My wfe’s iPhone stolen: Anyone know how to have Find My iPhone “auto refresh” the location?
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Not Cool, Theft, Users Helping Users, You Bet I'm Pissed, iPhone
Well, this evening the Bride of Macenstein’s iPhone was stolen. While I was of course pissed, I was also thrilled at the prospect of using Find My iPhone to find the thing. We’re in a relatively wussy, crime free town, so I figured it would be kids who took her bag and it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Long story short, we tracked the iPhone down to a restaurant, but were of course unable to actually go around shaking down the help and patrons, even with the police helping. Since Find My iPhone really only gives a ballpark location, the cops said there wasn’t much they could do. And while I am now 90% positive it is one of the kids who works at the place who has it, I can’t prove it, and with us and the cops walking around (and one of the cops telling two of the more unsavory employees that I was able to track the iPhone to this location) whoever had the iPhone apparently turned it off, and my location updates stopped.
So, my question is, does anyone know of a way to have Find My iPhone, via the app, or via MobileMe, do some sort of “autorefresh” of the location search, so if they ever DO turn on the iPhone, briefly to wipe it or such, I can get a new bead on the location? Right now it appears I have to relaunch the app on the iPhone to get it to update locations, and the same with the MobileMe page. (Can I make an autorefresh Safari url automator action somehow? Will it keep me logged in to MobileMe if it runs every 30 seconds?) Any ideas would be helpful, thanks.
Update: I got my autorefresh script going, so we’ll see…
- The Doc
Prediction: Apple will begin giving away bumper cases with iPhone 4’s and issue $30 credit for early buyers in the next 2 weeks
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Cynicism, Steve Jobs, WTF, You Bet I'm Pissed, design, iPhone, stupid
When I first heard Gizmodo’s report that iPhone 4 cell reception was adversely affected by touching the stainless steel band that surrounds the iPhone 4 and serves as the antennae for the device, I was a bit skeptical. The fanboy in me wanted to think that since Gizmodo clearly has a bit of an ax to grind with Apple, they may be exaggerating the claims, or perhaps it was a problem affecting only a select number of handsets. Besides, everyone knows Apple would never sacrifice function over form, so they MUST have tested this design beforehand, right?
Well, one hour after getting my iPhone 4, and THREE dropped calls later (I am one of the rare iPhone customers for whom AT&T service has been rock solid), I began to worry. A quick test of my own revealed that Read more
[UPDATED] Words with Friends tech support appears to suck
[UPDATE: They fixed my games]
Public embarrassment and ridicule – the last hope of a desperate man.
Many of my faithful readers know that I am a self-confessed “Words with Friends addict, having given the game my first and only “10 out of 10″ review for a game. I invited all of you to get the game and then come beat me (username Dr Macenstein) – and the majority of you did just that, I’m sad to say (there’s even a Facebook group dedicated to beating me). However, about a week ago upon launching the game I was greeted with an error message saying there was a problem with one of my games, and it was being repaired. Well, nearly 7 days later, a neglected support request and 3 unanswered e-mails to tech support, I feel I am out of civil options in dealing with NewToy, the makers of the game. I feel I must resort to attempting to embarrass them into responding. So here goes. Guys, please get your shit together and help out poor old support request 47942. I’ve already gotten through the shakes and sweats from Words With Friends withdrawal thanks to large amounts of Flight Control, but my despair has turned to a mighty, geeky rage! I bought this game TWICE, and yet cannot play on either my iPhone or iPad until you fix the problem, whatever it is. I suppose I can try creating a new username and starting over, but I think I have about 40 people who are just about to beat me who will be crushed if I am forced to start a new account, so Please NewToy, help the Doc out.
7 things Apple can do to REALLY clean up the App Store
Filed under: Opinion, You Bet I'm Pissed, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, iTunes
When Apple decided to make its somewhat arbitrary iTunes “porn” (and I use the term loosely) purge last month, one of the made up reasons it gave for justifying the move was that developers and customers were finding it hard to find quality apps amidst all the “adult” material. Well as we saw, removing those 5,000 apps (or less than 3% of all apps) did more or less nothing to fix the issue.
