How to Remove the Speck iPhone 4 Fitted Case

Note: Apologies for the messed up site today, I'm participating in the SOPA Blackout to protest this deeply flawed legislation approaching a vote in Washington. What is SOPA? If it passes then it is the end of the internet as we know it. I urge you to learn more about SOPA and what we can do to prevent it being voted on and passing. Click here for more information.


I got my Apple giveaway fix for the antenna problem with my iPhone 4 today. Instead of the plain bumper option, I chose a full cover with the credit Apple gave me. My purty little 4 is now safely enclosed within a Speck Dark Tartan case with a Zagg Invisibleshield on the front glass. In just a couple of moves, my phone is now pretty darned secure.


The only mistake I made in the process was trying out the Speck case before fitting the Invisibleshield on. And it wasn't really a mistake once I figured out how to open the Speck iPhone 4 case. It took some doing and I even Googled how to do it without any luck which is why I'm posting this quick post about how to do it.


No pictures for now, maybe I'll snap some later.


1. Put the iPhone down turned so the volume buttons and mute slider are away from you.
2. Slide your finger under the edge of the Speck case closest to you.
3. Slide a second finger and then move both fingers to the right corner.
4. The corner should pop apart but you may have to hold it with a finger from your other hand.
5. Move to the next closest corner (the one above the mute slider) and pop it away from the iPhone.
6. Continue down that side until the case comes completely off.


There now, wasn't that alot easier than getting really pissed off at the stupid thing? Like I did for a little while until I got it figured out.


Update: Having put the case on and taken it off a whole bunch of times now. There's an even easier way.
Put two fingernails under the top edge of the case away from the volume controls. Slide to the far corner and use your finger to hold the case open. Slide your other finger to the other corner and the case will pop open. From there its just a matter of continuing the slide your finger around the edge to pop the rest of it off.

Things the New iPhone Doesn't Do

So yeah, I've had my new iPhone for a couple of days (and I didn't even have to camp out all night at an Apple store to get it) and love it. From its ultra-crisp screen (which makes looking at an older model like looking through fogged glass) to its snappy processor to the sweet ease of snapping a picture and then deciding to shoot video instead by just one little flick of the finger. It really is a beautiful and awesome little device. But it isn't perfect and there are a few things that it cannot do, yet as I'm sure someone's working on an App for all of these things.

So here we go with thing the new iPhone 4 cannot do...
- Can't brush your teeth
- Can't tell you when your breath is nasty enough to stun a charging bull elephant
- There seems to be no place to put my weed
- Still no damned laser pointer/lighter
- Not usable as a step stool
- No haptic sex toys to integrate with Facetime
- No fetching the paper (the dead trees one)
- No getting me another beer from the fridge
- No automatically calling me a cab when I've had four or five too many beers at the bar
- No imminent vomit alert mode
- No personal force field generator (works on rain drops AND bullets!)
- No flying carpet mode

On a slightly more serious note, I've also started using the passcode locking system. In the wake of the private information exposing nightmare that's been my wife losing her phone the other day, I can take an extra four seconds to enter in a code to access my phone. Just think about what would happen if someone happened on your iPhone without any security at all. Just think about the unmitigated access and possibilities they would have to either monkey with your life or straight up steal your identity. The passcode isn't fool proof but it is far, far better than nothing at all.

Come to think of it, I should probably put passcode lock protection on my laptop as well. There's even more sensitive info in this thing and its worth quite alot more (though really only about 2 1/2 times as much really).

Wednesday Afternoon Wrap Up

It is that time of the week when I retrace the last couple of days and make note of some of the good stuff we've been up to.

Newest Obsession - Words with Friends, a casual and semi-sporadic game of Scrabble on the iPhone. My wife started playing it, got me to start playing and now I'm trying to get as many other iPhone users to get in on it too. Want to play me? Download the free version of the app and then search for "fenriq" and start up a game!

