17 Mar 10 Almost 40% Of BlackBerry Users Would Rather Have An iPhone
It’s no secret that like Microsoft, RIM has long enjoyed its position as king of its domain. And like Microsoft, they have built a corporation seemingly content with resting on their laurels.
First off, RIM is doing it all wrong. We all know the first step to a successful product launch is to secure a remote production facility, preferably in a country with negotiable morals and with access to a limitless population of unquestioning drones content to live in a remote industrial shanty town that you establish. And remember, nothing builds synergy like a routine, yet thorough cavity search of all assembly personnel. For added impact and some international press, feel free to rough up a Reuters or AP reporter.
How do you know when your product has made it? First, market share. Second, when employees start killing themselves for disgracing the company.
Of course I’m being sarcastic, and Foxconn, Apple’s components supplier, ships parts around the world to countless Western electronics manufacturers, but it highlights just how big of a deal the iPhone has become.
That said, it’s no surprise that a recent Crowd Science poll, and subsequent 9to5 Mac article detailed that almost 40% of current BlackBerry users “prefer Apple’s iPhone for their next smartphone purchase.”
Clearly, if you’ve spent any time on my blog you’ll know that I’m an iPhone guy– no debating that. But for the past two years I’ve endured countless watercooler conversations where BlackBerry owner after BlackBerry owner touted their beloved RIM device, claiming to “prefer it to the iPhone”. I’m glad to know that, at least for 40% of you, your claims were total bullshit.
While there’s no question that devices comparable to Apple’s iPhone are already available to consumers– none of them are BlackBerry devices. The BlackBerry is a capable device, but to say you prefer it to the iPhone is like saying “I prefer to churn my own butter because I like it”. Sure, you can have a preference, but let’s not act as though churning your own butter is as efficient as purchasing it in the store.
Keep your head up. I’m sure your contract will be over soon.
Tags: blackberry, iPhone, rim
07 Dec 09 How To Redeem A Damaged iTunes Gift Card
Went a little overboard with the card scratching, eh?
Don’t Worry! Here’s How To Fix It!
Every year around the holidays the iTunes gift cards start rolling in. It’s a safe play for distant relatives, friends and colleagues. Needless to say, I’ve gingerly scratched the adhesive backing off many an iTunes gift card. That said, I wasn’t terribly surprised when this time around I scratched too hard and took the gift card’s secret code off with the adhesive. Perhaps I was due.
Granted, it was my fault, but I was out $25.
Moreover, I was relatively unsure of where to start and I had a lot of questions: Do I return it to the store where it was purchased? Should I contact Apple directly? Is getting reimbursed even a possibility?
I was happy to learn that, as suspected, my issue was not an isolated incident and Apple does have measures in place to assist consumers with recovering their iTunes gift card credit. Better yet, it required no phone calls or in-store visit and can be done entirely through iTunes.
How To Obtain The Secret Code
- Within the iTunes Store select “Redeem” from the menu options.
- Enter as much of the code as you can read and submit. This will produce an invalid code message. Keep attempting to submit the partial code until a “get help” message appears– it may take 5-6 attempts.
- Once you have requested help you will be presented with a screen requesting your card’s serial number, activation number (which we can’t read) and your name/email.
Locate your serial number using the diagram in the image, then enter as much of the activation number as you can read– it’s OK if you can only make out a character or two.
That’s it! You should receive an email from Apple noting that they have received your support request and the issue should be resolved in less than 24-hours.
Much to my surprise, I had an email from iTunes Support the following morning providing me with the activation code I had inadvertently removed. Thanks, Apple!
20 Nov 09 How To Fix An Xbox 360 Red Ring In 12 Minutes
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
So Easy, A Caveman Could Do It
There’s no doubt that for the better part of its existence the Xbox 360 has been plagued by the dreaded “Red Ring of Death”.
In a perverse way, it’s the cancer of the 360 community– if you’ve been around long enough and you haven’t been impacted by it yourself, you at very least know someone who has.
In 2007, amid criticism for failing to best PlayStation’s three-year warranty and facing an inordinate number of complaints regarding hardware failures, Microsoft opted to extend the Xbox 360’s warranty.
