Convertbot Belongs on Your iPhone (or iPod touch) [u]

There are plenty of times that I want to convert one value to another. For some reason, it usually involves recipes. My wife and I have many recipes that are scaled to feed an army. We’re a three person family. And our just-over-one-year-old son doesn’t exactly eat a large portion.

(Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll eat us out of house & home when he becomes a teenager).

Now, there are other times I’ve needed to convert various values. My go-to place for such a thing has always been Google. See, if you go to Google and type in 48.5 ounces to pounds Google will tell you 48.5 ounces = 3.03125 pounds. Handy, huh?

Great thing is, that even works on my iPhone via Safari.

But I love great design and user interfaces. Heck, I use a Mac, right? How could I not have an appreciation for those? Well, it just so happens that there is an app for that. And it belongs on your iPhone.

I’ve had my eyes on Convertbot [App Store] by Tapbots for quite some time now. It is a gorgeous little app that lives to serve your every conversion whim. It has a wonderful robotic-inspired user interface, complete with sound effects that just makes the experience gush with gadgetry.

And this little app does a lot. Currency, Data Size, Length, Mass, Speed, Temperature, Time, Volume, and Area are the main categories, with many denominations in each one. There is a nice demo video over on the aforelinked Tapbots site. The app normally sells for $1.99.

However, as of this publication, Convertbot is FREE for a “very limited time.” So skip the demo, go make sure it’s still free on the App Store, and add it to your iPhone’s utility belt!

UPDATE: I just discovered there’s is a virtual ton of extra measurement categories that can be enabled in the app’s preferences! They include Angle, Data Rate, Force, Fuel, Illuminance, Power, Pressure, Radioactivity, SI, Typography, and Work.

iPhone OS 3.0.1 fixes SMS threat, maybe more? [updated]

On Friday, July 31, 2009, Apple released iPhone OS 3.0.1 for the iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS in order to patch up an SMS vulnerability in response to the threat’s prominent exposure at the Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, NV. The researchers who discovered the vulnerability prior to the conference said they let Apple know about 30 days prior with the warning that it would demonstrated at the conference on Thursday, July 30, 2009.

It is slightly alarming to me that Apple waited to patch this until push came to shove. Perhaps they were hoping to just be able to roll the fix into OS 3.1, which is currently in private beta with developers.

When Apple rolled out the new update to OS 3.0 on Friday, it listed a sole item in the release notes: Fixes SMS vulnerability. However, I have noticed other improvements over 3.0 since installing it on my iPhone 3G.

Faster Syncing

After installing OS 3.0 in June, syncing had slipped into taking close to 4 minutes. Most of that was in the backup process. Now, backup takes less than 10 seconds.

Faster Shutdown/Startup

With iPhone OS 3.0, shutting down took nearly one minute and starting up about three minutes. Now, with 3.0.1, shutting down takes about 20 seconds and starting up about 45 seconds.

Much Improved Battery Life

I have said many times on this blog that my iPhone 3G had it’s best battery life under OS 2.2, and had dropped with 2.2.1, and then plunged to a near ridiculous level with OS 3.0. After a couple days with 3.0.1, I can say that my iPhone is at least back up to 2.2.1 levels. I no longer have to seek out a charging source every 4 or 5 hours.

Improved Wi-Fi Reception

Ever since day one with my iPhone, I have had great wi-fi signal throughout my apartment. This was quite necessary from July to November 2008, as my city did not have 3G service during those months. I noticed that immediately after updating to 3.0, I no longer could receive wi-fi signal in my bedroom nor kitchen, the two rooms farthest from my AirPort Express (about 25 feet). After installing 3.0.1, I now have full bars throughout the apartment.

So, those are a few things I have noticed. Have you noticed anything new (good or bad) with OS 3.0.1. Be sure to also say which model of iPhone you are using, as there are three flavors now.

Update: Added Improved Wi-FI Reception.

