Posts filed under 'Gadgets'
If you’re both an iPhone user, and have a blog hosted or powered by WordPress, then you have something new to get excited about. WordPress for iPhone and iPod touch was released late yesterday on the iTunes App Store! I’m putting it through it’s paces by composing this post on my iPhone 3G.
While the app is very light on features, it has all the basic essentials for writing and submitting new posts, as well a editing existing ones. If your blog is hosted on wordpress.com, then you can even see a preview of your post in your site’s theme, however, those who host with an alternate hosting provider (or like me, on their own server) will see their post displayed with a generic theme. Hopefully a future version will offer the option to launch Safari to view a preview generated by your own server.
It even let’s you insert photos from the photo library or camera roll on your iDevice as well as taking photos with the built-in camera, right from within the app. Coupled with firmware 2.0’s ability to take screenshots, this could become an iPhone software reviewer’s dream come true.
So what are the limitations? The app only let’s you edit existing or write new posts. That’s it. There are no features for doing any other administration of your site for now, so we’ll still need to use mobile Safari for viewing/editing comments and performing other administrative tasks. Also, those of you who have become spoiled by the GUI editor or even the basic editing toolbar are going to have to brush up on your HTML and CSS, because all formatting has to be applied the old fashioned way.
Another shortfall, or what appears to be more of a bug, is that if your post includes a “more” tag to display only an excerpt on the main page, you won’t be able to edit any part of the post that comes after the more tag. It’s like the mobile WordPress app sees the more tag as the end of the article. There also doesn’t seem to be any support for optional excerpts. If like me, you like to only display an excerpt on your blog’s front page, this is going to be an issue. You can still use the app to write the post, but you’ll have to apply the excerpt manually via the web editing tools before you can publish your final post.
Probably the greatest limitation is one not in the app itself but in the iPhone OS: the lack of cut and paste. I’m not sure if my writing style is rare or not, but frequently when penning longer posts, I tend to move sentences and paragraphs around a lot during the editing process. There’s simply no way to do this short of deleting and re-typing… A LOT. Something I’m just not likely to do. I suspect this will make me a better writer, as I’ll be forced to think more carefully about what I want to write before I type it.
Where the lack of cut and paste really hurts though is with inserted photos. Since the app inserts photos at the end of your existing post text, you can’t move them around without writing down and retyping a lot of HTML code.
Again, you could get around this by planning your post ahead of time and inserting photos at the exact points in your post as you are typing it. If I decide I’d prefer to insert them earlier in the post, I’m SOL. Hopefully a future version of WordPress for iPhone/iPod touch will give you the option of inserting photos at any point in the post. But of course it would be better if Apple just got off their ass and gave us an elegant cut & paste solution already.
Limitations aside, I highly recommend WordPress for iPhone and iPod touch to anyone who has a blog powered by WordPress and would like the freedom of submitting or editing posts while on the go. Bloggers who use excerpts however may only find it useful for composing their post as they will still need to apply the finishing touches via the web interface.
July 22nd, 2008
Got up early this morning to ensure a spot near the front of the line of my local Rogers dealer for the iPhone 3G launch. I was a man on a mission. That mission, was to secure a black 16GB iPhone 3G for myself, and a white one for my wife. Things got off to a bit of a rough start, as it was raining, a bit cold and otherwise miserable. Dropped my wife off at work and got to the Rogers dealer by around 7:30am. The upside of the crappy weather is that it was apparent when I got there that nobody really wanted to stand in the rain. So I was the first person there.
I had staked out the establishment the evening before to confirm they had received their iPhone 3G shipment. My earlier recon mission was a success, arriving just in time to catch them moving several nondescript boxes from the trunk of a car into the store. Further interrogation revealed they had received 25-30 8GB units, and 5-10 16GB units. This was all I needed to know.
So I was fairly well prepared this morning. I had an umbrella, windbreaker and a little folding camping tri-pod seat (I don’t want to call it a stool, because of the obvious homonym which is just begging to have a joke made of it). There I waited patiently for the store’s 10am opening. In the pouring rain. After about 30 minutes of waiting, one other soul pulled up and got in line behind me, but then got discouraged after 20 minutes of soakage and left. At maybe 8:45am, another guy showed up, immediately followed by a third who had been waiting in his car for probably the last half-hour, but decided that being warm and dry was more important than being first or second. I guess he drew the line at being 3rd.
