Last week when it first updated, we related our first impressions of Facebook for iPhone 3.0. Now that's we've spent some more quality time with it over the weekend, we can confirm that the 3.0 update is huge. Sure, it takes up more room on your iPhone or iPod Touch, but that's not what we meant.
The real growth spurt comes from the pile of new and improved features that Facebook has poured into the app. They range from the typical--support for landscape mode, capability to change your profile picture--to the powerful--such as creating photo albums and kicking off a text message or call from the Facebook interface.
That last point echoes a central thesis in a June 2009 Wired article ("The Great Wall of Facebook"): by storing intensely personal data about real people--their likes and dislikes, e-mail addresses, friends, activities, and even phone numbers--Facebook is creating a formidable "second Internet" to rival Google. Indeed, the SMS and phone call triggers on Facebook for iPhone 3.0 (and a similar feature on Facebook for BlackBerry that hooks into your address book) do influence, even facilitate, the way you contact friends in real life. Now you can rely on a Web-based network as a point of entry to your actual social life.
But that feature is just one of many. See the new Facebook for iPhone 3.0 in action in this First Look video. If you have used it, let us know how you like it.
Many people have complained lately about AT&T's network problems. My solution to spotty 3G data coverage: switch to Verizon.
Here's how.
The Verizon MiFi is a cigarette pack size portable access point. It takes the cellular data from Verizon and rebroadcasts it as Wi-Fi. There's also a version for Sprint's data network, if that works better in your area.
The MiFi is smaller than an iPhone. And of course, this trick will work for any phone that has Wi-Fi. Although it might not make much sense if you were using a Verizon or Sprint phone.
Turn on the MiFi and make sure it's running.
Go to your phone and connect to the MiFi's Wi-Fi access point.
Now you have Verizon's data network behind your phone.
And this means a couple things. For one, I get much better data coverage in my area with Verizon. For instance, AT&T's 3G network craps out about halfway across the Bay Bridge, cutting off my Pandora, or Twitter or whatever else I'm using. The Verizon data network stays connected all the way across.
Another happy accident of using the system this way is you get around data network restrictions. ... Read more
Documents To Go (with and without support for Microsoft Exchange attachments) is one of our favorite applications for turning your iPhone into a home office. But it's not anywhere near complete and it has some formidable competition in the form of Quickoffice Mobile Suite, another premium offering.
If you're in the market for a document editor and creator, this video will give you a peep at what Documents To Go can offer in its first application release.
In this week's Buzz Report, I suggested (gently, of course) that the iPhone sucks on AT&T. I'm certainly not the first to suggest it: there's a pending class-action lawsuit over flaky 3G connectivity and AT&T and Apple are pointing fingers at each other over ongoing network and connection issues. Plus, every person in the background of my rant is someone who works at CNET and has had trouble with their iPhone (mostly because we don't even get service in our downtown San Francisco office).
So far, the feedback I've gotten leans heavily toward problems with iPhone/AT&T connectivity, but not everyone is having the same experience. So, here's your chance to tell us your story! What's your iPhone-on-AT&T experience like?
Kind of all over the place, but it is, in fact, our last show until CES, January 8 and 9, live from Las Vegas. Visit ces.cnet.com for all the details.
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The new CNET store has shirts, mugs, iPods, and more.
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Apple 24-inch LCD Cinema Display
Best of the Web
Insider Secrets
What to do with your old gadgets
Your video calls
Shane in Nevada Has a computer that continually drops off his wireless network. He's tried upgrading firmware and trying new wireless cards to no avail. We suggested looking into a Registry hack for WPA problems, looking for interference from other wireless broadcasters like cordless phones, or other wireless routers in his area. This forum thread deals with similar problems.
Your calls
Take a look at our Best photo inkjet printers. The Canon Pixma iP2600 is sold for less than $50.
You can use Wubi to run Kubuntu and Ubuntu. Just install the different ISOs. You can also add the KDE desktop from Kubuntu to Ubuntu; that way you have both in one. Here's a posting on how to add KDE to Ubuntu.
You can turn your old computer into network-attached storage (NAS) with FreeNAS, the Free NAS server.
Apparently some users have found defective Bluetooth can interfere with a Mac's ability to enter sleep mode. See this discussion on the Apple forums.
E-mail us!
Whether it's a regular text note, or a recorded video question, you can send it to cnetlive@cnet.com. Keep your videos to 15 seconds or less, post them to a Web site like Youtube, and then e-mail us the link.
http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-50003373.html
Just like I said I would post it in the blog, here is the location that you can find the iTunesPrefs.XML to edit for both Windows Vista and XP.
Windows Vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes or
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes
If you can't see the file, make sure that your hidden files are set to be visible in Windows Explorer.
There ya go!
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Miguel Caballero bulletproof high fashion
Auto performance app for iPhone
First look
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Tether your phone to your laptop
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Your calls
Here's a list of direct links to iPhone firmware.
Mojopac is an excellent portable apps creator that can does virtualization. Also check out PortableApps.com.
Here are several good tips for saving iPhone battery life as well as a guide to the same form Gizmodo.
How to get video off a Comcast DVR. Brian's pretty sure there is no hack to transfer files off a Comcast DVR, but here is a good post about doing it the old fashioned (real time) way to a Mac.
iTunes: now with 100% more everything.
