Use Your Favorite Earphones With iPhone Headset Adapter

Posted on May 8, 2008 
Filed Under iPhone Accessories | Leave a Comment

As a rule, the iPhone comes with Apple headsets, featuring a combination button and a mic to pick up the phone, pause playing tracks, or move to the next track with a double-click. But why is it always Apple? I personally prefer to use my own favorite pair of earbuds.

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Let’s consider some iPhone headphone adapters with iPhone compatible mini plug ending with a button and microphone, as well as a place to plug in any headphones you have, along with a clip to attach it to your clothing in the place not far from your mouth.

132284-griffin-smarttalk.jpgThe Griffin SmartTalk ($20) features microphone & clicker module, an excellent compact block with smart integrated clip. Its button is very easy to double-click when you want to switch tracks. The microphone has the best sound quality of all the adapters considered, producing clear sound with a minimal noise. The cord is wrapped in nylon, and this way it feels a bit classier than other adapters’ rubber coating. The best choice with short cables and good audio quality.

site_img_pa_mpa_m.jpgShure’s Music Phone Adapter (50$) has an easy-to-use button and fine sound quality, perhaps just a bit noisier than the Griffin SmartTalk. The adapter doesn’t comprise an integrated clip, but goes with a plastic clip clipped itself onto the cable. And as a result the adapter’s attractive microphone button module flops around.

The Shure adapter’s mini plug is pretty stable, with an extended plug rotating at 45 degrees to reinforce the cable. But as soon as you point the plug in the wrong direction, its angle may cling to the pocket while putting the phone away. Not bad, but the price tag is doubled pointlessly.

ijack-3.jpgBoom Bags’ iJack (20$) features a small, tapered silver mic button module with a clip integrated. Its microphone turns to be the loudest of all, but it has high gain. So it is the noisiest microphone. The button is easy to click a single time, but it is really difficult to double-click. So it may pause your iTunes track instead of moving to the next one.

Newer Technology’s iPhone Mic Extender Cable (15$) and FastMac’s iPhone Mic Adapter (14$) are the cheapest ones, and it feels that way. They are identical to one another, with integrated clips and unattractively large black plastic mic button modules. The buttons were rather difficult to double-click and sound quality is poor, not competitive with the Griffin or Shure adapters.

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New Touch Diamond Compete With 3G iPhone

Posted on May 7, 2008 
Filed Under iPhone General, iPhone Reviews | Leave a Comment

High Tech Computer introduced the HTC Touch Diamond, a smartphone with the support of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro. The main advantage of it is a touch screen designed for one-handed use.

133315-touchdiamond.jpgThe new phone device is the next generation of HTC’s Touch smartphone, which boasts over 3 million units sold in 10 months since its debut. The Touch Diamond features advanced third generation mobile technology 3G, and so becomes the main rival to Apple’s future release of 3G.

Last year HTC had its first Touch handset a month before the iPhone’s debut. The story repeats. The Touch Diamond will be retailing in Europe from June, followed by Middle East and Asia. North and South America will be hit in the second half of the year. And within the next few months we expect the launch of 3G Apple iPhone.

The Touch Diamond works on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) networks with data rates up to 7.2Mb/second and the use of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) due to a Qualcomm chipset.

Peter Chou, HTC CEO, is so excited about the future release that he predicts an even bigger selling results than the original Touch. He calls it “the biggest product of my life”. Their intensions to compete with iPhone are serious. HTC focuses on advancing touch screen technology on the 2.8-inch display and 640 pixel by 480 pixel. TouchFlo software will give a 3D effect to screen images. Users can use touch screen to access photos, messages, -e-mails or music and more.

HTC also improved the Web browser, which is based on an engine from Opera Software, designed specifically for HTC. The browser’s dimensions fit the screen, so users can zoom and pan sites with one hand. If you turn the device someway, the view automatically rotates as well.

The HTC’s Touch Diamond has customized apps for YouTube videos watching and Google Maps using. The device has a GPS receiver as well. Video-calling is possible with the 3.2-megapixel auto-focus cam. Although screen size is big enough, Touch Diamond is quite small, just 102 mm by 51mm by 11.33 mm.

The handset also features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g for wireless data transfer and Internet access. The battery is 4 hours long.

