TechGeekBlog.com » iPhone

Should I buy an iPhone 4?

Scott Mahan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:08:53 +0000

As with most iPhone 3GS owners, I am eligible to upgrade. But should I? With IOS 4 running on my iPhone 3GS, I am quite happy. And I love my Tom Tom GPS dock, which isn’t compatible with the iPhone 4. And tonight I read a strong rumor that Verizon Wireless will be launching the iPhone in January 2011. Trust me, the Retina Display, higher resolution camera, camera flash, and 512MB RAM are attractive, but are they enough?

Well, for now, I am waiting patiently. I’m still unemployed, so dropping $300 on a gadget weighs a little heavier than it used to. And I still have a strong feeling that if Verizon launches an iPhone, it will be a 32GB model and AT&T will show their trump card, a 64GB iPhone 4.

First iPhone App Written!

Scott Mahan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:45:24 +0000

It’s nothing fancy, just the “Hello World!” app that Apple so kindly put in their developer documentation. I even went above and beyond with a custom icon and some fancier text in the app. Now my only problem is that it’s taking forever (over an hour now) to get a Development Provisioning Profile from Apple.

Update: I finally got a DPP and I’ve installed the app on my iPhone. Now to learn some more about developing for the iPhone in Xcode!

I should be programming

Scott Mahan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:43:42 +0000

An old friend of mine, Ron, responded to one of my Facebook updates by saying “Are you writing some iPhone apps during this time?”. That’s a damn good question. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on Program/Project Management in hopes of landing a PM job with Microsoft, but so far that hasn’t panned out. I’ve been considering expanding my knowledge base beyond that, but didn’t know what to concentrate on. As an avid iPhone user, I can’t believe that Ron had to point out the obvious to me. Well, after this post, I am going to signup for the iPhone SDK and hopefully have my “Hello World” app written in no time.

Thanks Ron! You seem to be the angel of reason on my shoulder.

Mini-Review: Plantronics Voyager 855 Stereo Bluetooth

Scott Mahan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:26:27 +0000

After much coveting of this unique bluetooth stereo headset, Amazon’s recent price drop has allowed me to purchase it. And I am way impressed.

This is a unique headset. It starts as a standard bluetooth earpiece. And for phone calls it does a great job. It has adaptive noise reduction and multipoint technology to connect to multiple phones. 7 hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby.

Where this product shines is its ability to stream audio via the A2DP protocol. When connected to my iPhone 3GS, I can listen to podcasts and music through the single earpiece. This is extremely convenient when you want to keep an open ear to hear your environment.

But it gets better. Attach the secondary earbud, drape the light, cloth cable around the back of your neck and you’ve converted this earpiece into a full stereo headset. There is a fit kit with 3 sizes of earpieces. For me, the medium gels fit great and provide good sound isolation. Since the secondary earbud and cable are so light, you can pop it out temporarily to hear your environment.

While this isn’t a full review, it covers the highlights. Here comes the pros and cons.

Pros:

Ultralight
Versatile – A2DP in either mono or stereo
Audio Quality – On par with my current favorite, the Motorola S9HD
Inexpensive – I was able to purchase this headset for under $35 ($120 retail)

Cons:

No hard case – Only a soft pouch (which doesn’t fit the charger)
Micro USB Charger – Everything else I have uses Mini USB
Doesn’t include a travel charger – Since it is Micro USB, I need to purchase one separately

That’s it for now. If you have any questions, leave a comment.

Apple updates their desktop line and WiFi routers

Scott Mahan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:44:16 +0000

This morning Apple Inc. updated the Mac Mini, iMac, Airport Extreme, and Time Capsule. We’ve all seen the Photoshopped Mac Mini pictures with a billion USB ports but now we know that it has five. The biggest updates for the desktop line are faster graphics cards, faster CPU’s and lower power consumption.

What interests me the most is the enhancements to the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule. Apple has seperated the 802.11g and 802.11n into seperate channels. This will allow each device on the network get the optimal speed without slowing up the network (iPhone at 802.11g and Apple TV at 802.11n). They’ve also added a “guest” network that will provide a password protected, seperate WiFi network that doesn’t see your local network. Very nice touches. At $499, Im seriously considering the 1TB Time Capsule.

Source: Apple

iPhone Games: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Scott Mahan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:32:24 +0000

… or what has to change to make the iPhone/iPod Touch a viable platform.

Dasme wrote an interestering article over on Nukoda.com about gaming on the iPhone. Here’s an excerpt:

I like many of you out there with a brand new iPhone 2.0 have been in love with the App Store. I’ve downloaded my fair share of both free and paid games, and have been amazed at the quality of the launch software. Like all things however, it hasn’t been a perfect experience.

I’ve collected my thoughts and gripes into one long post that I’m hoping iPhone/iPod Touch game developers will see and take to heart. While it’s likely that this won’t be seen by many, I want to speak my peace mainly so I can stop all my bitching to friends. Below you’ll find my three top gripes, and my solutions that would make iPhone/iPod Touch gaming a wonderful experience to be had by all… in a perfect world at least.

iPhone 3G stays in landscape when starting my car

Scott Mahan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:42:35 +0000

I can’t be the only one having this problem. Here’s the scenario. I listen to my iPhone 3G in my car via a dock that is attached to a cigarette lighter adapter. If I leave it in the car, as soon as I re-start the car, it goes into landscape mode and won’t come out no matter how I twirl it. I am forced to shut-down and restart the iPhone 3G (out of the dock).

If you’ve experienced this problem, let me know. I’m going to go check the discussion forums at Apple and see if this is common or even a known bug.

EDIT: Nothing on this over at the Apple Forums. I’m going to try and recreate this scenario at home with a standard charger and dock. Check back tomorrow for an update.

The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time.

Scott Mahan — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:25:06 +0000

I’ve been trying to give Apple my money all weekend and all I keep getting is an error that says “The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time. Credit card processesing is temporarily unavailable. You may continue to browse the store. Please try to make your purchase later.”Well, I’ve been trying for over 24 hours with little success. At first I thought it might me a problem with PayPal, so I switched my payment method to a Visa checkcard. That let me make one $3 purchase and then it too gave me the credit card error. I’ve been checking the Apple Discussion Boards and the problem is occuring with all forms of payment, even gift cards.If you’ve been having this problem, chime in with a comment.

iPhone/iPod Touch Update 1.1.2 Available

Scott Mahan — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:20:32 +0000

While iTunes is not seeing the update yet, it is available as a direct download. Of course, I’m at work right now and can’t install it yet, but here is what I’ve read on the blogospehere so far:

Tiff Exploit Patched
Additional International Keyboards
Some users report faster response times on their iPhones
iPod Touch users can now Add Events to their calendar from the device

There are also reports that iToner still works. I’ll confirm this later today.

iToner updated to support iPhone 1.1.1

Scott Mahan — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:09:35 +0000

Ambrosia Software has updated iToner to v1.0.3. The new version is now compatible with iPhone firmware v1.1.1. I downloaded the updated software and it works flawlessly.

I’ve got to say that custom ringtones was the feature I missed the most after I updated to iPhone firmware v.1.1.1. Kudos to Abrosia Software. The $15 cost of iToner has proven to be a sound (pun intended) investment.