iPhone 6: The Good, The Bad, and The Mediocre

© 2014 Apple Inc.

I finally got my iPhone 6 in the mail, and after playing around with it for a couple of days, I have many a praise, but also a few criticismesses.

The Good.

1. Touch ID.

Yes, I know, it's been there since the iPhone 5S. However, since I'm upgrading from the iPhone 5, it's new to me.

Words cannot express how well this feature works. It is simply amazing! It reads your fingerprints and only your fingerprints, and it reads them every time without fail, in a mere fraction of a second. You can store multiple fingerprints, which is very helpful if you want to unlock the phone with either hand, or maybe if several people are using the same device.

2. Slo-mo video recording at 240 fps.

It's official: my iPhone sees better than I do. Watch a droplet of milk fall into a cup of coffee, a pro skateboarder perform a complicated trick, or your house lights flicker, all at an impressive 720p resolution. Oh yeah, did you know your house lights flicker 60 times per second? I didn't, until I watched it in slo-mo.

3. Flash photography.

I believe the advanced flash was also introduced in 5S, but it is nonetheless remarkable. No more zombie-colored portraits! In fact, I will go ahead and state for the record that at close range, my iPhone 6 produces the best flash photography I've seen so far.

4. Video stabilization.

It's there, it works, and it makes videos look a lot smoother and more professional than they used to be.

5. Speaker.

For some reason, no one mentions this: the iPhone 6 has a massive speaker, compared to the minuscule, tinny-sounding speaker of the iPhone 5. You can actually hear the bass lines this time around, and it won't make that horrible clipping noise when you turn the volume all the way up.

6. Retina.

Not a new feature by any means, but the screen is as gorgeous as ever, perhaps even more so, now that it's quite a bit larger.

7. Background App Refresh and Google Hangouts.

Not really an iPhone 6 feature either; it has more to do with iOS 8 and Google doing a great job on the app.

After jumping through a few hoops, I was able to direct all my Google Voice messages (SMS) to Hangouts, and from there on it was smooth sailing. The push notifications work, and since the app uses background refresh, your messages are already loaded when you swipe on the notification. There's no wait time for the message to load, and you don't even have to be connected to the internet at that point. What does that mean for me? It means I can still read my SMS in a timely fashion, despite the fact that my Gmail emails now arrive with a 15 minute delay. More on that in a bit.

The Bad.

1. I don't like giant phones.

It's a personal preference. Many people like giant phones: there's a reason why Apple made the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 5 was already too big for my liking. The iPhone 6 is so big that I can no longer hold it with one hand and press the home button. I have to use a new "typing grip" as well: holding the iPhone 6 by the sides with my index fingers, and supporting it on the back with the rest of my fingers, while typing with my thumbs. Typing and holding the phone with the same hand is now completely out of question.

2. Camera sticks out.

Everyone knows about this. It's ugly, and if you don't have your phone in a case, it will never lay flat on a table. That said, I always have mine in a case, so it's not a problem.

3. No support for push for Gmail accounts.

This was probably the biggest upset for me. It's not entirely Apple's fault. Some of it is Google's. You see, Apple never supported push via IMAP. However, there was a way to get around that, by setting up Gmail as an Exchange account instead. However, at the end of January 2013 Google disabled the ability to use Exchange to connect to your Gmail account, on any new devices. This means that my email now arrives with a 15-minute delay, which makes SMS forwarding pretty useless.

I tried out a bunch of email apps to connect to Gmail instead, such as the official Gmail app, Mailbox, and myMail. They all seem to share at least one common problem: there is no support for background app refresh. Which means that when you swipe on that email notification, you have to have an internet connection, or else your email won't load. And even if you have it, there is an annoying delay before you can read the email.

Luckily for me, Google Hangouts implemented support for background app refresh, and it works beautifully. They've also integrated Hangouts into the web Gmail client, which works great as well, both for Hangouts/G-Chat and for SMS. So now I can say "adieu" to SMS-to-email forwarding; it has lost its use, and has been superseded by newer and better technology.

4. iOS 8 app crashes and bugs.

iOS 8 is not the most stable of operating systems. Though I'm not seeing as many rendering artifacts as I did with my iPhone 5, both Mail and Camera apps have crashed on me way too many times. There are some interesting bugs as well. For instance, try putting the Camera app into the video recording mode, hit "play" from the Control Center, and then start recording a video. If you listen closely, you will hear the sound of Apple's programmers getting fired. 

The Mediocre.

Battery life.

Sure, it's better than the battery in my iPhone 5, which after two years of use lasts for about 15 minutes during active use. The iPhone 6's battery went down to about 65% after two hours of dicking around. And I'm not talking about heavy usage and playing video games that will make your phone warm enough to heat your apartment during winter. No, just playing around with settings and shooting a few 30-second slo-mo videos. Not great.

~

Overall, I'm quite pleased with what the iPhone 6 has to offer. The slo-mo feature alone kept me occupied for hours at a time! Now let's get some support for push in Gmail accounts, and "we in beez"!

What the iPhone 5C actually is.

Photo © Apple.

People, the "C" in "iPhone 5C" stands for "colorful", and not "cheap" or "China" as the Internets are speculating. Apple's website says so, right there in the tagline, so let's end this debate.

A more interesting question is, what is an iPhone 5C under the skin? Simply put, it is an iPhone 5 with a plastic back and a slightly upgraded camera. If you want to get technical, the guts have been reworked, but the components are mostly the same.

But why not just sell the old phone, like they did before? Two reasons. The obvious one is that a redesigned phone will sell better than last year's model. The other potential reason is that Apple is reducing the manufacturing costs by replacing an expensive dye-cut aluminum case with molded plastic. Moreover, the more expensive iPhone 5S uses the same case as the iPhone 5, albeit with three different finishes, so it's quite possible that Apple kept the tooling and the production capacity for the expensive aluminum case exactly the same.

It's nice to see a rounded plastic back making a comeback, though. I've been missing the ergonomic feel of my iPhone 3G for quite some time now. Apple's silicone covers for the iPhone 5C, however, are hideous.

Letterpress Strategies

I've been playing Letterpress on iOS for a while now. It's a great puzzle game; sort of a hybrid of scrabble and chess. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot!

Long story short, I got pretty good at it, and I'd like to share some strategies with you. They're somewhat ordered from the most basic to the most advanced. Without further ado, here they are:

If blue takes the "M" tile, Red can
 win the game on the next turn
with "FULLY". 

Mind the endgame.

One of the first and most important things I learned about letterpress is that you could be winning by a hefty number of points, and the next turn you lose the game. Always ask yourself, can your opponent close the board with the next turn after you've made yours? And if so, will they outscore you? Sometimes you will have to purposely not use an open tile, making it less likely for the opponent to use all the remaining open tiles to win the game.

The scores may be even, but blue
has the advantage with three
blocked tiles

Blocking tiles is what matters most.

Even if you just used half the tiles on the board, if you didn't block them off, they can easily turn over to your opponent.

Don't be fooled by the running score. The score only matters at the end of the game. Oftentimes, using shorter words that block more tiles is better that using longer words that don't block as many tiles.

Block corners first. 

Blue blocked off "E", which is the
most commonly used letter in
English. He could've blocked "D",
But there are three of those on
the board.

Corner tiles are the easiest to block, since they only require two adjacent tiles. Sides need three adjacent tiles, and the tiles in the middle of the board need four.
If you have the first turn, try blocking corners on your first move. It will provide for a nice head start. If a corner is already blocked by your opponent, try blocking a different corner.

Block commonly used letters with rarest occurrence on the board. 

Think vowels, especially "E". If there is only one "E" on the board, and it's in a corner, try to block it off. It will be very easy for you to defend, and hard for your opponent to take.

Blue left "Q" for the last turn.

Blocking hard letters. 

Letters that are hard to use, like "Q" or "Z" don't necessarily have to be blocked off. They will be harder (or impossible) to use for the opponent anyway. However, you can also use these letters to either securely block other tiles, or to detract the opponent from blocking his.

Save super-hard letters for endgame. 

Sometimes there is only one possible word you can make with a certain letter, and it's a short word. If you use it too soon, you may be giving your opponent a free turn to block more tiles.

Don't let blocked tiles lead you away from using them. 

