Installed with iDOS which was available for a very limited time before
being pulled from the store.

I’ve even gotten my old pre Internet QBASIC code running. Sublime.

Posted via email from haroldfudge.com

No more syncing with iTunes multiple times a day is gold.

Posted via email from hxf148′s posterous

Out it fell from my shirt pocket on to the sidewalk. It was dark but
helpfully the screen lit up as it clattered on the ground. Making it
very clear that this time there were consequences to my folly even
after dozens of other drops, slips and fumbles had previously been
forgiven.

Such as it’s a magical product from Apple it still functions flawlessly.

I was able to book an appointment at the store for tomorrow morning
and write this post while looking forward to how much more resale-able
a 3GS with new glass will be in July.

Maybe there’s a little pity for a phone under the 1 year warranty and
I won’t even pay for the repair.

Posted via email from hxf148′s posterous

Update: It’s fixed. It wasn’t free. Wah Wah.

The quick answer is yes.

The price is amazing right up to the top end, which could be more here in Canada by as much as $100. It will be interesting to see what Rogers, Bell, Telus offer for 3G packages but the $499 Wifi only version is going to sell wildly. They all will.

The size and construction are perfect. It is light but durable, strong and svelte. As laptops have taken over from fixed personal computers; today will be the day we saw post laptop computing. This is what comes next. Tablets exist today, there are several small specialty markets and devices available. In a single day, following decades of internal research at Apple, more of the future has arrived.

Dozens of companies are making or will make a tablet device this year many more will make a dedicated e-reader. Several of those companies have been waiting for today, to see Apple’s move before beginning to market their own devices show as CES earlier in the month. Still even with Android and Chrome OS leading the charge every other maker has instantly slammed into a unibody aluminum hardcover powered by iPhone OS and iTunes along side a custom Apple designed processor. The introduction of the 1GHz Apple A4 is in the long term the most important announcement to be noted.

As the laptop’s eventual heir the tablet form factor fits in with how modern personal computers are actually used. It will indeed take some time before it’s prevalent but this is a watershed moment for the clamshell computer.  A matching keyboard+dock and reports that Apple’s own Bluetooth keyboard is supported addresses the concern of serious typing while proving it’s position as a personal computer evolved.

Developers are going to be instantly making their current applications support multiple screen resolutions. By the end of March most experienced developers would be ready and waiting. At 9.7 inches diagonal many released applications for the iPhone will begin to look very impressive when compared to those installed in OSX.

Apple is basically repeating history for the third time since 2000. First iPods. Then iPhones. The beginning of wednesdays presentation stated that as a business enterprise they are in a league of their own. In today’s smart/phone market though to consumer devices they dominate sales. If there was a lesson it was that everything was pretty obvious in hindsight. iPod, iPhone, iPad.

Now a 60 day wait.

Disappointments for 1.0:

- voice control not mentioned
- no camera. very sad. Helps on price but a concession to carriers and version 2
- a dongle connector (separate) for usb and SD cards and cameras
- huge bezel
- resolution

Thanks for the question Colin.

Posted via email from hxf148′s posterous

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329353638&mt=8

Posted via email from hxf148′s posterous

1. There will be a camera with video, a microphone and a maybe 64GB in the Touch. The screen is probably going to have the same coating as the 3GS. GPS with compass is also a distinctly possible option but might also be too expensive for Apple to include.

Camera, microphone, gps didn’t happen, 64MB and a 50% speed increase did. A little bit shocked that they didn’t announce a Touch camera today. They really pushed the gaming.

2. There will be a still only camera in the Nano and there is potential for a touchscreen here too, a mini Touch/iPhone if you will but I waffle on that.

Camera, with video and microphone, bigger screen, FM radio with VoiceOver and cheaper price points. Impressive.

3. The Shuffle is probably not going to change; if for possibly more storage and/or colour options.

I got the new colours perfect and overlooked the lower price and limited edition.

4. A distinct possibly we will see the end of life for the hard drive based Classic iPod.

The Classic lives and moves up to 160GB, same price.

5. iTunes 9.0 will be announced for general availability. Includes social hooks to Facebook, Lastfm, Twitter.

Available today (downloading now). Includes a new look, new Genius features along with the social networking stuff and app organization.

