Linux (Ubuntu) on a Mac

MacBook Air hardware running Ubuntu

I’ve been an Apple user since 2009, and my “main” computer is currently a 24 inch iMac, although I spend most of my time on an iPad Air. My first Apple computer was a mid 2009 13 inch MacBook Pro (which I still have, and still works well although it’s 10 versions behind the current Mac OS). I also have my daughter’s old MacBook Air from around 2014. As it too can’t be upgraded to the current Mac OS and is several iterations behind, I decided to install a Linux distribution on it just for fun and curiosity. 

Although I’m reasonably computer literate, I’m not a complete nerd (some might disagree) so this was a slightly nervous undertaking - Linux has a reputation for being a bit geeky, and even with today’s more user friendly interfaces can often require digging into the terminal and command line instructions. 

First though, you have to install it. 

Having chosen to go with Ubuntu as my chosen distribution, I found via its website a very helpful walkthrough on how to set up and install it on a Mac. I’m not going to repeat that in any depth here as the instructions are clear enough on the website, but essentially the steps are:

• Download your chosen distribution as an ISO file
• Flash that ISO to a bootable USB drive
• Boot the usb on your Mac and follow the instructions/prompts

It’s a little more detailed than that, and I had an issue creating the bootable USB drive on the MacBook Air, and ended up doing it on my iMac. Broadly speaking, the process went well and I had Ubuntu up and running reasonably quickly.

However….

One of the known issues with this is that the install process often fails to install WiFi drivers , and this happened to me. I spent some time faffing about how I could connect to the internet to download the correct drivers without being connected to the internet! In the end I connected my phone and used that as a WiFi hotspot.  A few command line instructions and hey presto, I had WiFi up and running. 

I’ll see how it goes, but first impressions of Ubuntu are positive, and seeing open source, there’s loads of good free software out there. 

Social Media: Threads/Instagram: simon_hiscocks 

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4G: Godsend or liability?

I have recently received notification from O2 that I can now access 4G. Sure enough my free 4G bolt on has been activated on my iPhone 5s (by the way it's space grey, not gold as O2's 4g checker insisted). In the week or so I've had this enabled, I haven't seen a 4G signal anywhere near where I live in South Wales.

Also, for information (bear with me, this becomes relevant shortly), I have a 1Gb data "bolt on". I've recently upped this from 500mb a month as a couple of times I've just tipped over the 500mb a month limit. I also NEVER stream video unless I'm on a wifi connection.

Yesterday I travelled to London on a 2 day business trip. I was delighted as my train approached London to see a 4G signal, and indeed, the connection on the normal apps I use (Twitter, Facebook, email, seemed quick).

Last night in my hotel room I checked my data using the O2 app and saw that I had 943 Mb available for the remainder of my contacted month (to 25th March). As I had a 4G signal, I attempted an iPhone FaceTime (video) call home to my wife. This turned out to be very short because the connection at one end (not sure whose) wasn't great. According to the call log, the call lasted 2 minutes and used 5Mb of data. Then, using my iPhone in no different way than I normally do, including some limited tethering to my iPad, by about 8pm my remaining data had dropped from 943mb to about 740mb. Odd, but I wasn't entirely alarmed.

By this time my iPhone was sat on the desk in my hotel room and although it was tethered to my iPad, the ONLY thing I was actively doing was watching a film on the iPad. It's important to note that the video file was actually physically on the iPad (that is, it was NOT being streamed to the iPad from anywhere). The iPhone had no open apps running (as far as I could tell).

Imagine my surprise therefore when my iPhone text alert went off at 21.17 to say I had used all my UK data for the month!!!!! Somewhere between about 8pm and 17 minutes past 9 I had used almost 3/4 gig of data doing nothing other than looking at twitter and during which time I had streamed no video or used any other data intensive apps, and was predominantly watching a local video file on my iPad about 6 feet away from my iPhone.

I immediately bought (rather begrudgingly) a further 1GB bolt on as I've still got nearly a month before my data monthly rolling contract end. At the time of writing this, about (24 hours later), according to O2's app, I have only 420mb of that available, so the best part of another half gig of data has disappeared.

What the hell is going on? How can I have used nearly 1.5Gb data in around 4 hours, doing nothing other than the things I normally do, that in any normal month, leave me using around 500mb data?