While we certainly do not wish to see ANY developers’ livelihood taken away from them (adult themed or otherwise) we have come up with a list of apps that are causing far more damage to the iTunes store than the adult apps ever did. So if Apple actually IS serious about cleaning up the app store and helping developers get noticed, here’s 7 sure fire ways they could do just that. Read more
Why does it seem that only old people win stuff?
Filed under: Cynicism, Opinion, Slow News Day, You Bet I'm Pissed
When it was announced yesterday that the winner of the iTunes 10 billionth song giveaway was 71 year-old Louie Sulcer, I was torn. On the one hand, I was happy for Louie – he seems like a nice fellow, easy going, and into Johnny Cash apparently. But on the other hand, I HATE Louie with a passion. Why? Because he’s OLD, that’s why.
Now granted, Louie appears to be more with it than your average 71 year-old in that he not only owns an iPod but actually knows how to purchase songs for it via the iTunes store. But let’s face it, odds are even if Louie bought two songs a day for the rest of his life (we’ll estimate he’s got about 13 years left, given his age and weight) he STILL won’t be able to go through that $10,000 in iTunes points.
The same thing goes for the big multi-state lotteries. I can’t remember the last PowerBall or Mega Millions that wasn’t won by someone over 65.
I’m not bitter about Louie’s win (although I AM bitter about losing all the Mega Millions drawings). I didn’t try buying an iTunes song Wednesday even though all the Mac sites predicted the winning song was going to be bought that day. “You have to be in it to win it” as they say, and I have long since switched to buying songs on the cheaper Amazon store. But something about seeing a 71 year-old win anything technological just pisses me off. I feel like he won a Slingbox, 50 feet of Cat5 cable, a Roomba, and an Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console.
I know I’m insensitive, but it just feels wrong. Am I crazy?
I hate 13-year olds
Filed under: Cynicism, Free Stuff, Humor, Opinion, You Bet I'm Pissed
God, I am so pissed at 13 year old Connor Muicahey of Weston, Connecticut who basically stole my Billion iPhone app prize. That’s right, a 13-year old won my $10,000 iTunes card, my Time Capsule, my 32 GB iPod touch, AND my 17″ MacBook Pro. Wouldn’t YOU be pissed if someone did that to you? I mean, it’s almost like the kid broke into my house. Why didn’t he take my TV while he was at it?
Man. And what’s even worse is that the Mac media seems to love it. “Oh, how cute! A 13- year old boy won all that stuff! That’s great!” Yeah, well, you know what would have been greater? If I had won it.
That’s right, a 13-year old with an iPhone. That hard-wroking kid must have some paper route! I can just picture this so-called “Connor”, hair of gold, sitting in his Connecticut mansion, sweater tied around his shoulders, tennis racket in hand, downloading “Bump” for his iPhone (obviously using the non-tennis racket holding hand).
Even the app he downloaded pisses me off. “Bump”. So, not only does Connor have an iPhone, but SO many of his friends have iPhones, that he needs a faster way to wirelessly transfer his friend’s contact info from their iPhones to HIS iPhone. That’s right, Connor comes from a whole town of 13-year old Connors with iPhones, and right now they are playing a game of Polo using the 32 GB iPod touch as the ball, having long since grown tired of their usual jewel encrusted Faberge Eggs.
Oh, and I am sure Connor will put my 17′ MacBook Pro to good use. I bet right now he is checking his Facebook profile on it, which is really straining those 2.9GHz Core Duos. I only hope he has the Energy Saver settings tagged at “Higher Performance” to really get the most out of all 512 MB of RAM in that NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT. Good thing he has my Time Capsule too – wouldn’t want to lose any of that important work he’s doing on it.
Damn. This is really just a crime, and I wish to put out a call to all my fellow Mac bloggers out there to stop treating this as a light hearted human interest story and instead see it as the horrible tragedy that it is.
Media Temple sucks, Part 2
Filed under: Not Cool, Opinion, You Bet I'm Pissed, whining
Well, THAT sucked…. Our outage today was (for once) not directly related to Media Temple, other than we finally got so fed up with them that we moved the site to a new host. Unfortunately, things did not go all that smoothly (for some reason the database was merged with that of another site we have on Media Temple). We’re not sure why that happened, but in the end we are now about 50% sure we are now up and running. So let us know if you notice anything weirder than usual.
