Apple Should Take Inspiration From Nokia’s Ramadan Applications

Nokia has developed and made available for free six applications aimed at helping people manage the month of Ramadan, which is coming up soon. They’re developed by Nokia in the Middle East and they seem to cover a range of information and services. Check them out, they look really interesting.

I think this is something Apple’s representatives in the Middle East (www.appleme.ae) should take after. We even have an AppStore now in the region so why couldn’t they’ve made some iPhone/iPod Touch applications available for free for users? That would be a nice gesture to the community, don’t you think?

iPhone Hints and Tips

Force quit
Sometimes a program stalls and locks up. And nothing you do will make a difference to it. You push the Home button but nothing happens. “What can I do?” you ask. Click and hold the home button until that program works, and you regain control of your iPhone again.

How to restart
There comes a time in a phone’s life where it just acts like a tantrum prone teenager and it won’t do what it’s told. Push and hold both the Home and Power buttons until the phone shuts down.

Choose Your Headphones
Something very annoying about the iPhone is that it forces you to use the supplied headphones. If you don’t like them, tough!! Anything else won’t go into the socket, because it is recessed. This has changed in iPhone 3G but if you have the original model, well you don’t really have to live with that. Many companies offer solutions that offer headphone adapters that allow you to choose the headphone you want. Look at Belkin, Griffin, and Monster among others. Keep in mind, these usually don’ resolve the mic and remote.

The iPod that lives inside the iPhone
Remember that the iPhone is still an iPod. And it has the iPod connector. This means the majority of accessories made for the iPod will also work on an iPhone. Some may ask you to disable the phone feature to improve sound quality, but that only applies to the static that happens when you make or receive a call. As far as chargers and cables are concerned they are the same. But some video accessories won’t work on the iPhone. As for protective cases and skins, each is made for a specific iPod, and iPhone is no exception.

by Fangpyre

iPhone 3G in Dubai

What’s New in Apple’s Second Generation Mobile Communications Device?

iPhone Software 2.0
At the special event Apple held in March 2008 they revealed the roadmap for the iPhone’s software. The plan was, they said, that version 2.0 of the iPhone software was going to be released in July, something they later confirmed at WWDC in June. Apple focused mainly on corporate functionality, like Microsoft Exchange support, but there should be something in there for everyone.

iPhone SDK
One major complaint with the first iPhone version was that Apple did not allow third-party developers to write software for it. All applications were web applications, basically web pages, which severely limit what developers can do. With the SDK, that has now changes. Developers now have access to the same resources in terms of building iPhone applications as do Apple’s own team. This has dramatically changed the game for the iPhone and should show much more diversity in terms of the iPhone’s versatility.

AppStore
It’s fine that Apple allows people to write software for the iPhone but how will it be distributed? How can you get it? They’re building a special AppStore where you can get the applications from. Developers submit their software to Apple and if approved it gets listed so you can buy it (unless it’s free).

3G
The main news about the iPhone announced at WWDC was of course that it now runs 3G technology, allowing it to communicate a lot faster than the first generation iPhone. Apple claims it can access the internet, for example, around 3-5 times faster. According to some of the first reviews call quality has also been improved. The speed come at the expense of increased battery consumption so you may have to charge the new iPhone more often.

GPS
The other big change to the new iPhone is that it now has true GPS capability. Previously the iPhone had sort of fake location ability but now with real GPS, Apple bets that all kinds of location-aware services will be developed. Like wouldn’t you like to get a message on your iPhone when you’re near a mosque, for example, when you’re visiting a new city?

iPhone 3G in Dubai?
Sadly we don’t really know what’s happening concerning iPhone in Dubai and indeed in most of the Middle East. No announcements have been made about when it will be available here or even if it will be ever be available. All we can do is guess and some sources talk about sometime 2009. What will happen in terms of people unlocking 3G iPhones, we also don’t know. By the time you read this we probably know more since Apple has released the new iPhone. Perhaps we can get back to that in future Shuffles.

by Magnus Nystedt

Use Your iPhone as a Disk With DiskAid

DiskAid from DigitalDNA is a free utility for all you iPhone users out there. With DiskAid you can mount your iPhone as any other storage device on your Mac and have it appear as an icon on the desktop. You can then access the files on the iPhone, copy files from or to it at your leisure. And did I mention it’s free?

by Fangppyre

Clean up Your iPhone Photos

Apple’s iPhone has a two megapixel camera but it’s not the greatest camera in the world. That’s no secret to anyone who’s seen a photo taken with an iPhone. But just because the iPhone cannot take high-megapixel shots doesn’t mean it can’t produce pretty decent photographs. In this article we’ll show you some things you can do to clean up your iPhone photos. I happen to use Adobe Photoshop CS3 for this exercise but you can do much the same thing in many other applications.

