I installed a new 500GB, 7200RPM drive into the HP Mini 110 netbook and proceeded to install Snow Leopard on it.
Upon booting from the USB drive (made with Netbook Installer), I received an error on the apple loading screen (the ‘do not enter / no smoking’ symbol appeared). I restarted the computer and went into the boot options of the USB drive and selected verbose from the menu (use the up/down arrows to see the menu).
Upon booting verbosely, I saw the Still Waiting for Root Device message. After googling that message, it appeared that the error was common in the OSX86 world and was not usually easy to fix. Many different people having many different experiences with it. Some easily fixed, some not fixable.
To fix, I restarted the PC again and went into BIOS setup, changed the boot options to have the USB drive first in the list and the HDD second. It seems that whenever this error came up, switching the boot order resolved it. It didn’t really matter which drive was listed first, as long as you change it and save/exit the BIOS.
After I made that simple change, the Still Waiting for Root Device message went away and installation proceeded as it normally would.
System:
Model: HP Mini 110-1000
RAM: 1GB
HDD: Seagate Momentus 2.5″ SATA 500GB (7200rpm)
OS: Mac OSX (Snow Leopard 10.6.1)
Yesterday, I purchased the Incase power slider for my iPhone 3G S. It boasts that it will double your iPhone battery life while protecting it with it’s case. Since battery life is important to me and I find my self constantly running out of battery (usually around 2pm each day), I was excited to get my hands on this. Even posted a tweet about it.
The initial reviews I read indicated that it was worthy of purchase at the right price. Best Buy had it for $47, which I thought was a great deal (since it was originally priced at $99). The packaging indicated iPhone 3G, but not specifically the iPhone 3G S. I asked a worker in the mobile phone department if it would work OK in the 3G S and she indicated “yes, I use it on my iPhone 3G S every day.”. Sold.
The instructions say to fully charge the device before putting your iPhone in it. So, like a good person who just RTFM’d, I plugged it in and let it sit for a couple hours until it was fully charged. What happened next was what surprised me…
I inserted the iPhone into the bottom part of the shell (per instructions), then put the top part of the shell on. The battery on the iPhone did indeed show that it was charging, which is what the user manual said it would do. Then, without warning, my 5 bars of 3G signal, disappeared and went to No Service. I was shocked, so I power cycled the iPhone, just incase it needed to officially recognize the new battery device. Still, No Service.
I took it out and put it back in, probably about a dozen or so times. Each time, the No Service indicator came up about 5 seconds after using the Incase Power Slider.
I googled some more and found other reports of people having the exact same issue. A few people mentioned that Incase retired that model of product because of issues, but I couldn’t find anything to support that claim. Since I really need my phone, I decided to return the Incase Power Slider to Best Buy and find something different.
I ended up with the Invisible Shield. So far so good with the Invisible Shield, but that’s a different post…
Summary: Incase Power Slider = Fail (in my humble opinion)
Ever since the upgrade to Snow Leopard, Firefox started to open behind other applications. It launches from the dock normally and is the active application in the top menu bar, it’s just behind everything else. You can click the icon again or command-tab to bring Firefox to the front, but I must say, it is quite an annoyance.
A google search revealed a mozilla support thread reporting the same thing, but at the time of this update, no replies with any details on how to fix it. See this URL.
I’ve switched my default browser back to Safari now, until a time when Firefox opens the way it should.
I was watching a show called Eco Trip on the Sundance Channel tonight. This episode was about cell phones.
Sundance Channel - Eco Trip - Episode 7
Amongst all the details about how bad they are for the environment while they are being made as well as after you dispose of them, one thing caught my attention more than others…
One of the elements needed to make a key element in just about every piece of electronics we use today, is called coltan.
Coltan is the metalic ore from which tantalum is made. Tantalum is what most capacitors are made from.
The show indicated that most of the worlds coltan resides in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I don’t think I need to explain why reliance on the DRC for such a core element of all electronics is a bad thing. Well, maybe I do, just a little…
An excerpt from Wikipedia on the DRC:
The Second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country, involved seven foreign armies and is sometimes referred to as the “African World War”.[4] Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003, fighting continues in the east of the country. In eastern Congo, the prevalence of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world.[5] The war is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, killing 5.4 million people.[6][7]
I googled around to see which companies get their coltan from the DRC and which don’t. Most information I found was related to cell phone manufacturers… This website, ethicalconsumer.org, has a buyer’s guide to mobile phones, which talks about the big companies that are ranked by Greenpeace (which should mean, they do everything they can to get their materials in an ethical/green way), it’s a good thing to have a Greenpeace ranking…
- Nokia
- Sony Ericsson
- Samsung
- Motorola
- Apple
The website also indicates that Australia is taking over the market on coltan, which is where the responsible manufacturers should be ensuring their products components are sourced from.
