Archive for category iPhone
iPhone Tethering Hack – Nothing New!
Recently my fellow iPhone owners discovered with the latest 3.0 Firmware for the iPhone, that they were now able to enable tethering with no more than a small download using their phone’s browser. Thus “sticking it to the man” and allowing their iPhone’s to now work as a modem for the laptops.
The problem? Well, there are actually two:
First – It’s a violation of AT&T’s terms of service and you MIGHT get into a little trouble for enabling it.
Second – It’s nothing new. There have been hacks around for years that would allow you to use your Blackberry as a Bluetooth Modem for free, versus paying the $60 to enable a Smart Phone tethering plan through AT&T. What IS unique about this situation is that tethering was a HIGHLY PUBLICIZED missing feature from the iPhone 3.0 firmware for AT&T customers, so it’s compromise has drawn much more attention as previous “work arounds” have.
So what’s AT&T and iPhone owners everywhere to do?
Importing movies from a Samsung NV24HD into iMovie ‘08
Posted by eric in Apple, General Software, Multimedia, iPhone on February 11th, 2009
I’ve been using my Samsung NV24HD camera for some time now to capture both standard resolution (640×480) and high definition (720p) video, but recently my wife needed to import one of those movies into iMovie to edit it down in size. To my surprise, even though Quicktime is able to play the MP4 files created by the Samsung camera, iMovie 08 is unable to properly import the videos and just locks up.
Turns out that the MP4 files made by the Samsung NV24HD camera are a of a non-standard H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. So what’s to do?
Well, if you’re an Apple user (which I assume you are since you’re reading blog entry about iMovie 
), then you’re in luck. There’s a tool you can download called ffmpegX which allows you to convert the MP4 files to iMovie compatible MOV MPEG-4 files. In addition, ffmpegx can convert video files to a multitude of formats inlcuding iPod, iPhone and DivX formats. So even if your issue isnt EXACTLY the video files from the Samsung NV24HD camera, ffmpegx is still a great utility to use for video transcoding/covnverting in OSX 
Screen Shot of ffmpegX
The only down side I had to doing this was the time it took to convert. It took over two hours to encode a 25 minute movie at 640×480 on my 2.4ghz Macbook Pro. So if you’re planning to use this method, plan to leave your Mac plugged in for a while.
Also, I’ve yet to try newer iMovie ‘09 which also just may fix this issue. When I’m able to get my hot little hands on a copy of iLife ‘09, I’ll be sure to let everyone know if it works out!
Hope this post is able to help out my fellow Samsung and Apple users out there!
Cheers!
Car Hacking — Installing an iPod Adapter in my 2004 Acura TSX
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Hardware, Multimedia, Reviews, iPhone on January 31st, 2009
My car is old. Ok, not REALLY old but old enough that it doesn’t have an AUX input or an iPod adapter. I drive a 2004 Acura TSX with Navi and recently canceled my Sirius subscription to save money, so I wanted to be able to plug in my iPhone 3G and listen to Pandora or songs off my iPod.
I checked around the net for models that were supported by my car (which was hard because it was a 1st generation, 1st year TSX). I know there’s an MP3/DVD Player option as well as an XM head unit available for the 2004 TSX, but no iPod adapters from Honda. I finally decided on the DICE Electronics R4 Kit for Honda/Acura because it had received positive reviews and seemed a pretty simple install
I purchased the DICE iPod Kit from a reputable seller on eBay for $139 + tax and had it within a few days. The unit itself is pretty small (only a couple square inches) and has inputs for the iPod cable as well as AUX input. It’s a good thing the unit is so small because it has to fit up in the dash
Installing the unit in my car took about all of 2 minutes. Literally.
(Sorry about no pictures, I’ll add them as soon as I’m able to!)
Step one was to remove the storage bin that is located below the factory radio. This is where the factor XM or MP3 player would go. Simply open the bin and pull it out towards you. There are two clips on the bottom right and left as well as clips on the top.
