One of my only drawbacks to installing Vista 64 was that I have an iPhone, and Vista 64 was not supported by iTunes.  I had found some work arounds to get it working on Vista 64 with some creative work-arounds. It's funny because basically the day that I installed Vista 64 was also the day Apple released the 1.1.3 firmware for the iPhone, and coincidentally, 64 bit support for iTunes!

Yep, head over to Apple and get your 64 bit iTunes!

In the spirit of my previous post, and related to it indirectly, I've had an excellent experience with a company called Zagg. They manufacture screen protectors for various hand held and electronic devices. If you've ever used screen protectors from other companies, it usually goes something like this:

• Install the screen protector
• Become frustrated at how stupid the installation is
• Start over
• Try again
• Be somewhat satisfied with your install
• It moderately protects the screen for some time
• It's sometimes annoying and you wish you hadn't done it
• It eventually becomes too annonying and you remove it  ... or
• It falls off

But the Invisible Shield products from Zagg are a different story. They supply a liquid you spray on both sides of the film, and a squeegee. You put this 'wet' film on your device, position it, squeegee out the liquid, dry it off, and it stays on. I had the last one on my iPhone for over 5 months with no problems. No peeling, no annoyances. They guarantee it for life too. If you scratch, scuff, or ding it, they'll replace it for FREE. I don't think there's any way you can though, I've never seen a screen protector, or anything like this that is as good as Invisible Shield.

So where does the customer service come in?

Well my iPhone needed to be replaced. So I just swapped it out for a new one, without even thinking about the screen protector. (whoops). So I emailed Zagg and explained my situation, I really only needed a new protector, and not the squeegee and spray, as I had some left. I wanted to know if I could just purchase the film. They replied by saying they'd just send me a new kit, no charge, 2-3 day express mail too. Crazy good customer service.

Here's another cool thing... Got a device that's not listed on their web site? Just provide a link to a photo (so they can see the device), measurements of the screen, and the make and model of the device you want a protector for, and they will custom fabricate you a screen protector. Very nice. I just purchased an alarm for my truck, and the key fob has a digital display that's plastic, and I was worried about scratches. So I ordered the Invisible Shield custom cut to fit it.

If you're considering protecting a device with a screen, check these guys out, I like to support great companies!

Ok I know I bagged on Apple before... But this story is good.

I have an iPhone, if you've ever been here before, you must be painfully aware of it. Well it has been acting strange the past few weeks, and I finally got sick of it. Yesterday evening I made an appointment with an Apple Genius (man I hate that term....why can't they come up with something better, I digress...) to check out the behavior of the phone.

I had not been getting really long email delays and weird stuff when I docked the phone in it's cradle. After describing some of this to the ... ahem... GENIUS ... he showed me a menu on the phone that I had just glanced over and forgotten. Settings > Reset > and about three or four reset choices. He told me that every now and then it was a good idea to go into the reset menu and just choose the "Reset all Settings" option. It clears out files from the OS, and doesn't do too much damage to the settings on the iPhone, you don't lose any data, you may have to reset a few things here and there.

He claimed that this has solved problems for people from not getting receiving calls, to dead spots on the screen, hell at one point he had me convinced it could help solve world hunger. So I said thanks, and happily left with my iPhone. I did explain to him I was not about to do this every day, he said it shouldn't be needed to do it that often.

So today, guess what? Same problems. Made another appointment, determined to get a new phone this time. I went back in to a NEW GENIUS this time, man how many geniuses work there??? Ready to state my case, he said, "hmmmm you were here yesterday, let's just get you a new phone." I had even dealt with the fact I may have to pay a stocking or shipping and handling fee (not happy about having to do so, just recalling the experience with my Nano). But no fees, no hassle, new iPhone.

I'm restoring my backup now, and upgrading it to 1.1.2. Man I love Apple this time.

