iPhone Games and Ringtones on September 5th?
There’s a lot of speculation about the Apple Event scheduled for September 5th. It’s widely expected that Apple will announce some new wide-screen iPods that will probably look a lot like iPhones. But many of us are also hoping that games and ringtones are going to be announced at the same event.
The latest version of iTunes has several internal links that refer to installing and removing games, and I seriously doubt if that would have been added to the software if not for something happening soon. There’s also a great deal of talk about being able to create a ringtone from any song purchased from iTunes, which would also be cool. I’d love to be able to edit the ringtone, however…
You can be sure that I’ll be watching anxiously next Wednesday to see what Apple announces!
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod
Review: Sierra Wireless AirCard 595U and Sprint Mobile Broadband
With as much traveling as I have done in the last month (I’m writing this at Denver International Airport on my way to Columbus, Ohio), it was inevitable that I was going to get some sort of 3G service for my laptop. I despise Verizon, and I’ve always been impressed with Sprint’s willingness to provide me with mobile devices to test. I’ve also been wowed by the speed of their EV-DO Rev. A deployment on many of those devices, and I felt like I didn’t want to wait for AT&T to eventually roll out some 3G solution in Denver. So Sprint was my choice of 3G service provider.
The second choice I had to make was what kind of “card” to get. I know that eventually I will probably get a MacBook Pro, but I really can’t afford to buy one right now and my MacBook is working well despite a broken SuperDrive. Since it doesn’t have an ExpressCard/34 slot in it, that meant that there was only one viable solution - USB. A quick search of the Sprint website showed that the “card” I was going to buy was also the least expensive at $79 after instant and mail-in rebates. The card? A Sierra Wireless AirCard 595U USB “dongle”.
For the service, I knew that I could be online 12 or more hours per day when I’m teaching classes, which could be anywhere from 2 to 6 days a month. In addition, I tend to need connections when I’m working with clients who have dead networks so I can do troubleshooting. And my wife and I tend to travel a lot, so those trips add to the total. Finally, when we’re visiting my father-in-law (who has no internet service) I sometimes have my computer with me and need connectivity. Hourly service just wasn’t going to work, so I went for the Sprint $59.99 “all you can eat” data plan.
The device itself is a little on the large side - in fact, I was surprised when I saw how large the 595U actually was. And since it needs to be propped in somewhat of a vertical position to work (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see the photo below), it really sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s also quite wide and it’s easy to block the other USB port on my device. Sprint does include a USB dock for the device that would let me plop the 595U away from the port and easily poke another USB cable in the next port. I was able to get the receiver for my wireless remote and the 595U to coexist nicely with each other by angling the USB connectors slightly, but I’m worried that could damage the USB ports in the long run.
As with most broadband services, Sprint’s Mobile Broadband is much faster downloading than it is uploading. In a series of tests using DSLReports speed test applications (www.dslreports.com/speedtest) I was able to consistently get download speeds well over 1 Mbps and as high as 1.54 Mbps. Not bad! Uploads were pretty pokey, running a maximum of about 400 Kbps and often falling in the 100 - 150 Kbps range.
How do I like the AirCard 595U and Sprint’s Mobile Broadband Service? Let’s put it this way - even if AT&T does happen to finally get a UMTS / HSDPA 3G deployment all over the US in the next two years (when I can drop my plan without getting nailed $200 by Sprint), I plan on keeping this card. I found it was very useful, giving me a connection that wasn’t fettered with the usual port restrictions that you get on hotel or public Wi-Fi systems. Today, it was up and running when the Wi-Fi system at the classroom site I was teaching at was actually down. What did I do? Shared my internet connection on my MacBook with the class participants. What a nice guy, huh?
Sprint’s Mobile Broadband network and the AirCard 595U are a relatively low-cost solution for anyone in a major metropolitan area who needs fast, consistent broadband service on the run. Give it a try!
