iPhoto unable to import an Aperture JPEG from 16 bit image with grayscale profile

I've just run into a very irritating bug with Aperture 2 and iPhoto 8.1.2.

I scanned a B&W image in as a 16 bit grayscale TIFF. I can edit it in Aperture and I can import the ORIGINAL tiff into iPhoto. I can edit the original in iPhoto.

The problem comes when I export a version as a JPG from Aperture. iPhoto can't import it, though it renders without a problem in Preview!

Grrr.

The only way I was able to get a JPG version [1] of this image into iPhoto was

1. Edit in Aperture. Export TIFF as 8 bit image.
2. Import 8 bit TIFF back into Aperture. Export JPEG.
3. Import JPEG into iPhoto

So iPhoto can handle an 8 or 16 bit grayscale TIFF, but it can't handle the JPGs that Aperture 2 creates from a 16 bit TIFF.

I wonder if this is related to an old iPhoto 6 grayscale bug (iPhoto 8 grayscale inverted, iPhoto 5 version of this bug)...

Update: This is indeed a version of the 5 year old bug referenced above. Instead of fixing the bug, Apple's iPhoto engineer simply blocked import of these images with a cryptic error message. Got the problem solved in record time. He had to use a cryptic error message, or customers would have figured out what was going on.

This is from the Silverfast forum ...

... had this problem and "solved" it. iPhoto is designed to work with RGB images. You can import B&W images into iPhoto, but they need a supported color profile to be able to be read. Most scanners will default the scan of a B&W photo to a Black & White Color profile, rather than RGB. 

If you are using a real silver halide film designate the file as Color of some type before you make your scan. Then you will have no problems. Go to Apple.com > Support > Discussions > iPhoto '09 > Installing and using iPhoto '09 Topic: Interesting iPhoto "unrecognized file" issue. Before I learned of this solution, there was unimaginable frustration.

In Aperture I set the color profile to Adobe RGB on export and iPhoto accepted the JPG.

$%$#!%$%$#%@#$%@ lazy Apple.

It's Alive! Blogger lives!

First Blogger silently fixed a 12 month old 5000 post bug.

Now they've introduced their first significant feature change in years.

Blogger has graduated from "Walking Dead" to at least "Sick". It lives.

Now if Google does a mobile version, and gets their greatest geniuses to fix new-editor paragraph spacing (including in the #$!$# blockquotes) and style vs. inline formatting bugs, I'll move it to "Quick".

In honor of Blogger's resurrection with the new comment filtering, I've disabled moderation and captchas on this blog. We'll see how it works!

The kid's iPhone - configuration and AT&T

I thought it would be simple to give my kid my old 3G. I knew it was AT&T locked, but the phone was out of contract.

Turns out the contract rules are much trickier than I'd thought. They are so tricky even AT&T reps violently disagree about the rules. As near as I can tell it didn't matter that I'd paid off the subsidy for my iPhone. I was getting a new iPhone 4 and a new contract, and that ended AT&T's interest in my particular phone.

What seems to be more important was that he didn't have a contract; he'd never had a subsidized phone. So putting his GSM card in my iPhone didn't trigger a mandatory data plan. So far. Grrr!

Thanks to AT&T managed account policies he can't use any data services. When he's in a WiFi setting he gets net access, outside the home he has texting and standalone apps. For very good reasons we've locked out Safari, YouTube and App Installs. He can't purchase music.

His synchronization setup is described in a separate post. We don't use MobileMe (so broken), his Calendar, Contacts and Mail connect via ActiveSync to our Google Apps family domain. I sync selected apps, music and television/movies from our family account. All of the apps, even the games, serve an educational purpose. So he can watch hours of TV, but it's all Blue Ocean documentary. There are good reasons for this.

He loves his iPhone. He's very careful with it, as he was with his prior phone. Obviously things will be trickier when school starts. It's not substantially more costly than many other phones, but it may have more theft appeal.

As a computer, his iPhone has one large advantage over his desktop accounts. On the desktop Apple and Google together have totally broken OS X Parental Controls (MobileMe is the worst). On the iPhone, once you remove Safari and YouTube, you have Wikipanion and and Wolfram Alpha and Google Earth and Public Radio.app and New York Times.app. It's an approach with a future.

See also:

• Gordon's Tech: The multi-iPhone family - two approaches
• Gordon's Tech: Gordon’s idiosyncratic revenue-free iPhone 4 and iOS 4 review
• Gordon's Notes: Does anyone know what AT&T's smartphone data plan rules really are?

Update 8/5/10: Turns out the iPhone parental controls are as feeble as their OS X equivalents.

iOS 4 still has iOS 2 text truncation bug

This is an ancient bug, but it's not fixed in iOS 4.

