Jeffro's Corner

iPhone 3GS Battery

2009-07-01T17:09:00.003-04:00

Of all of the things to be skeptical about regarding iPhone 3GS The
compass, the ease of copy and paste, and especially the voice control,
you would think one of these would be the flop. No one I think,
anticipated the battery life to be non-sufficient.
At the very least I think loyal iPhone customers expected the
battery to perform to the same standards as iPhone 3G. However this
is not the case. Although apple claims they have
Managed to improve battery life, this writer has experienced
otherwise. When u think About it, it makes perfect sense. Apple did

not physically change the battery from the 3G to the 3GS, yet changed
alot of other hardware. Apple changed the camera, the processor, the
ram, the video processor, however they left their battery the same!
Am I talking about a little bit of a difference? No, that would be
Understandable- not welcome, but understandable. On my 3G i used to
get up at around 8:30 daily, with a full charge. Setting out on my day
I would check my email a few times a day, take a picture or 2, check
out the app store, browse the net, and maybe play some games. When it
was time to go to bed at 10:30/11:30, I would have approximately 40%
battery life. I say approximately because before 3GS u couldn't tell
percentage wise how much juice was left, unless you jailbroke.

With my 3GS I wake up almost at the same time and do about the

exact same stuff, mind you I do it much faster. When it is time to retire

for the evening I am down to 10-20% battery remaining.

In addition to the above information of my daily use, it is important

for you to know that my battery slider is turned low, and I have engaged

my auto-lock to start after 1 minute. I also think it would be interesting

for you to know that I typically have my iPhone set to vibrate. This means

when I am playing games I am usually doing so without sound.

This as far as I am concerned is absolutely unacceptable and this

wrong needs to be righted from apple. Please pass the URL for this blog

around to your friends and family and especially anyone you know with

an iPhone.

Sent from my iPhone

iWT Library

2009-06-30T17:17:00.005-04:00

Brothers and Sisters, I want to welcome you and hope that this helps you in achieving what you want to do. If you need help please don’t hesitate to email me, or for those of you that know my cell phone number, feel free to give me a call. I did this using a mac, so that is what I will be outlining today, I am sure that there are ways to do it on a PC but since I stay away from them as much as possible I will not be explaining that method.

Now this isn’t the easiest task in the world. But once it goes it is really quite simple. I however, tried this same method months ago. I am thankful that I held on to the very very hard to find file that you need to upload on the iPhone that contains all of the Library. That is my main purpose of this blog entry, to make it easy for you to find the files that you need to upload. There are two files. The first file is the WT Index, and the second file is the WT LIBRARY FULL.

The first thing you need to do, is go to the app store and download the app called “iSilo” it should cost $9.99 + applicable taxes. After you have that program and it’s on your iphone, download the two files I mentioned above here:

WT LIBRARY FULL

WT INDEX

Now that you have downloaded both of those files to your computer. Here is where the fun begins. Make sure that you are on a wireless internet connection and that you are plugged into Mac via the usb cable.

DO NOT LET YOUR IPHONE SLEEP DURING THIS PROCESS, IF YOU NEED TO TURN AUTO-LOCK OFF: DO THIS

Open iSilo, and you should see some links at the bottom of the app. And three dots in the top right,
Tap the three dots.
Tap on the link for server - Now you should see file server view
You will see a subsection labeled ‘Enable Server’
Make sure that When is selected to Always, and that your status is on.
under server address you should see an address like http://jeff-s-iphone.local:8080 - Write this down (case sensitive)
You should also see a subsection that says ‘Access’ - ‘Require password’ Tap that
Select on
Create a user name and password
Now on your Mac go to ‘Go’ and select ‘Connect to Server’ - OR - Just hit command + K on your keyboard
Type in address that you wrote down in step 7
click on Connect
It will ask you for the user name and password that you created, enter those in and select OK
Now a finder window will open displaying the contents in that app.
Now locate the two files you downloaded earlier and drag and drop them into this window, let the Copy complete,
Eject the server, disconnect your iphone and launch iSilo
Select the portion of the Watchtower Library that you would like to use

iReader, iTablet, MacBook Mini

2009-06-29T20:01:00.005-04:00

So in similarity to my last post. I wanted to compose a piece based on what I believe the next product from the Geniuses at Apple Inc. will be. I am basing this piece on the well known fact that Apple placed an order for 10" LCD screens back in March.

