Shamil's Blog. Software Engineering Processes, Android, CI, Devops.

my ipad (ios 5.1.1) had spinning wheel of death boot-loop (without apple, just SWOD) after battery depletion. I had lost all apps data and notes.

WTF? passcode lock is the f%%%%%g problem.

while being in SWOD ipad detected by itunes, i could even backup photos using OS methods, not sync (without even passcode authentication, which is strange!).

I could even make transfer purchases to itunes. but no backup/restore is available because "unlock device with passcode" is needed. I know f%%%ng passcode, I WANT to enter it, why the HELL it's impossible to enter passcode in itunes while ipad is connected?!

restoring from the previous backup did not work with the same reason, device is locked with passcode. "unlock please...".

so I had to upgrade to ios 7 from recovery mode (recovery mode is really the only way in this case!).

the most ugly thing is even after it's initialized, and I make restore from backup, the ipad shows "welcome" screen. it's clean and new.

I don't rely on itunes backups anymore. that's sad.

Seems like i'm more interested in having android device than ios. These are android vs ios screen after new device init.

Labels: apple, ios, itunes, shit

Apple broken Bluetooth drivers for mid'11 macbook air bootcamp 5.0. After installing 5.0 driver pack, open "apple broadcom bluetooth radio" in Device manager and if you have 5.0.1.0 version Update the driver with manual select ("let me pick...") to 4.0.0.1 version (27/4/2011). Without this rollback I couldn't anymore transfer files via Send file bluetooth dialog.

Labels: air, apple, bluetooth, driver, mac, macbook, shit

For some reason the default (pre-installed) HFS in last macbook Air (with 10.7.2) is case-insensitive. For example, you cannot create two files: doc and Doc - they are same. BUT: depending of which file was created first, you won't be able to access using different-cased name...
In short: create is case-insensitive, access is case-sensitive. Very annoying behaviour.

Labels: apple, hfs, macos, shit

The max RAM seen by 32bit Win7 is ONLY 2.16 Gb on macBookAir 2011 (last). Don't fucking tell me install 64bit, I have Win7 32bit on my 4Gb RAMmed Dell latitude 6410 and it uses 3.43 Gb. This is just some bullshit in memory management in BootCamp 4 layer BIOS emulation on mac. Moreover: apple hardware doesn't support UEFI (!). They has some EFI extension which is not compatible to run UEFI Windows 7 for example.

Will try rEFIt / win7#32, but don't believe much in that.

Labels: apple, bootcamp, EFI, shit, UEFI

Mac os x 10.7 (lion) by default (pre-installed OS on Air) has filename length limit of 31 chars (with extension). With manuals (pdf documents) being downloaded from support.apple.com frequently violateing that limit makes me wonder why the hell are they using such a legacy FS. This reminds me of world of windows 3.1 and OS/2 (when on old good FAT16 with its 8.3 char limit; native OS/2 HPFS didn't have such limit).
Want/have Macos, still hope for good usability?! Give them money, forget about usability, it's apple's concern now. They are going to pay dividends to shareholders this year, that's where apple's real usability lies. Definitely not in hell bunch of 'little' mac os x issues.

Labels: apple, macos, shit

When you switch apps by Command-Tab it's no way to say whether there's no app window at all or it was minimized. Moreover, there's no way to maximize window from keyboard. It's very uncomfortable when using auto-hide option for dock (cause you don't see without moving mouse and waiting for dock to explode the list of minimized windows). There's an article on this problem and there's only paid ($10) option to use some app for shortcuts. I hate this apple world. Like "We will bite your ass a little until you pay $10 for every point".
Actually apple's "we know UI better" is just "we know how to have your money" bullshit. Beware: Apple only have the smell of usability, not usability actually. Although they make nice thin 'air' laptops which don't get very hot like Acers do :) So you can get one and just install Windows/linux on it.

Making now Windows7 installation disk for BootCamp to install win on macbook.

Labels: apple, macos, shit, usability

I think this image is more than enough to understand the difference:

Labels: apple, coordinate, feelthedifference, ios, macos, shit

I've just understood that I look like an apple fan boy: sitting in a caffeshop using macbook, iphone and more: listening music on ipod. WTF, shit, how'd that happaned? (and when?) I never meant that!

Labels: apple, disclaimer, selfirony

Why the hell isn't it possible just to ADD some new photos to ipad without deleting (via sync) the old ones?! Why the hell the program is being sold for that purpose for $30?! And why the hell the camera connecting kit shows me only the jpgs from camera and not exported jpgs from lightroom copied to same SD-card?!
UPD: still cannot sync photos, tried 3 different computers, itunes shows _different_ problems: hdd has low space, cannot backup your ipad and finally cannot transfer your purchases to this computer AND photos are not synced to ipad!

Seems apple had tested only operations in which user pays money to apple such as buying stuff in their appstore.

Labels: apple, epic fail, ipad, shit

Yesterday we spent some 8 hrs with Daniil Safonov trying to connect microcontroller-based circuit, no luck at all.
If you want not just connect to audio in/out, but to send/receive bits, you just cannot do that without being reviewed by apple as an applicant of MFI program.
So you even wanna send or receive several bits over connector, you have no simple way to do that! The protocol of accessory identification is closed by Apple (with NDA and so on), fast hacks did not give us any luck.
From my point of view if you need catch some small data from external accessory, the most simple way is to use camera as input device (using some error-correction code), although there's no output device that useful. Funny thing: when applying for MFI, second step after entering your email, is entering name/address of your lawer.

Apple does its business from the trenches, and the war is against standalone developers-innovators. Does Apple just fear of loosing initiative?

Upd: same thoughts here in 1st comment.

Upd: Photo of our research process by Alexey Papulovskiy who joined us for discussing that accessory idea:


Update: my art. Feel free to download and use it anyway you like.

Labels: apple, iphone, shit

Yesterday i needed to update iphone (legal: not jailbroken, version 2 firmware to 3) for my friend. The whole task took more than 4 hours and was not fully successfull as iphone completely lost all free apps. Surely I backed up before updating. No success after several "All reset"->"Restore". What is interesting is that I can see all the apps icons and metadata in Backup data!.. No apps that are installed are incompatible with iphone os 3. Apple surely degrades.
So please note: if you have free apps and update to 3.1.3 ios from 2.* you have to find and install your free apps again. (hmm, after each update? or even after each restore from backup?).
Iphone is surely the odd waste of money.

Labels: apple, iphone, shit

I've just read this Computerworld article and made these two charts (using google chart api, which is relatively simple, but does not show any syntax error, which sometimes hard to find inside the debris of chart image HTTP GET parameters :-) ) of failure rates. First one is for different manufacturers (for comparision) and the second one is about aging of hardware.

Labels: acer, apple, dell, failure, hardware, hp, notebook, sony, toshiba