Author: jamesclay

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iPhone Portable Wifi Hotspot


One of the real benefits of running Froyo on my Google Nexus One has been the facility to use it as a portable wifi hotspot. I’m not sure how long I will be able to do this for now, as T-Mobile have recently changed their terms and conditions on using their network for internet. I do have a Web n Walk Plus extra on my (legacy) T-Mobile contract. Though if T-Mobile decide to withdraw that, I need to think about how I can connect to the internet whilst mobile. Instead of the Google Nexus One, I can always use my MiFi, with which I use a PAYG Three SIM card.

In the US, Apple have announced they are going to release a new version of the iPhone for the Verizon network. Now I am not going to use that, but in the detail, it has emerged that the Verizon iPhone will now be able to do a similar portable wifi hotspot trick that a Froyo Android device can do. Before this “tethering” with the iPhone was restricted to a single device and didn’t work with the iPad. An iPad would work with the iPhone acting as a portable wifi hotspot.

So at this time, I am thinking that if Apple (as is expected) release a new iPhone in the summer, and the UK telcos play along, I will be able to use the iPhone as a portable wifi hotspot. What would be nicer if they added it as an upgrade for the existing iPhone 4.

Update

According to MacRumors and other sites it looks like that Apple are prepping a 4.3 upgrade that will allow existing GSM iPhones to have the portable wifi hotspot feature.

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Limit reached…

Last month I got very close to reaching my broadband cap. The account I have with Plusnet (a legacy account) has a limit of 80GB. When I had my ADSL connection I never got close to the limit. Having upgraded my connection to FTTC (fibre) and having 37Mb/s download speed means it is now much easier for me to reach the limit.

I know that I got close to the limit due to the holiday season, spending a lot of time at home meant not only was I using the connection a lot, but the family were also streaming a lot of video too. BBC iPlayer is great for catching up with programmes you have missed, but also means using a lot of data.

One of the features of Plusnet I like is that the cap does not apply to downloads between 12am and 8am. This is great for downloading stuff from iTunes, but less useful for streaming BBC iPlayer content. I usually watch BBC iPlayer content through the TV, it has BBC iPlayer built in, however it doesn’t allow me to download BBC content and play back later, I have to stream live!

The other problem I am having is that scheduling iTunes downloads is problematic.

Prior to getting FTTC I could before I went to bed I could set iTunes to download movies and TV programmes knowing that the majority of the download would be during the cap free period between 12 and 8. However FTTC is so fast that it only takes ten minutes to download a movie from iTunes so generally I download when I wake up and not when I go to bed (I am usually in bed before midnight). What I would prefer to do is let iTunes download any big purchases after midnight. It’s not just movies but also some iPad apps are in excess of 500MB. I would also download OS X and Windows updates overnight, again with my old connection the majority of the download would take place in the cap free time, now with the faster connection it’s done very quickly.

Luckily Plusnet provide a decent tool for measuring how much data I have used and also warn me when I get close.

However this does show that ISPs need to rethink their bandwidth caps once more people can get FTTC.

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Mac App Store goes live!

After the announcement last year, today saw Apple’s OS X App Store for Macs go live.

This is an obvious move for Apple following the success of the App Store for iOS devices.

For me this is a great way of buying Apps, not having to worry about creating accounts on multiple websites and an easy way of installing Apps. I don’t think this will stop me buying Apps from websites, but if an App is available on the App Store I think this might tempt me more to make that purchase.

Impressed that some of the Apple Apps are “cheaper” than their boxed counterparts, Aperture for example is £173 in the main Apple online Store for the boxed edition and just £44.99 in the App Store.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Microsoft doing something very similar for Windows and Google making Android and Chome a more coherent experience.

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ITV Player and 4OD on the PS3


Noticed after my recent update to the PS3 that as well as BBC iPlayer that the PS3 can also access ITV Player and 4OD too.

The quality isn’t fantastic compared to the higher quality of BBC iPlayer, but certainly watchable. The interface is the same as on the ITV website so slightly challenging to navigate on a TV screen, but once you find what you need you can watch the programme in full screen.

I didn’t have any problems with the programme stream, however the adverts did buffer! One of the “issues” with both ITV Player  and 4OD is that yes you do have adverts, however you can’t fast forward through them!

My Sony TV which has built in access to BBC iPlayer however doesn’t yet have access to ITV Player and 4OD but does to FIVE on Demand. It’s now getting easier to view TV content when you want to not just when it goes out live.

