IPhone Cafe

Next week we drive from San Fransisco to Las Vegas.  The rental car is picked-up in San Fransisco. Expect will need lots music on hand for the two day drive through Yosemite and Death Valley. 

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Since my iPhone is loaded with downloaded music, an FM transmitter is a logical choice for playing iPhone music through the car stereo. The local Apple store sells lots of FM transmitters from different vendors all of which plug into the car’s cigarette lighter. Two particular transmitters provide a rigid stem to position the iPhone for the driver, both of these sold for $89 USD.

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For this trip, I went with Belkin instead of Griffen because; 1) Belkin claims to scan automatically for unused FM radio frequencies, and 2) I bought a Griffen in January and wasn’t super impressed with sound quality.

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Belkins home page provides this nifty picture of the installed transmitter and here’s a picture of the unit as purchased from Apple.

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The road trip from San Fransisco to Vegas will be a good chance to evaluate Belkin’s TuneBase.  More to come.

June 22nd

Good Points:

• Automatically finds unused FM frequencies
• The rigid stem.  It holds the iPhone in position for the driver to use iPod or other features such as google maps. With a Toyota RAV4 SUV, a 1 to 3 cigarette lighter expander from Radio Shack positioned the iPhone higher and provided additional 12 volt sockets.

Bad Points:

• Auto-frequency finder can be annoying while driving through mountainous areas or other areas where radio signal come and go.
• Audio quality is not quite as good as a CD or listening via a direct, wired connection. The FM transmission and reception process cuts into frequency response and dynamic range.
• On a Toyota RAV4, opening the driver side door killed the FM connection.  The radio needed to be retuned once the driver side door was closed.

Conclusion

I like the Belkin TuneBase.  The stem serves as a convenent iPhone holder and positions the phone for more than just listening to music, like for instance, checking Google maps; or getting the weather. The iPhone recharges while connected with TuneBase meaning you can turn off Auto-Lock from the General Settings menu. TuneBase was useful on a rented a houseboat in Nevada, near Las Vegas because the boat was equipped with an FM radio and a cigarette lighter. Plugging the TuneBase into the the cigarette lighter gave access to iPhone music which was piped over built-in shipboard speakers.

Steve Jobs introduced the new iPhone 3G in San Fransisco today. 

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The new iPhone will be availible beginning July 11th through AT&T and Apple retail stores.  Apple will deliver two models both of which cost less than the current iPhone. The new 8GB iPhone 3G goes for $199 USD, while the 16GB is $299.

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Both models use higher performance 3G wireless networks which should provide faster downloads than Edge. Jobs say’s 3G downloads are “Amazingly zippy”. The iPhone drops back to standard AT&T Edge when 3G is out of range.

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Other features include:

• Longer lasting battery life
• Built in GPS
• Smaller, sleaker case design

Steve Jobs demo’ed the GPS tracking feature today showing Google maps continually updated while the phone was driven down (a twisty) Lombard St in San Fransisco.

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The new 3G iPhone will be availible in 70 countries vs. 6 countries for the current model.

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For the U.S. market, the iPhone will be sold through AT&T retail stores. According to CNET, AT&T announced today that 3G iPhones will be sold on two year contracts only and the monthly charge will be $30/month vs. the previous $20/month for the 2G model.

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For more on the new 3G iPhone see Apple Aims for the Masses with a Cheaper iPhone, Apple Announces Cheaper 3G iPhone, or visit Apple’s iPhone page.

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Apple’s software update page implies that owners of the current iPhone can upgrade to version 2.0 and recieve:

• Push email, calendar, and contacts from Microsoft Exchange
• New iPhone applications based on the accelerometer, Multi-Touch; 3D positional sound and GPS.
• MobileMe

Catherine said she had heard that Apple is preparing to halt production of the iPhone. I didn’t believe her.

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I said “no freaking way!!!!@*%@*&”. That’s liberal conspiracy theory talk! Why would Apple, maker of the most innovative and popular cell phone in the history of the world, just stop making it?  That defies logic and is just not credible so take a hike!!!@@@!!!%.

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I convinced myself (but not Catherine) that Apple would, in no way, halt production and distribution of the iPhone. I mean, what other mobile device has “converged” functions into a single device like the iPhone?

