November 9th, 2009

Gallery: Droid vs. iPhone

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 4:00 am

Categories: Droid, Gallery, iPhone, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Keyboards, Smart Phones, Hardware, Peripherals, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

I’ve posted a gallery of the Droid smartphone by Motorola and Verizon Wireless. The first several photos are views of the handset by itself and the last provides a comparison to the iPhone. The hardware design of Droid is solid if a little bulky. It’s larger and heavier than the iPhone (6 oz. vs. 4.8 oz.) but that’s a side-effect of the slide out keyboard. The keyboard requires some effort to slide up and isn’t spring-assisted like some other devices like the Sidekick. The keyboard itself is disappointing and mushy as I said in my review, but there’s always the virtual keyboard which arrived in Android 1.5 (Cupcake).

Check out all the pictures here.

November 2nd, 2009

UPS introduces iPhone app

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 12:14 pm

Categories: iPhone, iPhone 3GS

Tags: United Parcel Service Of America Inc., Apple iPhone, Shipment, GPS, Smart Phones, Handhelds, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Hardware, David Morgenstern

UPS late last week released UPS Mobile, a free iPhone app that lets users manage shipments.

The app offers capabilities whether or not a user has a ups.com account. In addition, it uses the iPhone 3G series GPS to help users find a nearby service point.

Mobile is specially designed with features that let you easily manage your shipments on the go. This app lets you track and nickname shipments, create shipping labels, find UPS service locations via GPS, and estimate shipment costs and delivery times.

Without logging in, you can:
- Track package and freight shipments
- Find UPS service locations via GPS
- Estimate shipment costs and delivery times.

When you log in with a my UPS ID, you can also:
- Nckname tract shipments
- See your recent tracks from ups.com
- Create shipping labels to e-mail, then print. (For US domestic or US to international document shipments.)
- Access your ups.com address book
- Use saved shipping and payment preferences

October 14th, 2009

Apple shipping new jailbreak-proof iPhone 3GS

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:36 am

Categories: Jailbreak, iPhone, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

Barely three days have passed since Geohot released the fabled Blackra1n jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS (which is now available for the Mac, pictured) and Apple has already issued a smackdown to the iPhone Dev Team.

Apple is attempting to stop the jailbreak in its tracks by shipping new iPhones with an updated bootrom (iBoot-359.3.2) that is resistant to the 24kpwn exploit used by the Dev-Team and others to jailbreak the iPhone. BGR notes that the DevTeam has confirmed that Apple’s new bootrom update makes new iPhone’s “impossible” to JB – for now.

July 30th, 2009

Crazy talk: Apple should ditch the Mac?

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 5:24 pm

Categories: AAPL, Consumer electronics, Mac OS, Smartphone, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Macintosh, Margin, Apple Inc., Desktops, Smart Phones, Hardware, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, David Morgenstern

Industry observers point to the amazing margins of the iPhone and the declining margins for computers. So, of course, the logical course of action is for Apple to abandon the Macintosh? It’s crazy talk.

In a Thursday BNET Technology post, Erik Sherman pointed to some recent analyst figures on the iPhone margins. They are amazing.

You’ll have to read his piece for the details, but the short take is that the margin of the iPhone appears to be nearly 60 percent. That’s right, in the world of consumer electronics, Apple is making such a large margin than competitors would likely break out in tears in realization of what they are missing. But instead of simply pocketing the money, it uses the financial advantage to lower Mac prices so it can be more competitive in a cost-sensitive environment.

That raises the question of whether Apple plans a complete shift away from Macs. It needs them for now, but if it can bulk up enough on iPhones and the upcoming tablet, it may be that the Mac becomes an unnecessary endeavor.

The Mac is an “unnecessary endeavor?” Come on! This is crazy talk.

Is the success of the iPhone some kind of a sign that Apple should toss aside its computer hardware and software businesses and become a one-platform company again? A move that would make it totally dependent on the cycles of a single technology, again?

