iPhone observations

I've had my iPhone for just over three weeks now and as expected, I love it. More than I thought I would actually. As my wife likes to tell people, it's pretty much an extension of my arm.

I'm not going to bother doing a full review, it's been around long enough for thousands of those to have already been written, but I thought I would offer up a few observations from my time with it.

I use it a lot

Yes, this seems like a silly thing to say but I really do use it a lot. Mostly for surfing the web, reading my RSS feeds in Google Reader (which is awesome on the iPhone by the way) and email. I seem to get between 5 and 6 hours of mixed usage out of it, which actually means it needs charging almost every day because it won't last 2 full days with that level of usage. I use it much more than any other mobile device I've ever owned.

People love it

Everyone I've shown it to also thinks it's awesome. It's one of those things that you don't fully appreciate until you see it in real life and play with it. They seem to be particularly impressed by photos and videos (my wedding video has been watched a lot!). People just love flicking through photos with the multi-touch screen.

My Google Reader stats have tripled

Or maybe even quadrupled! Since I have it with me all the time, any spare moment I get I find I'm checking my feeds. I've gone from reading less than 100 items a day on average to reading somewhere in the order or 2 or 3 hundred items a day with peaks of 4 or 5 hundred! Below you can see my Google Reader trends graph showing usage in the last 30 days, the first week being pre-iPhone.


I recommend an anti-glare screen protector

I got a Power Support anti-glare protector and I much prefer it to the normal glossy screen. This gives a nice feel with more traction and also doesn't show greasy finger marks at all.

Using the touch keyboard is fine

It takes a little bit of getting used to but once you do, you'll be typing pretty much as fast as on a Blackberry or other QWERTY mobile device. The auto-correct and other clever things sort out most of your typos.

I don't need 3G

I'm happy with EDGE and where that's not available, GPRS is actually not too bad either. As long as you're not using heavy sites they'll load just fine with a little patience. I use Google Reader a lot on GPRS and as it's optimised for mobile, it loads in a reasonable time. Wi-fi is obviously the best connection though and is fantastic when you have it.

There are loads of iPhone optimised sites

A surprising number of sites have iPhone optimised interfaces and look great. I love Facebook, Google Reader and BBC iPlayer in particular. Expect a more in depth post about the best web apps.

Sometimes it replaces my laptop

I don't need my laptop with me nearly as much as I did before. I can do my email and keep up to date on my feeds, facebook and loads of other things perfectly well from the iPhone. There are even good IM apps.

A few frustrations

Not everything's perfect in iPhone land, there are a few frustrations. For example, you can't use landscape mode in every application. It would be particularly nice to be able to compose email and text messages in landscape so you get the wider keyboard. It would also be nice to have a signal in my office (!) but that's more of an o2 issue and the fact that we're in an old building with thick walls I think. My old phone didn't work in the office either. I'd also like to be able to view a unified email inbox and be able to switch between them more quickly rather than trudging through the hierarchy of my mail accounts. These are fairly minor niggles to be honest.

It's amazing

Generally, it's an amazingly well thought out and extremely usable device. It's leagues ahead of anything else and if you do truly want a multi-functional, multi-media, all-in-one device then this is for you. Don't even bother looking at anything else because it won't match up. Put it this way, almost everyone I've shown it to wants one, even non-techie, non-geeky people. Very, very glad I finally got one.

New phones galore

A bevy of new mobiles were released today at 3GSM 2007, the world’s biggest mobile telecommunications conference, in Barcelona. Among the highlights were new handsets from RIM, Nokia, Samsung and LG. Some pics and quick details below.

BlackBerry 8800

The Pearl's big brother (above), sporting a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS receiver to work with a mapping service, microSD slot, bluetooth 2.0, the usual email stuff and the now de rigeur 'pearl' trackball. And it's only 14mm thick.

Nokia E61i, E65, E90 and N77

Nokia released 3 new business focused phones (above): the E61i, their answer to the BlackBerry; the E65, a smaller, more stylish, slider phone and the E90, an old-style communicator flip phone. The E61i now packs a 2 megapixel camera and both it and the E90 feature 3G and WiFi.

The N77 (above) is a consumer phone which features a 2.4 inch screen, stereo speakers and the ability to pick up mobile TV broadcasts over DVB-H - a special digital TV format for viewing on mobile devices.

Samsung Ultra Edition II

Announcing a a whole new range of ultra-slim phones, ranging from 5.9-12.1mm thick, Samsung stole the show. The U100 (above) is the thinnest phone in the world at 5.9mm. Amazingly it features a 3 megapixel camera, bluetooth and 70MB of memory!

LG Prada



LG's pre-emptive, touch-screen strike against the iPhone. It's 12mm thick and features a 2 megapixel camera. Very slick and very expensive.

Apple announces incredible iPhone

Apple announced the iPhone today at Macworld San Francisco. A clearly excited Steve Jobs introduced the device to a standing ovation and astonishment from the crowd.

In some ways 'iPhone' is not an apt description of the multi-functional device at all. Apple describes it as "a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching - into one small and lightweight handheld device."

"iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone."



iPod

iPhone uses iTunes to sync with your Mac or PC in just the same way as an iPod so all your music, audiobooks, videos, TV shows and movies can be enjoyed on the 3.5 -inch widescreen display.

Mobile phone

iPhone allows you to make calls by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book and it will automatically sync all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or internet service such as Yahoo! or Gmail. It also introduces a new 'Visual Voicemail' feature that allows you to go directly to individual voicemail messages without having to listen to them in order, just like email.