Happy Birthday, App Store

One year ago today, the App Store graced iPhones and iPods touch everywhere. I remember that July day very clearly. I arrived at the Village Pointe Apple Store in Omaha, NE at 6 am to stand in line. I bought my iPhone 3G (16 GB, black), and then waited…

I waited because the iPhone 3G was so freaking popular that the activation servers had melted! Well, I assume they melted. I remember leaving my iPhone docked to my Mac, waiting for the activation to complete. I gave up and took a nap. A good two hours later I heard the siren’s call from the home office. It sounded like a sword unsheathing. It was the sound the iPhone makes when docked. I bolted from my bed and ran to my iPhone! Activation Complete.

The first thing I did was to explore the App Store. To see what was available. I remember my first download was actually a purchase. Twitterrific Premium. I assume most people’s first download was a freebie. The next app was Facebook. Yes, I like social networking. Then, Apple’s Remote app. Then AIM (which sucks, and still does. Apple, can we please just have an iChat app?)

To say the App Store is a hit would be an understatement. It’s no wonder Apple is giving away iPods touch to the college kids two summers in a row. At a 30% cut on paid apps, it’s a money maker for our favorite fruit company. Even factoring in the costs of the servers and such, Apple’s profit out of 30% of a 99-cent app is likely much greater than a 99-cent music track. Although the sheer volume of music sales would clearly blow away the profits of the App Store.

Anyways, to commemorate the App Store’s first birthday, I thought I’d share a little list of my favorite apps. [All links go to iTunes]

• Twitterrific 2 (ad-supported free, ad-free $3.99): My favorite Twitter client. Honestly, I am surprised I have worn a hole in the upper left corner of my iPhone’s screen, that’s how often this app gets used.


• Remote (free): A very awesome app to control iTunes and your Apple tv. Straight from the fruit company, so you know it’s delicious.


• 1Password ($4.99, $5.99 Pro): Syncs with the wonderful 1Password on the Mac. Allows you to access sites and auto-fill logins and passwords securely on the go.


• Delivery Status touch ($2.99): A great app to track your deliveries. This has become even more handy with the introduction of Copy & Paste in OS 3.0, as before it was a bit of a bear to get your tracking info into the app. This app supports more couriers than you can shake a stick at.


• Groceries ($3.99): I bought this app thinking it was a neat idea. Now, it is used weekly for shopping trips. The user interface is top notch, And the ability to add custom items to the database is great. Needless to say, it comes with quite a great deal of items in the database right from the start.


• Stanley Level (free): My wife and I were hanging pictures in our apartment, and like a true geek, I don’t own a level (it’s strange that I actually own a hammer). Well, our pictures were looking a little crooked, and I explained to my wife that I don’t have a level, and we’d have to go get one. Then, I remembered that the App Store has everything, from Twitter clients to Fart apps, and yes – even levels. There are many free level apps out there, and some may even be better, but you can’t go wrong with a Stanley level, right? Guess what, it actually works, and it works darn well.

Well, those are a few of my favorites. Happy birthday, App Store. Live Long and Prosper.

One Year with the iPhone 3G

I want to share a fond memory from this past year that I’ve had an iPhone.

On July 11th, 2008, I nervously waited in line at the Village Pointe Apple Store in Omaha, NE. Home was about an hour away in Lincoln, NE. I was waiting to get my hands on an iPhone 3G. I was nervous because my wife was pregnant and due any day. Thankfully, our son waited until July 15th to enter the world.

I could have waited a week or so (yeah right!) to make sure our son was born before galavanting off to Apple Land to get an iPhone. But hey, I had plans! And they worked gloriously. See, I wanted to tell the world about my baby as soon as technologically possible. I had a first generation iPod touch at the time, but I had already scoped out the hospital to see if they had wireless. They didn’t.

Shortly after getting my iPhone, activating it, loading it up and putting some third-party apps on it, it was time to get down to business. I had also gotten a MobileMe account so I could wirelessly sync my contacts, calendar, bookmarks and push my email. Well, on my Mac, I composed an email announcing the birth of our son, leaving blanks for length, weight, date and time of birth, etc. I also created a MobileMe gallery with a placeholder image from my the unltrasound, and added that link into the email. Then I added everyone I wanted to receive the email into the BCC field, and saved it as a draft.

