Leander Kahney - page 39

I was gutted to find this morning that my brand new iPhone 4 didn’t work with my beloved TomTom Car Kit — the best automotive cradle/charger for the iPhone, bar none.

The iPhone 4 fits in the cradle OK, but it doesn’t charge. Discovering this filled me with disappointment. I love the TomTom Car Kit (which costs $100 but is well worth it). It holds the iPhone just where I want it for navigation and music. It charges the iPhone, and boosts the GPS signal when using TomTom’s excellent navigation app. And it doesn’t move, even if I clumsily bash on the iPhone’s screen with my big sausage fingers.

So I’m delighted there’s a simple and inexpensive fix for the charging issue — a small strip of velcro.

As Engadget tipster Ben Peacock Martin Alaniz discovered, you cut a small strip of velcro (the soft side) and stick it to the back of the Car Kit cradle, just behind the dock connector.

There is no need to attach anything to the iPhone itself. The velcro acts as a cushion holds the moving part of the cradle flat, pushing the Car Kit’s electrical contacts against the iPhone’s. Simple and cheap.

Here’s a video showing how it works:

You’re probably sick of reading about the iPhone 4, so here it is in a nutshell: It’s slick as sh*t and I recommend without hesitation that you buy it.

• No yellow spots
• Holding it the “wrong way” drops bars, but it doesn’t matter much to performance.
• It doesn’t scratch that easily, no matter what you’ve read.
• Industrial design is beautiful.
• The screen is gorgeous: like going from SD to HD.
• Photos and video are much improved.

This is awesome: A Tublr blog with a boatload of screencaps from Apple’s TV ads showing people holding their iPhones the wrong way.

Earlier today, Steve Jobs said the iPhone 4 ‘Death Grip’ was a “non-issue” and people should “Just avoid holding it in that way.”

Which of course is total bullshit, as Apple’s own ads show.

Here’s some more, including shots of Jobs himself clutching his iPhone in his left hand:

We’ve been able to replicate the iPhone 4 radio reception ‘Death Grip’ with older iPhones, and speed tests show that network performance is perhaps more complex than the number of bars in the upper left corner.

I just confirmed that the iPhone 4 loses reception when the antenna band is touched. Plus, it’s enough to make the iPhone drop calls. This is a serious problem, and I can’t believe Apple let this slip through.

My new iPhone 4 drops from full reception (four-to-five bars) to just one bar in a matter of a few seconds when my fingers and thumb are touching the antenna band. See the video above. But when I take my fingers off the sides and hold the iPhone by its glass back, the number of bars quickly climbs to five again. The problem was first reported by Gizmodo, and seems to widespread, if not universal.

It’s enough to make the iPhone drop calls. I just tested it by calling my office phone. Holding the iPhone in my left hand, reception plummeted and the call dropped.

iPhone fail!

If you’re about to buy a new iPhone 4, you should consider selling or trading in your old one.

If you want to sell your old iPhone on eBay or Craigslist, take a look at our guide — How to Sell your iPhone Online — which tells you how to wipe the data and good strategies for getting the best price.

Selling your iPhone online will get you the best price, but will likely involve a degree of hassle, of course. Probably the easiest, hassle-free way to get rid of your iPhone is trading it in with Gazelle, an electronics recycling service.

You can even trade in your iPhone from your iPhone. Here’s how:

Matt Haughey:

What happens when you strap a $1700 digital SLR camera doing full HD video to a $2k remote controlled helicopter? You get amazing freaking video.

Another example of what you can do with a few grand worth of equipment that would cost tens of thousands of dollars to do with a real helicopter (not to mention, would also be super dangerous)

Via Matt Haughey and Robot Wisdom.

Apple:

White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected, and as a result they will not be available until the second half of July. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

AT&T is still offering unlimited data plans for the iPad, weeks after the company discontinued its all-you-can-eat offerings, reader Vincent Fox reports.

AT&T discontinued its $29.99 unlimited data plan on June 7, instead offering customers 2GB per month for $25. Customers who signed up for unlimited plans before the June 7 deadline get to keep them.

