Dear iPhone 4 owner,

Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.

As of today, we have automatically processed your refund. If you would like to check the status of your refund, click here.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Retail Store Support

Now – my Verizon users co-workers laugh at me.

Check it out here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/firefox-home/id380366933?mt=8

One of the features missing on the iPhone is HTML signature for Mail, and if you are using two different email addresses like me you probably want to have two different Signatures, right? Even with the new iPhone 4 you can’t.

I created a solution for that (without jailbreaking the iPhone) and I use it all the time.

Yesterday I decided to share it with the world, please go here to use it and drop a line if you like it or if you have any suggestions .

The Great Israeli company Fring just updated their iPhone App to allow video calls.

Fring App supports Skype video calls on iPhone 4 before Skype, Great Job.

*** UPDATE – Use coupon code [carbon50] at checkout for %50 off.

For days I looked for a nice affordable iPhone 4 Cover.
I love the bumper but wants some personalization and protection to the back of my iPhone.

Since I couldn’t find anything, I created one, Check it out – works great with Apple Bumper.

http://www.coolgeex.com/products-page/iphone-cases/iphone-4-carbon-fiber-back-cover/

Front facing camera, FaceTime, LED flash, speed, the screen, folders, multitasking, HD video, speaker quality, design, multiply exchange servers.

All and more are GREAT FEATURES.

BUT…..

Since I got my new iPhone (Jun24) I’m busy with troubleshooting a new issue every day.

FaceTime not working after porting a number.

FaceTime disconnecting every 30sec or so.

Bluetooth headset & Car Bluetooth connects and disconnects every few minutes .

Bluetooth muffled on other end of the line.

When exchange server configured Auto-Lock disabled. (enabled if exchange removed and reinstalled but shows nothing on the Auto-Lock settings page)

Passcode lock settings missing.

And the BIGGEST PROBLEM: Can’t be used as a phone.

Most of my calls ends with a drop-call, I barely press the End button (with or without the Bumper).

** I tried everything that I can think of to fix the problems, I also tried everything that I saw online.

The thing that bother me the most is that Apple does not recognize most of the problems, I actually been offered by Apple Store employee to return my iPhone 4 and get a new iPhone 3gs – Just ridiculous.

If you just Google few of this issues you’ll find that lots of iPhone 4 users are sharing the some problems, here is a partial list:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2481487&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2475125&tstart=90

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2469599

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20008764-233.html

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=947641

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/iphone-4-facetime-doesnt-work-after-porting-number-from-sprint-verizon-or-t-mobile-fix/

Here we go:

On the 24th I upgraded my iPhone at an Apple store.
I also got a new iPhone with a new line and ported the phone number from T-Mobile. (2nd phone)

The Apple store employee that helped was very nice and the new iPhone worked great, including FaceTime.

Once my T-Mobile number was ported FaceTime stopped working.

The iPhone could not receive FaceTime calls but could initiate FaceTime calls.
When I tried the caller ID that appeared on my UPGRADED iPhone were the Other iPhone New Temporary number I got until the port from T-Mobile completed.

So from that I understood that FaceTime servers registered the phone number as the FaceTime user name, but the problem was that the servers registered the temporary number (a number ATT gave us until the port from T-Moblie will complete).

So I started troubleshooting the iPhone, this is what I did:

Restarted the iPhone
Tried using FaceTime with other people.
Reset the network settings
Called AT&T to reActivate the sim card.
Restore the phone from backup.

Nothing worked… So I called AT&T Again – no help.
Called Apple Care / technical support – no help.
Went back to the Apple store- nothing.
Called AT&T again and they put Apple Rep on the line – no help and a very rude response.  (first time from Apple)

The AT&T rep that helped me finally understood the problem from being with me on the phone for hours trying to find a solution and she got AT&T engineer on the phone that fully understood the issue and thanked me for bringing it up.

He had no solution but he gave me his personal phone number to discuss the progress of resolving it.

He said that he will work with Apple engineers until it will be resolved.

He also understood that this is a problem that will welcome any new (porting) AT&T / iPhone user.

