Go figure, A Flash bug that only affects newer Firefox builds on Apple OSX.

We were working on a slick Flash header for a client and noticed something odd. Where the transparency of the flash document met the content below it, things would be thrown out of alignment by 1px.After cross-examining web browsers across several platforms we noticed this issue was only affecting Firefox on Apple OSX. A quick Google search turned up this bug thread over at Mozilla:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=550246

The problem is the way the Flash object is drawn when it is in a div that is centered. When the width of the window is an odd number, the document is thrown out of alignment. When the width of the window is an even number, things look perfect.

To fix this problem I adjusted the height of my Flash document by 19px, and then in CSS I moved my Flash document up by -19px. This moved the edge of the Flash out of the way of any elements that it would affect, in turn hiding the 1px misalignment from sight.

Anyone else have the misfortune of dealing with this issue?

Update 07.22.2010: Removing the Activesync timing settings profile and upgrading to 4.0.1 just might have fixed everything! Scroll to the end of this post for the latest usability updates.

Update 07.15.2010: Still Not Fixed! I jumped the gun… Look at the bottom of this post for my updates.

Well, that wasn’t a part of the plan.

Anyone else notice unexplained, excessive data usage and a quick draining battery since switching to iOS 4? With a little luck and the magnificent Google, luckily was able to resolve my ActiveSync blues.

After upgrading (perhaps prematurely) to iPhone OS 4 on June 24th, I immediately began to have problems sending and receiving emails through my Exchange account using ActiveSync. To get rid of the issue, I decided to take the simple route and delete my account and start fresh. After the first reset, my mail, contacts and calendar synced up perfectly. Problem solved I thought.

The next day, I discovered many sent emails on my iPhone would end up sitting in my outbox for extended periods of time. For so long that my iPhone would continuously try to sync the email message to the Exchange server unless I went to the outbox and deleted the messages that were unable to be delivered. More worrying, was the fact that my brother was experiencing exactly the same issues on a different wireless carrier.

At first I thought it was a problem with my Exchange server and the version of ActiveSync installed on the iPhone. Ultimately, that thought turned out to be incorrect. At the time I had no choice but to accept the issue and figured it was a result of me being overly eager to upgrade to iOS. Rolling back to 3.1.3 was definitely a “to do” for the coming week.

Bugs and new software go hand in hand. Plus, between my iPhone, Exchange server version (2010) and the version of ActiveSync software running on the Exchange server, I didn’t really know where to turn to resolve the issue on my own. To add to my confusion, my Exchange host, Intermedia, responded to a trouble ticket I submitted stating that no one else had reported any issues syncing their Exchange accounts with their iPhones. I’d have to wait until iOS 4.0.1…

Here were the two issues with my iPhone since my upgrade:
1. Accelerated battery drain on my iPhone 3Gs
2. More worrying, the fact that I managed to transfer over 1 GB of data with my iPhone without my knowledge (I’ve never come close to transferring this amount of data on my phone over the course of a few days. If I hadn’t had the curiosity to check my data usage for the past month, I’d never have known I’d blown through 1 GB of useless data transfer over the course of a few days.)

Here were my worst data days:
June 28th: 453440 Kilobytes of data transfer
June 29th: 612016 Kilobytes of data transfer

These days, it turns out, were excessively bad because I forgot to delete the 3 emails stuck in my outbox. Also, I didn’t check my data usage until the 30th since I didn’t think that the battery drain and constant denial of Exchange server connectivity were related. Initially I suspected that the accelerated battery drain was a result of the increased processing power required to manage multiple open applications. It wasn’t until I saw the data wheel spinning next to my carrier’s name 30 minutes after trying to send a couple of emails that I put everything together. Immediately, I stopped syncing my Exchange account using push to limit my data transfer damage and stopped using the iPhone to send emails.

As it turns out,the cause of my expedited battery drain was in fact intermittent (at best) Exchange server connectivity issues. The good thing is that I have 2 GB a month of data with my phone’s account. The bad thing is that if I was out of the country while having these problems I’d be very poor.

This weekend, with this knowledge in hand, I again deleted and set up my Exchange account on my iPhone. My hope was that some profile settings may have been adjusted since I last synced my iPhone to my Exchange account over ActiveSync. The initial sync up was great. However, just as before, I was having problems delivering emails. I noticed it more on emails with attachments (such as images) but even emails that were less than an kilobyte in size were again sitting in my outbox. To protect myself for any unwanted data usage, I turned off push notifications for my mail account and started to manually check emails. Responses to emails were usually done from my home or work computer. It was at this point that both my brother and I figured we’d be stuck with this issue until Apple updated iOS to 4.0.1.

