Saturday, July 12, 2008

Further iPod adventures... Oddly enough... (After updating iTunes to official 7.7) Okay... the devPod had firmware v.2.0(5A345) - the last beta version. But iTunes thought it was v.2.0 so it wouldn't let me upgrade the devPod the easy way. And Apple wouldn't let me pay for the touch 2.0 update (v.2.0(5A347)) again using the same Apple ID. (I'm not going to object - it does mean that a multi-iPod touch family only needs to pay$10 once no matter how many touches they have. Not sure if it's intentional or not. Or maybe Apple assumes only one family per touch?) The iTunes store did say I could download another copy... but that didn't work for some reason -- so I copied the file from the Powerbook I use with my regular touch and used that. Once THAT was complete (didn't take long because the devPod doesn't have much any normal multi-media files on it.) I also had to re-Provision it in XCode. And reenter the wi-fi pwd for my home network. But nothing else so far... And, as usual... updating XCode for the iPhone was the usual hassle - log into the Apple iPhone dev center Download the 1.25GB XCode 3.1 disk image. Install XCode Download the 600+MB of Xcode/iPhone docs within XCode (It's not included in the disk image anymore) Use it... I really need to get going on my iPhone/touch apps. The non-work related ones anyway... 8:18:39 PM    Notes [] The App store... Friday, Apple released the new version of the iPhone ( with added GPS and 3G networking goodness). They also released a software revision (2.0) for the touch and 1st generation iPhone. To say nothing of the App store in the iTunes store. I still have my iPod touch so when the software/firmware update became available for it (this morning. Finally!) I plunked down the credit card and updated it (why no, it wasn't free for the touch - just like the last "extras" update at the beginning of the year - and there was much gnashing of teeth and burning of Steve Jobs in effigy - from people who think they are entitled to free stuff forever. Or thought the $20 they paid for the 1.1.4 apps entitled them to 2.0. But anyway...) (My other iPod touch (the 8GB devPod) has been running the beta version of the firmware for months but that's a completely different issue. That's the designated 'sacrificial iPod' so I can test things without screwing up my regular touch.But let's not forget, like I just did, that the beta firmware has an expiration date -- so I'll need to put an official version of 2.0 on the devPod also. Another $10 +tax to Apple... ouch.) The app store has some interesting things on it. I won't go over any of it. Everyone and their Aunt Millie is reviewing the stuff that's there along with pithy comments about the 100's of stand-alone eBooks showing up there. I did pick up a couple things: a non-free utility (FileMagnet) to copy non-syncronizable things (pdfs, etc) to the gadget. And read them if they are in a format recognizable by the gadget. a non-free drawing/sketching app (No. 2) the iPhone/touch version of eReader (which will be much better when you can use it to read books that AREN'T in your Fictionwise bookshelf) an oddly addictive game(free) called Aurora Feint. Not sure how to describe it but I killed over an hour with it this morning. a (free) version of Otherllo/Reversi called 'Morocco' There are a couple interesting commercial games ('Space Monkey Balls' and a Crash Bandicoot game) and a couple other ports of older games but I think I'll hold off on those for now. 4:48:21 PM    Notes [] The Revision Game I've started revising (for the 3rd time) my old story "The Two". My writing ability/style has changed enough since I started it 5 (Five!!) years ago that hopefully it'll end up better in the end. But no promises. The main plot will stay the same, I'm just fixing/smoothing out the writing. I'm not sure how long it's going to take to go over the existing 13 parts. Some need more work than others. (Part 1 took me approximately 6 hours but it and Part 2 are probably the ones that need it the most.). While I'm working on it I'll keep the older version on-line. And Revision's 1 and 2 will still be available as big eBook style chunks when I finish (Maybe...I'm still thinking about it.) And once that is done... end of summer? I'll start writing new parts. (Or maybe sooner.) It's about time this one was finished. 5 years is long enough. Note: I won't update the ikoly(2) or TtH copies of this story until I have something really new (whole new parts) to post. 4:27:58 PM    Notes []

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