Archive for iPhone

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Hey IT Nerd! I Want An iPhone 4S. Which One Should I Get? 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB?

Posted in Tips with tags , on July 14, 2012 by itnerd

This is a question I get a lot. What iPhone 4S should I get? 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB? It depends what type of user you are. Do you take lots of photos? Do you plan on using the video camera? Do you have a large music collection? Those are all factors that will influence which phone you buy. Not only that, but you have to remember that the iPhone is not expandable. So you must choose wisely. Here’s how I would make my decision:

  • If you just need a smartphone and you don’t plan on storing a lot of photos or music or apps on it, or you’re not a heavy video user, then get the 16GB version. If this is you, you’re not a person who’s going to need a lot of space. Thus you can get the entry level iPhone 4S.
  • If you’re the type that wants lots of apps and wants to leverage the 8MP camera for both stills and video, then the 32GB iPhone 4S is for you. You’ll need the space and have room left over.
  • If you’re a video or photo addict and you have a huge music library or you want every app that you can get, the 64GB iPhone 4S is for you. The video part is key. One hour of 1080p video takes up roughly 10GB of space. Thus you’re going to need 64GB.

Oh, for people looking for other smartphones, you can likely take this logic and apply it to whatever phone you’re looking at.

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Nielsen Says Android Leads, Apple Follows, And Blackberry Dying In Q2 2012

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on July 12, 2012 by itnerd

Nielsen released stats about smartphone purchases in Q2 2012. A bunch of things pop out. First of all, 2 of 3 Americans are opting for smartphones. But what are they opting for? Here’s the stone cold truth:

Android continues to lead the smartphone market in the U.S., with a majority of smartphone owners (51.8%) using an Android OS handset. Over a third (34.3%) of smartphone owners use an Apple iPhone, and Blackberry owners represented another 8.1 percent of the smartphone market.

Well. I think that tells a lot. Nobody wants a Blackberry which is just one more nail in their coffin. Consider that not to long ago Blackberry marketshare was 15%. Another thing to note is that Apple isn’t as dominant as you might think in the smartphone market. They may sell more than any smartphone manufacturer. But clearly all the Android manufacturers combined give Android a bigger market share. That’s something that cannot be ignored.

Let’s see what happens in Q3. Android 4.1 should be out by then along with the much rumored iPhone 5. And there will be no new Blackberry product on the streets. I can guess what the results will be.

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University Of Windsor Announces Mobile App To Help Students

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on May 17, 2012 by itnerd

I get a bunch of press releases in my inbox every day. This one got my attention. The University Of Windsor has announced that they have come out with an app for smartphones that helps students. How does it help students? Here’s how:

Among the services and information students will now be able to access through their phones are:

  • capability to review courses, schedules, grades and exams
  • update financial information on their accounts, including their UWinCARDS and meal plans
  • ability to receive direct messages from professors and course instructors
  • a campus map which will allow them to search for specific buildings
  • check out menus and daily specials at the Market Place Cafe
  • get updates on Lancer sports
  • gain access to such social media sites as the UWindsor’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter feed
  • ability to listen to CJAM, the University’s campus radio station

“It is a priority for the University of Windsor to enhance the student experience with a wide variety of convenient services,” said UWindsor president Alan Wildeman. “Our IT and Public Affairs and Communications departments have been hard at work over the past several months working on the development and launch of this new tool that gives you access to many campus services right in the palm of your hand. It’s a powerful way of keeping our students, staff, faculty, visitors and alumni in touch with all the exciting things happening at their university.”

I could have used this app when I was in school. But I went to school when cell phones were just becoming popular and the most popular apps (or applications as my generation called them) were WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 which I used on DOS on my trusty Toshiba T1000SE laptop that I took to all my classes.  There. I just dated myself.

The apps are free to download for your iPhone, BlackBerry and Android smartphones. If you’re a student of the University Of Windsor, this is a must download. I also expect other universities to be following the lead of the University Of Windsor as well.

