Q:

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 to make your voice heard with Apple. Go to the Apple Support Forum and suggest they add folder creation ability there. You can also contact Apple directly and give them iPhone Feedback. Be polite and to the point. Ranting might make you feel good, but anything past “WTF” might be ignored by readers. You can get more folders with honey … if that’s what you’re looking for. Leave a comment here if you care to.

I’ve seen Google send so many people to my blog looking for an answer to this question, I figured I owed it to those folks to give a quick and probably unsatisfying  answer.

Even with its flaws, the iPhone is still my only phone. Don’t think I would want to use another.

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!

Hello iPad: Let’s start with the obvious. It looks like a large iPhone. But it’s not. You can’t make a call from it even with the Wi-Fi and 3G package (unless you have Wi-Fi & use Skype … but that’s just theoretical … I digress). Looking at the icons on the front screen, it looks very much like an “exploded” or “expanded view of the iPhone desktop. Only four icons across, and four in the dock. If more will fit in the dock, will remain to be seen when the first Wi-Fi versions of the iPad ship in 60 days. Though 60 days from today Wednesday January 27, 2010 is Sunday, March 28, 2010. So maybe the 29th? Guess we’ll have to wait for the official date from Apple. Who knows what version of the OS it will finally ship with … iPhone/iPad OS 4.0?

Apple Inside: Apple has taken a bold step in it’s evolution with the iPad. It runs a new 1 Ghz Apple A4 processor. Apple’s chip also includes onboard video processing. No Intel inside. No Qualcomm inside. No NVIDIA inside either. Apple bought P.A. Semi back in 2008. It’s the first time they have used their own silicon in an Apple device.

eBooks: We wanted them. We got them! Plus a new iPad application called iBooks. Like iTunes you can buy eBooks directly from Apple via iBooks. The interface is simple, slick, and well designed. There have been other iPhone books apps that have looked similar, but Apple is not one to shy away from “quoting” another programmers work & calling it their own.

Apple announced partnerships with five major publishing houses, including Penguin, Macmillan, and Simon & Shuster. With more to come. All books on the iPad will be in ePub format, which is the most used open book format in the world. So in theory, any ePub book can be read on the iPad. iBooks is going to be yet another cash cow for Apple … and the publishers. Look out Kindle and Nook.

Mail: Mail on iPad has been redesigned. It’s use of popup contextual menus is well designed. The virtual touch keyboard for composing new eMail looks almost like a real keyboard. It seems that big too. Turning the iPad in landscape gives you a screen with your Inbox and folders on the left. select a piece of mail and flip iPad to portrait, and the inbox goes away and you eMail fills the screen. Sadly I can’t tell you much more than what I’ve gleaned from photos and the iPad Video on the Apple website.

iPod: Dream alert! Imagine if you will, an iPad landscape car dock. Now imagine if you will the ability to use iPad with my car stereo. I could use iPod.app for the first time in iPod history, to see album images on the screen large enough, that I could use as my music interface for my car. In landscape, I would imagine, iPad’s version of iPod.app uses cover stream. No more searching on a single line of text on my “iPod compatible” car stereo for songs buried deep within a playlist somewhere. I may have to build this thing myself if I have to!

It will also be nice to see what iPad developers do with the new screen real estate … all 9.7 diagonal inches. Plus the new iPhone SDK that will give them access to all the new menuing and other iPad specific features. It will be another summer of exciting new iPhone and iPad apps! As of now all current iPhone apps will run on the iPad AS IS. No updating needed. Plus you can run the current iPhone apps in “double” pixel” mode, which makes then fill the entire screen. Pretty thoughtful on Apple’s part!

I could go on about each redesign of each app, but Apple.com has done it best. Whether it’s Safari, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Maps … they all have been redesigned … and they look and function great.

Now I can’t wait to get my hands on one to test for myself. Apple did a great job of making the entry level 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad only $499.00. I’m like a kid waiting for early Christmas! Oh gee …. is it 60 days yet???!!!

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.

