Top five iphone apps

I love the iphone app store, I can download a variety of apps ranging from "my goodness, how did I live without this?" to "why would anyone think this is a good idea nevermind invest time in making it?".

So here are my current top five apps.

1. Netnewswire - RSS reader that is FREE and works really well. I can quickly browse the headlines of my favourite sites and then navigate to the full story within the app.

2. tvguide - not free but very good tv guide that gives you a snapshot of whats on in a really nice interface. I have managed to catch some very good programmes thanks to this cheeky little app.

3. removem - FREE and highly addictive little puzzle game. I have lost many hours of my life on this one but as it is similar to some elements of brain training I have kidded my self that the app has made my brain bigger.

4. Pocketguitar - I only use this to rub other non-iphone users face in it. My phone has a guitar! Yours has a spreadsheet application...

5. FS5 Hockey - again FREE! air hockey on a phone. Who would have thought?

So thats my top five

Yet another iPhone 3g review

I didn't get the original iPhone because even though I loved that spiffing new touch screen the specs were rubbish for a high end smart phone costing £269. Instead I went for the beefy super charged but free on contract Nokia N95 with 3G, GPS and a five mega pixel camera which were all absent from the iPhone. The N95 was a phone before its time. Yes it had 3G but the screen and browser meant web browsing was a chore. Yes it had GPS but getting a lock on took forever and it was often easy and faster to buy a map. Yes it had 5 mega pixel totting camera BUT it took so long to start up you would miss that "moment". In fact the N95 made me look forward to the next model when Nokia would get all of these features right. I feel that the N82 is the phone that did get all these elements right and the N96 has gone off in weird new directions (paying a premium for mobile TV that we don't yet have in the UK?). 

Anyway Apple brought out iPhone 3G and two of the missing features are now present 3G and GPS. I am still not happy that the camera is a joke. 2 megapixels?! My toaster has more megapixels. However my phone is no longer my main camera as I now have a water proof and shock proof digital camera for snaps so I can live with a rubbish phone camera. Also why no front mounted camera for 3G video calls? A small VGA camera on the facia would have cost Apple a few dollars at most. I liked having the option to make a video call even though I used it twice in a year with the N95. I don't know why the gadget blogs haven't picked up on this. 

Overall though I am very happy with the iPhone 3G despite having a wonky one to begin with.

good points

- best user interface on a phone, ever.

- amazing mobile web browser.

- 3G is fast

- GPS works really well and combined with google maps is very useful 

- best video iPod in your phone

- fantastic apps especially phone saber - the person who thought of turning a iphone into a light sabre needs to be set to work on tackling world poverty and green energy because they are a GENIUS.

- Mail easily accessible and can view office docs, nice

- feels thinner than it actually is

- other companies have had over a year and they still can't produce a touch screen anywhere near the iPhone and we are talking big, rich and clever companies. The touch screen really is a few generations ahead of anything else.

Bad Stuff

- 2 megapixel camera 

- No flash

- No video recording, 

- No video calls, 

- MMS, 

- cut and paste

In short it is brilliant and will make you feel better about wasting time on money on gadgets.

  

Confessions of an iPhone 3G early adopter

On the morning of 11th July I thought I would see what the queues were like for the iPhone 3G. I had secretly hoped that the hype around limited supply would turn out to be marketing hot air and I could be in work on time with a shiny new iPhone 3G and a large grin. Unfortunately, gadget nuts had swarmed around all phone stores murmuring darkly about systems going down and limited stock. I wandered over to the Apple store to see if the story was any better and it was. I was greeted with a short queue and claims of “healthy” stock level by the hyperactive happy clappy staff managed by a bald Steve Jobs look-a-like. Only issue was a “temporary” server problem. Instead of doing the sensible thing and jumping off the nearby balcony I stayed and had free coffee and muffins that were being served to us, the Apple faithful. I should complain about the fact that five hours later I had no iPhone and had to go to work empty handed.