The First is the iReader.

With the popularity over the recent Kindle from Amazon, gaining momentum. It would be an easy stretch for Apple to enter this market. They are already so well equiped for it. They could easily add to their highly popular iTunes Application, the ability to download books, magazines, and various other print medias. It has easily become the top choice for most when downloading movies, music, or iPhone/iPod Touch Apps, why not print?

The Second is the iTablet

Most of the reports regarding the LCD Screen indicate that it is touch screen. Apple is already so proficient in touch computing via the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPhone OS is based almost identically on the structure of Mac OS X. Instead of Cocoa (OS X) they use Cocoa Touch (iPhone/iPod Touch.) It would not take much for the programmers over at Cupertino to make the whole OS X operating system run on Touch.

The Third is the MacBook Mini

If indeed Apple was looking at entering the Netbook field. They would undoubtedly do it with spectacular fashion. Have you looked at the now standard keyboard for iMac's? It is indeed compressed quite a bit. I could see them entering into this market with a $499.99 CAD Netbook appropriately called the MacBook Mini. Featuring the same keyboard as the iMac. Sans Optical Drive, with an SD Card slot instead. Instead of a TrackPad I can see Apple using the Touch Screen for Mouse operations.

As Always I welcome all of your thoughts and suggestions. Would you like to contribute to my blog? Email me your Entry with the way you would like to be credited. Either Name, email Address, Net Handle, or other. I will make sure you get appropriate credit

iBranding

2009-06-24T11:12:00.001-04:00

“I agree with apple being far ahead of the competiton. Microsofts new adds of children as young as 4 is just their awful attempt of countering the highely successful apple adds, which repeatedly makes pc look terrible.  As for the iPhone HD, while I agree the technology is already there. I believe you are off on the name. As we can see from Microsoft changing names of products tend to lead into issues. How many different OS has micro had that have all had different names but did pretty much the same thing as it's last counter part. Apple is knowen for their simplistic user friendly products and I just see them just increasing the number. Like iPhone 5g or something. Also I think HD isn't as rare as it us to be and the name toe (now?) feels bland”- Chad Brown

So where does Apple come up with all of these names for their products? And how did I come up with the name iPhone HD?

Well the “i” unquestionably comes from the original iMac, and has since been translated into so many of their products, save the MacBook lines. The original incarnation of the “I” was put in front of the shortened computer name Macintosh, at a time when the internet was catching the public crazy. And as you can probably guess or have heard, stands for internet signifying, the iMac’s ease at connecting to the Internet. Just as the Mac that was for the Education sector was labeled “eMac” and the Canadian version was labeled “ehMac” – Just kidding on the Canuck version.

The branding is to identify aspects of the product. Now lets get down to gritty and look at the iPhone and more importantly why I believe that the next iPhone will be called the iPhone HD.

The original iPhone was nice and simply called the iPhone. This is because there were no others and it was the first, so no real need to start adding monikers to it.

The next iPhone that many of us and especially us Canadian’s fell in love with was called the iPhone 3G. It was labeled this, not because it was a 3^rd Generation, but because it was capable of connecting to the 3G networks that GSM cellular providers were using.

The iPhone 3GS. What is that telling us? It is explaining that it still connects to the 3G networks. And thanks to Phil Schiller we know that the S stands for Speed. After using this device for only 24 hours – how appropriate is that name! As this thing is FAST!!!!!

iPhone 5G

What could the name iPhone 5G refer to? Is it the 5^th Generation iPhone? – No, it would be the 4^th Generation. Is it connecting to the 5G network? – No, as far as I know, they are only starting to work on the 4G network. So I am curious as to where you come up with that branding.

iPhone HD

The way I came up with the branding iPhone HD is actually quite simple. With the progression of the video card, in the iPhone 3GS, the progression of the camera, and the progression of the CPU and RAM, it is clear that Apple is heading somewhere. If you read my post, it was entirely focused on the fact that I believe Apple is going to go head to head with Camera, and HDD HD Camcorders, with their iPhone. I mean think about it, most people do not need more than 5 MP and 3X OZ out of their digital camera. And most HD camcorders are 60GB space.

