Jimiz.net – Jim Becher on the web

I noticed a few months ago an interesting phenomenon.  I would feel my iPhone vibrate when I was not carrying it.  This strange sensation has happened a few time in the past, but last month it seemed more intense.  I found out this is something that others have experienced.  It even has a wikipedia page.  This sensation can be called “phantom ringing” or Ringxiety (what a great made up word).

The other interesting thing that happened around this time I also began to miss a lot of phone calls.  I keep my phone on vibrate continually.  Because of the number of text messages and calls I get, my phone goes off frequently.   However, in the last few months I have noticed that I am missing these calls (vibrations).     It is strange, I can feel phantom calls (vibrations) but not the real ones.  This is particularly bad when a client is trying to contact you.

So to help combat these issues I have tried a few things.  The first was to just turn on sound and use the ringer.  This worked for about a day.  It turns out that a ringer is annoying and also impractical if you attend a lot of meetings.  

To keep from missing important calls I turned on custom vibrations on my iphone (another post on that later).   The custom vibrations worked but it was only from particular contacts.

The change that has helped the most is to switch pockets.  I have carried my phone in my right pocket for years.  It has been second nature that any time I leave the house to put my phone in the right pocket, keys and wallet in the left.   So 2 weeks ago I friend from work suggested that I should give it a try.  I joked that I wouldn’t make it the day.  However, 2 weeks running I’ve been switched. 

DID IT WORK?

So far this has solved missing any calls and notifications. It has also caused me to think a bit when leaving the house.  Making sure I don’t forget things.  The most interesting change is attempting to answer the phone and not  drop it.  As a right handed person, this took a bit to get used to.  However, I find myself talking on the phone with my left hand more.

Overall, this has been a  good solution to missing calls but has not stopped the phantom ring.  As a side note, my dress pants seem to have a pocket inside the pocket that fits the iphone perfectly to keep it vertical.  This great feature is only in the right pockets….

I decided to jail break again. I really like the sbsettings That lets you turn things like wireless, bluetooth, and other features on and off with a simple click.

I also use mywi to tether when on the road, since I purchased the app it is very useful.

Some of the other reasons to jailbreak are to test out some fun themes.

To jailbreak I used the always up to date lifehacker post:
http://lifehacker.com/jailbreak/

Beyond the main applications I normally use I also installed the best jailbreak apps from lifehacker

In the recent post on the app store comparisons from distimos http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/20/distimos-year-end-report-shows-why-developers-love-ios-iphone-4x-android-revenue-ipad-2x/

It states that the apple app store is the place to be for your applications if you are looking to make some money. The report claims that apple’s store produced near 4 times the revenue than google’s app market.

The report goes on to discuss the use of the freemium model for apps. It is interesting that the apple store shows the iPad and iPhone as separate areas.

I can’t wait to see what this report will look like next year. Overall, it seems that if you are looking to make some money you should build apps for iOS devices.

If you have developed a mobile application you know the hassle it is to create icons. I have recently used the Quirco icon generator : www.quirco.com/iPhoneIcon

Give it a try. A very easy way to generate a nice looking logo for an iOS device.

I have been doing a lot of mobile development lately. One tool I have found to be irreplaceable is Mite (http://mite.keynote.com/)

What a great tool. Mite is a mobile web tester. It allows you to view multiple device views of your site. It also does performance evaluations, scripting, and testing. I can’t say enough good words. It allowed me to find a bug and other UX issues on multiple platforms. Though I typically use jquerymobile, Mite found an issue with windows phone 7 that I was able to correct.

I’ve been involved in some mobile application development and have had the need to test a site and application with many mobile devices. During this process I have found two good iOS emulators.

http://www.electricplum.com/dlsim.html

and

http://code.google.com/p/ibbdemo2/

I just recently learned that the ibbdemo2 was replaced by the electric plum version above.   I found these to be great emulators and tools to use while testing mobile optimized sites.

You can see that I pulled up my blog and it displays in the mobile version and not the full site.

I decided to upgrade iTunes and also my iOS version to 5.   The install of iTunes version 10.5 took about 20 min to download and install.  The install of iOS 5 is taking a bit of time to install – 8 hours.  Eight hours, that is one heck of a long time.

I did a quick speed test just to validate that I had a good connection speed.    I had close to 17MB download speeds and it still shows about 8 hours to download.  How many people are downloading the iOS 5 version with me as well.  It would be great to see what kind of traffic that Apple is generating today.

