Why iPhone's not obligated to permit Google Voice

How to Fix the App Store - BusinessWeek

During the last few months, there has been a lot of noise about "opening up" iPhone to other carriers and Apple being forced to permit Apps that go against its "policy". I can understand public pressure from customers that might force Apple to make these changes, but what role do regulators, analysts and columnists have in "forcing" Apple to change its commercial practices?

My simple argument is that Apple has no obligation, except to its customers and shareholders, to change its strategy with respect to the iPhone. The FCC or any other regulators have a role to play if market dynamics are getting distorted or becoming uncompetitive due to Apple's practices. Let's look at the exclusive deal between Apple and AT&T for instance.

Apple's share in the entire mobile phone market is negligible, it cannot distort the market. Even if one were to limit the market to "smartphones", Apple still has low double digit market share and is not the market leader. Further, this is not the first or only "exclusive" device deal with an operator... most US operators (unlike, say in India) bundle devices with the service and many such deals are exclusive. The Pre is available only with Sprint: why isn't that a big issue then? Of course, I can understand if iPhone customers (or likely customers) don't want to be on the AT&T network (as is indeed turning out to be the case now) and put pressure on on Apple to open up other networks. But what are Apple's options: the other major network in the US is Verizon which is on CDMA and so is Sprint. T-Mobile is the only sizable GSM operator and is a distant 4th... I am not sure iPhone users are looking at T-Mobile as a credible alternative.

Now take the Google Voice situation. I am sure a lot of customers want to use Google Voice and perhaps, a lot of iPhone customers want GV. Apple needs to consider their opinion, else those customers have other choices. They can move to phones that are on the Google Android platform which obviously supports GV, or any other smartphones that choose to support GV. Note: the customer has choices. Then why should any regulator seek to intervene and possibly seek to enforce that a particular App be made available on the device / service. I can understand it if it were a regulated service that is required to be offered, for instance 911 calling. But here we are talking about an Internet Telephony service which by its nature thrives on "free market" forces. Google cannot try and force its way onto every device. If that were to happen, then everyone would need to enable everyone else... I would love that world, but that is not a practical situation.

Regulators and analysts need to go after dominant players and platforms... that's where customer choice is limited and there is need for intervention. Apple is a relatively small player in most of its markets (PC, OS, Smartphone, etc. except MP3 Music Players and Online Music Stores); however it dominates public perception -- that's perhaps the reason everyone wants to regulate Apple like a dominant player.

Disclaimer: I personally disagree with the strategy of exclusive tie-ins between service providers and device manufacturers; I wish Apple would break its exclusive iPhone deals with a few operators. I am also indifferent to Google Voice because it is not available in India (and may never be, considering policymakers have sought to kill Internet Telephony in India). I wish Google Voice were available on the iPhone. But I wish these things would happen because Apple cares about customer needs, not because of some regulatory intervention!

Snow Leopard and Exchange Mail: More

Mail in Snow Leopard and Exchange

(Work in Progress)

More Positives:

1. Sent mail from Entourage did not show up as Sent Mail on my Blackberry; but with Mail, it is different. Truly synched across various access mechanisms

2. Spotlight search much better & faster than Entourage search

3. HTML formatting is retained when replying / forwarding mails... in Entourage, tables inserted into mails would get all mangled up when quoted in a reply/forward (a BIG thing)

4. You can Quick Look attachments from the Mail application itself (instead of having to save the attachment somewhere and then use the QL), assuming you don't want to launch the app


Some Negatives:

1. Yet unable to put a pop-up when new mail arrives; when I am working on something, I like to see who has sent the mail/Subject so that I can decide if it is worth switching attention

2.

Mail in Snow Leopard and Exchange

One of the most-awaited features in Snow Leopard was obviously the Exchange support built into Mac apps of Mail, iCal and Address Book. Apparently a lot of people failed to read the detail (even though, to Apple's credit, they did mention it quite prominently in their marketing material). Everyone caught the "Out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange" but did not focus on the "latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server".

