Tag Archives: iphone

Keep Failing, AT&T

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One of the few really “magical” things about the iPad for me was the amazing pricing of the unlimited 3G connectivity. There were tests providing that it really was unlimited.

But then today happened. And some more stuff happened.

From Dustin Curtis:

“Unlimited data” isn’t about data, or price, or value. It’s about not having to worry — or to even think about — how much you use your phone. If I’m on a 2GB plan, even though I use less than 2GB per month on average, I’ll start thinking about rationing my usage every single time I use my phone. That fundamentally changes the experience of having the internet in my pocket.

200MB for $15/month. Fine. But go over? $15 per 200 MB. Why not just push me into the 2GB plan and prorate it? Go with 2GB for $25/month, and if you go over, it’s only $10 per GB.

This is the same reason why micropayments will not work. I shouldn’t have to worry about if checking my email is going to push me over the limit.

Tethering? Why the frick does this cost anything if this plan goes into affect? Maybe if unlimited was still in the picture it makes some sense…

It’s not just AT&T that sucks, though. I have a problem with cell phone companies in general. But that is another post for another day.

Quite glad I got off the iPhone bandwagon a while ago. And I am also iPad-free. I’m almost certain nothing Apple does will make me want to get the iPhone “4G”.

If they do something with the iPod Touch? I’ll be in touch. More on this, also, at another time.

When Did They Make iTunes Connect Suck So Much Less?

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While traipsing around the iPhone dev site… I realized that the iTunes Connect has improved tremendously. Does this mean that I’ll be heading back into iPhone development? Not so fast.

But I would definitely love to make a game on the iPhone, put all those lovely game design principles I’ve been gleaning from all these unposted blog posts…

If I did any sort of iPhone development, it’ll probably be a game. I wouldn’t know where to begin developing one…

Hacking The iPhone Through SMS

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The iPhone bug has to do with telling the phone there is a certain amount of data, and then not sending it as much as you said you would. The function that reads the data starts returning -1 to indicate an error, but the other parts of the program don’t check for this error and actually think the -1 is data from the message.

via Exclusive Interview: Hacking The iPhone Through SMS : Introduction – Review Tom’s Hardware.

Always interesting to see the anatomy of a hack.

I Gotta Get More Fired Up!

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This weekend has been spent largely on learning more and more about the joys of iPhone development: Going through this book, hacking away at this Cocoa Twitter engine, and trying out Tweetie (iTMS)/TwitterFon (iTMS) in a more developer mindset.

Being the list-maker that I am, I was a little happy that I finally got the ball rolling this past Wednesday. I was happy with knowing that I was able to act on these deep desires to create.

Around the height of my productivity, at 2 AM, I got angry.

Awesome things happen around and after 2 AM, contrary to “popular belief”.

I was angry at myself for not being able to do this earlier, faster, better… I realized that I maybe it’s because of some ridiculous standards that I set for myself, but it was more than that.

This cool, controlled frustration was exactly what I needed. I ended up taking most of it out on the “Whiteboard of World Domination”, attempting yet again to plan out the new new projects I will begin in the next couple of weeks.

I feel great to be in the high part of my waxing and waning productive cycle. Definitely took a new programming language, framework, and platform to get me started. Let’s see how far I can take it until I become lazy again.

Need More Focus: iPhone Development

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In the beginning, this post was just titled “Need More Focus”. I was going to talk about how I’ve been working towards making HanMeta a self-sustaining entity.

But then, I watching the iPhone OS 3.0 preview presentation after coming home. Then, I had to make some very quick decision about how I’m going to reach that goal.

How Far I Have Come: A Review

2009 started with a bout of laziness. Definitely a lot of resting, clutching onto the 360, all the while, trying to figure out what I wanted to with the blog. The month of January was spent on learning more and more about dealing with the Linux server as I moved my blog to slicehost and hoped to launch a Rails app on the same slice.

Oh, the joys of being the linux admin. Definitely learned to fear (the respect kind… and… the other kind, too… who are these great demigods placed on the Earth anyway?) the server admins that power the Pipes.

