Marking Cake

Posts Tagged ‘Iphone’

The other day, I had someone contact me on one of my blogs asking if I thought it would make sense to get the iPod touch just for web surfing.

It’s been a while now since the first phone to use Google’s revolutionary Android Operating System, the T Mobile G1, was released and the concept seems to have gathered pace somewhat, with a host of new Android mobile phones and smart phones now available. Here’s brief review of each of the past and current Android phones released so far.

T Mobile G1
The original ‘Google Phone’ released after much hype in October 2008, the G1 was touted as the big threat to the established iPhone. It has to be said that the G1, manufactured by the Taiwanese mobile specialists HTC, was something of a disappointment. The phone itself was bulky and the slide-out keyboard drew complaints for being unwieldy and impossible to use with just one hand.

The G1 did, however, include some innovations, most notably, the seamless integration of many of Google’s famous applications such as search, maps and street view. And most people who reviewed the phone were impressed with the speed and reliability of the connection made to the internet while they were out and about – this was, after all, a project which aimed to make the internet truly mobile?

HTC Magic
The world didn’t have to wait long for some improvements to take place with the release of the HTC Magic in April 2009. The slide-out keyboard was ditched in favor of an intuitive touch screen function, the much criticised camera was upgraded to 3.2 mega pixels and the handset itself was smaller, lighter and much more attractive.
The critics started to wonder whether, in fact, Google were on to something here?

HTC Hero
Just a few short weeks later and the HTC Hero, also known as the G2 Touch, came onto the market and now people really were taking notice. The HTC Hero is a sleek, modern looking handset with all the usual features and some notable improvements.

The 3.2″ display with touch-screen functionality is bright and responsive with an iPhone like ‘pinch-to-zoom’ feature and also displays useful weather updates as well as updates on all your favorite twitter and Facebook feeds.
The Hero also is the first phone to use HTC’s innovative ‘Sense’ featuring seven individual, customized home screens which can be changed with the sweep of a finger.

HTC Tattoo
The latest offering from HTC is aimed, primarily, at the budget and pre-pay market. A slightly smaller and more compact handset with a 2.8″ screen and some trimming down in the feature department, the idea is clearly aimed at bringing Android to the masses and who would bet against it?

Motorola Dext
It’s been a while since Motorola were connected with anything that could be described as innovative but the Dext may well change a few perceptions of one of the original and oldest mobile handset manufacturers?

In addition to the Android operating system, Motorola have included their own application, known as ‘MotoBlur’ which checks Twitter, MySpace and Facebook for status updates and displays these on one of it’s five home screens. Clearly aimed at the social network generation the Dext also re-introduces the slide-out QWERTY keyboard which is a lot more easy to use than the original concept trialled in the G1. The Motorola also includes a nifty security application which allows users to remotely wipe all personal data from the phone should it be lost or stolen.

Samsung Galaxy i7500
The first Android phone on the O2 network, as well as Samsung’s first foray in this sector, the Galaxy i7500 features a 3.2″ screen, 8MB built in memory and a 5 mega pixel camera with integrated flash and auto-focus. Some of the Android features have been cut down but, overall, a quality smart phone that will undoubtedly be a hit?

The speed and pace of development of the Android project over the last twelve months has been phenomenal and there can be no doubting Google’s commitment to be a major force in mobile technology development in the future. Whether the Google phone concept will ever topple Apple’s iPhone as the handset of choice remains to be seen, but given the progress so far it will be interesting to see how the concept develops over the next few years.

With advanced visuals and sound, and cutting edge smartphone technology, the new HTC Desire HD is considered to be the best smartphone on the market, but is it better than the Apple iPhone 4? HTC have loaded the phone with the latest version of Android and coated it in there intuitive HTC Sense interface. As you might have gathered from the name, the new phones is HD capable and with its HDMI cable, compatible with your HD ready TV at home.

