5 reasons my Zune is dead to me
5. The software and music categorizationThe Zune software (its equivalent of iTunes) is slow and super-unintuitive. When I first started using it, I literally could not figure out how to start adding songs. I had to look it up, and discovered it's a common bug when you use the device and software for the first time, so I had to unplug the Zune, restart the software, and then I could drag-and-drop songs onto the device. It's also nowhere near as good at categorizing music as iTunes. In fact, when I imported my iTunes library into the Zune software, it couldn't figure out the difference between album and artist for most songs, so browsing the collection on the device is a total nightmare. In the software itself, there are way too many menu options--without the Zune plugged in, there's a two-line menu with five separate options: Collection, Device, Marketplace, Social, and Disc on the top line, and then Music, Playlists, Videos, Pictures, Podcasts on the second line. Plug the device in, and there's one moremenu option once you click Device (Status). Plus, the software and device don't seem to respond to my settings choices. I asked the Zune, under Settings, to "Let me choose" to sync music, video, pictures, and podcasts--but whenever I plug in the Zune, it auto-syncs. Eh? Worse, settings in the software menu (like, "Keep 3 episodes of each podcast") override the already-overridden "let me choose" option on the Zune, so the software ends up taking podcasts off the Zune when I don't want it to. But that's hardly the worst sync sin the Zune performs. More on that later. Note: I did not subscribe to the Zune Marketplace, because I'm not even remotely interested in a heavily DRM'd subscription service, so I have not taken advantage of the joys of Squirting Songs or anything like that. However, since I've never encountered another Zune user in the wild, I haven't felt like I missed out.4. The headphonesThe Zune's headphones were, at first blush, one of the best things about it. They're nice, in-ear headphones with really good quality sound. They look good and fit comfortably, and the ends of the earbuds are magnetic, so they can hang around your neck without falling off. But here's the thing. The headphone cord is fabric, instead of the plastic-coated cable of iPod headphones or their ilk. And fabric, which is basically string, is one big knot waiting to happen. Combine the knotting tendencies of string with the magnetic ends of the earbuds, and the headphones are constantly in a state of tangle that you cannot even believe. It's a 10-minute endeavor to untangle them every time I pull them out of my bag. My bus ride is only 25 minutes to 30 minutes long. It's just not worth it.3. The player interface Yes, the iPod makes navigation easy. At first blush, so does the Zune. I love the big menu items on the home screen for Music, Videos, Pictures, Social, Radio, Podcasts, and Settings. But there are just way too many clicks required to play a song, way too many to add a song to a playlist on the fly, and way too many menu items that aren't songs at the top of the Quick List playlist. Playing an album is pretty easy--you just side-scroll to Albums, choose it, click the Album title, and choose Play All (other options are "add all to quick list" or "send"). On this screen, you'll actually see a list of all the songs on the album. But to find and then play a song by a specific artist (which I usually do, because artist names are easier to remember than album names), you first find the name of the artist, then click it. Now, you'll see "Play all" and "add all to quick list," but no "send" option. That's an annoying interface consistency issue. Anyway, under that, there's the album cover and the album title--but no list of songs. So, if I want to play the first song on the artist's album, I then have to scroll down to the album name, click that, then scroll past "play all," "add all to quick list," and "send" to the song name, and click the song name. But that does not start playing the song. At this point, I go to yet another screen, where I can "play," "add to quick list," or "send." After a few weeks of use, I had added pretty much every song on the device to the Quick List, which kind of defeated the purpose, you know? Also, and this is nit-picky, but the Zune has a huge screen. In most cases, that's great. But does it really have to display the album art for what you're listening to at the full size of the display? Because I don't really need everyone on the bus to see that I'm having a Carrie Underwood moment, know what I'm sayin'?2. The wireless is worthless What is the point of the Zune having Wi-Fi? Seriously? All it can do is sync music wirelessly on my home network. That's a neat trick, but it's not that much of an advantage over plugging it in, considering that my laptop lives in a tangle of connector cords on my breakfast bar anyway. I can't download songs over-the-air, and there's no browser and no sign of there ever being a browser. The best trick it's got is that I can unsubscribe to a podcast over Wi-Fi. But I can't browse for and subscribe to anything new, so I'm really just depriving myself of content on the go. Hooray. But all four of these issues with my Zune pale in comparison to the number one reason the Zune is, and forever will be, dead to me. 1. The erasing of my server-stored musicAt my house, we keep all our MP3s stored on a Media Center PC, which we mount as