Over the past month I’ve noticed that Back to my Mac hasn’t been available for me to access my home computer remotely. If I go into Preferences and MobileMe I can see that Back to my Mac has an orange light and complains at something amiss with NAT mappings or uPNP.

I found that if I log-on to my O2 Wireless Box II and toggle uPNP off and on than it gives me a green healthy status a few moments later.

Dear Apple,

While I am delighted to have an update. I seem to have gained a useless US-centric option at the top of my Internet menu. Myself and the majority of UK residents have no interest in your terrible American sports.

Please remove it.

Best Regards,

An AppleTV user

My B-Twin Sport 3 bike from Decathlon came with Wellgo road pedals and if you have followed my journey on The Great Tour you’d know I needed new cleats. I naturally started looking in the Internet for Wellgo cleats and the only hits I got were of the Taiwanese manufacturer with little information. There was a suggestion that the Look Delta cleats were compatible but no more than a suggestion. I could have gone to Decathlon but I had perviously looked in store where they have their cleats and saw nothing similar and since I was passing Evans Cycles I felt they would surely be able to answer my queries and sell me some cleats.

I asked the assistant at Evans if he had the appropriate cleats and handed him the Wellgo pedal that I had taken with me. He went away and into the back room before returning and saying that he didn’t have anything and that I should try Halfords (which I thought was a bit of a random suggestion). Since I was getting a bit fed up with what had been a week long search I asked about other options and ended walking out of the shop with a pair of Shimano SPD SL pedals.

I still had a nagging doubt and did some further digging. I finally found the pedal on the Decathlon site (through a Google search not the on site search) which stated Compatible with “Delta” type cleats. If I had seen this before I would have been much more confident to correct the sales assistant in Evans. However if you search for Delta Cleats on the Decathlon site you only get the result of the Wellgo pedal and Look Delta Cleats in red (9º angular float) or black (fixed). The page then states “Compatible with Look Delta pedals”. No mention of any other pedal of some kind of standard compatibility. So if you looked at that cleat, much as I have done on other sites, you wouldn’t have the confidence to buy them even though they do look similar. However I can say that they are the ones to buy.

Its all academic for me as I now have Shimano SPD SL cleats on my shoes but if I can help others.

The story goes like this. I rely upon a VPN connection to access the office from home. I don’t use it all the time but when something goes wrong and I need access to the servers its invaluable. I’m 25 miles and the best part of an hour away from the office. At some point the week before last my VPN stopped working. As with all the best stories there were sub plots and red herrings. In my case another user had lost connection which lead me to think it was the common denominator – the VPN access point. So after much investigation and test it turned out that in the other users case it was a forgotten password and the timing was pure coincidence. Armed with that knowledge I made some progress.

I had been hindered by the fact that the only place i could test from was my home office. Had I been able to try from elsewhere I may have spotted this earlier but having found that the problem was only affecting me I tried a little experiment. I disconnected my iPhone from Wifi, configured it for VPN and managed to successfully connect via the mobile data network. Reconnect to the Wifi and the connection failed. This pointed the finger squarely at my O2 router. After a bit of rummaging through support forums I found I was not alone.

I called O2 armed with this knowledge and the experience of previous callers. The first person I talked to said she was aware of the problem and I needed to talk to second line support. I found myself on hold only to be cut off. I called back. The second guy was in denial of the problem but I insisted to talk to the second line techies.. he cut me off. On the third attempt I got the “we don’t support VPN” that I had been warned about in the forums. He tried to fob me off on my works system administrator. That wasn’t going to work as he was talking to him. He tried a number of other excuses which didn’t work other than elevate my own frustration levels. Finally he said that the necessary tech guys don’t work weekends and he would get one to call me on Monday to schedule a firmware downgrade. Finally the result I wanted if not to the expected timetable.

Once off the phone I thought I’d try and sort it myself but O2′s tools are Windows only. I tried VMWare with a copy of Vista and the password was rejected. I tried another route with BE support but I needed a member login. Having gone round the houses I finally found a copy of earlier firmware and a Thomson update tool. (for those reading who don’t know O2 broadband is BE and the O2 Wireless Box II is a Thomson). Unfortunately I hit the brick wall of rejected password again. I know the the username SuperUser and the password O2Br0ad64nd is right as I can login via a browser. In the end I’d wasted more time.

