Archive for the ‘iPhone’ Category

Broken iPhone = New iPhone!

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

So for the last little while, I’ve been receiving phone calls and happily answering them on my fancy new iPhone 3GS. However, this past week, I noticed that sometimes, when I received a call, I could hear the other person perfectly, however, the person on the other end couldn’t hear me – strange, no?

At first I thought this was just a Rogers (”Canada’s most reliable network”) problem. The situation seemed to always involve me being in some area that you wouldn’t be surprised to have bad reception – so I thought nothing of it (apart from being a little annoyed)… until this last Friday, when I was making a call from home…

I know for a fact that there is a Rogers tower not too far from my house, and I also had “full reception” on my handset – so, why was it that when I made a call from my home that the other party couldn’t hear anything I was saying and hung up??

Good question – well, after some investigation, it turns out that my “fancy” iPhone had a hardware problem – basically, the microphone would only work if I applied pressure on the phone or if I was lucky and it just decided to work that moment.

Of course, when I finally figured out what the problem was, I was very annoyed to say the least – what would happen now? Do I take my phone to Future Shop where I bought it from and wait a month for them to send it to Apple to have it serviced? Damn it I should have bought that extended warranty! ……. but wait, I had a better idea – let me check on the Apple website and see what sort of services are offered at their retail stores??

I went to the Apple.ca website and went to the “Market Mall” store page – I saw there that I could make an appointment with an “Apple Genius” which would be able to give me some technical support – great no?

So I made an appointment for Saturday (the next day – I think I took the last appointment). When I arrived at the Apple store, I wasn’t really sure what to do… so I went to the back where the “Genius Bar” is. I looked up at this huge LCD that they had behind the counter, where I was happily surprised to see my name as “Next in line” to meet with an “Apple Genius”. Wow! Great!

I was then greeted by an Orange-shirted and very energized employee who had my name in their iPhone and checked me in… I was told to have a seat (in front of a bank of new Apple computers of course) and wait ’till my name was called.

Once I was called up, I explained my story to the representative – not knowing what to expect really… He listened to me and they just responded with “we need to swap your iPhone – let me see if we have any in-stock”. WHAT? I thought to myself… this is great, I have a problem, and they fix it – what a concept… !?

So needless to say, I walked out of the Apple store with a spanking new iPhone!

Moral of the story: relax, you bought a product from Apple – check with them first before freaking out!

~R

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iPhone OS 3.0: First Impressions and Tethering in Canada!

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

So I was lucky enough to be part of the Apple Developer Program and get my hands on the new iPhone OS 3.0 firmware for my iPhone 3G.

I will say one thing, the new OS is nice, but glitchy. I had a jailbroken iPhone before, so the availability of things like Copy & Paste, Tethering, MMS, SMS forwarding and deleting etc, where not big “woohooo’s!” for me by any means.

However, being the geek that I am, I just HAD TO try it.

Everything worked as expected except for the following:

Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)

It is absolutely horrible. It might be my Sony Ericsson stereo headset, but I highly doubt it. Anytime you do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, on the iPhone, the music would skip. Also, none of the buttons on my headset worked (play/pause, previous/next track, etc).

Also, when watching video, the audio and the video were grossly out of sync, making for a very bad and unbearable experience.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

This just simply didn’t work for me. I know that I have to do a hack using an updated ipcc file, but even when following the tutorials online, I couldn’t get MMS to work.

Internet Tethering

This I partially got working and is the main reason I’m making this post. I managed to get it working through Bluetooth, but not through the USB connection. I find this kind of strange since there are more things that can go wrong when doing it over Bluetooth. Here is how I did it:

  1. Get the iPhone 3.0 Firmware by joining the Developer Program and install it
  2. Download the following file: iPhone 3.0 Canadian Carriers IPCC Files
  3. Read the instruction carefully (I take no responsibility for anything that happens to your iPhone or Phone Bill)
  4. Install the Rogers_ca.ipcc file:
    1. Open iTunes 8.1 or later
    2. “Option”-Click on the “Check for Update” button
    3. Find the Rogers_ca.ipcc file and select it
    4. You’re done
  5. So once you have step 4 done, fully restart your iPhone (hold down the power and home buttons until it turns off, then start it up again)
  6. You should now see an “Internet Tethering” option under Settings > General > Network > Internet TetheringInternet Tethering 1
  7. Turn it on and choose “Turn On” for the “Turn Bluetooth On?” dialog that pops up
  8. Turn Bluetooth on in your computer and search for new devices
  9. Select your iPhone and install the “PAN” network adapter
  10. Connect to the iPhone through your Bluetooth panel on your computer
  11. You should now have internet access through your iPhone!Internet Tethering 3Internet Tethering 2

The nice thing is that your iPhone remains completely usable when it is in Internet Tethering mode, so you can still look up contacts and other things while surfing the net on your computer.

