Tag Archives: iphone

How to rotate iPhone video on a Mac

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I ran into what is apparently a not uncommon problem with iPhone video: you start to take a video while phone still thinks it’s in portrait orientation (long axis of the phone vertical) and then the rest of the video is stuck that way, even if you took 99% of it in landscape mode (the way God intended). You thus have a video that the Mac always wants to display sideways. If that didn’t make any sense, the bottom line is I had a video I needed to rotate 90 degrees, and maybe you do, too. While there were plenty of solutions available on the PC, tons of Googling turned up virtually nothing for the Mac, short of finding an old copy of iMovie from five years ago.

Fortunately, I lucked in to a great solution, which doesn’t even require transcoding (with the attendant loss in quality that would result). By the way, this worked for me in getting a video from portrait to landscape, and I suspect it may only work in that situation. (That said, this should be the only valid situation in which this problem occurs, as nobody in their right mind should ever shoot a video in portrait mode, and if you do, I’m certainly not going to be complicit in aiding and abetting that crime against humanity.)

The solution requires a copy of the very nice all-purpose video player, VLC.

  1. Open the video in VLC
  2. It should actually open up in landscape orientation, regardless of the erronious orientation data in the movie file from the iPhone.
  3. Select “Streaming/Exporting Wizard” from the File menu.
  4. Select “Transcode/Save to file” and click next.
  5. Use “Existing Playlist” and select the file you just opened below, click next.
  6. Leave everything untouched (i.e. both check boxes blank) on the transcode screen and click next.
  7. Choose MPEG4, click next.
  8. Click the button to tell VLC where to put the output file, then click next.
  9. Click finish.

This should be all it takes. The process will be fairly quick, since there’s no transcoding, but its not instantaneous as it does have to move a lot of bits into a new file.

Getting the most data speed out of your cell phone

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You may have noticed there have been very few posts here. There’s a reason for that. The first and foremost is that sending my rants in to the void has not been as personally cathartic as I’d hoped. My other goal for the blog, which actually has been somewhat successful, was to simply provide a vehicle for putting information out on the web that I thought might be useful for people, and that I couldn’t find elsewhere. Based on the traffic stats, those posts have actually been worthwhile, and my only reason for not doing more of this kind of post has been that I’ve been too busy playing with my son, finishing up my projects at MIT, and trying to get a job (in that order).

So, going forward, I’m just going to focus on the second category of posts (though I reserve the right to devolve to the first occasionally). This blog was getting too negative, anyway. In that spirit, here’s a particularly useful trick I just figured out while sitting in a coffee shop working remotely.

I recently gave up my nice window office since I was feeling guilty about taking up a nice spot but only working part time. So, I’ve been doing a lot of work remotely, usually from a coffee shop given that working at home just isn’t very productive when there’s an adorable toddler running around begging to be hugged. So, I splurged and decided to start paying the extra $20 a month to use my phone as an internet connection for my computer. This is becoming a pretty common thing, and Sprint even offers phones that will create a WiFi network on the fly (I use Bluetooth with my iPhone). I expect this will become even more common once the iPhone hits Verizon, as Apple will reportedly allow this version of their phone to create WiFi hotspots, too.

I would typically just leave my phone laying flat on the table next to my laptop. However, giving it a minute of thought, this is actually pretty dumb, for two reasons. First, having the phone so close to the laptop is probably not smart, as computers are notorious spewers of electromagnetic interference at pretty much every frequency imaginable. In theory, they should be shielded, but nothing is perfect and between the memory data rates and the processor clock speeds, a computer pretty much has the cell phone spectrum covered directly, if not with overtones. So, keep the cell phone away form the computer at least a foot or so.

Most importantly, however, leaving the cell phone flat on a table is a bad idea because it puts the antenna horizontal, whereas cell phone signals are polarized vertically. (What this means, if you’re not a fan of electromagnetics, is that the electrons in the cell phone tower antenna are being shaken up and down, not side-to-side. Radio waves are really just a way of keeping track of how electrons interact with each other. Without anything interfering, the electrons in your cell phone’s antenna will be wiggled in the same orientation and frequency as those in the cell tower antenna. However, antennas are designed for their electrons to be wiggled in a certain direction (it’s almost always along the long axis of the antenna) and a cell phone’s antenna is oriented with the assumption that the user is holding it upright against their ear.) Once I realized this, I put my phone up against a nearby wall so that it was standing straight up and down (as if somebody were holding it) and my data rates nearly doubled.

