* Posts by Andy 3

14 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jul 2009

Apple iPhone 5 review

Andy 3

Re: why did they move the headphone socket?

TBH when I'm holding my phone and put it back in my pocket it tends to go in upside down as this seems to be the most natural way. To put it in so that the phone is orientated "correctly" involves making a conscious decision and effort to do and not a "natural" way.

When you then reach into your pocket to take it out the upside down phone then comes out the right way up.

Maybe that's just me? Maybe that's the way the majority of people do it and so Apple went with that? Maybe they just needed to make more space at the top and it fitted easier at the bottom?

Oz regulator to Apple: Don’t call it 4G if you can’t connect

Andy 3

To be fair the iPads sold in Australia do have stickers on the boxes informing people that it can only operate at 3G speeds. Take a look at iFixit's picture from their teardown here:

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/Kdi1XOouIp1VDAoN.huge

For reference the full tear down is here: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-3-4G-Teardown/8277/1

This tear down was done on launch day so this is not a new thing. It's arguable whether the sticker is big enough etc I guess but if you look at the online Apple store for Australia there's not a big play on it being a 4G device. It generally talks about the wi-fi being fast and not so much the mobile data.

The Great Smartphone OS Shoot-out

Andy 3
Thumb Up

Great article; nice to see some simple comparisons focusing on the core setup of the phone.

As an iPhone user I'd add a couple of things which relate to some of the iOS functions mentioned in the article:

Safari

I agree that Safari doesn't have the reflow technology although it does now offer the "reader" button which renders all of the text and any accompanying photographs into nice large auto-flowed text whislt dropping out all of the adverts etc. Check out the non-mobile version of The Register and choose any article and then click "Reader" from the URL bar. The results are rather nice. Not quite as nice as it being done instantly in the case of the HTC though as it's another process to go through.

Alternatively sticking to the actual webpage Safari allows a double tap to the relevant area of text which automatically aligns the column to fit the screen. Again view a Register article (non mobile) and double tap the left-pane story colum or the right-pane advertisement column for it to auto fit.

Messaging

The seamless integration of iMessages into the messages app is nice. Thereby all text and iMessage conversations flow as one. iMessages being marked out in a blue speech bubble and SMS in green. iMessage is great to keep MMS costs down (at the expense of data) if you like to send lots of picture messages. Obviously you need an iOS 5 owning friend for this to work but its nice that you don't have to switch between apps or select the transmission method; iOS sends by whichever is applicable to that contact without any instruction or setup from the user.

Hands on with the Motorola Razr

Andy 3

But iPhone is the standard to beat. Motorola is a company; a company that makes to want a boat load of cash. They may say they are passionate about "geek stuff v1" and "sparkly geek feature v2" but at the end of the day they want to sell stuff. Same as Apple.

Whether you like iPhones is moot. They sell. They sell by the warehouse full. In some instances companies are copying their looks and supplying software and services to compete with the iPhone and iOS which is fine but they need to be better an iPhone. What does the 4S do worse on than the Razr? Motorola should be pushing these points and honing them to perfection.

Apple's success is good marketing, good looking products, and ensuring that the user experience is intuitive and nice. Customers want a nice easy to use device. They may not care that their iPhone doesn't support some function that only a fraction of geeks would use. Doing a core set of things well and slowly expanding seems to be Apple's methodology rather than just having every feature available but giving a poor experience.

Tesco's iPhone app gets barcode reader

Andy 3
Thumb Up

iPhone is the best choice

There seems to be lots of people complaining its not made for their model or brand of phone. The problem is that as much as you may not like it the iPhone is easy to develop for and has an instantly accessible user base with minimal support costs.

Java apps

1) You've managed to find some place to download your app. If you've downloaded it straight from your phone then you might be good to go - although I remember having a phone that didn't want apps downloaded directly to it and so you wither had to tweak some security settings or use the horribly written phone sync app provided by the phone manufacturer....

....assuming you've got this installed? Find the disc that came with the phone and/or toddle off to the manufacturer’s site. Play hunt the download for the version of software that supports your specific phone model. Does it support your version of Windows, Linux, OSX, whatever? Let's hope so!

....if there's no app then the phone might present itself as a drive in Windows and you can simply drag the app files into /usr/applications/installable/java/1.2.4/my.apps.phone/runtime/

2) OK you've installed your app. What screen res is your app going to be designed to run at? My experience in the past with Java apps has been that the app has been written with phone model 123a in mind but I have phone model 123. My screen res is lower and now the damn app doesn't fit on my screen with half the buttons off the bottom and side. Cue lots of confused and disappointed customers complaining to Tesco that their app is rubbish because it doesn't support their vintage 1995 PAYG phone.

3) Sorry the camera on your vintage phone is only a 0.5 MP. You need at least a 2 MP camera to scan the barcode. More confused and annoyed people.

Android Apps

1) Things seem to be much better, getting apps onto your phone is significantly easier.

2) However, there's still a problem with the large profusion of different hardware that makes development difficult and expensive. It also increases support costs. I think this is a major barrier for many companies and developers. Which configuration of hardware do you support? Will it be the right choice if manufacturers change the type of hardware they offer in the future?

iPhone apps

1) The massive advantage off developing for the iPhone is that the kit is standard. An app written for the iPhone will run on everyone's iPhone (and possibly iPad & iTouch too). There's no multitude of options to support.

2) The app store is easy to use. It's available on your phone. You search it and the app is downloaded and installed to your phone. Any updates to the app can be pushed out via the app store.

3) There's a large base of users ready to use your app. Apple customers seem to be more loyal and so if they're going to stick with their brand of phone they're likely to stick with your app for shopping at your store (or potentially buy more apps from you if you're a games developer etc).

