Posts by Si

Apple says MobileMe mail problems 'behind us'

It's still Mobile Messy

My patience quickly, quickly drains...

Granted I now have free access to Mobile Me until November 11th, but really now; if the service is going to be borked until then, and if Apple are going to continue to release statements maintaining they've fixed various problems when, in fact, they don't appear to have fixed anything; then I really don't know how much longer I'll last.

My problems with the service have abounded in the past week :

1) My Mobile Me calendar has not worked at all since day 1; the calendars (and any amendments I make to them) on my phone and computer are successfully synced to MM, but any attempts to make any changes on MM are instantly met with the dreaded server error. A (nearly) 3 week server error? C'mon.

2) As of this week my contacts syncing is ballsed; changes made on MM don't reach my phone. Changes on my phone create entirely new contacts on MM, instead of amending the existing contact details. Have tried Apple's July 28th "fix" several times, no joy.

3) iDisk; I'm was going to be relying on this heavily, worked fine for the first week, since then anything I try to upload hangs at "finishing upload".

So in summary; only my mail and the photo app on MM are actually functional for me at the moment.

Bleurgh.

Apple's 3G iPhone to launch 11 July

Indeed, I are dufus

^ Yeah.

In my initial grrness I was admitedly only considering the figures up until July, and not the entire contract.

Consider me humbly schooled :P.

Spot on Wonderkid...

I'm more than a little disappointed by yesterday's iPhone announcements to be honest. I was very much hoping for some more improvements beyond simply tagging on 3G and GPS; functions which are industry standard in every other "smartphone" on the market.

I was expecting a bumped up camera at the very very least. Apple are quick to big up the fact that with the 2.0 firmware and 3rd party blogging apps you'll be able to photoblog right from your phone, but there is no way 2mp is sufficient. Only in the most direct of sunlight do camera pics on the iPhone turn out with any quality, otherwise their grainy and dull and just generally poor quality. Add a flash to this and I think it would be much more appealing, any pics my mates or I take are usually on nights out; ever tried taking photos on a night out with an iPhone? Nightmare, as with any cameraphone with no flash, which is why it's bloody standard these days.

The only other "notable" "feature" on this new model aside from 3G and GPS is a non-recessed headphone jack. That's not a friggin' feature Apple, it's a correction.

No front facing camera? On a 3G phone? What?! Even if it was only a bloody VGA camera! One of the biggest initial attractions (and I say initial because it's a feature that's rightfully taken for granted in any 3G phone these days) of 3G phones was the ability to video conference on the go, how in the name of sweet sweet Jebus has this been left out? I can see no explanation for this at all other than half-assedness on Apple's part.

BUT. I think we're missing something; something which Apple will consider an important point : this is not the iPhone 2. It's the iPhone 1.5, it's what the iPhone 1 should've been off the bat.

Macworld 09 = iPhone 2, I'll bet then we'll see all the features that should've been in this newly announced model.

Will I upgrade from my current iPhone 1? Probably, but only if 02 here in the UK are gonna offer me that free upgrade. I don't mind renewing my contract, but if I have to pay a single penny extra then I'm not interested. I'm more interested in the 2.0 firmware than 3g, and I'd be more than happy to just stick with my iPhone 1 and upgrade the firmware at no extra cost.

"Upgrade early...penalty free"?

Not if you're on the £35 PM tariff, like I am. I'll have to pay £99 if I want to upgrade.

Absolute joke.

Those on £45, a tariff £10 dearer PM than mine, get the free upgrade.

Can someone please explain the rational there?

O2 to offer £100 iPhone... in time for Xmas?

Damn and blast!

I've also just read the original Macworld article :

"Existing iPhone customers will be offered the chance to upgrade their mobile to the new model without charge - though they will be obliged to sign-up to another 18-month contract."

Bleurgh.

Can't be right?

Firstly, as I feared, renewing contracts? That's the only information I needed to hear to confirm to myself that I won't be upgrading from my current gen iPhone. There's absolutely no reason I should have to renew my contract; I've already committed myself to 02 until May next year.

Free upgrade to those on the top whack contract? So, wait, if I want to upgrade I'll be charged somewhere in the region of £1-£100 (I'm on the £35 PM tariff) to do so. Wasn't there also rumours that the new iPhone would be sold unlocked?

So, if said rumours are in anyway true, it would make sense for me to simply by a new handset for £100 and stick my current £35 PM sim card into it?

Apple ignores Jesus Phone life raft

RE: Background Apps suckign battery life...

...rather than outlaw battery background apps altogether, then, would it not make sense to limit exactly how many apps one can run in the background at any one time instead? Say, set a predetermined limit for background memory usage. Y'can either have one big app using that memory, or several more insignificant ones.

I was very much hoping for a Last FM app to come from the SDK for example, like MobileScrobbler for jailbroken iPhones. I hardly think that sucks a lotta battery life yet, because there may be a few background apps out there that would, even minor apps are being prevented?

Byron review calls for computer game ratings

Y'can see where this is going though...

As has been pointed out; yet again a waste of public spending which has come to the same conclusions as the last report, and the last yada yada ad infinitum.

Doesn't every console now have parental controls built in? The 360 and PS3 certainly do, not too sure on Wii. And doesn't every game sold have a digitally encrypted rating on board? Presumably this is how consoles can tell "Oooh, 18 rated game in mah drivez DO NOT WANT"?

So, all it takes is for parents to activate the parental controls on their kiddies systems? Problem solved so to speak?

In conclusion then, parents simply need to be educated that consoles have this functionality, either at the point of sale (i.e. sales assistants themselves) or some sort of clearly defined supplement in the consoles packaging (not simply a few pages of the instruction manual dedicated to the topic). Now I know that's not a complete fix to the problem but I think it's a bit more pragmatic then another bloody logo on a box already covered in completely ignored logos as it is.

I have this horrible vision of the future where it's got to the stage that retailers are forced to arrange their shopfloors into "age-areas", with 18 rated games for example all being located in the once section of the shop. Behind double-glazed frosted glass windows. And red lights. And a bouncer. Ugh.