tech ronin

Apple TV with iPhone Remote: Part 1 Getting Started

Alrighty now! Just got my Apple TV going. I replaced my old conventional 50" TV for a shiny new 40" Sony XBR HDTV because I wanted to run Apple TV. The economy tanked around the time I got my HDTV so I am just now getting my Apple TV. This first post is more about Apple TV than the Remote.

First thing to do when you get your Apple TV is to (1) plug a 3rd-party HDMI cable ($20 at the Apple store) plus (2) the included power cable into your HDTV. That was a snap. I placed the Apple TV on top of my DVD player which is a low-slung device with plenty of room above it. looking good. I doubt someone would even notice the Apple TV in my installation without me pointing it out.

You will want a 3rd HDMI port for this assuming you are already filling up 2 HDMI ports with Cable box and DVD player of some kind (hopefully a PSP3). You will sooner or later want an HDMI switcher. The XtremeMac HDMI switcher for $99.95 looks like a major winner. It converts a single HDMI port into 4. See below.

Couldn't get my iPhone working as a Remote at first because I needed to update my Apple TV to the latest software that supports the multiple remotes and the iPhone or iPod touch running the Remote app. It was about a 6 minute process to download the update over my DSL wi-fi.

Some gorgeous stock photos of flowers are going by on the screen. I'm getting why photos are nice to look at on an HDTV already.

Woohoo! My iPhone 3G just showed up under the new Remotes heading (Settings / General). I selected it and before me is a 14" x 14" giant icon for the iPhone Remote app.

Way cool, all I need to do is use my regular remote to enter the 4 digit number that is appearing on my iPhone Remote. Takes a while to enter on the dumb remote but I have to admit the menus in Apple TV are sexy. Almost fun to use.

Yay! It looks like I can pair my 2nd iPhone too while I'm at it. Let's see. Firing up iPhone 2G. Select Remote. OK. Good to go. Just in case my housemate wants to use a remote.

The Remote software takes me right into the iTunes part of the iPhone using the music that has already automatically migrated to the Apple TV. This is so cool that I'm already thinking I need to buy some speakers for my TV setup. I had some giant Infinity speakers from the old home stereo days. I gave them away to my sister when we moved last Fall. But now, I see the need for new speakers. Soon!

I picked my latest playlist. It shows the album art like it were an old time record album cover except even bigger. Finally. Now we need to see all the cover art, cover notes and the rest. We already needed this on the iPod but now it's worse. A must have. Apple? We need your help here.

Apple's default screen saver has taken over the screen. It is still beautiful but obviously it needs to be under my control. [Update: now my own iPhoto album is the source for my screensaver and music is from one of my chosen playlists playing randomly].

I am going to have to do better than listen to my TV's built-in speakers. They're pretty good but I bet a $100 pair would rock so much better. I want some that are about 2" high. Will need to do some online shopping real soon.

Back to iTunes on my MacBook Pro, though. There we have the Apple TV showing up as another device to sync to. It has 3 tabs: Summary, Movies and Photos. I just pick which of my photo albums I want to sync to my AppleTV and click Apply. Easy as can be. This use of iTunes totally works. How could you tolerate something 10x more difficult?

I can see one problem coming. I really don't want to add much to this MacBookPro like HD podcasts and TV shows. Wonder how good the streaming will be from my iMac that has a roomy 500 gig drive plus a couple terabytes of external hard drives hanging off it?

Whoa! I'm watching a slideshow on my TV of my most recent photos including a lot of downloaded photos I've collected. In the background is Eric Clapton doing a damn good job even on my TV speakers. Rock!!!

Gizmodo Video of How to pair iPhone "Remote" to the Apple TV.

Grading Apple's New Releases 2 Weeks in

On July 11, Apple launched 4 major initiatives: iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software, the App Store and MobileMe. There's no way Apple planned that all 4 would launch on the same day. I'm sure Apple hoped to release some of these things in prior weeks but ran into unforeseen problems that delayed them.