Adjust the levels
With your photo open in Photoshop, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Click OK in the dialogue that appears. Select Red in the Channel dropdown menu. Now you want to adjust the left marker so it touches the main part of the dark levels on the left. You also want to adjust the marker on the right so it touches the main part of the dark levels on the right.

You can also drag the sliders around to see what effect you get. Feel free to also play around with the levels for Green and Blue. In our example I wanted to reduce the overly red tone. In your particular photos it may be different.

Reduce the noise
Especially if you take iPhone photos in poor light – they’re going to be full of noise. Select Filter > Noise > Reduce noise. There’s no simple trick for success here, you have to try different values. Try to reduce noise in larger, solid areas, while at the same time keeping detail in edges and shapes. Remember to use the zoom feature and preview, and make sure you look around at many parts of the photo to see what the effect is of what you’ve selected.

Sharpen the knifes
Finally, and this may seem counterintuitive, you may want to sharpen the photo with the unsharp mask tool. Select Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask. Here again you may need to play around with the sliders to get the desired result. It’s easy to go overboard with the sharpening and your photo will end up looking like something out of a sci-fi movie, so be careful with the settings. As with reducing the noise, pan around the photo to see how the settings affect various parts of the photo.

Wrapping up
Now you’re finished. With these three techniques you can, to a varying degree, clean up many of your iPhone photos. To be honest, however, you probably won’t see much of a difference between the before and after photos published here. But if you’re interested in how big a difference these simple techniques can make, download the files from http://www.emiratesmac.com/newsletter/resources/dec2007/clean_up_iphone.zip. The effect also varies from shot to shot. Some shots you will see little difference on while others these techniques can have a striking effect.

Final word
It’s worth pointing out that with the limits of the iPhone (2MP, fixed-focus lens, etc.) you will have to look for perfect conditions for the photo to come out in great quality. The techniques presented here are not good enough to save an iPhone photo taken in poor conditions. At best you can hope for some improvements. Look at the tips presented above and form your own way of what works best.

Tips for Taking Better iPhone Photos

• Shoot in good light: In dark or even in a slightly dimmed light the iPhone certainly doesn’t excel. You want there to be good light.
• Keep the iPhone steady: If you hold the iPhone steady with both hands, or even support your hands and arms on something, chances are your shot will turn out sharper and better looking.
• Go high or low: Change the angle and you may find something interesting.
• Composition. Where is the main interest in your shot? Take a little time thinking about your shot and then approach it with a clear idea of what to do.
• Movement: Consider what seems to be moving into the picture and what is moving out. Converging and diverging lines can help create exciting movement.
• Finally, show your iPhone photos to people: It’s not exactly a photographic technique but it will please the crowd.

by Magnus Nystedt

Convert DVDs for playback on iPhone

Wouldn’t it be great if you could watch your purchased DVDs on your iPhone, iPod, or AppleTV? In this article I will show you how to extract the video from your DVDs, then compress and convert it to a format your Apple products understand. I will even show you how to turn your home network into a video-encoding super computer using Apple’s Xgrid. I’ve broken this down into four sections, each dealing with the particular tool for the job. If you already have the video on your computer, you can skip the DVD parts and go straight to Tool 2 - VisualHub. Links to all of the tools you need can be found at the end of this article.

