iOS 5 Beta – first impressions June 20, 2011
Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech.Tags: Android, Apple, iOS, iOS 5 Beta, iOS5, iPhone, iphone4, Smartphone
add a comment
I have installed the iOS 5 beta on my iPhone 4 and here are initial impressions. Remember, you need iTunes 5 Beta to install iOS5.
GOOD:
- New notification format is nice – certainly not new and does not change my life, but far better than existing formats, and very nicely executed.
- Reminders app is cool – again, should’ve been there from the start, but better late than never.
- iMessaging – not had a chance to use yet cos I guess it needs the other iThing to also be ios5.
- Twitter integration – definitely handy. Beats having to open another app to tweet a page/photo etc.
- Wireless Sync – not operational yet, but look forward to it, I suspect it will be much slower if there are apps/music to sync.
- iCloud backup – works seamlessly in the background but haven’t really tested across devices yet.
- Access Camera through DoubleClick – still on the old habit of launching the Camera app, but I’m sure this is handy once I remember to use it.
- It has definitely affected performance. The phone is slower by at least 10% when accessing multiple functions, “stutters” when handling transitions, and sometimes even shows, for a fraction of a second, a screen which has since been closed. And I am not a heavy multi-tasked either, and make it a point to kill apps not required. Hopefully they will fix this in the final release.
- Camera: Now that I can use the Volume button to click, it would have been nice if that bar on the screen with the click button and still-video switch could be “hidden” so I get the whole screen as my viewfinder. Common in most other large screen phones.
- Camera: When you use the Volume button to click, the Camera lens (and Flash) is positioned on the lower side. A camera lens and flash should under most circumstances “look down” on the subject from the upper end of the device.
- There’s an irritating message that pops up on every phone call about this being an “unsecure call” and would I like to continue! And the only way to get rid of it is to click on Ignore. There seems to be no way to de-activate that.
- Mail: Text formatting controls (Bold, Underline etc) are handy but unwieldy.
- There are also reports of Battery life being hit, but between 3G and a nearly one-year old device, not sure how much is the exact impact of iOS5.
- Ability to create shortcuts to frequently accessed settings, songs, pictures, phone numbers – anything.
- Widgets – nice to have.
- Ability to invite attendees to meetings in iCal WITHOUT the need for an Exchange account. Can’t see why I can’t do the same with a POP3/IMAP account.
- Some visual notification when the phone is asleep – LED around home button?
Consolidating your iTunes Library across Mac and Windows March 1, 2010
Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech, Music.add a comment
Just finished consolidating music in my iTunes library on my Macbook, with my home Windows PC using Homeshare. It works like a cinch. Not only that, on my Windows PC, also consolidated the library for all users (self, wife, son) using Junction, so everyone sees the same library, each other’s playlists etc.
Homeshare on iTunes is amazing. So from the Windows PC iTunes, I can see the music Library on my Mac (which is sort of the computer where ALL music resides, so acts like a Server), and can play, and even import the music on to the Windows PC. And because all users on the Windows PC are sharing the same iTunes Library using Junction, they can each do the same without duplicating each other’s efforts.
Worth the 1 hour it took to figure out, configure and debug.
Compare Google Nexus One v/s iPhone 3g January 17, 2010
Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech.Tags: Google N1, Google Nexus One, iPhone, iPhone 3G, Nexus one iPhone comparison, Smartphones review
5 comments
Just switched to my new Nexus One from an iPhone 3G (and Sony Ericsson P1i before that). So far the Nexus One is winning. (UPDATE: 18Jan: I have to change that, the N1 is not necessarily a clear winner. The iPhone just makes many things much easier). Will try and summarise the pros and cons of the nexus one (vis-a-vis the iPhone) in this post as I discover them, so keep coming back.
UPDATE 3 Feb: I have sold the N1 and switched back to the iPhone. It was a tough decision mainly on account of the better hardware and openness of the N1, but I just could not be bothered to wait for yet another new kid on the block to catch up with features that have been standard on phones for years!!
