Delboy’s Blog

I have now had my iPhone 3G phone for a few days so I think its time to write about my experience so far.

I decided that this year I would line up on Friday morning for the iPhone, I got a bit of luck in that the weather in Chicago on Thursday night was very bad rain so when I got to the AT&T shop at 7am there was only about 20 people in line in front of me. As there were a number of techy people in the line the time flew by. At 8 the store opened and the 1st 5 people were allowed in. 8:45 must have been the time that the systems started to go down and it was then the line started to move. I was in and out of the store with in 30 mins and back up by 9:30.

I was not happy when I got home, after the AT&T store telling us it was the “Store’s” computers that were down, to find that it was Apple yet again letting everyone down. At about 3pm on Frinday I finally got my new Phone working and it wasn’t until 10am on Saturday morning that my Voice Mail was working.

So how am I enjoying the new iPhone, well first the bad news.
The Battery – I have found that the battery is not as good as my old iPhone even with 3G turned, I have found that I need to charge my phone at least once again, my old phone was every other day.
The Camera – Although I believe that the camera takes a better photo its still only a 2Mb camera and this could have been a lot better especially with the New Apps and location services. Also still no Video.
SMS & MMS – Still no multi media messages and you are still unable to forward text messages.
IM- Still no IM apart for AIM that only works when the App is open, although this is to be fixed in September we are told.
Crashing – I have noticed that the iPhone does now crash at least once a day I am hoping this is going to be fixed in a future update.

Now the good!!!
GPS – This is one of the best parts to the phone and all the Apps that are now using location services is great, the fact that I can take a picture and upload to flickr and I can see a map of were it was taken is great.
3G – This is a definite plus to the phone and the Internet is faster when using 3G. I do however thing that there is still work to do as when I use 3G for calls I do get some dropped calls.
Push email – Push email is good but not great as only about 80% of my mails get pushed I guess this is more to do with Apple’s lack of infrastructure for MobileMe and will improve in time.
Apps – The Apps are one of the best things about iPhone 2.0 and I will cover this in another blog.
Settings -  I do like the fact that I now have more control over what I turn off when in Airplane mode I can now have wifi ON something I really wanted.

All in all I am very happy with the new iPhone, Apple still has a lot of work to do but I am sure this will be done soon. I hope so!!!

I spoke to early, earlier this week when I thought all was well with Windows XP SP3. Today I sat down to watch my podcast’s shows when everything kept crashing. After I rebuilt my Apple TV reinstalled iTunes all was still not well.

The problem I was having was that the Apple TV kept loosing a connection with my iTunes and as such disappeared from the device list in my iTunes.  The only way to get the Apple TV back in the iTunes list was to close and reopen iTunes or power off the Apple TV. When I did get it back in the list as soon as I started to watch a show it would drop the connection.

Finally I decided that it most be SP3 and yes i was correct. What I can say is that the uninstall for for Service Pack 3 works very well, apparently better that the install and now that I am back to SP2 all is working well with my Apple TV.

In conclusion if you are using Apple TV I would avoid installing Microsoft Windows XP SP3.

***** Update *****

AT&T has now removed this from there web site.

Just what are AT&T doing with this? 1st they give free access, then take it away. Then they say they are giving free access then they don’t. Come on AT&T make up your mind.

*******************

OK this has been rumored for some time now but its now official, iPhone users in the US will get free access to all of AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots.

This has now been included on AT&T’s web site under the iPhone plane section

“access to AT&T’s more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks* all for use in the U.S.
*Wi-Fi available at U.S. company operated Starbucks locations equipped with a hotspot.”

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/iPhoneCenter.html

Things just keep getting better for the iPhone.

****** DO NOT UP DATE TO THIS VERSION ******

Today I upgraded my VMware Fusion to the new Beta 2.0 version. Here are a few things that might be help full if you are thinking of upgrading. I am currently doing my testing on a MacBook Pro with a 2.2Gbz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 4Gb of RAM

Problems I had with the upgrade

• This is not an quick and easy upgrade. Yes the software itself upgrades easily but the problems start when you need to upgrade your VM’s
• Make sure that you shut down all your VM’s before you do the upgrade, I found that once I upgraded and resumed my old VM’s I had problems shutting down to do the upgrade.
• Do not install VMware Tools with out upgrading the VM first (Virtual Machine - Upgrade Virtual Machine)
• I found that the upgrade, that included installing VMTools, took a very long time on some of my VM’s. For some of my VM’s this took over an Hour.
• Installing VMTools asks for the Microsoft I386 file, this was a problem because of the ISO/CD issue below
• VMTools would not install on one of my VM’s