Tool 1 - HandBrake
For ripping/encoding videos straight from DVD to computer, this is the one-stop shop. While it lacks some of the advanced features other tools provide (more on this later), it’s a fantastic tool nonetheless. Your first task, putting the DVD you want to encode in the computer. On most machines, this will cause the DVD Player to automatically open. Close DVD Player, and open HandBrake. Click “Browse” and you will see that your DVD has been chosen as the “Detected volume”. In the event that it was automatically chosen, select it now. Clicking “Open” will scan the DVD, getting information about the data on the DVD. After it’s finished scanning, it will return you to the main screen. From the drop down box marked “Title” choose the longest track, this will be your movie. Next click “Presets” in the upper right corner. The developers have conveniently provided a few pre-configured settings for various devices. I recommend selecting the HB-AppleTV, regardless of your destination. The AppleTV preset will output a file that can be played on all of your devices at a high quality. The tradeoff is that the HB-iPod produces a smaller file, at a sacrifice to quality. Choose where you want your movie saved under “Destination” - Your desktop is fine for the time being. You may want to also select “Create Chapter Markers”, although this is a personal preference. It has no major impact on the movie itself, but it will make it easier to skip around the movie. Optional: If you want to change the subtitles or audio track, do so from the “Audio & Subtitles” menu. All set? Press “Start”. On a reasonably fast computer it will rip and encode at a rate of about 1:1. This means for a 120 minute movie, it will take about 120 minutes to extract and encode the video.

Tool 2 - VisualHub
HandBrake might be the one stop shop for ripping/encoding DVDs, but VisualHub is the one stop shop for converting practically everything. Your first step in VisualHub is selecting the optimized format. Again, I recommend choosing the AppleTV preset. You can do this by selecting it from the drop down labeled “Optimize For”. In the “Quality Setting” I suggest setting the slider to “Standard”. While you may be tempted to move the slider further up to “Go Nuts”, you will discover that your files balloon in size with no appreciable difference in quality. Next place a check in the boxes labeled “H.264 Encoding” and “Add to iTunes”. Finally, drag your video file(s) into the main window and press “Start”. The time this process takes depends on a wide variety of factors, source file size, original format, quality settings, etc. When it’s done, it will automatically import it to iTunes, ready to copy to your device.

Tool 3 - XGrid
When you were using VisualHub, did you notice a checkbox labeled “Xgrid Encoding”? This is probably the most interesting feature of VisualHub, but it does take a bit of preparation. The first thing you will need are additional Apple computers on the local (wired) network running OS X 10.4. The more computers the better, although even a single Macbook can speed encoding times up significantly. So how does this work? Well, the short answer is it spreads the encoding out to several machines, assigning each one a small piece of the work. More machines = more power = Faster encoding times. Let’s get started, shall we? Your first step is enabling the Xgrid controller on your “main” machine. This will be the computer with the video file and the installed copy of VisualHub. To do this you will need the XgridLite application. Go into “System Preferences”, under the XgridLite preference pane and click “Start”. Next, you will need to enable Xgrid on each computer you intend to use, including the main computer. To do this go into System Preferences, Sharing, and select Xgrid. Click “Configure”. For the Controller, select the name of your main computer (it should be the only Xgrid controller available). Under “Agent accepts tasks:” place a check next to “Always”. For “Authentication method”, choose “None”. Press OK, and click “Start” to turn on Xgrid sharing. Repeat this for each computer. This next step is optional, but highly recommended. Download the Apple Server Admin Tools, install Xgrid Admin. Start your VisualHub encoding session again, but this time place a check in the box labeled “Xgrid Encoding”. If you installed Xgrid Admin (optional), open it up. It will ask you to select the controller, which is your “main” machine. Click “OK”. You will see the total number of “agents” (each machine connected to the Xgrid) as well as the total Xgrid CPU power. Back in VisualHub, click “Start”. It will begin doling out the jobs, and if you are watching the Xgrid Admin, you will see the tasks being handed out to each computer. There is a down side to this, because of the nature of the Xgrid, the status bar in VisualHub doesn’t continually update, not providing you with an accurate estimate to the time remaining. A small price to pay for really fast encoding. And just how fast is it? Well that depends on a lot. I conducted an informal benchmark using the same file. On my iMac it took 27 minutes, my Macbook took 42 minutes, and then the XGrid encode took 11 minutes. Your mileage may vary, but if you have the resources it’s worth trying.

Tool 4 - FFMpegX
VisualHub is great and all, but if you have only one machine, it may not be worth the purchase price (An affordable $23.32 USD at the time of writing). So what is the alternative? FFMpegX. At the very heart, FFMpegX is just as versatile as VisualHub, but it’s lacking a lot of the polish. I won’t go into detail about using it, but once you’ve gotten it installed the interface is fairly intuitive so you should be up and running in no time.

by Christian Sullivan

What is Xgrid?
Xgrid is the name given to software developed by Apple’s Advanced Computation Group that will allow a group of networked Mac OS X computers to distribute computing workload. It was originally created to allow researches and scientists to perform intense calculations using a low-cost grouping of machines.