There's quite a battle raging on Apple Discussions on Snow Leopard and Exchange, with more than 15,000 views and 145 replies in the last one week. The main problem was that most people that this would be as simple as iPhone connecting to Exchange... this was possible on the fly for most people; however, Snow Leopard is not as easy that.

The main things to consider:
1. SL works only with Exchange 2007. If your company/service provider is still using Exchange 2003, tough luck!
2. Even in 2007, certain upgrades (Service Pack 1, Update Rollup 4) need to be installed before SL can connect. Also, your Exchange admin should have enabled EWS (Exchange Web Services) protocol.

My IT folks were actually in the midst of an upgrade from 2003 to 2007, and so I lucked out. However, I now face greater security restrictions on Mail access than ever before. What has changed:
1. Our 2007 installation has locked ActiveSync: so I cannot use Exchange mail on the iPhone that used ActiveSync for connectivity
2. VPN connectivity is a must before I can access Mail from outside our LAN. Even my Entourage that could earlier connect using https to the Outlook WebAccess now requires VPN connectivity
3. My IT admin has blocked Port 993 which is used by Mail to access IMAP services (Gmail, MobileMe)... so when I am connected to the VPN, I cannot access my personal mail services on Mail; if I disconnect from the VPN, I cannot access office mail... so using Mail as a single client for all my mail services means that I am not online with all my mail accounts at the same time.

Note that all the above issues are driven by the manner in which my IT Department has chosen to implement Exchange 2007 and the additional network/security policies in place. These would vary from one organization to the other, and therefore, everyone is unlikely to have the same user experience.

Bottomline: Mail is a much better and easy-to-use app for all mail services, include office mail. One disadvantage is that I need to keep iCal open for accessing my calendar... however, even with Entourage, I always had two windows open for Mail and Calendar. Mail and iCal are much faster apps than Entourage ever was. Over the next few days I hope to migrate my archived mail from Entourage to Mail, and say good-bye to Entourage. Hopefully.

Update: Apparently my network admins don't like Blogger too... so I have to disconnect from the VPN to post to this blog... hmm... a confrontation appears imminent :-)

Snow Leopard is here... but it is not here :-(

Apple (India) - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - The world’s most advanced OS

Grrrr.... (hope that sounded like a Snow Leopard expressing dissatisfaction!)... I am so disappointed that Indian users of Apple / Mac products have to wait for the OS X to become available. I understand that India is not yet a large enough market for PCs and software, and Apple may not have India anywhere on its priority, but if you are present in a market, then don't treat them differentially. Particularly if you have any plans to address that market... when it becomes large and attractive enough.

I can understand delayed launches in some markets when it comes to hardware products: there could be issues of production capacities and logistics of shipping them to various global markets. But software...?

The least Apple could have done was announced a date when Snow Leopard would be available in India, and put a price for the upgrade. I contacted Apple India call center twice during the last fortnight, and all they had to say was that they had no information and would let me know when they heard something. Come on, Apple should be able to do better than that!

I have friends and colleagues in the US, UK and elsewhere who can easily put the dmg on an FTP server for me to download, but... that's exactly what I don't want to do. For too long, India has been blamed for piracy of software and entertainment products; perhaps, the producers need to examine the role they are playing in driving Indians to piracy...


Update: I finally got my Snow Leopard Family Pack in London when I was there last week, obviously more expensive than what it might have cost in India, but, what the heck!

How to Sync Two Macs?

ChronoSync | Perform File and Folder Synchronizations and Backups Like Clockwork | Econ Technologies

Having got my new iMac at home, I am now faced with this difficulty of keeping my desktop and laptop synchronized. I obviously want to work on the iMac because it is faster and has a better screen, but I need to ensure that my documents (at least) are constantly updated on the Macbook Air so that I can seamlessly work on the laptop when I go out for meetings or travel.

I used an external hard drive for a very long time, storing all my documents on it, irrespective of which computer I used, at work or home. However, it was a bit cumbersome, and also there was the danger of the hard disk getting lost or being accessed by someone else.

