http://www.aquarionics.com/category/Apple en-gb Aquarion (nicholas@aquarionics.com) Site Admin (nicholas@aquarionics.com) Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:34:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2008/07/12/Phonetic Today, I got an iPhone. This sounds deceptively simple, but really wasn’t, so here’s how it went. I had an 18 month contract with 02, ready to run out in September. But last month they phoned me up, and when I said I was waiting for the new iPhone, they recommended I switched to the Monthly Sim Only “Simplicity” contract, shaving three months off my contract (since... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2008/03/27/iTunes_Store_Links If you use a mac, and iTunes, you’ll know about the little arrow links on the currently playing track that take you to the iTunes store search for that artist/track. I’ve never used these, and I don’t like them. But now I know about this: defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES This makes all the little arrows search your internal library instead. So... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2008/01/30/iPhone Being a mobile company, it’s vitally important we get to test the new and shiniest phones, which is why I will never buy a Motorola, don’t think the N95 is as shiny as many people appear to think, and how I got to borrow the Office iPhone for a while. The Office iPhone was bought when we launched last autumn and is a US model with the hack so we could use it in this country and... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2007/10/17/Native_Apps_on_the_iPhone_%5Band%5D_iPod_Touch We have always been at war with Eurasia http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2007/07/19/Mac_Question_And_Answer Okay, first, the answer: Q: How do I open HQX files in Tiger, since they’ve dropped native support? A: Open it in Safari. Not even kidding. And the question. Internet! Answer me! What does it mean when, on a G4 powerbook, the green light around the power adapter is pulsing on and off? Note: I do not remotely expect this to be a good thing. http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2007/07/11/Iphones_and_spices There are questions yet to be answered about Apple’s newest product. Will the .eu version have 3G? Who will carry it in the UK? Will it ever support flash? But the most important question has now been answered, and answered well. Will it blend? http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2007/07/05/iPhonetics_II_-_The_Revenge O2 are denying the reports that they will be the iPhone provider. I have an idea, and I’m going to say it here because if it’s true in six months time I can point here and say “Called it”. This is my Idea: The phone network in the US is pretty much locked down. If you want to do anything to do with mobile phones, you pretty much have to deal with get into bed with... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2007/07/05/iPhonetics O2, who happen to be my mobile provider already, have won the rights to be the iPhone provider in the UK. This is interesting, because O2 are also one of the only UK ‘phone networks without an “all you can eat” data rate available. http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2007/03/15/Powerbrick The latest OS X Tiger update appears to have bricked my friend’s final generation PPC Powerbook (Won’t boot, hangs in grey on white apple screen forever), so you might want to not install it for a couple of days. http://www.aquarionics.com/article/name/Debugging_Ajax One of the problems with Ajax is that the server side of it becomes invisible. You send a request to the server with an ajax request object, and you can get output from the JS by firebug, or alert boxes, or whatever, but for the script running on the other side, there's no visible place for the output. There are many ways around it, but my current favourite is Growl. Growl is a... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2006/09/13/Podcast_Subscription_List_in_iTunes A simple question: Where does iTunes store my list of Podcast Subscriptions? Whilst at LUGRadio Live there was a wireless network in the main area, which I connected to. Unfortunately it was one of those which automatically redirected you straight to a login page for every request you put though it. It did this with 302 headers. So when iTunes decided to update my podcasts it went up to... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2006/08/12/Natch Of course, when one of the two 512mb memory sticks in my powerbook decides to fall over and die, it’s not the 3-years-guaranteed crucial upgrade stick, is it? No, it’s the Apple branded official stick, which ran out of warrenty – along with the rest of my Powerbook – in June. I hate computers. http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2006/05/18/Geek Levels of Geekness: Watching Anime DVDs Watching Anime DVDs on your Laptop Watching Anime DVDs on your Powerbook Watching Anime DVDs on your Powerbook, which is displaying them on the TV screen Watching Anime DVDs on your Powerbook, which is displaying them on the TV screen, and using your bluetooth mobile as a remote control. Win http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2006/03/18/Audions So, with my new, black, shiny personal backup device I have been listening to Podcasts. These are some I’m enjoying: The official TMBG podcast – Tracks that wouldn’t make an album, and the occasional long sketch I’m thankful I could skip. [iTunes Link] Ask a ninja (Video) A ninja asks all your questions [iTunes Link] G4 TV Game reviews and such. Making fun of... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2006/03/01/MLP What if Microsoft redesigned the iPod packaging? And if you can tell me the name of the track that accompanies most of this, I’ll be your friend forever. http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2005/10/27/Marathon_Runner So, Bungie, who are the people who made Halo and are owned by Microsoft, cut their teeth on a series of games for the Mac called Marathon. They’ve recently released all three for free download (Free as in beer, though they are supporting an Open Source conversion of the engine). This is how I got them to work on my Powerbook. One, Mac Classic The Marathons are old software, so... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2005/10/22/Bash_one-liner_of_the_day Mirage:~/Data/CD aquarion$ find . -name *.m4p | sed -e"s/m4p/mp3/g" | while read FOO;do BAR=$(basename "$FOO");locate "$BAR" | tail -1; done | while read FOO ; do cp $FOO .;done Okay, so I need to do the rm *.m4p afterwards, but still. So, question one, what does it do, and question two, what is it for? http://www.aquarionics.com/article/name/Using_a_Samsung_Z500_with_a_Powerbook_with_Vodafone_Live_over_Bluetooth Gosh, isn’t networking easier when you just plug things in? Ah well. You will require: The “Generic 3G Scripts” from Ross Barkman’s home page Your phone to be connected to Vodafone Live. A Powerbook with bluetooth. Download the scripts, unsit them and dump them in /Library/Modem Scripts The easy bit is getting the Powerbook to talk to the Z500. You turn on... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2005/06/17/The_Vanishing_Mirage This is a tragady. It may also be funny. One of the reasons it took me quite so long to buy a laptop was because I don’t trust them. I trust, to some extent, every machine on this network, because I built it by myself out of the very-expensive-lego that is the PC hobbiests stock in trade. Zephyr was built by me, Boilingpoint is made out of old bits of Reef is made out of old bits of... http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2005/06/10/Apple_Sauce So, having prevaricated, and perambulated the perimeter of the proverbial privet for long enough I have finally knuckled under and Switched. Well, not Switched. I play too much City of Heroes, Far too much Boiling Point and Guild Wars to actually abandon my PC entirely – even if it is now almost 100% linux based (Damn Sims 2 and Guild-Wars) – but I have placed my holidays and...