Skylarking

A: When you’re left handed.

Surprisingly there is one big complaint about the new iPhone 4. If you make a call with the phone in your left hand you might not receive a cellular signal.

The redesign of the iPhone 4 moved the antenna to an external stainless steel band that wraps around the phone. A significant portion of this antenna band is on the left hand side of the phone. So when you hold the phone in your left hand, the flashy part of your palm below the thumb can significantly reduce or block the cellular signal needed to make a call.

How not to hold an iPhone 4 (Credit: Apple / Screenshot by Scott Ard/CNET)

Interestingly, at June’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs praised this antenna redesign as “brilliant engineering” and commented that it has never been done before. In a report on iPhone 4 signal issuesby cnet news’s Scott Ard mentions “some other companies may have considered a similar solution but backed off due to the attenuation caused when a person’s hand ‘covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band,’ as Apple put it”

He also points out that during Jobs’s demonstration he used WiFi instead of the AT&T cellular network. The Wifi signal portion of the antenna is higher up on the band, and less likely to be covered by your hand or fingers. Steve Jobs, himself, has a tendency to hold the iPhone in his left hand, so he may very well have been aware of the reception issue that would cause.

Now that word of the reception problem is spreading, word has it Apple suggests “not holding the phone in your left hand to make a call”. Or to use a case or bumpers that lift your hand off the edge of the phone. The bumpers from Apple cost $29. maybe Apple should send them out for free to iPhone 4 owners.

For more information on the signal reception problem with the iPhone 4see this report at AppleInsider.com.

At least once a week I get asked about transferring iTunes music from one computer to another, but recently someone said to me:

“My sister bought a bunch of episodes of Gossip Girl and some other shows on iTunes. I’d like to watch them on my computer, too, but I don’t want to buy them again. How can I get them onto my computer and iPod?”

I told them they’ll be able to watch them on a computer, but they won’t be able to watch them on an iPod.

“Why not?”

“Because the iPod is linked to a specific user or account. And the music and video files are linked to a specific user or account. So once iTunes sees the account attached to the video file doesn’t match the account attached for the iPod, it will refuse to transfer the file.”

“How does it know?”

Gossip Girl

“There’s no easy way to explain that, but, trust me, it won’t work.”

“Well, how do I copy them to my computer?”

Find the files on your sister’s computer. Typically the videos will be in the “My Music” folder on the hard drive. In that folder there is an “iTunes” folder, then a “iTunes Media” folder, and lastly a “TV Shows” folder. Inside that folder you’ll find folders for all the shows your sister bought. You can just copy these folder onto a CD, DVD, or external drive, and then copy them onto another computer. You can copy them to the same location on your own computer. Or you can have iTunes import them.

When you try to play them, iTunes will tell you that you’re not authorized to play them on your computer. At which point you will need to enter your sister’s iTunes account information.

“And, no, you still won’t be able to play them on your iPod.”

Hello, folks! Hope you had a great weekend. I’m getting better, too.

So last week I mentioned I had been helping a client with a HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One C309 printer that was causing trouble with his iPods. The client had just replaced a printer in their home office, but now when they attached their iPods to synchronize their music they were alerted that the device was not recognized. They suspected they had done something wrong when installing the printer, so they reinstalled it, updated their iTunes software, but still no luck with their iPods.

After a little research and double-checking I had learned that there were other reported cases of an iPod not being recognized after a HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One C309 printer had been added to the computer system. So I unplugged the printer, connected the iPod, and lo and behold the iPod was recognized once more.

No one wants to have to remember to unplug their printer to access their iPods. And no one wants to have to rememeber they disconnected their printer before they go to print something.

What to do?

Fortunately, the HP Photosmart C309 printer comes equipped with WIFI (wireless capability). Furthermore, the client had a wireless router in their office as well. The HP C309 also works with a wired network connection, which I would preferred to use, but they didn’t have a spare network cable.

Belkin F5D8233-4 Wireless-N Router

So I configured the HP C309 to access the wireless network using the instruction provided in the owners manual for the printer. The C309 supports WEP and encryption tools for a secure wireless link. Furthermore their router accepts MAC filtering (the unique identifier tag associated with any wireless capable device) to restrict which devices are allowed to access the network. Their PC is wired to the router, otherwise I could have set the PC to connect wirelessly to the printer without goin g through the router.

A few minutes later the printer was wirelessly online with the network, and the iPods could be relied upon to be recognized once more when attached via USB.

I know there are more people out there experiencing this problem. I hope this article helps you out. If anyone has discovered other solutions to this problem, let me know.

If you’re interested in learning more about the products in this article, click the images and text links for more information.