At work, this can be an issue. We’re a software company, which means I love to have the latest and greatest. Our support tracking software is always upgraded as soon as they release a new version (we’ve found quite a few showstoppers as a result, rather than wait a few weeks for an update after everyone else has reported the critical issues). I’m always nagging my boss when Microsoft release a new version of Windows, begging to be the one that tests our software for compatibility. You’d think they’d be happy that someone is so keen right?

So as soon as ios 5 came out this morning, I knew I’d have to install it straight away.

The problem is that my iPhone used to be synced with my home computer which died a few months ago. Since then I’ve been running without backing it up. I managed to save my hard drive from my old computer, and installed it on the work computer so I still had access to my old iTunes though. I’m waiting a few months until I buy a brand new computer at home, which explains why I brought the hard drive into work rather than just leaving it at home. Just this week I finally synced my iPhone with my work machine, and transferred purchased apps across as well as re-adding the ones from my old iTunes from my old hard drive. I didn’t, however, sync it so that it was adding the apps from my machine. That was probably my big mistake.

Today I ran and installed the ios 5 update, and it went through smoothly. The only hiccup I had (to begin with) was when updating all the ios settings; part of the process once the software has been updated. I got prompted to enter my apple ID and accept the terms and conditions etc. When I was first prompted to enter my apple ID it had already populated the field with my gmail email address, so I assumed I must have used that for an apple ID somehow. I entered my password, pressed next and followed the prompts. Eventually I got an error that the details were incorrect. I went back and changed it to my @me.com account, but it kept trying to verify it as the gmail account. I saw the “skip this step” button at the bottom, so pressed that and continued on, choosing to set up the iCloud integration later.

Once it had gone through, I looked at the home screen to discover the new icons for certain apps, and the addition of the reminders app.

The home screen

The second screen

I also discovered that all my apps, music and books were gone.

Shit.

To be fair, Apple did warn they would be removed as part of the upgrade and that’s fair enough. But I figured they would be re-added after that? I still have my contacts, photos, historical text messages, and a folder on the second page that I’d created for the apple default apps. Other than that, zilch. I’d spent a long time organising my apps. I have hundreds upon hundreds in my iTunes, but probably only 25% of them made the cut to remaining on the phone. I tried a lot of them out and deleted them from my phone but left them in my iTunes. Now I’m going to have to re-add all the ones I want again and put them into their respective folders. I’m not looking forward to it. It’s a task quite worthy of a few curse words. I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t properly synced it to the computer as mentioned earlier, but I thought doing a restore from backup would have fixed that.

It didn’t.

Side note – I took a backup of the iPhone on my work computer directly before upgrading to ios 5, so it should have all my latest settings/apps etc.

With regards to the iCloud integration, once I had restored I was able to put in the correct information. However I still can’t sync it; this time I get this lovely message:

iCloud verification message

Nothing critical though – I’m assuming the servers are getting a flogging today with everyone trying to sign up for it at once. I prefer that message to “verification failed cause we’re trying to use an email address that you’ve changed already but we don’t remember that”.

So really, my only gripe about the whole process is the apps. I guess I’ll just have to re-add my necessary one for now, and worry about the rest this afternoon once I’ve finished work for the day.

It’s going to be bloody painful.

**UPDATE**

We upgraded C’s later in the night, and before we did we checked his machine. Seems he hasn’t synced his phone to his laptop since it got rebuilt a few months ago, which means he was in the same boat as me. We transferred purchases and did the upgrade which went through smoothly (no problems with apple IDs or anything this time…don’t even recall having to put any information in at all) and it restored from backup. Strangely enough we found that about 10 – 15 apps had been reinstalled on it, but there were still a large amount missing. Maybe it only installs apps that are ios 5 compatible?

To be fair to Apple, I checked the warning again before proceeding with the upgrade and it definitely says that all apps will be removed as part of the process, so to please make sure a backup has been taken and purchases transferred. I daresay the issue is with replacing them from the backup. The guy at work said that his went through fine and his apps were back on there, but he is also pretty bad with technology so it’s more likely he just never checked to see how many he had in the first place.