Apple usually makes this stuff simple. The 1.1.2 Firmware has been out since yesterday, and iTunes STILL does not know about the new firmware release. I found a link on engadet where you can download the actual firmware. After downloading the 160MB file, and sticking it on my desktop, you'd think a simple double click would start the update.... nope. Double clicking the file opens iTunes, but then it sits there and does nothing. Dang it. Here's how to get that file working... <shift> <click> the "Restore" button in iTunes, it will give you a file dialogue to choose a file, then simply locate the file and click OK.

NOTE: Doing the update this way required me to restore my iPhone to factory default settings during the upgrade, when I chose to restore from my last backup, it applied the 1.1.2 firmware, and then restored my phone from said backup. It took quite a while and I am now syncing all my songs and movies back to the device, doing the update this way, will RESET your phone to factory settings. But as long as you have a recent backup, it should not matter.

The biggest piece of the new update is of course the wireless iTunes store. But even cooler in my opinion is that Safari is again, working with .NET 2.0 AJAX. Ok back to work on iPhone applications I could build.. hmmm.....

Update: People have been reporting the ability to listen to .wav files in email attachments. I just tried with my Vonage voice mail account, and it's not working for me. Bummer. I was really hoping that would be something that did work.

I just went to the Apple site, and went through the quick steps to get my $100 credit. If you need to get your credit, go here, and type in your cell phone number, and serial number. The serial number of your iPhone can be found inside the Settings > General > About section. Once you have entered these two items, you're sent an SMS message containing an code.

Simply enter this code, and your phone number into step two on the web site, and that's it. You are presented with a page that has your $100 credit. Just print it out for use in a brick-and-mortar store, or copy and paste the credit number and pin for use on the Apple Online Store.

I was going to get a new Nano, but opted for a iPhone dock that will connect to our home stereo (with remote!), a 2nd pair of earbuds with the little button on them for answering calls and advancing tracks, and lastly a $25 iTunes gift card. My total cost after the rebate was $3.

I'm an early adopter. And on the day of a rant post about the price drop of the iPhone and about how bad Apple sucks, how they stick it to their customers, blah blah blah.... I'm posting just the opposite. I know being an early adopter comes with a risk, price, features, models, etc. can all change in the blink of an eye.

Yesterday, Apple announced a $200 price cut in the Apple iPhone just 69 days after release. So after instant messages from friends all day long chastising my early adopter mentality, and laughing at my loss of $200, My favorite IM was this "You got powned by steve jobs".

Today, Apple steps up and announced a $100 in-store credit for people that purchased the iPhone at the release price, and that were not getting some sort of rebate or retail discount. That's me! So now I can load up a $100 iTunes card, or put it towards one of those new Nanos.

Let's be honest here, Apple really didn't have to do anything. They offered a product at a price I was willing to pay (and stand in line for all day). They had no obligation to make any concessions. Let's face it, typically the ultimate goal of a company is to be profitable. I'm sure this move will not be appreciated by shareholders and investors.

It's nice to see the gesture, while it's not $200 cash, it's really better than nothing, and will keep me as a continued customer.

Just dial 1-800-466-4411 and you're connected to the Google voice search technology. Just say your city and state, and then say the name of the place you're looking for, or a category like 'Home Improvement Stores'. The Google voice search service will repeat all of your input so you know it's correct. Once you've decided on a match, or if it matches your criteria exactly, it will connect you to the business/person for free. You can just say "SMS" or "Text Message". Before I could even put my phone down, a SMS message was delivered with the following information:

"Bethany Village Grill"
503-533-7736
4876 NW Bethany Blvd. #L1
Portland, OR 97229
Google Map Link that linked it to a map!

This screen protector is simply the best I've ever used. Over a month of use, in and out of my pockets several times per day, and not a single sign of impending failure. No peeling, no scratches, nothing wrong. This thing is as clear as day one.

Well it's been almost a month, and the iPhone is still by far the best mobile phone I've ever owned. One of the things that people chastised Apple for originally was that they did not open the device up for 3rd party applications. Apple responded by saying there was no need, developers could simply create applications targeting the phone's internet browser, Safari. When I first heard this was the answer to 3rd party applications, I kind of thought that Apple was looking for an easy out, and that it was a cheezy response. I've changed my mind. Here are just a a handful of applications I'm using on a daily basis, and why they're so great on the iPhone.

