iBook und der unbekannte Fehler
Schon seit früher Zeit bin ich ein Freund von eBooks. Selbst auf den mittlerweile museumreifen Palm, MDA oder Nokia-Geräten hatte ich eBook-Reader benutzt und war begeistert. Es gab eben noch keine so große und vielfältige Auswahl an interessanten Podcasts wie heute. An Videos war nicht ernsthaft zu denken – es hat zwar funktioniert, war aber nicht wirklich schön.
iOS 4 macht alles schön?
Seitdem es die iBooks mit iOS4 gibt wollte ich unbedingt Bücher auf dem iPhone lesen. Bei mir hat es einfach nicht funktioniert, weil immer wieder die Meldung kam, dass mein iTunes-Kennwort nicht korrekt sein soll – ist es aber hundertprozentig – sonst hätte ich erst gar keine (kostenlosen) Bücher erwerben können.
Der Donnerbalken
Bei den Büchern, bei denen diese Meldung nicht erschien, ist der Download-Balken einfach nicht verschwunden. Das muss ein ziemlich bekanntes Problem (gewesen) sein, weil genau das in den Kommentaren im iTunes Store zuhauf zu lesen war.
Und es geht doch!
Jetzt habe ich es aus Neugier doch noch einmal ausprobiert. Ein erster Erfolg hat sich gezeigt, als ich das Buch über einen orangefarbigen Honigdieb tatsächlich problemlos öffnen und durchblättern konnte.
Dickes Kompliment an Apple, damit kann tatsächlich gut lesen. Die Einstellungen sind gut und schnell erreichbar. Auch die kleinen Spielereien an Effekten machen Spaß.
Oder doch nicht?
Freudig und voller Ungeduld machte ich mich daran, die anderen noch ungelesenen Werke in mein virtuelles Bücherregal legen zu wollen. Doch die Freude wurde schnell mit einer Fehlermeldung gebremst.
Ein unbekannter Fehler ist aufgetreten.
Doch, es geht!
Glücklicherweise gibt es eine ganz simple Lösung. Einfach das Buch noch einmal kaufen. Die Anwendung bemerkt, dass das Buch bereits schon einmal gekauft wurde und gibt einen entsprechenden Hinweis aus, der jedoch getrost ignoriert werden kann. Anschliessend funktioniert der Download einwandfrei und das Buch kann gelesen werden.
Ich blogge nun auf Deutsch
Nun ja, ursprünglich habe ich auf Englisch gebloggt, weil ich damit erhofft hatte mehr Leser zu erreichen – zumal die meisten Menschen Englisch recht gut lesen und verstehen können. Für diejenigen, die ihre Probleme damit haben, habe ich in meiner Werkzeugleiste die Google-Übersetzungen eingebaut.
Der beste Lohn für einen guten Artikel sind jedoch immer noch Kommentare, Verweise und Zitate. Von alldem habe ich hier für meine Erwartungen viel zu wenig geerntet. Da mein Blog sich überwiegend mit technischen Dingen beschäftigt, hatte ich einen Grund mehr auf Englisch zu schreiben. Nerds, Geeks, Fanboys gibt es auch jede Menge in Deutschland, von daher schreibe ich nun auf Deutsch, da es mir auch wesentlich leichter fällt und weniger Zeit kostet.
Die Übersetzungshilfe bleibt euch erhalten und hoffentlich leistet Google auch bei der Übersetzung von Deutsch in alle anderen Sprachen gute Arbeit.
Screencasts, Videos, et cetera werde ich künftig auch auf Deutsch aufnehmen und mit englischen Untertiteln an den wichtigsten Stellen versehen – genauso wie in meinem letzten Artikel.
Aggregate multiple audio devices
Speaker vs. Headphone
Did you ever plug in a headphone? Then the same happens like on the iPhone: The Computer is muted and the headphone makes the music. I hate that! Why? Because I am so fussy and want to spare my hardware. Especially jacks are sensitive and easily getting loose. So it would be so much better having a headphone connected, put it aside and still enjoy the iMac’s speaker sound as well. There is no option anywhere in the preferences, so I have to accept this. The only solution I know is getting an external sound card.
