Ipod Touch / Iphone

[blessingx]

Oh iPhone 5 owners...

http://goldendreams.ch/english/all-collection-i5.html

[robm321]

^ Nice, will match my teeth

[Voltron]

iPhone 5 Golden Showers Edition. Nice.

[Dusty Chalk]

You think it's PVD? Because then it would literally be a golden shower.

[blessingx]

Okay, maybe this cover instead...

http://www.indiegogo.com/popslate

[Dusty Chalk]

That's awesome.

Of course, my first thought is that I would take a screen shot of the home page, so that one could get confused as to which side is the phone...

[shellylh]

I am thinking of getting an iphone 5.  My Google Nexus S (1.5 years old) is getting rather slow and it is beginning to annoy me.  I haven't had an iphone and I am worried since there is no Swype.  I do like the fact that it is smaller than my Nexus S which will be better for me since I have very small hands and cannot use my phone with one hand right now.  I am worried about a couple of things: 

 

1)  Battery life - what kind of battery life does this get?  The battery is fairly small compared to other android phones. 

2)  Apple maps - how are they?  I haven't upgraded to OS6 on my ipad.

3)  It doesn't have Swype which I use all the time for fast typing.  Anyone switched from Swype on an android phone to an iphone and regretted it?  

 

Anything else to keep me from doing it?  

 

Is it worth it to get 32GB over 16GB?  I don't think I will keep much music/pictures on it. 

[HeadphoneAddict]

The iPhone 5 is pretty speedy vs the 4, but so was the 4S.  One handed typing isn't a problem.  

 

As for battery life, I will typically have mine off the charger for an average of 16 hours, and use it for 4-5 hours during that time, and have about 20% of battery left by 1-2AM.  Yesterday I had 17.5 hours of standby and 4 hours usage, with 4% left.  There have been other days with 15 hours of standby and only 3 hours of use, with over 50% remaining after midnight.

 

Apple maps couldn't find my mother-in-law's house 2 months ago (or a month ago), but it got me to the veterinary surgeon this morning without a problem.  Overall, I'd prefer to use Navigon map app for voice directions and have the original google back on the phone for a bird's eye view, but at least google works in the browser.  And a few other apps can give voice directions too (I think Bing is one).

 

I haven't tried any alternate text entry apps, but on iPhone they still require entering the text in a separate app and pasting it into where you want it to go i.e. http://www.tuaw.com/2012/08/20/fleksy-is-an-alternate-text-input-tool-for-the-visually-impaired/ and http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phones/iphone-app-review-messagease-text-entry-method/2118 or http://blogs.sybase.com/wdudley/?p=692

 

As for memory - Apps are getting bigger and bigger due to the retina displays and dual binary apps covering all screen sizes, so 16Gb is really pushing it.  I could happy with 32GB, even though I splurged for 64GB.  But 16GB is really tight unless you don't mind deleting apps, music and videos to make room on the fly for downloading new stuff and taking videos.  

 

You could probably squeeze in 10-20 albums, 50 apps, 500 photos, and a couple of iTunes movies on a 16GB, if you use 256K audio and you don't download large maps to use when you have no cell service.  But the camera's 1080p videos take up a lot of space, so you might want to leave 4GB of free space on your phone.  You also need to leave a lot of free space if you are updating a large app OTA.  You only have about 14GB of storage space for your data, after the iPhone uses some of the 16GB for the iOS partition.

[Dusty Chalk]

You know, it just registered that my eventual purchase of the iTouch has just been confused -- do I get the new 1136x640 version, being the pixel whore that I am, or do I get the older 960x640 version which is on limited discount, and save $170 (US$399 vs. US$229)?  The old one only had a single core, no?  I mean, those extra 112,640 pixels probably aren't worth $170, but that extra core might be.  I'm comparing 64GB version to 64GB version.  Comparing 32GB to 32GB, the difference falls to $120.

 

I also lose the possibility of engraving.

 

I think I just convinced myself -- I think I'll wait and get the new one.

[mrarroyo]

Finally gave in and upgrade the wife's and mine 3G iPhones for the new 5G. She is happy which means the whole house is happy! 

[MexicanDragon]

Dusty, isn't the pixel density the same, since they pretty much just added a row onto the top of the rest of it?  I'd definitely go with the new one, if you plan on playing any games on it.

If it's just for music, well, you could always do the 4th gen at large savings now, and put 170$ towards maybe a 6th or 7th gen, if they come out with a 128GB version.  Without the engraving, it'd be a little easier to resell if you wanted.  Just my 2cents.

 

**BRENT**

[Dusty Chalk]

It's mostly for Spotiy and the Moog app, I think, but who knows, might play the occasional game.  And yes, I believe density is the same, since it's just longer, I probably should have said 'real estate whore', rather than 'pixel whore', since the latter is too close to 'pixel density whore'.

 

And yes, I'm all three.

 

Engraving also makes it harder to steal.

[Grahame]

If Its just the apps you care about, do any of the more recent android devices stack up?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/241793/android_media_players_take_on_the_ipod_touch.html

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, I've got a Samsung Galaxy Note II and Nexus 10 both coming, so we'll see about Spotify, but Animoog doesn't exist for Android.

 

Another complication is the connector.

[blessingx]

Google Maps app is out.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/12/google-maps-now-available-on-app-store/

[blessingx]

And a review... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/technology/personaltech/google-maps-app-for-iphone-goes-in-the-right-direction-review.html

[mrarroyo]

Google Maps app is out.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/12/google-maps-now-available-on-app-store/

 

Thanks.

[en480c4]

In one sense, it's still as bad as Apple's maps... No night mode for turn-by-turn. I shouldn't have to go into the settings and manually turn down the brigtness to use something.

[robm321]

Nice having street view back.

[shellylh]

Just realized that the Nano no longer is small and cute and has a clip and Apple only has refurbished 8GB (no 16GB for sale) now.     Hope mine doesn't break. 

Edited December 13, 2012 by shellylh

[HeadphoneAddict]

Just realized that the Nano no longer is small and cute and has a clip and Apple only has refurbished 8GB (no 16GB for sale) now.     Hope mine doesn't break. 

 

The day that they announced the new 7th Gen Nano's I immediately ordered the old 6th Gen with clip as a spare, since I often use mine as a watch in a metal band.  You may still want to snag an 8GB before even those are gone.

[Salt Peanuts]

Google Maps app is out.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/12/google-maps-now-available-on-app-store/

 

Just used it today and worked well.  It was nice to have voice turn-by-turn on my iPhone 4 since our GPS finally kicked bucket after 5 years of constant use.

[Aura]

http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

 

Anyone think this is worth the $24.99? I didn't splurge for the 32GB over the 16GB because I don't use many apps and storage was never a problem on my old 3GS. This looks like a very reasonable way to access all of my music and not worry about changing about my travel/workout playlist every few weeks. Playlist syncing over iCloud looks pretty slick. 

[Voltron]

I have heard it is a pain and doesn't always work,* but it seems like a great idea. 

 

See Dinny's repeated comments that Apple doesn't really get the Internet yet.

[grawk]

I've been paying since the beginning, and if the renewal hadn't been automatic, I wouldn't have done it. It's a giant pain in the ass if you have more than a small number of songs.