Friday 30 December 2011

Skyrim Bleak Temple Bug Workaround

There is a relatively minor bug in Skyrim for the Xbox 360. It turns up in the the room with the iron gate and three statues around the middle of Bleak Falls Temple and initially it seems to completely block your progress. When you enter the room there are three statues on your left. These should rotate between three images which you need to get in the correct order in order to open the gate when you pull the lever in the centre of the room.

However, on some occasions when you get to these statues and activate them they do not move. In order to get around this bug simply go back, leave the temple and then reenter it again. When you get back to the room the statues should all be rotating normally. It's a strange one but at least it's easy to resolve.

Saturday 24 December 2011

Top 10 Podcasts Of 2011

With the Christmas season upon us and year end approaching I wanted to take this opportunity to recognise what I consider to be the Top 10 Podcasts of 2011. These are the shows that I always make sure I have up-to-date on the iPhone before I get into the car.

1. MacBreak Weekly - TWiT
2. CrackBerry Podcast - Mobile Nations
3. Mobile Nations Podcast - Mobile Nations
4. T3 Podcast - T3.com
5. Piers Morgan Tonight - CNN
6. AC360 - CNN
7. TWiT - TWiT
8. TWiG - TWiT
9. Motley Fool Money - Motley Fool
10. HBR IdeaCast - Harvard Business Review

Congratulations to Leo Laporte and MacBreak Weekly for taking the number one spot and TWiT Network for three top ten shows. I thought the handling of the Steve Jobs health stories and his sad passing was second to none and showed real professionalism and journalistic integrity. Keep up the great work guys.

Thursday 8 December 2011

iOS Mail App and Stability Issues

After using iOS5 on iPhone 4S and iPad 1 since it was available I've been noticing quite a few problems with the mail application. Composing long emails causes crashes but even more concerning at random times it just hangs. Unfortunately it doesn't crash so I don't even know its happened until I notice I haven't received mails in a long times and I try to access the application. At that point the UI is unresponsive and it eventually crashes and restarts. iOS is fully updated so it isn't fixed yet. Anyone have a fix for this problem? Removing accounts doesn't make a difference.

On the note of iOS problems, has anyone noticed a general instability with all applications on the OS especially on the older generation iPad. Random crashes really appears to be the norm even with over 2GB free. I really hope 5.1 resolves these because the bugs are very un-Apple like and very very frustrating.

Thursday 1 December 2011

How I Would Turn Around RIM

Over recent times I've seen one of my favourite technology companies slip from a position of smartphone leadership to the whipping boy of the technology and business press. While I am a user of Apple products, I own and have owned, a number of BlackBerry smartphones and now a BlackBerry Playbook, which I am actually using to type this post. In recent times it has become harder to recommend people buy RIM products. Management seem to have lost their vision and their ability to execute on any kind of strategy and the technology being developed is either horribly delayed, buggy or both. So, here's what I would do to fix RIM.

1. License iTunes DRM.
While this would be expensive it would be worth pursuing. Considering the lockin Apple gets from its vertical ecosystem this would help users transition to new platforms and still bring the content they paid for with them. This may require an anti-trust case through the courts initially as i would expect Apple to turn down any initial licensing offers but it would be worth it.

2. Ensure applications are available in their entirety worldwide.
Applications such as the podcast application which works in North America but doesn't let you subscribe to podcasts in the UK. It's a letdown for users and tarnishes the brand when applications that are advertised on the BlackBerry website either are not available or, even worse, are so badly crippled they are virtually useless. This should never happen and should be resolved.

3. Fix usability on the PlayBook.
The PlayBook is a beautiful device and really should be the iPads number one competitor but it's not because those in charge at RIM messed up the execution. Im not even talking about the lack of email client here. I'm thinking about areas such as the keyboard which is nice to use but lacks much of the usability that even the Torch has and seems to have issues picking up keystrokes when typing quickly. It also performs differently across various apps with the browser keyboard behaving very differently to the word processors. A disjointed mess that needs fixed.