I have read a few good reviews of ChronoSync which promises to sync and backup two Macs, but comes at a modest price of $40. I have just got myself the Demo version of the software to see if it is as good as others claim it is. Then perhaps I will shell out the 40 bucks.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

My New iMac is here!

I added to my list of Apple gadgets with the acquisition of the 20" iMac last evening!!!

Am I pleased or what?

My first impression after I opened the box was, damn! this is big!!! It did not fit my old computer table, and I had to rearrange furniture in my house to create an appropriate table for the iMac.

I did not get much time to play with the new toy since it was too late last night and I had an early morning trip. Traveling tomorrow too, so it will be a while before I can fully test the new machine's capabilities.

One issue that I now need to think about: How do I keep my Macbook Air and the iMac synced so that I can seamlessly work across the two devices, particularly when I am traveling?

Updates soon.

Will Outlook for Mac in 2010 matter?

Microsoft: Outlook Will Replace Entourage in Office for Mac - Business Center - PC World

Entourage on Mac has in general been a disappointment; it reinforces one's view that Microsoft does not really want to offer a good Office product for Mac users. Imagine you spend $350 (!!!) for a software package and get a sub-standard email program that cannot even open PST files and is considerably different from its Windows equivalent (on the other hand, the other Office applications: Word etc. are not very different from the Windows experience). Finally, Microsoft has announced that -- about 15 months later -- they will replace Entourage with Outlook. (Of course, I expect that moving to Office 2010 will entail at least an additional $150 upgrade cost!)

Would it really matter? Why did Microsoft make this (almost) pre-mature announcement?

One can guess that the imminent release of Snow Leopard is a major reason for this. Snow Leopard adds Exchange Server support to the Mail and iCal apps; so many Exchange users would be more than happy to dump Entourage (which serves no other purpose than as an Exchange client today) and shift to the native Mac apps for mail, calendar and address book. These offer much better integration (& sync) with other mail providers (Gmail etc) and devices (iPhone).

In a year's time when Outlook is launched as a replacement to Entourage, perhaps there would be very few Mac users that would have any reason to welcome Outlook. And perhaps, in order to prevent this migration, Microsoft is trying to provide a glimmer of hope to Entourage users... wait for 15 months and your problems will be solved. Well, I am hoping that a good solution is just about 15 days away, and will cost just $29...

Will share my experiences with Snow Leopard / Exchange support later...

Office for Mac 2008... Prefer Entourage 2004

I will share my views about Microsoft Office 2008 (good for most parts, except graphs in Powerpoint) in detail later. This post is to discuss about the major change that has happened between Office 2004 and Office 2008 with regard to Entourage (the Outlook equivalent email application), particularly if you use it to access your office Exchange mail.

Like me, if you don't want to spend almost twice as much for the Office Standard Edition Upgrade ($240) as the Home&Student Edition ($130), you will be in a bind. Entourage 2008 in the Home edition does not support Microsoft Exchange Server; you can only use it as a regular mail client for POP3 and IMAP access. This is a major let-down from the 2004 version where even the Home edition Entourage supports Exchange.

So what do you do:

The improvements in other Office apps (Word & Powerpoint mostly) are so major that investing in Office 2008 is a no-brainer. However, installing Entourage 2008 is meaningless (the native Mail app can offer those capabilities). So, I have now both versions of Office running on my Mac: 2008 for Word, Powerpoint and Excel, and 2004 for Entourage. This can be achieved by not opting for the standard installation procedure but by excluding Entourage in the 2008 installation and 2004 uninstallation activities.

In any case, this is a temporary fix. Come September, with Snow Leopard, we will have Exchange support built in to the Mail, iCal and Address Book apps on the Mac... so hopefully, goodbye Entourage!!!

Cleaning the Apple Keyboard!

I use a Wireless Keyboard for ease of typing as well as for greater mobility at my desk (when my MBA is tethered to the power source and various other USB extensions). The Keyboard is a couple of years old and white in colour... at least, it was white when I bought it. Over time, it has gathered dust from various geographies as well as I suspect, some food particles.