JiveTalk (Alpha)
iPhone Link
Alpha? Alpha? This thing is amazing. JiveTalk is a web-based instant messaging client, that aggregates almost every popular IM service. It works with AIM/iChat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Chat, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. I have three IM accounts, so putting all my instant messaging contacts in one place, and being able to carry on multiple conversations is great.

The user interface is amazing. You're able to have IM conversations with as many people as you want to. In the conversation screen, they even make it look like Apple's SMS threaded message view, complete with speech bubbles. The user interface is polished and slick. I had three IM threads going last night, and it was seamless to switch between each one, know when someone had said something, and manage them all as a whole.

I encourage you to check out this free (so far) IM client.

Scenario Poker
iPhone Link
Shuffle up and deal! This is another 'application' that I find myself frequently loading. I love poker, I love Texas Hold 'Em to be specific. Scenario poker allows you to play against 8 people in portrait mode, or choose the landscape mode and turn your iPhone on it's side to play against 10! The players all appear to be imaginary, as there is no lag or delay while playing.

The play is good. Animations for cards going to each player are smooth, I have yet to encounter a bug in this poker application. It's free, but purchasing a license via Pay Pal will allow you to upload your picture, give you statistics while playing, and they'll even mail you a poker odds card to keep in your wallet.

I have not paid to use this program at this point.

Showtimes
iPhone Link
Not that I get to go to the movies that much any more with two kids, this application is pretty cool. It beats loading Fandango and zooming around in the iPhone screen. You simply type your zip code into the search box, and you're presented with a list of theaters. Choose a theater, and you get a list of movies. Simple and slick.

Choose a movie and you get a image of the movie poster, a synopsis, rating, reviews, theater addresses and movie times. I would love to see a 'buy tickets' link, I can only guess if that's a future enhancement or not. Showtimes does a good job of delivering a plethora of information formatted just for the iPhone.

iPhone Network Test
iPhone Link
Let's bash the EDGE network and complain about how slow it is! Well, it's not a slow as you may have thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is not room for improvement, but this little gem will tell you what network connectivity speeds you're getting over EDGE or WiFi. Clicking on the Start Test button, a graphic is downloaded to your device, and the resulting speed in KBS is displayed above it. They even give you a link to click (or tap I guess) that lets you specify which connection you're using.

Ok, numbers. Most of the time on EDGE, I'm getting upwards of 200+ KBS. Sure it's not DSL or Cable, but it's not that slow!

Seeqpod
iPhone Link
Let me start by saying, use this site at your own risk. The legality of it seems a bit sketchy at this point. The site allows you to type in a song title, or artist and search the internet for instances of MP3 files that match your search criteria. Clicking search results stream music right to your iPhone. It's really amazing. I searched for some really obscure stuff and was able to listen to the entire song.

I've only tried this application on WiFi. My guess is that on edge, it would depend on signal strength and download speeds.

While you can't save files to your device, it's almost like On Demand Radio. You want to hear a song? Type the title in and listen! Very cool stuff here, but I bet we see this shut down in the next six months.

Do you have an application you'd like to see on your iPhone? Leave a comment, I've been trying to come up with an application to build, but I don't have any good ideas yet.

I read a post recently about how to get DVDs onto your iPhone. There must have been twenty steps, and I don't know if the software was free, or required a purchase. I think I've found better software, and less steps to do it. It is not a 'quick' process, maybe my computer sucks. Any ways, here's the approach I'm using, and all the software is free.

Download Software
DVD Decrypter (DVD Ripping Software)
Videora (Video Encoding Software)

Step 1.
Open DVD Decrypter

Click the stream processing tab, and check the video checkbox, and the 2ch English checkbox. This will get just the movie and audio. Then click on the destination folder at the bottom, and choose a location to save the file to. It will create a .VOB file. This file is what you'll encode in Videora. Now just click the DVD > Hard Drive image at the bottom, and wait... and wait... and wait.

Once the ripping is done, you can close DVD Decrypter. 