Read the rest of this entry »

July 14th, 2009

Bits from Apple's iPhone deployment guide for the enterprise

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 9:56 am

Categories: 3G, iPhone 3.0, iPhone 3GS, iPhone OS 3.0, iPod touch

Tags: Apple iPhone, Device, Apple Inc., Configuration Profile, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, David Morgenstern

Following the release of the iPhone Software 3.0, Apple also presented corporate customers with its first edition of the iPhone OS Enterprise Deployment Guide. This manual is packed with instructions for setting up mass quantities of iPhones and iPod Touches as well as some interesting “important” notes and tips.

Here are some of these items that the guide considered important as well as some other items I found interesting:

First was a warning about the time it takes to remotely wipe an iPhone. This action removes all data and config info from the device, which is restored to its factory settings. But this all takes a while, a number of hours depending on how much memory the iPhone contains.

Important:  With some devices, such as older iPhone models and iPod touch, wiping can take approximately one hour for each 8 GB of device capacity. Connect these devices to a power supply before wiping. If the device turns off due to low power, the wiping process resumes when the device is connected to power.

Read the rest of this entry »

July 12th, 2009

Games load 3-4x faster on the iPhone 3GS

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:31 pm

Categories: Games, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Game, Apple iPhone, Performance, 3G, Smart Phones, Performance Management, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Human Resources

A new post at OS X reality demonstrates that the “S” in iPhone 3GS truly does stand for speed.

Although Apple touts the iPhone 3GS as “up to 2x faster” than the previous model, OS X reality notes that in gaming performance — specifically launch times — the 3GS is up to 3x faster than the iPhone 3G.

iPhone developer, Daniel Pasco, ran some test on his latest build of Plasma and found the performance boost of the 3GS over the 2nd gen iPod touch to be 2x and 4x when pitted against the 3G.

In its testing they found the 3GS was able to reduce Peggle’s load time by 16 seconds, from 24.4 to 8.1 seconds, pretty amazing results. Granted, that was the most impressive result, Rolando only loaded 26 percent faster.

This video shows the difference in load times between the iPhone 3G and the 3GS and it’s pretty impressive. It’s apparent that the iPhone 3GS clearly dominates the previous App Store performance king, the second generation iPod touch.

July 12th, 2009

3,000 queue for the iPhone 3GS in Singapore (Updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:55 pm

Categories: International, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Video, Singapore, Corporate Communications, Smart Phones, Marketing, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

I don’t know about you, but there were only about 20 people waiting in line at the iPhone 3GS launch at the Apple Store in Atlantic City on June 19, 2009.

Contrast that with this video of the iPhone 3GS launch in Singapore posted on the Apple 2.0 blog. Shot by a student named Satya who was number 10 in line, the line is estimated at 3,000 strong. Satya literally took the protective plastic off his new phone and shot a video of the line as he left the store.

As you can see by the video, the line goes on comically long, like Monty Python long. In fact, I watched it a couple of times to see if the same video was stitched together in some sort of a seamless loop. No dice, it appears to be that ridiculous. I wonder how many iPhones that they had in stock at that store anyway.

Caption contest!

My entry: “I thought this was the line for tickets to the Led Zeppelin reunion tour!”

Update: @yellowhandman notes that “The farcically long line in Singapore is ‘cuz the telco held the weekend’s launch at a SINGLE retail location.”

July 10th, 2009

One-third of mobile phones to use accelerometers by 2010

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:56 am

Categories: Hardware, iPhone, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Phone, Mobile, Cell Phone, Portrait, Smart Phones, Palm Pre, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

iSuppli reports that accelerometers are expected to appear in one-third of mobile phones shipped next year, due to their inclusion in the popular iPhone and Palm Pre handsets.

The iPhone’s accelerometer detects when you rotate iPhone from portrait to landscape and changes the display accordingly. The iPhone’s 3-axis MEMS accelerometer motion sensors are also used to control many iPhone games, power management and shake modes to control music shuffle, undo, pedometers and a host of context aware apps.

The accelerometer also works in conjunction with digital compass found in the new iPhone 3GS.