Another point in the episode talked about the e-waste is handled and that the majority of it still ends up in a poverty stricken countries around the world. PBS has a great story about it…
To sum up:
- Be responsible
- Recycle your old cell phones / electronics
- Ask the recycler where the devices end up
- Don’t just throw electronics in the garbage
- Check out Eco Trip, I really enjoyed it
Next time you look at your cell phone or computer, remember that some it probably came from the Congo and might end up Ghana.
UPDATE:
Ran across the makeITfair.org website shortly after posting this… They’ve posted a list of companies that have responded to their list of principles to follow. http://makeitfair.org/companies/company-responses-to-the-makeitfair-list-of
I’ve really been enjoying the new iPhone 3Gs, a lot.
The voice control functionality is very nice and helps a lot when you want to start playing music or turn on shuffle mode, or make a call. Well, call almost anybody. There is one person voice control refuses to recognize. Who? Mom.
Me: “Call Mom mobile”
iPhone: “no match found”
Me: “Call Mom”
iPhone: “no match found”
Me: “Call Jen Melchi mobile”
iPhone “calling Jen Melchi mobile”
I’ve had others try to “call mom” on my voice control, all to no avail. Voice control recognizes everyone else I want to call, just not “mom”.
Interesting, wonder why Apple doesn’t want me to call mom using my voice.
Anyone else having the same issue?
About a month ago, the company I work for announced that it was changing remote worker policies and part of the policy changes included standard phone plan, phone hardware enforcements. The policies are strict and if the company was to continue to pay for the device/service, I (along with the rest of the company) had to comply.
If you don’t know already, I work for HP, so it makes sense that they ask that employees use HP hardware as a mobile device. The only viable mobile device available at the time I ordered was the HP iPAQ 910c.
The device itself is pretty nice looking, looks similar to a blackberry or other qwerty keyboard device on the market and with the blue shifted keys on the keyboard, I think it looks nice.
Since I was one of the people who stood in line for 12 hours to get an iPhone when they first came out, you can imagine that I have become very attached and used to it. I held off on the upgrade to the new 3G iPhone (since there isn’t 3G service at my house, hard to justify), so I’d been using the original iPhone since day 1. My iPhone has been good to me, turned me on to the joys of ‘hacking’ it, installing third party apps and using some pretty nice twitter applications, such as Twinkle. I feel it opened me up the community of other iPhone users, and it was a nice community to reside in.
When the iPAQ arrived I popped my iPhone SIM into it and tried it out. Like any device, it will take some getting used to. It does everything it is supposed to do for me. Setting up my Exchange PUSH mail/calendar/contacts was a breeze, setting up all my other little customizations was also easy. The biggest physical change is the stylus. The device has a touch screen, albeit very small compared to the gorgeous iPhone screen. I had gotten used to the finger touchable screen of the iPhone and now, back to using a stylus, felt like a Handspring I had years ago. There are some aspects of the screen that are finger touchable, some parts of the phone app and the home screen. It’s a good thing I don’t have sausage fingers though.
I’m new to the Windows Mobile OS world, so I’m still looking for some great applications to make this device awesome. ceTwit, MS Communicator Mobile, Google Maps, Skyfire and The Weather Channel widget are some applications I’ve installed and used. Looking for a better Twitter app and perhaps a better web browser. I’ve heard Opera for Windows Mobile is the best, so I’ll be checking that out soon.
Without my iPhone, I haven’t been watching video podcasts as much, twittering as much or listening to music as much. Since I spend 90% of my day either in the car or in front of a desk, I came to rely on it as my avenue into the other parts of my life.
Things the iPAQ does that the iPhone did not do for me… Real GPS, not the ‘fake GPS’ on the iPhone. Expandable memory in the form of micro SD. Replaceable battery. Navigation antenna port. Video capturing. 3MP camera with flash. 3G (my original iPhone wasn’t 3G). While in Milwaukee, I get super fast data service.
I’ve been using the iPAQ 910c for about 3 weeks now and it is still holding strong in functionality and usability. It’s name is the Business Communications Messenger and I agree that it does just that. As for the other, media related things I’m into, I might have to keep my iPhone or iPod in my bag.
Links:
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/hp-ipaq-910c-business/4505-6452_7-33064927.html
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12784_na/12784_na.html
UPDATE: Since I’ve posted this message, I have found several forum posts on the apple support forums indicating that the notifications are reminders of unread SMS messages. Must’ve missed that part of the release notes for 2.1 firmware. There doesn’t seem to be any way to turn it off as of the time of this message, hopefully in a future firmware release… thx for reading. /UPDATE
—–
Ever since I upgraded to iPhone firmware 2.1, I have been receiving phantom SMS notifications. I still have the default tritone sound set for SMS messages and it happens several times a day. I’ll get the vibe/tritone notification, look at the iPhone and see nothing new.
One other person has reported the same thing to me. A google search resulted in numerous people seeing similar phantom SMS messages, however, wasn’t able to find any specific to the iPhone.
