Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to Photos in the facebook iPhone application
2. Press + to add a new album
3. Enter an album name
4. Click Create (note the lack of Privacy setting)
   
5. Now open a web browser. Go to your profile and click on Photos.
6. Click Album Privacy
7. You will see this:
   
8. However if you create a new album with the web browser interface the default security is correct:
   

I have reported this to facebook as a bug – they have not commented as yet.

My advice is to check your privacy settings if you have been creating photo albums on your iPhone!

Update 15/04/2010: Facebook have responded acknowledging this as a bug:

—– Original message —–
From: “Facebook Support” <xxxx@support.facebook.com>
To: matt@xxx
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:58:08 -0700
Subject: Re: My updated privacy settings are not functioning correctly: iphone facebook app default settings…

Thanks for contacting Facebook.

After trying many things (upgrading drivers, etc…) I just found a simple solution to my problem this morning.

Make sure “Microsoft Office 97 Scrolling emulation is turned on”.  I had “Universal Scrolling” set. There appears to be two different mouse wheel protocols and Firefox has started to only support one.  Thanks guys.

Solution is here:

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/572726?s=scroll%20wheel%203.6

Now why Mozilla did not publish this in the release notes I have no idea!

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Generally, Tech (possibly most ?!) stories in mainstream media are usually pretty poor quality.  Unfortunately, The Age have continued this by today writing a bogus article regarding some random guy who is complaining about poor 3G speeds.  Is he aware that the tool he is using, iNetwork Test, is contacting a server in the USA to test his speed with ?  Of course he will get slow speeds !! It will only be as fast as the smallest pipe.  And quite frankly – being a MD of a security company he probably should know better how the Internet works.  Also – if he cares about his privacy, he probably should not have shown everyone the Lat/Long coordinates where he performed the speed test.

For more accurate speed tests, use http://www.ozspeedtest.com/bandwidth/ and pick a local mirror.  I am on Optus, and using iNetwork Test I got about 175kbps, and on ozspeedtest.com using the 600kb file test, I got 1.2Mbps for my speed.

None of the speed tests are very accurate, due to many factors at play.  3G networks are “bursty”.  That is, you do not get guaranteed bandwidth and it depends on how many people using your cell at the time you do the test what your result will be. Also, 3G networks have quite a bit of latency, which means that from the time you send your request, the response will take a bit longer to come back than if you were on a wired connection such as DSL or Cable.  This will affect the reported speed test result, unless it is smart and takes into account the latency in its calculation – which is possible.

Since Optus promised us all free Wifi with all iPhone 3G plans, I decided to check it out. There is a hudsons coffee place near work. So I follow the instructions to setup an account, it SMS’s me a password, and manage to login just fine. Nice and fast. Cool. However, Optus dont have many wifi hotspots that they run themselves. They are partnered with Azure however which increases their coverage somewhat. So there is a Quest block with Azure coverage nearby as well. I try to connect, choose Optus Wireless Connect as the partner, and I am prompted with a login screen. I have already created my account so I thought – I try to login and it says Access Denied. What am I missing? Maybe the backend authentication is out of sync or something.

So I phone up Optus iPhone support – 4 times! – before I get someone who knows what I am talking about. They tell me that the Optus Free Wifi is for Optus run hotspots only – not Azure ones. To me this makes it almost useless as there are only 16 hotspots in Melbourne ! The Azure coverage is much more extensive. Also Optus are happy to promote the fact they partner with Azure - but do not mention anywhere that iPhone users are not welcome.

Have not tried it yet – I am not that much of an early adopter…

It is the first phone that is easy and intuitive to use by the average person – yet powerful and flexible to also be used by the 371t3 uber geeks (especially after a Jailbreak!). No mucking around with special key combinations to do certain things – everything is available via the touch screen in a clean user interface.  

Rather than yet another boring review, I thought I would write about a few things I have been trying to get working over the last week.

Firstly, I chose Optus as my preferred carrier.  Quite frankly they are the only option to buy an iPhone from in Australia (unless you need rural coverage).  The other major carriers Vodafone and Telstra have priced themselves out of the market.  I have 700 MB on my plan per month – I am pretty sure that will be more than enough.  Although Optus are not providing a data usage meter at the moment. I am not sure if one will eventuate or not.  So we are all reliant on the internal iPhone usage meter for now which is probably accurate enough.

A couple of things that bother me a little but I can probably live without them

1. No MMS capability
2. Unable to tether with a laptop and use as a modem

Mainly for reason 2) – people will not need as much data in their monthly plan as they think they might need.  If laptop access to 3G is required then Optus and Vodafone bundle pretty cheap wireless data plans these days.

There appears to be an issue with YouTube which really annoys me.  YouTube over 3G is fine.  As soon as you try YouTube over WiFi the player continuously plays/stops while buffering which makes YouTube videos unwatchable.  It appears many people have reported this issue on the Whirlpool forums.  It seems that YouTube over 3G is lower quality while over WiFi it streams the full quality video which explains the problem only happens when connected to WiFi networks.