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The answer is none. The iPhone is unique amoung moble devices. No other cell phone pulls together email from Yahoo and Google, Maps from Google, YouTube videos, Itunes audio, Weather, the Stock Market, Alarm clocks and Timers together onto a single device. Only Apple’s iPhone.

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Oh…..Yes, in addition to all of the above, the iPhone works quite nicely as a mobile phone.

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Other cell phones from Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, et al,  are “Also Ran’s” whose’ butts will be kicked by the iPhone.

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Speaking of news; my iPhone doubles as a newspaper reader for a several papers including the New York Times (other online papers for mobile phones are BBC, Christian Science Monitor, CBS).  Okay, I live in Seattle, located across the continent from New York, and I only recieve the New York Times in hard copy form on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  For most of my week, there’s no conflict between the hard copy newspaper and online editions of the New York Times. However, at week end, things begin to get wieird.

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For one thing,  I’ll read stories on New York Times hard copy that have already appeared online.   What’s up with that? Makes me wonder why I’m paying to recieve hard copy of the newspaper.

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Anyway, While reading the New York Times on my iPhone, I found an article titleld “The Guessing Game Has Begun on the Next iPhone“.  The article contains the following:

“Although AT&T stores still have phones in stock, according to a company spokesman, the supply has largely dried up in Apple’s retail outlets, and the phones are no longer available through the company’s online store.”

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So, I guess, maybe, Catherine was right after all….. Apple is halting production of the current iPhone. 

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Apple wants to clear disitribution channels, because they are preparing to deliver the “Next Generation” iPhone and by clearing disitribution channels, Apple reduces the chances that customers will buy an iPhone only to learn they just bought an obsolete model.

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See The 3-G iPhone: What To Expect for more about the next generation iPhone.

An application from iMatrix performs barcode scanning on the iPhone.

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According to their website, iMatrix provides optical recognition of 2D barcodes and is neutral to code formats and services providers.  It stores and regenerates 2D codes; opening the door for applications such as e-ticketing, mobile ticketing, and couponing.  The iMatrix website provides a Blog which contains dozens of posts.  A May 25 post indicates iMatrix has become 2D Sense and they appear to be growing.

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iPhone Matters posted the article Use Your iPhone as a Barcode Scanner which provides additional information. If your iPhone is jailbroken and you’ve been using installer.app to install applications, you already know how to install iMatrix. 

iPhone Cafe posts are written using WordPress  (an Open Source weblog application) but are displayed using WordPress or Apple’s iPhone.  WordPress content doesn’t display exactly the same on the iPhone’s Safari browser as it does in an IE browser. However, you can compensate for the differences between displays. 

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Here are some tips to consider when writing posts for iPhone Cafe and remembering that the text needs to render within both WordPress and the iPhone. First thing, the iPhone display has trouble with vertical spacing.  Fix this by inserted indented text or symbols.  For instance:

• Separate paragraphs useing three centered asterisks
• Use indents for pictures
• Use indents for code samples.

I use three centered  asteriks as paragraph separators. These look okay within WordPress and on the iPhone.

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As a final step before closing out a new post, remember to review the post using iPhone’s Safari browser and make sure everything looks okay on the iPhone.

The email client on my iPhone is configured to use Yahoo email and my Yahoo email account is configured with SpamGuard enabled. SpamGuard works great when viewing emails through a web browser logged into Yahoo. However, all that spam appears on the email client buit into my iPhone.  I was thinking it would be cool if the Yahoo SpamGuard filter worked with my iPhone, but apparently not.

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I found a posting titled “iPhone Email Spam - Dealing with it Using IMAP” which describes how to filter spam if the iPhone is configured for gmail.  Not sure if the approach also works with Yahoo mail.

CBS bought CNet Networks for $1.8B in cash.

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With your iPhone, take a look at CBS’s iPhone interface.

CBS iPhone

and compare with the CiUI iPhone interface developed at CNet before the purchase.

CiUI Interface 

Do they look the same? Makes me wonder if the CBS tech team got hold of CiUI’s framework and used it to deploy an iPhone interface for CBS news?  Or, did CBS use iUI?