So, if you’re using your cell phone as an internet connection, keep it a bit away from the computer and prop it up so it’s vertical. Keeping it vertical in your pocket probably isn’t a great idea, since your body is pretty good at blocking radio. If you find this helps, please let me know in the comments. Right now my experience alone isn’t very statistically significant, to say the least.

Why you should stick with AT&T if you have an iPhone

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It was just announced that Apple will finally port the iPhone over to Verizon’s network early next year. The conventional wisdom being that AT&T is an incompetent foil to Apple’s engineering genius, the only thing holding back the iPhone from true greatness, virtually everybody I know with an iPhone (and many waiting) say that they can’t wait until they can get a Verizon iPhone.

Let me pour a little rain on this parade. I’m tempted to say nothing (and let’s be honest, writing on this blog is pretty close to doing just that) because I’d love to have everybody run away to Verizon to clog up their network while those of us staying with AT&T enjoy the highest speeds we’ve ever seen. However, I suspect anybody moving from AT&T to Verizon will be sorely disappointed, for a few reasons.

First, it’s now widely acknowledged that the reception problems with the iPhone 3G, and to some extent the iPhone 4, are entirely the fault of Apple. It’s pretty clear from comparisons with AT&T network performance on other brands of phones versus the iPhone that Apple had a lot of learning to do about writing baseband wireless software. Apparently making a good cell phone is more than just sourcing a few million chips from Infineon and then treating the rest of the phone like a small laptop. Apple was way behind on the RF engineering needed to make a reliable cell phone. Even now, this is evident in the poor (albeit improved) performance of the iPhone 4, which can’t seem to figure out how to keep connected to a good signal and requires frequent cycling of the wireless chip to maintain a good connection. So, unless you live in an area just not well-served by AT&T, you will likely find slower speeds on Verizon. While Verizon does cover more physical space with their network, AT&T’s network is provably faster where it actually exists.

The above brings me to the second point: if Apple had a bit of a learning curve to figuring out how to write firmware for a GSM phone, it stands to reason they might have a few initial hiccups with a CDMA phone. Verizon’s network operates on a fundamentally different standard than AT&T’s, and Apple will be using wireless chips from a different company (Qualcomm) in their Verizon-compatible phones going forward. Given Apple’s propensity to punish the hell out of early adopters, and having paid my dues in that regard, I have no intention of seeing how they manage to screw up connectivity to Verizon’s network.

Finally, if the problem really is, to some extent, AT&T being overloaded by iPhone users, it would seem to me that the last thing you want to do is be part of the stampede over to Verizon. Just as things are finally speeding up for us sticking with AT&T, the poor existing Verizon folks will be waiting to check their e-mail as millions of iPhone users clog their networks. Verizon’s network may be the biggest, but my guess is that users in major cities will find out that biggest and fastest are two completely different things.

You can send me my check now, AT&T.

First impressions of the iPhone 4

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I had the honor of being the last person to get an iPhone 4 in Cambridge on launch day, wandering in to the Reserved line at 8:59, stupidly thinking the store closed at 9:30 instead of 9. Am I glad I braved the line and the self-loathing attendant with standing in line to buy a cell phone like some teenage girl camped out to buy Justin Bieber tickets? Yes. Yes I am. Below are my impressions on a few major elements of the phone.

Physical Build

This has the nicest feel to any consumer electronics device I’ve ever used, let alone a a phone. Using Corning Gorilla Glass for both the front and back was a beautiful touch. Not only does it look nice, but it resists fingerprints (due to oligophobic coatings which makes grease happier to stay on your finger than stick to the coating) and makes scratches nearly impossible. Early users who report scratches in the glass are likely seeing scratches in the coating, not the glass. While it’s a myth that only diamond can scratch glass, you’ll nonetheless have to try very hard to scratch Corning’s chemically hardened glass.

