A few weeks ago I bought a pay and go iphone to use on my O2 contract. I am used to windows mobile devices but there were just some things I was fed up with about windows mobile that prompted the change. On the flipside of course there are many things that windows mobile can do that the iphone cannot, so it is a trade off on what features a person prefers.
The one thing I do love about the iphone is the uniform way that everything looks and feels. Most programs have the same font and size and even downloaded applications have the same feel to them so the whole user experience is slick and everything gels together. The lack of uniformity was one of my windows mobile annoyances. I could have some programs using a certain font size and other programs would insist on using something smaller which may make someone reach for the magnifying glass.
I love the app store, all the apps are so much cheaper than similar appplications for Windows Mobile and Symbian. Maybe the cheaper price is due to the fact that windows mobile and symbian have such variations in models that programmers have to cater for countless options – different screen sizes, different processor speeds and memory and so on, whereas there is only one type of iphone to cater for, apart from the minor difference of 2G and 3G models.
I love everything about the iphone, I can even use that horrible keyboard easily enough but I do have one problem though – every 4 or 5 calls I make end up with a very loud screeching when the person picks up the call. It is like a fax machine but louder and nastier – like a fax machine wearing a hoodie. The only way to get out is hang up and try again. Has anybody any experience of this problem and how to fix it please?
Glad you’re liking the iPhone experience. I also have the screeching noises you get when sometimes trying to make a call.
It wasn’t just isolated to my iPhone though, the same thing also happened with my old Nokia N73. From what I can gather, it appears to be a reception issue. It will only happen with 3G enabled, and usually in low signal areas.
I have to say that does tie in with me experiences, it normally happens when I try to make a call from work. The theatre is never great for mobile reception at the best of times. It doesn’t happen as frequently as you say you get it, but perhaps you’re not in such a good area? If it really causes you a problem, try turning off 3G for a while and see if that cures the problem.
Thanks Luffer. I did read a suggestion in a forum to turn 3G off so I will try that. I am in a good reception area though and usually get 4-5 bars.
On the subject of apps, have you seen the new sky+ app? It has the full planner and remote record although I cannot set that bit up yet as my sky box insists it is not attached the the phoneline when it is.
Yeah I have seen that app, and installed it on my phone. It only stayed there for about 5 minutes though. It’s terrible!
There are so many things wrong with it, and better alternatives exist.
It’s ugly for a start, still sticking with the horrible blocky Blue EPG. It’s slow as hell, downloading information takes an age and it repeats this process for every page you look at. It doesn’t work in landscape mode, which is the natural thing you want to do. In portrait it can only show one hour at a time.
The touch screen doesn’t let you scroll up and down the channels using gestures, you have to use page up/down buttons instead.
There are much better apps on the store that do all this and more. Try Tioti TV+, it really shows the sort of thing Sky should be providing! It costs £1.79 but it’s worth every penny.
I will look into Tioti but at the moment there is no paying paying for something when I cannot get the remote record to work.
I was looking back at your iphone post on your blog and thinking about the Cycorder app you have. How does it manage to do video recording when the phone has just a stills camera?
I dunno, Witchcraft perhaps?
As far as I can tell it just takes lots of stills very quickly. Which is all any video camera does
It can only record at a maximum 15fps, but that’s plenty fast enough for general use, but probably not much good for fast action. It also shoots fewer frames per second in low light.
I’ll do a brief recording with it now….
It’s uploading, gimmie a minute and I’ll post the link
…..
Well here’s the link but it claims there’s a 95 minute wait for conversion:
http://www.vimeo.com/4084043
It’s not the greatest video, I’m recording in artificial light which isn’t the best environment for it. But it proves it works!
Well that is pretty impressive and the guy is very clever. if he can do it then there is no reason why apple could not include it in the next firmware – except the financial reason of course as they could market the new model as having video.
So far this app is the only one to tempt me to jailbreak the phone, but I dont think its enough.