One. Steve Jobs has sadly passed away.
Two. It’s getting really cold after a lovely warm start to October.
Three. Apple have just released their newest iPhone in the range, the iPhone 4s.

Now, I’m a bit of a sucker for Apple tech… They’ve got me each and every year since the original iPhone was announced back in 2007. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it’s 2011, and I’m preparing for (yet another) upgrade from my iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4s. Now, I’m not going to debate whether its a viable upgrade for one main reason: My 18 month upgrade has come to an end (3 months early as I’m a gold priority O2 member), so it’s time to get a new phone!

I decided to take a look at a couple of options, and found that there is a more cost effective way of buying an iPhone than the typical 12/18/24 month iPhone contracts that O2 provide (Yes, I’m on O2, so I’ll be focusing on that.. Although similar tariffs will undoubtedly be available on Orange et al!).

Here’s the round-up for an 18 month contract (which I signed up to 18 months ago!).

Minutes: 600 per month
Texts: Unlimited (Debatable!)
Internet: 500Mb per month
Handset Cost: £140.00
Cost per Month: £42.00
Contract Term/Length: 18 months
Total Cost:(18 x £42) + £140 = £896.00

Now, bare in mind that if you intend to upgrade when the new phone comes out (presumably in 12 months) you’ll be eligible for 1 month early upgrade (as you paid over £520 already in the past 12 months) so will have 5 months worth of contract / £210.00 (18 months – 12 months paid – 1 month early upgrade = 5 months x £42 = £210.00) to pay off.

Here’s the alternative: Upgrade to a simplicity package.

(The one I’m upgrading to is O2 simplicity 600 12 month)

Minutes: 600 per month (same as above)
Texts: Unlimited (Debatable!)(same as above)
Internet: 500Mb per month (same as above)
Handset Cost: I’ll come back to this!
Cost per Month: £21.50 (Half as much as above)
Contract Term/Length: 12 months (6 less than above)
Total Cost:(12 x £21.50) = £258.00

What’s it all mean?

Now, that total cost does look a lot less.. But you do have to buy the handset at it’s full amount. This is usually around £500. Add that to the cost and you’ve a grand total of £758.00.

Now, Simplicity’s £758 is £138 less than the iPhone tariff mentioned above (£896). There is one major advantage, and one minor disadvantage to the simplicity method:

Advantage: The Simplicity method means that after 12 months, when the new iPhone comes out, there is no contract to pay off. If you think about it logically, with the iPhone tariff you’d not only have to sign up to another 18 x $42 a month contract, but also pay £140 for the phone and an additional £210 contract cancellation charge. That’s a total of £111 (18 x£42 = £756 + £140 + £210 = £1106 over 18 months). The simplicity tariff means you’ll not be paying any contract cancellation fee, simply signing up to another 12 month £21.50 per month contract and buying another handset.

The slight disadvantage is that you have to find the bulk of the money (£500+) at the beginning of the upgrade, where as the iPhone specific contract you pay a more even price over the 18 months. That said, if you upgrade each year then expect to pay at least [handset cost] + ([# months] x [cost per month]) at the beginning of the next upgrade!

Still confused?

There you have it. It’s a bit confusing, I know… To be honest writing this article helped me understand it myself a little better. Basically, if you can afford to pay the £500 for the handset (SIM free) and signing a “SIM ONLY” contract, then you’ll be saving money (around £138) over 12 months, compared to the bundled contract and iPhone deals.

FaceTime (by Apple) is good, but seems a little glitchy and disconnects the most of any that we used over the week. Another contender was Skype; This was much better, and I’ve used it before with no problems, but it seemed poor in signal quality and did drop out occasionally. (Although I blame her internet connection, as she could hear me perfectly! – Not sure if that’s how it works?)

Finally, we came onto Viber. Unlike other applications Viber allows a more traditional phone call experience, as the voices aren’t automatically on loud-speaker, meaning you can have more private conversations. There isn’t the feature of video conferencing either, meaning signal strength (for the most part) are stronger. It does drop out occasionally, but again, that’s a poor internet connection rather than the application. To top it off, the audio quality seems BETTER than when talking via actual phone calls!

Moral of the story; Get Viber! It’s free, and it will save you money (and presious contract minutes!).

I’ll start by reiterating; This isn’t a hack. It’s a simple work-around! No coding knowledge is required..

The “Film to Go” app gives users a promotional code which can be redeemed on iTunes (once per week, on a Thursday!) to download a specific film (chosen by Orange).

To get the App, simply download it from the Apple App Store. Next, you’ll need to get an Orange phone number from a friend or family member (Preferably one without an iPhone, so they can’t take advantage of the offer anyway. In my case, my Mom!).

Enter the phone number into the app (More -> Settings -> Mobile Number). A few seconds later your friend/family memeber should receive a four character/digit code. Simply enter that into your app and you’re ready to go.

If you do this on a Thursday you’ll get a promo code right away, and you can go download/watch your film – May I suggest you invite your Orange-phone-number-mate round to watch it with you, you probably owe them one!

