The iPhone 4 – A Worthy Upgrade.
- Image by k-ideas via Flickr
Friday the 30th July 2010 dawned with a thick fog settling over the western suburbs of Sydney. I know this because at 5.30 am I was in a small queue outside of the Telstra T-Life store at Rouse Hill waiting patiently to collect two new iPhones. Being a geek I had toyed with the idea of going into the city for the fun of the midnight openings – being 43 my bed was just too tempting!
So this is a story of two parts – one part being, of course, the phone. The other being my switch from Optus to Telstra, why I changed and what the benefits are.
So what is so great about the iPhone 4 and why should you upgrade?
There are several great new features in the iPhone 4 that make it worthwhile – even if you have a 3GS. Firstly the screen is MUCH sharper which makes reading on the device more comfortable. The main camera is almost as good as a standalone point and shoot with a reasonable LED “flash” and the ability to record 720p HD video. There is also a secondary camera on the front which is used for the new phones main party trick – FaceTime video conferencing.
When I first heard about FaceTime I must confess it was a bit of a so what moment. I mean, Nokia phones have been doing this for years. Once you try it, however, you realise that this is a different experience. FaceTime can be added into a cell phone call (as long as both users are on a WiFi network) or you can initiate a video call directly from Contacts. At the moment the technology only works iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 – but Apple have promised to open this up as a standard.
Overall the phone is snappier thanks to the use of the A4 processor found in the iPad and also a decent RAM upgrade. Design wise the shape is (perhaps) more modern with toughened glass front and back and a stainless steel band as the rim. This doubles as the antenna and has led to much debate overseas due to the so-called “deathgrip” issue. The story goes that if you hold the phone unnaturally tightly at the bottom you will lose signal. I have not been able to replicate this – and if you keep your phone in a case it is not an issue anyway.
One major – and less promoted – advantage to the new iPhone is that it operates on an additional 3G wavelength at 900Mhz. Optus uses 900Mhz for its regional coverage and so there should be an improvement for Optus customers who trade up.
I say should be an improvement because I have finally switched away from Optus to Telstra and couldn’t be happier. Whilst Optus offer good value for money, their network is quite oversubscribed and can be at times slow. I was also rarely able to travel the length of the M2 in Sydney without dropping a call.
Telstra’s NextG network is reputed to be amongst the best 3G networks in the world and until recently they have charged a ridiculous premium for the privilege of using it. This time around – because we have our home phone with Telstra as well – I was able to get a plan for $40 a month that gives free calls to home and other members of the family on the same bill, $400 of other calls and 500Mb of data – plenty for my needs.
So in summary. The iPhone 4 is a worthy upgrade and don’t be put off by the media beat up on the antenna. When looking at plans it is easy to give a lot of credit to those offering 2Gb or more – but consider how much you actually use and make your decisions accordingly.
Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth Headset
- Image by Richard Clement via Flickr
Thanks to the NSW State Government I spend a minimum of two hours in the car a day on the M2 – and paying nearly $20 a day for the privilege. This is a good time for me to catch up with interstate work colleagues or friends and family on the phone.
The inadequacy of bluetooth hands-free systems became apparent to me as my wife became more involved with the school run and I found we were trying to communicate when we were both in a car. It became a real struggle to decipher the muffled, mumbling noise occasionally pierced by the sound of a screaming infant. I thought that there had to be a better solution.
A colleague had recommended me some time ago to a brand of bluetooth earpiece called Jawbone made by a company called Aliph. Based on technology developed for the military, these devices have a small sensor which sits on you cheek and picks up the sound by vibrations through your face. This is then compared with the sound coming through the microphone and by some clever processing virtually all ambient noise is removed. This is remarkably effective – I was sitting next to my young daughter with a nebuliser running and the person at the other end of the phone was completely unaware that the machine was on.
The Icon is Aliph’s latest Jawbone model and as of writing is unavailable in Australia – other than through eBay. There are 6 variations of colour and style – 3 aimed towards men and 3 more jewelery like for the ladies. Another interesting feature of the Icon is that it talks to you in a style that matches the phone variation. For example the Bombshell is a crumpled gold model with a sultry, sexy voice. The voices will tell you when the headset connects, how much battery life remains and the number of the person calling you. New voices can be uploaded to the headset by connecting it to your Mac or PC.
Another interesting feature is ‘apps’. Well, this is what Aliph are calling them but it is a bit of a stretch. Essentially it means that the single button can be programmed to call a preset number for a service – but you cannot set it to a number of your choice which seems silly. Lets hope that this becomes more useful in the future.
