kevwright's Blog

Oh dear, and I promised you a full review and in depth comparison between at least the iPhone and the Galaxy S over on Twitter this week.

Sadface. I am going to have to let you all down with a very short piece I am afraid. Sorry. Oh, why?

Well, as you all probably know, I am not paid to do this, nor do I have advertising to get you to click, or suchlike as some sites do. No, I do this for fun :-)

And the fact is, iPhone 4 has me totally at this point, hook, line and sinker. Antenna Gate, Smantenna Gate, I just love the whole thing, and nothing else is coming close.

Sorry Android folks, I do keep trying, and will doubtless lose money again when the Galaxy S goes on eBay soon, but I just can not do it. I am going to try to tell you why, but I doubt you will get it, I am not sure I get it myself to be honest.

So, I bought the Galaxy S while away for a few days, I needed a bit of tech and it was cheapish, only £329 on O2 and that included an (unwanted..bah) SIM card with £10 on it. Bonus was it is unlocked as well.

Back to my motorhome, and fire it up, screen is bloody lovely, really nice. Sign into Google, no need to activate it like iPhone, and no need to have  PC or Mac to do so. Good stuff. But setup is only a one time affair, so does it count for much, really.

First thing I need is Twitter, so off to get the official App from the Market Place, after all, the same dev on iPhone has the best Twitter client by miles, so this will be great right. Wrong. On Android its horrible, truly horrible, and I soon dump it and get the great Seesmic, the closest thing I can find on Android for now. 

But it is still not great. I use Twitter a lot now, a real lot, and on iPhone its so slick, read a tweet, hit the link, it opens in Tweetie 2 (its just Twitter now on iPhone but I will ALWAYS see it as Tweetie 2 :-), and I hit the little arrow icon, hit Read Later, which rather confusingly sends the article to InstaPaper, which, I can read at my own pace, online, offline, on the web, on my iPhone, or on my iPad. On my Android, nope, no Instapaper for me. Or you.

Of course, you will already be hitting comments, or emailing me to say there is an Instapaper clone for Android. Yeah, I know, but I don't want clone, I want original.

But hell, its only Twitter, lets move on to email. This has to be better than iPhone surely? 

Its damned easy to setup, give them that, but oddly, reading it via the Gmail client is not as good as you may think, first of all, if you want pictures, you appear to have to click each time, and if you want to go back to inbox, you have to use either menu and click a link, or use the back key. And if you want to read newer mail, again, you have to use the menu each time. OK, in 2.2 there is a forward and back icon on screen, but this is 2.1, with no fixed date for 2.2.

Can you imagine the fuss if Apple said tomorrow, "we are pleased to announce the iPhone XYZ, and it comes with iOS 3.1.3"  Can you? But Android suppliers from HTC to Samsung, to seem to do this over and over again, and think there is nothing wrong with that?

On iPhone, email is so easy, pictures always load, and no side to side scrolling required, WTF is that all about Goggle? A little up and down arrow for newer or older, and an arrow for back to Inbox, so simple, so slick.

What about Keyboards. If I really have to tell you how many light years ahead the iOS keyboard if from any Android keyboard, well, honestly, you have never used an iPhone keyboard for any length of time. The Galaxy S one is especially poor, and yes of course I know I have endless choice of keyboard on Android, unlike that nasty locked down iOS thing, but here is the whole point, one keyboard is plenty when it is as good as iPhone's keyboard.

OK, web browsing then, surely Galaxy S wins here? Nope. Look, its only Apple's webkit that allows your Androiders to have a pretty good web experience anyway, and don't you forget it!  I will call this one a draw, well until you need a bloody keyboard in the web browser.......oh, and still no Instapaper, which is like have Chips, without vinegar.