PROS:
1. Amazing screen – great resolution, clarity and touch sensitivity. Slightly larger at 3.7in v/s 3.5 of the iPhone. Sharper than iPhone, as good in terms of touch sensitivity. And scratch resistant!! Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpGAW6L5x8U.
2. Slightly Smaller: Lighter and slightly smaller so fits better in your palm, and against your ear.
3. Brilliant Customisability: A point sorely lacking in the iPhone. You can create shortcuts for any of the phone applications and widgets available, plus of course any that you download from Marketplace (like apps downloaded from app store). So if I want a shortcut to WiFi or Ringtones, or even to a particular song, I can set it up on my home screen. The widgets are great – there is one for calendar so your day’s appointments are displayed (I hated the iPhone for not providing visual appointment alerts), and very nice Power Control bar to quickly turn on and off power hungry features like Wi-Fi, BT, GPS etc., another one for search with Voice Search integrated. Others for weather, stocks etc. Really Nifty.
4. Set-up is a cinch – as good as the iphone in MOST departments – though painful in some.
5. Great accelerator – Much more responsive than the iPhone. And an option to turn it off.
6. Faster – 1Ghz processor really shows its mettle, although I imagine the 3GS would be pretty close.
7. Better Wi-Fi radio: I get a much stronger signal and data connectivity on the N1 WiFi than on the iPhone.
8. Sleep Mode Notification: Big problem with the iPhone – if there is a missed call or message, there is no LED or other notification on the phone if your screen is off. So you could go for hours without noticing there is a missed call/message. Further I often found that on the iPhone, after a while, or if some other event occurs, even the on-screen notification goes away, so it can be a while before you realise you’ve missed something. The N1 has a glowing Trackball, plus a notification on the status bar that stays till you read the message/call.
9. Mail works like Sync, instead of mailbox: I used to prefer this feature in my SE P1i, where if I download messages on my phone, and then subsequently in my Laptop, doing another download from the phone erases the messages already on my phone and downloads new ones only. On the iPhone, the old messages stay on the phone and you have to manually delete them. I don’t want to clog up my phone with old messages and just use it to access new ones.
10. Multitasking: The N1 supports multi-tasking with open apps running in the background and a shortcut to jump to any open app. However, there is no feature to “close” the app if you want to save processing power. Even the SE P1i had this much better.
11. I can access the SD card as an external storage from my laptop (USB mount) which is great so I can carry files etc.
12. I can delete individual entries from the call log (in the iPhone you can only clear the whole log).
13. It comes with an electric charger AND USB cable.
14. Camera with 5MP and Flash. Haven’t tested the quality yet though.
CONS:
1. No physical silent button: Though the N1 has a very nice way – similar to the “slide to unlock” of iPhone, you can slide the other way to turn off sound. So Slide l-r for unlock and r-l for sound off. Nice, but I prefer the convenience of a hardware button.
UPDATE: The Volume key also doubles up as a hardware switch for Silent mode, which is handy.
2. I like the single button simplicity of the iPhone. The N1 has a trackball (which I doubt I will use) and 4 soft keys for back, menu, search and home. I particularly like the search key shortcut on the N1 though.
3. No Speed Dial – there weren’t any in the iPhone either but I managed to find some apps.
(UPDATE: THIS CAN BE EASILY DONE ON THE N1 AS SHORTCUTS TO DIRECT DIAL. IN FACT ITS MUCH BETTER THAN iPHONE SINCE I CAN CREATE AS MANY SHORTCUTS (SPEED DIALS) AS I WANT AND HAVE A WHOLE SCREENFULL OF THEM).
