I’m not afraid to admit I’m a bit of a fan of Apple’s products so I’m not completely impartial but I’ll do my best!

Apple Aren’t perfect

Steve Jobs said it himself in the recent press conference called to discuss the flaws in the latest iPhone design. Yes, flaws in an Apple product! The signal problems with the iPhone 4 have been covered extensively in the media recently; here Apple is a victim of its own success. There have been plenty of other phones in the past with signal issues and calls dropping but Apple just can’t get away with it, they are too popular to slip under the radar and people expect more from Apple, when you buy an Apple product isn’t it meant to be perfect?

Apple aren’t doing great in other areas, they are behind in cloud computing, still charging £59 a year for their ‘MobileMe’ service whilst Google offers similar services on a much larger scale for free! There are rumours that Apple will make the service free later this year and perhaps enhance it at the same time but why has it taken so long?

Then there is the other bad press Apple have been getting lately about the number of suicides that have taken place at Foxconn, one of companies Apple uses to manufacturer its products. Is Apple encouraging cheap labour and poor working conditions?

So what are they doing right?

Products and design

Whenever Apple releases a product they tend to be one step ahead of the market, not just with killer features but in the design and right down to the packaging.

When you purchase an Apple product the first thing you notice is the packaging and whilst it might also go right in the bin it’s important to realise this is all part of the Apple experience, you don’t spend a small fortune on a laptop and expect to get it in a cheap paper bag, this ‘unboxing’ experience has an effect on your perception of Apple products even if you don’t realise it.

The importance of the design of Apples products cannot be under-estimated, they have to look, feel and be great, to the extent that it can result in form over function in some cases (iPhone 4 aerial). Apple were the first to turn away from the boring beige PC box which used to live under your desk with the iMac in 1997, this was a evolution in PC design which has evolved to become the frankly stunning iMac which is available today! They were the first to release unibody laptops, again a brilliant piece of design and most recently the iPad.

Customer support

If you’ve ever called Apple’s support line or sought support in one of their iconic Apple shops you’ll know they’ve got this nailed. Apple’s support often comes out top in support reviews. So when you buy an Apple product you have the assurance of after sales service and this is good for repeat business.

Apple even insist on owning the support of their iPhones, most other manufactures (Nokia, Motorola etc) hand off the fault management of their products to the network operator as they don’t see them as their customers. However Apple consider an iPhone owner as one of their customers and will provide the support leaving the network provider to do just the network providing.

Brand perception

Product placement is pretty important and Apple seem to be masters at it, Apple products have featured in many great films and TV shows, including ‘Independence Day’, ‘Fight Club’ and more recently big TV series like ‘24’ and the latest big files like ‘Toy Story 3’ and ‘The Book of Eli’. Apple get their products in the right places and often used by the right people.

Apple don’t just open shops on the high street, they build premises which can be recognised, they are normally bold iconic designs that stand out from the stores around them. Few companies do so much to build an image for themselves, this requires serious investment and as is often the case with brand development and marketing it’s difficult to quantify any return from the original investment.

Apple are notoriously secretive, they like to keep their next big thing under their hats until they decide it’s ready, this results in more hype when a new product launch is due. There are loads of rumour sites dedicated to reporting every rumour and tip off they get about Apples next product launch and even some of the media giants can’t resist reporting on rumours in the days preceding a big launch.

Paying through the nose

It’s true to say Apple products are perceived as costing more, this is partly because some of them do but when a company invests in new product technology and design they have to re-coup that money from somewhere. So when they are first to market with products like the iPad or the Unibody laptop these products will inevitable cost more.

Another reason Apple is perceived to be expensive is because they don’t do ‘budget’ products, even their cheapest laptop or desktop features great design and reasonable performance.

Some of Apples products maybe over priced, the iPhone is very expensive but people buy them so have Apple earned the right to charge more?

Summary

Apple have a loyal following because they have invested in their image, their brand and their products. They have been clever with their marketing and constantly innovate. They put design and quality at the centre of every product (yes, including the iPhone 4) and look after their customers after they buy.

