Been watching the build-up and hype for weeks. At the announcement, to my (and a lot of folks) surprise, there was no pre-orders. This is unlike the release last year of the first gen iPad.

But, unlike last year, the actual release was only a week away, as opposed to the 30-days. That seemed to increase the hype in the compressed time from announce to release.

At midnight on the 11th, I was online and had a white 64GB 3G (GSM) in my cart. But the 3-5 business day delivery didn’t sit well. After pondering for a while, I decided to take my chance locally at Best Buy at 17:00 on Friday.

I went to the Dimond Center on Friday. Taking a few breaks, I wandered by BB and AT&T a few times. Found out AT&T had a “very limited supply” and BB will hand out tickets in the line.

Finally went back down about 4:00. Talked to Ben who gave me the skinny. Get in line, get a voucher, and at 5:00 they will let people in. The line was just around the corner outside, BUT, I didn’t have my jacket!

So I ran to the office and retrieved that, and in the short time to get back to “the line” I was WAY back. Ben had said they had about 100 left of different models, but I didn’t push for specifics. I tried to do a quick count of the line from where I was, WAY back. I was probably within the 100, but would they have the one I wanted.

They came through the waiting crowd and made an announcement. They would start passing out vouchers, and go back the line at 4:30. They would start selling at 5:00.

By the time they got somewhere close to where I could see, they made another announcement and said they would be moving the line forward as folks were going to be entering the store. The vouchers would resume at the door.

I was about 10-20 back at that point. It was right at 5:00.

Got to within about 5-7 from the head of the line and they made another announcement. There are no more 32 or 64GB iPads, in either white or black. They had 16GB 3G and some wi-fi versions still available. Skunked!!!

So I broke out of line and hurried to AT&T. Was only a small line. I was talking to a guy in front of me who had also been to BB. He was still trying to decide which model he wanted. I mentioned my experience using the 64GB and it sounded like a 32 would probably suit him just fine. About that time, 5:07PM, they made the announcement that there were no more iPads, but that they could order for you. Dammit, denied again!

I went back upstairs to the office. My MBP was still plugged in. A quick link to the Apple store still showed two to three weeks delivery. I went ahead and picked the white, 64GB 3G (AT&T) model, and the accessories. Got confirmation yesterday that the AppleCare “shipped” and next saw that the cover had also shipped. Should arrive Monday or Tuesday…

I just hope the supply chain in China is cranking them out (as I know they are) and the iPad will only be a couple of weeks behind.

In the end, that 3-5 business days doesn’t look so bad now… In this case, I gambled and lost.

– Posted from my iPad…

So I set out to investigate printing from my iPads. I tried several no-cost options and was reluctant to spend money on an app that may, or may not, work. I tried the CUPS mods from Terminal, the free AirPrint Activator (and even the former AirPrint Hacktivator) but none worked with my wireless (not physically connected to a Mac, or PC) WF600.

I did have success, albeit limited, with PrintJinni. At least I knew it was possible to print from the iPad to my WF600. But the limited ability, and the need to print via an attachment to an IMAP email account wasn’t palatable. Sure, if I could get nothing else to work, it would be better than nothing. But what about printing in the office and elsewhere…?

Then I came across a site that reviewed several options to allow the printing that Apple stifled (for whatever reason.) It seemed there was good press and user reviews for PrintCentral. While researching that app, I discovered PrintBureau. Now I was on to something!!! And, from what I could tell, it really did seem to work!

Of course, for the price ($12.99!), I was still reluctant to give it a try. My lack of success with CUPS printing was in the back of my mind. Sure PrintJinni worked, but what if PrintCentral or PrintBureau didn’t work any better than that free app?

Upon further research, I saw a comparison between PrintCentral and the EuroSmartz PrintBureau. I liked that direct comparison between the different versions of similar software. I saw the major differences were nullified with an in-app purchase. However, it seemed to make more sense to just purchase PrintBureau from the start. I’m glad I did!

The app does take quite a bit of time to configure and explore. It certainly provides $12.99 worth of extra value, and bells and whistles. The ability to write directly to a PDF on the device, by itself easily makes the extra $3 over PrintCentral a smart buy, at least in my opinion.

