Twas the night before iXmas
July 11, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Friends, OSX, Puter Stuff, gnash-teeth, iPhone
Tags: 2.0, hacked, IM, iPhone, itunes, jailbreak, jivetalk, remote, social networking
About half an hour ago (current time 12:53 AM), mi amigo David McInnis sent me a link with instructions on how to upgrade the first generation iPhone to iPhone 2.0 software. Of course being on the cutting edge is what we do; so having read his email from my iPhone I quickly powered up the laptop and had at it. Last thing he said before signing off iChat was he hoped his phone rebooted. His Mac may have crashed too, who knows. The iPhone 3G will be going on sale in a few short hours around the U.S. and I know David is going to head down early to grab one. I’m afraid getting up early is out of the question for me, since I tend to not be able to fall asleep until the wee hours, so with any luck he’ll buy an extra one for me.
Earlier today I installed the latest iTunes update. Now after downloading the 2.0 iPhone software and installing it on my iPhone I’m waiting for the 8GB of content to re-sync. This is going to take awhile.
iTunes has the App Store up and running and as mentioned in the above linked article from Wired, there’s already more than 550 apps and of those 135 free ones. I took a quick peek at what’s being offered that’s free and I’m not impressed. Several of the applications have been out for months if you had a hacked iPhone.
- The AIM app doesn’t seem that impressive, regardless I’m not interested in having multiple instant messaging applications. A single multi-protocol application is what I need. So it looks like for the mean time I’m going to keep using JiveTalk (from BeeJive) even though it’s web based.
- Checking out the Social Networking category - nothing off hand that’s lifting my skirt up. A Facebook app? Their iPhone version of the website is pretty good as is. MySpace - not interested. Several Twitter apps, but again the Twitter iPhone page I find sufficient (though I tend to tweet via SMS anyways) assuming they’ve managed to keep their site up.
- Under the Productivity category there looks like one or two (just looking at the names, too lazy to really investigate) that might be worth checking out. Prices are ranging here from 0.99 - 9.99 - one of the apps for 0.99 cents I already have for free - Voice Recorder.
- In the Entertainment section, a free app called Remote sounds nifty. It alledgedly allows you to control iTunes on your computer or on your AppleTV from your phone. That’s worth checking out. The free Movies app also looks promising, I use the iPhone site of Fandango a lot, so I’m expecting similar functionality. Or perhaps a tie in like the Movies Widget on my laptops dashboard which allows me to watch the previews and trailers right there as well as find and purchase tickets via Fandango.
I’m sure future offerings will become more diverse and useful once developers have more time to develop applications. My initial reaction to the apps available is a resounding “meh”. I’ll post more once I’ve had time to check some of the out, but I’m not paying for anything on here unless it makes my Jesus Phone speak in tongues or something.
Update: 1:38am - All my icons are messed up and out of order. I just tried the App Store…app from my iPhone and a couple issues.
- Remote - the app I mentioned previously. There’s no obvious download button. There was the word Free, which I tapped on, but my initial reaction was to search the page for a “download” or “install” link of some kind.
- The App Store asked for my iTunes password, all the letters are rendered as ***** like most people expect. However, the last letter of my password was not rendered as a *.
This Remote app is sweet. Easy setup, can browse my iTunes library on this laptop, control the volume, shuffle songs all the usual features. Very cool. Can’t wait to try it on my AppleTV. (That would mean getting up and I’m too tired for that.)
iPhone Scratches
June 17, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
3comments Categories: Castle, gnash-teeth, iPhone
Tags: iPhone, scratched screen
Grrr. I’ve dropped my iPhone many times, broken a few cases too. Yesterday though, I was butter fingers Supremo and it landed face down. There’s now a few little scratches, right in the middle of the screen. It’s so annoying. I think I’m going to give the toothpaste trick a try or maybe take it to a glass shop to see if they can buff it out. Bastards.
iPhone running AFP
April 20, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, OSX, Picture of the Day, Puter Stuff, iPhone
A screenshot of my Macbook Pro connected via AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) to my iPhone with a ClamXav scanning the files for giggles.