Investing the amount they must have in things which they cannot quantify the return is a brave move which has paid off for Apple; you could argue that Apple have bought peoples’ loyalty contrary to what I said at the start!

All you have to do is do the following -

1. Download the iPhone 4 Case Program app from the App Store.
2. Launch the app on your iPhone 4 and sign in using your iTunes Store account or Apple ID.
3. Select your Bumper or case.

Note: For iPhone 4 purchases made before July 23, 2010, you must apply no later than August 22, 2010; otherwise, you must apply within 30 days of your iPhone 4 purchase. To qualify for this program, you must purchase your iPhone 4 by September 30, 2010.

You can apply for a bumper (the only available color is black) or any other qualified case, all of which are free if you’re eligible. It’s a 3-5 week wait for delivery, because nothing in life is quite as easy as it should be.

With an all new Retina Display, the Apple have now crammed a 960X640 backlit LCD display which has a 326pixel per inch making it one of the highest resolution phones on the market. However, to compensate for the energy hungry screen which is very good for watching films on, Apple have also increased the battery life to 300hrs stand-by and 14hrs talktime (2G) lithium-ion polymer battery opposed to the 3GS’s lithium-ion 300hr stand-by and 12hr talktime (2G).

The design to the iPhone is certainly different with its two ‘aluminosilicate glass’ front and back cover with Stainless Steel band outside which is made from Apples ‘own alloy’ which is ‘five times stronger than steel’ .  Just to make it all fancier, Aluminosilicate Glass is used in helicopter windshields and high-speed trains. The iPhone’s central processor has been upped from the 3GS’s 600MHz processor to a staggering 1 GHz A4 processor which is best suited for multi-tasking, quick execution of programs and a faster response from the phone.

We’ve seen no change in the multi-touch iPhones capacitive touch screen as virtually all smartphones now incorporate this feature as it’s more reliable and precise to pressure driven touch screen on handsets like the Nokia 5800. Capacitive Touch screens work by relying on the electrical properties of the human body to detect when and where on the display the user is touching. Because of this, capacitive touch screens don’t work with styluses or a gloved hand; with this type of screen, it also means that the handset can support multi-tap for those quick texters.

With capacity available in either 16 or 32GB storage, there’s always enough room to sync your music, films and apps to the phone. We still have applications like the Compass which is very precise in pointing where you are longitudinal and latitudinal values which means that within Google Maps, you have enable an auto-rotation feature for the maps meaning when you turn, the maps turn; this is good if you are walking around but with no voice turn-by-turn feature, you have to refer back to a sat-nav or purchase either TomTom or Co-Pilot.

For the entertainment factor, we’ve got features such as the ‘App Store’ which allows users to purchase and download applications over the air to keep them amused and entertained; applications range from Social Networking right through to Utilities. Where previous users of iPhone before the release of 4.0 firmware, iPhone users would have had numerous amounts of pages cluttered with applications but since the release of 4.0, Apple have now allowed Folders from a main screen. This means you can have your Twitter, Tweetdeck and Facebook in a Social Networking folder and then have Sky Sports, BBC News apps in a News folder making your interface nice and clean.

With all of the new features Apple have managed to cram into the their handset, compatibility with exchange 2010, an improved 5megapixel camera with LED flash, video calling, front facing camera and new firmware have all been worthwhile updates for Apple to stay competitive within the market and keep all of their current and new customers eager to get hold of one of these new wave of technology handsets and for the public to show their devotion to the Apple brand, queues ranged anywhere between 4hrs-over 24hrs dependent on how much you wanted it and where your position was in the queue.

However, if you are getting ready to upgrade and thinking about going for the iPhone 4, unless you are wanting the higher megapixel camera, sharper density within the screen, faster execution and more speed whilst multi-tasking, there’s not a lot of difference between the two. The mobile phone industry is changing rapidly and rumors have of Qualcomm who design CPU’s for mobile phones are working on 1.3GHz processors for Windows Mobile 7 phones; this means that again, within the fourth quarter another load of phones will come out through LG, HTC and competing manufactures.

