1.  Go to user–>library–>caches–>com.apple.iPhoto–>Cache.db and trash it.
2.  Reboot the iPhone.

Everything’s importing now like it should.

Otherwise, I’m actually rather happy with the new iPhone.  It’s noticeably faster than the 3GS, and the camera is a significant improvement.  (Of course, more internal storage would facilitate taking and storing bigger photos and videos, but hey.) The flash is more useful than I thought it’d be, though mostly as a flashlight, since its being so close to the lens makes for some great red-eye. Multitasking, gimped as it is, is actually pretty useful and well-implemented.  The antenna issue exists, but in practice has yet to be an issue for me. Yes, the bumper alleviates it to some extent, but doesn’t “solve” the issue as some would have you believe. Of course, the bumper also has a way of muffling your voice due to the little echo chamber it places right atop the microphone opening.

Anyway, since the first iPhone 4 I picked up got scratched so quickly, even while being carried mostly in my hand or in my jeans pocket with only guitar picks and a plastic usb thumb drive (that I haven’t used much in the last year or so thanks to Dropbox, now that I think about it…), I decided it would behoove me to get a screen protector. Gorilla Glass, my ass.

I read a bunch of reviews and wound up going with the only product I could find in person that offered front and back protection:  Zagg invisibleSHIELD Dry. On the box it says “The original military grade, clear protective film”, except in all caps and orange text.  They’re being half-honest.  The front screen protector is actually pretty nice and clear. However, the back is a mess:

“Why would they want us to put such an ugly thing on our iPhones?”, I wondered. And then I emailed the president of Zagg.

Hi,

I just got the dry application invisibleSHIELD full body screen protector for my iPhone 4.  I installed it fairly well (only slightly askew so the home button isn’t quite in the center of the circle…), though there was an issue with the instructions from the applicator staying on the shield.  I attached a picture below that shows the problem.  I was able to wipe it most of it off with some difficulty and some moist paper towels, but I was surprised that I had to do that. There are some places where the cover is now scratched as a result of this scrubbing.

The other issue is with the protector for the back of the phone.  It is not clear, nor is it invisible.  It’s this terribly ugly textured/matted thing.  Nowhere on the packaging for this product, nor on your website anywhere, is this described to be as such. I expected the back to be the same lovely crystal-clear product as the front. Why is it different and worse?  Did I get a defective item?  Is there any way I could get a replacement set that doesn’t have these problems?

Sincerely,
Mike Grosshandler

We’ll see if I get a response.  Has anyone else experienced this?

*EDIT*

Well, not an hour after I emailed him, Cameron Leishman, from the Office of the President of Zagg Inc. replied to me.  Impressive!

Hello Mike,

Thank you very much for your email, as well as your purchase of the invisibleSHIELD Dry! From the picture you provided, it looks like you have not removed the layer above the invisibleSHIELD. This layer has the alignment pattern printed on it, and is designed to come up. You can actually remove this layer at the corner indicated by the “Remove with Tab” and arrow printing. You can gently use your fingernail to separate the two layers, and then carefully peel up the alignment layer.

If this is not the case, please let me know at your earliest convenience and I will be more than happy to get a new invisibleSHIELD Dry sent out to you!

All the best,
Cameron Leishman

I replied:

Hi Cameron,

Thank you very much for the quick reply! I assure you, I removed the alignment layer as it was significantly larger than the remaining cover.  Right?  The printing was left behind on the actual shield, I’m sure of it. However, like I said, I was able to remove it by scrubbing it with a moist paper towel for several minutes, though that process left scratches on the shield.  You didn’t address my other question, though, which was about the BACK cover.  Would you be so kind as to let me know if that leathery/matted texture is the way it’s supposed to be, even though that’s not how it is described anywhere?  Don’t you have a back cover available that is just like the front one – clear and smooth? Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about with the back cover: (same picture from above)

If you can send a replacement set, I’d be most appreciative.  Here is my address:

Thanks!
-Mike

*EDIT 2*

His reply:

Hello Mike,

Thank you for your email. There are three layers of the invisibleSHIELD Dry, other than the original backing paper you have already removed: The top layer, which you is significantly larger than the invisibleSHIELD and the screen itself. The second layer is what you see on your screen–the alignment template This is identical in size to the invisibleSHIELD. The third, and final layer, is the invisibleSHIELD itself (i.e. it is under the design template you have noticed). This makes it highly unlikely that the template has transferred its design to the invisibleSHIELD, especially in a manner as detailed and unblemished as your pictures indicate.

