Hi Rob 
You can add non-Apple approved podcasts into the Podcasts App by pasting the feed into the search field. 
Regards, 
Marcel 

As I always say (and say and say and say) - hold off on updating to a new versions of iOS when it first comes out.  While I have had some emails / voice mail messages saying all went great.  I have had others regretting the upgrade because they were using Flashlaunch and other home screen shortcuts.  Here are their emails.

Rob,

Thought I'd let listeners know, the FlashLaunch App is no longer working for me on my iPad since upgrading to iOS 5.1. Anyone using the app may want to think twice before updating. Not a big deal to me on my iPad, but it's another reason why I won't be updating my iPhone now for awhile...nice to have a bit quicker access to Bluetooth, airplane mode and iCloud settings. 

Tim, Wisconsin

Hi Rob

i've been making extensive use of the springboard shortcuts from jeff broderick at brkrck.me/settings

in iOS 5.1 apple has disabled it's URL scheme allowing those shortcuts to function

had i known, i probably would have held off on updating, but, oh well

cheers,
paul
mill valley

 

Hi Rob,

I updated to iOS 5.1 last night and today I'm noticing that the
Settings shortcut I installed (as a Profile) from

http://brdrck.me/settings/

are no longer functional. I think iOS 5.1 undid some of Jeff
Broderick's hard work.

-Matt
Sent from my Phone

Hi Rob,

Per the caller asking for the phonetic pronunciation.  You can edit contacts and tap "Add Field" and add a Phoentic First Name and Phonetic Last Name to your own or any contact.  As you know you select your contact info in Settings > Siri so it knows your name, address, etc.  

Also you can activate Siri (pick up, press home, etc) and say "Call Me ____" with whatever you want Siri to call you, it can be used for pronunciation or fun - for example, "Call Me Master" or a la Notorious BIG , "Call Me Big Poppa" ;-).
 

Regards,

Bill B

================

Hi Rob. 
 

In 204 a caller said her name was being pronounced incorrectly.  

As usual apple has planned for this. Just go to any contact and then edit.  

At the bottom their is a choice to add field  then use choice of phonetic  spelling for first or last name.

Regards,

Eddie M

Hi, Rob 

Hi, I have a iPod touch 4g and wanted to know if there will be air play mirroring mode on the iPod or is it just on the iPad and iPhone

Thanks

Trey

Hi Trey,

 

Air play mirroring is just for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

 

Sorry 

 

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Safari suddenly disappeared from my iPhone 4Gs.

The icon is gone and I can't find it in spotlight search or the Settings either.

Is a full restore the only way I can get it back?

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Dave,

This most likely means you turned off Safari in Restrictions. 

Go to the Settings App -->  General -->  Restrictions

--> ENTER YOUR PASSCODE -->

Then Turn the toggle from "off" to ON to the right of Safari.  

Hit the home button and you should then be able to find safari.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Can you or one of your listeners tell me how I can get the pictures that was texted to me on my I pad. They are just setting there and I can not do anything with them.

Thank you

Fred in Bellwood

Hi Fred,

In the messages app - find the image you want to get out of there and tap on it.  This should open the image up.  Then tap on the open image and in the upper right tap on the box with the arrow coming out of it.  It should give you a pop up box with "save image" in it.  Tap on "Save Image"  Then hit the home button and then open the photo app and look in "Saved Photos" you should see the image there. 

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Can you tell me how to download the App Store on a 1st Gen iPod touch?

Thank you!

LaRonda

Hi LaRonda,

Thanks for listening to the show.

If you upgrade the software to v 3.1.3 - which should be the last version and latest version for it - you should get the App store automatically installed for you.

It sounds like you are running v 1.x

If you go into the Settings App and then General and then About - what version of iOS does it say you are running?

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob, 

I just dropped our land line phone in favor of using the iPhone as my home line. AT&T reception is perfect throughout our two story home, however, I need to keep the phone with me at all times around the house to answer it. With our land line, we had a Sony wireless phone system with 5 handsets distributed throughout the house. Since I don't like to carry my cell phone around while I'm at home, do you know of any hardware device available that enables me to leave my iPhone in one place and be able to answer the phone in other rooms, like some type of blue tooth or room extender hardware? If not, maybe there's room for me to invent the device. I just thought that if anyone might have heard of one, you'd be the guy. Love your show, thanks for anything you can relay to me on this topic.

Regards,

Steve 

Hello Steve,

Yes there are several Phone systems like that.

Here is a link to one on Amazon that looks to meet your needs.

Panasonic Link-to-Cell Expandable Bluetooth-Enabled DECT 6.0 Phone System with 2 Handsets

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Expandable-Bluetooth-Enabled-System-Handsets/dp/B00138AJPO

Regards,

Rob W

Hello Rob,

 

I've recently found your podcast and I really enjoy listening to it.  I was hoping you could help me with something.  My wife and I both have iPhones and we have always shared the same login for iTunes and app store and we use the same computer to sync.  

 

Well now that I sync in the cloud she still syncs on iTunes because I was afraid we would overwrite each other's back up.   I mostly like the cloud for both of us because for things like reminders and calandar, we can both enter events and the other can see instantly which is very useful. But what is bad are the times when she downloads a stupid app that I don't want, my phone will download it also.  And programs like find my iPhone no longer work properly.   

 

So I realize that we should maybe just use two accounts but I always liked one because we could both have access to music that we bought.  

 

So my question mainly is can we have it both ways?  

 

Can we still enjoy the syncing of calandars/reminders and the multiple downloads of music without paying twice but also be more autonomous and not have programs like find my iPhone or find my friends all screwed up?  

 

What should we do?  

 

What is the best way to manage two iPhones? 

 

Thank you in advance,
Clayton

Hi Clayton, 

Thanks for listening to the show and for the kind words. 

First the Apps download issue is easy to fix.  On your iPhone go to  

Settings -->  Store --> Apps (And turn to Off) 

That will keep apps from getting downloaded automatically when you wife downloads them. 

For Find my iPhone - that two should work fine on multiple devices. 

Check your location services and make sure they are turned on. 

Settings --> Locations Services --> (Scroll Down) Find My iPhone --> (Turn ON) 

Let me know if these changes help.

Regards,

Rob W

Hey Rob, 

 

I don't know if you had mentioned this yet but, I have found an emoji keyboard.  

To find it go to: 

 

Settings --> General --> Keyboard --> Internaltional Keyboards --> Add New Keyboard 

 

Then scroll down to Emoji and tap on it.  

 

Then the next time you open a keyboard if you tap on the internation symbol next to the microphone it will toggle to the emoji keyboard.  

 

Regards, 

 

Craig 📱

Hi Rob,

Is there any way to delete diagnostic & usage data from my phone?

32G Iphone 4.

Thanks!

James

Hi James, 

First for those that do not know where to find their Diagnostic & Data Usage info go to: 

Settings --> General --> About --> Diagnostic & Usage  

Then make sure you have "Don't send" selected - this keeps info from getting out of your phone if you don't want others (Carrier IQ / Apple) to see your diagnostic info.   

Next Select "Diagnostic & Usage Data" to see what type of info has or would have been sent.  

The only real way to delete this data is to 1. make sure "Don't send" is selected - and then 2. to do a sync with iTunes.  After the sync with iTunes the data will be gone.  

(You could also do an "Erase all content and settings" but that seems like major over kill and is not recommended)

Please Note - this is different than your Cellular Data.  For resetting Cellular usage data go to:

Settings Apps --> General --> Usage --> Cellular Usage --> Reset Statistics 

I Hope that helps. 

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I have the 64GB 4s and a 4th gen iPod touch. I have noticed since iOS 5 and 5.0.1 that my iPod touch is really sluggish. It is a 32GB and I don't have a lot of things running like notifications etc. Not sure why the touch is so slow. It is at about half capacity.

Any help?

Thanks

Valerie

Hi Valerie,

First thing to try is the following.

1. Force quit every open App you have.

2. Goto Settings --> General --> Reset --> Reset Network Settings

Doing this sometimes greatly improves performance.

Please note it is not about the amount of storage space you have left that effects performance - but rather the amount of free RAM - the above steps help free up RAM.


Now if the above does not work for you - the next step is a little more drastic.  

It is doing a full factory fresh restore - NOT from a backup.

Often times when you are seeing a slow down issue and the above does not work for you - then this method has a good chance of working.

Also note - your iPhone 4S will also make your iPod Touch 4th gen seem slow - so make sure it is not just changed expectations you are seeing.Regards,

Rob W

 

Hi Rob,

I'll try these and let you know. Can't do wifi network reset until I get home this evening. I have alot of things turned off like location, diagnostics, push notifications. Not sure what a force quit every open app means. I assume that when I exit an app it quits but maybe not. Thanks again!

Valerie

Hi Valerie,

When you exit an app it does not force quit it - it stays in a quasi hold state - which means it is taking up a little bit of ram.

With the iOS device open and at the home screen - double tap the home button. 

At the bottom you will see a new tray of apps - these are the ones in the hold state.

Hold down on one of the apps - and they will start to wiggle and you will see a red circle with a "-" in the upper left of each icon.

Start tapping on the "-"'s until all the apps are removed from the tray.

Then move on to step 2 below.

Regards,

Rob W

 

Hi Rob,

Oh My Goodness!  I had a bunch and I mean bunch of these in the quasi open state!

Thanks for walking me through this!

I am happy to share that my iPod touch is running faster!  I did both the force close of apps and network reset. I will bet it was probably the app close function I had not paid attention to.  

I am a much happier camper now. 

Thanks so much!

Valerie

On Ep 201 I stated that Carrier IQ software was not on iPhones and iOS devices.  That now turns out not to be an accurate statement.  As such I have had a few people email in asking about Carrier IQ software on the iPhone.  Please note the software from Carrier IQ on the iOS side is greatly different than what is happening on the Android side.  On the Android side it has been shown to record keystrokes and all kinds of private information.  On the iOS side Apple had this to say officially: 

"We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so."

Kind of like saying on iOS Carrier IQ = Maytag Repairman -   But on Android Carrier IQ = Government from George Orwell's 1984.   

Ok that is all nice and stuff - and it is great to see we are talking about two different use cases - but you still might (should) want to make sure it is not active on your iOS device.  Which by default it is not.  And is easy enough to check to confirm it really is turned off for your iOS device.  

To Turn off go to the following: 

Settings --> General --> About --> (Scroll down) Diagnostics & Usage  --> Make sure "Don't Send" is checked.  