The Desire HD is quite iconic in design; the humongous 4.3 inch display may give the phone a few extra millimetres here and there but with its super slim chassis it is still very pocket friendly and feels luxurious to handle as there is a little weight to it also. The screen makes the most of its 480 x 800 pixel resolution to bring you super crisp and very clean on-screen imagery. Utilising capacitive technology the interface can be interacted with via the multi-touch input method which supports the pinch and zoom action.

The new Desire HD is no different from the old Desire where the interface is concerned; the same seven page home screen system allows you to view all screens at once by pinching the screen. You also get FriendStream which enables users to view all of there communications in one application; live feeds from Facebook, Twitter and other networks can all be filtered into the one stream of information.

Accessing the internet can be performed via Wi Fi when access to local WLAN hotspots is possible, and 3G also allows the phone to communicate over the 3G network. The web browser is one of the most advanced browsers on the market, with the use of tabs; multiple sites can be accessed and interacted at once, while saving bookmarks and adding direct shortcuts to the home screen is also possible. Tethering can also be performed wirelessly via Wi Fi or by the USB connection.

The HTC Desire HD has been equipped with the facilities to enable full management of various e-mail accounts, social networks and SMS and MMS formats. A universal inbox can be used for a full overview of communications while Facebook and Twitter can interacted with via dedicated clients.

The digital camera is highly capable and one of the more advanced options on the market; at 8MP’s it can shoot HD video and capture beautiful still imagery, it is loaded with a range of settings and features and it comes complete with LED flash and Auto-Focus. Both the video and music players will handle pretty much any file you run while there are memory expansion options which allow up to 32GB via a microSD card.

Access to the Android Market allows users to fill there Desire HD with the apps they want while the A-GPS receiver supports the phones HTC Footprints and Google Maps application for navigation guidance.

HTC have made there intentions clear with this phone; the Desire HD is one of the most advanced smartphones on the market today, and coupled with the iPhone 4, gives us an insight into what the future holds for mobile technology.

I remember how excited I was when the unlocked dual sim cell phone clones first came on the market. These features (which came courtesy of innovative Chinese and South Korean manufacturers) seemed so special then, but I take them for granted now.

Today, everyone expects an unlocked, dual sim, tri band model that will work with all carriers. Additionally, consumers, myself included, want two phone numbers on one phone, a high quality built in camera, an MP3/MP4 player, a video recorder, and full gaming and texting capabilities. And this is only the bare minimum.

The MTK228 is a newer clone that caught my eye because it has all of these features and some extras that are just emerging in knock offs in this price range. This phone can support up to 8GB of memory, has a full keypad and scroll bar, runs on the Picbrige interface (immediate printing) and plays NEC games (including Nintendo) with built in software. Needless to say, these things have endeared this model to gamers and texters. My son is obsessed with the games that he was able to download and constantly adds more.

In addition to these things, this model sports: a 2.6 inch touch screen with finger touch; a sufficient 1.3 mega pixel camera with auto focus and the ability to function as a webcam; WAP, GPRS, SMS, and MMS messaging and voice mail; Bluetooth 2.0; and a built in FM radio.

This is a sleek, black phone. It doesn’t look like an iPhone as many clones do. It includes a stylus. In my son’s opinion, it looks “tough”. In my opinion, the keyboard adds to its appearance but also makes it very user friendly.

Price wise, this phone is very reasonable. It’s not uncommon to get one for under $50, depending on where you look. This makes it a great phone for kids or adults like me who are sometimes more interested in listening to music, texting, or gaming than in actually talking on the phone.

YouTube: it’s another craze as big as smartphones (maybe even more so ). Which is why it was only a matter of time before all the various smartphone makers made sure to come up with ways that their customers could access and view YouTube videos through their smartphones. Many have made the grade, some are still trying – with the Apple iPhone being the latest to join in. Only, as is par for the course with the ever-innovative, pioneering Apple (never one to be outdone, or even beaten to the proverbial punch), the new technology takes YouTube for smartphones into a whole new arena – and one, at that, that makes one wonder what took them (or anyone) so long to think of it.