Just a bit of frustration was involved when I tried to setup my wireless Epson WF600. The app “discovered” my wireless printer. Great! Then, when attempting to do the “test” prints, all I could accomplish successfully was the plain text printing. Graphics, in any mode, were non-existent… That is, until I pressed the “More” button. It was then that I saw the first choice in selecting my printer – Epson specific was at the top of the list. Several other printer manufacturers were listed as well. Once I selected “Epson” (in my case) all the printing issues went away.

All in all, I highly recommend this app, if for nothing but the ability to print to ALL printers (in some fashion) and create PDFs. The additional features are almost overwhelming, and I am sorry to say I haven’t explored them fully. But accessing the iPad as an external “drive”, the links to the cloud, etc., all add more than enough value to justify the price, even if you only scratch the surface.

In summary, this is what I envisioned printing to be on the iPad. (And, I guess it works on the iPhone as well, although IMHO, that is a stretch.) The $12.99 price tag is almost outrageous, but it does what it says, and there doesn’t seem to be anything close to matching it’s capabilities at this time.

– Posted from my iPad…

Occasionally I would happen to notice strange wiki entry references in the logs. I never put two and two together until today. Using Google Analytics, I saw where Google had a number of spam appearances attributed to my domain. So I scoured the logs more thoroughly and found the wiki server had been set up to allow “unauthenticated” posts. Amazing, and even more so is that this is the default!?! I couldn’t believe it.

The “unauthenticated user” had created a “Publications” entry back in 2008. Again, WTF?!? (And that isn’t a reference to the CIA’s “WikiLeaks Task Force” either… ) There were, for the most part some that appeared to be legitimate posts. A lot of the entries had photos that added to the story. There were over 20 pages, each with many posts, going all the way back to 2008. They were posted with somewhat frequent regularity. The latest was posted last night at 02:00 or so.

A quick Google search really didn’t reveal a canned, step by step fix. I did see reference to how this configuration is a spam magnet. How true…

I decided to dive in to the configuration and see if I could figure it out. I don’t know if this will work, but since my address has been a regular target, only a day or two will tell if I have been successful.

In the end, I deleted the offending wiki and blog. I created a group that has permissions to make / edit a wiki post (and I hope this rolls to the blog entries, too.) Essentially, since this is a small server and it isn’t difficult to manage. On a larger scale, an automated configuration should be created. In essence, I just added authorized users to a group that allows wiki posts. The next step was to configure the wiki server to only accept posts from that group of users. (It was here in Server Admin that I finally noticed the ‘Wiki Allows Posts by Everybody’.

Sheesh! For folks like me, I would sure appreciate the default to explicitly reject posts by everyone and require specific permissions. It make me wonder just how many other compromised installations may be scattered around the Internet. Even more interesting, it make me think of some of the Google links I have followed… Some of the posts buried in my wiki / blog server looked suspiciously similar in style and content to ones I have visited.

Sure the idea is to drive traffic to your server… But this is NOT the right method!

As before (with the 3G and 3GS) I scoured Hong Kong, only to find the iPhone 4 was backordered and generally not available, even through the Apple Store HK.  Then I read an article where Canada (and the UK) were also selling factory unlocked versions. This is in addition to those already available (due to local laws) in Australia, Italy, and the previously mentioned HK.

So I started watching prices.  I see I shouldn’t have waited.  There was the initial flood, then somewhat limited availability, then they became available, but at a premium.

I saved my pennies (and nickels, dimes, and dollars) to pay for the approximate $200 "premium" for the factory unlocked version.  My need for this device is, as mentioned before, that I use GCI service here in Alaska (since I work for them.)

I was also lucky, I later found out, as the device came with iOS 4.0.1.  The key here is that I do use several apps only available by jailbreaking (a couple of them being iRealSMS or SwirlyMMS.)  The newest, at this writing iOS 4.0.2, can not be jailbroken.  In fact, that was the primary reason Apple distributed this release. (There is also a PDF security patch, but that can be downloaded separately via Cydia on a jailbroken device.)  (*** Update:  Apple has released 4.1)

So I charged the device, and after swapping the GCI SIM from my 3GS, activated the phone.  I barely took a glance at the new features before heading straight to http://jailbreakme.com.  A few minutes later Cydia and Rock were installed and off I went.

