[iOS Recipe] My Post-PC Era Begins

I haven't updated this blog in about two years now.  I'm gonna start this series of "iOS Recipe" articles showing you guys how I make use of iOS and my iDevices in my daily life.

To start off, I'm gonna announce the beginning of my "Post-PC Era" in my daily life.

 

I've took the plunge and got the 12.9" iPad Pro.  As I foresee I'll be keeping lots of videos and images on it, I've got the 128GB model.

Of course, an iPad Pro alone does not effectively makes me Post-PC.  So, I've got a few accessories to go along with it.

Here they are as shown in the picture.

 

Let's list them down here:

1. iPad Pro 12.9" 128GB
2. Foldable leather casing
3. Magnetic Bluetooth full size keyboard that comes with the foldable leather casing
4. 2-in-1 stylus with ball point pen
5. Mini Bluetooth speaker
6. iFlash Lightning micro SD card adaptor
7. CloudFTP WIFI wireless USB device
8. iPhone SE

With the above accessories, my use cases and needs are satisfied.

Here's the list of my use cases:

1. Big screen display that shows more content on a single screen (the 12.9" iPad)
2. Ease of text input (the Bluetooth keyboard)
3. Precise interaction with the touch screen (the stylus)
4. Music listening at close distance when the iPad is charging at a distance (the mini Bluetooth speaker)
5. Reading large document and streaming videos from micro SD card (the iFlash Lightning micro SD card adaptor)
6. Backing up documents to micro SD card (the iFlash Lightning micro SD card adaptor)
7. Reading large document and streaming videos from USB thumbdrive (the CloudFTP WIFI wireless USB device)
8. Whatsapping from the big screen iPad (the iPhone SE)

So far, a few days into my usage, I did not touch my Acer Windows 10 laptop at all.

To conclude, I can say I can very much depend totally on the iPad Pro and accessories to archive my daily PC tasks that I used to do with my Acer laptop.

But, I being a Software Engineer that does occasional coding stuff with Visual Studio for C# and Netbeans for Java programs, I will still need to fall back to my Acer laptop for those.

Here are the individual shots of the various accessories:

 

 

 

 

As for battery consumption:

I'm able to get 9 hours plus of usage after full charge with 23% of battery juice left.

Not bad at all.

 

 

That's it for my first post on [iOS Recipe].

Watch out this space for more tips and tricks that I've encountered and used in my daily life routine.

Note: This blog article is full written using the iPad Pro with the stylus and physically keyboard.

Another Widget for my iPhone

The jailbreak for iOS 7 has been released for near a month now. New tweaks keep pouring in.

One of the latest tweaks which I love a lot is "Live Weather Icon".

It changes the static icon picture of the stock Weather app into a live animated update of the weather condition of the current location.

It shows three information:

1) the weather condition, eg Cloudy

2) an animated image such as raining droplets and moving cloud, etc

3) the temperature

It's particularly useful for me as the workplace that I work in doesn't have windows and I've no vision to whether it's raining or now.

And when I put this icon beside the stock live Clock on the first home page, it feels right at home!

Love the iOS 7 Control Centre

So I've returned to iPhone after a disastrous experience with the HTC One.

Love the translucent overlay of the Control Centre over the background image.

This particular one is nice!

iPhone Photography at the Neighbourhood Park

I was having a relaxing time in the neighbourhood park on a cooling Sunday morning and decided to start a "iPhone Photography" post to share some nice pictures I've taken there.

Here's a close up shot of a nice flower:

And another one showing some big red ants having their morning work routine:

Macro Lens Photography

I came across this "Macro + Wide Angle" lens for mobile phones few weeks ago and bought it to have some fun with macro photography.

The one I bought is this "clip-on" type that can be used by simply clipping it over the edge of the phone with the lens aligned to the phone's lens.

Today I've taken some close-up pictures with the macro lens and I will show them beside their respective original photo taken without the lens.

There's also the Wide-Angle lens that comes with the package and I touch on that at a later time.

These pictures were taken indoor at night under florescent lighting, which explains the poor photo quality.
But still, the macro effect is apparent.

iRevolution

Think about this...

2007 - The smartphone world was revolutionised.

+3 years,
2010 - The tablet world was revolutionised.













+3 years,
2013 - Something is gonna got revolutionised. Right?

With vast cash to burn on its side, I very much doubt the "i" smartphone is going to die, to the utter disappointment of the "dessert" community, I guess.

I'm not a fan of the fruit company, but I'm a lover of their product, particularly the "i" smartphone.

An iOS App Offering Alternative to Widget Functionality

iOS doesn't support Widgets like Android does.

The app, "My Dashboard" for iOS though not bringing widgets functionality to iOS, does provide multiple apps content to be put in a "dashboard" layout which is user-configurable.

For iPhone version, you can arrange up to 2 app stacking vertically per screen.
You can have up to 8 on iPad.

There are quite a number of app content that are supported out of the box:

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Photo, RSS, Calendar and Weather, to name a few.

WIFI Speed Test on my New Fibre Broadband

In 1996, I subscribed to my first Internet Provider, Pacific Internet with a then "fast" 56kbps dial-up modem.

In 2012 November 29th, I got my first Fibre Broadband with a speed of 100Mbs!

Naturally, I'm going to take my bunch of portable devices for a speed test comparison.

Here are the competitors:
1) Samsung Galaxy S WIFI 5.0 running Gingerbread 2.3.6
2) Apple iPhone 4S running iOS 5.1.1
3) Apple iPad (3rd gen) running iOS 5.1.1
4) Apple iPad Mini running iOS 6.0.1
5) Apple iPhone 5 running iOS 6.0

So, can the Apple iPhone 5, which Tim Cook said comes with "Fast WIFI" win it all?

The app to test with:
Speedtest.Net app for Android and iOS:

1. Speed Test Result for Samsung Galaxy S WIFI 5.0

2. Apple iPhone 4S

3. Apple iPad (3rd Gen)

4. Apple iPad Mini

5. Apple iPhone 5

Here's to summarise the results:

My iPhone Got Upsized in Storage

Got the CloudFTP gadget recently.
Now, things are getting a bit sophisticated now.

Here, I'm now reading the video wirelessly on my Cruzer thumbdrive:
- via the Linux system on the CloudFTP and then stream it
- via my WIFI router
- via the Apple TV which is connected to my Full HD TV
- via HDMI.

Now I can offload all those big media files off my meagre iPhone's storage onto my thumb drives or external portable harddisk.

My Favourite iPhone Game Got Updated

Finally one of my favourite games is updated for iPhone 5's full screen. - Dream League Soccer.

Here are 2 screenshots of the games played on an iPhone 4 and iPhone 5.
The longer screen of the iPhone 5 really gives a big plus to the display viewing experience while playing:

Here a video export that I've played on my former iPhone 4S:

As of my last Android phone, I have not been successful to find an equivalent excellent soccer game for Android.

Highly recommended soccer game to my iPhone friends.
Yes, it's better than FIFA 12. I haven't tried FIFA 13 yet.

Both Dream League Soccer and FIFA 12 are nowhere near console quality, but they are certainly 2 of the best on mobile platform and I can play them anywhere.

iPhone Myths (Part 1)

There are so many myths about the iPhone that I would like to address them here.

Myth 1
You can only put your music on a single machine.

Myth 2
You cannot download files onto your iPhone.

Myth 3
You cannot download YouTube videos for offline viewing.

Myth 4
You cannot live without iTunes.

The fact is the above problems are not problems at all.

I will tell you how to do that later.
And it's not a workaround nor do you need to jailbreak for them to work.

I Concede an Unfortunate Goal

Time for my favourite iPhone game after a long day at work.

But alas, after just minutes into the Dream League Soccer game, I concede an unfortunate goal:

My Great Music Experience on My iPhone

I kept the Dr Dre iBeats earphone from my former HTC Sensation XE when I sold it.
Now, put this earphone on the Capriccio music app on my current iPhone 4 with the right equalizer settings, I'm able to achieve better sound quality than the PowerAmp app I ran on my HTC previously!
What a great pair of earphones this is!

There Will Not Be an iPhone 5!

Well, I'm not seeing any iPhone 5 coming at all in the future!

Let's go through the naming convention for all the previous iPhone models.

1st gen: iPhone
- yup. Appropriately named

2nd gen: iPhone 3G
- Apple went for the mobile network protocol (i.e. 3G network) for this model. And so, there goes iPhone 2 into the bin.

3rd gen: iPhone 3GS
- it's a minor bump-up in terms of specs with no external visual differences. Yes, appropriately named here as well.

4th gen: iPhone 4
- Apple made a naming convention change and give a "model generation" number to it as the 4G network is still not supported. Logical.

