Techno Thoughts!

Apple today confirmed, at it’s WWDC 2009 conference that the previously announced 3.0 firmware that has been in beta for the last few months will be released on June 17th.

The update contains many big features such as Copy & Paste and MMS but also includes 100 updates and 1000 new API calls.

There has been talk (and demo videos) for a long time about SlingPlayer on the iPhone (and iPod Touch). It was reported last week that it was finished and had been submitted to the app store for approval.

Now it’s reported that the SlingPlayer for the iPhone will only work on the newer Slingbox models.

What’s more is that apparently it did work in the beta versions and it’s not a hardware thing but a greedy move by Sling to get people to purchase new hardware.

I always did find it frustrating that after buying the device you had to pay for the mobile version of SlingPlayer - but I did buy it for Pocket PC and Symbian as it wasn’t too expensive.

However, I certainly wont be buying new hardware just to get it on the iPhone / iPod and I certainly wont be recommending Slingbox to anyone if they are going to do that

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/04/02/sling-rains-on-its-own-parade/

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/04/02/slingplayer/

Well that’s something you never thought would happen - Microsoft are working on Office for the iPhone.

They are also apparently releasing a web based version which will work on both the iPhone and Linux.

Finally! - Apple has increased the “9 pages of applications” limit (148 apps) on the latest iPhone / iPod Touch 3.0 beta to 11 pages (180 apps) - still not ideal but at least a little more ability to install new apps without removing old ones.

Apple have released a 2nd beta of the iPhone / iPod Touch 3.0 firmware to developers:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/31/apple_releases_second_beta_of_iphone_3_0_software_to_developers.html

I’ve been running the 3.0 beta since just after it was released and while the new features are great (and i’m sure it will be fine when it’s released), it is definatly a beta and when they say it’s only for testing compatibility with applications and not for everyday use, that’s not a disclaimer!

Since upgrading, i’ve had intermittent problems connecting to wifi, applications regularly just disappear when you are in the middle of something (or sometimes quicker than you can even start!) and it’s just very slow - everything you click on seems to hang it for a second or two which is very frustrating when you are trying to check your email or something. Also you end up pressing too many times with impatience and then when it comes back it does a load of actions.

I posted a guide to downgrading the iPhone / iPod Touch in a previous posting.

Downgrading the firmware on the iPhone / iPod Touch is simple but only if you know how!

Firstly you need to download the 2.2.1 (or whatever version you wan to go to) firmware file. You can find the different versions here:

• iPod & iPhone Firmware Download
• Where to download iPhone firmware files from

While that’s downloading, you need to put your device into DFU Mode - see my earlier posting.

• When the firmware has finished downloading and the device is in DFU mode, hold shift down while clicking the restore button in iTunes.
• Select the file you downloaded
• It should re-install the new firmware

I did read that after it’s done all the restore etc that it’s possible to get an iTunes error but that didn’t happen to me though - it just worked fine. If you do get an error, then you just need to read my earlier post about getting the iphone / ipod touch out of restore mode and follow that - if it’s after it’s done all the restore then it should be ok. If not, i’d try again!

I’ve blogged before about getting the iphone / ipod touch into recovery mode. However, i’ve still had problems doing firmware downgrades - it just refuses to do, giving an unknown or unrecognised error each time (often error 1064).

Well, it turns out there is another recovery mode on the iPhone / iPod Touch called DFU mode (Download Firmware Upgrade or Device Firmware Upgrade). DFU mode is bypasses the current firmware and is what you need to use if you are getting iTunes errors while trying to restore in recovery mode.

How to get into DFU mode:

- Connect the iPhone / iPod Touch to the computer with iTunes open

- Turn off the iPhone / iPod Touch (hold down the power/sleep/wake button (on the top) until you see the red slider and slide the red slider across to the right).

- Hold down the power/sleep/wake button (on the top)  and the home button (on the front) for about 10 seconds

- Release the power/sleep/wake button but continue holding the home button

- iTunes should pop up and tell you it’s found a device in recovery mode

Some points to note:

- A clarification on the 10 seconds bit - I found it seems to be that you need to release the power button just before the Apple logo appears - so, if it doesn’t work the 1st time, start from the beginning and try again, anticipating when that logo will appear and let go just before it.

- If the device is in DFU mode, the screen will be black/blank. If you see the iTunes logo on the screen then you have gone into recovery mode rather than DFU mode - try again!

Got into a bit of a mess installing the beta of the new 3.0 firmware on my iPod Touch. I’d already done it on 2 iPhones but they had their UUID registered with the developer account. I then installed it on my iPod Touch, which didn’t. It all installed fine but when I tried to sync with iTunes it wouldn’t let me…..but it also wouldn’t let me see the UUID to register… oh dear!

I then tried to Restore to 2.2.1 so I could see it (but it also didn’t give me the Restore button so I had to put the iPod Touch into recovery mode) but that just came up with an unknown error so I got stuck in recovery mode until I found a way to get it out of recovery mode.

Luckly, I then found a way of finding the UUID without iTunes so I could then get it registered and sync again.

Phew - what a saga!!

First impressions and a review with screenshots of 3.0 will follow!

If you want to find the device ID / UUID of your iPhone / iPod Touch, you can either see it in iTunes, or you can download an app called Ad Hoc Helper from the iTunes App Store, which will e-mail it to you - neat

(You need the UUID to add your device to an Apple iPhone Developer account.)