My Mobile Life

One of the challenges that most iPhone users face (particular those of us with chunky fingers) is getting used to the keyboard. Personally I find that even though I have gotten used to it, the lack of raised keys and the lack of key space means that typing is somewhat slow compared to other devices. For this reason I normally avoid writing anything lengthy (though I am writing this post on my iPhone using WordPress at this moment funnily enough).

Given the aforementioned keyboard issues, I was pleasantly surprised to come across this blog post recently about pairing a Bluetooth keyboard (the Apple Wirless keyboard in this case) and a *jailbroken* iPhone. While it looks a little ridiculous given that the keyboard is so much larger than the phone and I suspect most users wouldn’t want to lug around a keyboard of that size just for this purpose it did get me thinking about what other bluetooth keyboards might be available for the iPhone.

Apple Wireless Keyboard paired with iPhone

After doing a bit of research on the web, I’ve found that we’re starting to see some really cool bluetooth keyboards available now, ranging from the One-Handed keyboard to a Roll-Up Keyboard and even a laser based keyboard system. All of these seem to have issues that would prevent their use with the iPhone unfortunately, things like lack of driver support from Apple, no Bluetooth interface (in the case of the roll-up keyboard, etc…

Coming back down to earth a little then leaves me more inclined to test something like the iGo Ultra-slim bluetooth keyboard. That said I have seen some reports of people trying to pair these to the iPhone unsucessfully which means, if I was going to lash out and spend a $100 on a keyboard to use with the iPhone it’ll probably be an Apple Wireless keyboard at this point in time. Having to Jailbreak the iPhone to use the keyboard does put me off however as it voids the warranty. What are your thoughts on this?

As an afterthought, I might add that I suspect we will see quite a few new entries in the market of bluetooth keyboards that have been designed for the iPhone. Here’s an example of one such possibly entry.

This is a question that was put to me the other day and I know for that it’s been on the lips of many a prospective iPhone buyer since late last year (not long after the 3G phone was released). See this forum on Whirlpool for an example.

An extension to the question but one which is invariably linked is “when is the next iPhone going to come out”. In response to that I have to honestly say “I don’t know”, but I thought I’d do a bit of research to see what the other pundits are saying out there. I found numerous articles and many “professional” sounding opinions such as this one: http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97322 which is almost funny now considering the date of the post.

Apple, I should point out is extremely good at keeping things under wraps until they want the public to know about it and the iPhone (a hot seller) would be managed with particular care given that the announcement of a new release would potentially damage current iPhone stock sales. But this doesn’t stop the news media from speculating. In fact Apple enthusiasts love to try and guess when the next big release will be precisely because it’s such a difficult thing to do. Hey, there’s even articles out there with pics that people are touting as the new back of the iPhone. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to get excited about just seeing the back of the phone (whether or not it is indeed real).

So back to our first question,I know there are a number of reasons for asking it. The idea that a recent technology purchase could be superseeded very quickly does get to people. As someone in IT and having had a father who was in IT, I have long ago dismissed this as a part of life. There will always be a newer gadget that does more than yours (not long after you’ve parted with the hard earned cash for your new gizmo). So where does that leave us?

Firstly we have to consider that my opinion wil be somewhat biased given that I have an iPhone and was so enthused with it that I set up this blog. But in all honesty, I actually would prefer that you don’t go out and get an iPhone just for the hell of it (hey, I used to feel special being an iPhone owner, now it seems everywhere I look people have them ).

But jokes aside, you probably already know that the iPhone provides a leap forward in technology by bringing so many different applications (google maps, phone, calendar, camera, web browser, email) into an easy to use phone and now that Apple are doing it more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon or bringing out similar technology. I think the key to the iPhone’s success however is the fact that the platform is so accessible to developers. Just look at the number of apps that have been created for the phone (most of which are available for free or in free versions) since the launch of the AppStore 9 months ago. These applications cover so many areas and needs (fitness, budgeting, mapping) that the convergence of technology represents a revolution in the mobile handset arena.

Given this I don’t think it matters whether there is another release of the iPhone around the corner in 3-6 months (I suspect we may see something by the end of the year) because hardware wise I think the 3G version has it pretty well covered. Yes, the next gen model might be better, faster, stronger, but fundamentally the technology will be much like what we have in the 3G phone and I think that if you were to decide to upgrade once the new model arrived, there will still be a strong second hand market for the existing phones (at least here in Australia where the outright cost of a new iPhone falls just short of $1000).

In summary I think we can say that:

1.) We don’t know for certain when the next iPhone will be released

2.) We don’t know what the next iPhone release will bring

3.) It doesn’t matter all that much (when the next release is or what it will bring). The iPhone represents true value now and that value not be significantly diminshed by the release of a new generation of phone.

Happy iPhone hunting and don’t forget to check out our post on which plan/provider to choose if you are purchasing an iPhone.

Okay, so harddrive space isn’t quite at the premium it used to be (I just picked up a 1TB TimeCapsule brand new on eBay for $500 this week), but I thought this little time might be handy for some. Especially if like me, you like to try and keep your computer reasonably free of clutter and unnecessary files.

MacOsXHints.com posted something about this recently, so I can’t claim to be the original author on this one and you can check out the original post here.

The deal is that when iTunes downloads an iPod or iPhone firmware update, it backs up the existing firmware and stores the old files on your harddrive. These backups are typically around 250MB in size and so a few of them could quickly add up to a gig.