Fortunately, there’s been a fix issued by Apple! I’m happy to report since applying the patch 2 days ago that I’ve had no problems sending or receiving emails and that my data usage is back to normal. Phew. Turns out the patch was posted on June 28th. I, only discovered it on Sunday.

So, if you’re experiencing a quick draining battery, excessive data usage and, most importantly, emails that are sitting in your outbox follow this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398

Apple lists the symptoms as: “Immediately after updating to iOS 4, some users may notice that Exchange ActiveSync Mail, Contacts, or Calendars do not sync, or sync very slowly. In addition, some Exchange Server administrators may notice their servers running slowly.”

Perhaps the support page should also list the additional symptoms of severe battery drain and excessive data usage which are a direct result of iPhone not syncing or connecting properly with the Exchange server. Again, I’m happy to report that both issues are resolved since applying this patch to the iPhone.

07.15.2010 Update:
The Exchange connectivity issues haven’t disappeared. Unfortunately, the patch that Apple issued to increase the wait time for authentication hasn’t resolved my problems or the problems of many more iOS 4 upgraders. I’m able to send small emails most of the time (as opposed to 100% before my upgrade) but replies or emails with attachments fail 100% of the time.

On Tuesday I tried sending two emails, each with a 200kb image attached. Sure enough, they got stuck in my Drafts folder after trying to send themselves for over an hour. After a hard reboot (turning the iPhone on and off), the emails were sent. However, this is still not an ideal solution and will still cause massive bandwidth usage if you’re not careful.

I just read that iOS 4.0.1 was released but this update apparently only fixes the antenna issue on new iPhones and the calculation used to determine the signal strength. Also, to add to the sadness, users on this Apple Support Thread have upgraded and are still unable to send emails through their Exchange accounts.

07.15.2010 Update:
Okay, looks like the profile patch page I was referring to has been updated. Apple is now telling users to upgrade to iOS version 4.0.1 if it’s available to them. I can upgrade! I’ll try upgrading tonight.

07.17.2010 Update:
Okay folks. I’ve updated to 4.0.1. Here are my most recent notes:

- I can send emails no problem that aren’t replies
- If I try to reply to an email I get the spinning data wheel of death. From what I can tell, replied to emails time out. I also can’t stop the replied to email message from sending. Reply tos don’t even show up in my Outbox as they are attempted to be delivered. The only way to stop the email client from trying to send such an email is to off my phone and reboot. Otherwise, my phone dies (it did this yesterday).
- Larger emails (emails with attachments) have been able to be delivered

07.22.2010 Update:
Email is working better (maybe even back to normal?!)… I’m sending emails with no problems. Replies are working too. Even tried sending an email with an attachment (a 1.3 MB image!!!) and it went through.

I’m guessing my Exchange host Intermedia made some configuration changes on their end to support the iPhone’s possibly flaky Activesync protocol implementation because I am having, as far as I can tell, 100% email success in the past few days.

07.23.2010 Update:
Hmmm. Possible bad news. Had a couple spinning data wheels today when I opened my mail client on my iPhone. Got paranoid about data usage and rebooted my iPhone, though I was still able to send all my outgoing emails.

07.29.2010 – 08.02.2010 Update:
Had time outs again. I’ve isolated time outs when sending emails to when I am replying to a message. It’s only when I am replying to a message and if I can type the entire message or copy and paste what I wrote within 20 seconds of opening the message I can actually send it. If I type a reply for more than 20 seconds, I get the spinning data wheel of death and have to reboot.

Here at Offshoot we have been following the World Cup like mad!

Because of our HUGE love of the game, my friend Geoff (who’s a sports guru) recently sent me this hilarious pic of the front page of the NY Post. This paper went to print following the U.S. loss to Ghana on the weekend.

I had to share it because really, this is definitely journalism at its best! My favourite part is the use of the underline. It makes me envision a kid stamping their foot.

Okay, so I upgraded to iPhone OS 4 yesterday. A pretty painless process that took me about 20 minutes including the download. I read reports on Gizmodo.com that some upgrades were taking more than 2 hours to complete. Sorry, if you had to deal with that.

Anyway, I’m adjusting to the new iPhone OS 4 interface experience. Overall I’m pretty happy. However, I’m feeling like if I had never used an iPhone before upgrading to OS 4 I’d be much more nimble as I move through the interface. Right now, I find myself reverting to old habits from version 3 of the iPhone OS. With some time, I’m sure I’ll be up to speed and hopefully forgetting many of my subconscious habits from OS 3.

