Apple

Had a very interesting with an Applecare Technical Advisor yesterday – minor matter for the call (moving the menu bar – I was having a brain fart), and the discussion got around to Apple’s locking down of iOS devices, and installation of software through the App store only. He agreed with me, unofficially, that it did seem irresponsible to tell people what they can and cannot install on hardware they OWN, but explained (and I understood) that this is done to “protect the customer experience”.

Being somewhat of a consipracy theorist myself, much to my wife’s amusement, I put forward the following question to said Apple guru (who really DID know his stuff !!);

“We all know that, jail-breaking aside, you can’t install apps on any iOS device without going through the Apple sanctioned App Store and iTunes, right ? Now there’s an app store for OS X about to be launched. Do you think there’ll come a day when we can’t install programs on our laptops or desktops unless we go through the app store ?”

(Now, SERIOUSLY, I don’t believe that Apple would be stupid enough to do this from a commercial viewpoint – telling us what we can have on our laptops and desktops would destroy their hardware sales in a heartbeat.)

His answer ?

“Ultimately, yes – that’s the way it’s going. I can’t see it happening within the next 3 years or so, but eventually OS X and iOS will merge, with iOS being the dominant operating system for ALL Apple products, and there’ll be no installation other than through the App Store. What rules there will be for submitting apps I don’t know, probably far more lenient that the current iOS process, but it will make life far easier for all”.

I can’t identify him, for very obvious reasons !!

Hmmm… “far easier” for who ?? Apple, because they will no doubt take their customary 30% off the top. I won’t be able to install Office, Photoshop, etc. without buying it through the App Store.

The day Apple (or anyone else for that matter) tells me what I can and cannot install on my laptop or desktop is the day I dump ALL Apple hardware and go back to running Linux for EVERYTHING, regardless.

Or maybe the old slate and chisel would be better ? Unless Apple buy out all the chisel makers.

Well, I bit the bullet and upgraded both iPhone 3GS’s to iPhone4′s. Yes, I *did* do it on the Launch Day here in Australia, but not by lining up – granted, some people enjoy the experience, but I can’t think of a more useless waste of time. I like my warmth and comfort !

Especially when I called my local Telstra store and asked them to reserve two if they had any left – they did, and apart from a minor porting hassle getting one of the numbers over from Vodafone, all went well. The lovely Natalie, and the slightly less lovely Nick were brilliant.

No evidence of the signal issue yet, despite using any and every possible variation of the so-called “death grip” that I could think of.

Interesting side note: both the phones I got were made in Week 30 (as signified by the 4th and 5th digits of the serial number) – the only people I have seen having demonstrable signal problems related to grip are owners of phones made in week 27 or earlier.

Engineering change, Apple ? Most likely…

Anyway, to the “yellowing” issue…

Nothing noticed on either phone displays, despite using in direct sunlight and examining the display in minute detail. So far, so good.

As for the picture yellowing, it DOES exist, but I don’t think it’s a hardware flaw, I believe it’s the way the white balance is set for the external camera.

Here are a couple of pictures taken outside this morning, in full sunlight (something that has been conspicuously absent in Sydney recently. See if YOU can pick the one taken by the front-facing camera. Try to base your evaluation on color saturation, yellowing (white balance) and not resolution / focus.

Looking at Sydney #1

Looking at Sydney #2

I should mention that the image taken with the main camera has been resized ONLY in Photoshop to be 640 x 480, the same as the front camera. No other enhancement was done.

Even knowing which is which, I’m damned if I can see any yellowing on the photos at all.

Now, let’s move to a couple of photos taken inside, with just ambient room light (halogen bulbs) this morning. In an effort to actually enhance the yellowing effect, I places my ASUS 1000HE Netbook (which is a brilliant pearl white) on an old yellow IKEA table the kids play on. Here are the results;

Indoor photo test #1

Indoor yellowing photo test #2

In the indoor shots, the effect is far more pronounced. Using the same criteria, it’s fairly easy to see which is the front and which is the back camera photo. Again, the main camera photo was resized ONLY in Photoshop.

This is really no more than I would expect with any small CCD non-white-balance-ajustable pocket camera. My little Nikon pocket camera has the same effect.

Hopefully Apple will add a white balance compensator in future releases of the software – WITH a manual override, no less. Then corrections can be made in-camera and not in post-processing.

Overall, for the size of the CCD and the technology involved, I’d give Apple a 4.5 out of 5 for the cameras.

MACinations

Apple’s new OS X App Store – thin end of the wedge ??

iPhone 4 – yellowing in photos

iOS4 – Does it live up to the hype ?

Spammers Nuked

Computer Services

Design

Food

Goldwing

Humor

Linux

Social Media