Category: iphone

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Tech Stuff goes mobile

Having upgraded the blog back end you can now view the blog on your iPhone with a built-in mobile theme.

It’s a great theme which works for individual entries too.

Simply go to tech.jamesclay.net on your iPhone or any other mobile device.

So how was this done?

Well with the WPtouch plugin that if you host your own WordPress server can be easily installed.

WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple’s app store design specs, WPtouch makes your WordPress website load lightning fast on touch mobile devices, show your content beautifully, all while not interfering with your regular theme.

If you have a WordPress.com site this is now built in.

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Live TV on your iPod touch or iPhone

So you want to watch live TV?

I know get a television…

But sometimes that isn’t possible or convenient. For example when you are in a hotel room, waiting for a train, etc…

It is now quite easy to do with a computer and a browser, however until now it was not really possible on your iPhone (or iPod touch).

Simply go to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com/ on your iPhone and you can now watch live TV (well there is a lag of a few minutes) when you want to.

Live TV on your iPod touch or iPhone

Live TV on your iPod touch or iPhoneI added it to my homescreen and they as you can see they have a nice icon for your iPhone.

The service also has a browser version, however you need to sign up to that!

Regardless of which way you go, as this is live TV you do need to have a TV licence.

The quality is quite good and certainly watchable.

Live TV on your iPod touch or iPhone

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Orange gets the iPhone

iPhone

So O2’s exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone has come to an end…

BBC News reports:

Orange has reached an agreement to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in the UK.

The deal ends an exclusive arrangement between UK network operator O2 and the Californian phone maker, which has been in place since 2007.

I am not sure that there was much consumer benefit to the exclusive arrangement that O2 had (well has at the moment) however I am equally sure that bringing Orange into the market won’t actually make too much difference to consumers; more likely it will benefit those who can’t get an O2 signal but can get Orange.

Part of the issue has to be the fact that iPhone is in a league of its own when it comes to smartphones, not many other devices match the iPhone in terms of usability, applications and features.

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Clearing room…

Before installing Adobe CS4 I decided that I better clear out some free disk space so that it will not only install fine, but run fine as well. I had bought it for my new iMac, but that’s on hold at the moment.

So what’s on the hard drive?

Well though my files, photos and music take up a fair bit of space, it is EyeTV recordings which take up the most space. I have been a little lax (because I had the space) in editing and exporting recordings.

Generally I only export the recording in the native MPEG2  format, partly to avoid loss of quality, but in the main as it is very quick. After exporting I might copy the Wi-Fi access version into iTunes so I can then put it onto the iPod pretty quickly, but that’s not always done, it depends on the recording.

Of course if I don’t want the recording, it never gets exported and just gets deleted.

After exporting, I try and move files to an external hard drive, to free up space, but it shouldn’t and it does still surprise me by how much space the recordings take up…

Now I know I could export as a DivX format and reduce the file size significantly over the MPEG2, however then I will have a later problem if I want to export into a different format for a different device.

Until we have a consistent video file format then I would rather maintain the high quality large file size of the native MPEG2 recording then try and mess about with a smaller DivX recording for a different device.

I watch the recordings on a variety of devices, the iPhone and various iPods, the PSP, the PS3 and an Archos PVR device. The iPod h.264 recordings for example would not play on the PSP (always) likewise they would not play on the Archos unless I paid €20 for the “extra” to allow the Archos to play h.264 files, if I was willing to pay that I would pay the €20 to allow the Archos to play MPEG2 files natively!

So at the moment I am editing, exporting and in some cases realising that I am never going to watch that special which went out at Christmas and I am deleting!

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Nokia ditching Symbian for Maemo

According to the German FT (via Techcrunch) Nokia is going to move from Symbian to Maemo for its phones.

Nokia doesn’t trust its Symbian mobile operating system any more and plans to equip many of its smartphones with the mostly open source Maemo operating system it uses in its Internet tablets, according to undisclosed Nokia sources speaking to the Financial Times in Germany  (FTD).

Nokia uses Maemo on its internet tablets, and having used the Nokia N810 quite a bit I quite like it as an operating system. Likewise though I also like the operating system on the Nokia N95. Which one do I prefer? Well it’s not that simple, as the N810 is a very different device to the N95 and I use them in different ways.

The Nokia N97 which had huge potential seems to be limited by the Symbian operating system, as Techcrunch report:

The Nokia N97 from June 2009 required heavy tweaking on the Symbian software. It’s touchscreen OS still looks aged and the handling is far from easy and not always logical.

Nokia having seen the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android phone take their market share, they need todo something if they are to remain competitive.

I expect not to see upgrades to existing phones like the N95, but Nokia using Maemo on their new phones.

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Tube Deluxe

Whilst the iPod touch is an useful device, the iPhone can be very useful as it has the connectivity that makes some applications work better. One of these is London Tube Deluxe (iTunes Store link).

Tube Deluxe

If you travel by tube in London and it can be useful to know when and if there are problems on the Tube. Combine that with the tube map and using Google Maps to work out where alternative tube stations actually are in London, it is possible to ensure you can get where you need to get to even if there are terrible delays on the tube.

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Apple admits iPhone supply issues

Report from BBC News

Apple has revealed as part of its quarterly earnings statement that it cannot produce the new iPhone 3GS fast enough.

Luckily for me I was able to order an iPhone 3GS, though only the 32GB model was available, which is the model I wanted, though I thought 16GB would be enough, 16GB can never be enough, so I went down my usual maxim which is work out what I need and double it…

So far all I have done it activated it, sync’d it and charged it. Nothing else yet…

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Mobile Apps

Noticed a couple of news items on BBC News which make for interesting reading if you are interested in mobile applications. The first item I saw was on the market for mobile apps.

The market for mobile applications, or apps, will become “as big as the internet”, peaking at 10 million apps in 2020, a leading online store says.

But it is not all good news…

However, GetJar say, the developer community will decline drastically as each developer makes less money.

This is certainly apparent in the iTunes App Store where expensive useful apps, are virtually immediately undercut by similar low cost or even free apps.

But it doesn’t seem to be putting people off with the following news:

Symbian, the operating system on nearly half the world’s smartphones, is to become involved in the development of mobile applications, or apps.

So who’s creating these mobile apps and what are they creating?

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O2 Tethering on the iPhone

Despite some issues with JoikuSpot with some mobile devices, it is still one of my most useful applications on my Nokia N95 and I use it a lot.

I have considered getting an iPhone 3GS and this (alongside the iPhone 3G) now (eventually) comes with tethering, the ability to use your phone as a modem with your laptop. I have done this for years with various phones including the Nokia N95.

The only downside is the cost!

I have tethering included as part of my T-Mobile deal which costs roughly the same per month as the O2 iPhone deal, however O2 want an extra £15 per month for a 3GB limit for tethering.

Expensive!