But if the going gets tougher, the only answer, at least previously, is a heavy-duty case like the Otterbox Defender. Unfortunately, it costs a lot, P2,500 the last time I checked, and it has an ugly circular cutout to show off the Apple logo (why?!?). So I searched and found the Speck ToughShell.
iOS 5 has finally been officially released. I actually already had iOS 5 on the iPhone for a few weeks since I’m a “developer”. But I haven’t gotten around to updating the iPad. So I updated using iTunes. Couldn’t connect to the server. Looked like the servers are swamped so I waited till the evening before trying again. Still couldn’t connect to the server. Looked like they’re still swamped. Not a good indicator for iCloud and its infrastructure. I got a direct link and downloaded from there. It was pretty fast and in about an hour or two I already had the ipsw file. It seems bandwidth is not the issue. And indeed, when I tried “restoring” using the ipsw and everything went well until iTunes tried to verify the ipsw with the server and failed with an error 1654. Luckily, it went through on my second try and I was on iOS 5 on the iPad. Relatively easy compared to the experience of quite a few users. It’s good to be a techie.
A lot of people are disappointed by the iPhone 4S. I’m not, so I tried to understand the disparity. The easiest thing to do is to look at the numbers. Numbers tell a lot, but not everything. As can be seen from the CPU clock speed wars and later the camera megapixel wars. So with that in mind, I laid out a side-by-side for comparison against the de facto Android flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S2.
What the numbers tell me is that the Galaxy S2 has set the bar and that the iPhone 4S merely matched it. But that’s by the numbers. People who are numbers fixated were disappointed because of this. But the previous generation Galaxy S more or less matched the iPhone 4 in specs. Yet, in sales it was pretty far behind. This can be attributed to marketing and the merits of the phone. How much of each, or even simply which one, depends on your particular bias. Other people were caught up in the hype and were disappointed. They practically set themselves up for it.
I tried to guess how Apple’s Let’s Talk iPhone event would go. Boy was I so wrong!
Of course, they will announce the iPhone 5. It’s not the iPhone 4S or 4+ because it makes marketing sense to have the iPhone 5 match iOS 5. And just one phone because the notification badge says 1.There’s no need for a low-end phone because iPhone 4 will, after the announcement, become the lower-end phone. Maybe they will come up with an iPhone 4 with lower memory but it will still be an iPhone 4. There’s no marketing sense in calling it iPhone 4-.
The iPhone 5 will be a taller, wider phone with an aluminum back following the general design pattern of the iPad 2. Although the display is bigger,resolution remains the same as the iPhone 4 because they want to leverage the current existing Retina apps. It will have a dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 64GB storage in line with current smartphones specifications. But these will not be highlighted or maybe even mentioned.
Yet, I’m actually glad I was.
I wasn’t even considering getting the supposed iPhone 5 because it was bigger and, frankly, the iPad 2 design isn’t that great. So I was thinking of just maintaining the iPhone 4 upgraded to iOS 5. But by upgrading the internals and retaining the form-factor, you get a premium compact smartphone with up-to-date specs. And I could even reuse my iPhone 4 cases (I have three). Now I’m actually considering getting one.
Of course, they will announce the iPhone 5. It’s not the iPhone 4S or 4+ because it makes marketing sense to have the iPhone 5 match iOS 5. And just one phone because the notification badge says 1.
There’s no need for a low-end phone because iPhone 4 will, after the announcement, become the lower end phone. Maybe they will come up with an iPhone 4 with lower memory but it will still be an iPhone 4. There’s no marketing sense in calling it iPhone 4-.
The iPhone 5 will be a taller, wider phone with an aluminum back following the general design pattern of the iPad 2. Although the display is bigger, resolution remains the same as the iPhone 4 because they want to leverage the current existing Retina apps. It will have a dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 64GB storage in line with current smartphones specifications. But these will not be highlighted or maybe even mentioned.
Now let’s see if I got anything right.
Waiting.