Tag: iphone 4

#oneaday, Day 160: Tuesday Tweetup

It was another Tuesday Tweetup today. I know it’s Saturday. But… look, just don’t argue, all right?

It’s always curious to meet these people in the flesh after, in some cases, not having seen them for quite some time and in other cases, never having met them at all. Despite a relatively low turnout, though, it was a good evening in the gorgeous weather at Victoria Country Park. There was picnicking, complete with ant invasions. There was drinking. There were doughnuts. There was flinging a frisbee around a bit slightly half-heartedly. And there was a scavenger hunt around the park, which was good fun, even if no-one quite got the concept that there were some items on the list which weren’t intended to ever be found. A snow globe? In a country park? Don’t think so.

Victoria Country Park is really nice, actually. I’ve never been there before, but there’s a really nice mix of wide open space, foresty goodness and waterfront beachiness. I actually wish I’d taken more photos than I actually have, but never mind eh. I know where it is now, so I can always pay it another visit on an occasion where I’m not expected to be sociable.

It was nice, though. As I’ve said many times before, social situations like that often make me feel all awkward and weird, but the people at this meet? Awesome. Set me at ease completely. It helps that I know a couple of them very well, of course. But I even found myself getting along well with some of the new people. At least I think I did, anyway. Didn’t make that much of a dick of myself, I don’t think!

Anyway, tomorrow will be spent writing, writing, writing as a result of that trip I took the other day. I have lots to do. But it should be good, and hopefully lead on to great new things. Let’s hope so, anyway. Fingers crossed and all that.

Sorry for the crap entry, I’m pretty tired. I’ll leave you with some photos taken with the new iPhone camera so you can take a peep at the quality. The digital zoom is blurry and crap, but digital zooms always are. The regular pics are pretty damn sharp, though – I’m impressed.

#oneaday, Day 159: Obligatory New Phone Gushing

I picked up an iPhone 4 today. Cheap, too, thanks to the contract I went for. I was already on a £45 a month contract, so continued with that and got a new iPhone 4 16GB for £29. Nice. Plus I can recycle my old 3G and get at least £150 for it, so that’ll be good too.

The new phone is absolutely astonishing when coming from the ageing 3G. I’m not sure if it was the OS updates or that apps were just getting more and more sophisticated, but the 3G was really starting to struggle with a lot of things. Even doing simple tasks like sending a tweet were causing momentary pauses, requiring you to wait before it would respond to an input. Some apps were better than others, but unfortunately some of the apps I was using most frequently were the most severely affected.

No such issues with the 4. While I was waiting in the queue at the Apple Store, a former colleague came up to me and showed me how quickly apps started on the new phone. It was impressive stuff. It’s noticeable with games, too – I tried out Warpgate earlier, a game which stuttered and juddered all over the shop on the 3G. On the 4, the loading is so quick that it really doesn’t need loading screens any more.

The biggest wow is the screen, though. It really is not an exaggeration to say it is pin-sharp. You can’t see the individual pixels. Unless you look really, REALLY closely, but then you’re just the guy pressing his nose against his phone. It’s particularly noticeable on text. Everything has a lovely smooth-edged but sharp look to it, which makes text beautifully readable. The high resolution also means that web pages can be viewed zoomed out and still be readable, too.

Gave the camera a brief try tonight, but not a serious one. It certainly seems good, though, and the preview image on the screen looked ludicrously sharp. The flash seems to work well, too, and the iMovie app is neat. Not sure if it’s £2.99 neat, but it’s cool to be able to trim and edit video, including adding stills and audio, on your device. And for a dinky little phone to shoot 720p video? That’s pretty awesome however you look at it.

In short then, it’s great. I haven’t spent a significant amount of time with it yet, but I very much like what I’ve seen today. Those of you still with a 1st gen or a 3G iPhone should definitely make the upgrade. If you’ve got the 3GS, I’d say it’s less pressing, though the extra speed, the lovely screen and the enhancements to the camera are all very nice indeed.

And I haven’t seen any evidence of the “you can block the antennae with your hand” thing yet, but maybe that’s just because I naturally hold the phone in a way that doesn’t cause that problem!

Yeah, I’m an Apple geek. Sue me. If Android had got to me first, I’m sure I’d be a fan. But as it is, I’ve never felt the need to even look at an Android phone. The iPhone does what I need it to, and it does it well. I’m sure Android does some things better; but frankly if that’s the case I’d rather not know!