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iOS 5.0.1 Update Doesn’t Fix iPhone 4S Battery Issues

Posted in Commentary with tags , on November 13, 2011 by itnerd

Since the release of the iPhone 4S there have been reports of substandard battery life. Apple committed to coming out with a fix and this past week they did. iOS 5.0.1 arrived with the promise of fixing the issue, but it didn’t take long for reports that the update doesn’t completely address the problem. Apple for their part had this to say:

“The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” the company said in a statement given to AllThingsD. “We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”

So a full fix is still in the cards and iPhone 4S users will have to wait for their problems to be fully addressed.

I bet the fanbois are not happy right now.

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iPhone 4s Has Problems With Battery Life, Audio, And Siri… Fanbois Despair

Posted in Commentary with tags , on November 4, 2011 by itnerd

If you have an iPhone 4s, you’re likely not a happy camper at the moment. First, Apple admitted that there is a software problem with the iPhone 4s that causes it to drain its battery faster than it should:

“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a released statement.

“We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

I’m not so sure that it’s a “small number” as Twitter seems to have a healthy amount of people who are complaining about this. At least it’s being handled better than “Antennagate.” The second problem is a significant outage with the Siri assistant that is present within the iPhone 4s that started yesterday:

The Siri problems have been ongoing for at least three hours, with only intermittent service available over that time. In general, users have been faced with error messages in which Siri reports being unable to connect to the network.

Now to be fair, Apple considers the service to be a beta. So this is something that users can expect to see over the next little while. Third, the Boy Genius reports that users are complaining about audio issues:

According to multiple threads on Apple’s support forum, hundreds of iPhone 4S users are experiencing an audio echo during voice calls when using a wired headset. Users across multiple wireless carriers with various iPhone 4S models report that audio quality on voice calls often depletes after a period of time, and the voice of the caller on the other end of the line begins to echo. BGR was able to independently confirm the echo bug on one of our iPhone 4S handsets.

Clearly Apple has some issues with the iPhone 4s. You can bet that many eyes will be watching them deal with these issues as they are the current smartphone kings as that’s what happens when you are at the top of the heap.

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Probation For iPhone Prototype Sellers

Posted in Commentary with tags , on October 11, 2011 by itnerd

You might recall that Apple “lost” a prototype phone which set off a bit of a circus that included police raids. Now the people who sold the phone to Gizmodo got their day in court:

The men, who were accused of selling the device to gadget blog Gizmodo last year, were sentenced to one year of probation, 40 hours of public service, and a requirement that each pay $250 in restitution to Apple, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told CNET.

Brian Hogan, the man who allegedly found the prototype in a bar, and Sage Wallower, who allegedly helped Hogan shop the device around to technology sites, were charged with misdemeanor theft in early August. They allegedly obtained the prototype iPhone 4 after Robert Gray Powell, an Apple computer engineer who was 28 years old at the time, left it in a German beer garden in Redwood City, Calif., about half an hour’s drive from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.

Well. That puts an end to this story. As long as it doesn’t happen again.

Oh wait.

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Apple Releases New iPhone 4S And iPods…. World Says “Where’s The iPhone 5?” [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on October 4, 2011 by itnerd

Today was the first Apple media event that didn’t have Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple, but that to my surprise was not the main storyline. The main storyline was a new iPhone. No, it was the iPhone 5 that was rumored for weeks. Instead, the fanbois got the iPhone 4S. It looks the same as the iPhone 4, but everything inside is new. It has Apple’s A5 dual core processor that is in the iPad . That makes the phone 7x faster than the iPhone 4. It has an 8 megapixel camera that also records 1080p video. In an attempt to avoid another episode of “antennagate” it has a completely redesigned the antenna system which makes the iPhone 5 the first phone to intelligently switch between antennas for sending and receiving. The phone has a new feature called Siri which is an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by using speech. Another new feature is that the iPhone 4S has both GSM and CDMA technologies, and also supports HSDPA download speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps. That’s great news because Sprint in the USA will get the iPhone. Maybe that will stop their bleeding.

But I digress.

iOS 5 will make an appearance on this phone (with upgrades for existing iDevices coming soon). Not to mention Bluetooth 4.0. Sweet.

