For you Jah...
This might finally stop Jah, over at the pda247 forums, from complaining about the iPhone's perceived weaknesses. Actually, I doubt it but at least it is a step in the right direction.
Features:
17/07/2008
AppStore slowing down?
Okay, there was seemingly over 500 apps on at launch date but things seem to have stalled somewhat over the past week. I have about 9 apps installed to date and I feel more or less apped up in the sense that I don't feel I need a whole host more. I just need eWallet to finally appear and then a DocsToGo type application and that will probably be it for me. Unless of course some wonderful stuff that I didn't think I needed but actually do appears but at the moment I can't think of anything....actually, now that I think about it I can...ListPro..and that will be coming in the next couple of months. When it does, bingo.
Still, it is a little disappointing that things have been so quiet of late. Possibly something to do with Apple's supposed backlog of apps waiting for approval? If so, then they need to get the finger out.
Am I an Apple fanboy? I don't think so. I use their products, well just a laptop, desktop and iPhone but that is it....oh and I also have an iPod I suppose. I don't use these products because I think they are miles better than anything else but more because I just like them and they seem the best option for me. I've tried other platforms on the mobile front and have liked them but just not as much as the iPhone. I wouldn't go on forums and brag about the iPhone's superiority but I would defend it against others slagging it off if I felt they were unjustified. I'd only say it was superior in the sense that it is superior for MY needs. Likewise, I use a PC at work and it is fine for that albeit a bit slow but that is probably down to all the IT interference. When I am at home I just prefer to use macs as they are better, for me, for the things that I use them for or perhaps it is just because I am more used to them and familiarity breeds contempt and all that.
There's undoubtedly a snob thing going on with a lot of mac users that puts people off and creates a bad impression, I'd hate to think I was part of all that as I dislike it myself. Just talking to myself.
T-Mobile upgrades...and stalking embarrassment
I'm pretty disappointed at the moment. Both of my T-Mobile contracts are now due for renewal/upgrade which means that I can pick two new phones...hoorah. Except it's not really hoorah as there is nothing there at the moment that appeals at all, and I mean nothing. I had a look at the Nokia E51 when I was in the shop but I just thought I'd be taking it for taking's sense without actually wanting it. I guess it all boils down to the fact I've lost interest in other platforms since the AppStore appeared and I can't see myself using any other phone for a while. The iPhone now just about does everything I need a mobile device to do and not just does it okay but in fact does it very very well....for my needs anyway.
The T-Mobile shop on Princess Street is 100 yards from the CarPhoneWarehouse store, where I was yesterday and where I left my number with the guy should they get more 3g iPhone stock in. Bizarrely, I was just standing outside the shop when my phone rang, I checked the number and it wasn't somebody in my contacts book. To my utter horror I realised it must be the guy calling back and answered it, sure enough it was him telling me they had just received more stock. Jesus, I thought, I realised I was just standing there, looking through their store window. What if the guy is in there looking at me and sees me standing outside like some crazed loony...what is he going to think? He's going to think I have been standing there all morning just waiting for a call. That ain't going to look good I thought....not good at all.
Quickly I moved out of sight...
"err right, thanks for letting me know. I'm in town at the moment but it will take me 15 minutes to pop down' Yeah right, considering I was standing in the next shop's door.
"errr....see you soon and thanks"
So I had to loiter around for 15 minutes before going in. Eventually, half an hour later I had my new 3g iPhone which I couldn't get activated until I got home. Everything went well though, no problems at all transferring everything over and now my new iPhone is fully up and running. As I'm at home I've turned off 3g and am just using wifi. I'll test out the 3g coverage tomorrow and see how things stack up although I have a feeling I will only turn on 3g when needed. My fervent hope is that reception will be better at work, often in the black hole that is my office, I get "no service" showing up which is frustrating and annoying as it doesn't appear with any other phone I've used over the past 2 years or so.
Noreve black leather case for MacBook Pro
Case mania goes on. I also purchased recently the Noreve black leather case for the MacBook Pro and have got to say I am very pleased with it. I must confess to liking stuff by Noreve, I had a case for my Blackberry Curve and Treo 680 from them and thought they were very nice.
