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A most useful home project assistant

toolI took last week off as vacation, though what I spent most of the week doing was far from a vacation: I tackled many of the jobs on the never-ending household to-do list. So instead of relaxing on a beach, I spent last week hanging three curtain rods and curtains, installing towel bars in a couple of bathrooms, and doing some work in the garage to hang a pegboard and clean up the work area--among many other not nearly so exciting tasks :).

Through it all, the cool little device pictured above helped me immensely. That round thing is the STRAIT-LINE Laser Level 30 (LL30 from here on out), a cheap and effective laser level. Until about a year ago, I used to futz with an old-fashioned bubble level whenever I needed to get something straight on the wall. However, for most of the jobs I was doing, a bubble level was next to useless. It takes an extra set of hands to hold it where it's needed, and it seemed it was either too big or too small for the task at hand. So on a sojourn to Home Depot, I spotted the LL30. For the price ($15 or so), I figure I couldn't go wrong giving it a try...and after just one project, I was sold.
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iPhone 1.0 forever

Macworld logoAs you've read by now, Apple released iPhone update 1.1.1 last week. This update adds some compelling new features, most notably the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, easily-accessible iPod play controls, louder speakerphone and receiver volume, and support for video out.

However, as you've also read by now, the update did a few other things. First, as Apple had warned, it turned unlocked iPhones into expensive paperweights, rendering them useless. (A Macworld staffer who unlocked his phone so that we could document this procedure, had this happen to his iPhones.) Second, if you had a modified iPhone that ran third-party applications, like I had, the update removed those apps. So much for my plea to Apple. Finally, if you used Ambrosia's iToner, or any other such ringtone utility, you discovered that all your custom ringtones were also gone.

Unlike most Apple software updates, I held off on running this one until there were some field reports about exactly what happened. Once those reports started trickling in, I came to a painful but obvious conclusion: I will never install the 1.1.1 update on my iPhone.

Read my Macworld blog entry, iPhone 1.0 forever, for the rest of the story...



Don’t break my third-party iPhone apps

Macworld logoDear Apple:

Please ignore my prior request regarding opening up the iPhone for third-party development. At the time I wrote that request, I was convinced that some Apple-approved method of running true third-party applications (and not just nicely-formatted Ajax Web pages) was a key missing feature in the iPhone's capabilities. Well, I've had my iPhone for a couple months now, and I've changed my mind: Don't worry about coming up with a third-party iPhone SDK. Really. Just pretend I never wrote that piece.

Instead, I have a new request. Just do nothing at all regarding third-party application development on the iPhone. Nothing to encourage it, and most importantly, nothing to discourage it, prevent it, shut it down, or otherwise stop it from happening. Thank you.

So why would I (fictitiously, of course) write the above letter to Apple? Is it because I no longer feel third-party applications are important to the iPhone? No, that's not it at all. Is it because nicely-formatted Ajax Web pages really do get the job done? No, that's not it either. So why am I no longer concerned about Apple providing an official third-party SDK? Quite simply, I'm not concerned because a number of very bright, talented, and motivated individuals have managed to actually do the job themselves, without any help from Apple.

Read my Macworld blog entry, Don't break my third-party iPhone apps, for the rest of the story...



The Great iPhone Price Drop Uprising of 2007

Macworld logoAs probably everyone other than Bill Gates probably heard, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone by $200 yesterday. And, very shockingly to me, this somehow upset a number of those who bought iPhones back in June. Over on the Macworld forums, I've been involved in some interesting discussions on the matter. Basically, my position is as follows:

  • Nobody was kidnapped, dragged to an Apple Store, and forced to spend $599 on an iPhone. Everyone who bought on June 29th did so freely of their own will. (Note that I'm a possible exception to that statement, as I was asked to stand in line by my employer. But since it was their money, I didn't really mind.)
  • Whenever you buy any piece of technology, it is a known fact that it will get faster, smaller, more feature laden, and cheaper in the future. Knowing this, I have always treated a technology purchase as a pure sunk cost--whatever you pay, whenever you pay it, it's gone. If the item's price changes in the near future, oh well. I made my decision, I have the piece of technology, and I don't really care if it's cheaper.
  • People are claiming the "value" of their iPhone took a $200 hit yesterday. There's only one way I see that as a true statement: if the user was planning on selling their iPhone on eBay today. However, since we're all on two-year contracts, I don't see that as a big market at the moment. So if you were going to keep your iPhone and continue to use it, your phone's value is unchanged: it's just as important to you today as it was yesterday.

So basically, I'm amazed at the number of complaints over this issue. In one of the forum threads, I asked those who felt this was an issue to explain what they would have done had Apple announced a $200 price increase instead of a drop. Would they have all rushed out to their mailbox to drop a check in the mail for Apple? Not surprisingly, it seems that wasn't a popular suggestion. People want something for nothing, basically.

You've probably also read by now that Apple has decided to grant a $100 store credit to all those who bought iPhones prior to the price drop. Hopefully this will silence the criticism, but I doubt it since it leaves $100 "missing" from the pockets of those who are complaining. From my seat, though, Apple didn't have to do this at all. When you choose to buy something, you're basically fulfilling a contract with the product supplier: I agree to give you this much money, and you agree to give me the product. Anything that happens after that (outside of normal "price protection" windows, which are not 60+ days in length) is just something that happens.