6. The Beatles will finally arrive on iTunes. Beatle(s) on stage is a possibility. They did show up for Microsoft and Rock Band. Which also arrives on 9/9/09. A CD set of Beatles music is also set to drop soon. Might be Beatles overload including preloaded iPod special editions.

Didn’t happen.

7. We will probably hear something about Project Cocktail, an attempt to return the art of music cover art digitally. If it does happen the Beatles will be a showcase for it.

It’s called iTunes LP and looks very good.

8. iPhone users in the US might finally get MMS, but probably not the same day. AT&T has three weeks to meet their end of summer promise regarding enabling MMS and tethering options. (Update: MMS will be ready September 25th)

Not covered but we knew already.

9. Finally iPhone and Touch users should expect OS version 3.1 sooner than later.

It’s out today. Includes a ringtone store, Genius recommendations for the App Store, Augmentation API’s and general improvements.

Adding it up I think I got somewhere around 6 of 9 items at least partly right. I’m happy!

Of course I am only guessing but that’s most of the fun in being a blogger turned Apple analyst. Specifically if we pick apart the guessing, I think we will see several (9) fun things from the iPod line:

1. There will be a camera with video, a microphone and a maybe 64GB in the Touch. The screen is probably going to have the same coating as the 3GS. GPS with compass is also a distinctly possible option but might also be too expensive for Apple to include.
2. There will be a still only camera in the Nano and there is potential for a touchscreen here too, a mini Touch/iPhone if you will but I waffle on that.
3. The Shuffle is probably not going to change; if for possibly more storage and/or colour options.
4. A distinct possibly we will see the end of life for the hard drive based Classic iPod.
5. iTunes 9.0 will be announced for general availability. Includes social hooks to Facebook, Lastfm, Twitter.
6. The Beatles will finally arrive on iTunes. Beatle(s) on stage is a possibility. They did show up for Microsoft and Rock Band. Which also arrives on 9/9/09. A CD set of Beatles music is also set to drop soon. Might be Beatles overload including preloaded iPod special editions.
7. We will probably hear something about Project Cocktail, an attempt to return the art of music cover art digitally. If it does happen the Beatles will be a showcase for it.
8. iPhone users in the US might finally get MMS, but probably not the same day. AT&T has three weeks to meet their end of summer promise regarding enabling MMS and tethering options. (Update: MMS will be ready September 25th)
9. Finally iPhone and Touch users should expect OS version 3.1 sooner then later.

There will be no tablet, make no mistake I want to see one, or Jobs as I postulated above. Again all of my thoughts here are in fun speculation, I have no direct sources. Further predictions of the future sees the return of Steve and the computer of tomorrow in January and/or moved off to WWDC.

Regardless of what comes to be I’ll write a follow-up next Wednesday to and we can point at what I got wrong or didn’t anticipate. Apple is nothing if not great at delivering the unexpected with great flourish.

Predictions, disagreements, comments?

Posted via email from hxf148′s posterous

Posted via email from hxf148′s posterous

Personally I don’t think the Apple Tablet will be a larger iPhone/Touch styled device. I think to look at it will give you more sense of an Apple Computer proper. That is to think of a strong aluminum frame with lines like a Macbook then giving over to the curved black backing of an iMac, minus the hard edges. Not unlike the iPhone really but an with an air of difference. I also think this device will work with Bluetooth keyboards and mice and it will run a nearly complete build of OSX, with a switch mode for the Touch OS. My last possibly wishful prediction is that while having a capacitive touch screen, it will also work and write well with a pen accessory.

In the not too distant future all these images will be novel but I’ve included a few for fun them for being fun. An image search for Apple Tablet patents gives lots of ideas for our pad computer future, beginning or announced sometime in September hopefully.

Which I guess makes sense if it doesn’t know the last heard position from the phone at all.

I’ve seen this bug before, earlier then 2.2.1 I think. It was not in any of the OS 3.0 beta builds. I am now running a 3GS with a restore/backup carried from my 3G.

Hopefully it will be fixed soon. I’ve tried different ways to reset the sync without luck. I’d be interested to know if anyone else is having similar issues? Some searching of Twitter and Google reveals some hints that I am not an isolated case.

As a possibly related aside I have also noticed that if I delete an app from the phone, it continues to exists in iTunes. When I download the app again and sync, the app is removed from the phone.