I visited Seattle later that month, and came back refreshed, ready to bite into something hard. I chose the guitar. Yes, the real kind, although, I did end up returning to the awesomeness that is Rock Band. I learned about how to learn again. (I’ve been writing up this in another post.)

February: a week or two was spent on learning Cocoa and iPhone development. It was a nice break from trying to futz around with linux server administration. DevPhone 2009 was extremely important in helping me get started. Also, there was a nice (much shorter) presentation on iPhone Development for Education at NCSA. And of course, I can’t leave out Hillegass’s amazing book on Cocoa Programming.

After that, my desire to finish a web application started to flare up again. I started hacking away with some libraries that I would need to make FeedSt a reality. Instead of doing a feed reader, I decided to finish up an easier non-paid project called GadgetGet. This was around the beginning of March.

Of course, on top of this, earlier this month, I started a tiny little podcast called JKast. All the while, there were blog posts waiting to be written.

The Multiple JKs

I sat down yesterday, trying to figure out how to divide up my focus. Instead, I avoided making any decision and continued to read Atlas Shrugged, a book that I’ve been meaning to read ever since I found out that there was a yearly scholarship for it back in college. It being in the news, I just had to get it for the Kindle to test some fiction reading on it.

Today, it hit me. I need to start focusing. Now.

Why Not Earlier?

The reasoning behind trying to do both Web and Desktop development was simple: To be awesome twice. Of course, what I forgot was that cloning hasn’t been perfected yet. And even then, why would the world need a second me? Ridiculous.

Is it the newness of the iPhone SDK? Is it the third 2 L of Dew I just cracked open in four days? Maybe, but I find myself wanting to do more iPhone development, over all the Rails hacking I’ve been doing. It could be because of all the other things that I have been having trouble with; more correctly, it could be because of all the other things that I’ve been learning.

Heck, my skills in vi/m has increased significantly. I find myself wanting the shortcuts in all circumstances. rails.vim, a vim plugin, totally blows my mind every time I load up MacVim. My desires to do things with the shortest amount of keystrokes and the least amount of time has been on the rise, with more and more usage of Quicksilver and GeekTools. The server admin insanity helped me understand more and more about the state of the Internet in general. Also, gaining a much more deep understanding of git and deployment through Heroku so I can just sidestep almost all the server admin pain…

So, I don’t discount the fact that my desire to learn and implement a web app has gotten be very far. It’s just that, from the business standpoint, time to market and any form of money seems to be much faster with the iPhone.

I also feel that there are many more possibilities for interesting human to computer interactions with the iPhone than a traditional web app. The other data provided by just having an iPhone from the GPS, accelerometer… and now, other iPhones in proximity… At times, it just feels more real to me. You’re touching your UI elements, goodness.

Also, I need to act on this excitement. I took way too long to commit myself to Rails. I’m still wondering why I didn’t latch onto it back in 2006, when I knew full well that was what I wanted then.

But again, learning from mistakes, and pushing forward. Hard.

Game Plan

It’s simple: Get it done. All the while, enjoy the awesome-izing process.

I could bore you with the list of things I want to get done, but I’ll do it in my notebook instead. Really, I want to make sure that the process I go through stays as transparent as possible.

iPhone 2.0 Troubles

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I don’t think it’s Jott’s fault, but when I tried to turn on that app about an hour ago, this happened.

iPhone. WTF.

Okay, seriously. This post at 37signals sums a lot of my issues with the new iPhone OS. It’s definitely offset by the wonderful world of iPhone applications, but not by much. The core functionality of the iPhone was amazing at 1.0.

Posting from the iPhone

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Hmm. I definitely do not see myself blogging like this. I find the portrait keyboard extrermely annoying.

Defintely digging the photo integration. Also, the preview view is nice, too.

photo

iPhone this, 3G that.

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Everyone’s talking about it. I might as well contribute a little bit.

I sold my iPhone.

I realized something: I don’t need a revolutionary Internet communication device. Not when I have the Air. More on this later.

The iPhone was a splurge even when I got it. I had to get on the bandwagon, being the Apple ahemfanboyahem I am. And at the time, I made this move only after the $200 reduction in price.

What? Did you think I was some crazy Machead? Heh, I don’t think I would have spent $600 on the iPhone. I even bought a refurbished 8GB one for $350, and even though about going down to the 4GB model for $250.

