August 24, 2008
A while back, I did a review of the Guitar Toolkit on one of my other blogs. In order to have a accurate review, I needed screenshots to show my readers how the interface looked. In past experiences with hand held devices, I have had to use 3rd party screenshot solutions that usually cost money. I was afraid that this would be the same story for my iPhone but luckily I was wrong.
To create a screenshot of you iPhone’s display, press the sleep/wake and the home button at the same time. A white flash will appear and then your display comes back to normal. You will find your pictures in the camera roll or your can explore the iPhone’s storage while it’s connected to your computer. I found the screenshots within the DCIM folder and they were in .PNG format. This will also come in handy when I have to start creating tutorials for my clients. Hope it helps you!
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August 18, 2008
Just got notice from iTunes that there is a new update for the iPhone, version 2.0.2. Once again, we are told that it fixes misc bugs that 2.0.1 didn’t address or created. Anyway, after updating my 3G iPhone, I can tell you one bug that it fixed. In an earlier post, I wrote about how my Jawbone would not re-pair with my iPhone unless I totally deleted the pairing and started from scratch. Needless to say it left my rather expensive accessory useless. Until now.
After my install of 2.0.2, the first thing that that I tried was to use my Jawbone
. This time I had success! Thanks to the update, I can now use it without worry. Obviously the 2.0.2 update contained a bug fix with bluetooth. What other fixes have you noticed with this upgrade?
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August 12, 2008
So I’ve had my iPhone 3G for a week and a couple of days ago a got the new Jawbone for it. Besides the obvious issue of my battery life reducing a bit, my main issue with the iPhone and the Jawbone is the pairing and keeping them paired.
Problem: I unboxed my Jawbone, paired the two immediately and all was well, until I separated the two devices. I didn’t need the Jawbone so I left it in my car and turned off the Bluetooth on the iPhone to conserve battery. When I tried to bring the two back together, they would not reconnect. I turned the jawbone off and on, over and over again with no luck. Did the same with the Bluetooth function as well. The only way that I could get them to connect was to delete the pairing on the iPhone and to re-pair them by holding the Noise Assassin button and the talk button at the same time. Of course this isn’t not acceptable.
Solution: None yet but I have emailed Jawbone and am waiting for a response and will keep you posted. But I’m thinking that I might get an answer quicker by asking all of you for help. So if you have an idea on what is wrong or have something for me to try, please leave a comment.
Update: (8.18.08) - I just updated my iPhone to version 2.0.2 and now my Jawbone is working properly. I never heard from support which makes me hope that will never need help from them again.
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August 6, 2008
Connected my iPhone to my computer and found that there is a new update to the iPhone software, version 2.0.1 which is supposed to address the bugs with the 2.0 software. I decided to download and install, hoping that the same issues won’t appear as when I upgraded to 2.0. It’s a 250 MB download, so I’m thinking that it just reinstalls the entire firmware instead of patching it. The update took about 10 minutes but for some reason, it had to re-sync my pictures with the iPhone. I have about four thousand pictures so that took quite a while. I don’t have any music on my phone yet but I assume it might have to re-sync that as well.
All-in-all, the update went well and don’t see much of a difference as of yet. When you update, be sure that you have 30 minutes or so, of free time to do it. Don’t even attempt if you are going to be heading out the door soon. That is just inviting trouble.
Update(8.6.08) - Updated my iTouch without any issues as well.
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August 5, 2008
With little fanfare, my 3G iPhone arrived yesterday after being on back order for the last two weeks. Not saying I wasn’t glad to get it but after reading many reviews, it didn’t seem like it was going to be much of an upgrade from my current 1st Gen iPhone.
First Impression:
I like the new plastic backing, it feels good in the hand and I’m not afraid that it’s going to slip out of my hand like the 1st Gen. With a lack of a dock, cheaper looking power supply and a lower quality cleaning cloth, it was evident Apple skimped on the accessories, which was a bit disappointing. Transfer from the old iPhone to the new one was a snap. I put my existing SIM card in, connected the phone to iTunes and restored from backup. Within fifteen minutes I was good to go, which was a much better than my upgrade to 2.0 experience.
Other Observations:
- GPS: Love it, and it’s obviously more accurate than the previous method of triangulation. I’m excited for the programs to come that will utilize the GPS and hopefully Apple and AT&T will let a turn-by-tun app come our way. The speakers seemed to be a better quality as well.
- Speakers: I played my Pandora app and streamed a few tunes and there was a vast improvement in clarity and volume.
- 3G: If you can get it, I hear it’s faster but in Colorado Springs, the 3G network is spotty at best and I find myself hoping that I don’t connect on the 3G network because the signal is always weak. I’ve only had a handful of dropped calls in the city and two of them was because I was connected on 3G.
- Battery life: I have heard nightmare stories of the battery lasting only a few hours but I have yet to experience this. It is a bit less than my other iPhone but we must remember that the batter needs to be broken in a bit. Also, with all these apps, GPS, email, etc…, you are going to have a short life. It will also help to practice responsible iPhone habits to help battery life. I still think that if Apple really wants enterprise environments to use the iPhone, they will need to give us a method of changing the battery ourselves.
Final Thoughts:
Is this upgrade worth it for an existing iPhone user? I don’t think so. There isn’t enough “new stuff” to warrant the upgrade. Obviously, many have disagreed because a lot of the 3G users out there now were 1st Gen. I think some of that is because there are some are selling their 1st Gen iPhone for pretty decent money and using the proceeds to get the 3G. This is still the best phone I have ever used and with the Exchange push/pull support, I’m even more impressed with it; another good step in the evolution of this device. Hopefully, copy/paste and the ability of deleting multiple contacts will be in future upgrades.
9.16.08: I just realized that the iPhone 3G does not work with my BOSE SoudDock system. I get a “Charging is not supported with this device” error. If I try to play music, it comes out of the iPhone’s speakers. This doesn’t matter too much too me because I have a couple of iPods I can use instead. I wonder if this is the same issue with the new iTouch’s.
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