iPhone 4

[toblix]

Also, an update on the antenna crap, now the rumor is they'll software patch it soon. If it really is the firmware bugging out when the impedance changes I guess it's fixable, but we'll see. Still amazed by Apple's annoyingly smug smugness.

[ThunderPeel2001]

http://www.tested.com/news/10-essential-android-apps-for-new-htc-incredible-owners/220/ may be some stuff which is good for you.

Ooh! FoxyRing! About time something like that existed.

[Thompson]

Ooh! FoxyRing! About time something like that existed.

I would never have thought of that.

Ever.

To my mind, the 5 best apps on iPhone (In no particular order) are:

AppBox Pro

Shazam Encore I can't find any ads in my version, take that into consideration with this review.

Gorillacam

Symbolism

geoDefense Swarm

[Erkki]

I find getting an iPad for the apps to be perfectly reasonable. The point of the apps is not always that they do something

you can't do with a PC, but rather that they let you do things without häving a PC around. There are several apps on the iPhone I find useful (regardless of if they are built in or not) but some might work better on iPads larger format:

iBooks - I didn't think it would be good to read books on the iPhones small screen but it is. Atbleast for short easily digestible books.

Clock/alarm/timer

Maps

Sleep cycle based alarm

Wikipedia/ other reference apps

Words with friends (ok it's a game)

Twitter

Calendar

Weather info

Soundhound

Skype (occasionally I need it when not near a computer)

Also, barcode scanners, not really that useful in estonia but maybe more in a larger country?

[James]

I would kill a puppy for Locale on the iPhone.

I don't pay for apps, as I haven't found any that useful to me yet, but I did seriously consider Locale. Then I saw people complaining in the comments that it didn't work properly, so I didn't bother.

My most-used non-included-as-standard app is Listen, which is a fantastic podcast manager. You can set it to download podcasts automatically, specifying whether you want the phone to be on wireless or plugged in when it does so, to manage data and power consumption respectively. When American podcasts go online overnight they're waiting for me on my phone in the morning, without me having to involve a computer in the process at all. Now, the app is by Google, so it's not representative of the quality of apps in general. Still, it's very handy.

After that my most-used app is probably Movies, which unsurprisingly displays showing times for your favourite cinemas. It's information you could find online, but it keeps track of your favourite cinemas, finds ones near your current location, is mobile-display-friendly, shows Rotten Tomatoes ratings (not that you should pay much attention to those), and so on.

Then there's stuff like Shazam, which will try to look up music picked up by the microphone, and AR stuff like Layar and Google Goggles, which overlay local information on the camera. I don't use them much, but theoretically they could be quite handy. There's e-book apps and web comic aggregators and of course a billion Twitter and chat clients. Then there are replacements for the default software. Opera Mini is good if you're trying to save bandwidth (this is available on non-smart phones, however), and Dolphin and Firefox have different takes on things like tabs, I believe. Swype takes a different approach to software keyboards, and there are plenty of more conservative alternatives.

Of course, none of this is essential, and perhaps none of it appeals to you. But lots of people live quite happily without a mobile phone at all, so it doesn't really mean a great deal.

I'd agree that apps probably aren't as world-changing as some would have you believe, but I find some use in them.

EDIT: I had an idea similar to FoxyRing, except it would be to regulate the volume of their car stereo. I find people turn their stereos up when they're on the motorway to hear it over the engine and road and everything, and forget they've done so, and get a bit of a shock when they next get in their car. Perhaps that would become less relevant as cars get quieter, though.

Edited June 28, 2010 by JamesM

[elmuerte]

as someone who has an iPhone and an Android I can tell you the applications are more or less of equal crappiness. Although the iPhone applications often have more attention to eyecandy and the Android applications give more attention to functionality.

[ThunderPeel2001]

EDIT: I had an idea similar to FoxyRing, except it would be to regulate the volume of their car stereo. I find people turn their stereos up when they're on the motorway to hear it over the engine and road and everything, and forget they've done so, and get a bit of a shock when they next get in their car. Perhaps that would become less relevant as cars get quieter, though.

They actually already have that in some posh cars.

Now if only T-Mobile wasn't so incredibly crap as to block my access to the Android store, I'd bloody well download Foxyring. Argh.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Also, an update on the antenna crap, now the rumor is they'll software patch it soon. If it really is the firmware bugging out when the impedance changes I guess it's fixable, but we'll see. Still amazed by Apple's annoyingly smug smugness.

I love this...

There is no reception issue. Stay Tuned.

It’s a pretty safe assumption that if you’re reading this blog, you’ve seen “The Matrix.” And you may or may not remember the scene where a kid explains to Neo that the trick to bending a spoon with your mind is simply to remember that, “There is no spoon.”

So it is with marketing. One thing I learned very early in life, thanks to intentional overuse of psychedelic drugs, is that there is no reality. As a guy at the commune once put it: “The reality is, there is no reality.”

So some guy says his iPhone 4 is having reception issues. I say there is no reception issue. Now it’s his reality against my reality. Which one of us is living in the real reality?

There’s a two-part answer: 1, there is no real reality, and 2, it doesn’t matter.

The only thing that matters is which reality our customers will choose to adopt as their own.

Of course most people would rather live in a reality where everything works and there are no problems. And now, thanks to me, that reality exists. Because I’ve created that reality for them.

Probably the biggest thing I’ve taught the team at Apple is that people never know what they’re supposed to think about anything. This is true in Hollywood, in the book business, in the art world, in politics. And especially in technology.

So we put out a new phone and everyone is sitting there wondering what they should think about it. What I realized many years ago — and honestly, it still amazes me — is that most people are so unsure of themselves that they will think whatever we tell them to think.

So we tell people that this new phone is not just an incremental upgrade, but rather is the biggest breakthrough since the original iPhone in 2007. We say it’s incredible, amazing, awesome, mind-blowing, overwhelming, magical, revolutionary. We use these words over and over.

It’s all patently ridiculous, of course. But people believe it.

We demo FaceTime, and we say that nobody in the world has ever seen anything like this before. Jonny and I act stunned and gob-smacked, as if we ourselves still can’t believe that we’ve just invented video chat.

Again, this is utterly untrue, a total and absolute lie. But people accept it. They hoot and cheer for us.

The other strategy we use comes from Zen Buddhism. You ever study Zen koans? Most of them make no sense at all. You read them and you go away feeling confused and stupid.

We do something similar. We call it “clouding.” Right now, for example, we’ve sent out the following messages about iPhone 4 and the antenna issues:

1. All mobile phones have this problem.

2. Our mobile phone does not have this problem.

You see how this works? These two statements cannot both be true.

Yet we’ve said both of them. And now you don’t know what to believe.

Ask any psychologist what happens to people when they get confused. Their heart rate goes up. Their skin temperature rises. Adrenaline starts to flow.

They feel desperate, and scared, as if they’ve fallen out of a boat and now they’re getting tossed by waves and they’re maybe going to drown.

Now all you have to do is reach out with some kind of certainty, and no matter how obviously untrue it might be, people will latch onto it.

Every religion in the world knows this, from the Catholics to the Scientologists. It’s the oldest trick in the book. You create some uncertainty, you put people at risk — you tell them they’re going to hell, or whatever — and then you hold out the answer.

No matter how ridiculous your answer may be — like, the one about the galactic ruler Xenu, or the one where God turns into a bird and flies down to earth and impregnates a virgin — people will accept it.

Not only that, they’ll actually thank you for feeding them this horseshit. Because any certainty, no matter how crazy, is better than uncertainty.

Which brings me back to iPhone 4 and the antenna issue. Right now you’re confused. You’re worried. You don’t know what to believe. You just wish someone would come along and tell you that everything is squared away and there’s nothing to worry about.

Well, stay tuned for that. And remember: There is no spoon.

[James]

They actually already have that in some posh cars.

Evidently I don't travel in or know anything about posh cars.

Now if only T-Mobile wasn't so incredibly crap as to block my access to the Android store, I'd bloody well download Foxyring. Argh.

Is that the general content block, or are they really awful enough to specifically block the Android market? Are they trying to sell their own apps or something? Or are they just paranoid about people dicking around with their phones?

Actually, if it were the general content block, you should be able to get it on wi-fi. Also, you could just get the block lifted (although every time I do that I assume the person on the other end thinks I want to look up porn on my phone at the back of the bus or something).

[ThunderPeel2001]

Evidently I don't travel in or know anything about posh cars.

I know very little about posh cars, but I do remember travelling in one that had that feature (I was very impressed).

Is that the general content block, or are they really awful enough to specifically block the Android market? Are they trying to sell their own apps or something? Or are they just paranoid about people dicking around with their phones?

Actually, if it were the general content block, you should be able to get it on wi-fi. Also, you could just get the block lifted (although every time I do that I assume the person on the other end thinks I want to look up porn on my phone at the back of the bus or something).

It's just the general content block, as far as I'm aware. Actually my whole account is messed up... I can't even log into their site at the moment (or register for a new account). Also, connecting via WiFi doesn't seem to change my access... I still get the "T-Mobile Blocked Content" message. Very weird. Also, why do you have to keep calling them to unblock the content? I just want it permanently unlocked...

Edit: Woot. Looks like I've finally got it sorted. So strange, as I didn't have this problem when I first used it, but the helpful person on the other end of the phone has happily unblocked it for me. Or so they assure me, anyway.

Edited June 29, 2010 by ThunderPeel2001

[JonCole]

My most-used non-included-as-standard app is Listen, which is a fantastic podcast manager. You can set it to download podcasts automatically, specifying whether you want the phone to be on wireless or plugged in when it does so, to manage data and power consumption respectively. When American podcasts go online overnight they're waiting for me on my phone in the morning, without me having to involve a computer in the process at all. Now, the app is by Google, so it's not representative of the quality of apps in general. Still, it's very handy.

Apple is sorely in the past on this particular issue, especially since they really helped pioneer podcasts to their current state of popularity. The only useful app of this type that I've come by in the App Store is called RSS Player, which barely gets the job done. The whole "you can't duplicate official app functionality" clause of App Store approval completely stagnates interesting development on a lot of fronts like this.

[Scrobbs]

EDIT: I had an idea similar to FoxyRing, except it would be to regulate the volume of their car stereo. I find people turn their stereos up when they're on the motorway to hear it over the engine and road and everything, and forget they've done so, and get a bit of a shock when they next get in their car. Perhaps that would become less relevant as cars get quieter, though.

Mine does that. It's a golf, so not that posh. Top of the range one, but still a golf.

[James]

Also, why do you have to keep calling them to unblock the content? I just want it permanently unlocked...

I just meant every time I sign up to a network. So once for Vodafone, once for T-Mobile, then once for Vodafone again, except that time the first person didn't actually do anything, so I had to call them again.

Also, on the subject of apps streamlining website functionality, it's worth noting that Google may actually be shifting its favour towards web apps. They're working on introducing standards by which websites can interact with phone hardware like cameras and GPS, which may lead to a situation with very few local apps and more streamlined remote services. Of course, the effectiveness of that depends on one's Internet connection at the moment you want to use something, and whilst it's true that a large portion of local apps rely on remote data anyway, the experience is likely to be smoother and more reliable when it's not being rendered in-browser.

I may be misinterpreting or overstating Google's intentions -- in all likelihood it'll just be a concurrent channel -- but it seems reasonable to expect it to rise in prominence.

Re: No duplication of official Apple app functionality: That seems silly and regressive.

Re: Golf with contextual volume thing: I guess I just travel in the shittiest of cars. Well done car companies for implementing it, anyway.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Interesting stuff. It makes me think of something I read on TechCrunch today: YouTube discusses Flash vs HTML5 (apparently HTML5 does not really compare to Flash at all - which means (at least to me) that Apple's decision to ban Flash was more about a power-struggle than "saving battery power"). It's interesting to see where everything is going. It's quite an exciting time!

Also: Apple Is Looking For Eight Experienced Antenna Engineers

Eep. Are they trying to fix the iPhone4 or just trying to make sure it doesn't happen again?

[Nappi]

(apparently HTML5 does not really compare to Flash at all - which means (at least to me) that Apple's decision to ban Flash was more about a power-struggle than "saving battery power").

I have no idea what the actual reason behind Apple's decision to ban Flash is, but Flash is still quite a resource hog and the article you linked to doesn't seem to deny (nor confirm) that.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I have no idea what the actual reason behind Apple's decision to ban Flash is, but Flash is still quite a resource hog and the article you linked to doesn't seem to deny (nor confirm) that.

Really? Compared to decoding a video, I can't imagine it would add that much.

[Erkki]

Perhaps the iPhones decode video in hardware? I'm asking, no idea. HTML5 is not comparable to Flash yes, but it does solve some of the same use cases. HTML5 + JavaScript might be comparable to Flash though? I never made anything in Flash, but isn't the language basically the same as JavaScript?

[James]

ActionScript and JavaScript are from the same family, yeah.

[toblix]

It's going to be quite a while before there's a framework that lets you do with javascript and HTML5 the same things you can do easily in Flash today.

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's going to be quite a while before there's a framework that lets you do with javascript and HTML5 the same things you can do easily in Flash today.

Yep, and Flash offers exactly the same experience to all users, whereas HTML5 + Javascript is a complete pain in the ass to get working precisely as you like in all browsers.

(Note: As I understand it, HTML5 isn't really anything without Javascript, it just adds more objects to the DOM that can be manipulated with things like Javascript. By itself, it's not special.)

[toblix]

Yep, and Flash offers exactly the same experience to all users, whereas HTML5 + Javascript is a complete pain in the ass to get working precisely as you like in all browsers.

(Note: As I understand it, HTML5 isn't really anything without Javascript, it just adds more objects to the DOM that can be manipulated with things like Javascript. By itself, it's not special.)

No, there's quite a few new things that aren't tied to or need javascript.

[Scrobbs]

Phoned O2 on the off chance, they said ok. Carried over the 30% discount, said it'd be here monday. Text arrived, should be with me tomorrow. Guess I'll tell ya about the antenna in a bit.

[ThunderPeel2001]

No, there's quite a few new things that aren't tied to or need javascript.

Must you tantalize?

Edit: I can't find anything. Can you explain further? It seems so hard just to get a boiled down version of the precise changes in HTML5, that doesn't get all excited about being able to add a video tag or get bogged down in endless specifics.

Anyone know of a good, easy to read, breakdown of what HTML5 actually is capable of? And what it really means in a practical sense?

Thanks.

Edited July 2, 2010 by ThunderPeel2001

[toblix]

In a cabin. Have to be brief. All new markup. Check wikipedia for list of differences.

[Nappi]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/07/02appleletter.html

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.