a networked drive for adding music to portable devices. So, when I first got my Zune, I ripped three CDs using this laptop, then loaded up the MP3 server and painstakingly picked out some 2,000 songs over about a three-hour period. I didn't sync again for a couple of months, because, well, I had all the music, video, and photos I needed--and it actually has pretty impressive battery life, so I hadn't even bothered to plug it in to charge it. Then, about two weeks ago, I was going on a trip. My Zune's battery had run out, so I plugged it in to charge it to take on the plane with me. Despite my settings in the Zune software not to sync all my music, video, pictures, and podcasts, the Zune started its sync dance. When it was complete, it gave me this message: 10 items added 2,372 items removed WHAT!!!??? Yep. The software, in its auto-sync wisdom, removed every single song from the device that was not stored locally on the computer. There was no prompt, there was no "I can't find this" warning like the iTunes Library will sometimes offer. It just decided, out of what I assume was some misguided antipiracy effort, to remove any songs that it couldn't find on my hard drive. What if I were syncing the machine with two different computers with two different music libraries, you ask? Too bad. Zune is in control. And you know what? I don't like being told what to do. I don't like sitting on a wiped Zune two hours before I'm supposed to leave from the airport. I don't like software that ignores what I think is a pretty specific request for manual syncing, and I don't like device behaviors that assume I am stealing music. What this all boils down to, I'm truly sorry to say, is that I don't like my Zune. Hello, again, little iPod buddy.
How to activate tethering on any iPhone without jailbreaking
How to activate tethering on any iPhone without jailbreaking
Setting up tethering for your iPhoneUninstall iTunes 8.2 Mac1. Drag the Application iTunes from the apps folder on your Mac to the Trash.2. Launch Activity Monitor from Applications/Utilities and kill the iTunes Helper process.3. Go to Finder. Navigate to your ~/Library folder and delete the iTunes folder at ~/Library/iTunes.4. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences, locate the following three files, and drag each one to the Trash: com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist, com.apple.iTunes.plist, and com.apple.iTunesHelper.plist5. Empty the TrashInstall iTunes 8.2 prerelease Mac6. Install the iTunes 8.2 prerelease you downloaded.7. Connect your iPhone with iPhone OS 3.0 software loaded on it to your computer with the standard USB sync cable.8. Once the iPhone is connected, go to the Device Summary page in iTunes.9. While pressing and holding the Option key on your Mac, click the Restore button in iTunes10. Browse to the mounted carrier settings file you downloaded and mounted above and select the ATT_US.ipcc file. iTunes will now perform an upgrade on your iPhone and display the following message:Set up tethering on your iPhone11. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General and then Network while your iPhone is still tethered to your computer.12. Locate "Internet Tethering" and turn it on. | If tethering is successful, you will see a message that is similar to the following:Go into Preferences Network select the adapter as displayed above, and you'll see something similar to this as it becomes active:Your iPhone will display a blue background banner on different screens to indicate that tethering is active and running as shown below. | Our brief tests found tethering to be zippy fast on an iPhone 3G. Your experiences may vary, but we would like to hear about them in the comments.06/18/09 at 1:30 PM PDT: This post was updated to reflect some additional tethering information.According to CrunchGear you can also turn tethering on and MMS directly from your iPhone by visiting this Web site using Mobile Safari: http://help.benm.at/help.php. We tested tethering and that worked, but have yet to get the MMS portion of this Web sites hack up and running.You can go to this site that we found via gizmodo.com and get some instructions on performing these hacks on a Windows computer.Gizmodo also notes that "Some people are reporting that these hacks can screw with your visual voicemail. Careful! " While we have not seen this happen yet - it is possible that performing an iTunes restore on your iPhone will resolve the issue, but erase all the hacks as well.06/17/09 at 10:15 AM PDT:This post was updated to reflect some sourcing and additional tethering information.willson556 and gointoscott in the comments below suggest a shorter version - replacing Steps 1-6 with a defaults write command for users with the release version of iTunes 8.2. We've tried this version and can confirm that it, too, works. b3baby in the comments below asks if this hack will also work on a desktop. This hack will work on any Mac - desktop or portable. We tested it on an iMac and a Macbook Pro.thisismatthewcrosby2 in the comments below complains about issues with his Mac not seeing his iPhone - suggest doing the iTunes removal step again - be sure to delete the three appropriate COM files and re-install iTunes.Once the hack is complete you can re-install iTunes 8.2 if needed, but future updates may undo the hack.(iPhone Atlas came up with this process independently, but other publications, including 9to5Mac here, have come to the same conclusion).