What is H.264?
H.264 is a standard for compressing videos in such a way that they are able to retain (near) DVD quality at very low bit-rates. It has been adopted by Apple as the defacto standard for video on all of their devices. In addition to providing small file sizes in iTunes, H.264 (also known as Mpeg-4) is responsible for the super-clear iChat AV video conferences.

Leopard
Starting with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Apple has launched Xgrid 2. The new version of Xgrid will have a feature called “GridAnywhere”, allowing for ad hoc Xgrids to form without a specific controller, as well new features optimizing Xgrid computation and prioritization.

Links:
Handbrake - handbrake.m0k.org
VisualHub - www.techspansion.com/visualhub
XgridLite - edbaskerville.com/software/xgridlite
Apple Server Admin Tools - 
www.apple.com/support/downloads/serveradmintools1047.html
FFMpegX - www.ffmpegx.com

Additional Resources:
MacTheRipper (Alternative to HandBrake) - www.mactheripper.org
Enable AppleTV as Xgrid node -
wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/How_to_enable_your_AppleTV_as_an_Xgrid_node

Apple’s iPhone: Not So Green

In the October Shuffle issue you could read about Greenpeace’s campaign “Green my Apple”, which is an attempt to make Apple and other big electronics companies produce their products and services in a more environmentally friendly way. In this article Zeina Al Hajj from Greenpeace International says, “Steve Jobs in his announcement [from May 2007] said this is a first step and more should be expected in the future. Apple has made a positive step by becoming more transparent about their environmental policies and their plans in the future, but Apple is still far away form being a green company. Their products still contains some of the worst hazardous chemicals like BFRS (brominated flame retardant) and they still use the plastic PVC. We still expect improvements, and hope that Apple soon will put on the market a green product.”

Apparently, Apple didn’t deliver on that with the iPhone according to Greenpeace, because in October Greenpeace released another report (www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/iPhones-hazardous-chemicals.pdf), this time targeting Apple’s iPhone. The report states, “… half of the components analysed did test positive for bromine, in three cases at over 1% of the total surface chemical composition of the material, suggesting continued widespread use of either additive or reactive brominated flame retardants.” Greenpeace continues, “The presence of antimony in four of the components raises additional concerns.” In the report they also state that a “high level of chlorine was detected” and they conclude, “The fact that a product brought newly to the US market in June 2007 still utilises PVC and brominated flame retardants (even if not those BFRs regulated under the RoHS Directive) suggests that Apple is not making early progress towards its 2008 commitment to phase out all uses of these materials, even in entirely new product lines.”

Apple did give a brief statement to MacWorld (www.macworld.com/news/2007/10/15/appleiphone/index.php?lsrc=mwrss) following Greenpeace’s report on the iPhone. A spokesperson said, “Like all Apple products worldwide, iPhone complies with RoHS [Restriction of Hazardous Substances], the world’s toughest restrictions on toxic substances in electronics… As we have said, Apple will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008.”

In the UAE, 7Days noted (www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=60067) that another environmental group, the Centre for Environmental Health in Oakland, California, is threatening to sue Apple if they don’t clean up iPhone within 60 days. It seems the saga of Greenpeace versus Apple Inc. continues.

by Magnus Nystedt

Web Sites For iPhone

Really, the title should read “Web Sites for iPhone and iPod Touch” but it becomes too long to write so I settled on just iPhone. But these sites should also work fine on the iPod touch since it has the same version of Safari we find on the iPhone. I was almost finished with this article when Apple on October 10th launched a web site for iPhone web applications (www.apple.com/webapps). I’ve tried to keep this a fairly compact list of sites that I’ve used myself. In fact, most of them I use on a regular basis.

GMail (m.gmail.com): The storage space with a GMail account has just increased which makes it even more attractive to use Google’s email service. Unfortunately, with the mobile version you don’t have access to all the features of the full version, but you can search through all your emails and get to all your contacts. All in all, it works very well. You can also set up GMail as an IMAP account with the Mail application on iPhone.