Technorati Tags: Sprint
iPhone Update 1.0.2 Available
Hey, iPhoners! Update 1.0.2 is now available, so the next time you sync your lovely device, be sure to click on that “Check for updates” button in iTunes. The only thing Apple will tell us is that the update has “bug fixes”, which is interesting considering most of the major bugs seemed to be quashed by Update 1.0.1. The update went smoothly on my device, taking only about 3 minutes to install.
Frankly, I’m eagerly waiting for 1.1, which will hopefully have some new features like the ability to add games to the iPhone…
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone
iPhone on the road
Every year, my wife and I visit northern New Mexico to go to art galleries, attend the Santa Fe Opera, meet with old friends and make new ones. We just got back from our trip and had a few comments:
1) While we were driving to New Mexico, we spent part of the drive on the I-25 corridor. When we got off of that and drove between Walsenburg, CO and Taos, NM, the phone was basically in a large roaming zone. For most of that time, I still had service, but I noticed that my battery drained rather quickly.
2) There’s nothing worse than thick adobe walls for killing your cell phone signal. Here in Colorado we live in a wood-frame house, and there’s never a problem getting a signal. While we were staying in NM our room had thick adobe walls that shielded us from all sorts of signals and most of the time I had the dreaded “No Signal” notification on my iPhone. Fortunately, I was able to get a Wi-Fi signal from the office at the Inn, so getting email or doing some quick searches on the iPhone worked.
3) There are a lot of iPhones in Denver, but not so many in Taos and Santa Fe. That meant that pulling out the iPhone usually attracted attention.
4) I found myself wishing for a small pocket-sized GPS receiver that could work with the iPhone. I have a Garmin Nuvi 650 in my car, but when I’m away from the car I’d love to be able to get directions to a restaurant or museum from my iPhone. Since there’s no built-in GPS, some sort of external key fob GPS receiver would be wonderful.
Technorati Tags: Apple, GPS, iPhone
How to use .Mac Web Galleries with your iPhone
In case you’re living in a cave somewhere and don’t have some sort of 3G connection to the Internet in that cave, Apple made some big announcements last week, one of which affects the iPhone. The .Mac service received a much-needed boost in capabilities, and there’s now a nice little function that you can invoke in iPhoto ‘08 that gives you the capability to create “web galleries” in .Mac. These need to be created in iPhone ‘08, but once they’re set up, you can add to a gallery using your iPhone and its camera!
The process is deceptively easy:
1) Launch iPhoto ‘08. Select a photo or two, then create a new album by selecting File > New Album from Selection… Click on the “Web Gallery” button at the top of the dialog. This is where all of your iPhone photos will end up on your Mac when you send them to your .Mac account, so you may want to give it a special name. I called mine “Steve’s iPhone Gallery” since I’m an incredibly original kind of guy. Be sure that you check the “Allow photo uploading by email” box so that your iPhone recognizes the gallery.
2) The new Web Gallery is created and the photo(s) you selected is/are uploaded to .Mac and given a special name. For instance, you can visit my iPhone Gallery by visiting
http://gallery.mac.com/stevensande#100003. And would you believe that this is how you can view your galleries on your iPhone? Yes, simply point to that “gallery.mac.com” address that corresponds to your .Mac account, choose the gallery you want to view, and leave the rest to your iPhone.
3) So, you’ve taken a picture with your iPhone camera and now you want to post it to your web gallery for everyone to see? That’s too easy! Tap on the “Send to” icon at the bottom of the photo on your iPhone. A menu appears; click on “Send to Web Gallery”. When the list of albums in your gallery appears, tap on the one you want to send your photo masterpiece to. It creates an email (how it is really transporting the photo to .Mac), and you can change the “Subject” line of the photo to give the photo a title, and/or add content in the body of the message that will be the description.
4) Wait a little while for your photo to be uploaded. The interesting thing is that the photo will be synced with iPhoto the next time you open it, so it will be automatically added to the new album you created. I plan on adding a ton of photos as I wander around Santa Fe, NM in the next couple of days, so have fun visiting the gallery.
