The northlondonhippy

Archive for the ‘apple’ Category

Seven days into the brand spankin’ new year and I am already filled with optimism and hope. And by optimism and hope, I really mean depression and despair.

All my tv wants to show me is that nasty shit going on in the mideast. Why do they keep making sequels to that movie? I’ve seen it all before. That said, there’s something more upsetting about it this time. Its wholesale slaughter at an industrial scale and it sickens me.

I just wish I could change the channel but I really wanna see how it all turns out. Maybe someone could tip me off just before Rambo arrives and illustrates the pointlessness rather than glory of warfare. And by Rambo, of course I mean Gandhi.

I’m bored to the point of disgust at seeing children murdered and maimed. I can’t be the only one who has seen more than enough of this shit. Why don’t they all just stop?

Closer to home, or rather right here at home, north London has been submerged in sub-zero temperatures for what seems like a few weeks now, with each successive night providing another record-breaking low. Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

The thermometer in my car hit a rather chilly -2 yesterday, which was an all time record low for me and it hasn’t gone above +1 in over a week.

We’re not used to this sort of cold here in London and its bringing everyone down, especially with no respite in sight. All we need is some snow to complete this wintery hell and trust me, I’m not wishing for it.

And the economy is so far into the toilet it can taste the salt in the ocean.

Weed is going be returned to Class B from its present position in the more appropriate and recommended by gov’t advisors, Class C. That really sucks.

Things are indeed looking distinctly bleak as 2009 begins.

Even Apple let me down yesterday, with a MacWorld keynote devoid of any new toys for me to purchase. My credit card was revved up and ready, but it had nowhere to go.

Remember, if it weren’t for cool consumer electronics and soft drugs, I would have no joy in my life.

And its my birthday in a couple weeks, I could really do without that.

Oh moan, moan, moan, moan, moan!

Hey fuckers!

Dig this shit! I now have the ability to post to my blog directly from my iPhone.

At least I think I do. We will find out for sure when I attempt to post this bad boy on my site.

If you’re reading this shit, then it worked. And you can maybe expect more mobile blogging on the future.

There’s only ten days left till xmas and if you haven’t finished your shopping yet, I’m here to help.

Its a short list of potential gifts, but ones that will be certain to impress and dazzle the recipient. Also, you can order them online and have them ready to dole out on xmas without having to leave the comfort of your home. That’s the best way to xmas shop!

Kodak Zi6 HD Videocamera
Amazon UK: £ 89.99

The Kodak Zi6 HD Videocamera is an impressive little piece of kit. While pocket sized, this little marvel shoots in gloriously rich and detailed 720p High-Def, while recording onto cheap and readily available SD cards.

The Zi6 also shoots in standard, YouTube friendly VGA, has a built in USB connector and works like a dream. On my Mac, it just appears as a hard drive on the desktop, you drag the files onto your desktop, then into iMovie, which can handle them in HD quality.

On a PC, the Zi6 includes built in editing software, that you can run from the camera. Sweet.

It also shoots stills, has a 2x optical zoom and works off standard or rechargable AA batteries. I am so impressed with this camera already.

I bought mine a few weeks ago and paid £119.99, which means at £89.99, its already a major bargain! If you’re looking for a simple to use pocket videocamera that won’t break the bank, this is the camera for you.

iPod Touch
Amazon UK: £149-£254 depending upon storage (8gb, 16gb or 32gb)

I know I go on and on about my iPhone, but what if you are already happy with your current mobile deal, but still want to play with the coolest hand held gadget ever? The iPod Touch is for you!

The iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone. It does nearly everything an iPhone can do except make and receive telephone calls, send and receive SMS messages, take photos and have proper GPS. Other than that, it does everything else.

You can run most apps on an iPod Touch, you can surf the net, send and receive emails, it does have some location awareness based on wi-fi positioning. Oh and it plays music and videos and displays photos too.

I bought one for Mrs. Hippy last xmas and she absolutely loves it. She used it for music until the Apple App Store opened and that’s when she really got hooked. She now uses it for surfing, for gaming and its rarely not in her hands.

The 2nd generation iPod Touch is even slimmer than the first and its added a small speaker and the ability to input audio via an external microphone, making it even more flexible than the original model.

The only negative Mrs. H has come up with on it is it makes her wish she had an iPhone. The lack of connectivity when there is no wi-fi available is a real sticking point. Other than that, its nearly a perfect device, guaranteed to be used daily by whoever you might give it to.

