Q: How do I create a folder in the iPhone Mail app?

A: YOU CAN’T!

It’s another mystery of life. Why in the world can’t you create a folder in the iPhone Mail app!!?? You can move an eMail message, or a group of messages from one folder to another, but you can’t create a Mail folder on the iPhone. It’s just another of the glaring oddities of the iPhone.

I can understand not being able to do this with a POP account, because iPhone Mail doesn’t sync the mail messages themselves via iTunes. So it would follow, you couldn’t sync newly created folders with moved messages from the iPhone.

One would think though, it could be done with an IMAP eMail account. But it’s just not so.

It’s an enigma wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a burrito …

My only suggestion to all offended and incredulous iPhone user, is

And so it has come to pass. The magic “Jesus Tablet” has come to mere mortals. And it’s name is iPad! Like Manna from Steve Jobs and company, it has been delivered unto us this holy day Wednesday, January 27th 2010. Steve came from the mount @ 1 Infinite Loop and presided over his flock from a singular leather chair, stage left of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco. The “reality distortion field” is strong with this one. I could only imagine the excitement of the yet unanointed.

With so many rumors flying, no one knew what to expect. Would Steve start with something innocuous, the new iPhone OS (which didn’t happen) or a new iPhone (which also didn’t happen) and then at the last moment …. oh … just one more thing. No. He launched straight away into setting up and introducing the new iPad.

There will be those that will rip it apart for what it doesn’t do. No phone. No Camera. No Verizon. No multitasking. But as a consultant, I need to talk about what it does do. And the possibilities it brings. Oh. And the joy!

It seems I’ve helped dozens of clients trying to set up IMAP mail on their iPhone. So I’ve finally decided to document this in a “How To” post. For those of you who’s ISPs do not support IMAP mail, at some point in the future I may do the same thing for POP setup. For those ready to tackle this … read on.

There are some quirks involved with setting up IMAP mail on the iPhone. Especially for those ISPs or mail providers who don’t support SSL (secure sockets layer). The default for iPhone is to create any account with SSL on. Some of the biggest confusion for first time users is how long it takes SSL to be negotiated the first time the IMAP account is set up, especially if your are doing it over Edge or 3G and not a Wi-Fi connection. But even with Wi-Fi the wait can seem like an eternity! And all the confusing error dialogs that are popped up for you to act upon. Hopefully I’ve documented all those situations.

Warning: This post in not about programing. It’s about an Apple ID security breach.

Updated: 07.02.09
Updated: 06.28.2009
Updated: 06.26.2009

I have always had a fascination with the idea of developing for the Mac. I guess those seeds were planted “… way back in the days of old” when I was creating custom stacks in Apple’s HyperCard, or creating custom databases in Filemaker. Developing for the Mac, or now for the iPhone, is one of those dreams many Apple Fan Boys and Girls have had. To build that one illusive application that everyone wants. Needs. Must have! Cha ching! Hey … I didn’t say my motives were altruistic.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I went out the other day and bought “Programming in Objective-C 2.0” by Stephen G Kochan and Erica Sadun’s “The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook“. Yesterday I started reading Programming in Objective-C 2.0. To get started I needed to log into my Apple Developer Connection account and download the latest version of the Apple developer tools which includes Xcode, Apple’s programing environment.

While I was there I also registered for the iPhone Dev Center. To do so I had to register with my current Apple ID. I then needed to fill out an iPhone developer questionnaire. With that done I could then download the latest version of the 2.08GB Apple iPhone SDK.

Sometimes things don’t always go as planned …

Woke up this morning and I got myself a …. PwnageTool. Been waiting for this since iPhone OS 3.0 was released in iTunes Wednesday (6.17.09). Well me and thousands of others who were “refreshing” the crap out of the Dev-Team blog/website the past several days, or following the Dev-Team on Twitter, waiting for PwnageTool to post. That may not seem like a long time to most, it’s like seven lifetimes to those caught up in the iPhone reality distortion field. But here it is, with its new updated app smell. And it’s ability to unlock my 1st Generation iPhone.

You have to love these guys. They are modern day heros. Now Apple might think contrary, but you have to admire the Dev-Team’s vibrato. Their stamina. Their commitment. This disparate group of programmers, hackers, telecom industry workers, et al, from all over the world, doing what Apple should have done all along. Make the iPhone open to any and all GSM networks around the world.

Sound the horns! Release the doves! Call your Mom! iPhone OS 3.0 is coming! Tomorrow! (06/17/2009) There has been so much hype leading up to this release you’d think it was the second coming. But it’s not. It’s the third … coming of the iPhone OS that is. Along with it will come a new iPhone too. The iPhone 3G S. They say the “S” is for speed. I think the “S” is for “Sales” through the roof. Even before its release, preorders are sold out. Undoubtedly there will be lines starting at an Apple or AT&T store near you.

There has been a huge ramp-up for the release, starting long before last weeks “World Wide Developers Conference” (WWDC). The fan-boy blogs and the Twitter-verse has been on fire.

I’ve been back with T-mobile for almost a month now. I’m a happy camper once again. Who wouldn’t be with an employee plan, compliments of my partner Chris and T-mobile’s Domestic Partner benefits. My iPhone has been lying fallow for that long too. I did bring it back to NJ with me, for my Mom’s surprise 80th birthday party. But it was odd to pack the iPhone, which I loaded with pictures to show all my long lost relatives moments of their lives … and my Motorola Product(Red) SLVR. I knew there would be much “shock and awe” from the iPhone. Most of them never saw the mythical iPhone in person before. But most of them were amazed that I could have these old picture on such a new-fangled device. I got a lot of … “how did you do that?”

If a picture is worth a thousand words. Then I’ll say no more.

But we both know that’s not going to happen.

I thought long and hard. Hard and long. And it’s time to say … so long iPhone & AT&T. In past posts you saw how I agonized. Rationalized. Quantified & qualified my decision to procure this object of electronic lust. But lust is not enough. Nor is the iPhone.

I’m not quite sure how it happened. Maybe it was a moment of somber realization. Maybe it was a moment of wretched clarity. Maybe I’m the literal fool … soon parted with his money. Sadly that moment has arrived and this fool’s money will be going to AT&T.

I got my first bill yesterday. Or at least the cost was posted … sans invoice. That I might have to wait ten days for, or so the disclaimer said. Imagine my astonishment when the amount before my eyes read …. $229.36!!!!! What the f%*$k!!!! Now I have no reason to complain. There were lasses and chaps out there who’s first iPhone/AT&T bills were in the THOUSANDS of dollars. Adam Aronson for one got a $5,000.00 bill from the Death Star …. AT&T. So I guess I’m lucky?

Lord there goes Joey Appleseed …

Here I sit waiting to get loaded. Or maybe waiting to come down. I sit in front of this wall of aluminum & silicon dioxide and wait. It’s so very black and shiny. But it’s not a monolith. Or is it? Something is changing blocking my view, yet I’m seeing much more clearly. It’s so stunning it almost hurts. It did hurt a bit. But only in the wallet.

Here before me stands my shining new iMac. Never in a million years did I ever thing I’d own an iMac. Starting to see a pattern here? I said something similar about owning an iPhone. But there they both are. In all their black and silver shininess. Peering back at me with all their SiO2 glory … and clarity.