While my Xbox 360 is no stranger to the Red Ring, I’ve always managed to keep it in check with a handy (and free) trick. Keep in mind that this trick is only a temporary fix and the lifespan of the repair will vary depending on any number of variables, including frequency of use, temperature of the unit, etc.
If you browsed around the Web, you probably noted that most first-hand accounts of this fix point out that you will probably have to repeat it every two to three weeks. While that may be true for most, I recently went 3+ months without an issue.
That said, it’s free, painfully simple and requires only a jacket or towel.
Enjoy the video.
Tags: Fix, Free, Red Ring, Red Ring of Death, Repair, Xbox 360
08 Nov 09 Two Ceramic Chihuahuas And A Microphone
Hey, you two, get a room! The chihuahuas enjoy a kiss in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
I’m a dick. There, I said it.
Now that I’ve brought you up to speed we are free to get to this first of what I hope to be a few of my these videos.
The Backstory
I recently got married and my favorite uncle, often known for impressive, thoughtful and occasionally expensive gifts, went way outside the box.
What did he get us to help commemorate and celebrate the biggest day of our lives? A pair of ceramic chihuahua salt and pepper shakers. Well played, sir. Well played, indeed.
We all know that no ill will was implied by such a gift. Moreover, we have our doubts that he even knew what was in the box. However, that doesn’t mean we are going to let it go.
Hitler Learns Of The Chihuahuas
Here is a direct link to the video on YouTube. It is also embedded in the post below.
The chihuahuas recently spent a week in Croatia with us, filming on location and experiencing a cross section of eastern Europe.
Let’s find out what happens when Hitler learns of my uncle and his amazing chihuahuas:
Tags: Chihuahuas, Downfall, Hitler, Parody, Registry, wedding
20 Oct 09 How To Jailbreak An iPhone 3G S
Back in the early days of iPhone jailbreaking, things weren’t exactly easy. Jailbreaking my first generation iPhone took the better part of a few hours, running command line scripts and ensuring that you had the correct files for your particular baseboard or flavor of OS.
I’m happy to say that this time around, it’s a whole lot easier!
First off, jailbreaking, not to be confused with unlocking, is the process of breaking the chain of trust within the iPhone, giving it the ability to run unsigned and unapproved apps. While jailbroken phones are often unlocked as well, allowing them to function on any GSM carrier (not just AT&T), one does not need to unlock the phone to take advantage of a plethora of useful apps.
Jailbreaking the iPhone via Pwnage Tool will not only give it the ability to run unsigned apps, but will also install the Cydia package management system (think unofficial App Store, if you will). You can the install and/or uninstall tons of apps, extensions and add-ons to your iPhone directly over the air.
Step 1: Back-up Your iPhone
This seems rather self-explanatory, but it’s best to back up your content and media before attempting a jailbreak. This takes on an extra level of importance due to the fact that we will have to add the content back to the phone once we have jailbroken it– and it’s always best to work from a recent back-up to ensure you aren’t missing any recently added content.
Step 2: Download Pwnage Tool
The iPhone Dev Team has long been known for tackling each new firmware revision and developing a handy tool to facilitate both jailbreaks and unlocks. An international collection of developers and hackers, the Dev Team maintains an updated blog with troubleshooting information, FAQs and news about upcoming changes to the iPhone firmware. If you are interested in unlocking/jailbreaking iPhones, it’s definitely your one-stop shop.
To put this question to rest early, Pwnage Tool is only available for Mac. So if you’re a Windows user and you don’t know a Mac owner, this would be a great time to make a new friend.
Unofficial download mirrors:
Once downloaded, you can run Pwnage Tool and you should be presented with a screen similar to the one pictured. You should note that Pwnage Tool offers you a few different modes to choose from, depending on your level of comfort or desire to customize. 
That said, about 85% of users are probably going to want to opt for “Simple Mode” as it will ask you a series of simple questions to expedite the configuration of the jailbreak.
It’s important to note that Pwnage Tool will jailbreak and/or unlock phones. So if you need your iPhone to work on say, T-Mobile, make sure you answer “No” when the tool asks if your phone “would activate normally”. Once you have answered the prompts from Pwnage Tool, it should begin to create a custom installer file (IPSW) file that will replace your existing iPhone OS. In the event that Pwnage Tool cannot locate the previous version(s) of the iPhone OS (which are traditionally stored on your computer), it may prompt you to supply one. In this rare case, search Google for the most recent IPSW, noting the version number in your search.