The ONLY difference as far as I can see has been the enablement of 4G and being in a 4G area. 4G should use MORE data, it should just make it quicker.

I am perplexed, and if this is the 4G experience, then frankly I don't want it.

So, I spoke to a very pleasant girl at O2 tonight who told me that although this amount of data consumption was unusually high, it was because she could see that my phone was downloading "updates" at 12 midnight and 3am and this was consuming the large amounts of data.

Now I'm REALLY perplexed. According to my phone iTunes and App Store settings, automatic downloads is turned ON for music and apps (though I've downloaded none of either in the last few days, and is OFF for updates. Additionally the "use cellular data" (for automatic downloads and iTunes Match (which I don't use) is OFF.

Basically, the girl on the O2 call told me that was that. She was sorry, but couldn't offer anything other than suggesting I take the phone to an Apple Store to have it checked.

I can't see that's going to help. I'll keep a close eye on my data use age, but worryingly I suspect that my two day jaunt into a 4G area has something to do with this. It shouldn't have, but there's no other conclusion I can draw


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad Mini

An Apple a day

OK I admit it. I'm an Apple fan.

Not a "fanboi" in the sense that I don't believe in any tech other than that coming out of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, but over the last 5-6 years I've slowly moved to an entirely Apple setup.

As the photo shows, I now have the complete set. An iPhone 5s, an iPad Mini, a 13" Macbook Pro, and the latest addition, a 21" iMac desktop.

I don't hate Windows as an operating system - I use it every day in work, and there's at least 3 Windows boxes/laptops loitering around the house. My Apple kit though offers everything I need, in every form factor I need (for the moment). And I'm very happy with it. It works, it synchronises together seamleslsy, and combined that many of my "go to" applications are now cloud based (Dropbox, Evernote, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail etc) it means I always have access to what I need.

I've been fortunate enough that circumstances have allowed me to migrate to Apple devices on a "want" basis - I want it, I don't "need" it. And I'm grateful for that.

The latest piece of kit is that gorgeous 21" iMac. It's the "base" model - but that still comes in at a hefty price. In part you're paying for the Apple brand, but you do get what you pay for. All my Apple devices are stunningly designed, they work pretty flawlessly, and they last a long time.  My Macbook Pro is over 4 years old now, and but for a swap out of the original hard drive for a bigger SSD a couple of months ago, and a RAM boost a couple of years ago, works as well now as it did when I first got it. And it still looks as good as new. The iMac though is the pick of the bunch. It wouldn't look out of place anywhere. It's amazingly thin considering that monitor house all the gubbins. There's only 1 lead - the power lead. It's a work of art. the mouse and keyboard are wireless - the keyboard itself is stunningly engineered - how can you say that about something as mundane as a keyboard?

It's kit that wants to be used. And it's a pleasure to use it.

iPhone time

I've had my current iPhone ( a version 4) for almost 3 and a half years now, and it's showing signs of wear, tear and slowdown. It's time to upgrade, and I'm looking at an iPhone 5s. I've dallied with the idea of moving to Android, but I'm a die hard iPhone man at heart, and it complements my iPad Mini and Macbook Pro. I've got a birthday coming up to, so nows the best opportunity to get one. I don't expect one for my birthday, let's get that straight - they're a LOT of money, but a contribution in lieu of a gift wrapped present would be ideal..... Ooohh, shiny...

iOS 7: One day in

Like millions of others worldwide, I upgraded the OS to iOS7 yesterday on my iPhone 4 and iPad Mini. With less than 24 hours experience of the new OS, here are my initial, and very subjective impressions.

Lets get this one out of the way first. On my iPhone 4 which is almost three and a half years old, there are occasions when this shiny new OS is decidely laggy. That may be down to un-optimised apps (although the new iOS7 ready version of Facebook takes about 17 seconds to launch). It's more likely down to the ageing hardware. On the iPad Mini is zips along.

