[Archived] New - Iphone 3gs

[teddy]

Its called run keeper pro, but would work fine with cycling as well, a friend of mine has used it for cycling.

Do a search on the apps site for cycling though and there may well be one slightly different but better suited for ya

[Paul]

After a lot of faffing around, including a free trial with a Blackberry (how do people use those tiny buttons?) I've decided to get an iPhone 3GS. I've been a customer of Orange for 15 years and have to chose between them and O2. Orange reception is poor for me at work and home but generally I have been very pleased Orange and especially their business support.

I'm loathe to change to O2 but know they have very good reception at my house and office. Question is this - could I expect an iPhone to make better use of the available Orange signal? I realise signal strength won't change but wondered if some phones are able make better use of what is available? If that makes sense? Cost is not the issue.

Anyone know if the Iphone works with UME - using a wireless broadband connection to make calls?

[Paul]

Well my iPhone arrived and is busy updating itself. I love how Apple products always come so beautifully packaged, if you're going to have packaging make it good.

Love the instructions to insert the sim card........................insert a paper clip to release the sim card holder!!!!!!!!!!!!

[unluckymorton]

I'm just about to start the process of renewing my mobile phone contract. Other than the iphone, what are the best phones to get at the moment? I'm a fan of Nokia, that would be my preferred manufacturer.

Any tips?

[Paul]

I've been a big fan of Nokia for many years and would have stayed with them except I really liked some of the features and applications I could get on the iPhone. My only issue with the more upmarket Nokias is I don't like slide out keyboards as past experience tells me they get wonky very quickly. I spent two months looking around and went for the iPhone in the end.

[unluckymorton]

I've been a big fan of Nokia for many years and would have stayed with them except I really liked some of the features and applications I could get on the iPhone. My only issue with the more upmarket Nokias is I don't like slide out keyboards as past experience tells me they get wonky very quickly. I spent two months looking around and went for the iPhone in the end.

Thanks for the tip Paul.

The qwerty keyboard on the Nokia's doesn't seem right to me, the keys look so small.

[brian_gallagher85]

I love the keypad on my n97 mini The phone does take a bit of getting used to but it's a great little piece of kit.

[Hughesy]

How you finding it Paul?

Some quality apps knocking around...and probably the 1st phone for ages which I havent got bored of within 6 months!

[Paul]

How you finding it Paul?

Some quality apps knocking around...and probably the 1st phone for ages which I havent got bored of within 6 months!

I've struggled to get my work e-mail, (personal is fine) collected but will probably sort that out tomorrow. It does the things I wanted, e-mail, good sync with Outlook for contacts and calendar. The GPS looks good and I've discovered there's an app I can use to record my cycle rides and then upload them on to a map on the PC, haven't managed to work it out yet but I'll get there. This may seem a small thing but the Garmin I was thinking of buying to do that costs around £350. Can't get the bluetooth handsfree in car to synch despite Parrot saying it will so I'll have to call them on Monday. Web access is really easy though some sites, this one included are so small I can't read them. Being able to pick up e-mail without booting the laptop is very convenient.

Overall I think it's a really nice phone, feels good to use and I enjoy having it, which I suppose is the point. On the other hand these apps are a pain the arse - 99.99999% I've seen are juvenile rubbish so finding anything useful looks like a long drawn out process. I'm pleased I got an iPhone but it's nothing like as exciting as I'd imagined - it just does stuff very, very well.

[Hughesy]

Yep bluetooth should work.

What sort of apps you after?

Heres a few - 0870 (finds the local number and calls it for you, rather than costly numbers), flixster (new movie clips & reviews), yell (yellow pages), redlaser (scans barcodes in shops and finds best online prices), skysports score centre, sky news, around me (uses location and finds local things for you, then links to maps for GPS), ootunes (finds thousands of radio stations using the internet & streams to your phone), National rail, coPilot (the best sat-nav on iphone)...as for games Paper Toss is addictive!

As for this site on iphone....at the bottom of the page there is a link to view it differently or something, that helps. Usually also if you double tap the screen it zooms in for you.

Is it cyclemeter gps you use or something else?

[unluckymorton]

I love the keypad on my n97 mini The phone does take a bit of getting used to but it's a great little piece of kit.

I went for a Blackberry in the end. The assistants in the Orange shop in Blackburn said they don't even stack the N97mini as it had many teething problems and many were returned faulty. I'm sure they are told to push certain makes and models of phone but I'm quite impressed with the phone I have got and the package that I've got from Orange.

