iOS 5 and iPhone 4S: The Missing Manual—Buy the Book!

This is all about why you should get David Pogue’s iPhone: The Missing Manual—and how I lucked into helping David edit his book

Use this link to Amazon to buy iPhone: The Missing Manual and you’ll be helping me out!

Before I go any further, please order the book from Amazon using the above link and I’ll get a few pennies out of each sale. Thanks! The book has helpful tips for anyone who uses iOS 5 on their iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, or iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone became my first cellphone (and first iPod) the very first evening it was sold by Apple. It’s been my faithful electronic companion through the years since, being replaced by new iPhone versions as they came out. From the start, I began corresponding with David Pogue, personal-technology columnist for the New York Times—sharing tips, tricks and observations with him about the iPhone.

Eventually, David asked me to be the beta-reader of the first edition of iPhone: The Missing Manual—and hired me as the tech reviewer/editor of the later editions, too.

How did this happen?

Well, that’s what this article is all about.

First bite of the Apple

My wife Carol is the person who first got me interested in the iPhone, before it even came out. She had seen Steve Jobs’ iPhone presentation on the interwebs and let me know I had to see it, too. For years we had been putting off getting a cellphone because none of the so-called “smart phones” seemed smart to us; they all seemed dumb in what you had to do to get their features to work. Too hard and clumsy to use, that’s what we both thought. So, we never bought one, putting off the decision on what to get.

But after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone on January 9, 2007 and the video of it appeared on Apple’s website, my wife offered me an Apple—just like Eve tempted Adam with an apple—and I got my first taste of the iPhone’s magical goodness watching Steve Jobs tell everybody what he had been keeping a secret for so long: his revolutionary iPhone.

Neither of us had owned anything made by Apple at that point, not even an iPod. We both used Dell computers at home, and put up with Windows because that’s all we had known. Eventually we’d switch to using Apple computers as well as the iPhone. . . but I’m getting ahead of myself. More on that later.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Seeing the demonstration of the iPhone that Steve Jobs gave, I was hooked. I knew without even holding an iPhone in my own hands that this was the cellphone for us. It was everything we had been waiting for, and then some.

The first day the iPhone was sold, June 29, 2007, my wife and I were on line at our local AT&T Store to buy two of them. The doors opened at 6:00 pm and we eagerly entered when it was our turn, emerging the store shortly afterwards holding our precious purchases.

Say hello to iPhone

Our iPhones quickly became a part of our daily lives. I started reading everything I could find about the iPhone—Google searches led me to David Pogue’s columns in The New York Times and what he had written about the iPhone. I also found him on Twitter and saw that he was writing a book about the iPhone—called a “Missing Manual” because it would provide much more information than the little booklet Apple provided in the iPhone’s box.

David asked for tips from his readers about using the iPhone and offered to give a free copy of his upcoming iPhone book to anyone who submitted a tip that he hadn’t already written into the upcoming book. That was all I needed to know! I submitted tip after tip, only to hear back from him each time that he already had that in the book. But through our email correspondence he must have liked my writing style—or perhaps he simply took pity on me—because he offered me a free copy of the book in return for being its “beta reader”. He would email me the book’s chapters before it went to the printer in return for my looking it over and proofreading it. That was fine with me! I’d get to read the book for free and get to see it before it was even published!

As he completed each chapter, David would send me drafts of them one by one. I tried out things he wrote about on my own iPhone, letting him know when there was an alternate way of doing things in addition to how he had described it. As beta-reader I looked closely through the entire book before it was printed, watching for errors in spelling or gramatical use, missing portions, and even factual errors.

Stop the presses!

As his August 1st deadline approached, the chapters were sent to me faster and faster. I eagerly devoured each one.

On the night of July 18th and early the next morning, David and I had a very interesting email exchange about his book which I’ll share with you now. We were commenting on the “final” PDF version of the book he sent me, after it had already gone to the printer a few days prior to that.

David Pogue: We’ve actually caught a couple of small typos since this went out, but the gist is there.

Me: I found one which said to go to page xxx — and the real page number wasn’t filled in. Is that something like you mean?

Later that night, I got an email reply:

David Pogue: Oh, dear. No, we didn’t find that one. We’ll fix it asap! ( I did a global search for xx’s—wonder why it didn’t come up!?)

