How to uninstall an OS X preference pane - as an admin user

Dang. I've always removed Preference Panes by hunting them down in the file system.

Turns out there's an official way (with one catch) that works in 10.4 and 10.5:

Mac 101: Remove unwanted System Preference panes - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) To uninstall System Preference panes, just right-click (or control click if you have a one button mouse) on the preference pane icon and select 'remove x preference pane.'

The catch is, you need to be logged in as an administrative user! If you're a non-admin user you don't see anything; there's not even a "gray menu" (tested in 10.4). That's why I never noticed it -- I don't run as an admin user. I'm used to OS X asking for a privilege escalation for admin tasks.

So this is not well implemented in 10.4. It should be a menu item for non-admin users, and ask for a un/pw when it's selected. I wonder if Apple fixed that in 10.5?

Physics hurts: the iPhone battery life and how to work around it

Physics is a pain sometimes. Jobs told us 3G was going to suck way more power than EDGE, but some were skeptical (I recall I was inclined to believe him).

AppleInsider | Apple's iPhone 3G battery good for about 3.5 hours of browsing

...While Anandtech's chart shows the Apple handset to last about 30 minutes more than Samsung's 3G Blackjack, the unsettling comparison exists between the iPhone 3G running on AT&T's 3G network and the original iPhone running on AT&T's EDGE network. In the site's tests, the original iPhone lasted 2 hours and 26 minutes longer while browsing over EDGE than the new iPhone did browsing over 3G...

I've found that the battery life on my low end 3G Nokia phone is similarly quite poor, even though that phone has no data services at all. 3G is bad on batteries even when the traffic is voice only; of course 802.11 is far worse.

We know the iPhone will function on EDGE networks if 3G is not available, I wonder if Apple and AT&T will provide an option to use EDGE when power is at a premium. (See comments -- in fact this is available now. So why do only my readers know to mention this?)

Meanwhile, a solid Tidbits review recommends the APC UPB10 Mobile Power Pack USB Battery Extender. These are $63 on Amazon; however there are newish airline regulations about carrying external LiOn batteries. The terminals must be covered and it has to go through security in a bin.

These regs are enough of a pain to make the $10 APC external USB AA battery charger very appealing; I would want to test in a store that it really charged an iPhone however.

At work it's easy to charge a phone from a USB source, on the road it's easy to carry a USB car charger. One does have to learn to treat a power supply the way long distance cyclists treat a shower -- get it while you can.

Update: disabling push email helps too,  Ars has a in-depth review of accessory battery packs.

Update 7/23/08: More tips, including holding down home key to shut off background tasks.

How to wrap earbuds so they don't tangle

Life Hacks explains how to keep headphone wires from getting tangled (2/2006)

The attached image is missing, but the technique is simple. I just tried it and I like the results. The comments reference various organizing techniques for larger cables and ropes.

iPhone 2.0 development: it must have been a death march

iPhone 1.0 development must have been insane, but I'm guessing iPhone 2.0 development was a classic death march.

We can gather that from the things that were left out:

• cut, copy, paste: Apple has now admitted they wanted to put this in, so the omission must have been a desperate decision
• tasks: If they couldn't add tasks, then they were beyond cutting features and deep into slashing organs (emphasis mine):
  

More hints from early users:

Entirely Random Notes On iPhone 2.0 - Inside iPhone Blog

... There appear to be crashing bugs with both many third party applications themselves, as well as the OS itself. Prior to updating to 2.0, I can't recall the last time my iPhone reset. I've seen it a half dozen times already so far, however.

Searching in Contacts is nice. However, I find I still generally just scroll for the contact, and the search doesn't look inside each contact, just at the name...

Search only looks at contact names.

It must have been really, really, ugly in Cupertino over the past few months.

I'm definitely feeling sympathy for the iPhone development team. They must be toast. It's going to take more than a few months to get things patched up. Corporate customers are going to want to hold off on significant deployments until next year.

Update: More death march evidence

• camera probelms, accelerometer failure, bug fix update already pending
  

iPhone availability widget

Minnesota is among the 21 states with no current iPhone availability.

What a nuisance.

Apple has a widget that works only after 9pm (local time?) to check local Apple Store stocks:

Apple Retail Store - iPhone availability at the Apple Store

Check availability after 9:00 p.m. the night before you plan to visit an Apple Retail Store.

Get there early. Shipments arrive most days, but be sure to arrive early since iPhone 3G is sold on a first come, first served basis.

I'd prefer to buy at an AT&T store due to the tactical complexity of AT&T's deliberately evil contracts, but I suspect Apple stores are getting more shipments. AT&T is not offering a similar availability widget, they suggest payment up front and they'll hold a phone when it arrives. Fortune reports they have no phones anywhere, and no word on when they'll receive any.

I'd pay to reserve at an AT&T except I know AT&T is so Satanic that Hell itself could not abide them. (Apple, on the other hand, is merely a close confidante of Beelzebub. AT&T store staff, in my experience, are quite good btw.)

Update 7/15/08 9pm: no iPhones available in Minnesota. Ok, 1 8GB white.
Update 7/16/0810pm: none at all

Epocrates Rx is out for the iPhone (and iTouch)

Epocrates Rx is available for the iPhone.

Not the web version -- the true iPhone client.

Free medical PDA software: Epocrates Rx for iPhone / iPod touch:

• Apple iPhone/iPod touch with OS 2.0
• Minimum available memory 8 MB
• 20K per free health plan formulary selected

This is only for healthcare professionals -- Epocrates makes its money based on prescriber licensees.

It's a big deal for physicians, my wife couldn't switch from her Palm to her Blackberry Pearl until Epocrates was available for the Pearl. My friend Andrew keeps his Palm for the same reason.

The iPhone is going to be really big in healthcare; this is one important landmark. As soon as the line dies down and I can get my phone, I'll give it a try. It's distributed by the Apple Store (free), but you need an Epocrates account to use it.

Find unchecked songs in iTunes -- still need this workaround

Three years after this clever hint was written, there's still no other way to find all unchecked items in iTunes. You can't directly sort or filter on checked status.

This becomes important when your Library outgrows your iPod. Movies can do that to any iPod. (Note that the tip works up to 99,999 items and you need to first define all checked to find all unchecked.)

macosxhints.com - Use a Smart Playlist to see unchecked songs in iTunes

Part 1: Create a playlist with all checked songs in your library:

1. Create a new Smart Playlist in iTunes.
2. Uncheck "Match the following condition" in the new playlist dialog. This will cause all songs to be in the playlist.
3. Check the box by "Limit to" and fill it out with a very large number -- one that is much larger than the number of songs in your library (say, 300,000). Again, this will cause the playlist to include ALL songs.
4. Check "Match only Checked Songs" and leave "Live Updating" checked. This will only match songs that are checked.
5. Click OK and name the Playlist "Songs (Checked)".

This playlist now includes all the checked songs in your library.

Part 2: Create a playlist with all the unchecked songs in your library:

1. Create a new Smart Playlist in iTunes.
2. This time, leave "Match the following condition" checked.
3. As the condition, select "Playlist is not 'Songs (Checked)'"
4. Click OK and name the Playlist "Songs (Unchecked)".

Apple, please make the checkbox state a full fledged column/attribute.

PS. This tip surprisingly hard to find in Google. I first went through several forum posts that had no answers. Maybe this post will help. Comments also include an AppleScript alternative and some interesting workarounds to iPod management.