31 posts tagged “iphone”
I've been a fan of online to-do list generator "Remember the Milk" for some time. However, I found myself printing off the weekly schedule for when I was going to be away froma computer, and then inevitably, losing it or leaving it at home. I wanted mobile online access to the service and now my prayers have been answered.
RtM have released an app for the iPhone, which not only allows you to access your lists over the air, but also syncronises changes and permits offline access for when you have no signal (e.g. on the tube or on a flight).
The app is free to download from the iTunes app store - but it does required a pro account with RtM to work. This costs $25 per year, but for me it's worth every penny. If you want to try it out, you can download the app and take advantage of a free 15-day trial. Give it a go.
Show us your favorite accessory.
Accessory? Well, I don't go anywhere without it...
Are you going to be amongst the first people to buy the iPhone 3G? If so, when do you plan on picking yours up and which one will you be purchasing?
Yes! I just picked mine up. It's a black, 16GB model. I had a nightmare dealing with the chimps at Carphone Warehouse this morning (who to be fair were quite overwhelmed by the demand) when my iPhone failed to show up as promised. Nine hours later, I popped back and there it was, waiting for me.
I had to feel sorry for the the various punters in the shop with me, wandering in on the off chance that there were any iPhones left. There were not.
I'm pleased with it so far... but that's not saying much as I haven't been able to set it up yet. I like the size and weight, while the overall build quality seems good. I've promised to take my other half out to dinner tonight, so serious playing around with the newest gadget will have to wait until later. Or tomorrow morning.
The best bit? I cancelled my T-Mobile contract, incurring a cancellation penalty (of course). However, I sold my iPod touch which almost covers that, and a nice cashback from Quidco (you really should register) covered the cost of the new handset (£59).
This is probably my least wallet-injuring Apple purchase ever.
That is all.
(Cue several days of hand-wringing giddiness and all-round nerdery).
Will you buy the iPhone 3G? Why or why not?
Why yes... yes I will.
And why? It offers solutions to a number of problems I face with my Palm Centro, specifically around syncing and web access.
Aside from that, I'm just a massive Apple geek.
....any chance you'll develop a Vox application for the iPhone now? We saw the Typepad demonstration at the keynote, something similar for Vox would be most welcome. You've done it for the Palm platform (I know, I've used it on my Centro), isn't it time to show the iPhone some Vox-type love?
Ah go on...
(I know full well I don't own an iPhone, but thought I'd get my asks in now...)
Yes, I know... you were possibly expecting a post-WWDC post on Monday, but it was late by the time I'd finished frothing at the mouth, and I still hadn't cooked dinner.
In a word, it was superb. Not the iPhone (though that looks fantastic), I'm talking about the new MobileMe service that's replacing .Mac. I've been a .Mac subscriber since the service started and I've never felt it's lived up to its enormous potential. I think MobileMe (despite the fact that the name sucks) is what .Mac should always have been.
My service will be automatically upgraded next month and I can't wait. To have the same iCal entires (and categories!!) appear on my Macbook, iPhone and any other computer with an connection to the net...to have the changes appear almost instantly... simply superb. And this is all topped off by a complete re-working of the web-based interface, something I use on daily basis. Thank you Apple, this is the happiest you've made me in a long time.
In other news, I am now definitely going to buy an iPhone. Admit it - you saw that one coming. The price reduction and the O2 tarrifs suit me fine, the App Store is incredibly exciting, and... dammit, I think I deserve it!
...and I'm ashamed to say I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve. I've basically decided to get an iPhone 2.0 (or whatever it's going to be called) subject to it being 3G and having a couple of other improvements I've blogged about before.
This decision has been made all the more straightforward by the fact that my Centro is behaving like an uncooperative infant and shutting down of its own accord. It's also crashing when I got to accept a call, crashing when I check email and shutting down in the middle of calls. Frustrating doesn't begin to describe it. It's also my business phone, so I'm concerned about missing client calls.
I've therefore made the cognitive leap to accepting the iPhone as my saviour.
This morning's Guardian, however, dented my enthusiasm a little with their prediction that:
The second-generation iPhone will go on sale immediately in the US, with British customers due to get their hands on it next month.
But I wanted it... now? ;-)
Even I can wait a month. I think. Actually, it's the wait between now and the keynote that is frustrating. I (due to living in London) have an entire working day to get through before his Steveness takes to the stage. It will be 6pm in London before we get any announcements. Luckily, I have a pile of work to do between now and then which might just take my mind off things.
Once the keynote starts, I'll be completely unreachable. Should anyone call me, I can always blame my unreliable Centro for the dropped calls...
This time it's from the guys at Gizmodo (who really know what they're talking about... unlike me). I don't agree with it 100% - for instance, I'm not that pushed about having a front-facing camera. But I agree with their need for an improved camera and more storage.
Here's what they have to say:
Sometimes reading rumors about the second iPhone is exactly like reading a wishlist of features people want. Whether it's subconscious or not, the rumors do get us thinking about what we want from a 3G iPhone. In short, we want an iPhone done right. Here's what we want to make the 3G iPhone faster, better and stronger.
• Faster Network (3G). The original iPhone wasn't 3G when it launched last year thanks to various issues, two of which were cost and battery life. 3G chips now have increased battery life and lower costs compared to what was out in 2007. It's no 3G iPhone if it doesn't have 3G.