Luckily, we didn’t have to wait that much longer as three employees showed up at around 9:20am, and agreed to let us wait inside after I asked really nicely (desperately). Rather than keep us waiting until opening time (10am), they got started at 9:30, which was a smart move, considering that by this time there were now probably 8-10 people waiting behind me, and things were not going to go smoothly, as you’ll soon see…
So they brought out the two 16GB iPhones I asked for, got the account transfer completed for both mine and the missus’ mobile numbers while I carefully opened the boxes and inspected the iPhones for any obvious visual defects. While they were attempting to ‘unbrick’ the white iPhone by connecting it to their PC running iTunes, I was miffed to see that my black unit had a small hairline crack leading from the headphone connector on the top. Memories of my experience buying the first iPhone in Buffalo came back to haunt me as I asked them to go and grab a replacement unit for me before they allocate the last one to someone else. It turned out they only had around five 16GB units in total. Everyone in line behind me was waiting for the 16GB model. Some poor schmuck just lost his chance of walking out with what he was hoping for…
They were still having no luck unbricking using iTunes on either of the two PCs in the store. They told me they were pretty sure I could do it myself at home, so I packed up the wife’s iPhone and told them I’d do that. I just had to wait while they transferred the account activation over from the iPhone with the crack in it to the replacement. This is where my luck got worse. Rogers dealer activation website was now inaccessible under what surely was an insurmountable load of requests to activate new iPhones.
They retried several times, and then said, “no problem, we’ll just call it in.” BZZZZZZT, sorry, try again. Now, the Rogers dealer activation phone line, which they had no problems getting through to minutes earlier was returning a busy signal. But not just any busy signal, that fast busy signal that tells you that not only is the Rogers PBX system sitting in a corner in the fetal position sucking it’s thumb, but the Bell telephone circuit which feeds it is lying next to it unconcious and drooling. Sigh.
So the result was, I had to leave my iPhone in the store so they could try activating it again later. I took my wife’s with me so that I could attempt to unbrick it in iTunes myself at work. The whole process thus far took around an hour and twenty minutes. In that time, only one other person had walked out of the store with activated iPhones, the guy who was behind me in line. Had my first iPhone not had a crack, I would have been the first. I really felt for the 15-20 people who were now waiting in the store to get one, and getting impatient. The store had resorted to filling out manual activation forms and telling customers to come back to pick up their iPhones later.
To unbrick, or not to unbrick, that is the question
As soon as I was able to do so, I connected my wife’s white iPhone into my MacBook Pro and launched iTunes to see if I could ‘unbrick’ it. It showed it was trying to connect to the iTunes Store, but after a minute or two, failed with the following error:
“We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occured (-4).”
I found reports of others having the same error, so figured I’d keep trying, as someone had reported success after about 15 attempts. After probably 10 attempts, it was partially successful, having unbricked the iPhone, but not completing the registration process in iTunes, so it wasn’t allowing me to sync the device with iTunes. I was OK with that, since I didn’t want to sync it with my Mac anyway. I just wanted to get the iPhone functioning.
I went back and picked up my black iPhone 3G from the store mid-afternoon, figuring that the store should have worked out it’s technical issues and/or the servers and customer service lines should be less stressed by then. When I got there, they had already taken care of activation with Rogers but explained that they still couldn’t unbrick via iTunes and that it was an issue with the iTunes Store being overloaded. Not a problem I told them, since I was successful in unbricking the first iPhone myself, I figured I’d get mine working with a bit of perseverance.
Coincidentally, as I was walking in the store, I ran into the guy who had been second in line this morning, who hadn’t been able to unbrick his two iPhone 3Gs. I recounted my experience and suggested he just keep trying and it should eventually work. He didn’t seem too happy, but at the same time was relieved and thankful for the information.
After getting back with my own iPhone, I had a bit more luck getting it unbricked than for my wife’s. It still took close to 10 attempts to finally get through (getting the same -4 error message as the first one got), but when it did eventually work, it let me get through the full activation/registration process. Once complete, I selected my syncing options, and was finally syncing all my contacts, calendars, mail accounts, music, photos, podcasts, videos and applications. It took a while, as expected (I sync’d about 8GB of content), but otherwise had no issues. Mission accomplished.
