Mobile

One week into iPhone 4 and how are we doing?

First off, I want to dismiss all of the negative press reports because, quite simply, I have not been affected by any of the 'issues'. That's all I'll say about that.

Coming from the 3GS to the 4 I can make one important observation: hardware is important.

I'm not just talking about internal specifications, here, I mean the whole caboodle. Thick, strong glass and steel give iPhone 4 a depth of quality that ...

Well, it's likely that folk who don't even own a computer know all about the 4th generation iPhone by now, courtesy of Gizmodo. The more I look at the pictures and videos the more I can appreciate the subtle design cues in this device, which is a marked departure from the current design ethos seen in the iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPod Touch, iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook. You get the idea; the removal of 'complex' curves from this prototype makes it stick out like a sore thumb in Apple's currently ...

The form factor of the future of computing for the medium term has been decided. It was decided the first time a mobile phone shrank to the size of a trouser pocket and we've been on course to realising the 'computer' aspect ever since.

There have been many false starts on this road to truly pocketable computers. Most outlandish were probably Nokia's claims of mobile phones as multimedia computers with the launch of the NSeries in 2005. While these devices had many of the capabilities ...

As a general observation, I've noticed an increasing amount of anti-Google sentiment around the web, mostly in comments but also on TV (that BBC2 programme about the Internet focussed heavily on Google's domination last week) and in the news. Today it's Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao's turn, as he suggests that there are choice implications when what he's really screaming is *somebody regulate this giant before there's no ad revenue left for the rest of us*. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...s-google-power ...

In the past, mobile phones have been rather disposable. Rapidly evolving form factors, hardware, and software have made an upgrade cycle of anywhere between 6 and 18 months the 'norm', particularly amongst younger owners.

The move to touch-screen handsets has finally put an end to the form factor issue. Hardware is levelling out in terms of what is actually practical and useful to have on a mobile phone, and by that I'm referring to a half decent camera, GPS, compass, all rather consistent. ...