Apple has released a Carrier Update for the Verizon iPhone 5. The update corrects a potentially expensive problem whereby the phone will transfer data on the cellular network even while connected to a Wi-Fi network. My phone has certainly been afflicted by this condition and I'm relieved a fix is now available.
To force the update, head into Settings > General > About and wait for the banner to pop up. Then follow the instructions.
I've owned white iPhones since they became available in the second design iteration. I loved my white iPhone 4S, but one design detail always bugged me. The tiny plastic strips that separated the external antenna were black, and didn't match the rest of the phone. I always found it odd since less obvious features like the inside of the headphone jack and dock connector were color matched to the body. I always wondered if this drove Jony Ive crazy as it did me.
It's a very minor point, but I'm really happy when I look at my iPhone 5 and see white stripes interrupting the aluminum structure. Call me crazy. I wear it as a badge.
White stripes make me happy.
Tim Cook, on behalf of Apple, pens a letter to it's iOS 6 customers. An honest, humble move from the top.
Head to fiftyfootshadows.net and pick up some gorgeous, free wallpaper images for your new iPhone 5.
Head to fiftyfootshadows.net and pick up some gorgeous, free wallpaper images for your new iPhone 5.
Marco Arment posted a story about his 87 year old grandfather's experience setting up iCloud on his iPad. Technology has come a long way, but as his story and my experience as the tech support person in my family will attest, there's still a long way to go.
Every design is arrived at through a series of design choices. A designer must determine the qualities most fundamental to the product, and then drive the design to that end. Contrary to what Microsoft would have you believe, every design choice has consequences.
On Saturday, I wrote that the new iPhone was an evolution of the original phone, but better in every way. I've been using the iPhone 5 for four days now, and that time has been sufficient to allow a thought to crystalize. I now feel that in use, there is one glaring aspect of the phone that hasn't improved, literally since the day the first iPhone was released.
Since the iPhone introduction, the screen, camera, processing power, storage, operating system, design, apps, data speeds, integration with OS X, sync, backup, build materials, size, weight and thickness have all improved. The missing piece in this list is the battery, and it's absence is glaring. I've never used an iPhone without the battery percentage meter turned on so I can anticipate when I'll be able to top off.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that battery life is worse now than it was when the iPhone was introduced. It's not. It's amazing what Apple has been able to do on the power management front to squeeze every bit of juice out of the battery they use. The iPhone 5, if anything, gets slightly better battery life than my 4S. It's truly remarkable.
I think Apple has chosen the wrong focus in their design of the iPhone. They've been focused on thickness with each iteration, and now with the iPhone 5, weight. Those things are good, and I appreciate them, but their focus should more properly be on battery. Allow me my thoughts.
When the iPad was introduced, it was a revelation. It opened peoples eyes to a reality they had never fully considered to be possible. A computing device that you could really use, all day, without even carrying a power supply. Nobody could believe a device that size, which was almost all screen, could run that long without needing a charge. But it did. And the world has never been the same. That battery life, along with the instant on capability and the comfortable form factor, changed the future of computing. When people choose to use the iPad as a replacement for their laptop, battery life virtually always tops their list of reasons why.
With the iPad, maintaining battery life was deemed by Apple to be so fundamental to the product, that they did something completely unheard of for an Apple product when they released the new iPad. They increased the thickness and weight to maintain that life.
It makes me wonder if the iPad and iPhone teams ever talk.
I've never heard a single complaint from users or the press that iPad battery life is not sufficient. On my own iPads, I've never felt the need to turn the battery percentage meter on to monitor remaining battery. I simply use the device during the day, as I see fit, and then throw it on the charger at night. I wake up the next day and repeat. It's an indescribable feeling of liberation to have a high tech device that frees the user from all concerns about power usage. Steve Jobs often talked about the magic of the device, to the aggravation of some. He often said he wasn't sure exactly what it was that led to that feeling. I'm convinced the battery is one of the central causes.
The iPhone does more than ever with the battery it has. But as the screen resolution doubled, the maximum storage increased by a factor of eight, RAM increased by eight times, megapixels increased by four times, thickness decreased by 30% and weight decreased by 17%, a fact remains. An active user still has to think about battery during the day. It shouldn't be this way.
As I wrote earlier, I've used the iPhone 5 for a few days now. I love everything about the new design. I love how thin the phone feels in my hand and how light it is. But with absolute certainty, I'd trade those two qualities for battery life I don't have to think about. I can't help but wish Apple had made design choices with the iPhone more in line with the iPad.
If instead of being thinner and lighter, Apple had maintained the thickness and weight of the device at 4S levels by adding battery, they'd have a better phone for this user. I long for the day when I can treat my iPhone like my iPad and turn the battery monitor off. It would be liberating to just use the phone and then plug it in before bed. It would perhaps make the iPhone magical like it's bigger iOS sibling.
**This story typed almost entirely on site of the 2012 Ryder Cup on my iPhone 5, plugged in periodically to a PowerFilm Solar USB+AA to make it through the day.
Apple has released a software update to the Apple TV. The full release notes are available here. It's likely to be overlooked by many, but this release is a very big deal. Taken from Apple's release:
Save multiple iTunes accounts and switch quickly between them.
This is the first iOS device to allow any form of multiple account log in. A very big deal indeed. Let's hope this is just a start and future iOS software updates for other devices will include multiple account support.
Jean-Louis Gassée has a really intelligent post about the trouble with Apple's new iOS 6 maps. It's not the end of the world and it's widely overblown, but Apple is partly responsible for this mess.
Hat tip to The Loop
Apple has launched four new television commercials for the new iPhone 5. I wasn't a big fan of the genius commercials that ran for a short time recently, even though they weren't as terrible as some people would have you believe. These new commercials are actually very, very good. If Apple continues along this line with their advertising, they're headed in the right direction.
You can check them out for yourself at Apple.