Recently, I tired to use my iPhone to take a picture of my new born son. Instead of capturing a priceless memory, I received an error saying “Your iPhone out of storage space” or something to that effect.

I check my data storage, I went to “settings” -> “general” ->”usage”, and found that Instagram was taking up 1.4 GB of storage space. 1.4 GB! That’s insane!

I believe that Instagram saves or “caches” every image that you view on your iPhone, so you only have to download the image once. This is great, but what’s the limit to this?

I can’t find any options on the phone, or in the app to clear the cached files or set a limit on the cache size.

The best workaround I found was to delete the app from the phone, then to re-install it. This is less then ideal, but it works.

You may need to restart your iPhone before the iPhone starts reporting the newly cleared space.

I believe that Apple should allow a way for iPhone users to manage application cache sizes, or require app developers to report cache sizes along with clean up tools for the end user.

I love Instagram, but what would happen if I continued to use the app (and cache images) for the next year? My 32 GB iPhone would have 10+ GB of Instagram images on it.

Follow me on instagram – “JoshHighland”

Am I ordering the new iPhone 4S? As my tattoo says, “oh hellz yeah!”

I’m excited about the iPhone 4S and I’m going to pre-order it. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the 4s, about how “It’s nothing new”, and “It’s basically the same as the iPhone 4″.

Here are the things that make the iPhone 4S different from the iPhone 4

• 2x the data speed
• 2x the CPU (A5 processor)
• 7x the graphics speed
• 8mp camera
• 5 element lens
• Larger camera CMOS
• 1080p HD video with image stabilization
• Longer batter life
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Supports GSM & CDMA (Use it on ANY carrier)
• Siri voice control
• Improved antennas

So yeah I guess besides those things, the iPhone 4s is just like the iPhone 4…

I love my iPhone, ive loved them all. I’ve owned every generation produced. With each release, the iPhone gets better, and becomes a larger part of my life. I use my phone a lot. It’s a mobile computer thats always with me. As an app developer, I can basically do anything I want with it.

When I ask people who are disapointed in the 4s, what they were hoping to see, the most common responce I get it, “I wanted it to be shaped different.” Shaped different! What? OK, I agree it would be cool to have a different sized iPhone, or a slightly different shape, but if I had to choose between better speed and an updated look, I’m going to pick the improved speed 10 times out of 10… I actally USE my phone.

I think more people would have been excited about the iPhone 4s if it looked noticabley different from an iPhone 4. I really think that most people care more about the status of the iPhone and the look of it rather then the utility and freedom it provides. If the iPhone 4S had a different style back, like metal instead of glass, I feel that more people would be impressed with it. There is nothing stylish about owning an iPhone 4S. The 4S update is about the “S”, speed.

Personally, I like to think that the 4S means “For Steve Jobs”. The world has lost a great visionary. Without him we wouldnt be arguing about iPhones. RIP.

Instagram is one of my favorite iPhone apps. It’s sort of a visual twitter. People post images instead of short messages. Your followers can then “like” and comment on them. My Instagram username is “JoshHighland”, follow me

Click here to view the embedded video.

YES, iOS 4.2 NOW HAS THE ABILITY TO SET INDIVIDUAL TEXT MESSAGE TONES FOR YOUR CONTACTS!

Sorry for the caps, but its worth screaming. Ever since custom ring tones were possible on the iPhone I have wondered why there was never SMS tones. Hell, a phone that I had 6 years ago had that ability.

One thing that does suck is the fact that you can use a custom tones. You can only use the tones that are available on the iPhone. I hope in the future that the iTunes store will carry tones that we can download and use.

hands down the best mobile device I have ever used. If you have an iPhone 3g of 3gs, you will want to upgrade to the iPhone 4

Click here to view the embedded video.

My latest iPhone app, VegScan, has enterd the beta phase!

VegScan is a social tool / game that scans bar codes of products and allows people to quickly identify if an item is vegan or vegetarian. You earn points and achievements with the more items you add to the community.

You can sign up for the beta program at www.VegScan.com

This is a quick and dirty video of my first impressions of iPhone 4.0

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are several ways to problematically detect if an iPhone has an internet connection, but most of them cant tell you how the iPhone is connected to the internet.

Apple has sample code to accomplish just this task. The Reachability class is not shipped with the SDK, but is part of a sample project of the same name. http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/samplecode/Reachability/index.html

Using the reachability class:

Set up:

• Download the reachability project from Apple
• Copy Reachability.h and Reachability.m to your project.
• Add the ‘SystemConfiguration’ framework to your project.

Sample Usage:

Reachability *reachability = [Reachability sharedReachability];
 [reachability setHostName:@"www.JoshHighland.com"];
 NetworkStatus remoteHostStatus = [reachability remoteHostStatus];
 
if(remoteHostStatus == NotReachable) {
 //no internet connection
 }
 else if (remoteHostStatus == ReachableViaWiFiNetwork) {
 //wifi connection found
 }
 else if (remoteHostStatus == ReachableViaCarrierDataNetwork) {
 //EDGE or 3G connection found
 }

Today AT&T unlocked MMS (multi media) messaging on the iPhone. Most of the world had had MMS messaging for YEARS now on their iPhone, but due to AT&T’s restrictions and fear of the data crushing their network they have limited the number of people that you can message at a single time to 10. This includes MMS and SMS (standard text messages)!

To most people, sending a single message to 10 people might be excessive, for me, it severely limiting. I am in charge of organizing activities for several organizations, social groups, and occasionally my church. The ability to send a single message to a large group of people has been so handy. Now if I need to send a txt message to 50 people, I’m going to have to send the same message 5 times. Talk about a step backwards!

Apple has also modified the messaging applications so you have to pick the phone number for the person you are trying to text, even if the contact only has one number. Before the MMS update, if only one phone number was in the contact, it would be used. The number of clicks has increased from 1 to 2. So, texting 10 people now requires 20 clicks instead of 10. Double the effort. I can’t see how this is progress. It feels like AT&T and Apple don’t want people to send as many text messages, so they are making it harder to do.

Dear AT&T thank you for giving up MMS messaging after all these year, but please give us back our mass texting abilities!