4) Like it or not the iPhone has a 'coolness', desirability, whatever about it. Being brutally honest as good as the Android (and other) phones are they just don't seem to capture the public's imagination as much as iPhones do. Other brands and companies want to be seen to be in the crowd of 'cool' companies. The majority of the population (not computer or technology geeks) will have heard of an iPhone, seen one, or know someone with one. As for Android I imagine the number will be much smaller as the brand awareness, image, and marketing is much less.

Holiday snaps? Er, no - criminal porn

Andy 3

Re: Something rotten...

An insciption above the entrance to the Old Bailey reads:

“Defend the children of the poor and punish the wrongdoer.”

The police and justice system have not forgotten what they signed up for. Perhaps it is you that have forgotten right from wrong?

Gmail pushes onto the iPhone

Andy 3
Alert

Tweak the notification settings

You can always tone down the push notifications from the settings panel.

Each application can have its push settings tweaked to turn on/off:

* Alert - Message across screen

* Sound

* Badge - Small icon overlay over app icon

You could therefore have your Google app (for example) on your front page or the dock. Turn off the "alert" setting from the notifications. You'll know when you have new emails as the sound will pay and the badge will update to show the number of new emails.

Possibly the world's most pointless review

Andy 3
Happy

This is great fun!

I love writing pointless reviews. It's almost impossible to buy anything now without being asked to submit a review on it so I usually like to go a bit mental if the item's really mundane.

I think the most mundane item I was aksed to review was a plastic petrol where I waxed lyrical about how amazing it was but the review seems to have gone now :(

Debenhams wows shoppers with free delivery offer

Andy 3
FAIL

Not a new concept and actually really useful

Lots of shops with a physical prescence offer this type of service. It can actually be really useful.

Most people are away from their home at work during the day. Therefore any deliveries too large for the letterbox or requiring signing for are returned to the sorting office\courier depot\whatever. You then need to physically go to collect your delivery anyway. You've therefore paid for delivery and then potentially paid petrol\bus fare\whatever to go collect the wretched thing. A double cost.

If you get your item delivered to a store near where you work you can save yourself the delivery cost, hassle of collection from the sorting office, etc.

Near where I work there are several smaller branch stores. They don't carry the full range of products so I order it online and then go to the branch store to collect it. It means you get what you want without having to hope they have the model\colour\size\whatever you want.

Cops raid Gizmodo editor in pursuit of iPhone 4G 'felony'

Andy 3

Business Cards

The warrant isn't 100% explicit in the description of the business cards, but I can envisage several reasons why you would want to seize them:

Option 1) They may be owned by Chen, but may not be *his* business cards. They may be contacts that he has met (or corresponded with) who have given him their business cards. If the police wish to trace the source of the iPhone then these business cards provide a handy starting point for buliding a picture of potential suspects.

Option 2) The business cards are for Chen's business but perhaps they contain other details scrawled on them. For example, you meet someone that doesn't have a business card . You hand them one of yours for them to write their telephone number (or whatever) on the back of. Again potentially useful for establishing potential suspects.

iPhone 4.0: iAds, multitasking, and 98 tweaks

Andy 3

Calm down!

Ok people calm down and read the article:

1) Adverts exist in current free iPhone apps

2) Accessing these typically drops you out to Safari, loads up a URL and there's your advert

3) This ruins the seamlessness of the app & advert and means the user has to reload their app

So onto iAds...

1) Free apps now supported with iAds

2) Accessing iAd keeps you in the app. Shows you a whizzy HTML5 iAd. You interact/observe/ignore iAd and once you are done with it you close it and return to the app you were in previously.

3) iAds is not going to spam you with adverts everytime you phone your missus or read an email. Sending an SMS will not generate an iAd from the Royal Mail asking next time you need to write a message why not consider sending a letter.

Bottom line is nothing has really changed. The ads get to be a bit prettier and Apple get to take a percentage cut.

Adverts don't excite me but I understand the need for them. People have such a massive kneejerk response when they see the word "ad" that the ability to be reasonable seems to go out te window. The ability to read the article fully and comprehend what it is telling you also seems to disappear.

iPhone upgrades - a one-way control-freak street

Andy 3
Alert

Roll back to previous app version

It appears to be possible to roll back to a previous app version if you have the previous version synced in iTunes (ie your iPhone has not been synced since the upated app was installed)

1) Delete the offending new version of the app from the iPHone

2) Connect iPhone to iTunes

3) Sync applications

4) Old version back on iPhone

This has been necessary to do since the developer of the RedLaser app wrecked it with an update yesterday. The developer replaced useful search engines with one that appears to be less capable and offers erroneous results (particularly in the UK). Check out the App store's reviews and the developer's support forum since this update was released and you will see how annoyed people are with this update to a once great app.

You'll also see that many people have taken the steps above to get the old version of the app back

Flickr!: Now! with! added! Yahoo!

Andy 3
FAIL

Oh no the evil companies ruin everything it's soooo unfair

I love how people want everything and they want it free. Running Flickr doesn't come cheap and I expect Yahoo! would like to associate their name to it to help generate a free bit of advertising for their other services.

If you are all about the photography then surely it's the photographs that count and not the wretched site's logo.

I assume the camera you took these photograps with wasn't made by some global corporation who stuck their brand name all over it. If it was then they clearly don't care about the art of photography man. Some mega global corps are ok, but others aren't yeah?

Swedish devil girls fingered on Street View

Andy 3
Coat

Fake!

I'm calling "fake" on this one. If that was genuine Street View footage then those playmobil people would have had their faces blurred!