This is one of those slip type cases that will not offer much laptop protection if you drop the little beauty but the case itself is lovely. It's a very smooth, luxurious feeling soft leather with a nice light coloured and very soft inner light coloured fabric. The zip is also nice with a smooth action. It's a heck of a lot slimmer than the iSkin case but does not offer nearly as much protection. Fit in the case is quite tight initially and I had to squeeze the MBP in at first but it seems to have slacked off a bit since.
Build quality feels good, there is little exposed stitching and no sign of any loose threads. It really does look and feel nice, not to mention the lovely smell of new leather. It is about the same price as the iSkin Soho but feels a bit more luxurious and special. My one concern with this case though is that when the MBP is in the case it is all a bit tight and to get it zipped up is a bit of a squeeze to the point where the zip pushes the front of the MBP down so that the lid and bottom are touching. With my other cases there is no such pressure. It may be unimportant but it makes me feel worried in case the keyboard is now touching the screen when in the case. This could be a problem or it could just be me being over-cautious and I'm not so sure I want to take the gamble until the case loosens up a bit.
You can pick this online in the UK for around £50 or less.
Pro's
- lovely soft leather
- looks and feels superb
- nice soft interior
- nicely made
Con's
- not much protection in a drop
- case is a bit too tight?
- bit of force needed to zip it up
16/07/2008
mobile.me
I got an email today from Apple regarding the mobile.me outages/slowness etc that plagued its launch at the end of last week, not that it affected me too much but at least they had the good grace to come out and say sorry. They also said they were dropping the "push" claim as apparantly there is some delay....
Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word "push" until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.
Can't say I noticed that mind you I've not exactly been testing it out with a stopwatch or anything. The only problem I have noticed is that if I delete an email on the iPhone it seems to re-appear shortly after as if it is being pushed...oops, can't use that word anymore, as if it is being errrrr.....sent back straight away. Or am I imagining that? Possibly, you have to go back into the mobile.me website and delete it from there to avoid this happening? The contacts and calendar thing works well though although I don't probably need these features.
xbox 360 drivel
I was chuckling to myself the other day as I perused through last months Official Xbox Magazine here in the UK. I always head for the new game reviews first to see if there is anything worthwhile out that has gotten a decent review. Last months new games got shocking reviews. This months batch is barely better, for instance, The Bourne Identity, which they have been drooling over for months has finally appeared and got slated. Great. These guys must get invited to all these corporate jollys to get advance plays of forthcoming games, have a great time and then report back how great it is all shaping up to be. Then, when the game appears it turns out to be pish.
There's been nothing for months that has appealed to me. I was really enjoying Lara Croft Anniversary Edition, as I mentioned before, then about a week ago I got stuck halfway through at some silly "boss" fight against these Centaurs. No problem you'd think, there will be some cheat or something, some way to get eternal health to beat them or a way to skip to the start of the next level. Errrrr...no. No cheats at all, nowt, zip all, zero help so I am basically gubbed. I tried for about 4 nights in a row, each session lasting over an hour without getting anywhere so I have just given up as it has now ceased to be any fun and is just plain irritating. I've spent hours perusing Forums looking for tips/cheats, anything to help me through this bit but nothing.
I have always hated these "boss" fight things, they just seem so 90's and out of place in a game like Lara Croft. If anybody in the UK has done this bit on the 360 ad wishes to kindly help then I will willingly copy my saved game onto a memory unit and ship it to them. That would be a huge help.
iPhone stuff again...sort of
Okay, I will not be posting much on windows mobile stuff from now on as I don't have a win mob device anymore and I can't see myself getting another one in the near future. The thought depresses me actually, I hated all that memory management and all round slowness in comparison to the iPhone. Sorry. Even the latest high end devices do not appeal anymore, it's just all round too much hassle for me and the lack of mac compabability, in comparison to the iPhone, is the final nail in the coffin. If I never use another Missing Sync application again I will not be that disappointed.
