Some more thoughts on the iPhone Air

I think it's pretty insane that they packed the entire iPhone in a camera bump, and then proceeded to put battery in the rest of the unit.

I think this will be remembered as one of the best iPhones to come out, especially in terms of industrial design. It's right up their with the likes of iPhone X, iPhone 6s, iPhone 5, and iPhone 4. It's a stunning design with some insane forward looking electronics.

This is the first iPhone to get me excited about iPhones in a while.

Thoughts on the New iPhones

Vidit Bhargava

It makes for a great visitor count on a blog to write about an apple or iPhone flaw. Or to talk about how the company is doomed or how much a disappointment the phone is. This post falls in none of the categories. It talks about the innovation, the design and construction of the new iPhones.

Software
A fresh new Interface, new ways of user interaction, improvements in the usability and a few other bold changes. Changing the design of an operating system changes a lot of things, it changes how we perceive a piece of software and even more so in touch interfaces, where changing user interaction has significant changes on the software's usability and productivity itself.



But even with so many changes, iOS still remains an operating system with its own identity. It remains the OS which let's an app, take full space of the screen to convey its idea. Your iPhone is a phone, wide screen iPod with touch controls, Internet communications device, gaming console or a camera. Thanks to its operating system it can take various shapes. This is what makes iOS different from android or windows phone or blackberry OS.

The software's identity gives users a choice to select from. Android (Low Cost, Lots of Geek Stuff and Insanely customizable) or iOS ( Apps, Quality, Usability and efficiency ) ? it's your pick.

Color vs Forward Thinking
Unlike previous years, apple has given two choices to its buyers this time. One of a premium quality device with a colorful enclosure and the all the pre-requisites of an iPhone. The other with newer technology like a fingerprint sensor, advanced camera options breakthrough flash technology, 64 bit architecture and a motion co-processor. The price points, a question of much debate are actually very interesting here. Let's just take every prejudice away from our minds and think. A new iPhone until last year started at $199. This year, it starts at $99. Which seems to be a good deal. But is the iPhone 5c really a new iPhone?

Meet the new iPhones



The iPhone 5c lacks speed improvements from the iPhone 5. It's just as fast as the iPhone 5 but not quite as fast as the iPhone 5s. But the 5 itself wasn't a very slow device. Infact, the 5c does very well in benchmarks. The iPhone 5c has a significant advantage over 5 and to some extent 5s when it comes to the form factor, construction and fun-ness. The polycarbonate shell on the 5c is much more easier to grip and hold than the aluminum enclosure of the iPhone 5 or 5s. Also, the new coat of colors is definitely going to appeal the youth (the lower cost also helps).



The iPhone 5c might not seem to be an improvement over the previous generation iPhone 5 on a spec sheet but it definitely is, when it's held in the hand and played with. Apple innovates again, this time by giving us a polycarbonate shell that feels premium and extremely sturdy (steel reinforcements along the edge make sure of that ).

The iPhone 5s is a great stability upgrade and one with significant other features as well. The 5s has a significant speed bump, it also brings in a 64 bit ( some tech-guy should really explain me how it helps ) version of iOS7 and there are some major camera improvements. There are graphics improvements to which mean better games and much better UX. Again, apple isn't playing a spec-sheet battle over here. It doesn't pack 8 cores & doesn't even mention RAM. But it delivers a benchmark trumping performance with a dual core A7 Chip. True innovation doesn't lie in packing as many cores as possible it lies in optimizing the software that it runs faster on two cores only. Apple does the same with its iPhone camera. The 5s has an 8MP camera but with much larger pixels ( bigger pixels = better picture ) and a breakthrough camera app. I specially like the slo-mo camera. It does some awesome & professional looking stuff in 120fps and is really cool. The burst mode and the white balance flash are great too.



But the feature that makes every other phone look stale in comparison is the finger print sensor. It's the first stab at an age old tradition of passwords. It's great! You can buy stuff on your phone with a fingerprint authentication! ( everyone knows how cumbersome is it to manage passwords ). Perhaps more than the technology itself it's implementation is much more brilliant.It's the first fingerprint sensor I have seen which doesn't look or work terribly.

So there we are, two new iPhones both on the same fundamentals as all other iPhones. Significantly better than their predecessors (yes! the 5c too is better than the 5 ) and fully focused on a wonderful user experience and great usability. The screen sizes are just appropriate. The technical specs, good enough to top benchmarks and features that attract a lot of people who wish to do different things on their phone.

 Image Credits: iMore and TechCrunch

Meet Siri iPhone 4S

Vidit Bhargava
Going by the trend Apple follows with it’s new devices, Apple generally introduces a new design one year, and then stabilizes it the next year (iPhone 3G – iPhone 3GS), so it wasn’t really a surprise when Apple introduced the iPhone 4S with the same design and a few necessary tweaks.