Setting up tethering for your iPhoneUninstall iTunes 8.2 Mac1. Drag the Application iTunes from the apps folder on your Mac to the Trash.2. Launch Activity Monitor from Applications/Utilities and kill the iTunes Helper process.3. Go to Finder. Navigate to your ~/Library folder and delete the iTunes folder at ~/Library/iTunes.4. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences, locate the following three files, and drag each one to the Trash: com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist, com.apple.iTunes.plist, and com.apple.iTunesHelper.plist5. Empty the TrashInstall iTunes 8.2 prerelease Mac6. Install the iTunes 8.2 prerelease you downloaded.7. Connect your iPhone with iPhone OS 3.0 software loaded on it to your computer with the standard USB sync cable.8. Once the iPhone is connected, go to the Device Summary page in iTunes.9. While pressing and holding the Option key on your Mac, click the Restore button in iTunes10. Browse to the mounted carrier settings file you downloaded and mounted above and select the ATT_US.ipcc file. iTunes will now perform an upgrade on your iPhone and display the following message:Set up tethering on your iPhone11. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General and then Network while your iPhone is still tethered to your computer.12. Locate "Internet Tethering" and turn it on. | If tethering is successful, you will see a message that is similar to the following:Go into Preferences Network select the adapter as displayed above, and you'll see something similar to this as it becomes active:Your iPhone will display a blue background banner on different screens to indicate that tethering is active and running as shown below. | Our brief tests found tethering to be zippy fast on an iPhone 3G. Your experiences may vary, but we would like to hear about them in the comments.06/18/09 at 1:30 PM PDT: This post was updated to reflect some additional tethering information.According to CrunchGear you can also turn tethering on and MMS directly from your iPhone by visiting this Web site using Mobile Safari: http://help.benm.at/help.php. We tested tethering and that worked, but have yet to get the MMS portion of this Web sites hack up and running.You can go to this site that we found via gizmodo.com and get some instructions on performing these hacks on a Windows computer.Gizmodo also notes that "Some people are reporting that these hacks can screw with your visual voicemail. Careful! " While we have not seen this happen yet - it is possible that performing an iTunes restore on your iPhone will resolve the issue, but erase all the hacks as well.06/17/09 at 10:15 AM PDT:This post was updated to reflect some sourcing and additional tethering information.willson556 and gointoscott in the comments below suggest a shorter version - replacing Steps 1-6 with a defaults write command for users with the release version of iTunes 8.2. We've tried this version and can confirm that it, too, works. b3baby in the comments below asks if this hack will also work on a desktop. This hack will work on any Mac - desktop or portable. We tested it on an iMac and a Macbook Pro.thisismatthewcrosby2 in the comments below complains about issues with his Mac not seeing his iPhone - suggest doing the iTunes removal step again - be sure to delete the three appropriate COM files and re-install iTunes.Once the hack is complete you can re-install iTunes 8.2 if needed, but future updates may undo the hack.(iPhone Atlas came up with this process independently, but other publications, including 9to5Mac here, have come to the same conclusion).