Checking the app manually in the Applications tab works around that one.

(Posted in Apple’s Forums)

I am thinking specifically about Gmail here of course as some services like Yahoo already support push over IMAP. Blackberry’s have RIM’s push technology and I think even Microsoft’s Live supports a form of instant notification.

But that does not work for me. Specifically I want Gmail (on an IPhone) to support push over IMAP but recently when they opened access to push Calendar and Contacts they did not include the feature for email. It’s very likely they will sooner then later but here’s a quick solution that has been working very well for me.

First note that you will probably want unlimited incoming SMS. A standard feature with Rogers in Canada but you situation may vary. The actual setup is extremely simple, head into your  email service settings and forward a copy of all incoming email or a filtered subset of them to your phone’s SMS email address. For Rogers the address is [your-ten-digit-phone-number]@pcs.rogers.com. Check with your carrier for their specific setup.

Once your forward is set, you are essentially done.

When you receive an incoming email, a copy will be sent out to your phone in the form of an SMS. On Rogers you don’t actually receive the email text initially but the notification message does include the senders email address and an option to reply with “Read” to get the actual message over SMS if desired.

I don’t.

I simply start up the mail application on my phone and download the message normally. A secondary tip here is that your email does not have to be checking for new mail at any interval. I set mine for manual checking and save a decent amount of battery life because of it.

In my experience with Rogers the SMS is fast. Usually coming in a second or two before or after the email actually arrives at Gmail. One potential downside is having to delete the SMS notifications from your application. If you receive a large volume of email per day this setup might not be ideal.

I’ve been using this method for about three months and until Google turns on push notification I’ll be sticking with it.

It’s great to be so excited about a movie again but May 8th cannot get here fast enough. Really, I need a IRL plot device to fling me into the future.

In case that you too might be digging on Star Trek I’ve put together some of the things that I found this week; including wallpaper images, apps, screen savers, official links, comics and other Trekker goodness.

Some of this is centric to the iPhone, which of course is the best Tricorder, and like Kirk, Spock and Bones I don’t go anywhere without it.

• System47 Best LCARS screen saver (Mac/Win)
• Star Trek (official web site)

It might be completely weird to you but I’ve got a whole page of Star Trek apps going.

• Star Trek Phaser (official app)
• Daxhotel, complete episode guide for all incarnations with images.
• iLCARS, spoof Triocoder app with animations and sound
• Star Trek Wisdom, quotations
• Trek Clock, show the time with ST inspired fonts
• ST: Countdown, a prequel comic in digital form
• ST: Archives, a collection of Trek comics also in digital form

Wallpaper:

This week Apple surprised most everyone with a new beta release for 3.0. I had been expecting that they might deliver an update before June but not this quickly. I’m impressed and hoping that it means we’ll see a beta 3 and/or beta 4 heading into the WWDC in early June.

You can read over what I thought of the first beta release before continuing.

The most welcome change with the latest beta is that throughout the OS things are faster and more stable. Not quite to 2.2.1 levels but the improvement is apparent from first touch.

I’ve still had issues with Safari’s interface slowing to a crawl when JavaScript and/or video loading is involved. iTunes is still cranky at times and is quite capable of crashing.  A major issue that I saw with iTunes is that it appears to not be able to load Audible books. They still sync to the phone from iTunes as normal but the audio book section of the player will not show the books for playing.

Being right in the middle of a book (The Wheel of Time) I was aghast and resorted to buying a second copy via the iTunes store and happily that one syncs/shows/plays without issue. Audible file playback/organization has always been a weak point on the iPhone and I hope that being disabled or broken right now is apart of making things better for the final release.

One other odd issue with iTunes is that sometimes content will not play in the background. Rebooting the phone fixes this and it happens rarely.

Maps, particularly directions where things were crashing, locking up and generally being unreliable have been addressed. The app is now quick to load and smooth to use.

There is still sometimes a bit of lag heading in and out of the new Spotlight search but the results appear to be faster to load.

Mail is more stable and does not suffer drastic slowdowns and freezes. But there are still issues that keep it from being as reliable as one would expect.

Application organization is still a huge pain but on the brighter side Apple appears to have added two extra pages for applications. Bringing the total installable app count up to 176.