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As much as I try to deny that I’m a geek/nerd/tech head, I have to admit that I live for the internet. I blog, I tweet, and I facebook a LOT. Despite only having been on twitter for 2 years, my tweet count is already over 24,000 tweets. That’s 12,000 pointless updates a year! I don’t even want to know how many facebook updates I’ve made in the time I’ve been on there.

Thus, it’s time to give it all up. At least for the weekend anyway.

As one of my 52 in 52 challenges I decided to try living without the internet for the weekend. I’ve gone without it for substantial times before, for example when I’ve gone camping for a few days (sometimes up to a week) and there’s no reception whatsoever, not even for phones. I cope just fine, I love camping and can easily give up the technology when I’m away. But trying to give up the internet while I’m at home within full reach of a computer or a phone with next G internet speeds?!

It’s going to be tough.

At 6pm tonight I will disconnect the wifi from my home computer and turn the cellular data off from my phone. It’s going to be a complete internet blackout. I’m going to a friend’s place tonight, and Sunday I’ll be in Brisbane all day so it won’t be as though I’m sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. Except I plan on being home for most of Saturday, which will be the toughest day of the lot. I’ve just realised this means I’ll most likely miss out on finding out if Harry Kewell signs for Melbourne Victory though, which is news I’ve been waiting months on (he should still go to the best team of the lot – Brisbane Roar). I might just have to spam text my sister and tell her that as soon as she finds something out she’s to let me know immediately. To be cruel, she’d probably send me a message on twitter then claim innocence when I get upset over not knowing

I’m expecting to see a few benefits from the internet blackout though. It will be interesting to see how much study I get done on Saturday without facebook to procrastinate on, or to complain on twitter that I’m sick of studying. I might actually be able to focus for once! Likewise, I won’t be able to check in on my phone to tell people where I’m at, or what tv shows I might happen to be watching at the time.

So without a social media presence for 48 hours, I’ve gotta ask….are you gonna miss me?

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Unfortunately I managed to lose my phone in the taxi on the way home. Goddammit!

The good:

• Thanks to Apple and their AMAZING Mobile Me service, after we did the initial “ring the phone” (it went to voicemail) we loaded up “Find my iPhone” on C’s iPhone to see if we could locate it. We couldn’t, thus reinforcing that someone had already taken ownership of it and switched it off. Knowing there was stuff on there I didn’t want people to see, I immediately sent through a request to wipe the phone, so the next time someone switches that baby on it’s going to wipe it clean. Awesome.
• Again, thanks to the Mobile Me service I have a list of all my contacts (totally up to date) online, so I haven’t lost anyone’s numbers.
• Thanks to gmail sync, I still have a fully up-to-date calendar available online, so I haven’t lost any of my upcoming appointments either.

The bad:

• I don’t have a phone, that’s annoying.
• I have lost 1.5 months of my “photo of the day” photos that I hadn’t gotten around to uploading yet. Goddammit.
• I use that phone for EVERYTHING, so I’m back to going through the process of not having a phone instantly available for my every whim. Now I have to look out the window to check on the weather – urgh!

The ugly:

• It doesn’t look like I had insurance on the phone; at least from memory Telstra didn’t have it available when getting the plan. I’ll be visiting the Telstra shop tomorrow morning to see what they can do for me.
• I don’t have rental insurance, which means I can’t even claim my phone on that.
• I’m possibly going to be up for the cost of a brand new phone, and there’s just on 12 months left on my contract. Fingers crossed they can work out some sort of a deal where I get a new phone for the remaining 12 months and have monthly repayments on my bill. I’m not getting my hopes up though, I doubt they have this available. Worst case scenario I’ll buy my sister’s friend’s iPhone 3GS for $300, and deal with that until I save up the money for a new iPhone (which is most likely never). The thought of going back to a 3GS makes me shudder.

The only blemish on an otherwise incredible evening. Bugger.