However, Vincent signed up for his plan this weekend. Vincent writes:

“Today on my iPad 3G, I activated 3G for the first time. The “unlimited” option is still available! This was at 11:10 PST on June 19th 2010, long after the supposed expiration of this option. I purchase my iPad a couple of weeks after launch. Perhaps the older units are still allowed this choice? I was billed $29.99 and it clearly shows I am now on the unlimited plan. Perhaps others can take advantage
of this as well.

Has anyone else been able to activate an unlimited 3G data plan on AT&T?

NOTE: My bad. Apologies for screwing this up. Google Voice is not a VoIP service on the iPad, but a call-forwarding service. It only works as a VoIP app on the iPhone. I got confused with Line2 from Toktumi, which is what I used to make a call this morning, not Google Voice (see below). My memory is totally shot. I was convinced it was Google Voice, until I got a bunch of emails and comments. Again, apologies for being flaky.

Google just opened up Google Voice to the public, the company just announced. You no longer need an invite to use the free VoIP service.

This is very handy for iPad 3G iPhone users. Your iPad iPhone is now a low-cost VoIP phone that works wherever there’s service. It’s also very handy for adding voice call-management features to Wi-Fi-only devices like the iPad and iPod touch.

Google Voice is a free service that offers free calls to the U.S. and Canada and low-cost international calls (and SMS). The Google Voice app also features several advanced call-handling features. For example, when someone rings your Google Voice number, it will ring multiple lines — home, office, cell — until it finds you. It transcribes voicemails and emails or texts messages to you (very handy, but spotty). There’s also conference calls and Web-based voicemail.

Apple and Google got into a fight over the Google Voice app last year; a scrap that attracted the attention of the FTC. Apple refused to add Google’s Voice app the App Store, saying it replicates core iPhone features and may confuse users. Google responded by making a kickass web app that works great on the iPhone and iPad.

I’ve been using Google Voice for several months, and it works great on the iPad, even over 3G iPhone. I just used it this morning when I was too lazy to get up and find my phone. (I actually used Toktumi’s Line2 app to make the call on my iPad. Apologies for the mistake).

Here’s a quick tour:

The UltraSn0w iPhone unlocking software has been updated to support iOS 4.0.

The iPhone Dev-Team’s has updated Ultrasn0w to version 0.9.3, allowing you to unlock your iPhone running iOS4.

The update was announced on the Dev-Team’s Twitter stream. According to the release notes, it works with all basebands from 04.26.08 through 05.13.04:

iPhone DevTeam’s 3G and 3GS software unlock, now with added PwnApple. Compatible with basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04! Thanks to @sherif_hashim and @Oranav for contributing baseband crashes.

We will have an easy-to-use unlocking how-to guide coming soon.

NOTE: This post has been edited. It incorrectly said Ultrasn0w was for jailbreaking iPhones.

I have a personal request: I’d like to ask for your support for a charity bike ride I’m doing in July.

I’m riding the Tour of the California Alps, better known as the Death Ride, to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program.

I’m $1,000 dollars short of my fundraising minimum ($3,500). I’d like to ask for your support.

If you can help in the fight against blood cancer, please make a pledge using this link (use the “Make a Donation” widget at the right). It’s fast, easy and totally secure. I only need 20 people to make a $50 donation (or one person to make a $1,000 pledge). The deadline is June 24 — less than a week away.

The Death Ride is a very challenging 130-mile route that goes up and over five mountain passes in the awesome Sierra Nevada. It  features 15,000 feet of climbing in one day, most of it between 6,000- and 9,000-feet above sea level, where the air is pretty thin. Here’s the elevation map. For an idea of how high that is, see this amazing infographic. It’s a lung-busting, masochistic ordeal.

We did a training ride last weekend that featured bears, snow and very little oxygen. Beautiful — but brutal.

Many thanks for reading this — and your support. I’d appreciate you sharing this post via email, Facebook or Twitter. Every penny counts, and it’s for a very good cause.

