iMessage Activation Issues

Today I found out that iMessage on my iPhone had stopped working. Last time I used iMessage was last weekend but yesterday I had taken out the SIM card from the phone for the first time in months and did not realize until today that iMessage was turned off. Now I’m having problems with iMessage activation.

Ever since iOS 5 came out, I’ve been using iMessage in place of SMS whenever possible. I registered my iPad and iPhone 3GS using the same email address and through a little bit of trickery, avoided registering my phone number for it. In other words, iMessage on my iPhone works only through email and that’s how I want it.

Another reason why I don’t want to register my phone number to iMessage is because I’m using Axis, an Indonesian carrier which isn’t registered with Apple as its iPhone partner. In most cases, only approved carriers can have their customers registered to iMessage and FaceTime. There is an unexplained anomaly that allows Indosat numbers to be accepted by Apple’s activation server for iMessage and FaceTime despite the network not selling iPhones.

Trying to register to FaceTime or iMessage with a number from a non-partner carrier will result in your phone credits being drained without your knowledge because it uses background SMS process to send, acknowledge, and receive activation requests.

If the phone fails to receive an acknowledgement from the activation server, it will keep sending background text commands over and over again through the SMS channel using international rates. Fastest way to lose money through your phone.

How did I enable iMessage without a phone number back in October? What I did was I took out the SIM card from the phone, put it in Airplane mode and turned on iMessage. I can’t remember what the precise steps were (it was back in October 2011), but after entering my Apple ID email, the service accepted it and activated iMessage for me. I then added my iCloud email as well.

Things went fine until yesterday when I couldn’t send any text over iMessage. Earlier today I checked the Settings app and iMessage was set to off. When I turned it back on, it was waiting for activation.

After a few seconds, the settings for Messages ended up as above, signifying that the two emails I used (Apple ID email and iCloud email) for iMessage had been verified and approved but the status on screen was still waiting for activation. So I took out the SIM card, went into Airplane mode, reconnected to wifi and yes, I turned iMessage off and on again. I also repeated the process after turning the iPhone off and on again.

A few hours later it still won’t show up as activated despite me having already used iMessage to chat with a couple of friends (see the image above). It’s obvious that it’s trying to complete the activation for my phone number but I don’t want that to happen. If iPad and iPod touch can have iMessage activated only using email, why not the iPhone? It also worked before, why not now?

I’m still trying to figure out how to stop iMessage from trying to rob me of my money by sending multiple activation request to Apple’s servers. I don’t want to have to turn off iMessage but I don’t want it to waste my money either.

Clearly there is a way to activate iMessage on iPhone without the phone number (I did it last year) but I must have missed a step or two in the process. Anyone know or have any idea what I missed? I need to get iMessage working again on my 3GS without the phone number. No, I’m not considering a switch to a number from an approved network.

laughingsquid:

A Horribly Awesome Twitter Recruiting Video

Seriously Twitter. LMAO

New and old Techmemes. About the redesign.

How the US lost out on iPhone work

This incredible investigative report by the New York Times takes a look behind the scenes on why Apple outsources its manufacturing work to Chinese companies and workers.

The company held out for as long as it could to maintain manufacturing within US borders but eventually caved in and in 2004 shut down its last US plant in Elk Grove, California, which was making Macs. The former plant now serves as a call center for Apple.

As to whether the US can reclaim manufacturing jobs from China, this part is damning:

Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

In China, it took 15 days.

The Atlantic last year calculated how much an iPad would cost if it was manufactured in the US, it was $1,140. That point was rebutted but then the rebuttal itself was claimed to have been taken through a misunderstanding. If this is all too confusing to follow, let’s take this discussion back to the point in the NY Times article.

“What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

China’s Foxconn can and has done this.

How the US lost out on iPhone work

MPAA chairman Chris Dodd threatens to cut funding to US politicians over SOPA failure

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,”

This is an incredible statement from a former Senator who is chairman of the MPAA and is one year away from being eligible to directly lobby the government.

CrunchFund partner MG Siegler has harsher words to say about Chris Dodd.

Hollywood drops support for Obama for siding with Silicon Valley

Hollywood drops its support for Obama? Maybe they need to update their business models like when the movies went to home projectors and then to televisions, then to video cassette tapes, optical discs, and now digital stream/downloads.