Step 3: Apply The Custom Install File Via iTunes
When Pwnage Tool has finished performing its magic, your iPhone has yet to be changed. In order to apply the custom IPSW we built using Pwnage Tool, we must now restore from iTunes.
Pwnage Tool should have placed your phone into recovery mode (see image). In the event that Pwnage Tool does not launch recovery mode on your phone, or you faced an error and had to turn back, follow these directions to activate recovery mode.
With the iPhone in recovery mode, connecting it to iTunes should yield this message.
While the iPhone is connected, you should see a button for “Restore”. Option-click “Restore” (Shift-click on Windows). This should provide you with a file selection box which allows you to select which firmware you would like to load on to the device. Select the custom firmware bundle we created via Pwnage Tool, which more than likely resides on your desktop.
Once iTunes has installed the custom IPSW, you should note that your music, videos, apps and accounts are have been removed from the phone– no worries. Simply restore from your last back-up. It may take up to 20 minutes depending on the amount and size of the media you are transferring back to the phone.
After your phone’s media has been restored and the restart has completed, simply find the newly-installed Cydia app and start downloading unapproved apps!
That’s it! Happy jailbreaking!
13 Oct 09 You’re Due For A Rant, Palm
One of these gals wants to sell you a Palm Pre, the other already knows you don’t want one.
OK, Palm, I didn’t want to have to tell you this way, but your commercials really suck– stop trying… seriously. I’m not sure if you were going for Borg, Minority Report Precog or a combination of both, but someone should have stepped in and stopped that train wreck before it aired nationally every 60 seconds.
To put it in perspective, if the smartphone world was a boy band you would be Chris Kirkpatrick. Who’s that, you ask? Exactly.
The numbers sum it up best. In 2000, your stock traded at up to $669 a share while today it trades for just over $11, prompting Time to call you one of the 10 biggest tech failures of the last decade. Quite the achievement.
Furthermore, you went on to hack iTunes and then cried about it to the USB board when Apple closed the loophole. So I can’t say anyone has a great deal of sympathy for you.
That said, your commercials are painful and the otherworldly vibe isn’t very inviting. Moreover, what the hell is she talking about? I guess wherever she comes from a synced calendar and address book equate to a religious experience. She must have had a Razr before.
Watch Agatha the Precog get all deep and stuff
Yeah, yeah, the schnozberries taste like schnozberries, we get it. If you found that her riveting diatribe shook you to your core and made you question life and reality as you know it, then I’m willing to bet that the Hannah Montana movie resides somewhere near the top of your list of life changing events.
I can only hope that Palm will run out of money for ad campaigns soon.
Tags: Minority Report, Palm, Pre, Rant
13 Oct 09 My iPhone Groom’s Cake
IMPORTANT NOTE: For greater appreciation and a good laugh, check out San Francisco Weekly’s 6 Saddest iPhone Cakes first.
I recently got married and my amazing wife had a fantastic iPhone groom’s cake made for me. There’s no doubt about it– it was definitely a huge hit!
Also, I learned that clever cakes, photo booths and crab cakes are all major crowd favorites. Plan accordingly.
Not knowing what to expect, I had a feeling that my groom’s cake would be Xbox related, but I was super surprised to find the best iPhone cake I’ve ever seen.
The cake was created by Puff ‘N Stuff in Orlando, Florida and was amaretto flavored with a vanilla cream icing.
Tags: cake, groom's cake, iPhone, wedding
18 Sep 09 BNO News Works Out iPhone Dilemma
Just a week or so ago, BNO News (@BreakingNews), Twitter’s kings of domestic and international breaking news, announced rather unceremoniously that they would no longer support their newly released iPhone app.
With the newest revision of the app just weeks old, BNO’s announcement came as a huge surprise to me. Given the fact that I am a fan of breaking news and mobile computing, I was concerned (OK, as concerned as someone can be about an iPhone app).
A request for more information received no immediate response and as quickly as the statement was made, the tweet was deleted and followed up with a promise to clarify their statement later in the day.
At the time I speculated that it was probably a disagreement between BNO and their Iowa-based app developer, BitMethod– probably over royalties or rights to any user information collected. Well, nice to see I wasn’t too far off.
