Quickie uses Core Data for storage and in one particular place I was comparing the NSString variable to a NSString–typed property of my CoreData class, QuickieList. Like this:

if (QuickieList.listName != theListName) 

listName is defined as NSString and theListName is obviously that as well. In this particular instance, both of those had the value of “test”.
In the iPhone Simulator (running on 10.6.2) this comparison returned false, but on the iPhone running 3.1.2 it returned true. When changed into:

if (![QuickieList.listName isEqualToString:theListName]) 

result was the same.

Never – I repeat — never assume that simulator testing will be fine, even for seemingly small things. It can bite you when you least expect it.

if (![addNewCellTextField.text isEqualToString:@""]) {


…


} 

However, this will fail if the field is never touched. That is, until your user taps the field and it gets focus, UITextField.text is nil. Which means that condition above yields true, which is not what you want.
Once it is touched though, this becomes an instance of NSString with value of @””. Thus, always use:

if (addNewCellTextField.text != nil && ![addNewCellTextField.text isEqualToString:@""]) {


…


} 

Watch out for this little trap hole.

What does this solve?

If you have any of these issue, this article will most likely help you.

1. You use Windows 2003 and iTunesSetup.exe refuses to run on it (it’s touting only XP or Vista/Windows 7 as supported OSes).
2. At the end of the iTunes install, when dialog says “Starting services” it failes to start iPodService.exe with the following message: “Service ‘iPodService’ (iPodService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system service.”
3. You have trouble starting iTunes.exe after install.
4. You see dialog boxes telling iTunesHelper.exe failed to start.

My wife uses Windows 2003 as development machine and I had all of these happening.

iTunes refuses to install due to OS mismatch

Apple is — like many other companies do in the last year or two — touting iTunes 9 as compatible only with Windows XP and Vista or Windows 7. This is safe net for them. If you run Windows 2003, this is just about the same thing as XP, regarding ordinary software.

Thus, solution here is to kill the OS-based launch conditions, which good people at WebKeyDesign have already explained how to do. The solution goes like this:

1. Unpack iTunesSetup.exe so you have all the various .msi files inside it copied to some folder. Use Winzip, Total Commander or any other de-archiver to open iTunesSetup.exe and extract the files
2. Download free tool called InstED and start it
3. Drag all .msi files into InstED
4. For each of them, find the LaunchCondition key in the left panel and then in the right-panel look for ((VersionNT=501 And ServicePackLevel>=2) OR VersionNT>501) and delete it. Then save the file.

InstEd — removing launch conditions

QuickTime has two conditions, remove both

Once you’re done with all of them, install them, one by one. Start with AppleApplicationSupport, then AppleMobileDeviceSupport and then continue until iTunes as the last. Ignore SetupAdmin.exe

iPodService.exe failed to start

At the end of iTunes installation, it will try to start iPodService.exe. This fails and manifests in a variety of ways. There’s an amazing number of “solutions” on the net, but remarkably none has pinpointed the actual cause.

It’s Data Execution Prevention feature of the Windows — it will kill the process as soon as it tries to run. DEP is made to prevent malicious software using private or undocumented API or doing any sort of suspected malicious activity. iPodService.exe falls into this trap according to DEP, so we need to tell DEP to let it go as exception to the rule.
Here’s how:

1. Right-click My computer, choose Properties
2. Go to Advanced tab, click on Settings under Performance, then onto the DEP tab
3. Click Add, go to Program Files\iPod\bin and choose iPodService.exe
4. Retry/continue the iTunes installation and it will finish it up very quickly.

Data Execution Prevention is what kills iPodService.exe

iTunes.exe or iTunesHelper.exe don’t start

You click, they appear to start but then fail. The reason is the same as above: DEP. Add both .exe files (they are in Program Files\iTunes folder) to the DEP exception window and they will start just fine afterwards.

To expand this a bit — every time you have a known, valid software failing to start, always add them to DEP and see if they work. Most likely they would.

Hmm…say again?

This is in Windows Explorer, copying/moving files across networked disks.

Given my experience so far in big software projects, this kind of bad UI is direct consequence of the background API being done before front-end people had any say. At the moment when front-end work came to play, there was probably no info to determine is the current operation a copy or move, so they did what they could. Or it could be sloppy FE work, but I somehow believe it’s the former.

However, not all of the crashes appear there, or are slow to appear. Thus, if you have a desperate problem with someone’s application, it’s a good idea to pick these up and send them to a developer.

Here’s how, in three major operations systems: Mac OS X, Windows Vista / Windows 7 and for Windows XP.

iTunes sync

Application crash logs are transfered to your computer each time you do a sync with the device, in the iTunes. Thus, first step is to sync with iTunes:

Sync the iPhone or iPod Touch through iTunes

Mac OS X

On the Mac, crash logs are kept at:

~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>

where ~ is your Home folder. Here’s an example:

Crash logs on the Mac OS X. Device name is “iPhone AV” here

There’s the .crash file and .plist file — archive them both and send to a developer. Actually, pick all the files you find there that have the name of the problematic application.

Windows Vista / Windows 7

Files are located here:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>

AppData folder is hidden by default, so here’s how to access it. Get into your personal folder:

User folder, with Vista folder path

Now click on the folder (address) bar which will change the display into Windows folder path and add \AppData to it, then click Enter.

When clicked, the address bar changes into regular Windows folder path

This will then show the folder contents. From here, you can follow the path above until you get to the crash logs.

For Windows 7, follow the same procedure.

Windows XP

Location is here:

C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter/<DEVICE_NAME>

<USERNAME> is your login username. Application Data folder is usually hidden by default, so you need to reveal it in the same way as in Vista — by typing in and pressing Enter.

And that’s it. Easy :) — rest is for developer to sweat it.