On a Mac the back up location is either ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates (for an iPhone) or
~/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates (for an iPod).

iPhone Firmware backups

On Windows (Vista) I believe the location is: C:/users/[yourusername]/AppData/Roaming/… Computer/iTunes/iPhone Software Update (though please correct me if I’m wrong).

To save yourself some space you can delete any files you find in this location. Or if you’re the conservative type, maybe delete all except the most recent.

Google has released a mobile sync client (in beta) for the iPhone. While I don’t personally use Google Contacts or Calendar I think this may prove to be an interesting alternative for some users, particulary if you’re not Mac based, don’t use Outlook or have become disillusioned with the short-comings of MobileMe (which I signed up for again recently by the way). 

Check out the details on Google’s site here or you can watch this little video that explains how it works.

One of the things that users are likely to find annoying is that all your contacts and calendar items get deleted when you set up Google Mobile Sync on your phone. Though this is similar to what happens when you set up your phone to sync these items using MobileMe. I guess the main thing you want to be sure of is that you’re not going to lose contacts which you don’t have elsewhere.

Other than that this looks like a must have for those who use Google services for contacts/calendar, etc…

Web developer alert! Google Analytics has come to the iPhone. http://analyticsapp.com/

Google Analytics for iPhone

Do you use Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your website? It’s free, so if you don’t you probably should! But, let’s assume that you do, even if your usage of it is a bit sporadic (like mine perhaps). Well, one of the things I love about getting these sorts of apps on the iPhone is that they make it easier to fill little holes in the day (where I’m waiting for something or someone) with productivity related tasks.

Site listing

Google Analytics for the iPhone isn’t a free app. In fact it’s the most expensive one I’ve bought today at $5.99 US (or about $9 AUD). However, as a tax deductible expense and one that will probably increase your billable time (if not rate) I’d say it’s worth a lot more than that.

When you first log in, you see a list of the sites that you have setup Google Analytics for. Once you have selected one you can choose from a list of reports which you can view.

The site overview screen

Here’s a sample of the Visitors report for my business website (Cyberdo). As you can see it looks a lot like the report you would normally see in your browser. From looking at this report I can tell that it’s probably high time that I put some more effort into my site to re-design it and start building a traffic base to it. Guess I better stop blogging and get back to work.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine (thanks again Scott) sent me a link to download a little application called AddressBookSync. The application allows you to sync your address book with your Facebook account and automatigically grabs all matching contacts profile photos and adds them to your address book.

Address Book Sync screenshot

The app includes a screen that shows you all of your Facebook friends which are not in your address book (note: some of these might be listed because their names differ between Facebook and your AddressBook on the Mac). So this provides a quick and easy way to add these people.

Okay, so maybe you’re wondering “I thought this was an iPhone blog”. What does this have to do with my iPhone. Ah, if once you’ve added your friends profile pictures to your address book, if you then sync with your iPhone you see your friend’s pic with on their address card. How cool is that?

Contact on iPhone with Pic

Want to download it? Get it here.

Ever wanted to listen to the radio on your iPhone? Maybe you haven’t purchased any new music lately and you’re getting a bit bored of your own, or maybe your favourite artist is playing live on the wireless.

FStream

Well thanks to a new iPhone application called Fstream released by a French developer you can. The application acts as a web radio and recognises a number of file and play list formats including MP3, OGG/Vorbis, WMA over MMS and PLS, M3U, ASF respectively.

When you initially install the application there is only one radio channel in the application however you can add more by going to Favourites.

Add a favourite

If you’re not connected to WiFi you will need to turn on the Cellular Data option in the More screen before the application will do anything (a little trick I discovered after playing with the app for quite a while and getting frustrated because it kept saying to check my internet connection). Doh!

Turn Cellular Network On

Finding channels to connect to isn’t too hard, though there are a couple things to know when trying to setup a channel. Firstly you don’t always need to specify the format or Bitrate (those seem to be optional fields at least for certain types of streams).

Here’s a couple of streams that I have tested out which I know work:

mms://202.58.32.104/Nova1069 – Brisbane
http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/triplej.asx – Country wide

And you’ll be able to find plenty more here link and here. Happy listening! Note: Pics coming soon.

Add new Web Radio screen

Okay, I don’t know how many other Daylite users there are out there, but personally I’m a big fan. I use it for managing my small web design business along with another product from MarketCircle called Billings (also an awesome tool). So you can imagine my excitement when I found out today that there’s an iPhone app coming for Daylite dubbed Daylite touch. It looks like it’s going to be almost without a doubt one of the best little productivity related apps for the iPhone when it’s released in March this year.

A quick run-down on Daylite for you in case you haven’t heard of it. Daylite allows you to manage your opportunities, projects, communication (links to Apple Mail), contacts (human and organizational) and tasks among other things. When integrated with Billings invoicing and accounting is also covered. Aimed at the small-medium size business, these guys have done a pretty good job of providing just about everything you could ask for in terms of business management tools, except (as yet) an iPhone application.

Here’s a video of the CEO of MarketCircle doing a presentation on the upcoming iPhone app at MacWorld in San Francisco. If you have trouble viewing it you can watch it on the Company’s website here.

The video is a little long and the audio (particularly at first is not very good) but I found it interesting enough to watch the majority of it in one sitting. Hope you get some value out of this too.