The Curse Of The USB Cables

This post has been written out of frustration after coming to charge my Bluetooth Headset only to discover that it's Mini USB.

I decided to charge my Bluetooth Headset that I've not used for months only to discover that it's Mini USB & The only USB Chargers at hand were the Micro USB Charger for my 2012 Google Nexus 7 that I also use to charge other devices & the Apple Dock Connector cable, no problem I thought as I proceeded to search cupboards & drawers in the living room knowing that a Mini USB cable was living somewhere in there.

But no Mini USB Cable turned up, but aUSB to Mini USB plug & the shortest USB Cable imaginable turned up.

Now it's not as though the Bluetooth Headset is that old as I've had it since last year, also it's not like there are many devices around that use Mini USB anymore so why can't Accessory manufacturers get up-to speed?

Since September 2010 when I got my Blackberry Curve 8510 all the phones I've used have been Micro USB with the exception to my current phone (iPhone 4S) which uses the Dock Connector that Apple introduced with the 1st generation iPod.

even the Bluetooth keyboard that I use with my Google Nexus 7 has a Micro USB Port and the Bluetooth keyboard Case that I'm using on my iPhone 4S has a Micro USB Port.

People always talk about fragmentation in the Android Mobile OS, but no one ever says anything about the fragmentation within the Accessories that use USB for charging. USB is supposed to be universal since USB stands for Universal Serial Bus, but yet there is fragmentation within the plugs & ports for the mobile side of a universal standard.

Rant over

Roland

iOS 7 Shared Photo Stream Bug

In this post I'm going to talk about 2 possible bugs in the iOS 7 implementation of Photo Stream & my work around. My iPhone 4S came with iOS 7 pre-installed so I don't know if it was present in iOS 6.

Inviting people to a shared Photo Stream

I first spotted this bug when I first set-up a shared Photo Stream between me and the wife. The original Invite when I set the Photo Stream up never went through, so today I tried doing it again and it didn't go through.

Since Apple in their infinite wisdom never implemented a Delete Invite option I was unable to delete her Invite and start again.

The solution

the only way I could get the Invite to go through was to delete the Photo Stream and re-create it and her Invite went through and she was able to accept the Invite.

Adding Photos to a shared Photo Stream

Once I'd re-created the Photo Stream and added some Photos I was then unable to add anymore Photos or Videos, the Photos app would just freeze and I'd have to return back to my Home-screen & close the app through Multi Tasking.

The solution

the only way I could get Photos to add was to delete all the Photos in the Photo Stream and re-boot by holding down the Sleep/Lock button until the screen went blank and I was able to add Photos as normal.

Conclusion

I've got no idea if these are a bug or due to hardly ever re-booting my phone meaning that the RAM needed flushing by doing a re-boot.

Roland