The recent wave of bad Apples

Recently, we placed a call in to Apple Support and requested to speak to a senior-level support executive to discuss some issues, for which we've been noticing more and more incoming calls from Apple owners.

Below is a summary of the three most-prevalent Mac-related problems and when appropriate, the response from the very professional and knowledgeable Jonathan at Apple. It is worth mentioning that Jonathan confirmed that these issues are some of the most common calls he currently receives at Apple Support.

iWeb Replacement in the Film / TV / Entertainment Industry

Finally, a solution to replace iWeb with iPhoto's Journal feature, available on Apple iOS:

In this posting, we are providing a step-by-step tutorial for using the Journal feature to easily publish photos, text, etc using Apple's iPhoto iOS App for iPads/iPhones. However, if you don't have an iOS device, or just want to keep using iWeb to make all of your site changes, you are going to need to set up hosting with an entirely new company & reupload/move your website to their servers (yes you can cancel your subscription with Apple and keep your site). Apple inexplicably recommends GoDaddy for this, but we can certainly provide support and other recommendations- just give us a call if you need any help.

We believe this will meet the requirements of photographers, designers, and artists working within the entertainment / advertising / commercial film & television businesses who have been searching for a replacement to the ever-popular Apple iWeb photo publishing/sharing software previously provided with MobileMe. In transitioning to iCloud, subscribers are informed that as of June 2012 Apple will be sunsetting iWeb.

All you’ll need is an Apple mobile device, the $5 iPhoto App and an iCloud account. In fact, as of this writing you cannot create or edit your journal on a computer or via iCloud’s website - only on iOS meaning only on your iPad or iPhone. The app autosaves everything as you create & edit, in real time; however, any edits you make to individual photos in the iPhoto app reflect in your published Journal online.


For an example website with three separate Journals, click here.

iPhone, call waiting, and disconnect problems

When I'm on my Verizon iPhone 4, and get a call waiting beep:

If I press IGNORE, it doesn't send the 2nd caller to voicemail (VM) as stated in Apple's out-of-date support doc, but instead it beeps AGAIN interrupting my phone call, and sometimes even a THIRD BEEP before it finally goes to voicemail. This is also annoying for my caller as they have to wait 6 or 7 rings before VM picks up.

If I accept the 2nd call, it puts the first on hold, and I am able to SWAP calls / switch back and forth, or even MERGE calls. However, I am UNABLE TO END only one of the calls, regardless of whether or not I merge them. If I press END, it disconnects all calls. There is no option to END only one of the calls.

If I am simultaneously on with 2 callers (merged or separately) and one of them hangs up, my line remains tied up and my on-screen menu continues to display options for simultaneous-dual-calls.

For example: I'm on the phone with Jack, and I put him on hold to quickly take a call from Jill; after she hangs up and I switch back to Jack, anyone who tries to call me receives a busy signal. In addition, my on-screen menu continues to display options to merge the two calls, or swap back to Jill (who's no longer there and if I do, I get dead air silence). As I stated at this point I cannot "END" only the call with Jill (or I risk disconnecting Jack as well) and here's the strangest part: Most of the time in this kind of scenario, when I switch back to Jack I'll just leave the "2nd" line tied up after the call is completed... and when I do finally wrap up the call with Jack and hang up (thereby disconnecting both lines) - the SECOND ("dead") LINE CALLS ME BACK! The phone rings with an UNKNOWN number, and when I answer it's just the dead air silence calling. If I let it go to voicemail it leaves me a 3+ minute voicemail message of nothing but white noise. [OK OK audio-sci geeks, I know dead air, white noise, and silence are different sounds but youknowwhati'msayin here.]

I called Apple Support and they said for CDMA (Verizon) phones they can't troubleshoot call waiting issues. Just spoke with a tech at Verizon Support, but unbelievably he told me the following:

1. This is not unusual.

2. These are fairly common issue complaints.

3. This is not something that can be fixed, but is programmatic to their network.

Apparently this is not only just how it is, but it's actually working as it's supposed to! The rep said he will file a complaint with the internal IT group at Verizon who deals with the coding of the voicemail and the way it works with the phones, but could not transfer me.

He speculated that the next (4G) iPhone will have working call waiting features, as Verizon's forthcoming LTE (all 4G) network treats voicemail and call waiting completely differently than CDMA.

Sigh.

To follow this discussion, visit Apple's Support Forum and view the original post and all replies:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3542384?start=0&tstart=0

iPhone and data security

Recently, a client wrote asking the following:

Can someone access my iPhone's address book data through Bluetooth?  For example, if I have a sensitive ID number listed in a contact, can someone steal it off the phone?

Our reply:

You'd have to jailbreak and hack your own iPhone first to allow it to use BlueTooth technology for data transferring. It's defaulted by Apple to explicitly use BT for devices only (headsets, printers, keyboards). 