If this is any indication of the future integration that we can hope for between our iPhones and Macs, the future is very bright indeed! By the way, this also works with PCs — as long as you’ve purchased a .Mac account.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Digital Cameras, iPhone, Macintosh, Vista
Two-way Video Conferencing for iPhone
Just when you think you’ve seen everything, then along come Glen and Ken Aspeslagh from Ecamm who have figured out a way to do 2-way videoconferencing with iPhones! See those little mirror-type things that the iPhones are sitting on? They’re called Huckleberry Mirrors and they’re an Ecamm product - you use ‘em to give your MacBook or MacBook Pro a view of something other than your ugly mug.
These guys then figured out how to snag a video image from the iPhone, send it over Wi-Fi to a web server, then nab the image from the server on the other side of the call. You basically need to start up a phone conversation with the other party and then fire up the application (and of course, the server…), and then you’re ready to rock and roll in handheld video. Now if Apple can only figure out a way to do this over AT&T’s 2.5G network, we’ll all feel the love.
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, WiFi
Movable Beast Review: Sprint HTC Mogul PPC-6800
The Sprint HTC Mogul is the latest in a series of similar Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phones from Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. In a nutshell, the Mogul is a “slidy McQwerty” platform with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. It runs on Sprint’s 3G network, it has WiFi, and it has Windows Mobile 6 onboard. I had a chance to put one of these through its paces, and although I didn’t do a lot of calling on the phone (I prefer to look at the functionaiity of the device), I was able to give it a thorough workout. My opinion? Well, you’ll have to read the rest of the article but for the most part I felt the Mogul is a very solid, but unimaginative phone. On the other hand, my use of Sprint’s 3G EV-DO network (AKA Power Vision Network) was so positive that I’m buying one of their EV-DO cards for my MacBook.
In the photo below, you can see that the relative sizes of the iPhone, Palm Treo 680 and the HTC Mogul (Left to Right) are about the same. It’s the thickness of the devices that is amazingly different. All three of these intelligent mobile phones have bright, beautiful displays, although the iPhone display is really in a class of its own at 160 ppi.
Read more after the break.
Technorati Tags: EV-DO, WiFi, Windows Mobile
Sprint Mobile Broadband
As most of you know, Sprint has been very good to Movable Beast in terms of sending a lot of their phones to me. Well, they may have me hooked on a very different service…
I am definitely an iPhone fanboy, so I’m underwhelmed by the vast majority of phone / smartphone devices that they have available for purchase. But I’ve always been extremely interested in the fact that Sprint has a very widespread EV-DO Rev. A network - that means that just about any major metropolitan area in the USA has access to download speeds between 600K - 1.4 MBPS, and upload speeds of 350-500 KBPS. While that doesn’t sound that great, it’s very comparable to most DSL!
With all of the traveling that I do, I’ve been very underwhelmed with hotel Wi-Fi. In many places, the Wi-Fi won’t let me use my email account properly due to port restrictions. I’ve worked my way around that for most hotels, but there are other situations where I’ve been in classrooms at corporate locations and just can’t check my email or do any other “real” work. The thought of being able to have unlimited wireless access from any point - whether that be a classroom, an airport, or a restaurant — is very attractive to me.
When I signed up for my iPhone service with AT&T Wireless, I found that my monthly cost was actually much less than what I was spending for T-Mobile. Why? I had dropped the T-Mobile Hot Spot service that I was never using, and my monthly rate even with unlimited mobile data was quite a bit less than I expected. So the thought of spending an additional $60 per month to get unlimited EV-DO Rev. A data on a “real” computer (my MacBook) is very attractive.
Sprint is currently offering the Sierra Wireless 595U USB Mobile Broadband card (above) for $79 after rebates, with unlimited data service (on a 2-year plan) costing $60 per month. In case you’re wondering, I chose the USB dongle instead of a faster ExpressCard for three reasons - I can use it on just about any Mac or PC, it’s cheaper, and it is definitely Mac-compatible. Considering the amount of mobile data access I do every month, this is well worth the cost. I’ve decided to sign up for their service before I take a business trip at the end of August to Columbus, OH and Cary, NC, so I’ll let you know how it works! Stay tuned for updates about my adventures with Sprint’s Mobile Broadband service.
