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Archive for category iPhone
Fantastic Objective-C Courses
Posted by technohermit in Entry Level Programming, iPhone, Objective-C on 2010/06/11
If you are interested in Objective-C programming, or just plain old C programming, you should check out any books written by Stephen Kochan. I recently took his Objective-C online course (live streaming), an 8-lecture course, with a fantastic forum, for an astounding $75. If you are new to programming in general, don’t fret. Stephen walks you through it in an easy to understand way. Knowing the libraries, on the other hand, will take time. Nothing but your own ambition to learn those will get you there, though. You can find Stephen’s courses here: classroomm.com
His accompanying book, necessary for the course, can be found here: Objective-C 2.0
Plus One for Red Laser
Posted by technohermit in Apps, iPhone on 2009/12/18
I found myself at a Best Buy about three weeks ago, looking around for things to go back home and buy over the internet. What I was doing was my annual adventure into real world Christmas shopping. I hate the real world honestly, mostly because of shopping…at a mall. Anyway, I found this hard drive I’d never seen before, so I pull out my iPhone, and start searching the intrawebz for some reviews. I don’t see anything favorable, so I move on.
Next item, a flat panel TV. Samsung. Nice, so again I go about trying to find the model number and such, type it into Google, find some reviews. Onto another site to check for prices. Rinse, repeat. Boring, really, and somewhat embarrassing. You look like a toolbag standing there hunting items on your iPhone only to walk out of the store an hour later with nothing in hand. How is Best Buy supposed to keep their brick and mortar operation going?
I’ll tell you how, and they need to thank the folks at Occipital Inc for writing the application Red Laser. This handy application costs at present $1.99, and is worth ten times as much in my opinion. It scans UPC’s of products using your iPhone’s camera. Then it searches the web for the item, returning web prices, local prices (by GPS if you choose to turn it on), nutritional info, and more.
So if you’re in Best Buy, you can show them that Wal-Mart has the same TV for less, price match it right there and buy it hassle free for the best price. Sweet. I have been using this at places like Borders and Barnes and Noble, where it is tremendously helpful with books and pricing. Try it out, trust me you’ll use it!
Occipital also makes some other apps, which I’m probably going to check out since Red Laser rocks so hard. Keep up the good work guys, truly genius.
Clearing Safari on iPhone
Posted by technohermit in iPhone on 2009/12/18
Safari on the iPhone is pretty straightforward. Open it, and you can search Google. You can open a new page while keeping your current page, or clear out the url and open another page right in the one you are viewing. Sometimes, though, that nagging buddy or family member wants to jump on your iPhone because they are stuck with a dumbphone, or worse–they are on Verizon.
You want to show off your technology, so of course you oblige. However, reliquishing your phone will let them see your browsing history and the last page you had open. Maybe the last page you had open was the site you ordered their holiday gifts from. Maybe it was worse, perhaps the site you thought about ordering them something from but then didn’t–you stingy son of a…
Well, fear not, clearing the history is simple enough. Click the little book icon on the lower toolbar, and it brings up the Bookmarks page. There you’ll see a link for your History. Click on that, and your History page opens. On the lower toolbar, on the left, is the Clear button. Click that, click confirm, and done. Simple enough.
If you don’t want them to see the last page you opened, that’s easy enough as well. Just open Safari, click the new page icon on the lower right, but don’t type in an address or a search. Click the new page button again, and close the page you don’t want them to see. This way, when they open Safari, it simply opens a blank page. This should be done regardless if you expect someone to use your phone or not. When I am finished browsing the web on my iPhone, I make it a habit to clear my recent pages. If they would only add this as an option to open blank windows by default, I’d be much happier.
You can also do the following from the Settings application on your home screen:
- Purge Cookies
- Choose How to Handle Cookies (Always accept, Accept from Visited, or Never Accept)
- Turn JavaScript on/off
- Enable/Disable Pop Up Blocking
- Clear Your Cache
- Clear Your History
- Turn on Autofill
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to clear single items from your history like you can do in big boy Safari. Hopefully that feature is coming down the line! The cache is something you may want to clear out once in a while, although there is no definitive way to find out its size on a stock iPhone. Or, at least they don’t make it obvious.
iPhone Games Suitable For Young Kids (And Adults Alike)
Posted by technohermit in iPhone, Kids Games, Uncategorized on 2009/10/28
When I got the iPhone 3G, my daughter was just shy of her second birthday. My friends and family teased me, asking if she had written any programs on it yet. I replied, “No, she’s not allowed to touch the iPhone. She already insists on using my Macbook Pro!” They thought I was kidding, but at the time, she really was navigating around the screen on my laptop. People have been known to call me a techno-geek, and I suppose they might fear for my little girl’s social acceptance (jokingly, of course), wondering about pocket protectors and GPS tracking when she goes to Pre-K.