Ok, so here's the lowdown

The Good

• It's a shiny new interface bring a much needed refresh to a perfectly capable but tired looking OS
• The notification centre is FAR better and brings the iOS devices closer to what Android and other mobile users have had for a while
• Ditto the ability to quickly and easily change key settings like wifi, BT etc.
• Cool (but frankly nonfunctional animations as windows/apps open and close
• The swipe to close apps in multi-tasking - hey where have I seen that before? Oh yes, Palm's WebOS about 6 years ago.....
• A neat touch - on the iPad Mini at least - Messages where you don't have a photo for the contact show a grey circle with their initials
• Apple's weather app - looks much better, though I still use the BBC weather app as my preferred choice

The Bad

• Siri - never the greatest voice, but now sounds like he's talking through the back of a pillow after having downed eleven pints of lager (yes I know I can change it to that dreadful American woman's voice - or even a foreign language, as demonstrated by both my kids on their iPhones during a Siri-fest a few minutes ago)
• The keyboard. 
• The new keyboard is inconsistently applied throughout apps - most use the new one, some (including some of Apple's own - Pages for one) use the old version. Poor.
• Because the new keyboard is less shaded and the fonts are much thinner, it feels smaller to me. I know it's an optical illusion and I'll get used to it. But that's how it feels at the moment
• That shiny new interface? It looks like cartoons. Not yet convinced it's better than the old interface.
• Suddenly after three years of swiping emails left to right to call up the delete button I have to swipe right to left. Why?
• Reminders. Never the greatest app in the box, but it was vaguely functional (though I still can't get proper sync between my iPhone & my iPad Mini in this one app. Now it's far less intuitive (at least to me), and intuitiveness is something Apple prides itself on.
• Moving app icons around the screens. This might just be down to my ageing hardware and iOS7's performance on it, but I've found it MUCH harder to accurately drag and drop app icons without putting them somewhere I didn't mean to.

On balance it looks as though there are more cons than pros - that's not necessarily the whole picture though. I'll get used to the OS and some of those concerns will go. There may be some early bugs that a future dot release will improve on.

On the whole, I think it's better.

Mine's a mini.....

So, the deed is done. After giving it a lot of thought (well, ok not much thought at all), I've ordered a 32GB black iPad Mini and rather exorbitantly a blue cover for it at an whopping extra £35

Truth be told I've been lusting after a small form factor tablet for many months now. I almost bought an HTC Flyer, and was very tempted by the Google Nexus 7, but I was fairly confident that Apple were at some stage going to release a smaller version of the world dominating iPad.

I'm glad I waited. This looks a stunning device, although nay sayers say it's overpriced, and the display not being retina isn't as good as it could have been.

Lets face it. Apple doesn't do "it's not as good as it could have been". This will be a superb device, and yes, no doubt in it's next iteration it may well get retina. But for me it's not a show stopper. It's not really even a show pauser.

I can't wait to get my hands on this little beauty, and all being well 'll get it on my birthday a week today. That'll be a nice present!

Gadget dilemmas

Generally I'm a happy iPhone 4 user. Since the mad rush of blood to the head when I stood in the opening day queue for 5 hours for my "4"  to replace my iPhone 3G I've enjoyed using the phone. When the 4S cam along, there was little in there to persuade me to upgrade, and since then - almost two and a half years now, I've been content.

The arrival of the Samsung Galaxy SIII earlier this year did peek my interest. It's a great phone, with a fantastic screen, and great specs, and over the summer I started to waver just slightly, but have always held back because I still liked the iPhone 4, and I have a Macbook Pro, and I'm getting an iPad, and Apple stuff, well...'just works'.

The other thing I was holding off for, was the arrival of the iPhone 5. I was keen to see what Apple would do to counter the charge of the SIII as one of the flagship smartphones. Well by the time Apple announced it, we all knew anyway because of the leaks. And I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I was most hoping for a bigger screen. What we've got is a 'taller' screen. Other than that, and a few inevitable tweaks in processor/camera it's much the same as the 4S and arguably 4 before it.

Those in praise say it's all because it's evolutionary rather than revolutionary and why change a winning formula? The critics say Apple are running out of ideas. I'm largely with the former camp, but I was hoping for a bigger (i.e. taller AND wider) screen. My eyes aren't what they used to be, even with glasses. The SIII screen is very appealing.

Additionally, having played with a 5 a couple of times, it's newfound thinness and loss of weight makes it feel....let's not beat about the bush. Cheaper. Although clearly it's not with the cheapest unlocked version (the way I prefer to buy) weighing in at a very hefty £529.