• Cheaper. Apple's already dropped the price of the phone once. Let's see them do it again. With component costs down and Apple capable of using just about the same parts (other than a 3G and GPS chip plus more memory and upgraded processing) as the first version, there's probably some slack to be had. AT&T can also help subsidize the cost down to $199 levels if Apple were to put even more measures in place forcing people who buy phones to sign up for AT&T (and not run off with it to other countries to be unlocked).
• Unlockable and Jailbreakable. Just because the SDK is coming doesn't mean we don't still have a need to jailbreak our iPhones. Jailbreak, for one, because there are still many apps worth using that Apple will frown upon. Unlock, for two, because T-Mobile users and other countries still don't have native iPhone support. Apple will actively fight the unlockers and jailbreakers, but we hope the hacking community prevails in the end.
• Better Battery. The iPhone's battery isn't bad, but if you talk a lot, use a Bluetooth headset, or theoretically use 3G and a GPS, that battery's not going to last a day. Out of all the features a next-gen iPhone can get, an improved battery is the one that will be felt by everybody.
• GPS. The current cellphone triangulation location system is fine, I guess, but it's no GPS. Even if Brian doesn't want it, I do. Place it into a dock that's specially made for your car (places the phone up in your eyeline, charges it, routes audio through your car's speakers) and it'll be as good as a regular GPS. If you're lost on foot, whip it out and locate yourself. It's not as good as a dedicated GPS, but it's good enough that most people won't know the difference. Hell, GPS manufacturers are already scared.
• Improved camera. The current 2-megapixel shooter is decent in ample light, but falls to Ewe Boll levels of visual atrocity when it comes to shooting in low-light. Maybe a flash? Maybe just a better sensor? We want to be able not have to move everyone next to a window to take a shot. Or ripping lampshades off your fixtures. Or bringing a Maglite to bars. While we're at it, why not some digital image stabilization.
• Front facing video camera. AT&T's 3G video calling (video share) service is not so good right now, mostly because it's only one-way. Two iPhones with two front-facing cameras, beaming video to each other like a webcam chat on your desktop would be amazing, and it would go along way into mainstreaming video calling. This would go over well in other countries where video calling is slightly more popular, despite Nokia's reservations.
• MMS and video recording. The iPhone's gotten its multi-recipient SMS feature (something many reviewers docked points off for in their initial reviews) added after the fact, but video recording and MMS sending is slightly more difficult to pull off. We want the 3G iPhone, with its beefed up processing power and improved camera, to give us a feature that's in just about every decent smartphone in the last few years.
• Flush headphone jack. No more lousy adapters just to get our headphones into the headphone port! This should have been the way it was in the first-gen iPhone.
• More storage. The launch storage size of 4GB and 8GB was pretty tiny, and the current 8GB and 16GB is usable, but not great. I'd like to see 16GB and 32GB options in this generation, gradually growing to 32GB and 64GB by the next iteration, and so forth until we can keep our whole computer backup there by the year 2015. Seeing as the iPhone is THE one device you want to carry with you everywhere, you'll need more and more space to shove those pictures, videos and music files.
• Cut, Copy and Paste. We'd like to take content from a website or email and paste it into a form or the address book or a text message. Apple has smart tech that allows you to click on phone numbers in web pages in Safari and call them, but moving general info between apps has been impossible. This is really a no brainer. We need cut, copy and paste in the iPhone.
• Automatic 3G Management. To deal with the battery suck of 3G in the iPhone, I'd love it if it automatically turned on only for active browsing in Safari, watching YouTube videos, looking stuff up in Maps and downloading music from the iTunes Store. For background checks on Mail, Weather and Stocks, it should toggle down to 2G.
• Stereo Bluetooth streaming. Bluetooth audio streaming hasn't picked up in the mainstream on devices because it's just another piece of tech that can run down your phone's battery, but given the iPhone's iPod-ness, it it makes sense to also pipe A2DP stereo music through that BT connection.• Over the Air Sync. I like Apple's tethered sync system, which also gives you an opportunity to charge your iPhone using your PC. What would also be cool is a secure over the LAN Wi-Fi sync, a la Apple TV and Zune, so you can charge your iPhone in a dock or something but still sync data. Likewise, a PDA-type over the air sync would be great over 3G when you're in the wild. This would skip over all the audio and video stuff, but would keep your calendar in line with .Mac, or your home computer—and also back up any changes you've made on the go.
• Better Reception and Voice Quality. The two are related, but not 100%. Switching an AT&T SIM between a Blackberry, Palm, Sony Ericsson and iPhone shows the iPhone's voice quality to be the weakest. The current iPhone also randomly drops all bars in the middle of calls for Brian Lam on a very consistent basis. Reception is not good on the iPhone. But even when Brian has full coverage, the people on the other end of the line sound like they have marbles in their mouths. I'm sure this is Apple just learning the ropes in the cellphone game. I mean, you might poke fun, but have you heard the reception and call quality on a RAZR?
• A CDMA iPhone For Sprint and Verizon. Look, we know it's not going to happen because of AT&T's exclusivity deal, but half the people in the US wish the iPhone were available on Sprint or Verizon or Alltel or Nextel.Of course, Apple won't put all these features into the 3G iPhone because of two reasons. One, they want people to have an upgrade path, and two, they need time to develop these to a usable state. In essence, you should pick a handful of features here that you really want and hope those are those are the ones Apple will put in.
