July 2007: Monthly Archive

Gentlemen, start your downloading! Upon docking my iPhone I nearly spewed Coke Zero through my nostrils when a message popped up alerting me to a firmware update for iPhone, version 1.0.1. According to the documentation this is almost entirely a bug fix and little else. Correction It’s a security fix for several recently published Safari vulnerabilities.

Bummer. I was expecting some value added goodness.

UPDATE: Apple has posted documentation for this update here.

UPDATE 2: Since installing this update the Mail app has become alarmingly unstable. It seems to freeze up often. On the plus side IMAP folder support appears to have improved, allowing full server-side folder browsing. Nice, but I can do without the crashy crashy.

What better way to waste spend your time than downloading thousands of Widgets, slideshows, gamecasts, and feeds right on your iPhone. Plusmo offers a very simple iconic web frontend that delivers easy access to online content, suited for mobile devices. It works very similar to another online mobile content service called Widsets.

Plusmo goes a bit further my creating a homescreen-like interface and enabling web content developers and bloggers (that would be me) to create one-click publishing links that allow users to quickly subscribe to your mobilized content.

And like so many other Web 2.0 services…this one is free!

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So, yeah. Favelets and bookmarklets. In the podcast, I promised a review article about useful bookmarklets and favelets, for the iPhone. And here it is.

I’ve written a few simple bookmarklets as well; it seems a lot of the bookmarklets are designed for web editors, and not always so much for the average web user. I’m guessing that not many regular folks need to edit CSS from the iPhone, and those that do already have those bookmarklets synched over. But still, there’s a void for popular sites. It seemed that all I found were eBay, Amazon, and Google sites. So I set out to make a few of my own, and edit a few others so that they’d work on iPhone Safari (henceforth, iSafari).

If you have any requests for a custom bookmarklet, put them in the comments. It has to be said that I make no guarantees that I can make the resulting request as I’m not an expert with javascript by any means, but the worst that can happen is that I say no. Okay, that’s not the worst that can happen. The worst is that I say no VERY IMPOLITELY.

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AppleInsider reports that Apple may be readying its first major software update for iPhone, set for release very soon now. According to the article, Apple VP Greg Joswiak told analysts that it expects to release an update soon. Exactly what may be contained within the update remains uncertain. It could simply be a package of bug fixes, or a mashup of new applications and features.

We’ll be watching.

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Officials within NASA’s Outsourcing Desktop Initiative For NASA (ODIN) program have rejected iPhone for use as a corporate communications device, opting instead for RIM’s Blackberry 8800 series. NASA deemed iPhone “not to be enterprise ready”, which is a reference to corporate deployment, not the starship Enterprise.

The space agency is in the process of selecting a Smartphone to employ with its fleet of workers, and is giving serious nods to the Blackberry 8800 and the Palm Treo 750. The news means, unfortunately, iPhone won’t be seen in launch control any time soon.

Ground control to Major Tom…..

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There’s an app called CosmoPod 1.8 that detects Flash, Div, Real Media, or WMV video when it appears on a page. Then, with one click, you can convert the video for iPod, with a little download / convert in Safari’s address bar. Downloading and converting is a one-click process, and this app will set you back $9.42. I’m still searching for a good app that does stuff like this that’s open source or free, and I’ll post it as soon as I see it. [via]

A whopping 27.6% of a 2200-person sample said they were willing to buy the iPhone when it becomes available. 5.2% were “very willing,” and 22.4% were “somewhat willing.” Only 11.8% of those polled were willing to switch providers, so it looks like there’s going to be some angst on the other side of the pond. The Land of the Rising Sun is also the land of 3G; it piques my curiosity to see if they’ll only sell a 3G version for Japan. The iPhone isn’t due in Asia until 2008, so there’s time for Apple to up the iPhone internals…. Waiting Japanese hopefuls will have to become overseas penpals with Verizon customers to pass the time. [via]

A website called Booksoniphone.com offers a full library of copyright free books available for reading right on your iPhone, from within Safari. Once you visit the site you’ll need to create a free account profile, complete with username and password. After logging in you’ll be able to browse a fairly substantial library of works by drilling down into categories and authors to find anything that suits your fancy.

The experience isn’t thrilling, but does make for a wonderful way to pass the time when you find yourself stuck in dull situations, like office meetings, child berthings, that sort of thing.

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This is probably one of the better wallpaper sites I’ve seen so far.

Apple just sent out a press release proudly boasting that its iTunes Store has now sold over 3 Billion Songs. Congratulations Apple. Now how about giving away free iPods to loyal customers, eh? No? Well I tried.

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