And more worrying, one of the 5's I've played with, and reports from more than one person I know who's got one, have suggested build quality isn't quite what it once was - despite Apple's reinforcement of matching parts. One of the units I saw had a distinct rattle if you tapped the rear plate. The user had been told it was the vibrate unit in the phone. Sounds very dodgy to me.

The synchronicity I have with my Apple devices is re-creatable on Android & the SIII with Google and Dropbox - and I already use Gmail as my default mail anyway. I can get an unlocked SIII for under £450.  So what's stopping me shunning the iPhone 5 and going with the SIII or keeping the faith and upgrading to an iPhone 5?

Well firstly, either way it's a lot of money. £450 - £529's worth to be precise. I can do a lot with that sort of dosh. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly (and sensibly), at the moment, my iPhone 4 is still performing admirably. Arguably it does all I need from a smartphone. I won't be doing anything differently, or new if I had a 5 or an SIII. I'd just have a newer device, and be lighter of pocket.

It's inevitable that I will upgrade at some point. And it's probably inevitable that it will be a 5 as I do like Apple devices and the Apple 'ecosystem'. But it's not guaranteed - yet.

I'm off to count my money.....

Apple: Innovative, dominant or just control freaks?

Despite their über cool kit, and oh so easy to use OS's, Apple have a habit of rubbing it's own users up the wrong way from time to time.

One of the things that irritates a lot of people about the iPhone and iOS, is Apple's insistence on approving everything, and apparently vetoing apps that it thinks are too similar to it's own offerings. They usually cite the need for control and having a closed ecosystem does have positives, but I struggle to understand the rationale why when developers are coding better apps than Apple can provide.

Now I think it's fair to say that the general consensus, certainly amongst nearly all the iPhone users I know, personally and online, is that the iPhone's default calendar app is pretty crap.

There are all sorts of things that someone who makes a lot of use of a calendar (which is most of us I guess), that the in-built offering can't do. It's views are limited, it can't set a default alarm for new entries, and more.

So inevitably a plethora of alternative have sprung up. Some are relatively simplistic like Agenda and some like Pocket Informant try to cram loads of features in.

I like the principle of the default app but want something a bit more. Utilitap's Week Cal fits the bill perfectly and I've been using it for some months. I particularly like the the various views the app offers.

Tonight I noticed there was another update for this in the App Store , but imagine my suprise when checking the details of the update, its said, and I quote:

Apple ordered us to change the old month and change the day overview from Week Calendar. We had no choice but to comply, otherwise there would be no Week Calendar app anymore

This is astounding.

Apple must be aware that users want more from the in-built Calendar app - if they don't their head is in the sand. They are clearly aware that there are better apps than theirs out there. But to make a developer remove functionality and stubbornly fail to develop their own app to provide the functionality that users want (unless by some miracle it's coming in the iPhone 5) beggars belief and is arrogance in the extreme.

I am seeing more and more people starting to talk about the closed nature of the iOS system as a problem rather than a plus. If Apple keep doing this, developers will get fed up, and they'll go and code for Android (if they're not already).

Apple needs to take a long hard look at itself in relation to this. Idiots.

I've "downgraded" Week Cal with the latest update, but I'm never going back to the default Calendar app. It's been long consigned to an "unused apps" folder, along interestingly with the default weather app, the default stocks app.....get my drift?

Lion comes to Mac

The latest iteration of the Apple Mac operating system, "Lion" allegedly comes to UK users at 1am tomorrow morning according to Mactrast.

This is an exciting and major release for Mac users, with a raft of updates, enhancements and general UI developments.

I'm going to be downloading it as soon as I can (though won't be waiting up until 1am to do so), and am looking forward to using it on my Macbook Pro.

Apple goodness....Lion, iOS5 and iCloud

For users of Apple products (and that's me with an iPhone 4 and a Macbook Pro), the keynote delivered by Steve Jobs and his crew at this week's WWDC has shown us some wondrous goodies that we can expect over the next few months.

I'm no techie, so I'm not going into any massive detail here, but essentially there are three strands to what's coming.