The phone will be available in both black and white and comes in three difference capacities: 16 GB  for $199 US, 32 GB for $299 US, and 64 GB for $399 US. All the prices I quoted are for the usual 3 year contract with the carrier of your choice. Pre-orders beginning this Friday, October 7 and they should be in stores on Friday, October 14th in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

iPods were featured as well. The new iPod Touch was announced in 8 GB, 32 GB and 64GB sizes with iOS 5 included. They have a white unit shipping alongside a black unit. Expect to pay $199 US and up for one starting on October 12th. Joining the iPod Touch is the new iPod Nano. The user interface has been updated to improve navigation and it now 16 clock faces to facilitate its use as a watch. Nike+ is now usable out of the box without additional hardware (such as a sensor in a Nike branded shoe which my wife who is a running enthusiast hated because it limited her choice of shoes to Nike shoes). Expect to pay $129 US for the 8GB model and $149 US for the 16GB model. They’re in stores now.

So what do you think of all of this? Do you miss the fact that there was no iPhone 5 announced? Leave a comment below.

UPDATE: A video of the media event is now online.

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Apple Expected To Unveil New iPhone On October 4th

Posted in Commentary with tags , on September 27, 2011 by itnerd

The news has spread around the Internet that Apple is going to have some sort of media event on October 4th. This is expected to be the announcement of the new iPhone. Little is known about this iPhone, so your guess is as good as mine in terms of what its going to be. But if you come across that prototype that was lost not to long ago, maybe that would give us some clue.

See you next week!

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Apple Loses Prototype iPhone Again

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 2, 2011 by itnerd

This is starting to become a bit of a joke. An Apple employee goes to a bar and loses a prototype iPhone. For those of you keeping score at home, this is the second time that this has happened. So far there’s no sign of the phone, unlike the last time that this happened. But Apple clearly wants it back:

A day or two after the phone was lost at San Francisco’s Cava 22, which describes itself as a “tequila lounge” that also serves lime-marinated shrimp ceviche, Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said.

Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, according to the source.

When San Francisco police and Apple’s investigators visited the house, they spoke with a man in his twenties who acknowledged being at Cava 22 on the night the device went missing. But he denied knowing anything about the phone. The man gave police permission to search the house, and they found nothing, the source said. Before leaving the house, the Apple employees offered the man money for the phone no questions asked, the source said, adding that the man continued to deny he had knowledge of the phone.

In an interview this afternoon, Jose Valle told CNET that neither the police nor Apple security ever contacted him. Valle, who owns the bar with his family, said however he does remember a man calling multiple times about a lost iPhone about a month ago. He told the man he would call him back if he ever found the phone.

“I guess I have to make my drinks a little less strong,” Valle said.

I have to admit that either Apple has to get it’s act together when it comes to prototypes, or keep it’s employees out of bars. This is really embarrassing. I guess we’ll just have to wait for it to show up on a technology blog. Not this one though.

🙂

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Have Allegeries? Need Help Coping? There’s An App For That.

Posted in Commentary with tags , on August 18, 2011 by itnerd

I got something in my inbox today from Reactine which is an over the counter allergy drug, announcing their new iPhone app:

As many as nine million allergy sufferers across Canada now have a new tool to tackle hay fever season. Launched today, the REACTINE® Allergy Forecast for iPhone®, is the first and only iPhone app in Canada that provides three-day allergy and weather forecasts. Now sufferers can take control of their allergies by planning ahead, knowing when allergy symptoms are likely to be at their worst.

Being an Allergy sufferer myself, I could use this app. Too bad I’m a Blackberry user. Perhaps they’ll come out with a version for Blackberry (and Android too).

I digress.

Here’s the rationale behind this app:

“We keep hearing patients complain of worsening allergy symptoms that are lasting for a longer period of time,” says Dr. Susan Waserman, Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, McMaster University. “What many people don’t realize is how factors such as changing weather patterns can have an impact on how people are experiencing their symptoms.”

And:

“We know that one of the best defenses against allergy symptoms is regularly taking allergy medication,” says Dr. Waserman. “The REACTINE® Allergy Forecast is a great tool that provides an early-warning system for sufferers so they can act proactively, rather than waiting until the symptoms are already in full effect.”

The app is free and available for download today. If you’re an allergy sufferer, you should check it out.

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