Then, early the next morning, he wrote me again:

David Pogue: Oh, dear. You found a serious error! Chapter 8 was apparently turned in the wrong version! Heads are rolling, presses are stopping ( I sure hope)…

I quickly replied,

Me: Wow! A real-life ‘Stop the presses!’ I can see Perry White snarling now! ‘Lois, Jimmy! Where’s Clark?!? He’d know what to do.’

‘I dunno, Chief. He was here just a minute ago…’

‘Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird… It’s a plane! …It’s POGUEMAN!!’

‘Never mind that… And stop calling me ‘Chief!!’

‘Sorry, Chief.’

Phenomenal job

Well, they did in fact stop the presses, swapped in the corrected chapter, and only had to delay the book’s release by one day. But at least it was fixed!! The book got printed with the correct version of the chapter and none of the readers of it knew what had almost happened.

It turns out David wasn’t expecting much to come from this beta-reading experiment, but I surprised him by giving it my all—examining each page to find words spelled incorrectly, incomplete sentences—and I even added some tips which he wound up including in the book! In fact, he used almost all of my suggestions. He appreciated my input, so much so that he later sent my brother and me one free copy (each) of the book—and he also provided two additional copies for me to give away on my Disney Echo website in a contest for the Echo’s members. In addition, David included a special thanks to me in the introduction of the book as well as separately writing to me that he felt very lucky that I volunteered to beta-read it and felt I did a “phenomenal job” and made the book “SO much better!” I was just doing what I could to help, so I’m glad he appreciated it so much and that he even included a link to my website in the book, as well. Take a look at the Acknowledgments page:

Acknowledgments in that first iPhone book. I circled the part about me!

The iPhone had a large part in putting together that book, beyond the book being about the iPhone. If I hadn’t seen some of David’s emails pushed to me wherever I was (through my Yahoo email account), we wouldn’t have caught things like that wrong chapter in time.

From beta-reader to tech editor

When new versions of the iPhone came from Apple, David Pogue wrote a new version of iPhone: The Missing Manual. For the 2009 edition I was asked again to help out, but not as a beta-reader. No, I was given a promotion to Tech Editor and paid for my work—in cash as well as another free book! I was lucky enough to help him again in the same way for the 2010 edition of the book. This year was even better: for the current edition of iPhone: The Missing Manual I was not only tech editor but David had me rewrite the chapter on iPhone Accessories, updating it with many new products that can be used to enhance the iPhone. That was quite an honor for me.

I’d like to thank MainStreetJake, lar3ry and “Those Darn Cats” podcast’s Lisa sambycat for helping me provide David with last-minute demonstration screenshots of the Find My Friends app. I also want to thank my friends Melanie Ross and Sandi Cummings for recommending two iPhone cases which I included in the Accessories chapter of the book.

iPhone changed our lives

Our iPhones impressed us so much they were the “gateway drugs” for my wife and me to switch away from PCs and getting Macs—his and hers matching MacBook Pros, to be precise. And what they say is true: “Once you go Mac, you never go back!” We’re very pleased with our iPhones and wouldn’t switch to another cellphone for anything in the world.

As for me, I’m happy to assist David Pogue in any way I can with his iPhone books in the future. Maybe one day I’ll even meet him in person!

If you enjoyed this article, please use this link to Amazon to buy iPhone: The Missing Manual and you’ll be helping me out!

UPDATE: Here’s a picture showing three of my friends (@sambycat / @ThoseDarnCats, @mainstreetjake, and @lar3ry) in the part of the book about Find My Friends:

iPhone 4S with Uncle Remus Siri

I’ve spent the day testing Siri out, helping David Pogue as tech reviewer/editor of his upcoming new book iPhone: The Missing Manual.

It’s all about Apple’s iOS 5 running on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS.

After having “conversations” with the Siri intelligent personal assistant on the iPhone 4S, weird thoughts come to mind.

Such as, I’d like Siri to be available in alternate voices/personalities. Imagine an Uncle Remus Siri – an interactive app giving you advice like the beloved character from Walt Disney’s “Song of the South”…

“I’m running away from my troubles.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Child, there ain’t no place that far.”

“What’s today’s weather?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “It happums to be one ah dem Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Days. Now dat’s the kinda day where you can’t opem yo mouf widout a song jumpin right out of it!”

