Category: Apple

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Hey AT&T! Summer is almost over! Where is my MMS?

MMS-sendingErikBernskiold

For the Northern Hemisphere, as in the United States, Canada and most of Europe, Fall begins on September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT.

AT&T promised us that we would have MMS messaging for the iPhone this "Summer".  Although AT&T did recently announce that MMS is coming on September 25th (3 days after summer officially ends), there is still no word on Tethering support (which was given no timeline at all except for "in the Future").

I’m not a fan of AT&T nor do I hate them. I’ve had AT&T service for years before the iPhone. However, I’m starting to see WHY so many people complain about their service. The mere mention of AT&T in a public setting will usually get you a few glares and eye rolls.

We can speculate and take AT&T at their word that in order to allow for iPhones to do MMS, they had to do some network upgrades. However, the odd thing is that MMS is hardly new technology. All other AT&T phones can do this and have been doing this for years. Tethering is also not a new thing. Again, other AT&T smart phones can do this. What this really says is that although AT&T allows both MMS and Tethering on other phones, these features must either be rarely used by non-iPhone users or that they are so hard to do on other phones that most people don’t ever use these features. So it was OK to offer these features with the existing network to non-iPhone users because they couldn’t handle the traffic. Studies have shown that because the iPhone is so easy to use that 80% or more iPhone users do web browsing and email REGULARLY on their iPhones. So it’s a sure bet that iPhone users will also be using MMS too!

Note to AT&T: Advertising that you have the biggest, fastest 3G network doesn’t really mean much if you can’t actually do anything on it!

We all know that the minute Apple announces iPhone availability on another US carrier such as Verizon, that they will see an immediate increase in market share especially from those hold outs that have refused to go on AT&T’s service. Now what will really be interesting is how many people will LEAVE AT&T to go to Verizon for their iPhone service?

 

 

 
 
 

UPDATE: Seth, the AT&T Blogger responds!

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What I want in an Apple Tablet/Netbook

Rumors have been swirling for years that Apple is working on a tablet device. To be honest, the thought of a tablet computer has never really excited me. Sure, it would be nice to have a device to walk around the house with and do internet stuff with. However, I think I would be frustrated the first time I went to go do something and I couldn’t because it wasn’t a real computer.

  Continue reading “What I want in an Apple Tablet/Netbook”

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A Weekend with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

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My copy of Snow Leopard (Family Pack) arrived via FedEx Friday afternoon and since I had already done a clone backup using SuperDuper and of course I stay backed up with Time Machine too.  I was ready to install the minute I opened the package. As with most Mac OS X  installs the package contained the installation DVD and simple brochure that covered the basic installation steps and the top new features.

 

Installing

The Snow Leopard Installer was quite different than the Leopard installer. I expected to get to choose between an Upgrade and Archive and Install and the next thing I know, it was installing and I never saw the usual options. So I canceled it! Yep, I stopped the installation a few minutes after it got started because I wanted to verify some options. Good thing I did, because there are some defaults you need to be aware of. The first thing is that Rosetta is no longer installed by default. Rosetta is Apple’s technology to run non-intel native apps (apps built for PowerPC) on an intel Mac. While most people are probably OK here, I have a couple of apps that aren’t Intel native. Quicken comes to mind. Now the good news here is that reports say that if you didn’t install Rosetta and you try to run an app that needs it, Mac OS X will offer to install it right then and there via the Software Update utility. However, I just thought that since it only takes a few megabytes, why not at least alert the user and give them the option to install it without the user having to know to enable it it via the Customize feature? 

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I still never got a chance to choose Archive and Install over Upgrade, but that OK since it appears that Snow Leopard (SL) now does an Archive and Install by default. This is good as I wanted to do this option to hopefully clear up a few weird issues I was having with Leopard (see "What got fixed" later). The installation took somewhere between 40-60 minutes on each of my Macs.

Installing it on my MacBook Air – When I bought the MacBook Air for home/family use, I also bought the external Super Drive. However, I purposely didn’t open it. I still have it in the original shrinkwrap. I wanted to see if Apple’s claims were true and that I could get by with a Mac with no optical drive. So far I have been doing just fine without it. However, this was the first major OS upgrade that I’ve had since getting the MacBook Air last year and I still wanted to see if I could do this without opening that Super Drive. So I put the Snow Leopard DVD in one of my iMacs and enabled CD/DVD sharing. I clicked on Remote Disc on the MacBook Air and within a few seconds I was installing Snow Leopard on the MacBook Air. It worked perfectly and the Super Drive is still in the shrinkwrap.

  Continue reading “A Weekend with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard”

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Last day to get the Navigon GPS iPhone app for $69.99

Attention Shoppers! I just wanted to remind you that today (August 31, 2009) is the last day to save $30 on the Navigon Turn-by-Turn GPS app for the iPhone. Today it’s $69.99. After today the price goes up to $99.99 (according to Navigon). The Navigon GPS App is available here from the App Store.

UPDATE: The Navigon app did go up, but only to $89.99. I guess they still want to be cheaper than TomTom.

You can see my Navigon App Review here. Also here is my Tom Tom App Review in case you missed it. Also the Vent Mount that I use to mount my iPhone 3GS is reviewed here.

