My Mobile Life

Yesterday I was finally rewarded for my patience in waiting to upgrade my phone when my new iPhone 4 arrived by post. I ordered it the day the phones hit the shelves here in Australia and ended up switching carriers (from Vodafone to Three) in order to be able to get my order in that day.

After getting quite frustrated with the 3G iPhone, due to it’s sluggishness following installation of OS 4 for the iPhone, I was half expecting to be at least somewhat disappointed by the new phone. But, I’m happy to say those fears have proven to be unfounded.

The biggest difference I was looking for was a speed increase over the 3G version and that’s the first thing I noticed. I wondered initially if this was because I didn’t have any apps installed, but even after installing all the apps I wanted and loading the phone up with my photos, music, videos and data it’s still no slower than it was when new. It feels like the new phone finally has the performance to live up to the potential created by all of the apps that have been created for it.

Some of the things I’ve tested so far on the phone and the things that I noticed about them in no particular order are:

1.) Contacts – heaps faster than they used to be (thank heck for that – it used to be almost unusable)

2.) Video – works great and there doesn’t appear to be any random limit to the amount of video you can record, it just depends how much space you have

3.) Camera – it’s cool to be able to switch between the camera on the front and the back. You really notice a difference between pics taken from the front of the phone and those taken from the back though, due to the difference in lenses. Images tend to be a bit grainy taken from the front camera.

4.) Voice recognition – I’ve been playing with this in the Google Mobile app and as is to be expected it’s not super accurate (when trying to recognise what you say). For example I tried to search for the terms “Unique France” (a client of mine) today and it took three attempts before the phone got it right. Though I do have a cold…

5.) Multi-tasking – this is an interesting one. Where clicking the home/menu button used to exit your apps, now it doesn’t. I found this out when using Tom Tom today while driving. At a certain point I wanted to stop using the app so I just hit the Home button and I started browsing the web, but lo and behold, Tom Tom stayed in the background and kept giving me directions. Interesting… Potentially very useful, but also annoying if you actually are trying to quit the app.

6.) Battery life – is significantly improved. This was something Apple had to get right with this phone and it appears they have. I’ve been using my phone as often as I could for a day and only used about 40% of the battery life.

7.) Screen – the new Retina display really is something. Super clean and crisp and makes looking at just about anything on the phone a joy.

Another funny thing I’ve noticed, the shape of the phone, which is now considerably more square than the previous models, means that you can’t tell as easily which way the phone is sitting in your hand (without looking at it). This isn’t a big deal though and I can see the design reasons for it as it permits more room for components in the phone.

In summary, I have to say that this is one of the best upgrades I’ve made. The phone has totally lived up to expectations and is definitely worth looking at if you’re planning to upgrade from a 3G/3Gs version of the phone or any phone for that matter.

Wow, so it’s been two months since I last posted. I feel a bit slack really, but I think the long silence is no small part a reflection of my frustration with my iPhone. It’s amazingly how quickly we get used to having the ability to do so much more with the phone and then start wondering when a better device is coming along. Certainly this has been the case with me as my 3G iPhone now seems slow and often brings me to a point of great frustration. A classic example is when it won’t let me answer a call because the slider keeps jumping back to the left. Apparently there is a solution to this, click the menu button or the Screen on/off button on the top of the phone, and then you can answer calls again. Though that doesn’t make it less annoying really!

While I had been thinking about upgrading to the 3GS version of the iPhone which no doubt would be a step up from the old model, I’ve also been aware that there was a new version of the iPhone in the wings. For a while now Apple has been advertising it on TV in Australia and the general consensus was that it would be released  June/July this year so it seemed worth waiting for..

As luck would have it this week the next generation of the iPhone was announced. iPhone 4.0 features a new squarish case and a host of features such as video calling through cameras on the front and back. The phone also sports a new high resolution display (called Retina) and this looks like it will be improve the already impressive viewing platform. The fact that the case shape has changed probably means that those of us who have bought cradles which fit the current generation of iPhone will have to go out and upgrade them (Thanks Apple), but this is made up for by the fact that the phone is a good 24% thinner than the previous model.