If you are in the Grand Rapids area and have some friends you owe a cold beverage.  You should check out www.conpoto.com.

It is a local site for the Traverse City, Holland, or Grand Rapids area.   There are some great establishments setup to purchase a beer for your buddy.  Feel free to send me one. Founder or Hopcat will work.

I love it when I come across a new thing on the iPad that I did not know.  I was reading a tip’s and tricks blog post on the ipad and I learned about how to pause an app from being installed.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14529/the-complete-list-of-ipad-tips-tricks-and-tutorials/

You basically hit the icon of the app that is in the (waiting or loading) state and it will turn to paused.  What a great feature when you start to update all apps and then want to surf the web or get a large attachment

If you use google apps and an iPhone or iPad you have probably tried to add other calendars to your in app calendar application.  A very simple way to do this is to use iphoneselect.   Iphone select allows you to select the calendars from a webpage and then configure your iPad or iPhone app to sync with them

Google APPS: https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/YOURDOMAINNAME/iphoneselect

Change YOURDOMAINName to the appropriate url mine is “jimiz.net”.

Gmail: https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect

You will then see your available calendars to sync with, the same selection you have in the gmail web application.  This great little url can quickly configure your calendar.

I recently configured my cousins google apps account and allowed him to sync the other team members.

As I was looking at an old cell phone that my kids use a a toy, I have realized that I’ve owned a lot of mobile phones.   Here is a quick look in my phone history:

OKI 1300 series (Circa 1995) :  This was my first phone and my first cell phone.  I took my first job interview on this thing.  Back when 30 min of cell time cost you an arm and a leg.  (Thank goodness I got the low paying internship)

Motorola StarTAC (circa 1996-1997) :  First Flip phone I had.  Easy to use lived on one charge forever.  I think I even had more than 30 min of cell usage.

Nextel i1000 (circa 1999-2000):   I ended up switching to nextel to be connected to the team members I worked with.  At the time it sounded like a great concept, click to instant talk.  The issue was that the phones were huge, and the usage of 2way faded.  This was a pretty robust phone.  I dropped it a few too many times and it still continued to work.

Sony Ericsson T610 (circa 2003) : First smart phone.  If you can call a symbian os a smart phone.  This was the first phone I can remember actually really texting on and also getting email (That I was able to read) – I actually purchased my first bluetooth headset when I had this phone.  (WikiPedia t610)

Audiovox SMT5600 (circa 2004):  My first windows mobile phone, windows mobile 2003.  You could sync exchange and really read email.  it was the same small form factor and had a camera you could actually use.  I can remember that it was actually worth sending images from.  The rocker button on this phone eventually stopped working.  What  a great little phone.  Review from CNET

Cingular 2125 (Circa 2005): The audiovox broke and I replaced it with the Cingular version of the similar phone. If I remember correctly this one had better reception and the upgraded Windows OS. Not to mention the better resolution.   So you could now read 10 lines in the email instead of 8.  In the end this phone had an issue with the power button.   Review from PC mag.  My kids still use this phone as a play toy.  It even fires up still.

Samsung BlackJack (circa 2006):  This happens to be the only phone that I have owned with a full keyboard.   At the time everyone was hooked on crack berry’s and I really enjoyed windows mobile.  It came with windows mobile 5.  At the time Windows Mobile 6 came out.  I used a non-standard rom to upgrade to winMo6.  So I guess this was the first time I hacked a phone.  I also used internet tethering with this phone over 3g, and it was great on car rides to have laptop internet usage.  It had a roller / rocker on the side that you could scroll down a page.  This was a great feature on a phone with out a touch screen  This phone came with an extended battery to make it look huge… Cnet Review

iPhone 3G (circa 2009) :  My first iPhone – (blog post).  I still have this, it’s being used as a pandora juke box.  I really liked the switch from the Black jack.  IOS was and is very easy to use.  I did a jailbreak very early.

iPhone 4 (circa 2010):   new iPhone. This is a great device. My older iphone 3G became slower with each ios release.  This is a very good phone.  It has saved my butt a few times with th eapps.

At some point I got a few other phones.  Either as backup or for the wife.

Qualcomm QCP-2760 Cellular Phone (Circa 2005):  This was a phone to just make calls.  I think I actually sold the fist one back to the cell phone company after 2 years.   This was prior to craigslist.