If blue needs one "F" in his word,
It's better for him to use the one
that's already taken by his
opponent.

They won't turn over to you, but they are still very much in play, and can let you make better and longer words. In the example above, Blue can play "QIS" to win the game, even though "I" is blocked off.

Turning over vs. taking a new tile. 

The same letter can often be found on both an unused tile and a tile that has been taken by your opponent (but not blocked). Unless taking the unused tile will block another tile, it is almost always better to turn over your opponent's tile.

Double-block. 

Blue has "E" double-blocked.
It's highly unlikely that Red will
ever take it back.

Blocking tiles is good, but blocking tiles that block the said tile is even better. Aim for a solid, continuous block of tiles, rather than blocking on the opposite sides of the board. Sometimes your opponent will want to take a specific blocked tile. A single-blocked tile can be turned over to your opponent in just two turns, but a double-blocked tile is generally not worth consideration.

Defend. 

Unblock the opponent's tiles. Your primary goal is to block as many tiles as you can, but if you think a turn ahead, you can chip away at blocked tiles, and take them in two turns. When you spot your opponent setting up to take a lot of tiles, it's time to turn over the tiles that would allow them to do so. If you can block tiles at the same time, all the better.

Mutations. 

Some words have different forms, like plural or past tense. In most cases, the longer form of the word is the one you should use, since the shorter form will then count as having been played, and cannot be used again. For example, if both "RIVER" and "RIVERS" can be played, choose the latter; "RIVER" can no longer be played after you've played "RIVERS". However, there are exceptions.

Both "FRIED" and "FRIES" are
possible. In this case, avoid the
word altogether.

Firstly, if the word's shorter form is not actually part of the longer form,  consider how many tiles can be turned over if the opponent chooses the other form of the word. For example, if you play "STRATEGIES", the opponent can still play "STRATEGY", possibly to his  advantage. In many cases, it is better to choose a different word entirely.

The same goes for anagrams. If you play "USURPERS", the opponent can play "PURSUERS", potentially turning over all of the tiles used in that word. Again, in this case it's probably better to come up with a different word.

Lastly, if a word has more than two forms, like a plural form of the noun and a past tense of the verb, it may be better to play the short form of the word. For instance, if "SURPRISED", "SURPRISES", and "SURPRISED" are all on the board, it may be better to play "SURPRISE", so that if your opponent plays "SURPRISES", you can then play "SURPRISED", thereby turning the tiles over to yourself.

Remember, this mutation strategy is to be used for tiles that you do not block. If you do block them, you needn't be worried about the next turn.

It's not obvious, but Blue can play
"FIZZY" on the next turn to block
four tiles, and also unblock
Red's "S"!

Scatter. 

This is an advanced strategy that requires you to think both about your opponent's next turn and about yours. I use this when there are no good ways to block off many tiles in a single turn. The trick is to make two words to be played: one that would be hard for the opponent to turn over, and a second word that will "fill in" the adjacent tiles and block a number of tiles. This is quite hard for the opponent to defend against, unless they guess what the second word is, or can otherwise block the tiles you're after.

Review the word list. 

You never know when someone missed a word form, or when you can think of a combination of two words already on the list, or just use the list as a reminder of possible prefixes, suffixes, and endings that help you form longer words.

Write down words that you think of.

Say you've thought of a nice long word, but it doesn't make the cut for the current turn, because it doesn't block enough tiles. Save it for a later turn. This is especially useful if you're playing several Letterpress games at once.

Last but not least, be vigilant. 

If your opponent makes a mistake, like not going for the plural, use it as an opportunity to undo their turn. And remember, winning with a score 13-12 is still winning!

Rouge Smartphone Application

Coming soon to an iPhone / iPad near you!

A Brief History Of My iPhone Names

"Blackberry Bald" – iPhone 3G
"Fragile!" – iPhone 4
"iPwn" – iPhone 3G jailbroken with PwnageTool
"Oblong Johnson" – iPhone 5

RIM's Revolutionary All-Original New Phone

Without spending any unnecessary time on making unnecessary fun of RIM's dire state of competitiveness, their ridiculous "Wake Up" ad campaign in Australia, or their business plan of acquiring better third party developer support by outfitting them with "very, very stripped down" versions of the phone...

