Work Around the iPod iOS 4.0 Battery Drain Issue

I recently decided to violate my “never install a dot zero release” rule and installed iOS 4.0 on my iPod touch. The features that I could use on my second generation hardware were nice, but I immediately noticed that the battery drained in a couple of days, even though the iPod was in sleep mode. Apparently there is a bug where the Wi-Fi will stay on even when the iPod is asleep. That does no good because none of the applications that could benefit, like email, stay on.

I’ve found that the workaround which does the best job of preserving the battery’s charge is to switch the iPod into Airplane Mode. The switch to turn on Airplane Mode is right at the top of the Settings screen.

In practice, I turn on Airplane mode and then hit sleep. When I unsleep, the Settings screen is still there and I just turn off Airplane mode. It is a couple of extra steps, but it is doing the job for now. I had high hopes for a fix in iOS 4.0.2, but no luck there. Hopefully iOS 4.1 will have a fix!

Apple PR Miss and Hit

This morning I read about Ellen Degeneres' iPhone commercial spoof. I couldn’t believe how Apple took a golden marketing moment and turned it into a PR disaster. Ellen poked fun at herself in the commercial, fumbling her way through a couple of text messages. Apple was offended, Ellen relented and apologized, sort of. The full commercial and pseudo-apology is below.

Apple could have just as easily showed up at the studio the next day with a stack of free hardware and come out the hero. Instead the audience had a laugh at Apple’s expense.

This evening it appears that Apple may have learned from its earlier mistake, as this next story about a woman who couldn’t purchase an iPad with cash illustrates.

Apple still better watch its step. As Ellen pointed out, IHOP could be considered part of the iPod, iPhone and iPad family. There could be a messy legal battle between Apple and the pancake maker in the works!

YouTube: Every Person’s TV Station

YouTube celebrated its fifth birthday on April 23, 2010. The Chicago Tribune has a nice summary of YouTube facts that you can use to amaze your friends at the next trivia contest. For example, the first animal to appear on YouTube was also in the first video to be uploaded:

The article made me think about how YouTube has changed the world. Being able to share home videos with friends is useful and fun, but what I think has really changed is that now anyone in the world with a video camera and a computer can produce a television show that can be viewed by billions of people around the world. Whether you want to share your music, your product, your humor, your thoughts, or your thoughts about others’ thoughts, you can do it on YouTube – for free!

So, happy birthday, YouTube, and thanks for letting us share ourselves with the world!

Mobile Version Now Available!

Thanks to the team who wrote and supports MobilePress, michaelwlind.com is now available in a mobile version! Just point your iPhone, iPod Touch, Android phone or other mobile phone to http://michaelwlind.com and you will automatically see the mobile version. You can also switch back to the full version using a link at the bottom of the mobile page.

Wordpress feed has a nice summary of plugins that can take your WordPress blog mobile. I wound up choosing MobilePress because it worked with every mobile device I had available and it did not require a signup with another service to convert the page to mobile format. Some plugins looked slick on an iPod Touch, but didn’t work on older mobile browsers. Other plugins promised to work with any mobile browser out there, but required you to sign up with a separate service. MobilePress fit my requirements best and worked without having to tweak any code!