I was in Manhattan, NYC yesterday because my wife had to work. She’s Assistant Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities at The New School and Saturday the university had Parent Sessions prior to the beginning of the school year. Code of conduct, etc. blah blah.... I’m really here to talk about the 3G reception problems NYC has been having recently.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, my 3G reception (voice and data) has been fine after my full restore with the 2.02 firmware and no backup, at least in New Jersey. Even with a smidgen of a single bar, I’ve been able to transfer data over 3G faster than Edge and Voice has been crystal clear. The same holds true for Voice in NYC. I actually had at least four bars outside with 3G and Voice was crystal clear. Inside, only a single dot, but voice communications were fine. Data is where everything fell apart though. I could not transfer anything in any internet capable App (Safari, Mail, Google Maps, Twitterific, etc.). Data transmission wasn’t just slow, it was non-existant! Switching to Edge restored data functionality at a somewhat good clip. WiFi of course was the way to go for wherever I had a connection.

In further research on the Apple Forums and on other forums online, I found that this was a shared experience across NYC for the past week. Many have said that they had fine data transmission until about August 18 or maybe a little earlier. At that point it was spotty, non-existant, or only seemed fine late in the evening. Much has been said about 3G dense areas and corresponding saturation of 3G data causing outtages in many cities. I experienced this first hand yesterday in NYC. A few blamed this on the iPhone and Apple, but my experience (and that of many other people) show that 3G data is fine outside the confines of population centers. Some forum entries have AT&T customer service responses showing this to be a problem on their network specific to these population centers and that they are building out the Hardware in the areas affected. Let’s hope they get the situation fixed soon. Whatever the case, this is DEFINITELY not just an iPhone 3G software problem. AT&T must get their 3G network up to snuff in one of the largest markets in the world before the iPhone gets further bad (and undeserved) press.

UPDATE: Follow the link for more proof that the iPhone 3G data problems are Network related and not Hardware related at AppleInsider.
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Tags: 3G, data, reception, voice, iphone, apple, firmware, Update, new york, nyc, new jersey, manhattan, newschool

My wife and I picked up the iPhone 3G (she went black and I went white). There was a long line to get it at 8AM at the mall on a Saturday, a full month after the launch, with about 60 people ahead of us. However, like many people out there, we’ve encountered some problems.

My reception has been fine, but my wife’s iPhone had weak 3G reception in NY where she works. We’ve also encountered various issues with App updates via iTunes after upgrading to 7.7.1. Clearing out the iTunes App Section and re-downloaded the apps we had helped with that issue. We were both on 2.01 firmware, so when 2.02 came out, we eagerly updated. That firmware upgrade actually helped with the 3G reception issues for my wife in the City, but we started encountering issues with Syncing Apps purchased on the iPhone back to iTunes and downloading updates to our apps from the iPhone AppStore. I encountered errors that said that downloads/updates have failed and that they would be available the next time I synced my phone with iTunes. Checking for Purchases from iTunes allowed us to download the updates and sync them back to the iPhone, but not being able to update via the iPhone and not being able to transfer Apps purchased on the iPhone back into iTunes (the transfers look like they start, but then they fail without an error) was becoming a major pain.

After searching the web and various forums for days, I found the solution. The problem seemed to be that we restored from a backup made on our old iPhones to the new iPhone 3Gs we upgraded to. The Solution? I had to fully restore my iPhone to Factory level without utilizing a backup and build off a fresh version of the 2.02 (latest) Firmware. The process was painfully long: first restoring the iPhone to scratch, then building it up slowly with my Apps, Settings, Photos, Music/Videos, Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, MobileMe Settings, Ringtone settings, Settings for each App that took forever to move over, re-downloading my eReader books, etc... and on...and on...


But when I was done, and all my Apps were back in their proper places... TADA!!! My phone was fixed!!!

I was now able to:

• Sync iPhone AppStore purchases back to iTunes
• Download updates from the iPhone AppStore successfully
• have GPS come up MUCH quicker than before (satellite acquisition was much faster)
• have no 3G issues (so far)
• have no lag for Contacts screen loading from MobileMe
• have no lag for onscreen keyboard anymore

I thought I would have to wait for another Firmware or iTunes update, but now everything is pretty much perfect. The process was tedious but well worth it!