Pull out the storage bin carefully as the light above is still attached to it. Carefully remove the light taking care to not break the housing. Once the bin is out your radio compartment will be exposed. Just a warning: be careful in there! Unless you’ve unhooked your battery, there’s still live current as well as some wires for the airbags Don’t kill yourself over an iPod hookup
Step two is wiring it in. You’ll see one wire running straight up into the stereo. Unplug this. This is the wire that will plug into the daisy chain provided by the DICE iPod kit. Plug the other end of the DICE iPod kit into the factory radio.
Step three is running our cables however you choose (into the glove box, storage bin, middle console) and putting the storage bin back in! Presto! Done!
I used a Dremel and cut out a small section of the bin to run the cables through. To keep it clean looking, I used a bit of rubber (read: old mouse pad) to cover the Dremel spot and cut a slit down the middle allowing the cables to run through it. This helps seal up the bin without having a gaping hole into my dash. Also, for the sake of future use I added a small amount of hot clue to the connectors that are plugged into the DICE iPod Kit so (god forbid) someone pulls on the cable too hard it wont unplug from the DICE iPod Kit while still in my dash. 
I didn’t add a LOT of glue, just a small drop to hold them in place nicely.
Finished storage bin with iPod & Aux Cables
A few “gotcha’s” about this unit and the 2004 Acura TSX. The ‘XM’ mode of the DICE iPod Kit only works with Honda/Acura models with an actual ‘XM’ button. This wasn’t introduced until the 2005 model year. The 2004 Acura TSX only has a “CD/AUX” button. Because of this, the DICE iPod Kit cannot work and will not be detected in XM mode. You have to set the unit to “CDC” (CD Changer) mode.
Other than that, the unit works great! It’s able to charge my iPhone 3G while I’m listening to music as well as allowing me to stream my iPod and any audio from my iPod straight into my factory radio!
Setting the DICE iPod Kit to ‘iPod’ mode allows you to control the iPod manually on the screen and not with the wheel controls. I find this much easier than trying to navigate the songs using a ‘track up’ & ‘track down’ method on my steering wheel. Also, in ‘iPod’ mode, the DICE iPod Kit acts as a standard audio source. Meaning it’ll play Pandora and send ring tones to your factory radio without having to use the AUX input, like iPod adapters from other manufacturers!
I hope this helps someone else out there in the same situation I was in Please feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be sure to post pictures of my setup as soon as I get them!
Cheers!
Apple Genius Playlist — It’s like Pandora for your IPod Tunes!
I finally took the time last night to setup the Genius Playlist option for my iPhone. Basically the Genius playlist option now lets Apple generate a playlist with songs in the same fashion that Pandora does for it’s Internet Radio streams.
For example, I selected the new Ben Folds song Hiroshima and it created the following playlist based on the songs that are on my iPod:
- Ben Folds – Hiroshima
- William Shatner – It Hasn’t Happened Yet
- Counting Crows – A Murder of One
- Weezer – Only In Dreams
- R.E.M. – Bad Day
- Beck – Loser
- The Offspring – Hammerhead
- Cake – The Distance
- Tom Petty – The Waiting
- Ben Folds – Give Judy My Notice
- Blues Traveler – Hook
- Steve Miller Band – Take The Money and Run
- Beck – Where It’s At
- They Might Be Giants – Particle Man
- Counting Crows – Raining in Baltimore
- Weezer – Surf Wax America
- R.E.M. – Imitation of Life
- Oasis – Hey Now!
- Green Day – Long View
- No Doubt – Spider Webs
- Disturbed – Down With the Sickness
- Ben Folds – Rock This Bitch
- Tom Petty – American Girl
- Beck – Devil’s Haircut
- William Shatner – That’s Me Trying
So as you can see, not only do I have a pretty diverse selection of music on my iPhone but the Genius Playilst generation is pretty smart! Big ups to Apple adding this because it’s 2008 and the ’shuffle’ feature is soooooo 1995
I suggest everyone give it a shot! It does take a bit of time though. My modest selection of ~600 took about ten minutes to generate the information for. I’m not sure if this had anything to do with data transfer speeds because I was using my MacBook Pro over wireless while the music resided on my NAS.
