JohnBs personal blog

Just in case you’ve missed it, or not seen it yet Apple has just released 10.5.3 to software updates.

Why can’t smart play lists be smart? I mean, if you build a play list that looks for say unplayed podcasts - when i’ve listened to the podcast (and iTunes knows the play count is 1) on my ipod why can’t it disappear from the playlist on my ipod. As soon as i sync it goes, so why can’t it be live on my device? It seems a pretty simple request to me….

Tomorrow Apple has called the press to it’s Cupertino headquarters for annoucements regarding the iPhone Roadmap…here are my predictions…

• The iPhone SDK will not be AIR
• The iPhone will not get a flash player
• The SDK release will be partial with full version released later this year although ’selected’ parties will be showing off apps
• Commercial third party apps will only be sold through iTunes, free apps will be freely distributable
• …and finally - The 3G iPhone will be announced!

Installing now, more news later…

edit: 140Mb or thereabouts - which results in….nothing, or at least nothing obvious. No menu changes, no app changes. Nothing. Surely it’s the start of the SDK offering? - but no news on that front from Apple. I’m pretty certain that the SDK is already out with select companies. The BBC have already committed to an iPhone/iPT version of their iPlayer and I imagine that there’s going to be some kind of last.fm client too..that just seems a ripe app for the iPhone.

Something got me thinking this morning - we’re waiting for two pretty major releases both from Apple in the iPhone SDK and Adobe for Flex 3 and AIR - we know the iPhone SDK is going to drop to happen in February, but what if - the iPhone SDK was AIR? Would Apple get into bed with Adobe that much? It would be pretty darn cool - I mean, getting Flash onto the iPhone is almost akin to death and taxes in that it’s going to happen inevitably. Imagine it for Adobe, getting that much instant penetration for AIR from the off, plus the AIR platform provides so much stuff that the iPhone/Apple could benefit from, sandboxing, application installation, updates etc but not forgetting the cross platform benefits….just a thought, nothing more. Thoughts?

EDIT: I know it’s not likely to be AIR…but wouldn’t it have been cool???

At last Apple have finally fixed the default ‘Top 25 Most Played’ playlist so it shows what you expect it to show in iTunes and on the iPod touch. They have not however fixed the duplicate album name bug that i reported a few months back. Still no way to view podcast show notes either.

I can only think that the whole charging for the ‘January Software Update’ is to make sure that the deployment methods for apps built via the February SDK works correctly. After doing the 1.1.3 update I did buy the software update and rather than seeing a download on clicking ‘BUY’ it flashed upa message on the iPod screen - so merely unlocking code in the 1.1.3 update. The Mail application is worth £12.99 to me along with the Notes app. Anyhow, my iPod touch is feeling less like a Ferrari with a Ford Focus engine now as Apple really begin to unharness the power of this thing (minus the phone of course)

Pipex was once a good ISP here in the UK - back when it was part of UU-Net and one of the UK backbone providers. Recently ISPs here in the UK have undergone change and are slowly one by one being absorbed under bigger providers - and then degrading in service. I am currently using Pipex and have been for the past 4 years. For the past couple of weeks i’ve been struggling to get onto the iTunes music store or update my podcast subscriptions after around 6pm. I didn’t think much of it, putting it down to network issues but having finally gotten fed up Googled it, only to find that other Tiscali users have been suffering this since summer last year! I thought, ha - good job i’m not with Tiscali only then to read a few posts later that Pipex was absorbed into Tiscali last year and upon doing a traceroute found out that my traffic was indeed going through Tiscali routers!! I can only guess that Pipex users were migrated over to the Tiscali network quite recently. Bahhhhh! So now I’m stuck, unable to use iTunes when i get home from work, nor update my podcasts. I’m going to suffer their hold music to demand my MAC code tonight to migrate away from them as quickly as possible!

OFCOM MAC address ruling
Discussion on Apple Forums

Just came across another annoying bug with the iPod touch and the latest firmware, 1.1.2. If you have two albums by two different artists named the same thing, eg ‘Greatest Hits’ - when you flip to view the track listings you see the tracks from the other artist even if you navigate via Music > Artists to select the first album.

Come on Apple, these bugs are simple queries that can’t be hard to fix!

Being a new Mac user at home i’m using Adium for my IM and have been missing some of the video stuff i was used to back in PC days with MSN Messenger, well I’ve just read on ‘The Mac News Network’ that Adium will be supporting video in an upcoming release! Wooohoo!

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not long now and the Tiger will be changing into a Leopard.