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Unfortunately before we got on the boat yesterday, Jo accidentally dropped her iPhone. It was wearing a rubber case, which caused it to bounce several times before dropping off the jetty into the water – disaster! As we all know very well, swimming is the one thing that iPhone’s CAN’T do. We fished it out and took out the bits we could in an effort to dry it. Jo is currently keeping it in a box of rice to try and draw the moisture out, but given up and ordered a new one via Apple.

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Yeah, another photo just like the echidna one yesterday but I just love the app too much.  (Hipstamatic app on the iPhone). This is Mat’s chain that was laying on the desk next to me, it reminded me of a snake.

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I first noticed it on Sunday during a phone call to my Dad, but at that time it was making a lot of static noise. Monday it happened 3 times consecutively on phone calls with Mat, but this time it was just silence. Today it was mostly fine, but still managed to be painful during one phone call earlier today.

I rang Apple, and after a few questions they said they will send me a brand new phone. They will courier it out to me, and using the same packaging I need to send my current phone back to them. They also have $900 on my credit card on hold as security to ensure that I send my phone back, and don’t just keep both phones.

A couple of things they noted on my confirmation email made me a little worried though:

If Apple receives your original product and determines that it has been subjected to damage that is ineligible for warranty or AppleCare Protection Plan coverage but is eligible for Out-of-Warranty Service, Apple will charge you the Out-of-Warranty Service Fee.
$268.95

If Apple receives your original product and determines that it has been subjected to damage that is ineligible for warranty or AppleCare Protection Plan coverage and is ineligible for Out-of-Warranty Service, Apple will charge your credit card the Equipment Replacement Value.
$375

It’s all the what if’s that are killing me. What if they say the damage was caused by water? I’m 100% positive the phone has never been near a liquid, but Ihave worn my belkin iPhone arm band with the phone in it while doing the fun runs. What if my arm was sweaty, and it caused damage to the phone? What if they say it’s been dropped? What if, what if, what if? What if I have to pay $270 or $375?! I don’t exactly have that laying around ready to spend on another iPhone.

I have to say though, Apple customer service was pretty spectacular. The whole process took about 20mins or so while the assistant tried to troubleshoot the issue, then determined it was a hardware problem (hence the new phone). She grabbed my details, and voila. Also, the fact that I’m getting a new phone before sending them my old phone is a huge lifesaver. I recall cracking my old nokia many many years ago, talking to the phone provider about it, and having to send it away for a week. In this day and age, and with the amount that I rely on my phone, I just couldn’t do that. Getting a phone before sending my phone away is just brilliant.

So, the new phone should arrive in a few days. After that, I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed that Apple don’t call me to let me know they didn’t find any issues. I’m glad my phone is in as good a knick it is – no scratches to be seen anywhere. Definitely glad to have always had a case on it; speaking of which, where is that case I ordered last week? Hmm…

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A photo taken and edited entirely on my iPhone. I think it looks pretty cool actually!

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The major major one for me was that I changed service providers, from Optus to Telstra. I discussed previously my reasons for contemplating the change, and I went ahead and did it (at a midnight launch too – silly me). I haven’t been disappointed since. The Next G network on the Sunshine Coast is fast, really fast. Everything, from GPS pinpointing to loading pages is almost instantaneous. I think it’s evidence in itself how fantastic it is, since my data usage has almost doubled for the month already. I’ll have to watch that, and see if I need to think about getting an additional data pack.

The other thing that I love about the iPhone 4 is the camera. I blogged about it here after I went to a party and used it to take photos of the night. Since getting the phone, it’s been the primary photography tool for my series of photos of the day. I haven’t been disappointed at all.

And the antenna issue? Non existent. I tried holding the phone in the death grip and I had no problems. I’ve occasionally experienced the problem with the proximity sensor though, where the screen has turned on and I’ve either prematurely ended a phone call, changed it to mute, or in one instance turned it onto speaker and almost blown my ear off. Very rarely though, and definitely not enough for it to be annoying.

