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Apple has posted a handy support note: “Tips and Tricks when using Voice Control”-

Using the microphone

- Use the built-in microphone or the microphone on the headset. Bluetooth headsets are not supported for Voice Control

- For best results when you’re using headphones with a built-in microphone, let the cord with the built-in microphone hang freely. Avoid holding the cord with the microphone or bringing it closer to your mouth. When the headphones are in your ear and the cord dangles freely, the microphone is in the optimum position.

- For best results when you’re using the built-in microphone on iPhone 3G S, hold iPhone like you were on a telephone call. If holding it in front of yourself, you can hold it up to 12 inches with the built-in microphone facing you.

- If you are using a carrying case and experiencing some issues with Voice Control, the microphone may be blocked. Try removing the carrying case.

When to speak

- After you press and hold the Home button, you will be prompted by an audible tone to speak a command.

- Always wait until the prompt is complete before you start speaking. Any words you speak while iPhone is giving the prompt will be ignored.

- Be ready to speak when the beep has completed.  Long pauses may cause unexpected results.

For voice dialing

- Some short names may be too similar and may be hard to distinguish by themselves. For best results with these kinds of names, try saying both the first and last name.

- If you’re having difficulties getting iPhone to recognize a particular name, try editing the contact, tap Add Field, and add a unique nick name.

- Avoid possessive names. Instead of saying “call Frank’s mobile” try “call Frank on his mobile.”

For music playback

- You can play all songs in an album, playlist, or by an artist. iPhone 3G S will not recognize commands to play a particular song.

- If you can’t get iPhone to recognize the album or artist name, try telling it to play a particular playlist.

- If an artist has “The” in the name, make sure you say it.

Erica Sadun has posted a simple, nerdy method for checking the availability of the iPhone 3.0 firmware.  The idea is to grab the XML returned from the iTunes iPhone software check. 


curl -s -L http://phobos.apple.com/version |\
grep -i restore |\
grep ‘_3.’ | open -f


To understand the output, you need to know which model you’re looking for.

iPhone- 1,1
iPhone 3G- 1,2
iPhone 3G S- 2,1

iPod Touch- 1,1
iPod Touch 2G- 2,1

When I see this- I know I’m golden:

iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw

[via TUAW]

I got this great error page over at bit.ly today.  Perhaps it is possible to shorten URLs too much?

Sorry to interrupt your show, but there seems to be a problem.

If you’ve been wondering how to disable the Exchange serve PIN requirement, here’s how to remove it. (at least partially)

1. Jailbreak

2. Use PhoneView to download /var/Managed Preferences/mobile/com.apple.springboard.plist

3. Edit the plist file and adjust settings as needed:


<key>PolicyInformation</key>
<dict>
<key>maxFailedAttempts</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>maxInactivity</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>minLength</key>
<integer>7</integer>
</dict>


4. Use PhoneView upload and overwrite com.apple.springboard.plist

5. Reboot your phone

6. Go into Settings.app and turn autolock and pin off

Note: The KillExchangeLocks application from Cydia does not appear to work.  Some people have pointed to a tightening of Apple’s security policies as the reason.  The app hasn’t been updated since the fall of 2008.

The plist is automatically updated approximately once per day, so I’ll be looking into a cron-based solution soon.

On my system, only the “passcode required” value seems to reset.  I don’t mind a 4-hour lockdown.  It seems like a reasonable amount of security.  This is much better than the 1 minute interval I was stuck with and now I can actually keep my screen from auto-locking when I use SlingPlayer.

Some fun WolframAlpha searches:

When were you born?

Are you self-aware?

Are you Skynet?

Easter eggs?

Wolfram|Alpha, now in soft launch state, is showing sweet HAL references as overload indicators.

A nice new Twitter 404 image. These guys really do it up classy.

iChat occasionally seems to have trouble connecting when I’m traveling.  My simple fix is to enter the IP address of the AIM servers directly into the settings. 

Here are the IP addresses that you can plug in to make iChat work as of 04.06.09:

SSL
—————
Name:  slogin.gslogin.oscar.aol.com
Address: 64.12.161.184

Non-SSL
—————
Name:  login.messaging.aol.com
Address: 64.12.161.153

Apparently Microsoft throwing in the hat on Encarta.  Back in 1993, MS had high hopes for the upstart.  It made its way from CD-ROM to the web and now has lost mindshare due to free services like Wikipedia.

The category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed- people today seek and consume information in considerably different ways.

The final discontinuation date for Encarta will be October 31, 2009. There’s more info over on Wikipedia, but certainly not much on Encarta itself.

[TechCrunch via Ars Technica]

Well-known industry trender, Netcraft, has recently observed a spike in popularity of the Lynx web browser- particularly since the recent Pwn2Own competition.

Apparently growing concern over vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari are driving users to the hardcore Lynx browser.

“Lynx has not once suffered a buffer overflow in its image processing, and indeed has suffered no security vulnerabilities at all in the last 2 years.”

More details (and laughs) on my favorite April fools story of the day over at Netcraft in “Deluge of Browser Security Issues Drives Mass Migration.”