If "Automatically Send" was checked - you can tap on "Diagnostic and Usage Data" to see data you have sent in the last week.   

Next go to the following: 

Settings --> Location Services --> (Scroll to the bottom) System Services --> Diagnostic & Usage (Turn to "OFF")

That is all you need to do to make sure you have completely deactivated any remnants of Carrier IQ on your iOS device.  

In iOS 5 there are three ways to be notified of an alert.  You can have an audio alert or a vibrating alert and there is also now visual alerts via flashing of the LED.   

This third option is new in iOS 5 and it is turned off by default.  To turn it on go to

Settings --> General --> Accessibility --> LED Flash for Alerts .  And then turn "ON" 

Sadly at this time it is not customizeable, where you could have different flash patters - like you can for vibrations.  Nor can you pick and choose which contacts get the flash alerts.  Hopefully those options will be added in the future. 

One issues with the Auto correct is when Apple constantly replaces a word or name you type with one it thinks you meant.  This is really bad for some people with thier last name or first name.  For instance I go by "Rob" - but iOS autocorrect constanlty tries to change it to "Ron".

Well with iOS 5.x there is help.  It is via the customized keyboard shortcuts.  To access these go to:

Settings -->  General --> Keyboard --> Add New Shortcut

Note most examples you may see are for short accronyms like "omw" that when you type it iOS 5 replaces it with "on my way".

But again I find it very usual where each time I try entering a word that Apple will change on me with autocorrect - to go in and add that word to the short cut list.  Thus overriding the Autocorrect feature for that word.  I did it right off the bat for "rob" and "walch" and now iOS does not try to change my name to the wrong spelling.  

If you don't want to create shortcut icons on your homepages for your settings.  You can still use Siri to access the short cuts.

To do this create a contact in the contacts app with first name per the Preference short cut below.  

Then for the Website URL for that contact put in the code next to the Shortcut name below.  That is it - nothing more.

So for example for Airplane Mode - you would create a contact with "Airplane Mode" for the first name.  Then for the Website URL you would enter "refs:root=AIRPLANE_MODE"  With the case as shown.  Case does matter.  That is all you would enter for that contact - First Name and Website Info.  Then Tap "Done"

Previously if you asked Siri to Turn Airplane Mode On - she would have replied "I'm Sorry, I'm Afraid I can't do that" 

Now simply ask Siri to "Show Airplane Mode Contact".  Siri will now say "Ok here is the contact" and then just tap on "prefs:root=AIRPLA..." and in this case it will take you to the settings screen and turn airplane mode on.  

The one downside of Siri shortcuts - is that they do not work when in airplane mode - so you will not be able to use any of the others when in Airplane mode.  But still this is a quick shortcut to get to the settings - rather than having to try to find where on your iOS device you hid those shortcut icons or the settings app.

Preference Shortcuts

About — prefs:root=General&path=About
Accessibility — prefs:root=General&path=ACCESSIBILITY
Airplane Mode On — prefs:root=AIRPLANE_MODE
Auto-Lock — prefs:root=General&path=AUTOLOCK
Brightness — prefs:root=Brightness
Bluetooth — prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth
Date & Time — prefs:root=General&path=DATE_AND_TIME
FaceTime — prefs:root=FACETIME
General — prefs:root=General
Keyboard — prefs:root=General&path=Keyboard
iCloud — prefs:root=CASTLE
iCloud Storage & Backup — prefs:root=CASTLE&path=STORAGE_AND_BACKUP
International — prefs:root=General&path=INTERNATIONAL
Location Services — prefs:root=LOCATION_SERVICES
Music — prefs:root=MUSIC
Music  Equalizer — prefs:root=MUSIC&path=EQ
Music Volume Limit — prefs:root=MUSIC&path=VolumeLimit
Network — prefs:root=General&path=Network
Nike + iPod — prefs:root=NIKE_PLUS_IPOD
Notes — prefs:root=NOTES
Notification — prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID
Phone — prefs:root=Phone
Photos — prefs:root=Photos
Profile — prefs:root=General&path=ManagedConfigurationList
Reset — prefs:root=General&path=Reset
Safari — prefs:root=Safari
Siri — prefs:root=General&path=Assistant
Sounds — prefs:root=Sounds
Software Update — prefs:root=General&path=SOFTWARE_UPDATE_LINK
Store — prefs:root=STORE
Twitter — prefs:root=TWITTER
Usage — prefs:root=General&path=USAGE
VPN — prefs:root=General&path=Network/VPN
Wallpaper — prefs:root=Wallpaper
Wi-Fi — prefs:root=WIFI

Hi Rob,

 

I was reading a post about how you could create shortcuts using siri and contacts which is cool but it is limited and seems like in many cases it still takes more time than just clicking the program icons. Then I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool to just have an icon on your iphone/ipad homescreen that was a shortcut to various system settings, programs, contacts etc using the available url schemes. This is obviously a work around but is still faster than anything that I've seen.

 

1. Go to the website ( tinyurl.com ) or similar service. Create links for all of the url scheme shortcuts that you want and copy the links down in your iphone/ipad notes program.

Preference Shortcuts

About — prefs:root=General&path=About
Accessibility — prefs:root=General&path=ACCESSIBILITY
Airplane Mode On — prefs:root=AIRPLANE_MODE
Auto-Lock — prefs:root=General&path=AUTOLOCK
Brightness — prefs:root=Brightness
Bluetooth — prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth
Date & Time — prefs:root=General&path=DATE_AND_TIME
FaceTime — prefs:root=FACETIME
General — prefs:root=General
Keyboard — prefs:root=General&path=Keyboard
iCloud — prefs:root=CASTLE
iCloud Storage & Backup — prefs:root=CASTLE&path=STORAGE_AND_BACKUP
International — prefs:root=General&path=INTERNATIONAL
Location Services — prefs:root=LOCATION_SERVICES
Music — prefs:root=MUSIC
Music  Equalizer — prefs:root=MUSIC&path=EQ
Music Volume Limit — prefs:root=MUSIC&path=VolumeLimit
Network — prefs:root=General&path=Network
Nike + iPod — prefs:root=NIKE_PLUS_IPOD
Notes — prefs:root=NOTES
Notification — prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID
Phone — prefs:root=Phone
Photos — prefs:root=Photos
Profile — prefs:root=General&path=ManagedConfigurationList
Reset — prefs:root=General&path=Reset
Safari — prefs:root=Safari
Siri — prefs:root=General&path=Assistant
Sounds — prefs:root=Sounds
Software Update — prefs:root=General&path=SOFTWARE_UPDATE_LINK
Store — prefs:root=STORE
Twitter — prefs:root=TWITTER
Usage — prefs:root=General&path=USAGE
VPN — prefs:root=General&path=Network/VPN
Wallpaper — prefs:root=Wallpaper
Wi-Fi — prefs:root=WIFI

(Short cut list via idownloadblog)

 

2. On your iphone or ipad go into settings and turn off your wifi and cellular data. It's important to not have any connection to the internet.

 

3. After you've turned off the data connections, open up the task manager and close out the safari app to remove it from memory, then open up safari. You'll have some alert boxes pop up, just close them, then paste in your tinyurl shortcut and press go. Close some more alert boxes and now your tinyurl link will be loaded into safari. You won't see anything on the screen, but it is loaded to the point where you can now click on the button where you can create an icon on the homescreen for the tinyurl link that you just loaded.

 

4. After you complete the 3rd step a white icon will be on your home screen with whatever you named it. Do this same thing for all of your shortcuts before turning on the data connections.

 

5. Turn your data connections on and start clicking on your icons. Safari will open up with the tinyurl which will transfer you to your shortcut.
 

Regards,

Dee Jay S

Hi Dee Jay,

Thanks for the tip.  I had also seen the tutorial / post on how to do this with the app IconProject over on iDownloadblog.com.  But this is a nice way to do it with out having to buy the IconProject App.  

For those that are looking for prettier looking iCons - you might want to check out the App iConProject.  

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Is there anything special I should do before updating iOS to version 5.0.1? 

Thanks

Bobby D

Hi Bobby,

Every time there has been a new version of iOS - there have been a small - usually a very very very small percentage of users that have had issues with the upgrade.  Every time.  However I think if you follow the instructions below - you will greatly reduce your chance of being one of these people.   

The following is what I recommend before updating to any new versions of iOS.

1.  Wait at least 1 week after an update is out before you update.  Ideally wait until after my next episode - as I will let you know of any major issues. 

2. Back up your iOS device with your computer.  Yes I know many now back up with iCloud - and you can do a backup with it as well.  But you definitely want to make sure you back up on the computer.

3. After you back up to your computer - open up iTunes and go to "Preferences" and then to "Devices".  There you see a box with your iOS devices backups listed.  Confirm you see the one you just did with "Today" and the time next to it - in the list.  This is one reason to back up on your computer - it is easy to confirm the back up is there - plus it is faster to restore from back up from your computer if needed.  

4. Force Quit every open App on your iOS device.  To force quit an app - double tap on the home button - this will display the tray with those apps that are active.  Hold down on one of them until it starts to wiggle.  Then tap on the Red X in the upper Left corner of the App icon.  This is not deleting the app - it is just force quiting the app. 

5. After all of the Apps have been force quitted. Go to Settings --> General --> Reset --> Reset Network Settings.  I like this option as it reboots the iOS device and seems to clear up any issues with your network connection.  Which you want to make sure you have a good connection when downloading the upgrade. You may need to re-log into your Wifi Hot spot if you have a Wifi only device.  

6. After the iOS device is fully rebooted and you confirm it is connected via Wifi or 3G (But I highly recommend Wifi) you will need to connect the device to a power supply.  While the downloads are much smaller than the past non-Over-the-air updates - you still need to be conntect via a power source - as network congestion can cause the upgrade procedure to talk a long time. 

7. Next go to  Settings --> General --> Software Update.  Then if the update is availalbe you will see a description of what the Update addresses.  And below that you will see a button "Download and Install".  

8. After it downloads - Tap "Install" or just let it be and in a few seconds after the download is complete it will start the download process.  

As always Jailbreakers and Unlockers should avoid the latest version of iOS as it often takes weeks or even months before a good reliable Un-Tethered jailbreak is available and usualy a bit longer for the Unlock. 

It is always best to wait a week to 10 days before trying to upgrade - the first couple of days should really really be avoided if at all possible.  With over 200 Milion iOS devices out there - when they all try to upgrade - it can and has been an issue.  And again every iOS update has seen some small percentage of users with issues.  But if you follow the steps above you should be able to greatly reduce the chance you will have an issue.

