Apple has released a big update to iPhoto '09 (8.0.4) that is supposed to fix a serious crashing bug that effected some users. I didn't experience it, but then again, I just got my iPhone to start uploading those pictures! Had to get it as I'm planning on doing a lot more picture taking.
Well... I took the plunge and I'm so glad I did! This evening we went to the Orland Park Apple Store and picked up the 32GB black iPhone 3GS. Amazing. The thing that really helped clinch the decision was the fact that Joseph's phone had an accident and his charger was no longer able to charge his phone. It was in the phone, not the charger, and when we went to the Verizon store, they said it was out of warranty, and yet he was available for an upgrade.
Rather than go for the upgrade, Liza and I agreed to look at the AT&T store and start the process of moving the family from Verizon to AT&T. The reason for this is simple - better service coverage. Liza goes to Jewel and Target, and when she's in these stores, she can't get any signal from the CDMA Verzion service. But her best friend, Kelly, on AT&T is able to get GSM service everywhere in these stores. It's a simple matter of frequency, wavelength and a Farady Cage.
So we moved over Joseph, and started the 700 minutes Family Plan with unlimited texting. Then, when I went to the Apple Store, it was simply a matter of adding a line ($9.95/mo) and then the data plan for the iPhone ($30/mo) and that was it! This was about $70 less than I thought I'd have to spend. What an incredible deal!
So I got it home, took about an hour to move all my stuff from my old iPod Touch and then it was ready to go! I took pictures of Liza and the kids so I'd see their pictures when they called - and sent emails. I had a blast with it. Got a few apps that I'd wanted to have once I had a camera, and even a game or two. It was fun.
So I just need to set things up at work with the second charger so I can keep it charged, and I'll be ready to go. Very nice.
I noticed this morning that Xcode 3.1.3 is out from Apple. I'm sure this is the release that supports the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK, and for those of us that haven't yet gotten that SDK, this probably has just a few little enhancements. No matter, I'm a big fan of Xcode and I'd be getting the update anyway. Great tools.
UPDATE: I'm having a slight problem downloading the new docs within the Help system for Xcode 3.1.3. It's saying the password isn't right, but I know it is as I was able to download the other docs update within Help just fine. I'll keep trying every so often, and if it fails, I'll download them manually from the Apple Developer site.
Well... I'm not sure I'm going to see a ton of improvement in my iPod Touch, but it's an upgrade, and there's that little chance that I'm going to wish I had that one feature when I don't have access to the 'net - so for $9.95 I upgraded to OS 3.0 this morning.
If I end up getting the iPhone 3GS, then I'll probably give this guy to Liza or the kids, but if I don't, or it takes a while to get one, then I'd like to have it up to date for a while. So I got it.
I have to say that Apple makes it easy to upgrade these guys after the initial horrible sync/backup times of the original device. Yikes! I remember that. But no longer. It's nice and clean. Good job.
Well... I wish I didn't have to reboot my box, but again this morning, I didn't really have a choice. Software Updates had Safari 4.0.1 on it and the release notes say:
This update addresses incompatibilities between Safari 4.0 and certain features in iPhoto ‘09, including Places and Facebook publishing.
So in typical Apple form, it doesn't give any real details, but still... it's Safari, and that means it's time to agree to the update and reboot the system.
They have updated Java again, once again, it's an across-the-board update:
Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and later.
This release updates Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_13, J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19, and J2SE 1.4.2 to 1.4.2_21.
So we're at pretty up-to-date versions of Java for OS X. Not bad. It's no surprise that we're lagging behind the Sun JDKs - Apple has never really pushed the envelope on JDK releases. But it's nice to be up to date just in case.
Very odd thing is happening to me this afternoon - I'm trying to buy a simple iTunes email gift certificate for Nina against my PayPal account (my default funding source) and it keeps saying that the credit card is refused. Not really. I can buy a song, so that's OK, but if I try to get the $20 iTunes 'card', it fails. I've put in my information several times - no difference. Odd... very odd.
So I'm thinking it's something that's temporary on iTunes Store. Gotta be. PayPal is OK, saying I created the 'Pay agreement' with iTunes, but it's got to be the call from iTunes Store to PayPal that's causing the problem.
So I had to tell Nina that she's going to have to wait for a bit to let this issue settle out and then I can send her the money. Maybe this evening, maybe tomorrow. But I feel certain it's OK as I'm able to buy a song. Hmmm... very odd indeed.
UPDATE: I bought an album, upgraded a song to iTunes Plus, all that worked. But the gift certificate didn't. Wild. I'll have to wait and see how it plays out this evening.
As part of the WWDC Keynote yesterday, it was announced that Safari 4 was officially released. This morning it's on Software Updates, and because it's going to require a restart, I'm going to hold off on installing it until I have a good 20 mins to do the install and restart.
I'm sure there are a few nice fixes, but I'm not expecting anything spectacular in terms of performance and such. It's just the final release and the beta has been exceptionally stable for me - which is fantastic.
It's good to see it finally released.
UPDATE: I'm sorry to say that they removed the new tabs and it's back to the tab bar below the title bar. Sad to see it go. I liked that far better than the system I've got now.
Well... the keynote didn't disappoint. I have to say that the update to the MacBooks was probably the most surprising to me. Bringing all the machines up to the 17" MacBook Pro level was pretty nice. It was also nice to hear about Safari 4 being released, and Snow Leopard for $29/$49 was simply a great deal that I can't imagine anyone passing on.
Of course the big news was the most expected - the iPhone 3GS. Hard to decide right now if this is the time for me to jump in. Teathering is there, but AT&T doesn't support it. Multi-media mail is there, but AT&T doesn't support it - yet. AT&T is trying to get a faster network, but it isn't there yet, and the coverage is really spotty I've heard from friends.
So maybe it's time, maybe not. I'll have to wait and see. But all-in-all, a nice presentation full of goodies and even a few surprises.
This morning there was a nearly complete update on all the components of iLife '09 - I think iWeb was the only one that wasn't updated. Lots of new things, and better 'raw' processing from some more cameras. It's nice, but I really need to get myself a camera or iPhone with video so that I can begin to take advantage of these tools. It's really getting silly.
Oh well... gotta stay up to date for the day I get that camera.