iPhone Remote App + AirPort Express with AirTunes = Awesome

I just setup the Apple AirPort Express with AirTunes(802.11G version). Combined with the Apple Remote application on the iPhone this is very, very, very cool.

Now, from anywhere in the house, you can control the iTunes library stored on your computer from the iPhone and stream the music to your home stereo system. The Remote application can even control which set of speakers to send the music to- the computer speakers or the AirTunes one.

No more being limited to the music on the iPhone. Ours is 8Gb.
No more having to plug the iPhone into speakers, especially since this one has the recessed headphone jack.
No more having to control the iPhone/iPod by walking up to it since it's hardwired to the speakers.

Now if only the Remote application could control the iTunes library and stream your music to the iPhone.

Anyways, setting up the AirPort Express with Windows wasn't exactly straightfoward. I had to muck with the PC's network settings, then set them back.

Otherwise, this is awesome. My wife was duly impressed but in the next breath said, "What about FM radio reception?" Guess I'm going to go buy an AM/FM antenna tomorrow. At least I can listen to the Giants then.

iPhone OS 2.0

iPhone OS 2.0 was unofficially available yesterday, but not yet officially available via iTunes. So I d/l'ed it and try to install it on G's iPhone. I already installed the required iTunes 7.7 a few days earlier.

July 10, Thursday night-
The iPhone OS 2.0 download was ~250 Mb! Wow.
Plug-in iPhone to computer, hold down Shift key and click the "Update" button to choose the v2.0 bundle. Otherwise, iTunes would just report that the iPhone is up to date.

iTunes backed up the iPhone before it began installing the new OS. This is a good thing.

Installing the OS is fairly painless, but loading the data from the back-up hung halfway through. iTunes would show that the iPhone is being synced, but the iPhone would pop-out of the "syncing" screen to normal mode. "Hmm wonder if something is wrong, or if it's just taking a long time?"

After a few iterations of this stop and starting this cycle (stop/re-install/restore) I decided to let it run through the night thinking it's not hung, but just taking a long time.

July 11 morning-
Nope. It's stuck where it was at when I went to bed.

Ok, let's do it again. Now (!), v2.0 shows up as official update via iTunes. It downloads the 250Mb bundle - again. I have cheap AT&T DSL so this takes a while. =/ But wait, this time it asks me to accept the license agreement. I take this as a good sign, something is going right now.

Alrighty, v2.0 OS is installed and we're good to go! The iPhone is now basically completely wiped aside from the new OS install. Next, iTunes will automatically re-activate the phone. But... Apple's iTunes iPhone activation servers are down because of the huge crush of people activating the new 3G ones in-store not only all across the country, but around the world.

By the now, G's got to leave the house to take the kids to VBS, and I should be getting to work. I give her my phone to use while I finish this up. (haha, yeah right) Being an engineer, I do the "let me try just one more thing..." which I hope will take just 15 minutes, but this is like hitting the snooze button again... "just 15 minutes" becomes a number of hours.

ITunes finally gets through to the servers and begins to restore the phone. After many trials of restoring, I know this takes forever. Is it my computer? Is it the USB cable? And why does it need to ping the iTunes servers before the restore starts?! I think it is to check whether the OS version is up to date.

I bust out my ThinkPad so I can get some real work done as I'm unintentionally unofficially working a 1/2 day from home now. Fortunately, work isn't super busy right now.

After what seems like a couple hours, the restore is finally done. But... all the music, pictures, videos etc., the bulk of the data, was not part of the restore. Now it has to sync all that stuff from the computer back to the iPhone. Aw man... so it's got to push nearly 7 Gb of stuff over. Rrrrrgh! But before if does that it backs-up the iPhone again. Better safe that sorry I suppose, but can't we do this later?

Sync is done, but the Apps I downloaded last night weren't synced. There are about 12 apps which are <= 1Mb each, but this takes about 1/2 hr to sync.

Finally it's all done. What should have taken about an hour or so took many hours. Oh well.

iGotOne

Well, actually iGotOne for her :)

My lovely wife gets the iPhone and I get her Samsung slider phone, which has a horrendous GUI.

It really is for her.

No-- really.

I'm not kidding!

I'm in front of a computer all day and have access to the Internet. In contrast, she's doing myriad sorts of things as a full-time mom and rarely has time to sit at a computer.

I, of course, get to mess w/ it when I'm not at work! Plus- I get to take the iPod Photo (40Gb) now!

Free iPhone!

... for Apple employees that is!! "Isn't Steve Jobs such an awesome boss?!"
I originally saw the story at ThinkSecret: Steve Jobs: Free iPhones for Apple employees
Steve Jobs just pulled an Oprah "My favorite things."

If I were Mr. Jobs' speechwriter I would have scripted it like this...

Good Morning Everyone. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy work days to be here.
We're webcasting this across the entire company and I'm sorry you all couldn't be here... but-

Tomorrow is a momentous day. A day I've been looking forward to for a long, long time.
Tomorrow. Is. The. Nationwide. Release. of. (dramatic pause)
Ratatouille! (Uproaring laughter)
No, No- Really I'm not kidding. (big grin on his face)
It will continue the fine Disney/Pixar tradition pairing great storytelling and state-of-the-art computer graphics.

Okay. Really, tomorrow is a big day for us here at Apple.
Tomorrow, iPhone will be let loose for the masses.
I just wanted to thank you all for the long days you've put in to make it all possible.
And I want to thank everyone at Apple for working so hard in contributing to our success.

One of the best things about working here is that we build the best computer hardware and software and MP3 players in the world.
And we get to enjoy them in our daily lives.

So to the iPhone team assembled here, there's something hidden under your seats as a token of appreciation.
(People reach under their seats)
iPhones for everyone!
(Everyone goes nuts)

And here at Apple, regardless of where you contribute, we share in each other's successes.
So if you are watching via webcast, I'd like thank you as well.
See what's taped underneath your desks.
(Everyone on-line goes nuts)

Anyways, I guess you can tell I've seen some Oprah. They'll be getting their iPhones in July actually... Ok, not everyone's getting them... but close enough.

In stark contrast, instead of giving out free iPhones, my company announced layoffs this week, which was expected post Agere acquisition. (I'm safe.)

iWantOne

Steve Jobs' keynote introducing the iPhone is amazing. The iPhone looks amazing.

I'll stick w/ my trusty Nokia 6230 a little while longer and wait for the 3G iPhone w/ more storage.

I got all excited since I get 20% off equipment from Cingular w/ my company's corporate program, but Apple shot that down pretty quickly.