I couldn’t help but wonder to myself and out loud in the store, why on earth did the stores insist or bother trying to unbrick the iPhones in-store if customers could do it themselves at home? This would have reduced the wait times for customers waiting in line, and gotten customers home a lot quicker, even if they couldn’t use their iPhone right away. I guess if the process had worked as planned (and the iTunes Store hadn’t buckled under the load), it would have only been about a 2 minute process, and customers would be able to start using their iPhones immediately. I’m guessing this was one of the complaints that Apple had received from the previous iPhone launch, but it’s a good example of how the best intentioned procedure can end up backfiring if not implemented or planned properly.
The takeaway for Rogers and Apple
While we might cut Apple a bit of slack considering how large a product launch this was (it launched today in 21 countries) and even Rogers (they’ve probably never had to deal with a product that was in such high demand on day one), it’s a perfect example of why a lot of companies choose to do staggered product launches. Apple compounded the problem by not only releasing the iPhone and iPod touch firmware 2.0 the same day, but also launching the App Store the day before. So on top of the hundreds of thousands of new iPhones being sold and activated today, you had possibly millions of original iPhone and iPod touch owners hitting the iTunes Store’s servers as well to get the latest firmware and download the new mobile apps.
The official Canadian iPhone launch was a complete fiasco by any measure, and both Rogers and Apple have squandered a huge customer loyalty/satisfaction opportunity. Instead of blowing away customer’s expectations, they have pissed a lot of customers off. Most of those customers will most likely get over it, and once they have their iPhone in-hand will probably forget all about it or say it was all worth it because the iPhone itself will greatly exceed their expectations. The only thing that probably helped limit the amount of unhappy customers is the fact that the iPhone 3G was in relatively limited supply. I hope for both Rogers and Apple’s sake that these issues get ironed out tout de suite!
July 11th, 2008
WOOT! Rogers has just announced a special ‘limited time’ promotional 6GB data plan for anyone purchasing an iPhone 3G on any voice rate plan on a 3 year contract for only $30 extra per month! From the press release:
Effective July 11, and as a limited time promotional offer for customers
who activate by August 31 on a three year contract, a data-only offering of
6GB of data for $30 per month is being made available that can be added to any
in-market voice plan. For example, with 6GB of data, iPhone 3G users can visit
35,952 web pages, or send and receive 157,286 emails, or watch 6,292 minutes
of YouTube videos each and every month.(xx)
Fido has announced the same promotional offer. I’m sure some will complain that it’s still not unlimited, but I really defy anyone to realistically use more than 6GB of data on an iPhone in a month. This my friends is the plan that is going to move a LOT of iPhones. My only complaint is that it just got a lot harder to get your hands on an iPhone 3G this Friday.
Now the questions that’s nagging at the back of my mind is, is this an example of Rogers reacting to the will of the people and/or pressure from Apple Inc., or was this just the final step in a very well planned marketing/promotion plan? I mean, think about all the free publicity Rogers has gotten, and consider the fact that they have spent next to nothing to promote the release of this market-changing device. I’m beginning to think we’ve all fallen for a brilliant viral marketing campaign. If this is the case, hats off to Rogers, well played sir, very well played indeed! If not, then hats off anyway for showing that you do care what your customers think.
July 9th, 2008
Rogers announced their new voice & data rates this past weekend, and boy did it create quite the stir, first on the internet, and then getting coverage in mainstream newspaper and television news. So what’s the big deal? Essentially, that Rogers voice/data rate plans are some of the least competitive rates available in the industrialized world, and despite monthly plans ranging as high as $115/month for the top-end plan, that still doesn’t get you unlimited data. Unlike many other iPhone carriers, Rogers simply doesn’t offer unlimited data for the iPhone, period.
Rogers and Fido (owned by Rogers) essentially have identical service plans, which can be seen here and here respectively. While the lack of an unlimited data plan on the surface might seem like a major issue, it’s important to put things in perspective. Since no one can theoretically USE unlimited data in any given month, having an unlimited plan is really just a way to make people feel at ease that they will NEVER incur any data usage charges. One can argue that the same thing is accomplished by simply having a plan that has a high enough data cap that you’d never have to worry about hitting it.
