August 2007: Monthly Archive

Not satisfied with the selection of free jaw dropping Gelaskins wallpapers I guided you to earlier this week? No? You guys are so fickle. Is there no end to your gluttony?

Ok, it’s Friday, so I’ll throw you a bone - eight yummy wallpapers to satisfy your incessant hunger for pixels. Enjoy.

So here I am fiddling with my iPhone, when a rare yet not entirely uncommon problem rears itself.

Every now and again my iPhone’s touchscreen exhibits a rather strange behavior. When I tap to select a specific item in various applications, the touchscreen misidentifies my tap and executes it in a completely different area code. The device can remain in that state for five or more seconds. No matter how many times you tap on a specific item, something else is selected. Example…I tap on very first new email in my inbox to open it, and the very last email is selected instead. Sound familiar to you? Thought so.

Well I think I may have found a solution, or at least the cause. My suspicion is that the iPhone’s accelerometer is to blame, even in applications that do not support landscape mode. I came to that conclusion because my ill registered taps had a predictable pattern, as if the touchscreen thought the device were being held in a different orientation. I ruled out this being a simple calibration issue common to typical touchscreen Smartphones and PDAs, because…were this the case…the item above or below my taps would be selected. These spurious selections are nowhere near the location of my intended taps.

So what is the solution? Once I determined the cause I figured out that when these moments of touchscreen epilepsy afflict my iPhone, I could snap it out of this state by tilting the device forward in a near horizontal spacial orientation, as if it were lying flat on a table. Sure enough, after this change in relative position, everything worked normally.

If this happens to you, simply tilt the device forward, then back again. That should do the trick!

Got it? Good. Now stop bothering me while I’m tapping.

Finding just the right case for your iPhone can be a real challenge - with so many case options, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of accessories. Smartphone Experts (they have a diploma proving they’re experts) offers a colorful line of stylish leather cases of every form factor, even horizontally aligned pouches for those who prefer the “I’m packing heat” look.

The SPE SidePouch sports a magnet flap and belt-clip design, priced at just $29.95. It’s availabe in five flavors - Black, Cocoa Brandy, Red Brandy, Saddle Brandy, Cream Brandy, and Brandy Brandy. Someone at Smartphone Experts must have a taste for Brandy.

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Psst! Hey buddy, over here. Yeah, you - the one in front of the keyboard. You looking to buy a notebook or iPhone, real cheap? I know where you can get a “hot” bargain. These here just ahem fell off the truck, as they say.

My supplies are rather limited, at least until another “shipment” arrives. Heheh.

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Nothing could be more relaxing than a luxurious home theater environment, complete with movie theater seating. Just lean back in your comfy reclining chair, and immerse yourself in a great flick brought to life by a huge projection screen. Pure ecstasy.

That is until you are ripped back into reality by the unmistakable sound of your iPhone being crushed by the very chair you are sitting in, like the jaws of a giant can crusher. Unlike the movie you were watching, this story doesn’t have a happy ending.

This is precisely what happened to one person, who posted his experience (complete with photos) on Flickr. Here’s the story…

My barely month-old iPhone met its end last night in the home theater. Unbeknownst to me, the phone slipped out of my pocket and down between the cushion and side of the recliner. At the end of the movie, I had a little trouble pushing in the footrest. However, after a few increasingly enthusiastic shoves, I was able to snap the footrest back into place. After a few minutes, I noticed my iPhone was missing. Upon searching the chair, I discovered the phone underneath the recliner with part of the lower half shattered, but it still worked. I had repeatedly crunched my phone in the metal mechanism of the recliner. Luckily, the folks at my local Apple store were kind enough to send me a new 8GB iPhone for free.

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The iPhone hacking bar has been lowered. Significantly lowered, in fact; replacing the command line applications are GUI applications. While it’s true that GUI applications were available, iFuntastic was only for PowerPC Macs. Well, no more. There’s AppTappInstaller, a new GUI app for hacking on OSX, and there’s iBrickr, a GUI app for hacking on Windows. There’s already installation guides available for the faint of heart.

Some of the free wallpapers over at Gelaskins.com are great. The artists get bio pages and everything. While you’re there, you could check out the gelaskins for the iPhone. Gelaskins are basically art sticker backs that you apply to the iPhone. They’re not as free, but not bad either at $14.95. [via]

Let someone else find out if this site is legitimate. The site iPhoneSimFree.com promises three free unlocks to the top 3 media applicants. I’m pretty sure that this will go to larger sites first, but I’m applied anyway. They expect a full launch to the public shortly thereafter.

I just received a text message earlier today from AT&T, notifying me they are eliminating itemized details in billing, which has been the cause in a recent massive bloat in billing from the wireless carrier.

At&T free msg: We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need full paper bill? Call 611

Nice to see AT&T going green. And it only took public humiliation to change their policy. Who knew?

Thanks to Scott Berks for tipping me as well.

AT&T has made a change to my bill, and I didn’t ask for it. I just received this text message from 604-1:

AT&T free msg: We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need full paper bill? Call 611.

Awww, no more 300 page box bills. Hooray for the environment! Also, and I’m sure this is totally unrelated, but this will save AT&T a wad of cash on postage.