I had an issue a while back which prevented me from logging in to my Uni’s wireless network because of the proxy they use. HTTP authentication issues were driving me up the wall, so I had to find a workaround…

The issue was that the 3.0 version of iPhone software provided new facilities to automatically login into wireless hotspots, but because of the way that UTAS handled Wi-Fi authentication (via HTTP), it lead to some sort of conflict between the two, resulting in me not being able to use the Uni’s Wi-Fi, and one very frustrated Benny. It was suggested that I upload an iPhone configuration profile to my device from the iPhone Configuration Utility, but I had absoloutely no idea how to do so to workaround the Wi-Fi issue.

…and find a workaround I did. After much internet research (read: Googling, complaining on Twitter), I found others who had the exact same issue, and one internet commentator in particular suggested an app which actually *broke* 3.0’s auto-hotspot-login functionality, which then allowed me to login as per pre-3.0. Somewhat ironically, the app itself was designed to assist in logging into wireless hotspots. It certainly assisted me, but probably not in the way the original creators intended…

Breaking functionality to make somethig work? Who would’ve thought? I’m sure there’s an official way to do it out there, but as for me – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 🙂

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That is all.

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Every phone has a set of commands that allows you to enter so you can access special functions. You do so by entering certain combinations of stars, numbers, and hashes into the phone, which allow you find out information, or even control settings.

The most common one available to every phone I’ve tried it on so far is the code to display your phones IMEI – an identification code which allows it to be identified on your Telco’s network. Type *#06# into your keypad, press dial, and you should see your IMEI as a long string of numbers. Cool, huh?

There’s one other one that allows you to change how long your phone will ring for before it is diverted to voicemail, but that’s not what the code above does – instead, the code above actually makes the iPhone go into a “Field Test” mode, which, among other things, allows a user to see such information as GSM signal strength, cell tower info, and so on. It’s incredibly complex and I don’t pretend to understand all of the information there, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

Well, I think so, anyway. 🙂

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No, this isn’t the kid’s TV show featuring Madeline and some other girls and boys… Instead, it’s the second one from the camera roll. Here goes.

Most iPhone apps follow Apple’s UI conventions – however, this eBuddy app (again, a free instant messager app) didn’t seem to.

Normally the popup you see (the “Turn on push notifications” message) would be on top of any other thing that would be going on in the background, but apparently not, in this case. I’m no iPhone developer, but I’m pretty sure the popup message takes precedence over the slide up selection menu (the “create an eBuddy ID” message).

Maybe some function wasn’t called in the right order, maybe something went wrong along the line. I certainly haven’t seen such a thing in any other app I’ve used, so, it was screenshotted and now displayed for your pleasure.

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New Year means a new start, and that goes for my iPhone’s Camera Roll as well.

For those not in the know, the Camera Roll is where screenshots and pictures taken with the camera are stored.

Seems like I’ve got quite a few of these – roughly 35. I aim to get through all of them before Feb, so here goes. I won’t send all of them to Twitter, so for those of you reading from Posterous please make sure you hit up my “real” blog over at: http://www.bennylingbling.com

Above screenie depicts an app for the iPhone (a free VNC app, from memory) whose selection sliders had decided to do weird things. Not quite sure what caused this, or how it happened, so I took a screenie, and here we are.

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Four Macs were sleeping. These Macs weren’t any ordinary machines – no, they had been granted the privledge, or rather, the honour, of being what some called the demo machines, what others still called “the machines that contained the Photo Booth application”.

Demo MacBooks and MacBook Pros in an Apple reseller don’t live very secluded lives – they’re always on display for customers to prod, poke, and inspect. It’s a wonder how durable these machines actually are – a testament, if you will, to Apple’s genius-level of engineering and craftsmanship (or more accurately, the craftmanship of the robots in China).

Day in, day out, all they do is sit there and look pretty – allowing eager salesmen (and saleswomen!) to show off the wonderful world of Mac, demostrating such applications like iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes – as well as other cool Mac things, like the cool screen-zoom for the visually impaired, the cool multi-touch trackpad, and the awesome MagSafe power connector. It’s features like these that set Mac apart from the rest, nevermind the industry-leading Aluminium Unibody, or the amazing 7-hour battery life, which means you can watch at at least 6 episodes of your favourite 40 minute TV show, or, stay up ALL NIGHT working on that presentation that’s due tomorrow. Your pick.

But the hardware is only half the story. Any person can hack together bits and pieces and call it a computer, but the heart of the Mac is OSX, and it’s OSX that powers these demo machines. Currently in it’s seventh revision, OSX doesn’t just provide an excellent user experience (note the difference between user interface, and user experience), it also makes the system “just work”. The integration between iLife applications is unparalled – the Media Browser available to most, if not all, Apple applications ensures all your pictures, movies, and music are always at your fingertips, right where you need them.

But that’s not all. Being a Mac isn’t about the hardware, or the software. Sure, those things come into it, but at the end of the day, it’s the Mac community that comes into it’s own. Like a secret handshake during a ceremony, or an all-knowing nod during some other proceding, the phrase “I’m a Mac” makes you stand out from the crowd.
There was one guy on Twitter who asked an innocent question about the iPhone this one time – within minutes, he had answers that not only answered his original question, but also gave him (and a couple others) previously unknown knowledge about a feature on the iPhone.

As a Mac (or as an iPhone), you too can rest assured that there will always be people you can turn to to ask for help – you DID buy the AppleCare, didn’t you? 😀

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