We’re now at the fifth version of OS X. I think it’s about time you adopted one of the useful Windows features, specifically “Install updates and shut down.” Sometimes, I don’t actually want to reboot, but want to shut down, and I hate having to try to catch the machine in mid-boot.
My initial suspicions aside, I gotta say — Leopard Spaces rocks. I am suitably pleased.
French iPhone buyers may choose Orange or unlocked - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
So… angry…
Wouldn’t it be grand if we had laws like that?
This is something I’ve been meaning to write for a while. My usual Thursday evening writing time is instead being spent in my office at work while I wrestle with an annoying problem that just won’t go away, so I’ll take a brain break and get this out of my head.
For those who don’t care to embrace the verbosity, here’s the quick and dirty summary: Apple is messing up big-time, and they have a real opportunity to fix it by doing one simple thing — loosen their grip on their products! There. Read on if you care about my thoughts on this.
(more…)
Don’t upgrade to 1.1.1, in case you didn’t realize that. Really, don’t upgrade to any new firmware until the community has determined it doesn’t break anything. Then wait a week after that so you are confident there are no time bombs. If it’s not obvious, I’ll happily post my results here as updates occur.
I have a long rant about this, but I’ll save that for the weekend when I have more time. Just let me say this. Apple, just because you say it, doesn’t make it legal.
Update: Read this. It sums things up nicely.
Also, I’m making an iPhone category here to keep these things in.
Make no mistake, Amazon MP3 is going to be huge. DRM-free, and can work with any MP3 player.
Apple really needs to stop being such a closed shop, or they’re going to get left behind. Once upon a time, they were the only serious contender for downloads, but music downloads that are cheaper and even more portable have got to send some sort of wake-up call that they’re not the only game in town.
(Yes, I know eMusic has been doing this for some time, but there’s no way they would amass the catalog that Amazon can.)
iPhone update will likely brick unlocked phones.
Needless to say, let braver souls try the updates before you install them.
Me? If the only thing 1.1.1 gets me is wireless iTunes downloads, I’m quite happy without it.
Well, my first weekend was enough to convince me I liked this thing. But, as I said in a previous comment, I am in no way enamored with the device Apple sold me — I love what I turned it into.
What Apple sold me I had to use on AT&T (a carrier I would not use), I had to sign a new cellphone contract (no thank you), I could install no applications (WTF? There’s no task list on a iPhone), and I had to pay for the privilege of hearing a song I own as a ringtone.
What I turned it into is a device I can use on any GSM carrier — I’m quite happy with T-Mobile, thank you — and is riddled with applications (admittedly, ranging from useful to trivial to useless), and plays a jaunty tune from Brak whenever my wife phones me.
The AppTapp installer provides a great number of utilities and programs. Here’s a short list of my favorites:
The lukewarm list:
All in all, I’m generally very pleased with the phone. It’s doing what I need it to do, and doing it well. The last puzzle piece I think I need is to get it to act as a modem for my laptop. That can come in tremendously handy when you have a wireless data signal but no WiFi. This guide looks reasonable, and I’m going to give it a shot soon.
The following is a copy of what I sent to Apple at the behest of iTunes technical support when I asked why I am expected to pay for ringtones:
Charging extra to turn an ITMS purchase into a ringtone is one thing, preventing users from putting music they already own on their iPhone as a ringtone is entirely another.
I’m sure it’s the record companies driving the former — though I’m sure Apple doesn’t mind the revenue generated by charging someone twice the amount for the privilege of hearing a 30 second clip of a song when someone calls them.
But the latter — preventing a user from using a song they already own (or, for that matter, wrote and performed and recorded) as a ringtone is entirely a money grubbing move that encompasses of all the worst aspects of the software and music industries today. My Windows Mobile devices trivially allow me to set any mp3 I want to be my ringtone. Likewise, my Palm Treos trivially allow me to set any mp3 I want to be my ringtone.
And yet, the supposedly most advanced phone yet does not. It makes me choose from a selection of songs available on the iTunes Music Store, pay twice what I would pay for the *whole* song so that I can use a 30 second clip as a ringtone.
The sad thing is that there are enough trust fund kids out there that will just shrug and pay it so they can have the latest “fiddy cent” ringtone. So be it. But, without question, this move has forever tarnished Apple, and I, for one, will not be paying a single penny toward this asinine “feature”.
But, I need to make sure you at least comprehend this much: my Windows Mobile device allows me greater freedom of how I use it than my Apple iPhone. Does that make you even a little sad? It should.
After a few false starts before finding the guide I linked to previously, I’m up and running on T-Mobile flawlessly. Everything Just Works, aside from the Visual Voicemail — you just get regular voicemail. Fine by me, since i use Grand Central, which has its own visual voicemail system.
Given how well this works, I don’t understand why Apple did the exclusivity thing. They should have gone it alone, sold these things unlocked in their stores and let people choose their carrier. If these phones are as sexy and desirable as expected, the carriers could implement the voicemail feature independently as an enticement to choose them.
The predictive text/autocorrect thing is all at once ingenius, infuriating, and inconsistent. I probably need to adjust how I operate. An example of inconsistency is that I’m composing this on my phone (via the web interface no less), and after the first paragraph, it stopped offering suggestions.
Best mobile browser I’ve used so far, bar none. Nice mail client, and I’ve got ssh (and sshd) going, so the only real things left are to get my calendar and contacts synced — I’ve yet to sync this with iTunes — and adjust to this bloody keyboard.
The experiment continues.
Update: My first sync with iTunes went fairly well. All the mail settings and bookmarks I’d meticulously set up last night and this morning were blown away by the versions on my computer, but I think I’ve got that settled.
I’d like to point something out on the iTunes Music Store Ringtones Frequently Asked Questions page. Nowhere on this page is what I’m sure is the most frequently asked question: Why do I have to pay for this?