Apple has released iOS 8.02 which has same change log as 8.01 except this version fixes phones that lost Touch ID and cellular.
Interestingly it is being rumoured that the person is charge of this update was the same middle manager in charge of the maps launch.
The press have been stating the iPhone 6 is the world’s best smartphone camera. So lets put these auto mode cameras to the test. This is a simple auto mode test. 3 samples of the same shot, the first from the LG G3 and then the iPhone 6 Plus.
In some ways I felt the iPhone 6 did a good job, and in others the G3. I will create a more in depth comparison, but I thought some of you might be interested.
So which phone wins for you?
Remember LG G3 first then iPhone 6 Plus.
As you can see from the shot above the iPhone 6 plus got the lighting all wrong.
The above shots are trickier. The iPhone does a better job with the sky. G3 has more detail. Close call.
One thing that is evident is the iPhone 6 has a wider field of view, which could be a bonus.
This is the first iPhone for 9 months. In the last 9 months I have used android as my main smartphone platform as choice. I hated my 5S for its pathetic battery life. A trip to London and at 10% by 9am. Also the screen felt too small or cramped.
So here I am with the 6 Plus. First thoughts. Its a whopper. Huge. Tall. In fact it sticks out of my work shirt front pocket by about 2cm. The LG G3 was protruding about 1cm. Next thoughts. iOS is so different to android. I tried to swipe the 6 screen on. I have also double tapped the screen. I am having to get used to using Touch ID and the home button. This is the first thing you do to access your phone and you’re instantly reminded just how good Touch ID is implemented. And then you go thru the process of setting up a few core apps and services. This is a slow process as I use 2 step authentication for absolutely everything.
Next, was the sync to iTunes on my mac. This takes a while as my music, apps, videos, books, photos and more all get transferred across. iTunes is great for this sort of thing. Except, the order of my photo events are not in alphabetical order. This is annoying. During the first sync, the iPhone crashed. iTunes on my mac crashed as well.
Apps. These look weird where they have just been enlarged to fit the 5.5 inch screen. Twitter is a good example of an app done well. I hope it does not take long for all these apps to get updated, but it seems odd that android apps probably are designed better for larger screens at the moment.
The biggest delight of the iPhone 6 is the audio quality. It is an OMG moment. Absolutely marvellous sound quality and really rocking my headphones.
Suddenly I find iMessage, FaceTime and other Apple services all becoming useful as many family and friends have an iPhone.
But I am not enamoured by this phone as much as I would have hoped. Apps crash, apps looks zoomed too much and there are so many bugs. But it is early days!
If you look at any news website over the last week you will have seen noise about scalpers or groups and or gangs or people buying the new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, and paying in cash for onward sale abroad.
More is then written detailing the third world conditions some of these people are queuing in, the mess left behind, how one member lets 100 plus people in front thereby preventing a real Apple customer and fan making a purchase and so on.
So this raises some questions. Should Apple allow scalpers, gangs or groups to make these purchases? Could Apple and the security on site do more to prevent queue jumping?
My thoughts are as follows. I believe Apple could do a considerable amount more to stop this practice. I have no qualms with a scalper buying stock, so long as they queued properly and didn’t queue jump and Apple implemented more measures to make the queues more sanitary. Apple is a technology company. So every buyer of a phone needs some form of identification like a driving licence. Next payment can only be made by a credit card. Next using facial recognition software, every person’s face is photographed and if they reappear for another 7 days trying to buy more iphones then they will not be allowed. Next Apple should employ security from the night before to manage the queue and provide a ticketing system which with all the other measures will prevent unsightly queues and allow normal people to buy the product. Now once stock levels are plentiful Apple could relax the credit card only rule and maybe a few more. Apple could also make sure that all the countries where the stock is sold on the black market is made available at the same time as all other countries.
But what incentive does Apple have to undertake all these actions? Over the weekend this was a sight witnessed in an Apple Store. 5 people arrive in the queue. Clearly 4 of them where under instruction to buy as many iphone 6’s as possible. Preferably the 6 Plus. Apple told them that they could only sell 2 phones to each person and each person would have a separate transaction. The ring leader then gave each person the respective cash required. So that was £7,000 in to the tills. Would any store want to lose this amount in a space of 5 minutes?