4. CANNOT SYNC WITH COMPUTER: If the iPhone is guilty of not having great syncing with a PC (even for Mac, To Do sync is missing), N1 is worse because it syncs almost exclusively with Google apps for contacts and calendar. And believe me syncing with Google Calendar and Contacts has a long long way to go in reliability and simplicity. To sync the phone directly with the Mac you have to buy expensive 3rd part software (like Missing Sync). Even to sync your Mac with Google (and then your N1 with Google to make a neat 3-way sync), I had to buy Spanning Sync. Snow Leopard’s integrated Google Account sync is pathetic (it could be Google and not SL though). For a Mac User, the tight integration of the iPhone with the Mac is great. So is N1′s with Google, except I’m not yet ready for the cloud!! Because Google Contacts sucks, Calendar is slightly better. For instance for many of my contacts, I have used a Prefix (Mr. Ms. etc). On the N1, that gets filed under M!!!!!! And the mistake is not the N1, cos the N1 HAS a field for Prefix. Its Google Contacts which is terrible!!
5. Only 512MB built in memory with a 4GB MicroSD card. Far cry from the 16GB plus of the iPhone.
6. No Proxy Support for WiFi Connections: N1 does NOT support proxy settings for WiFi, a point of great concern when trying to access WiFi in workplace environments. The iPhone Wi Fi and proxy set-up is the easiest I have ever encountered.
7. No Internet Tethering: This was a huge problem with the iPhone which they later fixed. So far I believe the N1 has the same limitation. I do hope they fix it asap. UPDATE: I was able to fix this with an app from Android Market called PDANet though its quite complicated.
8. No NOTES or To-Dos: in the N1. Bad, very bad.
9. Many things are just much easier to do on the iPhone – like deleting messages/threads/conversations, composing a new message. It seems to be a trade off between providing more functionality and less clutter. The N1 provides more options, but due to that ends up being less simple. iPhone manages to provide quit a bit within a simple interface, though perhaps not as much as the N1.
10. Can’t take screenshots. The iPhone is just brilliant in this department.
11. Better keyboard: The iPhone keyboard is better spread with more space between letters and so accuracy is slightly better (maybe 5-10%).
12. Ability to Sync music with iTunes – definitely better than dragging and dropping MP3 files manually (like u did in 1995!!!)
13. I prefer the integrated mailbox of the iPhone – where I can see Gmail, Yahoo AND my POP box mails. In the N1, Gmail is separate and POP mail is separate. And generally more difficult to navigate.
14. UPDATE: 24 Jan. You are not going to believe this. There seems to be no way of quoting the email when you are replying to one. I automatically adds the old email fine, but you cannot edit that text, copy-paste from it or reply in-line. How the hell could N1, which comes from the people who re-invented email, missed something as basic as this?
PS: Came across this article which I think is a pretty good comparison/analysis of the N1 and the iPhone.
Mac V/s Windows March 9, 2008
Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech.Tags: Mac Os, Mac v/s Windows, Macbook, Windows OS
5 comments
I have been using a mac for the last month or so now and thought I should compile my experiences so far. To put it in short, a Mac is a great girlfriend, but not wife material. She’s young, beautiful, sexy and fun. But I’m not!!
All Apple communication (and die-hard Apple users) claim that a Mac can do everything Windows can. And they are absolutely right! Especially with the Intel-based Macs which can also run Windows, the case is sealed. The question is how much more of a pain it is to do those day-to-day tasks. So here’s an interim list of niggling (and perhaps some very individual) issues I have been able to compile. I’ve been told by a few that its all a matter of “getting used-to” and I have lived with Windows for too long. However, as you will see from this list, its not about having to find your way around. Its about there being no other way!!
1. No Page Up/Page Down Keys. Requires two keys (fn+Arrow) for the function
2. No (forward) delete Keys. Requires two keys for function (fn + delete, which is really a backspace)
3. No Contextual Menu (Right-Click) Key. Requires control to be depressed.
4. In browser, on a web-page cannot toggle between HTML hyperlinks and other click-able items easily. Firefox in Mac tends to skip hyperlinks and drop-down menus.