For a phone which was discovered in a bar in Redwood City, USA as someone had lost it and from Gizmodo getting hold of it and then leaking it onto the internet, Apple got the media engaged as well as their customers straight away and kept everyone eager to get hold of one, when the iPhone was released Apple managed to sell over 1.7million phones in just three days.

So what is HTML5 and is it the future?

HTML5 has been included in all Apple’s latest devices, Safari on Mac and PC support it as well as on the iPhone and iPad. Apple has launched a website to showcase some of HTML5’s features; you’ll need Safari to take a look.

If you like what you see and you’re a developer you can get some help using the effects for your own HTML5 pages. Apple have include code samples and guides on each of the showcased features.

HTML5 is an open standard which anyone can use, view and manipulate. It’s a progression in the language used to create today’s websites, it will enable website developers to create nicer looking websites with features like those demonstrated on Apple’s website. This will eliminate the need to use flash and this is good for a couple of reasons:

1. Adobe flash is a ‘closed’ language, Adobe own it and developers can’t manipulate it.
2. Adobe flash is a separate plug-in for browsers, where as HTML5 support will be built in. The flash plug-in has sometimes been known to be unreliable and cause browsers to crash.
3. Adobe flash can cause security flaws in your computer; a new one was discovered only last week!

HTML5 aims to replace HTML4.01 and XHTML 1.0; it introduces new elements and amends some others. It will provide the functionality developers need to create websites with rich multimedia content.

HTML5 is still in the development phase but is expected to see increasing use towards the end of 2010 and into 2011. It’s not clear if it will end up replacing Flash or end with the two still working side by side. Apple though is convinced that Adobe Flash’s days are numbered!

Well Apple didn’t disappoint, announcing over 100 new user features would be available in OS4, like Apple I’m not going to talk through all 100 here; just those that I think will be most useful to me…

Multitasking

Apple have finally got round to adding multitasking to the iPhone, meaning I can have multiple Apps running and quickly switch between them! No longer will I have to quit ‘DoodleJump’ to check my latest emails or stop listening to Radio 1 on ‘TuneIn Radio’ to read the latest news.

Apple of course claim to have multitasking nailed, they say it won’t affect performance or battery life. I don’t doubt they will have made it work great, just a shame it took so long.

Folders

Okay, so this is pretty basic functionality but it’s going to make life a lot easier on my iPhone. I currently have about 100 Apps on my iPhone, spread across 7 pages; three of the pages are just full of games!  I’ll soon be able to put all these games in one folder cunningly called ‘games’; instantly taking me down to 4 pages of Apps!

Instead of six swipes of my thumb to launch another frustrating game of ‘Impossible’ I can have the Games folder on my first page of Apps. Folders also means I can now have over 2,000 Apps visible instead of the paltry 180 in OS3.

Game Centre

This could be massive – basically Xbox Live for the iPhone! Games will be able to plug-in to the game centre for Leader boards and Achievements. You’ll be able to see what your friends are playing and challenge them to a game. With over 50,000 games and 50 million users this could be good.

One Inbox

At last, this has always been a bug bare for many; having to come right out of one email account to check another. Now all my emails can appear nicely in one list, who knows why we had to wait for OS4 for this one!

Exchange Server 2010 support

OS4 will support more than one exchange email account and Exchange Server 2010. SpiderGroup will soon be moving our own servers to Exchange 2010 so this is good news for all our customers using iPhones. Apple have also beefed up security in OS4, something they have previously taken flak for.

1500 new APIs

This doesn’t mean much at the moment to those of us who aren’t developers but later this year we can expect to see a host of new and updated Apps which use these APIs to deliver some great new features. The new APIs will give developers a great deal more flexibility and functionality to play – watch this space!

