Archive for August, 2008
« Previous EntriesSeptember iPhone update 2.1..all about bug fixes
Friday, August 29th, 2008There is no doubt that iPhone 2.0.x software is buggier and slower (in contact browsing for instance, not Internet speed) than the previous iPhone software. Many people are also complaining about 3G speed issues, painfully long sync times, some vulnerabilities and call dropping. Apple is taking these issues on…
Reminder: No new hints Monday
Friday, August 29th, 2008Monday is the Labor Day holiday in the USA — so I have the day off, which I’ll spend not laboring on hints :). If you have the day off as well, enjoy the long weekend with friends and family. We’ll be back as usual on Tuesday morning.
-rob.
One way to scroll in form boxes on the iPhone
Friday, August 29th, 2008As many have discovered, the trick for scrolling in list boxes on the iPhone (using two fingers) doesn’t work in form boxes. If you’ve ever tried typing a post on a forum or elsewhere from the iPhone, you’ve discovered that editing what you’ve typed is a near impossibility if the text entry box is too small, as two-finger scrolling doesn’t work.
By tapping/holding inside a form and bringing up the magnifying glass, you can scroll up and down by dragging and holding the magnifying glass in the direction you wish to scroll.
One way to scroll in form boxes on the iPhone
Friday, August 29th, 2008As many have discovered, the trick for scrolling in list boxes on the iPhone (using two fingers) doesn’t work in form boxes. If you’ve ever tried typing a post on a forum or elsewhere from the iPhone, you’ve discovered that editing what you’ve typed is a near impossibility if the text entry box is too small, as two-finger scrolling doesn’t work.
By tapping/holding inside a form and bringing up the magnifying glass, you can scroll up and down by dragging and holding the magnifying glass in the direction you wish to scroll.
Put the quoted form of POSIX paths into Script Editor
Friday, August 29th, 2008As a beginner learning the basics of do shell script in AppleScript, I’m finding that most of my file and folder names have spaces in them. As such, I have two choices when writing paths: either escape all the spaces as I type them, or use the AppleScript quoted form of POSIX path construct.
Both methods still require significant typing and exact spelling, and I’m from the generation that didn’t learn to type. To ease my discomfort, I wrote this script for use in Script Menu:
tell application "Finder" set Itms to selection set als to Itms's item 1 as alias set aPath to quoted form of POSIX path of alsend telltell application "Script Editor" activate tell front document set contents of selection to aPath end tellend tellThe script takes the currently-selected file or folder in Finder, and puts its quoted form of POSIX path into Script Editor’s front document at the insertion point (or replaces the selection if text is selected)…
Import Address Book contacts into a new Verizon phone
Friday, August 29th, 2008Here’s the scenario:
You have a phone with Verizon, and you have 1,000 contacts in your Mac’s Address Book. Perhaps you’ve had a previous Verizon phone, but you’ve never backed up your contacts from that phone — but you do have your contacts on your computer and want to get them into your phone. I’m here to tell you that yes, it can be done, I promise. What this does is turn your Firefox web browser into an input robot that fills out the stupid little manual input forms on Verizon’s website automatically, over and over, using a CSV file as the input source.
Read on for the step-by-step…
Here are the steps:
- First, you need to activate Verizon’s Backup Service — this allows you to download contacts from (yes from) your phone, as well as manually type in contacts to your phone (don’t panic, just keep reading).
- You’ll need to make a text file list of your contacts or Address Book. It must be saved in CSV (comma separated values) format….
Import Address Book contacts into a new Verizon phone
Friday, August 29th, 2008Here’s the scenario:
You have a phone with Verizon, and you have 1,000 contacts in your Mac’s Address Book. Perhaps you’ve had a previous Verizon phone, but you’ve never backed up your contacts from that phone — but you do have your contacts on your computer and want to get them into your phone. I’m here to tell you that yes, it can be done, I promise. What this does is turn your Firefox web browser into an input robot that fills out the stupid little manual input forms on Verizon’s website automatically, over and over, using a CSV file as the input source.
Read on for the step-by-step…
Here are the steps:- First, you need to activate Verizon’s Backup Service — this allows you to download contacts from (yes from) your phone, as well as manually type in contacts to your phone (don’t panic, just keep reading).
- You’ll need to make a text file list of your contacts or Address Book. It must be saved in CSV (comma separated values) format….
Steve Jobs death notice: Oh, really?
Thursday, August 28th, 2008Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is not dead. And Bloomberg News needs an obit blog. Really.
