Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"...a momentary panic set in when I discovered my Visual Voicemail was absent and my phone was dialing up voicemail instead. Luckily the problem is easily resolved."

I ran across this while looking for another article, and thought it might be handy on the off chance that there might be those of you thinking about upgrading to iOS 4 and you run into this visual voicemail access problem. The fix is pretty easy, and outlined step by step in this article.

"Most iPhone and iPod touch users are likely on a downloading binge today. Not only has iOS 4 been released, but tons of apps have been receiving multitasking updates, and now Apple has released an update to iBooks that adds universal support, among the many other new features."

So what are those new features?

Read more...

It's downloading now. Keep your fingers crossed.

"Today is iPhone (and iPod touch) software update day, as Apple should introduce iOS 4.0 later on today. The company often pushes out its iPhone patches at 10am PDT. While you wait for the update to emerge, I thought you might be interested in this ten-minute video (via TiPB) which is a great little guide to the new features of the OS."

10 minute run through of iOS 4, since today is the release day. This update will only work on the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touch (the ones with the volume control on the side). But not all features will work on the iPod Touch and 3G iPhones, such as multitasking, custom wallpaper and Bluetooth keyboard support. Before downloading make sure you have upgraded to iTunes to 9.2, and if the past is any indication, be ready for some delays.

"Apple has today quietly unveiled a brand new Mac mini featuring a new design, twice the graphics performances, HDMI out and an SD card slot."

I really like the looks of this version, but it does come with a bump of the price to $699.00 USD for the entry level version, up from $599.00 USD. Progress at a price I guess, as this one comes with HDMI as well as an SD Card slot, an internal power supply, easier access panel for memory upgrades and an NVIDIA GeForces 320M integrated graphics processor, "delivering twice the performance as its predecessor."

"In anticipation of a new iPhone coming out soon, I visited my online AT&T account information last week to see when I'd be available for an upgrade. As of last Wednesday, the upgrade page showed that I'd be available for a new phone upgrade on 9/21/2010."

And what he found out was he was actually eligible early. When I first checked mine months ago, I had my eligibility moved up to July of this year. After reading this story I checked again on the AT&T website and found that not only had my phone eligibility been moved up but the other 4 iPhones on the account had also been moved up. Previously the other iPhones had varying dates of eligibility from August of this year to September of next year. The easiest way for a single iPhone is to just dial *639# as shown above and you get the nifty text message in a matter of seconds. It's kind of like playing a game of chance, try your luck and see if you get the winning message!

"Every once in a while our tiny team produces something so...right...that we can't help but brag about it--especially when the production of that something takes over 15 months. Today is one of those times. We proudly present a very special, brand-new version of our contact management gem, Relationship."

I haven't used this program, but from what I've gleaned from the Jumsoft website, it sounds pretty powerful for a $39.00 USD program. If you want to give it a try, they do offer a free trial. If you are already a Relationship user, this is a free upgrade according to their blog, so all you have to do is input your current serial number. I'm curious though, do you use this program to keep track of your contacts? If so, how do you like it, and if you use something else, let us know!

"I didn't even see the Apple Store go down, did you? Well, no matter: the MacBook has been updated. Its base specs are virtually identical to those from the Vietnamese leak a few days ago."

The big change is the battery life, boosted to the "up to 10 hours" by giving it the same battery as the 13" MacBook Pro model. You also get bumped up speed to 2.4GHz and the NVIDIA GeForce 320M instead of the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. Ram is still at 2GB, the hard drive remains at 250GB and most importantly, the price stays at $999.00 USD.

We're doing some upgrades to our server on Saturday night (Eastern US time), so expect some down-time for 2-4 hours. Have a great weekend everyone!

"Last week, Apple released Aperture 3, a major new version that offers "over 200 new features," according to the company's Aperture page. Before you rush to upgrade, though, you might want to check out Apple's Support site. Apple has already posted more than two dozen Knowledge Base articles citing various problems that you may confront with Aperture 3."

You can find more about the upgrade at Apple's Aperture page, and if you are curious as to the reported problems you can scan through the list here from the support pages. Two of the major topics are Memory Leaks and Aperture not showing up in the Media Library. You can also get troubleshooting tips from Apple at this page.

"Aperture 3 popped its head up and over the parapet this morning, with Apple introducing its newly announced pro photography protege as, "the next major release" of the application, bestowed with an impressive 200 added features at the same $199 price."

If you want to give it a try, you can test it out with the free trial version from Apple, which is fully functional for 30 days. After that, it costs $199.00 USD (or $99.00 USD for those upgrading).

"Head on over to Getfirefox.com, Firefox fans. Version 3.6 of your favorite browser is now ready."

