White iPhone

Hey
So you may wonder what ever happened to the white iPhone 4. There are pictures of it sitting there in all its awesomeness on the apple website, but when you go and order it, you get a message like the one shown below. Now Apple has been very quiet about this but the never ending leaks on the product continue. Maybe Apple should use the money the gained from firing their head of engineering over the "Antennagate" scandal to hire a plumber.

Apparently (i have noticed I am starting to use this word a lot) they are finding it very hard to stop the screen's back light shining through the front panel of the phone. You may not really get what I mean but if you have ever seen a MacBook, you would. In the laptop's case, Apple utilizes the back light as not only a....well....back light, but also to light the Apple logo on the reverse side of the screen. In the case of the iPhone 4, this would cause the phone to glow like a Christmas tree.

The interesting thing about this reason is that functional white iPhone 4s do exist. Apple some employees have been given them. Most likely, these are hand made devices built at the headquarters in California. In silicone valley, not suicide valley(if you did not get that joke, the company that makes the iPhone, Foxconn, has had 13 suicide attempts in five months). But I digress with my tasteless jokes. Basically, there must be some way to make the phones not bleed light, because Apple is doing it. I'm guessing though there is something expensive about it that is not feasible in mass production.

Another theory states, this delay is just so they have time to re-engineer the antenna. Apple has really not had luck with this product launch. Not only was there is delay in white iPhone, but also reported problems with a batch of phones proximity sensor(the thing that makes the screen turn off when it is close to your face) as well as the terrible lagging experienced by users of iOS4 on the original 3G...like me....

In any case, I will have my iPhone 4 soon and then be happy. I have already ordered some really cool cases and I recommend you check them out HERE. They are truly amazing unique things.

Thanks for reading:)
AndrewCow

MobileMe is useless - Part 2

Hi

So the other day I posted on how you can sync all your calendars, contacts and emails between your iPhone. Today I will tell you how to get other MobileMe features including Find My iPhone, bookmark syncing, online storage and online photo albums. Now all this may seem like it would be easier to have all in one place but once you get to using it, it is very simple.

Find My iPhone
This feature allows you to find your phone anywhere in the world via GPS. It displays your information on an online map, allowing you to find it if it has been stolen. Another thing it allows you to do is send a message to your phone and make it ring, even if it is on silent mode.

There are numerous apps that let you do this. One I found is called FoneHome. It allows you to find your phone online and send messages to it in the exact same way MobileMe does. Although it does not let you send that sound, for $2.50, it is much cheaper than over $100. This is also the only part of my MobileMe guide you have to pay for. I recommend you keep it running in the multitasking background otherwise its a bit pointless

Bookmark Syncing
Now there are a couple of ways to do this. The first one is to do it when you sync. This, however, is not always the most convenient. The easiest one would be to use an app called Firefox Home. It allows users to not only view Firefox bookmarks but also see the tabs you have open. The feature in Firefox also allows users to sync their bookmarks and tabs between computers.

Online Storage
One major part of MobileMe is its easy online storage. Now, although this is done well. I have found somewhere that does it much much better, and for free. It is called Dropbox and off the bat gives you 2GB of online storage but very easily, can get you up to 8GB. Now this is all for free and I just love it. It puts a folder on your desktop for easy drag and drop access for PCs, Macs, AND iPhone :) Click here for an account. I highly recommend it: )

Online Photo Albums
This is a little bit of a strange feature but I thought I would cover it anyway. There are millions of ways to do this for free. Whether you use Photobucket, Flickr, image shack or even Facebook, they all would great. If you want something more in-dept with more features, Picassa by Google is great. It has an iPhone specific web app that is great.

So thats about it. MobileMe is useless.
AndrewCow

iPhone 4

Ravings of a Technogeek - every Monday, Wednesday and Friday......usually....except for 2 weeks when I am incredibly busy. I thought I should probably post about about the sexiest thing ever to come to the earth. I have included a photo of the past sexiest thing on the planet (Megan Fox) for comparison.


