TW Blog :: Entries for iPod Touch
What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silenceLudwig Wittgenstein
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iPod Touch Accelerometer Rotation Tips
This post does not relate to any other topics
There are two things my friends want to do when I flash out my new iPod Touch: pinch zoom and spin that accelerometer into action. Both great features. Especially the latter when rotating into cover flow mode. But more often than not the accelerometer fails to respond to my demonstrations and we are left in expectation of what might happen as the accelermometer does not work.
I was starting to share the feeling of others on the web that this might be a repairable bug until I discovered last night that it is all down to the position I hold the iPod Touch. If the Touch is being held vertically (at right angles to the ground) the accelerometer seems to be flawless in its performance. The problem only arises when the Touch is held horizontal (parallel to the ground) - I assume because the detection mechanism does not work in this plane. Seems to resolve any issues and while I generally prefer to hold it fairly flat in my hand I will be prepared next time a friend asks to see my iPod Touch.
Posted on Nov 10, 2007 at 10:27:50.
iPod Touch E-book Reader
Also relates to Apache
No, don't get excited as this is not a blog about a great new e-book reader application for the iPod Touch post jailbreak. It simply outlines how I organised my e-books on my local network so I could access them efficiently from Safari on the Touch.
Currently I have chosen not to jailbreak my iPod Touch since it will invariably lead to far too much time preoccupied with installing and testing 3rd party applications! After all it is an MP3 player not a phone so do I really need all those extra applications?
But the one thing I do really need is an e-book reader and this was one of my main reasons behind investing in an iPod Touch to allow me to read my e-book collection on a more portable device than my iBook. Accessing PDF files on the Touch is simply a case of visiting the PDF URI in Safari. This is fine for my purposes and the clarity and sharpness of the screen make reading PDFs very enjoyable. A few important features such as bookmarking are absent but this serves as an adequate stop-gap for me at present. So I just had to find a simple way to access all my PDF files from my iMac harddrive. Fortunately this wasn't too hard since I have recently been test driving the excellent Papers for archiving all my e-books and journals and have them indexed in a library directory with sub-folders for each year of release.
So, I just needed to configure Apache to access that directory so I could load up my e-books in Safari on my iPod Touch. Since my apache server also serves my sandbox for web development I wanted to keep access to my e-books separate. The normal approach to this would be to create a new name-based virtual host and update the machine entries in NetInfo Manager. But without jailbreaking my iPod Touch there is no way to override the local DNS (i.e. lack of a NetInfo Manager and shell access to lookupd).
Instead, the best solution was to enable another port in the apache configuration, and then all requests on this port can redirect to the e-book directory:
Listen 192.168.1.65:99
Port 99 seemed like a nice easy number to remember. So after enabling port access in the firewall and a little bit of Apache virtual host configuration later:
NameVirtualHost *:99
<VirtualHost *:99>
DocumentRoot /Path-to-Papers-Library
<Directory /Path-to-Papers-Library>
Allow from all
Options FollowSymLinks Indexes
IndexOptions +SuppressHTMLPreamble +FancyIndexing +NameWidth=* +SuppressDescription
IndexIgnore *.papers* Unknown .svn ._* .DS* Spotlight
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
The virtual host is enabled on port 99 and the root directory for this site will point to the Papers library. I then just used a few rules from the mod_autoindex module to make the directory index available in a simple to browse layout.
And there it is. I can now load up Safari on my iPod Touch and browse to http://192.168.1.65:99 on my local network and have ready access to all my e-books. Of course this requires I am within range of my local network. Taking my e-books away with me would require hosting on a network available outside my LAN.
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 at 13:43:10.
Where Have My WiFi Music Store Tunes Gone?
This post does not relate to any other topics
Total respect to Apple's iTunes Store support team since in just less than 24 hours since I lost my song and posted this blog they have made the song available to me again via the Check for purchases in the Store menu. In hindsight I realise that allowing users the ability to download songs multiple times could affect the DRM of the files so perhaps it is right that download is one time only. Anyway, not many support teams that I have dealt with that are that efficient! Thankyou.
The iPod Touch is great. The iTunes WiFi music store is great. But do not reset your iPod Touch if you have manual syncing and have not manually transferred (is that even possible?) your purchases to your iTunes library!
Yes I have just kissed good bye to my first purchase from the iTunes WiFi store - fortunately only one song. My iTunes library is way too large to utilise automatic syncing with my iPod Touch (as I am sure is the case for most people). But with manual syncing set-up it would appear that any music purchased through the iTunes WiFi store on the iPod Touch is not transferred to the iTunes library automatically. I assume (and hope!) there is a way to drag and drop instead - I cannot try this since there is no way for me to reacquire the song I have lost from my iTunes account. So will have to buy some more music first.
Anyway this is an unfortunate flaw in the iPod Touch integration and will more than likely deter me from using the WiFi store for anything other than just listening to previews of new releases. After all it is just a simple one click Restore to again kiss good bye to all those purchases.
I also think it is wrong that I cannot download the songs I have purchased a second time. It is my account, no-one else has access to it, so how can this breach any legalities (other than affecting the download count at the store - a little bit of code perhaps). It is not often I am disgruntled with Apple but this sucks a little…
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 at 13:21:39.