4. Limit the range to handsets available to 3 BBOS phones: Bold, Curve and Torch.
There are too many devices and variations of devices coming out of Waterloo. It has become painfully obvious that RIM is not capable of designing, building, testing and then mass producing this variety of form factors and hardware configurations. With that in mind it's time to reduce the range to three: Bold with touch screen and keyboard for the executives and image conscious; Curve with touch screen and keyboard for the ordinary enterprise employee and the consumer looking for low cost, desirable handsets such as Teenagers; and Torch for those who like the 100% touch screen form factor and would be the only platform running BBX. No four digit numbers and GSM and CDMA handsets are named exactly the same, no more XX30.

5. Break the browser and in particular the App World dependency on the BIS/NOC.
The browser should not be routing data through BIS or anything else. It may reduce traffic but it slows performance and reduces quality. I would allow BES to configure enterprise BlackBerrys to do this if they wished for an extra, small, fee. App World should be able to connect over WiFi. If someone has a BlackBerry lying in a drawer I want them to be able to turn it on, browse the store, buy apps and become acquainted with the device again without ever needing a SIM. A quick and easy way to help people get back onto the platform if they happen to stray.

6. Active Sync on PlayBook along with Bridge.
Keep BlackBerry Bridge in the PlayBook to give enterprise that secure access to email, contacts and calendar from a corporate handset. This also gives consumers the benefit of bring your own device while staying in the BlackBerry ecosystem. Buy a PlayBook and use it for work but then turn off the Bridge and use it for play. Adding ActivSync to the platform gives the PlayBook its consumer features and allows users access to their personal PIM services, a feature the device sorely lacks at the moment.

7. Invest in app devs to ensure they port apps to the platform.
I would have thought that this one should be a given but apparently it's not. The top 100 applications across the Apple, Android and Windows App Stores should be identified and the developers paid by the company to port their applications to the BlackBerry platform. They should also be provided with free support and devices to ensure the transition is as smooth and easy as possible. These sqme developers should be worked with directly in order to determine how best the development tools can be changed and developed to make the process faster, easier, cheaper and more efficient. Users should also be asked through social media for the applications they miss and would want to see and the most popular of these should be ported.

8. Turn BBX phones into a consumer device and limit to one forked handset with ActivSync.
As mentioned above the range of BlackBerrys on the market is going to be greatly reduced to minimise hardware complexity and make the manufacturing process more efficient and more manageable over the near and medium terms. With that in mind the BBX platform is going to be aimed solely at the consumer market. As such it will support ActivSync for email, contacts and calendar rather than the traditional BIS/BES. BBM must be in place but will be integrated into an architecture that does not require a BlackBerry account and can operate with and without a SIM card. Media player will be enhanced and will include the Amazon marketplace, a Kindle app with the ability to buy books and magazines directly from the app and finally the capability of playing iTunes Music, Movies and TV Shows via the DRM deal in point one. Clients for Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Windows Messenger, Google Chat, Google+ and Yahoo should be available and be native. Development for all of these will be given the same high priority support as the apps in point seven. Finally tighter integration between the PlayBook and BBX phones should include easy file sharing, tethering, user accounts on the PlayBook linked to individual handset PINs and a settings transfer function that moves application states between the PlayBook and the handset using Bridge technology so you can play a game or application on the PlayBook and pick up from the exact same spot on the handset.

So thats some of the parts of my vision to transform RIM into the industry leader it was and should still be. I may outline some more ideas going forward and I haven't touched on advertising, office layout, decision making and overall corporate hierarchy but please give me your thoughts so far. If Jim and Mike could even execute half of these then RIM could be on a solid foundation for building and moving forward but I don't think they will. If anyone at RIM wants to contact me please feel free to use my email (contact at 22hundred dot net), Twitter (mikemcconville) or LinkedIn and I'd be more than happy to talk.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

iOS 5 Battery Improvement Advice

If you're like me then you enthusiastically updated to iOS 5 the second it came out and then happily headed into work once the upgrade, which felt like it took days, was completed. Also if you're like me you have an iPhone charging cable everywhere you go, with good reason. But this time you may have found that your iPhone spent much more time dangling off the charging cable than usual. If so then here's a tip to get some of that performance back: remove weather and stock from notifications.

1. Tap on Settings
2. Tap on Notifications
3. Tap Edit in the top right
4. Drag Weather and Stocks out of the notification centre list by tapping and holding on the three bars on the right side of the weather and stock row and dragging it into the Not In Notification Centre list which is towards the bottom of the screen.
5. Once both are out of the list tap Done in the top right

I've seen a massive improvement in battery life and performance since doing this so it may be worth trying if you are having battery issues.


Please remember 22hundred.net and it's writers cannot be held accountable for any problems or loss of data caused by following advice on this site. You follow the advice above and all other advice offered on the site at your own risk.

Thursday 13 October 2011

iOS 5 Reminders Issue

One of the most useful elements of Apple's new iOS 5 is the Reminder app. However, within minutes of getting my 3GS updated and logging into iCloud I realised my Reminders app was useless. This isn't a judgment on the app it's because I couldn't create an item let alone actually be reminded of anything. Only the Completed list displayed and there was no little +.

If anyone else finds themselves in this position the fix is rather easy but strange. Navigate to iCloud under settings. If Reminder sync is off turn it on. Let it Sync up then head back to the Reminders app and everything should be ready to go. Strange bug but certainly a bug.

Monday 3 October 2011

Predictions For Tomorrows iPhone Announcement

We are a only hours away from the launch of the new iPhone and iOS5. We already know most of the iOS features but what about the new iPhone? Well I'm predicting that we will see two iPhones tomorrow. The iPhone 4S will be a minor upgrade of the iPhone 4 with a a global chip, lower cost and most importantly a repaired antenna. The iPhone 5 will be the higher cost model with a design similar to the iPad 2, larger screen achieved by removing bezels, NFC, dual core processor and 1Gb of RAM. Tim Cooks final announcement will be the voice recognition and control system built into the iPhone 5.

I think we may also see Steve Jobs tomorrow for a very short time towards the end of the presentation. This will be a symbolic public handover and something of a goodbye to the Apple faithful.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Bored Of Apple?

The first computer I ever used was an Apple, my current laptop and desktop are both Apple computers and my iPad, iPhone and iPod are seldom away from me. That has made my feelings over the last few months a surprise and a gut wrenching disappointment, I think I've become bored of Apple.

That's a big statement. The company is on fire, the products are flying off the shelves, everyone seems to be carrying an Apple logo around and yet another new iPhone is on the way. So why the boredom? Well the medias handling of one item on that previous list is the first cause. It's nothing but iPhone 5/iPhone 4S in the news. The conversation in the technology world over the last few weeks can be summed up as:
Blog: Is it going to be an iPhone 5?
Blog: Yes
Blog: Is is going to be an iPhone 4S?
Blog: Yes
Blog: Maybe...No....Yes.....My unnamed sources say yes/no/maybe/who are Apple again?

It's been weeks of this. Leaked images of nothing in particular. Unnamed sources seem to be coming out of every window in Cupertino to tell journalists about the next device. Pity nothing adds up. It's been too long reading this in RSS feeds. I wanted my iPhone in June and July and August but I just don't care anymore. Apple should've announced something by now or at least let the Wall Street Journal do it for them but this silence is just frustrating to the point of aggravation. I've reached saturation point with Apple rumours.

The second cause of my boredom is OSX Lion. I've been writing a lot recently and as such I've been running Microsoft Office, Safari and Google Chrome side-by-side on a Macbook with 4Gb of RAM. Performance, which was fine under Snow Leopard, has been shocking. I've had more app crashes in one day of Lion use than in one full year of Windows 7 and three years of Windows XP. You can suggest I downgrade back to Snow Leopard but why should I? I want the OS the app developers are going to be building for and that's Lion. I hate to say it but Lion feels to me like an over complicated, over engineered mess. It's Apple's Vista. I want my OS to just work and Lion just doesn't.

Finally, and possibly most damning, Apple don't feel like something special anymore. They're a big patent fighting corporate machine. The never ending court battles that Apple start, I've no problem with them defending themselves but it seems to be with the intention of destroying competition rather then licensing and giving some assistance to industry innovation. Also, everyone seems to have either a Mac, iPhone or iPad. It's not an exclusive club anymore. This, of course, is just the side-affect of success and Apple themselves probably don't care but it all just feels a little tainted now. The aluminium has somewhat lost its shine.

Now I'm not saying everything is wrong and we should all flock away from them obviously. Customer services is second to none, the laptops look nice if expensive and I'm sure everyone will be scrambling to get iPhone whatever when it comes out but for me it's just not the same anymore. Maybe the time has come to look for an alternative? Microsoft?