So, you have probably guessed, at 3am this morning, Apple started their press conference and released their latest iPhone - the iPhone 4. It turns out this was exactly the phone that was leaked, except this one seems really really really pretty. So apart from changing the looks, there are over 100 changes on the inside. I don't know all of them for sure, but Steve went through the main ones. 


Firstly, it has the A4 chip, like the one in the iPad. This makes it very very very fast. They also managed to shrink everything so they could grow the battery. I'm very happy about this. I never really had a problem with my 3G's battery but .....faster.....longer battery ...what could be bad???


Another thing displayed and I think is AWESOME is the 4's ability to record 720p HD video. With its new 5mp camera it can take excellent pictures and its LED Flash (which can stay on while videoing), those pictures can be taken in the dark. Now you might think, as I did at first 'pfffft 5mp, thats nothing' well Apple has dished out some of their trademark jargon to convince us that 5mp is plenty. For once, it actually makes sense. You see.....I don't really understand it. It is something to do with the number of photons in each pixel...which sounds right... OH WELL :) 


One of the reasons the iPhone 4 looks so brilliant is because of its display. Apple has implemented something called Retina Display Technology. What this means (I think) that, although the screen is only 640p, it has much smaller pixels. Text, photos, basically any curved lines are now much much smoother because there are more pixels making them up. I hope that whole bit actually made sense.


I could ramble on for hours about the 4's dual mics for noise cancellation, or the iMovie application making 720p movie editing being just one tap away, but I do not want to. There are, however, three more things I would like to focus on.


 Firstly, Apple is trying to make a case, and it actually looks pretty good. It can be seen below and it is called the "Bumper". This is because it is more like a silicone, well...bumper bar, that fits around the aluminium edge of the phone, leaving the glass back and front exposed. You might be thinking. 'Great. Now I have two places to shatter my phone' but you would be wrong. Firstly, Apple has developed a glass that is apparently, stronger than plastic and sapphires. Secondly, the "Bumper" extends from the phone, like a regular case, meaning if you drop it, the case will hit the ground first. 


Very quickly, it now has a gyroscope. This means it can sense movement as you turn, jump or be doing similar things to the accelerometer, but on more scales.


Lastly, the front facing camera wound have no point without video calling. FaceTime is a service built into the phone application that allows for excellent quality video calls. Unfortunately though, only between the iPhone 4s and, for the mean time, only over WiFi. This is quite surprising to me that they did not integrate iChat and allow it to talk to computers. I'm almost positive though Skype will be able to call to computers, be it a Mac  or PC. What they are doing however, is attempting to make their way of doing video calling (e.g. codecs) universal, which means, someday, you might be able to call between iPhone 4s and HTC phones, or Nokias. 


So there is much more I could say, but I will let the professionals say it for me. For way, way, way more information and videos, go HERE. This phone should be available in the US on June 24th, along with the renamed iOS 4 on June 21, free to all devices excluding the original iPhone and the 1st gen touch. The phone should be available in Australia some time in July. I will definitely be getting one and I will do a full review of it then. 


Till next time,
AndrewCow


P.S. the Word 2010 video should be up this weekend:)

iPad Envy

Hi

There is a delay on the Microsoft 2010 review because I keep recording the video and stupid Camtasia comes up with brand new errors for me:(

Instead I will recap my thoughts on the iPad, seeing it came out today internationally. Firstly, I would like to tell you a story. I was coming home on the train today, just like a nice little non-car using person, and what do I see but my first iPad......well not exactly. It was in its box...in a JB Hi-Fi bag, seeing it was just bought, but oh well, it is the closest I have ever been. As I surreptitiously subtly peered over the crowd in an attempt to confirm my suspicion that the box in the bag had the magical little silver apple, a feeling of complete envy overtook me. It was all I could do to stop myself from snatching the bag from her blotchy little hand and running. I had been had. At that moment, I realised with dispair Apple had infected me. It was an iPad but why was I so eager to have it. I have an iPhone. An iPad is just that crossed with a kindle.

