Here Come Da Judge!
For the sixth year in a row, I’ll be a judge for the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards. If you use a Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone, or Smartphone, be sure to let me know what your favorite applications via the Contact Us page so that I can make sure that they’re included in the nominations. I always enjoy judging the Best Software Awards, although about the only time I use a Windows Mobile phone these days is when I’m doing the judging!
iPhone Update 1.1.2 Available
I just downloaded and installed the iPhone 1.1.2 update, which is a huge file — 160.2 MB. Apple, of course, is rather coy about what is actually new and different in the update, other than saying that it contains “bug fixes”.
After a rather slow download (my guess is that everyone with an iPhone with the exception of my wife is downloading it), the device reset and is now showing the “chasing it’s tail” indicator under the Apple logo on the startup screen. This has been going on for a while, so obviously there’s a major ROM update that is underway. Upon completion, the iPhone displayed an indication that it wanted me to disconnect and reconnect the device, with “Emergency Call” displayed in English, French, and German in case I needed to make a 911 call.
Other than that, not much has changed. In the devices list in iTunes, there’s now a battery charge indication next to the name of the device, but I really can’t see what else is different. More later…
Cool 1.1.1 tricks
If your iPhone is now running on firmware version 1.1.1, here are some great keyboard shortcuts that showed up. First, doing a double-tap on the space bar inserts a period, a space, and puts your keyboard into caps mode. Also, if you’re in a password field, pressing the shift key will put your iPhone in caps lock mode. Anybody found any other updates that provide new functionality?
iPhone Update 1.1.1 Available
The iPhone “finally” got a new application yesterday with the introduction of iPhone Update 1.1.1. The new app? The iTunes Wi-Fi Store. You’ll need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network in order to use the new application, but the functionality is quite cool. You can see this week’s Featured New Releases, What’s Hot, and a listing by music genre. I like the latter listing, since I’m too damned old to like any of the crap that is featured in the pop, rap/hip-hop, etc… genres. I go more for classical and jazz.
The store gives you a chance to listen to those great little 30-second tidbits before purchasing with One-click, and any music you purchase from the Wi-Fi store is synced back to your Mac or PC. I know one thing for sure - I’m going to be buying a lot more music now that this service is available on my iPhone. It gives me something to do while I’m just hangin’ around!
The update is easily installed - just connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC and sync it. Go to the Summary pane for your iPhone and click the “Check for Update” button. A few minutes of downloading and installing ensues, and then you’re up and running again.
There is some concern for all of those people who have been “illegally” installing software on their iPhones. As reported earlier in the week (not by me), Apple announced that they could not guarantee that future updates would work with anything but official Apple software. Some hacks have already failed, with the corresponding cries from the hackers. Bummer, dudes. Just be patient and wait for “REAL” software for the iPhone.
Press Release: Phatware Releases PhatNotes 5.0
Upgrade of Award-Winning Notes Organizing Software for Windows Mobile Smartphones Features Support for Windows Mobile 6 and Windows Vista
Mountain View, CA, September 5, 2007 - PhatWare Corporation, a leading provider of software products and professional services for mobile and desktop computers, announces today the release of PhatNotes 5.0, the next generation of the company’s award-winning notes organizer software for Microsoft Windows based desktop computers and Windows Mobile smartphones.
PhatNotes, a winner of Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine’s Best Software Awards in the notes category for six consecutive years as well as other industry awards, is one of the most popular Pocket PC and Smartphone note-taking applications on the market. PhatNotes allows users to create notes and organize them by type, subject, creation, and modification date. The software provides powerful text search with regular expression support, document security and email capabilities. Unlike previous versions of PhatNotes, the new version will not include multiple editions of the software. Instead, there will be only one edition of PhatNotes that supports both Standard (non-touch screen) and Professional (touch screen) devices and includes the desktop software and the synchronization module for ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Vista.
Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile
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
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
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
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
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