Upgrade to iOS 5

So, update to iOS 5 is done, what can be said of the update procedure? Well for one thing it can take a loooong time if you actually use the it for storing, music and so on. After realizing this I actually unchecked syncing music, movies and some stuff that I would remember to sync back again afterwards because if I should have done if with my near full 32 GB iPhone I wouldn't have gotten it with me in the morning when it was time to go to work.

The upgrade procedure actually is a separate back up of what's on your phone, a restore to a factory reset iOS 5 device and then a restore to a iOS 5 device in the same state as your former iOS 4 device. This is where the loooong time comes in. The back up isn't just a list of stuff to resync to your device, it's a full or almost full back up and then a restore of this. This of course take a long time with 30 GB and 100 apps. The back up in the beginning is quite vulnerable and will crash on incoming notifications so disable notification beforehand. I guess other incoming things as telephone calls or SMS also stop the back up. The telephone isn't taken off line until iOS 5 is actually loaded onto the device.

There are a few steps along the line that need interaction so it can't be left by itself over night. For example you have to unlock your SIM card and unplug and replug the phone if you have code lock on your SIM card. Before the actual restore of your apps from the former iOS 4 device you have to configure some iOS 5 services, like your Apple ID and network. Then it goes on to restoring your apps.

The new Apple apps, of course, are jammed in among your own well planned apps on the home screen.

When I had disabled notifications the upgrade went well though (besides taking a long time with interaction and that I then had to sync back music and other stuff).

Further Annoyances w/GH III

The quest for saving in Guitar Hero III Mac OS X port goes on, forever?

I figured that the saving didn’t work because of GH III not working in a case sensitive file system and that I because of that moved the game to a image file with a non-case sensitive filesystem and the paths then fuckin’ up. I thought that that was an easily solvable problem. I would just do some aliasing related to the new posistion of the application so that even the saving files would end up in the disk image with the non-case sensitive file system. The biggest problem would be whether I should try Finder aliases or Unix links first.

Easy?

The first try gave no result what so ever.

The second try obviously meant something to game since the application now is crashing at the first save.

Earlier annoyances:
Part 1
Part 2

Apple Mail and iChat Annoyances

I recently migrated some mail and iChat users to a new Mac OS X server (10.6.3) with most users using Mac OS X (although some of them  are using alternative mail and jabber clients). I had some problems with the mail and chat clients when the configurations was to be changed. In some cases it was users not really reading the guide or running along with the configurations but I find a few irritating things with Apple Mail and iChat as applications.

For one thing, in Apple Mail, when you have changed your configurations and clicked ''OK'' you might think that your new configurations are saved. It's not. It's not until you change tab in or close the overview dialog box that Mail suddenly gives you the question if you want to save your settings. After this is done you probably still need to shut down Mail and start it again to make changes take effect in reality. A little annoying I think. I also had problems with clients where the changes were made and Apple Mail restarted. The only safe way to change configurations seemed to be to remove the old, shut down Mail, start it again and make a new account.

The same procedure with removing old account, shutting down and starting and adding a new account also goes for iChat. Don't modify your settings in either program. Remove them restart the applications and add new configurations (and maybe restart them after that too).

Annoyances in iTunes

If you’re in spending mode and manages to empty your bank account connected to your iTunes account and buy something from iTunes one might think that Apple would check the balance and then refuse to sell you the whatever it is. No they don’t, they sell you the stuff and then complain about the negative balance. That might be okay but since there’s something wrong with the balance on your account you’re not just stopped from buying anymore (which of course is okay) but you’re also stopped from downloading free applications and even stopped from upgrading applications since you need to download the new version.

Also you can’t start an account for downloading just free application, you actually have to register a valid bank account to be able to download anything. This also means that if you get a new card for your bank account you might need to update your iTunes account data to be able to download free apps or update the ones already bought.