遠野くん

One of my greatest loves is my iPhone 3G –named Yui– and I am still surprised that she still works for me even though I abuse her so badly. The screen is screwy, and her back is a mess of scratches but, I love her still.

When iPhone OS 3 came out it was like our relationship was fresh again. All the little problems were gone in the face of how much better you had become and our relationship only deepened. Now two years on from when we had gotten together, we took the next step and upgraded to iOS4. Things went downhill from then.

I knew I had been cheating on her for a bit. The iPad was so much more voluptuous and did things for me that my sweet iPhone would not never consider but, I always came back. The iPad was a sweet fling, but it was not something I would consider always living with. That would always be my iPhone. This wasn’t the problem though.

Ever since iOS4 came into our home, she had turned unresponsive at time. At times she would just give up all together, right in the middle of our sweet time together and I would have to wait out the excruciating time before she would come around. All the good that iOS4 could have brought into our home, were crushed by these new problems.

I saw others, with their 3GS and they just so much better after iOS4. I knew we could have what they had but it only proved to worsen what this had done to us.

And now, I’ve had eyes on the iPhone 4. They look so similar but there is so much of a difference. At the moment, she won’t give me the time of day but I know it is only a matter of time before she becomes mine.

So my time with Yui –sweet loveable iPhone 3G– is fleeting. We know it won’t last but we are willing to ride it out as long as we can. I still love her.

And –quietly and guiltily– to myself I think that even though every thing was going downhill, “Man, her new unified inbox is sexy.”

I’ll milk our remaining time together as much as I can.

<<<—>>>

I have no idea where this came from or why I wrote it like this. Originally this started as just a random musing on even though my 3G suffered performance wise since the iOS4 update, I had to admit that getting that unified inbox and folders was worth the hassle. I had a situation where I got an important and much welcomed e-mail recently to one of my e-mail addressed that I usually would not check so often and thanks to unified inbox, it was so simple to notice it. I love not having to drill down through the different accounts so much.

Our time is over soon. It is only a matter of time before I finally can buy that iPhone 4 (if I could only find a place that still had some in stock early enough) but even with the hassle I have gotten with iOS4, it is far outweighed by the good that it has brought to my iPhone 3G.

So this is the advert for the new DroidX, one of many phones I have had some interest in from a “competition to the iPhone” perspective. The problem I have with the advert, is the same problem I have with most car and perfume adverts. It tells me pretty much nothing about the product at all. This one is particularly bad because I don’t even know what the DroidX looks like or has.

In contrast, Apple uses a very minimal –uncluttered, clear, concise, straight forward– method of showing the iPhone in use. It is something I love seeing every time because each case is different. From the public opinion of people I know –most of which are not tech people– they have no real idea about any other smart phone apart from maybe the blackberry and have no clue what the Droid is, nor whether it is worth it for them to find out. The iPhone TV spots though has everyone I know, have every idea about what an iPhone is and what it can do. Why does no one else do it like this?

A perfect example of the goodness that is the Apple Ad, check out the latest iPod Touch ad.

As I wrote after examining Apple’s iPhone 4 demo units after the WWDC keynote, the Retina Display’s overall effect is like that of high-end glossy magazine print — except that it updates live. It’s living breathing print. I don’t recall ever having seen motion graphics of this resolution, anywhere. And (again as noted previously) it’s more than just the pixel resolution — it’s that the LCD is so much closer to the surface of the glass. Like pixels on glass rather than pixels under glass. This is the result of a new manufacturing process Apple has pioneered. No other company gives a shit about things like this.

Daring Fireball: 4

John Gruber has his thoughts on the new iPhone 4 in a long form article on daringfireball.net. I always love it when Gruber has written an actual article instead of his usual links, and especially so for his reviews on the lovely products from Apple. Particularly in my belief this is due to the inherently blunt voice that is prevalent across all of his writing. The passage above is one of my favourites from the review.

Some interesting tidbits about the subtle font changes with some easy to understand displays. He also collects a lot of the information about the problems people are experiencing on their iPhone 4′s, and lays it out pretty well.

I particularly liked his thoughts on Face Time. I had hard doubts about how well this could go when Apple announced it for the new phone just a month ago, but their promotional video hit my imagination in such a way video calling has never done before. It is important to note the ‘value of the “It just works” factor’ (lovely phrase right there from the article). Initial reports are saying this is absolutely easy to use, and I am thinking it may blossom phenomenally.

Thoughts on a new iPod Touch —which I think should just become the de facto ‘iPod’ nowadays— with Face Time capabilities have me salivating at the possibilities. Hell, I would already be blown away by an iPod Touch if it had a camera on it, as it would be the perfect gift I could see for my youngest sister. In fact anyone in the family.

Gruber makes some bold words on the whole thing:

Mark these words: FaceTime goes down as one of the most important things Apple has ever introduced.

A must read review on the newest phone from Cupertino in my opinion. One that only makes me want the iPhone 4 so much more, connection concerns regardless. Why do I torture myself like this reading up more on a phone I am so close to getting but just have to wait for!?

This was a nice concept on bring children’s books together with the iPhone. This looks so nice, and very touching. After seeing my littlest sister reading books on my iPad, I can really see that something like this aimed for children could go far I think.