See this post at Modmyifone for more information on doing this.
bellingham public library audiobooks block ipod users
April 20, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
1 comment so far Categories: Must Listen, OSX, Puter Stuff, Travel, Web Design & Dev, gnash-teeth, iPhone
This evening I finished reading a book and was investigating whether the next book I’d like to read is available from the Whatcom County Library. I notice on their horrifically designed and sluggish website a blurb about audio books, now available. It is with some joy that I follow the link to Northwest Anytime and read more. Then the let down comes crashing down like a Bengal tiger to the groin.
At this time, OverDrive Media files cannot be used on iPods or Mac computers.
Our media titles, provided by OverDrive, Inc., use DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection technology from Microsoft Corporation. Unfortunately the iPod (and Mac) currently support neither DRM-protected Windows Media Audio (.wma) files nor Windows Media Video (.wmv) files.
OverDrive, along with hundreds of online media providers, is hopeful that Apple and Microsoft can reach an agreement that would enable support for Microsoft-based DRM-protected materials on the iPod/Mac.
To review a list of devices that are compatible with OverDrive Media, click here.
You may also want to check device documentation to determine if a device supports DRM-protected Windows Media content.
Reading through their FAQ…dear god. This wonderful software that you are required to use supports everything from Windows 98 on up. Oh, and in case you didn’t catch it, the company/product name for this wonderfully backward media software is called OverDrive. Is this a joke? Someone has to be playing an elaborate joke on me.
OverDrive has this tidbit on its website.
The OverDrive Team is a group of innovative, passionate masterminds who build and distribute technology solutions for the real world.
What twisted dimension did these guys crawl out of? Ok, I’m straying a little here. Back to the Library and its suckiness.
Ah here we go, apparently iPods are far too modern. Lets support the Palm!
Can I use OverDrive Audio Book titles with my Palm device? OverDrive Audio Book titles may be transferred to certain Palm devices with the help of a third party application called Pocket Tunes….
The iPod (& iTouch, iPhone, Shuffle) is decidedly the most prevalent portable music listening device on the market. Why then is the Bellingham Public Library, choosing to use a Windows Media Audio format and DRM solution that locks out the most widely used device for Mac and Windows users?
Yes, I would agree that Windows is what is running on the majority of desktops, but who really listens to audio books at their desktop? In your car and on your mp3 player are the more likely of places. Why the sites main blurb contains this statement.
Transfer audiobooks to your MP3 player or burn selected titles to a CD for listening on the go.
The press release for this service has this mention.
“This service is great for travelers, commuters, and for those who like to listen to books while they exercise,” said Joan Airoldi, Director of Whatcom County Library System. “With so many best-selling titles available, there’s sure to be something for every listener.”
Again, the majority of people are using iPod family products. The release goes onto say,
Beth Farley, Head of Information and Reader’s Services at the Bellingham Public Library, listens to audiobooks when she goes on vacation. “No more piles of CDs to keep track of on the airplane,” she enthuses, “I’ll be able to fit several entire novels on one tiny MP3 player.”
Alright, what the hell? I fly a lot and I’ve never seen anyone with a stack of CDs on a plane. And please tell me Ms Farley what sort of MP3 player do you have? Sounds to me like most bureaucratic organizations and companies, someone out of touch with the market and technology is making the decisions.
I really wish I wasn’t so agitated and it wasn’t so late. Otherwise I’d write a more coherent piece on why not only this is a very poor implementation of great idea, but also on the correct course of action the library, publishers, and most importantly authors should have taken.
Add Your Wireless Node To Expand Skyhook Wireless
April 18, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, OSX, Puter Stuff, Travel, iPhone
Update: See the cool screen shot I took from my iPhone, using Capture. The pin represents the coordinates given by LocateMe to Maps. And the blue circle is the best Skyhook could do. Good thing I wasn’t really lost. At the time of the shot I was traveling north on the Guide at about 60 mph. Locate was a few blocks off to the west, but not too bad.
For those of us with iPhones and no GPS I tend to use the iPhone Maps built-in “Find Me” feature quite a bit. Although in some areas, especially north Whatcom County, it’s positioning is rather weak, usually providing a giant 10 mile radius that I might not even be in. Here’s a map of their coverage area.
I ended up installing an app called LocateMe on my iPhone which attempts to triangulate based solely upon cell towers. I can then hit the “Map It” button to have it load the longitude and latitude in Maps. This is usually closer, but provides only a specific map point and not an area.
