Tablet and Mobile

Archive for the ‘iPad’ Category

So many in the industry were wondering what happened to the iPhone 5?  Apple have just launched the iPhone 4S – and looking at the specs – it won’t disappoint despite the rather lacklustre new name.   In the same way as the iPad 2 spruced up iPad, the A5 processor (the same one used in the iPad 2) is fitted to the new iPhone 4s – which means the already spiffy iPhone gets twice the processor power and up to 7 times the graphics power.  Better, they’ve improved the main camera with an 8mpx camera! 

Many of the other features are actually IOS features which means they’ll be available to existing iPhone customers when the IOS 5 release comes out – latest theories suggest the 12th of October and I’ve blocked the day out – 200 new features many of which are REALLY useful and this will be available for free to update existing iPhones and iPads.

Apple just seem to be doing everything right at the minute – they’ve now made their new MAC operating system downloadable and the price is something like $29 for the upgrade… meanwhile IOS updates remain free and the new phone will be at a lower price point – which means any advantage the Android models had in that area or indeed in superior performance just went out of the window.

So if you’re planning a new phone the choice is simple… black – or white – and if you already have an iPhone or iPad (or both) – it’s looking like the 12th is the day to watch. To check if the upgrade is available just plug your phone or iPad into your PC running iTunes and lookout for the upgrade message. This is probably the last time you’ll have to do this as the upgrade to IOS5 will mean no more need to sync with your PC.

All exciting stuff and I could write about this for hours – but it’s a lot simpler to just go to the APPLE website – they do a far better job. As anyone with an iPhone or iPad will tell you – we already have the best…and it’s about to get a lot better.

Some time ago, I took my (then) Apple iPhone 3GS and jailbroke it. Why? Because I could and because I was sick of Orange trying to charge £10 a month for letting me share the 3G connection with my laptop.

That’s all history now, Orange have been kicked into touch in favour of the vastly superior THREE company and I now share unlimited 3G with my various devices.. When I moved up to the iPhone 4 I really could not see the point of jailbreaking the phone – but the Apple TV2 is different.  One of the biggest uses for Apple TV is to watch movies and guess what – you’re stuck with iTunes on your PC and Apple format movies.

Neither of the above is a problem for me – but converting movies to Apple format is not something your average person has much time for (couple of hours per video)… and so I took the plunge and had the thing jailbroken using the latest Sn0wbreeze (yup, that is spelled correctly).

The process is easy enough and takes a matter of half an hour including setup but the results are spectacular. Now I can watch movies and listen to music in a variety of formats. Not only that but I also have access to a NetGear ReadyNas Duo, an inexpensive and rather neat network backup device which just happens to be able to stream to the Apple TV – which means no more need to leave a computer on to access movies, pictures and music on the Apple TV. Between the low cost of Apple TV2 (sub-£100) and the Duo ~(sub-£100 excluding disks) – and the nature of the Duo which means with 2 disks you have redundancy (both store identical content – so if one disk goes down you continue on as normal) I now have a reliable solution for handling media at home without using a PC and without lengthy media conversion to suit Apple. It just so happens that software is available for both iPad and iPhone to handle this scenario also.

So is it worth jailbreaking the Apple TV2?  Most definitely – but if it turns your box into a stone – you are of course on your own – follow the Sn0wbreeze instructions carefully.

Update – at the time of writing – Apple TV 2 on the latest software (IOS5) cannot be successfully and usefully jailbroken – which is a shame. Of you want to use jailbreaking – don’t upgrade!

Is it just my imagination or has there been a complete absence of innovative new apps recently? We’re getting the odd update, the odd new same-as-before game, nothing new however? Perhaps the people over at Crytek could fill the gap with a version of their superb Crysis game?

The new iPad2 just keeps going from strength to strength!

For new readers, no I’m not an Apple Fanboy, I’ve been a Windows man since, well, DOS! But then there is the concept of “the right tool for the job” – Windows has it’s place – and so does the iPad2. Tonight I was sitting here getting on with some work on my Windows 7 PC (if anyone is still using XP or Vista, do yourself a favour if it’s not cost-prohibitive – bin them – Windows 7 is light years ahead) and my wife (who is currently in the USA while I’m here in sunny downtown Wark in Northumberland) rang me on Facetime (which for those of you not in the know is Apple’s kind-of equivalent of Skype).  I picked up the iPad2 and pressed the connect button and there she was – in a Barnes and Noble somewhere in Chicago – for all the world you’d think she was next door and we had a nice chat as I went off looking for the new kitten (she’s been away for a week and kittens grow quickly).

