MichaelStrutton.com

Sorry I haven’t taken the time to blog. There’s lots going on and my personal todo list is growing out of control. This post will let you know that I’m still here, and test my ability to blog in less than 5 min.

As for a topic I have none. As for this post here’s a couple of interesting thoughts and links for today:

1. New iPods are out. Check out the Apple store for more details. The new shake to shuffle seems novel and I like the new Touches.
2. iPhone 2.1 is almost here. Check back on this topic around friday.
3. The above comes from a very skinny Steve-note announced today. Coverage available at TUAW.
4. I heard someone say that Steve’s weight and the prices of AAPL’s stock go hand in hand. (if you coined this please sound off in the comments). 
5. Is it the end of the world as we know it. (Financial Times article).  Thinking of the REM song…
6. I’m coding an app for work. More on that in future post. 

OK, that’s it for now, back to the daily grind. BTW, total editing time 6 min. Fail. Sound off in the comments below. Tell me whatcha thinking.

Apple just posted the iPhone 2.0.1 update. As usual they have a non-desrcript “bug fixes” listed for the notes. To get the latest, fire up iTunes with your iPhone connected and hit Check for Updates! 

Let me know if this fixes the slow sync and neverending backup problems with iPhone 2.0. I’m also curious about Bluetooth compatibility in Visual Voicemail. My Plantronics headset quit working with VVM. 

As always I’ll post my own experience and notes here. Share yours with a comment below.

(thanks to Jon Lee for alerting me of this news just moments ago)

Update: The download is 242.3 MB

Update (again): the install took <10 min. I The iPhone seems a little more responsive especially in the contacts and keyboard. I updated Wordpress, and played with a handful of app, before attempting a sync. The backup seemed to take <5 min, although I had already completed a 2+hour backup earlier today. I think the verdict is still out on this. As for my bluetooth, it’s a no go. My Plantronics 520 reamins unavailable in Visual Voicemail.

Update (again, again): I have since synced my iPhone 3 times, once after updating/installing 5 applications over the air (not through iTunes). Each sync has completed a backup in just a few minutes. For now, I’m thinking the iPhone 2.0.1 update has greatly improved the slow backup on sync issue.

Vitrue (www.vitrue.com), the company I work for, launched a redesigned site last Friday. It’s been in the works for sometime now, since just after I started with the company in March. By no means does it take that long to build a site, but when you are busy with new customers and a recent acquisition it’s easy to get distracted. The new site is clean and easy to navigate, and highlights some of the work we have done with our clients. 

Anyway, I was part of the project and as you can tell, I’m really thrilled with the outcome. My role included launching a CMS, creating/packaging the video content and a handful of HTML. I’m also a participant in the company blog. Feel free to drop by and participate in our social media marketing conversations. And, congratulations to the rest of the team who had their hands in this project. Great Job!

Thanks to @stammy for sharing this. I put it on the widescreen and the kids watched it over and over again. I forgot how much I loved the Muppets when I was young. I heard the Muppets are returning via a new Disney show called Studio DC: Almost Live.  Enjoy!

Palringo just might be the Adium of the iPhone. Just released Saturday July 26th, it has just earned a spot in my personal top 5 most useful iPhone apps. Now I can finally put to rest the buggy AOL client and integrate my company Jabber account.

Palringo for the iPhone supports AOL’s AIM, iChat, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Gadu Gadu, ICQ, Jabber and Windows Live Messenger. Setup requires registration and I’m guessing that is in order to support photo messaging. Oh, I didn’t mention that yet? You can send photos from our albums or directly from the camera. Palringo saves the photo on their servers and send a link to your recipient. 

Palringo is FREE and available via this iTunes Link.

I just downloaded and installed the Wordpress app for my iPhone. Setup was super simple and with one click I could see my posts. I have created and tagged this post from my iPhone. The only trouble I see is needing to copy and paste a URL. Inline images are also not possible, but adding pics to the bottom of the post is sufficient. Tags, categories, schedule, and passwords are east to set too. For a 1.0 release I give two thumbs up!

I would like to see Comment moderation in a future release. Also improve the inclusion of URLs. Entering HTML code on the iPhone isn’t quick and easy.

You can get Wordpress for your iPhone from http://snurl.com/32uhi [--> iTunes Link]

Screenshots attatched. This entire post was created, previewed and published with Wordpress on the iPhone.

One of my Macs had a hard time locating the MobileMe 1.1 Update. I had repeatedly been to Software Update, with no avail. My iMac only used my .Mac / MobileMe account for the iDisk and Back to My Mac features. On a whim I decided to open the .Mac preference pane and within a few moments a MobileMe update appeared and linked me to Software Update. Now Software Update is showing the package. I’m not 100% certain of the reason and I’m not in a position to replicate it. But, if you are having trouble getting Software Update to find the MobileMe Update 1.1  then try clicking around in the .Mac preferences for a minute.

Having trouble, or have something to add? Please leave a comment!

I have solved my slow backup problems (prior post), however I’m not 100% certain of the cause. Here are the two things that transpired to correct the issue. 

1. I restored my iPhone using the iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw - I originally updated my iPhone using the leaked iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw before it was released via iTunes. There’s been some debate over wether or not there’s any difference in the two builds. I’m not going to debate that here. 
2. As a result of restore, my iPhone was forced to use one of my backups after reloading. I believe it then recreated a new [Read more →]
   Share and Enjoy:

   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 

UPDATE: My problems have been solved. See this post for details.

Myself an others are reporting about iPhone 2.0 Backup and Sync frustrations over on Apple’s discussion boards. The gist of the problem is iPhone 2.0 software attempts to do a full back up every time you sync. According to the Apple User’s Guide:

Once iPhone has been configured to sync with a particular computer, iTunes automatically makes a backup of iPhone on that computer when you sync. iTunes won’t automatically back up an iPhone that is not configured to sync with that computer. If you have configured iPhone to automatically sync with iTunes on a specific computer, iTunes will back up iPhone every time you connect it to that computer. Automatic syncing is turned on by default. iTunes only makes one backup each time you connect, even if you sync multiple times before disconnecting.

OK so there’s nothing really wrong with a backup right? There is when it takes 20-40 min each time. I’m sure this differs based on the amount of data you have on your phone. If you are in a hurry and in need of syncing some data sans a full backup, you can [Read more →]

Pandora Radio on the iPhone is great. If you don’t have it, I do recommend it –>iTunes Link.  If you are unfamiliar with Pandora check out this wikipedia page as well as their official web site. Basically Pandora is a recommended streaming music service. Here’s my initial thoughts on Pandora Radio for iPhone.

First Pandora Radio can only stream while the application is open. This limitation is imposed as the iPhone won’t allow 3rd party background processes. As soon as you leave Pandora Radio, the music will obviously stop.

Streaming over Edge, is possible but also spotty. During my drive home, I successfully streamed 6 songs. Most songs had a 10-12 second delay before playing. I do recall, however, that  [Read more →]