Sure enough, after my boy was born a few days later, I snapped a photo of him (after he was cleaned off), sent it up to Mobile Me, filled in the placeholders I left in the email, and hit send. All from my iPhone. I called a bunch of family. Then, a little while later, the phone calls from friends started rolling in.

That’s how the iPhone played an important role in the birth of my child. I’m sure someday, if/when we have another baby, an iPhone will play a role in that.

So that is one of my fond memories of the iPhone this past year. Do you have any special memories from using the iPhone? Leave them in the comments.

Besides the iPhone playing a role in informing loved ones about the birth of my son, other things have happened with the iPhone in the past year. However, I don’t find any of them to be particularly as endearing as the story I just told.

For starters, the iPhone, in my experience, wasn’t the best experience until the OS 2.1 release in September 2008. Before that it was a drag to sync the iPhone because of the excruciating length of time it took to run the routine backup. And there were other various bugs and issues, but I’m having trouble remembering the specifics.

And then in March 2009, the iPhone community started getting excited again with the announcement of added features in OS 3.0, which was released in June. OS 3.0 brought a lot of nice features. Nothing earth shattering, mind you. But it also brought its share of bugs. Most notably, there are a lot of stutters in graphical transitions and my battery life is worse than ever. Not to mention that I used to be able to connect to my home wifi without issue in my bedroom, and now I can’t at all. Granted, I’ve rarely felt the need to turn on the wifi on my iPhone since Lincoln was blessed with 3G last fall.

It sounds like many of these issues will be fixed in OS 3.1, which is now in beta testing. Maybe next year I’ll mention 3.1 in my Year Two post (if I remember to do one). Maybe with iPhone OS 4.0 (just guessing. Seeing a trend, folks) I’ll hold off until 4.1, which seems to be the trend for a truly stable OS.

Glyphboard Brings Character(s) to iPhone OS 3.0

Neven Mrgan, a designer for Panic Inc., has cooked up a pretty sweet little web app for users with iPhone OS 3.0 on their iPhones and iPods touch. Yes, you did just read a sweet little web app. Remember web apps? That was Apple’s solution for third-party developers before the iPhone SDK and App Store.

So, what does this little web app do? Well, Mac users have for years been able to use the option and shift keys to modify the output of other keys. For instance, if you type option + shift + k you get a cool Apple logo that looks like this . If you’re on a PC, you’re out of luck. Other characters include Trademark ™ (option + 2) and Copyright © (option + g). Now, the iPhone OS’s heart is OS X, so it can also display these charaters, but the soft keyboard doesn’t support a lot of these characters.

This is where Glyphboard comes in. Now, clicking that link on a Mac or PC won’t help you much, but if you view it on an iPhone or iPod touch running Software 3.0, you can do something cool. By adding that page to the Home Screen, it will create a standalone web-based application.

In Software 2.x, web apps ran in Safari, and if you scrolled up enough, you’d see Safari’s address bar. One of the cool new features of iPhone OS 3.0 is the ability for web designers to make their web app completely standalone. Essentially, adding Glyphboard to your homescreen is quite like installing a Dashboard widget on OS X.

Glyphboard allows you to copy and paste many special characters from Glyphboard to other apps. It’s quite slick.

Bonus: because it is a web app, it can be updated at any time, without being held up in the App Store approval process.

I believe this is an essential web app for anyone using iPhone or iPod touch Software 3.0. A few screen shots below. Enjoy.

Impressions: iPhone Software 3.0 [Updated]

iPhone Software 3.0 was released yesterday, as I am sure many of you know (since you’ve likely been using it on your iPhone or iPod touch). I thought I’d just quickly jot down some first impressions.