Gordon's Notes: iPhone 2.2: Great phone. Great toy. Not for business (2008)

... Business people always stick travel itineraries into calendar item notes. I stick text versions of CVs into Contacts. The iPhone truncates the text display of my itinerary (what hotel?) and my contact note. It doesn't actually truncate the data, only the display....

I just tested on my iPhone 4. If anything it's worse. The calendar notes view shows only a part of the text. In edit view you see more when you scroll down, but it's truncated now.

Sad.

FileMaker Go for the iPhone

I'd given up on it, but FileMaker has now released a $20 FM Pro companion for the iPhone (and iPad!) -- FileMaker Go. It requires iOS 4. The available documentation is in a technical brief.

It does NOT support synchronization. You copy FM 7 (7!) or later files to the iPhone. It can be a client to a FM server database. From the tech brief it looks like it could be an application development environment (scripting).

It does NOT support encryption. Your data is only as protected as the phone itself; you can't assign a secure password to your password database, for example.

If it had encryption, I'd buy it.

Pairing an iPhone 4 with an Apple bluetooth keyboard

For the past two years I've been looking forward to using an external keyboard with my iPhone, much as we used to use an external kb with our Palm devices. I now have an iPhone 4, so I tried pairing it with my 27" iMac keyboard (already paired with the iMac).

I followed this user guide procedure, but it didn't work at first:

1. In Settings, choose General > Bluetooth.

2. If Bluetooth isn’t already turned on, tap the Bluetooth switch.

3. Press the power button on the Apple Wireless Keyboard to turn it on.

4. On iPhone, tap the entry for the keyboard under Devices.

Once the keyboard is paired with iPhone, it connects whenever the keyboard is within range (up to 30 feet). You can tell the keyboard is connected if the onscreen keyboard doesn’t appear when you tap in a text field.

The iPhone Bluetooth settings simply showed the spinning "wheel" next to "Devices" and the phrase "Now discoverable". I think the problem was that the keyboard was already paired to my iMac. My Bluetooth peripheral experience is limited, but this seems a sensible if inevitably confusing behavior.

It took a while to get things to work. At one point the iPhone said it found a "Wireless Keyboard" but not an "Apple Wireless Keyboard". I did the following (not all necessary I'm sure):

1. Went very far away from my iMac and down a flight of stairs. In my house Bluetooth really reaches.
2. Removed batteries from kb and reinserted.
3. Followed above procedures but pressed and held the power button until it went off.
4. Pressed the power button on the kb until it started blinking.

Then the iPhone found the keyboard. I tapped the entry and was asked to enter a code on the keyboard.

They then paired.

Once the two are paired the iPhone's keyboard no longer appears when the kb is in range. I turned off Bluetooth to get it back.

To repair the kb to my iMac I again held the power button until it powered down. Then I held it until it restarted and began blinking. It then reconnected.

This was trickier than I'd expected, but now I know it works. I'll be looking for an iPhone specific bluetooth keyboard that includes a cradle to hold the iphone, an iPhone-touch-screen compatible stylus to facilitate interaction with a mounted device, a form fact that is more compact than Apple's kb, and an optional charger.

Update: A bit more on unpairing from Apple's excellent iPhone iOS4 user guide (it's on my Reader.app bookshelf in my iPhone and it's a default shortcut in Safari on new installs):

Once the keyboard is paired with iPhone, it connects whenever the keyboard is within range (up to 30 feet). You can tell the keyboard is connected if the onscreen keyboard doesn’t appear when you tap in a text field.

Switch the language when using a hardware keyboard: Press and hold the Command key, then tap the space bar to display a list of available languages. Tap the space bar again to choose a different language.

Disconnect a wireless keyboard from iPhone: Press and hold the power button on the keyboard until the green light goes off.

iPhone disconnects the keyboard when it’s out of range.

Unpair a wireless keyboard from iPhone: In Settings, choose General > Bluetooth and tap the entry for the keyboard under Devices, then tap “Forget this Device.”

iOS 3 bug with recurring Exchange meetings changed in iOS 4.

Apple just can't manage to get this one right. I tested an old iOS Exchange Server calendaring bug with Outlook 2007 and Exchange 2007.

In iOS 3 if you declined an instance of a recurring meeting you removed all the meetings from your calendar.

In iOS 4 if you decline an instance of a recurring meeting you remove it from your iPhone calendar (good) but not from your Outlook calendar (very bad).

Fail.

Deep sigh. Apple does not deserve its reputation for "quality". Design yes, quality no.

I'll retest with iOS 4.1 when it's out.