Step 2.
Open Videora

Click on the settings menu option and configure it to work with the iPhone screen. You'll only need to do this step once.

 Click on the Convert menu option at the top, and then Video Wizard, locate the file on your machine and click the 'next' arrow. Steps are highlighted below.

Next, select your video settings. You'll need to play with these to determine what you preferences are.

Finally, click the Start Converting button and wait... wait... wait....

Then, to get it on your iPhone, simply import the file Videora generates into iTunes, and then choose to sync it to your iPhone. So I have a process that is roughly seven steps to get just about any DVD onto your iPhone. The article I read was 19 steps, I didn't have the patience to read the entire thing, yet alone try it!

The videora UI is horrific. Lots of ads, but nothing shady gets installed. I like it because it's free, and simple. You can rip to other devices too like PSP, iPod video, and other formats. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

Well it had to happen, that first little scratch on the screen. I'm still not even sure how it happened. I've been really careful, and it's glass. Maybe I shouldn't be rubbing diamonds against it... har har har. I've been a freak about screen scratches on my portable devices in the past. I bet I've tried every know case, protector, or screen film known to geeks all around, and the only one so far I've even remotely like is the Agent18 case for the iPod.

When I purchased my iPhone, I started off with a Belkin iPhone case. It did not protect the screen, but sort of cradled the whole iPhone. I liked it at first. The removable belt clip is nice, because I hate belt clips. After reading about some people's experiences of the Belkin case actually causing more scratching damage to their iPhone than protection, I decided I'd better check it out.

Yep. I was starting to see very small scratches around the silver bezel. I'm a realist, I know this thing is going to get scratched, but if I can prevent it, I'm going to try. I ditched the Belkin case and started my search for the best screen protector I could find.

I think I've found it. 'invisible SHIELD' available at www.shieldzone.com. They claim their protective film is used in military applications, such as covering helicopter blades! (Sounds like a gimick, huh?) I went to the site, and watched all the videos. My primary complaint about film style screen protectors is they're good for a week, two, maybe three, and then they come off, or start peeling at the edges.

Watching the 'how to' installation video for invisible SHIELD was interesting. It's not a peel and stick film. You actually spray both sides of the film with a mild adhesive and then squeegee the excess liquid and bubbles out. Wow, that seems cool. It also seems like it could be a tough install. I almost forgot the best part, if your screen protector is scuffed, scratched, or damaged in any way, they'll send you a replacement free for life. See my post about shopping where I do, and you'll understand why something like this is attractive to me.

I plopped down my $15, ok I ordered it online with my credit card, but you know what I mean. After about a week or so it showed up. I opened the package and removed the small spray bottle, squeegee, and film. I read the directions, cleaned my iPhone with an LCD screen wipe, made sure (I thought) there was no dust on the screen and sprayed both sides of the film with the spray.

Setting the film on the iPhone was tricky, but not impossible. I patiently kept making slight adjustments to make sure the film aligned properly with the screen, home button, and ear piece. I then squeegee'd the fluid out from underneath, and on top of the film. Some small dabs with the LCD screen wipe, and presto! The shieldzone site says to set it aside for 24 hours, I checked it in the morning and it seems fine.

I was reviewing my email, and noticed, of course, that a small piece of something had managed it way under my protector. I'll pull it off again tonight, clean, scrutinize, and re-apply. They say you can do that no problem.

Impressions, this stuff is awesome. You can not tell at all that it's on there. It also feels way tougher than any other screen protector I've used. The touch screen display does not seem to care that it's there either. Nothing has changed in the way I use my phone. And as for the original scratch, I can't even see it now with the invisible SHIELD installed. Hooray!

I'll report back in a few weeks about longevity, and how the remove/replace procedure goes.

After waiting about six months to get the iPhone, I'll say this, I'm not disappointed. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than any handheld phone/pda I've owned in the past? Yes. I'll break this review into the following sections; Starting out with the iPhone, General overview, and then my likes and dislikes.

