Image via CrunchBase

Preorders for the iPhone 4S opened in the U.S. early October 7th through Apple, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Unfortunately, the preorder process wasn’t smooth for many with glitches in checking upgrade eligibility (particularly for AT&T subscribers like me) and order processing errors at Apple’s online store.

This is highly unsusal for Apple But I would assume that with so many people that currently own iPhones the upgrade process has been challenging if you are not currently up for renewal. If you haven’t placed your preorder yet, you have a couple of options to do so from your current iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The official Apple Store app will let you preorder the iPhone 4S though be warned that the online store still seems to be a bit wonky at the time of this post and you may have some trouble.

There are some possible Apps that might help with the process:

Apple Store App
It’s the easiest way to get an iPhone 4S – right from your current iPhone.* Wherever you are, you can research and buy products, read reviews, make Genius Bar and One to One appointments, view in-store events, and more. And when you’re in an Apple Retail Store, you can request help, meet up with a Specialist, and more.

Here’s what you can do with the Apple Store app:

- Research and buy the latest Apple products, accessories, and software and get them shipped to your door.
- When at an Apple Retail Store, request help, check in for reservations, meet up with a Specialist or Trainer.
- Make Genius Bar and One to One reservations and sign up for workshops and events.
- Get free iPad and iPod engraving and signature gift wrapping for select Apple products.
- Custom-configure a new Mac with the options you want, including larger drives and more memory.
- Reserve iPhone and other select products for pickup at an Apple Retail Store.

The AT&T Upgrader
Provides AT&T customers, using an iPhone®, iPod Touch® or iPad®, a tool to quickly check upgrade eligibility to immediately purchase select iPhone models, select rate plans and features.

Here’s what you can do from the AT&T Upgrader App:
- Check if your account is eligible to upgrade to a new AT&T device
- Review and purchase select iPhone models, rate plans, features and accessories
- Have them shipped directly to your door
- Access to review FAQ’s

By selecting and installing the AT&T Upgrader application you agree to the AT&T Upgrader license agreement. We encourage you to read the entire license agreement.

Related articles

• Week in Apple: farewell, Steve (arstechnica.com)
• Looking back at the iPhone 4S pre-order launch (tuaw.com)
• There will be mobs again in front of Apple stores Oct 14 when the iPhone 4S goes on sale (amanwithaphd.wordpress.com)
• Apple starts taking iPhone 4S preorders (electronista.com)

Plaintext w/Dropbox Sync

Description

Text editor for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch – Plaintext is a very straightforward editor with a clean and paper-like interface. It has taken the default notes app and cleaned up the interface and the font, and provides the ability to create and organize your documents together into folders and keep them in sync with Dropbox.com

Review

In my use of the app I have found it to be very clean and organized, which has allowed the ability to keep similar thoughts and documents together in folders.

Organize your entries via folders and titles

Plaintext works with only plaintext (.txt) files that are saved in UTF8 encoding. In some tests some older imported documents showed up as blank when they were synced. The problem was corrected via 2 means one was to reopen and save as UTF8 and the other was to just copy the text to a new plaintext document.

Instructions for use of the app are included

The instructions that are given for use are simple and very easy to follow. The Dropbox.com setup was easy as well.

Just name a document and start editing

Text entry is rather smooth with a very clean interface

The app is free and the developer wants to keep it that way.

A gracious app author

This would be an app that I would highly recommend as part of your idea capture. Its ease of use and organization provide a perfect platform for capturing ideas.  The sync ability also makes sure those ideas are safe in the unfortunate event that your device is lost or stolen. For more information on Dropbox read my review here

Description

Dropbox is an online service that provides the ability to sync data between devices seamlessly. It also offers some of the best backup features and sharing features available. This service does have paid packages however for the pourpose of this review I will focus on what you get that is free. If you would like to check out the other services you can just click here.

Review

Syncs with a wide variety of computers to include Windows, Mac and Linux.

Support is available for many of todays mobile devices iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry

Public and Private folder and file sharing

File sharing supports public and shared folders with permissions

Free Dropbox iPhone/ iPod Touch app available

Can sync across multiple computers

Remote/ Mobile/ Web Access:

Dropbox offers some of the best sharing tools we have seen provided by an online backup service. They provide everything we were looking for in terms of sharing tools and they also offer a free iPhone/iPod touch application.

The reason I like the service is that there are many apps Things, 1Password, plaintext and others that allow for backup and application syncronization across mutiple devices. That one feature is enouth for me to reccomend it highly.

There are other feature that only are icing on the perverbial cake for this service. with the the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch app you have immediate access to anything you have synced in your Dropbox account. Viewing documents or images is as simple as loggin in and clicking the item you wish to view. You aslo have the ability to capture directly to you account from your device (with 3GS or better). You can share items in your account via email link from your phone as well.

Security:

Dropbox uses SSL for secure transfers and the data encrypted with AES-256. Keep in mind that publicly shared data is open to whomever can access them so be selective with the files that you share publicly.

Summary:

Dropbox is an excellent service that provides so many features that can truly make your computing life easier. Syncing, sharing and application support makes this service a must have on all your computers and devices. Because you never know when you might need that file at home, but now you have a means to go grab it from anywhere!