Regards,

Rob W

iOS 5.0.1 is now available as an over the air update for anyone with iOS 5.0 installed.

First make sure you do a back up.  

Then to install the new version goto Settings --> General --> Software Update 

Then tap "Download and Install"

After it downloads tap install or just let it be and it will install on its own.  

As mentioned on Ep 198 - this fixes bugs effecting battery life and adds multitasking gestures to the original iPad.

It also resolves bugs with documents and iCloud, Plus improved voice recoginition for Australian users.  

Even though the overall update (40 MB) is much much smaller than the old updates (>650 MB) - you should still make sure you have a good wifi connection for the download / update and that your iOS device is fully charged and / or plugged into power.  Depending on how many people are doing the update when you are - past experience shows it can be a slow process.

My recommendation - if you are not having battery issues - is to just wait until early next week (November 15th) after ep 199 of Tii comes out before updating.  

And as always - Jailbreaker and Unlockers - STAY AWAY from this update. 

Hi Rob:
 

iOS 5's default voice for English is Nuance Vocalizer Samantha.  

You can get a higher quality voice Jill.  

Go to Settings> General> Accessibility>VoiceOver and turn "Use Compact Voice" off.  

Stay connected to wifi, best plugged in, after a while system will download Jill as your default voice.  

If you decide you don't like the voice just turn " use compact voice" back on.  

Regards,

Jim, East Lansing

Hi Rob,  

I enjoy having messages and other notifications read to me while driving, but have not purchased the 4s Siri and have not had luck with apps like drivesafe.ly or textndrive.  Here is how to Enable this functionality on iPhone 4 running ios5.   

Turn on notifications for mail in notification settings. Make sure the toggles for show preview and show on lock screen are selected.

In accessibility settings under settings then general, select voiceover menu but keep voiceover off.  Turn on speak selection toggle. At bottom of VoiceOver select triple click home and select the toggle VoiceOver option.

When ready to have mail and notifications read, shut off display then click home 3x.  When you want to use iPhone again and stop this feature, click 3x again. 

Regards

Rick Aranson 

Hello Rob,

I had the Issue where After upgrading to IOS 5 my location services would not work. 

the Fix is to Goto settings, then restrictions, enter your chosen password, and turn on location service option.

Why:  Before upgrading, you had the Find My IPhone restricted, so if someone finds your phone they can not turn it off.

Hope this helps someone,

Regards, 
Dave Orr

Two questions coming up a bunch are:

"Where is my iMessage App? - and - "how do I activate it?"  

First up - iMessage is not a separate app - it is more of a service that is used with the Messages app you already had on your iPhone.  That is the green App with the white text bubble in it. Yes - the same one you use to send and receive text messages.  So iMessage occupies the same app.  

Now per setting it up.  

You need to go into the settings app - and then scroll down to messages and tap it.  Then you will see the option to activate with an iTunes account.  Select that and put in your iTunes account info.  

Now this is where another question come in - where people want to know if you need to get another iTunes account for each iOS device.  

And the answer is NO

After you enter the iTunes account info - then enter an email address to use as your iMessage ID.  If you have multiple iOS devices in your house and want each one to have a unique iMessage ID - then you will just need a unique email address for each.

In my house we have 3 iOS devices with iOS 5 and iMessage set up.  All use the same iTunes account ID - but each has its own email address for iMessage.

If you would like to try it out - and don't know anyone to try it with - my iMessage ID for my iPhone is rob@podcast411.com  So if you want to see if you set it up correct - send me an iMessage and I will reply.  And yes - I did turn on the return receipt - so you will be able to see if I received and then read the message.  But I am going to ask this - please don't send in tips or show questions to that - as I still much prefer emails for show related question and content.  It is easier for me to sort and put aside for the show.

EXTRA BONUS iMessage TIP:

If you want to know if one of your friends/family is also using iOS 5.  Go into the Messages app and tap on an existing text conversation with them or start a new one. Before you even type anything, the "Send" button will turn blue indicating you are using iMessage, therefore they have iOS 5 installed as well. Regards,

Breaking news is ok however.

The Newsstand icon is really not an iCon but more a folder.  So as such you can not just simply drag and drop it into a another folder.  Key in that sentence being simply.  As some have found a way where you can actually get newsstand off your desktop and into a folder - where many people believe it belongs.  

Here are the steps required - Please note you need to be quick doing this:

1. Take any two apps on the same screen as the Newsstand app and place one on top of the other to create a folder. 

2. As the folder is being created you need to grab the Newsstand icon and quickly drag it into the folder as it is being created.  

If you were fast enough - Newsstand will go into the folder.  If not go back and repeat the steps above.  

Note - This process will actually work for placing any folder into another folder.  

BIG NOTE -  If you try to launch Newsstand when you have it in a folder - Well iOS 5 does not like that and it reboots your iOS device. So if you put it in a folder - make sure not to open it up while it is in the folder.  I am assuming the same is true if you put a folder in a folder.  

Hi Rob,

I'm having trouble with wifi sync on my ipad1. It says it will sync when my pc is available. Also the sync now button is grayed out. I have a windows pc with windows 7. Was there something I was to do on my pc? It backed up to iCloud no problem.

Thanks..

Larger

Hi L,


 

1. Connect your iPad to your computer via the USB cable.

 

2. Open iTunes.

 

3. Select the iPad under devices

 

4. In the summary tab - scroll down to Options and select "Sync with this iPad over Wi-Fi" 

 

5. Hit "Sync / Apply"  

 

After that you can disconnect the USB cable and you should be able to sync via wifi. 

 

Rob W

Hi Rob, 

Just wondered if any other of your listeners had my "happy" experience 
( not really) when trying to update to iOS 5. 

For some reason my iTunes didn't recognize my iPhone after the update. Told me I had to restore by new iPhone or backup. Well I tried the backup restore with all of them and I got an error that said " backup error unable to restore" so in tried turning firewall and other security off, read things on the web such as manual left click on "Devices" in iTunes
And do a backup restore from there. Nothing worked and needless to say I had to completely restore my iPhone as a new phone. This was very aggravating as all my settings and apps are like they were never touched. Thought this really su*+ed. 

Thanks for all the great podcast and keep them coming. Great info. 

Doug 

Cincinnati 

Hi Doug, 

You were one of the lucky few - by and large most people had a very easy time with the update - even if it took 8 hours.

Hi Rob, 

Congratulations on getting so many predictions correct on the iPhone 4S.

I had a question from a reader on my blog. I hope you can help. He is married to a blind woman who is very excited about Siri on the iPhone 4S. But she uses VoiceOver on the iPhone and wants to make sure that VoiceOver will work with Siri.

For example, if she asks Siri, "What are the best Hungarian restaurants in Tuscaloosa?" and Siri pulls up the results, will VoiceOver read the results to her?

I am planning on testing this when I get the iPhone 4S, but they would like to know this before the launch date if possible.

Any ideas on this?

        Thanks in advance for your help.

Kind regards,

Carolyn M

www.wonderoftech.com

Hi Rob,

Is Siri in iOS 5 or is it only in iPhone 4s?

Thanks

Hello,

Siri is only for the iPhone 4S at this time.  It is likely the next iPad may also get it.

Hi Rob,

 

I wanted to know what program I can use to copy my playlist from my iPhone to my new computer's iTunes, since my old computer  stop working. I don't want to lose my music which I only have on my iPhone 4.

 

Thanks.                                    

Stephen M.

Hi Rob:

My iPhone 4's screen went haywire today, all of a sudden. The screen is zoomed in and I can see about a quarter of the regular size screen. And I cannot move around the screen. As a result, I cannot swipe the top or bottom bar or key in the PIN code to unlock it. I tried a hard reset and restoring it, deleted a couple of apps I had updated earlier today but to no avail. Do you or your listeners know what is causing this and how to solve it? Thank you for all your effort in putting this excellent podcast together.

Sam

Hi Sam,

I had this happen to me once when I was playing around with the Zoom feature in the Accessibility settings.

To Un-Zoom (or change the Zoom) - With 3 fingers, double-tap and drag up or down.

To Move around the screen - drag three fingers while zoomed.

And once you change the zoom resolution back to normal you may want to turn off zoom.

To Turn off zoom go to the Settings App --> General --> Zoom --> Turn "Off"

Regards,

Rob W

Hello Rob,

The schools are afraid of texting, Facebook, cheating using google. Is there a way to use assignment books, ebooks, calendars memos in a way that schools would accept?

Sincerely,

Cindy Eisele

Hi Cindy,

Per the post title - iOS 5 Beta 7 is now available.  Do the OTA update from iOS 5 Beta 6.  

I will update this post as I get more info on what is new / changed. 

UPDATE1 - Make sure you update to iTune 10.5 Beta 7. Before doing the updateto iOS 5 Beta 7.

Rob W

Hi Rob:

I heard that if one changes the font on a MacBook Pro (and I thought on the IPad as well), that battery life could be extended.  

Do you know anything about this.  

Thanks,

Scott

Hi Rob,

I just restored my iPhone as a new phone. I did not have a backup.    

Do I have to pay again to get push with the Tii app?

Thanks!

Chad

hey Rob!

 

I was wondering is there a way to add HTML signatures from the iphone/ipad?

instead of that one liner about "sent from my iphone"?

Thanks!!

Laura G

Hi Laura,

Per the Signature of emails.  

Without jailbreaking there is a way to get a very customized signature.  

http://www.coolgeex.com/adding-html-signature-to-your-iphone-4-without-jailbreaking-it/

This is a non-jailbreak work around to get a customized signature with images and links. See screen shot image of one I was able to set up in this post.  The Twitter and Facebook images and the main libsyn images were all hot links.  So it works very nice.  

This does require setting it up with that sites free service - and then saving a bookmark / webpage icon on your desktop.  This is not adding it to your standard email app.  This requires initiating the email from the special icon / link via safari.  

Now if you just want to remove the default message you get from Apple - you can go into the Settings App.  Then to Mail, Contacts, Calendar.  Then scroll down to the signature and edit it there. 

Regards,

Rob W

iOS 5 Beta 6 is now available for over the air download.  

As with all iOS Beta updates - there is an accompanying iTunes update.

Process for updating is the following.

1. Sync your iOS device with your computer.

2. Back up specifically your iOS device to your computer.

2.b If you have photos - make sure you download / sync those photos with iPhoto or your windows equivalent.  

2.c Make sure your iOS device is fully charged or plug in a power source now. 

