BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Texting' clue to LA train crash

The original BBC article on the train wreck

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7618503.stm

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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As Text Messages Fly, Danger Lurks - NYTimes.com

The New York Times tech story

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/us/20messaging.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1222002819-kLFu5KTuXO0jLouNqE2HlQ

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
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Review of iLLuminatik Car Kit for iPhone 3G

Executive Summary: Very cheap, very good, with some flaws.

NOTE: Also sold as the TeckNet MT-094 Apple FM Transmitter

I'm typing this one fingered while parked in my car, with my iPhone
playing music while sat charging in the iLLuminatik Car Kit - or
should that be kAr cIt? - for iPhone 3G. At £13+P&P (£17.48) through
Amazon.co.uk this is almost too cheap to be believed. The kit is for
sale for double the price elsewhere, which is about what we might
expect to pay for an FM Transmitter, Hands Free or iPod/iPhone Charger
and the Allkit (the name used in the inbox leaflet) does ALL three.

There are caveats to the claim for the second function as the
packaging only claims "hands free" for incoming calls, where the only
physical requirement is to tap Answer on screen; a relatively small
distraction and no worse than tapping a Bluetooth headset button or
clicking on the iPhone headset mike. Clearly, outgoing calls will not
be anything like as hands free.

Free apps, like TouchDial, would make calling home as safe as any
interaction could be while driving. However, a recent trainwreck
resulting in 25+ deaths is believed to have been caused by the driver
texting on his mobile, preventing him from reacting to a red light.
Even the New York Times has a current tech piece about the dangers of
texting, quoting an estimated drop of 10 IQ points when using am
mobile while trying to do something else. This would put many of the
drivers into single figures, IQ wise, judging by the fact that I
regularly see them talking into their handheld mobiles while cutting
me up on the daily commute; it has been illegal for some time now, but
is hard to enforce except after the fact. There isn't a week that goes
by when I don't see an ambulance rushing to a crash. So, iPhone
interaction should be kept to a minimum, if not banned entirely, and
some form of disclaimer from iLLuminatik is understandable. Please
don't even answer a call if it is not safe.

There is definitely scope for a remote answer switch here, which could
be combined with a mike for better in-car audio; quite a few generic
hands free kits use external mikes to improve audio quality. In a
stationary test with me in the front and my two eldest kids in the
back, my wife reported that there was a lot of "noise" that could be
the result of cut off problems; you have to be pretty disciplined not
to talk over the remote speaker as they get clipping and echoes; this
is pretty common on speakerphones BTW, so not too damning.

A more objective test, calling my Answerphone with the engine running,
resulted in really good noise reduction, given that my 1999 Diesel
Peugeot 306 has a rather throaty roar when revved, but all three
voices were very clipped, quiet and "daleky" as a result. Useable, but
really showing the need for an extra peripheral. The Griffin SmartTalk
- intended to provide a mike and answer button for your own headphones
via a built in socket - might work, but this has not been tested.

The iLLuminatik kit seems well made, with some obviously excellent
elements: the connector cable and adjustable side grips allow iPhones
to be firmly held without the need to take off protective shells or
screen protector; most FM transmitters fit far too snugly, requiring
you to strip off any extra casing, or are basically cables and plugs
that leave the device unsecured. My guess is that this is a pleasant
side effect of the kit needing to support a range of players, but it
is nice that the grips go wider than the widest of Apple's offerings,
the iPhone 3G. I am using the Griffin hard shell with built in screen
protector, which is actually quite chunky and rather annoying to
remove. So, this is an excellent option.

Another brilliant feature, according to the box, isthe anti-rotation
collar to prevent the iPhone on its long and very springy goose neck
cable from falling down. It works, but perhaps a bit too well, by
increasing friction between the plug and socket. Be warned though and
careful when plugging in or adjusting position as the increased grip
broke the socket housing when I was trying to get it into a
comfortable position. The connection cable is just too long and
springy, providing excellent leverage for breaking your dashboard. I
had to remove the fascia to do a quick repair, but a feature that was
supposed to prevent wobble - a real problem with my old Griffin
RoadTrip - has actually made things worse; I have had to carefully
swap round the connection at the back of the iLLuminatik to let the
kit hang down from the socket. Ironically, this has resultedbin a
better position for re iPhone, just to the side of the gearstick and
in plain site, but reversing the adjustable coupling isn't intended by
the manufacturer because teeth to grip when the bolt is tightened are
only on one side; a weakness that could easily be resolved. Don't try
what I did first and unscrew the plug half a turn at the top of the
connector; the screw thread is impossibly small. I managed to unscrew
it completely by accident, which required me to open up the plug to
get it fixed. Testing to destruction appears to be a theme today!

So, if you can learn from my mistakes this IS a good purchase. The
shortcuts on some elements are made up by the price and flexibility of
the kit. The USB charging socket is a nice extra, but I'd be worried
about current drain and older cars' wiring getting overheated if
loading was too high. Dealing with an iPhone in it protective case is
excellent. Sound quality for FM is good enough. And the hands free
works. Even aside from the problems - some my own fault - I'm happy so
far. We'll see how well it does over the next few weeks.

P.S. I bought this. It wasn't a freebie. However, if alternative
product manufacturers would like to send me stuff to review I would be
happy to do so.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
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ITunes and Podcast subscriptions

Wouldn't it be nice if you could subscribe to podcasts right here on your iPhone! If it was seen as a transferrable purchase like apps and music, it could still integrate with iTunes on the desktop.

