Another Tech Blog

I’ve been using the iPhone 3.0 software for a couple of days now and other than a minor installation glitch (my fault) the upgrade was painless.  Everything seems to work as advertised, and so far, I like what I see.

• WiFi improvements – One of the things that really bugged me about the 2.0 OS was the way the iPhone reacted to WiFi spots.  If, for example, I go to my local Starbucks, the phone will attempt to connect to the local router.  The phone will connect and get an IP address, but since I haven’t logged in to the hotspot, the phone gets no Internet service, effectively making any Internet reliant service useless.  The only way to “fix” this is to either turn off WiFi, or open Safari and enter login credentials for the hotspot I’m connected too.

  The 3.0 OS fixes this annoyance.  The OS will recognize when you have come across a hot spot that requires credentials and give you the login screen after is connects to the router.  These credentials will be stored on the device so that you can connect automatically when you return to the hot spot.  I have yet to extensively test this, but it seems to be working well.

• Search – Search text entry bars are everywhere, and I couldn’t be happier.  Searching email gives you options to search From, To, Subject and All.  Not only are you able to search mail on the device, but there is an option to “continue search on server”.  This can be a little slow if you have a lot of stored mail, but I’m very pleased that the option is there.
• Landscape – Do I need to say anything here?  It’s there, it works.  Ironically, I’m pretty adept at typing in portrait mode, so I’m not sure how much I’ll use it for typing, but being able to view mail in landscape is great.
• Cut and Paste – WORKS.

Most of my major issues with the OS have been resolved now.  I’m not saying I have no complaints, but things are way better!

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CNET is reporting that ARM, the company responsible for designing the architecture behind most mobile comuting CPU’s said  that mobile phone makers will be delivering devices that run on ARM”s latest dual core CPU’s as early as next year.

They are referring to the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore application processor.  According to the ARM site, the new chip deisgn will provide faster processing with lower power consumption for all but the most CPU intensive applications.

“The Cortex-A9 MPCore processor is the first ARM processor to combine the Cortex application class architecture with multiprocessing capabilities for scalable performance and provides enhanced multicore technology that includes:

• Accelerator Coherence Port (ACP) for increased system performance and lower system power
• Advanced Bus Interface Unit for low latency in high bandwidth devices
• Multicore TrustZone® technology with interrupt virtualization to enable hardware based security and enhanced paravirtualization solutions
• Generalized Interrupt Controller (GIC) for software portability and optimized multicore communication“

source: AMD product description

White paper on the Cortex-A9.

There are already phones on the market that make use of the ARM A9 single core chip, namely the LG Renoir shown at CES in January (video here).  The phone looks great in the video; the ARM Mali-55 GPU really makes the user interface smooth, with Vista like windows features.  Without the phone in hand I can’t comment direcltly, but I imagine streaming video would look very nice on this phone.  Of course, this phone is not available in the US (why would it be?) but it has some amazing features – 8 Megapixel camera, touch focus, several still shot modes, Dolby Mobile, DivX playback, Slow-Mo video recording, GPS, 3G, WiFi and will play Flash.  It is so irritating the the US mobile companies are just shamefully behind the curve with mobile devices.  I have to believe that most people don’t know what they are missing, so they don’t know to complain.

Since ARM is just the chip designer and not the manufacturer, it’s difficult to tell exactly when these chips will hit US phones, but if CNET is correct, we could see the chips in new phones next year.  If true, then I will NOT buy a iPhone 3GS until I know what Apple is doing with regard to the new ARM design.  Why would you invest in another 2 year contract when you know that the new chip is out there?  If they combine the CPU with the updated GPU chips, then the iPhone’s sluggishness could go away completely.  Now that might be worth $199.

Here are 10 things you may not know how to do on the iPhone.

1. Web Clips:You can create a short cut to a web page as an icon on your iPhone.  To do this, tap the “+”  when on a web page, then tap “Add to Home Screen.”  This will create an icon on your iPhone that you an treat (move or delete) as any other application.  Web Clips are not bookmarks per se, so they are NOT synced by MobileMe or iTunes.
2. Scroll to Top of Page:
   
   In any application you can scroll to the top of the page by tapping on the status bar at the top of the iPhone screen.
   
   
3. Domain Suffix:

   When typing a URL in safari, you can use the .COM key to choose other domain suffixes.  Tap and hold the .COM key to bring up a list of the other choices (.net, .edu, .org, .com).  Slide your finger over the one you want to select.