However, your data is susceptible to relatively easy theft when using public WiFi (cafes, libraries, etc). The big online banking apps, websites, Gmail and the like use secure protocols (you can tell by the https:// as opposed to http://) to prevent this.

If you keep sensitive information in your iPhone's Address Book, you should at least passcode lock your iPhone and enable Mobile Me's (free) Find My iPhone service, so you can remotely send messages, GPS locate, or brick (lock and/or erase it) in the event of loss/theft.

AT&T vs Verizon iPhone : our two cents

Considering a switch from AT&T to Verizon's iPhone? We just made the jump, and if so you'll definitely want to check out Gazelle, they buyback used technology (and paid over $350 for a used AT&T iPhone4). As for Verizon iPhone service? Well, VZW does have reception almost everywhere in LA and rarely drops calls, but MMS/picture messages often fail or take 2-3 attempts, and there's no removable SIM card if you are an international traveller (not to mention the current inability to  simultaneously handle data & phone usage).

iPhone battery life

I wanted to know if leaving the Bluetooth setting On all the time was an extra drain on battery life, even if the BT earpiece was turned off. According to Apple, it's a small tax on the battery, but many user comments on the forums I read (and my own personal experience) was to the contrary. Regardless, this is a useful article-

"Paying attention to just a few commonsense pointers will pay off with a longer battery lifespan and battery life for your iPhone. The most important thing is to keep your iPhone out of the sun or a hot car (including the glove box). Heat will degrade your battery’s performance the most."

-From Apple's iPhone battery info page.

Turn your favorite songs into iPhone ringtones

Very easy and useful tutorial if you imported a song into iTunes from a CD and you want to use it as a ringtone for your iPhone.

iPhone tips, tricks, apps, and rants

I know this info is already out there. And I can already hear my tech-savvy friends with iPhones complaining about how this info is so 2009. But whatever, this is a blog for my not-as-savvy friends, clients, and family too...

My favorite iPhone app right now, aside from Bebot, is Dragon Dictation. It's a (free) speech-to-text app that does what it advertises- simply. Initially I had some privacy concerns, as it scans your Address Book contacts so that it can better recognize names when you speak them; it also sends information back to its HQ upon doing so. In a rare move for this blog, I'm going to link to another blog because they have great comments, and an in-depth article on this already. After a little digging (and consideration of my long history with Dragon's desktop dictation/speech-to-text software, Naturally Speaking), I feel great about using this app. It allows me to compose longer sentiments quickly without having to type on that annoying iPhone screen-keyboard.

[APPLE: GIVE ME BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD COMPATIBILITY ALREADY!
Supposedly this feature is coming in iPhone's OS 4.0 this summer, but no mention of it on Apple's page.]

I'm also a big fan of the Tie-A-Tie, Sleep Cycle, White Noise, and pUniverse apps.

Most of you probably know about shake to undo (and shake again to redo), but did you know you can double-click in the top-most menu bar (by the clock) while you're say, in Safari or scrolling through photos and iPhone will fast scroll to the top of whatever you're looking at? OK so you probably knew that too, but here's a nice MakeUseOf article that covers some iPhone tips you might not know about.

Apple grounded me for swearing too much. I just want to be able to edit my iPhone's auto-correct database... guess it's another thing to add to the list of stuff I can't wait to do with a jailbroken iPhone.

The Big iPhone Wishlist post

Things I want to should be able to do with my iPhone:

• Edit the auto-correct database 
• Bluetooth keyboard 
• Play audio (iTunes, Pandora, Safari, YouTube, etc) wirelessly via Airport-connected speakers
• Use other browsers like Fennec
• Edit Google Docs
• Utilize all the features of Google Voice
• Leave AT&T
• Pay less per month (currently paying just under $150/mo for unlimited talk, text, data)

Sadly, the device is completely capable of performing or allowing most of these items. Does this mean I just need to get a jailbroken iPhone?

I've been tossing around the idea for a while now to get a 2nd iPhone (to jailbreak), on which I can test new apps and functionality. I know there's a lot of information out there about jailbroken apps, but I'm specifically interested in utilizing mobile web functionality to streamline my tech-based business. I have very little paperwork as it is (my filing cabinet is two-drawer and mostly empty, save for receipts), I can get to everything from any computer or phone with a net connection, and I can route information/calls/documents/etc to any device no matter where I am with cloud-based utilities like Google Docs, Voice, etc. I want to be able to edit Google Docs, launch a Google Voice app, and work on a wireless keyboard- just imagine the ability to create spreadsheets & edit invoices online from a hotspot, with only a BT keyboard and an iPhone.

It exists, set it free.


[This post–like several others here–will be added to over the coming months, especially until iPhoneOS 4.0 drops this summer.]