I made a promise to my wife that we wouldn’t be the parents whose kid has a $500 phone before she hits Kindergarten, but I may have to bend the rules a bit on that one. She may not need the phone, but I’m seriously considering getting her an iPod touch for sure. I have been letting her play with my iPhone basically since she was two years old (and she just turned 3.) She can now unplug it properly, doesn’t try to dial 911 or some other random number, and actually takes pretty good care to leave it on a table or other acceptable place. There was definitely a progression to the applications that I downloaded for her to try, and I will review them here, in case you are also blessed with a budding little computer geek of your own.
The first one I ever downloaded for her specifically was TappyTunes. There are many songs in this app, and you can check out the publisher, Utilitouch, here. This app is basically a bunch of songs, broken into music snippets. When you tap a tempo on the screen, the song plays. The faster you tap, the faster the song plays. The idea is to get it to sound like the song you already know by heart, but for a two-year old, the tempo doesn’t matter much. You can, however, play the song as well, from half speed through double speed. A nice feature.
The Alphabet Song, for instance, is amazing. The letters come on the screen as you tap, and they can be “plucked” around the screen, too. There are a bunch of similar children’s songs, and I’d be willing to say she fell in love with music and my phone because of TappyTunes. Here are some screen shots current as of 10/25/2008:
TappyTunes
Categories in TappyTunes
Other Songs
Alphabet Song
Another application she was quick to learn and fascinated with is a very, very simple one. It’s called BubbleWrap and it’s published by Orsome. There is a Pro version as well, where you can win US $250.00. Here’s a screenshot:
BubbleWrap
All-in-all, a good, fun application for kids, and I’m not ashamed at all to say I play it. Simple, and lots of fun.
If you remember Etch-A-Sketch this next one is similar in looks. It’s called Pocket Doodle, and has a few things the big bad original didn’t. You draw on it by selecting a pen or marker shape, and slide your finger around on the screen. I am a little disappointed you can’t shake it to clean the screen, but the slider mechanism at the bottom works well. You can slide it partially to clear part of the display, if you like. Nice and easy to use, my daughter still enjoys it:
Pocket Doodle
Those are a few that I had downloaded when my daughter first showed an interest in using the iPhone, and she still enjoys using them over a year later. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy them as well.
iPhone Doubles Contact List in OS 3.0
Posted by technohermit in iPhone, iTunes, Mail, Uncategorized on 2009/10/26
Prior to syncing your iPhone with MobileMe, be sure to turn off the syncing of your address book in iTunes or you will end up with double contacts when you view the list “All Contacts” in your address book on your iPhone. This may seem like a no brainer to some, but it had me baffled for a while.
I had an issue with the speaker port on my iPhone 3G, and sorry to say *cough*, it had to be replaced with a new phone under Applecare. I have had “MobileMe” since it was .Mac, so I was in the Apple Store with a fresh iPhone, ready to leave. No contact info in my phone, say wha?!? I don’t know about you, but I don’t memorize phone numbers. I rely on my phone to do that. So I sync up with MobileMe right in the store and I’m good to go.
Here’s the tricky part. I didn’t realize that if I already synchronized with MobileMe, iTunes would still add my contacts from my Mac, even though MobileMe gets it’s list from…my Mac. What I had to do was delete all of my email address information and re-sync with iTunes.
To avoid that mess, before you sync with iTunes, follow the steps below:
First, open iTunes. Go into Preferences in the File Menu, or hit ⌘-Comma. Under Devices, check the “Prevent iPods and iPhones from syncing automatically” checkbox:
iTunes Preferences--Devices
Now you can plug in your iPhone, ad nothing will be automatically changed.
Next, select your iPhone in the Devices List, and select the Info Tab at the top. You want to uncheck any selections in that tab that would also be synced with your MobileMe account:
iTunes iPhone Info Tab
If you have doubled your contacts already, you may have to restore your phone in the summary tab, which is unfortunate, but sometimes worth it anyway. I’ve read some posts about unhappy owners having to do this, as it takes some time. Before you try that, you may want to sync/unsync whatever duplicate information you have stuck on your iPhone and see if iTunes will remove it.
If you have tried this to no avail, please comment below and I’ll try to help you sort it out. If it worked, please let me know that, too.
Thanks for stopping by. :)
E-Mail and Optimum Online — Updated With Response From OOL
Posted by technohermit in Internet, iPhone, Mail, OS X, Programs, Uncategorized on 2009/10/23
[Looking for iPhone settings and Optimum Online? Click here. ]
[Looking for POP/SMTP settings? Incoming and Outgoing Servers are both: mail.optonline.net. Scroll down for the outgoing settings.]
Update: Here it is, response straight from Optimum:
“Thank you for contacting Optimum Online regarding your question about email. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and will be happy to assist. I do apologize, apart from normal unencrypted POP/SMTP there is no SSL option at this time to encrypt your connections.”