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Font Time

If you like fonts and specifically comic style fonts and I am not talking about Comic Sans here then do check out the Comic Books Fonts New Year sale, where every font is $20.11.

I do like Comic Life on the Mac and use that application for creating comics here and there.

I wanted to also use comic fonts for various documents and presentations I was working on. I didn’t want to use Comic Sans as that is horrible.

Of course comic fonts are not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you need good quality fonts, then check these out. They are not cheap, but they are excellent. If you want free fonts, you can find them online, but if you want fonts that catch the eye then have a look at Comic Book Fonts.

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Fixed my Apple TV Problem

Having had an issue with my Apple TV, I have now managed to fix it by the simple expedient of unplugging it from the power lead and plugging it back in.

I did try logging out and back in again, this didn’t work.

I am slightly annoyed that the solution wasn’t available from the Apple TV menu, a restart option, or even the option to turn the device off (and not just sleep). This means people could be resetting their Apple TV, when all they actually need to do is turn it off and back on again.

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Another problem with my Apple TV

Noticed a problem with my Apple TV in that I can’t rent any movies on it….

Normally when you use the Apple TV, on the Movies tab it should look something like this.

However on my Apple TV all I can see is the In Theatres option and no others. I am logged in, but this doesn’t seem to make a difference, I know I am logged in as I can use Home Sharing to access my iTunes collection on my iMac. I know the Apple TV has access to the internet as I can view the movie trailers (as well as other content from the Internet tab).

Things I need to try are:

1. Logging out and logging back in again with my Apple ID.

2. Reset the Apple TV, this means then reconfiguring it for both my wireless network and logging in again with my Apple ID.

3. Restore the Apple TV to it’s factory state, though this means as well as reconfiguring access to my wireless network, logging in once more, I will also need to install the two recent updates.

Hopefully the first option will work, otherwise it’s reset and restore time.

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PSP

Sony PlayStation Portable PSP

Paying around with my PSP this Christmas made me real is that I hadn’t updated the firmware for a while, in the main as my broadband was too slow… However now that I have FTTC I can do this much more easily.

I went from 3.9 to 6.25

Didn’t notice too much different, except that you can now read comics on the PSP. Not sure I wold do this, as the screen is much bigger and better on my iPad, not that I actually read comics. Well the odd one or two, but comics are not really my cup of tea.

Another reason for upgrading was to try out the remote capability that the PS3 has with the PSP. I did notice that when messing about with the settings that you can also use a phone or a PC to remotely use your PS3.

Main disappointment was that I couldn’t actually play a game remotely on the PS3 from the PSP!

Not sure why, as I could play a PS One game I had purchased for the PS3 on the PSP remotely. I don’t know if it is a performance issue or a rights issue.

Time to go to Google and check this out

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12 Days of Christmas iTunes Giveaway

Apple’s iTunes Store is offering twelve days of giveaways from the 26th December to the 6th January.

From 26 December to 6 January you and your friends can download a free song or music video, app, TV episode or film from some of the biggest star performers on iTunes. Each free download will be valid for 24 hours only.

To access the downloads, you will need to install iTunes and create an iTunes Store Account.

Find out more.

Usually most of the stuff is something yoou wouldn’t want to to download, today for example it’s Cheryl Cole… however within the twelve days there are usually one or two gems amongst the glass baubles.

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Downgrading Osfoora HD for the iPad

I recently upgraded Osfoora HD for the iPad and was very disappointed with the resulting performance. It was very slow and wouldn’t automatically update.

It’s not easy to downgrade iPad applications, certainly Apple don’t make it easy. I have no idea how to do this on a Windows PC either.

One of the things to remember on the Mac, when you upgrade your iPad (and iPhone) applications on iTunes, the previous version is moved automatically to the trash. You can of course move these files to a backup drive or folder when this happens.

So what I did was sync the iPad first with iTunes, this ensures that any apps I purchased on the iPad are synced with iTunes before I do something like this.

In iTunes I go to the App tab for the iPad. By hovering over the app I can see a cross that will allow me to delete the app from the iPad.

I can then delete the App from the iPad.

I then drag the backed up App to iTunes, at which point iTunes will ask this?

Click replace and then re-sync the iPad.

You will need to (in the case of Osfoora HD) re-enter your Twitter credentials and change the settings to how you like using it. However it does mean that if you are having issues with the new version of an App it is possible to downgrade it relatively simply.