Global News Update: Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 28th, 2008In today’s podcast: Microsoft gets $20M in patent settlement; DOJ finds illegal workers at high-tech plant; and iPhone privacy lock not secure.
Automatically reconnect iChat if connection drops
Thursday, August 28th, 2008I’ve had the problem with my iChat Jabber connections (gtalk and yahoo.jabber.org.uk gateway) constantly crashing, causing an error dialog in iChat. Since the Chax add-on no longer seems to support automatically reconnecting to crashed connections in 10.5, I found this great idea for a crontab script to force a reconnection using AppleScript. However, the only problem is that this would start iChat even if it was not running.
So I used this slightly extended script to make it check if iChat was running before executing the login command. I added this line to my crontab (via crontab -e or the Cronnix crontab editor) to make it re-run every minute using the command line:
* * * * * osascript -e ‘tell application “Sy…
Quickly extract all email addresses from Address Book
Thursday, August 28th, 2008To quickly (as compared to using nested loops in AppleScript) extract all email addresses from the Address Book, you can tap into Address Book’s SQLite database using the command line (in Terminal):
sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb “select ZADDRESSNORMALIZED from ZABCDEMAILADDRESS;”If you want to alphabetize and remove duplicates:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb “select ZADDRESSNORMALIZED from ZABCDEMAILADDRESS;” | sort | uniqPlease note: This works in Leopard, and should work in Tiger too. However, the database filename looks like it could change at a…
Sync Outlook, iCal, iPhone, and Google Calendars
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008For a while now, I have been looking for a way to keep my iPhone calendar in sync with my work Microsoft Outlook calendar. Now I’ve found a way!
Part 1: MobileMe, iCal, and iPhone:
At home, I sync my iPhone calendar with iCal on my Mac. Now with the new MobileMe, my iPhone stays in near constant sync with my MobileMe calendar. My Mac at home also stays in sync (syncs every 15 minutes) with my MobileMe calendar.Part 2: Spanning Sync - iCal and Google Calendar
There is a program called Spanning Sync that syncs iCal on my Mac with my Google calendar. This program also runs every 15 minutes. (The downside is that this program costs a whopping $65.)Part 3: Google Calendar Sync - Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook
Google has released Google Calendar Sync, a program that syncs your Google Calendar with Microsoft O…
Mac OS bigger in business (but still small)
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
In Wednesday’s IT Blogwatch, we watch Apple’s enterprise market share grow. Not to mention Error’d Error’d Everywhere…Gregg Keizer reports:
Mac OS bigger in business (but still small)
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008In Wednesday’s IT Blogwatch, we watch Apple’s enterprise market share grow. Not to mention Error’d Error’d Everywhere…Gregg Keizer reports:
Microsoft trying to spoil Apple’s September 9th party with new Bluetrack technology?
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
A little teaser ad greets us on Microsoft’s Hardware web page. It says "Say Goodbye to Laser". Since the bulk of Microsoft’s non-gaming hardware is either keyboards or mice - and laser technology dominates the mouse world these days, I’d guess the mouse is soon to go bye bye.
Microsoft trying to spoil Apple’s September 9th party with new Bluetrack technology?
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008A little teaser ad greets us on Microsoft’s Hardware web page. It says "Say Goodbye to Laser". Since the bulk of Microsoft’s non-gaming hardware is either keyboards or mice - and laser technology dominates the mouse world these days, I’d guess the mouse is soon to go bye bye.
Why does Apple get a break?
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Linux and open-source fans are always ready to stomp on Microsoft’s proprietary programs, so why do we not only give even more proprietary Apple a free pass, and actually love Apple’s devices?
iPhone doesn’t have 3G issues, probably
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
In Tuesday’s IT Blogwatch, we wonder what’s going on with iPhone 3G reception problems — is it the phone, the network, or just Euro-envy? Not to mention more fun at the Large Hadron Collider…Gregg Keizer reports:
When data doesn’t support the hypothesis…
Monday, August 25th, 2008I am not sure anyone really read this report (including the author!) because over the last month, Apple’s enterprise numbers fell 10% from 5% to 4.5% marketshare. Meanwhile Windows was at its second highest point since 2007.
When data doesn’t support the hypothesis…
Monday, August 25th, 2008I am not sure anyone really read this report (including the author!) because over the last month, Apple’s enterprise numbers fell 10% from 5% to 4.5% marketshare. Meanwhile Windows was at its second highest point since 2007.
« Previous Entries