The other things are nice too, the retina display etc. I’ve used FaceTime once, and got a kick out of it, but it’s not something I imagine I will be using all that often.

Overall, my experience has been a wholly positive one, and on a surprising note, my mum picks one up tomorrow…which means for all those who don’t have an iPhone yet, my Mum is cooler than you. That’s embarrasing (for you).

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It’s FACE TIME! Aka Apple’s version of video calling. It took a couple of attempts to get it working but in the end it was pretty cool. Picture quality was a lot better than what it looks like in this image though. Just a note to self, I need to look less mentally handicapped when taking screenshots.

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Currently, I’m an Optus customer. I joined with them when I got my 3G because their plans pretty much ate Telstra for breakfast. Optus recognised how customers would use the phone, and planned their offers around it. Telstra were caught napping a bit offering plans with expensive data, and a lost a lot of business as everyone jumped ship for Optus. While business was good for Optus, it was also bittersweet as it meant their networks became clogged with increase usage.

For me personally with Optus, I have had to take to switching off 3G most of the time. With 3G on, I found that I struggled to receive phone calls (particularly during lunch time) and I had a lot of dropped calls. It improved when I got the 3Gs (courtesy of Mat signing up for a plan and us promptly switching phones), but it still was pretty patchy at times. To say it was frustrating would be a major understatement.

To date, this is still my only gripe with Optus. Everytime I have had to deal with their customer service for any matter they have been absolutely brilliant. I have zero complaints about anything other than the reception. As pointed out earlier, it’s catch 22 for them. They need the business (thus offer great plans) but they are struggling under the network load. Without the $$ rolling in from the business, they can’t improve their network. I feel for them, I really do.

Then this morning Telstra finally came out with some kickass plans. Optus have still outdone them with some incredible data limits (2gb data on a $49 cap plan), but I only use just over 200mb a month. The Telstra $49 cap plan includes $750 value for calls/messages (there’s no way I will ever go over this) and with the extra data packs I can pay $20 to get another 500mb, making my total for the month 700mb. It brings the monthly cost up to $69 a month, with roughly the same offering as my current plan with optus, and $10 cheaper.

There’s no question that Telstra has an impressive network. In fact, it’s been described as one of the most compatible iPhone 4 networks in the world, so who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that? Given that the quality of reception is what has been my deciding factor in this debate in carriers, I think Telstra was always going to win this war for me. The only way they could have lost is with some outrageous plan, but it’s evident they have learned from their mistakes with the 3g.

So I guess I will see you at midnight on Thursday night. I’ll be outside the Telstra store waiting for my new phone.

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Another screenshot but meh. I would like to point out that it’s only 7.7 degrees at 7.45am. I’m meant to live in a tropical climate – I was cold!

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It is the biggest crock of shit I have ever read, pardon the language.

You can view the full article here, but here’s a couple of samples for you:

2) It’s anti-technology: When the iPhone launched it was cutting edge – now as other manufacturers announce, for instance, that you can use their phones as shareable wifi hot spots, Apple says no. Not because of some spurious “user experience” argument, but because of economics. When will they learn that it’s customers – supply and demand – that should dictate feature availability?

3) No Flash: The iPhone, the phone that promised to put the web into everybody’s pockets, can’t even show you most of it, because it can’t handle Flash graphics. Google Android can, in the latest version (OS 2.2), and it’s going to be available free on a lot of budget tariffs.

4) No multitasking: Tried instant messaging on an iPhone? Oh yes, you have to open the app to see if you’ve got a message. Genius. If Apple announces multitasking next it will be an improvement – but there’ll be no apology for the way it’s treated customers in the past, and no guarantee it won’t behave similarly shoddily in the future.

I could argue every point, especially the issue about Flash, but Steve Jobs did brilliantly answering the critics via the apple website. Instead of wasting my time (and yours) I will instead direct you to a brilliant parody of The Telegraph’s article, written by Dan Hon (mentioned earlier).

Extenuating Circumstances – 10 reasons not to buy Friday’s Telegraph

Have a read; you won’t regret it.