While it took BNO a little longer to get back to inquiries than anticipated, they finally responded today:
Last weekend, a misunderstanding between our team and the company developing
our iPhone application led us to temporarly suspend the use of the
application. Later that day, our companies agreed to a solution and took
appropriate steps to prevent this from happening in the future.We want to let you know that the BNO News iPhone application remains
supported by BNO News and that a new version will soon be released, in which
we hope to provide you with an even better service by offering you more
options.If you have any comments or suggestions for our application, feel free to
e-mail us with your thoughts at support@bnonews.com.We hope you will continue to enjoy using our services, and find them useful,
and hope you will accept our apologies for any confussion about the
application.Thank you.
BNO News
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again!
28 Aug 09 Simulating an iPhone App: iWebKit vs. iUI
For those of you out there looking to produce a mobile site that simulates the look of a native iPhone app, you have probably run head first into two separate (but free) CSS/Javascript packages aimed at helping you achieve just that. If you’ve yet to stumble upon them, it’s your lucky day. The purpose of this post is to introduce you to both iWebKit and iUI, and highlight their features and the pros and cons of their distinct differences.
If one were to personify both packages iUI would be the buttoned up and stable, yet somewhat plain Jane older brother destined for law school, 2.4 kids and white picket fence. The designated driver. Guaranteed to get you home, but rarely taking the scenic route unless you make him. While iWebKit would be iUI’s more approachable, fast-talking, flashy, but irresponsibly fast and loose younger brother. There’s room for both in this world and if you’re fairly CSS/Javascript savvy a hybrid of the two is probably right for you– which is the road I generally end up taking.
Let’s get this out of the way first:
iUI and iWebKit are CSS and Javascript libraries that you can use to build, stylize and optimize Web sites for mobile viewing, specifically targeted at replicating the look and function of the iPhone UI. [ad#200x200-square-1]The libraries will typically include a CSS file or two along with a few javascript files. All in all, it constitutes the essential framework necessary to construct your Web app.
What is it not? It is not a stand-alone software install, plugin, or graphical aid for building native iPhone apps or Web apps (although there is a slightly dodgy Wordpress plugin built around the iWebKit framework now available).
If you aren’t comfortable with CSS and/or lack a basic understanding of how Javascript and HTML interact, I would recommend downloading iUI or iWebKit and reverse engineering some of the demonstration pages as explaining CSS and Javascript is beyond the scope of this article.
That said, let’s meet them:
iUI ver 0.30 | Try demo | Download
Originating as a core set of scripts/css by Joe Hewitt, the Facebook software engineer responsible for Facebook’s iPhone app (and the Three20 open-source iPhone generic library), iUI is easily the best maintained, documented, debugged and updated of the libraries. Not to mention, it’s probably the iPhone Web experience with which you are most familiar– with it’s side-scrolling page loads (for an example of this in action try the demo).
If you take a look under the hood, you may be surprised at how many high profile websites employ iUI in one form or another. Granted, virtually all of them modify the original framework to better serve their needs, but in most cases so should you. Who quietly uses iUI? Web sites like: CNN.com and eonline.com and the majority of the iPhone sites built and maintained by Crisp Wireless.
Although currently iUI is fairly limited in its replication of the iPhone UI, it offers a highly dynamic blank canvas and the core tools necessary to showcase your particular flavor of Web experience. For a developer looking to design a mobile/iPhone site from (almost) the ground up, particularly a large SQL-driven site, I find it to be the most reliable and scalable solution.
Those looking for assistance with iUI server integration (PHP, ASP or Ruby), can visit iUI’s home at code.google.com for some helpful documentation.
iWebKit ver 4.6.2 | Try demo | Download
The product of Dutch duo Christopher Plieger, 17, and Johan van Wilsum, 24, iWebKit offers a wealth of features in an easy and compact CSS/Javascript package. While the Javascript update included with Apple’s iPhone 3.0 firmware temporarily produced some crippling errors when interfacing with iWebKit 4.6.2, a simple workaround quickly addressed the issue and iWebKit is now increasingly 3.0 friendly (with the exception of a minor conflict here or there).
iWebKit offers an array of unique iPhone UI goodies, most notably:
- Pop-up menus (view)
- Multiple list types (view store, view classic, view music)
- Full-screen support (view)
What is full-screen support?