It’s technology. Adapt and make money off of it, or attack and be hated, reviled, and abandoned by the consumers.

These Hollywood big guns keep making boatloads of cash off every new technology that they decry, it’s almost like putting on a show for nothing.

Piracy is about access. Look at how the video game industry transformed itself with online multiplayer games. Video game networks like Blizzard’s Battle.net, Microsoft’s XBox Live, and Sony’s PSN are doing well fending off pirates by limiting access to only legitimate members.

Look at how the music industry is being converted into digital. Not fast enough to make money? It’s only been just over a decade since consumers began to embrace digital downloads and less than a decade since iTunes Music Store debuted. iTunes makes it really easy for people to acquire music legally. Spotify and Rdio are doing the same thing for streaming services.

Content business is going digital and Hollywood should have been working with Silicon Valley on how to make money off of that instead of attacking those who take advantage of their lack of foresight. On that note, how would you transform entertainment?

Hollywood drops support for Obama for siding with Silicon Valley

When choice becomes overwhelming

Choice is good, but being flooded with a barrage of options will only confuse consumers. There is a point at which choice becomes overwhelming and actually detrimental. Ever been to a fancy restaurant where they preset the table with three different kinds of spoons and forks each and two or three knives?

Ever seen the range of cars on Toyota Japan’s website? Not only does it become overwhelming, it’s also wasteful.

Device manufacturers should cut down on options and offer a more limited range of models that serve wider interests and use-cases. Clarity over obscurity.

When choice becomes overwhelming

New Google accounts now integrate Gmail and G+ accounts

Not sure what the big fuss is with Google’s new account creation.

When you create an Apple ID, you can use that for iTunes, iCloud, Apple Discussion Forums, and product registrations. When you create a Live email account with Microsoft, you get XBox live account, SkyDrive, device registration, etc.

So when you create a Google or a Gmail account, it makes sense to have all Google’s services tied into that one account. Makes it easier to remember login credentials. If you want to have separate logins for separate services, make separate accounts. Not hard and plenty of people do that anyway

New Google accounts now integrate Gmail and G+ accounts

Thoughts on Siri

Tim Bajarin for Time:

Indeed, it’s pretty clear to me that Apple has just scratched the surface of the role Siri will play for them in driving future revenue. At the moment, we are enamored with its ability to enhance the man-machine interface. But that’s just the start. Siri is actually on track to become the first point of entrance to “search” engines of all types tied to major databases throughout the world. It will become the gatekeeper to all types of searches, and in the end control which search engine it goes to for its answers.

Apple may not have to compete directly with Google and Microsoft on the search engine front to be a force in search. With Siri, Apple gets to be the gatekeeper to the hundreds of specialist search engines if it manages to pull off deals with databases such as Craigslist, OpenTable, Apartment Finder, AirBnB, Edmunds, IMDB, and the like.

The key to this is being able to pull off the deals. Right now, Siri works with Yelp and Wolfram Alpha. Many (but not all) of those database or search sites make money off display advertising, which will be completely bypassed by Siri users. To have Siri scour their databases and deliver the results directly to users would undermine the very lifeline of their existence.

Not all of those sites will agree to what Apple may propose but Apple could do two things; buy out enough range of specialist search sites to further legitimize Siri, or convince them that Siri will eventually be the preferred way for millions and millions of people around the world to look for information that they will bypass websites and search apps anyway, thereby depriving the sites of visitors. Apple could say that turning down Siri would mean turning away customers.

If Apple were any other company, it might tack on iAds on Siri but at the moment, it doesn’t seem likely. Perhaps one could think of Siri as iTunes, a unified place to seek out relevant bits of information from many different sources. Of course, the business model would be different. People wouldn’t pay for premium search options, or would they?

Ever thought of Siri operating in a similar way to a cable TV service offering a multitude of subscription packages of search databases with a free basic set? Might have crossed the minds of people in Cupertino but given how iTunes is there to disrupt that very business model, it might seem unlikely for Apple to adopt it, not to mention putting people off.

Siri might not be fully working around the world at the moment and whether Apple will earn revenue out of it remains to be seen, after all, Siri is still in public beta and it might take Apple a while before it’s ready for a proper roll out.

It’s a bit difficult to imagine Apple allowing the next iPhone to be released while still carrying a beta version of Siri.

[update] Or Apple could add ability to purchase things online from Siri.

Thoughts on Siri