After waving to our pal Debby I asked her to switch cameras to the back camera – at which point I got a good look around the shop before ending the (free) call.  I recall before we got married you were talking a dollar a minute thanks to greedy BT (well, their predecessor) and their US equivalent.. thankfully – those times are gone forever and BTs claim to owning the Internet went no-where – what a joke.

Maureen and I chatted for a while as I got a good look around the store..  and then we ended the call and I noted a new update for Splashtop – which is a program that sits on your PC or PCs at home which then lets them talk to your iPad (for the techies, much like LOGMEIN but about a century ahead of the latter). I popped into the house and upgraded Maureen’s PC.  Some time and a glass of wine later I figured I’d give it a whirl. For the uninitiated, Splashtop and Logmein are programs that let you access the screen and keyboard of one PC from another – in the case of the latter – you can access your PCs from your iPad or iPad2.

Well, I don’t know if it was the upgrade or the extra speed of the iPad2 but I’m here to say that sitting in my office, I accessed Maureen’s Windows 7 PC from the iPad2 and went off to the BBC website – selected the latest news video (Flash – which the iPad doesn’t support natively for good reason) and ran the video. You would NOT believe for a SECOND that you were watching this remotely – PERFECT video, PERFECT audio, PERFECT sync – the power of a desktop PC in my hand!

The future of computing… remote access to any PC you own – and video access to those you know… on a lightweight, all-day-battery tablet – is here! It actually blows away the original Star-Trek concept which was limited to boring technical data only – but then that was a generation ago.

What we need now – is better, more universally available WIFI (FAR more important than 3G and it’s successors IMHO) studio lighting on the tablets so you look good in a pub when video conferencing – and that’s simple –strips down both sides of the tablet that light up white (high efficiency but WARM LED lighting – now readily available)… UTTERLY practical due to the low power requirements of warm white LEDs. and hey – this was MY IDEA!!!! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Technology that works – warm sunny weather in APRIL… what MORE could you want?

 

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/?cid=mc-uk-ipad-g_ipad2_brd_uk-ipad2

http://www.splashtop.com/remote

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/features/facetime.html

It’s upgrade time again, though this time nothing major. Apple have put out a fix (ios 4.3.2) which solves an issue with Facetime (their video conferencing software which unlike Skype is designed for the larger screen – it is about time Skype got their finger out). The release also fixes some 3G issues but even at this late date does not seem to address the tablet’s utter inability to pick out the best WIFI signal from a range of available access points.

Anyway, the update takes (on my 5 meg connection) around 10-12 minutes to download and just a few minutes to do the upgrade with no user work involved – just sit back and watch. The upgrade runs smoothly just as the last one did.

To coincide with the launch of the iPad2, Apple’s latest IOS release is up and running – simply head off to iTunes to grab the software and update your i-device.

Upgrading the iPhone 3GS was simple – a matter of a few minutes download and off we go. Upgrading several devices at once, the upgrade went quite smoothly for me – all sorts of drivers being loaded and resets being done completely automatically in the background… I just went off for coffee and let it get on with it.

The software upgrade really doesn’t do much but fix bugs – the main upgrade was 4.3 – and of course this upgrade includes the previous one -  allowing you (at last) to play videos and imagery on Apple TV directly from the iPhone. The setup is amazing – once upgraded, all your videos, pics and tunes on your iTunes computer are immediately available on your iPad or iPhone etc… and typically Apple – it just WORKS…

Also at the 4.3 upgrade, the browser was speeded up thanks to the new “Nitro Javascript Engine” and it’s claimed that this alone doubles browser speeds –though that of course will all depends on whether your target website is making heavy use of Javascript – many do. The hated change to the mute button now allows users to select whether they want to use that button for muting or rotation control…  and apparently iPhone 4 can now serve up WIFI to other devices-  though no mention of  the 3GS – BUT this DOES APPEAR TO WORK over Bluetooth and USB on the iPhone 3GS which is interesting. No idea why you can’t do this over WIFI on the 3GS as that facility was built in from day one but Orange wanted to charge extra for it! I think a deal with the phone companies is the main reason.

Similarly iPad and iPad2 – the upgrade just works…  video quality from videos on your PC iTunes setup is amazing.  So – for free, faster iPhones and iPads – get updating!

 

Peter Scargill

p.s. I don’t recommend this but I didn’t go through any lengthy backup procedures and all worked well regardless. Upgrading the phone and iPad each took all of 15 minutes from start to finish with virtually no interaction required. So why are you waiting.. go get IOS 4.31 now!

 

 

48 hours from now I plan to have my hands on a pair of iPad2s…  specifically the plan is to have a black one for me – and a white one for my good lady!  Why two? well, I have to say I didn’t have to convince Maureen – the Apple Keynote speech did that, within minutes she’d decided to sell the laptop – and my iPad went off to Ebay.

