7 posts tagged “iphone”
iPhone screenshot (click to enlarge)
Check out the 2nd post on Twitterific on my iPhone. Who new? Thanks, Andy!! I shot this pic and uploaded to Vox using the Shozu app on the phone. This is one feature I loved from from when my phone what jailbroken. I'm glad it's back.
I've been struggling with the fact that I love my Apple Bluetooth Earpiece but the darn thing can't seem to stay in my ear. So, I was digging in a drawer and found some replacement pads from a wired Jabra set I used to use. Not only did they work but they sit comfortably in my ear AND DON'T BUDGE. Eureka!!! Yeaaah, baby!
Well, the last couple of weeks have been quite interesting. Those who have been following my twitters know that I spent 5 days in the hospital for severe abdominal pain. The "Reader's Digest version" is that I was admitted to the hospital and the surgeon expected to remove either some gall stones or the gall bladder itself. Well, I had no gall stones and my gall bladder was fine. The surgeon did find some decaying fat, fat that had lost it's blood supply. I was put on antibiotics. I am currently feeling no abdominal pain. Diverticulitis is still a possibility with further tests in the planning stages after I heal from surgery. As for now, I am feeling good and will return to work in about a week.
For some time now, I have enjoyed my iPhone running some 3rd party applications. The phone was running firmware 1.0.2 and I have been reluctant to upgrade for fear of missing some of these apps. I watched Apple as they upgraded the firmware to 1.1 and 1.2 and added features like the iTunes W-Fi store and the whole Startbucks connection, not to mention some security upgrades. This all sounded cool to me but I don't drink coffee and very rarely go into Starbucks. But, all the blogs I was reading indicated that a firmware upgrade would disable these 3rd party apps. So, I remained perfectly happy with my jailbroken phone.
This all changed when I saw Steve Jobs' MacWorld 200078 Keynote and the free upgrades via firmware version 1.1.3. Between the location finder in Google Maps, to webclips (the ability to make a button on the home screen for you favorite websites), and multiple, customized home screens, it all sounded very exciting and I new I was ready to come back into the fold. The upgrade was easy and, though the 3rd party apps were now inaccessible, I am willing to wait for the SDK in February.
So far, the only apps I am really missing are Five Dice (a Yahtzee game) and MobileCast (a podcast catcher). Everything else I can do online and access easily with the webclips button from one of my three home screens. Apple did a nice job with the interface (love the jigglies!) and being able to put a button on the home screen for those websites that I visit often is very nice. They also added multiple SMS and the ability to send a browser link to someone via email. Nice!!
I also installed Tabulate which allows tabs in the Safari browser on the iPhone with no jailbraking necessary. I haven't played with it yet but I am excited about having tabs on the iPhone.
Screenshot taken with Dock app.
Hacked with AppTapp. It's amazingly easy! Notice the Installer button.
After Steve Jobs announced the release of iTunes 7.4, which would enable iPhone users to purchase ringtones, and hearing so much about the cool interface to create those ringtones, I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately, I ran into a few roadblocks and didn't figure it out for about an hour of persistent attempts. For the record, I was using ITunes 7.4.1 on Windows XP and have since upgraded to version 7.4.2. If you are confused by this process as well, here's how I did it.
I had read on several blogs that you would have to enable the "Ringtone" heading by going to View > View Options. At first the "Ringtone" heading option did not appear. After logging into the iTunes Music store, the "Ringtone" heading option DID appear. Great! One step completed!
I also knew that not all tracks were "ringtonable" so I sorted my library so that those with ringtones, indicated by the bell icon in the Ringtone heading, and found some for which another 99 cents (U.S. $.99) would get me a ringtone. I selected one and went to Store > Create Ringtone command but it was grayed out. What gives?!?
After another half-hour of searching for answers on the iTunes Support page and other blogs, I came up empty. They all indicated that I should be able to do this but I got nothing.
Eureka! As it turns out, the Create Ringtone command was also available by right-clicking the "ringtonable" track and accessing the command from the context-sensitive menu. Clicking it, however, brought up a message that I could not create ringtones until I accepted the new End User License Agreement. Didn't I do that when I installed the new version. I thought so! Anyway, luckily this message immediately brought up the EULA and I could accept in right then and there. Now, the ringtone feature was unlocked and I was away on my journey to create my own customized ringtones.
The interface is every bit as cool as I had read and the ability to pick your own clip (up to 30 seconds) with fade-ins and fade-outs really lets you get creative. This is a big plus and I would gladly pay the $.99 for the song PLUS another $.99 for the ringtone for the privilege. All iPhone users should try it out at least once or twice. It's great fun!!
I don't know if this problem exits on the Mac version of iTunes but I would have expected a clearer method for activating the Create Ringtones feature. I have been accused by some as being a Mac fanboy, but Apple could have done this better. The hour it took me to just TURN ON the feature is an hour that I will never get back. Apple, you get an "F" in Ringtone Integration.