Good Ride - I was finally able to align my universe and get out for the weekly mountain bike ride at Wilder Ranch with the MBoSC crew. Had a good time, met some new folks, rode some new trails (a wicked plus!), shot some photos and got home just a little bit later than expected.

iPhone 4 - After almost a week of no news (which isn't always good news), the order status page updated yesterday morning and my shiny new awesome iPhone 4 is on its way to me! The estimated delivery date is today before 3 but its also showing that it is still in Fort Worth, Texas so I'm thinking it'll be here tomorrow instead. And not a moment too soon. The microphone on my worn out 2G has stopped working and the button on the bottom is becoming increasingly cranky and requires some drop therapy (that is, I drop my phone on the carpet a couple of times to get it to work properly again).

Lessons from Loss - My wife lost or left her iPhone in a place where it was taken by someone else yesterday. It pretty much took the plan for the day and shredded it since she was upset about losing it and we spent a large chunk of the afternoon at the park where she last had it. Now the big question is whether to try and reactivate her old phone that's wonky, get a new one on order or wait a little bit longer to see if the finder responds to the text messages sent to the phone. But the kind of scary thing is just how dependent she is on her phone. Without it there's almost no way to get in touch with her which makes me a bit more loathe to see her heading off on long drives with our kids. If she breaks down then how's she going to call for help?

Boardwalk Tuesday Nights - We made our first family outing to the Boardwalk last night. On Tuesday's all summer long, rides at the Boardwalk go from being a ridiculous $3, $4 or $5 each to a single ticket $1 each. Yes, I get that the individual ride prices are set high so that visitors get the unlimited ride passes but a $5 ride that lasts 3 minutes would cost $100 to ride for an hour. Anyway, we had fun, the boys had fun, we got to ride some rides all together but the boys wanted to both ride with me on the Sky Ride over the Boardwalk. Oh and Sully loved the Dragon (a little roller coaster with surprisingly aggressive corners) while Grady was not a fan at all. One of the highlights for me was taking a bunch of photos from the Sky Ride which will, hopefully, be made into some quality tilt shift miniatures.

Work - Still no news on the pending full-time positions. My contact in HR says there's no pending paperwork, nothing in the hopper so I'm a little confused. I was under the impression that July 1st was going to be the launch date for a frenzied 3 months of work at a new site with a massive pile of new tech to install and configure and a massive pile of old tech to wade through, surplus some and hand down to other sites with other stuff. But nope, nothing going on there yet. I do have an inside line on what would be a great, great new job with the county. But that's still a ways off as the position won't open until the current occupant retires and then there's no guarantee that the position will be restaffed given budget issues locally, at the state level and nationally.

Update: My new and awesome iPhone 4 has arrived! It is at home charging up as we speak and will be ready for primetime in a couple of hours. Initial thoughts? It is a heavy little phone. The famous Apple un-box was pretty anti-climatic, just remove the cellophane wrapper, pull up the top and there it is, in all its sexy turned off glory.

The Mara-Kvetch Express

Yes, just yes, yes, yes. Gina Carano kicks ass!

There's a bunch of stuff going on in the world, some good, lots bad, some that I just can't be arsed to give a shit about even though many, many other people are quite literally dancing in the streets. Plus, there's a Domo-kun you can print out and make, really, click the More link below, I promise.

Yes, the Lakers won the NBA championship again. Big whoop-de-do. Basketball sucks. Its a game for the freakishly tall, of which I am quite clearly not. Kobe Bryant wins another ring. Yeah for him, I wonder if he's going to celebrate by sodomizing another pretty white girl (against her will or not)?

The World Cup is going on and is accompanied by the angry buzzing sound of something called a vuvuzela. Until a week ago I had no idea what those incredibly stupid annoying things were called. They don't bother me though because I'd rather watch the "No signal" text bounce around my television screen than watch 22 grown men play an hour and a half long game of keep away. Seriously, soccer is the most watched sport on the planet? Are we really this lame? No, don't answer that.