With their capability to detect and measure motion, accelerometers are the critical enablers of these features, which are an essential element of what makes these smart phones so popular. These capabilities now are spreading beyond smart phones to other types of handsets.

iSuppli’s teardown of the iPhone 3GS revealed the use of a 3-axis MEMS accelerometer from STMicroelectronics. Its teardown of Palm Pre identified a Kionix Inc. MEMS accelerometer and inclinometer.

But Apple and Palm aren’t the only players, 38 percent of new Nokia handsets have integrated motion-sensing accelerometers since January. Sony Ericsson had the highest penetration of accelerometers, with 18 out of 19 new phones models introduced this year. Samsung and LG also are offering new phones with 3-axis accelerometers.

I find the iPhone’s accelerometer particularly fun in the Dinner Spinner app and in dice games like Motion X Poker. It’s also especially effective in the iPhone version of the classic Labyrinth game. However, I find that the accelerometer gets in the way in iPhone’s Shake To Undo feature and I wish that I could turn it off.

What’s your favorite application of the iPhone’s accelerometer?

July 7th, 2009

iPhone 3GS users complain of poor battery life

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:40 am

Categories: Battery, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Battery, iPhone 3GS, Smart Phones, Engineering, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

The LA Times dubbed it iDrain, iPhone 3GS users are calling it a royal pain.

Despite Apple’s claims that the iPhone 3GS comes with “longer battery life” users are complaining that its new vunder-handset actually has less battery life than with the previous model.

iFixIt noted in its recent teardown that the iPhone 3GS battery is six percent larger than the iPhone 3G battery, leading many to suspect that iPhone OS 3.0 may be the culprit.

Apple promises improved battery life with the 3GS. The battery is listed as 3.7V and 4.51 Whr. This comes out to 1219 mAh, compared to 1150 mAh on the 3G. That’s only a 6% increase.

ComputerWorld notes that users have been reporting worse battery life on all iPhones since the day the iPhone OS 3.0 was released:

Users started complaining about poor battery performance almost as soon as Apple offered iPhone 3.0, the software available for download June 17 for first-generation iPhones and second-generation iPhone 3Gs. The new iPhone 3GS relies on the same software.

“After updating to [iPhone] 3.0 the battery life is very short. It consumes 5%-10% an hour,” claimed an original iPhone user identified as “ukfasthands” in a message posted on Apple’s support forum June 17.

A colleague recently complained that during a four-hour flight in airplane mode his iPhone 3GS battery dropped from 85 to 27 percent while composing 17 emails and recording a two-minute video. Another potential culprit is the iPhone’s recently activated push notication feature. Scott Forstall claimed that push would cause a 20 percent drop in battery life.

If you’re afflicted you’ll most likely have to wait until Apple releases iPhone OS 3.1, or if we’re lucky, some battery improvement could come with the security update that’s been promised for the end of July. In the mean time, try implementing some of my and Apple’s iPhone battery savings tips, including:

1. Minimize use of location services
2. Turn off push notifications
3. Fetch new data less frequently
4. Turn off push mail
5. Auto-check fewer email accounts
6. Minimize use of third-party applications
7. Turn off Wi-Fi
8. Turn off Bluetooth
9. Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
10. Adjust brightness
11. Turn off EQ
12. Turn off 3G

How is your battery life with the iPhone 3GS? Chime in in the TalkBack below.

Photo: The iPhone Blog

July 5th, 2009

iPhone 3GS unlock available on Mac OS X

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:37 pm

Categories: Jailbreak, Unlock, iPhone, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Mac OS, Apple Macintosh, Apple Mac OS X, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

George Hotz was the first to release a jailbreak app for the iPhone 3GS — the only problem was that it was only available for Windows. Now there’s a Mac-based jailbreak solution for the 3GS, Purplera1n RC2a has been released for the Mac. iPhoneHacks.com has posted a detailed step-by-step of the process.

If simply jailbreaking your iPhone isn’t enough and you feel compelled to unlock your shiny new iPhone 3GS too, there’s an app for that. If you’ve jailbroken via Purplera1n RC2a you can use the iPhone Dev Team’s UltraSn0w to unlock an iPhone 3GS (video).