Volcano Vaporiser
everyonedoesit.com – £279.75 for the standard model

I bought one of these a few months ago, but it is something I’ve coveted for ages. Near as I can tell, its the only vape that really works and consistently delivers good results.

The Volcano Vaporiser does one thing and does it very well, it takes your favourite herb (like weed) and turns the active bits into vapour, while leaving the nasty bits alone.

When you smoke weed, you burn everything, including the carbon-based bits which contain the known carcinogens and other nasties. You also burn a good chunk of the THC, before it reaches your lungs.

A vaporiser only burns the THC. leaving the other components alone. The weed doesn’t actually burn, but it does get a bit toasted and turns brown.

The Volcano works by filling a small chamber, which holds your weed between two screens. You place this chamber on top of the base unit, where it is heated to the proper temperature. You then engage a small fan, which blows air up through the chamber, filling an attached balloon with very sweet, pure vapour.

When you inhale it, you can definitely taste the weed, but your throat and lungs don’t feel anything at all. The vapour is at room temp, so its not hot and dry like smoke, and it is very light, though you can see it when you exhale.

The head on vapour is also different from smoking and is hard to describe. It is deceptively strong, clean, clear and every enjoyable.

By far the most impressive thing about using a Volcano is how little weed you actually need to get high. A week’s worth of what I would smoke, would probably last 5-6 weeks in the volcano. A spliff’s worth in the chamber is enough to get 4 people pleasantly stoned and then some.

And when you are done vaping the weed, don’t throw it away, there’s still some THC left in it, which you can extract by making cannabutter. You could even smoke it if you were desperate, though that would kind of defeat the purpose of vaping.

I know the Volcano is expensive (and I bought the even pricier digital version), but it will more than pay for itself with the money you will save on weed. Add the health benefits and you’ve got a really useful, beneficial device that will change your life.

I bought mine because I am planning on giving up cigarettes in the new year. When I do, I’m going to want to cut down on my spliffs as well and I think this will help loads.

That’s it for this year, just three hi-tech toys which will amaze anyone you might decide to give them to. And if you’re shopping for yourself, even better, you’d love them all too!

I read in the last week or so that there are now over 10,000 apps available for the iPhone and that’s only in the last six months since the App Store opened.

Wow!

That’s a lot of applications for the world’s favourite, ultra-clever smart phone.

Some of them are completely pointless and fun, others are very useful and some are just plain cool. I’ve gone a bit app mad and downloaded loads of them, so many that I am going to run out space soon.

That’s ok, because at some point, I know I am going to have to cull my apps and lose the ones I hardly, if ever use. For now, though I’m all about the apps.

I’ve already reviewed some of my favourite apps, CLICK HERE to magically travel back in time to those heady, crazy days, of August 2008.

Since then, I’ve found some even cooler apps to share with you. Some of them are free, some are paid for, but nearly all of them serve a useful purpose and most of them are used by yours truly on a daily basis.

Google Search
This app has been around since day one of the App Store, but the recent update added a feature that will not only impress your mates, but actually works.

The latest version of Google’s search app doesn’t require any buttons, you put the phone to your ear, wait for the tone to cue you and then speak your search and it understands you and displays your results lightening quick!

Like if you say “ show me pictures of naked women”, it fills your screen with very pretty pictures. And if you have the “safe search” option switched off, you’ll get some hands free porn, which if you think about it, could have some applications of its own.

Seriously, its very cool and a quick demo will blow most people away.

Weather Bug
There are a lot of weather apps for your iPhone, but this one is my favourite.
You choose a weather centre nearest to you from a list provided and the app then displays the temperature, wind speed, along with all the usual stuff like humidity and barometer pressure…in real time.

You can watch the wind change direction and speed while the app is running and it also tells you what the wind chill is, a useful tool when choosing what coat to wear. The app also provides forecasts for the next few days, but here’s the other killer feature, it shows you the most recent satellite weather photo for your region.

This app is a must-have if you dig the weather, or like to know how cold it is outside. Trust me, baby its chilly.

TV Plus
This one is really only of use to you if you live in the UK and subscribe to SKY TV and have a SKY+ box. For those of you who don’t know what I mean (my pals in America!), its a combination TiVO and satellite tv receiver and is my digital platform of choice.

If you have a SKY+ and an iPhone, you will really love this one. TV Plus displays the SKY programme guide for the next seven days, with descriptions for each programme, on every channel. If you’ve signed up for a MySKY account, you can enter your details into the app, then, and here’s the killer bit, once you’re set up, you can enter recordings into your SKY+ from anywhere you have a connection via wi-fi, EDGE or 3G.

I’m not sure if I am explaining this well. Say you’re at work and you’ve forgot to put a recording in for some tv show, it doesn’t matter what. You can find the programme on the virtual programme guide on your iPhone and tap the record button and through some magic voodoo jiggery pokery, the recording just appears in your SKY+ planner as if you entered it with the remote from the proximity of your sofa. Amazing.

Set up is slightly complex, but the step-by-step instructions were very clear and easy to follow – I had it up and running in no time. It probably took longer to sign up for the MySKY account (free from SKY.com) than it did to set up the app and my SKY+ box.

Just be aware that the remote recordings work best when you have more than 30 minutes before the programme begins, otherwise there don’t seem to be any limitations. It’s well worth the price!

iTap
I wasn’t that impressed with iTap initially, but since the most recent update, it really shines. Its a simple app that turns your iPhone into a remote track pad for a Mac and just about anything you can do with a mouse, you can do with iTap, including right clicking. iTap now also has a keyboard, for remote text entry.

I have a Mac Mini connected to my tv and I can do most things with my Logitech Harmony Remote, including control Front Row and iTunes, but the one thing I’ve never been able to do is put the Mini to sleep. With the little white Apple remote, no problem, I press and hold the centre button and voila, my Mini is snoring. I can’t seem to come up with a way to replicate that command with the Harmony remote.

With iTap, I don’t have to, I can just start it and in two taps, my Mini is dreaming of electric sheep.

iTap requires a small piece of receiver software to be installed on your Mac, but it was very easy, just drag it into your apps folder, run it, then from the menu bar icon, select “open on start-up” to add it to your log in items. Then just forget about it.

Mocha VNC Lite
iTap is great, if you can see your Mac’s screen, but what if you can’t?

There are many occasions where I need to do something with the Mac Mini, while the tv is in use and I don’t want to switch over to the Mini to do something quick and simple. Instead I use Mocha VNC Lite.

VNC stands for virtual network control and if you’re running Leopard, its built into the operating system and called screen sharing. Because it is built into the operating system, its very easy to enable, just go into the preference pane under sharing, click the screen sharing box and set a password for remote login. Your Mac is now ready to be remotely controlled.

Mocha VNC Lite allows you to connect to your Mac and control it, with the touchscreen acting as a trackpad with the remote Mac’s output displayed on the iPhone’s screen.

With Mocha VNC Lite, I can start and stop downloads, I can run apps, enter text through the integrated keyboard, all from another room, or even in my back garden. I’ve only got it set up to work within my home network, but people who are better at the real tech stuff can probably get it to work over the internet, from anywhere in the world.

Its a freebie, though there is a paid version, which I should buy myself.

iTalk Recorder
Griffin’s iTalk Recorder is another simple, yet well designed and useful app that does what it says on the tin. It records sound, but it does it very well.

You can choose the quality, from good enough to be broadcast on FM radio to very low, but still listen-able and the length of the recording is only limited by your available flash memory.

Transferring your audio to your Mac is a breeze, there is an application that you need to install which wirelessly connects your Mac to your iPhone and you just drag over the files you need.

This app is works so well that I bet I could use it to do voxpops on the street that sounded good enough to be transmitted on the radio. Of course, I’d look like a dick, walking up to people and making them talk into an upside-down iPhone, but you get the idea.

AirCamLiveVideo
This app is extremely cool and I have absolutely no purpose for it, not even a nefarious one.

AirCamLiveVideo turns your iPhone into a wireless remote receiver for the built-in isight camera in your iMac or MacBook and it also works with the old external isights. It should work with other webcams as well, though best to check before downloading the app.

Again, you need to install a small piece of software on your Mac to transmit the images (and now audio too) from your Mac to your iPhone. Start the software on the Mac, run the app on your iPhone and away you go. It self-configures via Bonjour and you can password protect the live stream to keep prying eyes away.

Like I said, I have no practical application for this one, its just very cool and futuristic. I also think its the most expensive app I’ve bought so far. It was a fiver, but now that I’ve reviewed it, bang that’s coming off next year’s taxes as a website expense.

Now – Geo-networking
This is a weird one and I’ve yet to really work out its usefulness.

This app lets you post a tag on a location in real time, and they only remain there for a day or so. You can also search for other people’s tags.

Posting appears simple, you allow the app to know your location, put in your line of copy and hit send. Be careful what you post and where you post it, though.

The reason to be careful is that when you do a search, you can see what all the other people have posted, complete with directions to get there. You don’t want to be sitting at home posting “sex available, no charge”.

Or maybe, you do.

And yes, I have seen labels such as my example above posted on a map of the world. The app is global and should work wherever you are on the planet.

When you do a search, the app hands off some data to the iPhone’s built in map app, and you can watch a collection of red pins descend across the global. Tap a pin to read the attached description text, zoom in and see where they are or switch to the satellite view.

For me, its an easy, fun way to generate addresses for playing with the new “street view” function added in the iPhone’s software update to version 2.2.

The UK hasn’t been blessed with street view just yet, but most of the continental US has and guess where most of the posters on this app are from? Although bizarrely, Google did have some street views available for an Italian suburb and it does look like London will be added soon, which means I’ll be able to virtually stalk myself.

And speaking of stalking, tell me this doesn’t sound fun. Next week, I’m going to be posting “www.northlondonhippy.com” via this app, at various locations throughout London. If you’re really quick, and you can get there in time, you might catch a glimpse of me and my iPhone in action.

If you don’t, at least you’ll know that you are standing in the exact spot where I stood when I posted it. If that doesn’t make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, I don’t know what will!

And that my friends and iPhone fans is my latest collection of super-neat-o-cool iPhone apps, but it by no means complete. There are plenty of others I like and probably my absolute favourite is yet to come. Enjoy!

After my recent flurry of posts about my new iPhone 3G, I’ve noticed lots of new visitors attracted to my site by this particular subject. With the rumours of Apple planning on shifting 45 million more of them next year its likely to remain a popular topic for some time.

And with good reason as the iPhone is the most powerful pocket-sized device available so far thanks to the ability to add additional applications that extend the functionality nearly to infinity. It truly is a Swiss Army Knife of gadgets.

As a result of my recent health problems, I’ve pretty much had the last month with nothing but time on my hands and my iPhone in my hands. I’ve barely put it down, its the first thing I fondle when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I stroke before drifting off to sleep.

As much as I adore my iPhone, and believe me I do, I’m not going to lie to you about the smoothness of the experience. I’ve been suffering with some of the issues and problems you may have read about; apps crashing on launch, apps and updates not installing properly and the dreaded poor signal on the 3G network, but even with these niggles, it is still an amazing piece of kit.

I believe the problems I’ve had are addressable and Apple will be able to fix them through software updates. The last update, to 2.0.2 has already stopped the crashes on the phone itself and since installing it, I haven’t had a spontaneous restart.

I did have to do a full restore though, as I had lost some apps when iTunes tried to install their updated versions. It took a couple of hours and the most recent back-up I had done was around a week old, so I lost some SMS messages and a few other bits of data, but the phone is now working well.

The 3G issues persist for me and it could be that the coverage where I live isn’t that great, but I have trouble believing that, since I live in London. I hope it improves and soon.

I’ve installed dozens of apps already, stretching across 5 home screens and I thought I would share a few interesting ones with you, that you might not have heard of yet.

Simplify Media
Simplify Media is very cool, it allows you to stream your entire iTunes collection (unprotected tracks only, nothing with iTunes DRM), over wi-fi, Edge and 3G to your iPhone and it really works. In real terms, it means there is no storage limit on your iPhone, it will hold as much as your Mac or PC at home. You install a small piece of software on your networked computer, install the app on your iPhone, log into both devices with the same account and your entire musical collection magically pops up on your iPhone and you can play any track! The app is currently free, but after 100,000 downloads, they will start charging for it. Grab it while you can!

Sol Free Solitaire
There are many versions of this popular solo card game, but I like this one, mainly because it is free. I’m not much of a gamer, but I used to play Solitaire on Windows PCs and its nice to have a version to play on my iPhone. The interface is smooth, you tap the card you want to move, then tap the card you wish to move it to and it away it goes. There are several variations to play, my favourite is Klondike 3,

Dual Level
This is another app that’s free, which makes it preferable to the paid versions. Its a simple idea, when you start the app, the screen turns into virtual horizontal and a vertical spirit levels linked to the built in accelerometers. You can use it to level hanging pictures or anything else you might use a spirit level for – very cool!

iVote
This is a simple app which lists poll questions for you to respond to, ranging from politics to personal, with the results available for you to break down in various ways. It’s more geared towards Americas (like almost everything online!), but it is a fun app and a real time waster. I like it!

WhosHere
Of all the social networking apps, this one shows the most promise with its simple, yet focused function. It’s a chat app that uses your location to show you other iPhone and iPod Touch users and their approximate proximity. In other words, its a location based chat application which is very clever. You fill out a profile with as much, or as little (or nothing) and tap the near button – you are then presented with a list of people, their profiles and the approx distance from you. You can set the proximity of your search from as little as 5 miles up to 3000 miles. You can also blur your location, up to 2 miles from where you really are, so you do have options to maintain some privacy. The app’s user base seems to be growing fast and yes, this one is free too.