5. In browser, when you click in address bar does not select complete url by default. Hence if one needs to type a new URL, have to first delete existing URL.
6. No Home and End keys. Requires two keys for function. Pain when you want to navigate to end of line, etc
7. Fewer keyboard shortcuts in office (e.g. F2 in excel to edit a cell, or to insert Page break in word).
8. Entourage sucks compared to Outlook as a PIM.
9. Rest of MS Office is not that great either
10. I find my MacBook really slow considering its got 2.5Gb RAM. No System Optimisation tools like Defragmanter, disk clean-up etc. I hope its because a Mac doesn’t need them! Mac OS 10.5.2 seems to need around 10GB of space. XP Pro needed around 2GB; around 6 including a lot of the extra programs that Leopard comes with.
11.Huge issues when working on a windows network. Can connect and access files etc alright. However, drops connection when computer goes on standby (sleep), requiring a reboot. Or can’t login to a mobile network account if connected to a different wi-fi network! You didn’t even have to think about all these issues with Windows.
12. No “Print Screen”! Have to tediously use Grab to capture screens.
13. iPhoto sucks when editing pictures compared to Microsoft Picture Manager.
14. Can’t truly “maximise” a window at the click of a button. Have to necessarily drag a window to expand it. The plus button is quite misleading and seems more like a restore button.
So really, what is all that talk about a Mac being more user-friendly than Windows?
Switching to a Mac January 20, 2008
Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech, Life, mobile telephony.Tags: Apple MacBook, Windows
4 comments
My first ever new year resolution was to start taking Guitar/Singing lessons and commence Yoga. Almost at the end of Jan and I haven’t really made much progress on either. However, fair amount of effort has been put into a completely unplanned (and indulgent) exercise – figuring out how I can switch to a Mac and what kind of potential issues I could face. As some of those who know me would vouch, dealing with these kind of tech and gadget challenges is quite a high for me.
Anyway, to start with, Why switch to a Mac? you might ask. Well, simple answer, sex appeal. God (and wife) knows I need some.
So have spent some time on Google and its results, chewing the brains of mac dealers in Mumbai, experimenting with a borrowed ibook etc. And I have to say, its really not as easy as Apple makes it sound.
My impression so far is while you can pretty much do everything on a Mac that you can on Windows, you can only do so at the basic level. If you are an advanced user, and use some of the less common features and services of Windows and its software, its difficult to let go. Compatability is not that much of an issue, you just have to work harder and may have to opt for workarounds. Some of my key obstacles:
1. I work in an office which runs a Windows network with Active Directory and the Mac needs to join the domain, access its services, etc. While joining a Windows is no longer an issue, will I be able to access services like firewalls, proxies, play administrator, and manage things like security permissions etc from my client?
2. I use Outlook 2003. While Entourage provides all the basic functionality of Outlook, at first glance it does not seem to be as full featured as Outlook – the address card does not seem to hold as many fields, not sure how easy it is to create a distribution list, manage multiple email accounts and sending mails with chosen account etc.
3. One of the biggest issues is likely to be 3rd party applications – like sync for my Sony Ericsson with Outlook. Again, iSync etc will allow basic syncing of contacts, calendars and mails, how accurate and reliable will the syncing be – will it sync all fields, alarms, categories, notes etc? What about using my phone as a modem via Bluetooth?
4. And then of course there are the little utilities that are available for windows like password managers that sync with my phone – not sure how easily I will get that for a Mac.
All in all, I guess my problem is that I’m just too comfortable with Windows. Its like a marriage – you know there are problems, and the other women really looks appealing, but you’re just too cosy in the current familiarity.
And the final obstacle – for all the praise that Mac gets for being far easier to use than windows, I still haven’t found that one single feature about the Mac yet that makes a really strong argument to support that claim. But I’m still waiting and haven’t given up yet…