But please, I hear you cry, there must be something about Galaxy S that is better than iPhone, surely, please, just one thing? Maybe it holds signal better? As you all know by now, iPhone 4 can not make ANY calls, nor does it hold ANY signal once you get within 10 feet of the steel band........well OK, Gizmodo mode off......but no, sorry, in a weak signal area, the Galaxy S seems to fair a bit worse than iPhone 4 does on same network etc, and although I can not be arsed to join the world and his cat doing more death grip videos, I promise you the iPhone 4, does pretty damned well on my weak signal here.

So, that is it, sorry if I upset anyone, it is only MY opinion, and remember the old proverb, "opinions are like arseholes, everybody has got one"

:-)

Kev

Ok, so had time to watch the whole thing (except the Q&A which does not appear to be video'ed) and I wanted to post my thoughts, given I have had a lot to say about the signal issue.

Just this week on PSC, I called the whole thing a non issue for me, and it is fair to say I only use the phone side a few seconds each day, some days, no calls at all, and even SMS is pretty low for me, maybe 3 a day.

I hope I have never said or implied others were not having the issue, and for at least the last two PSC shows, I have said, "if you want a phone first and foremost, get a Nokia"

That is more than a throwaway line, I just actually do believe that most Nokia phones, with a couple of notable exceptions, are much better at holding a signal that most Apple and Android phones.

My take on Steve today was that he did what he had to do, and did it well. The whole point about today was not about the technical side of things, but it was a PR issue, and it was Steve wanting to take the story back, and not let scum bags like Gizmodo set the agenda as some sort of childish revenge for the whole stolen phone row.

In the US, much like the UK, there is a whole sub class of sneering people now, who pop up on all sorts of subjects, and just have to knock successful people, or indeed companies. A class of people who somehow seem to have to mock and disrespect others in some silly attempt to cover up their own boring lives!

I think what we saw today will clearly be viewed in several different ways, but broadly speaking, you will have my view which is that Steve did pretty well, seemed human, sincere, and seemed to genuinely want to explain things to people, and to give it a sense of perspective. I was starting to get a little pissed off with Apple for the responses they had given, but in the main, Steve has my trust and respect back.

The other view from the haters, will be easy to spot, look out for words like Apple Fanboy (ironic as almost always written by Android FB's), iSheep, Sheeple, and crApple. These will be the people who are, right as I write this, tweeting and re-tweeting the old "Apple held their Press Conference the wrong way" jokes. I have no idea what these people would be happy with regards Apple, although they all seem to forget that without the iPhone, the fantastic Android devices they now enjoyed would simply not exist, and would look like a poor Blackberry clone!

Oh, and it was not the offer of a free case, I really am not bothered about it, and unless I can actually get a Bumper, I will likely pass on the offer. I think the most important fact today was the 3 million sales data. We are getting used to some stunning figures from Apple these days, but come on, one phone, one model, and premium priced at that, and they are shifting 137,000 phones a day, and only getting returns of 1.7% for ALL reasons. When you add in that they could probably sell twice as many if they had stock.....

And that brings us to the main point really, surely, with that many phones out there, there would be a huge number of returns if this issue was half as serious as the web would have you believe? 

The only negative for me was the showing of the other smartphones, but I think they had little choice with all the iPhone ones out there (including mine!) and I think they were pretty fair in model choice, certainly in my experience they could have shown far worse signal loss with Nexus One, but I think they decided to not upset Google any further, now is not the time for a war with Google. 

Just got the new version, £49.95 and if you tell them you have the old one they don't make you top up £10.

Now, if you want, you can use Topcashback to get £12 cash back on one of these, or if you don't want to, use this link and I will get the £12 :-)

So, how is it? The main advantage over the old one is no messing about having to press loads of buttons to get this working. I just starting charging it via USB, and turned it on. That was it (I have the 12GB 3 SIM already remember)

It also has a nice little display, as you can see in the photo above, and as you will also see, it is not the strongest signal in the world but it does have H (High Speed). The other indicators are telling you that you have two text messages, and 1 device is connected to the Mi-Fi, and also a little display of how much data has been used.