I'm still waiting for eWallet to appear on the AppStore. It must be very frustrating for Ilium not to have it showing when there has been some real pap showing up recently and as expected, about 298 different tip calculators to date. SplashID is out there and I have used this and it is good but it is just not as good as eWallet.
I see that you can filter your searches on iTunes to have the latest released apps at the top, this is handy but it does lend itself to some skullduggery as developers issue tiny updates to existing apps to get them listed at the top again using this search criteria. It is annoying too to see so many eBooks clogging up certain categories...most of them are ones that are free anyway but are being charged for...naughty.
I downloaded Twitter and installed it but removed some "friends" as they were hogging bandwith, so to speak, with fairly unimportant "twittering" or should that be "wittering"? One thing about Twitter and Facebook that makes me laugh is this...you know how women go on about men being vain? Probably to deflect attention away from their own 24 hours a day vain-ness but I digress. Anyway, if men are vainer how come just about every single female on FaceBook or Twitter has a very obviously and carefully stage managed posed picture (often black and white, slightly washed out a la Dynasty 1980's Joan Collins style) whereas the guys have obviously just chosen the first photo that came to hand that doesn't make them look like a complete idiot? Hey c'mon girls, just saying...
I still don't have a 3g iPhone yet. I did pop into town today in the vain hope of finding one but o2 have none. Talking of o2, the store in Princess Street Edinburgh has possibly the surliest, snootiest and least helpful phone staff in the UK. After my less than enjoyable visit there I tried CPW and at least they were civil there. The guy said they were expecting some in on Thursday, he took my number and said he would call if they did. He probably won't but at least he made some effort.
15/07/2008
Data Diet
Totally depressed by the continuing awfulness that masquerades as a "summer' here in Edinburgh, we have raided the family savings and booked a holiday to Spain, same place as last year as we liked it and had little time to search anywhere else anyway. I love my holidays but being away from my gadgets and gadget stuff, like full internet access, does my head in and I miss it so much. Of course this would not be a problem if roaming data rates were reasonable and you could browse away to the same extent that you do at home but of course this unfortunately is not the case.
I have a broadband modem usb thingy for the MBPro which allows me, at home, to surf away when away from home and two phone contracts, one with T-Mobile and the other with o2, both with unlimited data access. Here in the UK then I can have my cake and eat it but it will be a different story when abroad. I'll need to go on another data diet which I hate doing. Luckily, things have improved slightly from last year. T-Mobile now charge "only" £1.50 per mb of data whereas this time last year it was a daft £7.50 per mb whilst o2 do a 50mb monthly one-off deal for £50 which is not exactly cheap but at least it is better than before and both will allow some data access without the need to strip back useage like I had to last year.
Still, it would be great to be able to have the same level of data access as I do here in the UK. It would make going away on holiday less painful for data-philes like me. Does anyone know of any other special deals for roaming abroad?
File Magnet for iPhone
This application is only £2.99 at the AppStore but adds a lot of functionality and represents good value. It comes in two parts. Firstly, you need to install the free desktop mac app which can be obtained here. Then, you need to buy the FileMagnet app and install it on the iPhone. Then you can start sending files to the iPhone just by dropping them on the desktop icon. Here is what it is supposed to be able to send, file type wise:
"FileMagnet makes it easy to copy files from your Mac and view them on your iPhone and iPod touch. It supports all the common file types, including PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, images, movies, sounds and even folders. By running the FileMagnet Uploader on your Mac, you can wirelessly copy files over your wi-fi network".
I tried a few excel files but they refused to open. This is apparantly a known issue which they are currently working on. I have also sent rtf files, created in TextEdit, and they opened no problem. The Microsoft Office docs aspect is obviously attractive although they can only be viewed and not edited but the appeal may wane once we get formal editing later on via a proper Office style application...assuming of course that happens.
Dock Spaces for mac
Dock Spaces 1.10 is an excellent free application for Leopard, that allows you to have up to 5 different docks and swap them anytime you want from your menu bar.