However it wasn’t that bad… The apple store staff were great as they constantly came around with chocolates, water, coffee and witty banter. In addition, my fellow queue buddies who turned out to be Apple fan boys and girls were good fun and an interesting bunch of arty types. Lastly being stuck in an Apple Store is hardly Guantanamo Bay although I was told off for playing Summer Heights High too loudly on an iMac so all the kiddies heard Jonah Takaluah’s barrage of profanity. So next time Apple release an over hyped highly anticipated bit of technological fluff I will book the day off work and head over to the Apple Store with tent, wine cooler and portable barbeque. Who needs Glastonbury?

By the way I did get an iPhone on launch day. On the way home from work I popped into a store that had no queue or activation problems and was out in 5 mins with a new iPhone…

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch SDK

At last, Apple has seen the light and allowed those grubby third party developers to produce apps for the iPhone and Touch. It is amazing that apps have already been available as developers have hacked the device – meanwhile poor Google has been desperately courting developers for its mobile platform Android.

Anyhoo, followed engadget’s live blogging of the event and I have to say that Apple seem to be doing this properly. The idea of accessing an app store via iTunes and directly on the iPhone is really cool. To be honest I am not comfortable with any joker being able to produce an app riddled with malware that could muck up my little iPod Touch. It is nice to know that Apple will keep an eye on things.

The apps displayed looked really good – especially the games such as Spore. It makes me wonder if Apple had this planned along or did they really intend to limit third party apps to those stupid web apps?

Right! List of apps that I want:

- London underground map that is searchable, scalable and shows disruptions when wifi or edge is available.
- Street Fighter III with transparent controls overlay and can connect to other iPod Touchs or iPhones using wifi for multiplayer punch ups.
- Wipe Out HD using the tilt sensor would be very nice
- Doodling app so I doodle when bored and then save these master pieces.

Thoughts on wish list for 1.1.4 iPod Touch Firmware

Steve Jobs promised us a developers for third party apps before the end of February and Apple seemes to like releasing items on a Tuesday so the money is on an SDK and new firmware arriving next Tuesday.

Dear Apple,

Here is what you should include in the 1.1.4. firmware for the iPod Touch:
1. cut and paste text feature - This can't be that hard to do for you brainy chappies at Apple.
2. flash support in browser - in case you hadn't noticed alot of the web is flash these days, web 2.0 and all that.
3. can we save stuff to iPod Touch please? like pictures, pdfs and videos - I don't want to download the same things all the time.
4. changeable backgrounds would be nice - black is a bit boring...
5. different themes - there are some good ones out there already. As shown on my youtube video when I jail broke my iPod for 24 hours to see what was out there (I completely restored it after because I could feel Apple lawyers flexing their pens and keyboards ready to strike down jail breakers)



That would be nice for 1.1.4. There will be another list for 2.0 (with difficult stuff - like completely changeable equaliser!)

Thoughts on death of HD-DVD

It appears Toshiba are close to admitting they have lost the high definition format war. This is a good thing (not just because I have a blu-ray Trojan horse PS3) because now consumers can stop worrying about which format to choose and we can begin high deffing everything. If we are lucky this will lead to greater public pressure for HD freeview as the joys of high def become more well known.

Although it is sad for Toshiba I hope that the industry learns as it did with VHS and BETAMAX that there will be a loser who will have wasted a lot of cash when there are rival formats. Maybe with next technological leap which will be super HD or even 3D the tech companies will work together for a common format. Hopefully this will prevent a load of consumers who are stuck with a losing technology…

…and a load of smug nerds who picked the winning one.

Thoughts on Pure Siesta

Finally got around to posting a video on YouTube of the Pure Siesta Radio Alarm clock I bought recently. I find it really useful to see videos of products in action before I buy them so whenever I can I post vids on YouTube.

Here is my Amazon review (that no-one found useful!)