How to Add Words to Your iPhone Dictionary

One would think a smarty-pants smartphone like the iPhone would only have to be told a new non-standard word once to remember it forever and ever. And, actually, you'd be right but it is the method of inputing the new words that is the key here.

Using some apps like Notes to enter non-standard text will not work. For whatever reason, Apple has deigned to not allow some applications to update the dictionary database.

So how do you do it? Open up Safari and enter the words into a Google search and whammo, they are instantly added to your dynamic dictionary.

Seems simple enough but I don't get why you can't update this dictionary from any application much less any native Apple app?

Oh well, now we can all happily add all the delicious swear words we want and the auto-correct will no longer try to replace "fucking" with "ducking". And life will be oh so much better because we can swear more easily. Oh boy!

Apple Store FAIL!

Came across this gem of educational software called Kid Recognize that had recently been reduced in price (I can't imagine why). Take a peek (click for full size) for about a half a second and you'll see why this is a major App Store FAIL. Come on, Apple, you're supposed to actually check this garbage before it goes on sale in your store. This is beyond pathetic and should immediately be removed from the Educational offerings.

Look, I don't have a problem with people trying to make a buck off of an app but I do have a problem with someone who has a minimal command of the language basically stealing money from people with this kind of poorly executed crap. Hire an editor to make your words make sense, Yuxin Chen. If I'd paid for this junk, I'd be screaming at Apple to refund my money. Your sample graphic actually says "Which one of the 3 farms is goat?"

It is clearly apparent that this steaming pile of code should never have been approved for sale in the App Store. I hope and expect Apple will remove it in short order.

An iPhone App Review: Scramboni

I've been having a really good time playing a game called Scramboni on my iPhone (you can also play on a regular computer but you won't be as cool). The easiest way to describe it is multi-player timed jumble, you know, the game where letters are mashed up and you have to rearrange them into a regular word.

Scramboni combines several game elements that really appeal to me (I'm actually playing it right now). Among them, competition, word play, letter play and speed. I've long been a fan of Text Twist on my Clie and still play it pretty regularly. I have a version on my iPhone but they use a foreign dictionary so some of the words are totally bogus to me. I like the game but it annoys the hell out of me when pretty standard English words are discarded as not being found.

Anyway, back to Scramboni. It has a bunch of really good things going for it but it also has a few annoying issues that keep it from being all that it really could be.

Here are a few of them.
1. No option to join a round at the beginning. You can sometimes join a round 18 or 19 puzzles in. It would be nice to be able to wait for the start of a new round before playing.
2. Some puzzle words can be solved in different ways. For example, the letters ARGLE can spell lager, legal, large, regal and glare. Any of which could be the right answer. The use of the red letter to note the first or last letter helps some but not in all or even most cases. And then the game isn't about skill or speed, it is about luck and that's just annoying.
3. No way to see the entire scoreboard, just where you place on it (granted I'm usually in the top 5 and that's all that really matters but still).
4. Some puzzle words are total and utter bullshit. I had one last night where the "correct" word was Retd. Retd, according to Merriam Webster, is an abbreviation for retired or returned. Its an abbreviation. Total BS.
5. Forcing players (well not forcing but severely handicapping) to play at the highest level they've achieved which is basically just a function of playing the game. Accumulate enough points and you graduate to the next level, no matter what. I can play a lower level but I would get half the points other players would get.

All in all the game is excellent and fun and worthwhile but it has some annoying shortcomings that could be dealt with pretty easily to take it from a four star game to a 5 star champion.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to wander the floor at MacWorld to see what is what and why.

Update: I got this cool comment on my FriendFeed from, well, here's the comment. Hey Eric, my name is Peter, I'm one of the authors of Scramboni. Your points about rounds and the non-word 'retd' are well taken. We thought red letters add a bit of a fun twist to the game, plus for some people they make easier to deal with longer words. Thanks for your feedback! Peter Bakhyryev

This is one of the reasons I love the internet. Not only can you post your thoughts about a product, you can sometimes get a direct response from the author or developer. Too cool!

