I noticed a couple of weeks ago that Gmail was behaving strangely on my iPhone - it wasn’t loading new mail and ultimately timed out with a Gmail server error. Frustrated, I remembered the local database. Here’s what I did to fix it.

NOTE: The usual warnings apply - technically, there should be no issues if you do this since Gmail stores all your mail in the cloud. That said, PERFORM THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

On the iPhone, go to your Settings screen and select Safari.

In the Safari settings, select Databases.

In the Databases settings, find and tap the Gmail database for the problem email address. It will be under the mail.google.com domain.

On the Databases settings screen, tap Edit in the upper right corner, then tap the red minus sign to remove the database. When you’re finished, tap Done in the upper right corner.

Reload Gmail in Mobile Safari and it should refresh the database and all should be back to normal.

Have another tip? Let us know.

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That said, I’m torn: what happens when Apple releases a software update that effectively blocks the use of said software? Do I get a refund? Probably not.

Most likely, I’ll have to wait until the iPhone Dev Team jailbreaks the latest software update, then wait for the developer of my paid software to create an update that works on the newly jailbroken phone…then hope that Apple doesn’t negate it all over again.

Are you paying for software that only works on jailbroken iPhones? Would you?

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If this is going to turn into yet another platform war, count me out. I’ve got a Kindle and I’m sticking with it.

[via engadget]

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like the other peecols in my collection these three are strongwilled and wouldn’t let me out of the house for this trip without coming along. i relented and brought them with me.

beginning to think that bringing rilla wasn’t that smart of an idea. he caused trouble at the airport, made flatulent sounds from my backpack and now he’s gone wild after seeing wgirl and astronof holding hands.

who knew this would be a romantic getaway for them? not me. and defintely not rilla. it’s soooo evident now that he’s got a massive monkey crush on wgirl.

i need to talk him down.

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though i am hearing from la cruzz that he might go toe to toe with killa in a peecol battle royale.

could be interesting. if it happens, i’ll have the pics.

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these two wouldn’t let me out of the house unless they could come with me to panera.

this action shot catches volv’s disgust that there are no cougars here today and fullofsun caring for mutilated recycled trees.

he asked that i simply wipe with my hand from now on. i’d really hate to let him down. we’ll see.

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Apple hasn’t confirmed this photo (which they usually do by issuing a Cease and Desist Letter) but the “source” indicated that we’ll see this in the spring of this year for around $899. ($899 for a netbook!? That’s expensive even for Apple…)

Here are the purported specs:

• 10.4-inch display with 1280 x 768 resolution and LED backlighting
• NVIDIA MCP79
• Intel Atom Z740 1.83GHz with 1MB L2 cache
• 2GB DDR3-800 (fast, like the rest of the MacBook family)
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
• 64GB Solid State Drive
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
• 1 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Mini Display Port
• Li-Ion  Battery running at 5100mA

With all that said, Steve Jobs has indicated that “you’ll see something very interesting and unique from Apple in this category.” Does this sound all that unique? Methinks not.

[via Asus Eee PC blog]

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Here it is: the first netbook with an optical drive - a Super-Multi optical disc drive which can read and write data to DVD or CD media.

Of course, it has other features that make it a serious contender in the evolution of the species with an Express Card expansion, a multi-touch touchpad, a digital array microphone, 1.3 megapixel webcam, and a software suite featuring EzMessenger for synchronizing data. Worried about security? Don’t be - it’s got a fingerprint reader and security software for added peace of mind.

Just as important, the battery will give you 5.9 hours of juice.

Here are the complete specs:

• 10-inch display (1024×600 resolution)
• Intel Atom N280 1.6GHz CPU
• Intel GN40 ICH9Mb chipset
• 1GB RAM (expandable to 2GB)
• 120 GB HDD
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
• 1.3 MP Webcam
• Hi-Definition Audio

Pricing will range from $531-$590 USD.  Release date (internationally) is yet to be announced.

[Via the Asus Eee PC blog]

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As part of my weekly podcast, I want to do a live streaming episode, somewhere on-location. It can’t be a lengthy interview because the phone doesn’t have a tripod mount. (Note to self…hmmm…)

I need you to help me decide! I’ll post a poll later in the week but in the interim, post your ideas in the comments.

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So, when I saw the oh-so-creatively-named InstallerApp from RipDev pop up on Gizmodo and Engadget, I jumped on it. (After all, they are “The iPhone Authority.” Ahem…)

I was interested in this app because it appeared that I didn’t have to hack my Mac’s USB kernel extensions to “fix DFU mode” in OS X Leopard 10.5.6. (Update: There’s now a bona fide User Manual and it indicates the need to fix DFU mode.)

I also liked InstallerApp’s iTunes-like…

“…native Mac OS X application that allows you easily download applications from Installer and Cydia directly onto your computer, and install them to the iPhone connected with USB cable.”

InstallerApp interface

I was drawn to the fact that I could manage everything from my desktop.

Other (self-proclaimed) attractive features included improved stability…

Safer Cydia Applications Some applications may require dpkg for functioning — package management system utilized by Cydia, and Pusher can install it too, but only much more effectively and without making a mess of your iPhone file system. We’ve completely rebuilt dpkg by optimizing it and throwing away superfluous libraries and other stuff that is not required, so it won’t cause any instability in iPhone OS. And it for sure won’t replace any system libraries as Cydia does.