Beta 2 also introduces some third party application instabilities. I noticed it mostly when trying to play Wolf3D. Where Beta 1 offered no issues Beta 2 causes a crash/loss of progress every time it’s played.

I’ve noticed also that updates to the base band or some low level identifier is causing problems. I’ve had issues with Blizzard’s new authenticator and BeeJive with its anti-piracy measures both being confused by new values.

Overall this update demonstrates that Apple is working very hard to release a solid update in June and despite minor annoyances and a semi daily reboot routine (reminds me fondly of the old days and Windows Mobile) things are shaping up quickly for developers diving into things like push notification.

Myself, I finally picked up a proper book in The iPhone Developers Cookbook and am looking forward to the iPhone 3.0 OS not only as an end user but for the push to finally get something of my own up in the store this summer.

There is definitely a big of OS slow down in a few areas; Settings are slow to load. The Network option in particular takes a long time to load. The iPod application is slow loading and things have been a bit shaky while the lock screen control are perfect. A surprising gui error shows up if you delete a Podcast completely. When you go back to the main listing the deleted podcast’s cover art is still present but it has taken over the next postcast in the list, knocking all the covers down one place in the list and so out of sync with the titles. Restarting the app fixes the issue but I’ve still submitted it as a bug.

While most of the built in stuff is not crashing and just slower, Maps presented some serious fails when attempting to route locally and the gps dot is broken somewhat. I had to use another app (Where to?) to launch Maps and get away from a locked up attempt at directions. The app would crash and restarting just brings you back to the same state. The GPS dot jumped wildly when the map was moved around.  Google may be transitioning the app given the new programming interfaces announced and possibly it will clear up with server side adjustments.

Moving applications around and being in that mode is generally feeling sluggish and so even more annoying to use. Even so there is a lot to really be excited about, the Calculator launches noticeably faster for example. Even better page rendering and manipulation in Safari could be faster and more stable. New features like Cut/Copy/Paste are solid, it’s takes a minute or so to get the hang of it but once you do it’s full speed ahead. Such a simple thing but having the ability is a tremendous boom to productivity. Already I have used it to cut text and photos out of Safari for email and notes. If this was the only update in the OS I would be fairly satisfied.

The new Spotlight search page (specially animated left of swipe of your first application page) appears to be working great. There can be a bit of stutter/slowdown when you first swipe into it but the search is already fast and accurate. I can see that there is improvement to be done overall but it’s a great new feature to have now. Ascetically it might be just me but I am not sure I love the cramped feeling rounded results view. Being able to search everywhere for anything is a nice thing.

Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP) works but after initially working very well I notice that it stutters a lot when using the phone and was putting the sound out of sync in videos. The sound when you put the phone down and just listen is clear and full.  One thing that does appear to be missing is support for Play/Stop/Back/Next. I’ve tested two devices a Jabbra (BT320s) and Motorola (S805) and while both can control the volume (you have to), neither could control the playback.

The Bluetooth stuttering might be related to what I think is a memory leak or a rogue persistent process. The phone has been running much hotter then usual and appears to be using more memory. I even wonder if the locked test mode Apple said was apart of this release is running aggressive debug and logging processes. As a guess, when the OS is released this Summer it’s not going to exhibit any sign of the the current slowness.

A few other things:
-Battery Life might be even better overall but horrible using BT, I am still testing.
-MMS does not work without carrier support or specificly a MMS plan, looking into that.
-Curiously an application I hid (Stocks) with a previous Jailbreak install still has not surfaced with multiple restores and new OS installs.

Overall there is a general sense of forward progression in OS 3.0 and I think it’s going to be a great summer for Apple products running it.

To keep it straight in my head actually takes a little thinking sometimes so I thought I’d write it down.

Since at least the 2.2 iPhone update MobileMe has been performing very well. Contacts and multiple Calendars have synced flawlessly and even the push email notification has been solidly reliable. Which is to say that I have been very happy with Apple’s sync/cloud service.

So yes MobileMe keeps my Contacts and Calendar in sync online at me.com, on my iPhone and within iCal and Address Book on my iMac. My me.com email is also kept in harmony via the Mail.app, online and the iPhone, using typical IMAP protocols. More on the email setup below.