Finally, there is more stock filtering through. At 12.01am this morning it was possible to reserve for pickup from most Apple UK stores whatever iPhone 6 or 6 Plus model you required.
At 6.30am, there are still a selection of iPhone 6 and a few 6 Plus available but only from about one third of Apple’s stores. To check whats available at your local store and to reserve one, click here https://reserve.cdn-apple.com/GB/en_GB/reserve/iPhone/availability
This is the last time I will provide this information, as it is evident Apple does have enough stock to meet demand , so long as you are prepared to reserve for store pickup at 12.01am!
These are the stores with iPhone 6 Plus at 6.30am –
Regent Street
Princesshay
Milton Keynes
Festival Place
Drake Circus
Cribbs Causeway
Churchill Square
Chapelfield
And the below stores have iPhone 6 at 6.30am –
Chapelfield
Churchill Square
Cribbs Causeway
Drake Circus
Festival Place
Grand Parade
Milton Keynes
Princesshay
The BlackBerry Passport has a full HD 4.5-inch square screen, which is said to offer a similar viewing space to a 5-inch phone, but ‘an even better viewing experience’ because of the screen’s width.
It has 1440×1440 pixel resolution display with a pixel density of 453PPI.
Other specifications include a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage plus expandable storage via microSD card up to 128gn.
There is also a 13MP rear camera with OIS and a 2MP front camera.
The touchscreen is accompanied by a physical keyboard, and the Passport runs BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.
This software features BlackBerry Blend, which lets users BlackBerry content to other devices including PCs and Android phones, as well as the Amazon Appstore.
This means that Android apps from the Amazon store can be installed on the BlackBerry device.
Prices in the various regions are £529 in the UK, $599 in the US, €649 in France and Germany, and $699 in Canada, when bought from ShopBlackBerry.com.
So who is rushing out to buy one. It doesn’t offer more than one day battery life unlike my work BlackBerry Curve that can last 3-4 days. At least if it did have better battery life that would be a plus point.
So how do you feel about this phone ?
Go download the new update from Apple. So last night thousands did and boom. No touch id and cellular. The remaining change log was –
Release notes are as follows –
Fixes a bug so HealthKit apps can now be made available on the App Store
Addresses an issue where 3rd party keyboards could become deselected when a user enters their passcode
Fixes an issue that prevented some apps from accessing photos from the Photo Library
Improves the reliability of the Reachability feature on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
Fixes an issue that could cause unexpected cellular data usage when receiving SMS/MMS messages
Better support of Ask To Buy for Family Sharing for In-App Purchases
Fixes an issue where ringtones were sometimes not restored from iCloud backups
Fixes a bug that prevented uploading photos and videos from Safari
It seems there is a nasty bug. After updating Touch ID and network/cell activation both fail.
Updated – if you restore 8.01 via iTunes this seems to fix issues. So don’t use OTA
Samsung reportedly started pre orders a few weeks earlier to try and stop the stampede success of the iPhone 6 Plus.
And guess what, pre orders were so popular, Samsung had to be stop taking new pre orders. All that sounds like is Samsung trying to create greater demand.
If you want to pre order the Note 4, Clove Technology have the white, black and gold available for £575 including VAT. This price is £25 less than Amazon UK too. Link http://www.clove.co.uk/samsung-galaxy-note-4
Macrumors.com has got hold of a list of the bug fixes that iOS 8.01 will address. Among the issues:
– Phone: Addresses bugs with call forwarding and freezing when accessing visual voicemail
– Keyboard: Fixes an issue with keypad not appearing to enter iCloud Keychain verification codes
– Safari: Fixes a problem with videos occasionally not playing
– Sharing: Fixes AirDrop support for Passbook passes
– VPN: Addresses an issue with installing VPN profiles
However, if you are having issues with WiFi on iOS 8, try this temporary solution.
Go into your settings, selecting Privacy, then Location Services, followed by System Services, and then disable Wi-Fi Networking.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 