Roll on the summer

Apple have yet to announce if they’ll be releasing another generation iPhone in the summer, I’m betting they will and if the rumours are accurate we can expect a better camera with a flash, a forward facing camera and Apple’s new processor technology used in the iPad for a speed boost.  I don’t imagine the physical design will change much, but Apple could go crazy and release some more colours!

The new phone itself isn’t much different from the older 3G version, boasting a very similar look and feel, but packing a few extras under the hood:

• Quicker processor
• Double the memory (256MB)
• Updated camera that can do video recording
• Electronic compass
• Nike+

It is quite good that Apple haven’t updated the fundamental design as it means all the accessories and add-ons that were available for the earlier version work with the new one.

The interesting thing about this phone is that most people with the iPhone 3G will not be able to upgrade immediately, tied in as they are to an 18 month contract with O2. That said, sales of the new 3G S seem to have been pretty strong with many original version iPhone users upgrading (my wife upgraded on the day it was released) and a whole bunch of new customers drawn in by Apple’s impeccable marketing.

Of interest to all iPhone users is the update to version 3.0 of the iPhone software which brings with it a whole host of useful additions.

A few highlights are:

• Ability to use rotated keyboard in any app (that supports it) particularly useful in email app.
• MMS
• Copy and Paste
• Enhancements to activesync (main one is to allow push to other folders than the inbox)
• Global Search
• Enhanced bluetooth
• Tethering (ability to use your phone like a USB 3G dongle)
• Push notifications

There are a lot more, I have only highlighted the particularly newsworthy ones and the ones that I personally have found benefit from. The keyboard update and the general user interface enhancement have made the whole experience more aesthetically pleasing and more practical. This is quite impressive considering the quality of the previous version, but Apple have done a good job with the incremental improvements.

Of all the updates I would expect the push notifications to have the biggest long term impact as it will allow developers to build applications that appear to stay open on the device when they have actually closed, this is going to be extremely important for instant messaging and social networking type apps.

Overall the latest updates are a good addition to the iPhone series; I wonder what they have up their sleeves for next year….

With devices recently released from big names such as Sony Eriksson, Samsung and HTC the latest addition to the market is the BlackBerry Storm.

Already widely being compared to the iPhone it is RIM’s first real attempt at a touch screen device.

The Storm, like previous devices is compatible with an organisations BlackBerry servers. It offers the usual e-mail integration that ‘Crackberry’ business users have come to depend upon but other features aimed at the consumer attempt to attract a different market. These include a sleek, iPhone-like design, and Blackberry’s ‘ SurePress’ touch screen, a replacement for the QWERTY keyboard.

Clickable

The touch screen is designed to simulate the actual clicking of keys. This is achieved by the screen itself being tactile and flexing as a user makes their choices. In theory it sounds like a great idea – the best of both worlds – but in reality it just doesn’t work. Light touches on the screen highlight an option but don’t select it, when typing you have to press fully the screen or you miss letters. Whilst I was testing the Storm I felt the tactile screen made the device feel poorly constructed, nothing like the bullet proof devices they’ve been selling so well for years.

User Interface

The user interface, one of the original Blackberry’s best features is confusing and inconsistent – achieving nothing but frustrating the poor user.

Do I want one?

An iPhone killer it is not, the Blackberry Storm just falls short of the mark. From a manufacturer that has built its reputation on devices that are more functional/useable than flashy, this is way off.

I’ll stick with my iPhone thanks….

I have been looking forward to owning an iPhone since it was first unveiled in January 2007 but refused to buy one until it supported 3G. Luckily a year later my wish came true and in general Iʼm very happy with it. I have always liked Apple for their simplicity of design and the attention to detail that goes into user interfaces, the iPhone is no exception, however Iʼm afraid to say that cracks are starting to appear in their reputation for quality.

If you donʼt know much about the iPhone then I would suggest going to http://www.apple.com/iphone, this will give you an overview of the features that are part of the device.

