Sam wrote a post at 37signals’ blog about the same thing (Tip: Prevent iPhoto from opening when you plug in your iPhone), but it didn’t quite apply to my situation. Sam’s tip will work fine if you have your camera nearby -which I don’t. Besides, I have a couple of cameras so I would anyway have to make changes to the script in order to make it work. A more simpler way to make this work is to approach it from a different angle.

I am going to present to you a script that only requires that you know the name of your iPhone. If you have already read Sam’s article you can skip to step 2 of this article to get the script.

1. Get the name of your iPhone

An easy way is to connect your iPhone, open iTunes (if it doesn’t automatically) and look at the list to the left. There it is!

2. Write the script

Open up up AppleScript Editor (on Snow Leopard, it’s inside the Applications > Utilities folder) and copy/paste this code:

on device_is_connected("iPhone name")
end device_is_connected

Change “iPhone name” to the name of your iPhone (I wrote “mandarinPhone”). As you can see, all it does is check if your phone is connected. Besides that, nothing.

3. Make the application

Save your script as an Application by clicking File > Save as …, and under File Format choose Application. I like to store applications like this under the Utilities folder. These are applications that I don’t ever have to run manually, so to prevent my root Applications folder from being cluttered with all kinds of stuff I don’t use I put it in the Utilities foldes. For this application I named it “iPhoneConnected”.

4. Open Image Capture

You’ll find it inside the Applications folder. Benjamin refers to the Image Capture application preferences as being a menu item. I suspect he was using an older version at the time he wrote the article. On Snow Leopard you do like this: If your iPhone is not already selected, select it by clicking on it. If the preferences don’t show up at the bottom of the list, click the button at the bottom. It will open up a preferences pane for the iPhone. Where it says “Connecting this iPhone opens:” click the drop down list and find your newly created application.

That’s it! Reconnect your iPhone and watch it do nothing. Lovely isn’t it? It sure is!

UPDATE: Benjamin Ragheb didn’t write the post at 37signals’ blog, but Sam did. Be sure to check out Benjamin’s comment below. He made a script which fetches the name of your iPhone for you -so you don’t have to. Nifty!

Click on one of the lines to make the little plus icon appear. Click the plus icon to add a new line.

Give it a key name of UIPrerenderedIcon.

The value is by default set to String, but we need to change it to Boolean. Right-click the newly created line, choose Value Type > Boolean.

The value has now magically transformed into a check box.

Click it!

And you’re done. It’s as easy as that.

Fieldrunners for iPhone

A couple of days ago I purchased the game Fieldrunners (by Subatomic Studios) for my iPhone, and in an instant it became my (so far) alltime favorite iPhone game.

The concept is simple; kill the creeps before they get out of sight. Unlike the popular Flash Elements TD, Fieldrunners take a slightly different perspective and removes the track. The field is left completely open for you to decide where you will place the turrets.

There are already written a few other reviews of the game, so I won’t bother repeating what’s already been written. If you want to know more about the game, have a look at these sites:

• iPhone App Review: The best game for the iPhone, Fieldrunners
• OS X Reality: New Highly Addictive Tower Defense Game Fieldrunners for the iPhone (With screenshots and video)
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Fieldrunners: DTD for iPhone
• Touch Arcade: ‘Fieldrunners’ Delivers a Very Polished Tower Defense Game
• ars technica: Review: Fieldrunners for iPhone appeals to Tower Defense nerds (A thorough review)
• Macworld: Review: Fieldrunners for iPhone

There are also alternatives to Fieldrunners, both for iPhone/iPod Touch and your computer;

• Flash Elements TD 1.0
• Flash Elements TD 2.0
• Desktop TD
• Protector
• Vector TD
• Zombie Attack! (iTunes link)
• Hordes of Orcs (for OS X and Windows)
• TowerDefend (for iPhone and iPod Touch)

Convinced? Buy Fieldrunners at AppStore!