Apple
iPhone 3G connection problems? Might not be your iPhone…
…or at least, it might not be if you’re in the West of Scotland. O2’s data network has gone tits-up and there’s no red-hot 3G action for anyone round these parts.
O2 network issues aside, is anyone else following the reports of iPhone problems and getting a flashback to the first Xbox 360 red rings of death? Just a few isolated problems, nothing serious, definitely not a manufacturing problem or a design flaw…
Four things I learnt on the internet today
“The success of an anti-piracy campaign is measured in the number of hours it buys before the digital dam breaks” and 38 hours is considered a success. The LA Times on attempts to prevent fanboys watching camcorder copies of The Dark Knight.
The crackdown on file sharing may be bad news for people who don’t file share. “…service gets worse as you wait in a queue wondering why your broadband has gone down, while the 50 people in front of you all have perfectly functional internet connections but are wondering if a lawyer is going to show up at their door.” Charles Arthur on the possible consequences of anti-P2P letters.
Apple’s PR strategy is hurting its share price. “Apple, on the other hand, has had stellar financials, huge hit products, and massive growth sales for all its product lines. With those results you would expect Apple to outperform Microsoft.” Comment by Ian Betteridge on Dan Lyons’ post about Apple share prices.
Caffeine is self-regulating and works almost instantly. “Women generally metabolize caffeine faster than men. Smokers process it twice as quickly as nonsmokers do. Women taking birth-control pills metabolize it at perhaps one-third the rate that women not on the Pill do. Asians may do so more slowly than people of other races.” NY Magazine on the wonders of caffeine (via Metafilter).
Instapaper: a potentially brilliant iPhone application
Of all the iPhone apps kicking around, the one I’m liking best is Instapaper. It’s a simple solution to a genuine problem I have: there are loads of things online I’d like to read, but when I come across them I just don’t have time to read them - so I bookmark them and immediately forget all about them. With Instapaper it’s just a matter of hitting the Read Later bookmarklet in your web browser, logging in on the iPhone and reading the articles when you’ve got time to do so. I particularly like the choice of Web View, which is the original page, or Text View, which gets rid of extraneous content.
I say it’s potentially brilliant, because while it’s a great wee app there are a few issues for me. Updating from my iPhone is desperately slow (although that may be my connnection); I can’t find a way to mark things as read to make them disappear; and with big articles you often need to locate the printer-friendly view (not Instapaper’s fault; it’s the fault of websites who’d rather split an article into seven hundred ad-stuffed pages). Oh, and it’d be nice to be able to control the style sheet for text view so I could specify my own fonts and sizes. The “mark as read” thing is apparently in version 1.01, but I don’t see it in the iTunes store yet; other features are promised for a future upgrade, possibly splitting the app into a free version and a paid-for premium edition.
The faults are minor, though, and it’s a brilliant wee application - and you don’t need to be an iPhone-toting hipster to use it, as Instapaper works perfectly well as a browser app too. However, I do think it makes most sense as a portable application, because it’s great for killing time on buses or when you’re generally hanging around waiting for something. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in the habit of spotting interesting things online that you never quite get round to reading.
Carphone Warehouse is getting more iPhone 3Gs
Press release:
The Carphone Warehouse has today confirmed delivery of a large quantity of the Apple iPhone 3G. The handset will be available in more than 800 stores across the UK, with stock expected to arrive by 14:00hrs on Thursday 24 July. This will be the largest delivery of the iPhone 3G since stores sold out on the 11 July launch, following unprecedented demand. Orders can also now be placed online at www.carphonewarehouse.com/iphone
The website is showing “Due Friday 25th” on all models.
Does your iPhone 3G sound different?
Here’s one for the 3G owners: does your iPhone sound different to your old iPhone when you’re playing music? I’m using the same headphones, same EQ settings and same music, but the 3G sounds less bassy than the first-gen iPhone: it’s hard to explain, but the best way I can describe it is that the overall sound is crisper but it’s lost some of the low-end thump. Which is a pain when there’s no manual EQ setting.
Anybody else finding the same thing? It’s definitely not my imagination.
More iPhone 3G nonsense
As Charles Arthur puts it: O2 opens brewery, forgets bottles.
For what it’s worth my local Carphone Warehouse didn’t open at 8.02; it opened at 9, and when the doors opened there were five people already at the counter. Maybe they were magicians, or maybe they were friends and family of staff. IT IS A MYSTERY!
It seems the shop’s total allocation was a mighty eight 8GB phones and 4 16-giggers. Credit checks - for existing customers, despite O2’s repeated comments that existing customers wouldn’t need a credit check - are taking an hour-plus.
What a shambles.
On O2’s iPhone upgrade system
If you’re only allowing people to upgrade online and you’re encouraging every single one of them to visit at the same time, it might be an idea to check that (a) your website works and (b) it can cope with the demand.
Just a thought.
Baby Bigmouth reviews the iPhone
While everyone was getting excited about the iPhone 3G, Baby Bigmouth was getting excited about the current model: she grabbed it out of my hands, attempted to eat it and burst into tears when I took it back. She’s never like that with toys usually…
iPhone again: GPS and the future of Facebook
Although yesterday’s Apple demos went on a bit, the one for social network Loopt was interesting. Thanks to the iPhone’s GPS, it enables you to see your social networking friends on a map and message them - so for example if you’re in New York with time to kill, you can see if anyone you know is nearby and say “fancy a beer?”
So far there’s been lots of talk about location-aware internet stuff, but it’s hardly captured the mainstream. Location-aware Facebook - or a new rival that does the Facebook thing better, which could be Loopt; it’s available as a Facebook app already - could be massive. And that’s just the most obvious example. Scratch your head for a bit and all kinds of interesting location-aware apps spring to mind. Looking at a car and want to know if there are other, similar ones nearby in other dealers? Want to find a restaurant near you but would like to see the menu, customer comments and so on? You get the idea.
I know Loopt isn’t iPhone-exclusive, but it’s at its most impressive on the Apple machine - which, of course, also offers a peerless mobile internet experience (especially now it’s 3G). Same applies to other location-aware mobile services. So what does the iPhone bring to the party? Combine a good mobile web browser, easy application development (so I’m told; I’m not a developer) with access to the GPS functionality, reasonable price plans, low purchase cost and the likelihood that the iPhone’s going to sell absolute shitloads, and you’ve got a potentially amazing platform for location-aware internet stuff.
None of these things are new, but then Apple doesn’t usually invent; it perfects - and to me, it appears that Apple may have done exactly that with the mobile internet. Things are about to get very interesting.
iPhone - free on O2 if you go for a pricey contract; pay as you go available too
O2’s put up its iPhone 3G prices: free on £45 per month contract or £99 on the cheaper tariffs, including a new £30/month plan. There’s a pay as you go version coming too - teenagers will love that - and existing iPhone customers can get a free upgrade if they’re willing to take the £45 contract.
Those prices are for the 8GB version.The 16GB is £159 on the £30 and £35 per month plans, £59 on £45 and free on the £75 per month plan. Pay as you go prices aren’t up yet.
If you’re upgrading, you’ll be able to pass your existing iPhone on:
We want to make sure you find a good home for your existing iPhone once you upgrade. If you’ve a friend or family member already on an eligible O2 tariff, they’ll be able to transfer to one of our new tariffs for iPhone. If they’re not already with O2 or on an eligible O2 tariff, they could get one of our new iPhone Pay & Go SIM cards.