As most iPhone users may know, Apple partnered with Skyhook Wireless for this positioning information which uses a combination of cell tower and mapped wireless access points (AP) to return results. Well now it appears you can submit your wireless access point for acceptance into their database.
I just submitted mine and received an automated reply.
Thank you for submitting a Wireless Access Point to Skyhook Wireless. The following information has been received and will be processed shortly:
MAC Address:
…blah….
Lat/Lon:blah, -blahIt can take up to a few weeks before you see your Access Point in some of our production systems. In the mean time you can download Loki to start using Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System on your laptop or desktop. Go to http://loki.com/download to start using Loki today.
Happy Mapping!
The Skyhook Team
I downloaded the Loki extension into Flock and after asking for permission to find my location it came up with nada. Instead asking me to enter my address, which it then displayed on a Google Map. That was big help.
Loki has a few demos and an API, none of the demos worked for me, but there was an embedded chat widget to speak with support. See screenshot. They never responded. So I’m uninstalling the Loki extension.
However, adding your wireless access points to their database will still help me out so have at it.
More Info On The Black App
April 16, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Marketing, OSX, Squirrels, TimeWaster, Web Design & Dev, gnash-teeth, iPhone
The Black App - A possible iPhone application of unknown coolness. For more info, you could go to the website. That was a joke.
They Hype::
All the references and blubs are essentially the same, I’m guessing it’s by their own people digging themselves and such. Since they hit dig, twitter and a few other places, it’s been syndicated and quoted all over the place.
No one knows anything though.
The Companies ::
Epic Apps is the company producing this and purchased the “theblackapp.com” domain via proxy in an effort to hide. They’re hosting at Media Temple, Inc. who provides services to big names and high traffic sites.
theblackapp.com was registered for only one year on Mar 31st 08
epicapps.com was also only registered for one year, 7 days later on Apr 6th 08 - redirects to theblackapp.com
epicapps.com ping responses come from godaddy.com though.
The Code ::
Since the web page is really simple there’s nothing to gleam from the markup accept that they are using google analytics. I’m sure they’re collecting a lot of good marketing data.
The registration page, now this is interesting, is posting to theblackapp.wufoo.com
Related ? ::
wufoo.com was registered Jan 16th 06 to Chris Campbell - http://wufoo.com/about/
So three guys with an idea and venture money from Ycombinator started Infinity Box Inc. and built wufoo.
What is wufoo?
Wufoo is an Internet application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun. Because we host everything, all you need is a browser, an Internet connection and a few minutes to build a form and start using it right away.
Chris also has a site called particletree.com, which is hosted and links to mediatemple and their venture backers.
Chris Campbell is too common of a name. I’ve yet to find anything relating him to even owning an iphone. I’ve also yet to dig around about his two other partners. So we’ll prematurely jump to the conclusion that this is probably just a tangent.
Or they were simply hired to setup the whole site. Which could mean that Ycombinator (the venture company) is also working with Epic Apps and recommended wufoo to them.
————
This is all from wee hours digging last night. I did find a few articles about social networking apps for the iPhone, nothing too exciting. As you can tell I’ve lost interest.
Let me know if I’ve got something wrong, you have more information or if Chris actually does own an iPhone.
official iphone & itouch unthreaded blog icon
April 2, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, OSX, Puter Stuff, Techy, Web Design & Dev, iPhone
tada!
ok no i didn’t create it the icon. it’s from the tango icon gallery and published under the creative commons attribution-share alike license.
from your apple iphone or itouch, visit my blog and then tap the + (plus icon), then “Add to Home Screen”. You’ll now have a quick link to my very unthreaded ramblings marked with this wonderful castlemonkey icon.
———-
To create your own simply upload a png image to your root web directory and name it apple-touch-icon.png. If you’d like this image to also be the bookmark (favicon.ico) for your site, you can easily use one of these sites to turn your apple icon into one.
Tags: tango, icons, creative commons, unthreaded, castlemonkey, iphone, apple-touch-icon.png, favicon.ico
500 dollar brick
March 28, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, OSX, Puter Stuff, gnash-teeth, iPhone
so i ended up bricking the iphone tonight. like bad bad.