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Enter Australian technology, and enter the Doophone.

The phone was designed with three specific categories of people in mind:

* The intellectually disabled

* Those who are visually impaired

* Those who struggly physically

The appearance of the phone was largely defined by the last two categories of people. Namely, the screen needed to be large, and there couldn’t be any small buttons. As we’ve seen from the iPhone, Blackberries and Android phones, it’s all about the touch screen. To cater for the intellectually disabled, or let’s face it, our grandparents who find using a VCR still beyond their means, the phone is incredibly simple to use.

Then comes the features that make it more than just a “no frills” phone. For example:

* Secure access – you can lock the phone so that you can’t delete contacts without going into the admin section (password protected). Handy so that people don’t accidentally delete contacts (i.e. mentally disabled people). This even opens up the phone to an unintended market – parents with their children. A parent could give a phone to the child knowing they could only use the phone to contact them, and not ring up a huge phone bill messaging friends.

* Maps and tracking abilities – this feature is particularly handy for carers. If their client finds themselves lost, the carer can use the phone to locate the person and take steps to return them to safety. When the maker of the doophone, Rhys Cooper, was inspired to make the phone due to a real life scenario where his client went missing, he realised this feature would be a must have. You can read the story of his experience here.

You can find out more details on their website, www.doophone.com, and even have a play around with the demo that shows just how easy the phone is to use.

The doophone will be launching on the 8th of June, 2010.

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Checking in on-line isn’t anything new. Currently, you can check in via the Virgin Blue website and print out your boarding pass at home. Then, it’s as simple as arriving at the airport, heading straight to the gate, handing over your boarding pass and getting on board. Now, they have made it even more simple for the traveller; well, a traveller with a mobile that is.

The process is simple. On your web enabled mobile phone (aka my dearest iPhone) head to mobile.virginblue.com.au. Select the check in option and enter your reservation number and departure location. Choose your seat, answer the standard dangerous objects question, and enter your mobile number. Within seconds you will receive a text message with a link to a website where you will be able to view your special barcode. At the airport the staff will scan in the barcode and print out a boarding pass, and on you go! If it wasn’t for the boarding pass they print for you at the gate the process would be entirely paperless, very environmentally friendly. As it is, the boarding pass they give you is incredibly small, so it is definitely cutting down paper usage, and therefore can still be considered an improvement.

Depending on whether or not you’re travelling with other people or with bags, you might be able to head straight to the gate. If you’re alone and with only carry on, then straight to the gate for you. If you have bags, it’s pretty obvious that you would still need to check them in first. If you’re with a group of people, you will still need to check in at the counters at the front, presumably because of the logistics involved in texting all the boarding passes to the same mobile.

The first time I tried the mobile check in process I checked in the night before my early morning flight. After 3 hours I still hadn’t received the text linking to my boarding pass, and was starting to fret a little. I rang the Virgin Blue customer service line, where the rep advised me that if I still hadn’t received it before my flight they would be able to print my boarding pass at the customer service desk. Within an hour of hanging up the phone, I had gotten the text with the link. The process is still quite new, so I’m going to assume it may have been a hiccup of some sort. When I checked in this afternoon for my evening flight I got the text straight away, so if there was a problem the night before it had definitely been fixed. It still made me a bit wary; if the turn around was consistently four hours I wouldn’t really want to take the chance of only checking in on my mobile when I’m already on my way to the airport. It could get a little hairy if you’re running late.

The first time I handed my phone over at the airport I had a joke with the check-in lady that I was going to break the system. When I boarded the plane, it was evident I had tried the new process as my boarding pass was different to everyone else’s. In fact, one of the male hosts asked if I had used it, and told me he would come chat to me about it later, see what I thought of it. Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the plane so I never really got a chance to discuss it with him. But it definitely makes things a LOT easier, especially since I was in a different office where my laptop wasn’t set up to any of the printers (had I needed to print my boarding pass the traditional way).