So, speeds? Well, I averaged out Speedtest.Net over 3 tests, and got 2.06 mbps Down, and 0.46 Up, Ping of 197ms

My home BT 8MB ADSL gave me 3.88 Down, 0.38 Upload, and Ping 66ms

All in all, I think for £50, (or £70 with 3GB/3 months of Data) this has to be the deal of the summer!

More photos.

Well, I was hoping to keep quiet about this issue, as it is starting to feel a little old to those of us that have had the iPhone from day one.......all of 18 days.

Yes, the iPhone 4 has been out for less than 20 days, and has now sold what, 3 million? More? Come on, what other single product can you name that has sold that many units in 18 days? I saw some tweets today, one said that Samsung had sold 300k Galaxy S in the same period, probably a whole lot of them were free with a contract, and lets be fair, that phone is getting some serious promotion at the moment.

I was prompted to write this after reading this blog post HERE although to pick this one out is probably unfair as there are so many of them. One of the things I find frustrating about the internet these days is that it is hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff, so many of these websites are so plastered in advertising, it is hard not to conclude that these stories are simply linkbait, and what better subject to get people to your website than having a go at Apple? Of course, the argument could be made that I am doing the same here, but as the site does not really have adverts......

So, what has kicked all of this off again? Consumer Reports, an American testing organisation very similar to "Which" here in the UK. Now, it gets a little confusing at this point, as if you take a read of this HERE blog post, it seems that the iPhone 4 wins the latest round of comparisions, and then the same organisation says "we can not recommend it" 

Just to confuse the whole thing, Consumer Reports, just like our own Which Reports, have one main aim in life, and that is to get you to subscribe to read the reports, so maybe the more confusing, the better for signups?

OK, so to the point of this, the Signal Issue. I have been using the iPhone 4 for all of 18 days now, and can tell you without doubt that it is better than the 3GS, and about the same as a Nexus One for signal holding.  You only have to look at the chap above who keeps changing his mind to see how confusing this whole thing is, and the main thing to remember is that the whole issue is so hard to pin down, even from the same location, on different days, you may be on a different tower, you may be on the same tower with a lot more traffic, and a whole slew of other factors.

The other thing I keep reading is "oh, it has Phone in its name and you can't even make a call with it" and "people need this thing to operate as a Phone, that is its main use" 

I know I am not the only person who makes and gets very few calls, and does not care so much how great it is as a phone, but what amazes me is why people have to be either for or against Apple so strongly on this issue, and that is why I try and tread the middle ground if possible, and say look, if you really rely on a PHONE to do business, get a Nokia, and if you want the best all round device available today, get the iPhone 4!

Update on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 10:17PM by Kevin Wright

OK, I have got to post this, it deserves greater exposure, it is a reply to a rather disappointing post from Ewan from MIR a chap I have the utmost respect for, you can read it (and this response) HERE if you know Matt or are Matt and do not want it published here, please contact me and I will remove it. Please remember these are all Matt's words not mine, although clearly I broadly applaud them.

 

Kev

 

------------

Matt Crandall 

Ok, so let me add some commentary to what has simply become a smug knowing wink from the internet's legion of 'i told you so' geek crowd towards Apple.

 

Folks, it ain't that bad. Sure, there are issues, and I'm not defending Apple here really (the phone was poorly designed, and Steve Jobs is a douche, does that help establish my cred as a non-fanboy?). But here's the reality: there are a metric shit-ton of users of the iPhone 4 out there who are perfectly happy with it. I'm one of them, and the other 9 people in my office who have the iPhone 4 are in that boat as well. And yes, about half of us (myself included) don't use a case. So lets talk about some of the stuff thrown out there.

 

1) the 'death-grip'. First and foremost, yes, I can reproduce the effect by holding it in the 'death-grip'. But I'm sorry, for those that say 'hold it like a human', I gotta ask - are you routinely in the practice of gripping your phone like an arthritic granny holding on for dear life? Jesus folks, you have to seriously grip this thing for it to have any real issues in my experience - whereas holding it exactly the same as I've held every other bar-style phone for the last 10 years doesn't give me any issues. Here's the thing: if you wrap your palm around it like they suggest, it's damned hard to actually get the ear piece to your ear - so you all must then, from what I can infer, be using it solely on speakerphone.

