Tag Archives: blog

Jan 14 2011

Reset Your Body Clock – The Night Before…

So my body clock sucks. I eat late, I stay up way too late, I struggle to get out of bed every single day and I seem to have got used to 5-6 hours sleep each night.

I’ve been using an app on my iPhone called ‘Sleep Cycle’ and it monitors your sleeping pattern and tries to wake you up, right when you’re ready. More on that later.

I’ve noticed that my sleeping pattern is erratic at the best of times. Some nights I’ll doze right off and others I’m restless throughout. It doesn’t help that my bed is slightly too short, or that a little too much light comes through my curtains but all the same, I hate waking up in the morning!

I sit on the sofa, late into the night, then potter about not really doing anything. When I eventually get to bed (sometimes I fall asleep on the sofa first) I’ll feel awake again and it will take me another hour of tossing and turning before I can drift off. Although there are occasions when as soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out.

It takes several alarms, all strategically placed and strategically timed to ensure that my sleepy hazy ass gets out of bed so I can have some breakfast, a cigarette and a shower before I head off to the daily grind.

One of my aims in 2011 is to start running again. I always feel good when I run, I just need to motivate myself to do it. So in a bold move (for me anyway…) I’m going to reset my body clock, try to live better and start to run again.

It’s now 21:43 on Friday 14 January and I’m only just about to have dinner.  This is my final night in my old ways… So I’m going to enjoy it!

Jul 15 2010

iPhone 4 Press Conference

So tomorrow Apple are planning a press event to talk about iPhone 4. There’s no word as to what they’re going to talk about but it’s certain to be about the much-discussed ‘antenna issue.’

I put that in quote marks as I don’t have an issue. If I hold the iPhone in a ‘death grip’ style squeeze, it does drop bars. But I don’t hold it like that! Simple.

There’s a number of things that can happen tomorrow, I call it BURRN. Bumpers, Update, Recall, Returns and Nothing.

Bumpers: Apple have already suggested to buy a Bumper if you want to help with any signal issues, would they give them away? I think so, why not? Last time I was in the Regent Street Apple Store, there were hundreds of Bumpers dotted everywhere. Literally, every display desk had a case of them on and there were hundreds hanging with the iPhone accessories. Two days later, they were all gone… A follower on twitter reported that they didn’t have any at all. How odd… Maybe they’re saving them all to send out to any iPhone 4 owners who’d like one… A simple form to give your address and IMEI would be a nice easy way to give out free Bumpers.

Update: iOS 4.01 is rumoured to sneak out later today and possibly tomorrow. iOS 4.1 has been pushed out to developers.
There are several features added to 4.1 and first up, Game Center is back!! (More on that another day) but the main thing that’s changed are the bars. The signal indicator formula has changed and your signal is now shown more clearly and accurately. It’s a software update though and it doesn’t do anything to the real issue.
It you squeeze the iPhone, it still loses signal. If anything, it does take longer to drop all signal so it has improved slightly.

Recall: Never. There are around two million iPhone 4′s in the wild and no company would ever recall that many products. Unless it’s deadly (like a Toyota say) and the problem with the iPhone 4 (as far as I know) isn’t deadly.

Returns: Apple have always said if you’re unhappy, you’ve got 30 days to return it. That’s true if you bought it from Apple, but most networks don’t have a returns policy like that. With O2, you even had to sign a return waiver that by upgrading early, you had NO returns policy. I think Apple may keep this open for customers at their stores, maybe extending the 30 days some.

Nothing: From time to time, Apple have commented on the issue that everyone’s going on about but really, they’ve always said, there isn’t a problem. They may bring out a load of stats, specialists and PR experts to put a stop to all the concerns. They’ll release the iOS update and that will be the end of it.

By inviting ‘high level’ press to the event they’ll make sure they get the publicity they want whatever they decide to do. I’m hoping for bumpers because I’d like to try them but I’m really not concerned about the issue. I haven’t had much difference in dropped calls and if anything, I get better signal in most places.

We’ll see what happens at 18:00 tomorrow though…

Jun 16 2010

iPhone 4 SOLD OUT!

So the iPhone 4 became available to pre-order today but only through the online Apple Store (and AT&T if you’re in the states.) The store was up and down all morning and there was plenty of anticipation to see if any of the networks would start theirs… They didn’t.

This evening, I spotted that the due date when pre-ordering had changed from 24th June to 2nd July!

After poking around a few minutes, I found where to reserve an iPhone to collect in store. New contract and upgrading customers can also reserve from Apple… Interesting!

Until I see the model I want (32GB) is unavailable… Gutted.

S got hers reserved but I’m gonna wait. I’ll wait to see if O2 or Carphone Warehouse allow you to pre-order for collection. I don’t want to wait for delivery, I hate waiting for couriers. If it comes to it, I’ll get up early and hunt around town until I find the model I want!