1. Lion - the new incarnation of Mac OSX - the core Mac operating system. Already a super slick user interface, Lion brings a whole host of UI enhancements, better and clevere multi-touch gestures, improved apps and a whole lot more. And all for $29.99 (though here in the UK that'll probably translate to a more expensive £29.99. And that's for a 5 license OS - yes, you can install it legally on 5 Macs!
2. iOS5 - the latest operating system version for iOS devices - the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Again a whole ream of developments and enhancements - too many to go into here, but some notable ones include improved notifications, better handling of previously purchased apps, improved mail app, and great use of the lock screen. It's coming in the Autumn.
   
3. iCloud. The new way to sync your data across all Apple devices. At the moment I use MobileMe (and pay for the privilege). That's now effectively dead in the water. When iCloud arrives it basically means if you change data on one device (my iPhone for example), that data is automatically updated on my Macbook Pro. In the words of Steve Jobs...."It just works" No set up, no fiddling, it just works. And.....it's FREE! Awesome.

If you want more detail about all this lovely Apple goodness, then trot across to any of the tech blogs/sites which are awash with the detail of these three core elements. Me, I just can't wait to get hold of them.

Week Cal for iPhone

For many iPhone users the default Calendar app is OK, but for others it's perceived as one of the weaker areas on the device. For a generation brought up on Palm's calendars, or third party offering like Datebook, the standard iPhone app just didn't cut the mustard.

Many pretenders to the crown have come and gone, often stymied by Apple's reluctance or stubbornness to let developers get right at the heart of the functionality they need to produce a decent competitor.

But then along came Week Cal by Wasabi Apps, http://www.wasabi-apps.com/weekcalendar/.

All of a sudden, here was an app that looked like it could offer a decent alternative including that fabled week view missing from Apple's native app. It got some pretty decent reviews, and I decided a few months back to stop using the default Calendar app in favour of the new pretender. And I liked it. It wasn't particularly barnstorming for me, but it was efficient, and that week view certainly made it better.

It's just gone to v3.0, and there are some great new additions to it's functionality. It's got a new year view - OK, not much detail here on an iPhone screen, but very easy to quickly navigate to a month/day.

More tellingly, and something that will possibly swing it for ex Palm users is a terrific Agenda/week view that you can customise with up to 8 different layouts. It almost looks like a Palm! (Note to self....move on...Palm's gone).

Additionally you can rotate views and have a different view depending on whether you're in portrait or landscape mode. For those that want it, there.s a global birthday alert (I have a wife for that). There are a myriad of other features including various full screen options, the ability to auto-hide bars, have different badge alerts according
to your preference, show or hide week numbers and change font sizes.

The neat ability to tap and hold to start data entry makes it feel much more useable than the native app, and generally this whole app gives a feeling of being very polished. I highly recommend this app for anyone who's serious about using a calendar on an iPhone. It's miles ahead of the native app, and Apple really should take a long hard look at this.

Hidden data use and the iPhone

A salutary tale

I'm on O2 as my carrier using an iPhone 4. I, like most people was a bit miffed when O2 slapped on a 500mb cap on data usage. On reflection though, I rarely get even close to using that. Sensible use on 3G, plus using wifi wherever I can, including at home means my typical monthly data use over 3G is in the region of 80mb - 100mb.

A couple of days ago I paid a cursory glance at my usage in Settings/General/Usage and it was around the 30mb mark. About right given my billing month runs from 25th of the month.

Over the weekend I've mostly been at home (on wifi) or at Cardiff City Stadium - where regular readers will know I don't get a data signal. I haven't been doing anything different, or downloaded any new apps - though I have updated a few existing ones.

Imagine my surprise therefore when at 8.57am this morning a text from O2 pinged in saying I was at 80% of my data limit and they'd let me know if I went over it. Sure enough a quick check in settings showed around 400mb used. Somewhat perplexed, but with no time to check anything (I'm a busy man) I vowed to check things out this evening. Then 30 minutes later I got another text saying I'd exceeded my limit and now needed to buy a bolt on.

I suppose at least they told me rather than letting me carry on and shafting me with a hefty bill at month end.

Anyway, busy I may be but not that busy. I checked again, and use was at 477mb according to Settings. I re-booted the iphone and made sure there were no apps running. What I should have done was check what apps were running - but as I've said before I wasn't doing anything differently to normal.

I then contacted O2 - via chat as it happened. Their phone lines - my first port of call said they were very busy, but within 20 secs of being on the web site I was offered a chat session which I gratefully took.