Things you will need:
> Your iPhone
> A working eMail account set up with your hosting company.
> Your eMail account settings written down.
> Patients.

So here we go ….

1. Select “Settings”.

2. Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”.

3. Select “Add Account…”.

4. Select “Other”.

5. Select “Add Mail Account”.

6. Fill in account info & save”.

TIP: With most eMail providers, your username will always be your FULL eMail address, unless otherwise noted.

Select the IMAP tab.

Here’s where the “tricky bits” start.

Be certain to enter all information correctly.

Be sure the Host Name for both Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) and Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) do not contain the “@” symbol and instead use a period “.” as in: imap.yourdomain.com or smtp.yourdomain.com.

Once all information entry is complete select the Save button.

Now wait for iPhone Mail to negotiate your IMAP and SMTP settings with the mail server, depending on the network connection speed … this may take a while.

If your mail provider does not do SLS you will get two error dialogs. One for IMAP and one for SMTP. PLEASE WAIT FOR EACH. No matter how long they take. See steps 8 and 9.

If your mail provider does do SLS, you will get no errors. Unless you’ve typing errors. Move to step 10.

7. Fill in all eMail account information.

8. Error 1: IMAP SSL Certificate error. Press Continue.

9. Error 2: SMTP SSL Certificate error. Press Continue.

Okay. So now there is a new IMAP account on your iPhone. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Depending on your situation there are a few steps that you may or may not need to do. Those will be covered in the next few section.

We will need to also check that the IMAP folders are correctly associated with the iPhone folders for Drafts Mailbox, Sent Mailbox, and Deleted Mailbox.

If your mail provider does not support SSL follow from step 11.

If you mail provider (gMail) does support SSL jump to step 15.

10. Your completed IMAP account.

11. Select your new account.

12. Scroll and select Advanced.

13. Set Use SSL to OFF. Go back one screen.

14. Scroll and select Drafts Mailbox.

15. Select your new SMTP server.

16. Set Use SLS to OFF. Go back one screen.

17. Select Drafts Mailbox.

18. Select your Drafts folder on the server. Go back one screen.

19. Select Sent Mailbox.

20. Select your Sent folder on the server. Go back one screen.

21. Select Deleted Mailbox.

22. Select your Trash or Deleted Items folder on the server. Go back one screen.

When matching up folders on the server, your folder names may not be the same as my folders … but I think you’ll know which are which.

There are only a few other items you can set. But I won’t go into great detail. You can select how long to hold onto delete items. On my Mac, I empty the Deleted Items when I quit Mail.app. On the iPhone I have mine set for 1 day. This way I don’t end up with thousands of eMails taking up space in the Trash on the server.

One other issue you may face. If when you launch iPhone Mail and you don’t see your folder hierarchy you may need to go to the Advanced settings of your account (on your iPhone) and in the field for “IMAP Path Prefix” enter the word INBOX in caps. That should allow you to see all your folders.

Other than that … you’re done! Press the physical Home button on your iPhone and launch iPhone Mail. That’s it.

Finally. You can only have one signature for your iPhone Mail, even if you have several eMail accounts. Hopefully Apple will address this in s future release. But until then, there are some great utilities out there that can get you through. Two of my faves are Pastebot from Tapbots LLC & TextExpander Touch from Smile on My Mac. I may do posts on some of these at a later date.

For now …. go send some mail from your iPhone! Have fun!

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?”

But I’m not here to talk of shocking things. Maybe a little awe … but no shock therapy. So it felt strange that I had in my pocket, this lobotomized iPhone and my trusty Motorola Product(Red) SLVR. Almost ironic. Yet iconic. Hmmm I’m getting moronic. But I digress

So I’m traveling with two devices. Why? Because I’ve been (patiently?) wating for the iPhone unlocking hack(s) to materialize. And wouldn’t you know, on Tuessay, they did! And for free! Wow! But wouldn’t you know on Monday I did a ‘buy now’ for a Bladox TurboSIM on eBay. I believe these are even more mythological than the iPhone was.