5th gen: iPhone 4S
- Well, this should have the iPhone 5 that many were anticipating. But, just like the iPhone 3GS, Apple classified this as a bump-up not in the external visual department and appended an "S" to it.

Now we come to the next unreleased iPhone model, the 6th gen.

Exercise your "IQ Questions" skill here.
What comes next?
a) iPhone 5
b) iPhone 4G
c) iPhone 6

As mentioned in my title, I'm not betting on (a). As the next model is not the 5th model but the 6th.

If the next model supports 4G LTE, answer (b) looks likely.

But personally, I'm guessing it to be (c), iPhone 6!

Can't wait for the iPhone 6 release!
Can you?

I am Staying on With iPhone For a While More

I've this intention previously of switching to the Android HTC Sensation XE from my current iPhone 4S.

Now this intention has been put on hold after I've got the New iPad.

One prominent thing when you got the new iPad package is the outstanding "iCloud" logo at one side of the box.
And "Photo Stream" is one of the built-in features that utilises iCloud.

What I'm using it a lot about Photo Stream is this:
I took photos using my iPhone 4S camera. With Photo Stream set to on, whenever I'm back home with my home WIFI connected, the photos are uploaded to my iCloud account automatically. No user intervention.

When I'm settled down after a good evening shower, these photos would have already been automatically downloaded to my New iPad's Photo Stream section.

I would then use my current favourite photo editing tool, PicCollage to create some leisure "photo art" albums.

Sure, Android may have similar cloud-based, but its implementation is not as "transparent to users" as Photo Stream.

My iPhone / iPad MiniUSB Connector

Recently, Apple released a MicroUSB connector for iOS devices. With that, you can charge and sync your iPhone/iPad/iTouches using MicroUSB cable.
It's still not available in Singapore yet.

Days ago, I stumbled upon this similar connector, but for MiniUSB. Bought it straight away!
It works well using my portable harddisk's MiniUSB cable!



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iPhone Upgrade vs Samsung Upgrade

What makes upgrading from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S less special than from Samsung Galaxy S2 to Samsung Nexus Prime?

I prefer to think it the other way round.

This is based on my personal usage of smartphone.
For me, iPhone 4S provides a lot more wanted features over iPhone 4 compared to that of Samsung Nexus Prime over Samsung Galaxy S2.

First, screen size.
The Nexus Prime has a bigger screen size at 4.65".
Do I need that much screen estate?
I'm currently using the 4.3" screen size Galaxy S2.
Yes, I would love that kind of bigger screen. However, I prefer to have a "palm-size" friendly phone which I can message without awkwardness with one hand. That I'm struggling with the 4.3". 4.65" is really beyond extreme.
For this, I would go for iPhone for the screen size.





Second, software:
I don't see any killer apps mentioned in the Nexus Prime that you cannot have in Galaxy S2.
I do see and impressed with the Siri voice recognition and control capability of the iPhone 4S that will not be in iPhone 4. And this may be what I need and will be using. I'm seeing this very useful when I drive on the road. Currently, I have make use of the stop at road junction red light to do a quick SMS texting.



Yes, I would sell my current Galaxy S2 for the iPhone 4S come 28th October 2011 when it comes to Singapore.


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Thoughts on Apple Device's Innovations

So, there seems a lot of suing around by big companies like Apple, Samsung, etc.


That leads to one to think of innovations, creativities, etc of the device.

Now, while the original Apple iPhone brought us new and highly intuitive handphone usage, a few of its ideas seems to me rather familiar...

Before the introduction of iPhone in 2007, I've been using a long string of Palm Treo handphone models, such as the Palm Treo 600, 650, 680 and Centro. Also not to forget those pre-smartphone PDAs like Palm M-100, T3, T5, TX, Lifedrive which I've owned before.

Here are 3 of the familiar functions that were implemented on the Palm devices before the 2007 iPhone 2G:

1) Ringer Switch
Simple idea, but great usability! This is one feature that is available on all Palm Treo smartphone models.



2) Threaded SMS
This is one feature that brought me to buy those Palm Treos. Even "heavy-weight" smartphones like Windows Mobile did not have threaded SMS back then.




3) Screen Rotation
I first saw a screen rotation feature on the Palm T3 PDA. There was no accelerometer back then though. You need to tap on a button to rotate the screen to landscape and vice versa. Following that, this feature starts appearing on Windows Mobile phones.
Now, that is innovation!



Sadly, due to extremely poor marketing of Palm Inc, Palm declined.

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