Getting something for TV License at last?
Also relates to Software
I am extremely reluctant when it comes to handing over cash for my TV license. In recent years we have seen the BBC squander our money on lower quality programmes, worthless channels that regurgitate very old and over watched series and most notoriously deliver proprietary software to the select many that choose to have Windows as their operating system! Yes with regards the latter I am talking about the iPlayer. The quality of streaming media on the BBC has always been dreadful - ever tried watching a sporting match while working!? So then along came the iPlayer - software allowing the download and viewing of BBC programmes by UK based IP addresses. But software that was built under the sole premise of working on Windows PCs!
Well finally the e-petition has paid dividends and the BBC has announced a partnership with Adobe to make a Flash-based video version of the iPlayer to make it compatible on the Mac and other platforms. I suppose it is a step in the right direction, although the fact this only covers streaming versions of the programmes is not ideal. It still means the BBC is providing services with the tax payers money to only a proportions of the UK. Yet another example of the corporations disregard for accessibility to all as has already been exemplified in the ongoing issues of digital coverage. Of course a Flash based version doesn't bode well for the current incarnation of the iPod Touch which will be one WiFi device which will not be able to take advantage of the free access to the iPlayer from the Cloud network. Perhaps this will change with the SDK prospects next spring?
Now I just wish the licensing authorities would stop sending us those threats that the enforcement officer is due to pay us a visit - despite being fully paid up licensees and having informed the license office of this several times! No wonder there is a license fee shortfall when the amount of time and resources are wasted chasing licenses that have been paid! ;)
Posted on Oct 18, 2007 at 11:27:54.
iPod Touch 'Cannot Find Server'
This post does not relate to any other topics
At last, 14 days after delivery, my new toy - an iPod Touch - arrived on my doorstep. As always with Apple the packaging is meticulous although in not entirely clear as to why they include a couple of pieces of plastic (cheap dock!?) in the bundle. And the significant absentee was a comprehensive user guide - in fact other than the pictorial yet somewhat uninformative Quick Start guide and Important Product Information Guide, the user is left to locate and download the Features Guide from the Apple website.
Anyway, the hardware is pretty intuitive and once I had downloaded the 150MB software update and done an initial sync of movies, music and photos I was ready to give the Touch a quick test-drive. In general I was very impressed. My only gripes so far would be:
- The Accelerometer is not always reliable. Sometimes it is slow to respond and sometimes it didn't seem to want to respond at all
- Fingerprints!!! Oh yes, this little piece of technological beauty is going to get absolutely smothered in finger prints. Apple are good enough to provide a cloth to keep the worst off but I will certainly be investing in a scratch proof film pronto.
- Configuring wireless was no breeze!
And it is the last of these points I will discuss a little more here. In short I had no problems connecting to the wireless networks in my house but I could not initially get any response from a server! Safari was throwing up the Server Not Found error while YouTube and the Wireless iTunes Store could not be found. So I went and checked the settings for one of my wireless networks. (Settings > Wi-Fi Networks, then select the network by clicking the arrow on the right hand side next to the selection) Under the DHCP were two rows of gobbledegook! My wireless router is configured to provide lease details but this wasn't happening. So to fix the problem I had to do the following:
- Choose Static from the three option tabs
- Enter an IP address - for my network the range is 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.255, and I choose 192.168.1.68 being the next available IP in sequence on my network.
- Enter the subnet mask 255.255.255.0
- Enter the router, which in my case is 192.168.1.254
- And lastly and most important - enter the DNS IP numbers used by my router.
Now the first three values can be determined and retrieved by looking at the network settings on another computer on the network. For instance, I went into Network settings in the System Preferences on my iMac and chose the TCP/IP tab.
Obviously, I had to choose a different IP address to the one provided here. Normally this would be enough to statically configure connection to a wireless network. But when I visited Safari on the Touch it still could not find any servers! To see if the problem was related to resolution of DNS I tried visiting one of my own sites via IP number instead and this worked, confirming it was a problem locating the DNS servers. So to find these I had to go into the control panel for my router which in this case just so happens to be the infamous BT Home Hub. Anyone who has chosen to take the same unfortunate router route as me can check out this unofficial BT Home Hub FAQ on finding their way around the control panel at http://bthomehub on the local network. The information I was after is located in the .Internet Connection option under Status menu.
So, now it was just a case of entering the Primary DNS and Secondary DNS, separated by a comma in the DNS field. Once this was done I could at last access the world wide web and benefit from the Touch features.
I just hope this is not going to cause the Touch to come unstuck once I have signed up for Cloud access! I will report back on this one, along with a more detailed review once I have had a spare-time play.
I discovered this morning that the random IP address and subnet mask are the fault of the hub rather than the Touch itself as the very same problem occurred connecting my iBook. This doesn't surprise me since the Home Hub has been nothing but trouble from the day I received it. So I apologise for any suggestion that the Touch was at fault in this issue. All the same the above instructions may still be of use to people struggling to connect their iPod Touch to the internet with Server Not Found issues.
Posted on Oct 10, 2007 at 14:13:50.