In the meantime I kept on trying to fix the problem my self so I tried to:

Reset the iPhone content and settings and reActivate with iTunes. Finally it worked.
But when I restored the phone from backup it stopped working again. So I figured out that theres a file (plist or cookie) on the phone that saves the Facetime user information.

This time I reseted only the phone settings. And when I tried FaceTime again the phone registered the right number.

I know that most Apple reps can not understand the problem or give a solution.

So try just Reset the Settings (only the settings) and it should work.

I tried it on 3 different phones and it did the job.

* Please leave a comment if my solution helped you.

Google can be the best International calls provider if implementing Jajah Direct feature.

Jajah Direct gives you a local number for each of your contacts and call them directly.
You save the numbers to your phone and never dial access numbers again.

All you need is around 1000 Google Voice numbers that will be saved for that feature.

Then generate a local number for each one of the contacts.
Different users can have the same number for their contacts.
If a user calls this number from one of his listed phones the system recognize the caller id and redirect the number to the appropriate contact.
This way the other end sees the Google voice number as the caller ID.

Do the following:

1. Go to the App store
2. Download the new Apple Store App
3. Reserve your iPhone to pickup at a store near you

This is the only way that I found working at the moment, Good Luck!

You’ve all seen by now the new iPhone, and Gizmodo covered it A-Z from rumors to facts.

They also covered the features missing they like to see.

One of the features that I see in my iOS4 GoldMaster edition is the ability to Gift an App.

It does not working yet but this is a cool feature for parents that want to buy apps for their kids without giving them full access to their iTunes account OR if you just want to Gift someone you Love.

First we’ve seen ATT Upgrade eligibility jumping from November 21st to June 20th.

Now we can see that iPhone Upgrade eligibility already Available.

Does it mean that Apple will allow iPhone 4 Pre-Ordering starting tomorrow?

All hints leads for iPhone 4 in stores at June 18. It looks like ATT & Apple learned from last year mistake and making sure that Apple Fanboys will be able to get the new iPhone without standing in line.

Did your upgrade eligibility changed today? Please let us know.

Pioneer Submitted their iPhone App that links Pandora radio to 2 of their units weeks ago and finally got approved.

One of the most notable features in the AVIC’s software is Pandora Link, which adds the ability to stream audio and display metadata from the Pandora Internet Radio app on a connected iPhone with a 3G connection.

Users are also given access to album artwork and controls such as skip track, thumbs up and down, bookmarks, and station changes from the X920BT’s and the Z120BT touch-screen interface.

Alpine got their app available at the app store for a while now and it looked like Pioneer will not get their App approved, but after weeks of waiting Apple approved Pioneer App.

This is very good news for people how  owns the AVIC-X920BT  or the AVIC-Z120BT in-dash navigation.

You can get the App at the app store for free.

We’ve since confirmed that this isn’t an isolated incident, but it’s definitely not showing up for everyone. AT&T could be rolling this out across their database slowly. Another possibility: they may not have intended for anyone to see this yet, and just borked the query for a handful of people. AT&T offered up early upgrade paths for long-time iPhone owners with both the 3G and the 3GS. MobileCrunch

The change also showed on my account, here’s a screen shot:

Here is one option for Why will AT&T will do something like that?
Apple : Jun 7th Steve Jobs Announce The New iPhone at WWDC
AT&T : Set early upgrade date to AROUND June 20th (Mine set to Jun 20) so early adopters can still upgrade though AT&T’s & Apple systems.
Apple : Pre-orders start after Steve Jobs Keynote at WWDC.

Just a thought:

Verizon: Apple Booked an event for 22nd. The Event Will be for Announcing The All New CDMA iPhone (Verizon).

******I don’t think that the iPhone will be on Verizon this year, AT&T just gave Apple customers a great plan for iPad GSM Internet, I don’t think that AT&T will do it if they didn’t got something back from Apple.

Like the iPhone US Monopoly.

A new of breed of security product called Seeker produces some vivid hacker pr0n in the form of a video (see above) of how it broke and exploited every nook and cranny of your unsecure code. Yes, I’m going to say it, Seeker might be the Seymore Butts of security products!

Kidding aside, Seeker seems be packing pretty fearsome application security technology. The company behind it is an Israeli white hat hacking shop called Hacktics. These guys do work for startups, banks, telcos, governments, and homeland security agencies. Their team members hold very high security clearances due to their prior and current service records in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). It’s safe to say these guys know a thing or two about application security.

Seeker was designed for use by individuals that are part of the development organization which do not necessarily possess security knowledge, or even deep technical knowledge. These can range from developers, to QA staff, to team leaders. It’s for this reason that Seeker points to real business threats rather than just technical issues.

This is where a two particular product features stand out. Seeker produces screenshots (see below) that allow testers to see the vulnerabilities in the context of the actual application functionality they relate to, rather than getting just technical information based on URLs. The screenshots also contain screenshots showing how the application handled each attack.

The second stand-out feature is ‘Exploit Videos’. Seeker automatically creates a step-by-step exploit video for each vulnerability it identifies and exploits, making it easier for the developer to manually reproduce errors before and after fixing the code. Video is also quite an effective method for non-security users to understand the actual threats and potential exploits. Just imagine being able to show management or external developers such a video. Pretty effective stuff.

Seeker’s methodology is to perform runtime analysis of code executed in order to identify security flaws in the application. This is done by hooking into the process executing the application, and performing step-by-step analysis of the executed code. The attacks themselves are generated dynamically based on a ‘Smart Attack Tree,’ a long list of rules for mutating attacks based both on how the application reacts to them, and the actual application code.

The product supports an orgy of vulnerabilities, including: SQL injection, XML/XPath injection, directory traversal, cross-site scripting, parameter tampering, forceful browsing, malicious content upload, username/password enumeration, insecure redirects, source code disclosure, insecure storage of sensitive data (such as Credit cards, CVVs, SSNs), cookie poisoning and plenty more.

Currently supported are Java and .NET code analysis, using any database if no stored procedures are used. For stored procedures, Seeker supports Microsoft SQL and Oracle. PHP, as well as support for MySQL stored procedures, will be rolled out in a few months.

Seeker is currently headquartered in Israel, with $3M in funding under its belt.

via Seeker Nails Hacker Pr0n.

Transmit, the popular Mac FTP / SFTP / Amazon s3 Client version 4 is out with a near-total rewrite, one brand new interface, over 45 new features, up to 25 times the speed, and one very cool surprise, According to Panic.

You can get a full version for $34 or an Upgrade for $19 at Transmit website.

So now Opera came out with their Mini Opera browser for the iPhone.

When I first played with the Opera Mini browser on a non iPhone devices I was impressed, so naturally I wanted to be able to use it on my iPhone.

And I knew that Apple will never let it happen, but yesterday Apple surprised me by Approving The Opera New App, and now I understand why.

The new Opera browser have some nice features, but (and a big but):

“Opera Mini makes the Apple Safari Mobile Browser look good”

After testing the two rivals browsers using AT&T 3G and Wifi I found that Safari is the browser that I’m going to use.

Safari preformed faster and the user interface/experience was better than the Opera Mini.

If I had to make the decision for Apple, I will definitely Approve that App.

Opera today announced its popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store. Opera Mini will be available as a free download within 24 hours, depending on market.

For More Info Go to Opera.

Yesterday I installed the iPhone OS on my iPhone 3Gs.

It is a beta version and there is few bugs that I found, but I really like it, Apple just took the time to add the missing iPhone features.

I really think that this is the “biggest and most exciting iPhone software update yet”.

• Multitasking is cool, but it will be more useful when all the Apps will support it.
• The Folders are great, I hate crowded desktop on my Mac and even more on my iPhone, Folders solved the problem.
• Mail is now more similar to his desktop brother, you can view all your mail boxes in unified inbox.
• I was missing the Camera zoom feature and now they put in the camera App, no need for 3 different camera Apps to get all you need from one camera. I just hope that the new iPhone will have LED Flash.
• The Game Center looks Cool but I didn’t have a chance to try it out (none of my friends installed it yet)
• I do have a different background on my iPhone now, this is a nice refreshment from the old boring dark background.
• Connecting Apple Bluetooth  keyboard is very cool, not perfect yet but you can always press the Eject button to switch back to the iPhone Keyboard.