Google Reader (www.google.com/reader/m): If you’re heavily into following RSS feeds like me, then Google Reader is a must. This mobile version gives you all you need to keep up. What I do when I see a post I want to follow up on later is to add a star, then I check the list of starred posts when I’m back on my Mac. Since this is a web application, it keeps a record of what you have or have not read synchronized between devices and computers.

Google Calendar (calendar.google.com): This is probably the least developed version of a Google application, but it still allows you to at least check your calendar on your iPhone. You can add events to the calendar from the iPhone, but the functionality is very limited.

Google Docs (docs.google.com/m): Just released is this mobile interface to Google Docs, which I use a lot. It’s a bit simpler than Zoho (see below) and you can’t edit documents, but at least you can view them on the go.

Meebo (www.meebo.com): If you’re really into Instant Messaging (IM) Meebo is a must. It’s a web site which lets you log into any number of IM services at on time. The iPhone version is really nice and the accounts are the same ones as in the full web client.

Amazon (www.amazon.com): Amazon has also done a great job making their site iPhone compatible. You can search for products and also get access to your account.

Zoho for iPhone (www.izoho.com): If you’ve tried Google Docs online and you’re not quite happy with the functionality of something, try Zoho. Zoho’s Writer, Sheet, Show, and Creator are available on iPhone. You don’t seem able to create new documents from the iPhone, but you can access existing documents. However, I’d stay away from Zoho on the iPhone if you’re on EDGE; it’s just too slow. Although on WiFi it’s perfectly usable.

Digg (digg.com/iphone): Digg’s iPhone interface is, if you forgive me, delicious. It shows you the latest stories and lets you “Digg” them if you like what you see. It’s a simple but effective interface that’s really well adjusted to the iPhone.

FaceBook (iphone.facebook.com): We finish off this short list with the reigning king of iPhone sites, the one that all the others have to play catch up to. It makes perfect use of the iPhone’s characteristics and it’s easy to use by just touching the screen. It’s also fast, even on a slower connection.

We invite you to share these sites with the rest of us at www.emiratesmac.com.

by Magnus Nystedt

How the iPhone changed (almost) everything

Some time in the future, when we look back at this time, we’ll probably think something like “remember when the iPhone was launched, how it changed everything?” Perhaps it was the same way when the iPod first arrived, but I doubt it, because I’m guessing it would have started selling here officially not too long after it was out in the US. And there would have been none of this unlocking stuff going on. The iPod obviously changed a lot of things for Apple. It gave Apple a product that could be sold in a lot of places that would not have thought about selling Apple products before that, and it brought a whole new set of customers to Apple. The famous - or infamous - “halo effect”, whether it’s real or not, at least is an interesting concept to consider, meaning whether by selling iPods to customers, the same customers may also be interested in buying Macs. Now a similar thing is happening, where new customers are being brought to Apple and this time it’s the iPhone. The iPhone is a different beast than the iPod though. For one, it’s in most customers’ minds a mobile phone. This means that a lot of people who would not care about an iPod are interested in iPhone. It also means that Apple is now playing in an industry that they’ve not been in before, and some people would argue, an industry that they don’t understand. With the iPod, Apple depended to some degree on the music and movie industries, but with the iPhone, at least the way Apple has gone about it, they depend on mobile phone operators like AT&T, O2, T-Mobile, and Orange. What that means in terms of bringing iPhone here, we still don’t know. So far iPhone has been launched in countries where most mobile phone customers have monthly contracts and handsets are subsidised by operators. Not so in the Middle East, where most users are on pre-paid and there are no subsidised handsets. On EmiratesMac.com we’ve seen a direct effect of the iPhone arriving, albeit unofficially, in our region. A lot of users are interested in the iPhone and many have bought it and unlocked it. We’ve also had issues with people wanting to sell iPhones. In terms of these sellers, many individuals and companies that would never have sold Apple products before are now selling iPhones. This means that a lot of people who have not been around Apple, Apple culture, and Apple users, are now exposed to those very things. And I think it can be a bit of a culture shock sometimes, for someone who’s not been around Apple fans, to get exposure to group of Appleholics. And I think we’ve seen examples of that right here on our site. I would say, and I may be wrong, that Apple fans are generally well-informed users, who have made a conscious choice to buy from Apple. It’s more likely that someone actively chooses a Mac over a PC, than someone choosing a PC over a Mac. The PC is kind of like the default or the standard, and to go away from that requires an active choice on the part of the user. And that’s a good think, I think. It forces the user to make a decision, which in turn means they should consider their situation more carefully. If the PC is the default choice, making that choice requires little or no thought put into it. This would then mean, arguably, that Mac users, since they’ve made a choice, are more conscious of their situation, what they have in terms of a computer, etc. Some in our community blindly accept anything out of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, but by and large Apple fans are really not the easiest customers to satisfy. We demand a lot from “our” company and their products they bring out, but we are also loyal. I am a long-time Mac user, going back to the late 1980’s. So I’ve been around through most operating system versions from Apple even way before Mac OS X, through the transitions from 68k to PowerPC to Intel, through Steve returning to Apple, etc. So it’s with that perspective I now look at what’s happening. And to me the iPhone is exciting, and it’s a remarkable product, but Apple to me is still at the core all about Mac, and I think the financial figures from Apple still backs this up. It’s the Mac that started it all and it’s still at the center of what they do. Most other products still require a Mac (or a Windows box) to perform certain functions. Publicly I’m not sure that’s the view Apple portrays anymore though, intentionally or not. They are doing great things with Macs still, but the big launches are iPhone, AppleTV, new iPods, etc. What changes this brings for Apple in the future we obviously don’t know, but my bet is that we’ll keep seeing Macs playing a critical role in Apple’s strategy. There will be other big launches like the iPhone, but Mac will always be there, at the heart of the whole ecosystem of devices that Apple is building up. So do you think that some day we’ll look back at what’s happening now and say that the iPhone changed everything? In the TV show “Heroes” there’s a character called Hiro. He can travel through time, and even stop time. From some point in the future, you travel back to today by using some of Hiro’s capabilities, what do you think your impressions would be of what’s happening?

