the bottom of the email. After the current one is deleted, it moves you to the next one. Tapping the garbage can is easy, but it takes a bit of time between taps.
Under settings \ Fetch New Data you can control how often the Iphone goes out and fetches new mail or you can leave it at Manual to save connection charges.
If you are having sending mail, you can switch off your outgoing smtp server in the Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen and turn on the ATT SMTP server. Pick an email account and then scroll down to Outgoing Mail server and pick the SMTP cascade menu. Toggle your smtp off and the AT&T SMTP Server on.
Clicking on a from or To name in an email brings you to screen where you can create a new contact or Add the address to an existing contact. That is a feature i have waited for for a long time.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Syncing with Itunes for the first time
As soon as I put the iphone in the cradle, the itunes server popped up and told me to upgrade my itunes to 7.7. I upgraded and tried again. This time it recognized the iphone 3G and presented me with a new set of tabs. I could now see a new Ringtone tab and an Application Tab. It also gave more options about syncing contacts. Under Help menu, I notice a new Iphone Help option.
I tried to create a ring tone and it told me I had to use a song i purchased from itunes. I went to my itunes Purchased folder and tried one. It told me that the song wasn't eligible. I tried another and it told me that I had purchased it too long ago! Ugh! So i tried on Carol King song i had just bought and it proceeded. However, it wanted to charge me another .99 cents to make it. I have already paid for it! I hit cancel and said forget it.
I searched on the web and found out how to make them for free with GarageBand software and found several apps that let you do it for free.
I hit sync and that went smoothly.
*Interesting enough, I had my contacts on my computer at work and when I hooked it up to that computer, it warned me that I had already synced it to another computer and that I could lose data, but then it proceeded to let me sync selected things to my iphone (like just my contacts) and said there was stuff on my iphone that wasn't in itunes and did I want to transfer that to itunes! Wow! remember the days where it would overwrite it all. A two way sync! How cool.
I tried to create a ring tone and it told me I had to use a song i purchased from itunes. I went to my itunes Purchased folder and tried one. It told me that the song wasn't eligible. I tried another and it told me that I had purchased it too long ago! Ugh! So i tried on Carol King song i had just bought and it proceeded. However, it wanted to charge me another .99 cents to make it. I have already paid for it! I hit cancel and said forget it.
I searched on the web and found out how to make them for free with GarageBand software and found several apps that let you do it for free.
I hit sync and that went smoothly.
*Interesting enough, I had my contacts on my computer at work and when I hooked it up to that computer, it warned me that I had already synced it to another computer and that I could lose data, but then it proceeded to let me sync selected things to my iphone (like just my contacts) and said there was stuff on my iphone that wasn't in itunes and did I want to transfer that to itunes! Wow! remember the days where it would overwrite it all. A two way sync! How cool.
Learning how to use the keyboard and interface
The keyboard is a change from my blackberry. I am trying to use my thumbs like i did with my BB keyboard and it doesn't seem to work. Jeff C (who has a touch) says to use your index finger. Works great! Only making a few mistakes now and then now. I have to say with my blackberry that i have had for about 4 years now, i still make typing errors all the time even though i have gotten quite fast.
I love the touch screen. After using it for a day, I try to use my ipod and I keep trying to touch the screen instead of using the dial. It seems painful to go back to the dial paradigm.
I am gradually getting used to the touch interface. Not documented very clearly but it is intuitive once you learn it.
Things I have learned about the keyboard:
Pressing and holding the backspace button allows you to keep deleting.
Pressing and holding the shift key allows you to keep on typing in caps. Pressing and releasing allows the next letter only to be caps.
I love the touch screen. After using it for a day, I try to use my ipod and I keep trying to touch the screen instead of using the dial. It seems painful to go back to the dial paradigm.
I am gradually getting used to the touch interface. Not documented very clearly but it is intuitive once you learn it.
Things I have learned about the keyboard:
Pressing and holding the backspace button allows you to keep deleting.
Pressing and holding the shift key allows you to keep on typing in caps. Pressing and releasing allows the next letter only to be caps.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Trying to find time to play with it!
I get to work (late now because of all the waiting in line) and go right into a meeting. I am clutching my iphone because I hope that I will get a chance to play with it in the meeting. My friend Jeff C sees it (he has been pining me on my blackberry while we are standing in line asking me on my progress so he knows all). During the meeting he tries to "subtley" nudge it toward him with his elbow or cover it with his hand and grab it. We are being pretty silly and the person we are in the meeting with us gets frustrated and says "Do you two want to have time to go play with the cell phone?" To which we laugh but I'm thinking "Yes, i really want to go play with it".
