New product announcement

Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost between $499 to $699,  depending on cup and speaker size. This has been hailed as a major social breakthrough, as women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

iPhone 3G display: So warm it's cool, because it's not as cool, because...

This from digital-imaging-guru friend Scott, on how the new phone's screen is better for viewing images: iPhone 3G screen commentary

The funniest thing I've heard today

Quark 8. Hahahahahahaha! [cough]

Original iPhone successfully transformed into iPod touch

I didn't have to jailbreak it, or wipe it, or anything. I just popped out the SIM card (using the ultra-modern, paper clip-emulating Jonathan Ive-designed "extraction tool" supplied with my iPhone 3G), and I've got an iPod touch to give my daughter (and a home remote, and perhaps necessary as a spare lest my 3G suffer a mishap).

Freakin' awesome!

iPhone Friday: Epic clusterf**k + happy ending

This from the NY Times:

Software Problems Bug Apple's Launch of New iPhone - NYTimes.com

This from "Sluggo":

AT&T sucks... so does Apple for forcing them on us, very un-Apple-like behavior if you ask me.

Yeah, they do suck. I'm nonplussed at how badly today has gone. I mean, I'm comfortable and happy sitting at a restaurant with wifi, but that's blissful ignorance, 'cos I can't receive any phone calls and don't know who might be trying to get ahold of me. The grilled salmon at Luca is helping, too.

I don't guess Apple had much choice but AT&T. Anyone who pays attention to the mobile communications market, and I mean worldwide, knows that a manufacturer has to choose a partner provider, or they can't get a deal anywhere. It's like the guy with the greased hair at the high school dance trying to put his hand on every sophomore girl's ass, and pretty quick he's got no one to dance with.

It's also important to remember that, according to reports, Apple did offer the iPhone deal to Verizon, who said that Apple drove too hard a bargain. I know, you're shocked. So, I'm gonna posit that Verizon is the second best provider in the States to AT&T. Better coverage, slightly more fascistic, about the same level of customer service. Sprint sucks rhino, and T-Mobile rates high in customer support, and terrible in connectivity.

So maybe if you can't get Verizon, you go with AT&T. It's possible, too, that the Verizon deal was itself a myth: AT&T is the only GSM provider worth its weight, and GSM is quickly becoming the world standard. Apple doesn't want to make two iPhone models, one for GSM and one for CDMA, a whole different chipset.

Whether you're a consumer or a manufacturer, whichever provider you marry, bring a jar of Vaseline to the nuptial consummation.

Perhaps Apple couldn't have avoided this fiasco. What carrier on earth is used to thousands of devotées showing up, some a week early, to buy a bloody mobile phone on day of launch? We hoped Apple would have been able put up the infrastructure to handle the traffic. It was iTunes that was reporting the failure, but who knows whose servers were at fault?

Ah well. 6 hours after I got started, I have an new, activated iPhone 3G. 

I was without a connection for maybe 2 hours. 

My voicemail has been deleted, but I did take screenshots just in case. 

My original iPhone remains a wireless iPod, which is awesome. 

I've got GPS, good fast internet, and a bunch of cool apps. 

There are also more cool apps that cost more than I feel like paying. 

I don't have copy & paste. 

I don't need MMS. 

I haven't tried the 3rd-party video recorder. 

I'm still with godawful AT&T, but I have an unlimited-minutes plan at a reasonable price (not more than I was paying before).

Today was a good day.

It's twoo! It's twoo!

Originally posted last Thursday night, but it didn't go through:

I just put iPhone software 2.0 on my gen 1 phone. I got a bunch of free apps on, and Cro-Mag Rally. So far so good. The Mail app is  
improved nut I don't see much else yet. And I have to reset sync history I think before contacts & calendar are going to work right. But in the meantime... Whoop!

J2 News: Clarification on Friday's iPhone-a-rama

Please come to Luca anytime between 11am and 4pm, and stay as long as
you want. I'll be discussing and presenting and helping the whole time.

Lunch and beverages of all sorts from Luca's fantastic menu will be
available for purchase.

Don't forget to RSVP! I need to give a head count as soon as I can.

Looking forward to seeing y'all!

As always, check my blog at http://themacwhisperer.blogspot.com/ for
updates and news.

J2 News: Invitation on iPhone Friday

"Woooooooooh!"

If you didn't catch footage of an Apple Store on June 29, 2007, that was the sound of a greet-&-cheer line of Apple employees whenever a customer left the store with a new iPhone. It was a geeky good time. One so rarely gets applauded for being a gearhead.

This Friday will see the release of the next generation of iPhones, featuring faster internet (a.k.a. 3G), GPS navigation, and hopefully better reception and longer battery life. All iPhones, new and old, will also get the iPhone App Store, with hundreds of ultra-mega-cool applications that will be available and downloadable straight to your iPhone or iPod touch.

