Home Tags Posts tagged with "Apple"
Tag:

Apple

Apple

Monday discovery: Working MMS on my iPhone

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Reports began appearing today that the MMS rollout for iPhones on AT&T may have begun.  I, like many others, played with my carrier settings file when the iPhone 3.0 OS was released, which allowed tethering and allowed you to open up the MMS settings and make changes.

After upgrading to OS 3.1 over the weekend, I found that my MMS has begun working.  I can both send and recieve picture messages on my iPhone, which is a welcomed feature.   OS 3.1 or iTunes 9 also killed the ability to change the carrier configuration file, so I am unable to setup tethering on my iPhone, which OS 3.0 allowed with the reconfigured carrier file.

Most likely, my working MMS is a result of my earlier changes, but it may be the same for many other non-hacked iPhones out there, so give it a try.   I have had the picture messaging icon exposed on my messaging application for a while, but the network would not accept any messages with pictures attached from my iPhone.  To check to see if your MMS is working, you should see a little camera on the input line of the messaging application.  I haven’t tried to send a video (alas, I’m only an iPhone 3G – not a 3GS with video).

Speaking of the tethering option, though.  The OS 3.0 tethering configuration change was not without issues.  I did noticed in dot releases of iTunes that the changes for exposing the tethering option would be lost after syncing back to iTunes.  I figured this was a way of preventing advanced users from using the tethering option when AT&T didn’t want it.   It was massively inconvenient for my configuration to change automagically when I tried to tether at my parents house and get some whiff of AT&T’s spotty service in the rural areas of South Carolina.  Oh, well, I’d love to pay – AT&T, please give us tethering.

In related news, AT&T seems to know that its 3G network can’t keep up with the iPhone (<sarcasm> really??</sarcasm>).

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
AppleVirtualization

WMworld and the week ahead

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

August is quickly drawing to a close and the last day of the month kicks off the first day of VMworld in San Francisco.  The past week has been really busy as I prepare for my trip and try and bring my co-workers up-to-date with what is going on and things that might come up while I’m away.

I’m very excited to be attending VMworld again this year and I’m looking forward to soaking up just as much as possible from the conference.  I plan on blogging about some of the sessions and topics I encounter.  Last year’s conference in Las Vegas was great and I think my company greatly benefited from the information I was able to get and bring back.  We had information months in advance about the then upcoming vSphere version and its capabilities.  For anyone who is seriously invested in ESX, its well worth the money to attend.

One thing we’ve been seriously looking at is virtual host management software — something in addition to Virtual Center and something to alert us of what is going on inside of our ESX hosts.  In a pipe dream, we’d love a product that is also cross platform, since we’ve added XenServer to our mix this year.  We’re looking for software that can do some level of network monitoring and notification about traffic from ESX hosts, that allows us to alert on a wider variety of problems in the ESX environment, but also something to help us answer questions when the arise.

I hope to spend some time in the vendor expo area looking at what solutions are available.  We have seen demos and installed evaluations from several companies, but I think we are down to two options – Hyper9 or vFoglight from Vizioncore.  Those are two very different products, but each has its own strengths.  Ideally, I think both would fit into our environment quite well and both would be useful, but I doubt we get to buy both.  Neither fits that bill, but it sounds like both are moving in that direction in the future.

The week after VMworld, a rumored Apple event may happen.  Unfortunately, the event is scheduled for 9/9/09, after I leave San Fran – darn it.   AppleInsider is rumoring the event will be iPod related – including adding point-and-shoot camera capabilites to the iPod lines.  iTunes 9 is also expected to be announced with some social networking tie-in’s.  Years past, as AppleInsider reports, the event has been held at the Yerba Buena Center – and that is just a couple blocks from the hotel in the city – oh well…

So, its an exciting week for me coming up.  I’m looking forward to the trip and to VMworld.

1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
Apple

Mozy causing problems with Time Machine backups

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Update: Mozy has released an update to fix this issue.

File this under the “why’s that happening” category…  About a week ago, I noticed that my MacBook Pro’s Time Machine stopped working.  It has been working flawlessly to an external drive hosted on my iMac at home, but I wanted something to back it up when I was on the road – for an upcoming trip where we’re likely to have lots of photos.  (My friends lost a hard drive in their Mac while traveling across the country.)

Today, I found an article in ComputerWorld which links Mozy Backup to problems in Time Machine.  On further investigation, it is my problem.  As soon as I loaded Mozy on my MacBook Pro, the Time Machine problems began.  Unfortunately, I thought I had a corrupt spare image file on the backup volume, so I purged it and tried to start over.  Unfortunately, I was unable to start over and successfully backup my Mac using Time Machine.  After a couple tries, I did get it to work, only to find the next morning that it too had reported a problem with the disk image and had failed.  So, I’m down on my Time Machine, but for anyone else seeing these problems, thought the link above might be useful.

Here is an additional link:  the Apple Support Forum discussion on the matter.