Other Problems I have had

• I have not been able to get my VM’s to see my printers that are installed on my Macbook Pro
• There seams to be a problem when changing an ISO file for the virtual CD-ROM. Even when I disconnected and reconnected with a new ISO my VM would only see the old ISO. I had to connect the physical CD-ROM to fix this problem however this did not work on all my VM’s. Sometimes i had to reboot the VM to fix this problem.
• My VM’s are taking a lot longer to resume now
• Switching between Full Screen and Sigle Screen take a lot longer
• Shared Folder’s no longer works. When trying to get this to work my VM even crashed the first time on a Fusion product
• It takes a lot longer to establish a network connection when resuming a VM

What I Like about the New Version

• Multiple monitor support
• The ability to add more than 1 Hard Drive to a VM is very nice, especially if I need more space inside a VM
• The new Virtual Machine Library is much better
• The new setting menu is much easier to use

Over all after testing for the afternoon I would advise people to give this beta a miss I believe that there is still a bit of work needed here before the full release. The fact that my VM’s seem a lot slower and the CD/ISO problem is a real turn off for me. Now the big question do I go back or stick with the beta? This I am still not sure on maybe I will continue to use the Beta for a few days before I make up my mind.

***** UPDATE*****

As I have been working with this I have found the following problems with some not all of my VM’s

• Unable to run Windows Update. (I was able to install SP3 on some of my VM’s but Windows update just would not run all all of my VM’s).
• Microsoft Office Documents get corrupted when trying to download or open from Lotus Notes, again this worked on some of my VM’s but not all

Looks like I will be reverting back to the old version of fusion later today and waiting for the full release. I will post an update as to how the roll back goes. Wish me luck

***** Reverting back to VMware Fusion 1.1.2 *****

OK so I have decided to move back to Fusion 1.1.2 as the beta product is defiantly just that a beta product. Although the move was straightforward it wasn’t completely painless.
Here is what I did and the problems I had in reverting back to 1.1.2

• Powered down all my VM’s
• Downgraded all the VM’s (Virtual Machine – Downgrade Virtual Machine)
• Uninstalled Fusion 2 beta, using the uninstall script
• Installed Fusion 1.1.2
• Powered on the VM’s 1 by 1

This is where the problems started. All of the VM’s powered on OK but they were having problems with 1 of 2 windows devices. Some of the VM’s now can not install the “Base System Device” These VM’s are working fine and all is good apart from this device. My other VM’s had a problem with device “VMware VMCI Bus Device” the VM’s that had this problem also had problems accessing shared folder.

To fix this problem I did

• Uninstalled VMTools
• Rebooted
• Installed VMTools
• Rebooted

After this I got the same “Base System Device” problem, but shared folders now works fine as does the rest of the VM.

On the good side the Windows Update is now working (SP3 installed) as is launching and saving office files from lotus notes.
On the bad side Copy and Paste between VM and Host no longer works (I can live with this).

Needless to say I will be waiting for the full release of VMware Fusion 2.0 before I upgrade again. At that point I hope all works better.

***** Update*****

Just found out that I am now having problems with my VM’s that have a Bridged network connections. NAT connections are working just fine.

This weekend I found a fix to my VPN problem. I have tried this and it worked no problem

To Use the latest patch to Apple AirPort Extreme and the Nortel VPN client do the following with the latest version of the Nortel VPN client (v6.01).

1.) Update your airport utility to 7.3.1
2.) Reserve a IP address based on your computers MAC address so that your TC dhcp gives you always the same IP address. You can do that with airport utility/Internet/DHCP/DHCP-Reservations
3.) Create a port forwarding under airport utility/advanced/port forwarding.
a.) Create a customized port forwarding for public UDP port 500 to private UDP port 500 for the private IP address you assigned in step 2.) to your computer
b.) Create a customized port forwarding for public UDP port 10001 to private UDP port 10001 for the private IP address you assigned in step 2.) to your computer
c.) Create a customized port forwarding for public TCP port 50 to private TCP port 50 for the private IP address you assigned in step 2.) to your computer
d.) Create a customized port forwarding for public TCP port 51 to private TCP port 51 for the private IP address you assigned in step 2.) to your computer
4.) Update your TC
5.) Disable “Keepalives” in your Nortel Contivity tool under “options”
6.) Do not check “silent keepalives” in your Contivity client under “options”
7.) Try to establish a connection and wait until Contivity tried all availible connections.

Let me know if this works

Here is a screen shot of the port setup

Just a quick blog to warn people of a problem that I had last week with my AirPort Extreme Base Station and my company VPN.

