Today, I held aniPhone 4. It just so happened that I was in the U.S. today, and ventured into an AT&T store hoping to see one up close and personal. With my luck, there happened to be a rep in the store who let me play with hers for a while.
Warm Reception The first thing that I had to try out was to try to duplicate the widely publicized reception issues I had been reading about all over the web. According to what I’ve read, if you hold the phone in your left hand, and block the lower-left corner of the phone with your palm (or almost any other part of your hand), you start losing reception to the point of the iPhone losing connection with the carrier (AT&T). I tried to recreate the problem firmly gripping the phone in my left hand. I did notice one or two bars disappear, but that was it. I then placed my thumb completely over the lower-left corner, the part where the two pieces of steel connect to each other. Again, from the reports I read, this was the most problematic area in terms of reception issues. To my surprise, I noticed nothing. No dramatic loss in reception, no drop of the carrier signal. When holding the iPhone (again in my left hand) as a normal person should/would, I notice nothing.
Motorola MotoRokr SD9-HD Bluetooth Headphones Review
In this post, I thought I’d give you my impressions using Motorola’s MotoRokr SD9-HD wireless bluetooth headphones with my iPhone 3G. I bought these headphones for a few different uses; I wanted something so I could listen to music when I’m at the gym, and headphone wires tend to get in the way when I’m working out. They sometimes get caught on my clothing or workout equipment. I also needed something to use while I’m driving, as it’s now against the law to hold on to/or use a portable device when driving that isn’t hands free!
Construction & Design The headphones are made from a hard plastic and rubber construction. The rubber makes them easy to grip, and the hard plastic is quite durable. They easily slip over each ear in a sort of backward sunglasses type fashion, then around the back of your head. The headphones include these little rubber ear tips that fit over metal speaker housings, then fit into your ears. This design is quite comfortable for short periods, but not as good for longer listening sessions. I found that the rubber ear tips tend to come off (I already lost one), so you have to be a bit careful. Make sure you line up the tabs on the ear tips to the metal speaker housings when replacing them. Fortunately, you can buy replacement ear tips on-line on Motorola’s web site. 2 sets of different sizes are included with the SD9-HD. They also come with an AC charging unit, and a nice little soft carrying bag, to store them in when you’re not using them. Also, the battery time on the unit lasts impressively long at almost 6 hours between charges. Overall, I like this design and found that the behind the head design really didn’t annoy me too much unless I was trying to lay back on a pillow, while I was laying in bed.
I wrote an Article a bit ago about how to remove the little screen bubbles from an OtterBox Defender Case, mainly because I have one of these robust cases and the one thing that bothered me the most about it was the screen bubbles… The only other real disadvantage to a case that is as protective as the OtterBox Defender Case is its size, it makes an iPhone just a tad thick but protection does come at a cost!
Paul and I recently made a trip out to Ohio which is a bit of trek for us as we traveled from Canada across the boarder to Seattle and then started our air portion of the trip which took us from Seattle to Chicago and then to Ohio. All in all this took us the entire day to accomplish much of which was in the air or sitting around waiting to get into the air.
That said we were fairly iPhone dependent to keep us connected and entertained along the way. The iPhone battery is great for regular day to day activities, especially when you have a home charger or car charger handy but we soon realized this would not be the case in this situation.
Let’s face it, most people use their Mac’s for pretty basic stuff like emailing, using the Internet, uploading photos and for the more adventurous maybe even some home movies?
I thought I would throw a few ideas ideas out there and give you some fairly easy projects you can tackle to get even more out of your Mac!
Skype Phone Calls – Not just for computer to computer Audio and Video chat but also calling land phone lines and even cellphones directly. For about $3 per month you can purchase a North American unlimited calling account and call from your computer or iPhone to any Phone or Cellphone in North America. They also have plans that cover the entire world for those that have overseas friends and family. Check out Skype
If you have an iPhone 3GS and you enjoy shooting video on it then you should take a look at the ReelDirector iPhone Appby nexvio. RealDirector allows you to actually edit video on your iPhone 3GS and then either save it to your video/photo roll. Once saved to your iPhone’s photo roll you then import it to your computer or send it directly to Mobile Me or YouTube (as long as it is not too big!).
I already love my iPhone 3GS and now with the addition of RealDirector, I find myself taking even more videos, just so I can edit them on my iPhone.
I guess what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas… at least when you have an iPhone 3GS with built in video camera and ReelDirector onboard iPhone video editing software. I plan on doing a full review of the ReelDirector video editing iPhone App in a few days but for now I will at least share our latest MVT Vegas Trip all shot and edited on my iPhone 3GS. (Update – here is the full review)
If you are wondering what we were doing in Vegas, we went down for an Apple Specialist trade show. Many of the Apple Specialist locations cary our Training CD’s and so we went down to meet the very nice folks who distribute our products. We were blown away at the positive feedback we received during the event and hope this opportunity allows even more of the Apple Specialists to cary our products in the future.
I had to convert the original video to playback for web, for the most part it is a good representation of the actual original quality.
Here is a 13 minute video summary of our MVT 2009 Vegas trip…
I have been using an OtterBox Defender case for about a year now and it’s an amazing case for the iPhone 3G series. My iPhone even took a bath in a glass of Crown & Coke and came out unscathed while wearing the OtterBox Defender case!
About the only downside to the OtterBox Defender case is its size, it does add a bit of bulk to your iPhone but when you factor in the $1000 price tag of a non-contract 32GB iPhone 3Gs, the added size and protection are well worth it especially if you are hard on phones in general.
The only other complaint I have for the OtterBox iPhone Defender Case is that it is nearly impossible to get rid of the little screen bubbles that get trapped between your iPhone screen and the OtterBox Defender screen.
Thats was until I saw this video on YouTube, a little baby powder is all you need! Check it out.
(Posted by Mike)
Tethering Data Usage Added to iPhone 3.1.2 Update
I have been hoping and wishing for some time now that Apple would add Tethering Data information on the iPhone in the Settings/General/Usage area and low and behold with the latest iPhone 3.1.2 update my wish has been granted!
This is wonderful news for me as I regularly use Tethering from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro 13 inch when I am away from home and need an Internet connection. Just this past week I was away in Whistler at a Vender conference and the Hotel Internet was very slow, so I switch over to my Tethered connection. I actually found the Canadian Rogers 3G Data connection to be much faster in this case, surprisingly it almost feels like regular a high speed land connection!
I have been a bit hesitant using Tethering on a regular basis because up until now I had no idea how much data Tethering has been sucking back. Now that I can see how much data I am using, I’m finding that with a 6GB data package I should be just fine as long as I don’t over-do-it.
Here’s what the new Settings/General/Usage page looks like with the Tethering Data added.
You are currently browsing the archives for the iPhone category.