Yesterday I could not bear the sight of the almost brown or something keys; I decided something had to be done about it. Google search came to my rescue and I found this really useful 'tutorial' on cleaning the Apple Keyboard.

I pretty much followed the sequence of activities as detailed in that article, and I must say, the outcome was pretty impressive.

The only comment I would add is that don't try and pull the keys out with your fingers -- you could end up with a couple of sore fingers very soon. Passing a string below the keys and pulling them out is a very effective method. Also, when you are replacing the keys, be careful about a couple of them: the I and the / are quite similar... the letter I is of a slightly darker shade than the / that goes into the numeric keypad.

And, by the way, I just love the aluminum Wireless Keyboard that Apple launched just a few weeks after I bought my white keyboard... but since this keyboard is now clean, I will defer any replacement decision.

Err, was that orange juice in the glass that just toppled over........

Apple Customer Care - Great Experience

I have cribbed recently about how Apple does not care about India but I must admit that their customer care in India knows a thing or two about creating a great experience. I guess that's at the core of the Apple brand -- the experience.

Twice in the last year, my Macbook's battery went bust. Although I had purchased the AppleCare extended warranty program, it was very clear that battery was excluded from the warranty. However, I argued that the battery had gone wrong (black cross mark; no battery detected) without any reason and that lots of others have reported the same problem. They went through a set of questions to try and understand the problem, but by the end of the 10 minute call, I would have the solution: It's OK, even though it is not covered under your warranty, we will replace your battery because we want you to be able to use the laptop.

I have experienced customer service from various types of service providers in India, across sectors, Indian and multi-national corporations. But nobody can come close to the customer service experience of Apple. Not only are their representatives very polite and concerned about your issue, they obviously have a reasonably good knowledge of the product, and importantly for people like me, don't bull-shit. Not the, "Sir, do you know where the power button of the phone is; can you restart and check if it works, by chance..." bull-shit that you often get from an over-worked and under-trained agent. You could argue that Apple does not have too many customers in India, so they can have a small, trained team to address queries... but that really doesn't hold water. If you cannot scale your business operations to meet customer demand and issues, it is better not to grow than to grow and falter, like most mobile operators and credit companies in India have!

Even the service centres of Apple (franchisees) are staffed with helpful and knowledgeable people. I guess what differentiates Apple staff (and perhaps, therefore, their customers) is the passion for the product and its services. Those who do not understand it, wrongly term all these people as Fanboys, as if they belonged to a cult. What they fail to see is the shared identity and the pride in that identity. Kudos to the company and its leadership for having created this rare "business".

Wanted: iTunes Store for India

Another example of Apple's apathy for the Indian market is the lack of an Indian version of the iTunes store. Yes, you can register into the iTunes India store for iPhone apps download but we cannot buy music or videos or anything else from the India store, at India pricing. Most Indians who are desperate enough end up using the US store accounts of friends and relatives. Another way of accessing the store is to create your own account with a dummy US address (or that of your office or friends) and using pre-paid iTunes vouchers (if you are principled enough not to touch your friends for a few bucks every month!).

But what upsets me a lot is to pay nearly Rs 50 (99c) per every song that I download from the store. I still end up purchasing many songs at that price (though entire album CDs are usually available for the same price) because of the huge convenience of being able to download and immediately play the song that you felt like hearing. For instance, one evening I was remembering my college days and was humming Purani Jeans and I just had to hear the song immediately; all I had to do was to go to the iTunes Store on my iPhone and get the song -- took me all of 2 minutes!

Some might also argue that there are dozens of sites that offer Indian music downloads for free, so why bother about paid options. It's true, I have used these sites several times, but the quality of music is just not the same, and most often I don't get the songs' meta-data which makes it very painful to sort them on the iPod. And, somehow, it just doesn't feel right to be listening pirated music -- if only a decent, legal alternative was available.

What I wish for: an Indian iTunes Store that would sell music for about Rs 8 per song (just about works right from a PPP perspective too), TV episodes & videos for about Rs 15 each and movies for about Rs 30 each.