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Tags: iphone, 3G, bugs, issues, problems, solved, solutions, restore, transfer, apps, itunes, firmware, apple, att

UPDATED with new Apps and notes:

So I’ve updated my first gen iPhone using the “not-quite-officially-released” iPhone Firmware 2.0 and have downloaded my first batch of apps. Here’s my list so far:

• Apple Remote - iTunes and AppleTV Remote
• AIM - AOL Instant Messenger
• NetNewsWire - My preferred syncing RSS Reading system
• Tipulator - Easy to use Tip Calculator (with Rounding and Splitting functions)
• Urbanspoon - Random Restaurant finder based on location (Magic 8 Ball style shaking)
• Twitterific - My preferred Twitter app
• midomi - Music Recognition App (whistle, hum, sing, or type music and it will tell you name, artist, iTunes link, YouTube link, and other info)
• Bloomberg - Basically a mini free Bloomberg Terminal on the iPhone (We at CNBC haven’t made an iPhone app, YET)
• Mobile News - Associated Press News App
• WeatherBug - Weather Alerts, Radar, Camera’s based on 3 set locations.
• SmugShot - Take Location Tagged photos and upload to SmugMug
• Facebook - Facebook on the go (don’t really know what this has over Mobile Facebook)
• eReader - Buy and read eReader and FictionWise books

Games:

• SuperMonkeyBall - Game - just what the title says
• Enigmo - Game - Nice little liquid based puzzler
• Aurora Feint - Role Playing meets Puzzle Gaming (FREE!!!)
• MotionX Poker - Accelerator enhanced 3D Dice & Poker game
• Tap Tap Revenge - Think Guitar Hero with a little Dance Dance Rev thrown in.
• AquaForest - Physics based accelerator casual game/toy.
• PhoneSaber - Lightsaber sounds and accelerator motion detection... nuff said.

My first thoughts on these and the iPhone 2.0 firmware:

• I needed to do a little tweaking/setup to get the MobileMe syncing over-the-air on my iPhone. Not hard, but not automatic either.
• I did the update from my Macbook Air since I wasn’t home. Usually I sync my phone with my MacPro. Even though I did a pre-update sync, it didn’t ask me to backup my data so I (temporarily) lost all my photos, wallpapers, ringtones, music, and videos. When I get home and resync it with my desktop, all should be well, but for now I have a pretty “bare” iPhone. Update - Syncing with the MacPro went without a hitch...everything’s back!
• New Contact Icon from home screen. I don’t have to dig into the Phone App to get to my contacts anymore.
• Twitterific supports photos, location tagging, and some other nice features, but as far as I can tell you can’t set it to view only people you follow (unlike the Mac version). Update - after reloading my apps from iTunes on my MacPro I can view just who I follow now. Weird it didn’t work like that before (I was getting both followed and Public timelines all at once before).
• Can’t tell if Bloomberg has Real-Time-Quotes. Will have to wait until market opens tomorrow to test that out.
• NetNewsWire looks “ok” but seems slower to update than the iPhone Web version. The web version seems to also have a few features that the App doesn’t. Hope they update this soon.
• I “thought/heard” that the Associated Press MobileNews App would allow citizen reporters to send in photos and reports from “on-the-scene.” I can’t find that feature anywhere in the actual app, it’s just an offline reader/aggregator. So either I imagined it (most likely case) or this is a “future feature.” Update- There IS a way to have “citizen reporting” in MobileNews. When you read a story, you can comment and send in Photos from the field associated with the story. With the photo you give your info so that they can attribute the photo to you if they use it for future updates to their stories. This is a KILLER FEATURE!!!
• Aurora Feint is the BEST free game so far on the Appstore.
• MotionX Poker has great reviews, haven’t really played much yet but it seems really polished.

• Lots of functionality and cool stuff out there already... I wonder what the App store will look like in a month, or 6 months???

