Effortless computing

Mobile Magazine has the story – not confirmed – that O2′s exclusivity will end in October. Sadly this is for the older 3G model – O2 will keep the new 3GS to itself.

Whilst good news for those on a budget (the other networks are likely to undercut the current O2 price plans), the 3GS is noticeably snappier than the 3G and has three great new features

• taking videos – surprisingly good quality
• setting the camera’s exposure, focus and white balance by tapping an area of the screen
• compass – which will soon come into its own with augmented-reality apps.

Not that these justify a business purchase, but we are all consumers in the evenings.

The iPhone is much loved despite some wide open functionality gaps. Apple’s new 3.0 software upgrade plugs a few

• copy & paste: across apps.
• tethering: connect your laptop to the internet using the iPhone – Mac or Windows, USB or Bluetooth.
• search: works across email (both on the device and stored on the server), calendars, contacts, notes, etc.
• find my iPhone: if you lose it, use MobileMe to see it on a map, or send a command to wipe all the data.
• MMS: send and receive photos, contacts, etc.

and more. Most aren’t exactly new to users of Blackberrys and other phones, but they solidify the iPhone’s place in the business world.

No news on being able to forward texts…

Just turn off ‘push’ email. The battery will now use 1% in a night instead of 60%. An iPhone with charge is a wonderful thing.

(It’s in Settings > Fetch New Data.)

The 3G iPhone can at last be used on unauthorised mobile networks – the iPhone Dev Team (nothing at all to do with Apple) have cracked the security and unlocked it. The process also allows you to install unofficial applications on an iPhone, but the weird and wonderful collection of offical apps should be enough for anyone. 

Fairly easy to use instructions from iClarified.

Needless to say, at Conosco we don’t support unofficial hacks like this, but we do support iPhones under our all-inclusive managed computing IT support plans.

Well over a year old, still full of bugs and shortcomings, but much loved by many – the iPhone is a testament to the power of the Apple brand. Here are some things that continue to frustrate - 

• Texting is painfully slow. Waiting 10 secs to read a new text is ridiculous and defeats the instant nature of texting.
• It’s slow in general, like most smartphones. The first duty of a phone is to respond immediately at all times.
• You can’t delete, file or mark as ‘read’ email messages whilst offline – so no catching up on the plane.
• The web browser doesn’t seem to cache the pages you’ve visited, so going back a page usually means waiting for it to reload. And the browser crashes too often.
• The data connection dies from time to time – you need to go in & out of airplane mode to reconnect it.
• It’s fussy about which wireless networks it connects to.
• You can’t copy and paste.
• You can’t forward large attachments without downloading them first.
• It’s poor for reading html emails – it doesn’t wrap lines of text and doesn’t let you rotate the view on email.

And you can’t use it around children – they know it’s great for games and wasted on adults, and even seven year olds can work it out in seconds.