It started off with an innocent update; and then it hit me – Formatted phone. No more apps, no more contacts. Oops! It was my fault really, so I don’t want to blame Apple (too much!). But that was that. One late night later and another lucky turn (most contacts were backed up on my Mac) and I was running almost normally again. Apart from the seemingly laggy camera feature. After a while (say a week) the lag on several applications was unbearable.

So, another format! (At least this time everything was backed up to the cloud, which is a great ‘new’ feature, by the way!). This time everything seemed smoother, and so far it’s been fine! I’ll be glad when Apple officially release to the public though; Hop fully it won’t be ANOTHER format?! (Especially with over-the-air updates!).

One gripe; Bluetooth streaming music seems less high-quality.. It could just be me, but the bass seems a little ‘off’? Also, track syncing (which is now a feature with the iPod functionality of the device) isn’t replicated by Spotify’s application. But I guess that’s down to Spotify!

Moral of the story; Back up your phones kids!

First up, Spotify! Iv’e gone for the 16Gb WiFi model, largely due to already owning an iPhone (with constant internet connection). The Spotify app is actually the iPhone version, but why re-make the wheel? Creating a playlist (‘for the iPad‘) allows me to control and constantly update which songs are synced to the device from my phone, computer or directly. Jump onto a wireless connection and hay presto, instant music library updates! In my opinion Spotify is one of the best (if not THE best) application on the iPhone, and it works well on the iPad. I just wish they’d make an iPad specific application.

Next is DropBox. There are a load of reviews about the magic of DropBox, so I’ll keep it brief; If you haven’t got DropBox yet, go and sign up. Then download the DropBox app for your iPhone and iPad and never be without your much needed documents again! It’s also a great way of wirelessly transferring content from/to your devices.

CoolPapers: It’s basically what it says on the tin: An archive of beautiful wallpapers to really customise your iPad experience!

BBC iPlayer: Wonderful! Watch all the BBC iPlayer content on your beautiful device. Perfect for bed-time catch-up! Really nice interface too, very 2.0, and looks amazing on the iPad’s shiny screen! My only gripe here is that some of the programs don’t quite fill the screen (due to aspect differences) and an over-scanning option would be nice.

Friendly. Until Facebook get’s on-board the iPad specific Application revolution, Friendly will be your best bet. It works and interacts well (after a little getting used to). That said, it did have some time-out issues this morning. However, it’s generally been quite reliable (according to a couple of friends).

mBox Mail. This is only really going to be of much use if you have a Hotmail E-mail account. Unfortunately the native ‘Mail’ app doesn’t sync all the folders (due to POP3 / Push / etc) of a Hotmail account. Something Mbox Mail overcomes seamlessly. Dear Apple, please add this functionality to iOS5. Regards.

Skype. I’ll be honest, I haven’t used this yet. But I have used the application on the iPhone. Seeing as how it’s ported directly from the iPhone to the iPad, I can recommend it. Although FaceTime put’s up a good fight against this. I guess it depends on personal preference, and weather your contacts are Apple-esk or not?

Twitter. Facebook should definately take a leaf (preferably one without bird poo!) out of Twitter’s book! A beautiful app, full of features and perfectly laid out! This is how the iPad expereince should be! Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, download this app! 10/10!

Flipboard. A very good, intuitive and modern approach to news reading. With the ability to customise the ‘contents’ page, you read the iPad like a book, with articles appearing in a digital 2.0 magazine style. (Page flipping transitions included!).

WordPress. Much like Twitter, this is a beautiful application. Purpose built for the iPad, in addition to the easy-to-use keyboard, this will soon become my preferred way of blogging. Look, I’m even using it to write this blog (with addition of my wireless keyboard, just to test out the bluetooth connectivity!).

Bonus Application: Google. I decided to add Google as a bonus application for two reasons. 1: I miscounted the number of non-native apps on the homescreen! and more importantly 2: It can often be overlooked, by default going to Safari and using the search bar. However, the Google App does much more than searching the net (as if that wasn’t enough). Google Goggles (search via images) and really good voice recognition make for a truly rich-media searching experience!

So there we go! The top 10, ahem, 11, applications to download for your iPad!

Wednesday: I went into GameCity to meet with the Managing Director of GameCity, as well as some other stakeholders related to the project. We discussed the application, it’s potential and the forward movement of the alternative route to content. There were some particularly interesting ideas regarding the application around the time of the GameCity festival, which I won’t go into right now (hold the suspense and all that!). Basically, it was a very positive meeting, with lots of appraisal and interest in the software. Resultingly, the application should hopefully soon be on the AppStore!

Friday: Demo day. Nottingham Trent University set up a day for final year students to demonstrate their final year projects to a variety of people including second year students, lecturers, assessors, perspective employers and visiting guests. I expected a little interest in the application, but the number of people who wanted to know more blew my mind!

