Now that the demand has settled down, the mobile me push services are up and running.

Emails show up on the phone instantly. If you change contacts on the Mac, then sync, they show up on the phone. Same for Calendars.

To enable this, you need a mobile me account. Then go into your email settings, tap mobile me, then slide on both contacts and calendars.

Make sure you have synced with mobile me before you do this, just so you have data to pull down.

Once you do this, contacts and calendars will no longer sync via iTunes - they will be handled by mobile me.

Alright, by now you iPhone users have upgraded to 2.0 and have been downloading applications from the iPhone App Store.

Some apps are just silly, but let’s talk about the nice ones:

1. NetNewsWire - great rendition of our favorite RSS newsreader.
2. OmniFocus - I am having issues with their location based services, but they are in email contact trying to resolve the issue. Great app syncs with the desktop client - Bit pricey.
3. Monkey Ball - Super fast graphics, fun game!
4. Shazam - Place the phone next to your radio and Shazam will tell you what is playing!
5. Midomi - Sing a song, Midomi tells you what it is.
6. VoiceNotes - Free, simple voice recorder
7. Apple’s remote app rocks for iTunes and Apple TV control.

Incredible job of toeing the company line!

Watch

I don’t know when/if I’ll be getting a iPhone 3G, but I know it won’t be soon and the reason is cost.

Steve Jobs touted the lower cost of the iPhone - Bullshit, Steve. At $15 a month more for the same service (unlimited data + 200 sms), this comes out to $360 over two years more.

Ok, so it is 3G vs EDGE. I can respect the $10 more for data. But eliminating the 200 SMS, and charging a $18 “upgrade” fee, has left me cold.

Screw off AT&T. Maybe by the time my iPhone dies, there will be more carrier options in the US.

Or maybe not and maybe AT&T will win - but not for now. They’re going to have to wait to milk me for more money.

I had missed this official announcement, but in the new Guided Tour of iPhone 3G/2.0, there is clearly an AIM client for free on the iPhone store:

This is great news. What I especially respected was the fact that Apple is taking the time to try their best to ensure a safe computing platform, vs just letting any yoho write an application for the iPhone, which the current “jailbreak” nonsense does.

Do you really want to download some random application and expose all of your contact information to the application developer, or to some virus? I doubt it.

Thus, I am hoping that Apple requires digital signatures. I think the way this would work is that a developer would file paperwork with Apple which would grant them a key. That key would go into XCode somewhere and sign the application.

This would at least have communication between developers and Apple. Whether it would be one key per developer, or one key per application, I do not know.

Apparently, Leopard has digitally signed applications from Apple already and developers can sign their own applications.

This is nice, because if an application is modified, the OS can at least warn you about it (although I have no idea if Leopard does yet).

I feel it is a great sign to see Apple taking security seriously and not resting on their laurels.

Alright, it’s only been two weeks since the pricing uproar and now the hacking community is in a tizzy because Apple has basically said, if you hack your phone, we’re not going to replace it if it becomes a brick.

The guys at the “iPhone Dev Team” (which has nothing to do with Apple) said that they will try and restore your phone to factory state so a new firmware update from Apple won’t brick it. Now people are pissed because Apple is seen as limiting their phone.

Um, Apple sells iPhones that work in the US only, as of this writing. If you buy a phone and break the EULA and hack around on it, you assume the risk of bricking it. Period.

In the US, it is legal to unlock your phone.

However, Apple does NOT need to support these customers, and shouldn’t. Why should they replace your bricked phone because you went tooling around inside the guts?

If you want to do something unauthorized to your iPhone, go right ahead. Just make sure you can afford the $399 if you need a new one.

This is no different than accessing designer mode on a HDTV and accidentally resetting the 256 settings to 0 by pressing the wrong key combo. Toshiba will not come out and give you a new TV because you were twiddling with hidden settings you found access to on the Internet.

Don’t ask me how I know about that anecdote.

I finally replaced that TV. Never did get it to look right again.

Update: After several emails with Apple (Some on Sunday!) the issue is resolved!

Apple released it’s rebate for iPhone purchasers today. To prove you are who you say you are, you enter your phone # and your serial number.

However, Apple has cached phone numbers from activation, thus I had to enter my old phone number (I had since ported my Vonage number to the iPhone) and now the text message with the credit coupon went to some other phone (or the bit bucket) heh.

Ooops.

Fake Steve Jobs includes t-shirt with $100 store credit

More power to ya, and thanks!

Open Letter from Steve Jobs

“Apple screwed us!”

“Apple screwed early adopters!”

“Apple screwed recent switchers!”

“Sure prices drop, but this is far too much far too early”

The list goes on and on and on. Some of these comments were found on what I thought were reputable blogs, some by people I respect on IRC. One site even suggested writing the California department of consumer affairs.

Grow. Up. Now.

Apple released the iPhone on June 29. The iPhone was the most hyped product launch, ever. The 8gb model sold for $599. Today, Apple dropped the price an unprecedented $200.

Did people expect Apple to sell it on normal or thin margins? If they did, they are a fools.

Did people line up for hours like I did? If they are complaining, then maybe they did. Would they have paid $899 for the same phone? Probably.

We wanted an iPhone. Bad. We paid for it.