3. Download the latest version of iTunes and install.

4. On your iOS device Go to Settings --> General --> Software Updates   

and then check for the update and download.  

5. Wait, and wait a little more, and then when it looks like it is almost done downloading - wait even more.  

6. When you see the pop up book tap "install"  unless you fell asleep in step 5 - in which case it will auto install after a minute or so. 

7. Wait while it reboots - takes a few minutes. 

8. Check to make sure you email, photos and other items are still there.  They should be.

Unlike the last update - Apple is not recommending you delete all data - so this one is actually easier and faster than the last one when all is said and done. 

I am playing with it now - and if I find or hear of any new features I will update this post. Of course if you come across any new features or bugs please put them in the comments below. 

.

Hi Rob,

I've been one of those folks who have been reluctant to jailbreak my phone. Two things are scaring me away. First, your warning about the potential for problems. This is my only phone, and I use it for business, and would be hurting if it were out of commission for a few days. But I'm just about over that, and want to jailbreak, except for the second item.

I would want to have a good solid backup before I did jailbreak. But I have been unable to back my iPhone up lately. It will sit in iTunes for an hour, syncing, and just be 30% done. I just had to cancel the last 4 or 5 syncs. Any thoughts on what would cause it to take so long to backup?

I've also noticed that my orange Other is over 2 gig now. Is that out of line?  I'm afraid to restore, now, too, because the last actual backup is so old. Worse though, is that iTunes seems to think that the last backup was just the last time that I had actually cancelled. So if I restore, would it draw from a corrupt backup?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Randy

Pittsburgh, PA

Hi Randy,

First up definitely do NOT restore or Jailbreak or upgrade EVER if you can not backup first.  

I would suggest if you have lots and lots of photos in your camera roll - to sync them to a computer and then delete out all the photos in your camera roll on your iOS device.  That sometimes will greatly speed up the back up.

Same if you have videos in the camera roll - essentially get it do nothing in the camera roll on your iOS device and you should see a great improvement in speed.  I would also look at how many voice memos you have and again get them sync'd up on your computer and then turn off the sync'g.  

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I am looking for a way to use my iPhone as a remote for Keynote. It appears all the available remotes in the app store only work with a Mac. Any ideas out there?

Thanks.

Andrew E

Miami, Florida

Hi Andrew,

There is the actual Keynote App for the iPhone - which is the recommended one.

Note - Keynote itself only works on a Mac - so that is why all the apps just work with a mac.  You can not run Keynote the program on a PC.

I would recommend the Apple Keynote Remote app.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keynote-remote/id300719251?mt=8

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I have a problem with my iPhone 4 that I loved. I had all iPhones since back on 2007 but now this is the first one that I have called in names. I jailbreaked all my iDevices and this wasn't the exception. This phone looses connection to the internet and sometimes I can't even make calls even when it shows I have signal, there is no connection. It freezes! when I press the power and try to slide to unlock it will not respond, can u imagine when I receive a call? If I'm on mail and I want to erase a message, if I try to swipe to delete. it doesn't even respond and it goes on an on.. so Yesterday I decided to update it. Ok, I loose all my hacks and features, but if this will solve this problems..  Fine! Done! Now I don't have any connection problems but everything else is the same. 

- when I go to slide to unlock it freezes so I have to turn off and on to be able to unlock.

- if I'm on mail or phone app, when I want to select, sometimes it doesn't respond so I have to turn on and off.

-this my be unrelated but in Yahoo, it keeps telling me that it doesn't have internet connection, so I press CONTINUE, like Ten times until finally recognizes I have signal.

I have unlimited internet plan with AT&T, and yes I have updated to 4.3.5 

Thanks

Jerry in Atlanta

Hi Jerry,

Have your tried a complete factory restore - NOT from a backup?

You may first want to do a reset on the network settings -

settings -->  general -->  reset -->  Reset Network Settings

but since you are having issues with the slider - I doubt that will help there - and sadly it looks like you either have something corrupted and you need to do the full factory reset or you have a hardware issue and you need to take it to the apple store.

Let me know if the full factory reset works - but again - you might want to try the Reset network setting first just to see if it helps. (doubtful - but it is quick to try).

Regards, 

Rob W

Hey Rob, 

I'm a happy camper, my iPhone is working just fine, I did as you suggested, a Full factory reset and that did the job. Thank  you very much for taking the time to answer my questions 

Have a beautiful day and keep doing what you are doing.

God bless you,

Jerry

Apple released iOS 5 beta 5 today.  Note the OTA update may not be available for you yet.  Keep trying.

As with past updates it is mostly bug fixes in this beta update.  As I find out about any new features I will update this post. 

As always you will want to upgrade to the latest version of iTunes (10.5 beta 5) first then do a back up of your iOS device - and then do the OTA update.

Update1: It appears to do the OTA update you need to do the following:

• To install iOS 5 beta 5 using over the air software update, you must first erase all content and settings on your device by choosing Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Over the air software update can be initiated on devices running iOS 5 beta 3 and later by choosing Settings > General > Software Update.
• Be sure to backup your devices using iTunes 10.5 beta 4 or through iCloud backup prior to installing iOS 5 beta 5. After installing iOS 5 beta 5, you can restore your device using either iTunes 10.5 beta 5 or through your iCloud backup.

I am working on the update now and will post more after I am done. 

Update 2:  I was able to update two devices - an iPad and 3GS with the OTA updates - but as per above you do need to do a full Erase of all content before it shows that an update is available over the air.  Make sure you do a full back up with your iOS device connected via USB prior to doing the erase.  

After you erase set up as a new device - do the update - then do a restore from back up after you have done the update.  To do the restore from update - I did it while connected via USB and right clicking on the iOS device in iTunes and choosing the restore from back up option.  If after the restore from update you see your Apps - but it shows them as waiting for download for each app - do a sync with the iOS device tethered via USB.  

Good luck - this one was not as straight forward as past updates. 

Now off to see if there is any new features. 

Hi Rob

Can you explain to me how to get my texted pictures off my iPhone and on to my computer or any other device?

Thanks Rob I love your show

Fred

Hello Fred,

One of the easiest ways is to simply tap and hold the thumbnail of the image and select Copy - and then past it into an email and email it to your computer. 

You can also tap once on the image and then when it opens up in the lower left you can tap on the box with the arrow out and then save the image - whch will then put the image in the camera roll - which then can be sync'd up with your photo app on your computer. 

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I am running out of HD space on my computer and I currently sync multiple iOS devices to it and do multiple backups.  I remember you once talking about deleting out backups to free up space on the HD.  How do you do that?

Thanks

Chuck in S. Cal

Hi Chuck,

In iTunes on your computer click on Preferences.  In the pop up box Select "Devices" 

You can then select the backups you would like to delete.  Once you select one the "Delete Backup" button will become active.  Once you click "Delete Backup" it will ask you to confirm you want to delete it. 

After you delete out all the old backups you don't need - click "ok"

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I have the pages app on my iPhone and I want to get some Word docs on my computer that I can make available to edit with the Pages app.  How do I get the Word docs on to my iPhone to use with Pages.

Thanks

Tony

Hi Tony,

First I will assume you are running iOS 4.X or later.  Next connect your iPhone to your computer.  When iTunes pops up and shows your iPhone go ahead and click on your iPhone under "devices" Then in the upper tab in iTunes click on "Apps"  Then scroll down to "File Sharing".  Next Select the Pages App which should be on the left hand side under "Apps". Then just drag and drop all the word docs you want Pages on your iPhone to have access to.  Then click sync (Actually it syncs after each drop - but go ahead and sync again anyway.)

After the sync is done disconnect your iPhone from the computer and launch the Pages App. 

When Pages opens in the upper left tap on the "+" icon (Or if it says "documents" in the upper left tap on that and then on the "+" icon).

Then tap  on "iTunes" under "Copy From" - and then select the Documents you want to copy over and edit in Pages. 

Regards,

Rob W

Hey Rob,

I can't connect to any cellular data. Regular phone calls work fine and so does data over wifi but if I switch to 3G or edge no web sites will load, can't connect to the app store, etc.   I've tried doing the data services reset from the settings menu but that made no difference.

This is happening to me and there doesn't seam to be a viable fix yet, thoughts?

Thanks

Brian

With iOS 5 (beta 4 and later) you can update the iOS by doing an Over the Air (OTA) Update - this means you no longer need to be connected to your computer to download and do the upates.  (OTA functionality was actually added to Beta 3 - but Beta 4 was the first time you could use it).

Here are some tips on using the OTA feature.

1. Make sure you have a full charge on your iOS device and if possible have a power connection to the device.  If you have less than a 50% charge it will not allow you to start the OTA Update.

2. Make sure you are on a WiFi connection.  Yes you can do it via 3G - but you are best to have a much quicker Wifi connection.

3. Expect the last 5 to 10% of the download bar to seem to stall and take 5 to 6 times longer to copmplete than the first 90%.  This is widely being reported - Have some patience and do not think it is locked up.  (See Tip 1 above) Make sure you have plenty of charge remaining and you will be fine.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I just finished listening to episode 136 and I want to try and sell my iPhone 3G. Thanks for the great tip of installing iOS 3.1.3 and unlocking the iPhone in order to get top dollar for it. I followed the link titled "Unlock iPhone 3.1.3 05.11.07 Baseband with Blacksn0w | Redmond Pie". Any idea how I can test to see if I successfully unlocked my iPhone if I don't have a T-mobile sim card? I successfully get to the end of Step 7 and then don't know how to proceed when it gets to the following section "Make sure you get signals with your T-Mobile SIM card". I wouldn't feel right about posting the iPhone for sale online if I'm not able to verify that I successfully unlocked it. Any ideas or tips you may have would be most greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Mr. Ed

Hey rob recently purchased a iPod touch 4th gen in Febuary if a new iPod touch is released would apple offer me a upgrade for a small fee, or something like that thanks

Please Write back from  Sean W

Hi Sean,

Plain and simple answer - Nope

With the ipod touch or any iPod once you purchase it - that is it. 

You will need to resell it on ebay / criagslist or the like to get any money out of it.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

 

I am having trouble with my iphones, and ipad not syncing my calendar events. It always has worked int he past and just stopped working. I have mobile me and that is the account that I used, could it be mobile me is being phased out?

 

Thanks

Jim K

Hi Rob,

Jim,

Thanks for the question and the solution.

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Like you I have a couple of young boys.  Recently it appears one of them deleted my safari App and my Youtube App off the iPhone.