Starting Out with the iPhone

Unboxing

It's the typical Apple product packaging. A very high quality, sleek black box with silver lettering and a photo of the iPhone on top. It's small. You kind of wonder if you're just getting an iPhone. Opening the box, the iPhone is cradled in a plastic piece, suspended over the small instruction manual, polishing cloth, ear buds, USB synch cable, and power brick. I must admit that when I open an Apple product, there's a rush of excitement just from the design, aesthetics, and pure marketing behind the package design.

Setup

Once you've downloaded and installed iTunes 7.3 to your Mac or PC, you're ready to go. Simply connect the iPhone, and iTunes walks you through setup and activation with AT&T. I've heard some rumblings of people having activation nightmares, but for me it was simple. In like 3 minutes I was setup and ready to go. I tested my iPhone by calling from our land line, it worked like a charm. Big props to AT&T and Apple on this, no muss and fuss of having to sit in an AT&T store while some new employee struggled with their 'system' and tried to up sell me on services I don't want or need. The only thing I had to add to my existing plan was a $20 monthly charge for unlimited internet/data access. Big props again to AT&T and Apple, as they could have charged more... people would have paid.

Initial Use

The iPhone just works. The first thing you notice is the lack of physical buttons. The only buttons in fact are a volume up/down rocker switch on the side, silence switch for the ringtone and alerts (why don't all phones have this???), a sleep/wake switch at the top of the phone, and the 'Home' button on the bottom center of the screen. The rest of the user interface and interaction occurs on the glorious 3.5" LCD display. When a call comes in, a giant green button below the caller ID allows you to "Answer Call" or you can pawn it off to your voicemail. I can't say enough about how much I like the minimalist implementation of physical buttons, again, it just works out well. The device is sleek, stylish, and more functional than any phone/handheld I've owned to date.

Email, iPod, Safari, Phone & Networking

Email

I am not using Yahoo's push email. I decided that this is something very likely to come to Gmail soon, and decided to route all my mail through Gmail. The iPhone's native email application works with Gmail, Yahoo, .Mac, and AOL. If you have not seen email on this device, I'll just have to say it's as close to a desktop email client that I've seen so far on a handheld. It's beautiful. I have my email set to check every 15 minutes, and while it's not PUSH, it's certainly good enough for me. I'm able to retrieve my mail anywhere now and respond in seconds, now I know why people with BlackBerrys are running around with their heads down all the time.

iPod

Music
Certainly, one of the biggest reasons to own this device is the iPod functionality. The best iPod they've ever made is Steve Jobs' claim, and I'd say I pretty much agree. The iPod works the same way you're used to, but now instead of cycling through a list of artists, we have coverflow. Coverflow is a graphical representation of the album covers in a horizontal scrolling list. Just swipe your finger across the screen in either direction, and you have a fluid scrolling list of albums. Click an album, and it rotates to the back side, showing you all the songs, click a song, and you're listening to it. Forget to plug the headphones in? It will play your music over the integrated speaker, while it's no concert experience, it does sound decent. I like the speaker because I like to show someone a song, or comedian, and don't really want them grabbing my earbuds and using them. The speaker makes it easy to share quick one-off things. You're able to list music, by song, artists, composer, etc. But one thing that is lacking is a search capability like they introduced last year, while not a big deal that it's missing, it would be nice to have. I'd venture to guess we'll get it in a software update some time soon.

Video
Video is simply amazing on this device. I downloaded the latest version of Videora (FREE), they already have built in support for converting ripped DVDs to iPhone format. The 3.5" diagonal screen does video proud. I've ripped two movies so far, The Bourne Identity, and Fight Club. They both look amazing. The perfect thing while waiting in the airport, or sitting and killing time somewhere. The screen is bright, so bright in fact, that I've set mine to about 30% brightness and have found that it is perfectly adequate for watching movies and TV shows. 