Odd.
Just got the wordpress app for the iPhone, so far so good. Very easy to use and setup.
Thanks wordpress and apple!
Time Machine recently came up with this prompt indicating it required 715MB and since I had 16GB, it errored out. Odd.
Ok, I figured I’ve waited long enough before jailbreaking my iPhone again. I’ve lived with the native 1.1.3 for long enough and it’s time to get the third party apps back. I went over to ModMyiFone.com to see what the latest news was and saw a new post about the latest OTB 1.1.2/3 jailbreak.
I popped over to iphone.unlock.no and started the process… I kept a log of each step I did in TextEdit…
Background:
I’m running Leopard with the latest version of iTunes (7.6). I’m an AT&T customer and using the AT&T SIM. I’ve never had a need for any other SIM card or carrier. I purchased the iPhone on day 1 and have upgraded/jailbroken as the months have progressed. Never had the need to use any of the other unlocking programs (like anySIM).
Below is my timeline of events. The first number is obviously the time (CST). I’m uploading some screenshots of errors I saw during the process. See the bottom of the post.
634 – Placed phone in Restore mode, then Option clicked Restore button in iTunes to downgrade to 1.1.1 (iTunes crashed on me once, but after it reopened, I clicked Option-Restore and it went through fine)
638 – Watching iTunes display Restoring iPhone software
640 – Error 1015 came up as expected
642 – Ran iNdependence, no dice
645 – Restored 1.1.1 firmware again
650 – Error 1015 again – Click OK to the error and to the message that indicates the phone is in restore mode
651 – Run iNdependence, iNdependence shows it is doing it’s magic
652 – iTunes provides the error about the SIM card is PIN locked or not installed, click OK
658 – Walked through the directions on iphone.unlock.no, first time I ran through the jailbreak, didn’t work. Tried again and worked fine, iPhone auto-rebooted.
701 – iTunes shows a new iphone
712 – Ran Installer, updated sources, installed OktoPrep
712 – Option – Restore, choose 1.1.2 firmware ipsw file, received error 2001 immediately. Tried it a couple times, same error. Realized I still had iNdependence open, closed it, tried Option – Restore again, Restore is in progress now.
721 – iTunes Error 1015
721 – Trying Restore again
806 – After a brief intermission, it occurs to me that I can’t read directions. I am supposed to be clicking the Update button, not the Restore button. Restoring back to 1.1.1 and starting over.
814 – Back at 1.1.1, jailbroken, OktoPrep installed, Option-Clicked Update, choose the 1.1.2 firmware file. Watching the update happen in iTunes.
It’s a little concerning that this whole time iTunes and iPhone is telling me my SIM is invalid. But, I’ll have faith.
819 – Error 1015 in iTunes, ran iNdependence to get it back out of restore mode, closed iNdependence
820 – Still have the SIM card error in iTunes
820 – Running jailbreak.jar, watching it go… The “Reading flash image” part of it is taking a few minutes, then “Patching flash image” takes a minute or so, then “Writing flash image” takes another minute…
824 – Got the success message from jailbreak.jar, waiting for the device to reboot itself a few times… It’s only rebooted once thus far, sitting at the “connect to itunes” looking screen.
827 – Waited 3 minutes and no further reboots occurred.
827 – Launched iNdependence to get out of recovery mode
832 – Opened Installer and chose the Official 1.1.3 Upgrader. Watching it download 165MB over my wifi connection. Appears to have stalled at 29%, but going to wait and see. Hit the home button and relaunched the 1.1.3 upgrader. That seemed to give it a kick in the pants. It’s move along again.
I still have a SIM error and can’t use the phone, but I’ll leave it be for now.
840 – At 41% now.
858 – Seemed to get stuck at 66% again. Hit the home button, opened Installer, hit the home button again, and relaunched the upgrader again. Seems to be going again. Weird.
903 – At 90% now.
904 – 95%
906 – 100%, now it’s extracting restore ipsw…
907 – Completed extraction
907 – Decrypting firmware…
911 – Decryption complete.
911 – Decompressing firmware…
916 – Decompression complete.
916 – Reading existing image…
918 – Reading image complete.
918 – Mounting new image, initializing system image, copying data to system image
923 – copying data is complete…
923 – Jailbreaking system image…
924 – Finalizing system image…
924 – Writing image…
928 – rebooting…
930 – complete…
930 – After the iphone reboot, iTunes successfully activated it and I set it up as a new phone, just to be safe. Currently sync’ing all my stuff back to it.
1000 – all is well… all my videos, songs, phonebook, everything is back on. third party apps are back too.
Time to get back into Installer and get all the great apps I’ve been missing for a while.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the jailbreak solution. It’s awesome to be back jailbroken again.
Both errors were consistently showing up during the whole process. It’s not until the final 1.1.3 upgrade section of iphone.unlock.no did the SIM errors go away.
