March 26th, 2009

iTunes 8.1 creating duplicate entries in iTunes, iCal, Safari and Address Book

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:24 am

Categories: Bug, Software, iTunes

Tags: Apple Safari, Apple iTunes, Digital Music, Digital Media, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Jason D. O'Grady

Some iTunes 8.1 users have been suffering from a nasty little bug that creates duplicate entries in iTunes, iCal, Safari and Address Book.

The incident appears to be somewhat isolated and not an epidemic, but anecdotal evidence of duplicate applications, songs and calendar events can be found in Apple’s discussion boards. Duplicates are notoriously tough to diagnose, but it appears to be an iSync problem.

If you’ve been afflicated by the bug or know of a fix, please post it in the TalkBack below.

March 18th, 2009

App Store giving developers headaches

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:16 pm

Categories: App Store, Bug, Developer

Tags: Developer, App, Jason D. O'Grady

An iPhone a developer with over 40 apps to his credit wrote to tell me about some major problems that have been afflicting the App Store for a week.

The sort by “Release Date” on iPhone and iPods isn’t working, but it is on iTunes. Many developers have been calling Apple to complain but the problem still isn’t fixed. Most developers are finding that when they get an app approved for update, or a brand new app, it’s not appearing in the App Store at all.

See some of the complaints here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

There was also a huge thread about this on Apple’s Developer forums beta but those are down right now since the 3.0 release.

September 15th, 2008

Apple rolls back USB driver in iTunes 8 for Windows

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:46 am

Categories: Bug, Software, Windows, iTunes

Tags: USB Driver, Blue Screen, Apple Inc., Microsoft Windows, Apple iTunes, Ed, Digital Music, Digital Media, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics

After numerous reports that iTunes 8 causes Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) crashes on Windows Vista boxes after connecting an iPod or iPhone, Apple has re-released the software – at least the crashy part of it, that is.

ZDNet’s own Ed Bott, notes that Apple knowledgebase article TS2280 acknowledges the “blue screen error message” and recommends “to first uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support and iTunes, and then download and install the most recent version of iTunes. (Delete any previously downloaded versions.)”

the only components that were upgraded, according to Control Panel, are Apple Mobile Device Support and iTunes.

Ed goes on to mention that “Apple ditched its new (USB) driver code and simply rolled back to the older version”

Curiously, however, the supposedly “new” driver actually has an older version number. The September 5 file is version 1.35.0.0, and the September 10 replacement is 1.29.0.0.

August 25th, 2008

Vertical line issue also plagues some iMacs

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 4:00 am

Categories: Bug, Display, Hardware

Tags: Apple PowerBook, Apple iMac, Notebooks, Desktops, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Jason D. O'Grady

On Friday I posted a piece about a problem with vertical lines appearing on PowerBook G4 17-inch screens just as they got outside of their three-year AppleCare warranty.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there may be a similar problem with some third generation 17-inch Intel iMacs with serial numbers in the W860****U2N range as reported by MacNN in November 2007.

The same situation exists as with the PowerBook G4s. Apple won’t acknowledge the problem in iMacs and has a track record of deleting and/or locking posts on its message boards. A petition on the issue has over 1,000 signatures and states:

The defect causes vertical lines (cyan/yellow/pink) to appear cutting through the screen and multiplying as time goes by. Unfortunately, the problem starts to appear right after the end of the one year warranty.

One French user was succesful in taking Apple to court in France over vertical line defects in two iMacs and was able to receive a full refund on his machines.

The vertical line defect has been compared to the PowerBook lower memory slot failure (also here) from February 2007 and the PowerMac G5 coolant leaks first reported in June 2006.

August 21st, 2008

Apple confirms iPhone 2.0.2 addresses 3G bugs

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:00 am

Categories: 3G, Bug, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Software Update, 3G, Cellular Phones, Wireless, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

Although Apple has never given us a proper changelog with its software updates, an Apple spokesperson has provided a tiny but important detail on the iPhone firmware 2.0.2 released earlier this week. According to an Associated Press article, the update “improved communication with 3G networks,” said Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock.

Why couldn’t they just say that in a changelog? I know that it’s technically a “bug” and so it would fall under the generic “bux fixes” catchall that they use. But still, a little more detail is in order for Apple’s software updates as they currently border on offensive.

Despite Bowcock’s comments about the update addressing 3G reception issues, the verdict is mixed with some seeing improvements while others aren’t.

In related news, Apple is said to be working on a fix for a bug that causes third-party apps to crash on boot then proceed to lock the iPhone on the Apple screen - a.k.a. the black screen of death.

An AppleInsider reader received an email from Steve Jobs (or one of his staff) saying that the company is aware of the problem and has a solution. The terse reply reads:

“This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September.”

August 7th, 2008

iPhone's black screen of death (updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 1:04 pm

Categories: 3G, App Store, Bug, Software, iPhone

Tags: apple iphone, apple inc., black screen, btl, e-mail, online communications, jason d. o'grady

I received an email from an iPhone user greatly concerned about “either an unaddressed issue with both 2.0 and 2.01 software - or a rogue app(s) that is taking down the entire OS.”

After visiting the App Store from his iPhone “nothing loaded, the screen just stayed white.” After pressing the Home button and tapping the App Store again, nothing happened again. After rebooting the iPhone it hung on the black screen with the white Apple on it – permanently. What’s scary is that a restore as new doesn’t appear to fix the problem. He tried that four times.

BTL has the full text of the email and there’s a growing thread about it on Apple’s Support Discussion boards with more than 200 replies. If you’ve been bit by this bug you should also consider filing a bug report with Apple.

