Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Iphone4wars

2010-06-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a very ling time since i used this blog; it is reserved for rants about iphones, after all! BUT with the big three - O2, the current champion, Orange, the contender and Vodafone, the plucky youngster - now in the ring, we can truly see which network is best for iphone4.

Assumptions made:
I rarely ever use my allowance for texts or talk.
I am a moderate to heavy data user, and perceive my current iphone 3G usage as a web device more than phone.
I want to pay the minimum monthly fee, including purchase costs.
Steve Jobs announces new product in June, so 18 month contracts need "bridging" strategies: just letting it run incurs a higher monthly cost than equivalent 24 month contracts; SIM-only contracts are either monthly (£++) or yearly (6m too much), but much cheaper than 18/24m charges; 18m under contract plus 6*1m Sim-only gives the best comparison to 24m contracts; sadly, no supplier gives a discount for "loyalty" (O2 for example think they're doing existing customers a favour letting them buy iphone4s at all!), so there is nothing beneficial in being under contract and upgrading.

Method for analysis: purchase price plus cost for 24 months - either by straight 2 year contracts or cheapest available 18m plus sim-only 6m top up. Comparison is focussed on total costs for 2 years. NOTE: if you use more than 75-100mins of talk or 250+ texts there may be small increases, but at least these will be costs you've legitimately used, rather than potential usage that isn't used and doesn't roll over! If you use more than 500MB (O2), 750MB (Orange "fair use" so cost unclear) or 1GB (Vodafone) you will incur additional charges. Therefore, the following results may vary for you. If you want the full spreadsheet - I limited analysis to contracts under £1200 total (~£50/m) as anyone willing to pay more than this either doesn't need to save or is mad! - then leave a comment here.

Ok, here goes…
Most expensive for both 16GB and 32GB best price was…
Orange: £889 (16GB [£169 purchase price] £30/m 24m), £989 (32GB [£269] £30/m 24m)
These included 150 mins talk 250 texts and 750MB data a month.

Second most expensive for best price deals, controversially given the unusual purchase pricing for 18/24m contracts is…
O2: £869 (16GB [£209] £30/m 18m+6m@£20 sim-only [£929 if you don't switch!]), £923 (32GB [£323] £25/m 24m)

This gets you 100mins talk unlimited texts but ONLY 500MB data a month.

Finally, the cheapest <drum roll please> over 2 years, ready for that quick network change for 2012's best deal on the iphone5G, which will make toast for you, burned with an Apple Logo and massage away your fevered headache…
Vodafone: £819 (16GB [£219] £25/m 24m), £909 (32GB [£309] £25/m 24m)

This is much cheaper! And provides only 75mins talk, 250 texts but a whopping 1GB data a month. This is pretty good and for me the savings easily make up for low minutes and text allowances. If you push to £30/m for either phone (£70 more for 16GB, £80 for 32GB over 2 years) you get 300mins and unlimited texts and still be cheaper than other networks for similar allowances! NOTE: The sneaky (apparently) cheaper phone purchase prices, which are inverted to total costs; Orange appears cheapest for both models; O2 is strangely the most expensive for the 32GB on its best total cost deal, but the 16GB is second highest purchase price for second most expensive best deal; you pay more up front for Vodafone for the 16GB and not quite the most for the 32GB, but the total cost means penny-wise but pound foolish if you buy from the others!

For me in the South Wales valleys, where mobile phone signals don't run up hills, an important issue is network coverage. Signal in my valley, Cwmaman, where the Stereophonics come from (several are my neighbours!), is fairly patchy for all networks equally, but Vodafone Sure Signal (£50 one off fee) uses your broadband (sadly rather crap in rural Wales, barely faster than dial up, and especially bad recently as Richard Jones of the aforementioned band moved in and seems to have hogged our local bandwidth!) to boost indoor signal. So, basically, the big V has won!

Reasons for shifting from O2: arrogance over data capping no loyalty bonus for upgrading customers; bizarre pricing that is IMHO intended to deliberately confuse and cost more. Sorry O2. I will say this in your defence, you are the only network to make clear that Visual Voicemail is free. Make customers a decent offer and we could reconsider. Expect a PAC request at the end of this blog post!

Reasons NOT to move to Orange: Apart from brig the mist expensive, the odd free cinema ticket dissent really cut it. Only people desperate to stay with Orange will get an iPhone from you.