 

A Nice Comparison of 4 GPS Apps for the iPhone

I thought Mike over at Insanely Great Mac did a nice job in telling you about his likes and dislikes comparing the 4 most popular GPS apps (AT&T, Navigon, Tom Tom and G-Map) for the iPhone. See his video comparison below:

 

 

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iPhone App of the Week – Delivery Status

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As you might imagine I do a lot of shopping online and therefore receive a lot of packages. In most cases they are shipped via FedEx, UPS or USPS. Also in most cases I’ll get an email with the tracking number. Prior to iPhone OS 3.0 I was not really interested in Package Tracking apps because I didn’t want to have to enter long tracking numbers manually. Now that the iPhone has Copy and Paste I went in search of a good package tracking app. When I get an email with a tracking number I can simply copy it right out of the email and paste it in the Delivery Status app.

 

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Delivery Status exceeded my expectations!

I was already using the FedEx mobile app. However, I wanted something that would track UPS shipments too. When I found Delivery Status, I was blown away. This is definitely one of if not the best package trackers out there for the iPhone. You can track packages from over 40 shipping companies/vendors!

Continue reading “iPhone App of the Week – Delivery Status”

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Snow Leopard is Coming this Friday! Well……?

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Apple has announced that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is shipping this Friday! As you might have guessed, I’ve already got my copy on order. While I’m sure I could go ahead and install a developer release GM copy right now. I kinda like to wait for the real deal disc. Also in this case I’m really not in any real hurry.

 

Snow Leopard is a different kind of upgrade

Each full version of Mac OS X is usually packed with hundreds of new features and enhancements. However, this time around Apple chose to basically make what was already good about Mac OS X, better with the much needed under the hood improvements to give us great 64 bit support and speed. This is also reflected in the upgrade price. If you’re a Leopard user the cost of upgrading (for the OS) is only $29 ($49 for the Family Pack) this time around. I am looking forward to one major new thing and that is the native support for MS Exchange 2007. We use Exchange servers at work for email, calendar, etc. and currently I have to use MS Entourage for work stuff. I’d love to be able to ditch Entourage and just use Mail, iCal and Address Book for everything. Looks like that day will come soon. So I’m very excited about that and of course who can complain about things working faster?

  Continue reading “Snow Leopard is Coming this Friday! Well……?”

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iPhone App of the Week – TomTom

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One of the most anticipated 3rd party apps for the iPhone is here! A few weeks back I reviewed the first full featured turn-by-turn stand alone navigation app for the iPhone – the Navigon App. See that review here. Navigon kinda stole TomTom's thunder a little by being first to market. However, before I passed judgement (and recommend it) I wanted to see the TomTom app. 

First off, like I said in my last review, I had no idea how much these apps were going to cost but the $69.99 introductory price seemed high to me. Well now that price seems like a bargain! The TomTom app came out at the full $99.99 price for the US/Canada version. I'm going to put aside the price right now and concentrate on the features of the app. We'll get back to the price at the end.

 

It works!

The TomTom app performs as I would have expected it to. The apps starts up a little slower than the Navigon app, but otherwise is very snappy. I must say that I like the layout and number of options in the TomTom app menus over that of the Navigon app. Also Navigon has an annoying habit of using really small fonts, the TomTom screens are very easy to read. 

TomTom1

Points of Interest (POIs) also load very very quickly. I was stunned by the number of voices available in this app. You can have just about any voice you want including several just in the US language alone both male and female. No custom voices though.

 

See it in action

Rather than trying to explain how the app works, I recorded this video of a live demo of the TomTom app. Check it out. Caution: some parts are shaky. 

 

  Continue reading “iPhone App of the Week – TomTom”

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iPhone App of the Week – iWrecked

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This is one of those apps that you should have, but hope you never have to use. Having been in a few auto accidents in the past myself, I know how much of a daze you can be in even if you’re physically OK. If the police come, you’re all set as they’ll make a report. However, if it’s a minor fender bender, then you may be on your own to collect all the details for your insurance claim.

iwrecked

That’s where iWrecked comes in

This app aims to be the data collection point for all the relative information regarding your accident. It prompts you to enter the information that you may not be thinking about at the moment. Since your iPhone is also a camera, you can even insert the pictures you take. Also don’t forget to take pictures of the road conditions and surrounding area. There is an Emergency Call area to call 911, towing in the area you’re in via Google Maps and for a Taxi.

iwrecked1 iwrecked2

Once you complete the accident report you can preview it and then send it via email in PDF format.

Continue reading “iPhone App of the Week – iWrecked”

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iPhone App of the Week – MeetMe

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One of the apps I had been looking for was an App that would find the mid-point between two people for meetings. One of my blog readers pointed me to Midway, which was my iPhone App of the Week a couple of months ago. I really like Midway, however the one thing it was missing was the ability to enter a manual address. Well now I’ve found a new App called MeetMe that works just the way I want it to.

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HyperMac External MacBook Battery Review

hypermac

Now that Apple has increased the number of MacBook models where the user is not able to change the battery, external battery options are more important than ever. No matter how long the battery lasts inside your MacBook Pro, chances are you’re going to encounter a situation where it’s not long enough. This is where the HyperMac External Batteries come in.

I’m planning a trip later this month that will involve a 6 hour flight and I want the option of using my MacBook Pro as much as possible. I don’t have the most current model with the sealed battery, but even with two batteries, it won’t be enough for this trip. So I was intrigued by the HyperMac offerings.

Rather than trying to put this review into words, I recorded this video explaining how the product works along with the results of my "worse case scenario test":

 

 

The Bottom Line

The HyperMac solution is definitely worth it if you need to get longer than a few hours of portable use out of your MacBook. If you have one of the newer MacBook products with a sealed battery, then this solution can be even more of a must have for frequent or long haul travelers.

HyperMac Batteries are priced starting at $199.95 and go up to $499.95 for the largest capacity/longest life model. Learn more about the HyperMac batteries here.