wrighters.net

I saw the WordPress iPhone app come up on the iPhone applications unofficial feed. I grabbed it right away and started this post. Setting up a new blog is easy, you just add the URL and username and password. Once setup, you can see the last 30 posts (configurable), or create a new one. Each post has tags, categories, the title, and the content. All HTML had to be entered manually, so you definitely won’t be doing anything too complicated. Maybe there are plans for some tag shortcuts in the future. And with no cut an paste on the iPhone, you will be doing all the typing in your post.

The preview function works great. I also tried the picture link and took a new picture using the built in camera. The app then crashed, but the post was still intact in the drafts folder. Of course I’ve had lots of apps crashing with the new 2.0 firmware, so who knows whose fault that is.

The big benefit over using your browser is the fact you can now create posts offline, which should encourage more writing. You do this by saving it as a local draft. Once it is moved to draft, it shows up in your blog interface.

This app is also a quicker way to do a quick edit of an existing post because of the simple interface and lower data transfer needed. Best of all, it’s open source just like WordPress. Get it now.

Like many iPhone owners I couldn’t wait to try the new 2.0 firmware. So when macrumors reported it was available early, I downloaded and installed it against my better judgment. You have to download the file separately and then use option click on the “Check for update” button in iTunes to install the firmware.

First, I thought I bricked my iPhone when it wouldn’t install. iTunes then recognized the iPhone was in recovery mode, but a restore failed with the error “iphone could not be restored (20)”. Turns out you can also use option click on the “Restore” button to get another attempt to install the firmware. The second try worked.

The new firmware is great - the app store is nice. I put twitterific, facebook, and a few more apps on right away. Now I’m finding my first synch will not get past the “Syncing contacts” step. This may be an adventure.

I think a lot of geeks will be pretty worthless at work tomorrow.

I got a new iPhone today, and thought I would try to activate it with a prepaid plan - known as a GoPhone with AT&T.  This would allow me to not have to sign a contract and since I use almost no minutes anyway, it would be $5/month cheaper than the lowest postpaid plan.  I quick google search shows that there used to be a nice hole in the activation process where you could send in a garbage SSN like all 9’s, fail the credit check, and then get an option to go with a prepaid “pick your plan” option. It looks like that hole has been closed by Apple or AT&T. This looks like a server side fix - since it allows you to submit the form before telling you the SSN is no good.

There’s really no other apparent way to activate prepaid without having terrible credit. I guess that’s the punishment I get for good credit - no choice. Now I get a 2-year relationship with AT&T - a company I had managed to get rid of for a few year.

After a regular activation, the phone has been pretty good. We’ll see if the number ports over from prepaid T-mobile ok. I bet it won’t be ported into AT&T for at least 24 hours.

I got a new MacBook (white 2.2 GHz CPU) on November 3rd, just after the update to the new Santa Rosa chipset.  It has been quite nice, especially since I updated the memory to 4 GB using third party memory.  Apple wanted $850 for a 4 GB upgrade, I did it for $150.  The extra RAM came in really handy using VMware Fusion.  Leopard has for the most part been stable and impressive with most of the new features working great.

I have had some problems with the keyboard freezing occasionally.  I found that if I closed the lid and reopened it a few times, the keyboard would sometimes come back.  The trackpad works fine the entire time, but the keyboard would completely stop working.  Looking around a bit, it appears this is possibly a major issue with Leopard on MacBooks and MacBook Pros.  I installed the 10.5.1 update about three days ago and haven’t had the problem since, but it appears that some people are still having the issue after the update.  Apple better get to the bottom of this quickly, or word will continue to get out and the mainstream press may stop fawning all over them.  The story hit techmeme today, so I guess the word is getting out.