“Text Mom about my flight on Saturday.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “You mean you’s leavin’ your old Briar Patch?”

“What’s on my schedule today?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “The weather’s good, the fishin’s fine. Now what do you do with all of your time?”

“Will we need an umbrella?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “My, oh, my what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine heading our way…”

“What is the meaning of life?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “It’s the truth, it’s actual. Everything is satisfactual.”

“I have to get rid of a body.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “For’sure?”

“Yes, I have to get rid of a body.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “I sure hope you knows what you’s doin’.”

“I really have to get rid of a body.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “It just goes to show what comes of mixin’ up with somethin’ you got no business with in the first place.”

“How far is it to Atlanta?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Hmm, powerful long walk to Atlanta. Is you brung some grub?”

“Set timer for 20 minutes.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “One! The Tar Baby, he don’t say nothin’. Two! Brer Fox, he lay low with the fidgets. Three…”

“Who’s your daddy?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Well, now, lemme see. That I can’t exactly say, ’cause I ain’t been keepin’ close track as I used to.”

“I kissed a girl and I liked it.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Well, now, if that don’t bang my time. You know, I was just figurin’ on somethin’ like that myself. How’d you like ol’ Uncle Remus to go along with you?”

“Where can I get drugs?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Well, now, that I can’t exactly say. ‘Cause where ’tis for one mightn’t be where ’tis for another.”

“Are there prostitutes in this town?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Everybody’s got a laughing place, a laughing place to go ho ho!”

“I love you.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Oh, I knows. I knows. But I’m just a worn-out ol’ man what don’t do nothin’ but tell stories.”

“Do you love me?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Oh, I zigs and I zags, I to’s and I fro’s. That’s what you’re askin’, and that’s what you knows.”

“Uncle Remis Siri, you’re the best assistant ever!”
Uncle Remus Siri: “And don’t you never forget it.”

“We’re VERY excited about this.” -Steve Jobs

You could see the pride on his face and the excitement welling up inside him almost bursting out. On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs could finally tell what he had been keeping a secret for so long:

“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years. Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple has been very fortunate that it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984 we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole industry. In 2001 we introduced the first iPod, and it didn’t just change the way we all listened to music, it changed the entire music industry.”

“Well today, we are introducing THREE revolutionary products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.”

“So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone . . . Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it . . . iPhone! Today . . . today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is!”

Nobody expected what he showed us next:

Watch this video to see and hear the audience’s reaction to this self-deprecating humor, and then the rest of this historic iPhone presentation:

At the end of the presentation, Steve Jobs concluded:

“You know, I didn’t sleep a wink last night, I was so excited about today. We’ve been so lucky at Apple, we’ve had some real revolutionary products. The Mac in 84, the iPod in 2001, and we’re gonna do it again with the iPhone in 2007 — we’re VERY excited about this.”

“There’s an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love — ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been.’ That’s what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much.”

In 2010, Steve Jobs introduced yet another revolutionary product, the iPad. There’s no telling what he would have gone on to show us in the years to come if his life hadn’t ended way too soon.

Thank you for changing our world, Steve Jobs. It was our pleasure to accompany you on your lifelong quest to bring us where things would be in the future, not just where they are today. You are deeply appreciated and missed.

Steve Jobs
1955-2011

A Very Jungle Cruise Christmas

Why doesn’t the Jungle Cruise have a Christmas season overlay?

Every year at Disneyland the Christmas decorations go up for the holidays and even some of the park rides and attractions get into the Christmas spirit with special theming.

The fireworks show becomes “Believe…In Holiday Magic” and concludes each night with magical Southern California “snow” falling. The Haunted Mansion is changed into the home of Jack Skellington for a “Nightmare Before Christmas”-style “Haunted Mansion Holiday”. Santa’s Reindeer Round-Up can be found at Big Thunder Ranch. Even the ever-singing tiny dolls in “it’s a small world” add Christmas carols in a multi-cultural holiday celebration.

But each year at Christmas time, Adventureland’s oldest attraction gets left out of the festivities.

Ever wonder what it might be like if Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise had a Christmas overlay, too? No? Well I’m going to show you anyway, as I present. . .

“JINGLE CRUISE!”

—

Those of you adventurers now entering the world-famous Jingle Cruise, please notice there are two lines. The one on the right is for those on Santa’s Naughty list and the other on the left is for those of you who are Nice. Ma’am, I think you’re on the wrong line.

