Hacking an original Speck ToughSkin iPhone case to work with a 3G
September 15, 2008 on 10:35 pm | In Tech Tips, Web/Tech | 1 CommentI recently ditched my old Treo phone for a 3G iPhone. When I bought it, I asked a number of people for recommendations for a case. Matt Buchanan was quick to recommend the Speck ToughSkin. I ordered one. It is a great case. Highly recommended. BUT…I was constantly battling a problem where my face would mysteriously dial numbers while I was on a call. I even managed to conference call in a client’s fax machine once…much to my wife’s frustration.
Eventually, I figured out that the problem was the ToughSkin case. I had mistakenly ordered an original iPhone case instead of the 3G case. The iPhone 3G has a sensor in it that detects when the phone is near your head…and disables the keypad. Of course, my case blocked said sensor…rendering it useless and causing my face dialing problem.
The thought of shelling out more money for a new case was more than my frugal mind could handle. Surely I could mod my existing case to accommodate (uncover) the sensor).
I figured that if I held the phone up to a bright light…I could probably see the sensor through the black plastic. Doing so, much to my disappointment, I noticed not one, but three sensors. A pair just to the left of the earpiece, and a third a little distance further towards the side. I took a dry erase marker and marked on the case the approximate locations of the sensors. See the below photo:
I decided that the sensor in the middle would be the easiest to uncover, so I crossed my fingers (hoping that was the one), pulled out an old handheld hole punch and punched a hole in the case. See below photo:
Sadly…it did not work. Uncovering that sensor did not make the issue go away. I’m sure it’s there for a reason, so it was probably a good idea to uncover it anyway.
I proceeded to punch two more holes (uncovering the other two sensors). Magically…it worked. No more face dialing! Here is a photo (paint stick used for contrast) of where the last two holes were punched (before I pulled out an razor knife and cleaned up the cut to make it look smooth and generally professional):
So…for any of you with an older Speck ToughSkin case you want to use on your 3G, I hope you find these instructions useful.
[note: yes, the original iPhone is a little differently shaped than the 3G. However, I see no way in which the original ToughSkin case is off/small/large for my 3G.]
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Time Slips 2008 — automatically logging you out
September 9, 2008 on 7:30 am | In Tech Tips | 2 CommentsTimeslips 2008 has a very annoying “feature”…it automatically logs you out of the database after a certain period of inactivity (60 minutes?). I anyone knows how to kill that feature, please let me know.
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Should You Add Dirty Words to Your MS Word Dictionary?
September 3, 2008 on 7:56 pm | In Tech Tips | Comments OffLarry Kasoff thinks so. See: Exclude Dictionary Part 1: Using An Exclude Dictionary to Prevent Patent Profanity
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Creating Flow Charts Using Word 2007
September 1, 2008 on 9:16 am | In Tech Tips | Comments OffSee: The How To Geek on Create A Flow Chart In Word 2007.
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Do Not Disturb … for email?
August 20, 2008 on 12:07 pm | In Tech Tips | Comments OffIf you have Outlook 2007 running on an Exchange Server, you might be interested in one of Microsoft’s new prototype plugins. Called “Email Prioritizer” that “provides a ‘do not disturb’ button that temporarily pauses new email arrival, and prioritizes email with a 0-3 star rating system.” [hat tip Wade Dorrell via Twitter]
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Are attorneys (on average) lacking in basic technical skills?
July 26, 2008 on 5:15 pm | In Tech Tips, The-Practice-of-Law | 3 CommentsIt is surprising to most people, but attorneys tend to be late adopters of technology. I think it is a result of having a “I don’t have time to learn something new, must keep working” mentality.
Proof: check out branding guru Justin Foster’s recent post on “5 technical skills a modern professional should know” and tell me what percent of the attorneys you know have all five of those skills.
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Best new gadget….Netflix Player by Roku
July 14, 2008 on 9:20 pm | In Tech Tips, Television | Comments OffNetflix (last year?) added a service called “Watch Instantly” where they allowed subscribers to watch streamed selections on their computers for free (as part of their subscription). The titles in the “Watch Instantly” library (10,000+ of them) aren’t “New Releases,” but older movies and TV episodes. Example content available on Watch Instantly: The Office: Season 1, Dexter: Season 1, Heroes: Season 1 and 2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Young Frankenstein.
I guess I’m too Gen X, but watching movies on my computer isn’t my thing.
