I have been able to update my iPod with the latest App for Facebook. It’s really nice and since leaving my blackberry behind I find this app even more intuitive to use than the the blackberry one.
I have not noticed any great new features but the layout is much nicer and what I want to happen does so more often than not.
Popularity: 8% [?]
As any of you regular FlipCurve visitors will know by now I rarely write on anything geeky, and stick to the safety of reviewing films… Unless of course the geeky subject involves the iPhone, and this will be no different.
What better way to review the WordPress app for iPhone 3GS, and 3G on the iPhone itself. Straight away I’m impressed that it has been programed to integrate the landscape QWERTY keyboard, it’s almost as easy as using your PC/Mac. I can certainly see why it would be useful to a regularly travelling blogger, something to do on those long commutes to work every morning (*coughs, Guy get an iPhone).
The format is simple, much like an email, you add a subject title chose a category and simply type your message….. Easy peasy. From the off I can’t see anything that can be improved, and haven’t used it enough to spot faults, so 10/10 so far.
Over time I’m sure I’ll be able to give more feedback, but initial impressions are pretty unbeatable and yes, I really did type this on my iPhone! Nice!
Popularity: 2% [?]
With all the latest gadget releases, it’s hard to believe sometimes how much they cost. A good example of this was Apple’s release of the iPhone 3GS to which AT&T had to come in and offer better upgrade plans or fear customer’s wrath. Without a contract, the latest development from Apple costed about $600. The cost of components to make? $179.16 according to market research firm, iSuppli. Factor in some labour costs and you still have to figure that Apple is making over 100% profit on each iPhone sold.
Of course, that might lead some Apple haters to cite how bad the Apple tax really is, but it’s becoming almost standard across the board. Consider that the Palm Pre only costs about $138 to make yet costs $200 (with $100 mail in rebate) and requires a service agreement with Sprint. I guess only Sprint knows how much Palm is getting per phone. Furthermore, the Blackberry Storm costs about $200 in parts, but is retailing for $500 without contract from Verizon Wireless. Even factoring a $100 per unit for R&D and labour still leaves a margin of 80% or so.
Truth be told, cell phones fall into a very unique market category. They are both viewed as essential and status symbols. If you want to surf the internet really well, then you pretty much have to buy a really expensive smartphone. Yet surfing the net on the go isn’t a luxury, it’s viewed as essential by many people. What I mean is that smartphones are not subject to the same market as say, Rolex. A cheap $20 watch can technically function just as well as a Rolex, although it won’t have the look or the status attached with it. Or consider the Amazon Kindle, which has a 100% margin but due to its non-essential status, has had less than stellar sales. In contrast, in the smartphone market, perhaps due to the large R&D, it’s almost essential to have a “Rolex” phone (Apple, Blackberry) if you want quality surfing (essential to many). Surfing-on-the-go is just one example of an essential service that smartphones provide, albeit internet anywhere is definitely one of the top desires.
The question remains though: does this trend continue upwards, or does it level off somewhere? Is double the manufacturing cost to be continuously expected for smartphones, or will we see a point where the technology as a whole has stabilized enough to allow prices to come down? Only time will tell, but it’ll be interesting to track margins in the coming years. After all, if Apple can release a best-selling iPhone with 100% margin on manufacturing costs in a recession, think of what they can do in boom times!
Inspiration: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/107263/consumer-electronics-teardowns.html
Popularity: 3% [?]
New tests are confirming what iPhone fans all across the world have known for quite sometime now – the iPhone 3GS is truly the best mobile gaming platform out there. Cheap and easily accessible games are now accompanied by some truly impressive hardware. Recently released OpenGL tests confirm that the 3GS obliterates the competition in the graphical arena. To give you a taste of the specs, the new iPhone could perform a linear texture filter test at 5,214 kTriangles/s whereas the original iPhone could only do 572 kTriangles/s and the venerable N95 could do 601 kTriangles/s.
Reports are also surfacing that the iPhone is only one of two consumer level phones that use the Cortex-A8 processor. Evidently, ARMs official specifications put it at over double the speed of the ARM11 – the processor used by the 3G. With regards to graphics, the new chipset is a version of the SGX which supports both shaders and OpenGL ES 2.0. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help much because the SGX has a wide lineup from the 520 model which is about 7x as powerful as the 3G to the 555 which has better specifications than the PSP. There have been conflicting reports recently although the general consensus seems to be that the new 3GS is using the SGX535, which can do 28 million polys/s, just 5 million shy of what the PSP can do.
That makes the iPhone one mean gaming machine that would appear to far excel any phone on the market, although the list of phones included in the benchmarking site is somewhat slim. Still, there’s no question about it in my mind: the iPhone is by far the best phone on the market if you want to play games. At this stage it’s a little bit like blending the PSP and a phone together which is a wicked combination for any avid gamer.
Check out the comparison here.
Popularity: 3% [?]
It looks like the iPhone is getting more and more valuable all the time. Beginning June 18, Major League Baseball in the US will be offering live streaming games over the little device using firmware 3.0’s new video streaming interface. The application has a one-time purchase fee of $9.99 and is currently offering two live games per day. By contrast, to get a complete month of streaming high definition games will cost you $19.95.
While MLB appears to be at the forefront of streaming their televised broadcasts, it truly makes me wonder if other professional sports organizations will follow suit soon. One has to remember that the quality of video that will be streamed to the iPhone won’t use too much bandwidth, so I suspect that $10 for the app probably still results in a loss on paper, but it’s a tremendous lead generator. Imagine all the people who will download the iPhone app, enjoy streaming games, and then think to themselves that they could sign up for the $20 per month subscription to get every game streaming anywhere there is an internet connection (including now tethering to the iPhone itself).
Other sports organizations have to see the potential in this, especially those that aren’t doing so well financially. MLS (Major League Soccer), for example, is presently offering a package – $20 for the season gets you all the games at a (lousy, I know) 800 Kbps connection. But now consider an iPhone application that permitted you to watch half the games for $5. Sure the $5 won’t cover the bandwidth to stream the games, but if you really like the matches and content, you might be very likely to sign up for the $20 per season.
In the UK and European countries, you might even see F1 and Premier League following suit which could be tremendously popular. I truly believe this to be the start of the dawn of a new era where you can watch sports anywhere and everywhere. You’ll no longer have to just watch your local team or pay outrageous prices just to watch your favorite team at home. Rather, you’ll be able to watch whichever team you want regardless of where you are in the world.
Of course, considering the astronomical costs of tethering your mobile connection, I might be a little optimistic on this…
Popularity: 3% [?]
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference has come to an end and for the most part, it certainly wasn’t disappointing. As was heavily rumored, Apple did introduce the new iPhone 3GS with upgraded specifications, they introduced new Macbook Pros, and they also unveiled a near final version of Snow Leopard which current users of OS X 10.5 can get for a mere $29. Pretty cool on Apple’s part.
So as with any WWDC conference, it’s essential to do a rumor vs. reality article. And for this one, I must admit that I’m going to be eating some crow. Some of the things that I seriously questioned in my previous write-up here on FlipCurve were indeed true. So, without further adieu, let’s start by recapping some of the iPhone rumors and what really happened.
Rumor: 32 GB of space
Prediction: True, Reality: True
As was rumored, Apple did dramatically increase the storage space of their new iPhone. The new iPhone 3GS comes in both 32 GB and 16 GB varieties, while the previous iPhone is still available for purchase at the low 8 GB end. I’m surprised that they’re not selling the 16GB version of the original iPhone 3G for the $99 phone, but essentially all storage sizes that were available before, are available now – with the added bonus of getting a 32 GB phone.
Rumor: 3.5G Network Access
Prediction: Likely True, Reality: True
Apple’s newest phone does include support for 3.5G network access which I suspected would be included, although given Apple’s history with the original 3G iPhone, I wasn’t holding my breath. This inclusion + tethering will mean that people can download at speeds comparable to most DSL/cable connections. Of course, the carrier will have to allow it, and most carriers that do permit tethering also only permit a measly 5 GB or thereabouts, so I don’t expect the iPhone’s internet connection to overtake broadband any time soon.
Rumor: Increased Speed and RAM
Prediction: Not True, Reality: True
Ugh. Here’s where I have to eat some crow. I really didn’t think that Apple would have such a dramatic upgrade to their iPhone lineup. I mean, they’ve essentially doubled the processor and RAM – how do they expect to handle this for developers? Will they create two separate App Stores for the 3G and the 3GS? Many of the games that Apple envisions will require the faster phone, in my opinion, so I really don’t know how they’ll handle this logistically. On the plus side, the inclusion of a compass, voice control and a three megapixel video-recording camera are definitely good for the iPhone’s reputation. It’s a little embarrassing to have a phone that so clearly beats most 3 year old phones in terms of internet, e-mail, and applications, but can’t record a frickin’ video!
In conclusion, I’m really pleased with this year’s WWDC. Apple has taken some smart steps in the right direction. They’re starting to lower their computer costs and offer customers more value for their money. Now, it is certainly not the case that Apple computers are cheap, but I think they have finally got the message that they need to reduce their prices a little.
The new iPhone 3GS at only $199 on a three-year term represents a pretty good deal for what you get. Sure there’s still the Apple tax, but that has diminished quite a bit relative to where it was a little while ago.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Well, it’s that time of year again. You know, the time of the year when summer’s gearing up in full swing, the heat starts getting unbearable (well in some places at least), and of course, Apple hosts its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. For Apple “fans” and developers, WWDC is often used to launch the latest and greatest in the Apple lineup. Arguably the most monumental announcement at any WWDC was the switch from PowerPC to Intel processors. These days the developer’s conference doesn’t seem to be nearly as focused on the Macintosh line of computers. Rather, the main interest seems to be the iPhone and for those who haven’t heard, Apple is widely expected to announce a significant upgrade to the already very handy device. We’ll take a look at all the rumors and assess the probability of each one being true.
Rumor 1: 32 GB Space
Probability: Very Likely
It has been rumored that the new iPhone will include 32 GB of storage space, representing a significant upgrade from the current 8 GB and 16 GB offerings. While it’s unknown if Apple will still offer any of the current lower storage iPhones, a capacity upgrade is definitely quite feasible and follows in line with Apple’s history as they often increase storage with each revision. A 32 GB iPhone seems like a no brainer as something that will be offered.
Rumor 2: Increased CPU to 600 MHz and 256 MB RAM
Probability: Likely, but might not be these specs.
I believe that the iPhone will include some sort of a performance upgrade but these rumors would both double the RAM and nearly double the power of the processing unit (well, actually, the clock speed is 1.5 that of the current CPU, but apparently the new processor is more efficient, rendering its effectiveness closer to double that of its predecessor). This seems like a dramatic improvement that is sure to create two classes of applications – those that can run only on the new iPhones and those that can run on all the iPhones. Historically, Apple has had no qualms forcing users to upgrade so this might be the case here again, but I’m more inclined to believe that there will be a more gradual increase in these specs. Maybe a more efficient 400 MHz CPU and a 64 MB RAM boost would be in order for this generation and after the majority of users have switched to that, then offer something a little better. There will definitely be a performance upgrade but how much is still up for debate.
Rumor 3: 3.5G Network Access
Probability: Seems like a no brainer, but not given Apple’s history.
Apple notoriously waited way too long to provide 3G access on their iPhones. AT&T in the US has recently announced that they will be upgrading to 3.5G, permitting phones allowing this standard to download at 7.2 Mbps (960 KBps) which is technically better than most land-based broadband. This would seem like a no-brainer to include in the newest iPhone but we must remember the length of time to include 3G. If the iPhone is improved in the other ways mentioned above, Apple may choose to skip this speed upgrade and focus instead on the rumored 21 Mbps (2.6 MB per second!) HSPA+ standard. AT&T has not announced yet if this will be implemented nationwide.
In summary, I think we can expect some sort of announcement at WWDC. I think that there’s a sufficient amount of evidence (and using just plain old common sense) to suggest that Apple will improve the iPhone’s space, processing specs, and RAM. Whether or not we’ll see the awesome 960 KBps of 3.5G remains to be seen. I hope it’s included, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
In any event, we’ll all be watching for that “one more thing” at this year’s developer conference.
Popularity: 9% [?]
I am a self-confessed phone geek.
I have lost track of the number of phones I have had over the past year. Everything from the I-Phone, to the HTC Touch Diamond to the Nokia N79.
All of the previous mentioned phones have their good and bad points, like anything.
I can be very demanding of my phone requirements, a phone to me must have:
• A good camera
• Be easy to use
• Have a GPS
• Sync with Outlook
These are just a few of the things I expect a modem phone to be able to do.
Thus far I must admit the Omnia has ticked all those boxes, this is not the say the Omnia is perfect, far from it, but I think it’s a great compromise on being usable, stylish and just plain fun.
Anyway onto the review!
Design:
I think the design is great, it’s a nice size, not too big, its smaller than the I-Phone, it sits nice in the hand and does not weight too much.
One issue I do have is it’s far too easy to scratch – In saying that there are some great cases/covers that you can now get for it.
OS/Software:
Yes, shock horror it’s Windows Mobile, but wait before you run away screaming, it’s not bad! It’s got a great widget based interface on the home screen which makes using it a real pressure. So if you usual impression of Windows Mobile is of a horrible business phone without a nice interface think again.
Features:
This is where the Omnia really shines, it’s got a fantastic 5 mega pixel camera with smile detection, auto focus and a flash it’s one of the stand out features of the phone, and totally blows the camera on 99% of other similar phones out the water.
It also has GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth, just to name a few more.
The touch screen is also very responsive and gives haptic-feedback.
Over all impression:
Overall I think its great, OK it has some issues, the screen is VERY hard to read in direct sunlight, But other than that, with a the latest firmware update it’s a fantastic phone, so much so I think I might even hold off on the Nokia N97!
Popularity: 2% [?]
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