iPhone: First Impressions

If you’re reading this, then you must have heard of the iPhone by Apple. Yes, the rumors were
true, for three years Apple has been secretly working on a phone that would change the way
we look at mobile phones. A phone that would revolutionize the mobile phone industry just like the iPod revolutionized the MP3-player market. Apple is well known for its elegant designs and powerful yet stable and simple software. So imagine the simplicity of their software, their integration, the most powerful operating system, and put it in the most incredibly elegant design for a mobile phone. The outcome is breath taking.

iPhone on display in Dubai
I wouldn’t say this just because I am an Appleholic, but because last month I was a few of the lucky ones to get my hands on an iPhone and test drive this one of a kind mobile phone. On July 15th 2007, approximately 16 days after the official launch of the iPhone in America,
the iPhone (unofficially) reached the UAE. I got online that fine morning, and logged on to
EmiratesMac.com where to my surprise, a post was made indicating that ProTech which is a
Apple reseller in the UAE had received an iPhone and had placed it in their store for display, for all to see and try out. I quickly changed my clothes and ran out the house, and drove from Abu Dhabi to Dubai just to see it. All I took with me was my camera to prove to others that I had really encountered this revolutionary phone.

The iPhone was waiting for me
As soon as I reached ProTech, I opened the door and found the iPhone waiting for me. It was like it had my name all over it, with a bright light glowing off of it, like it was something out of this world. I took one look at it, and I fell in love. The phone was perfect; there was no word to express how elegantly perfect they have designed this phone. The effort they have put on this mobile phone was worth the three-year wait. The first question that popped up in my head was, “If this 1st generation iPhone was so amazing, how do you think the 2nd and 3rd generation iPhones would be like?” After taking a few deep breaths and trying to hide all the excitement so I don’t look like a fool in front of the employees, I grabbed it, and felt every corner of the phone. I examined the phone like my life depended on it, and then when I was satisfied with what I saw and felt; I clicked on the Wake button and the screen turned on. My eyes couldn’t blink; the brightness of the screen was so intense that I felt like I needed sunglasses to wear just to navigate the iPhone. The resolution was remarkable, at 160DPI resolution this is the most crystalclear mobile phone display you will ever find. Did I mention the screen was 3.5-inches in diagonal? Well its screen was huge, the whole iPhone was a screen, there were no buttons but the home button in the bottom front of the iPhone. It used the most advance touch screen system ever made on a mobile phone; Apple Patented it and is called the multi-Touch display. The difference between it and the regular touch screen mobile phone and tablets out there, is that you can do multi gestures with your fingers to navigate through the phone and do your regular tasks without the need of buttons or even those no-good-of-anexcuse for stylus.