I do have one gripe when it comes to multitasking application management. It’s how Apple’s decided to handle the closing of open background applications in the multitasking menu. I’m not a fan (nor will I ever be) of having to hold my finger on the open application icons to initiate the closing process. To close each application that’s open by clicking on the minus button that pops up on the app takes far too long. To me, a much more elegant and quicker solution to closing down open applications would be to simply let me swipe the icon vertically to remove it from the multitasking menu, much like how I’d delete an email in the Mail application. Hopefully this is a feature that Apple’s going to implement in an upcoming update to the operating system.

Take a look at the screen grab below that illustrates my concept:

ArtistData made some serious moves in the last while with their “All In One” posting service. They built a sweet application that takes the annoying nature out of posting to multiple networking platforms and because of their growing success, they have now been acquired by Sonic Bids. What does this mean? ArtistData has now secured a nice bed for future development that will do nothing but bring their process to a new, tighter level. On top of that, they are now getting the exposure of the already massive Sonic Bids user base.

When I first read about it this morning, it gave me a sense of excitement. The web is a mash up of a billion different ways to get your word out. Partnerships likes these only help refine the ever saturated, over populated game of social networking.

One thing to note: The free version of this service is still… free. However, ArtistData incorporating their paid packages into the Sonic Bids paid account system.

Read the ArtistData press release from founder Brenden Mulligan below:

ArtistData Community,

Brenden

Check out ArtistData

James and I after completing our first half marathon.

Yay! We made it!

I don’t think so.

Even though Apple and Canada’s national carriers (Rogers, Fido, Telus, and Bell) will tell you (as an Apple Store employee told me) that when you buy an iPhone that you’ll be locked (FOREVER!) to the carrier you choose, there’s a way to get off your current provider and give it another go with another provider. The good news is that I’ll find out 100% next week when a client of mine moves a few iPhone 3GS’ from Telus to Rogers.

I found a nice scoop on the Virgin Mobile Canada website FAQs. I know 3G Virgin phones run on Bell and Telus’ new HSPA network but it’s the first documented proof I’ve seen in Canada that an iPhone has no association to a carrier other than the SIM card and downloaded carrier settings associated with a device.

So here’s the FAQ from the Virgin Mobile site:

Can I bring my iPhone to Virgin Mobile?

Yes. If you have an existing iPhone with another company and it has been unlocked, then a Virgin Mobile SIM card with a smartphone plan will work. Virgin Mobile can’t unlock iPhones for customers. Once unlocked and activated with an active Virgin Mobile SIM card, members will need to change their service settings to the Virgin Mobile settings to get up and running.

So, if you dislike your current carrier (in Canada a lot of folks do!), looks like all you’ll need to do is unlock your iPhone or restore it to the factory settings to initiate the switch up. Once this is done and you’ve inserted the SIM card provided by your new carrier you’ll be back up and running (providing you’ve given your new carrier your phone’s IEMI number).

This post will be a work in progress. I expect to have a detailed examination of results sometime next week.

How cool would it be to go to school and do all your note taking and be taught class lessons on an iPad? Well, before they’re even released in Canada, students at Monte Vista Christian School are learning their studies through the Apple iPad.

According to an article in the Toronto Star one teacher told the paper “They provide new access to photos, videos, daily newspapers and resource material that enhance the curriculum.”

What’s interesting about this is that the iPads are not just for etextbook resources, a slew of apps have been created to help students with their learning and note taking. For example, say a student misses a sentence while the teacher is lecturing, well there’s an app that can record the whole lesson so the student can listen to it at home later. There’s also apps for students to check their answers immediately after answering a question on a pop quiz and say the student wanted the graph that the teacher just wrote on the board…no problem.

Sounds like a pretty sweet learning tool to me. I wonder if the excitement for the new “learning resources” at Monte Vista was similar to when my grade 3 French class got a group cassette player that let us play our French vocab lessons…“Je suis…alle…a…la…bib.lio.theque.”

The full article on the school can be found here.

Your people forgot to call my people.

And it only took us 5 hours to notice!

In an attempt to curb the high demand of the iPad sales in the US, Apple has delayed the international release date of the new gizmo to the end of May. But, for the first time ever, Canadians actually get an online pre-order date of May 10.

According to an article in The Toronto Star, Apple Headquarters had this to say about the delay “We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason – the iPad is a runaway success in the U.S. thus far.”

LAME.

It better be less buggy when we get it!!!!