But Google is where I really live and work and after a little bit of effort I’ve gotten everything to play nicely. The key element in my syncing setup is my iMac where an application called Spanning Sync keeps my Google calendars synced with iCal; changes made locally or online at Google are detected and updated by Spanning Sync then the MobileMe utility carries iCal updates out to the web and iPhone.

Syncing Contacts locally is actually a little easier now that Apple’s Address Book supports syncing with Google Contacts. Again changes are made locally or online and are quickly picked up by MobileMe when it does it’s update cycle.

Email is a little different using IMAP locally in Mail.app for both MobileMe and Gmail. Google nicely allows you to forward out all email and that’s what I do, sending everything over to my me.com address so that I can take advantage of Apple’s push to device option. This is actually not ideal because items marked as read on my iPhone have to be remarked in my Gmail account. Also in order to have email sent from my iPhone appear to be sent from @gmail.com the setup for outgoing email on the phone uses gmail’s SMTP server rather then the supplied me.com address. I wrote about doing that some time ago here.

It’s possible that when Google adds push email to their sync setup that I will rethink how I sync, possibly even ditiching MobileMe completly but for now I am sticking with things as I have them. I have been considering adding back syncing everything over to my home Windows machine but as it usually stills idle and off these days there has been no pressing need.

In Sync Summary:

Local-> Address Book (native sync), iCal (Spanning Sync), Mail.app (IMAP)
Online-> MobileMe (Contacts, Calendar, Mail), Gmail (Contacts, Calendar, Mail)
iPhone-> Push Email via MobleMe with a Gmail Forward and SMTP

Fizz Weather – Really nice looking and accurate weather for multiple days, locations. Includes a feature to show airport delays.
Facebook – The 2.0 version is actually very good but it does crash and not work sometimes.
BeejiveIM – Best multi IM client. Also the most expensive.
Twinkle – Better then all others for the local tweets option. Needs themes, archives.

Overall the Apple native applications are great, though they are a little prone to crashing. The App Store, Browser and iTunes apps have crashed a lot more then I would like. Usually a hard reset of the phone gets things under control. Remote is by far the most innovative when paired with an Apple TV.

Continue on to see what I thought of the applications that made it by staying on my phone above all others.

Entertainment

Tuner – Internet Radio, lets you add your own stations.
Podcaster – Works very well for streaming podcasts.
midomi – Identify music you hear, sing, hum or speak.
Simplify – Stream your music from your home/work computers.
Last.fm – Discover new music.
Stitcher – Wide variety of Internet Radio beyond music.
Truveo – YouTube content search.
Movies – Local theater movie times, also dvd releases.
What’s On? – Nicely made television channel guide.
i.TV – Well integrated and featured movie, theater and tv listings.
TV Forecast – See a next air date for a listing of favorite shows.
Evernote – Create written notes and sync automatically across the web, phones and computers.
Summizer – Search what people are saying on Twitter and includes trending topics.
WordPress – Full control to post and edit a WordPress blog.

Reference

GiPosition – See your location on a map and send it out via email.
AroundMe – Find what you are looking for in your local area.
GPS Tracker – Upload your location to the web. Has a Facebook application.
BackTrack – Mark a trail/start location and find your way back to it.
SoLuna- Tracks the phases of the moon.
SportsTap – Find any score, find out what happened and read stats.
Starmap – Zooming map of the sky with direction finder and ability to change brightness.
Feeds – Well made RSS reader.
Cocktails – Make any drink provided you have the ingredients.
TimmyMe – Find the nearest five TIm Hortons to your location.
GrandeGetter – Find the nearest Starbucks to your location.
Wikipanion – Wikipedia search.
WikiMe – Lists articles related to your current location.
WorldWiki – Information about every country.
NewsCanada – Canadian oriented news portal.
Traffic CA – View public traffic cameras in your area.

Utility

CheckPlease – Functional tip calculator with good features.
Grocery G – Create and reuse lists for mutliple occasions.
Countdown – Breaks down time left before for approaching dates.
Morse-it – Transmit and translate Morse Code.
Clinometer – Find your center.
Units – Convert any unit or currency quickly.
Level – Impress your Grandfather with your delicate level, includes ruler.
Carpenter – Set of tools used in house renovation and construction.
Protractor – Take a photo of an angle then measure it.
ScaleRule – Engineering tool used in building large structures.
TapeMeasure – Find the liner distance between two points.
Dimensions – A feature packed animated tool set including most of the above.
TnL – Measure how far away a thunder storm is from your location.
myLite – Basic flashlight application.
1st Response – Reference guide for common emergencies.