“(iWebKit) …found a way to create a multi-page website that can handle the fullscreen ability on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This means the navigation bars will disappear. You can … click on the plus sign at the bottom of the page, add to the homescreen and open it up! It even works in Landscape! This mode will give your users the feeling your webapp is a native application and speed up the navigation. Add a webclip icon to finish it off and you have your own native webapp!” — iWebKit.net
Perhaps the one area in which iWebKit excels is true iPhone UI replication. iWebKit not only offers the core CSS to “iPhone-ize” your site, but it also provides outstanding form support, iPhone-style pop-up menus and of course the aforementioned full-screen support.
iWebKit firmly places its bet on aesthetics, leaving developers the task of integrating and optimizing the scripts to work within their framework. However, that said, I’ve yet to see a product compete with iWebKit’s stunning replication of the iPhone’s native UI.
Recently, I have created new ad inventory by embedding ad positions into pop-up menus. While I have an ad type (.png) for this, it could just as easily serve small banner ads from any ad network simply by integrating it into iWebKit’s pop-up code.
So Which Right For Me?
While both are fantastic open-source solutions, I am sure you are starting to see the distinct differences between the two frameworks.
iUI is developed with emphasis on content and flexibility and is meticulously updated, debugged, and maintained. While iWebKit certainly aims to dazzle with a user-interface that will have you doing a double-take, hallmarked by exclusive pop-ups and full-screen support, it lacks the revisions and debugging necessary to make it a viable option for any major media outlet.
[ad#200x200-square-1]
Both iWebKit and iUI should be easily understood by anyone familiar with CSS and Javascript and even a user with little or no experience could create a basic page if using one of the supplied demo pages as a template. However, for those who like to hack apart CSS/Javascript, you may find iWebKit’s code more inviting if only for the simple fact that there is less of it.
While iWebKit’s full-screen support is a essentially hands-off, requiring no modification, iWebKit’s pop-ups require customization but are fairly easy to produce and can be served dynamically from SQL or any database– it will just take you some extra work.
All in all, if you aren’t experienced enough to blend the iUI and iWebKit source code effectively, the question of which best suits you boils down to your overall goal. If the primary function of your iPhone Web app is to serve content and lots of it (like a news site or blog), you will undoubtedly experience far fewer headaches and a consistent product employing iUI.
However, if you are purely trying to replicate the iPhone experience, new to mobile development, and/or are designing a site to showcase a specific element or function (like a credit card processing service or a personal resume) then iWebKit is the best bet to deliver the experience you’re after.
Tags: iPhone, iphone site, iUI, iWebKit, mobile safari, mobile site
25 Aug 09 App Review: ‘FTP On The Go’
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FTP On The Go Current version: 2.1 (rel. 8/25/09) Size: 0.7 MB Price: $6.99   |
Whether you’re a Web designer or system administrator, you probably don’t see too many days pass without logging into an FTP for one reason or another. Personally, I find 90% of the issues I deal with when away from my office are technical in nature– and 75% of that 90% could be solved by a robust mobile FTP client.
Let me say first that I am a huge fan of free apps (or nearly free– let’s face it, 99 cents is almost free), but that said, I understand that a powerful FTP client is no small project and given the niche value of such an app I bumped my willingness to pay up a few notches to between $5 and $10.
First, here’s a few features of “FTP On The Go” I found useful:
- Upload video or pictures directly to FTP from iPhone
- Web browser tab to quickly view your modifications to a site
- Pause file transfers
- Download from FTP and save locally
- Uploading a file renames overwritten file in filename.old.html format
Of course “FTP On The Go” performs most of the features you would expect from a basic FTP
client like creating or removing directories, changing user permissions (chmod), etc. (see screenshots below)
However, I searched the App Store far and wide and didn’t find a single app that rivaled “FTP On The Go” in terms of features.
With all of that productivity comes a few drawbacks. Most notably, exiting to the home screen does not save your session and you must login again. Additionally, the lack of a landscape mode makes editing lengthy HTML or PHP files a bit of a chore.
Those few issues aside, “FTP On The Go” is a great way for a developer to stay connected to their desk, even when waiting in line at the local Starbucks.
Tags: app store, FTP, ftp on the go, iPhone, review
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