Unlocking
Unlocking the phone was one of the coolest ways I have ever seen; it redefines the locking methods made on any phone out there. With just a swipe of your finger from the left to the right, the phone unlocks and the main menu appears. And I’m not talking about unlocking it as in making it work on any operator. I’m talking about how to unlock it so you can start using its interface. The main menu is elegant and simple thought through, made for everyone to use with ease. Literally a two-year-old baby can browse the iPhone with ease, and that must have been the main aim of the iPhone. The buttons are nice and big. With nine icons in the menu and four icons at the bottom of the screen it resembles the Dock that you would find in Mac OS X. The iPhone Dock contains the main features that you might use a lot, which are the Phone, Email, The Safari web browser, and the iPod. Then comes the other great features of the iPhone, like SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Calculator, Stock widget, Goggle Maps, Weather widget, Notes, Clock, YouTube and the Settings. Each feature is so straightforward and easy to use. The best part of everything on this Phone is its way of navigating. With its amazing three sensors that Apple has built in the phone, it makes navigating through the phone and using all its features fun and cool for everyone to enjoy and bedazzled on what could be the next generation of mobile navigation systems. The three sensors are as follows: “iPhone’s accelerometer detects when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio. The proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.” (from Apple.com).

Multi-touch is a winner
But by far the most useful feature of all, and the reason this Phone could be a winner, is the multi-touch system embedded into its screen. When you scroll through your address book or through you music and even while browsing the web, your breath will be taken away and you might even purchase one of these amazing iPhones just for the sheer awesomeness of its multi-touch screen. If compared, I would say the multitouch screen on the iPhone is like holding a Nintendo DS Lite in your hand and looking at a 90’s GameBoy. The Gameboy has no touch screen, but that’s exactly my point. The touch screens on the regular mobile phones you find in the market are nothing compared to the new multi-touch screens on the iPhone. They could also be placed in a different category if possible. Most of the touch screen cell phones we know of today use stylus to navigate through the phone because all the buttons are so tiny to push with your fingers, and the graphical interface is horrible, especially mobile phones with the Windows Mobile OS.

Love the animations
Anyway, back to the iPhone. With just a flick of your fingers you can scroll through a list of songs or numbers, and when you reach the far top or bottom of your list it acts like a roulette-wheel, it is just too cool. I loved the animations that the applications do, like for example, when you type a note in the Notes application and decide you want to delete the note: When you click on delete it shows you some cool animation of the trash can being opened and the page of notes gets sucked right into it. Another cool animation is the camera app. When your in the camera application, the lenses seem like they are covered by an actual shutter, and that automatically opened when your in the app. The best part is when you take a picture the shutter closes and re-opens as if it’s a real camera exposing the shutter. These are very cool effects that would impress any soul that plays with it.

Keyboard is no problem
Now let me talk about the keyboard for a bit. A lot of critics and sheer mortals that use every day mobile phones were very worried about the virtual keyboard. Because of past experiences with regular touch screen mobile phones, everyone knows how horrible it is to type on a virtual keyboard and that you end up using the stylus because the keyboard’s virtual buttons are too small. Well, Apple has done it this time, I am pretty sure they have solved this problem, and now you never have to use a stylus ever again. The keys on the keyboard are large and clear. When you type it gives you a great typewriter effect that makes typing look so cool in an old school type of way. Apple has also embedded an auto correction while typing, that allows the iPhone to autocorrect what you type and after a while you get used to it and it gets used to you. Then it will adapt and know what your going to type next before you type the whole word. Pretty impressive isn’t it? I sure was impressed when I was able to type just as fast as I would on a physical Qwerty keyboard on a mobile phone.

Stunning and outstanding
Over all, for a company that has never entered the mobile phone business, and for it being a 1st generation Phone, Apple has done a stunning and outstanding job and might prove them selves worthy of being the most innovative company in history. And if iPhone is just the beginning, I bet my life that by the end of next year Apple will get its 1% mobile phone market share that they are aiming for. I even have a feeling that Nokia, Sony and every other mobile phone company out there will learn from Apple and might even follow Apple in to making the next generation cell phones.

You can see a video of MJ with the iPhone at http://www.emiratesmac.com/forums/blog/3075-video-iphone-dubai.html.
by Mohammed Jawad

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