the Mac version of 1Password

After a month of iOS4 devices being available, we are seeing more evidence that older iPhone and iPod touch models are being treated as antiquated. 1Password, a very popular app that’s used to store user name and password information, has issued their new version 3.5 as supporting “only iOS 3.2 and above”, which works on pretty much any iPhone 3G/3GS and all iPhone 4 devices, iPod touch 2nd-generation and above and any iPad model. Any other device that isn’t running iOS 4 or iOS 3.2 can’t install the upgrade.

The previous version of 1Password Pro was version 3.1.1, which runs just fine on any device running iOS 3.1.x or above. This new version does add support for syncing with Dropbox and other functionality, which are nice updates. But if you are using an original iPhone or a 1st-generation iPod touch, you are out of luck.

I discovered this when recently running my App Store updates and trying to sync my iPhone 2G, which gave the error that the version of 1Password was not compatible with this device. Fortunately, it didn’t delete the app from my iPhone, which kept all of my data intact. The newer version installed just fine on my iPad.

Functionality wise, I’m still in business here. But it did raise some concerns over how much the older iPhones, iPod touch models and previous versions of iOS are at risk here of being antiquated rather quickly. Yes, I understand the original iPhone and 1st-gen iPod touch are three years old now and support cannot continue forever. But iOS 3 was current just one month ago. And already we have a major developer that is pushing forward with eliminating support in previous versions.

This is not new, since at the first announcement of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4, it was known that the original iPhone would not be getting an OS upgrade option. And neither would the 1st-gen iPod touch. And with that, I can understand why. Older devices running new version of an OS can be problematic. But it was announced months before and users of these devices had a heads-up. Not so with Agile Web Solutions, who simply pushed out a new version without notifying it’s customers of what they were planning on doing. Yes, in the small print on the App Store for 1Password, it does say that “iOS 3.2 or above” is required. But to a lot of people that don’t do the OS math, they may not have clued in what that meant exactly. There should have been a more detailed announcement on their web site, in their support forum, an email sent to all registered users – something – to give users who store critical and important data, a warning of what’s coming up with some solutions for keeping their older app.

So for now, I am extra careful to ensure I have backup copies of both the previous version and my data. But if this is happening now, I can imagine more developers jumping on board and orphaning previous users, all with an eye to supporting the latest and greatest. I’m sure supporting multiple iOS versions is not the easiest thing in the world and I can understand wanting to move forward, but people still use and love their older Apple products. Kicking them to the curb too soon could leave a bad taste in users’ mouths when it comes time to upgrade. By then, they may have moved on to a competitor’s product.

And that’s not a win for anyone.

And once again, Apple consumes the tech world with another game-changing product.

I pre-ordered mine for store pickup on Saturday, April 3rd. Will I actually go through with it and make the purchase? A lot of that depends on how much money I can raise between now and then [that's less than 3 weeks away] to afford the 16gb WiFi model. I’d like the 32gb model, and I know it’s a good deal to double the storage space for only 20% more, but based on my last round of items I sold on eBay, raising that extra hundred will be a small challenge.

My main intended use for the iPad will be two fold:

• Media Viewing

- Watching TV shows mostly, with movie through in here and there. And video podcasts, with the idea to actually throw my own hat into the video podcast ring.

• Word Processing

- Word processing? Are you serious, Marty? You haven’t even tried it out yet. But wait. The bluetooth external Apple keyboard will work with it and it’s going to be small and light enough to carry both the iPad and keyboard, using a version of the iWork application Pages written specifically for the iPad. My more than a year old HP 2133 netbook has become too slow even for simple word processing. I have found that I use my MacBook Pro more often than the netbook as a couch computer. So the netbook and anything else I can sell will help go towards my new couch computer, which should be plenty fast for both Googling and working on my next story.

So come April 3rd, we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, check out Andy Ihnatko’s well-written overview of his first impressions of the iPad:

My MacBook Pro 15-inch unibody that I got in September 2009 is off to get fixed. Not much wrong with it. Just an ethernet port that stopped working. So it’s getting an entire logic board replacement. The Genius bar employee told me to allow up to seven days, but told me that the average lately has been three days.

I hope so, because it’s only been two hours since I dropped it off and I miss it already. Not that I’m without a Mac to use. My original MacBook Pro 15-inch that I gave to my wife when I got my new MacBook Pro is what I’ll be using in the meantime. It only has a fraction of my data on it as I cleaned most of it off before handing it over to my wife.

I did a backup of my data to an external hard drive, so I do have it available to me, but it’s still not the same.

Amazing how reliable I have become on my laptop for just about every part of my computing needs.

I’ll still find time to blog and do my personal work. But I will be missing my Mac, even if it’s not gone for that long.

Yep, that’s my iPhone

Yep. I’m now an iPhone owner, but it’s not my main phone. There’s a story to this. Read on.

Back in 2005, I entered a contest on Engadget where I won a Nokia N-Gage QD phone. The phone came with a pre-paid Cingular SIM card. I went and changed the number, got a new SIM card and have used the pre-paid phone on and off, mostly when my main Sprint phone isn’t getting the best of service.

I sold the N-Gage on eBay and bought a used Motorola SLVR-L7 (also from eBay), which was smaller and easier to carry and had longer battery life.

Then a couple of months ago, a friend at work was having some troubles with her Powerbook G4. I used my Mac prowess to get the data off of it and in return, she promised me I could have her iPhone – 1st Gen. Last month she bought a new iPhone 3GS and the next day at work, she brought me her old iPhone.

a bit used with some nicks and dings, but it works and it’s my first iPhone

Pre-Paid

So I took the SIM card from my Motorola SLVR-L7 and put it into the iPhone, hoping to instantly switch phones without any issues. Nope. Nothing.

Support From AT&T?

Turns out, that AT&T has all but dropped support for using any iPhone as a pre-paid phone. There is some minor support for iPhone 1st-Gen owners, but you would have had to enable the unlimited data plan before June 17, 2009. I didn’t get my iPhone until the first week of September. At this point, it became evident that I would need to both jailbreak and unlock my iPhone.

Jailbreak

There is no shortage of web sites that walk you through the process of jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone. I found this site to be the best tutorial, with a step by step detail on what to do.

Almost There

After about 20 minutes of running the jailbreak and unlock, my iPhone was ready to go. I made a test call and sent a text message. All good so far. But then as soon as I opened Safari, it was a “No Go” again. Back out to Google, it turns out there was a fix for this, too. This site deserves kudos for making not only great instructions, but providing an iPhone app to change your carrier file to enable prepaid data access [it's $.01 per kilobyte, but it's available] for those times when I need to check Twitter or my email.

Wrong? Illegal?

I’ve shared this story with a few people that have asked how I was able to get an iPhone without having to sign a two-year contract and pay almost $80 a month for 450 minutes. Some have said this is illegal. The chat rooms are crying foul on those of us that have “skirted around” the system. But how can it be illegal or wrong when those of us that are prepaid users are paying for service still. AT&T still gets money from us. They are not losing anything on us users, unless you consider we are not under contract just because we have an iPhone.

For my particular phone, it was not subsidized by AT&T for me to have it. The person who owned it before did their two-year contract and she, being the rightful owner of the physical phone, gave it to another person to use. I see this as a way to have an iPhone while still remaining a prepaid customer that pays for each minute, text and kilobyte of data I use.

If someday I decide to make the switch from my main phone on Sprint to having an iPhone on AT&T, so be it. Then at that time, I’ll sign the contract and upgrade to the latest and greatest. For now, I’m happily content to be a part-time iPhone user and hang with all of the other cool kids in the mobile phone world.