Announcing a partnership between legendary* programmer (and pro guitarist) Bill Monk and Chowhound.com founder (and pro trombonist) Jim Leff. Guitar plus trombone? That equals...

FretBone

(Insert clever jazzy logo)

* Bill says he doesn't think he's "legendary". But he's not writing this. He's been locked in his programming cage and won't see daylight til he's done coding.

This is our pre-alpha web page to let people know that Bill and Jim have been feverishly concocting several iPhone apps so ingenious that they literally rub their hands together with fiendish glee. Literally. In fact, this is being typed real sloooowly because after each keystroke there's lots more fiendishly gleeful hand rubbing. Also deranged cackling.

And, no, the apps have nothing to do with food (though Jim thinks his iPhone would make an awesome waffle flipper).

To receive notice when our first app publishes but never hear from us ever again, send a blank email to once@fretbone.info. To join our extremely low volume mailing list , send a blank email to list@fretbone.info. To actually talk to us about something, send an email, preferably not blank, to guys@fretbone.info.

A suggested workaround for those cursed Ad Hoc install errors:

 Note: The following is addressed to people testing apps for iPhone developers. If you are not involved in app testing, and you're getting "0xE800001" or "0xE800003" errors with your iphone, our workaround may - or may not! - be helpful to you. Skip the following three paragraphs and delete any non-apple apps (starting with the last one you installed, which is likely the culprit) per the numbered steps below, then reset your iPhone. At that point, you may want to try to re-download the deleted app.

AD Hoc testing is tricky to get right, and when it's wrong, it's confusing. There are lots of moving parts. And sometimes you get mysterious errors when trying to install test apps. Usually it's error 0xE800001, error 0xE8000003, or the dialog: "The application 'Foo' was not installed on the iPhone 'Bar' because it could not be verified."

Any of those errors could mean the developer needs to check the AD Hoc provisioning settings in Xcode, then send a new version of the app and ".mobileprovision" file. But sometimes you've done that, yet it still won't install. You drag the files into iTunes, click "Replace" when iTunes says "The application 'Foo' already exists in your library; do you want to replace it with the one you are moving?" and...the same cryptic error messages reappear. Google "0xE800001" to see how it's driving people nuts.

In our own efforts to test our apps, we've discovered that once iTunes has tried to install an app with incorrect AD Hoc provisioning, it will keep trying to install it, even after you've dragged in fresh, new, fixed files and clicked the "Replace" button. And we've found a workaround that works for us: before dragging in a new AD Hoc app, first delete the old version from within iTunes. Try it (but do bear in mind that this won't help if the new app's provisioning isn't really and truly right):

1. Go to iTune's Applications pane (under Library in the sidebar).

2. Control click the problem app's icon, then choose Delete from the popup (contextual) menu

3. Quit and re-launch iTunes.

4. Drag in your fixed app. If you have a new .mobileprovision file, drag that in too. The "Replace?" dialog should not appear. Synch the phone.

Note that iTunes puts AD Hoc apps in the folder /~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications. You might guess that trashing things from this folder would make iTunes forget them. Nope. Even if you delete a problem app using the finder, iTunes still displays the app and will keep trying to install the old version whenever you sync - and you will still get an error!

Another source of confusion is that sometimes the .mobileprovision file is fine, and will work perfectly with other AD Hoc apps (from the same developer, and if you have any available to try - see how confusing this gets?). But if there was a provisioning problem in a previous version of a particular app, that problem seems to get cached, and new fixed versions won't install either.

To sum up: If installing an AD Hoc iPhone app gives errors, it may be broken, in which case the developer should fix it and send you a new copy. But if it's already fixed, first delete its icon from iTunes. Then drag the new app into iTunes.

Good luck!

FretBone


BILL MONK has written Macintosh system software and plumbed some of the more esoteric corners of the programming world (stuff like core audio, Blu-Ray, SCSI 50-disk optical changer jukeboxes and American Idol demon-dialing auto-voters). Read what Aaron Hillegass had to say about him. And hear him play guitar.

JIM LEFF founded the popular Chowhound.com web site, and has written zillions of books and articles. When not gobbling greasy yum-yums, Leff has served as enthusiastic tester and muse for countless Mac developers. Back in The Day, he helped Bill test and featurize Find File, and his profusion of creative ideas overflow the FretBone product pipeline as well as Bill's email box and mindspace (he'll blow any second now). Read his Slog and hear him play trombone.