Apple iOS 4

When I moved from my Nokia E90 to iPhone, there were a few features missing that I used a lot. Being a “tidy freak”, I kept my application organised in folder. I’m also a big fan of Google Latitude and had this running in the background all the time, but these were scarifies I was willing to make to move across to the iPhone. As you can imagine I was overjoyed to find that not only were Folders coming to the next OS for the iPhone, but also “multitasking”. Now granted this isn’t the same multitasking that you get on the likes of Symbian S60, however for what I want it for (Background location), this made my day.

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, I have an iPhone 3GS and on Thursday will be accepting the delivery of my new, shiny iPhone 4. This means I get to use the full functionality of the new OS, other people (iPhone 3G and before, iPod Touch 2G and before), will only have limited functionality (No multitasking).

So today’s the day, and iOS 4 is available for download, and obviously I’ve now downloaded it and have it installed.

The first think that stands out is the customised Home Screen Wallpaper. Now I know it’s a simple thing, but does really help to personalise your phone. This is something that I took for granted on the Symbian OS, and until it was gone, I started to miss it.

The next thing I did was created folders and started to drop apps into them, this was a god send, Apple have made it as easy as possible for you to do this, simple drag one app on top of another and voila a folder is created. The folder names are automatically named, eg Games, Reference, Social Network, and can only assume it does this based on the iTunes category, this can however be changed . Before I used to organise my application using the screens, Social Media, Weather (yeah, I have multiple weather apps), Shopping, Fitness, Media, Game Tracking, and Games. On OS3 you can have 16 apps per page, however the folders are only 12 apps. This does really clean up the iPhones real estate.

The Spell checker works a treat, I prefer it to it just randomly correcting as I type.

When I saw the email was “Even Better Mail”, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I only have one mail box with all mail in (I use email forwarding for all my accounts, and have my google apps account as the central repository, and splitting my mail accounts using labels), so didn’t think I’d see a benefit, however, being a gmail user is was good to see “organize messages by threads”. It felt a lot more familiar. You get a number at the side of the email to tell you how many are in the chain, clicking on email brings up the “conversation”

Functions like iBooks, the ability to create playlists on the move weren’t something I was really interested in, as I’m more of an Audio book reader, and I prefer to organise my playlists on my Mac.

As for the other functions like Facetime, I guess I’m going to have to wait until Thursday.

I think I can now finally say, there are no features that I’m missing, and glad to be an iPhone owner, I’m sure that over the next few days, I’m going to find features I’ve not initially noticed, but will tweet about them as and when I find them.

edit: After playing with iOS 4 now for a good few hours, I’ve found a few more features. The 3GS does support the digital zoom function on the camera app, you just need to tap the screen once, and you’ll get a slider bar allowing your to zoom in.

The camera app has also been upgraded to include similar features to the Mac software iPhoto, in the way that it now sorts your photos by places and faces, and seems to be loads more accurate with the GPS location.

You also have the option of having 2 different wallpapers, one for the lock screen and one for the home screen. This option can be found on the 3GS under Setting >> Wallpaper.

You can also now change your Safari search engine by going into Setting >> Safari >> and changing the search engine from Google, to Yahoo! and Bing

Currently I only have 1 app on my iPhone that supports “background processing” and that’s Dropbox. If I set something uploaded, then close, this will continue to upload in the background.

Tags: 2g, 3g, 3gs, Download, drag one, Fitness, folder names, folders, freak, functionality, god send, google, ios, iphone, ipod, location, media game, media weather, nokia e90, one of the lucky ones, option, os3, page, phone, Safari, screen, screen wallpaper, screens, search, something, symbian os, Thursday, time, touch, type, voila, Weather, yeah

iPod Touch OS3.0 First Impressions

Ok, I’m a little sad, ever since the WWDC I’ve been counting down the days until the version 3.0 software for my iPod Touch. Today as most of you are aware is d-day. I’ve spent the day checking the net to see if it’s out, but to no avail.

5.30pm came, I got myself home in record time, sync my iPod, hit Refresh of the update page….and got the, the latest firmware is 2.2.1…Booo !

Had a quick look on twitter, and and there was a tweet from TrekkyGeek to suggest the firmware wouldn’t be out till around 9pm. Great I though, I’ve got things to do, and this gave me a little time to do them, then I could spend from 9pm onwards messing with the new software.

Just after 6, there was another post from TrekkyGeek saying, ooops, 9pm may have been wrong, so I hit refresh and there it was FINALLY !

I hit the magical download button, did as most people do and just hit the “I accept your T’s and C”s”, paid my £5.99 and hit download.

Initially it download a “iPod Software Update” of 277Mb, went through the motions of updating my iPod, rebooted, once rebooted I unplugged it, went straight to Config >> About and it still said 2.2.1 ? Thought WTF !, So I plugged it back in, iTunes detected it, and said…”Hey, there’s a new firmware available ?!?”, so I downloaded the firmware again, this time a 257Mb file, it ran through the motions, and voila Version 3.0 !

So, I’ve had a couple of hours to have a play with it, so what do I think ?