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Tags: iphone, ipod, apple

The former planet Pluto which was demoted to “Dwarf Planet” status just two years ago has received a new moniker. Pluto and similar round cosmic objects that aren’t up to snuff in the Planetary scale are now deemed “Plutoids”. Mickey Mouse was not available for comment, but the poor pup has always been the “forgotten” Disney mainstay. I mean if Goofy was given the ability to talk and walk upright, why not Pluto? Now he’s classified with a name that rhymes with Hemoroids.

Info from: Space.com Read More...

Tags: space, pluto, planet, plutoid, dwarf planet, demoted, cosmos, astronomy

Now that the announcement is over and you can read all about what the new iPhone3G has at tons of sites (like Gizmodo, Engadget, MacRumors or ArsTechnica), the specs of what it DOESN’T have is what sticks in my mind.

• No second forward facing camera
• No native Video Conferencing over iChat or 3G phone-to-phone
• No A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Support (at least not yet)
• No Copy and Paste (at least not yet)
• No MMS (at least not yet)
• No iChat (at least not yet)
• No tethering to Laptops or other devices (use like a broadband modem)
• No upgrade pricing/deals from AT&T (at least not yet) for us iPhone early adopters

We’ll see how this pans out, especially the last bulleted item, when it becomes available on July 11.

UPDATE: Prices for upgrading to the new 3G iPhone? $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB with reset 2Yr contract. Yes, that’s the SAME price as it is for new iPhone buyers. I was hoping it would be the same as some European providors who are offering free/cheap upgrades, but I guess AT&T isn’t going that route. *sigh*
Info comes from CrunchGear. Read More...

Tags: iphone, apple, osx, mac, att

Is this the new iPhone 2? The photos look like they portray iPhones in Black and (RED) for the fight against AIDS. It also shows Video iChat over WiFi & video-chat phone2phone over 3G (and the pre-requisite forward facing camera), Macbook Air style nods, and stereo speakers in the rear. No word on any Cease and Desist Takedown notices yet, but if notices do go out, it’s just as good as Steve coming out and saying they’re real.

Photos were sent to MacRumors, CrunchGear, and AppleInsider (haven’t seen it posted there yet).

UPDATE: Engadget is already calling these fake.... we’ll see. If I remember correctly people were calling the “phatty” ipod Nano fake too, until it actually came out.
UPDATE 2: FAKE FAKE FAKE... now we know.



More photos after the break.
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Tags: iphone, ipod, mac, att, macbook air, osx

What is up with Twitter lately? It’s had more outtages than Con-Ed on a hot NYC summer day and now the Twitter Flash Badge has gone totally wacko. I had to remove it from my site because it stopped updating, threw up weird multi-color triangles, and blanked out the user thumbnails. I just switched my menu link to my actual Twitter page instead. It should make it easier for people to follow me on Twitter anyway, so no real harm done.

One thing’s for sure though... Twitter needs a huge overhaul.

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Tags: twitter, web2.0, tweet, flash, badge

New Ricky and Lucy at Play video uploaded to my YouTube Feed:

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Tags: ricky, lucy, pembroke, pet, chihuahua, corgi, video, puppy

Amazing music video created for The Bird and The Bee song Again & Again.



I liked it much better than the original music video (check the preview on iTunes here).

UPDATE: There's an interview with the director/film-maker/AdProducer responsible for this viral video, Dennis Liu. Also for those that were wondering, the Actress in the music video is Larkin Clark. Read More...

Tags: music, leopard, osx, mac, video

Another year and another Challenge. We've been hard at work on the latest CNBC.com Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. This year the prizes are more diverse. Even the weekly prizes vary now. Last year the contest consisted of a Fantasy Stock Trading Game. This year we've incorporated Fantasy Currencies Trading to the Fantasy Stock Trading and also gave the game application a lot more polish. Hopefully people with have fun with this year's edition.

Check it out at CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. You can register now, but the game doesn't actually start until May 12th.

Oh, and to my wife... no we're not eligible to play... sorry... Read More...

Tags: cnbc, cnbc.com, Million dollar, challenge, contest, portfolio, stocks, currencies, fxcm, thinkorswim