Technology

iOS 5 iPhone 4 Problems

/ General, Technology / , , ,

Over the past months I have had to restore several iPhones and iPads for clients and as part of my “solution” for my failed iPhone speaker (see here) I have had to restore my phone several times, all with no issues. I have also updated the iOS on my phone a number of times. So yesterday I embarked on updating my iPhone 4 to iOS 5 without much concern.

As part of the process I followed the Apple prompts – with one of them saying iTunes was backing up my iPhone before proceeding. However during the restore I got a “ding” from my PC with an announcement from iTunes that the backup was corrupt or incompatible with this iPhone and the update stopped. I then spent the next couple of hours trying to recover the iPhone but with only limited success. I got my Apps back – so I did not have to purchase them again, but all my custom settings and my photos were gone.

These were the photos from my trip last week to the West Highland Way – which I had not yet copied to my PC – I wasn’t worried iTunes said it had backed them up. On the up side, I had uploaded the best images to my blog as I went along and Richard has the photos he took. With hindsight I should have manually copied the photos from the iPhone before starting the upgrade, but when iTunes says it has backed up the iPhone what was I to think. When I checked the backup folder the file size of the backup file was only 278MB – other backups were over 10GB – I am glad the backup software I use to backup my client’s data is more reliable than iTunes. Some type of verification, by iTunes, would have been a good idea before proceeding to the upgrade.

So for anyone about to upgrade to iOS 5 copy your photos first.

Will Apple care about this – probably not.

 

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West Highland Way Day 7 – Kinlochlen to Fort William

/ Photography, Technology, Travel, Walking / , , , , , , ,

The day started with what is probably the best breakfast of the trip, it included fresh bread, scones, smoked salmon and a large selection of berries and fresh fruit. Richard’s West Highland cooked breakfast could barely fit on the plate.

Having dropped down into Kinlochleven yesterday we had to climb back out this morning through the forest to the old military road.

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above and below the Ben Nevis range

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We were slower today than we had planned – so we got to Fort William too late to pass the “official finish line” and take photos. So we will finish this walk tomorrow.

But we did pass the “old finish line”!

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West Highland Way – All packed

/ Outdoor Gear, Technology, Travel, Walking / , , , , ,

All packed & ready (for anything) | richardgoeswalking.

So tomorrow I am off to Scotland, and the West Highland Way, with my optimistic walking companion Richard. See his blog entry above.

I have everything packed, but it looks a very small pile of kit – although I have included two backpacks! I had packed my Karrimor 25l day pack, but I have changed my mind and I now have decided to use my Golite Jam 2, it compresses quite well and will give me the extra comfort and space for the day we have to carry our overnight kit (there is one B&B where it will cost too much to ship our large case there).

Another thing I needed to sort before leaving – my iPhone has gone wrong again. See this post – I have tried the “putting the earphone plug in and out” and the “restore my iPhone completely” options but still no phone audio. I was really impressed by one of the Apple Support suggestions – “turn the volume up!”. So I am off to Scotland with a phone that only half works, I will be using the blue tooth earphone and hope the charge on the iPhone lasts all day!

You can follow our adventure, day by day, by following the links below to the daily blog entries and photos…

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WordPress iPhone App Updated

/ Technology / , , ,

The WordPress app for iPhones updated today and it has been greatly improved.

The page/post editor now has formatting buttons and adding a link is also on a button – in the previous version I had to google to find out how to add a link. Although the editor is not wysiwyg – it just puts the code on the page for you – it is easy to pick up the basics. Still no horizontal line though.

The app now includes a reader for WordPress sites you follow and shows the “freshly pressed” WordPress blogs.

One thing that has not changed, is that images are always inserted at the end of the post – it would be better if they were inserted at the cursor – it would save much cutting and pasting.

I use the iPhone app not only to write my blog but to write posts and maintain pages on the Octagon Technology and the National Hamfest websites.

am really pleased with this update – and it has come just in time before I go and walk the West Highland Way when I plan to blog a lot, so family and friends can see out progress. A little formatting will help the clarity of the posts.

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Other engineers and staff at Octagon use Android phones/WordPress apps to contribute to the site – when I am back at work following the National Hamfest I will check out whether their apps have also been upgraded.

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iPhone Problems

/ Technology / , ,

Like the rest of the world I have had to listen to how perfect iPhones (insert Mac, iPod, iPad etc as required) are. We have watched Steve Jobs preach and perform hardware miracles on the stage at the launch of the next product. There are Apple Stores, bright, shiny, modern, complete with “Geniuses”. We all want one.

Even me. Let me declare I love my iPhone, I would count myself as a geek and a power user when it comes to my iPhone, I use it all the time for business and pleasure. Whenever asked I will promote iPhones to my clients to help them with their businesses.

BUT… Apple is not perfect.

They have big problems – magnified all the larger when you rely on the gadget to run your business.

Last week the screen went black. Pushing the two buttons, available, had no visible effect. Remember the iPhone has no “on” LED (a design omission!) or reset button. So I am looking at the most expensive brick I have ever owned – with no way to access that days appointments or phone the office to ask for help – and my clients could not call me. Add another “gotcha” to all of that, because the iPhone does not use a standard size sim card I cannot even transfer it to another phone.

This issue apparently fixed itself!

A couple of weeks back – no audio on the phone – read more here.

This issue apparently fixed itself!

Today, as I went to leave the office, I checked my mail on the iPhone and found this.

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There was mail there when I checked it over breakfast. There was mail in the mailbox online. As ever the iPhone provides you with little feedback to diagnose the problem. I deleted the account on the phone and put it back – no difference. I ran out of time to do more so I left for my meeting, when I got the phone out at the meeting the mail was back!

So this issue apparently fixed itself as well!

For both of the first two issues I searched Apple.com for answers but I could not find any useful help or explanations. I have tried the almost standard Apple support answer – reset and restore the phone. It hasn’t helped.

The Apple Support Communities and Forums are useful but sometimes offer conflicting or worst, complicated sequences of things to do, “which worked for them”.

Everyone knocks Microsoft – however ask any support engineer how useful Microsoft’s TechNet is when sorting out a problem with MS products. At Octagon Technology we use it all the time.

I did not have the same issues with my old Windows phone. Yes it crashed and I used the reset button to fix it. The green LED told me it was on. But there is no going back the HTC Pro was good in its day but technology moves on.

Android? Nothing wrong with them but it does not run Memory Map.

I would not change my iPhone – even with the issues – and I will just have to worry that it will fail me when I am away on holiday or during an important project. Should I buy a second as a spare?

It is time for Apple reality.

(Written on my iPhone 4 using the WordPress App – told you I use it all the time.)

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