Certainly the video calling could be cool, I’m guessing the person you’re calling would also have to have a 4th generation iPhone for that to work though. The other question is whether broadband speeds here will be up to scratch for that sort of application. I’m guessing it shouldn’t be too big a problem with the improvements in 3G speed that we’ve seen over the last couple of years.

Probably one of the best features in the new phone is the introduction of a true multi-tasking Operating System which will allow multiple apps to run on the device at once (in the same way that your computer runs multiple programs now).

The faster process in the phone (the A4 processor which is in the iPad) means that you should notice a considerable speed improvement over the 3Gs phone, which will be a relief to any of you who like me have found yourself yelling at your phone while in traffic waiting for the phone to boot up your mapping or GPS app.

If you’re interested in reading a first hand account of the new phone check out this blog post, otherwise you may just have to wait till you can get your mits on one, which hopefully should be towards the end of this month or early next month (given that we don’t generally see stuff until after it’s released in the US).

Some time ago, around the time that I purchased my iPhone 3G in August 2008 I made the decision not to jail break my iPhone. For one, I think the term “jail break” scared me off. “No, I haven’t been to jail and I don’t need to break out. Neither does my iPhone” was roughly what went through my head.

In all seriousness though, while there are a number of apps that you can’t get through the app store (and which may tempt one to crack their iPhone), for me at least there seemed to be enough apps on the iTunes app store and I wasn’t going to push my luck by cracking it and risking loss of warranty and god knows what else. That and the fact that it took a bit of stuffing around (and technical know how) was quite enough to put me off.

Well, today I’m kinda glad I made that decision after seeing this article which reports that some crackers have had their Apple accounts disabled after jail breaking their iPhones. Okay, they were probably more active than most users/crackers who simply wanted to get another app or two onto their phone, but nonetheless, it is enough to make you worried if you have (cracked your phone). Yes, I’d imagine that you can just go and sign up for another Apple account if yours gets disabled, but it would be annoying.

Has this happened to any of you out there and were you able to get another Apple account. If so let us know.

It’s somewhat amusing to me that my last post on the blog was about the imminent release of OS 3.0 and this one is to announce that it has indeed finally launched. Obviously not quite as early as I was thinking, but then predicting release dates with Apple is a bit like trying to predict the second coming (okay, that’s in an “in” joke for all the other offspring of Envangelical parents).

In any case I think it is fairly well established that Apple like to keep their release dates quiet so as not to disappoint if they can’t deliver. A very sensible idea in my opinion.

Certainly I have been somewhat taken by surprise with the recent release of the new iPhone 3Gs in the US. In fact that other day I was at the dentist getting the old scale and clean, when the dental hygienist remarked that they were waiting for the new iPhone to be released. Between her persistent scrapings, I managed to ask if she was referring to the release of the new iPhone OS, to which she responded confidently, that “No, Apple are bringing out a new version of the iPhone”. Mind you, there was a lot of speculation about this but at this point there had been no announcement of the new product and it was before the screenshots from China had come out showing what was purported as the new iPhone back panel (in flat black).

Anyway, I didn’t contradict the hygienist or press her too much on the source of her information but was amused that it seemed to be “common knowledge” that Apple would be releasing a new version of the phone even though there was no “evidence” of the fact at that point.

Well, here we are some 3 weeks later and sure enough there is a new version of the iPhone, the 3Gs (Apple says the “s” is for speed, though I can think of more exciting definitions . While, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to purchase one of these new fangled devices, as they haven’t yet been released in Australia, it sounds to me like Apple have provided a much needed boost to a device which has both over and underwhelmed (somehow both are possible at once) the phone’s critics and supporters.

From a user’s point of view, the first generation iPhone while beautiful and aesthetically pleasing does suffer in the speed department. Most of these problems are well documented (albeit chiefly on blogs like this), for example the lag when trying to pull up contacts. I’ve also noticed more recently that bringing up an SMS message conversation can be quite slow which is annoying when you’ve just got to get in and send a quick text.

With any luck, this new version will live up to the hype and fulfill on the performance improvements that Apple have promised. Certainly it seems to be a smart move on Apple’s part, delivering a new version of the phone before the excitement surrounding the initial product release has had a chance to completely peter our.

The other important features of the new phone are the upgraded camera (going from 2 mega-pixels to 3) and the attendant auto-focus feature. An important addition, I think (particularly at night). While, there are software solutions to the problems of trying to focus the first generation camera on something (Darkroom in particularly is one app that comes to mind), particularly at night, I think a hardware solution is definitely the preferred approach. After all, Apple are loved for their ability to deliver solutions (both hardware and software) that just work, and unfortunately the first iPhone in many instances has failed to live up to that expectation on some of the more basic fronts.

Well, it looks like Apple are on track to meet the goal of releasing iPhone OS 3.0 (with many of the features we’ve all been waiting for) by the start of the North American summer which is now only about 2 weeks away.

The fifth version of the OS 3.0 Beta was released recently and looks to be nice and stable, certainly a lot better than the early betas which had various problems (running slowly, Google Maps crashing, etc…).

The latest beta also requires that you update iTunes to version 8.2 which has only been released to registered iPhone developers using the latest iPhone OS Beta. But the fact that iTunes has been indicates to me that Apple are probably very close to releasing the OS publicly.

Gees, it’s been a while since I posted anything to this here blog. I do apologise for my silence. I haven’t given up on you all, just been a bit busy. What have I been doing you might ask? Well, I’ve been focusing on Adventure Racing. In the last couple weeks this has involved a couple of Rogaine races, one here in Brisbane where I’m based and another up in Cairns in Far North Queensland. 

On the iPhone front, I’ve found that OS 3.0 is improving. You may be relieved to hear this, particularly if you read my recent post in which I talked about rolling back to OS 2.2.1 after running into issues with OS 3.0 and turning my phone into a brick for about half a day. This reversion was somewhat short lived (as Apple have actually made sure that once you’ve installed OS 3.0 you can’t really roll back to 2.x and run it for any extended period of time). So after a couple of days when my phone flipped out and went back into recovery mode I installed the latest beta of OS 3.0 (version 3 at the time) which ironically came out shortly after my post – talking about how crap the previous revision was.

As it stands, we’re now up to OS 3.0 Beta 4 which I suspect will be quite stable and hopefully iron out some of the puzzling issues that cropped up in OS 3.0 Beta 3 (for example the call button on the phone dial screen going missing). Dang!

I’ll be installing the new beta tonight and will quite likely put up a further post on this when I find out a bit more about it but for now I’ll leave you with a funny little thing that happened the other day.

I got a call from my very excited fiancee telling me that she’d done something cool and asking me to guess what it was. I’d been having a busy day and wasn’t catching on to what she was trying to tell me, despite getting clues like “it’s technology related”. After a couple of guesses and a few minutes of suspense she eventually couldn’t contain herself any longer and burst out with “I’ve bought an iPhone”!

She’s had it for about a week now and is totally wrapped. While, not exactly at the front of the curve (doesn’t everyone you see these days sport an iPhone) it’s turning out to be a great choice for her. She’s even listening to audio lectures from her uni lecturer on the go. Quite a good use of the device I thought.

Okay, I know it’s hard to get into the festive season sometimes, especially (I find) when it’s 30 degrees outside and you’ve got the mixed imagery of snow flakes and sleighs being thrown at you. So I thought maybe you could use a bit of a hand with a link to some festive wallpaper. Another good site for iPhone wallpaper is http://www.alliphonewallpapers.com/

Browse to the page that has the image you want to save in Safari on your iPhone

A bit of a tip for you if you’re not sure about the easiest way to get an image onto your iPhone? I suggest you browse to the page on your iPhone and then tap and hold down your finger on the image you want to save. A menu will then popup offering you the option to “Save Image”. When saved the image will be stored in your camera roll (just as if you’d taken the image with the iPhone’s camera). From there you can save is your wallpaper (if’ you’re not sure how to do that, see my post from yesterday).

Tap and hold your finger down to bring up the Save Image link

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I must say I’m rather impressed with the quality of the camera on the iPhone. While it’s no award winner in terms of the size of photos taken and it doesn’t have a flash, if you’ve got reasonable lighting it certainly does the job (and more than adequately in my opinion).

Today I had the perfect subject for using the iPhone camera and happily it was a stationary one, as I haven’t had the best results with trying to photograph moving objects using the phone (a shutter speed control would definitely come in handy).

Yes, I have to say the Audi R8 is my dream car at the moment and if I had a lazy $300k I’d probably buy one even if that’ll only get me a second hand one for my money.

My Dream Car

Okay, yes I realise it’s a V8 and I’d probably need another $30k per annum, just to keep the thing on the road (and that’s probably conservative when you take into account insurance). Getting the surfboard in could be an issue as well, but I’m sure you already realise that this day dream has nothing to do with practicality.

Nice profile

But hey, a guy’s gotta dream!

What a hot ass!

Whew, I think I need a cold shower.

Have something you really want changed on the iPhone? As great as it is, I think most of us probably fall into this category. Well, I came across this site yesterday called PleaseFixTheIphone.com. It’s a neat little site, dedicated to collecting votes from users like you and me who want to tweak their favourite phone in some way.

Some of the top requests include:

1.) Copy and Paste

Personally this has to be at the top of my feature wish list as well. Having come from a Windows based PDA/Phone, it’s probably the only feature I really miss (well that and To-Do list integration with my mail client).

2.) MMS capability

Given that the iPhone is so good at multimedia generally, this was always going to be on people’s wish list. Yes, I know you can email photos from your iPhone, but it’s just not the same as being able to MMS someone a photo. While this certainly wouldn’t be too high on most business user’s wish list, I think the iPhone is certainly more than a business phone. In many ways it’s a phone that tries to deliver all things to all people and this is something we’ve come to expect from our phones.

3.) Flash plug-in for Safari

Once again, this probably isn’t that important for many users. How often do you go to a site that has Flash on your iPhone and really miss the Flash content? If you’re like me, not very often. However, it is a nice to have and I think that generally describes the iPhone as well.
Again, probably

One of the issues I’ve noticed with the iPhone as I use it is that there seems to be a problem with wifi in the device. Frequently I’ll connect to the network in the office for example and I find that the connection gets dropped very quickly, normally within minutes but sometimes even within a second or two of connecting. When the connection is dropped WiFi is often turned off as well. I will then go and turn WiFi back on, only to find that I need to reconnect to the desired network, at which time the connection is dropped again. This will happen a few times until, eventually I get sick of it and shutdown the device and restart it.

Having done a little bit of research about this problem, I’ve discovered that there are two distinct issues here:

1.) The iPhone will disable WiFi when put into sleep (or locked) mode and not plugged into a power source of docking station. This behaviour appears to be by design. While you can disbable the Auto Locking feature, this wastes battery life as the screen remains on while the phone is unlocked.

2.) The problem with the WiFi connection being dropped immediately appears to be a valid issue, though it’s unclear what causes this.

Okay, in situation 1, there may be times when you wish your WiFi connection to remain enabled/connected (i.e. you’re downloading something, etc…). In this case you’ve got a couple options the first of which we’ve already covered (disabling auto lock). The second option is to use a little application called Insomnia by Cydia. The purpose of this app is to ensure the WiFi connection stays alive when your phone is locked. Check out this little video about it.

With the second situation, I imagine there could be a number of reasons for this, from invalid certificates, range issues, etc… to actual software issus with the iPhone. Right now I think the best way to resolve this is just to shutdown the phone and re-start it. However, I’d be interested to know if anyone else has this problem and if you’ve found any good evidence which points to the cause of the problem and more importantly if you’ve got a solution for this.