Sorry guys, that’s it. Nothing about any if/when they might include it, or any hint of a plan to include it at all. Unfortunate. [/Update]
I get a lot of hits on my post here about the iPhone Mail and Optimum Online, so I figured I’d write a post on regular old computer mail as well.
The problem basically is that Optimum doesn’t allow SSL connections to their servers, either outgoing or incoming. They only allow secure log-in to their servers through HTTPS port 443 on their Optimum Webmail Portal. I currently have a question in to them about using SSL with third party applications and am awaiting a response. You see, on 1xRTT or 2G EDGE, it is still quite fast to download e-mails through your phone. But in order to pass encrypted information, you would need to access your e-mail through your phone’s browser of choice (Safari on the iPhone, in my case.)
This problem extends to your mail application regardless of operating system. I will show you how to set up an email address using Optimum Online through Mail on OS X.
Mail, helpful application it wants to be, will automatically check your connection settings when you type in your name and email address. Poor Mail, though, fails miserably at connecting via SSL, and asks you if you’s like to continue, or setup your account manually.
So, to start setting up your e-mail (if you don’t yet have one setup through OOL, you can do so here) first open Mail. Then open preferences with ⌘-, (holding ⌘ and pressing comma.)
Mail Preferences
This brings you to your account page, where you will begin setting up your new account. I am using Mail on Snow Leopard, but the steps to follow are similar enough in Leopard and Tiger for you to follow along. Click on the “Accounts” tab in the top of the window, which brings you to this screen:
Accounts Pane
Once there, click on the “+” button to add your new account. Mail will ask you for your Full Name, User Name, and Password, and then try to automatically set you up with the correct servers:
Add Account Screen
Click continue, and Mail will tell you it cannot connect securely to the servers:
Mail Password Security Warning
Click “Setup Manually” so you can adjust the account settings, and begin sending and receiving your mail. Using Optimum, you are going to setup a POP mailbox, and both your incoming and outgoing mail servers are mail.optonline.net :
Incoming Settings
Click continue, and then you want to disable the SSL by unchecking the “Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)” check box, but still have “Authentication” set to “Password”:
Uncheck SSL
Click Continue, and you will be brought to the outgoing server section. Enter a description for the server, which is something you will use to identify it in Mail. It has no other significance. Check the box that says “Use only this server”, as well as “Use Authentication”. Enter in your username without the “@optonline” or “@optimum” ending, as well as your password:
Outgoing Setup
You will then be told, once again, Mail cannot connect securely to the server. Again, click “Setup Manually”, which takes you to here:
Outgoing Security
Leave these settings intact, and click “Continue”. You will be shown an Account Summary screen, and both incoming and outgoing mail should say SSL off. Be sure the “Take Account Online” box at the bottom is checked, and click “Create”.
I am waiting to hear back from Optimum about a different port or setting allowing SSL connections via third party mail clients, and hopefully I just couldn’t find the correct port to use. If not, here’s to hoping they are working on getting SSL enabled soon!
iPhone – Optimum Online Mail – iPhone Mail Settings
Posted by technohermit in Apple, Email Settings, iPhone, Uncategorized, Web Tech on 2009/10/09
I originally posted this to my old blog, which I’ve deleted. Hopefully you find this 
, it needed to be updated anyway….
To use Optimum Online as your SMTP (outgoing) mail server for your accounts (which is how you probably have them set up at your desktop/laptop):
On the iPhone:
1. Go into Settings
2. Mail, Contacts, Calendars
3. Choose an account
4. Scroll to Outgoing Mail Server section, find SMTP, click on that
5. Add server…
6. Enter mail.optonline.net just like you’re setting up Mail or Outlook
7. You must enter your user name (WITHOUT @optonline.net). Should be your full
e-mail address now, like so: myemail@optonline.net
8. Enter your password (8 chars max, even if it’s really more)
9. SSL off
10. Select Authentication
11. Choose ‘Password’
12. Click the arrow at upper left to go back one page
13. Server Port (at bottom) should read 587.
14. Turn off the AT&T outgoing server. (Might not need to, but I did to be sure it was working.)
That’s it. Now you can use mail.optonline.net as your outgoing mail server for any of your accounts, just like through your Outlook or Mail (or, um, whatever mail client you use.) I turned off all of the other SMTP servers that I had previously tried to set up.
Now it doesn’t matter if you’re on Edge, 3G, or Wifi, your mail will still get out of your iPhone and to your recipient. I did try in the beginning to have gmail do it for me, but they forward your mail and tell you who it was forwarded on behalf of. I thought that was crap. The whole point was so you could reply to someone’s email from the address they sent it to, and they need not know that you have another email address. This way is much more of what I needed then to confuse my clients with my personal email address and my family with my business address.