I added a few jailbroken apps and other than some minor annoying operational glitches with iRealSMS, all was fine.  Or so I thought…

I had placed a few calls, but didn’t think there was a problem.  Then a received a call and picked it up with my Plantronics Voyager Pro BT headset.  After being on the phone for several minutes, the caller finally interrupted and said they were having trouble hearing me.  I spoke up a bit and repeated what I had said.  Still they were having trouble, and a minute later, again said they couldn’t hear me; I was "muffled."  All along, I could hear them fine.

I didn’t give it much more thought, but then on a later call, I was once again told I sounded "muffled."  This time, however, I wasn’t on the headset, so that was really disconcerting. 

After searching Google and the Apple discussion groups I found where there was indeed a "muffled audio" issue, but only saw it associated with Bluetooth audio.  Several people had done a multitude of things to attempt to resolve — all with limited success.

In the process, I also read about "slow upload speeds."  I hadn’t noticed, but decided to check.  Sure enough, I was getting ‘normal’ download speeds, but barely achieving GPRS data upload throughput.  Wow!

Finally, after a few days of use, I started to notice another anomaly, that of the "proximity sensor bug."  Essentially there is a problem with screen control (on / off) when you raise or lower the phone to your ear.  My issue was noticed, on a few occasions, where when I removed the phone from my ear (for example to hang up, or dial a number to continue in voicemail) and the screen remained dark.  It would *not* come back on, even pressing the home button or sleep button, tapping the screen, etc.  This was a real problem (albeit very infrequent in the scheme of things) and sent me back to Google and the Apple support site.

There were all sorts of things to try to fix any or all of these problems.  I started with the least drastic, and did a "Reset All Settings".  That way, I didn’t have to do a restore, mess with my jailbreak or approved apps, etc.  Everything was fine, with the exception of re-entering the network settings for GCI and my various wi-fi connections.  I also had to re-enter a number of (but strangely not all) passwords.

I did a reboot of the phone, and checked the easiest thing first.  Lo and behold, but upload speed problem disappeared.  I was getting normal EDGE (GCI doesn’t have 3G on GSM, only on the CDMA side) speeds.  In due course, made a couple of phone calls, with and without the headset, and the person on the other end didn’t report muffled audio.  The next item, the proximity sensor bug, has not reappeared after the reset.

So, all in all, I am very pleased with the new device.  It is much faster, has a fantastic screen, and on and on.  In general, I have really taken to new features that I really didn’t think I would use, such as multi-tasking.  Time will tell, and with the release of iOS 4.1, I hope a jailbreak will follow soon.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 4, 3G, 3GS, GCI, iRealSMS, SwirlyMMS, jailbreakme.com, jailbreak, Alaska

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I let my GF borrow my iPad when she took a trip to visit family in California and Washington. After seeing mine when we met for breakfast one morning, she was really enamored. I knew she really wanted one, but was hoping I could hold out until Christmas. Anyway, that wasn’t to be.

We looked for the longest time, and here in Anchorage they were sold out everywhere. They were still on backorder at Apple online, too, with a 7-10 day wait.

In the meantime, I told her she should wait and not run out and buy one. I would be more than willing to let her borrow mine when she went on her trip.

So we loaded the 64 GB WiFi version up with all sorts of movies. Far more than you could ever watch on the airplane or during the vacation in general. I’ll bet there were 30 movies, and a ton of music videos. Plus the general apps and other “stuff”.

Off she went… That was more than a month ago. Still no iPad. She said, “hey, I need to bring back your iPad.” No problem, just keep it; I wasn’t using it. )

So with my upcoming trip, I really wanted to travel with the iPad. However, the difference here — it sure would be nice to have the 3G version. When she came by the other day, all forlorn, ‘uh, I brought back your iPad, but really thought you would just buy a new one’; well that was all it took. An early Christmas present, almost new!

And for me, well, Best Buy had the 64 GB + 3G in stock! So we all come out a winner.

Just for fun, I am typing this on my “new” iPad, with the BT keyboard I never used. Everything works out…

– Posted from my iPad…

I’ve been adding some albums each night this week. The next day, iTunes was back where it started. Hey, what happened to my new tracks?!?!

I started to suspect my backup routine had gotten screwed up in the SoftRAID debacle. Today, I decided to really dig in to this. Well, while not directly attributable to the SoftRAID “mess”, I did have issues from when I moved my library to the “new” SoftRAID.