FYI - I do not have my phone full of Apps (so it is not off the screen) and I only have a couple of folders and I checked in them and the Safari and Youtube apps are nowhere to be found.  

I tried rebooting and doing multiple re-syncs but could not find either app in iTunes to add back said apps.  Outside of doing a factory restore what can I do?

Please help.

Thanks

James

Hi Rob,

Do you know of a iPhone screen recorder app that I can use so that I can record my gameplay of apps?  if you do that would be awesome!

Thanks!

AB

HI AB,

You would need to jailbreak to do that.  

Then you can get a couple of different apps to record the screen play,

You need to get Backgrounder and Screensplitr from Cydia and DemoGod on the Mac.

Then you can mirror what is on your iPhone on your computer and record it.

 

Regards,

RW

Hi Rob,

I purchased GPS USA from the app store a few months ago. Today I had to restore my I phone and when I reinstalled the app GPS USA I was charged a second time.

Can you tell me how I can get my refund? 

Thanks

Freddie Y

Hi Freddie,

If you purchased the app with the same iTunes account you should not have been charged twice.  

You can check your purchase history by going into iTunes clicking on your account in the upper right - and then selecting "Account".

Next scroll down and select - "Purchase History"

Then look through your account and confirm if you did indeed get charged twice for this app. 

If so then click on "Report a Problem" (Button at the bottom) and then next to the second purchase click on "Report a Problem" (Link next to price of app in question).

Depending on which version of iTunes you have you should see a form to fill out.  Select the Problem and in comments include the dates of the two purchases.  

Good Luck.

Rob W

With iOS 5 there is now an option to turn on and off Quote Level Indentations.  This "Adds a level of indentation when you forward or reply to a message"  

To toggle this on or off go to the Settings App:

Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars --> Increase Quote Level 

Then either Toggle it On or Off per your preference.

In iOS 4.x and earlier you were limited to having just the last 200 recent messages on your iOS device.  With iOS 5 you can now increase that to the 1,000 Recent messages or 500 recent messages.   The options are now 

50 Recent Messages

100 Recent Messages 

200 Recent Messages

500 Recent Messages 

1,000 Recent Messages 

To get to this option go to the Settings App:

Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -->  Show 

And then select the number of Recent Messages you want to be stored on your iOS device. 

Another new feature in iOS 5 is the Split Keyboard for the iPad.  This is really nice for those that like to type with their thumbs.  Which is really helpful when standing and typing with the iPad - as you really want in those cases to be holding on to the iPad with both hands.  

To activate the split keyboard.  First go to an app where you can pull up the keyboard - for testing I suggest using the notes app.  

Then Tap and hold the little keyboard symbol in the lower left.  You will get a pop up message where you can "Undock" or "Split" - select Split.  They keyboard will split in two and move up on the screen.  Then if you press and hold slightly to the right of the keyboard symbol you can move the split keyboard up and down to get it positioned where it feels the most comfortable for you.  You can also slide your thumbs towards the middle of the keyboard to make it grow in size.  

Note - getting the keyboard to move up and down or change in size is not the easiest - It is better in Beta 2 then it was in Beta 1 - and hopefully by the time iOS 5 is fully released it will be much easier to position the Keyboard and change its size.  

Tapping quickly on the keyboard symbol will hide it.  Tapping and holding on it will give the option to Dock and Merge the keyboard.  

One new feature in iOS 5 is custom vibrations.  This will allow you to set different vibration patterns for your contacts.  To set up do the following:

settings -->  general --> accessibility -->  Custom Vibrations  ---  Then Turn to "On"

Then go to your sounds settings.

settings --> sounds --> Vibration --> Create New Vibration  ---- Then tap on the screen to create the custom pattern you want.

You can play back the pattern you created to make sure it is ok.  If you want to start over tap "Record".  Once you create a pattern you like - Tap "Save" and name as you like.  Say "Wife" as example.  You will then see it in the list under Custom.

Then go to your contacts App and select a contact and tap edit - you will then be able to assign the new custom vibration to that person.  

This is a nice feature for those that are in lots of meetings when you have to mute your phone and also need to keep it in your pocket.  Now you can set up custom vibrations for your Wife, Boss, Kids, Significant other, Key Client,.... And you will know by the vibration pattern if it is one of them that called when you were in that meeting.  

Thanks to Larry in CT for the heads up on this one.  

Getting WiFi Sync to actually you know Sync seems to be a little more confusing then expected based on emails. 

First - You need to have iOS 5 Beta 2 or later installed on your iOS device to get Wifi Sync to work. You also need Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later and you need iTunes 10.5 Beta 2 installed on your computer. 

Second - Before you can get Wifi Sync to work you need to connect your iOS device to your computer via USB and then under the iOS device on iTunes in the Summary Tab you need to select under "Options" - "Sync over Wi-Fi connection.  If that is not checked you will not be able to sync wirelessly.  Once you select this, click "Sync" in iTunes and wait for the back up and sync to finish. 

When it says the Sync is complete - You can then disconnect the USB cable from your iOS device.  

Go To the Settings App.

Settings -->  General --> iTunes Sync  

You should at this point see a button with "Sync Now" in it in dark bold black.  Tap that button and it should start a wireless sync.  If it is a grey "Sync Now" it means you do not have a wireless connection.  

Reasons for the Grey "Sync Now"

1. You don't have iTunes open on your computer

2. Your computer is asleep

3. Your computer and iPad are not on the same Network.  

4. You are still running iOS 5 Beta 2 or another later version of the Beta and it is just beta software so it may be a bug.  In this case reconnect your iPad via USB and do a sync - and then disconnect the USB cable and try do a wireless sync again. 

Despite previous rumors and posts - you do NOT need your iOS device connected to a power source to Sync Wirelessly - so it is a true Wireless Sync - when it works for the Betas.  

For the devs and those that broke down and got a dev account so they can get new versions of iOS early - well good news.  iOS 5 Beta 2 is now available.  

Some quick notes - you need to install iTunes 10.5 beta 2 first on your mac.  Then install iOS 5 beta 2.  

Key changes so far:  

1. It seems a little more stable. The Photo app is not crashing each time I delete a picture on my iPad - not every time but still sometimes - which is much better than beta 1 which seemed to crash each time you tried to delete a picture. 

2. Wireless sync now works - It does require Mac OS X 10.6.8    

More info here on the Beta 2 update

Don't you love it when someone says they hate talking about something and then they go ahead and do it regardless.  Yes - this is one of those cases.  With “this” being in regards to patents relating to iOS devices.  In some cases patents work for Apple and in some cases they work against Apple (See my article on patent trolls, or read the way to numerous articles out there on Apple caving recently to Nokia’s patent portfolio and agreeing to pay a large lump sum for past sales of iOS devices and a license going forward for the sale of new iOS devices).  Why I hate talking about patent issues is that they very rarely directly affect the end users.  Does anyone that purchased an iOS device really care about the Nokia / Apple agreement? No. Going forward it will not stop or restrict any end users from being able to purchase an iOS device and it will not likely change the pricing of the iOS devices.  (Apple is not likely going to raise the price of the iPad from $499 to $504.63 to cover additional license fees.)

Another patent story making its way around the tech circuit is the patent Apple applied for that would allow Apple to turn off the camera of your iOS device if you were trying to record at an event like a concert or movie where that venue is equipped with the tech to transmit an IR signal that could be picked up by your phone and keep the camera from working.  This story has gotten legs such that it has crossed out of the tech circuit and made its way over to the political circuit.  Some are afraid that governments could abuse this technology.  I even received an email from SaveTheInternet.com railing against Apple and Steve Jobs for “creating” this technology.  I am usually in full support of SaveTheInternet.com but this time not so much. The patent application they are complaining about was submitted back in December of 2009. Apple does not wait for patents to be issued to make tech available – in many cases they will apply for the patent after the tech or product is already out in the marketplace.  After all if a technology is really worth using Apple wants to get it out as fast as possible and does not want to wait for the USPTO to finish up their end of things. 

This is something that is lost on all those rumor sites that do articles about an upcoming feature or technology that Apple will have in a future iOS device because Apple has just submitted or received a patent for said technology.  Again if that feature was really worth being in an iOS device the vast majority of the time it would already be in there.  That seems to be the case with the “Camera Kill Switch” patent application, the technology is not in iOS devices now and this is likely just one of many patent applications a company like Apple will file just because they can – not because they plan to use the technology.  Having a strong patent portfolio is hugely important in the tech world, which is why Google is starting the bidding for all of Nortel’s patents at $900 Million and why the final price paid will likely be well over twice that. 

Another Apple patent that was just issued – Patent 7,966,578 – is also causing a lot of buzz in the tech world. Depending on whom you believe Patent 7,966,578 could mean either the end of all of Apples smartphone competition in the US or it is simply just another over reaching patent issued by the USPTO and will be revoked in short order.  As with most things the truth is probably somewhere in-between. Apple will likely use this patent to get license fees from other makers of smartphones – but is not likely to try and force out every other touchscreen smartphone from the US.  That would likely cause a ruling against the Apple Patent (Outside of violence the US government is usually against monopolies). The basic gist of this latest patent covers touch screen smartphones and the gestures you use to control the iOS device and how you manipulate content in frames. In reality at best this will mean Apple gets some revenue from their competition.  (Hi Nokia remember that settlement you just won - yeah so does Apple.)  This patent is an example of a technology that was already in place for many months before the patent application was submitted in December of 2007, about 11 months after the iPhone was announced and 6 months after it was available for purchase. 

The reason I don’t like to talk about patents on my podcast is that patents generally fall into one of two categories. First are those covering what has already been done (eg. The Touch Screen Patent 7,966,578).  Or second those covering what could theoretically be done - but has not been done - and likely never will be done.  Which is why I don't generally cover patents, you already either are using the tech or will never see the tech and the results of any fights about patents between the OEM’s rarely if ever trickle down to the end user.   Something to think about the next time you get an email or read an article that says the sky is falling due to a patent application or award. 

Hey Rob!

I bought a UDID on eBay and installed iOS5 because I was really curious... I'm enjoying it but its a little buggy as you know.  Do they release other betas on the way to the gold release in the fall?  If so, how does one find out about those?  And is there a fairly easy way to go back to iOS4?  I probably should have considered that before I put 5 on my phone, but oh well!

Thanks, love the show.

Its a 3GS.

Mike

Hi Mike,

If you are looking to get more apps in the dock at the bottom of your screen to allow quick and easy access to your favorite apps - one thing you can do is jailbreak and install the app - 5 icon dock - which per its name allows 5 icons in the bottom dock.  

