I thought it only fitting that the post new phone entry came from the phone itself. I was going to use the WordPress app that I have but after realising that I would have to manually enter my categories I switched to iBlogger. The main drawback is that I can only use the portrait keyboard.

Everything I said in my post a few days back still stands. If you already have an iPhone 3G then there isn’t much for you. If you are on 2G then nows the time to upgrade.

After a day with it the main benefit I have experienced is the non greasy screen and the much much faster Safari performance.

After all the reasons I wrote about for not getting an iPhone 3G [S]

I came up with a single reason and that was enough. Still I shall not go down any fanboy route and turn up at an Apple store, I was embarrassed enough standing in line outside Apple Trafford Centre for the Leopard launch while bemused shoppers strolled by, I shall just pop in an O2 shop.

(I hope there’s no queue or I’ll get all competitive)

Seriously, I’m really hoping that there is no queue or any fuss of anykind. I mean, doesn’t everyone already have a 3G phone and is locked in till February? Ah, yes.. my reason. The reason I’m going to get one is that my old 2G is on PAYG and that metal case (I presume) means its struggling for a signal indoors and I’m putting in for a second contract to run on the old 3G rather than the new 3GS, which will be my new phone. Good enough reason?

Either way I’ll be stood in a queue outside O2 at 9:02am. Damn it!

More a case of what a weekend.

Earlier in the week it was my daughters birthday and this was the weekend of the planned party. Following the party from hell that was my sons 17th where the house got trashed by gatecrashers I’d made sure I was on the guest list. The plan was to kind of keep out of the way which I thought would entail staying in the kitchen. It was a nice day so I’d set up a couple of ‘chillout’ tents and filled a paddling pool with cold water for the drinks. Pretty much everything they needed was outside with little need to venture into my kitchen domain.

On the music side I got a little creative and for the first time really took advantage of the iTunes DJ. I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone with the necessary kit. I had an old set of Yamaha 2.1 computer speakers that have quite a punch with a good sub. I connected these to my Airport Express which then appeared in iTunes as remote speakers. We’d set up a playlist of music for the party and used this as the source for the iTunes DJ. We left the MacBook safely locked away upstairs and connected to iTunes using the remote app on the iPod giving us full control of the playlist. The best bit is that there were other iPods and iPhones who could guest in and see what was playing and request tracks or vote for tracks in the playlist which would move them up the order of play.

I posted a thread on the ITIdiots forum that was so long and said exactly what I wanted to say here that I decided to be lazy and to cut and paste it. A job I can now don funnily enough, on the iPhone.

I have a mate who develops iPhone apps and I occasionally do some graphic design for him on icons, etc. I suppose because of that you could officially class me as part of his team and a developer also. Anyway this opened the door to the 3.0 beta and I’ve been living with it since March.

There are still a few features that I need third party support or account activation on such as Push notification, peer-to-peer, in app purchases, third party accessories and MMS but I can impart my experience and opinion on what I have seen.

The 3.0 for starters isn’t a groundbreaking update in the way 2.0 was. Its more polish and much has been made of how only Apple could make cut and paste a main feature. However it does fill many holes and improve of a number of features that keeps it ahead of the competition.

The cut and paste does actually work really well and I have used it a number of times. It is easy to take for granted after having it for a while. I’ve used it mostly where I want to chuck web page text back into a google search. Funnily enough i only found the shake to undo the other day by accident when I dropped my phone

The landscape keyboard has increased my texting speed on SMS and its nice to have that option consistent across more apps.

I’ve only used the spotlight search once to try it out. I tend to forget its there. You can browse to the left of the home screen with a swipe or from the home screen, press the home button which will take you to the search. I think its the nature of the phone in that the stuff I would search for is either notes or contacts so in each case I would tend to go direct. Its not like a computer where I have a load of documents to search.

Having just mentioned the notes, this is one of the biggest features for me. Note synching. I have loads of notes mainly because my memory is shit and to finally have them sync is a godsend. Its the little things with 3.0 that make the difference and its also nice to see public calendars sync also. However I would have liked tasks. As it is I’ve resorted to the Things App both on the iPhone and desktop. It was nice to see Things winning an Apple design award the other day as it is a great app.

What else deserves a mention? I turned shake to shuffle off as it shuffled my music once purely by putting the iPhone in my pocket a little more forcefully than usual. I don’t use the voice recorder much although I have tried it and its nice to see the voice notes sync with iTunes.

A final thing on 3.0 is the find my phone feature. YOu have to have a MobileMe sub for it to work and you then can enable it on your phone. It went live the other day so I tried it last night. I logged onto MobileMe on the web and withing a few moments it told me exactly where my phone was, on the desk next to me. I had the option to make my phone bleep (even if set to silent) and to send a message. I typed in “Give me my phone back, you bastard” and within a few minutes it was displayed on the phone with a beeping noise. What was also nice is that having confirmed that it had been displayed I then got an email.

“Dear MobileMe member,

The message sent at 6:02 PM on June 10, 2009 has been displayed on Martin’s iPhone at 6:06 PM on June 10, 2009:

Give me my phone back, you bastard”

That’s pretty much it. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them but you’ll know yourself by next Wednesday. Just in time for the next podcast no doubt.

It was interesting to see people agonising over the options. What they often fail to say is that most 3G owners who upgraded from the original iPhone are in an 18 month contract. I know that mine expires in Feb 2010 and I have seen that £35 customers only get the option for a 1 month early upgrade. Jan… f*cking fantastic.

The suggested option is to get a PAYG, but at that price?! I do have a further option as my wife uses a PAYG sim in my original iPhone and she is spending upto and in excess of £35 on credit so I plan to sign her up for a contract, put her sim in my 3G and have the 3GS for myself (its only fair.. I will have paid £270 odd).

I do however keep stepping out of the Apple “must have” hypnosis. What will the 3GS really give me?

Video. Nice but I rarely used video on my phone pre-iPhone

Compass. It may make Tom Tom more accurate, but isn’t Tom Tom still going to be available on 3G (even if slightly less accurate – my Go700 doesn’t have a compass does it?)

Battery life. Mines ok as it is. Its regularly on a cradle and having turned off pull mail every 15 mins my battery capacity has increased ten fold. Those who want me NOW! send mail to my MobileMe push account or SMS me.

Faster processor. Mines fast enough and I can’t think of a 3G app that suffers from speed to any great degree.

Better camera and auto focus. Happy with the one it has now. If I want a better shot I’ll break out the Nikon.

Tethering. On O2′s prices? Don’t take the piss!

I think I’ve just talked myself into keeping my money in my pocket. What else am I going to spend it on now?

Oh, and don’t forget to sign the Twitter petition

Twitter Blog

I was one of the many disappointed when Twitter pulled the UK SMS plug. At the time it was early days on my first generation iPhone and I was on a trip to Menorca with no data service of Wifi to be seen the only way I could get my regular fix of information was getting and sending SMS via Twitter. To sweeten the deal, all the SMS messages I got were at no cost to me. A definite bonus when faced with roaming charges.

While this announcement doesn’t effect me I do hope that it pushes O2 to make a similar agreement. I’ve mailed their customer services and had a reply but while they can make no comment I hope its now on their radar.