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. Would the party that lost their Christmas shopping money, a roll of 50 $100.00 bills wrapped in a red ribbon, please report to the turnstile … we have good news for you. We found your red ribbon.

As you step into our Jingle Cruise boat, some of you might want to come sit near the engine and our Christmas chimney (pointing to the smokestack near the center cushion). We like to balance out the boat so when we sink, we go down evenly.

Everyone turn around and wave good-bye to the folks on the dock we’ve left behind. Smile! They may never have a chance to unload that stale fruitcake on you again.

I wasn’t always a Skipper here. Before I came to the Jingle Cruise, I worked at NASA one Christmas season as an rocket repairman. But I left on medical leave because of a bad case of missile-toe.

As we leave the last outpost of civilization, we travel deep into the mouth of the Irrawaddy river of Asia into a tropical Christmas rainforest. Feel that wetness on your faces? Yes, that’s rein-deer. Santa never could potty-train them.

Elephant Pool:
Look at all of the elephants out here in the water today! It’s okay to take pictures… they’re modeling the trunks they got last Christmas.

All of those pachyderms in the water are wading for tonight’s visit from Elephanta Claus!

Safari Outpost:
My friend @mainstreetjake warned me to be on the lookout for gorillas in the mist. Uh-oh, remember what Ralphie’s dad said? Those gorilla’s don’t. They’re gonna shoot their eyes out!

Every year at this time, one of those gorillas likes to beat his chest and swing from Christmas cake to Christmas cake. We call him Tarzipan!

Schweitzer Falls:
And now, we’re approaching the beautiful Schweitzer Falls, named after that famous African explorer, Dr. Albert Falls. And over there is a recreation of his beautifully-decorated Christmas tree, named after that famous African shrubbery, Dr. Albert Tree.

Nile River:
We’ve turned onto the Nile River at Christmas time and if you don’t believe in Santa you must be in denial.

Bull Elephants:
Look at all the Christmas phants here on our Jingle Cruise! You can see the pachyderms are Christmas phants because they have no el (Noel).

My friend @maintreetjake tells me that if you ever wanted to see what his mother-in-law looks like eating fruitcake, well look right there. *points to bull elephant*

African Veldt:
Our Jingle Cruise now brings us to the Africa veldt, where the tigers and cheetahs are awaiting a visit from Santa Paws.

The lions are also in a festive mood, eating that zebra with their sandy claws.

Don’t worry kids! Those lions are really just opening their Christmas presents. Look at that zebra-print gift wrap!

My friend @mainstreetjake warned me that this is what happens when you drink too much egg nog! Look at the hyenas! They’re ho ho hoing their way to the naughty list!

Safari Trapped by Rhino:
That rhino’s wearing his Christmas present: a new horn. The lost safari thinks it looks sharp on him.

Hippo Pool:
Uh-oh, the water wings those hippos got for Christmas are defective and need to be returned: They’re blowing bubbles! Don’t worry, the hippos only charge when they’ve used up all their Christmas cash.

Headhunter Country:
We’re entering headhunter country now. The skeletal remains of my last crew are over there in that canoe. They always enjoy Christmas — they’re still smiling.

We’re deep in headhunter country now. That shrunken head is sad he couldn’t go to the Christmas party. He had no body to go with.

Native Village:
These African natives really get into the Christmas spirit. They love to sing “Jungle Bells, Jungle Bells, Jungle all the way!”

Falls:
Beautiful Schweitzer Falls is upon us again. The overhanging rock formation will afford us a different view this time. I have a special treat for you, folks. You may never have seen this before… there it is: the backside of water!

No we didn’t retheme that joke for Christmas. Christmas is the time to repeat favorite things. And if you don’t believe me you must be in denial. Don’t make me go back there!

Trader Sam:
Ah, there’s Trader Sam! When Trader Sam was a boy, his parents wouldn’t let him have a dog for Christmas. They made him eat elves like everybody else.

Last year Trader Sam had grandma for Christmas dinner. She was a bit dry and leathery so he used plenty of grave-y.

One year over the holidays, Trader Sam gave up eating meat and tried the Christmas tree diet. You guessed it, he got tinsel-itus!

One chilly Christmas day, Trader Sam almost missed Santa… only got a cold shoulder.