Unfortunately, Rogers data plans don’t even come close to satisfying this, but not all is doom and gloom. With the entry-level data package’s 400MB per month of included data, you could check email, weather and stocks several times per day and do a bit of web surfing once a week or so and be fine. Just avoid using YouTube, the iTunes Store or AppStore until you have a WiFi connection. For those of you willing to dish out $115 to get the 2GB plan however, things don’t fare much better though. Sure, you can do the above activities 5x more than those on the $60/400MB plan, and even enjoy a bit of daily YouTube or iTunes downloads while on the go, don’t expect to be able to watch YouTube videos every day to pass your 30 minute train ride to and from work, because you’ll use up that 2GB of data real fast.
OK, so our data plans suck compared to the US, who get unlimited data for $30/month. So while we have a bit of breathing room to enjoy the features of the iPhone, we’re still stuck keeping an eye on our usage if we want to avoid expensive overage charges. If it were any other cell phone, we wouldn’t mind so much, but the iPhone is such an internet-rich device, and so fun and useful, that it really is a shame that we don’t have plans that let us truly use and enjoy the device.
So what else is there to complain about? Well, the lack of call display and a decent amount of included sent SMS text messages (only 75 on the $60 plan), which requires you to spend an extra $15 or more on an “iPhone value pack”. SMS texting is another one of the iPhone’s strengths, with it’s IM-like interface. Once again, Rogers iPhone plan stifles a great iPhone feature, rather than encouraging it’s use. The lack of call display is frankly a joke in this day and age. I’m surprised they aren’t charging us extra for “touch tone” service too.
Then there’s the matter of the unlimited evenings and weekends included with every plan. Rogers defines “evenings” as after 9pm. Me thinks they’re stretching the definition of evening pretty far. To have your evenings start at a more reasonable 6pm is going to cost you an extra $20/month for an iPhone Value Pack that includes call display and 10,000 sent text messages. Gee, thanks!
One positive to the Rogers and Fido plans is the inclusion of unlimited WiFi access at any Rogers or Fido WiFi hotspot. For those living in urban areas where these hotspots are readily available, this will be a major benefit, but will be hit and miss depending on the individual. Most people will likely not make any use of this feature whatsoever though, which means it adds very little value to the average user.
These plans frankly weren’t a big surprise to me. Rogers is in a very different market situation here in Canada than say AT&T south of the border. AT&T was in a floundering position and desperate to increase it’s market share, with other providers competing on the exact same GSM technology. Here in Canada, Rogers is the only GSM provider, and is already in a dominant position. They have zero competition for the iPhone, period. Bell and Telus’ networks are just not compatible with the iPhone’s GSM standard. The situation isn’t going to get any better until either Bell or Telus convert their network to GSM, or Apple releases a version of the iPhone that’s compatible with the CDMA/EVDO technology that Bell and Telus use.
If there’s any upside to Rogers iPhone data plans however, it has to be that they’re a major improvement over any previous data plans Rogers has offered before. When I first covered using an unlocked iPhone in Canada back in September of last year, we were paying $10 for 10MB per month, on top of your voice plan, and 3¢ per KB thereafter! To put that in perspective, it would have cost nearly $12,000 to use 400MB of data on that plan, which could lead to some nasty surprises for anyone not savvy enough to watch their usage.
Rogers overage charges are now a much more affordable 50¢ per MB for the first 60 MB, 3¢ per MB thereafter. Meaning that an overage of 100MB that used to cost $3072 would now only cost $31.20. It’s hard not to argue this isn’t a huge leap in the right direction. If there’s anything to be positive about with the introduction of the iPhone to Canada, this has got to be it.
July 3rd, 2008
Back at the end of April, I mentioned that Rogers had announced that they would be bringing the iPhone to Canada “later this year”. For those who maybe missed the news, “Later this year” means July 11. Yep, after just over a very long year of waiting, us Canadians will be able to walk into our local Rogers or Fido store and buy the new iPhone 3G!