I get home and because I having my yearly fourth of july bash (we had to cancel it the week before due to inclement weather) the next day, I have to do a ton of chores and work around the house. I go to bed that night with barely anytime to do anything but turn it on and look at the basic screens.
Before bed, I send the user manual to my kindle so I can start reading it.
I get home and because I having my yearly fourth of july bash (we had to cancel it the week before due to inclement weather) the next day, I have to do a ton of chores and work around the house. I go to bed that night with barely anytime to do anything but turn it on and look at the basic screens.
Before bed, I send the user manual to my kindle so I can start reading it.
Buying the Iphone
We meet at the store and there is already a line. John is there waiting when I get there. I bring the starbucks. About 11 people in front of him and two behind him. I got into line behind them rather than cutting because i don't want to start a war with some gadget hungry geeks. They wonderfully tell me it is okay with them if I move up to stand with john. "They probably have 300 iPhones so don't worry about it". I thank them profusely and move up to stand with John. People ahead of us have lawn chairs (I did think of it but really didn't think i would be standing in line for too long). The manager comes out after a while and hands out data sheets that talk about the different plans and options so we can decided what we want while waiting in line. After waiting for an hour, the store opens. They let the first four people in. By this point there is at least 60 to 100 people behind us. I can't really tell for sure, because the line started to wrap around the building. The first people took a really long time. The manager finally comes out and says they are having a hard time activating the phones. She says that it is taking a long time. I suggest that she keeps moving people in line through to get their accounts set upand people who are waiting for phone activation can just either wait outside or come back and get their phones. It is getting hot outside and if it takes 1/2 hour per person, it is going to take all day. 1/2 hour later - Manager comes out again and says people can activate the phones themselves in Itunes so they will start moving people faster. 1/2 hour later - Manager comes out and says she has 3 black 8 gb iphones and 8 16 gb white iphones left. We count back in line and realize we will get one but get angry because they could have figured out an hour ago how many they had vs how many people were in line and told people to go home. John is bummed because he wanted a 16 gb black iphone. I tell him it doesn't matter because we will get skins to protect our beloved new gadget and no one will be able to tell the color anyway. 1/2 hour later (10:00 am) I get in the door. They are going to leave John in line, but I say "We're together" and they let him in as well. He let me go first but I couldn't leave him out there :) I'm finally at the counter. I get a white 16 gb phone and nice black skin that also has a screen protector. My last ipod i really did a number on the screen so I want to protect this new one from day one. They can't get the SIM card to work. John is having problems getting his activated. They finall y get my sim card to work and my activation goes right through. John decides to take his and go and will activate it later at home. A few minutes later I am getting into my car with my new iphone. I have to call in for a meeting so I don't even get time to stop and play with it.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
How Do I get one?
July 8th
Now that I know I want one, where am i going to get it? I live in small town in South eastern Connecticut and the closest apple store is over an hour a way. I noticed my friend John's laptop in a meeting one day, where he is reading the iphone web site. He is definitely a kindred spirit when it comes to the gadget crazed part of me. I called him to see if he had plans to buy one. He is going to go to a local AT&T store that he has called and they will have Iphones. The store opens at 8:00 am so we decide to meet at 7:00 am outside the store on July 11th.
Our thinking is that even though in NY there will be large lines, this is New London Connecticut so really who is going to be waiting for an Iphone.
Now that I know I want one, where am i going to get it? I live in small town in South eastern Connecticut and the closest apple store is over an hour a way. I noticed my friend John's laptop in a meeting one day, where he is reading the iphone web site. He is definitely a kindred spirit when it comes to the gadget crazed part of me. I called him to see if he had plans to buy one. He is going to go to a local AT&T store that he has called and they will have Iphones. The store opens at 8:00 am so we decide to meet at 7:00 am outside the store on July 11th.
Our thinking is that even though in NY there will be large lines, this is New London Connecticut so really who is going to be waiting for an Iphone.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
New Iphone 3G Coming
When I found the iphone 2.0 or 3G was coming out in July, I was really psyched because my Verizon contract expired at the end of June. I searched daily for news of whether this new version would have a GPS. Finally with two weeks to go, I found a site that confirmed the GPS inclusion. I had just bought a new GPS at BestBuy for my trip to Washington DC. In order to justify the expenditure of a new Iphone, i returned the GPS.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
To Buy or Not Too Buy
When I heard the Iphone was coming out, I was still locked into my Verizon contract and I just wasn't sure if the Iphone was right for me. I really wanted a GPS in my phone, although at the time, I didn't really the know the full extent of how helpful a GPS could be. I decided to hold out until at least my Verizon contract had expired.
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