iPhone as an SLR?!

There's brilliant, there's crazy, and there's Photojojo. They created a mount to attach your Canon or Nikon lenses to your iPhone in order to take network-connected SLR-quality photos. The problem, of course, is two-fold. (1) This turns your ultra-portable pocket camera into a bulky and awkward camera. (2) The sensor on even the best iPhone is still FAR below that of a low-end digital SLR. And if you want the ability to be able to quickly share SLR-quality photos on your iPhone, there is Apple's camera connection kit or EyeFi wireless cards + iPhone app

But you still have to admire their moxy. Or shamelessness. Can't decide which it is.

Captivate vs iPhone: Speed

I did not extensively test an iPhone 4, so I did not get a good feel for its multitasking. The iPhone 2G that I tested did not have multitasking. It was slow at times, but overall responsive.

Android's ability to multitask is great because you can have many apps open and running at once. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well on the Captivate due to memory issues. The good news is that turning off some of the widgets and using Advanced Task Killer to periodically kill lingering apps has helped. The downside of this is that it can cause the battery to drain more quickly. Reports are that the new firmware, available in Europe, solves the issue. This will hopefully be fixed with the Android 2.2 (Froyo) update due in September for the Captivate. The biggest place where this is a problem is that the onscreen buttons don't always respond. Once or twice I've caught myself trying to press a virtual button harder in an effort to get it to respond. The other solution is to periodically power down your phone and start it back up again.

If you don't mind managing your tasks either manually or with an automated schedule, Android's multitasking is a nice feature. Developers don't have to rewrite their apps to support it, like they do for the new iPhone OS. If you don't want to be thinking about phone performance, you're better off with an iPhone.

This is the fourth in a series of posts. You can find the first article here.

Captivate vs. iPhone: Ease of Use

To start off the ease of use discussion, I'll mention that I had been using an iPhone for a few weeks and had gotten used to how an iPhone worked.

At first, I had trouble getting used to the iPhone interface. It took me about three days to feel more or less comfortable with it. I still had trouble figuring out some of the settings, but for the most part, it has a very clean interface and is easy to use. Apple does a very good job of just making things work.

Switching to an Android-based phone, I felt clueless again. It took me about a week to feel relatively comfortable with the phone. (Part of this was my e-mail setup, which will be covered in a later post.) I'm still finding settings I didn't know were there. Google has done a great job of making sure their services just work. It's everything else that you want to do with the phone where the complexity starts.

There is one ease of use point where the Captivate beats the iPhone: notifications. Rather than having a notification pop-up on the screen and having to deal with it right now, the Captivate has a notification area. It displays an icon (or multiple icons) at the top of the screen. A simple flick of the finger and you can see your notifications.

In short, the iPhone has a much better "it just works" Mac OS feel. Android feels more like using a really polished Linux machine or a combination of Linux and Windows. Apple clearly wins this category. It should be noted that different phone manufacturers modify Android. The Captivate ships with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface.

This is the third in a series of posts. You can find the first article here.

Captivate vs. iPhone: Overall Design

I mentioned in my previous post that while some felt the plastic feel of the Captivate was too light, I prefer having a lighter phone, though to be fair, the Captivate is only 0.3 ounces lighter than the iPhone. I was not able to get a good feel for how heavy the iPhone 4 was due to it being cabled to the stand at the AT&T store. The Captivate has a sleek looking design that some have compared to the older iPhones at a quick glance. The phone can slip easily in your hand, so I recommend getting a soft case. I bought the Body Glove Clear Soft Shell Case though I wish my local AT&T store had a case with a belt clip.

While the iPhone does boast a higher resolution display, the bigger, 4" AMOLED display on the Captivate is beautiful. It is nice and bright, though in limited full sun use, it was hard to see. Part of this could be due to the default settings of dimmer the screen as needed.

The mini-USB port is at the top of the phone. My last phone (as well as the iPhone I tested) plugged in at the bottom. That has taken a little getting used to. Samsung included a nifty feature when the mini-USB port is not in use. Rather than leaving the port open or having a rubber flap that tends to break, they have a plastic sliding cover. In theory, it was a good idea. In practice, I tend to forget to close it. It also takes a little extra shove to open completely. The one big flaw with the mini-USB port is that it does not use a standard mini-USB plug. This is a bummer as I have a number of mini-USB cables. It was nice having one plugged into my docking station and another in my bag.

The power button is on the side of the phone. Both my last phone and the iPhone I tested had the power button on the top. This isn't a problem, but I find that I'm still having trouble quickly turning on the phone.

I love that the iPhone 4 has both a front and rear facing video camera. This was a big draw for me. The Galaxy S, which the Captivate is based off of, has both video cameras. Sadly, AT&T did not have Samsung include the front facing camera in the Captivate. I suspect that it was to give the iPhone exclusivity in this department, at least for AT&T phones.