First off, I am a copying & pasting machine! I never realized how much information I’ve wanted to be able to transplant across apps. It certainly makes things a lot easier. Protip: If you have a lot of text you want to delete, rather than holding down the delete key on the keyboard, highlight the text with the cut, copy & paste selector, then just tap delete. Very handy.

I’m also enjoying the landscape keyboard that is now available in Apple’s core apps. This is great for tapping out a semi-lengthy email. Now I only wish Twitterrific supported it.

(And for you Tweetie users, yes, I know Tweetie does Landscape, but it’s an either/or in the settings. I want it to rotate based on the accelerometer’s orientation. Sometimes the compact keyboard is useful, like when you have a child in one arm and you have to type one handed.)

(And I just prefer Twitterrific’s User Interface, but I digress.)

Spotlight search is a dream. Such a super fast way to hop around the phone.

A couple super neat unadvertised features: When viewing a contact, there is now a Share Contact button that will open a new Mail message, and attach a vCard. This is great for trading your “business card.”

Also, Calendar syncing now support calendars from multiple sources. As a MobileMe user, I have enjoyed having my email, calendar, contacts, and bookmarks pushed to and from my device. The sad thing is MobileMe doesn’t support subscription calendars. In iCal on my Mac, I subscribe to a US Holidays calendar, and I also have iCal automatically pull Birthdays from Address Book. In iPhone Software 2.x, if you had MobileMe on, that was it (unless you also had Exchange. Now, in iTunes, I can have my main calendars using MobileMe, but can also select and sync US Holidays and Birthdays from my Mac when I connect the USB cable.

Friends, I should see your birthdays a lot easier now, as I check my calendar mainly from my phone.

So, speaking of MobileMe, there are a couple new features on that front. The coolest is the new Find My iPhone feature. This is live now, and I tested it by hiding my iPhone, then having my wife go and find it. The premise is that if you lose your iPhone, you can just log into MobileMe on the web, and Find My iPhone will track down your iPhone and display its approximate location on an embedded Google map. You can then send a message to the screen of the iPhone like, “I’m lost! Please call my owner at 555-555-5555.” and then phone will beep whether or not it was in silent mode.

If you truly can’t get your phone back, then you can remote wipe the data on it.

The second new MobileMe feature is an iDisk app. This is labeled as Coming Soon. Basically, it will be a free app on the App Store that allows you to view the contents of your iDisk and even send a Share link for a file to a friend or colleague .

That pretty much sums up some of the initial things that have tickled me in the past day with iPhone Software 3.0. What are your fancies? Leave a message in the comments.

Update: Here’s an important change from iPhone 2.x. In iPhone 2.x to force quit an app you had to hold down the home button for 6-8 seconds. Since the iPhone 3G S hardware uses that command for its Voice Control feature, Apple has changed the command to force quit an app on all iPhone OS 3.0 devices. Now, if an app hangs and you need to Force Quit, you have to first hold down the Sleep/Wake Button until you see the red slider, THEN release that button and hold down the Home button for 6-8 seconds to Force Quit an app.

WWDC 2009: A Parade of Awesome!

Three days ago, Apple held the keynote address of its Worldwide Developer’s Conference, and all I have to say is that it was a Parade of Awesome! That’s all I have to say. You can go about your regularly scheduled browsing now. I’m kidding! Of course I have the interesting highlights for you.

I waited to write this until I had time to watch the keynote video, as I prefer to get my source material first-hand, instead regurgitating all the other blogs. Call me old-fashioned.

The first thing that caught my attention was when Phil Schiller, Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, said that the number of active OS X users in 2007 was 25 million people and that number in 2009 is 75 million users. That is a lot of growth. Apple’s doing pretty well.

This post got pretty long, so I’m inserting a jump here for visitors to the main page.

Predictions: WWDC 2009

Apple is hosting its annual World-Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. The company’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, will lead the executive team through the keynote presentation on Monday, June 8th.

Seeing as how that is just under a week away, I figured now would be a good time for me to weigh in on my predictions for what will happen at the keynote.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard & iPhone OS 3.0


Snow Leopard

It is a very safe bet that we will see both Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0 at WWDC. Apple said as much in its WWDC press release.