Rogers, in what seems like a feeble attempt to instill suspense, is advertising that “Something really big is coming July 11th”, as though we’re all supposed to be in the dark about what that something is. Someone should ring up Ted Rogers and let him know that mystery teaser ads are much less effective if everyone already knows what it is. OK, ribbing aside, clicking “Learn more” brings you to the Rogers press release archive, and if you scroll down to June 9, you just might find this press release which confirms the mystery device is the iPhone 3G. Pricing is listed as $199 and $299 for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively, with a 3 year contract.
No plan pricing details are provided, so looks like we’ll have to wait a bit to find out how much they’re charging for data and if you have to sign a 3 year data contract in order to purchase the iPhone 3G at the discounted price.
Fido’s website on the other hand, is being ultra-original by announcing “Something really cool is coming July 11th”. See what they did there? They used the word “cool” in place of “big”, and suddenly they have a completely original advertising campaign. Somebody worked overtime to come up with that I’m sure. Clicking the ad on Fido’s website links to this press release which details the same handset prices as Rogers, but no additional details.
Now the question that I’m sure many of my readers really want to know: Once the iPhone officially comes to Canada, will owners of unlocked 1st gen iPhones be able to use their devices on Rogers or Fido without having to hack them anymore? In other words, will we be able to install the firmware 2.0 update, plug in our SIM card and activate our iPhones through iTunes or will we have to keep playing the firmware update hack game? I will be sure to update you all once I find out, but we probably won’t know for sure until shortly after July 11.
So, are you planning on buying the iPhone 3G once it comes out in Canada? If so, are you new to iPhone or will you be upgrading from a hacked iPhone? Let us know in the comments below.
June 16th, 2008
[Update 4] Time flies when you’re having fun. I’m reminded of this as I think about the fact that I’ve owned my PLAYSTATION 3 for almost a year and a half now. I almost can’t believe I’ve been enjoying it for that long, but considering how much fun I’ve had with it, it’s no wonder. But another way to look at this timeframe is by how many months it’s been since the warranty has expired. Of course, how many months doesn’t really matter, it’s really just a question of whether it is expired or not.
Unfortunately my PS3’s age falls on the wrong side of that expiry date. Unfortunate because last night, my PS3 died. I was sitting on my couch racing a virtual VW Golf GTI around a virtual track in Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue (a fantastic racing simulator, by the way) when suddenly my PS3 beeped 3 times, shut itself off and just sat there with a flashing red LED. My first thought was that the game had just crashed really bad, so I tried turning the unit back on using the DualShock 3 controller. Nothing. I then tried pressing the power button on the front of the unit, the red light turned solid indicating the system was in standby mode. Another press and the system turned on, beeped 3 times, flashed a single amber LED and promptly shut itself down again with the flashing red LED as before.
I tried everything I could think of, including letting it cool off for over a half-hour and trying again, turning off the physical power switch in the back of the unit and even resetting the unit by holding the front power button for 10 seconds while turning on the physical power in the back. I also tried swapping out my upgraded 120GB hard drive with the original 60GB hard drive that came with the unit and even tried powering it on with no hard drive installed. Same thing every time.
So I called Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), and they’ll be shipping me a pre-paid shipping casket box for me to pack my beloved console’s remains in and send it off to be replaced. Since it’s out of warranty, it’s going to cost me $160 CDN plus tax. Not too bad considering repairing any electronics these days usually costs an arm and a leg and a new PS3 would cost me $400-500. Still, it hurts. But what hurts more is knowing that I’ll likely be without it for 7-10 days, by the time I get the shipping box, send it back and receive the replacement.
The replacement will most likely be a factory re-certified unit, which basically means refurbished. Sony assured me that the replacement is shipped out 3-4 business days after receiving the defective unit. This is a relief as I expected it to be more like 1-2 weeks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get a working PS3 unit in time for Grand Theft Auto IV’s release on April 29. It’s already bad enough that I can’t play Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue, which I just got 2 days ago.
I hope Sony’s standards for cosmetic beauty are strict, I’d hate to get a replacement PS3 that was in worse physical condition than mine is. The customer service operator told me they would ship my GT5P game disc back with the replacement unit, since it’s stuck in the drive with no reasonable way for me to get it out myself.