Another nice touch was going with a squared edge instead of the visually weak rounded edge of the prior generation. It’s like the difference between a ’91 Ford Taurus and ’65 Chevy ’67 Shelby GT. The phone has a solid heft, and the hard edges give it a more secure feel in the hand. (This will be especially important as you try to delicately hold the phone so as not to cause reception to drop, as I’ll describe below.) It has the feel of something substantial, that you might actually use for more than two years before throwing out.

Interface Feel

The A4 chip is impressive. The phone feel orders of magnitude faster than the 3G. No waiting for menus to come up. Everything is fluid and quick. They are going to save a bundle in post production when they do the iPhone 4 ads, as no special effects will be required to keep the ad under two minutes. (I’ve been tempted to make my own ad for the iPhone 3G where I do exactly what Apple does in their ads, except my ad will be shown in real time, with the announcer making awkward comments about the Met’s bullpen while he waits for the screens to come up and the keyboard to unfreeze.)

The iPhone 4 actually works as well in real life as the iPhone 3G does on TV.

Display

Shockingly vivid and sharp. I thought this was just going to be another phone, and I’d simply hoped it would (ironically) fix the reception problems I’ve had with my 3G. I had no idea how blown away I was going to be by the display. If you buy one of these phones, enjoy the feeling you get the first time you see it, because it’s going to be the last time you ever feel that way about a phone: despite the false controversy, these displays really are at the limit of what the human eye can see (unless you’re a 12 year old with 20-15 vision). There’s really no better they could do. Pictures look like slides placed on a light box. It’s quite an effect that you really have to see to appreciate.

Reception

Now, the ugly. The reception problems are true, and have already been acknowledged by Apple and Steve Jobs. Apple packed so much stuff into the inside of the phone that they had to put the antenna outside. The outer metal band of the phone is comprised of three distinct stainless steel segments that form the antenna used for (at least) cell and WiFi reception. (I’m not sure if the GPS antenna is internal, someone please let me know.) What this means is that when you hold the phone, you’re holding the antenna directly. Anybody whose ever touched a TV antenna knows that touching an antenna can affect the signal.

In this case, however, there is an even worse effect: if you hold the phone in your left hand (which you will if you’re right handed when using the touch screen with your right hand) your sweaty little palm will likely bridge two of the segments of the antenna. Since sweat conducts (due to dissolved salt) you will partially short the antenna. I can get the phone to drop from five bars to two just by holding it in a natural position. Even when not touching the phone, the reception is significantly worse than my wifes 3G phone, also on AT&T. I guess we’re in for another generation of iPhones that do everything well but make calls. Steve Job’s response to a user who e-mailed him about this was “A non issue. Just don’t hold it that way.” Yes, he actually said that. Even more amazingly, I’m guessing Apple will actually get away with this.

I can also tell you right now exactly what Apple is going to do about this: they will issue a software update in the near future that “fixes” the issue by artificially boosting the number of bars shown. This is what they did on the 3G, and people actually fell for it. Apparently having calls dropped while five bars are showing isn’t enough to raise any suspicion in the average Apple user. I have to sincerely admire a company that can achieve this kind of user loyalty. Steve Jobs is nearly ready to trade in the black mock turtleneck of a Sith apprentice for the hood of a master.

How did Walt Mossberg possibly miss the reception issues in his review? Robots don’t sweat.

Camera

The camera on the phone is so good that it’s probably going to replace my small Canon digital camera. Having a camera always with you that also geotags your photos is really nice, and something I never anticipated as a significant benefit of the iPhone. Nonetheless, I find myself taking a huge number of pictures with my 3G, because it’s just always there when my kid does something worth recording. So, at least for me, one significant justification for the upgrade is that Apple finally got the camera right on this model. While it’s not actually as good as a dedicated camera (even a small one) it’s close enough that it’s certainly worth not having to lug around a second device. Obviously, you’re not going to replace your DSLR with your iPhone, but when was the last time you, your SLR and something worth photographing all found themselves in the same place?