So I sold it this week for $280. I was happy to have an extra $280 to save. Until… the next one?

Maybe, maybe not.

There are a couple reasons for and against the next generation of the iPhone. But 3G doesn’t matter for me as much as some of the other people. Why?

Since I am surrounded by wireless Internet (finally, at my apartment also) and almost always carry my laptop (the Air is finally a true “lap”top… runs much cooler…), the need for a device to be always “on” is already fulfilled somewhat. Now, that is not to say that the iPhone isn’t ridiculously easy to use. I miss when my iPhone would vibrate to tell me I have an email message: It’s a new level of notification when there’s a tactile response to something that happened online.

3G map from AT&T

This is a map from AT&T’s site. See that blue? That’s where the fun is. See where it isn’t blue? Not so much love. Here’s a clearer version of that map, brought to you by the Wacom tablet.

3G map, modified by yours truly

Sidenote: I hope to use this tablet more in the future.

If not 3G, then what else? Bring on the Muzak.

Of course, I loved the fact that the iPhone represented one less thing to worry about.

Before iPhone:

  • Keys
  • Wallet
  • iPod
  • Phone

After iPhone:

  • Keys
  • Money Clip (I upgraded in this department as well: Less bloatware… in my pants.)
  • iPhone

The fact that the number of things in my pockets went from a dizzying four to a much more manageable three is huge.

The problem started happening when I realized the iPhone earbuds are pretty much trash. I’m was on my fourth or fifth, and just gave up to buy a much sturdier, bass-friendly clip-ons.

IF the new iPhone has a non-recessed jack like everyone’s raving about, then I’ll be much more inclined to get one. I’m okay with taking out the phone out of my pocket to take the call. I do it anyway because…

Sidenote: Audible iPhone Notifications

Someone write this program: Make the iPhone “tell” me audibly who is calling. That way, I don’t need to take the thing out of my pocket to see who it is.

I guess you could just pick up the call, but I tend to just start in mid-conversation with people I know. (If you know me, you know what I’m talking about.)

This doesn’t have to just stop with calls. Do it for songs, too. Artists, titles… And also, make it so that you can talk to the iPhone: have some kind of voice command to skip to next album or previous song.

I think I’m getting too far ahead of myself. Or maybe someone brilliant is working on it.

Camera. CAMERA.

Camera is soooo important for me. I don’t have a digital camera, nor will I get a point-and-shoot one. I stopped wearing a watch (to tell the time, to set an alarm) because the cellphone made it irrelevant. I stopped carrying a music playing device because the cellphone made it irrelevant. And so, seeing this pattern unfold, I have decided to take a firm stand on this.

It’s only time until America catches up with the rest of the developed world and create some hot cameras for their phones. the iPhone camera wasn’t too bad. But the kicker was that, even better than certain point-and-clicks, it had online capability out of the box. I could post to flickr by email (or if you’re l33t and have it hacked, through some apps) immediately after I shoot the picture.

The lick-able user interface

I really don’t feel like I have to argue the fact that no cellphone UI comes close to the iPhone UI.

I’ve used Nokia Ericsson (some free brick phone), Motorola (v505), and Samsung (d807) phones. All trash in terms of UI (although, I like sliders, so the d807 still has a place in my heart).

By this alone, I should be re-buying the phone. I love good UI almost too much. I also hate bad UI completely too much.

So… Will you get it on the 9th?

The rumor around the blogosphere has it getting released on the 9th. Probably on stage. I’ll probably have to take off work to sit there on Apple’s site to grab it if I decide to get it.

But really, I’ll just do it like last time. I’ll go to the nearest Apple store that has it in stock, mess with it, and then buy it… sigh I guess it’s just a matter of time, isn’t it.

Start your “Josh Kim iPhone purchase date” pool now.

Is This Thing On?

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Twitter needs to start being more stable, or I’m going to start throwing chairs.

This afternoon, Facebook was a little spotty too.

And EDGE was down for my iPhone today.

MY WORLD IS CRASHING! AHH!

Well, at least, I’m not in the middle east. Not because of the warfare (well, that’s beside the point), but because of the Internet outage over there.