And death to Media Temple (well, at least until we find out our new host is just as bad and go crawling back to them).
MediaTemple blows
Our site has been more or less down all weekend, and we have no idea when it will be back up on a regular basis. Sorry.
[UPDATE:] down for 50 hours now…
[UPDATE 2:] I think we are up. slow, but up. Not sure it is for real yet, so if we come and go, forgive us.
Where the #$%@ is the iPhone 2.0.1 firmware?!
Filed under: Not Cool, Opinion, WTF, You Bet I'm Pissed, bugs, iPhone, whining
In the first 13 months of owning an iPhone I restored my iPhone ONE time, and it was a voluntary act I performed to see if it would get rid of a little sluggish behavior (which it did). Since upgrading to the iPhone 2.0 firmware, however, I have had to restore my iPhone six times, in just 8 days. And this 6th iPhone restore really hurt.
Yesterday I went on a trip into NYC with the family to see Miley Cyrus perform in Bryant Park (not exactly my idea of fun). The 4am trip involved quite a few headaches, but we made it, and despite the concert, we had a great time. We went to the top of the Empire State Building, we went to Jim Hanley’s Universe, The Disney Store, Mars 2112 (well, that sort of sucked), FAO Schwarz, and of course, the 5th Ave Cube. And all along the trip, I took pictures with my (formerly) trusty iPhone camera. We brought along a real pocket camera too and took some shots, but I grabbed quite a few stills on the iPhone of some of the more bizarre Apple stuff I saw, some of which I planned to use in upcoming articles here and at Son of Macenstein.
Well, needless to say, after such an exhausting day, I did not pull off those pictures when we finally got home around 8PM, and thanks to this morning’s iPhone crash I lost them. I had gone a solid 3 days without a crash, and perhaps had been lulled into a false sense of security, but needless to say, I am now more or less viewing my iPhone as simply a phone and iPod that may or may not work. The idea of traveling alone to the city or even being on a long car ride now gives me pause, as I know if I want to do something crazy, like, oh, I don’t know, rearrange my icons, or play the $10 game of Scrabble I bought, it could mean I am without cell phone service until I get home.
I realize for many the iPhone 2.0 firmware has been working flawless, but I also know I have seen an amazing amount of horror stories that mimic my own. Having a buggy version of iPhone software runs a very close second to having a buggy Mac OS on my computer on my list of things that screw up my life (a rather long list, btw), and in some ways it is actually more annoying. Perhaps it is time Apple widen the beta testing pool a bit on the iPhone so not so many of us feel like beta testers ourselves when the final release comes. I want my (thoroughly tested, of course) 2.0.1 firmware, and I want it NOW.
OK, now this is just getting embarrassing
Filed under: Not Cool, Photos, Slow News Day, You Bet I'm Pissed, iPhone, whining
Remember a couple weeks ago when I accidentally washed and dried my iPhone headphones?
Miraculously, despite being somewhat crinkly, they appeared to work just fine. Well, for about a week anyway. After a week or so the left earbud began emitting a horrible static sound about 80% of the time, so it was off to the Apple store for another $20 pair of earbuds.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, lightning has struck twice, and my brand new set of earbuds have followed in the in the thrill-seeking footsteps of their predecessors – taking the death-defying trip into the washer/dryer. Unfortunately, this set did not have the luck of the last pair, and are somewhat more horribly disfigured.
Probably the closest thing we humans can equate to the experience would be to take a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or rather, being FORCED into a barrel and thrown over Niagara Falls, as I doubt my earbuds were looking for a thrill.
Well, once again, despite the exposed wires and such, this pair also seems to still work just fine, but being a fairly shallow person, I think a trip to the Apple Store is once again in my immediate future. I don’t know what my problem is here – I have never washed any iPod earbuds, and I tend to keep all my gear immaculate. I think in order to feel better about myself, this time I will have to blame the Bride of Macenstein for this, as I had mentioned to her that my earbuds were missing and to keep an eye out for them.
Women! Am I right fellas?!