The iPhone 4 can also take 720p HD video. It’s not great quality, and is only at 23 frames per second. It has a slightly blurry quality to it, which I think is due to the detector being used at it’s full native resolution, rather than interpolated from a higher resolution. You can tell this is the case because the scene “zooms in” a bit when switching to video mode, which I believe is a technical limitation; there likely just isn’t enough camera transfer bandwidth available to allow for a full frame capture and then interpolation down to 720p, at least not in a way that wouldn’t require further reduction in the frame rate. I hoping there is a way to do lower resolution video at a higher frame rate, but I haven’t found it yet. HD video of any kind of pretty impressive for a cell phone, so it’s hard to complain about this at all.

Final Thoughts

Aside from the poor RF performance, it’s an amazing piece of engineering. You’ve got a high-end GPS chip, custom low-power processor, human resolution-limited display, broad spectrum LED backlight, a micro-machined gyroscope and accelerometer array, all clothed in chemically hardened glass package the size of a cigarette case. You basically have some of the most impressive modern optics, electronics, microtechnology and radio circuitry available, all in your hand. In fact, the RF problems stem from a design compromise they had to make in order to fit all of this in such a small package.

Having given them this much credit, however, one has to wonder about the wisdom of a design choice that puts size above reception on a cell phone. You know, a pebble is small, but it doesn’t get good reception, either. That’s why I don’t carry pebbles in my pocket even though they are incredibly portable. I’m willing to have a slightly larger phone if it actually works.

Will I keep the phone? I don’t know yet. I’ll have to see how well the phone works in problematic areas for reception, like MIT’s campus. I’ll also look at comparative download speeds between the 3G and the 4, to see how much the reception issue really affects things. However, for now I’m inclined to keep it and just tell myself that it’s really so much more than a phone, how can I expect it to make calls? Steve Jobs really knows what he’s doing…

Update: I recently did a download speed test. Holding the phone normally: 0.2 MB/s. Holding it with the tips of three fingers: over 2 MB/s. This is repeatable.

iOS 4 significantly slows down the iPhone 3G

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Just a quick post to warm people that the iOS 4.0 upgrade will significantly slow down an iPhone 3G. I don’t know if it’s the slower processor or the lack of RAM, but I very much regret making the upgrade. The only useful features of iOS 4 that are enabled on the 3G are folders and the new version of Mail. While those are nice, they don’t begin to make up for the incredibly slowness of the update for certain tasks. Typing in addresses in Mail, for example, often hangs the phone for several seconds. It now takes a few seconds for the settings menu to first come up, as well.

A new problem with the iPhone: stress cracks

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I noticed a crack in the back of my iPhone, between the mute button and the metal bezel. It just appeared, not caused by a drop or anything. Looking online, this is happening to a lot of people. The reason why this is happening, I think, is that Apple bonded a plastic back to a metal bezel. Metal has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion than plastic, so it’s not surprising that the plastic gets stress fractures at the weak points. Also not surprising that it happened to me during the winter, as the phone goes from

I swear, sometimes it seems like Apple is all design, no engineering. It would be nice if, in addition to the mock turtleneck-wearing crowd that runs the company, they would hire a mechanical engineer or two.

From what I’ve seen online, if you have this problem, Apple might replace your phone if it’s in otherwise pristine condition (i.e. there is no evidence you have dropped the phone).

Apple’s iPhone 2.1 software: Lipstick on a pig

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Among the myriad problems the 2.1 firmware was supposed to solve was poor 3G reception. How did Apple achieve this? Apparently by simply artificially displaying more bars, at least in part: In their release notes for the update, they list “improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display.” That’s just corporate speak for “we can’t fix these pieces of junk, but we don’t want to pay for a recall, so we’re going to just fool you into thinking your phone is working properly.”

Sure enough, I now get five bars of 3G signal in my office, where I used to get one or two! However, when I try to make a 3G call, the audio is warbled (is if packets are being constantly dropped) and it eventually either drops the call entirely, or switches back to standard GSM. All while showing five bars of 3G signal until it dies! Five bars of lies and deceit.

Update: Using my wife’s 2.0.2 iPhone 3G, I can confirm that Apple has, in fact, done little to nothing to improve the 3G reception beyond the psychological bromide of increasing the number of bars displayed. Holding the phones side by side, she gets one bar and I get five. However, download times for web pages are virtually identical (i.e. slow).