Harry Finocchiaro

 

 

What can we say? Apple has come through and fixed some of the things that bothered us about iOS4. Some of you may remember a few months back when we wrote about our hands-on experience in what we called iOS4 on a 3G - Our First Hour. We said it was kind of a disappointment, and that the only thing making us even slightly interested was that it was available for free. (Note: previous iPhone OS updates cost money on any iDevice other than a phone.) Still we even went on to call it a "rare miss for Apple." Game Center was nowhere to be found, our phone was slow and stuff just didn't seem to work the way it was supposed to.

Unfortunately, if you have an iPhone 3G, Game Center is still missing, but we've learned to live with that and moved on. Aside from that, we started having so many other issues with the system, that we totally forgot about Game Center. None of them were downright horrible, but all were annoying. Battery life started to suck, navigating the operating system was slow…the list goes on. But we're here to talk about the update, because it's a nice one.

So far things are definitely snappier. Flipping pages and opening Apps such as the Camera or Photos is a dream compared to what it was just a week ago. That's not to say it's blazing fast, but this is a 3G--we can't expect too much. We opened the default camera App, took pictures, previewed them, shared and deleted. It all seemed to work much better. Sadly, we can't do a side-by-side so it's impossible to tell if we are just perceiving it as a better system, or if it actually is faster.

Texting seems to be much faster as well. Opening up the Messages App is smoother, and we don't get tired of waiting to scroll up and down as we search the contacts. We also noticed that the "Slide to Unlock" function works now. Okay, so we are being a bit facetious, but there were times when the slide just didn't want to move.

Other improvements we notice are that double-clicking the Home button to bring up our Favorites also seems to work a bit smoother. Before, it felt like we'd double-click, wait, double-click again…wait, then end up opening and exiting Favorites as the OS tried to figure out what the heck we were trying to do. 

The Spotlight search seems better as well, and that's a great thing given how much use it gets from these thumbs.

Overall, iOS4.1 is a great update. We've said it before and we will say it again: It's what we felt iOS4 should have been. Of course things things can take time, and there is no way of knowing exactly how well something will work until it's out in the wild and being used by millions in various different scenarios.

Tune in tomorrow as we put iOS4.1 through the "regular day of use" test. We will use the software through a regular day and share how our first 24 hours with 4.1 went.

 

 

Apple aren't the only ones offering you 99-cent rentals of popular TV shows. Amazon is doing it too. As with Apple, major networks ABC and Fox are on board. BBC is also joining this one.

It's great to see TV shows being offered at more competitive pricing. Strangely, some have expressed a bit of anger, because they believe that they should be able to keep the shows for that price.

Now, most of us aren't rich by any means. We make enough to live comfortably, and that's good enough for us. Right now, 99 cents doesn't seem like  a bad deal. We rarely watch a show more than once. After that, it just feels like a waste of hard drive space.

Either way, it looks like 99 cents may be the new standard for the time being.

[Via Amazon]

 

 

Tomtom has just announced the availability of Star Wars character voices for their line of GPS navigation devices. This is way cooler than hearing the lady with the British accent telling us to turn right in one mile.

Now you have Darth Vader to tell you to turn around whenever possible, and scold you by saying "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Each voice will set you back $12.95, but the sounds are beyond awesome. Sadly, there is no Chewbacca. We are fond of being led through downtown Los Angeles by grunts and growls.

We all love geek stuff, but we want you to know how this ties in a bit to our regular coverage. See, some readers may not be aware of this, but the term Droid is owned by LucasFilm, Ltd. That also explains the special edition R2-D2 Droid 2. You can even sample the voices at the link below.

[via Tomtom]

  

YouTube recently released their new HTML5 browser-based mobile application for smartphones. OK, it's really just an iPhone App that runs on Mobile Safari meant to play video much better than the one Apple built into their devices. And it does exactly that.

