My Mobile Life

This is a question that was put to me the other day and I know for that it’s been on the lips of many a prospective iPhone buyer since late last year (not long after the 3G phone was released). See this forum on Whirlpool for an example.

An extension to the question but one which is invariably linked is “when is the next iPhone going to come out”. In response to that I have to honestly say “I don’t know”, but I thought I’d do a bit of research to see what the other pundits are saying out there. I found numerous articles and many “professional” sounding opinions such as this one: http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97322 which is almost funny now considering the date of the post.

Apple, I should point out is extremely good at keeping things under wraps until they want the public to know about it and the iPhone (a hot seller) would be managed with particular care given that the announcement of a new release would potentially damage current iPhone stock sales. But this doesn’t stop the news media from speculating. In fact Apple enthusiasts love to try and guess when the next big release will be precisely because it’s such a difficult thing to do. Hey, there’s even articles out there with pics that people are touting as the new back of the iPhone. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to get excited about just seeing the back of the phone (whether or not it is indeed real).

So back to our first question,I know there are a number of reasons for asking it. The idea that a recent technology purchase could be superseeded very quickly does get to people. As someone in IT and having had a father who was in IT, I have long ago dismissed this as a part of life. There will always be a newer gadget that does more than yours (not long after you’ve parted with the hard earned cash for your new gizmo). So where does that leave us?

Firstly we have to consider that my opinion wil be somewhat biased given that I have an iPhone and was so enthused with it that I set up this blog. But in all honesty, I actually would prefer that you don’t go out and get an iPhone just for the hell of it (hey, I used to feel special being an iPhone owner, now it seems everywhere I look people have them ).

But jokes aside, you probably already know that the iPhone provides a leap forward in technology by bringing so many different applications (google maps, phone, calendar, camera, web browser, email) into an easy to use phone and now that Apple are doing it more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon or bringing out similar technology. I think the key to the iPhone’s success however is the fact that the platform is so accessible to developers. Just look at the number of apps that have been created for the phone (most of which are available for free or in free versions) since the launch of the AppStore 9 months ago. These applications cover so many areas and needs (fitness, budgeting, mapping) that the convergence of technology represents a revolution in the mobile handset arena.

Given this I don’t think it matters whether there is another release of the iPhone around the corner in 3-6 months (I suspect we may see something by the end of the year) because hardware wise I think the 3G version has it pretty well covered. Yes, the next gen model might be better, faster, stronger, but fundamentally the technology will be much like what we have in the 3G phone and I think that if you were to decide to upgrade once the new model arrived, there will still be a strong second hand market for the existing phones (at least here in Australia where the outright cost of a new iPhone falls just short of $1000).

In summary I think we can say that:

1.) We don’t know for certain when the next iPhone will be released

2.) We don’t know what the next iPhone release will bring

3.) It doesn’t matter all that much (when the next release is or what it will bring). The iPhone represents true value now and that value not be significantly diminshed by the release of a new generation of phone.

Happy iPhone hunting and don’t forget to check out our post on which plan/provider to choose if you are purchasing an iPhone.

Okay, so harddrive space isn’t quite at the premium it used to be (I just picked up a 1TB TimeCapsule brand new on eBay for $500 this week), but I thought this little time might be handy for some. Especially if like me, you like to try and keep your computer reasonably free of clutter and unnecessary files.

MacOsXHints.com posted something about this recently, so I can’t claim to be the original author on this one and you can check out the original post here.

The deal is that when iTunes downloads an iPod or iPhone firmware update, it backs up the existing firmware and stores the old files on your harddrive. These backups are typically around 250MB in size and so a few of them could quickly add up to a gig.

On a Mac the back up location is either ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates (for an iPhone) or
~/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates (for an iPod).

iPhone Firmware backups

On Windows (Vista) I believe the location is: C:/users/[yourusername]/AppData/Roaming/… Computer/iTunes/iPhone Software Update (though please correct me if I’m wrong).

To save yourself some space you can delete any files you find in this location. Or if you’re the conservative type, maybe delete all except the most recent.

Google has released a mobile sync client (in beta) for the iPhone. While I don’t personally use Google Contacts or Calendar I think this may prove to be an interesting alternative for some users, particulary if you’re not Mac based, don’t use Outlook or have become disillusioned with the short-comings of MobileMe (which I signed up for again recently by the way). 

Check out the details on Google’s site here or you can watch this little video that explains how it works.

One of the things that users are likely to find annoying is that all your contacts and calendar items get deleted when you set up Google Mobile Sync on your phone. Though this is similar to what happens when you set up your phone to sync these items using MobileMe. I guess the main thing you want to be sure of is that you’re not going to lose contacts which you don’t have elsewhere.

Other than that this looks like a must have for those who use Google services for contacts/calendar, etc…

Web developer alert! Google Analytics has come to the iPhone. http://analyticsapp.com/

Google Analytics for iPhone

Do you use Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your website? It’s free, so if you don’t you probably should! But, let’s assume that you do, even if your usage of it is a bit sporadic (like mine perhaps). Well, one of the things I love about getting these sorts of apps on the iPhone is that they make it easier to fill little holes in the day (where I’m waiting for something or someone) with productivity related tasks.

Site listing

Google Analytics for the iPhone isn’t a free app. In fact it’s the most expensive one I’ve bought today at $5.99 US (or about $9 AUD). However, as a tax deductible expense and one that will probably increase your billable time (if not rate) I’d say it’s worth a lot more than that.

When you first log in, you see a list of the sites that you have setup Google Analytics for. Once you have selected one you can choose from a list of reports which you can view.

