MrBen

Having been stuck in a contract for some time with a Nokia N95, I’ve been struggling to be patient awaiting my chance to move on! So what conclusions have I reached after a week?

My iPhone is the 3GS 16Gb model which seemed a good compromise, as I wanted the better bits of the 3GS but the 32Gb required more upfront cost. I don’t see me having a problem with 16Gb – there’s plenty of space at the moment!

My favourite features to date:

- The User Interface. The UI has to be iPhone’s biggest selling point and it has impressed me even more as I live with it. Very little need to check how to do things as it is very intuitive, and menus are very logical. I found I adapted to the touchscreen very quickly, and even text entry has taken very little time to get used to.

- Integration with Google Apps using Google sync. This was ridiculously easy to set up, and immediately synced my contacts, calendar items and emails. It’s so nice to have a properly synced calendar available, rather than having to wait until I plugged my phone in at home with my previous phone, which of course I usually forgot to do!

- Apps! Of course, the app store is another huge selling point for the iPhone. I’ve been playing with the obvious apps, such as the excellent Facebook app, and the Google app – I especially love voice search, although it doesn’t always get what I said first time – I’ve found trying a bit of an american accent seems to help! I’ve also downloaded lots of games, I enjoy little puzzle games and have spent far too much time on Minesweeper – it’s taken me back to my early Windows days!

So far, I’m less impressed with:

- Signal strength. My Nokia was awesome at finding a signal. I live mid-way up one side of a quite steep valley, and a lot of people struggle to get a signal at my home. My Nokia always managed, but the iPhone never gets beyond half signal, and sometimes loses signal entirely. I realised that I am using a three or four year old SIM card, so have ordered a new one – hopefully this might help as other users have reported benefitting from a new SIM.

- Battery power. The downside of such a useful device is I do play with it a lot, and on one day I nearly exhausted the battery in one day. It’s not the end of the world, but just need to make sure I charge it when I get the opportunity. I’ve ordered a car charger and another USB cable to use at work, so this will help.

- Addiction. I’ve spent far too much time recently playing with my phone. I find myself in social situations ignoring the conversation to read an email. Not good! Hopefully the excitement will wear off enough to enable me to revert to being a bit more normal (I’ve never been all that normal!).

In conclusion, I’m definitely converted, the iPhone is everything I’d hoped, and I’m looking forward to playing with lots more apps – I’ll try and talk about the best ones here.

What’s interested me this week – January 15, 2010

Ben — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:05:53 +0000

Battle Of The Sexes: Autocomplete Style

January 13, 2010

Understanding Windows 7’s ‘GodMode’ [Windows]

January 5, 2010

WebMii Shows You How the Web Sees You [Online Identity]

January 13, 2010

GDrive Is Here-ish: Google Docs to Allow Users to Upload Any File-Type [Gdrive]

January 12, 2010

Tip: More omnibox power tools

January 12, 2010

Your Passwords Aren’t As Secure As You Think; Here’s How to Fix That [Security]

January 11, 2010

Five Best DVD-Ripping Tools [Hive Five]

January 10, 2010

The Switch From iPhone To Android, And Why Your First Impression Is Wrong

January 9, 2010

Built By Google

January 10, 2010

From the Tips Box: Smartphone Speakers, Wallet Holes, and Fire Starting [From The Tips Box]

January 9, 2010

Google’s “Near Me Now” Knows Where You Are, Searches Without Typing [Search Techniques]

January 8, 2010

Mobile site live!

Ben — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:37:15 +0000

As the mobile web is one of the big things at the mo, I thought I’d play with a jolly nice plugin called the Wordpress Mobile Pack, and this site can now be viewed much better on your favourite mobile browser. So you can read the drivel on here wherever you might find yourself!

The plug in was dead simple to set up, whilst it has the flexibility to do far more than I have with it. One nice advantage is it enables the site admin to administer their site from their phone too – always useful.

I like it, I feel very mobile!!