For me a big plus was that when connected to an iPhone there is a battery meter for the headset next to the iPhone battery meter. Apparently this was a function available to the original Apple bluetooth headset which was not sold in Australia.
In summary the sound quality of this headset leaves everything else I have tried in the dust. I bought one for my wife as well and we are able to have a comfortable conversation in the car. There is no manual volume control on the device which I found strange at first – volume is adjusted depending on ambient noise – but I have not had a problem. Availability is difficult at this stage – but I’m sure they will be on sale here soon.
Elgato EyeTV for DTT Deluxe
- Image by Richard Clement via Flickr
Since my first wife left the marriage taking with her everything that had a plug attached I have always had a TV tuner for my computer.
The first couple were internal cards that went inside the desktop computer. The picture was a bit iffy and, whilst they did have the capacity to record video, the hard disks at the time were so small it was hardly worthwhile.
Since switching to Mac’s I have used the EyeTV range from Elgato. The first of these was the size of a paperback book and still used the analogue signal. The second was down to the size of a pack of 20 cigarettes, the third the size of a USB memory stick – you can see where this is going!
I recently took delivery of their best unit yet, the EyeTV DTT Deluxe, and it is barely larger than the USB plug itself! It comes with a clip-on telescopic aerial, a separate aerial for area’s with less signal strength and an adaptor for plugging into a normal TV socket. Also included in the pack is a remote control and software that turns your Mac into a fully-fledged DVR (Digital Video Recorder). The unit is an HD digital receiver and the picture is sharp and clear. The software can be set to automatically convert a show for iPhone/iPod and AppleTV. There is even an iPhone application that allows you to watch TV on the phone – effectively streaming live TV from the computer.
For the first time with Elgato EyeTV devices, Windows users are not left out. The tuner works well with Windows 7 and Windows Media Centre and also comes with a software suite that claims to be nearly as good as that provided for Mac users.
To be fully effective you will need a subscription to an EPG service (Electronic Program Guide). The easiest to set up for the EyeTV is called IceTV and it costs $99 per year – but this also includes web and iPhone software that allows you to remotely program the recording software.
The EyeTV for DTT Deluxe is available from MacFixit.com.au for $179.
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Pogo Sketch
- Image by Richard Clement via Flickr
The Pogo Sketch is a stylus designed to work with todays capacitive touch screen devices. The tip (described well by Leo Laporte as a ‘puffball’) is a spongy material that mimics the action of the finger tips on the screen. It is very effective when gloves – such as surgical gloves – have to be worn so the touch interface would not otherwise work.
The Pogo Sketch also works well with the Touch Trackpad of the latest generation MacBook and MacBook Pro computers, In fact the company that makes the stylus, Ten One Design, also make a piece of software called Autograph which allows you to sign documents on your Mac.
Similar to Autograph is the iPhone application Zosh. You can email PDF documents to yourself at your Zosh account (account is free, app is AU$3.99) which can then be downloaded to your iPhone, signed and emailed on. If you have been keeping a fax machine just to send on signed documents you can finally lay it to rest.
In summary, whilst you might not need the Pogo Sketch on every occasion it is handy when working in a clinical environment – or to help sign electronica documents using Zosh service.
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Augmented Reality
- Image via Wikipedia
The other day I sat down with my seven year old daughter to show her a new iPhone app that I had installed. Not that this was a first – even my three year old has been quite competent with the iPhone since she was just turned two – a testament to Apple’s interface design! What made this occasion different was my insistence that she remembered where she was on this day – the first time she played with a true augmented reality application.
Such applications are really only possible since the advent of the iPhone 3GS which has a compass, GPS and accelerometers which give it a fairly accurate idea of its location in three dimensions.
For some time web applications such as Google Maps have been overlaying data onto the maps and we have become quite used to finding information about surrounding businesses in such a way. The iPhone 3GS allows developers to go one step further – taking away the 2D view of the map and replacing it with a real-time view of the world using the camera and screen as a viewport. The application I was playing with is called NearestWiki. You start the application and move the 3GS to look at the world around you – information badges appear in space which draw information from Wikipedia. I was surprised how many entries there were near my house – I should imagine that when visiting a city it would be fascinating!
Probably the most exciting of such applications at the moment is called the Bionic Eye – which sadly does not have Australian data at the moment. This shows shopping and public transport venues nearby. When one is selected simply point the iPhone camera towards the pavement and arrows appear giving directions.
I believe that fairly quickly such technology will find its way into, perhaps, an attachment for glasses and will become ubiquitous. Whilst the benefits of such data overlays are of interest in daily life – in medicine they are truly astounding!
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iPhone 3GS and Snow Leopard Announced
- Image via CrunchBase
This week has seen a swag of new goodies coming from Apple announced at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The one that will undoubtedly get the most attention is the new iPhone- the 3GS.