The next 20 minutes basically confirmed what I'd been told by text. Yes I was over my limit, yes I'd need a bolt on and given I said I'd not normally come near this level of use, they did agree to "look into it", but I suspect they won't find anything.

So, for a £5 bolt on I've got another 500mb to tie me over to my next billing date in 10 days time. Worryingly, I still have no idea which app was the culprit.

My vague recollection is that the following were in the multi-task bar - but remember these apps re supposed to be in a suspended (ie effectively stopped) state.

Sky Sports Football, Safari, Mail, Twitter, Messages, ECB Cricket, Notes, Reeder, Facebook, Contacts, SafeWallet and Angry Birds. I don't (or rather very rarely) stream video or music and certainly haven't been doing this in the last few days. One of them though, appears to have been doing something rather naughty. Two pieces of supporting evidence were significant battery drain - down from 100% at 7.30am to 68% by 9.30 when normally I'm not down to 68% by the end of the day, and the fact the phone did appear to be quite warm at one stage.

So, conclusions?

Well, clearly not all apps go into a suspend state when you open another app or return to the home screen, despite what most people would have you believe. I've heard of this with apps like Pandora and Spotify but I don't use those. Gavin suggested it might be a location services issue, although I don't think I've changed anything since yesterday.

A bit of a mystery then. One things for sure. I'll be paying a regular trip to the task bare to check what's there and clearing them down, and I'll be paying a bit more attention to my data usage over the next few weeks.

Apple: It just works. No it doesn't

You know, for a company that prides itself on ease of use and the "it just works" principle, Apple have sometimes got things horribly wrong.

Take calendars, and three Apple specific elements.

1. An Apple Macbook Pro
2. A pricey (by most people's views) subscription to Apple's Mobileme cloud/syncing service
3. An Apple iPhone 4

Now then, let me see - oooh, I have all of those. And what I want to do is have my calendars on the two bits of hardware to be seamless. Update one, the other one updates. And it works, mostly.

I have two calendars on my MBP that are "subscribed calendars". These are calendars that someone else has built. You download them, and then subscribe to them, usually for free (in my case, a calendar of all Cardiff City's fixtures, which saves me having to type the darn things in at the start off a season, and a UK holidays one so I don't have to add in things like "Christmas Day" or "Easter Sunday").

The beauty of a subscribed calendar is, if the data is updated - say a CCFC fixture v Middlesborough on Saturday is moved to a wet Tuesday, the calendar automatically updates with the new data - I don't have to do anything! Marvellous!

And it works except.....that the subscribed calendars don't sync. A "normal" local calendar syncs to Mobileme and to the "other" device, but the bloody subscribed ones don't.

It's such a pain in the arse. A beautiful elegant solution that's been hamstrung for Lord knows what reason.

You'd have thought Apple would have been able to make it work, but it doesn't. And that means they are driving people to alternative solutions like third party sync tools and Google. Surely that can't be good for business?

Come on Apple, make subscribed calendars work with Mobileme.

App karma

Following my post of a few weeks ago about the multiplicity of to do and note type apps on my iPhone, I think I have finally settled on a set up that seems to be working for me, far better than any previous approach.

For Notes I'm using Evernote. I splashed out on the premium version, mostly because I want to have my notes available at all times, not just when I have an internet connection. I'm using both the iPhone app and the cloud version on my Macbook Pro and PC, which works just fine. I've migrated all my others notes from others apps, and everything seems to be going OK. I like the way I can clip to Evernote from a web page using Firefox's EN plugin too.

For my to do app, I'm using Appigo's ToDo. I have to say I really, really, like this app. I've tried three of four (at least) other to do type apps, and all have their merits, but nearly all have substantial flaws (for me at least). the Appigo offering is great. It's neat and simple if that's all you want, offers lots of options if you want to, and I'm growing into it more each day. If you have an iPhone, and like to keep your to do list in order, I highly recommend this app.

I'm also finding that my app use is steadying down. Thought I've downloaded a couple of hundred apps over the life of my iPhone, I'm really only using a few in anger with any degree of regularity. They are (and this is only the order in which they appear in my homescreen, and exclude things like Settings, Mail, Messages and Contacts as I'd assume anyone would use those regularly:

• WeatherPro
• Evernote
• ToDo
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Safewallet
• Reeder
• CoPilot Live

There are loads more obviously - I have about 100 plus apps ont eh phone at the moment, but these are the ones I use as a matter of course on a day in, day out basis plus mail, messages, calendar, safari and contacts.