1st off let me say when I spoke to Apple Support they told me that Apple to not support any VPN on there router’s, NOT what they told me when I bought the AirPort Extreme Base Station so that didn’t put me in a good mood.

Last week I was unable to connect to my company VPN (Nortel Client) after a number of different test I worked out that it was my AirPort Extreme Base Station that was the problem. After speaking to Apple I found out that earlier in the Week Apple had updated my Router and that is want caused the problem with my VPN.

To fix the problem i had to revert to the previous version of the software (The version that caused the problem was 7.3.1 and I had to revert to 7.2.1)

To fix the problem using my Mac I had do follow

1. Open Airport Utility
2. Click on Manual Setup
3. Click on Base Station (On the Menu)
4. Click Upload Firmware
5. From the drop down choose 7.2.1
6. Click OK

After the restart all should be good, at least mine is now working.

Technology @ Home

I was recently asked about how I use technology in the home and how I share my home media with my family back in the UK. I thought that this would be the ideal subject for my next blog. In this blog I will highlight what technology I am currently using in the home and how I share my digital media with my family and friends back home in the UK.

How do I store my Data?

I store my data using a small windows XP box with many USB drives hanging off it. I currently have 6 USB drives with a total capacity of 1.5Tb. I also run a number of applications on this “Server”.

What Software do I run on the Server?

iTunes – I use iTunes to share my Photos, Music and Video with my AppleTV and other devices within the house.

Mozy – I use Mozy home to back up all my data to an offsite location keeping all of my data secure. I currently have 1.1Tb backup to the Mozy servers (I wonder if anyone has more backed up).

Skype – I use Skype as the main phone service into the house. I find this much cheaper than using a conventional phone server, especially for calling the Europe. I have 2 USB Linksys iPhone (the original iPhone) for my handsets.

NTRConnect - I use this as a way to remote control my Server and in partnership with MSN i am also able to copy any of my files to and from my remote location.

MSN Messenger - I use messenger and the shared folders option to copy files to and from my remote location. If I need a file I can remote to my server with NTRConnect and put the file in my shared folder that is shared with my Laptop. If I have some new files when I am traveling I am able to add them to my shared folder on my laptop and they are then copied to my server, I am then able to remote to my server and move the files to where I need them. Even adding files like picture’s to my AppleTV so they can be viewed on my TV before I am even home.

Sharing my Media in the Home

Last year I decided to be an early adopter of the new AppleTV when it was released, for sharing my media in the home. This has been the best purchase I have made. Before I bought the AppleTV I was using a Linksys Media device to share my digital pictures and music with my TV and sound system. This was fine, but I wanted to share video with my TV. When I read about the AppleTV I decided that this was the device for me.

AppleTV

With the AppleTV connected to the TV I am now able to stream all of my media from my server to my TV at the touch of a button. This includes over 400 movies, 1000+ TV shows, 1000’s of music files, and of course my digital pictures. On top of this I now have Youtube on my TV.
Earlier this year Apple released an update to AppleTV adding a number of features. The 4 features that I like the most are as follows.

Movie Rental – I am not really bothered about renting standard movies, but I really like the option of renting High Definition movies.

AirTunes – I can now push music from any PC or Laptop on my home network to my AppleTV and then on to my surround sound system with AirTunes. If I also add an AirPort Express Base Station to the network and connect some speaker I can now send music to a number of different room through out the house all in sync.

Photo sharing with the Web – The new version of AppleTV allows you to now look at photos and Video that are shared on .Mac and Flickr. This gives me the ability to look at my friend’s pictures on my TV, and give my family and friend’s the ability to look at my Photo’s and Video’s on their TVs back in the UK.

HD and surround sound – Adding 5.1 surround sound and High Definition movies as an option made AppleTV far better option.

So, how do I share my digital photos and home movies?

Well, I upload my media to my .Mac account from there. My family and friend’s can either access my photo’s from my website or via there AppleTV on there TV’s.

What I would like to see next from Apple TV

There have been many rumors as to what might be next for AppleTV, and if we have learned anything from Apple, it is to expect the unexpected. However, for what it is worth, here is what I would like to see next for AppleTV.

Video Messaging – I would like to see video messaging integrated with AppleTV. An application like Skype added to the box and a web cam connected to the USB port would be great for communicating with other AppleTV users.

Internet Browsing – An Internet browser added to the box, plus a wireless keyboard and mouse really would connect the Internet to the living room.

HD Movie Purchase – Now that we can play and rent High Definition movies through AppleTV, I would like to be able to purchase HD movies from iTunes so that I can watch them at my own leisure.

Now that’s how I use technology in the home.