So I have to start of by saying the phone looks damn good The iPhone has sparked much discussion but I donʼt think you can say much against itʼs looks, in typical Apple style itʼs got an amazing form factor and itʼs no wonder that Jonathan Ive keeps winning awards. One of the reasons the iPhone looks so good is its screen. The widescreen is 3.5” in size and makes photos, films etc. look great but it also allows for very good control of the device via its touch interface. I find this was of controlling the phone very easy to use and the interface standards for the applications ensure that buttons are large enough so that you click the right button. I am also a great fan of the keyboard a function which has caused much argument in online forums. My suggestion to people who shy away from such things and demand a keyboard with some form of tactile response is this: try it. You could be right and it may not be for you but I would get hold of a iPhone and play with it for a couple of hours, as a tip donʼt worry if you see that you have typed an incorrect letter 9 times out of 10 the software will work it out for you. Once you are used to it (and it does take some getting used to) youʼll be typing those emails two handed in no time.

Along with the keyboard two major talking points are the phoneʼs 3G reception and the battery life. This is where things start to fall down slightly, it is very true that if you have 3G turned on and WIFI turned on and you start doing a lot of web browsing then the battery does die down quickly. This certainly isnʼt a problem specific to Apple, most smart phones drain their batteries very quickly, just because of the sheer amount of work they have to do and these donʼt have a 3.5” colour display! Never the less this doesnʼt change the fact itʼs going to be a pain if you run out of battery half way through the day, so my (and everyone elseʼs) tip is to turn both WIFI and 3G off and just use it when you need it. EDGE or GPRS (the standard signal the iPhone uses) is fine for receiving email and light web pages and if I know I need to do any heavy browsing then I can just switch on which ever service I need. Actually itʼs ironic that I waited over a year to get the 3G version and I hardly ever use it, I always seem to be able to get by on EDGE or I’m in an area with 3G. So for arguments sake letʼs say I have 3G switched on, do I get reception? Well generally, yes. In most places around Bristol I get 3 out of the 5 bars, however for the people that are affected Apple is supposedly bringing out software updates that help reduce this problem. It seems to me that the phone is fine in areas of strong signal yet when it gets to a weaker signal strength it tends to revert back to EDGe to early whereas other phones would stay connected to 3G.

The last general comment I would like to make before going into specific functionality of the iPhone is that of stability. When I first got my phone it was not stable, at all. The applications often crashed and even reset itself a few times. I can live with the former but not the later, restarts are unacceptable. Luckily (deservedly may be more appropriate) Apple have released two updates (2.01 and 2.02) which seem to have calmed the phone down and with 2.1 currently in beta testing I have high hopes that I will have the stable phone that I should have received to start off with. So those are my generally views of the phone, as you can see itʼs not all good but there is still a lot to the phone to discuss. I wonʼt be reviewing all the functionality the iPhone has to offer because to be honest I donʼt use all the functions. I will however talk about what I have used on a day to day basis and Iʼm going to group those into the following sections:

• Phone
• Web
• Productivity
• 3rd party applications

You might be surprised to find that I havenʼt included the iPod functions in the list, well itʼs only because I donʼt really use them. I have watched the occasional video and I do have a couple of albums included in case of music emergencies. I donʼt really have much to say about it really, it works as you would expect it and watching videos is a lot better than previous iPods because of the enlarged screen.

The Phone

With regards contacts on your phone and the ability to ring them I donʼt really have much to say, other than contacts used to be very slow to open but has now speeded up. What requires more discussion is that of MMS and SMS. Well MMS is easy, you donʼt have it. If you want to send picture messages then you had better send an email. If you receive one you can still retrieve it albeit in a rather contrived way. If someone sends you an MMS you receive a standard text message which contains a link to a website, from here you need to
enter your phone number and a PIN that is also included in the text. From here you can see the picture realise that it wasnʼt really worth the effort and curse your friend for wasting your time. Personally I donʼt really using picture messages but if you do, youʼre going to find this annoying.