Now some feel burned. I have a theory as to why.

One person on IRC said “I don’t have a ton of cash to burn, I could have used that $200.” Well apparently he did have the cash to burn and burn it he did. He gave it to Apple. Willingly. They didn’t twist his arm. They asked a price, and he paid it.

But now the self esteem kicks in. He’s no longer joe cool on the block. In fact, any schmuck with $200 less can buy one and laugh at him.

That is why people are upset. Being laughed at, poked fun it. It was all good as long as they had the phone that others could not afford. Now more people can and those early adopters are less special.

As Ling would say, “Weee oh weee oh weee oh weee!”

I’m sorry that Billy gets an iPhone for less allowance than others paid, but really, my iPhone works just as well as it did at 9:59am PST today.

I see it in a different light. More people can now afford iPhones. More iPhones should sell. The more phones that sell, the more people we have complaining about the crappy speaker, so maybe it will get fixed in the next model. The more iPhone users, the more software Apple will make for it to drive more revenue. The more people I can call with my mobile to mobile minutes.

If people would leave their self esteems out of business decisions, they would not only be happier about their purchases, they might even smarter about them.

Enjoy your iPhone!

Apple has released iPhone firmware update 1.0.1 via iTunes. Just plug your phone in and enjoy the goodness!.

Aside from security updates, I have noticed the following fixes:

• I can’t crash the google maps application anymore. Traffic on, off, scrolling, wifi, edge, it seems solid.
• The Google Maps application is nearly as fast on EDGE as it is on WiFi in my house. Amazingly fast. YMMV.
• Matt points out that Apple changed mail’s self-CC to self-BCC.
• The speaker phone seems louder.
• The ring tones do not seem louder. I will have to run some tests.

How long will it be before this great video of a baby using an iPhone makes it onto an Apple ad?

While golfing this weekend in Long Beach, WA, I broke out the iPhone and with the gloved hand, I was able to use the iPhone just as well as with my un-gloved hand. I was able to scroll google maps to where we were, pull up the satellite maps and plan my shots for the current hole.

The iPhone, however, did not help my horrible golf game.

Update: Or just download QuickTime 7.2 from Software Update and use QuickTime Player to export for Apple iPhone or Apple iPhone (Cellular)

None of my H.264 movies I make will play on my iPhone, because I make “QuickTime” movies with H.264. The trick is to make MPEG-4 movies and use the proper settings. Here is what I found works for converting my videos.

From Apple’s iPhone Page I extracted these steps:

• File Menu -> Export movie
• Choose Movie to MPEG-4
• Click Options
• File Format: MP4
• Video Format: H.264
• Frame Rate: Current
• Key Frame: Automatic
• Click Video Options…
  • Check Baseline (I left main checked)
  • Check Faster Encode

This made a .mp4 file. The final trick was changing my HTML to use the proper TYPE:

<object width="320" height="240" classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
        codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
    <param name="src" value="http://www.geeksrus.com/movies/invisible_shield_iphone.mp4">
    <param name="controller" value="true">
    <param name="autoplay" value="false">
    <embed src="http://www.geeksrus.com/movies/invisible_shield_iphone.mp4"
        width="320" height="240"
        controller="true" autoplay="false"
        scale="tofit" cache="true"
        TYPE="video/mp4"
        pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"
    >
</object>

If you are on an iPhone, Check out this example. Its rather very cool, as it lets you know there is a video and then tapping it gives you a video UI!

Well this is ironic as the first post from my iPhone.

The phone was plugged into my Kensington powered hub when I unplugged the hub from the laptop last night. This am I went to get the phone and it was at 10% battery!

I am not sure but I recall iPods dying when plugged into a slept machine. Maybe something silmilar is happening?

Anyway i am in safari posting this because Verizon is reprovisioning my fios to dhcp.

My bedroom is directly above my office. This morning, we heard “bzzz bzzz bzzz.” We thought it was Elizabeth’s cell on the night stand. Nope, it was my cell phone, vibrating on my glass desk in the office downstairs.

Of course, we could barely hear Marimba playing at full volume. But the vibrations coupled through the glass, that we could hear.

Seems backwards, no?

There has been a lot of talk about how dumb Apple was with this new headphone jack design, that is recessed and needs an adaptor to work with 99% of the headphones in the market.

Today, being one who could not listen to audio into his car due to said jack, took my dremel to my AUX extension cable and trimmed, oh 1/8″ of the plastic shealth off. The connector is still protected, no exposed wires and it fits snugly.

Observations:

• Apple may have done this on purpose, to strengthen the jack via the narrower, metal top. I can’t tell that there is any play, and that seems like it would be less likely to break the solder on the headphone jack and mean fewer repairs.

• The audio pops loud if I plug the cable in when the radio is on. I think my old ipod did this also, but I rarely used the headphone jack in the car due to my (now non-working) Monster charger/line out adaptor. Turn down the radio first!

• The iPhonePod keeps different volume settings for headphones compared to the built in speaker, just like the Mac does. Nice.

• The iPhonePod pauses the music when you disconnect the headphones, like iPods do.

“This cnn.com feature is optimized for Adobe Flash Player version 8 or higher. You are currently using Flash Player 0″

I suppose that is indeed accurate.

TUAW has a nice tip for adding contractions.