...To the left you will see what the above mentioned phone looks like. To the right is a totally unrelated phone.

iPhone 4S and International Roaming

If you're the proud owner of an iPhone 4S, and are wondering whether you'll be able to pop in a local wireless carrier's microSIM card when traveling abroad, wonder no more.

The rules are different for the main three wireless carriers in the US. AT&T won't unlock your SIM, no matter how much you beg or threaten them. Verizon will unlock it after 60 days of paid phone bills. Sprint initially shipped their iPhone 4S with the SIM functionality unlocked, but has now changed their policy, and will unlock your phone after 90 days of paid phone bills.

So now, if you're outside of the US, you won't have to pay exorbitant roaming fees to your wireless carrier. Unless your wireless carrier is AT&T.

New kid on the block.

All of the non-iPhone smart phones have so far been slightly above mediocre, at best. Enter the brainchild of a newlywed couple: Nokia and Microsoft.

The Lumia 800's hardware is pretty much the same as the MeeGo-powered N9, which was Nokia's last but noble effort before signing a deal with Microsoft.

It's a very pretty phone, indeed. By the looks of it, you'd think it was the bigger cousin to iPod Nano. I have not seen it person, and chances are – I won't for a while, because rather than competing with the already highly-saturated smart phone market in the US, Nokia is going after the emerging markets of Europe and Asia.

Nevertheless, I'm sure the hardware looks as good in real life as it does in pictures. What concerns me is the operating system. I had a chance to play with some random Windows Phone handsets recently. I was delighted by smooth, hardware-accelerated animations, but appalled by some other things. Mainly, the software keyboard. Some of the keys were placed in the most ridiculous places imaginable. That, and the browser was awful. 

Hopefully, these minor issues will be ironed out in Windows Phone Mango.

iPhone 4S: an amazing upgrade to iPhone 3GS.

That's what it would've been if Apple hadn't released the iPhone 4 about a year and a half ago. Yes, the processors are faster and the camera is better. Yes, Siri is kind of cool, and only available for iPhone 4S.

It's supposedly a world phone, meaning it'll work on both GSM and CDMA networks, but I'm hearing rumors that it'll still be locked to one network. Hope that's not actually true.

That's it, though. Very underwhelming. Gruber, shut up. Just. Shut. Up.

Curious how Steve Jobs was absent from both the 3GS and the 4S releases...

Update: Apparently, iPhones sold in the US have always been locked to the carrier, and 4S will be no exception.

Let's Talk iPhone

Apple will be holding a major press conference today at 1 PM EDT. The highlight of the event is expected to be the unveiling of the new iPhone. Engadget will be covering the event in a live-blog format.

Google farts out a Blogger app for iOS.

New post.

Just released by Google's experimental department of programmers – the ones that had their temporal lobes removed – is a Blogger app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Supposedly, it allows me to write drafts, or even publish Blogger posts directly from my iPhone. Sounds awesome! Let's try to write a new post...

This doesn't really look like a blog post. It looks like a bunch of unformatted text, and some image thumbnails below, that you can't order or move anywhere.

This is what this post looks like in preview...
                   ⇓

Post preview in Chrome.

Editing a post.

Awesome!

Now let's see what happens when I try to edit an actual blog post with the iOS app. I'm not sure which feature is my favorite: the raw HTML code, or the “hide keyboard” button that covers part of the text?

The good news is that the app is not entirely useless. I can use it to snap a couple of photos on the iPhone and attach them to a headline, to be edited later via the Blogger browser app. But as a blog publishing app, it's just embarrassing.

I know there are some smart people employed at Google. Can we please hand this over to them?

iOS 5 Beta 7 Blues

My iPhone 4 is bricked. It updated to Beta 7 on its own, overnight, and now when I try to activate it, it just displays "Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. It's been saying that for 3 days now.

According to the interwebs, I should be able to "restore" it from iTunes. Problem is, I'm running Leopard at home, and the iTunes betas can't run on it.

Here's a question to Apple that's been bugging me ever since the original iPhone: why does a phone need to be activated by the user, especially since that has nothing to do with the wireless carrier?