Restore an iPhone from a Backup (The Hard Way)
Feb/101
I wish that I had an easier time restoring Erin’s iPhone but there happened to be some misfortunes along the way. i.e. iPhone crashed (firmware chip?), not backing up the phone often enough, laptop crashing, and weird folder structures for Apple/iTunes.
This entire process started with obtaining a new iPhone, recovering the laptop hard drive, and locating all the important information. Below I will describe the steps necessary to recover an iPhone with the backup files iTunes creates when the user uses the “backup” button.
PC Instructions
- Locate the backup file you want to restore from. I would start looking in the default backup directory: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup – SEE NOTES BELOW
- Load iTunes
- Plug in iPhone- wait for it to mount
- Navigate to the iPhone and select “Update” / “Restore” while holding the Shift key. (Hold Shift key + Click Update/Restore)
- This will prompt you to choose the backup directory. Refer to Step 1 and where you found your backup file.
- Restore!
- Restore and Good Luck!
Notes:
- Depending on what version of Windows you’re running the path might also be: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
- The folder name for the backups is rather strange. Here is an example of mine: 2869abaa23e687eb5bdb0dde76dcae8472a74f0d
Mac Instructions
- Locate the backup file you want to restore from. I would start looking in the default backup directory: User/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ – SEE NOTE BELOW
- Load iTunes
- Plug in iPhone- wait for it to mount
- Navigate to the iPhone and select “Update” / “Restore” while holding the Option key. (Hold Option key + Click Update/Restore)
- This will prompt you to choose the backup directory. Refer to Step 1 and where you found your backup file.
- Restore and Good Luck!
Notes:
- The folder name for the backups is rather strange. Here is an example of mine: 2869abaa23e687eb5bdb0dde76dcae8472a74f0d
Wordpress Plugin for iPhone Users
Nov/090
Tonight I found an awesome plugin for Wordpress that will optimize your blog for mobile users. Specifically, readers that are using an iPhone. Take a look at the following screenshots.
Features:
- Optimized loading compared to loading a “standard” theme.
- Apple-esque icons (comments indicator).
- Clean interface.
- Easy to install (just like any other plugin).
- FREE!
For more info please refer to the plugin website: http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/
iPhone Wishlist Part II
Sep/090
With the whole AT&T debacle with the MMS and tethering I started thinking of other features that I would appreciate.
- Stop a text while sending. What’s the purpose of the sending bar anyways? Is it there to appease the person that their text is actually sending?
- Create new photo albums and have the ability to organize your pictures.
- Emoticons, corny I know.
- Basic formatting in the Notes and Mail application: ordered/unordered lists and bold/italics/underline.
- Better email sync. I utilize the All Mail folder in Gmail quite a bit and whenever I read something in that folder I have to re-sync or go into my Inbox to clear the new message.
- Ability to edit Notes in iTunes. Currently I have it sync to Oulook.
- Over the air updates. This might not work with AT&T’s infrastructure
- Custom text message sounds.
- Support for multiple Exchange accounts.
- Additional button the side of the phone to take pictures.
- Support for multiple email signatures.
- Process Monitor/Task Manager to kill hung processes and to clear RAM.
- New carrier?
- MULTITASKING!
My two cents for now.
Train Brain – iPhone App Review
Sep/090
Train Brain has one purpose in life and that is to help you find the next light-rail train in Minneapolis and tell you when that train will arrive at your destination. The light-rail currently has 17 stops between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America. Train Brain covers all of these stops.
If you’ve every used the Metro Transit website or their mobile web app you know that it can be cumbersome and sometimes time consuming when you’re on the go. Fortunately, Train Brain is here to help will all your light-rail needs.
Train Brain utilizes the Metro Transit light-rail schedule and GPS to give you an easy to use interface to find out what time and where your next train will arrive. Lets say you’re not at the light-rail station and you want to know when a train will arrive at any of the 17 stations. You can do that too! The interface allows you to select from anyone of the available stations.
Key Features:
- GPS integration
- Covers all light-rail stations
- Ability to choose northbound or southbound routes
- Get directions to the light-rail station via Google Maps
- Cheap! $1.99 and well worth it!
Additional Note: This will work with iPod Touches as long as you have a data connection (Wi-Fi).
Train Brain Website: http://trainbrainapp.com/
Finding a House (Part II)
Aug/090
Not having a real estate agent at the moment (we now have one 
)we’ve resorted to using some online tools for looking for houses. Below are the ones we have used thus far along with some comments as to our experience.
Zillow.com
Overall Experience: Great place to get ideas for prices in certain neighborhoods and how many houses are for sale. Easy to use and very interactive. It’s also interesting to see what houses have sold for in the past.
Pros: Easy to use, interactive maps for neighborhoods (ability to focus on certain areas of the map), and I was able to get the results I wanted using the many different fields for defining your search.
Cons: It was easy to use but loading can sometimes be an issue. Navigation back and for from page to page can also be a little clunky.
Zillow iPhone App
Overall Experience: Awesome! This was a great tool when we were out and about driving around without any direction. Very often there were houses for sale but there was not a flyer available. With this app we were able to quickly load it and find out the house price using the GPS. I would estimate that greater than 75% of the time the house was listed at the time. However, the status of the house was not always correct as in, the house could have sold recently but the Zillow database was not yet updated.
Pros: Utilizes GPS to find your current location. Same type of interface and options as the website. Easy to use and would recommend for those random house hunts.
Cons: There were numerous times that I got frustrated because the app doesn’t save your search criteria or settings when closing the app. (I may have missed this in the settings if it were available)…
Various Realty Websites
Sites: EdinaRealty.com, Century21.com, ColdwellBanker.com, etc
Overall Experience: More often than not, we were able to find all the same houses on all the realty websites. The kicker was that each interface was a different experience.
Suggestions:
- Allow multiple zip codes, cities, or neighborhood queries. There were times when we were limited to looking at one area at a time.
- Cleanup the layout of some of the content. Some content was squished together, especially when maps were involved. If possible, make the the layout a little wider, open up in a modal window, new window, etc.
- Better integration of maps. I would say 80% of the time I found it easier to copy the address into Google Maps to see the street view of the house than to use the map that was integrated into the website. If you are going to offer maps I would suggest using both Bing and Google Maps. Bing has an awesome aerial view compared to Google Maps. However, Google Maps has street view.
The MLS Online
Overall Experience: This is probably my favorite choice! MLS Online has a some really great search options, easy to use, and gives you a ton of results.
Pros: Extremely easy to use. Email notifications for new houses that meet your criteria (if you set it up). Detailed house information and a clean layout. Ability to save multiple search criterion. Added the ability to search for foreclosures.
Cons: Does not provide the # of days on the market.
Sorry for the novel. Hope this helps the fellow house hunters out there or even the developers for the above sites.
Wordcamp MSP!