Here’s a proposal: remove the DVD drive entirely. I don’t know about you, but I have used that thing less than 10 times in last 2 years of owning Macbook Pro. It mostly collected dust and stopped working reliably rather quickly due to that same dust; last few times when I wanted to do anything with it, it spent ages trying to recognize the disk. Or even failed to read it — even Leopard original install disk, which is in pristine condition. Or last night, when it failed to write an empty DVD, which I then burned with no issues on my wife’s Sony VAIO drive.
It’s by far the worst part of the otherwise great notebook.

It’s useless outdated thing, ripe for replacement. It would free up huge space in the notebook for many, much more useful things like:

• integrated SIM card slot
• ExpressCard/34 or even /54 slot
• one or two eSATA connectors
• at least one more USB port

For anyone that needs the drive, they already sell external SuperDrive for Macbook Air and there’s plenty of 3rd party external packages.

What’s not to like? Eh, Apple, how about that?

However, I was quite shocked to see that Apple decided to remove its only expansion slot — ExpressCard/34 — while keeping the FW800 and 2 USB ports, with no additions at all. No eSATA port. No additional USB nor FW ports. No integrated SIM slot for 3G connection.
Instead of EC/34 slot, we get measly SD card reader. Wonderful, it would serve as nice dust conduit.

It’s ridiculous change. On the so-called professional machine, you’re stuck with slow connection methods, you’re stuck with consumer-level card type and you have no means to add what’s missing. Expresscards are not exactly large presence on the market but are by no means non-existing. I own two. Novatel Wireless Merlin X950D for 3G connection and Digitus eSATA 300 card. Both add the stuff pro-level notebook should have outright, but I didn’t mind getting them because the machine itself is great.
These new models are so good, but sadly crippled in the expansion area.

So, if you buy MacBook Pro you’re left with 3 ports and no other option to expand. All that with the portable machine which is a dream to own otherwise — very large hard disk, up to 8GB of RAM (amazing stuff for a 15″ which is my target size), very, very fast CPU and strong graphic card and 80% better battery life than anything else out there. You can do wonders on a machine like that. But if you do video, you’re stuck with FW800 and USB2, both 2-4x slower than eSATA so you’ll be left twiddling your thumbs while things are copied back and forth. Or if you use CF-cards (most hi-end DSLRs do) your best bet is FW-based card reader, instead of EC/34 types which connect directly to PCIe bus and offer much faster transfer rates.

I hope Apple will come to their senses — like they did with bringing FW800 back to all models — and bring EC/34 back. After all, if they wanted to add SD, they could supply simple 5-in-1 card reader that uses that slot — something Sony did with 13″ VAIOs several years back. Those things probably cost few bucks now.

The way things are now, I will not buy a new MBP. I doubt Apple will lose a moment of sleep for that, but if there’s enough of us sending them appropriate feedback, we could have something next year.

So, only US. Given that I’m living in Serbia, chances of Hulu appearing here are worse than 0. Thus Hulu will never work for me. The blurb on this dialog is rather telling — they will have to cross quite a bit of legal hurdles to get this working here. Given the size of Serbia internet audience and the part of it willing to pay for stuff online, I can safely say that legal costs to make this happen would probably outweigh a year worth of revenue.

Same thing certainly applies to sites like iTunes and Amazon MP3 Downloads. The only way I’m able to buy anything on the iTunes is using gift cards brought by friends from their US vacation (or bought off eBay). Amazon uses Geo IP filtering and card billing address checks to prevent people buying MP3s of their store, if they are not in the US.

I seriously wonder when will content producers figure out how much money they are losing this way. I have valid debit cards I can buy stuff from various web sites in the world. If my money is acceptable when I’m buying electronic goods on the UK Amazon, it’s should be perfectly acceptable to buy music.

The way things are now, Hulu, iTunes and Amazon are actively working to prevent me to give them money. I don’t think that can be more stupid then it is.

I’m fully aware that stores would be happy to have me and collect their cut of my buys, that they are forced to do this thing. So I’m puzzled by the continuing insistence of the content rights holders to prevent me to buy Galactica or Heroes on iTunes/Hulu. Instead, I wait for EasyTV crew to publish the gorgeus looking HD capture of the latest episode and torrent it down. I adored Battlestar Galactica and would buy entire seasons, if only I was let to.

In the age of global economy, I see no reason to prevent people from any country in the world to buy things in any other country. When I look at my purchases over the last few years, I spent quite a bit of money on places like PragProg where I bought several products and asked my company to buy some stuff of them too. None of those sales would be possible if they acted in the same way like music/TV/cinema industry worked. Actually, if they did work like that I would probably torrent down their stuff too, because I needed those screencasts.

Food for thought.

On the main device screen, click on the serial number (the blured area below):

When you click on it, it will change into this screen, which has the UDID:

Now do Cmd+C (Mac) or Ctrl+C (Win) — or use menu Edit/Copy — to get it into clipboard.

Using existing iPhone apps

If you have an iTunes Store account, get the free Ad Hoc Helper application. You need to have an email account setup so you can send the UDID to whom ever it’s needed.

The same thing can be done with iStat app, which is not free and it’s main purpose is not to get the UDID. But it does displays it and also allows you to send it over email.

Using backups

On Mac, iPhone backups are at:

/Users/{USERNAME}/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/{UDID}

On Windows Vista, iPhone backups are located at:

C:\Users\{USERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\{UDID}

On Windows XP/2003 it’s:

C:\Documents and Settings\{USERNAME}\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\{UDID}

Using iPhone Configuration Utility

On the iPhone Enterprise page at Apple’s site, you can find links to Mac and Windows versions of this utility. One of the things it does is allows you to get the UDID.

Once you connect the device, this is the place to get it:

Now just select the identifier and copy into clipboard.