However if you want more than 5 iCons on your iPhone or iPod touch or more than 6 on your iPad - one thing you can do is to simply put a folder in the dock.  Then you can put 12 of your favorite apps in each folder. 

Thanks to Geoffrey in Huston for originally suggesting this.  

Hi Rob,

I'm always filling out web forms that ask for my email address. Is there anyway to set up hotkeys or shortcuts that would fill those forms w/ a single keystroke or two. I could copy and paste but that seems so not iPhone.

Thanks for ur help, keep up the good work.

Regards,

John P

Hi Rob, 

   I just listened to episode 178 in which you described all the new announcements coming out of WWDC.  Great rundown of all the new features, but I think it’s important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees.  What I didn’t hear was any kind of analysis of what all these new features mean for the future of iOS, the future of computing, and the future of mobile.

   Personally, I was blown away by how with iOS 5 and iCloud, Apple is transforming mobile computing.  Apple appears to have looked at all of the hassles that currently exist with mobile computing, and made them simply vanish into the cloud.

   The most significant aspect of all this for me is that--assuming this all works the way Apple has laid it out, and I believe it will as Apple has been laying the groundwork for years—the end user will never need to know how to access the iCloud or how to look for their stuff in the cloud.  All their email, calendars, contacts, documents, books, photos, music (and I would assume before long their TV shows and movies) will just magically appear and be updated on all their devices without the user having to lift a finger.  The iCloud will be completely invisible to the end user.  For the  user, the term “iCloud” will merely be the answer to the question, “How the heck do the latest versions of all my stuff just magically appear on all my Apple devices instantaneously?”  The solution is so simple a child can use it, totally seamless, perfectly elegant, and will surely seem magical—the quintessential Apple solution.

   For me, it will eliminate most of the frustrations I’ve been having as I’ve struggled to maintain my family’s various Apple devices—2 MacBooks, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, and 2 iPad Classics.  With over 300 applications on my iPhone 4 alone, it has been a constant hassle to keep the apps updated—problem solved with automatic delta updates.  It has been a pain to keep all our devices updated with the latest iOS release—problem solved with auto updates.  It has been confusing trying to keep all the calendars and contacts current on all devices—problem solved automatically.  It has been a nightmare trying to remember which device contained which version of which documents, songs, and photos—problem solved automatically. All the back-ups of our various devices sometimes take up over 25 GB of storage on my older MacBook Pro’s 80 GB hard drive—causing me to be constantly confronting a full hard drive—problem solved by automatically backing up to the iCloud instead of my Mac’s hard drive.

   This is a solution that only Apple could implement with its tightly integrated hardware, software, and now cloud services, although of course other companies will struggle in vain to emulate its simplicity and ease of use.  Once the iCloud infrastructure is firmly in place, I can see Apple coming out with a series of new devices over the next 10 years that automatically tie in—automatically syncing and updating in real time.  And the fact that it’s all free (except for the very reasonable iTunes Match service for non-Apple music) makes it a built-in feature of whatever Apple device you purchase.  I think when people start experiencing these services in action, it will encourage them to add to their personal ecosystem of Apple products, and will highlight the shortcomings of the Android system.  I don’t now if I can wait until fall to get my hands on iOS 5—I may need to look for the link you mentioned or pay the $100 for the developer preview.

   My hat is off to Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple crew for pulling us into the next age of mobile computing and communications.

   Any many thanks to you, Rob, for the great job you do in keeping your listeners informed about all the latest and greatest from Cupertino!    

-Bob from Austin, Texas-

If you are typing a word not in your dictionary and Auto correct changes it to another word there is a quick way to get back the original word.

If you backspace to the right of the word you will see a pop up with what you originally typed in there.  Just tap the pop up and your original word will be put back.  

Thanks to Steve in Tenn for originally calling in with that tip.  

Hi Rob,

 
I'm new to the developer scene & and have paid the $99. 

 
If I try the iOS 5 software out and put it on my iPad or iPhone, will it wipe out what I have on there and make it like a new phone ......or leave my folders and apps the way they are?

I'm thinking it will wipe everything out. 

:-)

Thanks. 

Scott 

First come - first serve - here are some extra promo codes for the App - Cash Register

6AAYKAKF3JP4

94HYLKJ9EA3R

NKLPY4RRF964

4PA6YLP94MML

4LE6Y6LXK4PR

MJLARRK9WYT9

EYPEYLW7FFT7

To redeem the code go to the main page in iTunes and in the upper right look for "Redeem" and click that and then paste in the code below. Or click the following link:

https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/redeemLandingPage

Or to redeem directly from iPhone/iPad/iTouch - Go to the App Store, then the "Featured" section. Then Scroll  all the way to the bottom where ‘Redeem’ appears. To Redeem Tap in the code. You may be prompted to ‘sign in’ with your iTunes password (if you have not signed in recently or have a different setting).  Click Redeem you should then see - “Thank you for redeeming your code.  Your item is now downloading”

If they say they have been redeemed - someone else beat you to them. 

First come - first serve - here are some extra promo codes for the App Satin

A4F934W4FWT6

FH4M9XPXYT6J

XWFM9L4ART3A

To redeem the code go to the main page in iTunes and in the upper right look for "Redeem" and click that and then paste in the code below. Or click the following link:

https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/redeemLandingPage

Or to redeem directly from iPhone/iPad/iTouch - Go to the App Store, then the "Featured" section. Then Scroll  all the way to the bottom where ‘Redeem’ appears. To Redeem Tap in the code. You may be prompted to ‘sign in’ with your iTunes password (if you have not signed in recently or have a different setting).  Click Redeem you should then see - “Thank you for redeeming your code.  Your item is now downloading”

If they say they have been redeemed - someone else beat you to them. 

Hey rob,

Quick question maybe you can answer. I heard something about apple adding " try before you buy" to the apps store. The only thing is I can not see any subject /category/tab in the app store that says it. Can you help? Or your listeners explain how to find or unlock this feature?

Demetre in NYC 

Hi Demetre,

http://mashable.com/2010/08/05/apple-try-before-you-buy-app-store/

 

This is one of those stories that kind of gets mis-reported from time to time.  

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMultiRoom?fcId=385787693

 

Reality is the try before you buy is just a collection of apps that have both a free / lite version and a paid version.  This is not a feature for all apps - which often what people think when they hear try before you buy - who would have thunk.  

 

Rob W

Hi Rob,

A while back on an old episode someone was asking about apps to track your travels.  I should have paid attention as I need that type of app now.  Do you remember what apps people recommended.  

Thanks

John A

 

Hello John,

That was back on ep 140 they asked and Ep 141 when we talked about that and the apps people recommended were:

Everlater

Trip Journal 

My Trips

Have fun on your travels.

Regards,

Rob W

Hey Rob!

I am wondering if there will be a leak of the developer copy of ios5 on the internet somewhere? I am dying to get my hands on it!!

Regards,

Laura

Hi Laura,

Yes you can get a hold of it and install with out a dev account.

Gizmodo - had this Article on how to do it.

And more info here from osXdaily.

However neither show you where to download the files - just what to do once you do find them on the web.

To find the file to download go here.  

All I can say is best of luck - and I can not recommend you installing the app without a dev account.  You never know what will / can happen.  Note: do not update to iOS 5 with the above method if you travel at all and / or need your Phone for work reasons. 

Regards,

Rob W

There are many different ways to extend battery life for your iOS device - this list is some of the key ways you can help get more life from each charge.  If you iOS device is not making it through the day - the following tips should help you get more time out of each charge.

1. Turn down the brightness of the display.  

Settings -->  Brightness 

Then turn off Auto-Brightness - which is really Auto make brighter.  Then adjust the brightness to the lowest setting you feel comfortable with. 

2. Turn off Blue-Tooth.  

Settings --> General --> Bluetooth 

Then turn off Bluetooth.  Going with your wired headphones will save you battery life during the day. Plus getting rid of that bluetooth earpiece will keep you from looking like Lando's PA.  

3. Turn on Autolock

Settings --> General --> Autolock

Then set it for 1 or 2 minutes.  Yes it is might seem like a pain to have to unlock your phone each time you need it - but at least it will still have juice left to use. 

4. Turn off Location Services 

Settings --> Location Services

If you can turn off all location services.  If however like most people you do need location services for apps like the Maps app - then manually select which apps you want to allow to use location services. You will be surprised by how many apps you have that use location services and the more you can turn off the better.

5. Close out all apps running / parked in the background. 

Double Tap the home button. Then hold down on one of the apps that are in the App tray.  Then go to town clicking on all the red X's.  Apps like Skype that are parked in the background can still chew up lots of juice from your battery.

6. Turn off Wifi

Settings --> Wifi 

If you are going to be out and about and don't plan to be using Wifi - turn it off.  Even if you think you will be using it - turn it off now and then back on when you are in range of your trusted Wifi connection. 

7. Turn off Notifications

Settings --> Notifications

Ok - other than the Tii App do you really need Notifications?  Ok maybe for a couple of other apps.  Same as with Location Services - find the Apps you really want to get Notifications for and turn off the rest of them.

8.  Push e-mail 

Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars --> Fetch New Data 

If you have Push e-mail set up for any email accounts you can change it to only check for new emails when you actually have the email program open.  

9. Use the Jailbreak App - Auto3G

This app works by switching to Edge mode and turning off your 3G radio when you lock your phone and then switching back to 3G when you unlock.  Not saying this is something Apple should have built in on their own - but....  Maybe it will be in iOS 5. 

10. Turn off 3G (gasp!!!)

Settings --> General --> Network --> Enable 3G

Turn off 3G - Yikes!!! - Ok - this is a drastic step - But if you don't jailbreak then item 9 above is something you can't do and if you need the phone to be just a phone for most of the day, to occasionally check email and to listen to your favorite podcast.  Then turning off 3G will actually save you quite a bit of juice.  

Granted doing everything above pretty much dumbs down your smartphone and you would in many cases be better off getting a battery case like one from Mophie.  But even doing just a few items above can help extend your battery life more than enough to get through a full day.

If you know of any battery saving tips not included - please include them in the comments below. 

Hi Rob,

What is the name / URL to the web App marketplace for web apps for the iPhone?

Thanks

Bert C

Hi Bert,

You are looking for Open App Mkt at - http://openappmkt.com/

Have fun.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I have an iphone 4 and I still have my 3G, which I gave to my son.