When it comes to standard texts however I find the iPhoneʼs way of storing texts per contact very useful. All texts you receive are stored by contact in a thread. Meaning that if I look at a text message from James Cook I can see all the texts that I have received since I last cleared the conversation. Since can be very useful in making sense of replies you get a few hours after you sent the original.

The Web

Browsing the web is where the iPhone comes into its own, I have tried a variety of smart phones and nothing comes close. Mobile safari comes pre-installed on the phone and allows you to view most websites on the internet as if you were using your desktop. Rendering is very fast and good support for javascript is provided. Just double tap on an area of text and it will fit o the screen, rotate the screen into the horizontal position and you can fit even more on the screen. Unfortunately flash isnʼt support but I have yet to miss it,
most sites that Iʼm going to visit while on the move just donʼt have it.

Itʼs worth mentioning that when I talk about viewing websites Iʼm talking about the full version that you would get on your desktop or laptop. The iPhone browser represents itself as a client browser rather than a mobile one. Obviously if you find yourself running on edge you can still view the mobile versions. There is also a host of website that are specifically designed for the iPhone, or at least have an iPhone version. Google for instance has a great interface for a lot of its services that are scaled to fit the iPhoneʼs screen and eliminates the need for scrolling. The buttons are of a good size and in general is much nicer to use than their standard mobile version. In short the web browsing on the phone is a huge selling point and in my opinion makes up for a lot of other mistakes that Apple are still trying to correct.

Productivity

When it comes to productivity people immediately think of email and calendar and Iʼm no different I have used both Exchange and MobileMe (which definitely needs its own article) and Iʼm quite happy with the applications. Along with all the other apps that are included with the iPhone they are simple to use and are well layed out, they donʼt have tons of functionality but they do what they have well. Reading files and keeping notes and tasks on the phone is where you get into trouble. Yes there is a notes application but it doesnʼt sync with anything, personally I find this a huge problem. I was also surprised to learn that you canʼt just transfer a file over to it either. I didnʼt even research this I just assumed it would! Now there is a reasonable work around just email the document to yourself, you can read iWork, Office and PDF files that are attached to an email. Still, not ideal and neither is the complete lack of a todo list from iCal, Exchange or even a standalone application!

Luckily you can get 3rd party applications that fill the void and keep the iPhone as the hub of my productivity. Iʼm going to talk more about these later but I currently use: Evernote (a notes application), Things (a GTD task list) and Files (letʼs you transfer files directly to your phone from a machine running Windows or Mac OSX.

Now Iʼm already working on a more in-depth article on productivity so I wonʼt say much more. It is worth keeping in mind that if you keep a lot of notes and todos that you will probably need 3rd party applications.

3rd Party Applications

Now the application store is just great, basically its a shop in iTunes where you can buy 3rd party applications for your phone. It should definitely be a consideration when you are deciding which smart phone to buy. There are some amazing applications out there which are up to the quality you would expect from a desktop application and they really add something to the phone.

Now when I was talking about productivity I was mentioned that you really need 3rd party applications if you want files, todos and notes and your first impression may have been of disappointment. I really donʼt see it as a bad thing (although Apple should really sync notes and todos anyway). All the applications are downloaded through iTunes so you know where you need to look, they are of a high standard, reasonably prices if not free and in a lot of cases provide functionality that you know Apple or any other phone manufacturer are simply not going to include with the standard phone software.

Final Thoughts

There are definitely flaws with the phone and depending on how you are going to use will play a large part in which smart you end up buying. From my personal experience even with the problems that I have to put up with I really donʼt regret buying it. It has an amazing interface, the web browsing is excellent and it is all topped of with some amazing applications. I am confident that future updates will resolve the problems Iʼve been experiencing but only time will tell if Iʼm being optimistic.

Dan,

If you have any questions about Apple related products or if you just want to disagree with what I have said then feel free to email me on dan.rowlands@spidergroup.co.uk Ideas for future articles are also welcome