Finally, the 22-country iPhone 3G release date came. That was a hard deadline and it required the other pieces. So damn the torpedoes! As might have been anticipated, everything seemed to go awry to one degree or another

iPhone 3G Launch. People encountered enormous and interminable lines at Apple stores trying to buy the iPhone 3G and many went away without a phone. Previous iPhone owners endured hours when they couldn't use their old phone or their new one. Nevertheless, a million iPhone 3Gs were sold over the first weekend. Shortages continued for days. C-

iPhone 3G. What about the phone itself? The price cut worked in driving sales even if AT&T will recoup the discount in monthly fees down the line. People who got good 3G in their area were pleased with the speed bump. People who didn't get good reception like me were not pleased about paying an extra $15/month with little recompense. Most people liked the GPS, but original iPhone owners noted that they also liked the new artificial GPS pretty well. Battery life doesn't go very far when you use 3G, GPS and all the new apps including games. The phone looks a little better, sounds better and has better reception. B

MobileMe didn't work or wasn't accessible. The so-called "Push" people expected didn't push both ways in a timely manner. Since then all sorts of syncing problems have ensued and in some cases data has been lost. The current status is that MobileMe is a MobileMess. D

iPhone 2.0 software. Mixed bag all the way. The apps are all over the map but in general are great fun and offer quite a lot of utility to boot. The downside is that (1) you'll use up your batteries in a hurry if you are a big gamer and (2) iPhone 2.0 OS is slower, sometimes 3x slower. B-

The App Store. The App store is a wonder. The main thing is you can buy apps in a button touch on your iPhone. They install automatically. This is a break through for software purchasing and installation. Awesome! Updating is just as good when it works right from your phone, but there have been reports that sometimes the only way to upgrade is to do it in iTunes on your computer. The applications are a huge addition to the iPhone. A-

Got my iPhone 3G: All is Right With the World

Picture this. Sitting in the Corte Madera mall's Peet's Coffee which just opened a couple days ago. It's big and it is 20 feet from Apple's door. I'm sipping a Dark Chocolate Carmel Mocha Freddo on Apple. They are handing out free tickets for any drink you want at Peet's.

I agonized and recently wrote about my fear (hope) that Apple will release a 32gb iPhone in September along with an even larger 65 gb iPod touch. In the end, I'll survive without paying an additional $100 to get 32gb. The 8 gb model I have been using seemed big enough and an extra 8 gigs will just have to do.

I decided since I had a problem with my gen 1 iPhone after upgrading to 2.0 that I would just do this new iPhone 3G virgin and set it up from scratch. Ultra easy!

I got my 4 email accounts up and running in about 8 minutes.

I got the black 16 gb version. I think that is the one that will be most likely to sell out. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to the FileMaker Developer's conference. A tech conference. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten someone to drive me to the Apple store in Phoenix to pick up an iPhone 3G on Sunday, but the line didn't look too bad when I came by the Apple store at 1:35 pm.

I got in around 3:45. A longer wait than I hoped for but not too bad. I would say, the line was not as festive as last year. I attribute that to the preponderance of *casual* cell phone users and PC users in line. All 3 of my closest line mates were PC users. They didn't really get how cool the iPhone 3G is or at least didn't act like it.

By the way, I talked with a genius at the Apple store about my problems with my old iPhone. He wanted to persuade me that the screen hardware had suddenly failed and that I need to pay $199 to get my 1g iPhone replaced. It does make a cheap and more powerful iPod touch at the moment but I'll first see if there is indeed a software failure going on.

When I plugged my new iPhone in to my MacBook Pro, iTunes knew this was a new phone and asked me to register. I tried but was unable to register. Then it asked if I wanted to restore from the other iPhone that was already synced to this computer. Then it started installing the new applications I bought yesterday at the App store. Cool!

Just to be on the safe side, I checked out the cases and found this really nice Belkin red and black case for $25. It fits the 3G shape and feels good in the hand. The shiny black plastic on the back of the 3G iPhone does seem sturdy, but I didn't want to scratch it on day one. I'm having too much fun right now.

I bought: Super Monkey Ball $9.99, Acid Solitaire $9.99, Anna Karenina 99¢ and Texas Hold'em. And downloaded several free apps: AIM, Evernote, Facebook, Loopt, Remote, Twitterific and WeatherBug. Now that I have 16 gb, I may download a few more. These are very small apps for the most part so you don't really have to worry about the space that much.

So far things are going great. This new iPhone has some subtle niceties including it's more eye-catching and hand-friendly shape. There are little silver grills over the speakers on the bottom and where you listen on a call. The sound is much improved!

Upgrading iPhone 1.1.4 to iPhone 2.0 the details

I had a restored but previously jail-broken iPhone 1.1.4 and the upgrade using the MacRumors iPhone 2 upgrade download worked!!!

I could not wait until the iPhone 2.0 updater appeared in iTunes. That would be who knows when. So, I downloaded from MacRumors. I tried several times with Safari with no luck. But then tried Firefox 3 and that worked without a hitch.

