Shoot screenshots on the iPhone
You can find this anywhere, but I am putting this entry up for my own reference: To shoot a screenshot of any screen on the iPhone, hold down the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously until
Continue readingCategory: Hardware
Recovering the system on the Acer Aspire One
Helpful tip to new Linux Acer Aspire One owners: Before you even open the box, be sure to buy a 2Gb USB stick to use for system recovery. Follow the instructions in the recovery DVD
Continue readingLiveUpdate breaks WiFi on Acer AspireOne
A few days ago, I allowed a LiveUpdate on my new Aspire One. After the update, wifi stopped working. In addition the removable drives (smart cards or keydrives) are no longer recognized. Apparently this is
Continue readingEnable the advanced menu on the Acer Aspire One
The Acer Aspire ships with Linpus Linux configured to be extremely simple to use. It is likely that you will soon find the simplistic interface too restrictive. To get to the functions you can’t see,
Continue readingResurrecting a dead iPod Classic
My ipod classic died again the other day, after being alternately frozen and baked in my car for several months. I don’t believe in coddling my appliances. I tried the frozen ipod reset trick, and
Continue readingiPhone gets very hot when on wireless and battery drains
The other day I pulled my iphone out and nearly dropped it! It was burning hot and there was a big red low battery indicator in the middle of the screen! I had charged it only a couple of hours earlier so it was not likely that normal use had caused this condition.
I was in a wireless area, and had been checking my gmail earlier. The little activity indicator at top left was twirling.
A search through Apple support and discussions led me to this article. It seems that the iphone can get stuck in a checking-mail loop, particularly on certain IMAP accounts like gMail.
An Apple support article also says that a flaw in the Mail application in v. 1.1.3 causes it to persistently generate server activity even when it is not checking mail per user settings. Persistent mail checking can quickly drain the battery.
Continue readingInternational calling: the big weak spot in iPhone service
In planning for a trip to Europe a few months ago, I found that one of the biggest weak points in the iPhone package is the cost of international calling and data services on the AT&T network partners.
If you don’t do a little pre-trip planning, as soon as you get off the plane in another country and start using the phone, you will start ringing up enormous charges.
Voice: At the moment, there is no way to get really good per-minute rates for calling with an iPhone, until someone comes up with an iPhone application that really does SKYPE well. Even with AT&T’s “World Traveler” package (not to be confused with “World Connect”), you only save 20-30 cents/minute, and the per minute charge can remain quite high – often a dollar or more per minute. Still, it is worth the $5.99/month.
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What I want in an ebook reader
After a trip to the new Borders in Ann Arbor yesterday, and another disgruntled look at their Sony ebook reader, I’ve come up with a wishlist for the perfect ebook reader. It folds up, into
Continue readingVoice recording with the iPhone
UPDATE 2: March 27, 2009 I’ve been using QuickVoice for a couple of months now. It’s good enough that I use it to record piano sessions and meetings. It is pretty sensitive. I did purchase the 15.00 syncing software which you need to pull the files off the iPhone if you haven’t jailbroken it.
UPDATE: Jan 24, 2009 Since this article was written, the app store was launched and there are now many Voice recording apps for the iPhone. Click here to search for the latest list of Voice Recorder applications available in the iTunes Store
Now you can record your voice with the iPhone (or any other phone), and get speech to text functionality as well!
Continue readingReview of the latest iPhone Update (1.1.3)
A few days ago, Apple sent down version 1.1.3 of the IPhone software. This update is a huge leap in much-needed functionality.
Home Page
The home page interface now makes sense! It always looked as if it were customizable, and practically begged you to add items to it, but it wasn’t possible. Now it is.
Adding a new application is as simple as browsing to the application on iPhone Safari, clicking the “+” symbol and selecting “add to home page.” The various web-based iphone applications available all over the internet are now as easy to access from the iphone home page as the native apps.
And all the icons on the home page can be moved around, reorganized, and shifted to other pages (up to 7 of them.) Even the dock icons (Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod) can be moved.
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