Return to Civilization:
And now, probably the most dangerous part of our journey- the return to last-minute Christmas shopping!

Unloading:
If you enjoyed the time we spent together, this has been the world-famous Jingle Cruise. If not, this was it’s a small world holiday.

—

My thanks to Danielle @DeeMagicGurl and Jake @mainstreetjake for the inspiration of this column. Illustration by josh pincus is crying. 

Turn 666 upside-down

Please follow me — @DisneyEcho — on twitter. I’m only about 20 more followers away from 666. Please, a lot more Disney fans: follow me quick! I’d rather it be 999 than 666

UPDATE: Oh, no! Now I’m at 666 followers!

2nd Update: Thanks to @mainstreetjake and others’ help, I’m finally over 666 followers! #whew

Mickey V Oswald, Chapter 5

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Note: This story is set in a fictional version of Walt Disney World Resort, and all referenced material is used in like fashion. The Walt Disney Company has not authorized or endorsed this story. Story by David Foxfire; Artwork by David Foxfire, colored by Rich Koster

Chapter 5

When Oswald the Lucky Rabbit found himself with a heart, and because of that back in the ‘real’ world, he expected to have some problems adjusting to the 21st Century. Most of the time he expected the change. Heavy Metal Rock and Roll? He liked some of the Power Metal variety, although he’s mostly a jazz fan. Technological gadgets that borderline on what Yensid can do? First thing he did when he got his new house is get all three modern game systems and a computer for E-Mail and Letter writing. Drugs and Crime? Nothing new under the sun to him. A Black President? My, how things changed, too bad he found Barack Obama to be a bit inexperienced. Terrorism? Pshaw, the United States military may be eons advanced from the army he was used to, but they should go a couple rounds against the Phantom Blot and then come back to him.

It wasn’t until he went into a Starbucks for the first time that he was truly shocked.

And Mickey Mouse was there to see it first hand. “Ha ha ha,” Mickey said as he slapped Oswald’s back. “Welcome to the 21st Century, big brother.”

“F-Four bucks for a cup of coffee?!” was all Oswald could say when he looked at the menu.

“Those are just the espresso drinks, Ozzy,” Francie Cottontail said in consolation. “There’s the ones I lived through Med School on. Take three cups of coffee condensed into a shotglass, add steamed milk and your favorite toppings, and after slamming it down, you won’t blink for three days. Fortunately the brewed drinks are closer to your budget, hon.”

“I usually just stand there and look cute, and they give me a sample size,” Johnny said.

“Just my speed, um?”

“Oswald didn’t hear what The Kid said. He was too busy turning on the charm to the lady barista who scratched his chin. “My, Oswald, you sure wear your age well.”

“A lot better than my younger brother, afraid to say,” Oswald turned to Mickey with a sly grin. “Was that a grey hair on that arm you slapped my back with?”

Mickey, of course, steamed on that.

“Oswald!” Ortesnia said with a stern voice. “Could you pry yourself away from that barista so she can make a couple coffees, will ya? I think she’s one of Johnny’s girls anyways.”

Oswald rolled his eyes at Johnny, who was Starbucks literate enough to pick from the three kinds of normal coffee offered. It came from a decanter with several ceramic mugs with cream and three kinds of sugar.

“You’ll be surprised how many people are picky about their sweetener,” Amber said.

That reminded Ortesnia. “Ma’am, I hope you don’t have any of my kids wanting some coffee. They’re pretty much hyped up as normal.”

The barista shook her head. “We set up a water tank for them outside, keeps them from barging in. Did you know that some of them have those hydration backpacks?”

One of the larger ones was filling one just now.

Ortesnia shrugged. “Some of them are quite adventurous. I just tell them to watch out for cars, stay off freeways, and keep within the property boundaries. They usually don’t cause trouble.”

The barista had to ask. “How do you manage four hundred and eighty kids?”

“Don’t ask,” Ortesnia said as she returned to the iPod, she did a video search for Parkour and was playing it for the others in the table.

“This internet is pretty something when it’s good, isn’t it?” Ortesnia said.

“We might need to emphasize the three words, “when it’s good,” don’t we?” Francie said with a giggle.

“I take it you came back thanks to the internet too, did you, Fanny?” Amber asked.

Francie nodded. “Yeah, used to practice in the Wasteland, but I ‘fell’ under the same condition that fell Ozzy and Ortesnia,” she said. “It was only after contacting Yensid did we knew what happened. It seems that it’s spreading too, this modern technology is making forgotten characters remembered again. He’s monitoring it as we speak. Speaking of monitoring, have you seen some parts of the Net?”

“What parts, Fanny,” Ortesnia asked.

“We all have fan groups already,” Francie added. “Even you Johnny.”

Johnny just smiled and straightened up. “Well, I do keep up with my ‘far-eeeks.’ That’s what I call them.”

“That term could be apt, JB.” Fanny said. “Did you hear about some of the arguments that go on over which one of us,” she pointed between herself and Ortesnia, “should be Oswald’s true love?”

Ortesnia eyes grew a bit wide. Oswald’s more so. “You’re not kidding?” Ortesnia said.

“Oh, I think I heard some of that,” Ortesnia said. “There are some stories fans made that put both of us completely out of character.”

“That bad?” Johnny asked.

“One of them made me into a vindictive rageaholic who is hell-sent on getting Oswald back from some Valley Girl version of Fanny here. If you know me enough, young man, you’ll know I’ll never get that violent.”

To that Francie had to say, “There was the time she had to defend her kids from that Jailer Pete, though.”

“He got in between a mother and her kittens,” Ortesnia said, “what else should I do?” She then went back to her half-drunk coffee. “They even had me teaming up with Mortimer. Ugh! What was the writer thinking?”

“About how you and me could make beautiful music together? Ha-cha-cha.”

All three girls slumped. They didn’t have to turn around to see who was behind them.
Amber didn’t say a thing. She just refilled her cup with the still-pipping hot coffee from the decanter and just threw it where she heard the voice from. Underhand.

Judging from Johnny and Oswald’s wince, she made her intended target: Between the chest and the insides of the thigh.

They could hear the scream over the “It’s a Small World” music.

“They weren’t kidding about coffee being that hot!” Oswald said.

“You’ve heard of that lawsuit already, then?” Johnny replied.

“And we’re drinking this?” Oswald said.

“That’s why I always put ice in it myself,” Johnny said.

“Heh, but I guess he won’t hit on anyone else again for today,” Oswald said. He winced again as he saw a doubled over Mortimer favoring the affected area.

“If it were only so simple,” Ortensia said.

Mortimer Mouse’s voice sounded more like his more famous rival. “You just up and threw it at me!” He wondered if it were steam or fried toon flesh he was seeing.

“Well, seeing that whenever you try to talk to me eventually ends up with something thrown at you,” Amber said. “I thought I’d bypass all the annoying talking and hitting on me and just cut to the chase.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Amber,” Mortimer siad. “I was talking to that hot-to-trot cat.”
Ortesnia just favored her head.

Mortimer tried standing up.

“And don’t start, Moritmer,” Johnny said. “You already look like you couldn’t wait to go to the bathroom.”

“One moment, then.” Mortimer said. He went outside.

Ortesnia and Fanny breathed a sigh of relief.

Mortimer returned with a fresh pair of slacks on.

“Don’t tell me he just switched pants right in Main Street.” Johnny muttered.

Mortimer than took a deep breath.

“Someone stop him!” Francie said. “He’s about to spurt out a mass of pick-up lines!”

Johnny and Oswald was on the move before the inhale was full. Oswald hopped up on Johnny’s shoulders as Johnny made sure he had a firm enough stance. Oswald then grabbed Mortimer’s snout and clamped his mouth shut.

“Not one word to my wife, buster, or you’ll have worse things than hot coffee between your…”

“What is the matter here?!”

Johnny had to blink at the Cop Pete that showed up at the front door. “Another Pete?”

Mortimer tried to say something to Pete but Oswald was still holding on.

“Will you kindly let go, Oswald,” Pete asked. “He’s trying to talk to me and you’re annoying him, see?”

“I’ll let go as soon as Morimer turns back to Johnny.” Oswald replied. “Apparently you distracted The Kid and he forgot to let go of my feet.”

And indeed, Johnny still had a hold of Oswald’s feet on his shoulders. The rest of Oswald was hanging off Mortimer’s face when he turned around.