When I connect the 3G to iTunes it updates as what is on my Iphone 4.

How do I set it up to NOT do that?  I want each phone to be separate

and not sync the same data.  Is that possible?

Thanks

Ryan

Hello Ryan,

There are multiple items that get synced.  Apps, Podcasts, Music, Movies, Contacts, Notes. 

What you will want to do is go in to iTunes when you iPhone 3G is connected and then manually go through and select which items you want to sync with iTunes.  You should also deselect at the bottom of the Apps  - where it automatically adds all new apps.  

But the key here is to manually select all items you want sync'd with your son's iPhone 3G.  

However if you are looking to allow both devices to sync notes - but want to have different notes for each - that is not possible.  It will sync the same notes across all devices sync'd to that computer.  Same with voice memos.  

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I think I've found a new feature in iOS4 that I can't find mention of anywhere on the web. When opening a PDF in Safari running iOS4, a black bar appears at the top of the screen with a tab that let's you 'open in iBooks' so that it is saved to the PDF section and is viewed in iBooks. 

This feature is not present on my iPad running 3.2.2. 

It is very handy since I often load PDF files on the go and want to save them. This feature hopefully makes it into 4.2 for the iPad. Using different PDF Apps is annoying and unifying this within a native App makes sense.  

Matthew M

Hi Rob,

I'd like to know if it's possible in any way (Jb or other) to set

default video links in the browser to open in the browser instead of

the videos app?

Hope you or any of your listeners can share a tip about thar,

Regards

Amir.

Hello Amir, 

With jailbreak and installation of frash for the iPad - you can get flash videos to play in the browser.

But for quicktime / M4V / MP4 videos - it is pretty much just the Quicktime player.

Rob W

“As the Supreme Court has made clear, "[t]he authorized sale of an article that substantially embodies a patent exhausts the patent holder's rights and prevents the patent holder from invoking patent law to control postsale use of the article." Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Elecs., Inc., 553 U.S. 617 (2008).”

Bruce Sewell

Senior Vice President & General Counsel

Apple Inc.

And that is how Apple responded to Lodsys. Who is Lodsys (not to be confused with a load of sh#t)? They are a patent troll (and by all accounts when it comes time to check in at Hell – Patent Trolls are said to have a spot near the front of the line – right next to the people that put kittens in burlap sacks and throw them into rivers).  But Lodsys is not just any patent troll they are the type of patent troll that makes other patent trolls squirm. See Lodsys did not go after big companies in their latest salvo of legal letters – they went after the indie developers.

The short of the long of this is that Lodsys claimed their very ambiguous at best patent somehow covered in app purchases and even though Apple had licensed their patent – indie developers that used Apples development kit / tools to allow in app purchases still needed to pay up to Lodsys.  The best analogy of this is a low level mafia punk shaking down a local Wal-mart store for protection money and then after getting the money from Wal-mart – he goes and starts shaking down each supplier for money to be allowed to put products on Wal-mart shelves. While at first it might have made sense for Wal-mart to just pay him a little to go away. Once he started messing with their suppliers Wal-mart would be pissed and bring in their own thugs to put a beat down on the punk. And that is basically what Apple did with their letter to Lodsys. (Note to Wal-mart Lawyers - I am not saying that Wal-mart would actually or has actually hired thugs to beat up anyone – it is just an analogy)

While it appears in this case that Lodsys has been put back in their place and that Apple to all their credit has their developers back, it does raise the question - Is this the first and last issue like this or the first of many issues like this for app developers? Sadly I think for App developers this is just the first of many.  However for App developers Apples latest move cements the build it first for iOS sentiment out there. Not only is it more profitable to develop for iOS it is also now safer to develop for iOS knowing that Apple has your back.

I will end this article with another quote from Bruce Sewell’s (Apples) letter to Lodsys – and it is meant more as a warning for other patent trolls – as in stay away from iOS developers or else.

“Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple's license rights.”

Hi Rob--

my impression is that itunes is set up to allow free downloads of apps you have purchased in the past--

but the rules seem to be different for music.

here is the response i got recently after i was charged twice for a song i clicked on twice within a minute or two:

Dear Jonathan,

Thanks for contacting the iTunes Store. My name is Leah, and I'll be responsible for your inquiry today. I understand that you were billed twice for a song that you purchased. I can certainly appreciate how eager you must be to have this resolved. 

Jonathan, I have reversed the charge for the duplicate purchase, which I understand was unintentional. You will see a credit of $1.08, in three to five business days. The credit should be posted to the credit card that appears on the receipt for that purchase. 

Please note that this is a one-time exception, as the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions state that all sales are final.

In the unlikely event that you receive a download error in the future, please remember that it is not necessary to repurchase items when downloads are interrupted, because the items should still be in your account, waiting to be downloaded. To learn more, follow the steps in this article:

How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1725

Jonathan, the iTunes Store provides a warning message that asks if you are sure that you want to buy an item. This warning can be turned off. If you would like to make sure that this warning is on, you can reset the warnings in the iTunes Store by following the instructions in this article:

Resetting iTunes Store warnings

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1734

Resetting iPod and iPhone warnings

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2527

Jonathan, please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns about this issue. I'll be more than happy to assist you with whatever you need. Thank you for the chance to improve your iTunes experience.

Sincerely,

Leah 

iTunes Store Customer Support 

 ----------------Jonathan

Hi Rob,

It seems like the update went fine until it went into syncing mode after the update. It hung in step 2 or 4 "Preparing to sync". It just freezes itunes and the computer.  I am ready to unplug it and try to reset it.  I am using xp.  Any ideas?

Thanks

Jim K

Hi Jim,

Check to see if you have any other programs running on XP and close them down.

Also make sure you are not running through a USB hub or even into a keyboard or monitor - but rather plugged directly into the computer.  It is really important when doing updates to your iOS device that it is plugged directly into the computer. 

Again also make sure all other Programs are shut down. 

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Some time back you talked about apps to get EXIF data from Photos - what were those apps?

Thanks

Bert

Hi Bert,

We mentioned a few actually and this was per Episode 151.  The apps mentioned were:

Metadata browser

Photos Info

EXIF Wizard

Pro Camera + GeoTagging

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

My wife recently lost her new iPhone 4 and used the MobileMe feature Find My iPhone to locate it. The service worked flawlessly and we recovered her lost phone, from within the couch....

While in the process of sending commands to her new phone she also sent the commands to her old 3GS with a random password. 

After many guessed at what the password might be, the phone now displays the message 'incorrect passcode. Please try again in 1,428,793 minutes'. 

I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore and just want to sell this damn phone already but it's stuck in countdown. 

How do I recover the phone and restore it? iTunes won't recognize the phone and it won't respond to anything but the correct password that is long forgotten. 

Suggestions? 

Matthew M

Hi Matthew,

Have you tried putting it in recovery mode (DFU mode) and restoring it from the computer you sync it with?

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Not sure what DFU mode is or how to get there but if it's connected to it's normal Mac for sync or, any of our other Macs, same result. All it says is that the iPhone is in lockdown and requires a password to continue. 

And it now shows 23,956,179 hours to re-try. This phone hates me. It keeps going up and I'm not even touching it. 

Matthew M

Hi Matthew,

Try this and then doing a restore.

http://tii.libsyn.com/vip/ask-tii-putting-i-os-device-in-dfu-mode

RW

Hi Rob,

Yes!!!! That Worked. 

Many thanks many times over. I really thought this phone was done for good.

Much Love. Don't ever stop!!!

Matthew M

Rob,

When I try to update my iPhone 3G from 3.13 to 4.2, it asks me to back-up and I say yes, and it takes forever, such that I have to cancel the process.

I have synched it with iTunes prior to upgrade attempt.  Is it safe to skip the backup step?  How do I speed this process up?

Russell

Hi Rob,

Hey i need help. I have an iphone 3g and i am using a gophone prepaid sim card. I can text and call but i cant use the internet on it. What can i do to use intetnet on it.

Thanks

Mario

Hi Mario,

A simple pay as you go voice plan - will not cover Data.  You also need a sim card / plan that covers data for you to access the internet.

Sorry.

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Okay I just noticed the icon next to my battery a lock with a circle around it. Is that showing I jail broke my phone? Which I did....

Regards,

Steve R

Hi Steve,

That means you have your screen rotation locked.

To turn it off - on the iPad - you might just need to toggle the switch on the right side next to the volume controls.  Or on any iOS Device - double tap the Home button to bring up the Active Apps Dock and then scroll to the left.  (Slide finger to the right).  The Screen rotation lock toggle is the first icon in the dock. Just tap to undo.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I am Calin from Portland, OR. I have updated my IPhone 4 to IOS 4.2.1 and activated the FindMyIPhone service, which works great. 

However, after the upgrade, the location services seem to be active all the time (the 'GPS arrow' icon is always on), which I am guessing it has to do with the FindMyIPhone feature. 

So, here are my two questions:

A) What does this do to my battery life? I am worried that it will drain it a lot faster. 

B) Is there any way to turn off the location part of FindMyIPhone service, but keep the remote locking and ringing? 

Love your show.

Thanks,

Calin

Hi Calin,

Thanks for listening to the show. 

The Arrow should not be showing up in the upper bar on your iPhone for the find my iPhone feature.  

You should check to see what Apps you have Location services turned on for by going into the Settings App to the General section and then to "Location Services"

There you can see all the apps you have locations turned on for.  I would suggest turning off just the individual apps you really do not need / want location services for.  

But you will need to leave it on overall - as turning it off at the top will give you a message that says - "Turning off location services will no longer enable you to locate your iPhone on a map. with find my iphone"

So you do need it turned on for find my iPhone

But again that alone will not put the arrow in the top bar - some other app is doing that and yes it is draining your battery.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

Thanks a lot for your answer, it was right in the money. The culprit was a different app (The Find aka Shop Nearby). It must have been just a weird coincidence.

Thanks again,

Calin

iOS 4.3.3 is now available to download for iP4 GSM, iP 3GS, iPad2, iPad1, iPT 3rd and 4th gen.  

Apple lists the following for the update:

This update contains changes to the iOS crowd-sourced location databasce cache including:

- Reduces the size of the cache

- No longer backs the cache up to iTunes

- Deletes the cache entirely when location services is turned off

I am downloading it now and will update later with my thoughts. 

Hi Rob,

On an episode of your show in December you mentioned the HP printer that works well with the iPhone/ipad. Would you mind emailing me the model number?

Thanks and keep up the good work. 

Marty G

Hi Marty,

The printer I talked about was the HP Photosmart Premium C310 series. 