"I originally bought the iDock by Pure as an alarm/DAB/ipod dock which is a good idea on paper but not so good in practice. The sound quality just wasn't good enough for a ipod dock and the unit was not exactly cheap. So I returned it and bought the Siesta instead. Despite being half the price and only having one speaker this has pretty similar sound quality to the iDock which excels at speech i.e. radio four et al but don't expect to use it for house parties or impressing audiophiles. That said I do find my self listening to it quite a lot. 

Good points 
- pleasant sound particularly good for speech but not obviously a hifi replacement 
- automatic set up: just plug it in, give it a minute and you are up and running 
- very simple to use in fact you can ignore the manual 
- DAB is well implemented and gives you lots to play with (it is great to come into a programme half way and see on the screen what it is all about) 
- a USB port means this is future proof so no need to worry when DAB changes 
- it is environmentally friendly using low power standby and recycled materials 
- the display is light sensitive and dims nicely when you turn off the lights 
- it is a really good looking, compact alarm clock that is the best looking I have seen 
- alarm functions are good but... 

Bad points 
- ...you can't set the station you want to wake up to. This means if you are listening to say Radio 3 in the evening but like to wake up to Radio 4 you need to remember to set the station. Whilst this isn't going to be a problem for most people it is frustrating not to have this option. However the unit can be upgraded by usb so if you do buy one please contact Pure and ask them to issue an update. 

In my opinion this is a great DAB alarm clock at a reasonable price. Having listened to quite a few Pure radios I recommend the Siesta over the iDock or the single speaker models as it has a very similar sound, smaller size and more reasonable price tag."

Who would have thought buying a radio alarm clock could be so complicated?

Thoughts on Play.com offering DRM free music

 Play.com have started a new music download service in the UK offering DRM free music. Being a frequent Play.com customer I headed on over to their website to see how things compared to iTunes. 

Good points:

- the music is good old MP3 format and therefore should play on almost anything

- the bitrate is glorious 320kps

- its encoded using the fantastic LAME encoder 

- no DRM!!! pay your money, download your music - no mucking around

- everything appears to be cheaper than iTunes 

Bad points

- only (!) a million tunes but more on the way...

- not as convenient as iTunes

Well done Play.com! that's how to run an online music store. From now on I will be checking Play.com before buying on iTunes.

Now lets see what Amazon has in store for the UK with their DRM free music store due later in the year. It seems the music industry is starting to understand what customers want and ready to provide.

Thoughts on Apple releasing a game console

Patent watching site Trademork has noticed that Apple has filed a patent to cover gaming systems. Some think that this means Apple is about challenge Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft with something like the iGame. Maybe, after all not many saw the iPod coming. Given that Apple doesn't exactly bend over backwards to ensure there are lots of games on the Mac I wouldn't expect a games console anytime soon.

Perhaps Apple is instead thinking about all those iPhones and iPod Touchs that have the capacity to run games. Nintendo has done amazingly well with all those DS touch screen handhelds surely the iPhone and iPod Touch could do something similar?

 

More thoughts on the N96

Looks like the N96 rumours were right. Here are the official pictures:

First impressions - seems to be a sleeker N95. The official pictures are sweet but come on Nokia, bring on the touch screen phone we are all waiting for...

Thoughts on being charged by Apple for iPod Touch Apps

When watching Macworld I was really pleased to see the 1.1.3 update for the iPod Touch with nice features such as the wobbly moving icons and being able to make web link icons. Then Steve announced that the iPhone apps would be available for the iPod Touch as well which includes the Mail app, Google maps and Notes. Great! 

....and they will be available for $19.99... The crowd which was happily cheering up to this point went quiet as they digested this little nugget. After announcing record profits, market share and general world domination Apple decided to fleece iPod Touch customers for apps that in many people's opinion should have been there in the first place?! Apparently there are accounting standards which mean Apple have to charge for this. Maybe so but I doubt $19.99 was laid down in the accounting guidelines. Also Apple conveniently forgot that the exchange rate at the moment is $2 to the UK pound and charged £12.99 instead of £9.99. Ouch - again! These aren't huge amounts of money but its the principle. In fact I emailed Steve about it because it makes Apple look like money grabbing weasels and we like to believe that they aren't. Still no reply...

