Why the Nokia 5800 is good news for the iPhone
Nokia recently announced their first S60 5th edition touchscreen phone – the 5800 XpressMusic, Frankly, it looks superb. I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow comparison – ShinyShiny already has that covered – but the entrance of the world’s dominant phone manufacturer into the space carved out by Apple demands a closer look. What will be the knock on effect for the iPhone?
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For whom the App Store bell tolls
Thanks to Daring Fireball for the heads up on the iPhone Application Graveyard, which lists all the apps that Apple has removed or not approved. It’s not quite comprehensive – there are a few more mentioned over at iPhonefootprint.
Looking through the apps that didn’t make it, I saw one I hadn’t heard of before – Freedom Time by Juggleware. This app counted down the last days of George W. Bush in the Oval Office. But it never made it to the store.
Copy and Paste and the iPhone
Right from the very start (July 2007), the voices clamouring for Copy and Paste functionality on the Apple iPhone have been growing stronger and stronger. Is this really big deal? Why have Apple not already implemented this in the operating system? How could they include it without complicating the UI too much? What other implications might this have? And is it likely to happen? What about workarounds in the meantime?
Yes, Copy and Paste IS a big deal. Ask anyone who’s tried doing actual work on an iPhone and they’ll tell you. Better still, try it yourself. Admittedly, the lack of a basic Office suite restricts the scope of Copy and Paste slightly, but the flexibility of being able to selectively lift bits out of an email or text for inclusion in another communication is significant. And I’m one of several million iPhone users who are rather keen to see it in place.
TV on the iPhone – two different approaches
Two interesting announcements have come my way today – one concerning BBC iPlayer, and the other concerning Youtube. What’s interesting about them is the way in which they treat the video that they offer, and what that means for watching TV on your iPhone.
AroundMe in the Vicinity of Google Maps
The sheer usefulness of finding ‘stuff around you’ has meant the emergence of several pretenders, despite the ubiquitous presence of Google Maps itself. AroundMe (at first commercial, but now free) and Vicinity (always free) are also well established now, but in the interests of keeping things simple (and reducing the clutter slightly on your application screens), the question remains ‘Is it worth looking things up in these ‘extra’ solutions?’
With this in mind, I put all three to the same tests. Read on.
James’ App Store Pick of The Week!
Welcome to this new weekly feature. Even at this early stage the App Store is changing the way we think about mobile phone applications and in many respects the way we think about all applications. Apple have created a farmers market, a place where even an indivdual developer can make a living from Apple’s pocket computer platform.
With the recent 2.1 upgrade bringing faster and more reliable application installations, I figured it was time to take a closer look at some of the very best iPhone applications available.
X-Plane’s mere existence validates iPhone
I have a confession to make.
I’m quite old. Mid-40s, at least. Old enough to remember the earliest days of home computing. Dragon, PET, Sinclair ZX81, then Amiga and the earliest IBM PCs and the RM 380z, in my case. Then on through the PC’s AT and then Pentium series and through to the Celerons and Centrinos of today. And, on the Mac front, similar progress through to today’s iMacs and MacBook Pros.
And throughout it all, there was one application which validated the platform as a serious computer. And, you know what, the Apple iPhone shares this application. (more…)
Vista and iTunes 8.0.1 can play OK
If you’re a Windows Vista user like me [/FX: sound of a thousand Mac fans gasping] and have upgraded to the latest iTunes version, 8.0.1, you may be stuck looking at the following error message:
iTunes error
Apart from the relative inanity of an error for which the software knows the number but can’t translate into helpful English, there’s the question of how to fix it. It seems that the latest iTunes doesn’t like Vista ‘vanilla’ – I’m guessing that Apple have been testing it on fully patched Vista machines. In any case, the cure seems to be to install Vista Service Pack 1, released a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it takes an eternity to install, but at the end of an hour you’ll have Vista and iTunes cosy buddies once more.
Review: Brando Solar Charger Sheath
My Apple iPhone doesn’t need charging anymore! Well, at least that’s what I’d like to say.
My intention, while testing the Brando Solar Charger Sheath (called the ‘Solar powered leather case‘ on their site), was to not have to plug my iPhone into the wall or into a PC or Mac – I wanted to run completely green. And the weather’s been playing ball too, with back to back sunshine for 3 days in the UK Autumn.
Brando solar charging case
In terms of design, the case itself is as converged as the iPhone, although I have to report that there are a few serious caveats and flaws that should be noted. Read on…