Digital Impulses

Upgrading my iPhone to firmware version 1.1.3

So. 

Apple just announced a boatload of new features for the iPhone this morning doing Steve Jobs's 2008 MacWorld Keynote and I could not wait to get home to upgrade my phone.

Sat at my Mac Mini, fired up iTunes, clicked on check for updates and got the notification that "a new firmware lease (v. 1.1.3) is available for your iPhone".  The upgrade process completed with nary a hitch and I am off to explore the shiny new toys that have been added to my phone.

More later as I put the new software revision through its paces.

Bert's iBoss / iPhantom issues with Comcast

I just got off the phone with Bert, who stated to me that he is having issues with his Phantom technologies devices, the iBoss and the iPhantom. He tells me that last night, he started having trouble with his Internet connection and none of the remedies he tried helped.

We discussed a couple of possible solutions, but seeing as to how he was on the way to the factory with Adrian (Adrian works part-time at the factory now), there was not a whole lot of solution implementing to be done.

I then thought about the problem for a little bit and realized that the issue might have resolved itself overnight if it was related to a database corruption problem.  So I told Bert to call his wife and have her attempt to connect to the Internet to see if the problem is still happening.

Meanwhile, I went to the http://www.iphantom.com/ support site and created a support ticket (trouble ticket # DIV-443087) for someone on their end to start working the issue and get back to Bert with a possible solution.

This is being documented here for the purposes of review a year from now or whenever.

UPDATE: 1435 hrs.  I just spoke with Bert who states that his Internet connection is back up and running flawlessly.  He received an Email from Phantom Technology telling him:

"...There has been a temporary routing issue that has been identified and resolved which affected a few users. This has been resolved and everything should now be up and running..."

So, I was right!  They had routing corruption and it affected users whose iBosses/iPhantoms were phoning home to get updates to their local databases.

Awesome.  One more technical issue identified and put to bed.  Nice!

Instaling Mac OS X Leopard (10.5)

This afternoon, after "The Interview", I decided to dedicate a few hours to installing Mac OS X Leopard.  Unfortunately, seeing as to the problems I had with iPhoto '08 earlier this year, I was very hesitant to start the upgrade without making absolutely sure I had backed up completely.

After much indecision and research of Mac backup programs, I just made sure that my iPhoto and iTunes library were indeed safe on my external hard drive and just plunged ahead with the default 'Upgrade Install'.

All in all, although it took a long time (over 90 minutes), the install itself was utterly painless.  I booted with the Leopard DVD, clicked a couple of buttons, answered a few questions and let the install do it's thing.

I returned to my Mac Mini about an hour and a half after it started the install and I was presented with a beautiful Leopard desktop, ready for me to explore and test.

I spent the next few hours going through the new features and making sure my hard disk(s) and the data thereon had survived intact and it had.  Everything was working as it should and nothing was out of the ordinary.  The install completed seamlessly and with nary a hiccup.

Score one for Apple in my book.

Well, I just purchased my ticket to Gnomdex 7.0, the premier tech industry conference for bloggers, podcasters, Vidcasters and all manner of Web 2.0/Social Media influencers.

Gnomedex this year is going to Rock!  See you there...

Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Music

Steve Jobs has posted a long treatise on the current state of Music on the Internet over at the Apple website.  In it he explains that Apple sells DRM-laden music only because it is forced to do so by the "Big Four" music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI.

Incredibly, Jobs is advocating the abolishment of DRM.  To quote Jobs:

"...Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries.  Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.  For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard.  The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company.  EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company.  Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly..."

Very interesting read. We certainly do live in interesting times, indeed.

iPhone Reality: The day Apple changed Cell phones forever.

This is one of those nerd moments that you never forget.  You know, like everyone knows where they were when the Challenger shuttle blew up, when 9/11 happened, when the Iraq war started, etc.

Well, I will be able to tell my grandkids where I was and what I was doing the day the iPhone was introduced to the world.

This morning, Tuesday,January 9, 2007, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, Steve Jobs simply rocked the world of consumer electronics and personal technology to its very foundations.