On top of the two lecturers who I knew were visiting (whom were marking my dissertation) there was also a number of additional contacts who seemed interested in the context of marketing application development, as well as my portfolio in general. This took me completely by surprise, not expecting to have anywhere near as much external interest. Let’s just say I’m glad I had my business cards to hand (with one lecturer calling me a “smooth” operator, which I THINK is a good thing?).

In addition to the external interest, lots of students seemed positively interested in how the application was produced, the positive and negative aspects of iPhone development, and working with a ‘real-life’ client. All questions which I answered to my best ability (sorry, you had to be there to know my answers!).

The day was completed with some really positive comments from a number of lecturers, both from personal perspectives and passed on from other students/contacts.

Overall a really good day – Not boring at all (like some previous students had warned) – and a perfect finish to a year of hard work!

“Probably the most important report you’ll ever write”.

That’s what we were told at the start of academic year in September. Fast forward eight months and it’s typed, printed, developed and handed in! Now that sounds flippant, but trust me when I say, it was a complete adventure to get done.

I’m talking of cause about my Final Year Project, details of which can be found over on the ‘Final Year Project’ page. To give you an overview, it’s an application for a smart-phone device (the iPhone, naturally!) aimed at marketing a small organisation based in Nottingham, UK.

The principle was simple: Pull content from the client’s existing website and Social Media sources, add locational information utilizing the mobile device’s built-in GPS features and bundle it all in one place for delivery into the palm of a user’s hand!

More than 240 days, 135 pages, 80 source files, 5 Tabs and 1 iPhone Application!

After iterations of development, implementation and testing, not to mention typing over 130 pages of research, product ideas and project management, the application was finally compiled for the final release!

So, it was quite a large project, as you’d expect from a final year student… Consequently I’m going to write a bunch of blogs over the coming weeks, discussing more precise details ranging from the project methodology to development of particular features. Stay tuned!

Retail stores play a huge part in the overall “Apple experience”. When I went to buy my MacBook Pro (for my Final Year Dissertation) walking into the Apple store in Birmingham (UK) was a really exciting experience. I went early to avoid mid-morning crowds at busy peak times. This was a good strategy, with only a few people being seen around town and a relatively empty car park. Except for the Apple store. Considering the lack of people around, the Apple store was still quite busy, and was by far the most popular store. This gives a good indication to the prestige which many consumers hold for Apple as a company, its products and their services.

Now, It’s probably important to mention here that a lot of computer scientists, software engineers, and basically your average “Tech Guy” don’t like Apple. Why? Because they over-price for products which “Don’t perform” as they should. I’m not one of these “Tech Guys” because I love Apple. I seem to find myself time and time again defending their products, trying to convey that they aren’t targeted at the technical end of the spectrum (like Linux) and are more about beautiful design and providing a good interface between your average consumer and a wealth of features. Ok, so they are expensive, but it’s an Apple product!

So, what makes Apple really stand out from the crowd? For me, it’s not about the functionality, the price, the retail stores or even the products. For me, it’s the way Apple operate. The anticipation of the latest Apple product is exciting, and you know it’ll only be a couple of weeks between announcement to rolling out! Jobs does a great job (excuse the pun) at this, his enthusiasm and natural presentation skills at keynotes really pulling consumes in!

Most importantly though is my favourite line when trying to justify Apple’s greatness; “Apple don’t design new products, they design new categories“. Take MP3 Players. They were (lets be honest) a little crummy before the iPod came along. Fast forward to now and all other MP3 players are pretty much obsolete. Let’s try phones. The iPhone came along in 2007, and completely revolutionised the way which phones are today. Phones boasting touch-screen technology, Apps and other similar features are common place, but still can’t rival the fluidity and popularity of the iPhone. Finally there is the iPad. Don’t get me wrong tablets were already around, but the iPad took it to a whole new level. Competitors didn’t know what to expect and had to go completely back to the drawing boards.

To conclude, Apple are different. Some people love them. Some people don’t. But either way, you have to admire what Apple have done for the industry. Ask someone you know to name the first “hand held device” that comes into their head, and I think they will probably say something like “Oh, like the Apple <insert product here>”

Technology is fighting back though. Exibit A: The North Face E-Tip Gloves. These fantastic gloves from one of the worlds premium cold-weather clothes creators keep you lovely and warm whilst allowing the conductivity required for most touch screens to go strait through! They work perfectly on iPads, iPhones and iPods! Check them out!

Spotify Premium, enter stage left! So yea, I went all out for a one year membership to the premium edition, which allows you to get songs on your iPhone or other internet enabled device using the variety of Spotify applications. It’s the best thing since sliced bread! Out and about and hear a song you like the sound of? A quick shazam later you have the track and artist, which links directly to Spotify and lets you add it to a playlist.

Offline mode is good too, if you are worried about the amount your streaming. Whenever your connected to a WiFi hotspot Spotify automatically starts downloading the songs in “offline” playlists, so that even if you have no connection the songs are still playable from the device! It honestly is brilliant!

My personal favourite bit is its ability to override the default iPod on the iPhone, so it can sync up to anything the iPod could. For example my car, so I can now listen to all those great tunes, anything from Spotify(!) while i’m on the move!