Safari

The safari web browser does a great job. The best browser I've seen on a mobile device. Browsing the web is not something you'll probably want to do for hours on end, but if you need to pay a bill, get movie times, or locate a phone number it works slick. The browser allows you to enter any address on the web, and it will load the entire page as it was meant to be seen. No stacked mobile versions here. You can zoom to any section by double tapping or doing the 'squeeze' technique with your thumb and forefinger. The fonts are sharp and crisp, easy to read. I've been able to use the iGoogle page, Windows Live Mail mobile version, MSN Messenger Mobile beta, and a ton of other sites. It's so nice to be able to browse wherever and whenever you want to. One downer is that there is no support for Macromedia's flash, but I suspect this will be available in a software update soon as well.

Phone

The phone call quality is great so far. I have not had a single dropped call nor one where either party had trouble hearing each other.  On a device that has no keys, the phone is a few clicks away. Some people have been frustrated by this, but I'm not having a problem with it. You can make calls one of several ways: favorites, this is a list of your most used numbers you can setup and configure, recent call activity, missed, received, and calls that you've made, the keypad, or via the contacts. All ways work equally well. The contacts synch from Outlook or Outlook express without a hitch. The phone has some cool features that other phones don't have a first glance. The ability to easily put someone on hold, if you're talking on the phone and a call comes in the screen will give the option to put the current caller on hold, and answer the incoming call. Once you have a person on hold, and an active call, you can easily swap between parties or even merge the two calls together, brilliant.

Networking

The iPhone supports two types of networking, traditional Wifi over B and G networks, and EDGE data connectivity over AT&T's cellular network. Speed-wise you see the best performance on Wifi networks. The iPhone will remember networks that you've joined previously and automatically connect to them when you're in range. The speeds you see depend on the Wifi setup, but rival the same speeds you would see with desktop or laptop connectivity, it's fast.

The EDGE networking initially took a lot of flack, especially from Apple haters. 3G is undoubtedly faster than EDGE however the EDGE networking uses less battery life. A day before iPhone launch, AT&T flipped the switch on 50 million dollars of improvements to the EDGE network. I see anywhere between 180kbps all the way up to the 300s, it's faster than dial up, but it's not DSL or cable. The good thing is that it works great with email and browsing. Given the choice of Wifi or EDGE, I'd always pick Wifi, but EDGE is not a bad as people were saying.

Likes and Dislikes

Conclusion

Although I was honestly a fan from day one, that being the day Jobs pulled it out of his pocket, I love this thing. There are some other annoyances, but some of them can be fixed via software updates. The user interface is truly revolutionary, things just work like you think they should. Transitions, visual effects, and multi-touch are a beautiful marriage of hardware and software that all work together like a well oiled machine. The learning curve is small, the wow factor is big. I can't wait to see the developments over the next few years.

 It's kind of funny, I went to the AT&T store a week prior to launch, I wanted to make sure I was eligible to upgrade, etc. etec. The gal convinced me to agree to a new 2 year contract right then, gave me a Samsung flip phone, and told me to bring the 'free' phone in and exchange it for the iPhone. I said sure, didn't really understand why, but she swore it would make the process easier. So on launch day, when I got the iPhone, I tried to exchange the free phone, the guy laughed and said, just keep it. So now that free phone is on ebay, with over 14 people watching it. I should get at least $70 for it, a nice way to offset a small portion of the cost of the iPhone. I also sold my old Sony Ericson phone, I paid $99 for it just over two years ago, it sold on ebay for $89 plus shipping!

A recent post at Engadet entitled "AT&T customers seeing sudden boost in EDGE speeds?"

Someone in New York noticed significantly greater speeds on the AT & T Edge cellular network. Speeds of up to 200 KB sec.

This is awesome news, as one of the biggest complaints about the iPhone to date is the AT & T Edge data access.

Let's hope this kind of performance sticks!

Apple released an informative 20 minute video (make sure you have a good connection, it's 175MB) of the features of the new iPhone. All I can say is that I want one even more now! It looks like no device you've ever seen before, and it's apparent that Apple has put a ton of research into the user interface. The video covers the phone, ipod, and most of the internet features.

It even dipped into a bit of the settings screens that have not been public until today.

I'm just worried that getting one on launch day is going to be more difficult than Apple or AT&T realize. I think I'm going to hire a kid to stand in line for me.

Yeah, I know... I have a problem. ;)