[bricking is a term to describe where your iphone becomes so useless it has reached the level of a paperweight, or brick.]
first it was in this endless cycle of restarting, unusable from the touch screen, but it still had ssh access. to you none techies this means that i was able to access the files on the phone via a DOS like interface from my laptop over the wireless connection in my home.
this led me to start deleting some files that might have caused the problem… well in my panic i deleted the ssh loader, the part of the phone that lets me access it remotely. then i rebooted the phone from the remote connection.
now it just showed the boot loader silver apple logo. wasn’t even completely starting anymore. itunes didn’t detect it, other apps i have also were not able to see it.
the standard reset technique of holding down the power button and home button simultaneously had no effect.
a dozen searches were simultaneously happening for people who’ve done the same and recovery options. everyone i found either could still use their iphone in some crippled fashion and restore it with itunes. or they had admitted defeat - returning it to apple for repairs.
at this point i had transcended all senses of panic and loss.
i had accepted the brick.
i would not send it away to apple.
i began looking for papers to weigh down with it.
then as i was about to close my browser i found one of my keyword searches pulled up something new to try.
1 iphone connected to my computer
2 itunes running
3 hold down both buttons as you normally do when resetting, for approx 10 seconds.
4 then let go of the power button and hold the home button until itunes says an iphone in recovery mode is detected.
5 restore from backup.
6 happiness.
One Degree of Kevin Bacon
February 22, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
1 comment so far Categories: Castle, Friends, OSX, Picture of the Day, iPhone
Ok, I never starred in a movie with Kevin Bacon, but I did end up meeting him yesterday afternoon, as I stood in the first class line for the security checkpoint at SEATAC. He and Golden Globe nominee, Kyra Sedgwick, star of The Closer were talking to an older couple just ahead of me.
They both were facing me but I didn’t even notice Kevin at first. I kept looking at Kyra thinking she looked a lot like someone from TV.
Anyways, nothing exciting, I finally realized who they were and it was obvious they weren’t looking to be recognized, especially while trapped in an airport. So I never asked for an autograph or to have my picture taken with them. The old couple was occupying most of their time and were quite pleased to be in their company. When a lull in the conversation hit, I just very nonchalantly leaned over and asked Kevin if he wanted my autograph. He politely said he was good. Then I continued to play with my iPhone like he was an ungrateful booger.
I did snag some iPhone pictures, which didn’t turn out so great since I was trying to be sneaky.
Of course the security people, while looking at Kevin and Kyras boarding passes asked for an autograph. When it was my turn, I handed the guard my ticket and identification. I asked him if he wanted my autograph. He looks at me dumbfounded and says, “Who are you?” His portly Polynesian helper looks at my license, turns to him and says, “Why he’s Al Castle.” He got a dirty look from me and she got my charming smile I save for special occasions. Ungrateful booger central.
Things I noticed. They seem happy together, Kevin is a little shorter than me, Kyra is tiny, has beautiful hair and the messiest purse. Kevin owns a Macbook Pro and Treo.
I had to stop myself from singing and doing the Footloose dance. ( Kick off your Sunday shoes, Oowhee, Marie, Shake it, shake it for me…)
After going through security I walked ahead of them and headed to the far away Terminal A. Stopping in a little store to get the latest Macworld magazine and a couple candy bars. I turn around to realize they followed me. Kyra sets her purse down next to me and that’s when I notice it’s the type of purse you can probably find just about anything in, though not easily.
Again I leave them to their privacy and continue on. I glance back, they seem to be following me again. I’m thinking celebrity stalking now has a new meaning. As I try to ditch them and slip into a restaurant across from my gate to grab a drink I notice that their gate just happened to be next to mine.
So to all my good friends and family reading, you’re all only two degrees of separation. 
[In this second picture I think Kevin is wondering if I'm taking a picture. Or maybe he's admiring my iPhone. Or my cashmere jacket. Possibly my shoes. I was dressed pretty snazzy.]
macworld expo - Wednesday night
January 17, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
1 comment so far Categories: Castle, OSX, Puter Stuff, Squirrels, iPhone
I’m outside in the street, smoking, in my jammies, at midnight - no one is looking twice at me because of it. Gotta love San Francisco.
