"It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility." - Chris Knight
Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
Hackers Enable Over-The-Air Firmware Updates For iPhone
January 29th, 2008 by iDunzo
Once again, hackers are a step ahead of Apple and AT&T.
Users of unlocked iPhones that are running firmware 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 can upgrade to 1.1.3 over the air directly through the installer.app.
Maybe hacker ingenuity is why one-quarter of all iPhone users are unlocking their devices.
This latest hack is for previously jailbroken iPhones or iPod Touches.
Since iPhones and iPods that are already jailbroken have the installer.app on them, they can take advantage of this hack to update to a jailbroken version of 1.1.3.
A warning, though, as not all third-party apps are supported in 1.1.3 yet. Some may be rendered non-functional. You can read a complete how-to here.
The one negative about this update is that it requires Wi-Fi, and even then takes up to 45 minutes.
Apple and AT&T don’t offer over-the-air updates for the Apple iPhone.
You have to plug the iPhone into your PC, download the application from the Internet, install it via USB cable and then re-verify your device every time you upgrade the firmware.
One reason over-the-air updates are not offered from AT&T is likely because it doesn’t want users downloading 100-Megabyte-plus firmware software over its EDGE network.
I don’t blame them for that.
Posted in Apple + Technology + Wireless | 
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Lotus Notes Coming To Apple iPhone
January 17th, 2008 by iDunzo
Enterprise users of IBM’s email program may have reason to cheer as early as next week.
According to the Associated Press, IBM will be releasing a version of Lotus Notes email for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Hooah! Can Apple take down RIM?
If you’re a mobile professional who’s held off on purchasing an iPhone because it won’t work with your corporate email system, there may be one less reason for you to keep holding out.
The AP is reporting that IBM is set to make Lotus Notes available to the iPhone at its Lotusphere conference in Orlando next week. Of course, some terms and conditions apply.
First, your enterprise has to have a Lotus Domino server to support the application.
Existing users of Lotus Notes Web-access system will be able to use the iPhone version for free with their current license. New users will have to pay $39 per year for the Lotus license. Not a bad deal at all.
IBM is also releasing its Symphony productivity suite for Apple computers. Symphony, similar to Google Apps, includes a word processor, presentation application and spreadsheet program.
If you think these new Apple-compatible applications are indicative of a new love-fest between Big Blue and the big Mac, you might want to remember that Apple used IBM’s PowerPC chips in its computers for a long time.
It appears that Apple’s move to Intel processors didn’t sour the relationship between the two. IBM spokesperson Mike Azzi said the two companies “have a lot in common. We’re going to cross-pollinate.”
I can only imagine that this is going to make a lot of enterprise users very happy, and create more headaches for IT admins as employees drag the iPhone in and demand it be supported for email.
However, this new set of software will likely not put a dent in RIM’s enterprise dominance any time in the near future.
Posted in Apple + Software + Technology + Wireless | 1 Comment »
Macworld: The Stevenote By the Numbers
January 15th, 2008 by iDunzo
This morning’s Stevenote highlighted some impressive numbers for Apple. Here’s Steve Jobs’ keynote condensed down to the cold, hard figures.
Macworld Keynote facts:
- Number of new hardware products announced: Two. The Time Capsule network backup device and the ultra-thin MacBook Air.
- Number of product upgrades announced: Four. Apple TV, iPod Touch, iPhone, iTunes.
- Number of failed product demos: One. Apple TV couldn’t load photos from Flickr’s servers.
- Number of price drops: One. The AppleTV dropped from $300 to $230.
Posted in Apple + Technology + Toys & Gadgets + Wireless | 1 Comment »
Custom Ringtone Voids iPhone Warranty?
January 10th, 2008 by iDunzo
Here’s one to scare all you iPhone fetishists: You don’t have to unlock, jailbreak or install unauthorized third-party software on your Magnifabrick to invalidate the warranty.
Doug Rodriquez was able to do so merely by setting up a custom ringtone using a well-documented iTunes workaround.
Rodriquez started getting SIM card error messages sometime thereafter and went looking for some customer support.
Apple basically told him to piss up a rope because they had “determined that (the iPhone) has been subjected to accidental damage or misuse, which is not covered by the warranty or an Apple service contract.”
According to Doug Rodriguez:
I’ve never dropped my iPhone, I’ve never exposed it to water. I’ve never put third-party apps on it or hacked it. It just stopped working and Apple apparently does not believe me…The only thing I’ve ever done is back in September putting one custom ringtone on my iPhone via the “manual transfer” method. Nothing Else.
No word yet on what kind of warranty love using the Apple-sanctioned GarageBand method for installing custom ringtones will get you.
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Better Living Through Open Source: The Directory
December 28th, 2007 by iDunzo
Open Source Living is a recently-established directory of open-source software.
Basically it’s stuff you can use without having to pay for it and without worrying about proprietary software issues.
Most of the criteria for inclusion in the Open Source Living revolve around the nature of the licensing for the product — it has to be freely redistributable, not discriminatory in its licensing, with source code available, etc.
To that end, the programs already listed in the Open Source Living Directory are something of a “who’s who” of open-source success stories: Firefox, OpenOffice, 7-Zip, and so on.
A fair number of Mac-specific open-source programs are also featured: Camino, Vienna, and NeoOffice.
The layout and design of the site are friendly and clean; it doesn’t look like something that was thrown together in an afternoon.
The Open Source Living was originally derived to list free programs regardless of their source or licensing provisions, and so there are still a few programs listed in the Open Source Living catalog that are free without being open source like Irfanview.
Over time, though, they will be dropped in favor of applications that are entirely open and since I’m an Irfanview user I’m curious to see what could eventually replace it.
I like resources like this for two reasons. One, even someone like me can remain unaware for a long time of a well-developed and highly useful open-source project, and it’s a pleasure to stumble across such a thing in a forum where other people have already vetted it for quality.
A listed project that I’m now curious about, Haiku, picks up where BeOS left off, and if done right could be a serious desktop contender. That’s a long way off and won’t come without major hurdles, but my attention has definitely been captured.
Two, it’s a way for newcomers to open source — people who simply don’t know what’s out there — to get introduced to the available applications without having to dig through an installation repository or just stumble around.
They can find out relatively quickly what’s worthwhile, what other people are using and benefiting from, and what applications cover what sort of duties like the difference between OpenOffice or Scribus.
Perhaps in the future we’ll see features like detailed community feedback or comments on each entry, but for now the forums on the site are handling that job.
Posted in Apple + Microsoft + Open Source + Software | Comments Off on Better Living Through Open Source: The Directory
Mac Users Pay For Music, PC Owners Steal It
December 21st, 2007 by iDunzo
According to market researcher NPD, PC owners are too cheap to pay for music downloads, while Mac users have an Apple-shaped halo when it comes to piracy: 50% of them have paid to download music versus just 16% of PC users.
Side note for the fanboys, Macs are PC’s too – Personal Computer’s. Maybe I should have said Mac verses Windows? Arrrg!
The report also tries to claim that Mac owners are buying more CDs than their PC brethren, but the figures are so close – 32% against 28% – it seems statistically insignificant.
The difference between 50 and 16, though, is big.
Who knows why? Are Mac people more honest? Higher earning? Or are they just too stupid to work out BitTorrent?
Posted in Apple + Microsoft + Music + Technology | 1 Comment »
