iPhone geekery

[mockney piers]

If I do a lot of Internet I'm lucky to get four hours out of it frankly. It does recharge quickly though.

Might investigate as to whether mine specifically has a d?ff battery.

Polarize is a nice little app for making the photos from the poor camera look much better

[Fear 'n boozin]

Talking of apps, anybody else got some they can reccomend? I'm currenlty shooting rag dolls, which is much more fun than I thought it would be.

[Marmora Man]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

" the fact that it is effectively a laptop in your hand"

Yes - I'm still awed by this. As a 6th former studying A level maths I got to play on Cambridge University's computer (note the singular). It took up the space of three good sized sitting rooms, its memory was measured in 10's of kilobytes and had to be programmed using punch cards and ForTran. It took three days to write a programme for it to solve simultaneous equations. 7 years later, in my first submarine, we had 6 Ferranti 16K computers linked to manage the fire control computations (that we used to do in our heads). Now for free (02 upgrade) I have at least 1000 times the computing power in my telephone! Amazing.

[Marmora Man]

PS: iPhone does seem to generate love / hate - iPhone suicide

[david_carnell]

What's the famous line about the Apollo 11 mission to the moon having less power than a modern pocket calculator? Frightening yet massively impressive at the same time that effectively they did the whole thing with set squares, compasses and mental arithmatic.

I love my iphone compared to what I had before and often now wonder how I coped. The map function, whilst simple, has often been invaluable in parts of London I'm not used to.

Shazaam is a great app for identifying songs you don't know and vastly superior to the old dial-up version (as SeanMac will testify). LastFM is also great if you have wireless access but would munch battery otherwise.

I also have a torch, a chess game and ping-pong. I just wish my Hotmail account was compatible with the mail programme. It's only a small complaint and should teach me to upgrade to a decent email server but I can't be arsed frankly.

I have the 3G version and am now very jealous of those with 3GS but will have to wait till Xmas for an upgrade. A 4th generation model is in the pipeline however. Some Chinese guy stole one and then topped himself according to the Beeb. Now that will be impressive.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I just read that. "Topped himself" eh? Riiiiiight....

Oh and Carnell - hop to Gmail sharpish. Tis worth the "getting-off-arsage"

Piers - are you interneting through wifi or 3G - wifi consumes something like 30% of 3G so try and do that if poss

Appwise - skype for free calls and IM'ing

Shazam

London Bus and Tube Delux for travel info and planning

Wunderradio for streaming pretty much any radio station I have ever heard in the world

Allowance - for checking out how much of my contract allowance I have left at a given time

Paypal

News UK for aggregated news sources

[????]

if you sing at Shazam can it recognise the tune?

[Moos]

But you have to recharge the battery twice daily? That's appalling, and possibly a deal-breaker for me.

[SeanMacGabhann]

You don't have to recharge it twice daily - if you use it for phoning and ipoding I would say every 2-3 days if not more

And as Marmora Man says, it charges very quickly anyway - definitely no dealbreaker for me. Considering how much sheer USE I get out of the thing - frankly it still gobsmacks me

And shazam only recognizes recorded music quids - but it's free, it not only texts you the song and band name, but discography, a link to the youtube video, a link to iTunes if you feel like actually buying (!!!!) music (in this day and age?) tour dates if they are on tour etc

People used to have to pay 50p every single time! And all they got was a text with teh name of the song! pah

[mockney piers]

You just have to learn coping strategies moo, I'd go for it. As dc says, for the 'where am i' map alone it is priceless

[bigbadwolf]

I reckon that by about 2050 A.D Apple inc will have achieved world domination with Steve Jobs as head of the new world order with Bill Gates as his bitch.

I reckon Mockney has been enlightened or paid off and has his place confirmed amongst the new ruling body.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

I'll probably be banned after posting this.

See you on the other side.

[mockney piers]

BBW posted that on his diamond studded iPhone 4GTi as donated to him by Steve Jobs. It's specially designed to respond to the cold touch of a lizard.

Also just wondering DC, why the jealousy. Post OS upgrade there's not apotheosis in it if you don't care about video.

*edit - apotheosis, nice, but iPhone bigging itself up. Was meant to be 'a lot in it'*

[bigbadwolf]

Why has the forum gone from a blue and white background to beige and white, was it something I said or is it just my P.C?

[david_carnell]

Video and an improved camera would be nice, MP, but also the increased capacity. I'm on a lowly 8GB model currently and close to reaching full. And I'm nowhere near to having uploaded all my music.

[SeanMacGabhann]

a third faster processor as well does help - and it claims to have a better battery life (altho that is debated furiously on some forums)

[mockney piers]

Fair enough. I keep iPod duties to the iPod. 120gb plus it actuall does last about 42 hours play time, which is pretty amazing for a non solid state machine!!

[brum]

> a link to iTunes if you feel like actually

> buying (!!!!) music (in this day and age?)

I've just bought a new model and am a complete novice, having never even owned an ipod before. So, excuse me for seeming dim, but how do you get the music without paying for it? I'm loving the iphone by the way, great pics, video and I'm learning new tricks every day.

[SeanMacGabhann]

well you can listen to music for free on spotify.com, or youtube

But if you want to own music you should pay, of course...

[brum]

I only ever want to listen to the music Sean, so I should be ok! Thanks!

[MrBen]

Hold up gizmo loving, Guardian reading geeks. I'm def NOT a fan. Well yet.....here's why:

I have a spanking new 13 inch 4GB Macbook and am a long term I Podder so yes, I appreciate the wonders of Apple, the beautiful design and a UI that just *works*. But reality check please - its clever and keeps nerds happy on the 40 into work but performance wise as a phone its just not there. In fact CONVERGENCE isn't there yet. Why? Well here's what I need as a bare minimum just to survive my own daily corporate war of terror.

- A battery that LASTS. And I don't mean just 30 mins listening to your Best of Keane on the train in and a ten minute chat to your mate about . I need at least 3 hours talk time and a 2 day charge so that when the CEO of Big Schlong Ltd calls I don't cut him off because I've been playing online scrabble with someone from Orkney or making "clever" sounds like a train hitting an obese cat.

- A phone that works in the exactly the same way across the world - from the lounge at JFK to a tapas bar in Madrid whether texting, accessing voicemail or using numbers/speed dials in my address book.

- I want the ENTIRE contents of my 80 Gb I pod on it..... including the collection of Buddhist chants my mum gave me, the bootleg I made of Buddy Guy in Chicago, podcasts of The Bottom Line and the full back catalogue of Huey Lewis and the News.

- It must be fully compatible with MS Exchange server, seamlessly sync'ing my calender, contacts and Outlook mailbox with support to open MS Office apps for attachments.

- It must be light enough to carry about all day and not destroy or sag the lining of a suit pocket (when I'm wearing one).

The iphone cant do all of this or even some of this very well. In fact, to my knowledge nothing can which is why after learning the hard way I carry a trusty Nokia (every hotel, everywhere, has a Nokia charger behind reception), a Blackberry and my I Pod touch. All carried in a kind of black weekend bag which makes me look like Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Or a hit man / plumber.

Tell me I'm wrong.....

[david_carnell]

I wish I could be you Mr Ben.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

And where do you keep your Swiss Army Knife?

[bigbadwolf]

In his Swiss Army phone.

[MrBen]

I'm sure there's some app you can buy for ?4.99 that does that

[bigbadwolf]

Need a glass of water? There's a tap for that.

Tired? There's a nap for that.

Forgot your anniversary? There's a slap for that.

Got anymore iphone app gags? There's a slow sardonic clap for that.