One method uses just a software hack to unlock the iPhone to be used on other GSM cellphone networks … like … wait for it … T-mobile. Woo hoo! The other method uses a small SIM device that is programmed to fool the iPhone into thinking it is using an unlocked & activated AT&T SIM, when in fact you can use any other GSM carrier you have an account with and a SIM card for. Even carriers in Europe.

The TurboSIM is manufactured by Bladox in Checkoslovacia and sold through thier website. When people found out you could hack the SIM to work on an iPhone, their website was flooded with orders. So many, they had to shut the web store down until they could fulfill the orders they had already taken. Some of those orders finally filtered through to the US. And of course ended up on eBay. Ah … the laws of supply and demand. Some people were paying several hundred dollars for just one TurboSIM. The same SIM that costs $84.00 US.

For those of you who have been following my angst-ridden iPhone saga … I’ve been waiting for this day! And I’m sure you know the answer to … “to hack or not to hack.” Yeah baby I hacked alright! Joe has unlocked his phone and is currently using his T-mobile employee account on his new iPhone!

Everything is right with the world … well at least my iPhone world. I’m sorry Apple but this is the way it should have been all along. Bring your own carrier. But then again … I’m not really sorry.

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.

In my previous post I was talking about the ‘unholy union’ of the ‘A-twins’ …. Apple & AT&T. This is also a MAJOR deciding factor to lighten my load. I’m sorry but no object is worth over $100.00 per month to have. I don’t mind putting cash into the pockets of Apple & it’s stockholders. But AT&T? A man just has to draw a line in the sand … at some point. Even if that line is after the fact. I just can not stomach the idea of shelling that kind of money out to a corporate behemoth like the Death Star … AT&T. Sometimes you DO have to go ‘through’ something to get to the other side. And now that I’m there …. I really don’t think there’s any turning back.

On Thursday I will have my partner Chris make me a member of the T-mobile family once again. Nope. I will not have all the bells & whistles of the iPhone. But i will have back my beloved Product (RED) SLVR. I won’t have to hack it to get my ringers back on. I won’t have to pay in excess of $1200.00 for JUST A PHONE! God! What the hell was I thinking? I truly was sucked into the Steve Jobs reality distortion field! Sucked in real good!

But now that my mind & my wallet are free … free of AT&T …. I can go back to life not worrying about a measly 900 minutes & 200 text messages. I can go back to having 2000 minutes & unlimited text messages & T-zones. Yippy! I can also spend that extra money paying off my credit cards and such. Sadly though I will sell my iPhone and use a large chunk of that money to buy out my AT&T contact. If I read the fine print correctly … I believe the buy out is $175.00. Though it could be more.

But that’s it. Say good-bye iPhone. You are … Going. Going …. GONE!

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?

I know … Joe … shut your pie-hole. You made a choice to be on the bleeding edge. So don’t have a hissy because there’s a crimson tide headed your way.

How is it I can feel bad about owning one of the most technologically advanced phones in the universe? Maybe because that universe also includes the Red Death Star …. AT&T? Somehow it just doesn’t sit right. How is it that the coupling of such ideological opposites can effect me so deeply? Somehow I feel my best fiend has let me down. BUT IT’S JUST A F%*$KING TELEPHONE! I think it’s the idea that someone (Apple/Steve Jobs) who wanted to change the world through technology has partnered with a company that just wants to OWN the world through technology. And in that unholy union (one even MORE unholy than MS & Apple) the shine on the Apple has become a little more lackluster, a bit more turbid.

Surely I over exaggerate. Certainly I am playing with words. I must be.

I certainly am … losing my will to iPhone.

But there are people paying me. That’s part of what I’ve been doing the past two weeks. Setting up 4 new iPhones for clients. Most of them had a mish-mash of addresses in different phones, PIMs, mail applications & address books. This is how I plied my trade. I exported, synced, set up IMAP mail accounts on both their Macs & their iPhone. When it was all said and done … it is was beautiful thing. No more, “Damn, did I download that eMail to my desktop? Now I can’t see it on my phone. And I need it NOW!” That’s the wonders of IMAP. You see the same mail on every device you set up an IMAP account on. Desktop … check. Lapptop … check. iPhone … check.