The site overview screen

Here’s a sample of the Visitors report for my business website (Cyberdo). As you can see it looks a lot like the report you would normally see in your browser. From looking at this report I can tell that it’s probably high time that I put some more effort into my site to re-design it and start building a traffic base to it. Guess I better stop blogging and get back to work.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine (thanks again Scott) sent me a link to download a little application called AddressBookSync. The application allows you to sync your address book with your Facebook account and automatigically grabs all matching contacts profile photos and adds them to your address book.

Address Book Sync screenshot

The app includes a screen that shows you all of your Facebook friends which are not in your address book (note: some of these might be listed because their names differ between Facebook and your AddressBook on the Mac). So this provides a quick and easy way to add these people.

Okay, so maybe you’re wondering “I thought this was an iPhone blog”. What does this have to do with my iPhone. Ah, if once you’ve added your friends profile pictures to your address book, if you then sync with your iPhone you see your friend’s pic with on their address card. How cool is that?

Contact on iPhone with Pic

Want to download it? Get it here.

Ever wanted to listen to the radio on your iPhone? Maybe you haven’t purchased any new music lately and you’re getting a bit bored of your own, or maybe your favourite artist is playing live on the wireless.

FStream

Well thanks to a new iPhone application called Fstream released by a French developer you can. The application acts as a web radio and recognises a number of file and play list formats including MP3, OGG/Vorbis, WMA over MMS and PLS, M3U, ASF respectively.

When you initially install the application there is only one radio channel in the application however you can add more by going to Favourites.

Add a favourite

If you’re not connected to WiFi you will need to turn on the Cellular Data option in the More screen before the application will do anything (a little trick I discovered after playing with the app for quite a while and getting frustrated because it kept saying to check my internet connection). Doh!

Turn Cellular Network On

Finding channels to connect to isn’t too hard, though there are a couple things to know when trying to setup a channel. Firstly you don’t always need to specify the format or Bitrate (those seem to be optional fields at least for certain types of streams).

Here’s a couple of streams that I have tested out which I know work:

mms://202.58.32.104/Nova1069 – Brisbane
http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/triplej.asx – Country wide

And you’ll be able to find plenty more here link and here. Happy listening! Note: Pics coming soon.

Add new Web Radio screen

A new iPhone update was released yesterday. This version 2.2.1 includes a firmware update and as such is a hefty 245 MB in size. To get the upate simply plug your iPhone into iTunes while connected to the internet and you should get a prompt asking you if you want to install.

iTunes update notification

While there are no major new features in this update to get overly excited about, the patch includes some stability fixes for Safari (which I’m looking forward to).

iPhone update details

Here are a couple other articles on the update from PC World and Information Week on the update. In short the synopsis seems to be that there’s no great need to rush out and update your phone, though chances are if you use Safari much you will see an improvement there.

A few months ago I was talking to my doc who is also an iPhone enthusiast (in fact he was had a first generation iPhone that he bought off eBay before the 3G model was released in Australia) and he mentioned that one of the things he misses with the iPhone is something like the Today screen that you have in the Windows CE (Mobile) OS.

I had to agree with him at the time, it would be nice to have something that lists your upcoming appointments and tasks (with fast approaching deadlines).

Recently I had an email from a user named Ann in Canada who was looking for something like this and she mentioned the Post It application for the iPhone which goes half the way, by providing post it notes that you can set up to display as your wallpaper (so you see them every time you switch on your phone). The problem with the post it’s though is that they don’t sync to your mac.

Today screen in Windows CE

I mentioned to Ann that I would look for something that would do the job and today I came across Intelliscreen for the iPhone made by a mob called Intelliborn. While the writeups on the app look promising, searching for it in the Appstore didn’t yield any results, so either it’s not available in Australia or perhaps it’s been pulled down by Apple for some reason.

In any case I’d be interested to hear if any of you have found alternative apps that provide a Today like screen view for the iPhone. Why not leave a comment or drop me an email about it if you have.

Just about everyone has heard of Wikipedia. The free online encyclopedia which has become one of the most frequently used websites on the internet. Well, thanks to an application called Wikipanion, you can now access content from Wikipedia directly in your iPhone, faster and more efficiently then you could if you browsed to the site in the phone’s web browser.

The application features a number of handy capabilities, including smart search (a sort of auto-complete for searches), bookmarking and dictionary lookups with Wiktionary. It also remembers your recent history, storing the last 100 pages you’ve visited for easy repeat access.

There are actually two versions of Wikipanion named Wikipanion and Wikipanion Plus. The advanced version comes with the ability to queue searches and download queues in batches, flip browsing and also provides an express save option. The product website provides tutorials on how to use these advanced features.

In summary I would say that this app is a must have for the inquisitively minded iPhone user.

Looking back at the last half of 2008 I was quite astounded to realise today that the AppStore has only been around since the release of the iPhone 3G (about 6 months) and that there are now more than 10,000 applications available for the phone.

Given that it’s a new year it’s appropriate to look at the best apps that were released in 2008. While there are a few sites out there producing lists, the TestFreaks site is one that springs to mind. Check out their best of article here, I think my own list would look something like this:

1.) AroundMe – helps you find essentials (banks, gas stations, coffee shops, etc…)

2.) ShowTimes – find out what’s on and get session times for movies playing within your vicinity

3.) EverNote – access your text/pdf, video and picture notes from your phone whever you are

4.) Facebook – update your status or check on what your friends are up to while on the go

5.) Shazaam – can’t work out who that song is by, Shazaam will tell you

6.) iFitness – record your workouts on your phone and access pictures and instructions on numerous exercises

7.) Dictionaire – the free pocket Dictionary for your phone

Reading through some of the other lists that are out there I’ve come across a few more great apps that I will no doubt be downloading and trying out soon such as Wikipanion, Night Camera and Recorder. Look out for posts in these in the coming weeks.