Has anyone managed to get MMS and/or USB Tethering working on Rogers Wireless in Canada?

Update: I’m finding that my battery life is quite poor with the 3.0 firmware – I had to recharge my iPhone today at work for the first time in months.

Update 2: Seems like the poor battery life might have been attributed to leaving the “Internet Tethering” setting switch “ON”, even without using the function.

~ Rabee

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Got Towed

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

So I was lucky enough to get some free tickets to go see the Calgary Flames play against the Vancouver Canucks last night. I drove down to a friend’s place that lives close to the Saddledome, parked my car, and walked over with him.

What a fantastic game it was. A total of 6 regulation time goals, back and forth between both teams, overtime, and even a shootout.

I had free tickets, so I thought, “hey, get yourself two hot-dogs, have a couple of beer, and just enjoy it!”. After all, it has been a stressful couple of weeks at work.

Sadly though, the Flames lost in the shootout. No worries I thought, I had a great time and probably witnessed one of the best saves by Mika Kiprusoff – EVER!

So we walk back to my friend’s place, drop him off, then make my way to my car.

Have you ever gone to where you think you left your car, looked around, walked back and forth, made sure that no one was watching you walk back and forth, then thought to yourself, WTF?

And that’s when things started to settle in… my car must have been stolen.

A few moments later, I notice the “Bus Stop” sign, and that’s when the next logical thought comes to me – my car was towed!

So what do you do when you realize your car has been towed? Do you call tow truck companies? Do you call the police?

Lucky for me, a police car was driving by – so I waved my arms and they pulled over. I explained what “I thought” happened, and they suggested that I call the “Municipal Impound Lot”… so I say, “OK, so do you have their number?”

That’s when the cop looked at me and thought to himself, “Do I have 411 written on my forehead or something?”.

Reluctantly, they give me the phone number. I called the impound lot, which is conveniently open 24 hours a day, every day of the week, and asked them if they have my car. I gave the details, and yep, sure enough, it’s there.

So now I have to figure out how to get there at 11:00pm – with no car of course. I’m thinking to myself now, “this is going to cost me at least $200, and now I have to pay for a cab to get down there as well!??” – talk about insult to injury.

So I pull out my handy iPhone and search the map… and that’s when my night gets a little better: who knew that the city would build a train station 2 blocks away from the impound lot!? And lucky for me, I was two blocks away from a train station that could get me there!

So now I’m at the impound lot, and they say to get my car out, I have to show them:

  1. Driver’s License
  2. Valid Insurance
  3. Valid Registration

Of course, #2 and #3 are in the car. So they tell me to have a seat and wait for the security guard to escort me to my car to get them. So I wait, and wait and wait. Finally, security comes, and takes me to my car.

Now I have to go back to the office, and pay my fine. I was pleasantly surprised that the towing was only $75. But then the lady says, “you also have a $40 ticket to pay on top of that, and a $10 administration fee”.

At this point, I don’t give a crap. I pay the fines. Now I have to wait for security to escort me to my car… again.

Finally, I get in the car and drive home… I didn’t make it home ’till 1:00am.

Let’s tally up my costs:

  • Hot Dogs: $15
  • Beer: $25 (bought one for my friend)
  • Car Towage etc: $130

Grand total: $170

So my “Free” hockey game ended up costing me $170… go figure.

Moral of the story: Don’t park in a bus zone.

~Rabee

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iPhone Charger Recall – How to Get it Replaced

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

For all you iPhone owners out there, make sure you replace your wall charger if it doesn’t have a “green dot” on the side where the charger plugs into the wall (see the picture below). Click here for recall details from Apple.

iPhone Wall Charger

iPhone Wall Charger

I personally kept forgetting to do this until yesterday.

Getting it replaced is easy. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Take your iPhone + charger with you. No you don’t need to bring the cable with you.
  2. Go to the Apple store nearest you. For those without an Apple store you can do it online by clicking here (then skip to step 5).
  3. Go to the cash register in the Apple store.
  4. Tell them you want to replace your recalled charger.
  5. They will ask you for your iPhone serial number (Settings > General > About). If doing it online, then you will also need the last 4 digits of your iPhone’s IMEI number – it can be found in the same place you found the serial number. Note, I have not done it online, so this is as far as I can take you!
  6. That’s it!

Now that wasn’t too hard was it? Pass the message on to any of your friends who are as lazy as me!

~ Rabee

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