Update: One commenter on the PowerPage notes:

I’ve experienced this. What appears to happen is that the OS takes far longer to boot than normal. All I’ve had to do is have patience and wait for the login screen shortly after the two vibrations. This can take 3-5 minutes (I didn’t time it, but time passed very slowly). My impatience sometimes lead me to believe that the iPhone was bricked and to force another restart. However, after the first, long, really long, incredibly long reboot, the iPhone seems to boot normally. Just be patient!

August 3rd, 2008

MobileMe drops subscribed calendar syncing

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:49 pm

Categories: 2G, 3G, Bug, MobileMe, iPhone

Tags: Calendar, Jon Gruber, Internet, Jason D. O'Grady

Jon Gruber points a piece the troubling news that you can’t sync read-only iCal subscription calendars to your iPhone, as confirmed in Apple knowledgebase article TS1213. What’s worse is that Apple took this feature out of their US$99 subscription service, but it’s still available when you sync your iPhone (for free) with a cable. The problem is that they’re mutually exclusive so if you use MobileMe you lose the ability to sync subscription calendars.

This massive ommission in MobileMe isn’t a big deal to me for calendars related to holidays, sports schedules, movie releases — full list at Apple’s calendar page — but it’s a huge deal if you subscribe to calendars published to the Internet from someone else using iCal. Especially for families or businesses that maintain and share several iCal calendars.

So you can sync read-only calendars to your iPhone with iTunes syncing, but with MobileMe you’re out of luck.

July 27th, 2008

Magic bullet fix for your iPhone ills

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:03 pm

Categories: 3G, Bug, Software

Tags: Apple iPhone, Digital Music, Digital Media, 3G, Backups, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Cellular Phones, Jason D. O'Grady

I’ve been having a lot of iPhone 3G trouble over the past two weeks, most notably:

• Forced backup of the entire phone on every sync
• Contact lag
• The horrible app update process

I’m happy to report on what appears to be the magic bullet fix for the above three symptoms. At the advice of reader and PPUG member Todd Schneider, I simply restored my iPhone and set it up anew.

Caveats

• This “nuke and pave” procedure wipes out all your data, preferences and settings. Although most things like contacts, calendars and music are synced to your computer and are easily restored, other things like Notes are not, so be sure to email them to yourself first.
• Any apps that store data locally on the iPhone (like AccuFuel) lose their data in the process. Make sure that you have this stuff copied down or otherwise backed up to a hard copy.
• Sync the photos from your camera roll, they’re gone too.
• Be prepared to move all your icons around, if you had them set up on custom pages in a special order, you’ll be doing that all over again.
• Some purchased programs don’t appear in iTunes when you go to sync them back to the iPhone. Luckily, when you remember what they are, they’re free to download again.

Step-by-step procedure after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

July 27th, 2008

Apple's MobileMe mea culpa

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:19 pm

Categories: Announcement, Apple, Bug, MobileMe

Tags: Apple Inc., MobileMe Mail, E-mail, Online Communications, Jason D. O'Grady

After all the problems with its MobileMe service since its admitted “rocky” start Apple has posted a status page at the behest of Steve Jobs that keeps affected users abreast of what’s happening with the service.

Apple’s first update was posted on Friday stating, in part, that an email outage affected 1% of subscribers and that it was able “to restore limited web access to those accounts so the affected members can use their browsers to read mail that has arrived since last Friday (though not before) as well as send and receive new mail.”

The blog-style page also admitted that Apple has lost some subscribers mail permanently:

We particularly regret to report the loss in the affected accounts of approximately 10% of the messages received between July 16 and July 18.

An update posted to the page late Sunday provides more information to the afflicted 1%:

We turned on web access to their current email yesterday and the feedback has been cautiously positive. Since then, we’ve restored full email history (minus the approximately 10% of mail received between July 18 and July 22 which may have been lost) and the ability to access email from a Mac, PC and iPhone, to over 40% of these users, and expect the remainder to be restored in the next few days.

Some MobileMe email was also re-dated during the fiasco, but Apple finds a way to turn that into a positive, touting long headers as a “feature” of the service.

A note of clarification to these 1% of MobileMe users – all of the email you received between July 18 and July 22 was placed on our new server on July 23 and was stamped with that date as a result. If you need the actual date for particular messages you can take advantage of the ability to view long headers in MobileMe Mail (via Preferences) to peer into the log and find the actual mailing time and date.

It’s funny how Apple keeps referring to the “1%” figure because it sounds so low. Apple has an estimate 2 million MobileMe subscribers so the number of affected subscribers is around 20,000 users. MobileMe is working fine for me, but I don’t use it as my primary email account. About 25% of the people polled at our PPUG meeting this weekend were still having problems with their MobileMe accounts.

It’s refreshing to see that Apple is making an effort to communicate better with customers, I just hope they get it resolved soon.

May 5th, 2008

Mac OS 10.5.2 = Apple Vista? (updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:00 am

Categories: Bug, Leopard, Software, Software Update

Tags: Apple Mac OS, Apple Macintosh, Operating System, Apple Inc., Jason D. O'Grady, It, Jason D. O'Grady

I’ve heard many different complaints about Mac OS 10.5.2 since it was released, from my own Skype/podcasting problems to issues with just about everything else, including: printing, third-party wireless routers, software freezing and problems with Time Machine. The Apple discussion boards are littered with stories about all kinds of crawlers in 10.5.2, and while hardly an epidemic, they’re not exactly isolated incidents either.

Chuck Freedman from the PowerPage Podcast shares his problems with 10.5.2 on his MacBook Pro – he thinks it’s the buggiest software update in years. So much so, that his friend Dennis (updated to give proper credit) coined a new term for 10.5.2 – “Apple Vista.”

The picture below isn’t a screen grab of the latest maze game, it’s Chuck’s MBP screen after a spectacular 10.5.2 crash.

Read more about Chuck’s tale of woe and check out six more gallery images after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »