iPhone Archives (9 posts)

No iPhone 4 Antenna Issues in Canada

It seems that the iPhone 4 antenna death grip doesn’t seem to be a problem in Canada according to the iPhone in Canada Blog. Speculation on the blog points to the anemic AT&T network in the US.

John Gruber linked to a review of the iPhone 4 in Australia’s Daily Telegraph where dropped calls and signal strength haven’t been an issue.

Could it be that Rogers Wireless and a lower volume of iPhone users in Canada prevents the iPhone problems? Maybe. I’m just happy that I can upgrade to an iPhone 4 in the near future and not have to worry about antennae issues that our neighbours to the south are having.

Posted in iPhone at 4:43 PM

iPad + Velcro

I’m still waiting for my iPad to ship and wonder if iPhone + Velcro might work well in my Mustang as an alternative GPS?

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Posted in iPhone at 11:44 PM

Lower Your Rogers iPhone Bill

Last week somebody asked me how much my monthly iPhone bill was. I was surprised when I found out that I was paying an average of $75/month (CDN) to Rogers. I’m not a heavy cellphone and started looking at ways to lower my phone bill.

I purchased an iPhone 3G in Septermber 2008 with Rogers and chose this package:

• 200 weekday minutes ($17.50)
• Unlimited evenings/weekend minutes (free)
• 6 GB data plan ($30.00)
• Tethering access (free)
• 911 emergency access fee ($0.75)
• System access fee aka money grab ($6.95)

After taxes I’m paying $62/month for my iPhone service. Text messaging is not included in my monthly plan and I only use a fraction of my data plan.

Texting Can Be Expensive

On average, I send and receive about 70 text messages per month. This is where Rogers seems to make a lot of their money if you’re not on a texting plan. I’ve been paying $12-$15/month by texting without a plan.

In 2009, Canadians sent 35.3 billion text messages according to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. This is an increase of 70% over the previous year. At 15¢ a message that is $5.3 billion dollars!

Reduce Your Rogers Bill and Use a Text Messaging Plan

If you’re not on a text messaging plan with Rogers or any carrier, add one! I added the Messaging Bundle - 250 to my bill for $5/month. This plan gives me 250 sent text, picture and video messages per month and unlimited incoming text messages.

By simply going on a text messaging plan I lowered my Rogers phone bill by a minimum of $5 each month. During some months my savings will be as high as $10. It doesn’t sound like much until you consider that this is $60-$120 in savings over the course of a year. Would you rather keep that money in your pocket or give it away to Rogers?

Posted in iPhone at 6:46 AM

Classics iPhone App Is Free For A Limited Time

For a limited time you can get Classics for the iPhone and iPod Touch, for free. Classics is a collection of public domain books that have been formatted meticulously for the iPhone screen, complete with fancy page flip animations.

The new iBooks app for the iPad looks identical to Classics and functions in the same way. Apple basically copied the app without acknowledging Classics which is pretty ruthless.

Classics’ developers Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu are giving it away for free in response to iBooks, reasoning that they would like as many people to see it as possible so they are aware that iBooks copied Classics, not the other way around.

Get it today before the price goes back up to $2.99 you cheapskate!

Posted in iPhone at 11:49 AM

Great Overview of Smartphone Industry at BBC

The BBC explains why smartphones are not suffering in the recession and how they are becoming the new computing platform for many of us.

Smartphones are really the personal computers of the not too distant future. I’ve talked to a few people that don’t bother taking their laptops on business trips any more. They take their iPhone’s instead.

Depending on the type of business that you do you can get away with this. I don’t do any designing or coding on my iPhone, yet. If you want, the iPhone is a great way to stay connected with clients and remain online when you’re out of the office. It has been years since anyone got excited about computing platforms and smartphones are the beginning of a huge shift in computing and communication.

Think of all the things that an iPhone or a BlackBerry can do right now. Imagine the crazy apps that these phones, or should I say computers will be able to do in a few years.

Posted in Technology and iPhone at 11:23 PM

CBC Radio iPhone App

My hat is off to CBC. Their CBC Radio iPhone App is first rate. It’s nicely designed and most importantly it works perfectly.

Some of the features include:

• 19 live streams
• more than 60 of CBC’s most popular programs on-demand
• archived episodes
• a favourites list so you can go straight to the programs you love
• listen to your local frequency
• set a sleep timer
• browse CBC.ca while you listen

Some people have complained about the lack of live streams for their particular city. Hey, this is a version 1.0 app and CBC has hit a home run in my books. The extra live streams will come in time.

I rated the CBC Radio iPhone App with 5 stars on iTunes.

The fun

Posted in iPhone at 12:15 AM

Top 10 iPhone Annoyances

Somebody with the username blackberryrules sent me an email about a story in PCWorld.com - Top 10 iPhone Annoyances (And How to Fix Them).

It’s a good article and points out some valid problems with the iPhone. My biggest complaint is the battery life. If you use the GPS option or play a lot of games then the battery gets drained pretty quickly.

The only item on the list that I partly disagree with is number 6 - You Can’t Store Files or Attach Them to E-Mail. This is only partly true. Out of the box, the iPhone can’t transfer files easily, to and from your computer but “there’s an app for that”. There are actually a whole bunch of apps to do this. I use one called Files and it works perfectly.

The iPhone is flawed and doesn’t do a lot of things as well as a BlackBerry device. To me, BlackBerry is like Microsoft when it comes to smartphones. The Wall Street and techie crowd love their BlackBerry devices because it is perfectly suited for their needs. iPhone users are often designers, creative types, or people that want a cool phone with the world’s best apps.

I’m not one of these Apple fanboy’s that thinks his phone or computer is the best on the planet. The iPhone is the best phone for what I need in a mobile device and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Posted in iPhone at 8:26 AM

OS 3.0 Details

I love reading about the subtle details that Apple puts into some of its applications. There is a lot of thought and design that goes into some of these apps that just make them work intuitively. Check out Cocoia Blog for iPhone OS 3.0: The details.

Posted in iPhone at 10:59 PM

Free Cocktails+ For iPhone

Cocktails+ is a great iPhone app that is free until midnight on Sunday, April 12th, 2009. It contains over 2,000 mixed drink recipes that come from expert sources. As long as I have my iPhone I’ll never be bored in a fully stocked bar.

Posted in iPhone at 11:12 PM