So Blockbuster and Netflix are to release a set top box this year to take on AppleTV this should make for an interesting year for getting your Media to your TV.

Now the question is can they catch Apple who have now been selling AppleTV for over a year. I am a big fan of AppleTV and have been using it from day one and in my opinion Apple have a very good product and it will be hard to beat them apart from on price.

The one big advantage that Apple has is when you use Apple TV all your media can be watched on not just your Apple TV but also on your Mac, MacBook, iPod and iPhone. I myself have one shared iTunes in my house with all my media shared out and I can watch anything on any one of my devices this is something that neither Blockbuster or Netflix will be able to do.

Blockbuster and Netflix will probably be able to beat Apple on pricing and this is something that might push Apple to improve there pricing model. I would like to see the cost of renting a Movie come down by at least a $1 and I would also like to see the time I start watching a movie to the time it is deleted extended to 48 hours. Also reducing all TV shows to $0.99 would be nice as well.

Blockbuster and Netflix might be entering the market but that just might improve my AppleTV experience.

So an interesting 12 months ahead.

Moving to the Dark Side
Over the last year I have found that I have move more and more to becoming a Mac User up until in December 2007 I finally move from being a Windows user to being full Mac user when I bought my first MacBook Pro. I wanted to share the reason for moving to the Apple world and also share my thoughts on the software and hardware that I now use.

Why Move to a Mac?
In a word VISTA. After using Windows Vista for 9 months and after 9 months of the OS crashing the applications crashing I had finally had enough and decided I had to look at a different option. My first thought’s were to move back to XP this was stopped short when I found that I was unable to get Driver for my new HP Vista Laptop. This is when I decided to get away from Microsoft. I decided to move to Apple as I had already bought an iPod, iPhone and AppleTV in the last year, as I was more than happy with these 3 products it made sense to me to move to a Mac. After a lot of research into the software that I would have available and after a number of email’s with colleagues (thanks David and Doug) I decide to Sell my new HP laptop and buy my new MacBook Pro and I have never looked back.

What Laptop did I buy?
Here are the specs of the MacBook Pro I decided to go with
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz

My Mac Experience
I found that Apple OSX Leopard software was very easy to use from day 1 even for someone who has been using Windows software for over 15 years however I did spend about an hour with a sales guy in the Apple store before I bought the Mac this give me a good basis to start to use the Mac from day 1. One of the reason’s I decided to buy the Mac in December was so I could get used to the OS over the Christmas Break but after a couple of days I was all but there the experience was very easy to get used to. There were a couple of web sites that I found very useful http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ and http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ as well as Google for finding the answers to specific questions.

What Software Am I Currently Using
After a couple of months of playing around with different software and trying different options here is what I am currently happy using and why.
VMware Fusion – This is a must for being able to run my on a day to day basis and be able to get access to my work environment. Unfortunately in the businesses world there will always be a need to run a windows PC not only did VMware Fusion allow me to do this but I have never had Windows XP running as well as I do on my Mac.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac – For the same reason, as I would need access to a Windows PC I realized that I would always need to access Microsoft Office Documents after trying a number of different Options including Apples version and some free versions I decided on Office 2008 for the Mac mainly because of formatting problems that I had when going between different software.
Adium – In my opinion the best instant message application around not only did it give me access to all my personal message applications but it also works with sametime allowing be to have all my instant messages in one place. Adium also has a great transcript view for reviewing all conversations.
Firefox – Although Apples Safari is getting better I still prefer Firefox for web browsing.
Handbrake – Handbrake is a great tool for converting DVD’s to M4V or MP4 files this works great if like me you are an AppleTV user. The current version allows you to copy the 5.1 surround sound and lets up edit the Movie Chapter’s.
MetaX – This is a great tool that works along side Handbrake allowing you to insert Meta data into the converted Movie file, you can insert information like description, starts, cover art, show, season, episode, etc.
Skype – Still the best Video messaging app this is great for me to keep in touch with my family back in the UK.

The Verdict
Would I go back to a Microsoft OS? Never Never Never after 15 years of using Microsoft’s OS’s from windows 3.1 right up to Windows Vista I can say that the Mac OSX is by far the best OS I have ever used not only is it faster, I can boot up and have my app’s up and running with in a minuet of powering on, it is far more stable than any Microsoft OS I have ever used I am still amazed that I can open up a web browser at the start of the day and it is still running when I come to turn my Laptop off at the end of the day. Now when I go to use my wife’s XP laptop I am always finding that I am trying to do things the Mac way and not the Windows way as things are much easier this way. My advise to anyone in the market for a new Laptop or PC go to you closes Mac Store and have a play around with there software, yes they are more expensive but they are also a lot better to use.