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Luckily, the owner of the facebook album, Jo, was in Sydney with us. When questioned by Fran about the picture, Jo was shocked. It DEFINITELY wasn’t one of hers. We grabbed my iPhone to see if the same photo was visible when looking at the album and amazingly, it wasn’t!

The photo as viewed on Fran's phone

The photo as viewed on my phone (note the caption is the same)

Even when viewing all the pictures in the album it was the same.

The photo is visible in the third row down, second from the left.

Second row down, second from the left.

It’s important to note that for the purpose of this blog post I took screenshots of my iPhone only today, although this is using the latest Facebook app (3.0). However, at the time of experiencing the issue with Fran’s phone I was running an earlier version of Facebook (which was the same version as Fran) but the issue still existed. Has anyone else ever had this problem?

Also, it makes you wonder just what photos Fran had on her phone exactly to make this kind of picture appear? *wink*

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So what have I learned this week?

I discovered that I can survive without it, particularly in social scenes. Because I wasn’t thinking about writing another tweet, or checking some other application on the phone, I was focused on my friends. Mat and I went out for dinner a couple of times, and at first we joked that we were going to have to actually talk to each other, but it was great! I think this might be a lesson that some people in particular might need to learn; that having dinner without iPhones (or other technology for that matter) a couple of times a week isn’t a difficult thing (@amyob and @digitiel I’m looking at you).

I also learnt that it is damn convenient having an iPhone in your grasp. From checking my bank or the weather on the go, to being able to use google maps to find directions to where you want to go, it really does make life that much easier. This isn’t something new though; ask any iPhone owner and they’ll tell you the same. People who don’t have iPhones just don’t (and won’t) understand – they never will until they have one themselves. Remember the original comments when they first came out? “It’s just a phone!” Yeah right.

It also became apparent to me that suffering in public can be beneficial not only for myself, but for others as well. This week I’ve inspired another person to try the byephone challenge, convinced others to invest in an iPhone, and more importantly shown that by having strong willpower you can overcome almost anything. I’ve shown myself that if I can go without something I almost considered a necessity in my life, then I can put that strength to good use in other areas.

Update – It also appears that since Mat saw me succeed, he’s decided to try the original challenge, and give up poker for a week. I have faith he’ll be able to do it, he’ll just whinge a bit. Fair enough, since I did about my iPhone.

And now for the deep and meaningful part:

Perhaps everyone should take time to reflect on your own lives; see if you can find something you unknowingly treat as a necessity in life. Challenge yourself to go without it for a short period of time and see what happens. Or on the other hand, challenge yourself to try something new! Be it exercise, eating well, or something as silly as giving up an iPhone for a week, set yourself a goal and go for it. Because if you can prove to yourself you can do it, you’re well on your way to a lifetime of success.

(End of deep and meaningful bit). I’ve got my iPhone back! Yeah baby!

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The “worst” moment of the day (if you can even call it that) would actually be right now while writing this post. The iPhone is less than 30cm away from me on the desk while I write this blog post. Completely unattended, sitting there solemly. Mat’s finally had to charge it up – the power bar turned red this evening. I think the battery meter is highly symbolic of whether Mat should invest in an iPhone; he simply doesn’t need it. I think he’s managed to extend the life of that battery in one week more than I ever thought possible. Indeed, anyone who actually uses an iPhone daily would echo my thoughts: a battery lasting longer than 2 days? Impossible!

There is 20 hours until I will have the iPhone back in my grubby hands. I expect the first day or so that I have it back it will be like a novelty and I will be unable to put it down, until eventually it works its way back into being an integral part of my existance. It’s a bit scary that such a small piece of technology could have so much of an impact on my life. But still, I’m looking forward to welcoming it back with open arms, with iTunes ready to restore it back to the life it once led. Oh iPhone, where for art thou iPhone?

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Mat has still not charged the phone yet, and the power bar is now on half. That’s insane. If he hasn’t charged it by the end of this challenge I will be absolutely speechless. He has a god phone in his hands, and he chooses not to unleash it’s power. As Derryn Hinch would say, shame shame shame.

I’m on the home stretch now, not long to go.

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