iPhone '4' thread

Oscartheposcar

Blade3 wrote: »

2. Access to 5 different email accounts to read and reply easily too
3. Muiti Tasking without having to close down 1 application before opening another etc
4. Skype – to make calls on device through Skype software
5. Internet browsing – web pages , streaming videos
6. Unlimited Texts or at least 500 a month
7. I-tunes or similar music – able to sync with Apple MacBook laptop
8. Address and contacts – able to sync with Apple MacBook laptop
9. MS Office – at least MS Word , Excel or similar - able to sync with Apple MacBook laptop
10. Voice recorder – Memo function
11. Twitter , Facebook access
12. Unlimited Landline calls
13. Diary - able to sync with Apple MacBook laptop
14. Ability to sync contact ie mobile phone numbers etc + information generally with Apple MacBook laptop

I find that the things I've highlighted in bold work very well. I already had MobileMe (from when it was DotMac and actually from when it was iTools...) and the all-in-one automatic over-the-air synchronising of contacts, calendars, notes, email, photo galleries and file storage across multiple Macs and an iPhones is very very well implemented.

Apple does charge for MobileMe, but if you buy from Amazon or eBay you can get it cheaply.

You can try to duplicate some of this for free with Gmail, google calendars etc, but it's more fiddly in my opinion. I find the overall package with file storage, website hosting, image gallery hosting and everything else with no fuss at all to be worth the charge.

I use QuickOffice, which lets me edit word and excel documents stored remotely (I use my mobileme iDisk, but it also supports google docs, !!!!!! and other free services).

Other people will have different ideas, obviously, but if you're already using a Mac, an iPhone does make sense

Also find my iPhone is totally ace - it even featured in the Sherlock tv program the other day (cunningly disguised as find my MePhone...) If you happen to lose your phone, you can track it on a google map (obviously assuming it is turned on), can send a message to be displayed on the screen and can remotely wipe it if you're worried about private data.

jonthedog

Originally posted this to the cheap iphones thread, but I guess this is the more appropriate place for it:

Just got my iphone 4 from three mobile yesterday and have been playing around with it. Generally great, but there are some features that I've got used to on other mobiles that are sadly lacking.
I can confirm that if you take a pair of sissors to a normal sized pay and go SIM card you can create a micro SIM that works fine in the iphone 4 (it has to be a 3G SIM card, though). It helps if you have some sort of template, of course...:eek:

I can also confirm that the three network allows you to 'tether' your iphone to your computer via bluetooth or USB (faster) so that your computer can use your 3G data connection when you are out and about. :T No reason why you couldn't use this to replace your home broadband if you have good 3G reception and are not a massive downloader/streamer...I was getting average speeds of around 1.7Mbps according to the bbc iplayer test; not the fastest by a long chalk, but acceptable for light use. I believe that the other networks charge you to do this, so is definately something to consider. Don't know if anyone else can confirm whether other networks allow this and how much they charge?
I was a big user of the bbc iplayer on my last mobile, but unfortunately the iphone 4 is not quite up to the job as Apple don't seem to like flash streaming very much. According to the bbc website, this is the situation:
http://iplayerhelp-stg.external.bbc.co.uk/help/mobile_iplayer/mobile_phone
To summerise, for the iphone you can only stream 'catch up' TV and Radio via wifi, not 3G (although apparently only Vodafone and Three allow 3G streaming of iplayer anyway), and you definately can't download, or 'sideload' programmes.:mad: It seems there are some apps and websites that help you get around this; I found a great one called FStream that allows you to stream live radio over both wifi and 3G (including all the BBC channels...particularly useful as Apple neglected again to put an FM receiver in the phone). There also seems to be a website called TV Catch up that streams live TV over both wifi and 3G (all bbc, itv, and 4 channels). But, as far as I can see, no easy way of doing catch up via 3G. Maybe I was just spoilt with my old Nokia, but I think this might be a deal breaker for me and the iphone will be winging it back to Mr Jobs.:A
Incidently, at home my reception on three on the iphone 4 is 3/5 bars as opposed to 7/7 on my Nokia, without touching either phone...not an entirely objective test as there's no way of knowing what either bars actually mean, but it doesn't bode well if venturing out with the iphone to areas of less than perfect reception.
Battery life appears to be actually quite good so far...I've been intensively streaming radio over wifi with 3G, GPS and Bluetooth switched on for the last couple of days and it's still going strong.

Oscartheposcar

Yes the wifi-only iPlayer restriction was originally an O2 thing, but in practice the only places I'd actually really watch iPlayer programmes I have wifi anyway so I don't find it affects me. And with most networks introducing data caps I wouldn't want to run the risk of extra charges for streaming iPlayer content over 3G.

Regarding downloading iPlayer programmes, well there'll be an official iPlayer app later this year which will probably allow time-limited downloads as per desktop viewing of iPlayer. There are very easy ways of downloading iPlayer programmes without the time-limit or drm restrictions, but obviously the bbc doesn't want people to do this!