Phase change
So I did, and I am the proud owner of the external Terratec Phase X24 Firewire audio card. Really great device, and you know what? I can connect a headphone with still having sound everywhere. YES!
Record
I love making music and hopefully you have subscribed my audio podcast. To create my sounds I mainly use software like Record in combination with Reason. Record is so great in connecting audio hardware with multiple inputs and outputs.
Combine in, combine out
For my latest song I needed to record my voice while playing the music inside Record. That masterpiece software is able to do that, but my USB microphone was not in there. Checking out all the devices, I noticed for the first time, that Record combines audio devices with inputs and outputs.
Shit happens, my PhaseX24 and the Samson GoMic was not listed up in combination.
Got a Mac? Do it yourself!
Damn, yeah! I am a Mac user, so that’s no big deal. I will create my own device!
I have just opened the Audio and MIDI settings, and voila, there is the add button. Give it a name and click all devices I want to have in there. Made a check on PhaseX24 and one Samson USB GoMic, that’s it! Restarting Record, running to preferences and there it is: my PhaseX24+GoMic device.
Say goodbye to Google Wave
At the beginning there was a wave
In a former article I wrote some words about Google Wave, a service to do live and interactive co-laboration. It was highly coveted at the beginning, because people could only get in with a private invitation. Those invites were quite rare and everyone wanted to be in.
After about two or three months, Google allowed lots of invitations and then it began to get very slow and went to a very very very very …. slow performance and people lost interest.
At the end there is an end
Google said, it is going to die, because not enough people are interested in, but I don’t think it is the missing interest. My opinion is, that lots of people tried that in an early beta status where the performance was terribly bad and of course a lot of unacceptable bugs, with that you can not live – especially the malfunctioning gallery for my meaning.
That bad experience leads people to say no, that sucks and never try again, even if it is free. Also I think, that many people can not deal with that huge power of functionality.
I am really sad to see that great product dying, but I am happy about being a part of that, collecting good experiences, made some new friends and that Google will continue to use that technology in further projects.
Bye, bye, good old Wave!
Last chance
As long as it is still online, you could check out, what you would be missing. If you have no invite, I have got still some left. Leave a comment if you want to get invited.
I am not buyable
What’s up?
In the recent past days I got written down by some companies to test products and were asked where I am having a place for ads. First of all, they bootlicked my blog by praising my design or importance of my content for their business.
No ads?
I will not place any advertisements. If you really like my work, then spread the word or donate, flattr, or ask for my banking account.
Testing “free” gifts?
Also I am not interested to “test” any products to give a credit for a pseudo-advertisement. If you want to gift me something, just do it, but don’t ask me to write an article about that. If you require an article for testing something, then it is the same like an advertisement and fooling people – even if it is a good product. If you want something, it is not free!
Why not?
Right, this is MY private blog, and MY place to write what I think and what I like. It is MY intention to give some noticeable articles, to just say my opinion or help people out having the same problem or questions. This is MY view of the meaning of blogging and honest neutral unpaid journalism. When I like a product and want to recommend it, then I will do so – maybe.
Stop mobile traffic on iOS4
The iPhone is not just a phone, it is a mobile data device. So it uses a connection into the internet all the time to keep you updated with the latest news you wish to know. Among them are eMails and depending on your installed applications push notifications like Twitter, Facebook, Deliveries, etc.
LAN, WAN, mobile data
You can use wireless LAN if available for fast data transfer, but when no wireless internet is available, the iPhone takes it way through the mobile SIM card. Ok, that is cool, but what if you do not want to use your iPhone that mobile data transfer? It could be very very expensive if you have no data flat in your contract.
Stop mobile traffic
Since iOS4 you have the possibility to complete deactivate mobile data transfer!
That is really great, because normally you are forced to use one of the big players (AT&T or T-Mobile). More and more providers are offering better and more fair tariffs. This lets you decide to have a contract or just a prepaid card with or without data options.