The new mobile YouTube website (m.youtube.com) functions like a much smaller YouTube. Sounds obvious enough, but those of you who have used Apple's stock YouTube App on their iPhones know that it feels nothing like YouTube. It gets by doing what it has to do, and not much else.

The HTML5-based site that YouTube launched incorporates all the features that make YouTube the site it is. A lot of these, such as commenting, are available on Apple's App, but they feel so half-hearted and out of the way compared to the new site. The Apple App opens a new page every time you want to do something, like read or leave comments, while this App streamlines the process into one page.

 

Leaving Comments is streamlined in the YouTube Mobile App

 

The biggest difference, as most users have been noticing is the quality of the video. This site shines when used over a cellular network. Have a look at the images below:

 

 Apple's App over 3G

 

 YouTube's App Over 3G (HQ On)

Above, you can see both Apps over 3G. YouTube offers the HQ (High Quality) option, which gives a noticeably clearer picture. The Apple App doesn't have this option. Know that turning off HQ will yield results similar to the Apple App.

Loading times for HQ weren't horribly slow over 3G. While definitely slower than a low quality video, the enhanced picture more than makes up for the load time. (Also know that when viewing over wifi, Apple's application will show in HQ as well).

The YouTube App gives you all the necessary options, which are pictured below.

 

One of the most interesting things we found was that upon directing your phone's browser to the mobile site, you prompted to add the application to your Home Screen by hitting the plus sign. This will put a shortcut with the YouTube icon on your desktop. This is a move that is likely to convince users to replace their Apple YouTube App with the browser-based App.

 

YouTube Asks You to Add Their App to Your Home Screen

 YouTube App Icon

One of the greatest things about having the option to use YouTube in a browser window is that we can now type in landscape, which the stock iPhone App didn't let us do. It's also nice that everything plays within one application. The iPhone no longer jumps between the YouTube App and Mobile Safari when we want to play a video.

Put bluntly, YouTube's new mobile site destroys the one Apple stocks with the iPhone, if for video quality alone. Go to m.YouTube.com and add the icon to your desktop, you won't need the native YouTube App anymore. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

iOS4 has a ton of features. The most notable ones were shown off when the operating system was introduced, then known as iPhone OS4. Others worked their way to the tech blogs as users discovered more features through the iOS4 development kit. Then there are those hidden features that we are just now hearing about.

Put a Call on Hold Changed Slightly in iPhone 4 - Hold down the mute button until the icon changes. This has changed on the iPhone 4 because of the Facetime icon.

 

The Hold Button pre-iPhone 4

 

Hold Button in iPhone 4 is accessed by holding the Mute icon

 

Easy package tracking - Click on the tracking number and hold, a prompt comes up asking if you would like to track the package. Obviously more convenient than typing it in or copy/pasting.

More Options for SMS and MMS messages - These are additional options for sending text messages. The first is Group Messaging. If all users have iOS4 with this function turned on, they can share texts, almost as in a chat room. For instance, if one user sends their group of friends a picture from a U2 concert, the others on that list can all see the picture and reply, and see each others’ messages within one text bubble.

The other is one we have discussed before, it counts the characters in a text message. This lets you avoid sending text messages that exceed the size limit of 160 characters.

 

Sync Notes Over MobileMe or Email Account - When you make notes in the Notes app, you can have them sync over MobileMe or through an email account.

 

 

YouTube in Portrait, Zoom - There is almost no reason we can think of to use YouTube in portrait mode, but the option is there. You are now able to do that and zoom in, now you can watch cartoons with a weird aspect ratio and focus soley on the center of the screen. Maybe someone will find a use for this?

 

Orientation Lock - This is another feature we have discussed before, but we wanted to bring it up again because it is somewhat hidden. You have to open up the multitasking dock to access this function. From there, you will swipe right (this also accesses iPod controls) and you will see a lock. Touch the icon to lock the orientation. Now you can browse iSmashPhone in bed without having the screen rotate every time you turn onto your side.

 There are tons of features hidden deep within iOS4. Finding them all is the fun part.