Apple has found a defect in the new ultra-compact USB power adapter that ships with 3G iPhones. They’re offering free exchanges starting 10/10/2008. LINK
Month: September 2008
iPhone 2.1 software update brings video icons to Podcasts!
One of my single biggest complaints about the iPhone was fixed in the 2.1 software update, released this morning.
On an iPod, when you’re viewing the list of episodes within a podcast, and there’s a mix of both audio and video episodes, the iPod puts a little video icon next to the video episodes so you can tell them apart. For some bizarre reason Apple chose to leave this feature out of the iPhone. It’s been incredibly frustrating, since I subscribe to some podcasts that have both types of media in a single feed. The reason it was so frustrating is because if you unknowingly selected a video episode from within the Podcast list (instead of the video list) all you got was the audio. There was no indication that you were missing anything.
The 2.1 software update fixes both of these problems. There’s now a video icon next to the video episodes (illustrated by the red circle in the screen-shot above), and selecting a video in the Podcast list actually plays the video, instead of just playing the audio.
These features don’t appear to be documented in the list of changes, but they’re in there. I don’t know why this wasn’t in the iPhone since day one, but I’m so happy it’s finally fixed.
On a related note… if you choose a video from within the video list you must watch it in landscape mode (like it’s always been), but if you choose a video from within the Podcast list you can watch it in landscape or portrait. I’m not sure why they behave differently.
Free Macworld SF 2009 Expo Passes
Macworld San Francisco 2009 will be held on January 5th-9th. You can get free Exhibit-Only passes when registering if you use promo code, MKA31884, before 9/26/2008.
Stephen M. Burd: 1948 – 2008
On August 10th, 2008 my father, Stephen Burd, died in Salt Lake City, Utah from a massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. He was 59 years old.
This has been the hardest post I’ve ever written. It’s been very difficult determining exactly what I wanted to say about my dad, and our relationship.
My parents were divorced when I was very young… I think I was about 3 years old. Throughout my life my relationship with my dad was less than ideal, to say the least. And as an adult, we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a great many things, to the point where we didn’t speak to each other for more than 10 years. We only reconnected again a little over a year ago.
This is the point in the story where I’ve been getting stuck. I’ve written and rewritten this post several times trying to find the right words. Everything I wrote seemed to be saying too much, or not enough, and I kept getting hung up on details from the past that I finally realized just don’t matter anymore. The unfortunate reality is the things that were left unsaid, can now never be said. That’s something I’ll have to live with.
For my own well being, I need to drop the baggage I’ve been carrying around for a long time. Holding on to it won’t do anyone any good. I need to concentrate on the good times we had together… and there were some very good times. It’s unfortunate that it took his death to make me truly realize this.
The only thing that really needs to be said now is, my dad is gone… I love him, and I miss him. I hope he’s in a better place.
The image above was taken in 1977. I think it’s how he would have liked to be remembered.