Fw: Thanks Shane!

Thanks to Shane Lee for raising this one: he noticed that there
appears to be no way to forward SMS messages to another number. I've
looked and I believe he may be right. I think this another example of
the need for secondary contextual options like "open URL in new
window." even the most basic mobile allows users to forward texts.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
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Oh, and another gripe!

Mail app does what I want from Twitter: it opens the full Safari, with
landscape and bookmarking. However, it would be nice to have a back
button that would take you back to mail. At present opening a new URL
has the back button greyed out.

Oh, and did I already ask for the chance to open a link in a new
window; press and hold pops up the actual web address, but could this
pop up either "add link to bookmarks" and/or "open link in new window"
options? That would be nice.

Oh, and a Del.icio.us app, anyone?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
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Not officially an iPhone bug but...

Using various twitter apps, and others, it annoys me when a tweet has
a URL in it, which opens up a web page but doesn't allow landscape
orientation or, more importantly, the ability to add it to bookmarks.
I am using Twitterfon at present. Do others work better with embedded
URLs?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Mail setting bug - the long version

Ok, it all started with me getting a bounced message from a yahoo
group, because my new me.com email address didn't match the old
mac.com subscription address. So, I decided to change the setting in
my mail to allow posting to the group; .mac and mobileMe addresses are
synonimous at present.

However, I couldn't get the cursor to go beyond the @ in the mobileMe
setting window. Then trying to exit or move to another text entry
window resulted in the last letter before the @ disappearing. I didn't
notice this at first, but worked it out after mobileMe started failing
with a wrong password error.

Going back in to correct/check the password I noticed the username was
wrong, missing the last 'r'. Adding it, then quitting resulted in it
vanishing. I've dropped my H's before, but never R's. In the end, as
evidenced by the previous pictures, I had to put in an extra character
to get the stripped username to be correct. This is a very weird bug!

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
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Mail setting bug (part 4)

And what I was supposed to have in the first place. Explanation follows.

Mail setting bug (part 3)

My workaround solution. All will be clear in part 4.

Mail setting bug (part 2)

What is missing from the previous?

Mail setting bug (part 1)

Spot the mail settings bug. See part 2.

Cut and Paste on the iPhone?

The Guardian Tech blog has just reiterated one of my Missing Feature sentiments:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/sep/10/youchoose.blogpost?gusrc=rss&feed=technology#

Here it is again for those who don't want to click then scroll down:



Bizarrely, I found my old Newton 2100 yesterday and brought it into work to see if I could get it going again; anyone know of a serial-to-usb option that will work?
NOT Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Bluetooth Headset Woes and a few missing mail features

My rather slick Sony Ericsson W610i that my iPhone replaced has a
lovely feature or two, which I will miss. Notably, the built in
ability to record audio and the way it handles Bluetooth headsets.

Voice recording is available with several apps on the Apps Store, but
none can record a phone call while you are talking. And so far, I have
not found a free app that does what I want in the way I want: having a
way to get the sound file off the phone is a must, even if I have to
give up call recording. And I won't pay for an application when their
functionality is not testable. I had been trying Voice Notes, but so
far I've had problems with the desktop java app needed to 'sync' the
audio; crashes and strange hangups, but it is java.

The other feature I would love to have is the ability to transfer
sound to a Bluetooth headset without first connecting it. This option
appears under the same menu as speakerphone when in the middle of a
call. On the iPhone it would be nice to have the option to seemlessly
turn on and connect a previously paired headset. It would streamline
the existing process of turning on Bluetooth and then instigating a
connect from the headset; the W610i handles the connect.

I did eventually work out how to start the connection process from the
Plantronics M3000, but why should I have to?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

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For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Another missing feature in Safari

Find text in a web page.

Open page in new window.

Trying out Shozu

Am now trying out ShoZu after a recommendation from Michael Webb twitter.com/michaeldwebb

If it works out it will be better than three separate apps for Facebook, Twitter and my blogs.

My first iPhilic action

Using my laptop just now, I have performed my first unconscious iPhone
related act by clicking and dragging to scroll a web page. Clearly
this only had the effect of selecting some text. Oh well!

It did remind me that I wish there was an obvious - it might be there
but I haven't found it - way to choose UK spelling for the auto-
correct text feature of the keyboard; typing "realise" involves me
having to override the 'wrong' correction to realize.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Cut and Paste?

I miss the option to select text, cut copy and paste. The applications
of this are too numerous to mention. And EVERY application should be
forced to work in both portrait and landscape.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

The Missing App (epilogue)

Well, it seems that I am not alone in getting the blank app bug:

http://www.apple-touch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1102

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1599678&tstart=15

And doing the search for iphone blank etc came up with several people who wanted the feature of a blank desktop on their iphones. Personally, I would like some sort of theming - a games background for game apps for example - so it goes on my list for v2.1

NOT Scent from my iPhone 8-P

P.S. Actually typing this one up on my Windows PC through the web interface, which incidentally has the option for labels for the post. Also, have confirmed that the email to blog interface works ok but the formating of text when viewed on the iphone is crap, but acceptable on the PC. Am going to explore the O2 email service as blogger appears to support o2imail.co.uk but not me.com or mac.com sourced emails. Let's see if that produces better behaved text formatting.