Also as an additional point I have to also say that I’m a big fan of the new Ben Folds album, Way To Normal. This is probably one of the more FUN records he’s put out since Rockin’ The Suburbs in 2001. A few choice tracks are (of course) Hiroshima and also Bitch Went Nuts.
Ben Folds - Way To Normal
Also as a little window into my life, Ben Folds – The Luckiest was our wedding song. It WAS going to be Andrew W.K. – Really In Love … but we changed it at the last minute in an effort to not take years off my in-laws life
Let’s take a dive into XCode and Objective-C!
Posted by eric in Apple, General Programming, General Software, iPhone on August 6th, 2008
So, I’m diving into the pool!
I recently purchased a MacBook Pro for the sole purpose of developing software for the Mac/iPhone platform. It’s completely unknown to me and currently the XCode IDE looks nothing if not completely confusing compared to the friently intuitive interface of Microsoft Visual Studio that I’m used to
What brought me to this point? Well, two things.
First, I’ve been wanting to dive into Objective-C for a little over a year now and started dabbling with it a while back on my old G4 Powerbook. I was impressed with the coolness of it, but being that I was developing on a G4 Powerbook, I was limited as by this time Apple had begun the mass migration to Intel based systems.
Second is that I want to develop applications for the iPhone. Not to make a mint or anything, more or less because I think I have some good ideas on programs people would use. Like how Apple provided the iTunes controller, well, hows about a WWWinamp controller for the iPhone? Perhaps one that lets you search your library locally on the iPhone without even connecting to WWWinamp?
I started down this path because there’s currently a program for sale on the iTunes App Store that lets you control your instance of WinAmp remotely… for $4.99!!! What the crap?! I was floored that the author would expect that kinda money for a program when there are PLENTY of other FREE alternatives out on the web (like WinAmp Remote, AjaxAmp or WWWinamp). I made it my mission to release a comparable program
It’s just going to take a month or so to ramp up on the new IDE and learn how to do SOAP calls and whatnot. Should be a fun adventure though! My wife begins the final semester of her Teaching Credential program in a couple weeks, so I’ll have four nights a week alone to myself to nerd out and gorge on Hot Pockets!
I have another version of WWWinamp in the works as well. This is basically some code modernization for sections that I wrote over a year ago. Updating things to use Generic Methods and whatnot. You know, fun .NET stuff
Cheers!
WWWinamp v4.2 Build 2990
Posted by eric in Apple, General Programming, General Software, Internet, WWWinamp, iPhone on March 9th, 2008
Well, after about a week of off and on work the latest version of WWWinamp is ready!
I’ve taken the “beta” tag off of it as it seems the recode of the HTTP request processing seemed to work without issue and no bugs were reported (other than the ‘paging’ issue, which really was a defect in the script parser).
Changes for this version are:
- [HTTP] Daemon will now start if a WinAmp instance is not found
- [HTTP] Able to specify max number of HTTP threads to process (Default 25)
- [Script Parser] Fixed “Paging” issue when searching through the Libary
- [Script Parser] Script Files (*.wwa) will be run from the same folder as the file requesting them
- WinAmp Handles will be updated if a new instance is detected
Be sure to use the latest config file included with this release as it has a new key value, WWWinamp.HTTP.ListeningThreads, which tells the HTTP daemon how many threads to use max. This is set to 25 by default if no key is found, but it will throw an error. So if you don’t want to use the packaged configuration file because you’ve hacked together your own, you can manually add this key with any value you’d like.
This value isn’t a huge addition but it can help maintain system stability under heavy load. This way WWWinamp won’t spin up an infinite amount of threads if there’s heavy resource contention or there’s a problem that is causing threads to hang.
Also, the other ‘fixes’ were requests made by ‘dawolf’ here in my blog so I suggest more people get involved and we can make WWWinamp better!
In addition, if you’ve made your own skin and want to share it, please feel free to contact me and I can post it here to my blog for others to use.
As for future releases, they may be a little slow in the coming month. I’m going to be diving into the iPhone SDK and Objective-C programming using XCode on my Apple. I think a remote media interface would be totally awsome if I can have a native WWWinamp application on the iPhone talk to the WWWinamp server using WCF/SOAP. It’d be way easier than using the webkit crap and I could make it have a lot more functionality (perhaps tuning in to a shoutcast stream VIA the iPhone?). Anyways, just thought I’d give you guys a little bit of information on that.
