I’m up to 2,639 roll over minutes. That’s on a shared plan (2 iPhones)…

[From iPhone owners do everything but talk – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

Filed under “Can’t Live Without”

I must have palm emulation on my iPhone! The mere thought of all those old apps I used to love on my Handspring Visor (the deluxe, translucent blue one) that I insisted on blowing an entire paycheck on (I was in HS at the time) makes me all giggly.

I still have a Sony Clie. It gathers dust on my dresser 99% of the time, but that isn’t the point.

I read the entire 5 book series of HHGG on my handspring.

Dope Wars, Space Trader.

What better death for the palm os?

A quick screencast I made for the basic handbrake config.

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Ok, thanks to my poor time management skills, I’ve had to re-start completely with the whole 1.1.3 upgrade to my iPhone. (Hopefully this wont mean doing a system restore, doesn’t look like it will.) I’ll pick up again where I left off when I get that far again.

Ok. The 1.1.3 iPhone Jailbreak software is out. I’m ready to try the upgrade on my phone. I’m currently running 1.1.2 jailbroken. A link in the comments on a post at Engadget led me to Nawaf’s site where he has a complete list of instructions for how to get your iPhone up to 1.1.3 and still have all your unofficial native apps.

Here’s a link to the original post on Engadget.

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Mr. Gruber points out that

The whole ringtones racket is predicated on the notion that ringtones are something different than songs. This notion is bullshit. You don’t turn songs into ringtones; you treat them as ringtones. They’re not even a different file format. It’s just a different context for playing the same song on the same device.

I couldn’t agree more. Paying for the same song twice is idiocy.

However, he also states that

Instead of the complicated, confusing mess of a ringtone policy that Apple announced last week, what they should have announced is this: Any song you can play on your iPhone can be used as a ringtone for no additional charge. Want a new ringtone? Just buy it from iTunes or rip it from a CD.

And this is where I disagree. I think, that Apple’s stance is good for everyone. They can have an “official” policy which kisses the ass of the RIAA fuckwads, while anyone with half a brain is going to roll their own anyway. It doesn’t take a genius to realize how easy it is to get their own songs as ringtones, and only those people easily duped out of their money will pay twice. I’m a firm believer that stupidity should be painful.

In this same article, John goes on to point out Apple’s history of doing right by consumers. I will say that this is probably the biggest draw Apple has had on my business. They have maintained, more or less, an personal attitude with their customers. Lately, however, they seem to be acting a little more corporately. And that isn’t a good thing. They run the risk of being associated with Microsoft , AOL, or worse yet: Dell.

If Apple were just another huge corporation that came across as not caring about its customers, why would we pay the Apple Premium? I wouldn’t.

Some of the people I work with aren’t into the whole Think Different thing. They are die hard PC users. The kind of people that wouldn’t buy an Apple product if Microsoft went out of business. I can’t believe all the grief I’ve already gotten from these guys over the iPhone price drop.

I bought 2 4gig iPhones. One for myself, and one for the wifey. So I’m out 400 bucks, or so they say. My opinion is that I wouldn’t have spent the money if I didn’t think it was worth it. But, it still stings with the unprecedented price drop so soon after initial release. To paraphrase Steve, “shit happens.”

Apparently even Steve himself is no longer satisfied by that sentiment. In a letter released today, his Steveness has decreed once again that customer satisfaction is the number 1 priority at Apple.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

A lot of different iPods. A lot of different combinations. Where do you start?

In order to pick the right iPod(s) for you, you have to think about how you’ll use them. For instance, I purchased the smaller iPhone, since I planned on keeping the majority of my library on my 60 gig iPod + Video Classic.

The key issues are

• Price
• Physical Size
• Storage Capacity
• Connectivity

Price & Physical Size

If price is going to be the deciding factor in your purchase, then the iPhone and iPod Touch are probably out. The Shuffle is a good choice if you’re broke and don’t mind the lack of a screen. The size makes it ideal for listening to audio books, playing podcasts in your car, or rockin out at the gym.

If you’ve gotta have more storage, or a screen then the Nano is the way to stay cheap. Again, its compact design and flash based storage make it incredibly resilient and incredibly portable.

Storage Capacity

The iPod Classic is a clear winner here. 160 gigs? You can’t argue with that. This iPod is for the “I wanna have all of my music with me everywhere I go” people. Like me.

Connectivity

If you’ve been drooling over the iPhone since January, then there is no reason not to get one. Unless you’re stuck in a contract with another carrier. (Or maybe you don’t believe in cell phones?) If either apply to you, the iPod touch is equally amazing, with out the hassle of signing your wireless life away.

Upgrade or Mix & Match

If you’ve already got an iPod (or an iPhone) and you want to get a new device, there are a couple of options for you as well.

Again, you need to look at how you use the devices. I primarily keep podcasts on my iPhone, but I do have a few smart playlists that make sure I’ve got my favorites as well. I have 100% of my music on my iPod, and fill the remaining space with videos.

I use the iPod primarily in the car, or connected to my TV. I carry my the phone with me everywhere.

What I’ve done in the past is to simply upgrade my iPod by selling my current one, and using the money to pay (partially) for the new one. If you’ve kept yours in a case, and taken care of it, you shouldn’t have a problem finding someone who’ll buy it for a reasonable price.

Just mentioning it at work yesterday got me an offer of $100 for the wife’s 30gig photo, and an offer of $200 for my video. Obviously, YMMV.

Things I’d like to see on my iPhone:

Applications

1. Cha-Ching
2. Ecto
3. Adium

System

1. dotMac syncing via EDGE/WiFi

I’ve finally gotten around to adding an iPhone specific area to the site.

I’ll be using the space to put up info about how to abuse your phone, as well as maintaining a small repository of installer.app packages.

I’ll probably be reposting/moving my existing tutorials there, as well as adding a few new ones as new shits are added.

It is probably a great idea to change the default password on your iPhone, especially if you are using ssh or sftp (which I’ll get around to telling you how to set up) to install programs.

(Based on the info provided here)

From your local working directory, ie /Users/YOU/iPhone/, run (in Terminal, of course)
scp root@XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:/etc/master.passwd master.passwd

Where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is your iPhone’s IP address. This will download the password file to your working directory.

Before you do anything else, make a backup of this file. DO IT!!!!

Next, run the command
perl -e 'print "\n".crypt("XXXXXX", "YZ")."\n\n"'

Where XXXXXX is your new password, and YZ are two random characters. This script will output an encrypted string. Paste this string in between the first two colons of the rows root and mobile in the master.passwd file you downloaded. Then re-upload the file using the same command used to install applications. Modified, obviously, to change the upload directory.

scp -rp master.passwd root@XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:/etc

Reboot your iPhone. Any future SSH or SFTP connections will use the new password.

Ok. I’m a BIG fan of Twitter and I have been using Pocket Tweets for on the go Twittering from my iPhone, but recently I’ve been unable to load the page over Edge.

Sharon’s iPhone is behaving pretty much the same way.

Accessing the website while connected via WiFi works fine.

Are our phones suddenly retarted?

Is AT&T blocking websites?