Erich Stauffer

Tag: iPhone

  • The Rise of the iPhone

    It’s easy to forget how far technology has come in the last 20 years. From the rise of the World Wide Web in 1994 to web-based email in 1996 to blogging in 2003 to Facebook in 2004 to text-messaging in 2005 to the rise of the smartphone in 2007. The smartphone is, in some ways, the pinnacle of this technological arc, allowing us to access all of the previous technological innovations in one device. Although I’ve owned a HTC Hero (1,2) and other smartphones, the most popular smartphone is the iPhone, I thought I’d reminisce about my personal history of the iPhone.

    CRT monitors and Samsung Flip Phones Can Be Fun
    CRT monitors and Samsung Flip Phones Can Be Fun
    Back in October 7 of 2007 I had the idea to link a trucker’s CB radio to their laptop to allow them to see and talk to other truckers in similar area via Internet location, rather than CB channel. I would also (through Skype I assume) allow them to call their family/friends from that same CB radio interface.

    This has all since been supplanted by the iPhone, which came out 3 months earlier on June 29, 2007. I guess I didn’t know the power it would have to supplant and replace so many different hardware and software elements of our lives – and I didn’t anticipate how widespread [smartphone’s] use would be.

    ———- Forwarded message ———-
    Date: Sun, Oct 7, 2007 at 10:21 PM
    Subject: Telablue Ideas

    Hydermill Ideas

      USB CB/Skype

    • Trucker’s Skype. Enables use of CB Radio over laptop
    • Location by IP
    • Half-Duplex
    • Clear, Static Free Sound
    • CB uses USB
    • Buddy List For talking to specific trucker friends on the road
    • Family Land Line Access – Call Family at anytime over the road using CB Radio
    • Trucker Band and Police Band Access – Enables normal use of CB Radio, with clear sound.

    The following is the first message I ever got from a person with the email signature “Sent from my iPhone”. It was from sent on October 24, 2007 from one of my friend’s iPhone. He didn’t even tell me he got a new iPhone, he just started sending out messages that said “Sent from my iPhone.” Brady.

    ———- Forwarded message ———-
    Date: Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 4:12 PM
    Subject:
    To: Erich Stauffer

    Sent from my iPhone

    This is the first message I ever sent from my first iPhone. It was October 30, 2007 and I had just started working at AllThingsIT for the first time. I recently recycled it to get my current iPhone. Sprint gave me $35 credit for it if I remember correctly.

    Yahoo! Mail added it’s own email signature underneath the iPhone’s email signature. This is partly why I don’t use Yahoo! Mail anymore. I was using Yahoo! Mail instead of Gmail on my iPhone was because Gmail only worked via POP or IMAP, but eventually Google came out with a Gmail app.

    ———- Forwarded message ———-
    From: Erich Stauffer
    Date: Tue, Oct 30, 2007 at 12:52 PM
    Subject: Router problem
    To: Erich Stauffer

    Sent from my iPhone
    __________________________________________________
    Do You Yahoo!?
    Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
    http://mail.yahoo.com

  • Exchange Public Folders and Tasks on iPhone and Android

    How do you sync Exchange Public Folders with Android/iPhone?

    There is no way for the iPhone to show the Public Folders on its own, so we have a few options:

    Exchange Sync iPhone Android

    1. Create additional Contacts and Calendar folders in Outlook. These new folders will synchronize with the Public Contacts and Calendars and as they’re in the mailbox they will simply appear on the Iphone as a new contact list and calendar
    2. Download the Public Folders App from the App Store
    3. Use CodeTwo’s Exchange Folder Sync or DidItBetter’s Add2Exchange software
    4. Easy2Sync for Outlook (requires installing Outlook on Exchange Server and using PFsync on Android devices)

    Most of these solutions are read only, one-way syncs, meaning you can’t add to the public folders from a mobile device. For the Android, there is only one option in the Android Market called Public Folder Sync.

    If you’re using Public Folders to store documents, stop doing so and begin looking for another solution immediately. Microsoft doesn’t recommend using Public Folders in Exchange to store documents and will be phasing them out past Exchange 2010. They have not updated how Public Folders work since 2003 after introducing them with NT4.

    How do you sync Exchange Tasks with Android/iPhone?

    On the iPhone, try TaskTask for syncing Outlook & Exchange Tasks. For Android, try TaskSync for Exchange.

  • iPhone App Builders

    iOS apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad are in strong demand right now, but not everyone knows how to make one, or even how to find someone to make one for them.