There’s lots of new features and settings like Photos (closer to the Mac iPhoto) and playlists but this is probably the TOP features.

Today, Apple unveiled plans for the biggest and most exciting iPhone software update yet.

iPhone OS 4 will include over 100 new user features for iPhone and iPod touch owners to enjoy.

And for developers, a new software development kit (SDK) offers over 1500 new APIs to create apps that are even more powerful, innovative, and amazing.

iPhone OS 4 will ship this summer for iPhone and iPod touch, and for iPad in the fall. A developer beta is available now.

I already downloaded the new OS developer beta and about to install it, very exciting.

Check out the full details at : http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/

Check out Bookmrk.me – a great Homepage for all.

with bookmrk.me you can:

• Choose your default search engine, but still use the other big 2,
• Have one page top sites bookmarks by sortable categories.
• Have your top 5 sites including thumbnails.
• Choose your background from predefined set of images or upload your own.
• And you can get your local weather

Pretty Cool Site. Check it out at bookmrk.me

If you logged into Gmail over the last hour (or visited the Gmail homepage), you probably noticed that something looked a bit off: all the vowels are missing. We realize this makes things difficult for all of you who rely on Gmail — whether at home or at work — and we’re incredibly sorry. We take morphological issues like this extremely seriously, so we want to let you all know what happened and what we’re doing about it.

To read more about the outage go to: Google Blog

This is a nice April Fool Joke.

I have few different Google Apps accounts and this feature is only available on one of them.

This is great news for iPhone users that wants to stop using Mobile Me but using Google Apps as their email rather than Gmail.

Now you can sync your email, calenders and contacts using Google Apps Exchange Server.

The solution is pretty easy, all you need to do is to press the screen until the “COPY” option comes up.

Then you can flip your iPhone and the image rotation will not change (don’t worry the ‘COPY’ option will disappear after few seconds.

There’s lots of fixes, I did not see any new features yet but I’ll let you know.

You can see the list of all the fixes at:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4014

Update:

The console have a new feature: Diagnostic and usage data collection.

With Mac OS X v10.6.3 and later, Mac OS X can automatically collect diagnostic and usage information from your Mac and send it to Apple for analysis. The information is sent only with your explicit consent, and is submitted anonymously to Apple.

You can turn it off by going to console->preferences and uncheck the option.

I tried to turn it ON again but it doesn’t let me.

iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today.

Submit your iPad app now for an initial review by the App Review Team and receive feedback on its readiness for the grand opening.

The iPad Pre-Order is now available.

Apple just added a new iPad tab at their  home page.

** The iPad also comes with a new button/feature that we didn’t see during Steves’ keynote:

The button let you Lock the Screen Rotation, a feature that i really want on the iPhone

The iPad is coming and Apple fixing last bugs…

A month ago Techcrunch published a post about AppMakr a dead easy app design engine that allows you to enter a URL or search term, pick a few images, and publish an app to the App Store in a few minutes.

In the last few months I’m working on 3 different iPhone Apps, the first is a utility App for singles, the second is a Social App and the third is an App for CoolGeex.com.

Well, as you can see, I’m pretty busy, so today I decided to take some of the load off by trying to build the CoolGeex App using AppMake web based system.

This is my experience:

The process was extremely easy and friendly to use, it literally took me less then 5 minutes (Maybe 2 Minutes).

The longest thing during the process was getting the graphics ready to upload. (you are going to see the Cool Geex App in the Store Soon)

Conclusion:

I recommend AppMakr period, If you want to build an App for your Website this is the way, don’t spend your time trying to code it yourself.

AppMakr offers two plans: One for $199 and the other for $499

I contacted the AppMakr people recently and they Gave me a 25% Coupon to share, there it is: AM4COOLGEEX25

Screen Shots:

Ok, So Google Buzz is here, a new social network. Do we really need another one?

I’m not sure yet! but so far I like it, I also like to have things integrated, and Google does it best.

Check it out at buzz.google.com or watch the video here: