Greg In The Desert

As I try to get back into posting interesting iPhone applications, I am still surprised at the amount of crap that is available to the iPhone store. Mac users always complained that sure, Windows has a more software available to it but most of it is crap. I think that is true with the iPhone.

The Wordpress App is not one of those crap applications (that is, is you have a Wordpress installation you can use it with). I’m not sure why they created an all new iTunes entry for the 2.0 app when both the 1.0 and 2.0 apps are free.

Although I find the iPhone to difficult to write entire blog posts on, the Wordpress app is great for creating basic drafts that get me started, fixing existing posts and managing comments.

Wordpress 2 is available on the iTunes store for free.

WordPress 2 is the only iPhone app that lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch. With support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress, users of all experience levels can get going in seconds.

What’s new in version 2.0:

- A new, more efficient user interface that makes it faster to switch between comments, posts, and pages.
- Various user interface refinements and bug fixes
- New Comments interface, with Gravatars and the author URL shown in the comment list
- Passwords are now stored in the keychain
- Posts are now automatically saved and restored if network connection is lost during publishing
- Added persistence, so the app re-opens in the blog you last used
- Added an interface for manually entering the XMLRPC endpoint for non-standard setups
- Fixed rotation-related visual glitches
- Fixed errors where malformed XML prevented access to XMLRPC endpoint
- Fixed edge case where local drafts were sometimes not saved
- Fixed the order of photos so that they’re displayed in the order they’re uploaded

For support, please visit our forums at http://iphone.forums.wordpress.org — we aren’t able to respond to support requests submitted in an iTunes review.

A botnet is a group of computers that have been infected with automated software that is used to do nefarious things, like attack other computers or send spam. The owner of the computer doesn’t know their computer is participating in the botnet. Botnets are common on Windows based computers due to their ease of being infected by viruses.

Back in January, it was widely publicized that pirated versions of iWork ‘09 had a trojan or a virus of some sort in it. Someone with bad intentions took the standard installer package for iWork, added their malware to it and released it on Bittorent. People who downloaded the Bittorent thought they were just getting a bootleg version of iWork. They also got an added surprise.

According to ZDNet, the purpose of this malware is to create a Mac botnet that is now being detected. This shouldn’t be anything to worry about for most Mac users who legally purchase software. It was more of a social engineering solution to get the malware on users computers buy hiding it in other software. It’s interesting to see that virus writers are making some attempt to target the Mac.

The Google blog announces today the availability of google sync with the iPhone and Microsoft Mobile devices. This is real sync with the devices, not using a website.

Google’s set up instructions for the iPhone uses, of all things, Microsoft Exchange Activesync for the syncing.

I enabled my Account today and sure enough it works. I now have my Google Calendar and Contacts syncing directly with Google (instead of some funky ical to Mobileme that doesn’t really work anyway). The iPhone lets me view my Google contacts and calendars separately from the Mobileme contacts and calendars, so I don’t loose data on the phone.

I now have the same level of direct sycing with my iPhone, Mac and PC that Mobileme provides. For free. Why do I need Mobileme? (Because I believe apple will open up MobileMe to third parties).

Sync: Set Up Your iPhone or iPod Touch

To set up Google Sync on your iPhone or iPod Touch device, please follow the steps below.

Requirements and Back Up

1. Make sure your device has version 2.2 firmware or above. You can check your current version by going to Settings > About > Version.

To upgrade, follow the instructions at http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/.

2. Back up any Contacts and Calendars from your phone to your computer before proceeding. The iPhone will delete Contacts and Calendars during setup.

Learn how to backup your Contacts with iTunes: PC Users – Mac Users.

Getting Started

1. Open the Settings application on your device’s home screen.

2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

3. Tap Add Account….

4. Select Microsoft Exchange.

Enter Account Info

5. In the Email field, enter the name of the account (anything you’d like).

6. Leave the Domain field blank.

7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.

8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.

9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.

10. A new Server field will appear. Enter m.google.com.

11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.

12. Select the Google services you want to sync. Currently only Contacts and Calendar are supported.

Make sure that you have backed up your data before proceeding.

13. Press Sync twice when warned about data loss.

You’ve set up Google Sync for your iPhone. Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your phone. You can also open the Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.

Back in April of 2007,I complained about Acquisition’s product registration. The issue is that Acquisition activation failed. The developer, Dave Watanabe, responded to my email saying that my activation code was pirated and offered no recourse. The problem with Acquisition’s product activation scheme is it relied completely on a email address to activate. If a email address is public, it doesn’t take much to guess by just trying out random emails of known mac users.

Dave may have not offered any further response to my emails, but he did eventually address the issue. In October I received the following email (yes, a little late):

Acquisition 2, a major new release of Acquisition, is due for release in the coming days. Along with this major release, new activation codes are being created for license verification. Since you qualify for complimentary upgrades to major releases, your code is included below.

Included was a new code that did not rely on my email address. Once again I can use Acquisition. Still, the whole ordeal put a sour taste in my mouth. I use Tranmission for my bittorrent needs and don’t have much use for Acquisition unless there’s something very obscure I’m looking for.

Intego is warning Mac users of a Trojan Horse on Mac OS X. Named OSX.RSPlug.A, it masquerades as a quicktime plugin that needs to be downloaded when watching porn. It then changes the DNS address on the users computer which points to more porn. MacOSXHints as a quick tutorial on removing the Trojan Horse.

Intego has warned about other malware on the Mac, only to be accused of overblowing the situation. The other warnings were more about theoretical attacks, this appears to be real. It’s only showing up on porn sites now, but it could be a prototype for use in wider distribution later.

This may just be the beginning of more attacks on the Mac OS as it becomes more popular.

Ars Technica has a look at Windows XP Service Pack 2, which translates to Windows XP.2 for us Mac users. It’s worth taking a look at if you use Windows XP or even if your a Mac User and want to see what Microsoft is copying from Apple this time around.

One of my faviorite electronics companies is Sony. I’m not sure what it is but they seem to have a nack for designing hardware with a certain style and functionality that most companies cannot. Apple and Sony are closely related in this way. The Japanese electronic companies seem to be obsessed with building human like robots. Recently I came across a video showing some dancing robots from a Japanese PC site (babblefish translation). Dancing robots seems to be the favorite way to show them off, but this is far different. It’s a very amazing “rain dance” that shows 4 robots dancing together. If I didn’t know better I would think there were people dressed up in suits.

Heres a link to the video. For Mac Users: If you have the latest version of Windows Media Player installed it should launch automatically and play for you. Otherwise you will need to download it.