iPhone 4 Haters Are Idiots

Hi,

I was not planning on posting today but I was having a conversation with my parents that got me very angry. They were saying how they had read numerous articles bashing the iPhone 4's antenna issues and would never buy one now. I am sure there is no need for me to tell you how incredibly awesome the iPhone 4 is, so I am going to focus on the antenna issue.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but firstly: EVERY CELL PHONE EVER MADE HAS A DEATH SPOT. That is, a place where, when you touch it, the signal drops significantly. For my iPhone 3G, it is the bottom right-hand corner - meaning when I hold it, the signal drops in the EXACT SAME WAY THE iPHONE 4 DOES. So this issue really is widely spread. Why is everyone making such a big deal over this? One reason - the spot is marked. People can see directly where the spot is and therefore make a big deal out of it. It is ridiculous.

So, although there is no actual problem with the world's greatest phone, Apple has provided 2 fixes. Firstly, they fixed a software issue whereby the bars were displayed incorrectly. Secondly, Apple is providing a free case to everyone who bought the phone. Not just the Bumper because they said they can't create 3 million of them. They are providing a selection cases from other companies as well. What can I say. THEY ARE AWESOME!!!

So there you have it. The iPhone 4 has no problems. I am definitely going to buy it. On that subject, it has been confirmed to be coming out on the 30th of July.

I hope the media did not throw your mind.
AndrewCow

MobileMe is useless - Part 1

Hi
Many of you may know of Apple's MobileMe service. It has many features such as bookmark syncing, calendar syncing, online space and finding your lost iPhone. Now a MobileMe subscription costs around AU$119. It is completely ridiculous as I have found a way to easily get almost every feature for free and the few that cost, very cheaply.


iPhone Syncing


This feature is very easy. The first step is to make a Gmail account.


Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Add Account...>Microsoft Exchange
Then just plug in your email address and password. Your can ignore the domain. On the next screen, input the following settings:


Server: m.google.com
Domain: Leave this blank
Username: your email address


Then ensure Mail, Contacts and Calendars are on. When you press Done, press Keep on my iPhone. This should sync all your contacts, emails and calander information to your iPhone. If it does not work, feel free to email me at ravingsoftechnogeek@gmail.com. Lastly, in your Gmail, go into settings and then to Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Go down to "2. When messages are accessed with POP" and set it to "keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox".




I will continue Mac syncing, Windows syncing and Find my iPhone in the next few posts.

Office 2010

Well I said I would do this review well over two months ago but finally here it is. Office 2010 was released the other day without anyone really noticing. I had already made this video before it was released but I had some encoding troubles. The clicking sounds are because I had the wrong setting on the screen recorder program and it was supposed to be in HD but something went wrong there as well. Oh well. The actual programs are wonderful - it is the best version of Office by a mile.

Enjoy

AndrewCow

Vuvuzela

Hi

     

I just had to post about this today because it is very funny and I did not know how long it would stay. 

Do you find something missing from your YouTube videos, something you have been hearing so much lately to live without it is a terrifying. Well, I'm sure most of you do not but oh well. YouTube has put a button in their player that allows you to play the joyful sound of the Vuvuzela behind, or more so on top of your videos. This feature is not in all videos, but here is an example. Now your life can be filled with annoying buzzing all day long:)

     

AndrewCow

   

iOS4

Hi
So iOS4 was released a couple of days ago and the new iPhone 4 is due to be released in less than 24 hours. Now I have installed in on my iPhone 3G and had a play with it on my friends 3Gs. The first thing that comes to mind is how stupidly difficult it is to install. Now I know come people were fine and had it installed straight away but I had many issues installing it. Firstly, my phone had to go through a three hour backup before installing even though I had just backed it up 3 minutes before hand? There was no way to stop this and the disappointments
 just kept on coming. After around 4 hours of installing, I finally got to the sync stage. This is where the major stuff up occurred.

So it tried to restore it to the 3 hour long backup and just couldn't. Error message after error message spewed out at me until I finally tried to sync it without restoring my original settings whereby my iPhone decided to think it did not have a SIM card. I took out and replaced the SIM card about 5 times and my phone decided it had a SIM card but the computer it was connected to decided to completely ignore it and refuse to Sync. So I took it over to a different computer which made my iPhone very angry and phone decided it did not have a SIM card after all. By the way I think I should mention at this point iOS4 still has not been installed. It was demanding I reconnect it to iTunes and do it again. So back to the other computer (which was a Mac which probably helped), I took out the SIM card once more and low and behold it actually decides to recognize it. So I managed to install iOS4 in the phone on that computer and then Sync it with my other computer finally.

So now I have it there are some things I am happy and sad about. Well actually many things I am sad about. Apple said there were a few features it had to leave out of the 3G version. I think my a few they mean almost every one. It does not support multitasking (which I already knew) , home screen wallpapers, accessibility options or screen orientation lock. I was so excited when they announced orientation lock as I have wanted it ever since I got my phone but nope:(.

Oh well. There were some things I did like such as iBooks, Spell Check(very useful for me), and Folders. iBooks is a very nice app but a very slow. When you eventually get to one of the many free books, the reading experience is very nice when put in low brightness and Sepia mode, which makes the background brown instead of white. It often will not connect to the iBooks store for no particular reason but that hopefully will be fixed soon. Spell Check is useful bit a bit hard to use at first. I eventually got use to it but the many combinations of tapping used for select, copy, paste and replace make using feature a challenge. Folders are very easy to use as all you need to do is drag one app on top of the other and you have it but with my 130 apps the fact you can only have 12 per folder is annoying.

Now most of these features worked far better on the 3GS I used but the owner complained about the annoyance of having to stop your apps as they all go into the Multitasking menu. The system Apple implemented for stopping these apps is slow and unnatural. They make you hold to app down for a couple of seconds before closing them which can get frustrating if there are 12 apps open. The switching between these apps is seamless though and very fast.

So it is probably he fact this OS was not really made for the 3G that frustrates me so but the upgrade is mostly excellent on the 3GS.

Thanks for reading
AndrewCow

p.s. I actually have made the Office 2010 review and seeing the retail version was released with out anyone noticing I will post that tomorrow but be warned it is not very good.

PORTAL 2

I will not even bother trying to put in words the awesome of the greatest game ever created. Just watch.
AndrewCow

New Tech of E3 and Apple!!!

Hi

Well the first day of E3, the internationally renown gaming expo, has been full of major releases and announcements. Not all of these have come from E3 however - Apple, being the company they are, could never have a day of major announcements without one of their own. Not only did iPhone 4 pre-ordering start for countries were the device will be released on the 24th, the company released an update to the Mac Mini. The ultra small computer not only has a uni-body shell similar to the MacBook Pro, but also HDMI output and a SD card slot. I really like this upgrade as I have always wanted one - but not even more as Apple is exhausting its abilities as a media center device.

Microsoft finally fully unveiled their "Project Natal" device, dubbed the Kinect. This XBOX 360 add-on allows you to control games with motions, but unlike the Wii, it does not require a controller. This seems like another face palm for me. This device seems strikingly similar to the old EyeToy for the PS2 or Playstation Eye for PS3. The XBOX even had a version of these called XBOX live vision. All three devices sort of.....well...failed miserably. I seriously do not know why Microsoft thinks a better version of this 1999 technology will sell. There will be tonnes of people buying it in the beginning, but only because of media. Well at least that is what I think.

This device should be released in the US in November and has no price yet.

A motion sensor device for the PS3 is also in the works, although it uses a rather suggestive looking controller(the bottom pic). The Wii is a pretty awesome console and for so cheap its great but by the looks of it, Sony and Microsoft are trying to annihilate it.

Lastly....NEW XBOX !!!!! No, it is not the ridiculously named XBOX 720, it is still called the XBOX 360. The thinner version of the 360 has had a visual redesign as well as included Wifi (such a new concept). Personally I think too little (hardware wise) too late and.....it's sorta ugly....

It will be sold for $500 from July 1 in Australia.

Till next time :)
AndrewCow