Technorati Tags: Sprint, Travel
Listening to streaming podcasts on your iPhone
The iPhone never ceases to amaze me, and when I posted the first “Talkin’ iPhone” podcast yesterday, I thought it might be interesting to see if I could actually play the podcast on the iPhone from the player that appears when you pull up The iPhone Ranch in a web browser. I was absolutely sure that this was not going to work and absolutely stunned when it did!
All you need to do is connect to the Internet through the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection (EDGE is way too slow), then point Safari to The iPhone Ranch - you DO have it bookmarked, don’t you? 
Now when you see the “player” for a particular episode of “Talkin’ iPhone”, tap on the “Click to Play” image. A QuickTime Player image will appear with a play button superimposed on it. Tap on that play button and the QuickTime Player expands to fill your screen, and within seconds the podcast will begin to play.
If you don’t want to waste valuable storage space by downloading podcasts to your device via a USB sync, this is a great way to listen to them.
Yep, New iMacs! And More!
As we speculated last week, new iMacs were announced yesterday. The 17″ is gone, replaced by even sleeker and nicer looking 20″ and 24″ models. I saw these at the Aspen Grove Apple Store yesterday and they look great! The new glass and aluminum enclosures are not only more durable than the old plastic models, but much more recyclable. The pricing isn’t bad, either. A 24″ iMac with the 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB internal hard drive (not to mention AppleCare!) is $3,618. On the other end of the spectrum, the 20″ with 2.0 Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB of RAM, and 250 GB hard drive (and AppleCare) is $1,368.
Also available yesterday were the updates to iLife and iWork — iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08. iLife still consists of the core packages that we’ve come to know and love - GarageBand, iWeb, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. But now, there’s even more to love. iPhoto now groups photos by “events”, which certainly makes a lot more sense than having to do it yourself. It’s like creating a smart folder for any photos that appeared to have been taken on the same day or range of days, so vacation pictures are all grouped together in their own “event”. Nice!
GarageBand ‘08 now has Magic GarageBand, which allows you to pick your own virtual band based on a genre, then play along. It actually does much more than that - you can go in and choose different styles for each of the instruments as well. I wasted a good 20 minutes playing with Magic GarageBand right out of the box.
iWeb ‘08 now allows you to create separate domains instead of having to “fake out” the software. .Mac has been updated as well; you can now host your own domain on .Mac, so it’s now possible to host commercial sites on .Mac. Yipppeeeee! The standard amount of storage has been bumped up to 10 GB. Those of us who had 2 GB now have 20 GB available, which means my backups are now working again. There are now Google AdSense and Google Map tools, and one doesn’t need to use iWeb Enhancer to drop in snippets of HTML code; that functionality is now built-in. There’s an “Instant Alpha” tool that lets you delete backgrounds - very nice. On the negative side, Apple still makes it difficult for people to publish to a server or hosting service other than .Mac. You still have to publish to a folder, then ftp the folder to a server. Grrrrr…
iMovie ‘08 looks the most different of all of the iApps. There’s now a project library containing video thumbnails of all of your previous video work. You can publish directly to YouTube or iPhone, any video snippets that may have been caught by a digital camera now show up in an “iPhoto Videos Event Library”, and you can skim through video very quickly. I can’t wait to give this a try!
iDVD ‘08 seems the least changed of all. I haven’t really had a chance to play with it either, but I’m sure that there are a number of enhancements.
iWork ‘08 now consists of three separate applications; Pages, Keynote and Numbers. Yes, Numbers is a spreadsheet and charting package. It’s cool, but doesn’t offer support for Excel macros. It DOES support the new Office formats, which means it has a leg up on Excel for Mac. Pages includes a huge number of new templates, even including business cards and stationery styles. And Keynote has a lot more transitions, themes and effects.
If you’ve used the iWork and iLife apps in the past, it’s time to go out and pay for those ugprades! iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08 are both priced at $79 each or $99 for the Fammily pack (can be installed on up to five computers).
