Web Design Experts Blog

The Complete Guide to using iOS 4 for the iPhone

Sean Hambridge - Tuesday, June 22, 2010

iOS 4 for the iPhone

I'm a bit geeky but not geeky enough to want to spend precious minutes finding out how to do something. Apple made me think (not good for a "Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug" disciple). Indeed when my iTunes on my iMac asked me if I wanted to download the latest iUpdate for my iPhone I have to admit I wasn't particularly iFussed either way; so I said yes...

Hmmm, went in for a quick look at what the fuss was about this iOS 4. The picture thing was nice and a nifty new swishy swirly animation. The thing that most interested me was multitasking, so I booted up an application at random - so far not much thought. I hit the home button; app seemed to close - brain still idling. Expended a few seconds of processing power and intuited the double-click on the home button. Waddaya know! Some apps in a secondary task bar. Thought, very cool!

Got about 3 apps running and decided that I wanted to shut some of them down to keep processor and memory free (hold-over from the PC days). Hmmm, no quit, stop, end buttons; what to do?

Answer: Research.

Looked in the Apple website and got lots of superlatives about how the world was changing... again. Great action shots of the latest iThings. No manual, no instructions. I tried doing a site search on iOS 4 and got an error (maybe everyone was doing the same thing).

Neural Oscillations rapidly rising. Why can't I do this simple function, surely I need to be able to stop processes. So in frustration I hit Google with a specific search "iOS4" and proceeded to follow the first link on the page.

Now, with thanks to "a" from Gizmodo who posted "The Complete Guide to Using iOS 4".

I know that I don't need to stop apps but that I can if I want to. She or He also provided a number of tips that I will read at my leisure so that I don't have to get a PhD in iOlogy. And, yes, it is still intuitive - my problem was past experience making a problem where there was none. I still remember MacOS and Windows v1.

So there. Read the article at http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/06/the-complete-guide-to-using-ios-4/ and save some valuable time.

If you discover any additional resources please post them in the comments section.

Have fun.

Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

GPS system for iPhone

Sean Hambridge - Monday, October 19, 2009

The iPhone is probably the biggest misnomer for what is undoubtedly a lot more than a mere mobile phone. I'd even go so far as to say that the "phone" bit is the least of this device's functionality.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered that as well as being a phone, instant messenger, time manager, customer database, camera etc. etc. it is also a GPS Navigation System. And not the dinky little app-trying-to-be-grownup type system, I mean a full Navigation System with turn by turn voice instructions, points of interest, lane indicators, speed, the whole shebang.

When I decided I was going to take the plunge 2 main apps caught my eye. The Tom Tom and Sygic apps. So, which did I choose and why?

The Tom Tom has the mind-share as a GPS device so that sounded like a plus but when I dug into the comments on the Apple iPhone App Store there seemed to be a lot of less satisfied customers, the price was also an issue at $99.99 (possibly only because $100.00 wouldn't fit in the "Buy App" button). It didn't have Text to speech where the voice reads out street names nor did it have automatic night mode or a lane selector (very handy on those multi-flyovers).

The Sygic app on the other hand was $59.99 (it's since gone up to $79.99). It comes with maps for Australia and New Zealand (I really should plot a route from my place to Auckland - just to see what happens).

So I got the Sygic app based on recommendations and features that I thought would be useful to me. Once I loaded it up I gave it a run and it performed exactly as the documentation and some of the recommendations said it would. It takes about 100 meters to orient itself but after that away it goes.

I put the phone in a cradle in the car and hooked it up with my Motorola bluetooth car kit which is in turn connected to the car stereo via FM. One thing I found annoying was that although answering a call paused the system and the music if it was in the "landscape" position when the app came back it was in the "portrait" position. Also, in order to make a call I needed to exit the GPS and then restart it and navigate through the annoying disclaimer about playing with the app whilst driving. The TTS (text to speech) I chose was a polite Brittish gentleman who pronounced most of the streets quite accurately. The voices cover many languages and both genders - I just figured I take enough instructions from a woman (genius though she is). The American accents sound like the old Macintosh voices so, no great loss there.

So, in conclusion. I spent a fraction of the price of a "real" GPS system and got; well, a real GPS system.

Please leave a comment to describe your experiences with the growing ubiquity of the iPhone.

Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink