I have now had a month to have a play with the iPhone and I suppose I should consider myself lucky to have one as 2 other people in the office are still waiting on theirs. All the problems that initially plagued the phone are now solved, the camera is now working well (although that’s thanks to me, not Apple) and the reception issues have been solved with a case. I initially did not want to use a case, but after holding the phone, it becomes apparent just how much more fragile this one is than the previous versions, so a case is a must.

The first thing I must comment on is the screen….I have never seen anything like it, it makes everything look unbelievably better, and is at the point where my eyes cannot distinguish individual pixels anymore. The new backlighting technology makes everything (especially video) look much better, with proper black showing and colours much more true.

The camera takes much better photos and videos, but I am not much of an expert on the subject, so I don’t know how much better though. What I do like is using iMovie on the phone….with a few clicks you can make a pretty cool little video, complete with titles and sound effects. I am yet to make a facetime call as I am the only person I know with the new phone, so I cannot comment on it’s quality.

I am sure there has been a speed increase on the phone, but my 3gs never seemed to have a problem, so I am not sure how much it has improved. I do like the inclusion of a gyroscope so you can turn the screen with your body and it will register, this is especially useful in Google maps. The inclusion of a second microphone for noise cancellation is most apparent using the speakerphone as voices are much clearer without crackling. The battery is now 40% bigger and it really shows….I use the phone quite frequently and the battery lasts for much longer than the 3gs battery.

If you currently have an iPhone 3g, I would definitely recommend upgrading to the 4g (especially if you are using the 4g firmware, which has been causing serious issues in the 3g iPhone). If you have an iPhone 3gs and are not out of contract, you could probably hold out until the next iPhone as it has been rumored to have moved up it’s release to the start of 2011…although there are a few new features on the iPhone 4g it would not be enough to warrant spending another $1100 to buy the phone outright.

Additional – I will just say that I am enjoying showing the phone off around the office while I am still the only person with the one.

Chris Thursfield

First some news: Last month there were a few changes made to the Millennium Copyright Act which is basically a blanket law for digital copyright making it illegal to crack DRM for digital media (DRM or Digital Rights Management is the access control used to impose limitations on digital media and devices). What this change means is that ‘Jailbreaking’ or unlocking your iPhone is now a legal process (don’t misunderstand, this will still void your warranty with Apple), but this will open the way for businesses to offer an unlocking service for a price….just be careful not to pay a huge amount to anyone for what is essentially a 5 min process and is definitely something anyone can do with a bit of googling. You may also rip your own DVD’s to any device you own. More info on the other changes can be found here:Gizmodo

On to the phone itself. Unfortunately all I have is negative comments about my initial experience with the phone as well as Apple themselves. To begin with I was not willing to line up at midnight for an iPhone so I had to wait an extra week for the phone, which is sort of understandable, but you would think Apple, having released the phone in the US a month before, would have had ample time to regenerate stock….some reports saying Australia only received 12,000 – 13,000 units and wait times of up to 4 weeks. When the phone arrived everything worked except the camera….the app would open but the shutter would stay closed. After some googling I discovered there were many people with the same problem, but there was no answer….frustrated I called Apple directly and was put onto customer support in a galaxy far far away, where he said “have you tried turning it off and on again” (it would have been funnier with an Irish accent like Roy from the IT Crowd) and then instructed me to try a system restore, both of which I had already performed…I ended the call there as it became apparent that he would be of little more help. I then proceeded to call Apple stores near my location in Caulfield and was told by 3 separate companies that I would need to go to the Chadstone store’s “genius bar” to have it repaired (I was trying to avoid Chadstone if I could), Ok I thought, I will ring up and see when they could fit me in today, after dialing the number and navigating through the robotic tree of confusion (phone menu system) I was told that they do not accept reservations over the phone and bookings need to be made online. After slamming the phone down and shouting a few words that I cannot repeat here, I checked the website for a suitable time and saw a slot that I could make it to….just when my anger was subsiding I noticed that the time was not for today or even tomorrow, but a week away and this was the only 1 of 4 slots they had available….this is where I gave up.

Here is the bottom line….IF YOU ARE GOING TO SELL A PRODUCT, HAVE CUSTOMER SERVICE TO BACK IT UP!

I now have a phone that is only half functional as the main features: 5mpx camera, facetime chatting, 720p video and camera flash are now useless. I am and have always been a PC person, and lately Apple has been looking very tempting, with the ability to run windows, lack of viruses, very sleek UI and a phone and tablet PC that beats every other competitor out there….but with service like that I will definitely be remaining a PC person for the time being.

*UPDATE: it has now been a few days since I wrote this article and after a couple of ‘non-standard’ restores and a wee bit of jailbreaking I have managed to get the camera to function (most of the time), something I should not have had to do. I would like to now say what I think about the phone but I have run out of space…..SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO APPLE!

Next month I will do a proper review when I have had a bit more time with it.

Chris Thursfield

Last month was a fairly busy month for Apple….the new iPad started shipping in the U.S., they announced the new iPhone operating system and their new prototype iPhone 4G was left in a California bar by one of Apples software engineers and was subsequently leaked onto the internet by Gizmodo.com

iPhone OS 4.0

The new iPhone OS is going to add many features that users have been asking for…as outlined in their press event, these are the 7 main features or “tentpoles” as they are calling it:

• Multitasking – The ability to run multiple apps simultaneously…they have done this in quite a clever way to help save battery life and performance
• Folders – You will be able to create folders to store apps, meaning a more organised interface and allowing users to go from having a maximum of 180 apps to 2160
• Enhanced Mail – Allowing you to have one unified inbox for all your email addresses and the ability to have more than one exchange account as well as organizing mail by thread and open mail attachments in other apps
• iBooks – The same bookstore as the iPad now has, will allow you to download and read books on your phone
• Enterprise – More business features including: Better data protection, wireless app distribution, SSL VPN and support for exchange 2010
• Gamecenter – Similar to Xbox live, this service will match up gamers to play against each other and give achievements for achieving certain tasks within games
• iAd – an interactive ad service that will allow better advertising within apps, allowing developers to keep their apps free

This new software should launch at the same time the new iPhone comes out which is usually mid year for Australia.

iPhone 4g

The iPhone 4g is the newest in the yearly iPhone refresh….and although it hasn’t officially been announced by Apple, it has spread like a virus over the internet since one of Apples engineers left it sitting in a bar in California, where it was picked up by someone and sold to the technology website – Gizmodo. The phone was remotely wiped almost immediately after it was reported lost, so the software side remains a mystery, but these are some of the new hardware specs:

The new iPhone should be announced by mid year and be available by Q3 this year

Having the prototype iPhone has actually turned out quite badly for Jason Chen – a writer for the Gizmodo website…as I was writing this article, police raided his home and seized various documents and his computers. Gizmodo are talking to Lawyers about how they can get their goods back as it now seems like the warrant they used was invalid….more info can be found about the raid here: news.com.au

And more info on the phone itself can be found at Gizmodo

P.S. – An update to my September 2009 article on Augmented Reality – I spotted this the other day at Gizmodo…

It is the best use of Augmented reality I have seen yet!

Chris Thursfield