iPhone 4 – Early Thoughts

The main reasons I upgraded from my 3GS to iPhone 4:

  • Retina display
  • Better battery life
  • Better camera

Retina

The display is stunning – it is crystal clear and the colors are beautiful. Most apps simply become more crisp (assuming they don’t use a lot of low-res images). I don’t think you’ll see a ton of difference in the way you use apps due to the display, but you’ll enjoy the experience much more and it’ll feel less like a computer screen. This is one of those things where the old technology got the job done just fine, but man, after using this display for a few days now, I can’t wait to see it come to iPad and to traditional computer monitors. Once you get used to retina, all other displays start looking really blurry.

Battery Life

It’s excellent. It still isn’t going to last nearly as long as the iPad, but it seems to last significantly longer than my 3GS did while performing the same tasks.

Camera

For still photography, the camera seems to be improved, but it’s significantly better at low light photography. This is partly due to the new sensor technology, but it’s also due to the inclusion of a small LED flash. Don’t get me wrong, the low light photos are terrible compared to a DSLR or even a mid-range Point & Shoot…but it’s a huge step up from the camera in the 3GS that was barely usable in lower light conditions. Daylight photos (particularly macro type shots) range from good to excellent. If you want proof, check out this shot by a friend of mine. I’d say that under optimal conditions, the iPhone 4’s still camera is very competitive with mid-range Point & Shoot cameras. As for video, it’s 720p in size, but don’t expect anything close to Bluray quality. I put a couple of videos on my Vimeo account…these are “worst case” shots – indoors with low light shooting a dark subject with some fast movement. Quality wise, the video function alone is right there with my Creative Vado…there is absolutely no reason to use a Vado, Flip, etc. if you have an iPhone 4. In fact, when you add on the software (iMovie or otherwise), the iPhone 4 blows those devices out of the water.

Overall Feel

Compared to my 3GS, the iPhone 4 feels better & worse. I love the new design – it’s more sleek and feels even more solid. The downside is I feel more paranoid that I’m going to drop it. With the 3GS, you could drop it and have a pretty good chance of only minor scratches or maybe a small crack in the plastic back. With the iPhone 4, you’re either going to damage the glass on the front or back (and the camera is integrated into that back glass as well) or you’re going to bang up the antennas (since they form the metal band around the outside). In theory, the glass is super strong and not easy to break, but something about it just feels a little more fragile. Speed wise, everything feels fast. If you’ve used an iPad, it’s pretty much the same. I really don’t notice a ton of speed increase over my 3GS for day to day activities – I do know it’s much more powerful though, so I’m sure future apps will widen this gap.

FaceTime

FaceTime is the video calling feature built-in to each iPhone 4. I tried it out with a friend from Twitter and it’s certainly a nifty feature. It works as easily as Apple advertises…call someone, touch a button, and boom – video call. The big gotcha (for now) is that both parties must have iPhone 4s AND be on a WiFi network. I’m not sure I’ll be using this feature all that much, but I also prefer e-mail/twitter/IM to phone calls anyway. I can see it being pretty popular for some people and I do see a few use cases for myself.

iBooks

iBooks is an app I use a ton on my iPad. I was hoping the retina display would make it more readable to me on the iPhone 4. Text & images looks absolutely fantastic – but at the end of the day, I just can’t read on such a tiny screen. It’s not that the font is too small – I can see it fine – I just can’t fit enough content on the screen for my tastes. I read mostly technical (or at least non-fiction books) though, so books with less structured content may be a bit better. Imagine reading the tiny bibles you used to find in hotels – that’s what it’s like reading on the iPhone 4…super crisp text, but a little bitty reading surface. I do like having the ability to look up something in iBooks in an emergency though – so I’ll keep it installed just in case.

Multitasking

A lot of people have been anxiously awaiting multitasking on iPhone. I’m not one of them. I would like a few apps to be able to update in the background (Twitter for example) and I’d like to have a live IM client, but that’s about it. I don’t use Skype or Pandora on the phone, but if I did, I’d be happy. For me, this is a nice feature, but the only real benefit I get is that it’s slightly faster to switch between applications. Maybe I’ll be wow’d with what people are able to do with this in the future, but for now, I just don’t see much benefit for the tasks I do today…but I was never the target of this feature in the first place.

Reception

You’ve probably heard about the reception issues with iPhone 4. Steve Jobs said they don’t exist, but if they did, it’s because you’re holding it the wrong way. Apple corporate said they exist on all phones and you should buy a case. Well, they definitely do exist and I’m holding my phone the same way I’ve held every Apple iPhone. I’m going to end up buying a case I’m sure, but I’m really disappointed in Apple over this one. If you hold the phone in your left hand, you’ll connect two of the antennas with your finger or palm. By doing this, your 5 bars of full signal will drop to “No Service” within 30 seconds or so unless you happen to be very close to a cell tower. At home, I can do this easily every time I try. In West Knoxville, I had a harder time getting the signal to drop…so it seems to be partially dependent on your proximity to cell towers. I have yet to have a call drop due to this, but I have had SMS messages and data downloads stop/fail due to it…so it isn’t just a display issue – it really is losing the signal. Apple says some type of fix is on the way and if that’s the case, then maybe this won’t be a problem much longer. I expected I would get better reception than my 3GS due to the larger exposed antenna, but so far, my 3GS had a more stable signal. Call quality is as good or better on the iPhone 4 though. I haven’t tried making a call from a noisy area yet, but all of the calls I’ve made have sounded very clear on my end and no complaints from those that I’ve called.