Anyway, am I all wet in my thinking? This demand for a credit due to a price drop seems unprecedented to me; nobody complained when iPod Photos plummeted $200 a few short months after their introduction. Why is the iPhone different?



Install third-party apps on the iPhone

iphoneSo the iPhone has been out for a couple months now, and I've pretty much left mine alone--no hacking of any sort, beyond trying out Ambrosia's new iToner. Then today, fellow Macworld staffer Chris Breen pointed me to Nullriver's Installer.app beta. Using this program, "hacking" your iPhone is amazingly simple. Run the Installer.app on your Mac, then switch to your iPhone and use the new Installer icon on the home screen. From there, choose which packages you'd like to install, and you're off and running.

So what's available? Quite a lot, actually. There's a screenshot app, which I used for the images you see here (click on each for a larger version). In the shot of the main screen, you'll notice there's a new row of icons on the phone; those were all added with the Installer.app program. There's a BSD subsystem, so you can ssh into your iPhone, and use scp (or SFTP in something like Transmit) to get files to/from the phone. There's a functional NEC emulator, complete with sound. The Apache web server. A terminal emulator. Perl, python, and ruby for the ultra-geeks. And lots more.

appIf something goes wrong (and it hasn't for me yet, but I tested the following to make sure it works), you just use iTunes to restore your iPhone, and you're back to a fully functional (and non-modified) iPhone. However, you are responsible for your own actions. I am not responsible for any damage that may result to your iPhone if you choose to try this out!

We'll have a lot more to say about this over on our iPhone Central blog next week, so tune in for much more detail. But if, like me, you've been waiting for iPhone hacking to get easier, a bunch of very very very bright people have made it so--if you've used a package manager on Linux (or something like Fink or MacPorts on OS X), you'll be right at home with Installer.app.

In a way, this work really could be considered embarrassing for Apple: a bunch of volunteer hackers have created a fairly amazing, professional-looking, and very easy to use third-party applications manager for the iPhone--all without any help from Apple, and it's done before Apple has even announced anything about official third-party application support.





Time travel is possible!

This morning in my inbox, I had two bounce messages--nothing unusual there, it seems to happen quite often when I try to email users of macosxhints.com (lots of people have changed their email addresses but not changed their account info, it seems).

These two messages, however, really caught my eye; here's a snippet from one of them. Note that I've modified the email address, but that's all:

Subject: DELIVERY FAILURE: 5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-
'5.1.1 No such user 10si9367260nzo' (delivery attempts: 0)
From: [email protected]
Date: August 24, 2007 8:20:25 AM PDT
To: robg

The following message to <[email protected]> was undeliverable.
The reason for the problem:
5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'5.1.1 No such user'

From: Rob Griffiths <robg>
Date: February 24, 2002 7:04:21 PM PST
To: Some User <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Mac OS X Hints Redesign
. . .

Yes, that's right: two messages I sent over five years ago finally bounced early this morning! Not knowing the first thing about how email actually routes between machines, can someone explain how this might be possible? It seems too bizarre to believe, but the messages are mine, and I did try to send them to the specified person back in 2002. Very weird! Explanations welcomed, please...



iPhone desired features poll

So if you're an iPhone user ... or an iPhone maybe going to be a user ... what features do you find lacking? This poll lists a number of possible features; it might be interesting to see what the results are if the sample size gets large enough.

Personally, iChat is the most-glaring omission on my list, with syncable notes a close second and a true third-party application API as the third (as that would solve pretty much everything else on my list :) ).

-rob.



It’s so intuitive, it’s almost like it’s not intuitive

I was reading this overview of smart phone web browsers, and came across this interesting sentence about the iPhone's Safari browser:

The iPhone browser interface is a success not because it's intuitive, but because the interface is discoverable at a level almost below conscious thought.

This didn't make much sense to me, so I looked up intuitive in the OS X dictionary, and found this definition:

using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive

So we have "...because the interface is discoverable at a level almost below conscious thought" and "...feels to be true even without conscious reasoning." Now I'm no rocket scientist, but it sure seems like intuitive is, in fact, the right word to describe the iPhone's Safari browser interface.



Ten of my favorite iPhone things

Macworld logoEver since the first time I saw (but couldn't touch) the iPhone, I've sort of become Macworld's resident iPhone curmudgeon. Long before it was ever released, I came up with a list of shortcomings. Then, at the Worldwide Developers Conference last month, I was unhappy with the announced support for third-party web pages, er, apps. And finally, once the iPhone was out and I'd had the chance to use it, I put together a list of 10 iPhone apps—real apps—that I would find most useful on my iPhone.

If you were to simply look at my body of iPhone work, you might conclude I hate the iPhone, and would rather be dropped in the midst of a swarm of Africanized honey bees than be forced to use the thing. Surprisingly, perhaps as much to me as to you, that's not the case. For all the things it's lacking, the iPhone really does get quite a few things right—and it's the things it does oh so well that keep me coming back to it, despite its shortcomings.

Read my Macworld blog entry, Ten of my favorite iPhone things, for the rest of the story...