Nokia – I purchased this as a pay as you go phone for the wife.  I used it as a backup phone in case that one broke.  Pop out the sim card and call away.

Overall that is a lot of phones, I may have actually missed a few.  What I have realized is that over the years the cell phone has become a very important part of my communication.    It is my main line for my business and also the best way to get ahold of me personally.  Back when I ran a datacenter it was also my pager.  Today, I find that it is the most frequent way I check email.

At one time if  a person had a cell phone they were seen as powerful or rich (1996). Over time, everyone has come to have cell phones.   At this in my life, I can’t imagine not having a cell phone.

I am not one to have a belt clip for my phone.  One of the main elements of having a phone for me is to be able to fit without being seen in a pocket.   I currently have an iPhone 4 and like the size and function it has (don’t like the weight – remember I keep it in my pocket).

Since my first smart phone I have never kept a case for any of them.  I have tried many cases and covers for both my iPhone 3 and my iPhone4 but they all caused more hassle than it was worth.  Some were too bulky, others would catch on my pocket, and some would just gather pocket lint.

So for the past few years I have used a naked phone (phone with out a case).  That is until recently when I was in a meeting and scratched the crap out of the back of my iphone.  I thought it would be nice to have a simple just back to the phone to stop that from happening and cushion it.

I happened to see a google add and also a quick mention of  Gelaskins on some site.  It may have been hak5.   Gelaskins make iphone, iPad, and laptop covers or skins.  The iPhone skin was just what I was looking for.   A very thin back overlay.  It also comes with sides and front, but I don’t intent on using those.    You can also choose from many styles or create your own.  I decided to make my own.

If you are looking for a iPad or iPhone case, give these a quick try.  the iPod case is really cool, you could get custom ones made for your business.

GelaSkins are removable covers for protecting and customizing your portable devices. They feature stunning, photo-quality graphics ranging from fine art prints to contemporary urban images designed by our growing family of artists from around the globe. Stand out in the crowd with personalized protection from GelaSkins.

Give them a try, so far I am happy with the design process.  I uploaded the image and customized the rest.  I made the purchase on Sunday Night and it was shipped Monday.

The site was easy to use and the communication was great.  They use 3m adhesive and help stop scratches.  They make covers for most portable devices.

I am always interested in how secure my devices are? Is my data safe, can people get to my info, am I at risk of giving out any private information. The iPhone /iPad has proven to be pretty secure if you take precautions. Lock your screen and keep sensitive data out of the clear. The one interesting item you can hack is the backup. There is a lot of information to be gathered and searched in your simple backup.  Many people don’t think twice about the sync that happens with your computer and iTunes. I’ll go into a little discussion on what can be seen.

Before I go too far into this  information, it should be noted that this can be corrected by encrypting your backups.   The process to encrypt your backup is a simple check box in iTunes.  You can do this by connecting your iphone / ipad and selecting summary -> options -> encrypt iPhone backup.

Now that you have secured any future information let’s look at the wealth of informaiton that is now residing on your computer from your previous backups.  To find your backups on a windows machine navigate to :

(Windows 7 or vista) - C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

(Windows XP) - C:\Documents and Settings\{your username}\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Once in the directory you will see your backup sets.  Select one to look at.    First we will start with the info.plist file.  You can open this file with any text editor (xml formated file).  This file contains the overall information regarding the ios device:

• Device Phone number
• Device name
• Device GUID
• ICC-ID: Integrated Circuit Card ID serial number of the SIM card
• Serial number of the device
• and Much more

You can see in the screen capture above that this device name is “jimizphone”.

I know at this point you are thinking why is this stuff important.  Well after some research and some reading I was able to find out what some of those files contained.  Thanks to team over at hrgeeks in their great post here is some definitions of the files.  These files are all .mddata files that can be viewed using a SQLite browser.:

• Call Log: ff1324e6b949111b2fb449ecddb50c89c3699a78
• SMS (TEXT) Log: 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
• Notes Application : 740b7eaf93d6ea5d305e88bb349c8e9643f48c3b
• Contact List: 31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
• Voice Mail List: 992df473bbb9e132f4b3b6e4d33f72171e97bc7a
• Calendar: 2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858

Let’s review one of the files.  I choose to look at the SMS log.  This would be the most damaging file if someone could review what I have said.   It could also be the target file for people looking for information (ex-wife, girlfriend, or business competitor).  Using SQLite browser I did a select statement on the file “select * from messages”  it returns records of text messages from the phone.