The stores at La Cantera and North Star Mall will open at 8am. History and logic say that you won't need to stand in line. There should be plenty of stock. But plan on it taking a while, as you will have to activate your new iPhone at the store. (AT&T stores will have stock also, but they're not nearly as much fun, and the staff rarely as knowledgeable.)

I think it's gonna be a fun day. Lots to discover. Lots to play with -- have you seen these awesome games coming out? Or this one?

I've been getting calls to help folks get up to speed on their new iPhones, transfer data, update software, activate Mobile Me (which we hope comes out by Friday), and download apps, soooo....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's my idea:

Everyone is invited down to the marvelous Luca Ristorante [map] on Friday, starting at 11, and we'll have ourselves an iPhone-syncin', 3G-surfin', GPS-navigatin', me.com-navel-starin', new-fashion' hoedown! 

$15 gets you into the session, and until 4pm, you can ask me about anything related to iPhone or Mobile Me. And if you want to discuss something else, I bet we'll be able to accommodate.

Please RSVP to this email address. Bring a laptop if you can -- there will be wifi -- or be prepared to look over someone's shoulder. 

And pass it on; the more the merrier!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tips:

Apple has posted a guide to replacing an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G, and I do encourage everyone to scope it. Most important: 1) Sync your existing iPhone before plugging in your new one! 2) Run Software Update to grab the latest iTunes.

Read the "What to bring" section of this page.

If you're running Leopard, I would recommend updating it to the latest 10.5.4.

If you don't have a hard drive backup of your computer, now is a good time to snag one at the Apple Store.

I'm also hoping this news -- "AT&T says original iPhones can be deactivated and used as WiFi iPods" -- is true about what we can do with our old iPhones.

Q: Should I buy a new iPhone?

A: Does the Pope rock an iPod?

Jonathan

J2 Consulting ~ Chicken soup for the Mac ~ 210.367.3420

"The National Weather Service advises you to stay away from Windows."

LogMeIn available for Mac... um... last year

Oh, man, this is top notch: LogMeIn, probably the leading package that let's you control your computers from afar, finally came out with a Mac controller for their Free package, and ... I guess I'm the last to know about it.

Doh!

Previously we have been able to control PCs with LogMeIn, because it has been browser-based, and the same company has had Hamachi, a free VPN thing that I always meant to play with, but didn't like that I had to use a 3rd-party app to do it. But now LMI has a plug-in to install on the Mac. Very very sweet.

So, I was talking with a new client who lives a little ways out of San Antonio, and we were discussing the methods I use to provide support, and he said, "Well, you could always connect to me with LogMeIn." 

Hernh-wha?!

Sho' 'nuff: About 20 minutes later, I had an account at LogMeIn and was able to access my own computer from afar. I had set up a VPN for this already, but LogMeIn is way easier. I can't believe they released it to beta a year ago, and went 1.0 in December, but anyway I'm glad to have it now!

Now, they don't have their Pro version available for Mac, so you can't grab files or print remotely like you can with a VPN, so that latter option might still be preferable for many folks, perhaps with Hamachi and perhaps with the iVPN solution I mentioned previously. But just being able to get to your screen is huge.

Incidentally, security goes like this: You have a password to log in to your LogMeIn account, and then to control your computer you need to enter the name and password for your user account. 

And what do we learn from this? Pleeeeeeease make sure you have good, strong passwords on all of your accounts, both online and on your computer, and please don't use the same password for every frackin' thing you do!

Log me up, Scotty.

More options for web galleries

MacBreak Weekly mentioned Photrade and SmugMug in their picks. They both cost, but they both look and feel really good.

10.5.3 fixes Server

Download and run the 10.5.3 Server Combo Update, and the problems I wrote about in this post go away. Finally.

New Apple Store at North Star Mall

iFlickr
Originally uploaded by j-squared

Man, I haven't really minded driving out to La Cantera, but it'll be great for us and the clients to have a Retail Store this much closer. Here's the requisite greeting line with all the cheering and clapping. Always a good time.

Free VPN!

Finally I had the opportunity/need/inspiration/circumstances to look for a free VPN server that would run on a server with a static IP on a LAN. 

Turns out Mac OS X has one built in! It's an open-source UNIX deal called vpnd, and it's the same one on OS X Server and configured through the GUI. It's no surprise that Apple left a VPN GUI out of OS X client — Server costs either $499 or $999 — but a very nice developer named Alex Jones came up with the free iVPN, and after a little port forwarding on the router, and 30 seconds of config of iVPN, we had ourselves a legit L2TP VPN tunnel.

It was important to me that the VPN be accessible by the client built-in to OS X — found in Internet Connect in Tiger or earlier, and in Network System Preferences in Leopard. I have become bored with downloading and config'ing standalone software: too many checkboxes, not enough stability.

So.... whoop! Very easy, very free. 