I'm actually having to think about this very hard. Why do I want an iPad? Well firstly, I'm a geek - so for show. That is the main reason. I have said this once before and I will say it again - Steve Jobs is anal. All Apple products must be perfect (in his eyes at least). I think these crazy tendencies are a major part of what appeals to me. This sounds very strange but all Apple products are so soft, yet hard and sturdy, so clean, yet useful and fun. Although other products may be able to do so much more, such as the HP Slate(which may or may not be cancelled and may or may not be called the HP Hurricane), no other product can inspire that morale abolishing WANT that an Apple product can. The hunger for the cool aluminium and glass to be under my fingers. Paying any price, however many thousands of dollars it is only an act an Apple product can push upon me, and much of the rest of the world.

My final thoughts - Apple's combination of hardware, software; interface and design; materials and infrastructure elevates them above any other company when it comes to passion. That is really what it comes down to. Although an Apple product may not do everything, what it can do it does it magnificently and like not any other device conceivable. Even the haters can appreciate how the iPad is really the pinnacle of this. The pinnacle of Apple passion. Sure, I might not, but the first edition or even second but like all Apple products we can make do.

We can wait.

Reading this whole thing back to myself, it does not seem to make much sense. After all this, is the RAVINGS of a Technogeek. Because of this, I will summarise it:

I love all Apple products. Although they are not always the most technically advanced in their range, they exude passion and care. I guess that something resides somewhere in all of us and that is why we buy their products in numbers like no other.

Steve Jobs really summed up the words excitement when he launched the iPad back in January. He quoted an article from The Times if I remember correctly. It said "The last time people were so exited about a tablet, it had commandments written on it". In a way it does. After all it is an eBook reader :)

Thanks for holding on till the end :) A review of Word 2010 should by up by Monday.

AndrewCow

Another New iPhone 4G...Im not so sure

Ok. This one is a little weird. This story is a couple of weeks old this but I have been busy.
The story is that a Vietnamese man found another iPhone 4G. It looks the same as the one leaked by Gizmodo except it was partially active with some strange looking console (text sort of thing. I will not go into the details. Sort of like command prompt or CMD in windows) screen with the word "Inferno" up the top in big green letters.

Well the first thing that strikes me about this is at least the OS is fake. I'm not sure how it was done but Apple could never have designed it. My reasoning is that IT LOOKS UGLY. Apple would never design something that was green with red flames, even if it was a prototype. My guess is that this guy either stole one from the assembly line or that it is an actual Apple leak. Why I think it might be an Apple leak it that they are not going after it at all. This might be because the whole international thing can make legal proceedings very tricky but COME ON, Apple has some of the best lawyers in the world. They might not be pursuing it because they were the ones that put it out there or maybe because they can't be bothered. They figure the world has already seen it and CBF. I'm really not sure to be honest.

What has been almost confirmed though is that it has one of the new A4 chips. A 1GB iPhone...THAT'S CRAZY FAST. It might have less power. I don't really know. Only part of the serial number was the same as the iPad chips so who knows. This whole story is sooooo weird I don't think anyone really knows what to make of it, including me.

If you want any more information there is tonnes at  Gizmodo or cnet. Here is the specific Vietnam iPhone post

AndrewCow

Flash for iPhone = X(

Hi
Flash for iPhone is officially dead. As most of you know, the iPhone does not have flash because Apple will not let it. The other day, Adobe announced they would stop development on all flash products for iPhone which were being developed for some reason, I think Adobe was just ever hopeful. This includes this weird thing they make that converts flash applications to iPhone apps. In response to this, Apple released a letter basically saying why they think Flash sucks. You can go to the whole letter HERE but the main points are:

They say it is very closed(only available from Adobe)
------Nice one apple. Well I guess you are the experts on closed systems *cough* OSX *cough*
There are many alternatives to flash
------True True. I do like the idea of HTML5(will discuss some time later)
It is not reliable, it slows performance and there are security risks
------Ok that is 100% true but oh well it would well almost all the time
Decreases battery life
------Also true, but Apple, come on. We all know you could have done something to fix that just like multitasking
Flash is not designed for touch
------ADOBE MADE IT FOR TOUCH FOR THE iPHONE
Some crazy thing that makes no sense.....something about Apple not wanting to talk to other companies
------Thanks Apple...... you are so friendly and accepting as always

Ok well that's about it. Now I have some possible terrible news about the HP slate so that will probably be next time.

Bye

AndrewCow

NEW iPHONE (I love Gizmodo) - Part 1

Hi
You all have already probably heard this, but oh well, its just so funny. Now i'm not sure if this was a deliberate leak by Apple, but even if it was, I don't think they meant it to go this far.

You see what happened was a senior Apple software developer was seen at a bar somewhere around San Fransisco and when he left, a man(not named due to legal reasons) found what looked like an iPhone 3G/S on a stool. He called around to see if it belonged to anyone but no answer. That is when he took the phone off sleep and found many interesting things. Firstly, the senior software developers Facebook page was open. Secondly, the man realized the phone was running the new OS4. Unfortunately, he didn't think to explore many features because the next day, the phone had been deactivated using Apples MobileMe service.

It could not be restored as the firmware is device specific( the 4.0 firmware for the 3Gs will not run on it) so not much has emerged about the upcoming firmware update. The hardware though, it looks epic.

More on that on Friday
AndrewCow

Steve Jobs is crazy

Hi
My sister and I have a theory. Steve Jobs is crazy. Thats right. Completely nuts. Severe OCD to be precise. You see this in almost all of Apples products. For example the lack of any visible heating vent of any of their laptops. He was so obsessive it was to the determent of many of their products. Back to the heating vent example, the vent for the old iBooks was under the keyboard so when doing a high resource activity on the laptop, you fingers would blister and fall off. Just thank god the laptop was not metal.

Now anybody could see this, all the perfectly clean, flat surfaces in all their products show clearly they are run by a loony but nothing more than the Apple external mice. Now, you may expect me to mention something such as the lack of buttons but its a million times worse than that. Apple has gone out of their way to ensure that the batteries, which are put in side by side as expected, can be put in the same way round. Thats right, the revolutionary apple is helping us all be making sure we do not face the difficulties of rotating our hand. There is no logical reason for this, it just finalizes our theory.

Maybe Apple could produce some better products with out him, but they would be lost without the appeal he adds which gets them their OCD fanboys:)

AndrewCow

iPhone OS 4.0 - Part 2

So my take on iAds, changes to the photo app and all the other small changes in iPhone 4.0.

Firstly iAds. I do not have much to say. They look really cool. If you haven't seen them go HERE. Basically they are just a very advanced, interactive form of advertisement that i'm sure apple will charge a HUGE amount of money for and people will pay because the iPhone is more popular than Oxygen. They look sorta fun actually I think. Oh well, only time will tell.

NEXT other things. Changes to the photo app. FIrstly there is now facial recognition and events as well as a way to view geo tags on the phone(knows using the GPS the location of where the photo was taken). Also there is FINALLY a rotate button as well as albums, zoom ( FINALLY as well) and focus for the video camera. Before, you could focus in the video camera but only before you started recording so I presume this will be focusing while recording. Most of this stuff has been available on other phones for years so im very happy apple has finally got it, and in the classic apple manner, it looks kuch better than on any other previous phone.

Finally, other updates include a better mail system (I didn't see any thing wrong with the old one but oh well), bluetooth keyboard connectivity (means you could type on a wireless keyboard straight into your iPhone and some tweaks to the iPod functionality.

LASTLY:) the greatest feature ever to have existed is coming to the iPhone. If this had never been invented, i'm positive the world would be total chaos. YES I am talking about the technical wonder that is spell check.

And on that, to reference top gear, bombshell, I leave you
AndrewCow

p.s. feel free to follow my blog for all your technical needs:)
p.p.s oh yea my the way the MacBook/MacBook Pro range have finally been updated with better processors, better graphics and, because of the better processor, higher battery life.

iPad

OMG A VIDEO !!!! AND NOT ON A NORMAL SCHEDULE TIME!!!



Hope you like it:)
AndrewCow