iPhone

iPhone, gPhone, Androids and the company you keep

So the much awaited gPhone, nee the Android OS for the open handset alliance, debuted this week. Yawn. So Google's going to hock an OS that while it has the trendy underpinnings of Linux and the Open Source code-word attached won't at the end of the day (or year rather) give us much more than we already have on our Blackberries, Treos and iPhones. (Not to even mention the plethora of Windows Mobile cell phones with these capabilities).

Apple's "evil" iPhone update

A couple of disclaimers to start with. First I've already been called an Apple apologist for the analysis I'm about to present here. That argument may makes it easier to dismiss what I have to say but it isn't the case and in fact I still get much of my search traffic to this site from my criticisms of Apple which I'm derided for on Apple fan sites. Second, I'm the owner of an iPhone and at one time I may have had ringtones on it that weren't Apple sanctioned, rather weren't RIAA-sanctioned but we'll get to that in a minute.

Background

To be certain Apple is a publicly traded company. As such it has one real motive at the end of the day. Like all companies in a capitalist society it is in the business of making money for share holders. There are companies that pursue this goal in different ways but the profit motive is what keeps the board in place and Steve Jobs in the CEO chair.

AT&T Wireless vs Sprint coverage

As if any further proof was needed that cell phone preferences have a lot to do with where you live and what the network coverage is MacSlash has this comment:

I sure hope this update somehow results in better reception. I've dropped more calls since June 29th than I did in my 12 years with with SprintPCS. --MacSlash

Our experience has been just the opposite. In a typical day I'd drop a dozen cell phone calls - and that was when I didn't use it much. With the switch to AT&T I haven't dropped a dozen calls since June 29. All of this reminds me I need to go see if I accidently left the Sprint phone on a call while roaming.... oops.

Getting iPhone web galleries without iLife '08

This is untested but just might work. Once you have the web gallery button on your iPhone you need a gallery setup on .Mac. For those of us in the middle of projects and unable to upgrade what if you visit your local Apple Store and put your .Mac ID on a machine just long enough to create the web gallery. Presumably one need not go back in through iPhoto regularly. There is the risk that upon upgrading to iLife '08 it won't work with the 'foreign' gallery but might be worth playing with.

iPhone in the car

According to a comment in a post at Engadget it appears there may be a way to get the Belkin Auto Kit to work with the iPhone. I haven't been so fortunate. It appears (as the article suggests) to charge but it steadfastly refuses to play audio through the dock connector.

On the other hand having lived through Treo smart phones it is great to have a device that handles connecting and transferring Bluetooth calls as well as this does. Talk in the phone and press the button on the headset and the call is transfered seamlessly. A thing of beauty.

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