HOWEVER, before you download, make sure you have enough free hard drive space on your computer to completely backup your iPhone. That's what the upgrade process will do first. So clear some room if you need to.

Once you have the file downloaded, you can connect your iPhone and option-click the Check for Update button. Then you just need to navigate to your new downloaded file ending with an extension of ipsw and select it and you will be on your way.

Prepare for a long wait. The first long wait that is a little disturbing gives you this interminable dialog: preparing iPhone for update.

But, finally the dialog will change to "Updating iPhone Software" and then now it is showing "Verifying updated iPhone software". The verify seems to be taking a while.

Remember the big wait will be for transferring everything over to the iPhone that you had on it before. That hasn't started yet. My connected iPhone is just displaying the white Apple at the moment.

OK. Now I'm seeing "Updating iPhone firmware" with the candystripe progress bar that doesn't tell you how much progress you've made.

Oops, I may have blown it. I chose to restore from backup. Hoping that gives me my information but keeps my nice shiny new 2.0 upgrade in place. Hope, hope.

Looks to be good, my info says version 2.0!

In all the excitement I seem to have accidentally turned off the sync while it was in progress. That may give me some grief. I'm waiting right now for it to resync and hope I am not left with almost nothing which is what is showing right now on my iPhone contents bar.

Sync is taking a really long time or so it seems. That may be the good news as the minimal contents showing above would not have taken as long to sync. It's probably that I did erase my iPhone and now it is taking a while to get almost 8 gb back on there. Be careful when you do your upgrade and don't get nervous and interrupt the sync. This going to take a long while I'm afraid. Showing about 60 files of 468 to sync.

I think a 32gb iPhone is coming this year

I could be wrong, but I'm thinking Apple has got to do a 32gb iPhone. There is already a 16gb version as of February. There's a 32gb iPod touch. I'm thinking they wanted to reposition the iPhone as cheaper and they'll probably charge $399 for the 32gb version. Releasing that now spoils their cheaper message. That's all the evidence I have but it may stop me from buying a 16gb iPhone in July.

Update on July 8. Well, July 11 is coming soon and I still don't have any good evidence for a 32gb iPhone in September... that's going to make it tough to resist buying a 16gb iPhone Friday.

Update on July 10. No word on another iPhone 32gb. However, lots of people believe there will be one and that it is likely to be released in September when new iPods are announced. The other possible release date for such a phone is at the MacWorld Expo in January. A long, long time from now.

There have been rumors all along of a higher-end iPhone. All the early adopters will want one if they can afford it including me. Will it have a better camera? The lack of an upgrade to the camera in the 3G iPhone is one of the reasons I think there is a higher end version of the iPhone in the works.

One last thought. Apple got in big trouble when they dropped the price of the iPhone from $599 to $399 in September. They would get into big trouble if they release a better iPhone in September. But if we can just bring our iPhone 3G in and trade for a small restocking fee it would be OK.

iPhone Stocks and Weather apps need an upgrade

The bloom is off the rose of iPhone 1 by now. You must be able to drill down to get more details before being cast off to the big web for more info.

When I look at the weather, I need a lot more than the current temperature. How about an hour by hour forecast for the next few hours plus options for tomorrow?

I know, the current weather widget is almost glanceable but you have to tap first, by then you might as well see a little more info.

Yahoo!'s stock widget cries out for an ability to drill down. If my stock drops precipitously, I'll stop and look more carefully. I may well need to make a decision involving thousands of dollars. Earn your keep, iPhone!

The iPhone is a computer in my pocket with a high Rez touch screen. It is my always on, always with me real-time connection to the world. Don't limit it.

While you are at it, let me email screenshots of these widgets. My friends and stock broker are standing by.

[Check graphpaper.com circa Feb 08 for more on this]

Upgrade to the 3G iPhone? Pros and Cons

I think I will upgrade. Here's what I'm thinking:

Cons:
• $30/month data plan instead of current $20/month
• No free SMS messages, so add $5 more per mo for that
• I already have a perfectly good iPhone that still works
• I only use EDGE 10% of the time now. 3G replaces EDGE.
• I don't know how good 3G coverage will be in my area.
• 3G drains battery life at twice the speed
• What if a 32gb iPhone 2 is released in September?