Film stars giving fundas about piracy is not going to convince anyone. Ok, thank you, can the movie start, please? What we need is a commercial digital solution that takes on piracy. iTunes shook up the US entertainment industry business model; can it have a similar impact on India?

Apple, Care?

Apple doesn't care about India; Vodafone can't help

I blogged earlier about how Vodafone had frittered away the iPhone opportunity in India; my latest experience has confirmed that hypothesis and also the fact that India doesn't really matter to Apple.

Unlike in most other markets, the iPhone is not subsidized in India. Customers have been paying upwards of Rs 30000 (almost $700 when it was launched last year) for the device. Yet, Apple takes no responsibility for the customers: it's popular AppleCare for iPhone extended warranty is not available here. In addition, it's service centers don't support iPhone problems, even when they are hardware or software (Apple related) issues.

What Apple does not realize is that Indian mobile operators have limited technical support capabilities because mobile phones are 99% bought directly from phone stores. Even where the carriers do provide handset-related support, it is usually low end / tier-1 (e.g. battery / accessory replacement); the handset manufacturers have their own service networks that cater to major technical issues.

This is bad news for iPhone users because most Vodafone Stores have no knowledge of the phone at all (the guy I spoke to this evening was wondering if he could replace the battery since it was not charging!). I was directed to their main Store some 10km away… It turned out eventually that there was nothing wrong with the handset -- both my USB connectors had stopped working on the same day! The first Vodafone Store, if only they had done a basic troubleshooting, could have solved my problem in 2 minutes; I ended up wasting an hour in peak-hour traffic.

I believe that the mobile operators and device makers are so busy chasing the 5mn new adds every month at the bottom of the pyramid that they have forgotten how to cater to other segments. While there is a lot to be proud about the success of the Indian low-cost business
model, I wish we would not end up gravitating to the lowest common denominator but actually move the users up the value chain of devices, applications and services. But today, I could not count on Apple or Vodafone in India.

iPhone versus Blackberry?

Recently, a friend posed the question, should I get myself a Blackberry or an iPhone... and I decided to share my views on the topic. I must admit that there are probably hundreds of online sites like this that have similar comparisons, however, most of them are either motivated or one-sided (driven by their respective audiences).

I have been using a Blackberry for a few years now, and the iPhone 3G for about a year. I use both of them simultaneously at this point in time, so I like both the devices and in fact use them for specific reasons. So here's my analysis:

(Note: some of the network related comments maybe specific to India / Indian operators. Also note: I have not yet tried the Blackberry Storm beyond a cursory look-over)

First the verdict: If you are looking for an all-round fun device, the iPhone is your best bet. However, if your smartphone is primarily for work and you actually have other specific "entertainment" devices (iPod/mp3 players, Kindle/ebook readers, etc.), then Blackberry scores over every other device.

Top 5 Reasons I still like my Blackberry:

1) Great push mail system, the best there is.

2) I can forward emails with large attachments in a second... on the iPhone (or in fact any other device), you have to download and upload... more on this later

3) Seamless integration with enterprise email, address book and calendar

4) Keyboard is easy to operate and supports typing long mails / texts

5) The red light indicator for new messages or missed calls... extremely useful when the phone is on silent

Top 5 Reasons I love my iPhone

1) The interface is amazingly attractive and intuitive... even my 18month old child can unlock the phone and play her favorite music... no kidding!

2) The App Store! (in fact this can take up all 5 spots on this list...)

