Web/Tech

Wow, this has been a big Apple day for me. Not only did I manage to get my seemingly dead ("bricked") iPhone working after an initially disastrous upgrade to iOS 5 -- note to self: don't be one of the first to upgrade anything from now on, even an Apple product -- but I felt the fear and downloaded OS X Lion this afternoon, much more successfully. Right now I feel like I'm King of the World. Or at least, of my MacBook Pro. After only an hour or so of playing around with Lion, I can tell that I'm…

I was one of the would-be early adopters of iOS 5 who had my iPhone bricked by a screw-up with overloaded Apple servers. (Until yesterday I didn't know what "bricked" meant; after getting a black screen with no ability to connect with iTunes, I sure do know now). It was hugely frustrating to have iTunes tell me that the iOS 5 update couldn't be completed, and then to have a restore process also fail. I was left with an utterly unworkable iPhone, so I made an appointment with the Genius Bar at the Bridgeport Village Apple Store for 12:30 pm…

Oh, Apple, you're making life difficult for me. Decisions... decisions. This is summertime. Living should be easy. But I've spent the past few days wondering (1) whether I should upgrade my MacBook Pro from the Snow Leopard to Lion OS, and (2) if a MacBook Air would be a nice early birthday present from me to myself. First quandary first: it's scary to install a major operating system upgrade. Before I switched back to the Mac world I was traumatized by Microsoft's Windows "improvements." (The quotation marks are necessary because installing a supposedly new and improved operating system sometimes would…

A few weeks ago I did something really stupid. I was happily engaged in shooting some videos with my Sony camera for a DVD that would show my granddaughter, Evelyn, some beautiful Oregon scenery and how her grandpa/grandma hike along the Metolius River. Then, even though I have a 8GB camera card, the camera stopped working and an error message popped up on the screen. "Out of storage," or something like that. Damn, I thought, we're only halfway through this hike and I want to show Evelyn some shots of what is coming up next. I decided to delete some…

I've been a regular visitor to the Huffington Post web site. But why? Beats me. I rarely read any news stories, because almost all of them are copied (some would say, stolen) from genuine journalistic sources like the New York TImes and the Associated Press. I'd rather get my news from the original outlet. And in a more attractive format. The Huffington Post looks like its trying to be the National Enquirer of the Internet. Gigantic flashy headlines mesh with sensationalistic celebrity gossip in a mix that never appealed to me. I put this web site on my daily visit…

iPhone users like me are fond of trashing AT&T. For good reasons. For several years my wife and I have paid a hefty monthly fee for the "privilege" of getting crappy (basically, unusable) cellular reception in our home. So we've got cell phones which will barely make telephone calls when we're not out and about. Not a huge deal, since we have a landline, but irritating. Sometimes I want to make a call when my wife is on the phone. Other times, someone who has AT&T and wants to use their phone has to walk up our driveway and search…

I'm always looking for new and better GPS'ized apps for my iPhone 4. To me never (well, hardly ever) getting lost and nearly always being able to find restaurants, coffee houses (!!!), shopping centers and such is one of the top advantages of having a smart phone. A few weeks ago an email blurb from the Localscope P.R. manager popped up on my iPhone. Glancing at it overly quickly, and failing to scroll all the way down the message, I learned about this recently released "where is...?" app, but failed to notice that I could get a promocode for a…

Wow, that was a rare (and unwelcome) blast to the past -- finding this on the Stanley Security web site: Sign Up for eAccountManager or eAccountManager PlusPlease note the PC system requirements for eAccountManager/eAccountManager Plus:IBM compatible computerInternet Explorer 5.0 or newer; Netscape 6.0 or newer It's been a long time since I've come across an Internet site that hasn't noticed there are other computers than IBM PCs, and other web browsers than Internet Explorer and Netscape. (Netscape stopped being supported in 2008, and few people used it after 2002.) This makes me wonder whether our security company communicates with police…