So I’m trying to look on the bright side. I still have the hard drive with all my game saves on it, which should work fine once installed in the replacement PS3 I get back. This is a good thing since I haven’t backed up my data in months. Also, not having the PS3 at home to keep me occupied will mean I have some free time to do other things, like work on my website, get out and enjoy the fresh air, and spend more time with neglected loved ones. I’m just bummed I won’t be able to taunt XBox 360 fanboys about the RROD anymore. Ah, of course I can, my PS3 will have to die at least twice before I have to worry about losing that privilege. 
Update 1 - 4/18/2008, 12:45 pm: I just received the return shipping box. I’ll be packing up my dead PS3 when I get home from work and dropping it off at the nearest Purolator depot tonight.
Update 2 - 4/20/2008, 2:30 am: I shipped my PS3 off on Friday evening. Funny thing is the paperwork that came with it, and that were emailed to me by Sony instructed me to attach a copy of my proof of purchase if my PS3 is in-warranty, but said absolutely nothing about how to provide payment if my PS3 is out of warranty. I called Sony back, and they seemed really out of touch about the whole process, which surprised me, since they supposedly have been dealing with out of warranty PS3 repairs for over 5 months now. They insisted I had the correct paperwork and that if I wanted to pay by credit card, that I should just write my card info and address on a piece of paper and include it in the box.
My confidence level in the rep I was speaking too wasn’t the highest at this point, since she had to put me on hold for several minutes to research the answer to every single one of my questions, all of which were pretty straightforward, like “how do I pay for my repair”? I wasn’t impressed and even asked for a supervisor to whom I expressed my disappointment with the poorly documented process, and the lack of training provided to the call center staff. He did apologize and understood my frustration, but said I was the first to raise an issue about the process with him. He did say he would pass my feedback on to the appropriate channels, and provided me the phone number of the repair depot in Ontario where my PS3 was being shipped so I could provide them with the credit card info by phone.
I called the toll free number for the repair depot, and the phone was promptly answered by a guy who shall remain anonymous to protect his job. After bringing him up to speed with my situation, he told me that he couldn’t take my cc info until they had received my PS3. He did confirm that there was definitely two different sets of paperwork/instructions for in and out of warranty repairs, and agreed that I had been provided the wrong ones. He instructed me to simply attach a copy of my receipt to the form as it instructed. When they receive it, they assume the in-warranty status has already been confirmed by the call centre and don’t bother checking the purchase date, so my repair would be covered under warranty.
So I did as I was instructed and am keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll be sure to update this article with the outcome of this ordeal.
Update 3 - 4/22/2008, 10:30 am: According to the online repair status website, my replacement PS3 was shipped this morning! So with a little luck, I should have it by tomorrow. Best part is, I was never contacted to provide payment, so looks like the guy I spoke to at the depot knew what he was talking about.
As an aside, the shipping and repairs are all handled through Purolator. Like many consumer electronics manufacturers these days, Sony has contracted out the shipping and repairs of their Playstation products, at least here in Canada. I don’t blame them, Purolator probably does it all cheaper and far more efficiently than Sony could do it themselves. This also explains why Sony’s support staff are somewhat clueless as to the actual behind the scenes process.
Update 4 - 4/24/2008, 10:35 am: Good news! I received my replacement PLAYSTATION 3 yesterday afternoon and there was no charge for it! The bad news is I tried reinstalling my 120GB hard disk that I had removed before shipping the unit back, and when I powered the unit up, it displayed a message saying that the hard disk needed to be formatted in order to be used. Crap. I sat for a moment wondering if there was anything I could do–nothing came to mind. So I went ahead and formatted it.
I dug out the old USB hard drive that I had last used to back up my PS3, and restored the last backup dated October 30, 2007. So I’ve lost about 5 months worth of game saves. Not the end of the world as I had finished a few games recently and already traded them in. The saves I will miss most are from Oblivion, which I had recently finished the main quest in, but still planned to go back and try to finish all the side missions. Probably about 10-20 hours of gameplay lost. The second worst loss is my progress in Assassin’s Creed, which I have been already been having a hard time motivating myself to play with all the other great games vying for my attention *cough* Call of Duty 4 *cough*. With the new COD4 maps coming out today and Grand Theft Auto IV hitting stores next week, I’m afraid my chances of picking up Assassin’s Creed again are getting pretty slim…
April 17th, 2008
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