3) iTunes integration for my music, videos, podcasts, movies... and the iTunes store

4) The visual effect... when watching images, powerpoint slideshows or movies, the screen resolution is unbeatable

5) The WOW factor... face it, we all love to show off what we have and iPhone enables that

What I still don't like about the iPhone

1) Limited "profiles" options... you just have Ring, Ring+Vibrate, Vibrate and Silent options... I like to be able to customize these settings (at an application level: SMS, Emails, Phone, etc.) for various situations. The BB allows you to add / edit these, but not the iPhone

2) The speakers are a let down... for an entertainment device like the iPhone (iPod), I would have expected much better volume levels and stereo capability... I can hardly put it on speakerphone when I am on a phone call

3) The iPhone is a not a great phone. It takes much longer to discover cellular networks and logon to them than any other smartphone. The voice quality is OK, but I feel that its signal reception is also weaker

4) The battery does not support the device capabilities; you can do so much but the battery drains when Push is enabled or GPS is used or any application is used for a while. Given that it does not have a replaceable batter, you need to have the charger handy

5) The battery issue is also responsible for the lack of parallel processing. It is a bit irritating to not be able to do the equivalent of an alt-tab or apple-tab to switch between apps. You have to go back to Home to switch apps, in most cases terminating the previous session (except Mail and Safari)

The Blackberry Killer App: E-Mail

The best thing about the BB is the integration with enterprise e-mail... of course, that comes at a cost (installing BB Servers) and is not meant for all. I get lots of mails with attachments, and in many cases, I just need to forward them to colleagues without necessarily opening the files. Because the BB mail actions happen off the BB Server, the forward can take place without having to download the entire mail onto your device and (worse still) having to upload it back! This is very useful when you are on the move...

(Most other smartphones, including the iPhone, have a mail client that works similar to your mail clients on the PC, either in IMAP or POP mode... even when Push / Exchange integration are enabled)

Combine this with the convenient keyboard that lets you type long mails / replies, the BB is unbeatable as a work email device.

The iPhone Killer App(s): The App Store

Others are trying to replicate the success of the iPhone app store, but Apple has a clear 12-18 month edge here. The App Store has made the iPhone into a powerful entertainment, networking, productivity, gaming and more device! With thousands of apps, many of them free, there is something for everyone: from time-pass, trivial stuff like Paper Toss to Bloomberg to Webex meetings to online Live Poker. By tapping into the amazing creativity of developers worldwide, Apple has offered iPhone users the ability to customize the device for stuff they are interested in. The "i" in the iPhone does stand for "I", the ability to make it personal!

(Actually, the iPod Touch provides pretty much most of the functionality of the iPhone for much less, it just doesn't have the cellular capability. While I don't miss the cellular voice on the iPod Touch, the always-on and ubiquitous cellular data capability is increasingly... you can remain connected to your mail or Facebook or Twitter or latest stock information on Bloomberg, whatever.)

So, the phone you choose really depends on what type of a person you are... and if you are someone confused like me :-) then you end up with more than one smartphone! Hope this helps, and do write in if you need any more detail or my views on any specific issues.

Update: Airport Extended Network issues

I haven't yet managed to figure out the settings for my extended network using AirportExpress. My MacBook Air is able to connect to the AX but not my iPhone nor my three year old MacBook.

It's obviously an issue with the Wireless settings becos both the iPhone and the MacBook are 802.11b/g whereas the MBA and the Airports are all 802.11n. I have chosen the b/g compatible option in the wireless settings of the TimeCapsule and indeed, the iPhone and MacBook are able to connect to the TC, but these settings are not getting translated to the AX when extending the network.

More R&D required…

Sent from my iPhone

UPDATE 1: Upgrading the Airport firmware to the latest 7.4.2 seems to have helped the situation. The two AX are now able to connect to each other, and the second AX has a wireless signal that can be detected by my iPhone, however, the signal is still a bit erratic and not as strong as I would have expected. Better than nothing, I guess.

More iPhone 3.0 Features

Here is a link that will provide many interesting features of using
the OS3.0 on your iPhone of iPod Touch

http://www.ismashphone.com/2009/06/22-more-iphone-30-features-you-may-not-know.html

If you find any more features, do share them.

Quick Tip: Print Screen in Mac and iPhone

Have you wondered how to get the PrintScreen equivalent on your Mac and iPhone? Here's how:

Macbook: Apple-Shift-3 key combination will print screen; file (PictureN.png) will be stored on your Desktop.

iPhone / iPod Touch: Press the Home and Lock keys simultaneously for print screen. Image is stored in your Photos / Camera Roll.