[hollowsr]

I went for a Blackberry in the end. The assistants in the Orange shop in Blackburn said they don't even stack the N97mini as it had many teething problems and many were returned faulty. I'm sure they are told to push certain makes and models of phone but I'm quite impressed with the phone I have got and the package that I've got from Orange.

Which Blackberry out of interest? I got the 9700 recently and like it a lot! Wish I could afford an IPhone though

[T4E]

Web access is really easy though some sites, this one included are so small I can't read them.

Paul - place your thumb and index finger on the screen, and move both in opposite directions. Thats how you zoom.

[Paul]

Yep bluetooth should work.

What sort of apps you after?

Heres a few - 0870 (finds the local number and calls it for you, rather than costly numbers), flixster (new movie clips & reviews), yell (yellow pages), redlaser (scans barcodes in shops and finds best online prices), skysports score centre, sky news, around me (uses location and finds local things for you, then links to maps for GPS), ootunes (finds thousands of radio stations using the internet & streams to your phone), National rail, coPilot (the best sat-nav on iphone)...as for games Paper Toss is addictive!

As for this site on iphone....at the bottom of the page there is a link to view it differently or something, that helps. Usually also if you double tap the screen it zooms in for you.

Is it cyclemeter gps you use or something else?

I've been a bit dismissive of the apps because many I found initially where games - I don't do computer games of any sort. The stuff I want would be national rail etc. I'll have a look at coPilot as that sounds good though I do like my Tom Tom. The redlaser sounds interesting but generally if there is a lot of money to be saved I have already researched it. Local number would be good as I seem to get a lot of call charges that are outside my bundle. The two things I'm looking for are good SatNav and still to make a decision on the cycling. The cycling needs two functions:

Record the journey with speed, distance, elevation etc

Work as a SatNav

I've found several which look interesting but have yet to decide on one

Paul - place your thumb and index finger on the screen, and move both in opposite directions. Thats how you zoom.

Ah Ha!! Very good, I've seen people do that and wondered if it was a cyber mason's handshake. It works.

Having had time to read a bit and get stuff working I'm becoming seriously impressed. Connecting to the office router was my fault, so that was easy to fix! I then discovered iTunes could syn my work e-mail accounts and all I ad to do was add the passwords and bingo all the mail is there.

[vintageadidas]

The N97 is not a patch on the iphone. I opted for the N97 and really wish I had decided against the great deal that was on offer and actually went for the phone I really wanted…..the iphone!

The OVI store is pants, my phone crashes, the apps are pointless and most are so expensive. The camera is good sometimes and poor the majority of times.

I also really like it when it turns itself off……..that is sooo much fun! Oh and by the way, I am on phone number 3 before anyone states I should take it back.

[Ricky]

I use runkeeper when Im on the bike. Just use an armband to help keep a gps signal. It does pretty much what you want paul although I'm not sure if it will do elevation.

the allowance app is handy to keep track on how many minutes and texts you've used.

The latest app i've really become addicted to is TouchMouse. Handy if you ever need to do a preentation or anything where you need to attach the laptop to a screen. I quite often plug my laptop into an LCD telly to watch films. It means I can control the laptop through the iphone, you get a mouse and keyboard on the iphone screen. Works through Wifi and works really well.

[Hughesy]

Cyclemeter does all you want...it records your time, location, distance, elevation & speed for up to 6 hour rides on the 3G & 9 hours on the 3GS.

Some info on it here

T4E - Quality, I never knew that either...cheers

Does anyone use Skype too on the iphone? Never tried it so wondered how easy it is?

[super_arran]

Does anyone know if there is anyway of cancelling a text message once you've accidently pressed send when attempting to press the "o" button?

[Glenn]

Its called run keeper pro, but would work fine with cycling as well, a friend of mine has used it for cycling.

I use runkeeper for running and it does the job very well and is actively under development (new useful features every few weeks). Two thumbs up from me.

Love the instructions to insert the sim card........................insert a paper clip to release the sim card holder!!!!!!!!!!!!

Somewhere in the package should be an official apple paper clip (ok, it's a oval with a pointy bit at one end, which is functionally useless at clipping paper), but yes, a paper clip is just as good.