So, there is the original iPad and now a host of imitators including the XOOM and the Galaxy Tab to say the least – WHY would one want to upgrade?

Ok, first things first – compare the all important BROWSER of the iPAD to the Android “competition”. The iPad’s browser has been described as a “top rate, no compromises HTML5 browser”. HTML5 is the new standard to work to, enabling many new standard features in your web browsing experience and also enabling for the first time, a standard for handling VIDEO without having to resort to FLASH.  By contrast the Android browsers are described as “not ready for prime time, even for HTML4”.

So that leaves iPad against iPAD2… why spend the money to upgrade or why buy one at all. Well, for those just coming into the game, the iPad 2 is CHEAPER than it’s predecessor and feature by feature not only blows away the competition, it also blows away the original iPad. Graphics up to NINE times faster, 33% thinner, 11% lighter, front and read cameras… the list goes on. For the foreseeable future this is going to be the tablet to have.

As soon as I get my hands on these devices I’ll put more info up here. Wish me luck in the queues.

Somewhat earlier than expected, Apple’s latest IOS release is up and running – simply head off to iTunes to grab the software and update your i-device.

Upgrading the iPhone 3GS was simple – a matter of a few minutes download and off we go. Despite some issues with a cheap Chinese cable I bought, the upgrade went quite smoothly – all sorts of drivers being loaded and resets being done completely automatically in the background… I just went off for coffee and let it get on with it.

The software upgrade allows you (at last) to play videos and imagery on Apple TV directly from the iPhone. The setup is amazing – once upgraded, all your videos, pics and tunes on your iTunes computer are immediately available on your iPad or iPhone etc… and typically Apple – it just WORKS…

The browser has been speeded up thanks to the new “Nitro Javascript Engine” and it’s claimed that this along doubles browser speeds –though that of course will all depends on whether your target website is making heavy use of Javascript – many do. The hated change to the mute button now allows users to select whether they want to use that button for muting or rotation control…  and apparently iPhone 4 can now serve up WIFI to other devices-  though no mention of  the 3GS – BUT this DOES APPEAR TO WORK over Bluetooth and USB on the iPhone 3GS which is interesting. No idea why you can’t do this over WIFI on the 3GS as that facility was built in from day one but Orange wanted to charge extra for it!

Similarly iPad – the upgrade just works…  video quality from videos on your PC iTunes setup is amazing.  So – for free, faster iPhones and iPads – can’t be bad!

 

Peter Scargill

p.s. I don’t recommend this but I didn’t go through any lengthy backup procedures and all worked well regardless. Upgrading the phone and iPad each took all of 15 minutes from start to finish with virtually no interaction required. So why are you waiting.. go get IOS 4.3 now!

I take it all back… the iPad 2 looks amazing. Released today and apparently available in the shops in the US on the 11th of March, the iPad 2 is over 30% thinner than the iPad, it’s lighter, it’s graphics are claimed to be up to 9 times faster, no doubt due to the new A5 processor, it has front AND rear cameras and it’s the same price as the original iPad.

How depressing is that (unless of course you waited and are planning on buying the new model).

Seems to me that this should just about push Android over to one side for lots and lots of potential buyers – AND it transpires that Adobe and Apple are now speaking so we could even see Flash coming to the iPad in the future.

Looking forward to seeing reviews of the new version of the operating system and more importantly looking forward to retrofitting my now ancient iPad to give it at least some of the features of the new device.

Peter Scargill

By the time you read this, no doubt Apple will have had it’s launch and we’ll see the iPad 2 emerge perhaps even with an upgrade of the operating system. The amount of rumour and gossip out there is unbelievable for a device that only months ago was considered to be a novelty.  Back in April when it was released in the USA and I had mine ordered I told you it was going to be a game-changer… and it was.

So what’s going to be in the new iPad?  That’s anyone’s guess and when you think about the manufacturing involving many companies, Apple have done a cracking job of keeping everyone guessing.

The real question will be – what about the millions of iPad 1 owners – will we get the operating system upgrades? Is our old iPad now defunct?

Well, for me – I’m quite happy – sure I’d love a front-facing camera for Skype (and not that horrible Facetime thing).. but you know… iPad developers just keep making the products better-  I’ve a fantastic PDF reader in GOODREADER, some marvellous games, SUGARSYNC works a TREAT, I have video and audio streaming software on my PC that lets me watch my videos anywhere, Apple TV works a treat with the iPad… I could go on but regardless of what happens today I have an excellent product that has been utterly reliable over the past 10 months or so…  if they gold-plate the new one – I’m still not complaining. As for the so-called iPad killers – other manufacturers have had plenty of time to bring out their own superior products – erm… no, Apple still has the lead in this particular market.

Come back soon – I’m sure there’ll be much more to talk about in 24 hours from now!