    A friend of mine pointed me towards Mobile Roadie, which has made apps for “the world’s top publishers and brands,” like Taylor Swift and the Miami Dolphins. Their main selling point is that they make making an iOS app easy using templates. The trade-off is that you may end up getting an app that looks like a template – or worse, just like someone else’s app. But this is how web design got started once it became more accessible and popular to make your own web sites. Not everyone could code their own web sites and not everyone can code their own iOS apps, so then, like now, template businesses are helping users create things that they couldn’t otherwise do.

    Other sites like Appiction will make an app for you using their designers and coders, but the price is higher. Expect to pay in the thousands for a custom-developed web app, much like you would for a custom-designed web site. Remember, the app is going to be used by hundreds, if not thousands of people – and if you’re lucky – millions. So you want your app to work well, be pleasing to the eye, and have a good interface – basic rules of design there. To compare different iPhone app developers and get a quote, visit iphoneappquotes.com.

    If you’re interested in developing your own iOS app, The Daleisphere has an article about how to start. He goes over the hardware, software, and knowledge you’ll need to get started. Basically, it takes a Mac (you can’t write iOS apps on a PC*), an Objective-C (Cocoa) writer, and an iOS app compiler. He references several books and guides to help you get started and has several key links you’ll need like where to get signed up to become a developer. The most popular iPhone development book on Amazon.com is Beginning iPhone 4 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK so that is something to get you started.

    *You can write iOS apps on a PC, but it violates the EULA with Apple (because you have to jailbreak an iPhone), however for those willing to accept that risk, there are programs like DragonFireSDK that will help you write iOS apps on a PC as long as you know C/C++.

  • From AT&T and the iPhone to Sprint and the HTC Hero: The Journey Begins

    As I write this my wife is in the process of switching mobile cell phone carriers from AT&T, who we have both been with since 2001, to Sprint. My wife is switching from Apple’s iPhone 3GS and I am switching from an LG Shine slider. We are both getting the HTC Hero which has wifi, visual voicemail, video, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, tethering via USB, a touchscreen, and it runs Android. It’s not an iPhone. It’s more than an iPhone. And it’s not AT&T.

    Plan Pricing

    Sprint offered us 2 lines with unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes (regardless of carrier), unlimited data, and unlimited texts for $130 a month. For both of us to get an iPhone on AT&T’s network it would cost us around $170 a month for the same plan. Sprint’s plan also comes with 1500 landline minutes. Sprint coverage is so much better than AT&T in our area that it was a no brainer.

    Reservations

    We weren’t without our reservations. Sprint, unlike Verizon and AT&T, still charges for roaming, but we wouldn’t have signed up if we didn’t live in an area with plenty of coverage. And my wife and I are avid iPhone users and fans. In fact I’m typing this article on a first generation iPhone I’m using as an iTouch (it has no phone plan). I was a little worried that my wife would hesitate to give up her iPhone, but once she found out that the HTC Hero had similar features and more she was hooked. I’ll have to post a review of the HTC Hero in the near future to let you know what I think, but because it has 3G, direct to Youtube, and WordPress app functionality, this Internet marketing business analyst entrepreneur is happy. Thank you, wife!

  • An Apple a Day

    I was browsing Google News > Science / Technology and saw two articles about the “secret” to Apple’s success (one is the Apps, the other is Kids!) and two articles about iPhone outages (one in NY and the other in London). Seriously? Is this all we have to talk about? Okay, Apple is successful (highest stock price ever!) and the iPhone is great (best cell phone/PDA ever!) but is there really no other innovation going on? Is this what the economy has done to us? There is Google, Nokia, Apple, and Microsoft. Everyone else can go home. We’re done here.

  • Could we be running Skype on the iPhone soon?

    Apple to open iPhone to outside developers:

    http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/apple-open-iphone-outside-developers/story.aspx?guid=%7B62B086CA-60B4-4378-913E-FD0C21A97BCE%7D

    My hope is that Skype will be able to run from an iPhone, allowing
    Skype access from wi-fi spots. This would mean that you wouldn’t be
    using your ATT minutes while at hot spots or at your home wifi as you
    would be making calls through Skype’s network instead. For now, here is the workaround:

    http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-on-iphone.asp

    This software lets you use Skype on an iPhone or a Windows Mobile Phone (like Tilt):

    http://www.shapeservices.com/en/products/details.php?product=skype&platform=none