Overall I think it's a really nice phone, feels good to use and I enjoy having it, which I suppose is the point. On the other hand these apps are a pain the arse - 99.99999% I've seen are juvenile rubbish so finding anything useful looks like a long drawn out process. I'm pleased I got an iPhone but it's nothing like as exciting as I'd imagined - it just does stuff very, very well.

I feel that's the point with apple and why I eventually went from the "sheep" option, instead of my normal "bleeding edge" stuff, apple stuff looks great and does what it's ment to do, well.

The stuff I want would be national rail etc. I'll have a look at coPilot as that sounds good though I do like my Tom Tom. The redlaser sounds interesting but generally if there is a lot of money to be saved I have already researched it. Local number would be good as I seem to get a lot of call charges that are outside my bundle. The two things I'm looking for are good SatNav and still to make a decision on the cycling. The cycling needs two functions:

Record the journey with speed, distance, elevation etc

Work as a SatNav

I've found several which look interesting but have yet to decide on one

As mentioned about, check out RunKeeper Lite. Other stuff I couldn't do without includes Stanza (ebook reader), G-Park (well, very useful in the mega-car parks of the USA, not so much over here), RedLaser (as mentioned above), Tioti TV+ (add stuff to your sky+ from your phone, much better than Sky's own app).

For those more socially networked (i.e. probably not paul )

Facebook, Boxcar, Buzz, FourSquare, Google Wave, Linked In, TweetDesk, Waze, Fring and Skype have a page to themselves on my phone.

[T4E]

T4E - Quality, I never knew that either...cheers

that's now 3 iPhone users that didn't know that! How have you been using safari without wanting to chuck the thing out?!

[Hughesy]

that's now 3 iPhone users that didn't know that! How have you been using safari without wanting to chuck the thing out?!

Double press on the screen...

[Paul]

For those more socially networked (i.e. probably not paul )

Cheek!!!! I had to get my wife to explain how Facebook works..............now that is a first in our house. She decided this was a good idea after I inadvertently changed my status to unmarried and we got loads of people asking "Everything OK at home?" in a knowing sort of way.

I may now be able to increase my contribution from three comments No doubt the world is holding it's breath..........................

[Glenn]

Ok, then, I'll give you a quick tour of my social network apps and see what grabs your fancy.

Facebook - Needs no introduction, the most used of all the social networking tools, sadly it's now being over run with self promoting applications, but does work well for organising events.

LinkedIn - Tries to pass itself off as a serious business networking tool, but essentially it's facebook for grown ups.

TweetDeck - A twitter client. Imagine twitter as just the status updates from facebook, but works well because few people can be bothered ready great tomes of nonsense written by others, but when they have to limit themselves to 140 chars a go, it all gets more manageable. Seems to be taken quite seriously as a way of businesses to communicate with their customers. This is my "default" social network (although my tweets are automatically reproduced on facebook).

Google Wave - Google's embryonic communication system. One day it could replace email and all of the social networking channels, but it's a long long way of being ready for non-technical users.

Google Buzz - Google's new "user friendly" attempt at social networking, much more flexible that twitter, pulls in other peoples messages from other social networks and doesn't suffer the "bloat" of facebook. May take off, may not.

Foursquare - This is getting pretty popular in the US and I can see it catching on here. It uses the GPS features of you phone in conjunction with google maps to allow you to "check in" at public places, to either let your mates know you've arrived, to let them know what you're doing with your time, or simply to collect "achievements". In the US it's not only is a popular way of groups of folks meeting up on pub crawls, but also business are giving extra rewards to people who "check in" with them often. http://www.foursquare.com

Fring - Brings all those chat systems (msn messenger, aol chat, Jabber, ICQ etc) together in one app.

Skype - Ok, I use it mainly for phone calls, but it has some messenger like facilities.

Waze - An interesting project, once finished it'll provide tomtom like mapping, with real time traffic data based on other users. Currently the UK is in the process of being mapped (automatically by it's users) so it's more about recording where you drive.

(I use them all on my iPhone but most have Android equivalents)

[Eddie]

Anyone found a way to get applications that aren't available in your region? There are a couple that I'd like that you can only get through the US store and my itunes account is registered to France.

[Hughesy]

New Toy for the Iphone

Basically you insert your iPhone and it projects it onto a wall or projector screen, up to 70 inch in size....still waiting for reviews on this but saw it in the weekly lads mag 'Zoo' and if it is good quality then it could be a bargain way to get a projector TV