I’ll wait for a call on Monday and post an update. In the meantime I’m going to research alternative Broadband suppliers. Its a shame as O2 to date have been great but this is a deal breaker. And if anyone from O2 is reading this I can say with an element of certainty that if you lose my broadband custom you will also lose 3 personal iPhone contracts (Vodafone with a Sure Signal Femtocell looks good) and it will be a nail in the coffin for your (large) contract at work.

Then i can return to sitting in front of my computer screen grumbling about wasting the day.

I thought it best to do a summary of recent events so as not to have such a backlog of things I wanted to mention that it prevented me posting anything at all.

The holiday went well. We’d opted to go to our friends apartment again. Its in a brilliant location in Arenal D’en Castell on the north coast. A very picturesque horseshoe bay that despite being the ‘quiet’ island had something for everyone including a bar that was open till 6am, although the last two hours weren’t entirely legitimate. I’m past that sort of thing now mainly because I’m on my back at 2am but James, with his sipping action, managed a few all night sessions. His mum was less than pleased on each occasion. I’d imagine that’s the last holiday he goes on with us as a family although he does like to stay near my wallet.

I did do some tweeting while on holiday but did a lot less than expected. I had pre-bought 50MB of data but realised as the iPhones stats rolled on that my previous monitoring of the stats had excluded any wifi usage and my actual use was much higher than I thought. So excluding Google Maps, video Tweeting, excessive photo tweeting meant that by the end of the fortnight my total use stood at 48MB.

Nearing the end of the holiday I did have the next adventure at the back of my mind. Before we left I bought a horsebox that had been listed on eBay. Other than a description and a photo it was a blind purchase of £2000 cash. Not only was there the uncertainty of whether I’d bought a dog it was over 300 miles away in St Ives. The plan was to get back to Manchester Airport, hire a car, get a few hours shuteye and head off to pick up the box dropping the hire car off in Penzance. That all went to plan with the added enjoyment of an aborted landing at Manchester (an experience) and we soon found ourselves minus cash and with a 7.5T Mercedes truck to drive home. It was a baptism of fire but I’m relatively happy to drive anything. The problem was that it just didn’t feel ‘right’ or safe. It was 80 miles on when we found out why. We had just crossed Bodmin Moor in thick fog when the dash started to play up, I lost the rev counter, the engine overheated, I was getting random warning lights and was rapidly losing pressure for the air brakes and steering. I just managed to get it off the A30 and into a carpark (a horse and country supplier no less) when I lost the last traces of steering. Fortunately luck had dealt us a good hand as not only did we have breakdown assistance but the local franchise was 2 minutes up the road and they were with us pretty much immediately. It turned out that the belts to the fan, alternator and compressor had failed due to age. After a trip back to the workshop they failed to find a replacement set and wouldn’t be able to get the parts till the next day so they lent us a car and pointed us in the direction of a B&B. By mid afternoon the next day we were back on the road and I got us home by 7pm. A journey that I don’t fancy repeating, ever.

I did drop in on my mate Simon Steele the famous celebrity hair stylist who gave me a holiday hairstyle just in time for us going away next week. I’ll be going to Menorca and me and the t-shirt will continue the VirgAn hunt. I must remember to buy some roaming Data from O2 as depriving an iPhone from the Internet is no fun. I know, I did it last year. I couldn’t imagine a fortnight without Twitter.

I hadn’t been home from the salon long when there was a knock on the door. It was the dog warden. On Wednesday we’d had a visit from some council jobsworth who, if I wasn’t as tired having only just got up, would have been punched squarely in the face. We’ve had a problem with a mongrel getting in our garden and breaking our fences in the process. Its been going on for some time but the result is that our pedigree King Charles Spaniel can go walkabout until I once again repair the holes. So this smiling idiot with his flouresant tabard, poo bag and grabber had followed the dog after seeing it having a small poo (I walk him and know that his dry food diet means he rarely does more than a Malteaser shit) and was stood on my doorstep asking if I, clad only in my dressing gown, was in a position to go and pick up the offending item. After I threatened to set the dog on him he left.

So thats why the dog warden was round. Charlie was really happy to see her and after she made a fuss of him I did notice that he had his lipstick full out and it was touching her knee leaving a little wet patch. I didn’t want to tell her. We told her our story and she said that she would try and track down the other dog. I was slightly amused on telling her about our efforts that she thought it was funny that I’d tried to shoot it with a black widow slingshot. Maybe the RSPCA wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic on that solution. We did get a free pack of poop bags so that story has a happy ending.