Pros:
• 3G speeds may mean I use my iPhone more when away from wi-fi
• 3G speeds mean when there's no wi-fi, the experience is better
• GPS will make burgeoning location based services better
• Better reception
• You sound better to the people you are calling
• Much better audio from the speakers (according to Steve)
• Looks a little better with the new design
• The expensive data plan is about like other 3G plans
• I get the subsidized price after only 1 year on my previous plan
• 3G lets you receive calls while surfing the Net!
• Get to see what it's like to have the best 3G phone on the planet

Update: Good stuff you should read - hands on reviews out July 9:
Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
Edward Baig, USA Today
David Pogue, New York Times

3G iPhone with GPS, MobileMe Analysis

More News:

0. Reception is noticeably better according to Gizmodo hands-on.

.5 "3G data on the maps and browser were only slightly slower than WiFi" - Gizmodo.

1. $30/month: for he AT&T 3G data plan. Keep in mind, 3G will cost you an extra $10/month. 1 year is $120. 2 years is $240. Also, I hear you don't get any free SMS messages (currently I get 200 free/mo.) I'll pay just because there will be times when I'm stuck away from wi-fi and want to get stuff done with relative speed.

2. $45/month for unlimited 3G data for business - assume that is for Exchange support

3. iPhone 3G is a tiny bit bigger 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm vs 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm. But it is "thinner feeling" according to Gizmodo.

4. iPhone 3G is ever so slightly lighter. 4.7 oz. or 133 grams vs 135 grams for 1st gen iPhone.

5. You have to sign a new 2 year contract to get these great prices. So that puts you at 3 more years if you bought on iPhone day 1. That means it will cost you about $175 to break a 2 year contract and then you pay another $300 if you want the cool 16 gb model.

6. Improved battery life. Sort of. You get 10 instead of 8 hours of 2G talk time and 5 hours of 3G talk time. Not sure why 3G matters when you are talking on the phone -- maybe it is operating in the background.

The Keynote finished up a couple hours ago. We now know that Apple will deliver the 3G iPhone on July 11th. It will sell for $199 for the 8 gb model and $299 for the 16 gb model. At that price, of course, I will buy one. I was prepared to spend $600 if I had to.

3G iPhone. First thing, Apple is delivering a cheap iPhone and it has 3G plus GPS. I wasn't expecting so much for so little. He is aggressively competing against smartphones: Nokia, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Treo. It is clear that Apple considers the success of the iPhone as the centerpiece of its business.

MobileMe. I'm very happy about the MobileMe announcement. DotMac is dead. Long live MobileMe. Same price $99 a year, but a lot more value. Now you get 20 gigs of storage instead of 10. That's pretty good certainly that will store some of my most important files plus backup my iPhone if I need it to.

"Think of MobileMe as 'Exchange for the rest of us,' Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get." - Steve Jobs

More to follow. This article is a work in progress. I should have much more in the next few minutes. I'm going to watch the keynote and explore Apple's website.

Stevenote: 3G iPhone w/ GPS $199-299 July 11th

Check the Apple site for details. Here are highlights for the keynote.

1. iPhone 3G Introduced. GPS. "Location-based services are going to explode" says Steve. $199 for the 8 gb in black. $299 for 16 gb black or white. Improved audio. 1/2 the price. Same 2 megapixel camera.

2. iPhone 2.0 is $9.95 for the iPod touch. 3.5" display.

3. MobileMe replaces .Mac with 20 gigs of Storage $99/year. "Exchange for the rest of us." It works over the air to your iPhone and Macs and PCs. It's at www.me.com. Cool!!! Shows your iCal calendar exactly like it looks on your Mac. Photos will live update wirelessly to your gallery.me.com page. Mail looks like Mail except it is online. iPhone has a new Send to MobileMe button for your photos.

4. Full Microsoft and iWork support.

5. Push Notification Service to capture stuff while your app may not be active cuz you are using another app. This is to compensate for apps running one at a time. Available September.

6. Band - see pictured above : very cool Moo Cow Music thing called.

7. Native TypePad blogging application.

8. Super Monkeyball is launching day1 on the Appstore - hoping that's today. $9.99

9. Snow Leopard is real -- not available but will be talked about later in the keynote

[Photos via Engadget]

To Learn More, I recommend:

Tech Trader's keynote coverage

Engadget on the KeyNote Announcements

Authentic-looking-seeming 3G iPhones Red/Black

This may be the first true iPhone 3G reveal. These pix come from CrunchGear. See several photos there.

Bottom lines: (1) Colors: Black and Red, (2) 3G, (3) 2nd video camera, (4) Thinner! and (5) stereo speakers on back.

[Thanks to Bwana McCall on Plurk for the tip to the story]

Update 11:43 pm: Engadget says they think this is a fake.