It was a complete paradigm shift of historic, utterly epic proportions.  Instantly, with the unveiling of this gadget, Jobs and Apple have made all other cell phones obsolete and utterly unimportant and pathetic in comparison. 

When he revealed the 1st images and specs of the device, I immediately looked at my phone (a bulky, heavy, battleship grey, butt-ugly Cingular 8125) and saw how utterly primitive it looked and felt.

My god.  In one fell swoop, Jobs and Apple swept aside the entire cell phone industry and "leap-frogged 5 years ahead" (as Jobs claimed) of everyone else.  Really.  Smartphones, flip phones, Blackberrys all seem hopelessly trinkety and toy like next to the sleek, beautiful, thin, iPhone.

Some specs:

• 160ppi Super High Resolution screen
• Wide-screen Video iPod with touchscreen controls
• Internet communicator that includes full rich-text HTML email and SMS Texting
• 4 or 8 GB of Flash memory ($499 for 4 GB, $599 for 8 GB)
• 4.8 ounces
• 11.6 mm thin (thinner than the Cingular Blackjack or the Motorola Q)
• 5 hours battery life for video watching and 16 hours for regular phone use
• Runs OS X
• Runs a full version of Safari, the Mac web browser
• Runs the same Widgets available on the Mac in OS X
• Access to Push Email in partnership with Yahoo!
• Access to Google Maps in partnership with Google
• Visual voice-mail, a feature co-provided with Cingular that allows you to visually pick and choose what voice-mail messages you want to listen to without having to listen to them sequentially
• scrolling Cover Album Art from with your iTunes library

The device has a single button on the front; the 'Home' button, that controls navigation to the main features of the phone, like the iPod library, email, SMS texting, widgets, etc.

Everything else is pretty much software-based, including a technology called "multi-touch" that allows you to "touch" your music, scroll through your library, zoom in to web pages and pictures, etc.

Of course, the feasability of just 5 hours battery life if you watch videos, the workability of extended typing on the on-screen virtual keyboard, "only" 8 GB of storage, 720i video only, etc.  These are all things that remain to be reviewed when the iPhone makes its much anticipated debut in June 2007.

In the mean time, judging by the soaring of Apple's stock as Jobs spoke and the plunging of the stocks of Palm, Motorola and RiM, I suspoect that there will be a whole lot of "back to the drawing board" in the labs of many a hi-tech firm in Silicon Valley and other places around the planet.

Meanwhile, Apple has truly upset the "Apple" cart with this annoncement.  It sure is an exciting time to be alive, let me tell you.

Phasing into the Cupertino Fruit Zone: The Mac Mini arrives

For like the nth year in a row, I have been subjected to purchasing my own Christmas gift without being able to unwrap a gift on Christmas day with the anticipation of the surprise of not knowing what it is...

This year however, I have no room to complain, since, after listening to a whole slew of podcasts devoted solely to the Mac, I have taken the plunge and started my journey into the land of the Cupertino Fruit with the purchase of my 1st Mac.  A Mac Mini to be exact.

This evening I drove over to the Manhattan Beach Apple store at the Manhattan Village Mall in Manhattan Beach, CA to see what options I had.  When I got to the store, even thought it was really, really busy, I was able to speak to someone in a bright red Apple iPod Nano tee-shirt and she found  a sales person to help me.

They guy that came over asked me a few questions and then went to the back to get the Mac Mini that I had specified and also got me a Apple Wireless keyboard and an Apple Wireless Mighty mouse.

All in all, here is a list of what I purchased:

• An entry level Apple Mac Mini for $648.72 that includes:
  
  • 1.66Ghz Intel Core Duo CPU
  • 512MB RAM
  • 60GB Hard Drive
  • Super Drive
• Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse for $74.69
• Apple Wireless Keyboard for $63.87

So in total, $787.28.  And I still need to get speakers, an Airport Express, More memory, an external Hard Drive... Yikes.  Swimming in the Apple pool is quite expensive. 

Still, I think it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun creating podcasts in Garageband and playing with photos in iPhoto and playing with the rest of the apps in the iLife suite. 

Good times ahead after I surpass the initial learning curve...  I'm really looking forward to it.