You know how sometimes you get a huge mound of dishes piled up in the kitchen sink, and then something starts to stink, and it takes a long time to realize where the stink is coming from, but eventually you wash every dish and scrub the whole thing out and it takes maybe a day or two, but you're finally fresh and happy again? OK, well, iTunes is a kitchen sink full of crud, and it stinks. Apple? You need to clean that bad boy out. Trust me. We'll all feel better.
Listeners of Buzz Out Loud will have heard this rant earlier this week, but I'd like to expand on it a bit here, because iTunes is a program that a lot of people use, and it's turning into a bit of a national nightmare. Let's indulge in just a list, off the top of my head, of the tasks this former jukebox software now has to perform:
- It organizes your music and syncs with your iPod
- It's a music player
- It's a video player, which necessitates that it come bundled with QuickTime
- It indexes and delivers both audio and video podcasts
- It's a storefront that sells music, TV shows, movies, audiobooks, iPod games, and music videos
- It rents movies (and handles the requisite DRM-checking and so forth)
- It's cell phone syncing and management software
- It's the iPhone/iPod Touch App Store, handling registration, syncing, and sale of those apps
- It's a veritable set-top box, syncing content with Apple TV for playback on TV
This is one program we're talking about, here. As a result, iTunes 7.7 is a 60.5MB file. Last time I did a fresh install, about a week ago, it took me 30 full minutes to download it, complete a full registration procedure (when all I was after was iPod syncing), get it installed, index my entire universe of music and its entire universe of online content, and get it up and running. When my husband recently bought an iPod Touch, it took him 45 minutes to update iTunes, re-register, and connect the new iPod.
On top of that, with so many functions and so many possibilities for bugs, it seems like there's a new iTunes update every week. And every update is mandatory, no matter how old your iPod or how uninterested you are in access to the iPhone App Store or how unlikely it is that you'll ever download or play a QuickTime video via iTunes. It'll keep bugging you until you upgrade, or maybe stop syncing your two-year-old iPod, and when you finally do upgrade, you'll have to restart, because, I assume, iTunes has about as many functions as an operating system and has its tendrils in almost as many system files.
Yes, you can get by without iTunes if you just want media playback. I use VLC and I won't load iTunes unless I absolutely have to. (I've had the laptop I just installed it on for almost six months, and I only downloaded the darned thing so I could get at Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.) And I know there are plenty of alternative apps I can use to manage my iPod. That's not the point.
The seamless iTunes integration used to be the best thing about the iPod. And until people (bless you, Joss Whedon, but you're one of them) stop doing "iTunes exclusives," I'm going to need it or some other program for downloading those videos. I shouldn't have to live in fear of loading it, because it takes so long to launch, it's so bloated, and it's almost certain to drop an update grenade in my lap. iTunes has become anathema to Apple's simple and elegant persona, and it's time for a fix.
May I suggest, for example, iTunes Lite? Give the iPod masses a slimmed-down version for managing just the device and their music, and give them an online interface for the iTunes Store. Or start carving out features to trim down the program overall. The iPhone does not need to be managed by iTunes. It's a cell phone. Get it a separate sync program that includes the App Store and let it call (pun intended) iTunes for music the way iMovie does. Build a separate media player so we don't have to get QuickTime along with iTunes.
I know Apple thinks it's keeping things simple by offering one program with one-stop shopping. But instead, they're creating bloatware that, increasingly, people don't want to use for any shopping. Apple, get out your scrubbing bubbles. It's time to save iTunes.
First of all, this is not a newbie-friendly exercise. You must back up your data and be prepared to have to restore your phone from scratch. If you're not comfortable with uncertainty, you might want to hold off of doing this. It also most likely voids your warranty.
Why would you go to all this trouble? For me it's the capability to run applications that don't get approved by the official Apple apps store.
Also, I'm telling how to do this in Mac OS X. The Windows procedure now has it's own tool called Winpwn. First, you need to gather a few downloads. Make sure you have upgraded to the current 2.0 firmware in iTunes, and know where it resides.
Then download the Pwnage tool and the bootloader software. You can find the latest links at the iPhone Dev Team's blog. Extract both of these and move the bootloader files to Documents. You'll need an extractor that can handle RAR files. May I suggest The Unarchiver as an open-source solution?
Now launch the Pwnage application and follow the prompts.
It should find your current firmware. Select and press the arrow.
It will either ask you for the bootloader files or find them for you as it did for me.
It will prompt you to create a new custom firmware. Press yes.
It will ask if you are a legit iPhone. Press Yes if you're on AT&T, or press no if you want to unlock the phone.
It will build your custom firmware called an IPSW file and it will take a bit so go eat some fudge or something.
Once it's done it will ask if your iPhone has been pwned before.
If you're going from a pwned 1.1.4 say yes, otherwise say no. In fact, if you have any doubt, just say no. It won't hurt to repwn it.
Now come the calisthenics. Follow the onscreen prompts to turn off the phone. Then follow the prompts exactly. Hold both the power and home buttons, then let go of just the power button and finally the home button when it tells you to.
If all has gone well, you should get a success message.
Close pwnage and move to iTunes. Here you'll restore your iPhone with the newly made firmware. Hold down the option key while you click on the restore button. Find the firmware file iPwnage created. It's the one with custom in the title.
Your iPhone will restart. Give it time. Don't freak out. It will then restore the phone's backup. Then it will sync.
Now you have the Cydia open source app installer as well as the newfangled official Apple App store. It's the best of both worlds.
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