So far, the general public hasn’t received a great deal of concrete information about Snow Leopard from Apple itself. The things we can expect for sure at this point are a full 64-bit OS; Microsoft Exchange support in Mail, iCal, and Address Book; QuickTime X; “Grand Central” – a technology that will make Mac OS X completely multicore aware; and OpenCL (Open Computing Language), which will allows applications to tap into the GPU for added computing power.

Overall, that’s a lot of geeky under-the-hood stuff that end users won’t explicitly see (but they’ll probably notice their computers become a lot more powerful). Apple said at last year’s WWDC that Snow Leopard wouldn’t introduce any new end-user features (like Exposé in 10.3, Dashboard in 10.4, or QuickLook, Spaces, and Time Machine in 10.5). Instead, Apple is using Snow Leopard to further refine the newest foundations within 10.5 Leopard.

Traditionally, Apple has charged $129 for major OS X versions. I surely know this because I have shelled out for 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5. Without some features that the marketing department can use to flash in end-user’s faces, I don’t know if Apple will be able to sell many people on 10.6. At least, not at $129, especially in this economic climate.

So either Apple will offer it for less, or they will have to add in something that is marketable to the masses. The rumor mill has been purporting that Snow Leopard will introduce an overhauled User Interface code-named “Marble.” This is quite possible, however, I am really liking the current Leopard UI. The only change I would really like to see to the UI is to get rid of the dated Aqua scrollbars and progress bars found in many apps (like Safari). Instead, replace them with the blue-ish grey scrollbars from iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie.

I predict there will be some new UI paint, a surprise feature that Apple just couldn’t resist adding, and that Snow Leopard will sell for $99. We’ll also get a shipping date, my guess is around September.

iPhone OS 3.0

The new and improved iPhone OS will be the key feature of the keynote. Expect to see lots of third-party developer demos to ad nauseam. We’ll also see all the features we saw at the March SDK event, again.

I also think we’ll see some new features of OS 3.0 that will be exclusive to new iPhone hardware, which I will discuss in the next section.

Of course, we’ll get a final ship date on this as well. If I would have written this yesterday I would have guessed the ship date would coincide with the new iPhone hardware release (currently rumored for July 17). But, my mind changed today, and I think we’ll see iPhone OS 3.0 on all current iPhones within a couple of weeks.

Why? iTunes 8.2 was released today. For the past few betas of iPhone OS 3.0, a pre-release version of iTunes 8.2 was required to activate iPhones and iPods touch running the beta firmware. With iTunes 8.2 being in the wild now, and one of the key features listed was compatability with iPhone OS 3.0, I just think Apple is planning to release 3.0 very, very soon.

Also, Apple has been requiring that all apps submitted to the App Store be compatible with 3.0 for weeks now. I imagine this means ,most developers have already submitted, or are planning to very soon, apps that meet that requirement.

Finally, there is the snafu from last year’s iPhone OS 2.0 launch. Talk about a disaster. Last year, in case you don’t remember, Apple released the iPhone 3G, iPhone OS 2.0, the App Store, and MobileMe all on one day. And it was a complete meltdown. Apple rarely makes the same mistake twice.

I think this time around we’ll see iPhone OS 3.0 launch ahead of the new iPhone hardware. And I think we’ll see it within two weeks. Three at the latest.

A New iPhone

I’m not sure anyone doubts that there will be new iPhone hardware soon. The rumor mill has been flipping rampant with spy shots and the like. My thoughts on the matter are that the new iPhone will have come in 16- and 32-GB capacities, at the $199 and $299 price points, respectively. The 8GB model may stick around at a more budget-friendly $149, but I’m pretty skeptical about that.

Also, I think the new iPhone will have the rumored 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, be video-capable, and have a magnometer (digital compass). Also, I think the flavor of iPhone OS 3.0 that comes on these devices will have added functionality in the Camera and Maps apps to leverage these technologies.

