A turning point?

I've blogged a few times about the ridiculous hype, and subsequent free marketing the press here in Australia (and I'm sure the rest of the world) give to Apple and its upcoming products. "Is this the new iPhone?' articles appear with regularity with any rumour, photo etc eagerly gobbled up by a hungry press eager to have the i-word included in the headline. However, an article appeared the other day suggesting Samsung phones are overtaking Apple and now today, the Sydney Morning Herald has published this... http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/is-this-samsungs-next-galaxy-smartphone-20130107-2cbrp.html Perhaps, finally the worm has turned.

Apple hype continues

I have posted here before regarding the amount of free publicity Apple receives when anything with an 'i' in the front is about to be launched. Media outlets practically fall over themselves in the rush to add a new article about a rumour, an upcoming launch, a possible photograph etc etc ad nauseum.

This article however, seems to take the cake..

The headline reads "iPhone 5 May be Best Selling Gadget in History"

Come on guys. It's September 14th. The bloody thing hasn't even gone on sale yet and we're already waxing lyrical over some analysts prediction about how well it's going to do.

In the same publication there is also this interesting article reminding us that (shock, horror) new gadgets may not always bring us happiness.

Food for thought.

Whoops autocorrect!

A boy in America wanted to type "gunna be at West Hall" in his iPhone and the autocorrect changed it to "Gunman at West Hall" which sent the cops into a frenzy and the schools into shutdown mode.

Whoops. It pays to double-check before hitting send.

Here's the full article from SMH.com.au

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/smartphones-autocorrect-function-puts-high-school-on-lockdown-20120302-1u6pq.html

iCloud – iSlow!

I updated my partner’s iPhone 3gs last night with the newApple operating system, IOS5. I have to say it was the most painless update so far.  Every previous update with her phone has resulted in crashes/ restores/reloading of older versions of iTunes etc to the point where when I ask her if she wants me to update her phone she winces and asks whether it’s the worth the hassle.

Anyhoo, this morning I setup the ‘backup to iCloud’ function. I must say I was a little bit bemused to see an estimated finish time of 17 hours! I know my upload speed on my cable internet is pretty slow but that sounds a bit ridiculous. Particularly because as far as I can see it’s only backing up contacts and photos and videos captured through the phone.

As it only works over wifi and she is going out this morning, I’m not even sure if it will recommence once she gets back within our wifi range or whether the whole slow process will begin again from scratch.  Hopefully, this is a one-off for the first time and future backups will be quicker. Otherwise I’ll be reverting to ‘backup to PC’ very soon.

Apple's 'new' phone - worth the hype?

In one word, no.

In two words, not really.

In lots of words, it seems OK as a upgrade from 3gs but I would be holding out for the iPhone 5 if I already had a 4.

I'll be interested to see how the voice recognition (Siri) works in the real world. Personally, I've had massive mixed responses from the Android version of voice recognition.  From walking down the street and reciting a short text message which came out word perfect (a lovely feeling I can tell you when you just have to hit send) to other occasions where I try to say 'do we need any milk?' and it comes out as 'Dire needs for many ilk'.

Maybe it's my strine.

If Apple can pull it off it's a pretty cool trick.  First phrase I want to try is 'does my bum look big in this'. The answer better be no or the phone won't be long for this world.

new iphone hype

Oh God, there's a new iphone on the horizon. ho hum. For God's sake there's even been articles in the media such as 'which rumours will be true'. Apple publicists must piss themselves laughing at the ease they can get the media hyped up over a hardware update.