I'm pleased to report that I am contributing to Inside iPhone, a new part of the O'Reilly Digital Media Website. I will be posting over there once a week.

My first post is Dave Aiello's Attempt at Introducing Himself. It explains who I am to people who have never seen Operation Gadget before, and also hints at what I'm planning to talk about in my first real post next week.

There are several other good writers contributing to Inside iPhone, including Derrick Story and Erica Sadun.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the few nagging problems I've experienced with my iPhone is a photo saving problem. This has been described in several different ways by other iPhone users out on the Internet:

• iPhone "disappearing photos" bug experienced by Jeffrey Zeldman back in November 2007.
• iPhone Camera Problems: Blank White Thumbnails mentioned in June on iPhoneGuru.org

This problem started happening to me a couple of weeks ago when I was still running iPhone Firmware 1.0. I had hoped that the 2.0 Firmware Update would solve this problem, but it didn't. At that point I had to start doing serious research, otherwise my camera would have been useless to me.

Apparently there is some recurring issue with saving photos taken with the internal iPhone camera once more than 1023 photos have been saved. In my case, the problem started happening when the LastFileGroupNumber was at 1043. It is not clear to me whether all iPhones have this problem, if all first-generation iPhones have it, or if this is only affecting users of the first-generation iPhone under certain circumstances.

The best solution to this problem that I've found so far was first discussed in Topic : Camera will not save pictures to phone after snapping photo, an Apple support discussion. About a quarter of the way into the thread, a contributor named "JKeenan" said the following:

Continue reading "A Solution for iPhone Photo Saving Problems" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Screenshot of Twitterific Application on my iPhone: This
is a screenshot of the new Twitterific Application installed
on my iPhone after I performed the 2.0 Firmware Update.
[ Screenshot: Dave Aiello on Flickr ]

I found a way to access the iPhone 2.0 Firmware in advance of the official release through iTunes. I decided to give the upgrade a try and liveblog it on Twitter. You can see the transcript of this on twitter.com/daiello.

I had complete success with the installation. I was able to install Epocrates Rx, Twitterific, and Evernote. The preceding links are to screenshots of each application on my Flickr account.

The most interesting feature addition I've found in the iPhone 2.0 firmware is in the Calendar. Calendar now shows which iCal calendar each event comes from. Here's a screenshot I posted to my Flickr account that illustrates this feature.

I would provide details on how to perform the 2.0 Firmware update yourself, but Apple has asked other websites to take down the information that they previously provided about where to get the firmware image. I have no interest in repeating information that Apple is actively trying to quash.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We experienced a primary hard disk failure on the Operation Gadget server this weekend. I recovered the site from a backup a couple of hours ago.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was happy to find out that the iPhone 3G Rate Plans are in line with my previous estimate of $86 for 450 minutes of talk, unlimited 3G data, and 200 SMS messages. From the reaction on other blogs, such as The Apple Phone Show, you'd think that they expected AT&T to lower the rates somewhat below the rates signaled by Ralph de la Vega of AT&T Mobility in an interview he did with Om Malik back in early June.

I've talked to a few friends, and the affect this is having on them is as follows:

• Quite a few AT&T customers who already have iPhones will be sticking with their current iPhones for some period of time beyond July 11. They feel that they have a good deal now from a billing perspective, and think that $15+ extra per month is a little steep for the privilege of 3G speed and on-board GPS.

  This is especially the case since almost all iPhone users know that they will get most of the benefits of the iPhone 2.0 firmware also.

• Several non-iPhone smartphone users will be switching to the iPhone on or about July 15. If they are AT&T customers, they are already paying $86 per month or more to use a BlackBerry, a Treo, or a similar device.

  My wife Kathleen is in this boat. She's a Treo 650 user because she needs ePocrates for work and that application won't be available for the iPhone until the 2.0 firmware is released and the iTunes Application Store goes live.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

NoGrapesNoNuts.com tells a humorous story
about Grape Nuts cereal. [ Image: Kraft Foods,
reposted on my Flickr photostream ]

Jesse Gardner and a few other friends of mine sent me links to NoGrapesNoNuts.com, a website that advertises Grape Nuts cereal.

The site includes a monologue by the presentor taking a humorous look at Grape Nuts position in the marketplace and its history as a product. I think you need to see at least part of the presentation in order to appreciate it.

What I like most about this site is that it pokes fun at the notion of building a website to promote such an old-school type of cereal. This goes to show that if you think outside the box, you can promote anything.

I think the site is very well done. I wonder how many more sites like this we'll see before the end of 2008? How many are already out there?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Cool Tool: StrollAway on Cool Tools: "... Once we got this hook, rather than just parking our stroller in the kitchen or dining room, we created a set, out-of-the-way place to store it. And since it's off the floor, that gives us more space to fill up with more baby stuff. The hook is strong (we have a Quinny Buzz stroller, which weighs abouts 15 lbs.). It doesn't require drilling or mounting into anything, since it hangs over the top a door....." Great idea.
• SightSpeed Goes Mainstream with Dell Video Chat « on Web Worker Daily: "... The SightSpeed software installed easily on my Mac, and the video conversation with Mr. Csathy was crisp, smooth and effortless as compared to any I’ve tried with Skype. He had a fancy headset, but I was just using the MacBook Pro’s built-in speakers and microphone. For once, video conferencing felt approachable to me beyond Apple iChat...." This article has a good screen cap of the theme that Dell applied to SightSpeed's software. [ Found out about the Dell / SightSpeed deal from friend Andy Abramson ]
• Access And Share Files With Box.net on The Apple Phone Show: "I have tried several online file store and share solutions since getting my iPhone almost a year ago now. Box.net seems to be the one application that has endured time. I like using it to store and share my most important files and collaborate on work. I’m still getting used to moving my workflow entirely online. I am used to have files that I can access stored locally on all of my devices. But, times they are ‘a changing. The reason I think I have continued using this service and have let others fall by the wayside is because the interface is so simple...." I have to try this.
• iPhone as Pedometer on Inside iPhone: "A short while ago, I discovered that Wii Fit could be used to track my progress as I walked on a treadmill. Wii Fit has a game where you jog in place in front of your TV to travel through a virtual landscape. Instead of bouncing up and down on the floor, I put my wiimote in my pocket, hopped on the treadmill and had a much better virtual exercise experience. And of course this got me thinking: if the wii can track movement, why can't the iPhone do the same?" Cool idea. Interesting execution.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier this month, I estimated the monthly mobile phone service cost of an iPhone 3G at $86. I included $5.00 in this estimate for a bundle of 200 SMS messages, because I had heard that AT&T Mobility was unbundling SMS messages in the data rate plans for the iPhone 3G.

In Apple Phone Show Episode 59 published last Friday, Scott Bourne argued that AT&T has not stated categorically that SMS messages would be unbundled. This is what was published in the shown notes:

AT&T has said publicly on several occasions that they are not done configuring the iphone 3G packages. Scott has asked AT&T twice what the deal is and every time the official comment has been we’re still working on them and we have plenty of time before July 11.

Because AT&T has not completed work on the deals, he is perplexed by the number of people reporting on what the packages look like in their entirety. Many bloggers are saying, "Oh, you get no SMS messages included with the basic package." And while they might very well be right in the end, we don’t know that yet. AT&T hasn’t confirmed what the packages are going to be.

I went back through my notes, trying to remember where I had read that AT&T was unbundling SMS messages in the iPhone 3G data rate plans. It turns out that the CEO of AT&T Mobility, Ralph de la Vega, told Om Malik that SMS messages would be unbundled in an interview that took place at the time of the iPhone 3G announcement:

{Om Malik:} Has there been a change in the cost of data plans?

{Ralph de la Vega:} The data plans are different on the 3G iPhone vs. the 2G iPhone. Consumers will pay $30 a month every month, while enterprises will pay $45 a month. This is what you pay us on other PDA devices such as BlackBerry Curve. The SMS messages are not bundled anymore, and you pay for what you want. Again, the prices are based on what you buy.

From there I went and looked up the current posted prices of SMS message bundles on AT&T Mobility's website and added the 200 message bundle to my price estimate.

Lots of other writers came to the same conclusion I did. But the panelists on The Apple Phone Show were adamant that their contacts at AT&T say no final decision has been made on this issue.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every year I look for blogs that attempt to cover L'Etape du Tour, the Cyclosportive that follows the same route as one stage of The Tour de France. This year I found Rob Mackey's blog at The New York Times called The Climb.

Mackey is a web journalist who has done a great deal of work for major publications. (See his portfolio at http://mackey.typepad.com/.) So, you can bet that he will produce a good blog if he survives the training leading up to L'Etape du Tour.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's been a lot of discussion on Mac-related websites about whether the iPhone 3G should support tethering to a laptop or desktop computer. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, Wikipedia defines tethering as follows:

Tethering in cellular wireless is the connection of a non-mobile device (e.g. desktop computer, notebook computer, laptop computer), to a mobile device (e.g. cell phone) PDA like Palm Treo, Motorola Q, BlackBerry or Air Card for the purpose of wireless Internet access by the non-mobile "tethered" device.

Several phones already on sale on the AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint networks already support tethering. The unlimited data plan rates charged by the carriers for devices that support tethering are significantly higher than the proposed data plan rate for the iPhone 3G. As a result, some people who are planning to buy an iPhone 3G say that they will pay a higher data plan rate if they are allowed to tether their new iPhone to a laptop.

I don't think iPhone 3G owners would be happy with the performance of their iPhones if tethering were allowed. The reason is that tethering would consume a great deal more of the iPhone's power than most people realize.

I've made several trips from Trenton, NJ to New York Penn Station on the New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor rail line over the past month. Each time I arrive in Manhattan, I am surprised that the battery level on my iPhone is low. The reason is that there are dead spots on the AT&T network that overlap the Northeast Corridor right of way, and the iPhone boosts its signal to stay connected when in those areas.

Continue reading "Why Tethering an iPhone 3G to a Laptop Doesn't Make Sense" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)