Overall, I prefer the look and feel of the Captivate to the iPhone 4. Previous iPhones are a closer call for me. The bigger screen of the Captivate ultimately wins in my opinion, even over the front facing camera due to the fact that the screen is used all of the time whereas the front facing camera is used for limited applications.

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Why I Chose the Samsung Captivate

I recently took the plunge and signed up for two more years with AT&T. I had been using the HTC Wizard and was long overdue for a new phone. I needed a smartphone and it had to be on AT&T due to the shared-minute plan I am on. My original plan was to get either a BlackBerry for its great e-mail and notification capability or an iPhone because of the great apps. I assumed that I would end up with a BlackBerry because it had a physical keyboard.

To help determine if an iPhone was right for me, I borrowed a friend's iPhone 2G. Unfortunately I could only keep my $30 unlimited data plan by going straight from my current phone to a new phone so I used the iPhone in WIFI only mode.

It took me a few days to a week to get used to the virtual keyboard. If it weren't for Apple's error correcting, it would have taken much longer. I was definitely much better in landscape mode, but still not as fast as with a physical keyboard.

After playing with a number of free applications and determining that the virtual keyboard would be good enough, I realized that my decision was between having the notifications of a BlackBerry along with the ability to tether for free and having a great mini computer that had an okay e-mail program. I wanted to get the iPhone, but I was torn.

It was at that point that I started looking into Android. With Android, I could get some of the same (or similar) apps as the iPhone. I also had the openness to install any application I wanted without rooting or jailbreaking my iPhone, which I refused to do. Android phones exist with all major U.S. carriers, so I would have the ability to keep my apps and switch providers, if I desired. I was intrigued.

My choices switched to the iPhone or the Samsung Captivate. I had the ability to play with the Captivate before it was available for sale. I also played with the iPhone 4. While some feel that the Captivate is too light, I enjoyed the feel of it much better than the iPhone 4. In fact, I enjoyed the feel of the iPhone 2G better than the iPhone 4. The bigger screen on the Captivate also helped typing on the virtual keyboard.

After much thinking and research, I settled on the Captivate despite the lack of the front-facing camera. I still wish AT&T had included it, but the openness of the Android platform (both apps and carriers) as well as the integration with Google swayed me.

I picked up my phone the day it came out. While I've had some issues with it, I still think it was the right choice. Stay tuned for more on my experience with the Samsung Captivate.

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The origin of the iPhone 4's signal problems?

Fans of government intervention and regulation believe that it is possible to create complex guidelines for businesses which give us only benefits and no detriments. But the reality is that every government regulation has an unintended consequence and one antenna designer is suggesting an FCC regulation is behind the reported iPhone 4 antenna issues. It may explain several other mysterious decisions behind Apple's designs in previous generations.

Just about every cell phone in current production has the antenna located at the bottom. This insures that the radiating portion of the antenna is furthest from the head. Apple was not the first to locate the antenna on the bottom, and certainly won't be the last. The problem is that humans have their hands below their ears, so the most natural position for the hand is covering the antenna. This can't be a good design decision, can it? How can we be stuck with this conundrum? It's the FCC's fault.

You see, when the FCC tests are run, the head is required to be in the vicinity of the phone. But, the hand is not!! And the FCC's tests are not the only tests that must be passed by a candidate product. AT&T has their own requirements for devices put on their network, and antenna efficiency is one of them. I know because I have designed quad-band GSM antennas for the AT&T network. The AT&T test similarly does not require the hand to be on the phone.

So, naturally, the design evolved to meet requirements - and efficient transmission and reception while being held by a human hand are simply not design requirements!

I can confirm that I have seen this issue with my iPhone, and it now appears Apple has acknowledged the issue. But it is interesting to see how it came about, and the pressures that may have justified it. In the meantime, many users are looking into cases to alleviate the issue.

iPhone 4 Preorders Ready to Go

There were quite a few problems this morning - the U.S. Store was going up and down and up and down - but things appear to have stabilized now. If you want to preorder your iPhone 4, you may get it here. The real thing ships for June 24.


Update: You can also attempt to order you iPhone 4 thru the new Apple Store app. But the process still seems flaky on both the web and the app for now.

WWDC Announcements

The 5 cent summary:
- iPhone 4 with "retina display" screen, HD camera, new design - $199 starting price with 2 year contract on AT&T - on sale June 24
- iMovie for iPhone ($4.99 from App Store)
- iPhoneOS has been renamed to iOS
- iOS 4 goes Gold Master today, releases June 21
- iBooks coming to iPhone/iPod Touch with iOS 4
- iAds to enable more free/low-cost Apps, coming July 1
- FaceTime - Video calls over Wifi (3G in 2011)

WWDC is today

Those less obsessed with Apple than me may not be aware that today is the first day of Apple's World Wide Developer Conference. Today, at 1 PM EST, Steve Jobs will give the keynote address where he expected to announce:

- the next iteration of the iPhone
- Safari 5, with better HTML 5 support
- iPhoneOS 4
- an updated XCode
- iBooks and possibly NetFlix for iPhone

The keynote will not be streamed live, so if you want to see the announcements check out a liveblog like that of MacRumors.