“That’s right, Mortimer, turn back around, that’s it” Oswald had to guide the larger rodent back to where Johnny was at so that Oswald can reclaim his feet. He then hopped down. “As a matter of fact, I’m glad you’re here. This man was annoying my wife and her friends.”

“One of them nearly singed off my…”

Oswald just hammer fisted Mortimer below the belt. “And he talks too loud.”

“And you just hit him in an ungeltmanly spot!” Cop Pete said as he grabbed Oswald by the neck, making sure that he got all of him. “And in a restaurant to boot, did you? That sort of thing would get you noticed over at The Blaze, but we don’t take kindly on that kind of activity here in Celebration, See?! I’m taking you in.”

“Under what jurisdiction., Mister?”

Cop Pete turned around to find who was yelling at him.

“Last time I checked,” Mickey Mouse said. “The Amusement Park Division has Celebration under it’s beat. And I doubt they’d hire you.”

“Yeah,” Minnie said. “That floosie vixen would have you for lunch.” Her lips curled at the thought of mentioning OCP-APD’s top cop.

Cop Pete just growled.

“But you’re right about not wanting a fight inside a Starbucks!” Mickey said as he pointed toward the lawn. “Let’s take it outside!”

Testing out WordPress for iOS version 2.8

If this works as expected, the new WordPress iPhone app will make it much easier to post quickly and easily to blogs. For example, I’m now trying out a brand-new feature called Quick Photo. It’s the first action-centric feature to be added — and so far it is for iPhone only .

The next time I’m at a Disney theme park I can see myself using Quick Photo whenever I’ll see something I want to show on this blog quickly. After opening the WordPress app I don’t have to choose which of my blogs I want to post to… just press the big button at the bottom of my list of blogs and, as the name implies, the camera is quickly launched so I can instantly take a picture then post it in a jiffy. A title and/or a description can be added (like I’ve done here, with this test photo of my MacBook screen showing an article about the latest version of the WordPres app) and then BOOM, it gets published and appears on the blog in almost realtime.

For more details about this big update to the WordPress for iOS app, including more information about Quick Photo plus the new Stats and Localization features, take a look here.

So far I love it!

I was on national radio!

I was just on @LeoLaporte’s The Tech Guy radio show and podcast episode 763 following Dick DeBartolo @TheGizWiz ‘s segment!

I gave plugs to http://ICanHasPixieDust.com, http://disneyecho.wordpress.com and that I’m on twitter as @DisneyEcho — plus talked about the file on iPhone that keeps track of your locations.

I commented that I wasn’t concerned about it keeping track of places I’ve been to. What concerns me is what a waste of space that file becomes after years and years of use — since it keeps getting added on to.

The file started with your very first iPhone and gets transferred to your newer iPhones through iTunes.

I hope Apple fixes this bug and changes it to use a much smaller file that only keeps your recent location, removing all the old location data.

I’m also wondering if this location file is kept on the iPad 3G like it is on the iPhone.

UPDATE: Sat., 4/23 podcast of @LeoLaporte’s The Tech Guy radio show I was on will be on iTunes on Monday, May 2nd — my birthday!

UPDATE: An iOS update made a change to this. Now the data is only kept for a week. Thanks, Apple!

Roger Rabbit Collectibles

Roger Rabbit fans, Gary K. Wolf alerted me today about a pretty neat collectible I bet you’ll be interested in.

Gary decorated an artists palette for a favorite local charity of his, the Brookline Arts Center. You can see it larger and even bid on it here. Be sure to place your bid before time runs out, then keep checking back to see if yours is the leading bid.

Who P-p-p-plugged Roger Rabbit?

Also, Gary autographed a Who P-p-p-plugged Roger Rabbit? book for a guy named Shaun. Gary wrote me, “It got lost in the mail. I sent him another one. Now, after 12 weeks, it came back to me. It’s personalized with his name. I sell them for $40.”

So, if you’re a Roger Rabbit fan and your name is Shaun — or even Shawn or Deshawn — you can have it for $10 plus $6.50 postage. According to Gary, “I can easily change the u into a w so a Shawn would work too.”

Shaun, Shawn, or Deshawn can write to Gary through his web site, www.garywolf.com. There’s a contact link there. Ask for the Shaun book, and he’ll give you the payment details.

And p-p-p-p-please consider bidding on the artist palette!

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Tripping over both bells and whistles

Tripping over both bells and whistles.

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