It’s likely a safe bet to assume that the device will sport a faster processor and more memory. Furthermore, many of the spy shots have focused on the back casing of the device, showing a plastic matte finish. I’m hoping so, for better grip and resistance to scratches.

Lastly, I have more of a hope than a prediction. On MacBreak Weekly 142, Scott Bourne said he had a couple sources within Verizon, one being high-level within the company, who said that Verizon would be getting an iPhone and that it would be announced in June. Now, AT&T is pretty decent in Lincoln, NE, where I live. But it is currently non-existent in South Dakota, where I’m from. So my iPhone becomes pretty useless as a phone when I visit family. If Verizon were to get the iPhone, I’d be finding a way out of my AT&T contract pretty quickly.

Granted, AT&T has announced they are coming to South Dakota in 2010-2011, but that’s quite some time away. And who knows what kind of coverage they’ll have. Judging from their overall coverage of Nebraska, it doesn’t look great. Outside of Omaha, Lincoln, and their surrounding communities, AT&T is pretty absent from the Cornhusker State.

Verizon’s coverage is nearly ubiquitous in the Midwest, and pretty much everywhere in the contiguous United States. Yes, this would mean Apple would have to make a CDMA iPhone in addition to a GSM iPhone, but I would think the amount of customers they would pick up in the US would make it worth it.So yes, I am really wishing for a Verizon iPhone.

Tablet Device

I think Apple is working on something like an oversized iPod touch to answer the netbook market, but I don’t think we’ll see it on Monday. I honestly think it would get a special media event all to itself.

MacBook Pro/MacBook Speed Bumps

I think we’ll see some speed bumps on the unibody notebooks. However, they’ll either get one slide in the keynote or be relegated to a post-keynote press release.

The Triumphant Return of Steve Jobs

I think Phil Schiller will do a One More Thing™ and that will be to welcome Steve Jobs back from his medical leave. I think Jobs’ stage time will be brief and at the end, but I think he’ll be up there nonetheless.

That’s all I have for predictions and hopes/dreams. We’ll see on June 8th!

If you have any thoughts, please leave them in the comments.

Griffin TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick

TuneFlex SmartClick Video Review from Chris De Jabet on Vimeo.

Remember how I was talking about Griffin Technology's great customer service? Well, I thought it was great when they sent me an iSqueez (discontinued product) as an olive branch because the TuneFlex AUX for iPhone wasn't ready in time for my big trip. Now, the object of my desire is available.

Griffin announced Tuesday the TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick, compatible with the iPhone and iPhone 3G. And I've already acquired one to put through the paces!

I should also note this also works with 2007's and 2008's models of the iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod classic. And by works I mean it has adapters to secure them to the dock connection. Earlier models probably work as well, if you have the adapter to keep them properly in place.

The TuneFlex with SmartClick is a nice piece of equipment. It works much like the TuneFlex AUX of 2008, except it has this convenient remote that attaches to your steering wheel. The SmartClick remote controls play/pause, track forward/backward, fast forward/reverse, shuffle songs/albums, and it controls the backlight of your iPod or iPhone.

The TuneFlex with SmartClick performs flawlessly with my iPhone. I am loving the line-out quality to my car stereo. It frees up my cupholders, so both my wife and I will be able to enjoy those on road trips, and that remote is oh-so-handy!

The TuneFlex SmartClick is available now for $79.99.

Griffin Technology, you guys did a great job.

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A note to my readers: I know I've been writing about a lot of Griffin products lately. But I also write about Apple products a lot. I write about beautiful products with exceptional craftsmanship, and I can't help that Griffin makes exceptionally beautiful products that just fit so well with Apple's beautifully exceptional products.

Disclaimer: Griffin did send me the TuneFlex free of charge due to their exceptional customer service. This was not done in exchange for a good review, or even a review at all. I had been planning to purchase it myself, but I was told several different ship dates that were missed, hence their customer service department took it upon themselves to send me one. I just wanted to disclaim this for legal/ethical reasons.