It is identical in appearance to the current model which means that current peripherals will still work. Inside there are some significant additions though – a faster processor, more memory, a better camera, voice control and a compass to aid GPS navigation. It will come with the new iPhone OS 3.0 which will also be available to existing iPhone users from June 17th as a no cost upgrade.
If you’re a MobileMe subscriber, one excellent new feature allows you to locate your phone on a map if lost, send a message with your contact details, or if unrecoverable, you can remotely wipe all of your valuable data.
Apple have also refreshed the entire range of MacBook Pro laptops with 7 hour batteries and announced that the next version of the OSX operating system, Snow Leopard, will be available from September. It will focus on optimizing and refining the existing features and promises significant speed increases across the board. Upgrading from Leopard is a quite reasonable US$29.95.
iPhone 3G First Impressions
- Image via Wikipedia
Okay, I admit it, I’m a geek and an early adopter! Usually this simply means I end up paying more to access technology early. With the iPhone 3G, I am beginning to long for a return to my Nokia N95… Now don’t get me wrong. As a gadget, the iPhone isn’t so bad. I am enjoying playing with the applications from the iTunes App Store, and as long as I am on a Wi-Fi network at home or in the office, I get good results. Leave the office and rely on 3G and the problems start – poor signal, sometimes no service and slow download speeds.
Recent head-to-head studies have suggested that the problem is more with the networks than the device itself, with the worst carrier in the world having been identified as Optus. No prizes for guessing which carrier I am with!
My theory is that because Optus offered the best data plans in Australia they have garnered the lions share of the iPhone 3G business, putting undue (and I hope temporary!) stress on their network. Few complaints seem to have been received from Telstra customers. This could be because they have so few customers due to initially high data prices, or related to their operating on a different frequency.
In summary I would recommend holding off on the purchase of an iPhone until the dust settles a bit more. Apple has some imminent updates at the time of writing that may help with signal strength issues as well as rumoured iPod updates. Next month we will take a look at some of the potential benefits of QR codes
MobileMe
- Image via Wikipedia
MobileMe is the new service from Apple to replace their .Mac online service for Macintosh users. Launched with the new iPhone to much fanfare, it may well represent Apple’s most painful product introduction. It seems Apple underestimated the demand on the service when the new iPhone was launched, and existing .Mac users were switched across. For some users this caused a 2 week period of intermittent outages. Personally, I found that things were working within about 48 hours, and given the scale of the transition, I felt this was acceptable. Apple has given all users an extra month free as compensation.
So what is MobileMe? It was initially promoted as ‘exchange for the rest of us’ offering Push – or instantly delivered – email to your iPhone. It also transparently synchronises contacts and calendar entries between multiple computers and iPhones on an account (Mac or PC Outlook). Make a change on one and it is rapidly reflected across to the others. At this stage, the desktop sync is every 15 minutes, so Apple has temporarily withdrawn the term Push.
Additionally, you get a beautiful suite of web applications mirroring the Mac desktop mail, contacts and calendar experience. These are so well executed it is hard to remember they are running in a browser. You also have access to a 20Gb online hard disk to allow offsite backup and file access, plus beautiful web galleries to store your photos and videos.
Is it worth it? Yes, if you have a Mac, although it is expensive. It integrates so well into the system and iLife applications that it is worth the $119 a year. On a PC, I’m not so sure. There are other less expensive options available. If there are a few of you, it may be worth considering a family pack for $180. This gives one master account and four sub accounts with 5Gb of storage.
More information on MobileMe can be found at www.me.com.
iPhone 3G
- Image via CrunchBase
On 10 June 2007, we had a glimpse into the future of computing when the new 3G iPhone was launched at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference.
By Christmas, iPhone 3G is likely to be THE ‘must have’ gadget for the cafe crowd everywhere – but the real excitment should be for what is happening behind the scenes – third party applications and Apple’s new MobileMe service.
Several medical applications were demonstrated during the launch presentations, including anatomy training and scan viewing. The iPhone also has a built in GPS which works with WiFi to accurately triangulate location opening up potential for location based services that we cannot even imagine at this stage.
One of the obvious areas of use for the iPhone is in the hospital environment. With integrated WiFi and a fantastic interface for image/video and document browsing, the iPhone lends itself to accessing patient records, X-rays and scans. Add to this, MS Exchange compatible email, web browsing, training via podcast (audio or video) – PLUS music for downtime – and you have a device that will be hard to leave in the store.
See you next month for a review of MobileMe.
The iPhone will be available from 11 July via Vodafone or Optus