In addition, the texture of the invisibleSHIELD Dry for the back of the device is different from the front. You will notice that it is slightly “rough” to the touch, almost akin to leather. This is an intrinsic property of the invisibleSHIELD Dry, and is a texture that many customers actually prefer to the smoothness of the regularly installed invisibleSHIELD. If you were interested in the purchase of a normal invisibleSHIELD for the back of your iPhone 4, I’d be more than happy to offer it at 50% off. Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!

And mine:

I tried, with my fingernail, to see if I could tease out two separate layers as you described, but it still seems this is just one piece remaining here on the front.  I followed the directions in this video here on your website:

http://www.zagg.com/support/dryinstallvideo.php

That video does not describe the 3rd layer you mention. It just says to peel the application film away from the shield, and shows it all coming up in one motion. It is impossible to separate the design template from the shield as you describe, if they are even two distinct pieces by design. All I’ve accomplished in trying in two of the corners is getting fingerprints UNDER the shield and further scratching the screen protector!  If there’s some secret method to separating the two pieces, please let me know.  As I said, I was able to remove the white overlay paint from the screen protector, at the expense of slightly scratching the screen, so the phone is usable as it is now, but it’s not ideal, especially for $30!

As for the back, that’s interesting.  People really prefer that?  Well, personal preferences aside, it’d be supremely helpful if somewhere on the packaging AND on your website that difference was clearly and obviously disclosed. As it is, the product is very misleading. I noticed now that it is mentioned briefly in the video, but that goes by quickly and the point isn’t made obvious. It should be listed in the product description with a photograph.  I can live with the textured back, but I may not have bought your product if I’d known it’d be like that.

I’d still appreciate a replacement front shield.

-Mike

*EDIT 3*

Then:

…It sounds like the invisibleSHIELD stayed on the backing when you first began your installation. I would be more than happy to provide you with a replacement at no cost to you.

So, score one for good customer service. Hopefully the replacement works better!

Of course, it would figure that now would be when Avid/Digidesign finally releases a version of Pro Tools (8.0.4)  that officially supports 64-bit Windows 7!  I’d been dual-booting back and forth, depending on the song, between the version (3.0.1) that was stable in 32-bit XP (which worked quite well, save for the songs with so many plugins that I would run out of RAM and Windows would crash), and the version (3.0.3 with beta 3.0.4 hardware drivers) that “mostly” worked okay in Win7x64, but would randomly freeze up on me, requiring a reboot.  Either option was a compromise at some level: limited RAM vs. instability. I’ve only done a couple of hours of work so far in the new version, but I’ve had no problems with it yet!  That’s a very good sign. It looks like Windows is still an important platform to Avid after all.

But the good news is that it’s looking more and more like this album is approaching “done”, and whatever changes I have left to make, I’ll be able to do them with far less drama (read: crashes) than before. This album would probably have been done months ago if the 64-bit Win7 support were out much sooner.

• English
• Spanish
• German
• French
• American Sign Language

I thought it would be cool, if not useful, to be able to speak even a little bit in more than one or two languages. I took six (seis) years  of Spanish in school, so that one was a no-brainer. My cousin and his wife have been teaching their infant son sign language to help him communicate while he’s still preverbal, so that inspired me to add that language.

There are some good YouTube tutorials I found that helped me with pronunciation as well as seeing the word written and transliterated. Hearing the word spoken aloud definitely helps.

I haven’t yet decided which ones to tackle next. Italian, Chinese (which dialect?), Japanese, Russian, Icelandic, Danish, Portuguese?  I’m giving myself a week or two between new ones, since when I started on French a few days after German, I found myself getting it mixed up with German.  So, more space between them might give my head more time to sort it out better.

So far, my favorite number is five in German: “fünf”.

Now I just need to come up with a name.  Two actually – one for the album and maybe even one for the “band”…  Any ideas?

In other news, I’m looking forward to upgrading to the latest version of Pro Tools that includes actual support for Windows 7 (maybe it’ll run without crashing every 20 minutes!), but that’s gonna have to wait ’til I finish this album since it also drops support for my MBox!  Not cool.  The preamps in that thing sound pretty good and I’m not happy about the prospect of an otherwise perfectly good piece of hardware becoming obsolete just like that.  But I suppose that’s how things work in this world, unfortunately.

I looked at this as a setback for a few days, wallowing in self-pity about how I’ll never finish this album at this rate, blah blah blah, but then I realized this was a good opportunity. Since I started in earnest on this album of mine just about a year ago (eek), I’ve been neglecting writing and working on new songs for the most part. (I wrote a few tunes on vacations, but that’s not as much as I’d like.) So I started working on some demos for songs I wrote over the summer, and on Sunday I even wrote a new one. With my computer out of commission from some driver issues (again), I busted out my trusty iPhone and the 4-Track app and laid down some ideas.  That’s one of the most useful apps I’ve ever downloaded (if only the metronome would work from anywhere but the beginning of the song…), and with an iTunes gift card I had lying around, I still haven’t paid a single cent for an app for my phone.  I imported the tracks into Pro Tools and whipped up a quick drum part in BFD and added some bass and electric guitar and now I’ve got a shiny new demo to listen to and try to come up with lyrics for.  Good times.

I also came to the decision that, while the samples I’m using for a few horn parts in some of the songs (Garritan Personal Orchestra) sound decent, they’re not as good as I’d like.  So I set out to find a good horn player to play them for me.  I’ve got a few leads, but if anyone out there knows someone who can play trumpet, and maybe trombone and french horn as well, hit me up.  If you’re gonna do something, do it right, right?

Focused on the ground: Over-exposed sky

Focused on the sky: Under-exposed ground

I remembered reading about bracketing though, so I took one of each and followed the instructions here:

http://ioncreativity.com/wordpress2/?cat=7

And here’s what I wound up with:

Bracketed: Just right!

Very cool results!  Click each pic for a bigger version.

For the computer/recording geeks, I wound up setting up a dual-boot system on my PC, since Pro Tools is just not stable enough yet on 64-bit Windows 7.  I couldn’t handle the instability and the pops and clicks.  So I’m now using 32-bit XP for Pro Tools again and 64-bit Win7 for everything else, and it’s working out pretty good for me.  Only issue I’m having with XP is that it doesn’t seem to recognize more than 2.99GB of the 9GB of RAM installed now, and I use that up pretty quickly in some of these sessions with lots of plug-ins.  But for tracking, I just disable some of them and get by.  I haven’t even come close to maxing out the processing power, which is great. Official 64-bit PT support can’t come soon enough!

That is, when my computer is working right…  I’d have a lot more done by now if I wasn’t spending half my time troubleshooting computer issues.  Pro Tools ran great on Windows Vista 32-bit, but I needed more than 3.2GB of ram for some of these sessions.  (32-bit operating systems only let you access between 3 and 4GB of ram…)  So, I’ve been running Windows 7 64-bit.   Win7 is running awesome for the most part, and I quite like the way it works, but Pro Tools doesn’t officially support 64-bit operating systems, so it’s been an experiment, to say the least.

For example, a few times now I’ve recorded a guitar part and gotten it just right, but then on listening back, I found pops and clicks in the audio, so I had to redo it.  Or I’d be adjusting an edit, and PT would just stop responding, forcing me to restart it and wait several minutes as it re-loads the session.  Or I’d change the hardware buffer size and PT would just crash and take down Windows with a BSOD in the process.  That’s always fun.

Somehow though, through it all, I’m still making progress.  I recorded 6 electric guitar tracks and 11 acoustic guitar tracks for a song called “The Words” tonight and yesterday.  I used two mics on the acoustic for each part (a 414 and a 57), so there are actually 28 guitar tracks in this song currently.  I’m gonna have to figure out a way to whittle those down, though; I think I might have done too much this time around.  But it is much easier to remove tracks than to record more later, so away I went!

I’m still optimistic, and listening to the new mixes as I get more and more parts recorded is still a thrill.  And yes, part of me is wondering if getting a Mac would make this go much more smoothly…  I feel dirty.

Multitasking as ever, between takes I watched an interview with Butch Vig where he showed some of the techniques that went into recording Nirvana’s Nevermind.  I’d been meaning to find that stuff for a long time and it was awesome to hear some of the tracks from that album soloed to hear the pieces that came together to make that amazing album.  I’d also love to find out more details like how they mic’d up the guitars, what settings they used, etc., but who knows if that’s available…

(As a side note, it’s really hard to explain the feeling I get when I hear that stuff from Nevermind…  “Amazing ” doesn’t even come close.  I think this tweet was well-phrased:

this must be what it feels like to go to church for some people: http://tinyurl.com/c65jpx

It’s definitely a natural high that’s hard to reproduce otherwise.  Nearly 20 years later, that music hasn’t lost any of its effect on me.)

Anyway, after watching that, I listened again to the guitars I’d recorded so far for Everything’s Fine (even though the song is nothing like Drain You, but still), and decided I needed to add some more guitar tracks.  So I might add one or two more to see how that sounds.  The more the merrier!

After that, next up is to redo the lead slide guitar stuff I did. That’ll be a bit harder as I haven’t touched my slide since I recorded these demos and I’ll have to re-learn the parts as I go.  But it’s coming together finally and it’s a real relief to be making progress again.  Maybe I’ll shoot some video of me doing the slide stuff so you guys can hear a little bit of this tune I’m talking about.