Or, I can call a friend…

Jun 7 2010

WWDC 2010

There’s only hours to go until Steve Jobs takes to the stage at this year’s WWDC in San Francisco.

As usual, there are a lot of rumours and a lot of mystery about what is going to be announced. I’m only certain on a few things, and a lot I’m pretty sure about. The rest, well, the rest are things that ‘would be nice’.

iPhone

First up is what everyone’s been waiting for… A new iPhone. A lot of people have been calling this ‘iPhone 4G’ – Well that certainly isn’t going to happen. Firstly, all networks internationally are yet to agree on what ’4G’ actually is! Sprint (USA) currently have a partial 4G network, but AT&T don’t and the iPhone is still exclusive to AT&T in the US. There currently isn’t a 4G network provider in the UK!

You could call it the G4 as it’s the fourth generation of the iPhone, but I’m pretty certain it’s going to be named iPhone HD - It’s a hunch, but the spec of the screen and camera (for 720p HD recording) indicates this is the way Apple are going.

We’ve all seen the leaks from Gizmodo (who subsequently are actually banned from this year’s WWDC) so I’m not going to bore with repeating the spec but I’m excited about this! I’m certain they’re not gonna release the iPhone tomorrow. So certain that I haven’t started getting my iPhone ready to sell! I expect the iPhone HD to be released on June 22nd but any delays in manufacturing the thing could push it back to late July.

iPhone OS 4.0

Don’t expect to be getting a software update any time tomorrow. The Golden Master version of the beta hasn’t been released to developers (me) yet and this is what will be announced tomorrow. The fourth beta has come in leaps and bounds in stability, and I never have a crash on my iPhone. This final beta will be released to developers tomorrow (so everyone can get their apps ready) and then the 4.0 update will be released when the iPhone HD is out.

Safari 5

Safari 5 is going to be showing it’s face too. With fast loading times, pre-DNS fetching, smarter address bar, ‘private mode’ icon and a new ‘Reader’ mode which is kinda like Readability. I was hoping for the official release of ‘extensions’ as well, but apparantly that’s not gonna happen.

Apple TV

There’s also a fair bit of murmour surrounding Apple’s ‘hobby’ Apple TV. Now I’ve been an Apple TV user for a few years now and I still regularly use it. It’s a shame it can’t do more as I don’t buy that many Movies or TV Episodes from iTunes any more. It’s great as a remote speaker to my iTunes library on my MacBook and watching podcasts is great, but that’s about it.

There’s rumours that it’ll be a new device, running a similar getup as the iPhone OS. Or just an app on the iPhone HD and iPad. Who knows? I hope it’s not a new device, as I like the look of mine and don’t wanna see it go to waste.

MobileMe

Finally, there’s MobileMe. Apple’s premium service which gives you email, calendar, contacts, ‘Find My iPhone’ and a few other features that you can find elsewhere totally free. I let my membership expire a long time ago and the rumour is, it’s gonna be free. There could also be a tier-based membership system which gives more features or access if you pay a small fee.

Will Steve have ‘one more thing’ for us at this morning’s keynote? Or will we just get sales updates and iPhone talk? I’d be happy with just that, it seems that Apple are focusing on their biggest selling devices right now. Mac’s sales aren’t slumping, they just ain’t as high as iPhone OS devices.

Jun 7 2010

MacBook Woes

The day I got my iPad, I rushed home to get playing. First thing’s first though, I needed to sync it. So I setup my MacBook with the iPad Dock and started to sync.

I started to notice the screen flickering, it was changing brightness just like when you start to charge the battery. The LED on the Mag-Safe connector was flickering too. Green, amber then green again just like it was trying to charge but failing every time.

It was a race to sync my iPad! The battery was draining as iTunes chucked everything it could onto the iPad and it didn’t help that the iPad was trying to charge from my MacBook! It can’t, so I don’t know why it tried but it certainly made a difference to the battery comsumption. After just over an hour the sync had finished, although I had to forego all my photos as they were taking way too long.

I ran the usual diagnostics, resetting the PRAM, NVRAM and the SMC with all not making any difference whatsoever. I took the battery out for a while and left the MacBook shut down (well I had no choice!) and after 30 minutes, I gave it a try. It was charging!

Not for long though, day in day out the adapter was being temperamental. I couldn’t figure out if it was the battery or if it was the adapter. There was only one thing for it, I had to make an appointment to see a Genius.

In typical computer fashion, the fault didn’t re-occur at the Genius Bar. I opened every app on my dock, started syncing with my iPhone and the iTunes store was downloading some podcasts and the adapter was charging the battery without a problem! Until the Genius started playing with the wiring and BOOM! It started to flicker again.

£49 and a new MagSafe adapter later, my MacBook charges fine! I like the new design too. It feels a lot more secure when charging now. Phew! After spending so much on my iPad, I couldn’t handle my MacBook dying… I guess that shows that the iPad isn’t here to replace a Mac anytime soon.