Despite all this I bought the apps and they are great in fact so great that I now realise how useful an iPhone could be and when my current phone contract ends the iPhone is top of the list (unless of course Nokia can get their act together). If this had been a free upgrade almost all current iPod Touch owners would probably be thinking the same thing. hmmmmm

Thoughts on the Nokia N96

Apparently Nokia Germany accidently posted details of the N96 on their website: 

It looks real enough to me because if it was a fake it would look a lot better than this. Even though it is the next along from the N95 I don't believe this is the successor to the flagship N95. Instead it appears to be a refresh with the following features: 

• DVB-H digital TV 
  
• 3G HSDPA 
  
• 2.8 inch QVGA screen
  
• 16GB internal memory
  
• 5MP Camera
  
• 2nd VGA camera
  
• GPS
  
• Wi-fi
  
• Bluetooth
  
• FM radio
  
• music player
  
• video player, 
  
• and S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2

Not that exciting apart from the mobile tv feature which looks interesting. But the main thing is that this is not an iPhone challenger. There have been sketchy reports of Nokia working on new touch screen phones and I reckon that this summer we will see a real iPhone killer (I hate that term but thats what it is!) or to be precise N95 flagship replacement from Nokia. After all, those Fins have been making phones for a long time and they have the financial and technical muscle to produce something great. My guess is June 2008 for this based on a meeting a group of Fins from Nokia in a bar.

In the meantime Nokia if you are reading here are my dream specs:

- 7mp camera with a proper flash and face detection

- 30 fps HD video recording (this is possible!)

- touch screen and slide out proper keyboard 

- GPS with cell tower and wifi assist

- massively improved user interface with full integration across features (look at the iphone/ipod touch - thats how its done)

- waterproof - ok I am being greedy and i am not sure if this is even possible

Thoughts on the Macbook Air

I, like may others interested in what Steve Jobs was going to show us at Macworld, followed several websites that were blogging the key announcements with pictures as they happened.  It was nail biting stuff - "there are long queues" "We are waiting for Steve" "Some one coughs" etc. I appreciate detail but this was going too far...

Anyway after seeing the Air on a few sites I was confused that Apple had gone down this "World's thinnest laptop" road. It didn't make sense to put so much emphasis on being thin. When I am on my travels with my laptop the two aspects that are an issue are:

1. Weight - I used to have to carry around heavy laptops which isn't fun when you have walk around a transport system/major city.

2. Width - if I am in standard/coach class on a plane or a train many laptops are too wide to comfortably fit on my lap or crappy seat tray.

Thin never really crossed my mind. But then again the Macbook Air seems to be for people who travel first class and don't have to walk around much.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem if this super thinness didn't mean super sacrifices - 

- no dvd drive - so we have to buy an external drive which is a pain or hijack another computers drive. Not really convenient...

- no ethernet socket - I'm sure at some point everywhere will have wifi but that point isn't now. A lot of companies/universities invested in wired infrastructure and don't bother with wifi. But I could use a usb adaptor, which leads me to...

- one usb port?!! - this is madness especially when usb is required for a drive, ethernet port, memory stick, mouse etc

Well put simply, this isn't for me but I am sure there are lots of people out there who will love the MacBook Air. Those people will be wealthy early adopters who just want to upset their friends who bought the latest Sony Vaio. I think Apple missed a trick with the Air because it is aimed at the upper end of the market so it certainly won't be increasing market share. In the near future I will post what I would like from Apple in terms of a compact notebook computer and its quite different from the Air.

This all sounds negative and I should say that I think the Air looks great and will challenge other companies to innovate. Finally, Steve pulling the Macbook Air out of a manila envelope was a masterstroke.