I also noticed that where I live in the North Western suburbs of Melbourne, the 3G bar is usually one or two bars in strength.  Many other people have noticed this as well in various places around the world.  The 3G signal on an iPhone 3G appears to be not as good as the signal that a Nokia receives using the same SIM card (ie: same carrier).  I did a couple of rudimentry tests by comparing the indoor signal strength my Nokia N95 receives vs my new iPhone 3G.  The Nokia appears to sit between -94dBm and -100dBm – however the 3G signal bar is almost full (I used CellPos to get this info).  The iPhone signal however is a bit more erratic with signal strength between -94dBm and -113dBm with mainly one bar of 3G signal strength (the magic field test service code will give you this information).  So really its just a matter of how the manufacturer interprets the signal from the cell tower and how that should be translated into a signal strength bar graph.  Occasionally I lose 3G completely and the 2G signal comes up with full bars – so I should never have a problem with any dropped calls.  Even data transfers over 3G on the one bar are still respectable at around 500-600 kbps.  With 3G on full bars in the middle of Melbourne the highest I have got has been around 900 kbps.

One of the things I love about the iPhone is the fact that if Wifi mode is switched on and you are in an area with a Wifi network it knows about, Wifi seamlessly switches on and you can browse at high speed.  Then when it goes away the phone switches to 3G mode.  All without you not needing to configure anything.  The best bit is – if you get interrupted with something else and the phone goes into sleep mode, the Wifi will switch off – thereby saving your battery.  This is something Nokia should take notice of.  The most annoying thing about the N95 was that if it was connected to a Wifi hotspot – it would continue to stay connected until the battery ran down to empty!

When I first got the phone – I was disappointed that there appeared to be no support for LEAP for WEP Enterprise WiFi networks.  However, apparently this support was announced earlier in the year as part of the 2.0 firmware.  And sure enough support is there but not enabled by default.  You need to download the iPhone configuration utility (Mac or WIndows).   There is a manual available here.  The process is basically entering your enterprise requirements (which can include Mail/WiFi/VPN settings) which then generates a configuration file.  The configuration file can then be emailed to yourself, then when you read the email you open the attachment which imports the configuration to the iPhone.  Its a bit clunky and not very enterprise friendly – but it works and I am sure Apple will improve the process in a later version.

Finally, been playing with the “Push” email/contacts/calendar.  It works pretty well.  I tried MobileMe (60 day trial). Also, I tried mail2web.com (free hosted Exchange service) and also the free www.nuevasync.com, which syncs your Google calendar and Google contacts to a hosted Exchange server.

NO!   Even in my hotel room – I have starbucks coffee in a sealed bag ready for use with the coffee maker! No wonder Starbucks is agressively expanding globally – they have the US domestic market all sewed up.

Also got caught up in the Boston Celtics victory ticker tape parade.  They certainly know how to run a parade efficiently over here.  Cops everywhere, and fixed barriers that you cannot cross through – except designated crossing areas.  Afterward there was a man walking at the end of the parade unscrewing the bolts for the barriers.  Which is something else I noticed – there is a job for everyone in the USA.  No matter if you are old or young – you can get a job doing something.  Shop assistants are also a breath of fresh air when comparing to Australian ones….. you actually do get customer service over here.

I also wondered the history on why it is called an NBA World Championship when no other country plays NBA except the USA.

In Australia for parades, we just take the she’ll be right mate approach and put a blue line down on the road and hope for the best!

Oh – I also visited the Apple store in Boston. Wow it is impressive.  Bought something small on my AMEX – and the shop assistant asked if I wanted an emailed or printed receipt – I said both thanks.  And she then proceeded to tell me my own email address without me saying anything.  Now that is either REALLY REALLY good customer service or just plain scarey….

• It doesn’t matter how much you earn – people generally live beyond their means and you can fall into the “Credit Trap” at any time if you are not responsible. Buy this cool thing on sale this month, buy that extra-extra cool thing interest free next month and before you know it over a  whole year  you are in deep deep trouble.
• People on the low end of the income spectrum are suffering more than ever before due to the current high cost of housing. However Australias welfare system is pretty good as they have access to subsidised rent and government housing options if they are really in trouble.
• Our credit reporting system is one of the most minimal in the world. There is no way for a financial institution to know how many credit cards you have as your credit file only records applications for credit and the amount of credit requested. Generally only negative things are listed on your credit file – nothing good (such as a cleared debt) is recorded.
• No matter what the banks or other lending institutions say – they do prey on people by offering unsolicited credit cards. I assume they do this because the salesperson at the bank are on a commission for the amount of credit that they can get on the books. I am sure this happens for not only credit cards, but home loans and unsecured loans as well. Sure they might be tightening up on their due diligence these days but thats only because they have been so lax over the past 10+ years with so much bad debt around the place that can no longer be serviced.

No matter how much the Australian Bankers Association claim how “responsible” banks are when lending, blind freddie can see the evidence points at the banks being resposible for many of the current global economic issues that we are now facing today. And ultimately it is the low income earner that is now paying the price for the banking industry’s negligence over the past few years.