Please Note: T-Mobile have yet to announce pricing. So, it all may change… However, I wouldn't hold your breath. Sorry T-M, I think you've missed the boat!

@DoctorMikeReddy on Twitter.
Written entirely on an O2 iPhone 3G with intermittent data and regular loss of signal on the train up from Newport to Newcastle.

The offending text

2009-07-25T06:17:00.001-07:00

Slideshow for the 09 presentation now available from:
wwwDOTslideshareDOTnetSLASHDoctorMikeReddySLASHcowman09v3

Audio, which is not the best quality:
staffDOTnewportDOTacDOTukSLASHmreddy01SLASHaudioSLASHMR-games-edu09DOTmp3

Dr. Mike Reddy, Future Technology, Games Development and A.I., Division of Computing, Newport Business School, University of Wales, Newport, Allt-yr-yn Campus, PO Box 180 Newport South Wales NP20 5XR

Tel: +44 (0) 1633 432452 Fax: +44 (0)1633 432307 Mob: +44 (0)7971 170 199 Email: mike.reddy @ newport.ac.uk (remove spaces)

After delete

2009-07-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

Before delete

2009-07-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

IS 3.0 beta 2

2009-04-02T00:41:00.000-07:00

I've been fairly quiet since 2.2.1 as it was pretty stable. However,
I've signed up as an iPhone dev now - dreaming of millions of micro
transactions making me rich, or more likely millions of support
requests - and have been playing with OS 3 beta. It's rude to kick
someone when they're down, and it was a beta, but now we are on to
beta 2 - jailbroke within a day I note - I feel able to comment on the
first one.

Some major freeze ups and app drop outs aside, my main concern has
been dealing with cut and paste and a wish for more user control of
screen orientation. The latter first: I often use my iPhone in bed,
where portrait use is hindered by being on my side. It would be lovely
to have a screen lock that would force portrait mode. You may have
noticed in 2.2.1 (or maybe even earlier) that landscape is sticky if
you rotate the phone upsidedown; I.e. Home button uppermost. This is
really useful for forcing landscape but more uncomfortable to hold
single handedly, as well as harder to scroll fast. So, come on Apple
give us more control like I have on my Tablet PC. I can imagine press
hold home button to pull up a dialogue box.

Ok, gripes with text select and cut and paste. Firstly, beta 2 breaks
paste when you cut rather than copy text. Beta 1 when you cut then
repositioned cursor (magnifying glass then release) gave you paste
option. Now this only appears if you have copied, which would mean
having to reproduce then delete text If all you wanted to do was move
it! Secondly, the copy select handles in landscape mode has far too
fast a scroll. A down arrow appears that zooms you too quickly when
all you might have wanted was to select down a line. This needs
Nerfing, but the portrait mode which has more text lines visible seems
better. Finally, I'd love it if the context popup menu appeared after
holding for a time rather than always when you release, which would
allow you to slide onto your menu choice without lifting the finger up
to then select. Select also seems a redundant option: the word double
clicked or held over should be highlighted by default, allowing select
all, cut and copy to be up straight off.

Ok, now let's consider text entry in Safari. Imagine you are posting a
comment using a form page. Positioning the cursor to edit is virtually
impossible as the cut paste police think you MUST be wanting to select
the whole paragraph for copying: workaround is to click done the name
a best guess blind as to where to put the cursor then make your
corrections. This was a beta 1 problem, but given the above my guess
is that it will be for 2 as well
More beta grumbles to come soon, but in the meantime here's some
music...

--
Mike is away from the office, but still in touch thanks to his lovely
iPhone

iTunes and Safari bugs

2008-10-23T00:31:00.001-07:00

Ok, been a while. Been using the iPhone for podcasts about as heavily
as I used to listen to my iPod Video. I regularly have about 4-6GB of
podcasts and it is pretty important to use iTunes effectively with
hundreds of entries to prioritise listening, archive the real keepers
and delete the heard casts. However, I have noticed recently that the
iPhone is not remembering that I have listened to a cast or marks it
as incomplete. While it is great now that you can rate podcasts with
the star system, not being able to rely on last played, which is my
method for identifying casts to delete, is really frustrating as it
has resulted in me getting far too many deja vu moments.

As for Safari, it keeps crashing. It would be great to have flash
support - amazing how many sites use it - and the simple ability to
remember where you were scrolled to when flicking between pages would
be lovely. Not to mention the option to open in new window I have
asked for before.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Unexpected iPod shortcut

2008-10-18T07:47:00.001-07:00

Hey, double press the home button when the iphone is asleep. Guess
what? A mini iPod menu appears as well as the usual turn me on slider.
This allows you to pause/play the current track or podcast as well as
jump to next or previous. A similar mini menu appears when double
clicking home in certain apps, even when the settings option is set to
phone favourites (the default).

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Texting' clue to LA train crash

2008-09-21T06:26:00.001-07:00

The original BBC article on the train wreck

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7618503.stm

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

As Text Messages Fly, Danger Lurks - NYTimes.com

2008-09-21T06:15:00.001-07:00

The New York Times tech story

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/us/20messaging.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1222002819-kLFu5KTuXO0jLouNqE2HlQ

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Review of iLLuminatik Car Kit for iPhone 3G

2008-09-21T03:15:00.001-07:00

Executive Summary: Very cheap, very good, with some flaws.

NOTE: Also sold as the TeckNet MT-094 Apple FM Transmitter

I'm typing this one fingered while parked in my car, with my iPhone
playing music while sat charging in the iLLuminatik Car Kit - or
should that be kAr cIt? - for iPhone 3G. At £13+P&P (£17.48) through
Amazon.co.uk this is almost too cheap to be believed. The kit is for
sale for double the price elsewhere, which is about what we might
expect to pay for an FM Transmitter, Hands Free or iPod/iPhone Charger
and the Allkit (the name used in the inbox leaflet) does ALL three.

There are caveats to the claim for the second function as the
packaging only claims "hands free" for incoming calls, where the only
physical requirement is to tap Answer on screen; a relatively small
distraction and no worse than tapping a Bluetooth headset button or
clicking on the iPhone headset mike. Clearly, outgoing calls will not
be anything like as hands free.

Free apps, like TouchDial, would make calling home as safe as any
interaction could be while driving. However, a recent trainwreck
resulting in 25+ deaths is believed to have been caused by the driver
texting on his mobile, preventing him from reacting to a red light.
Even the New York Times has a current tech piece about the dangers of
texting, quoting an estimated drop of 10 IQ points when using am
mobile while trying to do something else. This would put many of the
drivers into single figures, IQ wise, judging by the fact that I
regularly see them talking into their handheld mobiles while cutting
me up on the daily commute; it has been illegal for some time now, but
is hard to enforce except after the fact. There isn't a week that goes
by when I don't see an ambulance rushing to a crash. So, iPhone
interaction should be kept to a minimum, if not banned entirely, and
some form of disclaimer from iLLuminatik is understandable. Please
don't even answer a call if it is not safe.

There is definitely scope for a remote answer switch here, which could
be combined with a mike for better in-car audio; quite a few generic
hands free kits use external mikes to improve audio quality. In a
stationary test with me in the front and my two eldest kids in the
back, my wife reported that there was a lot of "noise" that could be
the result of cut off problems; you have to be pretty disciplined not
to talk over the remote speaker as they get clipping and echoes; this
is pretty common on speakerphones BTW, so not too damning.

A more objective test, calling my Answerphone with the engine running,
resulted in really good noise reduction, given that my 1999 Diesel
Peugeot 306 has a rather throaty roar when revved, but all three
voices were very clipped, quiet and "daleky" as a result. Useable, but
really showing the need for an extra peripheral. The Griffin SmartTalk
- intended to provide a mike and answer button for your own headphones
via a built in socket - might work, but this has not been tested.

The iLLuminatik kit seems well made, with some obviously excellent
elements: the connector cable and adjustable side grips allow iPhones
to be firmly held without the need to take off protective shells or
screen protector; most FM transmitters fit far too snugly, requiring
you to strip off any extra casing, or are basically cables and plugs
that leave the device unsecured. My guess is that this is a pleasant
side effect of the kit needing to support a range of players, but it
is nice that the grips go wider than the widest of Apple's offerings,
the iPhone 3G. I am using the Griffin hard shell with built in screen
protector, which is actually quite chunky and rather annoying to
remove. So, this is an excellent option.

Another brilliant feature, according to the box, isthe anti-rotation
collar to prevent the iPhone on its long and very springy goose neck
cable from falling down. It works, but perhaps a bit too well, by
increasing friction between the plug and socket. Be warned though and
careful when plugging in or adjusting position as the increased grip
broke the socket housing when I was trying to get it into a
comfortable position. The connection cable is just too long and
springy, providing excellent leverage for breaking your dashboard. I
had to remove the fascia to do a quick repair, but a feature that was
supposed to prevent wobble - a real problem with my old Griffin
RoadTrip - has actually made things worse; I have had to carefully
swap round the connection at the back of the iLLuminatik to let the
kit hang down from the socket. Ironically, this has resultedbin a
better position for re iPhone, just to the side of the gearstick and
in plain site, but reversing the adjustable coupling isn't intended by
the manufacturer because teeth to grip when the bolt is tightened are
only on one side; a weakness that could easily be resolved. Don't try
what I did first and unscrew the plug half a turn at the top of the
connector; the screw thread is impossibly small. I managed to unscrew
it completely by accident, which required me to open up the plug to
get it fixed. Testing to destruction appears to be a theme today!

So, if you can learn from my mistakes this IS a good purchase. The
shortcuts on some elements are made up by the price and flexibility of
the kit. The USB charging socket is a nice extra, but I'd be worried
about current drain and older cars' wiring getting overheated if
loading was too high. Dealing with an iPhone in it protective case is
excellent. Sound quality for FM is good enough. And the hands free
works. Even aside from the problems - some my own fault - I'm happy so
far. We'll see how well it does over the next few weeks.

P.S. I bought this. It wasn't a freebie. However, if alternative
product manufacturers would like to send me stuff to review I would be
happy to do so.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

ITunes and Podcast subscriptions

2008-09-20T06:39:00.001-07:00

Wouldn't it be nice if you could subscribe to podcasts right here on your iPhone! If it was seen as a transferrable purchase like apps and music, it could still integrate with iTunes on the desktop.

Fw: Thanks Shane!

2008-09-19T12:57:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Shane Lee for raising this one: he noticed that there
appears to be no way to forward SMS messages to another number. I've
looked and I believe he may be right. I think this another example of
the need for secondary contextual options like "open URL in new
window." even the most basic mobile allows users to forward texts.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Oh, and another gripe!

2008-09-17T07:54:00.001-07:00

Mail app does what I want from Twitter: it opens the full Safari, with
landscape and bookmarking. However, it would be nice to have a back
button that would take you back to mail. At present opening a new URL
has the back button greyed out.

Oh, and did I already ask for the chance to open a link in a new
window; press and hold pops up the actual web address, but could this
pop up either "add link to bookmarks" and/or "open link in new window"
options? That would be nice.

Oh, and a Del.icio.us app, anyone?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Not officially an iPhone bug but...

2008-09-17T07:19:00.001-07:00

Using various twitter apps, and others, it annoys me when a tweet has
a URL in it, which opens up a web page but doesn't allow landscape
orientation or, more importantly, the ability to add it to bookmarks.
I am using Twitterfon at present. Do others work better with embedded
URLs?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Mail setting bug - the long version

2008-09-14T06:47:00.001-07:00

Ok, it all started with me getting a bounced message from a yahoo
group, because my new me.com email address didn't match the old
mac.com subscription address. So, I decided to change the setting in
my mail to allow posting to the group; .mac and mobileMe addresses are
synonimous at present.

However, I couldn't get the cursor to go beyond the @ in the mobileMe
setting window. Then trying to exit or move to another text entry
window resulted in the last letter before the @ disappearing. I didn't
notice this at first, but worked it out after mobileMe started failing
with a wrong password error.

Going back in to correct/check the password I noticed the username was
wrong, missing the last 'r'. Adding it, then quitting resulted in it
vanishing. I've dropped my H's before, but never R's. In the end, as
evidenced by the previous pictures, I had to put in an extra character
to get the stripped username to be correct. This is a very weird bug!

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Mail setting bug (part 4)

2008-09-14T05:53:00.001-07:00

And what I was supposed to have in the first place. Explanation follows.

Mail setting bug (part 3)

2008-09-14T05:51:00.001-07:00

My workaround solution. All will be clear in part 4.

Mail setting bug (part 2)

2008-09-14T05:50:00.001-07:00

What is missing from the previous?

Mail setting bug (part 1)

2008-09-14T05:49:00.001-07:00

Spot the mail settings bug. See part 2.

Cut and Paste on the iPhone?

2008-09-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Guardian Tech blog has just reiterated one of my Missing Feature sentiments:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/sep/10/youchoose.blogpost?gusrc=rss&feed=technology#

Here it is again for those who don't want to click then scroll down:

Bizarrely, I found my old Newton 2100 yesterday and brought it into work to see if I could get it going again; anyone know of a serial-to-usb option that will work?
NOT Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Bluetooth Headset Woes and a few missing mail features

2008-09-08T13:41:00.001-07:00

My rather slick Sony Ericsson W610i that my iPhone replaced has a
lovely feature or two, which I will miss. Notably, the built in
ability to record audio and the way it handles Bluetooth headsets.

Voice recording is available with several apps on the Apps Store, but
none can record a phone call while you are talking. And so far, I have
not found a free app that does what I want in the way I want: having a
way to get the sound file off the phone is a must, even if I have to
give up call recording. And I won't pay for an application when their
functionality is not testable. I had been trying Voice Notes, but so
far I've had problems with the desktop java app needed to 'sync' the
audio; crashes and strange hangups, but it is java.

The other feature I would love to have is the ability to transfer
sound to a Bluetooth headset without first connecting it. This option
appears under the same menu as speakerphone when in the middle of a
call. On the iPhone it would be nice to have the option to seemlessly
turn on and connect a previously paired headset. It would streamline
the existing process of turning on Bluetooth and then instigating a
connect from the headset; the W610i handles the connect.

I did eventually work out how to start the connection process from the
Plantronics M3000, but why should I have to?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Another missing feature in Safari

2008-09-07T14:06:00.001-07:00

Find text in a web page.

Open page in new window.

Trying out Shozu

2008-09-07T02:16:00.001-07:00

Am now trying out ShoZu after a recommendation from Michael Webb twitter.com/michaeldwebb

If it works out it will be better than three separate apps for Facebook, Twitter and my blogs.

My first iPhilic action

2008-09-05T03:31:00.001-07:00

Using my laptop just now, I have performed my first unconscious iPhone
related act by clicking and dragging to scroll a web page. Clearly
this only had the effect of selecting some text. Oh well!

It did remind me that I wish there was an obvious - it might be there
but I haven't found it - way to choose UK spelling for the auto-
correct text feature of the keyboard; typing "realise" involves me
having to override the 'wrong' correction to realize.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

Cut and Paste?

2008-09-04T03:08:00.001-07:00

I miss the option to select text, cut copy and paste. The applications
of this are too numerous to mention. And EVERY application should be
forced to work in both portrait and landscape.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

scentfrommyiphone.blogspot.com

For those sick to the iTeeth with Bad iDesign. Brought to you by the
letter "i" and the number Pi.

The Missing App (epilogue)

2008-09-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that I am not alone in getting the blank app bug:

http://www.apple-touch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1102

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1599678&tstart=15

And doing the search for iphone blank etc came up with several people who wanted the feature of a blank desktop on their iphones. Personally, I would like some sort of theming - a games background for game apps for example - so it goes on my list for v2.1

NOT Scent from my iPhone 8-P

P.S. Actually typing this one up on my Windows PC through the web interface, which incidentally has the option for labels for the post. Also, have confirmed that the email to blog interface works ok but the formating of text when viewed on the iphone is crap, but acceptable on the PC. Am going to explore the O2 email service as blogger appears to support o2imail.co.uk but not me.com or mac.com sourced emails. Let's see if that produces better behaved text formatting.

The Missing App (part 3)

2008-08-31T12:18:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally managed to dispell the blank like the Gadarene Swine.
Basically, it involved filling the app page from the next page, moving
the blank to the end, then moving one more app from the next page;
this last action bounces the previous last app on a page. Finally,
after bouncing the blank on a couple of screens it disappeared.

My thoughts are that while having download/install problems
(previously discussed) I must have confused/corrupted the desktop
file. So, if it happens to you, there is a solution.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

The Missing App (part 2)

2008-08-31T01:32:00.000-07:00

The what should be impossible screen shot.

The Missing App Slot

2008-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Regard the bottom left app slot in the following screen shot.

And the real brains...

2008-08-30T05:58:00.000-07:00

Gill Walker, who handles the money, and prevents Tony from single-
handedly converting France to Apple Computers.

Who is Tony Powell?

2008-08-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

free-hotspot.com installer, long time Mac fan and old friend, Tony
Powell, at a... Business Dinner with me.

iPhone missing iPod functionality?

2008-08-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

On my iPod Video I can use the scroll wheel after pressing the centre
button, to fast forward/backward to specific locations in any audio/
video. This is presented as a spot in the usual bar across. However, I
cannot find this on the iPhone. Video obviously has it but not even
podcasts, which people may want to navigate, have this ability. Just
wait right here...

Ahah! I've found it. Single tap on the title screen toggles it. Bloody
hell, that was hard to find. Now, I knew that this functionality
SHOULD be there, so I persisted, but what about people who are
unfamiliar? Does streamlining the interface really need the functions
hiding that well? It would be nice if I only had the time played
counting up to show it was playing, or the filling bar. Do we really
need the volume setting bar MORE than this? That is always available,
even when there are perfectly good volume buttons on the side.

Oh, well. I wonder what else is hidden in plain view?

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Late night mail app wishes

2008-08-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Lying here in a strange bed in Plouescat, France not able to sleep; at
least there is WiFi as my host, Tony Powell, an old friend of 14 years
who relocated here as an independent IT consultant, works for free-hotspot.com

Doing email lying down or laid sideways propped up with a pillow
affects accuracy of typing a bit; has anyone else noticed that you
have to aim unexpectedly high to hit the right letter? But my problem
this morning is no search filter on inboxes and the fact that I get
shed loads of emails and not enough are shown on the inbox page. I
have set the max 200 but the build up when you are on holiday and
shouldn't be checking them. Also, it would be nice for predictive text
to do more punctuation and offer more than one suggestion.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Trouble sleeping?

2008-08-26T03:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in Plouescat, France this week on leave. The weather is defying
the forecasts, being much sunnier than expected, and I have sunburn.
That, along with a smaller and stranger bed, shared with an
increasingly mobile 18 month old daughter, and my usual trouble
sleeping, all contributed to my usual response of listening to my
iPod. However this time, being in France, I decided to just bring the
iPhone, loaded up with podcasts. NOTE data roaming turned OFF but with
an eye out for free wifi hotspots; more on that later.

So, last night I flick through podcasts I've heard before on the
unsync'ed iPod to find something new. And I get to J.C. Hutchin's 7th
Son Obsidion, which is a hybrid audio/video cast. And lying in bed,
next to a child, who is slowly pushing me off the edge, because I am
constantly having to move to keep from waking her up, the feed turns
out to be a video cast. Now here is where the 'iPhone problem' bit
comes in!

I'm on my side, but the iPhone sensor tells itself that it is in
landscape and rotates the video 90 degrees, which is full screen but
skewed. So I rotate the thing and it understandably goes onto portrait
mode. Argh! So, please PLEASE Apple, can we have an override or a
video rotate button, so that I can lie sleepless in bed and view the
video the way I want to?

Can we also have cut and paste? Having to switch between apps in a
System Six/Multi-Finder way is really frustrating. And while we are at
it, can we have an obvious option to save a draft of an email and move
emails back to drafts from the outbox? I have several times
accidentally clicked send and had to jack my way back into an
unfinished email by moving it to the inbox, choosing reply all and
then doing a lot of extra editing to get rid of the highlighting -
done by deleting the start of the blue text onto some prior black
letters - which would be unnecessary if there were better editing
functions.

Oh, and can I have a UK dictionary for word suggestions; I'm a bit
sick of US variants appearing, and no way of configuring this or
adding my own words to the dictionary. Also, I don't think that the
predictive text learns or adapts, which should be a no-brainer nowadays!

And now a section on iPhonophilia, namely the positives of having an
iPhone that a grumble blog would not cover! There have been many, some
of which have served to highlight the few flaws or areas for
inprovement, but here are a few notable ones:

1) I'm driving home and get an urgent voicemail - due to patchy
reception in South Wales valleys - asking me to check and reply to an
email to rearrange a whole week's schedule. I park the car and can do
mail in a couple of minutes.

2) On my way to the ferry terminal late on Friday, I realize that I
have not complete a 400 word article I am supposed to have written for
UUK on why US Honour (honor?) codes won't work in UK universities to
prevent plagiarism. As my wife is driving, I pull up mail and a web
browser and get it written on the way to Plymouth.

3) Some friends, who relocated to Plouescat years ago, send me a text
telling us that they have emailed directions to their remote
farmhouse, but this happened after we had already left. I text back
saying we didn't get it, so hasty arrangements are made to meet up as
the instructions are too complex to send by SMS; only 160 characters
on text messages, remember.

However, the overnight B&B hotel in Morlais we stay in after arriving
on a late night ferry has free wifi. So, we get the email even without
data roaming, saving the need for a second mortgage! We get to see old
friends without having to be met somewhere.

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Pictures and text test

2008-08-20T05:19:00.001-07:00

The previous post chopped the text after the image and put the first
text after. Weird!

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Ah email to blog doesn't handle Text/pic/text very well

2008-08-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

These three entries were meant to be one post...

Re: Sat here biding my iTime

2008-08-20T05:12:00.001-07:00

So, I had a few students to sort out, but basically Clearing is
winding down now. "Great!" I thought, "more time to play with the 3G."
This was aided by a heated debate with a colleague over the relative
benefits of Blackberries; the school is 50/50 split between the two,
but it is a typical old guard v young blood divide. Guess where the
iPhone lies?

Anyway, with time to kill, after the debate, I decided to check out
the BBC's iPlayer to catch up on some TV. Only to find that it doesn't
work unless you have wifi. So, really not configured with the iPhone
yet, as surely this should be able to work over 3G.

And how the hell do you get Caps Lock to work? I have turned it on in
the settings but it hasn't affected the on screen keyboard. OH, wait!
I've found it. Double tapping on the shift key; previously I had been
trying by press and holding it, which made sense at the time. Just to
confirm that this, and other tips, are hidden away in the apple manual
available at:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iPhone_User_Guide.pdf

I particularly enjoyed page 80 tip which tells how to do screen
capture by pressing the Home and Sleep keys together:

Scent from my iPhone 8-P

Sat here biding my iTime

2008-08-20T05:04:00.001-07:00

The rather quiet post a-level clearing office yesterday...

Re: My first iPhone blog

2008-08-19T05:36:00.001-07:00

Well, it has already been a steep learning curve. Not that the phone
is hard to use, because it is marvelous. Where it falls short is where
functions that other phones have are lacking, or the closed nature of
the PC sync compared with other phones or even the iPod.

I miss the quick sound record, a la dictaphone. Maybe a future app? I
also miss video capture, but unless they have skimped on the chip set
this should be an upgrade. The lack of disk use, common with iPods and
other phones, makes the iPhone less useful.

As for the built in apps, Safari is nearly there, but flash doesn't
work, on some sites at least, and I wish that the mail app would get
some polish. Word wrap isn't too much to ask is it? The secondary
keyset could be optimized for two thumb typing. [we are stuck with
QWERTY for letters!]. The simplest improvement would be the ability to
rotate the email. On its side the keyboard is much better sideways, as
evidenced by text entry on web sites; and I am getting used to the
predictive text, which seems to work best for correcting typos
[thumbos?], rather than true word guessing. Text prediction can get in
the way, however, as confirming with the spacebar sometimes chooses a
bad choice if you are not watching the text screen, as would be likely
during early use of the screen keys. Of seems that speeding up and not
caring about accuracy of every single letter actually works better!

So, some good [a great deal in fact!] making the few bad things more
obvious. If we could rotate a few more of the apps, particularly ones
with significant text entry, it would really help.

Oh, and I have a Griffin hard clamshell case, bought as it offered
both corner and screen protection. I am now regretting this, as a
silicon shell would allow peeling back to fit into my dock and the car
charger; both acquired for my iPod Video 80GB. The raised front edge
also impedes typingfor the Q and P keys. With a stick on screen
protector, a stiff screen cover and a strong belt clip [it's too large
to safely keep in a pocket without the risk of stress fractures,
especially if you sit down!] this would be my ideal case. Note here
that there are some good leather cases, but being vegan I am not going
to buy bits of dead cow!

More later from...

Scent from my iPhone 8-P