Whew! I just saved myself $49 and possibly a whole lot of aggravation, judging from the reviews of iLife '11 that I read on Apple's web site. If you're thinking of upgrading to new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, check out the largely dismal reactions of those who made the mistake of moving from iLife '09 (which I'm using on my MacBook Pro). I love iPhoto and iMovie. So I figured that iLife '11 would have new and improved versions of these great programs. Unfortunately, iPhoto '11 and iMovie '11 appear to be inferior. I sure hope Apple gets…

I had my annual physical today. When my family doctor asked her obligatory mental health question, something like "How happy are you?," I heard myself saying: "I feel great. After all, I have an iPhone 4." She typed something into her notebook computer. Probably I now have a diagnosis of excessive attachment to technology disorder. (Hey, that's fine. And entirely accurate.) Here's what I've learned about my best electronic friend: she wants to be naked when she's touched by me. I wasn't sure about this for a while, so experimented with dressing her in various outfits. Apple sent me a…

Right away my dearly beloved iPhone 4 replaced the Flip Video camera that I used to carry around with me in case I witnessed space aliens landing, or some other newsworthy event that I could film and then sell the video for millions. (Hey, I can dream.) Now I've also relegated my Garmin Nuvi GPS device to the Drawer of Unused Electronic Items, because the Navigon app for the iPhone functions better than a standalone Nuvi does. I can say this with considerably confidence because I've used the Navigon app quite a bit in the past month or so, notably…

I just finished watching a liveblog of the Apple press conference where supposed antenna problems with the iPhone 4 were discussed. Steve Jobs persuasively pointed out that all smart phones have similar problems, and very few users of the iPhone 4 are dissatisfied with it.In my recent post about how I like the iPhone 4 after playing around with it for five days, I said: When I put my finger over the crease on the bottom left side that Consumer Reports has identified as a lowered signal strength culprit, one bar appears to drop off. To me, that's no big deal.…

I guess every iPhone 4 should come with one of those legalistic disclaimers: "Your results may vary." Because I've been playing around with my new upgraded phone for five days now, and my review is pithily simple.Love it!The antenna/signal strength problem has been getting a lot of attention. Friday Apple is holding a press conference. Maybe they'll give every iPhone owner free bumpers -- which would be nice, since I forked out $29 for mine after I heard they solved the antenna issue (only to discover that the bumper keeps the phone from fitting correctly in my much-beloved Sirius satellite…

Eight days ago I was really excited about ordering an iPhone 4 -- Apple's newest must have techno-gadget.Today, not nearly so much. I can personally confirm Gizmodo's reporting: "Apple's iPhone 4 pre-ordering is a total disaster."I found it impossible to get any response from either the Apple or AT&T web sites when I tried to upgrade my 3G iPhone. No, that isn't true. I got some curt error messages -- not exactly the sort of thing I've come to expect from the usually smoothly functioning world of Apple. Apparently it is more AT&T's fault than Apple's, according to Gizmodo.The reason…

I'm a fervent devotee of all things Apple'ish. I believe that if I buy enough gadgets from Apple, I will achieve perfect (roughly speaking) happiness. I have an iPod touch, an iPhone, and a MacBook Pro, plus two Airport Extremes that smoothly and easily connect me wirelessly to the Internet and a printer. Which -- the printer -- I just replaced, again, after my Samsung decided that it would be fun to print half of a page, then stop dead, leaving the paper jammed.I researched the issue via Google and learned that this is a common complaint of the Samsung…

Once again, this morning I found myself transfixed before my MacBook Pro, glued to Engadget's live blog of a Steve Jobs presentation of Apple's newest must-have techno-wonder.The iPhone 4. And this time it truly is a must-have for me. I was strongly attracted to the iPad when Jobs revealed its appealing features, but after the show was over I was left with a nagging feeling of "cool toy, yet what would I do with it that I can't already?"Different reaction to the iPhone 4, for sure.Currently I have an iPhone 3G which can't even capture video (unlike the 3Gs, a…