The iPhone has gone through a few very necessary updates, which were sort of expected after the launch of iPad 2. The first one is the A5 Chip. Single Cores are stale talk now, even though the iPhone 4 was blazingly fast, Apple had to throw in their A5 Chip, just to keep pace with others. The 1Ghz Dual Core Chip, with a dedicated Graphics Engine has already proved its strength in the iPad 2, and it’ll be real fun to see how it does in the iPhone 4S. Early reports however suggest that the iPhone chip has been under-clocked to 800Mhz, which doesn’t look like doing bad either.

The camera in the iPhone 4S has gone for a major upgrade, along with a new 8 Megapixel camera, Apple has also played with optics, the new camera now features a CMOS Sensor and 5 lenses instead of four and 1080p recording is now supported. Also the Aperture has widened. Long Story Short: Your new iPhone is capable of clicking photos much like they’ll be shot by a good digital camera.

But it’s a Phone update isn’t it? Just upgrading the camera and the Processor won’t do the trick, it doesn’t impress me! Not to worry, the iPhone 4S comes with a completely new antenna system, which not only corrects its older problems but also makes it a GSM + CDMA Phone, and promises a faster reception and great speeds. Apple also claims it’s the worlds first World Phone. Now that is what I call a Phonely update! There is finally something to upgrade.

Their not done yet, there is also a nice little voice assistant built in the phone. They call it Siri. It’s always that one more feature which makes or breaks the product. Siri is the replacement to Apple’s old aging and pathetic voice assistant which is not even capable of playing a song for me. So it really needs to do well to make this meek update roar in the market.

Originally Siri was an iOS app (which I did not know about until very recently), based on intelligent voice recognition. It was created by Dan Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer, Tom Gruber And Norman Winarsky. Apple bought Siri in April 2010.

When Scott Forstall came on stage to do a live demo of the voice assistant, it was quite a daredevil task, looking back at the history of voice assistant. Things worked out incredibly smooth however. And Siri was the party popper.

Siri, (the iPhone assistant) is a completely different tool from what you may have seen in some iOS apps. Here you can talk to the phone casually, while it tries to produce an appropriate solution, just like an efficient secretary. So if you tell the Phone that you are hungry, it will bring up a list of restaurants near you. Tell her that your car is broken down, and it well get give you a list of nearest car repairs.

Siri at a mere glance looks magical, nearly intelligent and straight from Science Fiction. However Siri comes with it’s own restrictions. One such example is limited language compatibility. Theoretically English is a very widely used language and many people on Earth can speak it. But on the practical side of it, when you are in trouble or desperately need help, you are bound to speak in native language which Siri in all probability, doesn’t understand. Also, Initial Reports suggest that outside US, Siri cannot even look up places or understand your location.

Siri is also efficient at producing Witty remarks, “Siri, can you murder someone for me?” it replies “I found 3 mental health agencies fairly close to you!” . You can find many such remarks at : http://goo.gl/r002M & http://goo.gl/mWWGS .

Summing it up: iPhone 4S is the most stable iPhone to date, and it’s bound to stay for a long time (Just like the 3GS), it’s selling point however lies in Siri, which will have to do incredibly well to save it from a sans-Steve failure. But that looks like a far fetched idea, because initially sales have already shattered servers and records.

Stick Cricket iOS App - Review

Ah! You see, I've been better than my word! Here's a new blog-post, in just no time!

Game : Stick Cricket

Rating : 8.6/10

Price: Free

Vidit Bhargava

You've got a paper toss game to pass your time throwing paper. You've got a game to shoot birds at pigs, you've got a game for everything but you don't have one decent game for Cricket. Well, now you've got one. Its the same one, you play while on the internet. Yes, you heard it Stick Cricket is now on iOS.

Eh Bien! For those of you who have already played it, you'd know, the game is addictive. It is super addictive. You've got no tension of bowling full length 50 overs or getting hit for runs, you just need to sit and hit sixes (with some good timing), that's it. And score as much as you can. Its Cricket, but its far more fun playing on the iPod (the iPad app hasn't arrived yet).

Gameplay: Its snappy. You've got 5 Overs to score as many runs as you can. Or you can chase down a hefty total and dominate the world world with a bunch of oldies (the likes of Jayasurya and Gavaskar).

What hampers the experience is a block! You don't get a full experience for free. After dominating three teams in the domination, you cannot dominate more "Without paying $2.99". More so, the two-player mode is disappointingly also in that $2.99 package. Then there is a whole world cup in front of you which cannot be played before upgrading. All This is free on the internet version of the game by the way.

Graphics: You don't expect great graphics from this game. Its the classic, stick-figure game. So you won't be seeing a next-generation graphic render of the Sachin Tendulkar while playing India in the all-star slog. So you see, graphics is not a forte of the Stick Cricket App.

GameCenter integration : Ok, now you've scored the runs, you paid some money, you've mastered your skills on the App, and won the world cup. Can you have competition? Oh... Yes, its the natural GameCenter integration you've got here. You can challenge your friends on the All-Star Slog to hit the maximum number of runs. You can get some wild achievements too like "Scoring a Century by one batsmen in 5 overs" or "Scoring 36 in an over" . Also, on the world stage you can compete, with the highest run-scorers. (I've not risen above the 725th Rank so far! )

Addictivity Meter: Angry Birds is addictive. Yes. Paper Toss is Addictive. Yes. But can a cricket game have so much power, to be addictive enough? The answer depends on the fact that how-much of a cricket fan "you" are. Well, I am a giant fan, in that matter. So My answer is Yes! It is as addictive than any other app in the app store.