TVCatchup works great for live tv streaming over 3G or wifi.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Blade3 wrote: »

Please can anyone help with some advice and opinion , not sure if this is the right place to post this but here goes anyway!,

Blade, you posted exactly the same thing on the "cheapest iPhone" thread yesterday. We all responded there.

jonthedog

Oscartheposcar wrote: »

Regarding downloading iPlayer programmes, well there'll be an official iPlayer app later this year which will probably allow time-limited downloads as per desktop viewing of iPlayer.

What I mainly used the iplayer for on my Nokia was streaming catch up BBC radio programmes over 3G on car/train journeys, which then outputted to my car radio via bluetooth...it worked brilliantly, and isn't really that data intensive compared to TV, so no need to worry too much about data limits on 3G. Good news about downloading, though.

On a separate note, is anyone else having problems with the volume of the actual phone speaker (i.e. the one pointing into your ear when you make a call)? On mine it seems far too quiet, even at max volume...OK if there's no background noise, but can't imagine being able to hear anything if I'm anywhere noisy. I may be imagining it, but it seems worse if I'm the one making the call as opposed to receiving.

Oscar_The_Grouch

jonthedog wrote: »

On a separate note, is anyone else having problems with the volume of the actual phone speaker (i.e. the one pointing into your ear when you make a call)? On mine it seems far too quiet, even at max volume...OK if there's no background noise, but can't imagine being able to hear anything if I'm anywhere noisy. I may be imagining it, but it seems worse if I'm the one making the call as opposed to receiving.

This isn't a complaint I've seen on the forum. I'd be tempted to take it back to the shop (or to an Apple Store) and see what they think.

bubblesmoney

jonthedog wrote: »

What I mainly used the iplayer for on my Nokia was streaming catch up BBC radio programmes over 3G on car/train journeys, which then outputted to my car radio via bluetooth...it worked brilliantly, and isn't really that data intensive compared to TV, so no need to worry too much about data limits on 3G. Good news about downloading, though.

On a separate note, is anyone else having problems with the volume of the actual phone speaker (i.e. the one pointing into your ear when you make a call)? On mine it seems far too quiet, even at max volume...OK if there's no background noise, but can't imagine being able to hear anything if I'm anywhere noisy. I may be imagining it, but it seems worse if I'm the one making the call as opposed to receiving.

even music can be data intensive. for example spotify streaming on 3g connection, just for 30mins will set you back and average of 25mb, so in about 10hours of spotify listening on 3g your monthly data limit fo 500mb would be used up. so beware of streaming on 3g connection as you might foot a costly bill.

mabski

sqa wrote: »

How's the battery life for everyone else? This is my first iPhone so I can't really compare to previous models, but I am noticing that the battery is draining rather quickly. My battery went from 100% to 60% in 6 hours, and all I did was make a 10 minute phone call, browse the net for another 10 minutes, and the rest was standby. During standby, wifi is off, mobile data is off, push notifications are off and location services are off.

Mine was the same it used to lose 26% of its battery overnight when it was switched off.
I was told by a few people that you have to charge them daily but apple claimed that it would last 300 hrs on standby so i thought mine had a problem.
So i phoned apple and they agreed it was faulty so i sent it back and they sent me a new one which is fine. i last charged it tuesday night and its now on 72% which is about 36hrs ago everythings switched on and i been browsing quite a bit and i dont switch it off overnight anymore.
So my advice is phone apple and get a new one dont accept rubbish battery life.

Exhortation

bubblesmoney wrote: »

even music can be data intensive. for example spotify streaming on 3g connection, just for 30mins will set you back and average of 25mb, so in about 10hours of spotify listening on 3g your monthly data limit fo 500mb would be used up. so beware of streaming on 3g connection as you might foot a costly bill.

Very true. A friend of mine has just had his latest bill for his iPad. His data usage was approx 560mb and much of this was down to just streaming radio. Fortunately, he isn't capped at the moment but he's still wary of what he's using.

bubblesmoney

putting a bumper or case on would eat up more battery life, because the phone will have to work harder to boost the weaker signals it gets because of signal attenuation and consequently battery life will be poorer after a bumper or case is used. try it out yourself with and without a bumper in poor signal areas under identical conditions.

the trade off of using a bumper/case is that there is less interference to the external antennas (making it like an internal antenna design instead! ) but it will get a weaker signal which the phone hardware will have to boost and consuming more power and hence lower battery times. same for all models of phones though and not just iphones. so for any phone with a bumper or case on you would get a lot less battery time in weak signal areas than claimed by apple.

attn: oscarthegrouch :
i have now commented on the anandtech website on page 15 as to why their article has a fundamental error about the supposed sensitivity of the iphone4 antenna http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix and am awaiting a comment by anandtech team. lets see what they say in reply to my comments.