Apple has taken MobileMe Mail out of beta and made it available to all me.com members.

The iPad-inspired three-column view is especially nifty. See the screenshot above.

The new web mail also includes a couple of features not available in the beta: mail forwarding from another account and improved junk mail filtering.

Here’s the full list of features:

Apple quietly updated OS X’s malware protection system in the recent OS 10.6.4 upgrade, but made no mention of it in the accompanying release notes or security bulletin.

The updated XProtect.plist now protects against HellRTS, a Trojan Horse often disguised as iPhoto that hijacks the host Mac to send spam, take screenshots, and peek at files and settings.

Security expert Graham Cluley slammed the company for stealth security updates.

Unfortunately, many Mac users seem oblivious to security threats which can run on their computers. And that isn’t helped when Apple issues an anti-malware security update like this by stealth, rather than informing the public what it has done. You have to wonder whether their keeping quiet about an anti-malware security update like this was for marketing reasons. “Shh! Don’t tell folks that we have to protect against malware on Mac OS X!”

Sophos: Apple secretly updates Mac malware protection

As we watch in horror what’s happening in the Gulf (and ongoing in Nigeria), I’m proud to announce that CultofMac.com is now 100% solar-powered.

We have a new green host, AISO.net, which operates the world’s only 100% solar-powered data center.

Based in Southern California, AISO came highly recommended for quality of service, but I’m most impressed by the company’s green credentials.

Unlike other data centers, which often buy carbon offsets to assert their green bona fides, there’s no oil or coal in sight at AISO.

“Everything is powered by solar, including our office, all servers, a/c systems, networking and other hardware,” the company says. “We are the first and only 100% completely solar powered, carbon free hosting company that does not use energy credits.”

AISO’s data center is powered by a pair of solar arrays mounted on the facility’s roof. The center is cooled by low-energy, water-based air conditioning units, and its office computers will soon be powered by an ingenious wind turbine mounted in the air conditioners’ intake ducts. The company runs on sun, air and water.

“The sun is dependable and nobody is waging wars over it,” says the company’s founder, Phil Nail, who took the company solar in 2002.

To prove it’s purely solar, AISO put a live webcam on the roof to show its solar array in action. (Warning: it’s a very boring, very dry joke).

As well as CultofMac.com, AISO hosts websites big and small, including a couple of data-intensive sites for film industry clients in nearby Hollywood.

I couldn’t be happier that we’ve gone green. Renewable energy is clearly the future and as forward-looking, technophile site, it was an obvious choice to make.

We encourage you to join us. If you’re a webmaster and interested in signing up with AISO, please use this affiliate link. We’ll get some credit to apply against our ever-growing bandwidth bill.

Responding to pundit John Gruber’s ongoing debate about website comments, our friends at MacHeist have just launched a Safari extension that adds comments to Gruber’s Daring Fireball site.

The DaringFireballWithComments extension can be found here. Simply download and double-click to install (Make sure you enable extensions in Safari first).

“Get ready for round two,” says John Casasanta, co-founder of MacHeist, who in February launched DaringFireballWithComments.net, a website that briefly mirrored Gruber’s site with, you guessed it, comments.

The site was up for a few days before it was taken down at Gruber’s insistence. It faced a lot of criticism for violating Gruber’s copyrights. However, the Safari extension skirts such issues.

“We’re totally clear this time,” said Casasanta via IM. “We’ll keep this running forever.”

For the last couple of days, Gruber has been debating website comments with writers Joe Wilcox and Ian Betteridge, among others.

“Comments, at least on popular websites, aren’t conversations,” writes Gruber. “They’re cacophonous shouting matches. DF is a curated conversation, to be sure, but that’s the whole premise.”

Not any more.

Apple announced 600,000 pre-orders for iPhone 4 on Tuesday, a number “far higher” than the company anticipated.

In a short press release, the company said the unexpectedly-high demand caused many system malfunctions and apologized for any difficulties and frustration.

Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4. It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.