4G rules at CTIA
4G rules at CTIA
As we pack our bags to leave Las Vegas, It's time to reflect on the CTIA that was. After a sleeper of a show last year, 2010 was quite eventful. The show floor was busier, the announcements were bigger, and there was more of a buzz permeating the Las Vegas Convention Center. It can be hard to keep track of it all, so here's a summary of what we saw.4GSprint and HTC grabbed most of the spotlight when they announced their new HTC Evo 4G. The Evo is more than just hype; it's slick and powerful and Sprint has a growing WiMax network (it might switch to LTE, however). Indeed, we liked it so much that we named it the top phone at CTIA. Yet, Sprint was not alone in pushing 4G; MetroPCS and Samsung announced the LTE-equipped SCH-r900 for Las Vegas and other markets later this year. Read Maggie Reardon's recent take on 4G for a great perspective on how the technology could develop. T-Mobile tried to counter the 4G news by promoting its 3G network and AT&T execs advocated for more spectrum.AndroidJust like at CES and Mobile World Congress, Android went big at CTIA this year. We saw the first Android phone from Nextel, Kyocera's first Android handset, a Dell Android device, and the promising Samsung Galaxy S. Oh, and did we mention that the Evo 4G runs Android 2.1? Nice.Sights from CTIA 2010 (photos)See full gallery1 - 4 / 18NextPrevOther phonesLG announced an eco-friendly phone for Sprint, the LG Remarq, and a basic handset for Verizon Wireless, the LG Cosmos. Nicole Lee visited LG to handle both phones and she took a closer look at the LG Arena, the LG Wine II, and both the LG BL40 and BL20. AT&T promoted its new messaging phones and cloud services at the show. It had the Pantech Link and Pursuit and the Samsung Strive and Sunburst. If you're looking for a user-friendly phone for the senior set, try the Just5, and if you like the unusual, see the Kempler & Strauss W Phonewatch.Accessories and serviceLast, but not least, there was quite a bit of accessory and service news. Nicole delved into Bluetoothland with the BlueAnt T1, the Samsung Modus HM1000, and the other Samsung models. AT&T launched a new music service, HTC announced a new online store for its phones and accessories, and Verizon Wireless said it would start its own app store. And from Download.com, Jessica Dolcourt covered Opera's browser submission for the iTunes App Store, the new Yahoo iPhone app, Firefox's mobile browser, Verizon and Skype Mobile, and PayPal's "bump" feature for Android and BlackBerry.That wraps it up from Sin City. See you next year CTIA, in Orlando.
As we pack our bags to leave Las Vegas, It's time to reflect on the CTIA that was. After a sleeper of a show last year, 2010 was quite eventful. The show floor was busier, the announcements were bigger, and there was more of a buzz permeating the Las Vegas Convention Center. It can be hard to keep track of it all, so here's a summary of what we saw.4GSprint and HTC grabbed most of the spotlight when they announced their new HTC Evo 4G. The Evo is more than just hype; it's slick and powerful and Sprint has a growing WiMax network (it might switch to LTE, however). Indeed, we liked it so much that we named it the top phone at CTIA. Yet, Sprint was not alone in pushing 4G; MetroPCS and Samsung announced the LTE-equipped SCH-r900 for Las Vegas and other markets later this year. Read Maggie Reardon's recent take on 4G for a great perspective on how the technology could develop. T-Mobile tried to counter the 4G news by promoting its 3G network and AT&T execs advocated for more spectrum.AndroidJust like at CES and Mobile World Congress, Android went big at CTIA this year. We saw the first Android phone from Nextel, Kyocera's first Android handset, a Dell Android device, and the promising Samsung Galaxy S. Oh, and did we mention that the Evo 4G runs Android 2.1? Nice.Sights from CTIA 2010 (photos)See full gallery1 - 4 / 18NextPrevOther phonesLG announced an eco-friendly phone for Sprint, the LG Remarq, and a basic handset for Verizon Wireless, the LG Cosmos. Nicole Lee visited LG to handle both phones and she took a closer look at the LG Arena, the LG Wine II, and both the LG BL40 and BL20. AT&T promoted its new messaging phones and cloud services at the show. It had the Pantech Link and Pursuit and the Samsung Strive and Sunburst. If you're looking for a user-friendly phone for the senior set, try the Just5, and if you like the unusual, see the Kempler & Strauss W Phonewatch.Accessories and serviceLast, but not least, there was quite a bit of accessory and service news. Nicole delved into Bluetoothland with the BlueAnt T1, the Samsung Modus HM1000, and the other Samsung models. AT&T launched a new music service, HTC announced a new online store for its phones and accessories, and Verizon Wireless said it would start its own app store. And from Download.com, Jessica Dolcourt covered Opera's browser submission for the iTunes App Store, the new Yahoo iPhone app, Firefox's mobile browser, Verizon and Skype Mobile, and PayPal's "bump" feature for Android and BlackBerry.That wraps it up from Sin City. See you next year CTIA, in Orlando.
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