Update: Just discovered that Apple-Shift-4 creates a cross-hair that you can use to choose the area on the screen that you want captured.... and to think of all the pictures I have been cropping in Powerpoint because I only wanted a small portion to include in my presentation!

Additionally, if you also press the Control key in the above "3" or "4" process, the picture will be saved to Clipboard so that you can immediately Paste it into your desired application; of course, you will not find it later.

Update: TUAW reports that Snow Leopard has changed the File Name syntax for the Print Screen pictures; the Picture 1, Picture N are now gone and you have more descriptive file names (providing date & time stamps).

Extending your Wireless Network and Playing iTunes on Remote Speakers

If you are in a situation that your home (or even small office) WiFi does not radiate to all areas, you can use a great feature in Airport to extend your network seamlessly. In addition to extending your Internet connection, you can also stream music through this network as well as enable remote printing. Let me explain how I have achieved this at my home.

I have an Airport Extreme / Time Capsule (TC) as my primary WiFi router connected to my Broadband network. I created a Wireless Network (named it, password protected, etc.) using the Airport Utility. The Wireless tab in the settings has an option to "Allow this network to be extended" -- check that. The rest of the settings are as any normal setup for the TC.

Now, I got myself an Airport Express (AX, the smaller, portable WiFi access point) and located it in another room. It has to be within the range of the primary WiFi, at the same time distant enough to extend the network further. While setting up the AX, I chose, "Extend a wireless network" in the Wireless tab. I chose the wireless network I had created with TC and entered the password. Also, don't forget to check the "Allow wireless clients" option in the same tab.

The AX now acts as a seamless extension of the wireless network... the same SSID and password are applicable to both the access points. In fact , by using multiple such AX you could theoretically connect a large office or home... all you need is a power source for each AX and about Rs 4500 per piece.

Now, for the more interesting parts... the AX has an audio out jack that can be used to connect (using standard audio cables) to any music system / speakers. As soon as you do that, iTunes will immediately detect the AX (multiple speakers -- see image) and you can choose to play your music through the computer or your speakers or both. In fact, if you combine this with the Remote app of the iPhone, you can create a great home music system that can be controlled from anywhere!

Just envisage this situation: your computer with all your music (in iTunes) is in your study but you want to play music off that collection in your bedroom at night or on the terrace for a party. Connect your AX to the music system, open up iTunes on your computer using the iPhone remote, select the song and the AX speaker, and enjoy your music. You just need the computer to be ON and connected to the wireless network.

The AX also has a USB port to connect a printer, and you can print wirelessly from your computer to the remote printer. This is particularly useful when you are working on a laptop away from the printer and or need to provide printer access to multiple users at home or office.

If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to get more out of the Airport network, do write in. Or if you need any help with the settings...

Update: This site has a detailed process for the above setup. It also uses a Linksys router so you don't need an Airprort Extreme / TimeCapsule for the music streaming, just the AX.

Airport Extends Network -- iPhone Cannot Connect?

Here is a recent query posted on Apple Support Forums... will update with a solution when I find it.

I have created an Extended Network in my house using a Time Capsule and two Airport Expresses. All of them have the Green light on, and I can play music from my ITunes on to remote speakers through the Airport Expresses.

However, when I try to connect to either of the AX from my iPhone, I do not see any wireless network. (It is able to detect the TimeCapsule when I am within range, but neither of the two AX are visible.) The AX are 802.11n, new models bought recently.

I suspect this has something to do with the frequency at which the Airport works and compatibility with iPhone 3G, but am not able to figure it out. The Time Capsule is set to operate on the Radio Mode: "802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)". Even as I typed this message out, I did a walk-around with my MBA and found that it stayed connected throughout the house (and thus able to connect to the AX network). So the issue really is about the iPhone 3G compatibility.

Thanks.

Coolbook for Macbook Air

Are you a Macbook Air owner who spent nearly 90000 INR to get this sleek and sexy device, and now suddenly worried that you made the wrong decision? Many MBA users have been facing a major speed-heat performance issue. While the MBA is a beautiful device and has many advantages, it is not really cut out for heavy duty use. However, in recent times, it has been found that using even a few applications simultaneously causes the Air to heat up and slow down.