Mac beta was available last October, but now you can get the full-fledged version here. I am stuck in a Safari rut, I still like it and haven't really played around with other browsers but in the past I always used Firefox. I may have to just get this and give it a trial run. 

Until January 28th 2010, current Bento 1 and 2 owners can upgrade to Bento 3 for a $20.00 USD discount.

Pretty good deal if you already own Bento 1 or 2, you can upgrade for $29.00 for a single user, or if you have require a family license its $79.00 USD. But act fast, it expires 1/28/10.

"AT&T today announced completion of a software upgrade at 3G cell sites nationwide that prepares the nation's fastest 3G network for even faster speeds. The deployment of High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 technology across 3G cell sites is the first of multiple initiatives in AT&T's network enhancement strategy designed to provide customers with the best possible mobile broadband experience, both today and well into the future."

The work to upgrade the backbone to support a "theoretical" peak speed of 7.2 megabits per second will continue through 2011. However, if you are in one of the six cities they are currently working on (Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami) you should see benefits soon. For the rest of us, they expect most of it to be done by the end of 2010, finishing up by the end of 2011. 

"Parallels announced Wednesday that Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is now available. The latest release of the virtualization solution allows users to run Windows, Linux, and other operating systems on their Intel-based Macs. Parallels Desktop 5 works in both Leopard and Snow Leopard."

They have added 70 new features to this version of Parallels, one of which is the Crystal view mode as seen above in the screen shot. This gives it a more "Mac-like" appearance when working with Windows. It also supports "pinch" and "swipe" for many of the applications. Upgrading will cost you $50.00 USD while new purchases will set you back $80.00 USD. If you purchased your current version of Parallels after October 1st, you qualify for a free upgrade so if you didn't purchase online from Parallels (they will send you a key if you did), head on over to the Parallels upgrade site to get your upgrade key.

"Attention AT&T customers in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, and along the Front Range...Christmas (Hanuka and/or Kwanza) has come early for you this year thanks to AT&T's new and improved 850 Mhz Spectrum roll-out across Colorado!"

I wish they would do this in my neck of the woods, I'm tired of Edge and only getting 3G when I venture into the "Big City." According to the press release "As a result of this upgrade, local customers should experience better 3G wireless connectivity, performance and enhanced in-building wireless coverage. The enhancement also increases network capacity, and is intended to support ever-growing demand for 3G mobile broadband service."

"A serious data-loss bug is affecting a small percentage of users who have upgraded to Snow Leopard and use guest accounts. Though Apple says the bug is "rare," it is working on a solution."

This was creeping up in reports in September, and what has happened isn't too much fun. If you update from Leopard and your guest account is enabled, then you run the risk of your home directory being wiped clean. Apple says they are aware of the problem and are working on a fix. No real fix other than making sure you don't have your guest accounts enabled when you upgrade, and to make sure you have a back up of all your data before you do the upgrade. You do have a back up line ready don't you?

"In what's turning out to be a busy few weeks for the team at Bare Bones, their information manager app Yojimbo has just been bumped up to 2.0. The new version is a 20 dollar upgrade for owners of older versions, is Snow Leopard compatible, and has this spectacular new icon."

If you bought your copy of Yojimbo after January 1 20009, you are in luck as you get a free upgrade. I'm not so lucky since I've had my copy since February of 2008, but I've get lots of use out of Yojimbo (I use it everyday and it's one of my favorite programs) so I'll gladly pay the upgrade fee of $20.00 USD. The only thing I'm not happy about is the icon. I loved the old one, which was a ninja type dude doing a high kick with the background of a red sun. Oh well, progress.

"Aperture, Apple's pro-level photo editing/management software, has been updated to 2.1.4."

This upgrade, available vis the software update feature, is rather large at 213 MB. It addresses a duplicate import problem, JPEG compression issue and a problem with rendering dust jackets incorrectly when using the Stock Book theme. I haven't used Aperture so I'm not familiar with the bugs, so if you use Aperture and this fixes the problems you've been having, let us know!

"After a couple of weeks of waiting in the iTunes app store approval queue, the 3rd major update of the popular Facebook for iPhone application has been released. Joe Hewitt, the developer of the app, has been working on it for quite some time and submitted it for review on 8/16."

If you use the Facebook App, you definitely want to upgrade to 3.0. A couple of the improvements were improvements to the news feed with direct link to the comments section, you can "like" posts now, you can RSVP to events and you can create/upload photos to albums. It is also much cleaner in design, or at least it seems that way to me. I couldn't get the App Store application on my iPhone to recognize that there was an update, so I just downloaded it manually and it worked fine. Some have been reporting not seeing it in the App Store or only seeing version 2.5. It is suggested that you delete your app and then download it again to fix that problem. Once you do, let us know what you think!