ElaineGiles.co.uk

Since the announcement of the iPad I’ve been amazed by the strength of feeling demonstrated by both sides of what has become the great Flash debate of 2010.

The iPhone has never supported Flash and while mention was made of that fact when v.1 was released it’s continued omission has not engendered any great depth of feeling. Since the iPad runs on essential the same operating system I didn’t expect Flash to be supported and therefore wasn’t surprised when it wasn’t.

What has happened since has astounded me: the vitriolic claims and counterclaims have flowed thick and fast.

Continue reading ‘Flash Mob’ »

So the magic day has arrived … I’m out of contract on my iPhone 3G *deep joy*

Time to change to a better value tariff so off I headed to O2 in Bolton. I knew what I wanted was a tariff called Simplicity 20 for iPhone … if only acquiring it had been simple. Sadly, it was a complete disaster, for the full horror of the day take a listen to MacBites episode 40.

The store staff had clearly had no training in what was available to cater for the specific needs of iPhone customers. A glaring omission given that all the customers who purchased an iPhone 3G on the day of release are out of contract this month. The staff were all most helpful and cordial but this didn’t translate into a smooth transaction when they were unaware of the difference between a Simplicity tariff and a Simplicity for iPhone tariff.

For the record this is the difference:

Simplicity (During January promotion) – £20

• 700 Free voice minutes (100 minutes more than usual)
• 700 Free text messages (100 texts more than usual)
• 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
• No visual voice mail
• No free wifi

Simplicity (After January promotion ends) – £20

• 600 Free voice minutes
• 600 Free text messages
• 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
• No visual voice mail
• No free wifi

Simplicity 20 for iPhone – £20

• 600 Free voice minutes
• 1200 Free text messages
• 2 free bolt-ons (they recommend unlimited internet and unlimited wifi)
• Includes visual voice mail

The Best Way to proceed?

From my experiences I’d by-pass the stores, they don’t seem to have a clue what is the best option for iPhone customers coming out of contract, and call O2 directly. If given a choice, which you should be if ringing via your iPhone, select the option to speak to the cancellations department. The option actually connects you to a department called Retentions who seem to be the only people at O2 who have any knowledge of the existence of the iPhone version of the Simplicity tariff.

Tell the Retentions department you want to switch to Simplicity 20 for iPhone with 600 free minutes, 1200 free texts, 2 bolt-ons and visual voice mail. If they deny all knowledge of its existence ask to speak to a supervisor and/or show them this screen capture of my O2 account … it really exists!!

You might have to wait 24 hours for everything to be activated and you might have to manually reconfigure your settings. One of the side effects of changing tariffs was that the phone reset itself and failed to connect to the 3G network. This was easily rectified by entering the following settings into the General > Network > Cellular Data Network of the phone:

The only other gotcha I encountered was having to set Visual Voice Mail up again from scratch but this shouldn’t be necessary if O2 transfer you to the correct tariff in the first place. Being without my visual voice mail made me realize that it was a feature of the iPhone that I had greatly under-appreciated … a mistake I won’t make again

Good luck with your tariff transfers and I’d love to hear how you get on so be sure to leave me a comment below!

So it’s that time of the year when resolutions are made, plans are crafted and successes are plotted.

Judging by my lack of progress in blogging last year I think rather than picking one or more of the Top 10 New Years Resolutions I should resolve to dedicate more time to blogging.

In my defence I did notice in 2009 that the number of episodes of MacBites we released increased in direct proportion to the lack of blog posts though!

So with an interesting 2010 to look forward to I shall endeavour to blog my geeky thoughts much more than in 2009.

Why interesting you ask? Well it looks as if the as yet mythical Apple tablet might just see the light of day and I’m lusting after one (or two!!) of those new shiny 27 inch iMacs too. In business terms I have plenty of speaking engagements booked and more in the planning stage so be sure to keep an eye on my Presentations page for details of both upcoming events and recordings of previous presentations.

Since I spent the whole of New Years Day dismantling and reassembling hard drive enclosures I guess my love/hate relationship with my storage devices would be a good place to start. Be warned though as threatened on Twitter it could well become a mini series! Watch this space for the first installment of drives from hell, coming as soon as I’ve written it.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you and yours a happy and prosperous 2010.

So there it is the first post of the year, day 1 and I’m ahead of myself. As I say on MacBites … See you next time

Within days of getting my iPhone 3G in the summer of 2008 I’d found a real time saving feature on the keyboard for entering URL extensions and blogged about it too at Quick URL Entry on an iPhone.

Well after the v.3 update not only is the feature still there but the range of extensions has been expanded.

Ireland will forever thank you

Nice attention to detail there Apple!

Version 2

Version 3

I thought I beyond being surprised by the depths to which Microsoft will stoop to gain a user. Sadly this week has proved that I am not and I viewed the latest attempts from Redmond to woo users to the newly minted Internet Explorer 8.

The strategy this time is to offer the chance to win $10,000 to those prepared to use Internet Explorer 8 to pinpoint clues which reveal the location of the cash.

Continue reading ‘Ain’t Advertising (Ten) Grand?’ »

So after a fantastic night chatting with MacBiters in the MacBites chat room during WWDC I eagerly downloaded the release version of Safari and installed it.

While I’m installing I ponder the slightly surprising decision to revert the top mounted tabs to their original location but I’m sure I’ll get used it again.

Trouble is after downloading it and installing it I didn’t get as far as seeing the tabs. Instead I was greeted with this:

Continue reading ‘Safari 4 – Almost a Disaster’ »

In the midst of the iMac fiasco I made the decision to buy a Mac Mini. I’d toyed with purchasing one before deciding to wait for the inevitable upgrades – trouble was Apple took far longer than I anticipated to upgrade the Mini.

Well the upgrades finally arrived and I bought a base model priced at £499.

I had a specific job in mind for the machine, as well as it being a spare system available in the case of a failure elsewhere. That job was for it to act as a host for several external hard drives and the two office printers. By hosting the external drives on the Mini I would be able to run backups and archive data to discs without impacting the performance of my main workstation.

Continue reading ‘Like a Headless Chicken’ »

I’ve had enough

So where were we up to with the story of the repair from hell?

Oh yes Friday, 24 April 2009 no news, status “Repair in Progress”.

Worse than that I haven’t had any communication from the Store regarding my e-mail sent 4 days ago. This is despite a promised investigation, by the staff member identified only by a first name, I have heard nothing at all from anyone.

Continue reading ‘More AppleCare Woes’ »

My iMac

As those of you who follow me on Twitter or those who have heard the Mac20Q Roundtable Podcast or the International Mac Podcast will know I am the *not so* proud owner of a sick iMac right now. Many of you have contacted me with advice and/or support for which I publicly thank you all now. I thought for posterity I should detail the whole sorry saga, here goes …

Continue reading ‘AppleCare … Do They?’ »