 

2) This is HARDLY the first phone to have a major design flaw. The Nokia N85 was a PIECE OF SHIT who's front facia peeled off. The N97 scratched the damned camera lens constantly. The SE T616 (remember back that far folks?) had such lackluster reception that it routinely would lose a signal if you pivoted on your heel the wrong way. Over the last 10 years I've owned perhaps 30 phones, and out of those only 1 phone, seriously, could I say had zero design flaws in my opinion - and it was hobbled by Symbian (and was my last Symbian phone, the E71 - still one of the best ever made). The difference here is this: this is the first APPLE cell phone to have a shitty design choice on it. 

 

The fact of the matter is this: if this were any other phone, by any other manufacturer, it'd be getting WAY more of a pass than it is; because it's an Apple product, it instead gets called things like an 'utter failure' or a 'complete bomb' - and it makes me wonder why the press (both mainstream and blog) seem to be forgetting the fact that out of, again, a metric shit-ton of these sold so VERY few people comparatively seem to be complaining. Is it because the nexus of Apple's fanboy forcefield is so great? Somehow I doubt it since so many of us who AREN'T Apple fanboy's, and call them on their bullshit, are still happy with our phones. I think it's probably because there is some truth to the fact that yes, in weaker signal areas this is a major issue, but the vast majority of owners live in better signal areas. That's no different than the aforementioned SE t616, the piece of shit (for signal) that was the Nokia N93 - which for me consistently lost a signal when my E60 at the time showed FULL BARS!!!

 

My point to this whole thing is this: since the MAJORITY of the people who are writing shitty reviews of the iPhone are people who hate Apple anyway, why no one takes it with a grain of salt I'll never know - oh wait, yes I do know - it's because everybody who got caught with their pants down when Apple came out with the iPhone are finally able to vindicate all of their bitterness that a non-multitasking, low megapixel, locked down and closed off phone line has had it's first 'fall on it's face' moment.

 

In other words: yes, we know you hate Apple, but the iPhone 4 is nowhere near as bad as you'd like out make it out to be (as someone who's owned 2 iphones now, and near on 30 Symbian and Blackberry phones over the years, this isn't even in my top 5 failures of all time).

 

No, I don't love Apple as a company - and their response to this has, rightfully, been called out for the pure arrogant shit that it is - but seriously, have a little perspective here folks.

Wow, take a look at this little lot folks, they are all the PRIVATE and PERSONAL property of one person, and no, that person is not a reviewer, nor is he (or she?) a mobile industry mogul. No, just like you and me, he (or she?) is just into phones, in a rather big way, and these are all purchased by him (or her) , either Sim Free, or with a contract, of which he (or she?)  does have err.....more than a  couple shall we say!

Now, all of these are for sale, and I have nabbed one, as has Tim, but if you are interested in any of them, let me know, and I will see if my mystery friend will let me put you in touch with him (or her:-)

UPDATE: A few of these have now gone, and I will cross them out below, also a few of them are not actually for sale as the owner is keeping them, and is only selling them to make some space to buy more :-)

Now, I can not reveal his (or her) identity (yet!) as they are a little shy, and are for some reason embarrased by this collection :-) Now i am trying to get him (or her) to do a little spot on the Phones Show.......watch this space....

So, what have we got here? Deep breath......

Blackberry:

8520
9000
9700      (Not for sale)
9520

Nokia

6021
6120
E71
N95 8GB
N97
N86 8GB   (Not for sale)
N900        (on eBay)

Sony Ericsson

Satio        (Not for sale)
C905        (On eBay)
Z320i

Samsung

i8510     (Not for sale)

i8910 

HTC

Desire

Actually, that is 16, and he (or she?) has also just found a Nokia 6021 and a Nokia 5230

Awesome, just awesome!