Archive for June, 2010
The iPhone 4 camera: not quite the best camera yet, but getting there, thanks to better hardware and despite indifferent software
I was too harsh on the iPhone 4 camera: the disappointing quality of shots taken in certain light conditions may be more to do with software that doesn’t do justic to the high-quality Omnivision sensor Apple installed in the device, finally reversing its habit of fitting shoddy hardware in earlier versions of the iPhone. Although you still can’t use RAW images, the good news is that existing photo processing apps, contrary to what I initially feared, seem to save work at the new high resolution, meaning you can immediately start using them to process your pictures on the phone itself prior to sharing them wirthout having to use your Mac.
The iPhone 4: a design and technological triumph that developers have yet to live up to
Orange very kindly arranged for me to upgrade to one Apple’s new iPhone 4 phones yesterday night on the eve of the world-wide launch and I’ve been playing with the device for the past twenty-four hours or so. Despite the major irritant of having to fit everything into an inadequate 32GB, technologically and, above all, aesthetically, Mr Job’s latest creation is a triumph. It’s a considerably more reliable telephone, not a mean feat for a company that has only been in this business for three years and its dazzlingly powerful iOS 4 will, temporarily at least, eclipse even the recently launched iPad. Developers, however, will need to rise to the challenge of submitting applications capable of making the most of the phone’s capabilities. This will especially be true of photography applications, given that the phone’s much heralded five-megapixel camera is actually slightly underwhelming.
Reeder beats Fever and Pulse: the best way to read RSS feeds on the iPad
The iPad, as many people quickly realised, is the best device by far to read news stories. Since I spend more time reading RSS than anything else when I’m online, I have always invested heavily in finding the most efficient and user-friendly way of doing so, especially as I also actively share a lot of the content I find interesting. Until yesterday, the choice of available RSS clients on the iPad was pathetic: Silvio Rizzi’s Reeder for iPad, which, like it’s iPhone brother, is simply the best RSS App, around, has just changed that. As a result, I’ve stopped using Shaun Inman’s Fever, which while incredibly clever, doesn’t offer such a flexible experience. I’ve also been looking at Pulse, which was in the news this week after being briefly pulled from the App Store and has started developing something of a cult following: while some of its features are incredibly innovative, it can’t be used as a serious full-time RSS client until it syncs to Google Reader and allows you to have more than twenty feeds.
Quick thoughts on the iPhone 4: the camera, VoIP, and other issues
There’s no point in dwelling in extenso on the very beautiful new iPhone 4 (I’m glad plastic has been ditched for metal and glass, which Apple has always chosen for its best-looking products), since Apple provided a remarkable if slightly embellished presentation of its new toy. I’m just going to focus here on a few points I think are of particular interest in this new release: the very nice new camera that could possibly kill the cheaper compacts, VoIP calls, the huge disappointment of not having a 64GB flash drive, and the uncertain issue of the data strain on AT&T’s network.
What’s ‘open’ anyway? Walled gardens will never stifle innovation and shouldn’t be confused with Net neutrality
The accusation of being ‘closed’ rather than ‘open’ has been freely brandished by various major actors in the tech sector in recent weeks. Yet little thought has been given to what these labels actually mean. In reality, few IT companies have shown significant growth without resorting to economic models that have been perceived as ‘closed’, when it suited their strategy or their users’ needs. Yet history teaches us that whenever they have abused this instrument, they have fallen out of favour and users have moved on to the next ‘cool’ company. With the exception of Facebook, whose abuse of privacy impinges on the borderline area of personal web identity, there isn’t actually any threat to the freedom of users of the Internet—at least in those jurisdictions that don’t attempt to tamper with access to the global network itself. Providing Net neutrality is not compromised, innovation won’t be stifled by the existence of ever-recurring walled gardens.