Apple Mac HQ

Curios about developing on the iPhone? Charlie Sorrel, from Wired, has a short interview with Brent Simmons, the developer of NetNewsWire. The article goes into some of the issues with current development efforts for the iPhone. Coincidently, NetNewsWire (iTunes link) was the first application I uninstalled on my iPhone. Which is odd since I’m such a huge fan of it on the Mac.

[Via Daring Fireball]

Without a doubt, the Remote application from Apple is one of the coolest programs I’ve seen in a while. Remote allows you to control iTunes and Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod touch. All you need is the Remote application, an iPhone or iPod touch (with the new 2.0 software of course), an iTunes library or Apple TV, and a wi-fi connection.

After downloading the Remote application (iTunes link), launch it. Click the Add Library button and follow the on screen prompts. This involves the same access code process that is involved with attaching a iTunes library to the Apple TV. After you have correctly entered the 4 number code into your iTunes or Apple TV, you should see the contents of your iTunes or Apple TV in front of you.

Like using the iPod feature on your iPhone or iPod touch, clicking the links at the bottom will change the view of your library. Tap though to the appropriate file and it will start playing in either iTunes or your Apple TV, depending on which you are connected to. If you want control another library, just go back to settings and add another. It’s a simple tap of the screen to choose which library you want to control!

When I first installed the application I actually laughed with amazement. The ability to control the media in my life with my phone is simply amazing. If you’re currently playing something in iTunes and open Remote, it will automatically bring up the currently playing track on screen. When you are controlling a video, it will show one frame of the video on your screen instead of the album art like it does with a song.

In conclusion, this needs to the the first application you load from the App Store on your iPhone or iPod touch. I’m simply amazed it’s free!

What a day it has been for iPhone owners new and old across the United States. At 8AM in each time zone across the United States, the iPhone 3G was in the hands of Apple fans. And for some of them, the phone actually made calls. For countless others however, they left AT&T or Apple stores with an expensive paper weight.

Unless you’ve been underground for much of the day today, I’m sure you heard that Apple and AT&T had some “issues” with iPhone activations. In fact, that story is the headline story on CNN.com as I type this.

In addition to the activations by those buying the new iPhone 3G, anyone updating the 1st generation phone to iPhone 2.0 Software also had to reactivate their phone as part of the upgrade process. Can you guess the approximate time that the iPhone 2.0 Software was officially released? Yep, about 8AM EDT. But wouldn’t that make 6 million iPhone available for updating at the same time the entire East Coast was beginning their iPhone purchases? Why yes it would.

As you might have guessed, Apple ran into some problems. In fact, my iPhone experience went something like this:

9:15AM - “Oh, software 2.0 is out, I can update my 1st Gen iPhone now”.
9:45AM - “Sweet, iPhone 2.0 installed”
9:50AM - “This sure is taking a while”
9:55AM - we could not complete your iTunes Store request - error -9838; “That can’t be good”
9:56AM - “Crap, I can’t even use my phone!”
10:10AM - Ok, mass iPhone activation problems at home and at AT&T and Apple stores
1:15PM - “I should try again”
1:45PM - “OK, I’m giving up until I hear for sure that someone has actually gotten their phone activated”
4:15PM - “Zonks, my iPhone is activated and restoring from backup!”

So all total, about 7 hours of having an iBrick. I guess it could have been worse right? Not sure how but….ok, time for bed.

The wait is over, the iPhone 2.0 software has finally hit iTunes. iTunes 7.7 was released early Thursday morning, one of the precursors to iPhone 2.0. Earlier today, it was discovered that you could download the 2.0 software before it was available in iTunes. Then later, the App Store (iTunes link) went live in iTunes. Prior to upgrading, I already started downloading applications!  For those waiting (like me), you can now hit that Check For Update button and have your iPhone running the same software as the new iPhone 3G.

What are you waiting for? Update!

If you aren’t waiting in line for an iPhone but are curious about those who are, Engadget has got you covered. Witness their fantastic iPhone 3G international launch lineblog. The coverage started with New Zealand of course, the first iPhone toting country to reach 8AM.

Included in the blog are pictures and video from around the world. Engadget has notes/photos/video from New Zealand, Japan, Denmark, Belgium (where I was just a few weeks ago), US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Spain, and The Netherlands. The pictures from the Netherlands are really good. It should also be noted that a reader reported that “absolutely no one is lined up anywhere in Vancouver, BC”. Apparently it’s not going so well in Canada, eh?

Even though the iPhone 3G launch is just days away, we shouldn’t forget about those great iPhone optimized websites. Some of these iPhone optimized websites may be shuttered in favor of an iPhone application, but some might stick around. I’ve been meaning to write about the following iPhone website for nearly a year now, but I’m just now getting around to it. I’ve used this website for nearly the entire time I’ve had my iPhone.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of NetNewsWire. I’ve written about it many times before. One of the reasons I love the application is the accompaniment of several other ways to access your feeds beside the Mac desktop application. The folks behind NetNewsWire, NewsGator, have a Windows product, a mobile application, a web app, a mobile web app, and an iPhone specific web app.

The iPhone web application (pictured here) syncs with all the other NewsGator RSS products, so any changes to your feeds using the iPhone optimized website are reflected in whatever other NewsGator products you are using. This syncing ability is the main selling point for me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday was the iPhone’s first birthday and I forgot to write about it! Well I didn’t forget, just didn’t have time…but that’s beside the point. On June 29th, 2008, the iPhone turned the big 01. It seems like so long ago that I was unboxing the iPhone that Friday night. The excitement I had that Friday night was something I don’t think I’ve ever experienced with a gadget before.

The iPhone has gone through a lot in its first year:

• It was Jailbroken
• It was Unlocked
• It dropped significantly in price
• Websites across the internet adopted special iPhone only views
• The Google Maps application became location aware
• It both shrank and got bigger (No more 4GB and a new 16GB)
• It traveled across the pond
• iTunes Wi-fi was delivered
• It became an iBrick for some
• It had “Compatibility and stability updates”
• It witnessed the announcement of a new family member

Happy late birthday iPhone!