Tag Archives: iphone

That pesky Iphone time problem hits again

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Last night when I was laying in bed preparing to doze off uneventfully, I checked the time.  Although it was fairly early, like 9 o’clock or so, I was fairly pleased to see my Iphone had already jumped the gun and moved an hour forward.  I watched tv a little more and checked the time again and this time it had fell back.  It just struck me as odd that as much as I’ve complained about my Iphone, the one time I was pleased with it, they quickly changed.  Turns out, it wasn’t just me.

Complaints Surround iPhone Time Change Glitch

For the second time in a row, a critical time event was totally screwed by Apple.  Just curious, how powerful a computer does it take to tell time?  This one has worked pretty well for about a thousand years or so:

mayan calendar

Some people think it’s more accurate even today than their Iphone.

Meanderthal

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The wild ride that is the internet and imaging software just keeps getting wilder.  Now criminals, employees, crime victims, you name it, are being identified with imaging software.  The Smithsonian is taking things to a whole new level now:

IMG_1755 

This me neanderthalensised.  Actully, I like being heidlergensised better:

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I think I do a good heidelbergensis dude.

This is actually an app released by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  It’s designed for Androids and Iphone.  That’s right folks, you can only be neanderthaled with your telephone.

Jailbreak your Iphone

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iphoneIf you have an Iphone, you’re probably as aggravated as I am with the lack of very basic functionality this advanced piece of hardware provides.  What really irks me is that it’s not that the Iphone can’t do this stuff, it’s that Apple turned it off.  It can make movies.  It can send and receive MMS texts.  It can do anything a PC can to a large degree.  For some inexplicable reason Apple decided people couldn’t have those very basic functions any cheap cell phone will do.  That wouldn’t be bad enough, but the Iphone package is EXPENSIVE compared to any other.  So, my feeling for a long time was I was paying three times the going rate to get screwed.  I was pretty much determined to ditch my Iphone entirely.  Eat the penalty and just know better than dealing with Apple products in the future.

However, two things happened.  First, my wife qualified for a national plan.  That knocked the monthly expense down tremendously when coupling with a family plan.  The phone itself became tolerable at that point.  But, I still wished I had my old phone that had video recording and MMS texting.

Finally, the kicker was I jailbroke my phone.  If you own an Iphone, this is the only way to go.  Sure, you void the warranty, but quite frankly, as displeased as I was with what I had, if it broke again, I wouldn’t replace it.  Now that it’s jailbroke, it suddenly opens the potential of what Iphones can be.  It suddenly takes videos!  Now, these are kind of strange videos granted due to how the Iphone records images.  But, in case of emergency, which I have all the time with a six year old son, it’s there.  In good light it works very well.  In poor light, not so much if at all.  I have actually changed a couple of text ringtones.  In lieu of the Star Trek premier, my texts now signal me with the Star Trek communicator chirps.  Once again, not an option with Apple.  There are SMS apps which I haven’t fooled with yet.  And, basically, the entire phone is now modifiable.  Want  a different logo?  Change it.  Want totally different standard ringtones, change them.  Want a different voicemail handler?  Change it.  It’s all modifiable now.

Why in the hell Apple/AT&T didn’t just do this in the first place is beyond me.

One caution tho, an OS upgrade will cause issues, possibly serious ones.  At this time, I just don’t allow any upgrades.  Once it becomes necessary, I’ll restore the original factory setup and start all over again.  

And, immediately jailbreak it.

Iphone gets another update

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Well, now I am anxiously awaiting the newest Iphone update.  According to all the chatter, it will offer the breakthrough ability to cut and paste.  However, if you’ve yellowsnowed, be very afraid.  However, the upside is it is apparently jailbreakable.  Now, I have no need right now to yellowsnow it.  However, since they did not include video capture, I will probably jailbreak it.