You can see from the image, that a record of all text messages was saved.  I have not verified if the deleted items are saved but the information is clear enough.  Your iPhone  backup file contains in clear text your SMS text messages.  It has the date, phone, message, and time stamp that can be searched.

Opening the contact list quickly allowed me to look at names and numbers that were stored on the phone.  This could be dangerous for people who don’t want that information shared.   A person would not need physical access to their phone, only access to their computer.

Armed with file name information you can also get other non-phone related information that may be stored by applications.

Facebook friend list – 6639cb6a02f32e0203851f25465ffb89ca8ae3fa

I did a quick check, and I was able to see all my facebook friends information (cell phone, email are hashed) but names and contact are available.  This is interesting in that you can gather information outside of the phone that could be used against you.

So with a little information and a simple tool you can get a lot of information from an iPhone / iPad backup.

To view the email accounts accessed or setup on the phone you can view this file in a text view application:

• Email Account: 5fd03a33c2a31106503589573045150c740721dd
• Safari History: 1d6740792a2b845f4c1e6220c43906d7f0afe8ab
• Safari Searches: bd38afa30b5a43c146db02a46ee11d82cdc817fe

I have a lot of apps loaded on the iPad. Many of these apps are games, productivity, social media, and just entertainment. However, there are a few that are really tech and work related. Since I am in the IT field I found a few apps that I would recommend.

Remote Desktop

1. winadmin – $8.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/winadmin-ipad-edition/id364898965?mt=8

This is the most simple tool to use for remote desktop, it is easy to use and just works. It is a great tool for the price

2. desktop connect – $14.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desktop-connect/id364907570?mt=8

This app does both VNC and RDP. It has a lot of potential.

3. iTeleport – $24.99 install soft on the PC – http://www.iteleportmobile.com/

4. iTap – $11.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itap-rdp-remote-desktop-for/id317062064?mt=8

LogMeIn #29.99 – https://secure.logmein.com/products/ignition/iphone/

Well done app. This app allows you to remotely use LogMeIn and access to PC. This cost is worth it if you use LogMeIn.

jump – $19.99 – www.jumpdesktop.com

This app does both VNC and RDP.

Remote control – VNC

VNC is a great remote control software. It is free and open source, supports windows, linux and Mac.

screens – $19.99 http://edovia.com/screens

Screens is probably the best VNC iPad app. The cost is not cheap but it always works. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/screens/id400012962?mt=8

realvnc – $9.99 – ok http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vnc-viewer/id352019548?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6

Is the 2nd best I can recommend. The cost is attractive.

Mocha VNC Lite – free – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mocha-vnc-lite/id284984448?mt=8 just that unattractive / good for ocasional users. I used this prior to getting screen.

Here is another link discussing VNC

http://lifehacker.com/5713455/the-best-vnc-apps-for-your-ipad

SSH

iSSH – $9.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/issh-ssh-vnc-console/id287765826?mt=8

I love iSSH. It is simple and always seems to amaze me. From the quick control key send to the Xviewer that has a keyboard overlay.

SSH Terminal – $.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ssh-terminal/id369875227?mt=8

A basic SSH client. Not many features, but it works.

Network tools

IT Tools – $4.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/it-tools/id324054954?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

What a great tool. This allows you to ping, traceroute, DNS and arp tables.

iNetwork-utility -$2.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inetwork-utility/id378676317?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

The price of this app is fantastic. Ping, portscan, dns, whois, and Alexia info

zScan – $2.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zscan/id381019397?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

A great network scanner. It will scan ports, udp, tcp, look for sql, banners. Overall a great tool to have.

I love technology. I love how the process of doing tedious tasks can be simplified. I can remember when creating an favicon was a true task. You had to download some type of app that would transform your image to a PNG then do some maniuplation to make it the right size.

Today there are some great sites that take your image (almost any size) and generate a favicon.

• http://www.favicon.cc/
• http://www.html-kit.com/favicon/
• http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/

If you are creating an iphone or ipad app you can also create an image online. Here is a pretty good site for doing so. http://www.midnightmobility.com/iphone-icon/

I thank those who run the above sites and how they have made my life easier. Happy icon generating.