It is $149 at Best Buy.  I liked it so much I purchased one for my Mom and another for my Wife.  

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I can't find this in the app store or on my updated 4.2.1 iPhone 4.

How do you get the app?

Thanks,

Sam in Las Vegas

Hi Sam,

AirPrint is not an app - it is built into the iOS.

And you need to have a valid printer that is on your Wifi Network to see the option.

So if you have an HP eprint printer on your network - then when you are in email for example there is a box with an arrow coming out - hit that box and one of the options is "Print"

Hope that helps.

Rob W

Hey rob

last time i had a problem and i exchanged my ipod for a refurb one,

but i lost all my game progress, (i did sync (twice to make sure) with itunes, and i thought it would sync my game progress in games like plants vs zombies)

maybe i didnt have the right settings?

but after i got the new ipod, itunes synced all of the apps, but with none of the game progress or settings,

is there some way to do this, so this doesnt happen in the future, or should i happen to upgrade my device to say ipod touch 6th gen?

many thanks!

Ivan

Hi Ivan,

I found the following info about transferring info for Angry Birds on Mac Daily News. 

How to transfer Angry Birds scores between iOS devices:

1. Download the free iPhone Explorer which also works for iPod touch and iPad and lets you use an iOS device as if it’s a flash drive
2. Plug your source Angry Birds device into your Mac and use iPhone Explorer to navigate to Apps > Angry Birds > Documents
3. Create a folder on your Mac called “Angry Birds Data” or similar and drag and drop the following five files from Apps > Angry Birds > Documents into it:
   - DataStore
   - FetchManager
   - highscores.lua
   - PostManager
   - settings.lua
4. Remove your source iOS device and plug in the iOS device to which you want to transfer your Angry Birds scores
5. Drag and drop all five files above from your Mac to the new iOS device (with Angry Birds already installed on it) in Apps > Angry Birds > Documents

That’s it! Now you have a backup of your current Angry Birds scoring information so, if anything ever goes wrong, you won’t lose all of your hard “work,” plus when you run Angry Birds on your new device, your game will be up to date with your progress.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for or if this will work for other apps.  But it seems like it would.

Regards,

Rob W

Hi Rob,
 

I have downloaded it, but have nit installed because I had read people were having VPN issues  and I use VPN for work. Can I safely assume you're aware of that too? The only reason I updated was to get the "hot spot" option that I'll never use, but wanted to have. 
 

Thanks 
 
Joe

I hope that helps. 

Regards,

Rob W

One of the biggest news stories around the iPhone in a long time is the recent for lack of a better term – Location Gate fiasco.  As with most stories like this fear and link bait ruled (rule) the day.  You also had in this case US Senators smelling blood in the water and inserting themselves into the story and in some cases actually contributing to the mis-information out there.  Take Senator Al Franken with this quote when talking about the data file that has location information in it. 

“Anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of a user's home, the business he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attends”

Problem is if he or his staffers had looked at the file in question they would have realized that actually was not possible and definitely not an accurate statement. If a bad guy gets your data they will not - repeat NOT - be able to figure out where you live.  Not your exact address.  Maybe the part of town - but definitely not your specific house (unless your house is the only one for miles).  However if they get your phone and they go to your mail app and see who an email was sent to and then go to contacts and find that person - then they can figure out your address.  Same thing if they get a hold of your laptop.  Lets face facts there are much easier and faster ways for a bad guy to figure out your home address then going through location data in a .db file on your laptop - which by the way as I said still will not give your exact address. Same is true for figuring out where you work or where your kids go to school.  

If the Senators people and others making claims like this had taken the time to look at the data in question they would have seen something like the following image:

What you see is a grid pattern. The above image is a screen shot of data collected on my phone / computer. From this image there is no way to tell exactly where my house is – which is in the map above – but around a million other people live in that map area as well. Can you say needle in a Haystack.

It did not help that in Apples own Press Release  Apple did not state that the data was rounded off.  What Apple actually said was:

“The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location”   

That has lead people to post that Apple is keeping the precise location of wifi hotspots and one likely is in your house.  No – they don’t – Apple is actually rounding off to the grid pattern seen in the image – and not the precise location of Cell towers and wifi hotspots. See the next image for proof of that.

I am 100% certain that there is not a Cell tower or Wifi hotspot in the middle of the Runway of Islip Airport.  And the chances that the rest of the Cell towers and Wifi hotspots are that perfectly spaced is Zero.  

The data will however show what cities and general areas you visit at a given time.  So if you are telling your significant other you are going to meet up with a buddy and go to the ball game and that is on the north side of town and your data shows you were on the south side of town (you know down near where the strip clubs are located) – they are going to know something was up (But they probably would have figured that out by the glitter on your shirt and the smell of cheap purfume or the ATM receipt from Spanky’s).  Same if you tell your boss you need off for a day to visit your sick mom in Dayton, Ohio but your location data shows you were in Las Vegas or worse the town or city of your biggest competitor. 

So yes this information on your computer and phone is not good. But it is not as bad as a certain Senator and many bloggers made it out to be.  And is actually not as bad as even Apple seems to have made it out to be.  To Apples credit per their Press Release they did acknowledge this data should not have been gathered and kept for as long as it was and it should not have been so easy to access.  They also stated they will be updating their software to fix this issue.  It will still gather location data (rounded off) of nearby cell towers and wifi hotspots. They just will not keep the data on your device as long and they will eventually encrypt that data.  

I don’t want to make this sound like a non-issue – privacy is a big issue.  But if you plan on going somewhere you don’t want someone or anyone to know of – try this – leave your iPhone or Android phone or any cell phone at home.  

Hi Rob,

I was wondering if there is some way that I can copy my DVDs to my iPhone 4?  My iPhone is not jailbroken.

Thank you!

LaRonda

Hi LaRonda,

You can rip them using something like Handbrake and then add them to iTunes and sync.  
 

There are lots of free apps mac or pc - that will allow you to rip a DVD into a format that will work on the iPad.
 

Rob W

Hi Rob,

I have a jailbroken 3G running 3.1.3 with a baseband of 5.12. If I try 4.2.1 and don't like it can I restore to the 3.1.3 file I downloaded for safekeeping and be back at the 5.12 baseband?

I'm not currently unlocked but when I upgrade to the iPhone 4 or 5 I may want that option for the 3G.

Obligatory but sincere Kiss-up Mode:<ON>

I enjoy the show and have the app with the push updates. (Those late-night notifications are killin' me when I've left the phone on my nightstand - ha.)

Obligatory but sincere Kiss-up Mode:<OFF>

Thanks in advance for your response.

-- 

Brent from Chicagoland

Hi Brent,

My recommendation to you is to stay where you are at 3.1.3

Getting the baseband downgraded on the 3G - is depending on who you read - very difficult or next to impossible.

That said - what you gain by going to iOS 4.x for the 3G is almost nothing - compared to what you can do with the jailbroken 3G.

And 3.1.3 is faster and snappier for the 3G then iOS 4.2.1

So my recommendation is to stay put - especially if you want the future option of unlocking and using it on another carrier (t-mobile). 

Rob W

Hi Rob:

I have been listenening to the show for a while now (months or so) and I love it. you are always my source for all things iOS. That is why I am turning to you. I recently upgraded and jaibroke my 3Gs to 4.3.1. It has been horribly slow. there is a delay of sometimes as much as 5 seconds just when using the keyboard for inputing characters. i sometimes need to hit a key or an on screen button a number of times for press to register. Just wanted to if you knew anything about this, causes, solutions, etc. It may have something to do with the jailbreak as it was not as slow and sluggish before then. thanks for any help you can offer.

Tony

Hey Rob,

 

I was wondering how you back up and restore text messages for an iphone.

 

Thanks,

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

By default when you sync and backup your iPhone to iTunes on your computer Apple is backing up your text messages.  And normally all that is needed to restore your text messages is a restore to previous backup.  That is "normally" all that is needed.  That said there are times when that does not work or a backup gets corrupted.  In those cases there are a couple of different free programs out there to help you.   For Mac there is Eric Sudans program - MDHelper.  And on Windows there is the program - Reincubate.

MDHelper - Download

Reincubate - Link

Per MDHelper - here are some instructions I found on it.

What you need is one of the folders with tons of numbers as the name, it's inside
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Place mdhelper in it and run e.g. ./mdhelper -C .jpg
The tool will then extract all Jpegs and place it on the Desktop in a folder called "Recovered iPhone Files".
You cant run the tool just on the .mdbackup files cause they are semi-encrypted. The information how to extract and de-crypt is sitting inside the file Manifest.plist thats in the folder aswell. For navigating the presence of Info.plist is necessary aswell.

 

again this is a great tool from Erica! I just ran that on my backups, extracted all pics in about a minute.
 

One more: If you use ./mdhelper -C .sqlitedb you will get back all your Addressbook and Calendar data, .plist for bookmarks and map bookmarks, .db for sms and notes

If you still have issues with this - there is another program for the Mac you can find here

Per Windows Vista I also found these instructions:

Under Windows Vista, all backup files are stored at 

c:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\ MobileSync\Backup\<long-name>

Where the long name is the key id of the backup iPhone.

Inside each directory there are a series of files. Each file with extension MDBACKUP is in fact a binary plist. To recover you need:

a) Locate the file that you need. You need to open each file and look at the first line and you will clearly identifiy the file name.

b) Rename the .mdbackup file to .plist.

c) Convert to a XML format plist (you can use http://140.124.181.188/~khchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi)

d) Confirm the file name under the "Path" key

d) Extract the part that is the file content (the "Data" key)

e) Place the content on the "Data" in another file and convert from Base64 to a binary file - There are several different ways to do it - I will leave this one for you to Google.

Voila! Your file is back. I've used this a few times to recover files from iPhones that were "accidentally" upgraded and locked and it works. You will be amazed by the number of files that iTunes back up.

If I could find the source for a binary-plist to xml-plist converter, I can write a backup list-and-restore program (grab the names, convert from the binary, extract the base64 and convert to the original file).

Hi Rob,

I was helping out a friend with her ipad recently (I seem to be
apple support over here ...!)
 

Safari had completely disappeared ... after scratching my head for a
few days thanks to another apple devotee she said to check
restrictions and make sure safari is switched on...
 

now I writing this email to you - its seems so obvious - but I spose
as I dont have kids it wasnt something I thought of.. just wanted to
mention it in case I can save anyone else the head ache (if you think
its worthwhile).. 

Regards
Tash