PhotoSwap
PhotoSwap is very new, its only been available for less than a week (at the time of my writing) and I find it strangely addictive. The premise is simple, you take a photograph on your iPhone and the app sends it to a random stranger, while you receive a photo from the same random stranger that receives yours – that’s the photo swap. Once you receive a photo, you have the option of replying directly to that person with another photo, effectively having a conversation with iPhone snaps. I’ve received all sorts of photos; city skylines, beach views, people’s homes, pets, all sorts really. And before your sick imagination conjures visions of body parts, I’ll disappoint you – I have yet to receive anything offensive and there is a “report” button to tap if you do. The app allows you to chose a user name, plus one line of description for a mini-profile (accessed through the main settings via the home screen not directly from the app) and you can choose to show your location on a map. I would suggest turning off the location stuff if you are at home and only use it when you are out in public. It might sound a bit strange, but try it, I think you will agree that there is something very endearing about using it.

This is just a small selection of apps that have caught my attention, there are literally over 1000 of them available already, with more being added to the App Store every day. Have a look, I’m sure there are some that will appeal to you too.

And I’m still waiting for the two apps I’ll pay for, TomTom navigation software for the car and a SlingPlayer client. I’d lay you odds I have both before the year is out!

After all the whinging and complaining over the last week about my problems getting my new iPhone 3G from O2, I thought I would share some of my initial impressions of it.

Yes, that’s right…I’ve got my brand new, shiny, lickable, 16gb black iPhone 3G. I exclusively revealed this exciting bit of news on FaceBook last Thursday when it was delivered to my north London lair.

And again, yes, you read that right, I posted it on my FaceBook profile, as a status update.

Status updates on FaceBook are a lot like Twitter posts. It’s another reason why you should be my FaceBook friend!

Even though it was 6 days later than expected, I was still very pleased to be receiving iPhone 3G and couldn’t wait to unbox it and fire it up.

I didn’t buy the original iPhone, as it was only released officially here in the UK around 8 months ago. My reasoning was sound, or so I thought. As I expected a 2nd generation of iPhone to come out around now, I didn’t want to be in a position of wanting to buy it so soon after getting the 1st gen.

How was I to know that O2 were going to be handing out cheap (or free) upgrades to existing customers? Doh!

I was bit disappointed that Apple left out a couple of goodies that shipped with the original iPhone – the dock and the microfibre cloth to wipe the screen. The lack of the microfibre cloth is a real silly miss, they can’t cost that much when you’re buying a million of them.

The touchscreen does pick up a lot of fingerprints, though they are only really noticeable when the the screen is off. When the screen is illuminated, its very bright and you really don’t see any.

The screen is actually gloriously bright, extremely crisp and pin sharp. I could easily watch a full length film or television programme on it and probably will. The multi-touch control of the device is nothing short of astounding. It’s extremely intuitive and very accurate.

The iPod functions are also impressive and it blows away my old 60gb 5th gen iPod with video.

I’ve also set up several email accounts on my iPhone. If you want to reach me when I am on the go, you can contact northlondonhippy@gmail.com or northlondonhippy@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll receive them pretty goddamn quickly! You might even get a mobile reply…

I’ve also got the FaceBook mobile application, AIM for instant messaging and I’ve been playing around on Twitter with that cool app called Twinkle. I’m northlondonhippy on all of those services too, though Twitter registered my username as n_londonhippy because they don’t give you enough characters for my full online name.

Surfing the web on the iPhone is something else I’ve spent a good deal of time doing and its the first hand-held device that gives you any sort of useful internet experience. I’ve accessed the net from various mobile phones and an old Palm Pilot of mine and I’ve always found it sorely lacking. Spend ten minutes doing the same on the iPhone 3G and you will wonder how you lived without it. I’ve used both wi-fi and the 3G network and pages load very quickly too.

I read that the new iPhone 3G has about as much computing power as a laptop made in 2003; similar processing power and storage is what I took that to mean. Think about it – I’m now carrying something as powerful as a five-year-old laptop in my pocket now. It blows my mind!

There really are only 2 major differences between the new iPhone 3G and the original iPhone (and yes, I know there are plenty of minor changes, just humour me, please). The inclusion of 3G network access and GPS.

The GPS is nothing short of amazing. Even sitting here , deep inside my north London lair, not near any windows and it still knows where I am with frightening accuracy. The map software lets you know how certain it is of your location, by using variously sized circles to indicate your approximate location, until it is certain and then places a push-pin like marker where you are. Outside with no obstructions, when the iPhone can see the sky, you get a remarkably accurate reading of your location, so much so that if you walk a bit, the blue dot adjusts to your new position.

The location data isn’t only utilised by the map application, but any app can grab it. This includes geo-tagging of your photos and with some Twitter apps, can include your location so you can track people nearby. Spooky!

Can someone please release some turn-by-turn, good enough to work in my car, navigation software? I’ve read that TomTom have already written the app, so why can’t I buy it already? My old TomTom is massive, compared to my tiny, slim little iPhone, if I didn’t have to carry the TomTom with me, it would be a real bonus and my pockets would thank you.

And while I’m at it with a wishlist, could someone please design, manufacture and sell the following:

A powered dock for use in my car, that has a suction-cup windscreen mount, so I can position the iPhone like a SatNav, plus a built-in, sophisticated FM transmitter that scans to find the best frequency and then beams audio to my in-car stereo, in high quality.

My super-dooper in-car dock/transmitter/mount is not actually such a big ask and it would sell like proverbial hotcakes. Bundle it with a code to get a navigation app and you would probably sell 500,000 of them in the first year alone. I’m giving you a multimillion pound idea here, for free, so if one of you do this, at least cut me in for a slice of the pie. Or just send me one of these cool in-car suction-cup, FM-transmitter thingies for free. It’s the least you could do!

There is a third thing that separates the new iPhone 3G from its predecessor, though you can upgrade the original to the new 2.0 software and enjoy it as well. I’m talking about third party applications which you can access via iTunes or on the iPhone itself. Some apps are free, others cost. So far, I’ve only installed the freebies.

I’m not being cheap, its just none of the pay apps have really appealed to me and the best ones seem to be games and I’m not that bothered. When I see one I like the look of (navigation software!!!!!), I’ll happily part with my readies.

There are so many applications available already that I’m not going to actually talk about any of the specific ones now, but I’d rather come back at another time to give them proper attention.

What can’t be denied is that this is the real game changer with the iPhone 3G, the ability to do so many cool things with it. And that’s just today, who knows what tomorrow’s killer application for the iPhone might be…perhaps one of you out there in internetland is already working on the next HUGE thing! Just whisper it in my ear, before your start-up has its IPO, so I can get in on the ground floor and make a little dirty lucre too…!

The one thing no-one seems to ever mention when they write about the iPhone is the phone itself. I think that shows you how far we come with personal technology and gadgets, that the voice-communication function of something with the word “phone” in its name, is taken for granted and doesn’t matter that much.

It does to me and one of my concerns about the iPhone was how it performed as a basic mobile telephone.

It turns out I had nothing to fear, the iPhone is a very robust cellphone. Calls over my network on 3G are clear and the connection seems strong. The speakerphone function really works too, dialling a contact or a phone number is also very simple and works very well.

What’s interesting about the iPhone is the many standard mobile phone functions it DOESN’T do. There’s no MMS messaging, so no sending photos as text messages. There’s no way to forward a text message either. The iPhone has BlueTooth, but the only thing it uses it for is to connect a wireless headset. You can’t send a photo to your computer, or to another phone, you can’t exchange contacts with another phone, you can’t even Bluejack strangers!

I don’t really understand why Apple has locked these functions out. At the very least, let us send photos over bluetooth. And synching notes from my Mac would be useful too!

Something else I don’t understand is the lack of cut & paste. It couldn’t be that hard to get a clipboard like functionality running on it. It’s supposed to be the same software that runs on Macs, so what’s the problem? I know some Apple big-wig mentioned that it was on their list of things to do and they just didn’t have time to get to it, but that comes off sounding lame. There’s got to be some marketing reason for withholding this function, I just haven’t a clue what it could be!

All of these cool things do come at a cost and I don’t mean your monthly bill, though they might sting a bit too. I mean battery life, or the lack of it. Surfing the net, checking emails, playing with apps, all drain the battery far faster than you would like and its very easy to see it drop 50% in a couple of hours.

I could see carrying a spare dock cable and attaching it to the nearest PC at every opportunity. It’s another reason why I want a powered dock for the car. I don’t see how I would get through a full day of serious usage without topping up the battery a couple of times.

So am I happy with my new iPhone?

What do you think? It’s easily the coolest, most powerful device I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning. I’m looking forward to 18 months of delirious joy as I find new and fun things to do with it.

And at the end of 18 months, I can only imagine what sort of iPhone I will be upgrading to then! It will probably transport me to a virtual new reality where I’m the king of the universe and everyone worships me as a living god. Now, that’s a app I’d buy!

Man, am I pissed off!

I’m still sitting here without an iPhone and I think every single one of the many people I’ve spoken to at 02 have lied to me about it, repeatedly.

I’m fucking fuming!

Imagine if I had to take Friday off because I was told IT was coming, only to be told on Friday that IT was coming on Monday. Imagine if today was my second day of missing out on work, to wait for a delivery that’s near as I can tell, not coming.

Now imagine I was looking at taking a third day off to actually receive my iPhone. Wouldn’t you be feeling homicidal?

I have the urge to crush, kill and destroy! Thanks O2!

Luckily, I haven’t had to take any time off work; I was off on Friday anyway and while I am working tonight, Mrs. H is off today, so it wouldn’t have been a problem if it was coming today.

But its not grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

This morning’s O2 liar is “investigating” why my order hasn’t been shipped yet. She says the “stock hasn’t been released”, which is bullshit, because I was told on Weds that it was following my credit check. She says it could be still sitting in their warehouse, awaiting clearance for shipment…

As fucking if!

There probably isn’t a 16gb iPhone 3G to be had right now in the entire country. The chances of a stray one, just sitting on a shelf in a warehouse with my name on it, awaiting someone’s green light is laughably absurd.

I’ve just had a call back from O2…they still don’t know if I have an iPhone waiting for me. Their “system” is giving them mixed signals and its not clear what’s going on. How impressive is that?

The woman who phoned me back says she will keep an eye on my order all day and will phone back if it is shipped out today for delivery tomorrow.

Put it this way, I’m not going to sit by the telephone waiting for that call.

I don’t think I’ve ever put so much effort into spending my own money. This is beyond a joke. I wish I could go to another network and get one, O2 appear to be shite!

I have iWorries over my brand new, shiny, lickable iPhone 3G.

iDon’t think its coming today.

And ok, ok, enough with the iWord jokes. They are wearing a bit iThin now.

As I previously posted, I was assured on Wednesday that my iPhone would be delivered today, but that now appears not to be the case.

According to O2’s website, I should have had a text message before 6pm yesterday, confirming delivery today. I didn’t get that text. Further more, a mate of mine who is getting an iPhone 3G as an upgrade has been able to track his package all the way to DHL. My order is showing online as still “in progress”.

I’ve already phoned O2 this morning. Yes I am sad.

The rep I spoke to told me they are still having problems with their website and database and she couldn’t confirm if it was coming today or Monday. She said the stock had been allocated, but it didn’t appear to be shipped yet, but because of their internal problems, she couldn’t be sure. Her feeling was that a Monday delivery was much more likely, but again she assured me I was definitely getting one and told me not to buy one at the shop.

As if the shops have any left by now! I’ve had reports from my spies of small (10-30 people) queues at every O2 and Car Phone Warehouse shop they passed this morning. With the very limited stock numbers, I’m not the only potentially disappointed person in the UK today.

Of course, I could be pleasantly surprised by the arrival of my brand new tech-toy, but I am not feeling confident at all.

It seems like O2 screwed this up royally and they should never have attempted to pre-sell them online. If they kept all the stock they had for the shops, I’d probably be stroking mine right now. Instead, I foolishly believed that pre-ordering as soon as they went on sale would secure me one on launch day. Oh what a twat I am!

Instead of having a huge celebration of gadgetery-geekery, I’ve spent the better part of this week suffering from a bad case of tech-stress and customer service rage.

So there you go, its 9:30am on the 11th of July, international iPhone day and rather than playing with my new toy, I’m sitting here playing with myself and that’s no where near as satisfying as it sounds!

Please Mr. iPhone man, deliver mine today! I’ve waited oh so long and I’ve been oh so patient! I deserve to have all my iPhone 3G dreams come true!

Don’t I?

Doesn’t everyone?

That’s not wishful thinking, the title up there. That’s what O2 told me on the phone today.

I won’t bore you with the details, but I managed to get a real live human on the phone, provided the info they needed for my credit check and had it confirmed that a black, 16gb iPhone 3G will be delivered to my north London lair on Friday.

I’ll believe it when I see it, and so will you, because I’m going to post some pictures of it once its here.

Tune in again on Friday to see if O2 make one particularly demanding customer in north London very happy. I’m counting the seconds already.

Back in September, I wrote a little piece on why my phone was not an iPhone, yet.

