Switcher

I upgraded my iPhone to the new 3.0 OS, and discovered many subtle differences in each part of the applications, little but always increasing usability!

The same way I switch from Tiger to Leopard, discovering a “new” OS that is visually close to the precedent, at home but a better home

Rogers is deceiving, they promised to support MMS (photos and video by short message), but they don’t deliver, I couldn’t even send myself a picture, not talking about my beloved one that is on Fido (another Roger’s network!)…

iPhone iPhone 3.0, MMS, Rogers

The GPS Global Positioning System has been conceived by the US Army for it’s internal use and has been widely adopted all around the world, from cross-country runners to airplane positioning, and natyurally cars GPS.

The US Army don’t hesitate to “scramble” the GPS injecting random variation of position in their satellites system, for example during the Gulf War. Consumer GPS systems will render inaccurate informations, precision going from 5 meters or less to 100 meters, rendering consumer GPS less reliable during a conflict to avoid misuse by ennemies.

Naturally, everyone using a consumer-level GPS near Irak was targeted, whatever it’s use of the GPS system.

Yesterday, Apple decided to remove GPS-ability from Egyptian iPhone, wherever you use it, and for any iPhone used with an Egyptian cell carrier (even if used by roaming for foreigners in Egypt).

Now, US Army, and some big companies like Apple may decide who could use the GPS system, and who couldn’t use it, putting the GPS system as a commercial weapon as well as a war weapon, and breaking it’s neutrality.

General, iPhone egypt, Global Positioning System, GPS, iPhone

I own an iPhone 3G since one month and I found some weaknesses, including it’s autonomy and ergonomy, and I want to share with you some tricks to optimize the autonomy and it’s usage.

Autonomy

From start, autonomy was at least deceptive, while I used it only to hear music, few web surfing and few phone calls. But even with a lightweight usage the battery autonomy was under 2 days

With few tricks you may change your battery life

• Deactivate Wifi when you didn’t use it, it draw battery faster than anything else
• Deactivate 3G when you didn’t use it
• Deactivate automatic mail scanning, do it manually, temporarily reactivating Wifi or 3G
• Dim the screen as much as possible
• Use the iPod function with the included earphone (that have a button), a phone-headphone (with button and micrphone integrated) or Belkin adapter for you hifi headphone, it will improve the useability and the autonomy at once!

With these little tricks, you could come from 1 day and half to 3 or 4 days of autonomy on your iPhone.

Ergonomy

Not a good iPhone or MP3 Player when used with a good hifi headphone, the worse I know. I began to use it with my Sennheiser PX-100 hifi-headphone and was tired to do 4 actions just to go to next tune: tap on menu button, slide from left to right, tap on next tune (on screen) then re-lock the iPhone (upper button)…

For the audiophiles, there’s an accessory that change the life: Belkin headphone adapter for iPhone. It features a microphone (for phone call), a button, and an headphone ouput, to connect your audiophile headphone (Sennheiser PX-100, Koss Porta-Pro or Grado SR60/80 for example).

With it’s button you will be able to go to next or previous tune, pause/play the music, tak a call, hang-up, and stay with your good hifi headphone : the best of the worlds

This is a must buy for those of us that have one good hi-quality headphone and wont cope with Apple’s one.

iPhone autonomy, ergonomy