Now, one thing about most VPN connections that has always bugged me is that, even if the client connects to a network resource, say a server, via its local Bonjour hostname, e.g. server.local, when a connection is attempted over the VPN it fails, and the user has to revert to using the IP address. Which is sort of fine, but a turn off to the less technically minded. So I just found this article on macosxhints.com about editing the /etc/hosts file:

Create the illusion that Bonjour works over a VPN

I haven't tried it yet, but it makes sense to me. 

Creating a web gallery for artwork

What is the best place for me to do a website for my artwork?

As usual, there's free...

Post images to a photo site like Flickr. 

There are multiple benefits to this approach: easy slideshows, easy "tagging" (e.g. ceramics, painting, installation)

... or cheap...

Apple has the .Mac service for $99/year. You can look at all the features -- it's pretty useful, especially when you get a laptop, but just for example, here's one of my web galleries, and one in a different style.

One posts all the images straight out of iPhoto.

You can also point your domain name (e.g. alexdeleonart.com) to .Mac, so people won't see that the real URL is gallery.mac.com/alexdeleon. 

Also, you can design your own site with a program like RapidWeaver. Hosting a web site can be as cheap as $4/month. I have yet to find a reason to go somewhere besides GoDaddy.

... not cheap: hire a web designer ...

This is doable, but in most artists' case, let's just say a cost/benefit analysis would favor this approach.

I know that, many times, a gallery who represents you will post the work that you have given them. Finesilver, for example, has some nice-looking pages. 

Finally, I would suggest googling a bunch of artists you dig, see whose web sites you like, and asking them how they did it. FWIW, I just looked up Lloyd Walsh off the top of my head, and he used .Mac for at least a few images.

Leopard Server: file names are screwed up when connecting over SMB

Apple is all too aware of the chronic Apple File Protocol authentication issues with 10.5 Server. Some people have fixed this with a cron task that restarts AFP, say, every night. In my experience, this starts to corrupt file sharing altogether, to the point that, eventually, nobody can log in over AFP.

So I've been switching people to using SMB (Windows file sharing), which sucks just on principle, but it also cuts out Time Machine backups. I am also nervous about it losing Apple-specific file resources.

Anyhoo, at one site where I've asked everyone to connect over SMB, several on the server appeared with weird random file names, such as "_GNEWM~A" or "4UI5WM~7". Didn't matter which machine or which user account I was using to connect.

After some poking around, I figured out that folders and files with odd characters in their path, and especially with spaces at the ends of their names, were the culprits. Extra long names, too.

I don't know if this is an historic problem with OS X Server, and I just never ran into it because most of my clients use Macs, or whether this is specific to 10.5. Regardless, right now OS X Server is hurting my schedule really bad, and I can't believe I'm having to be wary of proferring it as a recommendation.

Re: Space Question

I've been receiving messages that I don't have enough space on my computer for this and that.  Most recently it had to do with optimized albums and syncing to my iPhone.  Last it was about my startup disk.

Yeah, that's a pretty definitive indication. A modern rocketship MacBook Pro will quickly turn into a land tortoise when it doesn't have enough hard drive space to do the do. Common wisdom has been spread that the Mac needs about 10% of its hard drive to function properly.

Besides moving files over to my external drive or to the trash, is there something I can do to open up space?

There is a lovely utility called WhatSize that I have long used to discover what's taking up room on a drive. But since HDs have gotten so big, the culprits are no longer system-level items — 2 or 3 gigabytes in the GarageBand Audio Loops and WorldBook Encyclopedia data are now kind of small potatoes — and thus we're faced with delving into our user data and figuring out what we don't need constant access to.

So, we can use WhatSize or its more free cousin, Disk Inventory X, to find the 300-pound gorillas, usually our music and movies, and pull them off to an external hard drive. Or, in fact, to TWO external hard drives, because we have to remember that a digital file doesn't exist unless it exists in two places.

One can burn CDs or DVDs, but I find these cumbersome, time-intensive, untrustworthy, and hard to store. A second external hard drive is the way to go. 

VMWare Fusion 2 beta is out

Features sound fine, especially better Windows printing [crossing fingers], but the extra cool thing is that v2 is going to be a "free downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers, as a sincere thank you to our early supporters." I really like that kind of language.

AT&T offers free WiFi for iPhone users

Now this is a P-E-R-K.

And in case I missed anyone in my last iPhone-related post, the new Unlimited minutes plan is worth repeating. 

iPhone 2.0 is expected in June. This is when Apple will officially open the iPhone to software created by third parties. There are some very exciting, and very fun little apps, and more are on there way. A new model with 3G faster internet is also expected, but it's impossible to know yet whether there will be any other features that will attract existing owners to upgrade. I for one will probably wait... ummm, don't quote me on that...

Networking over AC

Heard of this? Instead of running Ethernet, and when wireless isn't an option, you run IP over your power lines. I've known about it for a while, and I keep forgetting it's available.

Scan IP addresses on the local network

In Terminal, type "arp -a" (no quotes) and hit return. Thanks, LaCie!