SMS messaging is handled using an on-screen software keyboard with predictive input and error correction. The interface is very iChat like and is more like sending instant messages than text messages.

It also features an integrated 2-megapixel camera and iPhoto-like photo management software that is far more sophisticated than current mobile phones.

Internet communications

iPhone features a rich HTML email client that can fetch or be pushed your IMAP or POP3 email in the background and a mobile version of Safari which is the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device. It automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac and includes built-in Google and Yahoo! searching. It's fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over WiFi or EDGE.

The iPhone's Maps application integrates with Google Maps to offer map, satellite and local information, all controlled with the touch screen interface enabling you to easily move around and zoom in or out.

The iPhone also borrows Widgets from OS X to give you quick access to weather, stocks and other data in real-time through the internet.

Technology

It's a pretty incredible device and has to be seen to be fully appreciated. The multi-touch screen and OS X operating system looks extremely intuitive and well thought out with the rich HTML email, full-featured web browsing, and desktop-class applications such as widgets, Safari, calendar, text messaging, Notes, and Address Book.

The iPhone is also well connected with quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0.

To top it all off, the iPhone can sense when you rotate it from portrait to landscape and automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

A proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until it's moved away. And an ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current light level, enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

Conclusion

iPhone shifts the landscape of the mobile industry just as the original Mac did for home computing and the iPod did to the music industry. I honestly think it's that significant.

Steve Jobs said during the speech that it's "5 years ahead" of anything else and I think he's right. The seeming simplicity and ease of use sets a new standard for mobile operating systems, like only Apple could, and belies the complexity and breadth of features beneath.

My only real concerns are with the absence of any 3G connection for high-speed data when not in reach of a WiFi network and the relatively limited 4 or 8GB storage capacity.

3G and a second camera on the face of the iPhone would allow for video calling and could also be integrated with iChat for VoIP video calling, which would be truly awesome.

8GB of storage worries me as well. My nano has 8GB and that is not enough to get my music library on, let alone all my email, photos and video! I would have expected more like 16GB to make the device capable of holding a decent amount of content or at least some kind of memory expansion via SD or something. On the other hand, for a mobile phone, 8GB is way more than the average device.

Overall though, this is an absolutely stunning product. Just reading the transcript of the keynote as it was taking place, I was completely gob-smacked at what Apple have managed to achieve with the iPhone. It's up there with even the most fervent rumours but now it's a reality.

It's much more than just a mobile phone with music playing features, it's a Mac in your pocket.

To see the iPhone in action make sure you head over to the Apple site and watch the QuickTime demos. It really will amaze you.

Gear4 BluEye - bluetooth for your iPod

So you've got an iPod right? And a bluetooth enabled mobile phone?

But when you're listening to your iPod and the phone rings, you don't necessarily hear it or you have to fumble around taking your earphones out and grabbing your phone, by which time you've missed the call.

Sound familiar? I know it happens to me all the time. That's where the BluEye comes in and it may just make your life a bit easier. It looks like a pretty awesome little device.

Basically, it does what the Apple iPod remote does i.e. act as a radio receiver as well as a remote control for your iPod but it has one other key feature - it connects to your mobile phone via bluetooth.

So now when you're listening to your iPod and your phone rings, the BluEye automatically pauses the music and displays the incoming phone number on your iPod's screen. You can either accept or reject the call and it routes the caller's voice from your phone through your iPod earphones!

Your voice is picked up by an integrated mic in the BluEye device, so it will effectively act like a hands free kit. And when you finish the call, your music resumes! How cool is that?

You can even use it to make calls via voice dialling and bring up the recent callers list on your iPod screen to dial. All that as well as being a radio receiver and remote control? Pretty impressive stuff.

The full features list looks like this:

• Make and receive calls on your iPod
• Plug' n' Play with most Bluetooth enabled mobile phones
• Caller Number ID displayed on iPod screen
• Automatically pause and resume music for incoming calls
• Last 9 numbers redial from your iPod
• Voice dial when paired with supported Bluetooth phones
• 15 Presets and auto scan FM Radio
• Use your own headphones
• No need for batteries
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Available in black and white
  

It's already available in the UK at Carphone Warehouse and will be shipping directly from Gear4 on 3rd December. It recently also got a 90% rating in a review from The Register.

Definitely one of the cleverest and most useful gadgets I've seen in quite a while and at £49.99 not too pricey. I'll be adding it to my wish list!

Tags: blueye, gear4, ipod, apple, bluetooth, remote, radio, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb

WiFi Skype phone from Netgear

For all you Skypers out there, this could be for you. It's a wireless phone that works independently of a PC to act as a Skype handset.

You can use it home with your wireless network or while out and about on any hotspot or access point (so long as it doesn't require browser-based authentication). No PC required!

It fully integrates with your Skype account, shows and allows you to manage your contacts on its colour screen and is fully compatible with SkypeIn and SkypeOut for making and receiving calls from ordinary non-Skype landlines and mobiles.

Obviously, calling other Skype users is absolutely free!

More info on the Netgear site.

Tags: netgear, skype, wifi, phone, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb

Nokia 8800 Sirocco

As far as phones go, this Nokia 8800 Sirocco (not to be confused with the car from a decade or so ago) isn't the most technically advanced in the world by any stretch but bloody hell, it's a looker.

I can't imagine it's particularly cheap mind you but it does have a 2 megapixel camera, a stainless steel body and 'premium user interface' (whatever that is?), which make it respectable at least - it even comes with a complimentary bluetooth headset!



Beautiful. I want one.

Via fosfor gadgets.

Tags: nokia, 8800, sirocco, phone, mobile, gsm, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb