Temporary Break in Communications

By Alex Angove

Last updated 25 October 2011

Our regular readers would have noticed an unusual amount of inactivity on our tech blog this last 2 weeks. The reason for this temporary silence is pretty simple; I was on holidays. I had the unique misfortune of planning and booking a holiday smack bang on top of 2 of the biggest news weeks in mobile news history several months in advance. An unfortunate coincidence for which you all have my apologies.

So instead of playing a desperate game of catch-up and writing a bunch of out-dated articles about stuff you probably already know, we’re just going to acknowledge a few of the biggest things to happen during my absence, give you a little summary in case you’re unaware of it and then continue business as usual.

The iPhone 4S Release

We’ve been waiting and waiting… and waiting for a new iPhone and now one is finally here. The iPhone 4S managed to both excite and disappoint expectant fans and as such some tech gurus have been questioning its projected popularity.

We don’t really think Apple has anything to fear. Although it’s not quite all most had hoped for, the iPhone 4S is still a solid upgrade from the iPhone 4, in all reports. It sports a dual-core A5 processor running at 800MHz and a fantastic 8MP camera with a reduced lag time in between shots, not to mention some great software upgrades to help those of us with unstable hands decrease the level of blur in our pictures.

The third most notable addition is that of Siri, a voice activated native-speech tool that allows users to do anything from make an appointment to answer a question to send an email simply by speaking to their phone. We’re still yet to get our hands on a 4S, so we can’t say for sure just how viable Siri is, but from every 3^rd party iPhone 4S review we’ve seen so far it actually seems to work, which is surprising to say the least. There are, of course, other new and nifty things but ultimately these are the 3 biggest reasons we can see anybody going for the iPhone 4S, rather than the iPhone 4.

General impressions of the 4S seem to match that of the iPhone 3GS back when it was released. That is to say, it’s a fantastic upgrade if you’re coming to the end of a 2 year plan. But whether or not you feel it’s worth it to upgrade from and iPhone 4 to an iPhone 4S is going to be entirely up to you.

iOS 5

iOS 5 is starting to roll out across Apple devices. We’ve already gone in to the iOS 5 changes in our iOS 5 Update post a few months back, so if you're interested in the specifics we suggest you check it out.

The Passing of Steve Jobs

We were greatly saddened to hear about the passing of Steve Jobs so shortly after his retirement. A few weeks ago we did a piece on his resignation and all he had done for the tech industry, and again in our post about the mobile world after 2011. However, we were completely unprepared for his passing so soon.

Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Samsung and Google finally announced their latest joint project; the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is set to become the next Google flagship phone as well as the first phone to come running Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy Nexus appears very much how one might expect it to look. That is, somewhere between a Galaxy S II and a Google Nexus S, with a few flourishes thrown in. The countoured screen is back, a feature that we definitely enjoyed on the Nexus S as it made the phone noticeably more comfortable when held against the face or kept in the pocket.

The rear plate is reminiscent of the Galaxy S II, which is a bit of a shame actually. In our Samsung Galaxy S II review we actually mentioned that the plastic back case of the GS2 was one of its less classy features. However, the Galaxy Nexus apparently comes with something Samsung is calling Hyperskin, that apparently increases slip resistance.

Hardware-wise the Galaxy Nexus is impressive. A dual-core 1.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM puts it in line with the GS2. The 5MP camera is a bit surprising, as we were expecting 8MP. Demonstrations of the camera itself do seem to be rather impressive though, despite its low MP count. An interesting feature of the camera on the Galaxy Nexus is that it has an almost instant response when clicking the shutter button. Photos can be taken with alarming speed and in rapid succession.

As usual with Samsung, the main drawing power of the Galaxy Nexus will probably prove to be its display. Boasting an amazing 4.65 inch, 1280 x 720 screen the Galaxy Nexus has the best resolution of any phone with a display over 3.5 inches. In case you missed it 1280 x 720 means 720p. So if you have a Plasma TV older than 3 or 4 years there’s a decent chance that this phone sports the same resolution as your Television. The Super AMOLED display’s odd sounding 4.65 inch size was employed to accommodate a 16:9 aspect ratio, also most likely the ratio of your TV. This means that when watching movies you won’t have any annoying black bars at the top or bottom of the handset.

Another great bit of info is that the Galaxy Nexus will be available in both HSPA+ and LTE models, depending on in which region you live. So there's enough love for everyone to enjoy the maximum speed out of their local wireless networks.

A couple of other quick features are a mere 4.29mm bezel, which means the increase in screen size affects the overall dimensions of the device far less than it otherwise would. A profile of just 8.94 mm is definitely impressive considering the hardware of the Galaxy Nexus and Samsung have even apparently thrown a barometer in for good measure.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was finally announced in detail alongside the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The changes are overall relatively minor, which was to be expected as the purpose of Ice Cream Sandwich is to work towards the unification of Android devices, rather than add too much new functionality. However, being that this is a new Android update we found it pretty hard to gloss over the finer points, so this section will definitely go in to a bit more detail than the previous few.

Appearance-wise Android 4.0 looks like the love-child of Android Honeycomb and Android Gingerbread, but more attractive than either of its now aging parents. Google said in the keynote that the aim was to steer away from more traditional lists of information and instead aim for a more magazine-esque layout for menus and homescreens. Ultimately everything did look much nicer, with visuals and pictures where there never had been any before. The new Android font, Roboto, also seemed to add a new element of style that Android had been, until now, definitely lacking.

There’s been a new approach taken towards the classic button implementation of Android. Instead of there being 3 or 4 keys at the bottom of the display (usually capacitive), Google has implemented what its calling Virtual Buttons. Virtual Buttons act in much the same way as the old capacitive ones did, but they’re actually part of the display itself. This allows the display to become larger when watching movies, as the buttons can be hidden. It also offers the opportunity to do cute little things like mini animations when a button is pressed, or rotating the symbols on the keys when the phone is held in landscape mode. We think this is a pretty cool addition and are definitely intrigued to see it in action.

Gesture control has been unified across all of Android. That means that no matter what UI you have, if you’re making an Android 4.0 device from now on then the menu systems will have the same basic format and gestures will accomplish the same response.

Notifications can now be accessed even from the lock screen, cutting down on the time it takes to get in to your phone and check what’s been happening. There will also be the option to access the camera straight on the lock screen in order to help users catch those spur of the moment photo ops.

A few other handy additions are:

Folders can be made by just picking up one app and dropping it on top of another
Folders can be added to the favorites bar at the bottom of the homescreen
Gmail has received some useful UI upgrades
Screenshots can be taken by holding the Power and Volume Down buttons simultaneously
Browser updates to assist with jumping between tabs, saving pages so you can read them offline, or viewing pages in their native desktop format rather than a mobile format if you wish
All 4.0 devices will have music control from within the notifications bar (previously this function was added by manufacturers)
A Calendar update which looks intuitive and stylish
A Data Usage app that records your data usage and can alert the user or even shut off data usage once a manually entered threshold is passed
Improved photo editing services
Panoramic photos
Improved video recording software

That’s Just About It

That’s it for the biggest things that happened while we were silent. Of course there were a few other announcements but we think it best to focus on the juicy new stuff happening, rather than catching up on what’s passed. We apologize again for our temporary leave of absence and we’ll be back online from now on.