Then…a company by the name of Roku teamed up with Netflix to release a $99 “Netflix Player.” The Netflix Player is a little box about the size of 5 stacked CD jewel cases that you connect to your computer network at home (via wired or wireless) and to your TV set via standard A/V connectors (A/V, S-video, Component, HDMI). It took a whopping 4 minutes for me to unbox it, plug it in and get it connected to my TV/router.
Once it boots up, the Netflix Player then gives you a unique code that you enter on the Netflix website that links your Netflix Player box to your Netflix account. As soon as you do that, every title you have in your Netflix “Watch Instantly” queue shows up in the Netflix Player’s queue.
The Netflix Player comes with little remote control that you can use to navigate the menu. When I select a title to watch, it takes 20-40 seconds for it to “spool up” and start playing near DVD quality. Very cool.
We’ve watched dozens of things in the last couple weeks, from my kids watching cartoons, to my wife and I watching old TV series episodes. If they add support for CBS or Hulu.com in the future (as rumors seem to indicate is a possibility), I would consider canceling my cable subscription…it is THAT good.
If you have Netflix…you might consider picking one up for your TV too.
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Online Time Clock for Law Firm Employees
July 13, 2008 on 10:19 am | In Idaho, Tech Tips, The-Practice-of-Law | 1 CommentWith mentions in TechCrunch, Technorati, Inc.com, and an iPhone App…..one local Idaho software company (TSheets) is making big waves! See also this Idaho Business Review post.
As a user of their product (my office uses their software for our employees), I completely understand why. It is a great product. One slick feature is that the administrator (e.g., your office manager) has to approve any computer used to log in/out. Thus, an employee can’t log in/out from home (unless you approve them to do so).
So…if you’re looking for an online time clock (that exports to QuickBooks)…you might check out TSheets.com. They even have a free trial!
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Quicktime, TIF and USPTO Images
July 2, 2008 on 1:18 pm | In Tech Tips | 2 CommentsQuick update to an earlier “tech tip”* post of mine (”Tech Tip: Die QuickTime, Die“) regarding how QuickTime blocks the use of AlternaTiff
(my preferred Tiff viewer for USPTO patent images).
Earlier today, I decided to smack QuickTime around again (my problem was back, even though (1) I reinstalled AlternaTiff AND (2) AlternaTiff showed up as the preferred plug-in to use in FireFox AND (3) Windows’ default file type (for .tif, .tiff) was NOT set to QuickTime. Even though these were all set how they should be…QuickTime still managed to be the plug-in that loaded whenever I tried to view a USPTO patent image (.tif).
In that I don’t remember the last time I used QuickTime (and I get sick and tired of killing that little Q icon in my task bar every time iTunes updates**), I decided to uninstall QuickTime. Guess what. Mysteriously, AlternaTiff works again.
After I went nuclear on QT, I noticed this page on the Idaho Secretary of State’s page that covers how to smack down QuickTime (”Help Viewing TIFF’s“). If you don’t want to uninstall, you might try those options (or the ones in my earlier post (”Tech Tip: Die QuickTime, Die“).
*My previous “Tech Tips” posts can be found here: http://inventblog.com/category/tech-tips.
**…makes me want to write a separate post about how Apple becoming is the new RealPlayer…installing junk bundling software on my computer I don’t want (e.g., QuickTime, Safari), asking me whether I want to update/install those programs every time a new version of iTunes comes out. Alas.
[Update: link to the USPTO page on .tif files and plugins- http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/plugins/tiff.htm]
[Update 2: I went to run iTunes this morning...received an error that "QuickTime is required to run iTunes, please reinstall." Fail!]
[Update 3: I navigated to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins\ and renamed every one of the files with QT or QuickTime in them to end in a .bak extension (e.g., npqtplugin.dll.bak, QuickTimePlugin.class.bak). That worked. We'll see if that breaks anything else...]
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Some software I recommend…
April 1, 2008 on 7:32 am | In Tech Tips | 1 Comment- 7-Zip [http://7zip.com/] — Free, open source program for opening zip, rar, 7z, gzip, etc files.
- Alternatiff - The plug in for Internet Explorer/Firefox which allows you to view patent images from the Patent Office’s website [http://www.alternatiff.com]
- CrapCleaner- A program that you run occasionally and the computer will through and delete temp files and junk and files without dates [http://www.ccleaner.com/]
- Irfanview - An excellent free image editing software perfect for touching up trademark drawings, screen captures, etc. [http://www.irfanview.com/]
- PDFCreator. If you don’t have “Print to PDF” as an option on your computer, try PDFCreator (free): [http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator].
- Google Browser Sync for Firefox. “An extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.” [http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/]
- Auslogic Disk Degragmenter. Free. [http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/]
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