In the end, I found that numerous aliases I had created were pointing to the wrong drives and directories. Slowly, one by one, I fixed them as I uncovered them. When I did, I made sure to fire up SuperDuper and run backups.

I now believe I have everything corrected. I added a few albums to iTunes and they seems to have remained, even after a reboot.

Time will tell, but I certainly hope I am over this “mess”.

I was running fine previously. I know the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But that never stopped me in the past, and I wasn’t going to let it stand in the way this time either.

So I utilized the (actually pretty cool) automatic upgrade feature of WP. That has worked in the past for minor upgrades, so had confidence it would work now. The first step is always, make a back-up. Sure, I’m sure I have a back-up, so I don’t want to waste time on that now. I probably didn’t skim the instructions since it is all “automatic”, why bother. I can always read them later if I have trouble.

Trouble I did have, too… The upgrade sputtered and stalled. I kept forging ahead, and trying a few times. Finally it seemed to work. Then there was the matter of plugins. There was some overlooked instruction (probably right after the ‘back-up first’ statement) that I failed to notice. Mind you, I don’t know if that was the culprit, but I think caching and other nuances may have been involved.

I struggled to upgrade the plugins, with the same spit and sputter as the core modules. Finally I gave in and closed the admin window, and attempted to start the blog. It was then I realized that I messed up, big time!

The blog was just a white screen when opened. There were no errors, but there was not a speck of content either. I pondered what could have gone wrong and struggled to back out. Finally I gave up in defeat and headed for bed.

This morning, I decided to try again. There was no way to login, no way to access administration or configuration pages. No errors, but nothing was displayed. I logged on remotely to the server. The files “looked” fine, but looks can be deceiving. I finally stopped wasting time, and decided to restore from my backup that I was sure would make everything whole.

I restored from a point, yesterday at 18:00. That was before I started monkeying around. Still no blog. I continued back in time to noon. Still nothing. I went back to midnight of the day before; absolutely nothing. Sure the files were there, but there was some deep underlying issue. I then attempted to use my SQL database backup that gets mailed to me every 12 hours. I went back to the morning before my upgrade (since nothing would have changed) and it still wouldn’t work after importing the DB.

After reading and looking for others who may have suffered the same as me (I found none, of course) I read detailed instructions for the installation / upgrade. I decided to take some drastic measures and deleted all WP files on the server, short of my content, files, photos, etc. I then SFTP’d the new software to the server. After playing with and adjusting permissions, it “seems” to work now. The version has been upgraded, and all the plugins as well.

I’m going to run a backup now. At least I have a site that appears to be functioning at the moment. I might run into an issue here and there, but for the most part, it seems to be running fine.

Leave a comment and let me know if you stumble on any broken parts or pieces.

The other item of note is that this post is from my new iPad.

I’ve had the device since Monday, and really haven’t played with it that much. I did try to get it setup, added or upgraded a few apps, watched a movie via Netflix, and looked around for tips and tricks as well as productivity apps.

Still have a ways to go, but I will admit now that this on-screen keyboard (in portrait mode here) really works quite well.

Lots more to explore, but two thumbs up (and maybe a high-five if this posts!). I’m sure I’ll post more thoughts as time goes on.

– Posted from my iPad…

When I saw the iPad in Anchorage, I thought I might have a chance to snag it today.  My fear was I would try to out guess UPS and sit at the office all day waiting, when they had no intention of showing because they “knew” the office was closed on Saturday.

However, I watched closely, looking for “news” that it was on the truck for delivery, just like (my favorite) FedEx does.  Well, when it didn’t show for a few hours I stood down from making a quick run to the office. I really quit watching the status and settled back to read reviews and get ready for Monday.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, there was an attempt today!  No word it was on the truck or anything.  That was at 13:29…

Missed my iPad, since the office was closed.

So, after about ten minutes trying to find a phone number (they really don’t want you to call) I finally found one.  Surprisingly it answered right away and there was no hold. (I guess it is Saturday, and they really make it difficult to even find a number, so that probably isn’t surprising after all; they don’t have many callers.)

Spoke to a nice agent who offered to look up the tracking info and let me know if the “2nd attempt” would be today (Saturday) or next business day, Monday. The latter was my guess, and that was confirmed.

Oh well, back to reading the reviews and finding out what others think of theirs… Looking forward to Monday once again.