4. Alternate Characters:

   If you need to type non standard letters (letters with non-english annotations like a tilde) you can tap and hold the letter to bring up a list of available alternatives.

5. Screenshot:

   You can take a screenshot by holding the home key then the sleep button on the top of the phone.  The image will be stored in your camera roll.

6. Save an Image from Safari:

   You can save just about any image from a web page to your camera roll.  Just tap and hold on the image to bring up a menu that will give you the option to save it.

7. Double tap to zoom:

   This is really helpful.  In Safari, or in an email, double tap the text you want to zoom in on and the iPhone will resize the text to fill the screen.  Double tap again to go back to the original size.

8. iPod Playback Controls:

   You can bring up the iPod controls when you are in any application or when the phone is locked by double clicking the  Home button.

9. Setting a Sleep timer:

   You can set the iPhone to stop playing music or videos after a period of time by using the sleep timer function.  From the clock application, choose the timer function.  Set the number of hours/minutes you want, then tap “When Timer Ends” choose “Sleep iPod”.  Finally, tap Start to start the timer.  When the timer ends, the iPhone will stop playing, close open apps and lock.

10. Soft Reset:

    To reset yout iPhone if it freezes, click the home button and the sleep button at the same time and hold them both down until you see the Apple logo.

Apple announced at WWDC 2009 that the iPhone 3.0 software will be available to current iPhone users on June 17th.  At the same event Apple announced that the iPhone 3GS will be available for purchase June 19th, 2009 in 16GB and 32 GB models for $199 and $299 respectively.  They also reduced the price of the 8GB 3G to $99.

While none of this is unexpected, it’s nice to have a real release date.  Apple announced more final features of the 3.0 software, here are some highlights (full description here).

• Copy and Paste text – When you double tap text, you will get a dialog box to cut/copy.  Double tap again to get a paste bubble.  Works with Photos too.
• Spotlight for search – Now you will be able to search across all the information on your device.  What took them so long to add this?  This really should have been a day one feature.
• Landscape Keyboard – Will work in mail, notes, safari, SMS
• MMS – Big swing and a miss here – AT&T isn’t ready for the release, so this feature will not be ready until late summer.
• Improved Calendar – Support for CalDAV is added.  This is BIG.  CalDAV is what Google and Yahoo use, so this is a big win for Gmail users.  In addition to CalDAV, you can now create meetings – another why wasn’t this done before.
• Internet Tethering – Another HUGE swing and a miss by AT&T.  This will not be available in the US.  Please AT&T, get your network in order.  Your clients, who pay you a lot of money, demand this.
• Sync Notes – You can now sync notes from your phone back to your PC via iTunes.  Another about time, Apple.  I’d like to see an OTA sync for this to Exchange though, that would be useful.  Syncing via iTunes is ok, but not all that helpful.
• Automatic Wi-Fi login – This will (may) really help.  Now when I go to Starbucks I won’t have to login to their hotspot every time.  In theory.  I’m skeptical about this one, but I’m hopeful.

There are other features that seem fun like Shake to Shuffle,  improved iTunes store, voice memos etc.  Overall it seems like a LOT of new software, I hope it all works as advertised.

iPhone 3GS features

See more here.  There are a bunch of new features that look cool, but I’m not sure I’ll shell out $199 (or $299) for them.  The main improvements are:

• Speed – Apple claims that “everything you do on iPhone 3G S is up to 2x faster and more responsive than iPhone 3G”.  Call me Skippy Skeptical, but I’ll believe it when I see it, thank you.  If true, this is compelling.
• Video – You can shoot VGA in portrait or landscape mode, edit start and end points, then share it via email, post to MobileMe or YouTube.  Of course, you can also save the video to your PC when you sync.  I like the idea here – I use my iPhone camera way more than I thought I would, so I imagine that the video feature would be just as useful.  That said, in a corporate environment, cameras are problematic on enterprise devices.
• Improved Camera – 3 MegaPixels, Auto-focus and a tap to focus feature.  Very neat improvements.
• Digital compass – I like this a lot, but it doesn’t look like they’ve improved the turn by turn directions at all.  I’d like it to function more like a “real” GPS in that if you deviate from your route it will auto correct to get you back on the right path.

All in all I’m excited about the 3.0 software and intrigued by the new hardware, I’m just not willing to shell out $199 for it yet.  Now if my current device happens to fall in a puddle…