Too much choice = disorganisation

Choice can be a terrible thing. Especially when it costs nothing to only a couple of quid.
There are so many different to do, and note apps available for the iPhone in the App Store it's hard to know where to start, and perhaps more importantly, where to stop.

I've gone through a fair few over the time I've had an iPhone, seeking the perfect app. In truth, I don't think there is a perfect app. As with so many, there are bits of some that are great, but then things that they don't do that another app will.

The result has been a proliferation of similar type apps on my device. The problem is that now I've got notes stored everywhere. Some stay on the app, some sync to the cloud and some sync to different services.

So I've made a decision that I'll pare down on the apps, and keep only one or two that complement each other. How long this will last is anyone's guess, but my guess is probably not long.

So, I've kept Evernote, bizarrely an app I have never really got on with, as my notes app, and 2Do as my to do app. For the moment, out go AwsomeNote, Notebook and Toodledo

I've also upgraded Evernote to the premium service - it's "only" about £26 a year, and brings a couple of significant benefits. One is that notes sill stay on the device, where with the free version you have to have a connection to get hold of the full editable note, and secondly, any photo note you take with text in it, becomes searchable once Evernote's servers have done their text recognition thing. The fact that an Evernote note can be text, photo or voice is a nice bonus, and the search and tagging functions make finding a note a breeze.

2Do is a graphically nice app that gives you lots of options when creating a to do, and I like the configurability.

So that's what I've done, I'll see how it pans out in practice. I'm a bit sad to see Appigo's Notes app on the "out" list, as I've had it a long time, but you can't add photos as a note. Maybe if that comes in a later release I'll switch back. It synced to Tooddledo, so there didn't seem to be any point having that app as well.

AwsomeNote was graphically nice (perhaps over emphasis on the graphics). It also syncs to Evernote, but again if I'm using Evernote anyway, AwsomeNote just seems like duplication, and the way notes were synced wasn't entirely to my liking - and they only sync one way as far as I can tell - Create a new notebook in Evernote and it didn't sync back to AwsomeNote.

With so many apps around that do notes and to do's there's bound to be something else out there that some people swear by, or that will eventually sway me to move, but fore the moment I am going to try and stick with just these two - Evernote and 2Do.

iPhone round up

iPhone 4 owners can now order their "free" case from Apple using the iPhone 4 Case Program app. This is Apple's attempt to appease the wrath of iP4 owners suffering from the "Grip of Death" signal attenuation problem by giving every iP4 owner a free case.
It's a neat solution. Download the app, sign in using your iTunes login, and you're presented with a selection of cases to choose from. Choose the one you want, hit "Place order" and that's that. Your details come up for confirmation and you then sit back and wait 3-4 weeks for delivery.

Notwithstanding the view of many that this is a bit of a fob off by Apple, the delivery concept is great.

Also out today is the BBC News app. This brings BBC's news service it's own dedicated app, which also plays video - something not possible via Safari because of the Flash on the BBC site. The app looks good, seems quick and configurable to a degree. Early days, but worth having on your device.

Worst news of the week must be poor old Murray over at Palm-Mac who's brand new iPhone 4 has started coming apart at the seams - literally! His case has warped and is bulging out at one corner. Hasn't been dropped or knocked - really bizarre, and a problem I haven't seen reported anywhere else. Obviously it's going back to be exchanged, but very, very odd.

Zagg Invisible Shield

I'm not normally one for cases and protectors, but I had heard from a few sources that the iPhone 4 back was prone to scratches - even though it's supposedly made of an especially toughened glass.

Sure enough, about 4 weeks in I found a tiny scratch on the back of the case. A few of my techie chums have espoused the use of a Zagg Invisible Shield protector, and so with the confidence that comes from having known these chaps for sometime (at least in the virtual sense) ordered a back protector direct from the Zagg website.

You can get the protector for front screen as well, but I think that's probably overkill - I never got a scratch on my virgin 3G screen in 18 months of use, and I think a protector of any type - even a supposed "invisible" one, must make some sort of difference.