WiFi iPad – One Month In

I posted my initial impressions about the iPad a while back so I thought I’d take a minute to update my thoughts now that I’ve had it for exactly a month.

It’s safe to say that it’s my main Email/Twitter/News reader. Honestly, it’s my preferred method of reading just about anything. Yes, I would love to have a higher resolution screen (after reading several full books on it, the text isn’t quite a crisp as I’d like.) It’d also love for it to be about ½ of its current weight…maybe a little more. I’ve really enjoyed reading books on it – most have been programming titles from PragProg.com, but reading any kind of book should be just fine. The weight makes it a little harder to hold while you read it…at least for an extended period of time. I also end up hitting the “home” button quite a bit as I move my hand around to get a better grip. It’s not unbearably heavy, but 100 pages in or so and you’ll be getting a pretty good workout if you don’t prop it against something.

The rumors about WiFi reception are 100% true – my laptop gets a very strong signal from anywhere in my house. My iPhone gets a very good signal from anywhere – although not quite as good as the laptop. The iPad, however, has a hard time holding on to a signal when I’m in the front of the house (my main router is in the back). It usually connects, but it barely has a signal and it frequently drops out. I have a second router in the front of my house, so I can just switch to that one and things are ok – but I can see having issues in hotels or public areas where WiFi reception on laptops is less than stellar.

One of the areas the iPad really shines is photos. The LCD panel on this thing is fantastic. I didn’t think having an IPS panel would make that much difference, but it really does. I really, really enjoy looking at photos on this thing.

I bought a Pogo Stylus not too long ago. I thought it would help take notes. Technically, it does help, but it’s still nowhere close to a Wacom tablet or even a Tablet PC. Of course the iPad doesn’t support pressure sensitivity, so that’s out, but in order to minimize accidental touches, the iPad requires a pretty large area to be touched. The impact of this is that the Pogo Stylus is about as big around as the tip of my pinky…that’s not huge, but it’s large enough that it just doesn’t feel right to me. Without question, the stylus is much more accurate than a finger and drawing/writing is easier. I know a lot of people are really happy with the Pogo, but I still keep reaching for my pen & paper when I need to write something down or sketch out a quick design.

Otherwise, my initial impressions are still valid. Apps cost a lot (some are great, some not), battery life is excellent, TONS of fingerprints on the screen (only visible at an angle or while it’s off though), keyboard is serviceable to good, and the app store itself is still a bit of a jumbled mess (as far as finding apps outside the top 100 list).

I still this this device will open up a ton of new experiences and ways of interacting with a touch interface, but I’m really disappointed the Microsoft Courier and the HP Slate aren’t happening. Apple certainly has the lead on touch devices right now, but it’s always good if there is some real competition happening. Hopefully Google will come though with something slick. I really wish someone would make a tablet with capacitive multitouch + a real stylus (pressure sensitive Wacom style tech) – it just feels like the iPad would be so perfect if it had a real stylus. Oh well, maybe on version 2.0…

NetNewsWire for iPad Impressions

I bought NetNewsWire for iPad on launch weekend and I’ve been pretty satisfied with my purchase.  I saw there are quite a few negative reviews and I can see how the software isn’t for everyone (yet) – so here is my take on NNW at this point:

Pros

Simple, clean interface focused on your RSS content.

Syncs without a hitch with Google Reader.

Integrated Instapaper support.

Integrated web browser so navigating links within a feed item doesn’t take you out of the app.  (You can still open the link in Safari if you want though.)

When in portrait mode, the whole screen is the feed item with a small toolbar at the top with a few options (such as move to the next item).

Post the current item to Twitter or Email.

Support for marking items as “starred” in Google Reader.

Cons

It’s $10 – this wasn’t that much of a con for me, but I know $10 for an RSS reader is a bit high for some people.  (Maybe there will be a lite version of the iPad app soon…)

You must use Google Reader – you’ll need an account to sign in with when you startup NNW…without it, you get nada.

You can’t add/remove feeds from within NNW – I have my list pretty stable, so I don’t expect I’ll be needing this much, but if you like to change up your feeds

No Tumblr support – I’d like to be able to post an interesting item to Tumblr instead of Twitter.  

Minor bugs – the iTunes reviews make it sound like there are a ton of bugs, but there is only one bug/issue I’ve noticed so far.  The “show next” button doesn’t automatically enable itself until you click on an item (so when you download 30 new feed items, you’ll need to touch one to start off…then you can just “next” your way smoothly through them).

Not a universal iPhone/iPod/iPad app – it seems reasonable that this app would be a universal app since it should work largely the same on all Apple devices, but it looks like you’ll still need two apps if you want it on both types of devices.

Overall

For me, NetNewsWire works great.  Reading feed items is almost as nice as reading a page from a book in iBooks or Kindle.  I already manage all of my feeds via the Google Reader web interface, so I don’t mind some of the features being missing.  I do expect NNW will get plenty more features in the long run – all of the apps were rushed out the door for the iPad launch, so it’ll take a little time for them to get all of their features in.  If $10 is a bit too much for you or you want more features (at the expense of a bare bones, but serviceable UI), then NewsRack looks like a good choice at $5.  I think most people are going to be happier with NewsRack until NNW steps it up feature wise, but NNW works for me and I’ve really enjoyed using it.