The basis issue is that the MBA does get overheated when its CPU is fully activated. This problem is exacerbated in areas where the ambient heat is higher, including obviously in India. Apparently, Apple has introduced some form of a speed-breaker to slow you down, so that the heat issue can be addressed. But it has been done in a funny way... they have introduced some activity called "kernel_task" which blocks most of your CPU and leaves you with very little to do. So your Air does not get overheated (relatively) but performs worse than a Windows machine.

The solution to this can vary depending on your situation. Try the following.

1) Temporary Solution: Try an SMC reset.. Shutdown your MBA. Then press the (left) Shift-Control-Option along with the power button once. Wait for 5 seconds and restart. The laptop should race for a while, but when the heat overtakes it, kernel_task will get back into action. More details on the SMC reset here.

2) Working Solution: Lots of people have successfully adopted the Coolbook option. It is an expensive solution ($10) but it works as advertised. Apart from the cost, the issue to keep in mind is that you will end up tinkering with some core hardware settings at the CPU level. If you are not the tech risk taking type, avoid it.

How does it work? Very simply, it undervolts the CPU by providing it lower voltage than what is provided by default, the presumption being that Apple has provided for the Max settings but the CPU can work even with lower voltage.

Does this work? Ever since I installed Coolbook, Mr. Kernel_Task has disappeared (I disabled Coolbook the other day just to check, and Mr. K_T made a quick appearance!). What's the downside? The CPU does get heated up much more than before, sometimes crossing 90 degreesC from the usual 70-odd... and the MBA can "hang" and get locked for a few seconds... this has happened a few times (once a day on an average) but that is worth the speed and performance recovery that I have seen.

Hope this is helpful...

MMS Not Working on Vodafone India

A quick note to confirm that I tried using MMS on my iPhone (3G; OS 3.0) but could not send an MMS. I don't know if there is any tariff plan issue involved (Vodafone did not communicate anything about the 3.0 in any case... see my other earlier post on how telcos are missing the game!)

The only good news is that the MMS option is available ... appears as a camera icon in the Messaging application, and you can add an existing or new photo.

3.0 is Here!

I downloaded the 230MB OS 3.0 last night, but was able to install it only this morning... the iPhone activation servers were too busy for a while.

My First Impression

Actually, upon first impression there isn't much of a change, except for the new Search screen that has been created, to the left of the Home screen.

About Time!

The Spotlight (search) feature is extremely good, just like what we have got used to on the Mac... Given the extent and diversity of the content you could end up with on the iPhone, this was extremely essential. The copy-paste has been executed very well... very easy to use, and also very useful. Similarly, the ability to forward SMS'es is also welcome. (These are features that Apple should have introduced on Day 1... for a mini-computer, at least the first two are table-stakes.)

Vodafone India: Ages Behind!

There has been a huge hue and cry against AT&T for not enabling many of the iPhone features... Vodafone (at least in India) is no better off! We have not yet got access to Visual Voicemail that was introduced in OS1.0; MMS which is part of 3.0 is also not activated. I haven't tried Tethering, but I am not sure about that too... anyways, with the relatively low speed of the GPRS/Edge network, fat lot of difference that will make.

Stereo BT and More...

An interesting update is that of stereo bluetooth... now you can use the various stereo headsets that you have to listen to music from your iPhone... (considering that the speaker is quite weak and mono...)... For me the interesting implementation of this is to use it with my Samsung Home Theater that has bluetooth to play songs from the phone (again nothing new, most phones today can do that!)... what I would have loved to see was the ability to play songs from the iPhone directly to my Airport Express using WiFi (the only advantage being greater range)...

There are several other improvements like landscape keyboard, parental controls, within-app sales, ... when I get to use them (if at all), I will speak about them.

All in all, OS 3.0 has helped iPhone catch up with its competition on several basic features, and overall has made iPhone one of the smartest devices in its category.