In two weeks of use, I have some quibbles about iPhone. But for the most part, for what I need …. I’m in love. ! As a computer tech, and consultant, I use to carry around a HandSpring Visor all the time. (See I was always a Mac friendly early adopter. And that iMac translucent blue … to die for!) If I was at a client and I had to look up a password, or an IP address, I’d go to my address book & look up the info in their associated notes field. It was so much better than having to lug around my ancient PowerBook. I love that I am again able to update notes & they update to my desktop … no problem. I also love how elegantly all contact information is presented in iPhone’s address book. God … I’ve even taken to hunting down logos for companies and photos of clients and friends and adding them to my contacts. It’s just too easy on a Mac and now iPhone. But you knew that already. Hey …. I’m an ‘artist’ … so ‘the visual thing’ works for me! Oooow look …. pretty icons!

Well … I need to go now. I need to get ready … I have a date with iPhone.

So the first time I went to sync iPhone. Imagine my surprise when iTunes got to syncing my calendar … and it choked. I was getting bizarre errors. Checking the AppleMobileSync log I was seeing this:

2007-07-06 20:45:32.263|AppleMobileSync|568:25198080|SocketStreamHandler.¬
c:_SocketLogCallback| ERROR: SocketRecv (data): error 9: Bad file descriptor
2007-07-06 20:45:32.267|AppleMobileSync|568:25198080|StreamHandler.¬
c:_ReadFunc| ERROR: Error reading data: Can’t read data
2007-07-06 20:45:32.269|AppleMobileSync|568:25198080|DeviceLinkConnection.¬
c:_DLHandlerThreadMessagePortCallback| ERROR: Could not receive message: ‘(null)’

The first thing I did was to back up my iCal, Address Book, SOHO Organizer, SOHO Notes and any other apps I knew that used sync services. I then went to Library/Application Support/Sync Services and trashed the entire folder.

To my amazement … that worked. Hey this is what they pay me the ‘big bucks’ for.

Dale from Crow’s Nest has that ‘extra’ one still kicking around … and I convinced myself … with a little help from Edie. She’s the office manager at the Seattle office. It had gotten to the point where so many people were asking me how to do ‘something’ on the iPhone that I figured it was ‘my duty’ as an informed Apple consultant to have one of these babies to call my own. Of course I made this purchase solely in the name of research. Yeah research. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

So yes …. Mr eMac Consulting now HAS an iPhone. Woo hoo!

Now that I have one let the research begin!

One of them is a writer for MSNBC. Joe Hutsko … he’s getting lambasted in “comment hell” on his blog JOEyGADGET for writing a story about his failed iPhone and his experience getting a replacement. I wrote a little blurb yesterday about a client of mine that had ‘his precious’ overheat. Jilted Joe is a writer for a company that partners with Microsoft (MSNBC) and he wrote about his experience with AT&T and Apple support. No matter what this guy wrote short of slagging Steve Jobs or his mother personally … um … let’s cut Joey boy some slack!

Good press or bad press … this little phone that could is going to do just fine. Short of some MAJOR bonehead move on Apple’s or AT&T’s part … this is going to sell sell sell. The myth is too big. The hype too big. The momentum too big. So yeah … there are going to be folks who have a bad experience with this mythological creature. Just by the sheer numbers sold. And they might write something about it. It’s the way things work. But as Apple users if we are going to be all Pollyanna about our beloved company THAT CAN (and does) … then we are no better than those who cut Apple for no reason.

But Mr Hutsko did have a reason to tell his story, and a right to tell his story too. iPhone is too new. Those that do own it haven’t put it through its paces yet. Not in a six days time.

So let’s sit back and wait a bit. Lets sheath some of those vitriolic tongues and listen for the sweet marimba tones of your own working ringing iPhone. Or … embrace you inner curmudgeon and send everybody to voicemail! Damn them all!