Earlier, AT&T said it had received 10-times the number of iPhone pre-orders than last year’s iPhone 3GS, and is suspending pre-orders.

“Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we’re suspending preordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegal told the New York Times. “The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking preorders.”

Radio Shack has also suspended pre-orders, it said on Twitter.

SAI: AT&T: iPhone 4 Pre-Orders 10 TIMES Higher Than First Day Last Year

Just as Apple’s servers are finally accepting pre-orders of the iPhone 4 after being down most of the day, the device may be selling out.

AT&T sold its stock of the pre-order iPhone 4s this afternoon, and now Apple appears close to running out also. In certain parts of the country, the east coast especially, the online Apple Store has pushed shipping dates for the device back to the July 6-8 timeframe, according to reader reports.

The device appears to also have been sold out in the UK and Germany, according to MacRumors.

Let’s hope you were able to order or reserve one — delivery dates for latecomers have been pushed back to July 4 at the earliest.

Earlier today, AT&T said Tuesday was the busiest online sales day in the company’s history:

“Because of the incredible interest in iPhone 4, today was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history. As of Tuesday afternoon, customers who preorder iPhone 4 moving forward will receive their device on June 25 or later, depending on when the order is placed. We’ll email customers with confirmation once their order is placed, and again when it ships. In addition, we will have devices available on a first-come, first-serve basis in our stores beginning on June 24.”

Engadget: AT&T sold out of iPhone 4 pre-orders for launch day

Trying to distract attention from the iPhone 4 pre-order flustercuck, Apple has just released the Mac OS 10.6.4 update, whoch has been expected for weeks.

Weighing in at 315.5 MB, the update includes a bunch of minor fixes, including stability issues with Adobe’s Creative Suite 3, SMB file servers and DVD Player.

The Mac OS 10.6.4 update can be downloaded via the built-in Software Update application.

Here’s the full details:

Even though Apple’s and AT&T’s pre-ordering systems are crashing due to high demand, several people have reported success pre-ordering the iPhone 4 through the new Apple Store iPhone app.

However, that too is over-subscribed. Attempts to pre-order the iPhone through the app are returning the following message:

“Due to high demand, we are not currently accepting iPhone 4 reservations via the Apple Store app. To pre-order or reserve yours, please visit apple.com/iphone/pre-order.

But Apple and AT&T’s systems are still down, with attempts to reserve an iPhone resulting in error messages and timeouts.

Anyone had success using a different method? Radio Shack?

After a morning of spotty service, both Apple’s and AT&T’s iPhone processing systems have crashed, leaving customers unable to order the iPhone 4.

Instead, customers are lining up at retail stores belonging to Apple and AT&T. There are lines in New York, Louisiana and Japan.

We have been unable to preorder an iPhone despite dozens of tries and, and neither is anybody else, according to a surge of #ATTFAIL messages on Twitter.

Above is a line outside a New York AT&T store. “Check out this line of people waiting to pre-order iPhones at our local AT&T store. This isn’t even to take them home or anything — it’s for the right to wait in another line next Friday (to pick up the phone),” Business Insider notes.

Apple and AT&T’s systems have been choking all morning, returning error messages saying orders cannot be processed. This, of course, is good news/bad news for the companies.

The iPhone 4 is on sale at a bunch of places — Apple, AT&T, Best Buy and Wal-Mart — but Radio Shack may be the best place to pick one up, thanks to rebates on older iPhones.

The Shack is offering special trade-in deals for older iPhones that can be applied to the cost of a new iPhone 4. In some cases, a new iPhone may be free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5S7R-h208

Here’s the promo video Steve Jobs just showed of during his WWDC keynote.

We’re 100% chugging the Kool-Aid on the iPhone 4 upgrade. What an amazing package:

• The high-res screen looks astounding
• The gyroscope may lead to a host of fun applications, like an air mouse for the upgraded AppleTV
• 300 hours of standby battery life looks like a big kick in the teeth for Android.
• The only misstep is no 64GB version.

We’ll be upgrading for sure, especially thanks to AT&T’s new upgrade plan.

What do you guys think?