If an iphone came out utilizing the ability to process 720p video, you would achieve 5MP digital stills automatically. They would undoubtedly double the amount of CPU, RAM, and HDD (64GB) again. As well as sharpen the screen resolution, possibly even making it slightly bigger. It would make sense for them to feature these HD features, in their branding logo’s hence, iPhone HD.

The only other name I could see them calling the 4^th Generation iPhone, is the iPhone PRO. However I believe that if an iPhone comes out with the branding of PRO, the feature upgrades will be focused not so much on digital media, but on Enterprise, and Business securities. I mean, that’s why they came out with the MacBook Pro line, is for Professionals.

I am curious to hear what idea’s any of my readers, have on apple products to come, or branding ideas.

iPhone HD

2009-06-23T17:02:00.004-04:00

There has been a lot of buzz lately over the fact that the iPhone 3GS is 720p video capable. I for one had been sitting around wondering why on earth, if Apple was already standing at the finish line, they wouldn't cross it. It was during a conversation with my brother Jordan, that I then realized the truth. Why would anyone cross a finish line if they were laps ahead of the competition. It is competition that breeds success, and Apple has definitely succeeded.

My Brother made the comment "Gotta hold out on features so they can seem like they are adding lots." It clicked. I realized that Apple likely already had the next incarnation of the iPhone prepared. It is probably way past drawings, and likely already has a prototype developed. I am sure they have already changed the chipset. I am sure they are already tapping into more storage, more ram. I am definitely positive they are looking for ways to expand their "App Store" I am 200% sure they have tapped into the 720p Capabilities on the camera. In my opinion, they will definitely add zoom capacity to the camera. As well as add certain effects. I think the next stage for Apple will be to make the iPhone, not only a smaller netbook, an amazing phone, and a hell of a way to play games. Their main focus must be on making it the only media device you need in your pocket. Forget a digital camera, forget a camcorder. Everything you will need will be in one sleek little device labeled with a bite out of it. Due to the fact that I am so convinced Apple will focus on the Camera/Video functionality of the next iPhone, I am sure they will call it quite simply: iPhone HD.

What do you think? Do you think I am way off base? Have I lost my rocker? Should I just stick to the Home Theatre stuff and let all the apple engineers worry about their iPhone? I am curious to hear from you, and encourage you to share my posts with others.

Networking your Home Theatre experience with Your Mac

2008-12-11T12:14:00.005-05:00

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy way to get all of those videos, music and pictures off of your computer over to your Home Theatre system? Many of you out there, know of the extremely easy process of using a Windows Media Centre based PC to stream your media to your H.T. What if you have a Mac?

My Brother and I both ran into this situation earlier this year, we both decided to take the plunge from a lifelong usage of Windows based PC’s to the Apple side of the world. All of a sudden, we were left with many downloaded movies, home videos, music and pictures stranded on our Macs, several feet away from our Home Theatre systems. What were we to do, run a cable across the floor? This is entirely possible as far as music is concerned but what about all of that video and photo.

After doing some searching we found an easy solution. An application called Connect 360 is the solution. Once downloading the application which has a $20 Dollar fee, it will allow you to wirelessly stream your media* from your Mac, to your XBOX 360.

In order to achieve this I have assumed that you have the following

1. A Wireless Router
2. An XBOX 360 Wireless Networking Adapter

You will now be able to browse all of your music, view your pictures, and watch any video content that is on your Mac through your Home Theatre system. This is very convenient if you want to display pictures from a trip on a large TV to a group of Guests.
There are ways to do this with a Playstation3 which will be discussed in a later post.

* As an amendment to the above post. I wanted to mention as it was brought to my attention that the XBOX 360 will not play any music that has been purchased through iTunes as of yet. The reason for this as I am sure some of you are aware, is that music previously purchased on iTunes has been encoding with DRM. I am happy however to inform you that there is already DRM free music on iTunes, and that Apple is likely going to strip all music from the iTunes store from its DRM. I will keep you posted as I learn things.