Friday 2 September 2011

Steve Jobs: Why 2011 Is Not Like 1985

From CNet
Last month Steve Jobs stepped done as CEO of Apple Inc. Before I go into the article I want to take the opportunity to wish Steve well in his role as Chairman and in his personal life as well as wishing Tim Cook well in his new role as CEO of Apple.

I think it's fair to say that the tech press has been divided over the future prospects of Apple. Many have looked back to the ten years between 1985 and 1995 when Steve was in the non-Apple wilderness of NeXT and Pixar. This look to the past tells the story of an Apple that wandered in it's own organisational and innovative wilderness. When Mr Jobs rejoined and became iCEO (interim CEO) Apple had only 90 days before bankruptcy. While Mr Jobs has not left the company he is now in a much more 'hands off' role and therefore this is a good time to ask: Is history going to repeat itself and will Apple look the same in 2021 as it did in 1995?

Well before we answer lets take a look at the Apple of 1985, the Apple Mr Jobs left behind. To begin with the ex-Pepsi Co. CEO John Sculley was CEO of Apple Computer. While Mr Sculley was a highly skilled executive he had no background in the IT industry and in the arena of rapid innovation that naturally comes as a part of that industry. Fast forward to 2011 and Apple's new CEO is Mr Tim Cook. Mr Cook is an Apple veteran who has been an instrumental COO and has been credited by many as the man who ensured that the Apple Supply Chain was capable of delivering millions of iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs. He knows the company, knows what it stands for and knows how to produce great products. There is no one in the world more capable of doing the job.

Looking back to 1985 once again we find an Apple divided. Apple was divided not only at Board level but also within the company itself. With employees taking up position behind either the Apple II, which was still popular and versions of which were still selling well, or the Lisa/Mac. The Mac had seen concerning declines in sales since its initial successes and the Lisa with its $10k price tag was a disaster. Apple was a divided company with no single trajectory to follow or vision to aim for. Jumping forward to today and the story couldn't be more different. The Mac is gaining market share, iPod has sold hundreds of millions of units, iPhone is the second most popular smartphone in the world and the iPad is the only successful tablet, period. Apple itself is battling with Exxon for the position of largest company in the world by Market Capitalisation. Most importantly everyone at the company believes they are changing the world and are united in producing the best products and best experience for everyone.

Finally, Apple today not only has one of the strongest executive branches in the industry but it is Steve Jobs. I know many are saying that in the negative but let me explain what I mean. Through the executive training, years of working side-by-side with Steve and a very real effort to infuse Apple with what Steve Jobs believed the company should be, Apple is set up to change the world, be product oriented and be innovative. This culture, along with the hugely successful products and fully united employees, Board and Executive Team will leave Apple in good standing for years to come and ten years from now it is my firm belief that we will still be admiring the innovative products coming out of the Cupertino Spaceship.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Problem Moving Email Accounts After BlackBerry Device Change

Image from Crackberry.com
Recently I decided to move back to my BlackBerry Bold 9000 from the 9780. With the bigger keyboard, silver edges and, believe it or not, the trackball, I find the 9000 an absolute joy to use. I ran into a problem though, my email accounts would not move over. I used email setup as usual and got presented with the screen accurately saying that a new device had been detected and my accounts had to be moved. I agreed and entered the passwords for each one, nothing happened. They reported success but no activation mails, no nothing.

The solution I found is unfortunately slightly typical of RIM in that it's unnecessarily complicated. Here's the solution that worked for me:
1. Rather than going to Email Setup navigate to http://mobile.blackberry.com on your device browser.
2. Select your country from the drop down.
3. Scroll down and select to Email.
4. Scroll down on the next screen and select Integrate Email
5, You will be presented with a screen notifying you that a new device is detected and asking you to move your accounts.
6. You will finally be presented with a screen listing each account and asking for your passwords to validate, enter the passwords one-by-one hitting the validate button on each as you go.
7. Once all accounts are validated you should be presented with a success screen and in 20 minutes your emails will start to arrive again.

I hope this helps anyone else who encounters this rather awkward problem.

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Lion Preparing To Roar


I've been taking a look at the Mac App Store tonight and updates are beginning to appear for applications that will allow them to support Lion. It looks to me like the rumours may indeed be true. Lion could be on its way to us in a matter of hours. Let the refreshing of the App Store commence.

Image from Apple.com