FEATURES
- Have Up To 5 Different Docks
- Lock The Dock
- Set Bouncing Parameters
- Switch From/To 3D/2D
- Set The Total Number Of Docks
- Open At Login
- Software Update And Growl Support
- Much More
14/07/2008
CoolSmartPhone...unbelievable
Yikes, what is the world coming to? CoolSmartPhone saying something nice about the iPhone and application store and acknowledging that it is probably not such a bad o/s after all. They also give their thoughts on windows mobile 6.1, six months after the launch.
The new iPhone has now appeared and it's brought with it a fantastic application store where 25% of the apps are free and, of those that aren't, 90% are less than $9.99. Better still, the iPhone applications all look gorgeous and match the OS style. It's a fluid and joint-free experience which...just....works. With Windows Mobile I don't have a single place to get applications. There's shops everywhere, plus developer websites too.
AppStore policy and other similar things...
Interesting post at pda247 regarding Apple's policy for approving new applications and lack of available demos . It is doubly interesting when you look at another post on the same page where a windows mobile developer laments that he finds himself having to develop per device nowadays in much the same way that things got for the palm o/s.
The first post is a bit surprising as I thought non-Apple believer, yes such people do exist, Shaun was going to have a real pop at Apple for not putting up demo versions of apps yet about half way through the post he sort of, but not completely, defends the policy on the basis that most are either cheap or free and that at least it maintains a degree of uniformity having all apps on the one store. I can see where he is coming from and I half agree but I am still a little surprised and disappointed that there are not demos available for apps costing £10 plus.
If you read the posts in the first link, very few are coming out and saying it is good that so much stuff is free or relatively cheap or that it is good to have a central repository for other apps or that the onboard AppStore automatically provides updates of your apps. Nope, in typical anti-apple fashion some folk automatically look for downsides. All a bit depressing really that petty inter-platform rivalries prevent folk from acknowledging good things about other platforms.
My own view is that apps costing under £5, of which there are plenty, are liable to be pretty simple and should be viewed very much as what you see is what you get. Demos shouldn't be needed. Look at the screens on the AppStore and then if further research is needed read any reviews and then check out the developers website for further info on features. I would think that would suffice in most cases to see whether it will offer you what you need. After all, spending £2.99 on a task style app is not quite the same as splashing out £15 or so for a lot of similar Windows Mobile apps. The apps I have bought so far, 4 in total, have cost a grand total of £10 yet have added a whole heap of extra functionality. Add in another 5 free apps already downloaded and I think this is proving to be a very cost effective platform.
I see that Ilium have announced that eWallet will be available on the iPhone for $9.99, half the price of the palm and windows mobile mobile application. That is excellent value. Instead of having a cheap pop at Apple for no demos or only making apps available via iTunes, why not be pleased that the vast majority of software is very reasonably priced in comparison to similar stuff on other platforms?
Things for iPhone
After months and months of nothing all of a sudden we have a wide choice of List/ToDo type apps. It's great. As there is no sign of my holy Grail of mobile apps, ListPro, I have had to go out and get something to tide me over for a while.
Initially, I had a look at OmniFocus which has a mac desktop companion and wireless syncing ability but although the iPhone version is reasonably priced at £11.99 the desktop app costs $79.99!!
Yikes. Plus the learning curve is a bit too steep for an impatient user like me. I need something a bit less fully featured and simpler, stripped down if you like which is where Things comes in.
It's not as feature rich as OmniFocus but neither it is as daunting. This app has several things I like. Firstly there is a mac companion which doesn't have syncing features at present but will hopefully arrive at some point judging by the authors website. If so, great. Secondly, it is quite simple to use and get the hang off. The best thing about it is that you can put in "quick" entries and these then sit in your Inbox. Later on you can then move them into different folders. This means that thoughts can be recorded quickly and then sorted later from the opening screen. The "project" folder is where you can keep running lists of project type things and is good for storing info. I've tended to put most of my stuff in this folder and then moved them into the Today folder if action on it is important.