Amazon's iPhone App is Bad

I downloaded Amazon's iPhone app last night because I've been using the site more and more lately and thought the app would be a nice addition. Only Amazon did one really stupid thing that is going to make me delete the app. You can turn on 1-Click buying but you can't turn it off.

And 1-Click purchasing is a dangerous and stupid idea if you happen to have kids that play around on your phone. Before you know it, they've spent a hundred bucks on Dora garbage.

Sorry Amazon, but homey don't play like that and you need to address this stupidity in your application.

I won't use 1-Click buying ever, not on Amazon and not on iTunes.

Recent iPhone Apps Update

Like everyone else that has an iPhone, I spend an inordinate amount of time fondling my little glowing marvel.

And downloading apps from the App Store. Many are pretty useless but some are noteworthy. Here's a quick rundown. Links will be added once I can verify that the link to app html code actually works (can't check it from behind the firewall).

iSlots - just got it, played for five minutes, will delete shortly, repetitive and boring though pretty nice looking interface.
MotoChaser - bought (yes, bought) a couple of weeks ago, has become my go-to demo game of how awesome the iPhone is, good fun but hard to control.
Motion X Poker - also a bought, excellent dice game making good use of the accelerometer. Geeky enough to allow dice collecting.
Remote - I don't use it enough but should because it is so flipping cool. Need to do it with the projector in the computer lab.
Twitterfon and Twitterific - two twitter clients because one is faster but one has a camera function that is really handy.
Pandora - instant internet radio, got a connection? you've got a radio station, really nice.
Audi A4 Driving Challenge - awful game, terrible controls, bad idea and deleted almost instantly.
Sportacular - very nice and easy way to stay on top of the major sports. Definitely a keeper.
Light - a basic flashlight that works extremely well and has some additional color settings that are of zero use to me (unless you count utility as being able to induce an epileptic seizure).
Bubbles - simple, cute and will distract/occupy my kids for a couple of minutes when necessary.
PangeaVR - my back up demo app of how cool the iPhone is. Being able to look around at a panorama of a room is really very, very cool.
Earthscape - simply too cool to not show off. The top down view is useful but its the horizon view that is really neat.
iWant - a graphics based location app to find you gas, food, clothes, drug stores and more. Very cool and would be indispensable if I were a road warrior salesbot. It could use a Wifi hot spot button too though.

That's a decent start but isn't comprehensive. Got an iPhone? What are you loving and hating on it these days?

Cheapest Waterproof Case for iPhone Ever

So I had an epiphany while I was laying down with Sully and waiting for him to drift off to nappy time sleep. Probably already been "discovered" by others but ziplock baggies are a pretty easy and perfect way to protect your iPhone while in the pool or hot tub.

Because I'm super-anal retentive about protecting my goodies from watery destruction, I'm double wrapping mine. Heck, I'm thinking about putting a tissue in the outer layer baggy as an early leak warning system.

The only reason I want to have it available is to use Remote to keep some quality music playing. I don't need to check my email or Twitter updates, really.

And, with boys happily snoozing away right now, I think I'll go and soak in the tub as my back is a bit twisted out of shape right now thanks to all the lumber I hauled around over the last couple of days. Did you know how tough it is to heft a sheet of half inch (actually it .56 inches) plywood up and over your head to load on a roof rack? Its alot easier than the three quarter inch but its still pretty tiring stuff.

Post hot tub soak update. The iPhone in a baggie worked perfectly. The only snafu was when my screensaver came on and added the sound of a fish tank to my music. And I did use the internet while in the tub but only to get my chiropractor's phone number to make an appointment for Monday before I go riding.

So Meta My Head Asploded

I've been fooling around with the iPhone 2.0 upgraded software since I installed it late yesterday. So far the most fun I've had is playing with a free app called Remote that lets me control my iTunes with my iPhone.

I can instantly see a couple of uses for this. With some external speakers, you've got a total solution for music at a party. With some remote speakers, you could play whatever music you wanted into the kid's room while they slept.