But soon, my phone will be an iPhone.

iHope.

iPray.

iDream.

iPre-registered…

…for the brand new, shiny lickable iPhone 3G just as soon as O2 let me. Yesterday, I received an email advising me that I could pre-order one of these little babies online and it would be delivered to my north London lair on Friday, which is the official launch day for this latest version of the world’s favourite touchscreen mobile.

Sorted!

Or so I thought.

I placed the order before 8:30am yesterday, put in all my details and saw the conformation screen with my order number. They said I would receive an email with all of these details as well.

I’m still waiting for that email to arrive.

In O2’s FAQs, they say you can email them your PAC code, from your previous network and they can add it to your account, so I did.

The reply I received was a bit surprising.

I need to mention that this reply to my email wasn’t spotted by me until many hours later, because I slept all day, because I was between shifts.

I still am, so there will be another snooze very soon.

While I was sleeping, O2’s entire online ordering system was melting down into a steaming puddle of poo.

They were overwhelmed by the number orders being placed, or “victims of their own success” as I am sure some O2 spokesperson will be stating in front of a TV camera very soon. That’s what all companies say when they can’t keep up with demand; its an oldie but a goodie.

So anyway, I wake up and waiting for me is an actual reply from an actual human O2 employee, who apologised for the lack of a facility to input my PAC code when I placed my order and then explained what I needed to do with it (all after I receive the iPhone 3G) AND then went on to share an extremely important fact…

“Your order (on-xxxxxxxxx) for the 16Gb (Gigabytes) iPhone 3G is currently out of stock. You’ll receive your order on or after 11 July 2008.”

The key words in that sentence are:
- out of stock
- on or after

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

FUCK!

You have no idea how deeply my little heart sank at this most distressing and unpleasant turn of events.

I ordered my iPhone 3G less than 30 mins after they went on sale and it sounds like there’s a better than average chance I will be sitting here all day on Friday, staring out my window for a courier that will never come.

Oh the horror!

I’ve been waiting a seriously long time for my iPhone 3G, forgoing the original version which I could have had last autumn…and if I did get that one, I would be getting a free upgrade to the new model, just for signing a new 18 month contract.

These ain’t tears of joy staining my keyboard, trust me.

So I wait and I wonder. Is there an iPhone 3G sitting in a warehouse somewhere with “the northlondonhippy” on printed on the label!

I hope not, because there’s no way they’d know where to deliver it, but my real world name and proper address might be better.

You get the idea anyway, either I ordered early enough to have them allocate me one, or they have so few that they ran out in like 10-15 minutes of online trading and I’m screwed.

No one knows for certain how many iPhone 3G’s are even available, O2 and Apple have remained silent on this issue, at least according to the various newspaper reports I read this morning. The closest I got to any sort of detail was that one newspaper thought half the iPhone 3Gs were being pre-sold online and the other half were heading to O2 shops around the UK. How do you play the odds on that one?

So here’s my next quandary, do I cancel my online order and gamble that I will have better luck at 8am on Friday at my local O2 shop? Will there be a queue? Will there be enough to go around? Will I get mugged on my way back home, because criminals read the news too?

I don’t have the answer to any of those questions, except that last one…I would die or kill to protect my brand new, shiny, lickable iPhone 3G, so you best think twice before you attempt to pilfer it from me!

I’ve got mixed feelings about O2 already and I’ve only been a (non active) customer of theirs for only 24 hours.

On the one hand, I’ve had a personal reply to my emailed question, but on the other hand, they have not confirmed my order by email, as they said they would, nor given me any sort of update on my order’s progress.

In light of the massive media attention this launch has seen and will likely see over the next week, you would think O2 would be prepared for a situation like this. Holding emails and press statements would be out there already to counteract all the negative information I’ve seen about shortages and poor customer service.

Maybe they should hire me to do their PR.

Then again, they don’t have to do anything. It seems we’re all slavering like rabid dogs at the prospect of owning the latest iPhone and no matter how badly we’re treated, we still want one.

It’s not like we can get one elsewhere, thanks to O2’s exclusive deal with Apple, we have no real choice.

I’m no different, I’m willing to jump through multiple hoops of fire and swear an oath to satan if I have to, as long as I’m clutching mine this Friday.

Ok, I know I’ve already sworn several oaths to satan, one more’s not going to make a blind bit of difference.

As long as I get my goddamn iPhone 3G on Friday, I don’t care about anything else!

Please oh great gods of high technology, may you be smiling upon me, your most worthy and devoted disciple!

Just gimme my goddamn iPhone, goddammit!