Posts by SanityFM

The iPhone 4S in depth: More than just a vestigial 'S'

As a great man said, I think is time to "Think Different!".

The iphone now looks dated compaired with the competition. Grids of rounded shortcuts that only provide numbers and not present me with the live info I want, look tired along side Android and WP7.

I felt that Apple needed a complete GUI refresh, rather than the "Start menu in a phone" IP4, and now IP4S is. Android and WP7 are inovating GUI with live tiles giving you actual information at a glance, on your front screen, and that provide links and info from deep within an app. Apples GUI is stuck in 2006, as is their screen size. After using my 4.3" screen there is no way Im going back to 3.7"

They say they have fixed antenna design flaw so thats good news. We'll see when early feed back comes in.

As for the announced features. We already have them on WP7 and probably Android. I used my voice command and dictation for a few weeks on my WP7 and it works great. I switched it off in the end as it's just not the way I want to interact with my phone. Cloud, Yep I've been using it (Skydrive) on my phone since march and it works fine. Its no revolution though just a moderately useful option.

As for the internals. Some nice hardware inside. I'm sure apps will start to exploit the new graphics chip in the future but Im not much for phone games so not really too interested. To be honest my old IP4 was smooth and didnt need any more processing power so I think if I was buying a IP4S I'd be thinking, well keep the IP4 CPU in the IP4S, and give me the additional battery life a Dual Core would consume. Afterall, Im not wanting to play Battlefield 3 on the thing, nor will I ever be able to. Current smartphones/tablets are good for media consumption apps, small tools, and little else. So until someone gives a phone/tablet sized PC that can run some proper applications, the hardware speed race is a bit pointless, or even detrimental to our phone user experience due to the increased battery consumption. Appart from Android, which appears to need a bit more processing power. Just think, if they stuck with the old CPU you might get a week of battery life, just like the old days.

All in all a bit of a disapointing launch. It seems that simple feature additions were hyped up in the presentation to justify this new model. I suppose you could say its evolution not revolution. Apple are now in a position of dominance, just like Microsoft in the PC arena, that they dont need to take risks and push inovation. They just need to cover the competitors features and introduce them on their their own platform as we've seen here. The customers, or followers ;) will still buy them of course, hehe.

Dont get me wrong, the Iphone is a fine smartphone. Heck they all are. For me though using this phone is like a step back to 2006. Apple have not kept up with their competitors on GUI and the overall user experience, although they do still have the best app portfolio and ecosystem intergration.

This means when my contract is up in January next year, I will be upgrading to an Android or Windows phone.

Come on Apple, Innovate! And to the users, "Think Different" as a certain company once asked of us. Iphones user experience has stagnated and is stuck in the past. Embrace change. Demand more from your cutting edge phone tech.

Regards.

MS names Nokia WinPho models in compo blunder

Lol, it's like being in a school playground reading some of the comments here. I, for one welcome all competition to the phone/tablet market as it pushes prices for all down and encourages innovation, so it’s quite laughable some of the adolescent tripe commented here.

Nokia have, traditionally been the best quality hardware manufacturer and had the best quality cameras, and battery life, and am sure will make great phones with WP7 on. Only someone who hasn’t watched the mobile phone market closely enough would try to claim otherwise, making themselves look at bit ignorant to be honest. I have Iphone 4, have used Android and both are fine platforms. I have also flashed WP7 mango onto my old HD2 and you know what, its absolutely fantastic and a breath of fresh air in the stagnated smartphone GUI arena. You just need to “Think Different” ;)

I’m afraid grids of rounded shortcuts that can only display numbers on them, within another grid of folders on a screen that is too small is looking and feeling very dated and tired now. It was great a few years ago but it’s essentially a Windows 98 start menu in a phone. I want more from my cutting edge phone tech. Apple seriously need a GUI refresh and need to catch up to the others on screen size, information notifications, and actual phone call reliability (i.e.: the IP4 antenna design fault). Oh, and their spell checker. I want live info and pictures pushed to my shortcuts/tiles on my front screen, not numbers. WP7, and also Android to a degree are pushing and innovating GUI on portable devices and I for one welcome it. Come on Apple, Innovate! Iphone still has the best app portfolio and integrated ecosystem at the moment though.

Tablets are another thing. I don’t want an enlarged phone with that same tired grid of shortcuts, like my start menu. I want a shrunken PC that I can run real apps on, you know like, CAD, Music Production software (not some toy imitation), Access, Excel. Apps that allow me to be productive and useful, and not just consume media, like we currently have, for the most part. Maybe that gets a little closer with Apple and MS next Desktop OS's. The move toward proper computing power and functionality on a tablet that has a usable GUI, moving away from the interim tech we have now. Tablets and phones, that are mostly for media consumption.

You know I read a good article the other day. It compares Amazon, Apple, Google etc to the Wal-Mart’s, Tesco’s of this world, in that they can provide all products and services in one location and cheaply, which consumers do like. But of course affect the smaller retailers and service providers, wherever these large corporations move in. People can get up in arms if a Wal-Mart or Tesco move into their town and shout and protest about, the apparent stifling completion and the death of small retailers. However when it comes to a large phone/ computer corporation getting, and keeping people in there ecosystem, many people are blinkered to anything that’s different, or they don’t have. Variety is the spice of life people. So many comments these days sound like the words of evangelists, not consumers. We don’t want the computing and information equivalent of a communist dictatorship now do we. This “my way or highway” attitude sounds more like the words of a football team fan rather than consumers in a capitalist, free market.

There's another computing revolution coming friends and I say bring it on. More choice and variety can only be a good thing. Embrace it. We must not get all "playground" and narrow minded when something that’s not just a clone comes out or some perceived challenge is made to our current ecosystem of choice.

"Think Different" as a great man once said. Embrace Change.

Regards.

Apple to Oz court: ‘Our products are lame, really’

pfft. Until we see real tablets instead of the interim tech we have now, who cares. Give me a shrunken PC, not an enlarged phone, Apple, Google, and MS. I want to do something useful, not just consume media. Thanks.

Microsoft staff savage Ballmer at company confab

Correction, Windows and MacOS were ripoffs of Xerox R&D.

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

Very Sad

Well this is sad. I hope his health improves.

First Bill and now Steve. He is one of the godfathers of modern computing and one of a handful of people in the late 70's and early 80's who invisiged the future of computing. When Zerox didnt realise what there engineers had invented in the mouse, GUI, and first PC, Jobs was allowed to look over their work he saw that future.

Regarding Jobs' back story in this article, there are a few minor errors:

"run-away success of the Apple II and Macintosh computers" Apple II was a runaway success as was the "Lisa" followup buisiness machine. However Macintosh was not a success in those early years and its development along with the adversarial management style of Jobs led to the Apple Board instructing Sculley to sack Jobs after Jobs gave them an ultimatum; "Its Sculley or Me" Sculley now says that the board probably made the wrong choice and should have found a way to use Jobs' talent and "make it work". Anyway, its not important but interesting.

His finest acheivement, I believe was, getting the record companies round the table and agreeing a framwork for digital distribution of music in the post napster world. Napster saw the potential. Apple legitimised it and with the killer products, itunes and ipod changed the way the world buys music. Consumers around the world said “yes please”.

He was probably responsible for one of the greatest turnarounds in corporate history when he was re-hired by Apple in '96. His charisma and marketing vision took products and technologies already in the marketplace and put them together in desireable, well thought out packages that worked well. The masses then bought them in their droves making Apple one of the wealthiest corporations in the world. What other corporation or CEO has managed to develop an almost quasi-religious following from it's customer base. That's the holy grail for any corporation. Jobs was a great businessman.

Best wishes to him and his family for the future.