I’ll leave you with a bit of wisdom from the leaflet they left us with. Don’t pick up dog poo with your bare hands. Fine advice.

So having had a false half mile start I cancelled the workout I was on and started it again with a nominal mile as I was following the treadmills 20 min workout, not the Nike+. I got going again and checked my pace, pressing the home button, to find that while the voice told me I was x miles in the corresponding number on the display matched what she said but was displaying Kilometres. I did a screen shot after the 1 mile was up but after I’d done it it reverted back to miles. The screenshot showed miles too. Must be a glitch in the system.

One disappointing thing that doesn’t seem to be on the iPhone is the celebrity voices acknowledging personal bests, etc. I’ve not heard any yet so I’m assuming they aren’t there. Its either that or they are staying quiet because I must try harder.

“A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran. Tonight’s planned maintenance has been rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST (1:30a in Iran).

Our partners are taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide—we commend them for being flexible in what is essentially an inflexible situation. We chose NTT America Enterprise Hosting Services early last year specifically because of their impeccable history of reliability and global perspective. Today’s decision and actions continue to prove why NTT America is such a powerful partner for Twitter.”

While I understand the importance of the Iranians having a voice in the light of their government blocking so many forms of communication, by this time Twitter had just become a mess of hysterical western retweets and misinformation as people got caught up in a moment that had already come and gone. 90 mins wouldn’t have mattered in the grand scheme of things other to deprive them of their Twitter fix which was on large a major world event and much better than “I’m in Starbucks having a coffee”.

The BBC made a correct and more measured statement.

“Some caution needs to be observed however – for example, “tweets” picked up outside Iran and then “re-tweeted” elsewhere can have the potential to turn unsubstantiated rumours into “facts”".

A quick peek at Twitterfall this morning seems to show things have calmed down, or is it that the Americans are asleep? So some form of normality returns. That is until we approach the re-scheduled maintenance period.

I have a mate who develops iPhone apps and I occasionally do some graphic design for him on icons, etc. I suppose because of that you could officially class me as part of his team and a developer also. Anyway this opened the door to the 3.0 beta and I’ve been living with it since March.

There are still a few features that I need third party support or account activation on such as Push notification, peer-to-peer, in app purchases, third party accessories and MMS but I can impart my experience and opinion on what I have seen.

The 3.0 for starters isn’t a groundbreaking update in the way 2.0 was. Its more polish and much has been made of how only Apple could make cut and paste a main feature. However it does fill many holes and improve of a number of features that keeps it ahead of the competition.

The cut and paste does actually work really well and I have used it a number of times. It is easy to take for granted after having it for a while. I’ve used it mostly where I want to chuck web page text back into a google search. Funnily enough i only found the shake to undo the other day by accident when I dropped my phone

The landscape keyboard has increased my texting speed on SMS and its nice to have that option consistent across more apps.

I’ve only used the spotlight search once to try it out. I tend to forget its there. You can browse to the left of the home screen with a swipe or from the home screen, press the home button which will take you to the search. I think its the nature of the phone in that the stuff I would search for is either notes or contacts so in each case I would tend to go direct. Its not like a computer where I have a load of documents to search.

Having just mentioned the notes, this is one of the biggest features for me. Note synching. I have loads of notes mainly because my memory is shit and to finally have them sync is a godsend. Its the little things with 3.0 that make the difference and its also nice to see public calendars sync also. However I would have liked tasks. As it is I’ve resorted to the Things App both on the iPhone and desktop. It was nice to see Things winning an Apple design award the other day as it is a great app.

What else deserves a mention? I turned shake to shuffle off as it shuffled my music once purely by putting the iPhone in my pocket a little more forcefully than usual. I don’t use the voice recorder much although I have tried it and its nice to see the voice notes sync with iTunes.

A final thing on 3.0 is the find my phone feature. YOu have to have a MobileMe sub for it to work and you then can enable it on your phone. It went live the other day so I tried it last night. I logged onto MobileMe on the web and withing a few moments it told me exactly where my phone was, on the desk next to me. I had the option to make my phone bleep (even if set to silent) and to send a message. I typed in “Give me my phone back, you bastard” and within a few minutes it was displayed on the phone with a beeping noise. What was also nice is that having confirmed that it had been displayed I then got an email.