1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
AppleDevicesHome Tech

iPhone 3.0 arrives and impresses

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I’ve been silent for the last week and enjoying my newest toy – the iPhone 3.0 upgrade which dropped last week.  I’m very impressed with the release and with the incremental steps that Apple has delivered to all of us customers.  In the meantime, I’ve been one-up’d at work by many co-workers who have upgraded to the iPhone 3Gs handsets with video, improved cameras, and more speed (yes, just a wee bit jealous).

I am really enjoying many of the improvements in 3.0, including landscape mode for several applications – including mail and messages.  A blogger I follow tweeted this article from CNet which details how to enable tethering on the iPhone…  Draw your own conclusions as to its legality, but its one of the features I want most on the iPhone and AT&T is not allowing it at this time.

I’m also enjoying push notifications as of today for Beejive IM – an excellent pay-for IM client for all your different accounts.    I installed that app this morning and I’ve had it running at work.  Noteworthy features include Facebook chat, a really smooth chat switching method when you’re having mutliple conversations, and push notifications, of course.  The service/software keeps you signed into your accounts even after disconnecting and will forward any received messages or statuses to your phone via a push notification which displays on your home screen.  This is Apple’s work-around to background processes on the phone, which, they say, kills battery life.

iPhone 3.0 also grants the ability to subscribe to CalDAV calendars and integrate those.  I have a friend who needs this setup, so I should be trying that soon.  I use MobileMe, personally, for my family and our calendars and it works great – but to give enterprise customers who have invested in OS X Server the ability to leverage iCal Server is a great feature, in my opinion.

And speaking of my MobileMe subscription, a new feature has been added there – Find my iPhone – a locator service and the ability to display a message on-screen and have the phone play a tone.  For those of us who lose things, its a nice feature when you’re looking for your phone while its stuck in the couch.  At least one person has already used the service to successfully reclaim a stolen iPhone…  That story is a very good read.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
AppleDatacenterHome TechSoftware

Microsoft officially kills Money (updated)

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I’ve been a loyal Microsoft Money user since 2004 – well, maybe 2003.  My transaction logs go back to mid-2004, but I think I decided to start over with a new data file in 2004.  I’d played with MS Money since 2003 sometime, but I seriously approached it in 2004.  Yesterday, I learned, Microsoft will be killing the product.  It will no longer be for sale at the end of this month and automatic services for the product will go dark in two years.

Microsoft Money was the one product that I haven’t found a suitable alternative for on the Mac.  And having years of data in its proprietary format doesn’t help, either.  Really, there are great Mac software options, including Quicken for Mac (maybe Quicken Financial Life sometime soon), Moneywell or Moneydance.

Continue Reading
0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
AppleDatacenterSoftware

Did Apple lose its chance to capitalize on Vista?

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I read a Digg for an article over at macworld.com entitled Apple has squandered the gift that was Vista.  I’m not sure I agree with the author’s perspective.  In fact, I think what Apple did might have been a very smart play.  After reading the piece, the author’s view seems to be that because Apple still has less than 10% of the market share and that it didn’t introduce a netbook or business laptop (??) that they somehow failed to capitalize on the opportunity left by Vista.  Let me offer a different perspective.

Continue Reading

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
Apple

Apple releases updated firmware for Airport Express/Time Capsule

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Normally, a firmware release wouldn’t warrant a post on here, but this case is a little different.  Earlier this week, Apple introduced newer models of the Airport Extreme broadband router/switch and the backup appliance version, Time Capsule.  Along with that announcement came several enhancements that most figured would be released for previous hardware.  These features are enabled in firmware release 7.4.1.  

While I’m not sure the firmware brings the dual band features to the older hardware The update does not include the guest networking or dual-band simultaneous networking, but the MobileMe integration (Back to My Mac) is included for older hardware (like mine).  This allows you secure access to your shared disks from far far away.  I installed the firmware last night and setup MobileMe integration.  Broke out the Mac here at work and whala, its working to home…  Now that’s cool.  I knew technically that it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to extend the BtMM functionality.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
ApplePersonalProjects

Yep: iPhoto for your PDF’s

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I’m trying to go paperless at home… well, not really.  I’m really trying to make sure some important documents don’t get destroyed if we ever had a fire or other disaster at home.  I don’t know why, but that sort of things concerns me now.  Maybe it was Hurricane Katrina and memories of Hurricane Hugo blowing over my house years ago, but I digress.  What I’ve found is a great little Mac app that does the trick for my document archive – its call Yep.  Its billed at iPhoto for your PDF’s and that’s a pretty accurate billing.  Its a great library application for your PDF files, wherever they happen to lie on your filesystem.  

Continue Reading
0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
Apple

Hands-on with iPhoto ’09

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I had pretty high expections of iPhoto ’09 after its debut during MacWorld.  The features I saw weren’t revolutionary, but they were welcome additions to the software.  Facial recognition and geo-tagging were the two key features introduced, but it was the social networking ties that really shined.  I have been playing with the software for several days and overall the features added are nice.  But the software seems a little sluggish compared to the ’08 version and we can see some of the eye candy (core animation effects) added throughout, which don’t really add much.  

Continue Reading
1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditEmail
@2019 - All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign