Iphone Dandy by Christian Ulvog

iPhone 5 Might Not Launch Until Later This Year… Or 2012?

iphonedandy — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:44:05 +0000

Apple will not unveil a new iPhone at its WWDC conference in June, a few sites are reporting today.

If true, this would make it the first time since the iPhone existed that Apple didn’t show off a new phone at the conference.

So will Apple CEO Steve Jobs even bother showing up and taking the stage?

Jobs is, after all, on medical leave. (Even though he led the iPad 2 unveiling in early March.)

So this could be an opportunity to let someone else — say, marketing boss Phil Schiller — run the keynote again. It sounds like there won’t be anything new for Steve to get photographed holding — just new operating systems and perhaps some cloud services to demonstrate.

From:

http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-5-might-not-launch-until-later-this-year-or-2012-2011-3#ixzz1Huw6oS00

-Christian Ulvog

Still Waiting: A Look at the iPhone 5 Release Date

iphonedandy — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:23:29 +0000

The amount of the Internet that is populated with iPhone and iPad rumors is absolutely staggering. Now that the iPad 2 announcements have come through, the iPhone 5 is getting the full attention of the rumor blogs. The most consistent piece of conjecture is around when the iPhone release date is going to be, and there is still no confirmation.

Possible iPhone 5 Release Date

Many of the newest reports, or well-accepted rumors, are listing the iPhone 5-release date around July, yet a specific date around there is still too vague to claim. What is really unclear about this July iPhone 5 release date is to whether or not this will be both for AT&T and Verizon iPhones. The Verizon iPhone 4 has only been out for a matter of weeks and it would seem rushed, and would make those who jumped over to the Verizon iPhone quickly feel as though they got a lesser model. At the same time this would simply give the AT&T loyalists a leg up with a device that the Verizon subscribers would have to stare on to.

Lesser iPhone 5

The likelihood is that there will be a universal release in July that can go one of two ways, though this may have something to say about what Apple will actually include in the iPhone 5. The advancement may be less profound than from the iPhone 3Gs to the iPhone 4 and we may see a series of more minor advancements rather than a full technological overhaul. The July iPhone 5 release date seems realistic as it plays into the one year pattern of release for iPhone models, but it still remains to be seen as to what will really be included

From:

http://www.ismashphone.com/2011/03/still-waiting-a-look-at-the-iphone-5-release-date.html

Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown

iphonedandy — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:06:58 +0000

For iPhone fans, it really was too good to be true. A pair of Apple executives had just described the latest model of the iPhone — the 3GS — onstage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009. The audience loved it. The 3GS was twice as fast as its predecessor, it included a camera that shot video, and the updated iPhone operating system enabled multimedia messaging and tethering — the ability to use the phone as a modem. Just one problem: While many customers in Europe and Asia could enjoy all those features, AT&T, the iPhone’s sole US carrier, wouldn’t allow video messaging or tethering at launch. In other words, the most advanced features wouldn’t be available to AT&T customers. What’s more, some current iPhone users who wanted to upgrade wouldn’t get the subsidies that new customers enjoyed. Incensed iPhone fanatics vented their fury on Twitter. “AT&T has been one disappointment after another.” “Is AT&T trying to squeeze more money from us poor suckers?” And they punctuated their complaints with a hashtag — the Twitter convention for grouping conversations — that became an eight-character protest slogan: #attfail.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/07/ff_att_fail/all/1

Sneak Peek: Hands-On With iPhone OS 4 Beta

iphonedandy — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:19:44 +0000

From: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/05/iphone-os4-beta/

Although Apple’s next iPhone operating system is at least a month away from release, Wired.com got a hands-on peek at the latest beta and found some interesting goodies that have not been officially announced.

Most notably, the iPhone OS 4 beta 3 software includes a brand new iPod widget and a file-sharing feature that was previously exclusive to the iPad. (These features were previously reported by Boy Genius Report.)

Other new features we tested were those that were on display during Apple’s recent iPhone event: multitasking, folders, universal e-mail, wallpaper and camera zoom. Taken together, they paint a picture of an operating system that is well on its way to a major upgrade, one that will greatly increase the usability of Apple’s growing family of iPhone OS-based devices.

The iPhone OS is Apple’s mobile platform, which powers the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. After releasing the iPad, iPhone OS 4 will be Apple’s next move to do battle in an increasingly competitive mobile landscape. Currently, Apple’s biggest rival is Google’s Android OS, and upcoming contenders include Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 and HP, which recently acquired Palm.

Apple has said the iPhone OS 4 upgrade will be available this summer for iPhones (3G and 3GS models) and the third-generation iPod Touch, and in the fall for the iPad. (The older iPod Touch devices and the first-generation iPhone will not support the OS.)

Apple has released previous iPhone OS upgrades during its Worldwide Developers Conference in years past. Apple’s upcoming WWDC kicks off June 7, so expect the official upgrade to become available for download around then.

Meanwhile, take a look at what we found in the beta to get an idea of what to expect.

Multitasking

This couldn’t have come at a better time. Pressing the Home button twice brings up a bar at the bottom of the screen that shows apps that are running in the background. Tap an icon and the main screen very quickly rotates over to the corresponding app. This is far more efficient than the current process, which requires you to press the home button to leave an app and then launch another app.

Multitasking will be especially important for the iPad for those who plan to use it for work, since it will allow quicker switching between different apps. It will also enable apps to run in the background, so you can (for instance) listen to music from the Pandora app while you chat with your friends in Meebo.

If there’s an app showing up in the multitasking bar that you’re not using often, you can hold your finger down on it until the icon jiggles. Tap the minus button in the corner and the app closes.

One caveat: Apple said multitasking will only work on the current iPhone 3GS; it does not work on the iPhone 3G.

iPod widget

In the same bar you use for multitasking, you can swipe all the way to the left to access a control panel for the iPod. Using that panel you can play, skip, or go backward a track. The widget also contains a shortcut to your iPod app in case you want to view your whole library. It works great, and I’m a big fan of this addition. Perhaps Apple will at some point introduce a widget API for third-party apps to have their own controllers similar to the iPod’s. That would be very interesting, wouldn’t it?

To the left of the iPod widget is a screen-orientation lock in case you don’t want your iPhone flipping back and forth between landscape and portrait mode. That serves the same function as the physical orientation-locking switch on the iPad.

Folders

If you’re an appoholic and want to clear some clutter from your screen, you can now create folders to hold your apps. Holding your finger on an app makes it jiggle, and you can then drag it on top of a similar app to create a folder. For example, if you drag a game on top of another game, it creates a game folder, and you can keep adding more games to it. It works smoothly, though at times you’re probably going to accidentally create folders when all you wanted to do was rearrange your apps. It takes just a few minutes to get used to, however.

Wallpaper

iPhone OS 4 now enables you to display a wallpaper behind your apps on your springboard just like you can with the iPad (or with jailbroken iPhones).

Some will enjoy this feature, but I found it fugly. The screen just looks too noisy with apps and a wallpaper in the background. Surprisingly there’s no option to disable the springboard wallpaper, but I’m guessing that was just an option that was left out of the beta. In its absence, you can simply select an all-black image as the wallpaper.

Universal e-mail

One of the most impressive and useful features in iPhone OS 4 is the ability to view e-mail from two e-mail addresses in a single inbox. An “All Inboxes” tab at the top of your Mail screen is all you have to tap. If you have multiple e-mail accounts to monitor (say, work and personal) that should cut down on the amount of time you spend reading messages. Bravo!

Camera zoom

In your camera app, if you tap and hold your finger on a specific area, you can zoom in using a sliding bar. It’s digital zoom, so of course it degrades the quality the more you zoom; a test image looked awfully blurry. There will be some situations, however, where this should come in handy.

File sharing

Finally, there’s a feature that doesn’t work at all yet but appears promising: iTunes file sharing. When your iPhone is plugged in and you click the Apps tab, you can see a File Sharing option that says it can transfer documents between your iPhone and your computer. Currently the iPad has a similar feature for syncing files to some apps, so hopefully we’ll get a working version when the official iPhone OS 4 is released.

And that about covers it for now. There were a couple of bugs here and there, as to be expected in a beta, but overall so far the OS is running very smoothly. Also, iPhone OS 4 feels significantly faster than iPhone OS 3 — much zipper Safari web browsing and overall responsiveness.

Overall, this is a big upgrade to look forward to.

Posted by Christian Ulvog

Android whips the iPhone in 2010 sales; will Apple celebrate?

iphonedandy — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:17:47 +0000

Android whips the iPhone in 2010 sales; will Apple celebrate?

Think the iPhone rules the world of smartphones and cool apps? Think again. The NPD group reports that in the first quarter of 2010, Android-based phones outsold iPhones by a good-size margin of 28% to 21%. Believe it or not, though, this may be good news for Apple.

Here’s what a press release about the NPD Group’s latest survey says about mobile operating systems sales for the first quarter of 2010:

“The Android operating system (OS) continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD’s wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent).”

Android sales have skyrocketed since the third quarter of 2009, when they were down around 4% or so, and the iPhone was in the upper twenties. In fact, since that time, the Android is the only platform to gain market share — every other mobile platform has been falling, while Android gains at their expense. You can see that vividly in the chart below, published by MediaMemo, and based on NPD data.

There’s no doubt that the numbers have been juiced by cut-rate deals by Verizon and others. Still there’s no disguising it: Android-based phones are soundly beating the iPhone.

So why might this be good news for Apple? Both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are considering an anti-trust suit against Apple over banning non-Apple tools for developing for the iPhone. But if the iPhone is only number 3 in smartphone sales, Apple might argue that the suit should be thrown out because it is not dominant in the market. By losing, Apple may come out a winner.

Posted by Christian Ulvog