TO HDMI OR NOT TO HDMI THAT IS THE QUESTION

2008-12-10T00:40:00.004-05:00

I know that many of you out there are curious as to how much of a difference or even if there is a difference between using Component cable (Red, Green, and Blue) or HDMI cable. I won’t go into the many differences within the cables themselves. I also won’t talk about shielding or how the cable is constructed in this post.

This post I want to pose a very simple thought to all of you. You went out and you spent anywhere from 1000 dollars to a few thousand dollars on a beautiful digital HDTV. You have probably seen HD and realize that hey this looks pretty good. And being the informed person that you are, you understand that in order to get it looking the way you seen it at the store, you need the HD BOX. So you call up your cable or satellite provider and they either sell you, direct you where to buy, or rent you either an HD Box or HD PVR. When you get this glorious gateway into superior picture and surround sound quality television programming, you open the box and there are three RCA cables of a different colour than you are used to seeing.

You remember the salesman telling you that you should get an HDMI cable but just as you thought, there is a cable in the box and it will do just fine. Worse still you had your service provider come to your house and tell you to return your HDMI cable, that these component cables will do the same thing....but will they?

The box you just got, is what is known as a digital box, because it's job is to receive a compressed digital signal and then uncompress it. This is easy for those of us on cable signals to understand as our provider calls this service “Digital Cable.” But even if you are on Satellite this is still a digital signal. The new TV that you have is as mentioned above a digital television. The component cable that you are about to use for your no doubt expensive investment is an analogue cable. This means that your digital box has to convert the digital signal to analogue (DAC) to send through these component cables. It just keeps getting better though, because now, your digital television needs to convert the signal from analogue back to digital (ADC) to display this picture. Friends, anytime you convert anything you lose quality.

Why would you want to lose quality on the main purpose of your purchase, just to save a few dollars. I am not saying that you need to go out and buy the top of the line Monster HDMI cables for your television viewing. No as of yet, a simple entry model monster cable, or even another companies HDMI cable will suffice. I am however saying that it makes much, much more sense to leave your signal digital the whole way through. That way you have no quality loss, and you are ensured the greatest high definition picture for your Fringe, House MD, or Prison Break that you can get at the time.

immaculatae Plasma misconception

2008-12-09T17:27:00.004-05:00

I wanted to get a post out there immediately to stimulate the thinking populous out there. I deal with a major question everyday at work and its almost always asked with the client thinking about a particular side of the answer. "What is the difference between Plasma and LCD?" I am not here going to go into technological differences between Plasma and LCD, I will do that in other posts. I want to focous in this post on the typical answer to the said question. "Plasma's reflect light"

Although this is true, that Plasma does reflect light, it is not as though it cause reflection. In most cases the client is replacing a CRT television, and in some it has a curved glass screen. The amount of reflection differs considerably between these. A plasma as a flat Glass will automatically cut down on the amount of light that it is going to reflect. And as a technological feature of the product, most Plasma manufacturers have put UV filters in the glass that actually breaks down the amount of light rays that are able to reflect from the screen.

Consumers should consider this, although YES a plasma does allow light to reflect the amount is minimal and considering most viewing takes place in the evening on in to night, there would be little if any reflection at all. Another thing to keep in mind when considering the reflective aspect of plasma is which direction your windows face.

Innauguration Day

2008-12-09T16:37:00.002-05:00

Hey there,

This is the first blog that I have ever attempted to create. It will be a simple blog in regards to anything and everything that I want to blog about. Generally speaking though, this will be my main conduit for getting my expertise and opinion on electronics, both Home Theater mostly, and Apple out to the world. I hope that anyone who reads this blog not only enjoys what they are reading, but finds it useful as well. I also hope that if you have any feedback, you will feel free to do so. In addition to giving me feedback on any number of posts, I also want to encourage two things. If you have a desire to hear my thoughts on a particular subject, feel free to email me. I will try my best to respond to your email, and create a post dealing with the subject theme, as soon as I can. I also want to encourage anyone who feels like writing a piece for this blog and site, to feel free to do so. I have no problem having correspondence working on entries. After all we live in the information age.

Jeffro