It’s called “iRinger” and it’s a third-party downloadable application that empowers iPhone users to convert YouTube videos into ringtones. Because if YouTube is the web’s top video site, and the iPhone is the world’s most celebrated smartphone, then ringtones are likewise one of the most popular and profitable smartphone features.

Furthermore, iRinger doesn’t only convert YouTube videos into ringtones but videos from most other major video sites (such as Google). What’s more, not only does iRinger let iPhone users convert online videos into ringtones, but MP3s audio files as well – including songs users may already own in their iTunes library.

The program came as a proactive user-response to complaints that Apple’s own ringtone conversion service cost customers 99 cents per ringtone, a fee that, while it may not seem like much, grows increasingly distasteful as people’s constantly changing tastes are taken into account. Meaning, if you want to have a unique ringtone for, say, 5 different contacts, it would cost you $5 to get them that way. And if you had a new favorite song every month, it would cost you $12 per year to replace each month’s ringtone with a new one for the coming month. These costs add up, and what they mostly add up to is a growing demand among iPhone users for a cheaper alternative to Apple’s own ringtone service for people who like variety in their smartphone experience (which , these days, is just about everyone).

YouTube videos have become such a sensation, that many of them wind up getting play on the evening news or even become widespread cultural phenomena. Consider the sobbing, freaked out fan pleading for people to “Leave Britney Alone”, or the young police officer who called 911 because he thought he and his wife were overdosing on the cannabis he stole from his department (“I think we’re either dying or we’re already dead, I can’t tell, but everything is moving really slowly”), or the myriad bloopers and blunders from every major media figure from pundits to politicos. Now consider any of these (or any of your other favorites) as the signal your iPhone gives you to let you know that your best friend or ex-boyfriend or mother is calling.

iRinger is free to download and is capable of making ringtones up to 30 seconds long.

Once you take the step up to the major leagues and begin using an iPhone, you’ll realize that there are major and minor repair issues. An example of a minor repair would be replacing a dying battery. iPhone motherboard replacement, on the other hand, is a rather complicated maneuver, and one which will cost you a bit of cash. If you love your phone and would rather go for the repair route, it can be done. If not, you’ll have to decide if you are better off selling it for parts or ‘as is.’

The good news is that being faced with an iPhone motherboard replacement is by no means the end of the line for you and your phone. You will be able to get something out of the phone (money) even if you cannot go through with the replacement on your own. It will take a skilled technician to handle the job, plus you will have to pay for the part itself (upwards of $200, typically). Still, it will end up being less expensive than buying a new phone altogether. It’s at least worth exploring how you would replace it.

You have to find the proper motherboard online. You’ll see items available from the different auction houses, but you should only trust a seller with a lot of undeniably positive transactions. Even though buyers hold all manner of control over sellers these days, you can still tell an irresponsible seller from a quality one by reading through the feedback which has been left. Beyond that, you can look for the companies that sell iPhone motherboard replacement parts and accessories only. It may surprise you, but there is enough business in this small niche for a company to thrive these days.

How long will you have to wait and what will you do in the meantime? Unless you are a\ smart phone dealer yourself, you can be left in a lurch while you wait for the iPhone motherboard replacement to take place. These days, checking in from your work phone and email is not enough. All of those texts and missed calls can start to pile up in just twenty-four hours, as you’ve probably noticed if you have ever misplaced your phone for a similar time period. You need to have something backing you up in case this goes down. It makes a good case for keeping an old cell phone around just in case.

If this scenario doesn’t work for you, you’ll need to get a temporary phone that you can use while the iPhone motherboard replacement is taking place. Some of the companies that repair phones can provide you with a phone to borrow while the deal goes down. You will breathe a sigh of relief as soon as the phone falls into your hands. You might have to deal with a slightly different game plan, as the phone is not customized to your specs, but it will be far better than any alternative.