But I'm going to try something different to see if it'll work or if I'll just tear a hole in the universe. I'm going to connect my Bluetooth headphones to my laptop and see if I can listen to iTunes on the computer but controlled through my iPhone which doesn't support stereo Bluetooth usage for some ridiculous reason (unless this has been fixed in the 2.0 release but I haven't heard of it yet).

I just got finished trying this setup out and it did work perfectly. Kind of nice if you want music and aren't going to be much further than 20 feet from the laptop.

One app that I wish worked better because it strikes me as a goofy and grin producing little thing is called World 9. It is supposed to tap into the accelerometer and produce sound effects based on the movements. Which are supposed to be played through headphones but who knows, might be fun to amplify them.

Yeah, definitely liking being able to control iTunes in the living room now with my laptop hooked up to the speakers in the kitchen (yeah, I do keep a set of speakers in my kitchen for iPods and laptops, don't you?).

Steve Jobs Hates Hoochie Nails

Women with long nails speak out against iPhone design because their chosen form of personal expression makes it hard for them to fully utilize the phone. Word on whether women with long nails have spoken out about other aspects of daily life that are made harder for them because they choose to keep long fingernails was not available.

One woman actually went so far as to call Apple misogynistic because they didn't design their phones to be usable by women with long nails. Which is, of course, totally insane.

Sweet Free Magazines on the iPhone!

Want to read some full-page free magazines on your iPhone?

Surf on over to zinio.com/iphone and you'll get access to 20 top shelf magazines for online perusal including Playboy, Saveur, Popular Mechanics, Outside and Men's Health among others.

Now that's cool! I bet the link will work if you're using another phone to get there but you won't be anywhere near as cool.

Found via the always interesting and always useful Lifehacker.

The Search Continues.....

I thought I had completed my search for the perfect (for me) iPhone case. I found a case by Griffin at Target for a decent price, checked it to make sure it wasn't a silicon outside that would make slipping it into a pocket impossible and annoying and it even came with a screen protector and armband.

But, when I got it home and got it out of the box, it was missing one of the crucial pieces, the belt clip. Which meant it was about half as useful as it could be. Maybe even less so since the armband couldn't work without it either.

And, of course, it was the only one they had in stock so it went back, no replacement and my iPhone is still languishing in the poor case that came with my wife's old iPod Mini a couple of years ago. Its better than nothing but only because of its protective qualities, it is not easy or convenient to use at all.

So, if anyone's got the perfect iPhone case and they feel like passing along some wisdom, leave a comment and let me know what you've got and why you like it so much.

My wife is looking for her own perfect iPhone case and its nothing like my perfect iPhone case (she wants a flip cover that flips over the top of the phone). Any info would be greatly appreciated!

YouTube is Killing Teh Intarwebs!

The iPhone video threat: Can networks keep up?

The iPhone now accounts for my mobile web traffic than any other device in the US and it is #2 globally. And a huge proportion of users are using their unlimited (suuuh-weet!) data plans to spend hours and hours downloading and viewing YouTube videos.

I am not one of them as I probably go to YouTube less than twice a week and usually the only time I do go is to demonstrate how freakin' awesome the iPhone is. Yes, I did watch alot of YouTube this weekend but that's because of UFC 83 and my deep and overpowering need to see Matt Serra get the snot beaten out of him by GSP.

The article details some pretty amazing stats. More than 9 billion videos were served up in 2007 and YouTube alone consumed as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in 2000. Think about that for just a second and then pick your jaw up off the floor.

The issue isn't stopping YouTube, its making YouTube less of a bandwidth sink and suck. YouTube should look into incorporating BitTorrent technology to spread the bandwidth suck down. Or companies (and school districts) will continue to just block the site altogether which sucks because there's some superb content to be found.

To Jailbreak or Not to Jailbreak

I've had my iPhone for a little more than a week now and absolutely love it to death. It isn't perfect but it is pretty damned sweet all the way around.

But I am also starting to feel a little penned in by the restrictions placed on the phone by Apple. There are quite a good number of apps that could enhance or extend my iPhone and allow me to do more, better and faster.

So the question is whether I want to jailbreak my phone or not. The most compelling reason I've come across so far is called Snapture and it gives the camera some features that it sorely lacks.

I think I'll end up jailbreaking my iPhone sooner rather than later.

Oh, and on the not-perfect tip, there are a few niggling annoyances with the iPhone that were easily avoidable and kind of short sighted and stupid. The lack of an SD or mini (or even Micro) SD slot is extremely limiting and, I believe, was done solely to drive 16 gig model sales. And that annoys me.

The sunk-in ear bud plug is really stupid and annoying. They recessed the plug so that only certain skinny plugs will work which means I can't just plug my iPhone into my stereo, I need an adapter. Stupid and annoying.

And the lack of the ability to cut and paste text is killing me. So far as I've been able to tell there is no simple way of moving text from one app to another on the iPhone. And that is very, very trying. I'm expecting a jailbroken phone will have some options of adding a cut and paste functionality but I don't understand why Apple didn't think to include it in the phone to begin with.

Because I AM a Geek

Yep, this is me actually posting directly from the phone with a picture just for fun. Oh bummer, the image upload doesn't work. Dang it.

Open Call for Favorite iPhone Apps

I'm late to the iPhone party but I just got my invite last night and have been having a ball playing around with it ever since.

And now I'm starting to move towards making my iPhone all it can be by adding applications, tweaks, GUI personalizations and whatever else I can to make my iPhone cooler than it already is.

If you are using or have heard of any awesome iPhone apps that I should look at then please leave a comment for me. I'd love to get a hack to change the ringer volume adjusting rocker on the side of the phone to do alot more, like scroll and maybe app switching. And I'd love a back button as on my Clie.

I've already updated my iTunes Cover Flow and collected something like 1400 album covers to get my art up to speed. Because flipping through blank album covers is lame and not cool at all.

I'm also in the market for a decent protective case or other carrying mechanism to give it some measure of protection while still being as usable as possible. Any input is welcome.

Quickie

Not much time to post this morning as I'm running a little late.

I checked the Los Gatos Apple Store last night and found that they did have a few iPhones in stock. They initially did not want to set one aside for me but when I explained that I was coming up from Santa Cruz, they understood (its about 20 miles) and reserved one for me.

Now I'm happily learning to ins and outs of my sweet new device since you can't really call it just a phone. But yeah, it totally rocks in every sense of the word.

The Giants had another thrilling win last night after an amazingly awesome pitching performance from Jonathan Sanchez and the lone run of the game scored in the bottom of the ninth with an off the wall double. Really great stuff to watch.

Only one more day until the new Tivo hard drive gets here, I'm not sure if my wife can wait that long.

Okay, that's me for now. I'll be back later, I hope.

My Tech Ascension is Imminent!

Not to heaven (which I tend to believe is just a nice fairytale carrot) but into the realm of smartphones, convergence devices and reclaiming my Mr. Cool status.

You see, I added the final $20 to my secret savings yesterday and now have enough money squirreled away to afford an iPhone.

Yeah, baby. i-to-the-mutha-fookin'-phone!

I've been debating for the last several weeks about whether the Touch would work for me and I've concluded that it just doesn't. Its beautiful, skinny and sexy and all but lacks two important functions. One, the phone and two, the camera.

I am trying to cut down on the numerous devices I carry with me and the Touch wouldn't really allow me to leave anything at home. I'd still need my phone and my delicious new SD1100 IS (which is coming with me anywhere I go anyway so maybe this is a moot point).

And man do I need to replace my Razr, it is beat up, beat down and ready for the recycler.

So, after much internal debate, I'm going to stop by an Apple Store either this weekend or on my way back from the city on Monday and pick me up a new delicious gadget so I can stop drooling over everyone else's iPhone and drool all over my own!