The Laughing DM » apple

iPhone Features – #2

DungeonMaster — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:46:29 +0000

One of the features of the new iPhone 3 OS that I discovered quite by accident is the ability to “undo” typing. Just give the phone a quick shake when you’ve typed something you don’t want. The “Undo Typing” dialog will slide onto the screen.

Undo Typing

If you happen to shake the phone when there is nothing to undo then the “Nothing to Undo” dialog will slide onto the screen.

Nothing to Undo

This handy feature isn’t available everywhere in the phone. For example, the keypad used for actually dialing telephone numbers does not support undo.

iPhone Features

DungeonMaster — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:34:44 +0000

I discovered a feature of the iPhone accidentally today. When a text message fails to send the iPhone helfully displays a warning sign next to the text message.

Text Sending Error

Clicking the exclamation icon brings up a handy dialog to ask if I want to send it again.

Try Again?

I don’t recall having seen this feature before, so it might be new with the iPhone 3 OS release.

Apple iTunes Update Issues

DungeonMaster — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:46:07 +0000

For some strange reason Apple iTunes refuses to update correctly. It always helpfully offers to download and update iTunes (and usually QuickTime as well). But it always fails for some reason.

The iTunes updater has a “download only” option. When I tried that today and then tried to run the update separately I received this error message:

Failed iTunes Update

Google searches for the “A later version of Apple Mobile Device Support is already installed” weren’t very helpful. None of the results addressed the problem (or even said what it really was) or provided any viable solutions.

I ended up having download the whole iTunes install package from Apple.

Mac Finder Crash

DungeonMaster — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:53:40 +0000

I managed to crash Finder while copying files from one network drive to another. Finder displayed an error message … which I forgot to capture. Finder then stayed stuck on this screen until I killed it.

Finder Crash

At least when Windows craps out during a file copy, the copy dialog goes away without having to kill the Explorer process.

The really crappy thing was that it happened at the end of an hours-long file copy operation.

If it happens again, I’ll be sure to get the error dialog.

Adventures in Updating the iPhone

DungeonMaster — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:45:00 +0000

This is a little late, but last Friday (July 11, 2008) I took Apple iTunes’ advice that it was time to update my iPhone. Little did I know that it would be an adventure through confusing messages from the iTunes application and non-existent information from Apple on what was happening. By now we all know that Apple rolled out the new iPhone 3G and updates to existing iPhones. Their authentication servers simply could not handle the load.

Everything started OK. iTunes told me about all of the nifty things my iPhone would be able to do right after the update.

I was soon greeted by this rather disturbing message:

So I did. iTunes then informed me that there was a problem with my internet security settings were wrong.

A quick check revealed that both SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 were enabled.

Trying again didn’t really change anything. I received the message a few times, but it couldn’t give it much attention as I needed to get some actual work done.

Later, iTunes would sit on the “Accessing iTunes Store” step for extended periods.

Eventually, it would timeout with a slightly more informative message than the SSL/TLS message.

(Yes, I did switch computers during this process. I’m good programmer after all … try different tricks to see if something works …)

By this stage, I knew that Apple was having problems. I would just have to be patient. I figured I’d check on Apple’s web site to see if they had any sage advice. No such luck.

So, I spent much of the morning looking at this:

After about 4 ½ hours I finally received a message on the phone that all would be well.

And Apple’s web site today tells how successful the iPhone 3G rollout and upgrade for existing phones was.

There are a lot of seemingly interesting new features on the updated iPhone. It will be interesting to see if the iPhone will be able to attach to my employer’s rather finicky VPN for one. The ability to add third-party applications also looks interesting.