Wrap-Up: Cricket fans will love it. The gamers will crib over the graphics. While the guys, who play for fun, will be playing it for hours until the batteries die.

iPhone 4 - Revealed

Vidit Bhargava

Brace yourself There is much to talk about

The much anticipated WWDC 2010 - Event finished a while ago. WWDC was specially kept for the iPhone. No Updates on any other devices. (The iPad an exception.). And since it was mainly on one topic iPhone & Apps, we are sure to have the new iPhone and it is called the iPhone 4.

1st up, the iPhone that gizmodo leaked was real. It was the actual thing! Looking at what new does the iPhone offer to us, lets go in the order they told it to us.

Design: Steve Jobs at the WWDC made a remark "Stop me, if you've seen this before!... believe me you ain't seen this! *followed by heavy roars* ". By this he first addressed the Gizmodo leak and then told the audience that just getting the outer look they didn't spill all the beans. Apple Still managed to surprise us.

They've ripped apart the curves. Its flat and at the back there is no plastic, its glass (the same glass at the front and back). But doesn't that make it fragile? Well, here is the first blower! The glass they've made is 30 times stronger than normal plastic (atleast, they say so.) . It is of the same material as of helicopter windshields. Also, Apple has made a Stainless Steel alloy rim around the phone. The glass back is not only for design, It provides network signals to flow better. Making the 'Phone' even better.

The biggest thing here is the retina Display. When iPhone 3GS, Nexus One and EVO 4G sat together, iPhone's screen was the dullest. They've corrected that. They've introduced this cool Retina Display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. And the pixels go quite small in size, only 78 micrometers across. So the pixelated text we see (only sometimes) is much better and much smoother. Like the iPad they've added the IPS panel. All this makes this display by far the best. (dunno how fast the rivals catch up but certainly not in the near future.).

And when Steve was showing how bright the web looked! The wifi went off... puff... Have you seen that before?

Other enhancements include Front Facing Camera. 5 megapixel back camera with LED flash. Extra mic for Noise Cancellation and yes, not to forget the Micro-Sim tray. For which if you want to use your existing sim. You'll need a mechanical SIM Cutter. And the iPhone is even more thinner than the previous ones. Making it the thinnest smartphone ever.

A Gyroscope. Yes A gyroscope has also been added to the list of sensors. Making this term simpler, The Apple Website explains "More motion gestures and greater precision for an even better gaming experience."

Honestly speaking when the Gizmodo leaked it, I wasn't impressed with the design. It looked raw, to say the least. But now, knowing the technical things in this phone. It looks better. It looks more technically right and technically sound.

2. Coming to the inside hardware: They've added the great A4 chip. This is bound to make it 'fly'. The battery life has also increased: 7 hours on 3G, 14 on 2G, 300 hours on Standby; 40 hours of music ... whew! what else do you want?

3. Software: If Froyo was 'tasty' this is bound to melt it! Packed with iOS 4.0 features, iPhone 4 also has in addition iMovie and 720p video recording. With all that, and the Gyro, and RD added. The iOS 4.0 on iPhone makes Froyo look ordinary.

4. For The Photographers: Nothing new about the 5 megapixel + LED Flash camera with 720p recording. But there is something new also "The backside Illumination Sensors." No grainy Pics! Not even in the Dark! That is what I would say 'cool' enough.

5. The one more thing: FaceTime: Just when our minds where questioning why is there a front facing camera with no video calling. Jobs, announced this. Its the same video calling thing from the front facing camera and what's new? You can go to the rear cam to show what others are doing. Its great but there is just one hiccup. It is currently Wi-Fi only and only for iPhone 4 - iPhone 4 surely, we need that corrected (Apple's working on that) or its waste of good technology.

Pricing? It remains the same for Contract users 'AT&T' $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB. That's great, but I've heard from my friends in the US the AT&T plan is exorbitantly priced and their service is poor. For that you can give $499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB) to get the iPhone 4 without contract. That's good.

How can I get it in India? iPhone 4 comes in September in India. Here Airtel and Vodafone will sell the device, by then 3G 'will' be available with these careers and probably they'll correct the video calling thing and history reveals its gonna be above 30K (in Rs.).

If you are one of the impatient ones and have a friend in US. you can get this contract free version and use it in India. ($499 is roughly 23.5-25K).

First Impression: The iPhone has a reputation of providing the 'best touch screen display' and with all these new features things look brighter. Lately, phones probably better than the iPhone 3GS were introduced (Nexus One, EVO 4G, blah blah). iPhone 4 is a solid answer to that and once launched these phones are ready to be knocked out in a single kick!

Here's the launch

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P.S. Feel free to comment, and do tell how this Extra Long post of mine was (921 words for a fact!). Do tell if I missed something.