Cheers!
WWWinamp v4.2 Build 2990 – Download (56k)
WWWinamp v4.2 Build 2953 (Beta) and an iPhone Compatible Skin!
Here you are as promised!
Along with a quick bug fix version of WWWinamp, I’m also releasing an iPhone compatible skin for WWWinamp! This skin will make controlling your copy of Winamp from an iPhone quick and easy! A big thanks to the guys over at Google and Joe Hewitt for providing such a great set of iPhone web functions in their iUI interface library for the iPhone. Made development very quick and easy so I suggest anyone interested in iPhone Web Development hop over and give this great collection of JavaScript and CSS functions a look!
Of course, controlling WWWinamp from a mobile device is nothing new as I’m sure most of you have been using the default skin through the iPhone/iPod Touch Web Browser anyways, but this will give your copy of WWWinamp a more ‘iPhone-ish’ feel This of course is in addition to the already existing mobile skin which I developed for use with my Nokia 6682
The new build of WWWinamp is just a quick bug fix to handle some strange socket behavior caused by Safari trying to switch between Edge and a WiFi connection when trying to access a private IP (such as 10.0.0.1). Previously it would have caused an unhandled exception and WWWinamp would just bite the dust. This has now been fixed and it can gracefully handle Safari’s connectivity issues
Please keep in mind this is the first version of the iPhone skin and it’s still a work in progress. There are currently several features still missing (playlist re-order, and a few others). To use the iPhone skin you must set ALL commands usable by guest, as I haven’t incorporated admin login functionality yet. You can do this in your WWWINAMP.CONFIG file by setting all the commands under the WWWinamp.HTTP.Commands namespace to “true”. Be warned that this will open all functionality of your WWWinamp instance to all users, so be careful if you’re using this on a publicly visible instance of WWWinamp!
I’ve also added an icon so when you add it to your home screen using the new bookmarking functionality in iPhone firmware v1.1.3, it’ll display a cool little WWWinamp icon rather than a screen shot.
I look forward to your feedback!
WWWinamp v4.2 Build 2953 (Beta) – Download (56k)
WWWinamp iPhone Skin v1.0 – Download (39k)
WWWinamp iPhone Compatible Skin — COMING SOON!
Posted by eric in Apple, General Programming, WWWinamp, iPhone on February 1st, 2008
Ever since the Apple iPhone was released last year, I was blown away by the multimedia and browser capabilities of it. I started wondering from the get-go about the actual usefulness of a software development kit that only allowed for development of applications in a mobile browser.
It was then announced that the official iPhone SDK which runs natively on the iPhone will be released later this month. So soon you’ll have a host of local applications which will most likely include 3rd party media players. It then dawned on me, if a user could use WWWinamp from the iPhone with an interface that interacted nicely on the iPhone, then someone’s iPhone could act as a remote control from ANYWHERE allowing them access to their home media library.
Well, this is just a heads up that I’m currently working on a skin for WWWinamp that will let it work on the iPhone (better)! Soon you all will be able to control your media center or home copy of WWWinamp from anywhere using your Apple iPhone!
I’m still working on the organizing the data on the screen in a manner that makes sense and is easy to use. All the functionality that comes with the default skin will be included in the iPhone version, including cover art and all the Winamp Playlist functions.
It’s actually pretty sweet controlling Winamp from an Apple iPhone and I hope I can polish this up and put out a beta version this weekend. I’m still trying to fish up some resources on the WebKit API and the WebKit specific tags to make things integrate nicely.
Keep your browsers posted here for updates in the coming days!
Bugs in the iPhone Firmware v1.1.1 that have been annoying me
For the most part, I couldn’t be happier with my iPhone. After using several phones over the past two years from Nokia and RIM, the iPhone is hands down the best phone I’ve ever used. BUT, there are several defects in the latest version of the iPhone Firmware (v1.1.1) that are starting to annoy me:
- According to my iPhone, it’s constantly playing music.
- The playing icon in the upper right stays on CONSTANTLY. If I go into the iPod and begin playing a song, and then pause that song and return to the main menu and continue my phone use, after a random amount of time, the playing icon will just pop up indicating that it’s resumed playing. I’ve checked in the iPod screen and it’s still paused and nothing is coming out of the speakers. The icon is now a permanent fixture on my iPhone screen now.
- When my phone is locked, it doesn’t like to turn the screen on right away when I hit the home button.
- I’ve had this issue since v1.0.2 actually. Occasionally if my phone is locked and the screen is off, I’ll hit the home button to be able to unlock my phone and nothing will happen. I’ll have to push the home button two to three more times before the screen actually turns on allowing me to unlock my phone. A minor annoyance, but still worrisome.
- Check my e-Mail every 15 minutes? How about whenever it feels like it.
- I can’t count how many times during the day that my iPhone will say I have no e-Mail, then when I tap the mail icon and actually load my mailbox, it’ll download ten new messages that are several hours old. Why is the iPhone so inconsistent in checking your e-Mail even though you can set it to check every 15 minutes?
- “End Call” button went on vacation
- This only happened to me once earlier this week, but it made me chuckle. After finishing a phone call I went to tap ‘End Call’ and discovered an empty hole on the screen where this button should be. It was literally just gone as if it had up and walked away.
Other then these small personality issues, I have to say again that my wife and I absolutely love our iPhones.
I have to admit that third party application support would be nice. Rumor has it that an SDK is in the works for people to develop native applications for the iPhone. If they do, I suspect they’ll be somewhere along the lines of BlackBerry applications where you need to have your installer blessed by the hardware vendor to have the software actually run on the platform.
I really like what I’ve seen so far from Apple’s WebKit SDK and what has come out of it. Apple even opened it’s own site listing Web Apps and allowing authors to submit their own. These little applications range from Fandango Online Movie Ticket Purchasing to a Resistor Value Calculator!
Pretty cool stuff
As an early iPhone adopter, am I upset that they dropped the price to $399?
My answer: Not really.
I think people are making a big fuss out of this because it was a big announcement and people who already owned iPhones are taking it as an ‘in your face’ move from Apple.
I spent over $1,200 purchasing my wife and I iPhones when they were released back on June 29th (roughly 2.5 months ago). I thought at the time that this was quite a bit for the device, but my wife and I were both excited to get our hands on one.
Yesterday Steve Jobs announced that the 8GB iPhone is now only $399, which means I could have purchased a THIRD ONE for free. I think this is how many people who already own an iPhone took this announcement, but I think you have to put this in perspective:
The iPhone is an electronic device no different from video cards, processors or memory. It’s already been accepted in IT that what you pay for your computer today will be TWICE as much as you would pay six months from now. I think this is a fact that a lot of consumers have come to terms with.
The Intel Q6600 processor is a perfect example of this in action. People who purchased this processor back in January of 07 paid almost $1,000 for it. Three months later in March? $875. How about after Intel “cut prices” around June? $550!
So no more after six months after release the Q6600 CPU had dropped to almost half it’s initial price and today, only nine months later, it can be had for a paltry $265.
So as an early adopter of a technology, personally, I’m happy to see that Apple has dropped the cost of the iPhone because this will mean more market share for the phone I’m currently using. More market share means more support and more pressure on Apple to keep it up to date with the latest and greatest features.
But, as a person who spent $1,200 over two moths ago and would have only spent $800 today? Damn.
You know how it goes though, early adopters pay through the nose for the latest and greatest technology.
UPDATE: Apple is doing something I’ve never, ever seen done by a company after announcing price cuts. They’re going to be refunding people who have already purchased iPhones $100 of Apple Store credit which can be used at an Apple Store or online. I have never seen this before and I have to applaud Apple for their decision. They really try to take care of their user base.
One more thing to note is that Apple is giving users refunds in a means which will allow them to buy tangible Apple products. Apple didn’t just cop out and give out $100 in iTunes credit, which really only costs Apple bandwidth and royalties. This allows someone like me to go get a ‘free’ Gigabit Airport Extreme.
Pretty swank!
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