Freedom
With that tiny new slider you have the freedom to save some costs and dominate about your own data usage.
Flattr to honor good content
Flattr is one of the most used words in the internet the past days. The idea behind this is to honor authors of any media kind. This can be blogging, text writing, videos, audio and everything stored on a web site. Authors only implement a Flattr button on their site and you just hit it for a donation.
You certainly know Paypal for this kind of gifting or any other payment, but then you have to take the decision to specify the amount of what you are willing to spend each time. Flattr makes it a little easier.
You just load an amount to your account and specify a monthly total donation amount. All your honor clicks of that month are shared among all the respective websites you have flattred. So if you have 2,00 € and hit 10 Flattr buttons, then each URL author will get 0,20 €.
It’s that easy and if you like my work here, please consider to flattr each article you like!
If you need a beta invite code, just leave a comment. There are still three left.
Newer is not always better
There is an update
If I see an update of an application, I want to have the latest and hottest stuff, of course. But first of all I read the changelog to know what is new or changed, and then I do run the update.
Unwanted changes
Sometimes, the developers change the behavior of a certain feature or in worst case it is even removed. If I really need this functionality exactly as it was before, it would make sense to downgrade the fresh installed update back to the old version.
New software is not always an improvement. A good bad example is Aptana Studio having removed the FTP-Sync functionality from version 1.5 to 2.0. It was so heavenly useful and now it is gone. The developers stated to eventually bringing it back in a future version.
Back to the past
If that worst case scenario became true, it is often impossible to get the old version back, because the vendor often just serves the latest version for downloading. But, what if there is no archive existing? Where do you get it?
For the Mac user
On a Mac you can use Time Machine and grab your old copy back from the Applications backup folder. But what, if no Time Machine backup was created?
Then go to http://mac.oldversion.com/ and download what you need. They have a large archive and host really many old versions of favourite applications.
For the Windows user
Go to http://www.oldversion.com/ and download your older piece of software.
Printer LED mystery
Needing a printer
While living in the virtual reality I help my environment to save valuable resources. One of them is avoiding the use of paper whenever possible. But, unfortunately there are some rare situations where somethings needs to get printed out and signed – contracts for example.
And the winner is
Some years ago, I decided to afford me a printer to exactly match such requirements. A good device with a reasonable price and performance ratio for my needs is the Brother HL-2040 series. It is a black and white laser printer with economic power and toner saving working on Windows and Mac.
When something is really needed
As Murhphy’s law confirms, the printer will stop it’s work when really needed. And exactly that happened. I did not use it for about two months and the first print job ended with paper jam, so the second did, too. After that all four LEDs started flashing and no printing was possible.
If you have a similar problem, then these two tips may help you out, because this is not mentioned in the FAQ and the official technical support did not know!
Solution
Tip 1:
Remove paper jams with the device still powered on. DO NOT POWER OFF! Open all paper trays and toner lid, then close. The motors will begin turning and the printer will be ready, again. Maybe it is required to press the GO button.
Tip 2:
This printer does not have a text display, just LEDs. Turn the power off, hold the GO button, power on, still hold GO for eight seconds. Release and press again. If the ready indicator is green, try a print. If the LEDs are all flashing again, do this Tip 2 instruction again and power off the device instead of printing. IMPORTANT: Let the power off for some hours, not only seconds or minutes! Turn on the next day, and voila.
Podcast with preview
With the new iTunes 9.0.3, slightly released after the iPad Keynote, there is a nice and big surprise for all podcasters.
Previously, when a user clicked a link leading to a podcast, it brought you to an empty white web page. Then, iTunes was opened – and if not installed you got a offer to download the free ware. The user did not know what is to be expected.
The new change is, that you will now see a tiny preview with the same information that is presented only in iTunes, before. The behavior of starting iTunes or the download offer is still there. Click the picture on the right to see an example with my podcast.
You also can view video and pre-listen audio!
English