Nomad's Data Usage for on AT&T for iPhone

With AT&T's announcement of the end of "unlimited" data plans, new iPhone buyers will have to choose between a 200 MB and a 2 GB data plan. I thought Mod-Blog readers would be interested to see how much data I have been using.

I blame the recent spike in data usage on my new love for Evernote.

On the iPhone 4G leak...

From here.

iPhoneOS 4 Details

The announcement is done and Apple has posted the details. There is a lot of new stuff coming, but the big ones appear below.

The big 7:
1. Multitasking for Third Party Apps: Listen to Pandora while composing an e-mail.
2. Folders: More advanced organization of your Apps
3. Improved Mail: Hello, Unified Inbox and opening attachments
4. iBooks comes to the iPhone
5. Enterprise Features including E-mail encryption, advanced wireless configuration
6. Game Center: Unified social gaming - essentially XBox Live for iPhone
7. iAd: Integrated advertising in Apps, to allow more free and low-cost Apps

Apple to announce, detail iPhoneOS 4 today

Say what you will about Apple, Inc, it is not one to sit on its laurels. Less than a week after the first Apple iPads shipped, they are having a media event to discuss iPhoneOS 4 - the next generation of the operating system powering the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Early rumors suggest that among the announcements will be: multitasking for 3rd party apps, release of iAds - an advertising service to allow more developers to release their apps for free, and direct printing support within the operating system.

Mmmm... Technology...

Revealed: the Apple iPad

The short version: 9.7" touchscreen tablet computer running a variant of the iPhoneOS. Wifi or Wifi+3G on board. Running a custom 1 GHz Apple A4 chip with 16, 32, or 64 GB flash memory. Runs iPhone apps without modifications. Includes a new iBookstore. Pricing from $499 to $829. Available in 60 days for Wifi, 90 days for 3g (which costs an added $14.95/month).

Apple Event - January 27

The Apple Blogsphere has been abuzz for weeks with rumors about a "special event" in late January, which many posited would be the release venue for the new Apple Tablet Computer. Now Apple has sent out official invitations to the event (pictured below). Speculation about the event is running rampant, with FoxNews claiming confirmation that the main announcements will be an Apple Tablet Computer (perhaps called the "iSlate"), details about the iPhone 4.0, and iLife 2010. Whatever is coming, it is sure to be more exciting and notable than the annual Consumer Electronics Show which closed out recently, and failed to generate much buzz for new products (mostly because the tech journalists were breathlessly awaiting the next big thing from Apple).

That sound you're hearing is the screams from Garmin and TomTom

Google has announced their own FREE turn-by-turn with voice directions GPS app for all Google Android phones, starting to the Verizon/Motorola DROID. And yes, they have confirmed it is coming to the iPhone as well. This could be the beginning of the end for the old GPS manufacturers.

Mmm... Rogue Squadron on the iPhone... (Sorta)

Droid - The Reality behind the 'iDon't" Commerials

If you watched any sports over the weekend, you saw the commercial below played ad nauseum. This is a teaser cooked by Verizon to build buzz over their intended iPhone-killer, called DROID.


It appears that this phone is real, not just another Verizon vaporware phone, and is running Google Android 2.0. Allegedly, the Droid was co-designed by Google, Verizon, and Motorola and is intended to replace the Blackberry Storm as Verizon's flagship smartphone for the 2009 holiday season. And Boy Genius Report has pictures.

The real question is whether Apple has any reason to be worried. The phrase "iPhone Killer" has been thrown about so much - and to so little effect - that it is nearly meaningless at this point. The Palm Pre is the only phone to come close in terms of original thought and usability, and its relationship with Sprint the anemic Palm have held it back from really taking off. And Verizon has a long history of hyping phones, and then killing them off with horrible execution and upgrade policies. Still, a thriving competition in the smartphone space would keep Apple honest, and be good for consumers overall. I hope Droid is better than history would predict.

Bike Mount for your iPhone

I love to bike, but I also love my iPhone 3GS.  The device is the best PDA I have ever owned (speaking as someone who has owned wireless-connected PDAs since the Palm VII, and PDAs back to Windows CE-powered Phillips Niño), as well as a great tool for computing with a good GPS.  I bring it along on all of my rides, but until now it has always been kept in a back pocket of my jersey (sealed in a zip-lock bag when it is wet out).  Finally, Dahon is making a good, solid bike mount for the iPhone.  The mount locks in place to the handlebars, is silicon-based to hold the phone without scratching, is waterproof, allows full interaction with the screen while sealed, and can be rotated to take advantage of the different functions of portrait and landscape mode.  When this comes out, it may well replace my dedicated bike GPS altogether.  

It will be out in January for 49 Euros which is about $70.

Posted via email from The Bike Nomad