All of this is creating yet another gripe I have with the Iphone.  Too many slang words to describe its functionality.  For newbies or people interested in getting an Iphone:

  • yellowsnow is a hack to unlock the phone so you can use it with other carriers.
  • jailbreak is the term for hacking into the phone’s operating system so you can install applications not condoned by Apple.

Now, I had a fairly expensive phone before this one that did not have any of the fancy screens Iphone does.  It was very limited in it’s internet applications.  It was purely the internet applications that lured me to the Iphone.  Once I was tethered to my Iphone via a two year agreement, I realized it couldn’t do the simplest cell phone tasks like taking flash pictures, sending or receiving multi-media texts, or capturing video.  Other than the flash, the rest are simply software decisions.  I was not a happy camper when I got my phone.  So, Apple went to work and have been developing applications to appease the myriad of issues users have complained about.  About a year later, I now have copy and paste, which I seldom ever use or have a need for.

I just wish I could get my old phone back so I could take pictures and movies.  When you have a six year old, this is a massive need.

Speaking to my Iphone

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My #1 gripe about my Iphone is it didn’t come with some of the features of lesser cell phones I’ve had in the past.  #1 on that list was a complete lack of voice recognition given the fact it has a mic, as do all phones, and it has the ability to run software.  Given those two abilities, it blew me away that the Iphone was completely non-voice-aware.

This morning I installed the SayWho application.  I am now voice aware.  I did however, call a prosecuting attorney instead of my father while giving it a spin.  He has an Iphone as well, I’m sure he’ll fully understand.

It just bugs me that I am having to search for all these apps that otherwise would have been standard stuff on a cheaper phone, and profoundly cheaper service.

On failing Iphones

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Cnet ran this interesting comparison:

Failure rates

Failure rates

That’s good for me, I own an Iphone.  It’s cool to some degree.  The internet stuff rocks, the video recording is non-existant.  I like to take lots of pics, having no flash is a bummer.  Other than that, I was loving it.  That is, until the ringer broke.  They had two solutions, mail in my old one, or take it to an Apple store.

That is the problem.  No one wants to go without their phone for the week or so it would take to mail it in and get the new one back, THEN have to get it activated.  So, plan B is the only real option.  In my case, I was presented the options of going to Knoxville, Louisville, or Cincinnati.  Sounds reasonable.  It’s not.  They are all about three hours from my home.  That’s an all-day trip for me.  Being as it has to be done during business hours, it presents a conflict with work.  I managed to balance the two and do some work in an office near Cincinnati.  However, I hit a traffic jam on the way home.  To get my phone fixed, I spent eight hours on the road.  I was not a happy camper.

What really gets my goat about this arrangement is I bought the phone in my local town.  The AT&T store is next to a popular restaurant I enjoy.  It was no problem to buy at all.  Very convenient, very friendly staff.  What they don’t tell you at AT&T is the only thing they can do is sell you the phone.

I don’t know how Treo and Blackberry handle repairs.  I can just tell you that if you don’t live in a city, beware of the Iphone.  And, I would recommend not even fooling with an Iphone if you live in Alaska.

Simple fix here, Apple.  Allow AT&T to handle replacements.

Duh.

Iphones don’t do PC

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My Iphone has wonderful spell checking.  It tries to correct pretty much every word I write.  One word it will NOT accept is “pc”.  As in abbreviating for personal computer.  Which, is something I work with every single day.  I’m not even sure how many times I’ve sent people a text looking something like “I’ll look at the of later”.

Now, isn’t Apple a pc company?

This just seems kind of inane.

Iphone app kill switch

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So far my experience with my Iphone has been excellent.  However, with every advance in technology, new perils come with it.  Check out this story:

Reports state that a “kill switch” has been found in the Apple iPhone 2.0 OS, which allows Apple to basically disable any application that they please from your iPhone.

The story finishes with people wondering exactly how much Apple can intrude on your privacy and what all they can do with your phone.  That’s exactly my concern as well.