Category: iphone

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iphone

Why you need a iPhone 3G in the UK

iphone 3gActually, I’m not that excited about the GPS, and the speed of UMTS is great but for me the most important part of the new package is the UMTS network itself and its coverage.

In the UK O2 never really invested in a EDGE network as a result, most iPhone users in the UK were limited to basic GPRS networking. The 3G network of O2 is much more extensive, so I expect to be able to get faster wireless access more often.

The combination of both Cloud and BT Openzone wireless access as part of the deal, may also mean that I spend more time on wifi anyway.

And yes of course I will be picking up a new iPhone on 11 July !

Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.

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iphone LBS

iPhone 2.0 api includes core location component.

Much like the Google Android platform, yesterdays annoucement from Apple includes news of a Location API as part of the iPhone OS which will allow third parties to develop location based applications, and most importantly enable any iphone application to make use of location.

iPhone Core Location API

Seen alongside Android there is now a critical mass of developers building moble applications which use location, and hopefully we will see the same level of innovation we have seen from the web in general.

For the geospatial industry this is fantastic news !

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

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iphone Thoughts

The cult of iPhone

For many years as a user of Apple computers since the Macintosh LC I was quite happy to be a member of the minority of computer users at odds with the majority of other computers users, happy to stand out as a member of “the cult of mac“. Now of course things are different pop into any Starbucks anywhere is the world and you will see Macbooks everywhere, Macs are slowly becoming more mainstream.

iPhoneThis week I was in California and it seemed that almost every other person was using an iPhone, in the Google office it was more extreme almost everybody had one. Yet back home in the UK, I think I have seen maybe two or three other iPhone users in London, and one user on a train from Manchester, the contrast with San Francisco is enormous !

Although there are well known limitations with todays iPhone, no 3G, poor camera, no MMS, the iPhone is by a very long way the best mobile phone I have owned, I actually don’t think it is the spec of the iPhone that is the problem is Europe.

So what has gone wrong, clearly Apple hoped that the iPhone would in Europe follow the success of the phone in the US market, but of course the markets are very different.

Despite the widespread (compared to the US) availability of SIM free phones in Europe, most people still expect to be given a free phone when opening a new contract or renewing an expired contract.

These operator provided “free” phones are not low end models either, the number of people on the train I see with Nokia N95’s is staggering – many I’m sure not even aware of the capability of their “mobile computers”, against this few people outside the geek minority are willing to spend nearly three hundred pounds on a iPhone.

Never mind, I enjoy my smugness as a member of the “cult of iPhone”, knowing that I have spent a large sum of money to have a technically superior device, others think is an extravagant waste of money… ah yes back to the good old days !!

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.