Apple Insider has a series of in depth iPhone reviews running. For example: Inside iPhone 2.0: the new iPhone 3G Software [Page 3].
It's excellent not only as a critique of what's missing, but also as a guide to users. For example, the double tap page up/down feature on Safari, holding the period in Mail.app to see domain suffixes, geotag display in 10.5 preview, etc.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Spanning Sync tells us what's wrong with Google's free CalDAV sync
Google's free CalDAV sync with iCal would seem to be a severe challenge to non-ad-supported commercial products like Spanning Sync and BusySync.
In reality I know from past experience that Google is perfectly capable of screwing up synchronization time and again, and that they don't admit their problems.
So it's good to see Spanning Sync fighting back with a point-by-point attack on Google's sync solution. For example:
I think what most of us want is synchronization between the iPhone calendar app and Google Calendar; we could leave iCal out of the picture. Unfortunately it's not clear if Apple will allow such an app to be deployed.
Please Google Android, Palm Centro and Microsoft ... be successful. We iPhone users need your competition. In the meantime, I'm thinking of trying BusySync and Spanning Sync again.
In reality I know from past experience that Google is perfectly capable of screwing up synchronization time and again, and that they don't admit their problems.
So it's good to see Spanning Sync fighting back with a point-by-point attack on Google's sync solution. For example:
Spanning Sync Blog: Google's "Appreciated Gesture" Drives Record Sales of Spanning Sync:Ok, that's a wee bit of a limitation! I didn't read that anywhere else, but I believe it. I'm not willing to experiment with CalDAV sync, I really don't trust Google's ability to do this stuff.
... Calendars synchronized using CalDAV become read-only on iPhone. One of our biggest customers is in the process of rolling out 700 iPhones and 200 iPod touches. This lack of iPhone compatibility makes Google's CalDAV solution a non-starter for them, and for anyone else looking for bidirectional sync between iPhone and Google Calendar."
I think what most of us want is synchronization between the iPhone calendar app and Google Calendar; we could leave iCal out of the picture. Unfortunately it's not clear if Apple will allow such an app to be deployed.
Please Google Android, Palm Centro and Microsoft ... be successful. We iPhone users need your competition. In the meantime, I'm thinking of trying BusySync and Spanning Sync again.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Mac OS X 10.4: Installing classic from a 10..2 software restore disk
Say you have a PPC machine with 10.4 and you need to reinstall Classic from 10.2 or 10.3.
To do this you'll need to follow the directions in the above link, but it turns out they no longer work for 10.2 disks.
If you have 10.2 disks, there's an updated version of the Software Restore application that you need to download from Apple:
To do this you'll need to follow the directions in the above link, but it turns out they no longer work for 10.2 disks.
If you have 10.2 disks, there's an updated version of the Software Restore application that you need to download from Apple:
Mac OS X 10.4: Restoring applications from a Mac OS X 10.2 Software Restore disc
...If you have Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger already installed and you want to restore your Mac OS X 10.2.x computer-specific software, you can use the version of Software Restore available below...
Sunday, August 03, 2008
FMTouch: FileMaker on the iPhone
If it suppored encryption, this would help a great deal with my Palm to iPhone migration. It's "pending approval" at the Apple store:
I'm disappointed Apple hasn't resuscitated the defunct FM Mobile for their own platform.
FMTouchThey don't have encryption as a feature, so I've send in a request.
... FMTouch is a powerful application that enables you to use FileMaker Pro on your Apple iPhone or iTouch.
FMTouch allows you to take advantage of the relational data structure that makes FileMaker so powerful.
Simply select the database you would like to sync to the iPhone, use our sync technology, and within seconds you can have your FileMaker database working on your iPhone or iTouch.
FMWebschool to release limited Advanced version of FMTouch July 28, 2008.
FMWebschool will release 50 copies of FMTouch Developer editions to FBA and TechTalk members.
I'm disappointed Apple hasn't resuscitated the defunct FM Mobile for their own platform.
Synthesis iPhone SyncML Client: Sync iPhone Cal with gCal?
The Synthesis SyncML client for iPhone is available on the App store.
So this doesn't help with my real interest -- direct sync from the iPhone calendar app to Google Calendar.
More interestingly, the Synthesis team tells us that the Apple SDK limits what SyncML can do:
Synthesis AG - SyncML Client for iPhone and iPod TouchUnfortunately gCal is not on the list, Goolge just added CalDAV support, but not SyncML (see Palm, 2005 and Wikipedia CalDAV -- I wonder if the SyncML spec has too many issues).
Synthesis SyncML Client for iPhone/iPod Touch OS brings SyncML standard based data synchronisation to iPhone OS X based devices.
This allows mobile over-the-air (OTA) data synchronisation with any compliant SyncML server (such as Oracle Collaboration Suite, goosync.com, consolidate.at, Open-Xchange, MDaemon, eGroupware, ZYB, mobical, DeskNow, ScheduleWorld, neopim.com and many more)...
So this doesn't help with my real interest -- direct sync from the iPhone calendar app to Google Calendar.
More interestingly, the Synthesis team tells us that the Apple SDK limits what SyncML can do:
... At this time, Synthesis SyncML Client for iPhone is offered as a free preview in the App Store synchronizing the Addressbook. Current restrictions in Apple's SDK for the iPhone OS do not allow accessing calendar, notes or emails...As is usual with iPhone SDK limitations, we don't know if this will be remedied with time or whether Apple prefers to keep the competition at bay.
The iPhone user guide back button bug
This is a weird one.
The only iPhone documentation that's readable on an iPhone is the web based iPhone User Guide.
Except it didn't seem to work on my iPhone.
I could click down to any page, but when I tapped the back button I'd get a blank screen. If I force a refresh I'm back at the top menu, rather than the last page I visited.
On the desktop it doesn't render at all in Firefox.
Using Safari on the desktop (much faster!) I was able to figure it out. You have to navigate by the breadcrumb display at page top, the browser back buttons don't work.
I wonder how many people have run into this.
Apple should fix the web page. Breaking browser back buttons is rude.
The only iPhone documentation that's readable on an iPhone is the web based iPhone User Guide.
Except it didn't seem to work on my iPhone.
I could click down to any page, but when I tapped the back button I'd get a blank screen. If I force a refresh I'm back at the top menu, rather than the last page I visited.
On the desktop it doesn't render at all in Firefox.
Using Safari on the desktop (much faster!) I was able to figure it out. You have to navigate by the breadcrumb display at page top, the browser back buttons don't work.
I wonder how many people have run into this.
Apple should fix the web page. Breaking browser back buttons is rude.
iPhone task manager review
In the old days we had task managers. Now we have "Getting Things Done" managers (grouped tasks with context attributes).
Grmph.
Roses by other names basically.
ATPM has a review of what's available for the iPhone. It includes at least one that's new to me. Great resource.
Grmph.
Roses by other names basically.
ATPM has a review of what's available for the iPhone. It includes at least one that's new to me. Great resource.
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