Other likeable features, for me anyway, are that when adding entries you can add notes and don't have to put in a date at first. If you don't put in a date and stick it in the Today folder then if you ignore it will show up as being overdue.
Other folders include a "Today" for placing stuff that needs to be done...errrrr.....today and a "Someday" folder for pie in the sky future stuff. Unfortunately two useful desktop features are missing. The ability to reorder items in a list and no tagging of entries but these may well come and would be very useful especially where lists demand ordered task managment. I won't pretend this is the most fully featured List type app around, it could not for example replace ListPro for me but for daily and ongoing task management it is actually quite nice and judging by the developers site comments bigger things, no pun intended, are in place.
Updated 16th July
Thanks to Austin who pointed out that Things does indeed support moving items in a list view. Just press Edit and then move the right hand box up and down to re-arrange.
Orange.....cheap phones expensive data
The guys at MoDaCo and Coolsmartphone have a real love in with the HTC Touch Diamond, it can do no wrong for them They take great glee in pointing out how cheap it is on Orange and how you can basically get it for free on certain contracts. Now, there's nothing wrong with that but oddly these two sites also and conversely have a running battle slagging off Orange for their dreadful data plans although I believe plans are afoot to finally bring them into the 21st Century...their "unlimited" plan still limits users though to 500mb which is one sixth of the monthly T-Mobile "unlimited" data plan. How do they get away with calling it "unlimited" when it is clearly very limited?
Anyway, the Diamond is a smartphone and a lot of folk will be using it for email and browsing and other data intensive applications and if so then these sites should point out that Orange are not exactly the best deal around for that kind of stuff alongside the same points cheerfully advising how great their phone prices are on certain contracts.
Incidentally, I had a play with a HTC Diamond in a phone last at the end of last week and wasn't impressed by the build quality, it felt a bit flimsy to me.
13/07/2008
bad siders
Check out this weirdo...this is one of those eco guys who camped out for one of the first iPhones last week. Someone really needs to have a word with him about those siders, he looks like he should be in Emmerdale Farm.
Well, it looks like that not only Dan's friends who is "glued" to him. Because Dan managed to attract a cute Apple Store employee while he's getting his iPhone 3Gs, asked her out and getting a date for next Tuesday. I bet he'll bring his new iPhone 3G along ;-p Here's the rest of the story
eWallet updated .....but not yet on iTunes AppStore
No doubt you will know by now that eWallet has been updated. This is my password manager app of choice that I have used on Palm and Windows Mobile down the years and am now fervently awaiting on the iPhone. I was having a peruse of their blog and noticed that it is ready to go but is not yet appearing on the AppStore. C'mon Apple, get yer finger oot as we say here in Scotland.
The chaps at Ilium have been very honest. The app is ready to rock but there will not be any syncing until August as it is not yet working the way the perfectionists at Ilium want it to work. Quite rightly, they are thus not willing to add that important feature until it is 100% okay. I can handle the wait for the syncing but it would be great to have an old friend like eWallet on the iPhone today!!
SplashID is of course out already and it is an excellent password manager too however I'd prefer to stick with eWallet and will be splashing the cash the second it appears on AppStore.
12/07/2008
we get the AppStore and Blackberry gets...errr.....
Spare a thought for those poor crackberry fans....not content with having a whole load of their "thunder"...ahem...stolen and a rammy with self-proclaimed King of exclusives, BGR, they now have to sit back and watch us iPhone users get our AppStore and 500 plus apps on day one. Never mind chaps, you can console yourselves with the latest and greatest Blackberry app...Menstrual Calendar...oh boy, I hope this is available in iTunes soon.
Treo 800w out and about...good timing Palm
Hmmm...now let me think, hmm...was yesterday a good day to launch your new eagerly awaited flagship model? I wonder, I can't be sure on this but I seem to recall reading somewhere that somebody else was launching some new 3g version of some other sort of phone. Perhaps I'm wrong on that...ah well.