Network

AirSharing – Make your iPhone a network accessible drive.
Jaadu – Excellent VNC client.
NetShare – Share your iPhone’s internet connection as a socks server.
FTPOnTheGo – Well featured ftp client with ability to edit files.
Telnet – Functional Telnet client.
iNetworkTest – Find out network speed and characteristics.
TouchTerm – Full featured SSH client.
iMy – Connect, query and manage mySQL servers.
WiFinder – Shows you all nearby WiFi including encryption type. Click to connect.
Net Utility – Whois and other domain/network tools.
Air Mouse – Use your iPhone as a touch pad mouse for any computer.
fring – Multiple IM client with VoIP, including Skype.
Google – Google search app for web and phone.
PHP Ref – All the php functions in an easy search/browse format.
jfControl – Gives functional control of your PC to your iPhone.
Firemail – Type your emails in landscape mode.

Games

Tris – Tetris
Crash Kart – Well executed racing game.
iGolf – Unimpressive swing simulator.
Par 72 Golf – Rough.
Spore – Somewhat old quickly.
Dice – Roll your own 3d dice.
Enigmo – Very fun physics game.
MissleCmnd – Includes original and updated versions. Fun.
Summit – Odd, possibly fun.
300 Bowl – As entertaining and finger bowling goes.
2 Across – Download new puzzles daily.
CrossMaster – Help complete difficult puzzles.
Characters – Complete player profiles for the World of Warcraft.
PAC-MAN lite – Very good implementation.
Planet – Watch the major planets and track their orbits through the years.

Miscellaneous

Sketches – Feature rich sketch/drawing program.
PanoLab – Create complex photo panoramas.
Voyuer – Watch the Flickr public feed in real time.
TalkBubbles – Put word balloons into photos.
Picoli – Do basic photo editing on device.
Fireplace – Animated fireplace with sound.
SonicLighter – Lighter flame reacts to mic sound and waves with device.
Alarm Free – Simple red alert klaxon with siren.
FriendSync – Sync your contact photos with Facebook.
Snip – Search and shop Amazon.com or local Amazon.
Banner Free – Simulates a scrolling LED banner.
iFitness – Search and browse different exercises with photo illustration.
Deliveries – Track any package from any company with tracking services.

Sound

French – Lingolook phrase book with spoken audio translation.
imZeus – Make thunder and lightning.
Cowbell Plus – Bring more.
Whip – Swing and crack a whip.
Lightsaber – Pretend you are not a Jedi yet.
AnimalZoo – Assorted animal sounds.
Pianist – Full piano simulator with many features.
PocketGuitar – Pick strings.
Halloween Party – Assorted sounds of the season.
MindWave – Listen to low frequency sound to abate stress, pain and mood.
Ambiance – Listen to the background sounds of nature or city.
aSleep – Listen to sleep oriented sound and music, with sleep timer.
Annoyance – Various annoying sounds to annoy.
Tricorder – Makes your iPhone a passable prop.
SpectroWalls – Create a spectrograph from the sounds around your and screen shot the results.
Bloom – Make music and sound with simple taps or let the app evolve new tones.

Scratch

RotaryDialer – Very life like and functional rotary dialer.
Koi Pond – Keep fish in your pocket. Water and fish react to touch. Shake to feed.
SpinTheBottle – Artfully made, spin the bottle with a finger.
HypnoPac – Fun toy to distract.
NameTag – Turn your iPhone into a high res place with your name on it.
OvuCalendar – Full featured calendar application to track cycles.
My Wedding – A full checklist for planning an upcoming wedding.
GenderDetect – Attempts to predict the sex of a baby based on inputs.
Baby Gender – Same as above, rarely agrees.
Names – Pulls from census data and is designed for authors when creating characters.
BabyNames – Names for boys and girls with simple definitions and name origins.
NamePicker – Same as above with ability to bookmark favorites.
Roman – Convert any number to Roman numerals and back.
iChalky – A accelerometer and physics aware stick figure drawn in chalk.

I have had to Restore and or delete/resync all 3rd party Applications twice since 2.0.1. My problem is known according to searchs. Apps start and run for a second then exit. If you are lucky a hard reset will fix this issue and you are ok. My experience since 2.0.1 has been that more drastic time consuming measures are needed as outlined above.

There was a commonality surrounding both incedents. I think that the Twitter client Tinkle and failed attempts to query my location followed by a hard reset created the situation. Right after Twinkle breaking down the map app can no longer get any sort of fix.

If the issue reoccurs it will not be Twinkles fault. It and many others were deleted completely in tonights restore,sync,setup drill. I will say that short of having to XML hack the disable backup button. The process is maybe a little neater then formatting Microsoft or RIM devices if I was looking for something good to say.

Which is not a good thing. My Apple IPhone experience has been a kin to my Windows Mobile since 2003 and more recent Blackberry OS adventures.

Things are more awkward and painful then expected. Apple really said something when indicating copy/paste was low priority; there are major bugs and issues yet to be solved in it’s micro-computer code platform.

Written from an iPhone.

I did however want the @me.com Push feature. So simple enough I setup a forward from my gmail account and things worked. The problems started when I realized I couldn’t set the iPhone to use a default email address, I couldn’t even change it until I added my gmail account to the phone.

This sort of solved the problem; I could now select gmail as a From address though the idea of doing that for every reply was not a fun thought. A secondary problem created by this was that I now received every email twice. Even with the gmail account set to Manual Fetch it still checked it when I whenever I went into the Mail app.

So I would get an @me.com Push alert, then when checking that account,  the gmail account triggers a fetch and I get the email/buzz/tone again before I even got to see it once. Major annoyance and waste of battery.

My next experiment was to try and disable the gmail account but not delete it. This didn’t solve the problem as now  the disabled account is not a From option. Frustrated I was thinking of resorting to archiving all email incoming to my gmail inbox. But then I finally came across the hint of good solution.

The trick is to set the @me.com account to use gmail’s SMTP server. I set this in Account Info for MobileMe. Even better then just utilizing gmail’s SMTP server it can be used even if the gmail account itself is disabled. This solved both the problem of receiving duplicate emails as well as setting a default From address other then @me.com

Note: Once the above is set when replying to or creating emails via your @me.com account  on the phone it will possibly still say From: youraddress@me.com in the gui but because your email will be relayed through smtp.gmail.com the from address your recipient will see is your @gmail.com address.

Simple elegant solution hidden under ninja configuration.

I really like it.

1) Copy & Paste …(Care)
2) Mass Storage Mode …(Care)
3) Flash …(Sorta Care)
4) Java Support …(Care)
5) MMS …(Don’t Care)
6) Themes …(Sorta Care)
7) Micro SDHC Support …(Care)
OBEX …(Care)
9) Pin Messaging …(Don’t Care Yet)
10) A2DP …(Sorta Care)
11) Spell Check …(Kinda Need)
12) True Multi-Tasking …(Big Care)
13) Speed Dial …(Don’t Care)
14) Autotext …(Sorta Care)
15) Full Qwerty Keyboard …(Yes)
16) High Level Security …(Sorta Care)
17)Tethering (Care on 3G)
18)Video (Sorta Care)

9 Care
6 Sorta Care
3 Don’t Care

I think the iPhone is an amazing device; the large high-res screen and the best audio/video solution with rock solid browsing (now with 3G) is very attractive regardless of other stated shortcomings. The touch screen and accelerometer offer something different and interesting while the Apple controlled app store offers promise of amazing software.

Then with that short amount said I think for now I am going to stick with Blackberry. I am going to take value in the things I do want most and do already and are decidedly to my benefit.

The Blackberry has made a big impact on how I conduct my work, more so then any other small device has in the past. I am excited to think about even more the uses for a 624Mhz 3G phone –including putting in down for tethering. Also, having a large full hardware keyboard is something that I just need for what I need to be writing, scripting or problem solving on the move.

The Blackberry Bold is currently the best tool for the job and I look forward to meeting one sooner then later, hopefully later this month.

So things to look forward to post this current decision face off:

• The forthcoming Blackberry Thunder (large touch screen..kb unknown)
• Will Apple release a carrier unlocked 32gig iPhone for sale this year.