The protector arrives in a box with a spray bottle of some sort of liquid and a rubber squeegee. Basically, you peel the protector off it's backing, spray it with the liquid, apply it and squeegee out the bubbles. Care is needed not to overspray and end up with a mess of liquid seeping out of the sides of the protector, but it went on easy enough. At first it looks a bit messy - even with all the main bubbles squeegee'd out you start thinking "oh, don't like the look of that", but miraculously after about 24 hours it's fine. You can tell there's a protector on there just y looking at it, but it's flattened out fine. It lends a slightly tacky, more grippy feel to the iPhone which is no bad thing for those of you that have held this wonderful, but thin and slippy device. I'm impressed and now have a layer of protection which I'm happy with - this stuff is apparently very tough.

Make sure you read the instructions. You need the surface of the device you're applying this too pristine, with no particles, and the instructions recommend you washing your hands thoroughly and wetting the finger tips with some of the spray solution if you don't want to end up with fingerprints stuck to your protector.

All in all, a worthwhile purchase.

I'm also getting a silicon case in a day or two courtesy of one of said techie chums who had a few going spare. I should then be well protected.

So, nothing to worry about

So his Stevieness has spoken. There is an antenna problem, but hey, all phones have it, and we'll demonstrate it for you too.

But because Apple loves all it's customers, they'll give everyone a free case and refund the cost of those who have already bought one.

I suppose you have to hand it to Apple. Despite a thrashing in the tech media this week (and a bit longer to be honest), they've come out and said there's a problem, but it affects only a tiny minority of people, bu we'll give everyone a free case because we're nice.

On top of that, reading between the lines, it sounds like they're pretty miffed by this antenna issue (which isn't surprising) and that they're already working on further antenna development. Be interesting to see how that pans out - no doubt future Apple devices are going to be subjected to more scrutiny than ever both by Apple's R&D people and by the public when they get their hands on kit.

So no recall. I'm still more than happy with my iPhone. It's a brilliant device, and I really pleased with it. Might get a free case if they're giving them away though!

iPhone 4 problems

Does your iPhone 4 suffer from the "grip of death" antenna issue? Just google iPhone 4 antenna and see the plethora of hits.

Basically there are loads of people saying their iPhone is afflicted by a problem where if you hold the phone in such a way as to touch both parts of the antenna (the steel band that folds around the edge of the phone) on the lower left side of the phone across the black band break, the signal will slowly (or quickly in some cases) degrade to the point where any signal is lost and if on a call, the call dropped.

I can't lose the signal completely, but certainly the bars do drop. Apple have been accused of not testing the phone properly - in the wild, pre release, testing was done with cases disguising the phone and ace would negate this effect. Apple's respons eis that it's a software issue - and has been universally derided.

Whatever the reality, Apple's kudo has been dented, and they need to do something about it and quickly. Some blogs and websites are implying a mass recall is imminent, whilst others say Apple supplying free "Bumper" cases (normally retailing at £25 in the UK) would assuage unhappy owners. Others again say there isn't an issue - or if there is, it's only with AT&T's network in the US.

So no definitive problem, or solution - yet. Watch this space.

To make matters worse, a lot of people are also reporting problems with the devices proximity sensor. This is a sensor that detects when you are holding the phone to your face on a call and blanks (or is supposed to) the screen. The reported problems are that the sensor isn't working properly, and touching the phone screen with your face can mute, or worse, end a call. I haven't experienced this problem, but I know people that have. Another one for Apple to dwell on.

Software fixes for both problems are mooted, but most people seem to think it's a hardware issue.

Apple need to sort this out - their shares are already falling based on the bad publicity they're getting, and I can't see Steve Jobs wanting to brazen this one out.

Downgrading iOS4 to OS3.1

o go back an OS version (or two)Happy as I am with my iPhone 4, my 3G handset is really struggling with the upgrade to iOS4. As my son will be using this, (lucky him), I decided to try and downgrade the OS back to v3.x. This isn't straightforward. Apple in it's wisdom believes the only way is up, and doesn't offer an easy or obvious way two.

However, following (carefully) the steps on this site I managed to do it first time (well, OK second after I had failed to read the "Read-me" text file in the Recboot zip properly and fully the first time.).

It was painless and took only about 10 mins to end up with a virgin iPhone 3G running version 3.x, and it feels a lot snappier for it.