Yep, kudos to Palm for being brave enough (or stupid enough) to stick out the 800w or perhaps it was at Sprint's insistence on the same day as the 3g iPhone. Couldn't it have happened a week earlier of perhaps 2 weeks later, just to get some attention on the poor wee thing? (pics courtesy of treocentral). It's all been very low key for a company that, let's face it, needs some decent marketing exposure. Especially if they have a winning product which the 800w could well be.
And in true Palm cock-up fashion let's make it only available on the ONE network for a period of time. In fact, let's make it available to only a small percentage of the world's population, limit the market-place for it whilst there is probably a greater amount of folk who would buy it elsewhere if it was available now. A rather odd marketing strategy from Palm continues unabated with another relative exclusive. It may well be out on another US carrier quickly, I don't know.
Why does Ed think this is a good business move, after all, do you see HTC doing the same thing. Do they launch a new product, like the Touch Diamond, and only make it available on the one carrier in Europe for 3 months? Errrrr...nope. It's more or less available everywhere in Europe within a few weeks and look how successful HTC have become because of that sort of strategy and then look at how Palm, in comparison, are floundering with their odd and unique approach.
Thing is, the 800w does look nice and the initial impressions from those who now have it in the US are more favourable than were posted a month or two back when the leaked shots came out, particularly in relation to the materials and form factor.
best 3g iPhone launch coverage...
I'm going to give this to the iPhone Blog for their posts covering the launch day and subsequent ahem..."issues". No screaming blue murder or the world is going to end style reporting there, just factual updates of what was happening (or not happening) and useful reviews of stuff like mobile.me and, if you were having some problems getting activated or updating or whatever, then some useful tips to try and get things sorted.
I was hoping I would have got the updated software last night some time but to no avail. I can browse through all the apps on AppStore in iTunes and have already 'queued up" some to try out when I do get my hands on it. Perhaps it will be up and running today at some pount.
11/07/2008
iPhone cock-up
It's now half five here in the UK and I have been perusing the web gleaning further info about the great iPhone activation balls up. Luckily, my phone is working again but I now can't do a backup and my phone is as if it were brand new. I can't be arsed re-entering all my email stuff and will just have to wait until iTunes gets itself sorted out.
Really Apple...what a balls up. They should have launched the AppStore a few days ago to avoid all the rush of people trying to get their hands on version 2 and others trying to activate the 3g iPhone. From what I have read on the web it seems to be even worse than first time around which is quite an achievement bearing in mind they knew about the possible rush for July 11the activations and new software months ago.
Oh dear.
Update - at 5.45pm I was finally able to restore via a back up so I am now good to go. I feel sorry though for the poor folk getting their hands on a new 3g version and not being able to do anything.
no new iPhone for me yet...and no current one either
I managed to get down to Ocean Terminal shopping Centre in Edinburgh this afternoon in between going to see Journey To The Centre of The Earth with my son, but that's another story. At about 1.30pm I was queuing in o2, 4th in line with about 3 folk behind me when one of the guys who was serving came out and said that all the 16gb iPhones were gone. I could have waited for a 8gb one but I was determined, prior to arriving, that it was going to be 16gb or nowt and I stuck to my guns and left. I did have a wee play with one though and it feels chunkier, in a nice sense, than the original version. I also prefer the black back which is less bling like.
After the film had finished we headed for the CarPhoneWarehouse shop and they too were out of the bigger capacity model so again I resisted temptation to just go for the 8gb. Thing is, I knew that the minute I walked out of the door I would regret it. But for a few minutes bad Murray was perched on my shoulder whispering "just get the 8gb model, go for it" and when I hear the gadget voice it is hard to resist but resist I did and I will be glad I did later on.
Interestingly, both shops said they expected further stick of the 16gb model next week so hopefully I can pick one up then. In the meantime I will just have to try out the AppStore and new programmes on my current iPhone. I tried in fact to access the iTunes store when I got back home but there is no sign of the version 2 software and no "update" option. Does anyone know what is happening? In preparation for the new software I attempted a "restore" back to factory settings and it started off okay but then an error message appeared and I have now been left in complete limbo with no working iPhone. Oooops.