Well, it’s quicker, and I’d say noticeably quicker, it seems to feel a lot smoother.

Bluetooth, now enabled !, for those of you that didn’t know, the iPod Touch 2G has bluetooth, however this was never made public knowledge, ad this is what was used for the iPod + Nike, and was how you communicate with the sensor you put in your trainer. This now seems to be unlocked so you can use it with Stereo headphones, and speakers. From what I’ve read, this will also be used for peer to peer gaming also.

One of the major additions for me is the Landscape keyboard, currently it only seems to work with Safari (which it did anyway), notes and mail, which is cool, however I hope they bring this to the other applications.

Spotlight Search…anybody who owns a Mac will know just how good the spotlight search is. This will check meta data and id tags for the “searched word(s)”, emailed, notes and it an incredible local search engine, to see this work on the iPod Touch was lightening fast, and a welcome change.

Now this is the major seller for me, and worth the £5.99 alone, Cut, Copy & Paste..I tend to use my Touch a lot for browsing the web, and sending and receiving email, and to be honest it’s been frustrating not to have these when you become so used to them, on the PC and Mac. This does work a treat, you hold down your finger or thumb on the screen for a few seconds, and you get the Cut, Copy, Paste option, select the text, or images you want, with 2 movable start and end blocks, and your done, works very well.

Voice recorder, not a major feature for me, as it means I’ve got to plug in my ear bud/mic combo headset in, but works pretty well.

Something I noticed when I was listening to a podcast shortly after was a number of new icons on the play bar. You now have the option to jump back 30 seconds, which for me is a godsend, I’m forever getting interrupted and struggle to find where I was, with this, 1 click and your 30 seconds in the past !. Another of the icons lets you speed up / slow down the play speed, this way you can power listen to the podcasts you are behind on, which seem a really good feature to me !

The main update I’m looking forward to (which won’t be available till September) is the Push Notification, which allows information about your apps to be notified to you (kinda how the blackberry’s work) for example if you use a Twitter application, this could potentially be coded to let you know when you have a reply, without actually running the application. This if done right with be brilliant, and really give blackberry a run for their money I think.

Finally, a feature that’s been missing since day, something very simple and something you could do by using Yahoo, it’s the ability to sign in to your YouTube account and see and play your subscriptions  ! GENIUS !

Anyway, the firmware is still new, I need to have a good play with it, and will get chance over the next couple of days.

There are many more features, but the above are the only ones I’ve played with so far.

Tags: 2g, avail, bluetooth, counting down the days, couple, d day, day, Download, feature, firmware, ipod, ipod software, ipod touch, little time, lot, mac, motions, new software, nike, play, public knowledge, record time, Refresh, search, software, software update, something, stereo headphones, time, time sync, touch, TrekkyGeek, tweet, twitter, update, version, work, wwdc

iPhone Dilemma

As some of you may know, the new iPhone 3GS has been announced, and due for release on the 19th of June 2009.

Currently I have a 32Gb iPhone Touch 2G and a Nokia E90 running JoikuSpot so I have an internet connection wherever I go, however this does mean carrying 2 devices around with me.

So I’ve been eagerly awaiting the new iPhone announcement as it’s been rumoured for months now.

The new hardware specs are for the 3GS are

Improved performance
3-megapixel autofocus camera
Video recording
Voice Control
Digital compass
Cut, Copy & Paste
MMS
Spotlight Search
Landscape keyboard
Voice Memos

Compared to the below for the 3G

2-megapixel camera
Cut, Copy & Paste
MMS
Spotlight Search
Landscape keyboard
Voice Memos

Now I’m happy that I feel I need one in my life, to minimise the amount of hardware I carry, however below are the pro’s and cons

Pro’s

New Shiny iPhone
Contestant Internet connection
Only have to carry the 1 device
The E90 is quite an ugly phone

Con’s

£180 to pay off my existing contract
Another £187 for the iPhone on an 18 month contract.
No 3G signal in my home on O2 (but I would have wi-fi, so wouldn’t really matter)
Would loose my Vodafone Stop the Clock
Would have to pay for tethering which I currently get free with JoikuSpot
Would have a redundant iPod Touch

There is another dilemma, currently the iPhone is exclusive to O2, however I’ve read many rumours, and even been told by a guy at Vodafone this morning that O2 loose exclusivity of the iPhone this month, so expects them to be on all networks within the next couple of month, which if correct, I’ll stick with Vodafone. However, the clock is ticking, and in 10 days I could be holding in my hand an iPhone….

Although the Cons do seem worse than the Pros, it is a shiny new device, and over the past 6 month I’ve come to love the iPod Touch, and couldn’t imagine life without it, so I’m assuming having this in phone form would just be perfect.

Tags: 2g, 3gs, amp, camera, Con, connection, Copy, digital compass, dilemma, exclusivity, hardware, hardware specs, internet, internet connection, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, JoikuSpot, keyboard, Landscape, megapixel, Memos, MMS, month, new hardware, nokia e90, o2, Paste, recording voice, rumours, search, Spotlight, touch, video recording, vodafone, voice, voice control, voice memos