iPhone – Technology Matters

What to do if your iPhone won’t sync after upgrading to iOS5

If you’re having this problem then you’re not alone. A quick look on the Apple forums will tell you that there is a problem with the sync getting stuck either on step4 or 4 if you’re trying to sync by wireless, or step 6 of 6 is you’re plugged in.

Read through the forum replies and you’ll see lots of advice on things to try. However, what worked for me is to simply restore the phone in iTunes. This reinstalls iOS5 onto your phone along with the up to date firmware. Then it rebuilds your applications and music etc from your last backup.

What’s interesting during the restore process is that it now appears to rebuild your content from a manifest (a list of what should be installed on your phone) as opposed to restoring from a backup.

I might be wrong but I think this is new, and the benefit of doing it like this is it clears your phone down completely and rebuilds it with the most up to date applications.

General, Technology

Tip : How to improve iPhone and iPad battery life

There have been lots of reports in the press about how battery life has taken a hit following people buying the new iPhone 4s and from people who have upgraded to iOS5.

This isn’t something new as I found that my battery life used to be poor on iOS4 until I turned off spotlight search. However, when I upgraded to iOS5 the problem came back so I thought it must have reset the soptlight search options.

But when I checked in settings, they were all still disabled … or so I thought … scroll right down the list and you’ll discover two new spotlight search services which must be new to iOS5 “voice memos” and “reminders”

Disable these and power down your phone and turn back on again and voila the battery life is sorted…

General, Innovation, Technology

Is Apple losing the plot??

If you read my blog you’ll know I’m a fan of all things Apple but of late I’ve been noticing a few things starting to go slightly wrong:

When I connected my iPad to my PC for an update last night the update was a whopping 500meg allegedly only to fix a small security vulnerability.

Speaking of security vulnerability the marketing would have you believe that apple devices are free from the things that are the menace of Windows devices.

Then during the update iTunes hung, not the first time it’s happened on a few occasions now, and then I couldn’t upload my IPad purchases to my PC.

This got me thinking back to last week when safari crashed several times on different sites on the iPad, and the reception on my iPhone is still inferior to non-apple devices.

So, is it me??? or could it be that Apple devices and software are becoming too complex or are they putting quality behind innovation, when in fact most of us just want things to do what they promise.

But then again we let them get away with it because we’re hooked and we love them….

Technology, WEB

Is this the future, is #Apple defining the future here??

Is this the future, is this type of web store the provisioning model of the future, is Apple defining the future here?

Apple has already changed the music landscape with iTunes and the iPod, they have changed the mobile landscape with the iPhone and they have changed they have unshackled workers from the office with the iPad. Are they now changing the landscape of the PC user? Does this put a firm brake on the notion of some (I wasn’t one of them) that the PC, and applications running on the PC are dying?

Does this seamless on-line provisioning disperse with all of those age old headaches and arguments about on-premise CD’s and time consuming installations? Is the appeal of this limited to consumers or will it appeal to the business community as well?

Just as others have followed Apple into the new world of music, mobile and tablet computing. Surely the question now is not whether, but how long before, others follow suit?

Innovation, Technology

This time it’s Apple TV… am I turning into an Apple fanatic??

Okay, so I’ve written a few posts on the iPad, iPod and the iPhone. I’ve ranted incessantly about the horrendous experience I had following the upgrade of my iPhone 3GS to iOS4, I still can’t believe how Apple got away with making so many peoples life a misery for so long. I’ve also written here about how my iPad wouldn’t replace my PC, not least due to printing and lack of Flash support. But again I’ve written here how both of these limitations can easily be resolved.

I didn’t realise how hooked I had become on Apple kit until recently… over the last few years my wife, two kids and I have amassed 2 x iPads, 2 x iPhones, 2 x iPod Touch, 1 x Classic iPod, 2 x iPod Nano and an iPod Shuffle… Steve Jobs has certainly done well out of this family.

A few months back I also invested in an Apple Airport so that we could stream music from our 6000 song collection on iTunes around the house, and at only £80 or so, we were delighted with this.

Now well and truly hooked, I then asked Santa for Apple TV for Christmas and he duly obliged.

Setting this up couldn’t be simpler, almost plug in a go (once you’ve connected it to a router). You have to set up home sharing in iTunes, which again is very simple and that’s it. Now, I can sit in the living room and stream movies, music and podcasts from iTunes to my TV in very respectable quality.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t he just put the DVD into the player connected to the TV? Fair point I suppose, but I can also rent movies from AppleTV (iTunes) for a modest price of £2.99 … which is cheaper than my Virgin cable provider at £3.50 (a huge saving of 51p) … so if I rent 250 movies then the Apple TV has paid for itself right?

Erm no, that’s not what it’s about at all. I bought it because it’s a really cool gadget, for the same reason I bought my Sling Box and a whole host of other gadgets, and even if I only use it a half dozen times it still gives me enjoyment.

So just as I’m really happy with my Apple TV, things get even better when I discover that with Apple Airplay I can stream movies from my iPads, iPod Touches, and my iPhone as well. This means my PC iTunes library doesn’t have to be switched on and any movie installed on my device can very quickly be played on the TV, brilliant!!

What’s more Airplay also gets me round the limitations of only being able to stream the same song from iTunes to my Airport devices as I can use my iPhone etc as a separate play list and play different songs to different rooms.

So there you have it, an Apple fanatic? Well I’ve not got a Macbook yet, but it could just be a matter of time…

Innovation, Technology

AirPrint compatible printers… who needs them?

It’s fast approaching the festive season… and it might be an appropriate time to roll out the pantomime saying “Oh no it isn’t” in relation to the following statement which is part of this recent CRN Post:

The much vaunted wireless ‘tap and print’ feature, AirPrint, however is currently only supported by three Hewlett-Packard printers: Photosmart, LaserJet Pro and Officejet.

Well to be fair, to the non techies it’s probably true… however, to the innovative sorts out there determined to find another way it’s not true… because there is a way to use AirPrint with any printer.

How do I know this? Well, I recently blogged here that I was impressed by iOS4.2 and was giving my iPhone one more chance. The next day a friend posted a comment:

However, all is not lost, if you have a Mac you can get hold of Printopia, which will enable any printer that your Mac can use, to be available to your iOS4.2 devices, alternatively if you’re still running a Windows box, then you could try this.

Being a poor windows user, and not wanting to shell out a few grand for a decent Mac, even though it has its appeal. I decided to try the solution from Javox and voila it worked for me.

*** disclaimer … I don’t accept any responsibility if this doesn’t work for you or if you trash your PC in the process. ***

I also had to make a few adjustments along the way, such as:

Running the CMD console as an administrator (which you do by selecting ‘All Programs’, ‘Accessories’ and right clicking on the CMD option and choose ‘run as administrator’).

Sharing the printer (which you do by right clicking on your default printer in ‘devices and printers’ and setting the ‘sharing’ option to on).

I also chose to set up a separate user just with printing permissions as you may be asked to log onto the printer the first time you print from your iPad or iPhone.

So there you have it… iPad printing on a Windows PC… of course, it might have been easier just to use the PC in the first place, but let’s not spoil the moment

Technology

It’s decided… the Iphone gets one more chance.

Just downloaded iOS4.2 for the ipad and it looks great, I really like the Airplay and multitasking features… Can’t yet get Airprint to work, which for me has filled a huge gap in functionality… even though I have a wireless printer, most likely my model isn’t supported.

So what has this to do with the Iphone? well as I type this I’m downloading iOS4.2 for the iPhone. After the OS is installed I’m going to reset and take the phone back to basics.

If this works i’ll be delighted, but if like today, it still drops calls, then it’s curtains.