…performance and battery life:

“Light” Daemon To install applications and to let InstallerApp know which packages are installed on the iPhone, a special background application is installed on the device. Not only it takes very little of precious disk space but it also is only being launched on demand instead of always running in the background (and it exits as soon as the task it was invoked for is done). This saves on your phone battery, CPU cycles and memory.

So, with my trusty credit card in hand, I sent $7 to a couple of guys in Russia and hoped for the best.

I downloaded and installed the app, then purchased a license key through eSellerate.

After launching and entering my license key, I began the process of setting up my iPhone. After numerous attempts and restarts of the iPhone (which I thought I’d bricked each time) I realized it would probably help to turn off “Auto-Sync on Connect” in iTunes as it launched and attempted to sync each time the iPhone was mounted.

After almost an hour, I still had no success.

At this point, I was so determined to accomplish my goal that I decided to try it the “regular way” following Rachel Baker’s great tutorial. (While trying to use InstallerApp, I even received responses to my frustrated tweets from Rachel, prompting me to use her tutorial.)

First, I had to fix DFU mode. I downloaded the Automator script found here and ran it numerous times without success. After a total of 90 minutes trying to jailbreak the phone, I gave up and went to bed.

When I returned to my desk the following morning, I had every intention of just giving up on jailbreaking my iPhone. I then realized that the DFU script had backed up my kernel extensions to a folder on my desktop. What I thought occurred was the script had installed the modified kernel extensions and just unexpectedly quit during the process. Wanting to keep my machine in order, I decide to replace the kernel extensions manually.

Bad idea.

After my MacBook cleared its boot caches and restarted, none of my input devices worked. That included my external mouse and keyboard and the trackpad and built-in keyboard.

Crap on toast! I had real work to do and this wasn’t helping.

I booted the machine with extensions off (safe mode), retrieved the correct kernel extensions from my son’s MacBook and attempted to copy them to the appropriate location in the System folder…without success.

Apparently, kernel extensions need to have permissions set for “System” and a user called “Wheel”:

I guess I could have launched Terminal and set the owner and permissions accordingly using chown and chmod, but I didn’t feel like messing around with that if I didn’t have to - it is the System folder, after all.

Then I remembered a different method that I’d found for “fixing DFU mode”. According to BlogsDNA, if you were a member of the Apple Developer Connection, you could download a package with the 10.5.5 USB drivers - complete with an installer - and reboot.

Thankfully, that worked, and I had my input devices working again.

But after more than three hours, I still didn’t have a jailbroken iPhone and felt like I’d expended a lot of effort without results.

So, now that I had DFU mode restored, I thought I might try InstallerApp again. Sure enough, InstallerApp worked this time. Finally. (Note to RipDev: you should indicate that DFU mode needs to be restored before using your application.)

Once the installer daemon was on the iPhone, I could use the InstallerApp desktop software to install some packages from Cydia and Installer. I knew immediately that I wanted:

• Search
• Copy and Paste
• PDAnet (so I could tether my MacBook)
• Qik and Ustream.tv for live streaming
• A video recording app (CyCorder or iPhone Video Recorder)
• BossPrefs (so I could easily turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc.)
• Cydia and Installer (so I could install apps from the device itself)

The InstallerApp interface is very iTunes-like. Software packages are aggregated from both Cydia and Installer repositories. Available software packages appear in a categorical folder structure on the left. When selected, the category contents appear on the right. When an individual package is selected in the bottom-right pane, the package description appears in the top-right pane. To install, simply click “Install” in the top-right pane. All package dependencies are installed for you. Simple.

(Nit: when you uninstall a package, InstallerApp leaves the package-dependencies on the phone. You can try removing them, but you don’t know if they are in use by another app or not. Kinda reminds me of Windoze…)

I easily found the packages I wanted using the InstallerApp search box, located in the lower right of the application. I selected pdaNet, clicked “Install” and waited for the package to download. I received an “Unexpected Error” message.

Wonderful.

I tried installing a few more apps and was successful, but others repeated the error message. I figured I’d give it a rest since I had work to do. At that point, I had Qik, Ustream, Search and BossPrefs, Cydia and Installer working and was damn happy to have them.

Later in the day, I tried using Cydia and Installer to retrieve the pdaNet package directly to the phone.

Fail.

Apparently, Cydia doesn’t have enough repositories installed and I can’t seem to get it to add more. Installer just didn’t have the app in any of its repositories.

This morning I connected my iPhone to my MacBook and launched InstallerApp, which proceeded to update itself - and it’s repositories. Cool.

iTunes then told me I would have to Restore my iPhone, then InstallerApp instructed me to install the same software on my phone as yesterday. Hmmm.

I went through the install process with InstallerApp (which only takes a minute or two) and proceeded to download pdaNet. It worked! I then proceeded to install CyCorder and iPhone Video Recorder.

Final Thoughts

This was more than just a review of InstallerApp, but a review of the process required to jailbreak an iPhone on a Mac running 10.5.6.

Overall, I like InstallerApp. It provides me with a management interface on my Mac desktop that I wouldn’t otherwise have. Was it worth $7? Yes, I’d say so. I think it’s more convenient to download applications to a desktop then transfer to an iPhone rather than install everything from the device.

It’s still a bit rough around the proverbial edges but will likely improve with time.

I can’t yet determine if it delivers on its promises of stability and performance, but I’ll provide an update as I continue to use it.

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