Technorati Tags: Apple, Displays, Macintosh
Press Release: Astraware Sudoku updated with a new look and new features.
KEELE, Staffordshire, UK - August 8th, 2007 - Astraware is excited to announce a major update to its award-winning Astraware Sudoku game for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) Smartphones and PDAs.
Astraware Sudoku,version 1.40, has been given a full makeover. Behind the scenes the game has been transferred to a brand new games framework, and graphically has an updated look and support for more new resolutions, as well as some brand new features.
Suitable for all players from beginners through to experts, Astraware Sudoku is packed with features.
There are several ways to get puzzles: from the pre-built puzzle packs available at http://www.sudokuoftheday.com; by using the integrated Puzzle Builder which creates literally billions of puzzles; or download any of the Puzzles of the Day over the air and then compare your times with other players worldwide. Players can also play puzzles from newspapers or books they’ve entered and get Astraware Sudoku’s expert help and assistance to solve them.
Astraware Sudoku offers a range of different options to help players solve puzzles including manual or automatic pencilmarks in a choice of styles; a smart hints system; and the brand new hold and highlight system which can display an overlay for a specific number or pencilmark helping players to see where to look and what to look for. In touchscreen devices there’s the added bonus of the notepad overlay, allowing players to make their own pencilmarks and notes on screen too.
Following requests from existing users, Astraware Sudoku version 1.40 now includes an extensive Puzzle Manager which allows players to select a specific puzzle to play, or delete puzzles they’ve already completed.
The game also offers a choice of control methods where players can move around and enter numbers using the 5-way, number keys, stylus and touchscreen, keyboard shortcuts, or any combination of these, so you can play it the way you want to.
Astraware Sudoku is available for Palm OS 5.0, and Windows Mobile 2003, 2003SE, 5 and 6 Classic (Pocket PC), Professional (Phone Edition) and Standard (Smartphone), priced $19.95. The game is available at a very special price to Club Astraware members during August 2007. Version 1.40 is a free update for registered owners of Astraware Sudoku and is available from http://www.astraware.com/sudoku. The existing version of Astraware Sudoku for Palm OS4 will continue to be available from the Astraware website.
Technorati Tags: Games, palm, Windows Mobile
Amazon Nixes Telemoose
Remember my earlier article about Telemoose, the Amazon portal for iPhone created by those geniuses at Karelia Software? Well, apparently Amazon wasn’t as happy as I was about Telemoose, because they asked Karelia to stop it! As the Karelia folks mention, they can’t figure out why Amazon wouldn’t be thrilled about yet another way for people to purchase goodies from their site. My guesses? I think Amazon is working on their own iPhone portal, or they were concerned about security.
Karelia says they’re in talks with another big online shopping firm and will announce the revived Telemoose soon.
Office 2008 for Mac: In 2008
The Mac Business Unit at Microsoft today announced that they will release Office 2008 for Mac coincident with MacWorld Expo 2008 in January. The info was posted on the Mac Mojo blog, the official blog of the Mac Business Unit. Here’s the post from Craig Eisler, General Manager of the Mac BU:
We announced today that Office 2008 for Mac will be released to manufacturing (
Update 1.0.1 Details
OK, Apple has posted the details of the iPhone update here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306173. Most of the fixes appear to be related to security with Safari. Heck, I’d be happy if it just resolved the issue with Safari crashing, so I guess I’ll have to do some testing.
Other bloggers are reporting that blind carbon copy (BCC) has been added, but I’ll be damned if I can find that either on the device or in the User Guide. If you have any hints or tips, be sure to call our hotline at 303-800-4568 and leave us a voice mail message!
Technorati Tags: Apple
iPhone Update 1.0.1 Now Available - Screenshots!
I got a big surprise when I synced my iPhone this morning - the first update for the device was available! I quickly grabbed my camera and started taking screenshots so readers can see what they’re going to experience. First, a window showed up noting that software version 1.0.1 was available for downloading and installing:
I took a lot of screenshots, so check out the rest of the story after the break!
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