“Dear MobileMe member,

The message sent at 6:02 PM on June 10, 2009 has been displayed on Martin’s iPhone at 6:06 PM on June 10, 2009:

Give me my phone back, you bastard”

That’s pretty much it. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them but you’ll know yourself by next Wednesday. Just in time for the next podcast no doubt.

It was interesting to see people agonising over the options. What they often fail to say is that most 3G owners who upgraded from the original iPhone are in an 18 month contract. I know that mine expires in Feb 2010 and I have seen that £35 customers only get the option for a 1 month early upgrade. Jan… f*cking fantastic.

The suggested option is to get a PAYG, but at that price?! I do have a further option as my wife uses a PAYG sim in my original iPhone and she is spending upto and in excess of £35 on credit so I plan to sign her up for a contract, put her sim in my 3G and have the 3GS for myself (its only fair.. I will have paid £270 odd).

I do however keep stepping out of the Apple “must have” hypnosis. What will the 3GS really give me?

Video. Nice but I rarely used video on my phone pre-iPhone

Compass. It may make Tom Tom more accurate, but isn’t Tom Tom still going to be available on 3G (even if slightly less accurate – my Go700 doesn’t have a compass does it?)

Battery life. Mines ok as it is. Its regularly on a cradle and having turned off pull mail every 15 mins my battery capacity has increased ten fold. Those who want me NOW! send mail to my MobileMe push account or SMS me.

Faster processor. Mines fast enough and I can’t think of a 3G app that suffers from speed to any great degree.

Better camera and auto focus. Happy with the one it has now. If I want a better shot I’ll break out the Nikon.

Tethering. On O2′s prices? Don’t take the piss!

I think I’ve just talked myself into keeping my money in my pocket. What else am I going to spend it on now?

Oh, and don’t forget to sign the Twitter petition

Ironically my signal dropped off and I was disconnected. Since the call was blocked it was up to them to call me back. They didn’t.

So O2 good, survey company bad.

I got a cheap Bluetooth headset at Christmas to use with the PS3 and while it worked it wasn’t very good. It looked and felt cheap, and there was an audible hiss when using it. So when I saw the Official headset back in stock at Gameplay I thought it was worth a punt.

Straight out of the box its much nicer and comes with a USB charging cradle. On the surface its functionality is standard Bluetooth headset but that’s because it comes with great big ‘gotcha’.

The headset can be paired in one of two ways, either by connecting the USB cable to the PS3 or going through a standard wireless discovery pairing. On first look of the booklet there doesn’t seem to be much difference other than ease of pairing and since I had charged the headset from the computers USB ports and didn’t have the cradle attached to the PlayStation I opted for the discovery mode pairing.

Wrong choice.. I then spent the next hour trying the find the battery gauge indicator that I’d seen mentioned in a user review.

If you read the manual again, buried casually in the middle of a preamble text before the detailed pairing steps of the two options, is this text.

“Additional features will be available on your headset when you update the PS3™ system to version 2.5 or higher, but only if you pair using a USB cable.”

Obviously on first read the combination of PS3 and updates caused my brain to skip that part however this is the only mention it gets and in addition to the lack of any other urging you to use a preferred method there is no mention anywhere of what these ‘features’ might be.

The features are in fact the elusive heads up display panel showing headset status such as charge level and volume, but also a HQ mode that delivers crystal clear audio. You’d have thought that it would be worth at least a mention?

I suppose that having now made the change I can sit back and enjoy my Halloween and bonfire night before my thoughts turn to Christmas. Yes, Christmas, who could forget? Well not me for a start yesterday while in the Trafford Centre. I don’t begrudge BHS having a Christmas shop but stop with the festive music. Its too early and not right.. ok? The only mix of Halloween, Christmas and music that I’ll entertain is from Mr. Burton’s stable.

At some point way back when I stopped getting emails when people left comments. There was no apparent reason for this and searching the net revealed that I wasn’t alone. One solution was to install Swift SMTP. It did seem to a work but some users were posting comments without me getting a mail and some were getting an error. It may be something to do with the theme or some other reason. Either way I’ve decided that no mail and regular checks for comments is better than horrible errors.

It would be nice to get it working again in the future but I’ll just have to wait for an alternative to come my way.