Firmware 2.2 Update Bricked My iPhone

On Saturday I went ahead and applied the new iPhone 2.2 firmware update to my iPhone. Guess what? It failed. In addition, two attempts to restore the iPhone to its original state also failed. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. I now had a brick for a phone.

So I took it to my local AT&T store and the techs there got it up and updated in about an hour. Boy, that was a scary thing to happen, but it sure worked out well in the end! I continue to be very happy with AT&T customer support.

The new features offered by 2.2 like the Map street view are well worth the update, but be careful!

Voice Search Added to the Google Mobile App for iPhone

The Google Mobile App has just been updated for the iPhone to add voice search. The new voice search feature works great! It uses your current location, too, so that if you say “seafood restaurant”, it will show Google Local results of seafood restaurants near you. These will even offer links to directions using the built-in Map application. This is simply one amazing application! Oh, by the way, be sure to view the video that is referenced in the application when you first start it up. It very nicely explains just how to use this app.

WordBook Dictionary/Thesaurus for iPhone/Touch

I’ve found WordBook to be a very nice dictionary and thesaurus application for the iPhone and Touch. I use it all the time to look up words like “notate”!

Non-Rube Goldberg Wireless Antenna

I posted last week about having problems getting decent signal strength from AT&T’s cellular data network at my current work location in Indianapolis. I had come up with at Rube Goldberg solution that seemed to work OK, but I thought I might look for something a little more elegant. I found that I could get an external antenna for my AT&T Mercury USB Wireless Modem on eBay for only $15, so I ordered one. I’ve got it connected  to my USB modem right now and it’s working very well. I’ve gone from poor signal with frequents drops to an extremely strong and solid 3G signal. The antenna has a magnetic base and the instructions say to put it on a flat metal surface for best reception. So, I’ve got it on top of the storage shelf in my cube. Works great!

Yelp for iPhone/Touch

Last week I posted here on how handy I was finding the Urbanspoon application in my travels to Indianapolis. Today I’m going to mention a similar application that I also like: Yelp.

Yelp has functions nearly identical to Urbanspoon, but with some additional niceties. It’s rating system is much more sophisticated than Urbanspoon’s and it’s Near Me function allows you to find Banks, Pharmacies, Gas Stations, and a few other types of businesses in addition to restaurants.

It’s nice to have choices between a couple of excellent such applications. I haven’t decided yet which I like the best.

Rube Goldberg Wireless Antenna

As I’ve previously mentioned here, the only way I can access the Internet using my Asus Eee 1000h at my new client site in Indianapolis is through my AT&T USB Wireless modem. I did run into a problem when using it, though. It seems that the cube in which I work is on the side of the building that has the poorest cellular reception. If a take my laptop to the other side of the building I get great 3G reception, but in my cube reception is very spotty. I was seeing my modem regularly drop down to EDGE, and sometimes report no signal at all. Bummer!

So, I figured I needed to get an external antenna for my USB Wireless modem. I even looked at such antennas on eBay.  Then I had a somewhat inspired and whacky idea – I carry a 3-foot USB extension cable with me in my computer bag – might that somehow work as an antenna for my AT&T USB Mercury Wireless modem? Well, it turns out that it actually works amazingly well. When plugging the modem into the cable and stretching it out a little, as shown in the picture above, I now get perfect 3G reception. Now it never drops to EDGE and always reports a good, strong 3G signal. What a terrific kludge!

Rediscovering Urbanspoon for iPhone/Touch

Urbanspoon was one of the first really well-known applications to appear in the iTunes App Store. It has even recently appeared in an Apple iPhone TV commercial. It’s most touted feature is its ability to pseudo-randomly pick a restaurant for you when you shake it.

I downloaded this application as soon as it was available, but never used it much. The “Urban” part of the name seems to be very true – it is focused on major urban areas and not the tiny Charleston, WV area  where I live. However, now that I’m off on the road again and in the relatively “urban” Indianapoiis, I decided to give the application another try. I ended up really loving this application, but not for its most touted feature.

The feature I love best about Urbanspoon is its Near Me function. As the picture above shows, this functions uses the iPhone’s (or Touch’s) location-finding functionality and shows a very extensive list of nearby restaurants. So when I’m in my hotel (as I am now) it will show me restaurants near the hotel. I used this for picking a dinner restaurant last night. When I’m at my client site, it will show restaurants nearby – perfect for picking a quick place to go for lunch. In addition, the application supports simple rating (like or don’t like), access to any available media reviews, and terrific integration with the built-in Map application.

I’m now really liking this old application!

Photogene for iPhone

I have really wanted to get a program on my iPhone that would allow me to quickly clean up photos I have taken with the device. The ability to do quick color/brightness/contrast corrections and cropping were my main needs. Photogene fits the bill perfectly. It even has an auto-correct function that works extremely well. This is exactly the program I’ve been looking for!

Working in Indianapolis

I’m now working in Indianapolis at my new client site. The Asus Eee 1000h is working great, along with my new AT&T USB wireless modem. The wireless modem is a great addition to my travel kit. It’s providing terrific download and upload speeds – it’s a very impressive little device!

New Wireless Modem

On Friday, I found out that my new client in Indianapolis has a super-secure corporate network – so secure that they don’t allow any Internet access to non-corporate computers. Most client sites I visit allow access to the general Internet for non-corporate computers, just blocking access to their own intranet. Sometimes it requires running a special browser start-up script, but it can normally be done somehow. My new client doesn’t even allow that.

This means that I can’t access the Internet through their network from my Asus Eee 1000h while working there. Thus, I can’t even check my email through their network. So, on Saturday I ran over to my local AT&T store and picked up a Sierra Wireless Mercury USB modem. I tested it out at home and it works amazingly well, with speeds indistinguishable from my home WiFi network connected to the Internet through my cable modem.

One particularly nice thing about the modem is that the AT&T Connection Manager software install package is actually contained in ROM inside the device. So, no CD-ROM is required to install it on a computer. Just connecting the device to a computer’s USB port will automatically start up the install process.

So, I’ll now be able to access the Internet and get to my email while working at my new client site. BTW, I’ll actually be starting there on Tuesday, not today as a previous posting here indicated. As that post mentioned – nothing in the consulting business is 100% sure until it actually happens! So, I’ll be driving out to Indianapolis early tomorrow morning.