But the HTC’s Touch Diamond has only 4Gb of flash memory, while the iPhone has 8Gb or 16Gb.

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iPhone Users Got Stats On Multipurpose Dependence

Posted on May 6, 2008 
Filed Under iPhone General | Leave a Comment

Today I read an interesting report regarding iPhone use. Recent market research from iSuppli Corporation revealed that many people use iPhones in various ways that differ from other phones, I mean the categories that until recently were not important to most users.

We still text message as often as owners of other phones, we often check e-mail, surf the Web, watch YouTube clips or other video, or viewphotos.

iSuppli’s statistics reports that iPhone users spent less than half the time making calls (46.5%) compared to 71.7% of other phone users’ calls. And that model shows that Apple has succeeded in producing a product for multiple purposes.

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Actually, similar to the report findings, I use my iPhone for making calls about half the time. The other half I browse the Web, check e-mail, play games and add unofficial apps. And I found that I use it a great deal of my personal and work time, more often than any other portable device I’ve owned. Now it’s time to admit our iPhone dependence.

Let me illustrate a typical day of iPhone user:

iPhone alarm wakes you up each morning, brings up the weather widget, provides information to plan wardrobe and departure time, remembers the last-used application before for immediate one touch access. Clicking on Home button gets E-mail and the Calendar options. User can even link iPhone to a car stereo, with mute option when a call comes in. And you can plan your routes with Google Maps. It’s always on cloud connectivity for services access and downloads.

Apple was the first to make successful flat touch panels for mainstream use. Only Apple has clever, intuitive, slick multifinger interaction with convenient interface.

Just in the next few months, faster and redesigned 3G iPhones will arrive, as well as the release of a software development kit for some of new applications. And it would be hard to resist this new invasion. Let’s hope that it would be the device we’ve always dreamed of.

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Visit Starbucks Wi-Fi Hotspots With iPhone, Get Free Connection

Posted on May 3, 2008 
Filed Under iPhone General | Leave a Comment

iPhone users who need a speedy over the EDGE connection pay attention to functional and handy Wi-Fi system. The only problem is lacking of various hotspots to use it on.

133282-attwifi.jpgAt the 2008 AT&T Annual Meeting of Stockholders, Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer, announced that the deployment of AT&T Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations takes place. Also, AT&T Wi-Fi internet customers will have complimentary Wi-Fi access at a number of 7,000 Starbucks locations across the USA. For the great army of AT&T customers, that means speedy and free connection.

Earlier this year Starbucks and AT&T had a deal that the coffee retailer’s T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspots will be switched to the AT&T network. So iPhone users can reap the benefits of it.

Interestingly that the newly launched AT&T hotspots are providing absolutely free Wi-Fi access to all visitors with iPhones (surely you should have a valid iPhone number given by the official provider). But that’s only in theory.

Many Starbucks are still using T-Mobile’s service for providing Wi-Fi access. Some Starbucks has AT&T hotspot available, but with no free Wi-Fi service to iPhones. Some have Wi-Fi networks provided with T-Mobile with AT&T log name. Evidently AT&T’s intentions to roll out the service started this spring. The company’s initial press release claimed to finish integration in coffee chain’s hotspots by the end of the year.

The strategy suggests that the Wi-Fi service for customers of AT&T and U-verse Internet customers will be for free, with the extension of Wi-Fi service for wireless customers at Starbucks. AT&T’s fees for other users are $19.99 per month or $3.99 for a two hour block.

In the United Kingdom the situation is quite different. The mobile phone provider O2 is offering free access to iPhone owners at hotspots of The Cloud network (about 7,500 units throughout Europe). To add a contrast, AT&T boasts 70,000 hotspots internationally.

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All You Need to Know About Apple iPhone: Gadget Specs

Posted on May 3, 2008 
Filed Under iPhone General, iPhone Reviews, iPhone Software | Leave a Comment

I would like to supply you with some major technical details of the iPhone. I would touch upon the size, screen, audio specs, requirements etc. All the data is taken from the official web-page, so you can trust them for sure.

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Size and weight

In the box

Capacity

Display

Operating system

GSM

Wireless data

Camera

Audio

Video

Headphones

Mac system requirements

Windows system requirements

Environmental requirements

Input and output

Power and battery

iPhone Hacks & Tricks: Fast Insertion of Accented Letters

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