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The CBS version seems a bit smoother than CiUI.  Horizontal scrolling is smoother.  Clicking an option highlights the entire row not just a portion of the row.  Of the frameworks that imitate iPhone’s horizontal scrolling menu’s in a Safari application, the CBS site seems to be the best.

I traveled to Nebraska last week on business, and decided to take the opportunity to test out the Airplane Mode function on the iPhone.  I don’t normally listen to music on the plane, but as I waited at the boarding gate, a herd of hyperactive teenagers–all part of some school function and therefore particularly rowdy–hustled up to the gate.  I took one look (and listen), and whipped out the iPhone and earbuds.

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I am delighted to report that the Airplane Mode (hereafter referred to as AM) function is awesome, and eliminates the need to bring an extra mp3 player.  When AM is on, the phone cannot send nor receive signals, making it safe for use on board.  Of course, since all the games are web apps, I couldn’t access any of the games I had hotkeyed, which remains a huge annoyance for me.  The battery, even half-charged as it was, held up just fine on the 2.5 hour flight, with plenty of juice for me to make phone calls once I got to my hotel…funkyfresh

Basic iPhone troubleshooting steps from Apple.

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1. The phone doesn’t appear in iTunes and won’t sync

• Check the phone battery. It may need recharging. 
• Try a different USB port on your computer.
• Or, turn the phone off and turn it on again. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button on top of iPhone for a few seconds until a red slider appears, and then slide the slider. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
• Or, restart your computer and reconnect iPhone to your computer.
• If none of these steps works, download and install (or reinstall) the latest version of iTunes from www.apple.com/itunes.

2. The phone won’t make or receive calls, send or receive text messages, or access email or the web

• Check the cell signal indicator in the status bar at the top of the screen. If there are no bars, or if it says “No service,” try moving to a different location. If indoors, try going outdoors or move closer to a window.
• Check to make sure you’re in an area with network coverage. Go to your carrier’s website to see network coverage areas.
• Make sure airplane mode isn’t on. 
• You may need to turn airplane mode on, wait 15 seconds, then turn airplane mode off again.
• Make sure to include an area code for every phone number in your contacts list that you use to send or receive text messages.
• Turn the phone off and turn it on again.
• There may be an issue with your wireless service. In this case, call your carrier’s technical support.
• If none of these steps work, restore the iPhone software. See this document or see “Updating and Restoring iPhone Software” in the iPhone User’s Guide. 

3. The phone won’t turn on, or the display freezes or doesn’t respond

• Press and hold the Home button below the screen for at least six seconds, until the application you were using quits.
• If that doesn’t work, turn iPhone off and turn it on again. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button on top of iPhone for a few seconds until a red slider appears, and then slide the slider. Then press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
• If that doesn’t work, reset iPhone. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
• If iPhone continues to freeze or not respond after you reset it
  Reset iPhone settings. From the Home screen choose Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. All your preferences are reset, but no data or media is deleted.
• If that doesn’t work, restore the iPhone software. See document 305744 “Updating and Restoring iPhone Software.”

CiUI is an iPhone code library which helps developers create web applications with the look and feel of Apple’s iPhone. It was modeled after iUI and is used by CNET.  CiUI supports horizontal scrolling menu’s which are the trademark of the iPhone’s user interface. With CiUI, a web developer can build Safari web browser applications that look like a built in iPhone application.

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The CiUI Safari page has another option which is labeled “Popular Posts”.  Here’s a link to the page (use an iPhone or Firefox):

http://www.core3.com/icore/i/ 

Clicking “Popular Posts” uses CiUI’s Javascript and CSS framework to display a list of titles ranked by the number of times the post has been downloaded.

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In the example below, “Turn off autocorrect” is the number one downloaded post.  Click a title to see post content.

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Data to drive the top ten list doesn’t come from the WordPress MySQL database.  Instead, it comes from the web server access log.

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In an earlier post, a Perl script to parse the web server log file was presented.   The lines below add to that earlier Perl script by incrementing a hash named %count_Popular.

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 After the hash is populated, the following lines sort the hash and write the first 40 lines into a file named popular.txt.

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The file, popular.txt is then FTP’d up to the ISP server and used as input to drive the “Popular Posts” menu page. Here’s the file:

http://www.core3.com//icore/access/popular.txt

Each line of popular.txt is converted into a menu option.