Tagged: Apple

This computer has been previously synched with an iPhone or another iOS device

Earlier this week, iTunes on my Mac encountered an issue that wouldn’t allow it to sync normally. The error message read “This computer has been previously synched with an iPhone or another iOS device” and asked whether I wanted to either “Setup as a new iPhone” or to “Restore from a backup.” I didn’t want to select the second option because I backup my iPhone to iCloud, and the backup on my Mac was several weeks old and useless.

This is the same problem that Michael Williams encountered and blogged about in August with iOS 5 beta. He suggested a tricky workaround: initiating a restoration and then yanking the USB cable from Mac when that process starts. That causes the sync to fail and, after iTunes chides you for disrupting the restoration, it reestablishes the normal synchronization process.

When I tried to follow this process, I got a different but equally effective result. First, I backed up to iCloud to ensure that if iTunes wiped my phone in order to restore it, I would have a very recent backup. Second, when I initiated the restoration, iTunes did not actually try to restore the phone. Instead, it performed a normal sync, and all seemed well. The only issue was that it restored all of the apps I had once downloaded but since removed from my iPhone. (I had done so because I was trying to stop the infamous iPhone’s battery drain that many users encountered after upgrading to iOS 5.)

Based on the commentary on other blog posts, it looks like this might be a side effect of WiFi sync. However, I have also been doing that with my iPad since the release of iOS 5, and nothing like this has happened with that device.

Yes, it works. Except for the one time I needed it

Macworld finally got around to reviewing the “Find My iPhone/iPad/iPod” application for iOS. It has indeed been really cool to have when I can’t find my phone, and I am pretty certain that it’s either at home or where I was last. But the one time I really needed it was when I lost my iPad on the way from Los Angeles to Washington, DC.

I tried to use “Find My iPad” but there were three problems.

  1. First, I had switched it off, as your supposed to do when flying below 10,000 feet.
  2. Second, there was a passcode for the device so even when someone turned it on, it wouldn’t do anything. I also had it set to “self-destruct” if someone incorrectly entered the passcode ten times.
  3. Third, I had turned off both the WiFi and 3G antennae so even if someone had turned on the device, it would not be on the networks.

It’s safe to assume that whoever found it just wiped it and has been using it since or has been sold somewhere.

Oh well.

iOS Bug: Don’t Get a Push Notification While Organizing Apps

iOS Notification Crash

Yesterday, while I was organizing my apps, I received a push notification  badge that made my iPhone go a little wacky. The screen seems to have been pushed one row higher and no matter what button I pushed, the screen remained unresponsive. Shutting down and rebooting cleared the problem, but it was a strange bug to discover.

I posted a screen capture of the errant iPhone home screen.

I’ve had an iPhone of some type since August 2008, and this is the first time this has happened. And come to think of it, what are the odds that this will happen. I just wonder why the push notification badge causes the home screen to lock up when arranging apps on the screen.

What’s Eating My iMac Processor? Adobe CS3 Version Cue

Adobe Version Cue Process Hog

Since I bought the 2009 iMac 21″, I had noticed that the computer was running “hot.”

Looking at the Activity Monitor utility, the CPU would be running really high and applications would run pretty slow. One process in particular, launchd, would be taking up nearly 15% of the CPU, which seemed very strange considering no other application took up so much processing power.

With the increased processor load, Mail would often crash over and over again. Also, applications that used audio or video would often hang even before they opened and would never respond. (By audio and video applications, I mean iTunes, Quicktime Player, Airfoil, Pulsar, Radioshift and even VLC.) I also tried to activate my Firewall, and System Preferences would hang, too. Clearly, something is wrong.

Looking at the Console utility, I noticed that one entry that came up repeatedly in the diagnostic logs: Adobe Version Cue. It also noted that the parent process of Version Cue was “launchd.” After digging around on the Internet, I saw that many bulletin boards recommended uninstalling the “Version Cue Server. It turns out that very few firms actually use this functionality.

In Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers, you can add/remove specific components of Adobe CS3. So I had this utility uninstall Adobe CS3 Version Cue Server, and just like that the Activity Monitor Dock gauge went down to a nice low reading.

So there you go, if you’re having problems with media applications hanging, a runaway launchd process, and you have Adobe Creative Suite installed, try uninstalling the Version Cue Server.

Don’t Let Facebook Rat You Out

Maybe it’s because I just did a class on contemporary privacy in the media industries, and used Facebook as a case study, but it looks like the amount of information available to anyone on Facebook was enough to find the guy who found the iPhone prototype.

On Thursday, Wired has a story on the guy who found the iPhone and then reportedly sold it to Gawker’s Gizmodo website. In the story, we learn that “Wired.com identified Hogan as the finder of the prototype by following clues on social network sites, and then confirmed his identity with a source involved in the iPhone find.”

If that doesn’t put a little bit of caution before you post any shenanigans on Facebook, consider this timeline of Facebook’s privacy policies over the years.