Tag Archives | Apple. iPhone

Are Cameraphones Killing the Point-and-Shoot? Not Yet, Not Hardly

Posted by Harry McCracken on July 6, 2010 at 10:54 am

Over the past few days I’ve had fun taking photos with a couple of neat new cameras…that happen to be phones. They’re the iPhone 4 and Verizon’s upcoming Droid X, and their cameras are the best in any phones I’ve ever used. So much so that they left me pondering the future of point-and-shoot cameras that aren’t phones.

Phones have already killed traditional PDAs dead. The best ones also render media players such as an iPod largely superfluous, and the days of standalone GPS handhelds are clearly numbered. Are we nearing the moment when a meaningful number of people will skip buying a separate camera in favor of snapping photos with a phone?

Some thoughts on that in a moment–but first, my impressions of the photographic capabilities of these two handsets. When I had plenty of natural light, I liked most of the photos from both phones quite a bit…although even the nicest portraits I took looked slightly out of focus and lacking in detail. In murkier environments, the iPhone performed better than the Droid X, although the LED flashes on both phones aren’t very useful. (They only made a noticeable difference when there was very little available light, and even then tended to produce unflattering, fuzzy portraits.)

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Dear Apple: Thanks For Writing, But I'm Still Confused

Posted by Harry McCracken on July 2, 2010 at 9:39 am

So Apple has finally issued an official response to all the chatter about the iPhone 4 seeming to lose signal strength when you hold it by the lower left-hand corner. The gist of Apple’s letter to iPhone 4 users: There is no reception problem. Instead, the iPhone 4–all iPhones, actually–sometimes displays more bars than it should, leading users in areas with poor coverage to think that reception is better than it really is. The company will fix this in a software update.

Well, okay, except…I think this will do little or nothing to end the controversy. There are numerous bits of data on the Web that involve the iPhone 4 dropping calls or suffering dramatic slowdowns when held by the lower left-hand corner, not simply displaying a signal meter indicator that may be overoptimistic.

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Notes on the iPhone 4's "Retina Display"

Posted by Raymond Soneira on July 1, 2010 at 12:23 pm

[A NOTE FROM HARRY: Here’s a guest post by my friend Dr. Ray Soneira, founder of DisplayMate Technologies, whose display-testing products are widely used by manufacturers and tech publications.]

The article by PJ Jacobowitz “Is the iPhone 4’s LCD the Best?” on PCMag.com with lab measurements comparing four high-end smartphone displays is especially interesting because it has the first published lab results for the iPhone 4 Retina display. Below are my own comments for some of the PCMag article results.

The iPhone 4 is 25 percent brighter than the iPhone 3GS, which was the previous record holder, so the iPhone 4 is now the brightness king for smartphones.

Steve Jobs promised a Retina display Contrast Ratio of 800 and PCMag measured 1097, 37 percent more than the Apple advertised spec. That’s very impressive because you seldom ever see manufacturers conservatively understate their specs to that degree – but then see my widely reported (and often misquoted) comments on the iPhone 4 Retina Display, where it falls short on that spec. The iPhone 4 is a tremendous improvement over the iPhone 3GS, which only had a measured Contrast Ratio of 138. But note that the Motorola Droid remains the Contrast Ratio king of mobile LCDs with 1436, which I measured in our own DisplayMate Lab tests.

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Apple Facing Possible Lawsuit Over iPhone 4 Antenna

Posted by Ed Oswald on June 29, 2010 at 8:48 am

California-based law firm Kershaw, Cuttiner, and Ratinoff is asking for customers with iPhone 4 signal reception issues to contact it, likely signaling the beginnings of a class-action suit against Apple over the issues. An announcement was posted to their site this week.

The reception problem looks like it won’t be going anytime soon. While some have tried to argue that the problems are related to iOS4 itself, it seems highly unlikely it’s a software issue alone. With Apple confirming that the metal band around the phone does serve as an antenna, it seems only logical that any interference(including putting your hand over it) would impact signal quality.

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More on the iPhone Antenna Issue

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 25, 2010 at 1:26 pm

How big a problem is the iPhone 4’s possibility of antenna interference when you touch its lower left-hand corner? It’s still not clear. It might affect only some people or some iPhones. Or it might be a common issue with smartphones from all manufacturers which folks are only now noticing. (Me, I’ve attempted to replicate the problem by forcing my iPhone to drop calls…but so far, it’s not cooperating.)

Here’s one of the most interesting and worrisome data points to date: My pal Mark Sullivan of PCWorld did some informal but extensive tests around San Francisco, and was mostly impressed with the 4’s data speeds, voice reliability, and voice quality–except when he intentionally cupped the phone’s lower left-hand corner. When he did that, data speeds dropped dramatically.

Is it possible to follow Apple’s advice and just not touch your phone that way? I’m not sure. I’m a southpaw, but as I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized that I’m ambidextrous when it comes to smartphones. I’ll hold them in either hand depending on what’s most convenient, and will use fingers from either hand or both hands to tap on the keyboard. Intentionally avoiding touching one part of the phone would be a burden. But like I say, I’ve noticed no issues to date.

Have you, iPhone 4 early adopters?

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Initial Random Thoughts on the iPhone 4

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 24, 2010 at 4:29 pm

I’ve had an iPhone 4 for around eight hours now, and have come to the conclusion that writing anything that reads like a review would be premature at this point. Too much of what’s important–video and photo quality, performance, battery life, and more–is dangeous to judge based on first impressions. (And multitasking, one of the key new features, might take weeks to get a grip on–I want to try multitasking-enabled versions of all my favorite apps.)

Herewith, some disorganized first impressions from my time with the phone so far:

  • The guy who sold me my phone at the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, Gabriel, was the same dude who I bought an iPhone 3GS from last year–and he instantly remembered me and greeted me like an old pal. (No, I don’t think he knew I’m a blogger.) My favorite Apple Store moment ever; a great retail experience, period.
  • One of the major pieces of news so far involves apparent mysterious dropped calls if you touch the bottom left-hand corner of the phone. As a southpaw, I was rattled by the prospect–but I’ve tried repeatedly to intentionally trigger the issue, and have failed.
  • I also don’t see any yellow spots on the screen. (Worst product-quality problem I’ve noticed to date: The protective plastic on the phone’s front and back was weirdly greasy and grubby. as if someone at Foxconn was eating Junior Mints while working the assembly line.)

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