iPhone 4S…
Apples latest offering in the 4S is very peculiar. The phone that they are offering is old technology on paper. One sees little need to upgrade.
However, this is nothing new for Apple. They are a company that perfects technology. The first iPhone did not have 3G capabilities when almost every phone on the market did. Yet, they had the competition beat by nearly five years. They were far ahead of the game.
One could argue that they are still very advanced. They introduced a phone that lacks 4G capabilities, a large four inch touch screen, and a dramatic new design. Yet the phone is almost perfect. The care that Apple puts into the hardware, software, and user interface of their phones is impeccable.
Nevertheless some people might still look at the iPhone and think that they could get 4G and a large screen from a device that costs the same, such as the Droid Bionic. If you actually use the phone, you will notice that the phone will begin to slow down, and most important is that the hardware will not feel nearly as good. Also the camera on the iPhone is legitimately just as good as a point and shoot. Some people may read that and think to themselves “How many times have I heard that before?” but this is genuine. The camera can measure up to a real, point and shoot camera, yes, that same one you bought last year for two hundred dollars.
People may read this any think that I am just pushing my own Apple agenda, and yes, I am a huge fan of Apple, I think they make tremendous products. Even so, if a competitor came out with a competing device that I liked more, I would have no problem using it. There just isn’t a product that can match the quality, ease of use and style that the iPhone carries with it.
Photo Credit: Apple Inc,
Is Windows Phone Ready to Compete?
Windows Phone 7 is an interesting proposition. They offer arguably the best looking user interface of any phone today. The OS offers live tiles that give you an interesting, yet quick look at everything in your online and social life, and they have many options of phones that all have terrific specifications.
However if you ask many people on the street they might think of Windows Phone as some clunky, brick of a phone that has little more to offer than simple email lacking even basic images. They would be partially true. The “Windows Mobile” phone that was Microsoft’s previous offering was exactly that, a confusing clunky mess.
This time around they did things right. Windows Phone is ready for the mainstream. Especially with the updates that they have instituted with their 7.5 “Mango” version of their software. They added the essential features that were missing like multitasking, better social network integration and threaded email.
They now have a true competitor to our friends at Apple and Google. The obvious comparison is to Google, but Windows Phone combines the best of Apple and Google. Microsoft ensures that you will have a phone capable of running properly because when they license the software they require it has at least a one gigahertz processor which is ample to power through any task. This is similar to Apples control over their hardware.
This is very dissimilar to Google’s Android operating system which is given away for use on any phone. This causes some phones to be sluggish, certain applications are unable to run, and general confusion for the consumer. Windows Phone is serious competition. Don’t underestimate its capabilities.
Photo Credit: Engadget
A Music Revolution
Spotify is an incredible advancement towards music. Everything from The Rolling Stones to Ke$ha is available to stream to your computer. And the best part, it’s all free. Well, kind of.
The unlimited streaming via the desktop and mobile client is a hard to swallow $9.99 a month. However when you think that right now you probably spent that on one iTunes album it does make it a little bit better.
The software is clean and very intuitive to use. Also a thing that astonished me is how quickly the songs loaded. It was as if they were stored on my computer. This was partially attributed to the decent hardware and internet speed but even accounting for that it was much faster than its competition.
iPad: End of Month One
After having the iPad for a month, I can truthfully say that it is the best electronic device for consuming media. The screen is beautiful, even though it does not have a 16:9 aspect ratio or a retina display (yet). When you open an app like “The New York Times” you can truly tell how long the developers took to make an experience that rivals and even beats the standard print newspaper.
However, if you actually want to create anything I feel that the iPad is not well suited for that. Even writing a quick paragraph in the Apple developed Pages document creation software takes twice as long as it would if you were to take out a laptop.
This is why the iPad is a great product, but the tablet is not replacing laptops anytime soon.
