I got to try one of iOS 5′s new features earlier today – wireless software update, because I left my cable at home. It was very simple, all I had to do was go into Settings > General > Software Update and begin! 

Wireless software updates only work when you’re connected to a WiFi network; not via 3G. You will get a message suggesting you connect to a power source, but that isn’t necessary as it only used 3% of my battery. The update is 44,6MB and shouldn’t take too long to download.

I admit, I got a bit nervous while looking at the status bar after the download and before the installation – I thought it timed out on me in the middle of the update; but all I had to do was be patient

The changelog is as follows:

1. Fixes bugs affecting battery life

2. Adds multitasking gestures for original iPad

3. Resolves bugs with Documents in the cloud

4. Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation (ha).

I’m two minded about the Nokia N9. While a lot of effort went into its design, Nokia itself have given up on the MeeGo operating system in favour of open source Tizen (not forgetting that Symbian is being replaced by Windows Phone). 

So if you’re seriously considering getting the Nokia N9, don’t expect a lot of new apps, or updates/support for current apps.

The Nokia N9 has 3 home screens: a feed which pulls information from social networks or RSS; the regular menu screen with apps; and a screen that shows your current activities (you can also terminate whatever is running in the background by holding the app down hard and killing it).

The phone has 3.9″ AMOLED screen, an 8-megapixel camera, records in high definition, displays video in a 16:9 ratio (widescreen), fitted with NFC technology, voice guidance in Maps and turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation. 

This is what you get in the box: 

A very minimal design box (looks familiar), a user guide, a USB charger, a plug point (with USB input), earphones and a silicon cover.

I got play around with the N9 for a bit and these are my thoughts so far:

LIKES

1. Design. A lot of effort went into the design of the N9 and it shows. It’s sleek, smooth, has rounded edges and there’s no traditional home button you’d find on a Nokia handset. It sits very comfortably in your hand and doesn’t slip.
2. Swipe gesture. To come out of an open app, you swipe from the bottom up. To close an app, you swipe from the top down (you can create this shortcut under settings). It’s a smooth process.
3. Comes preloaded with apps straight out the box. This is sort of becoming standard on tablets/smarthphones now. It really does make a difference; you can start playing around immediately and handy if you’re on prepaid / don’t have data bundles.

DISLIKES

1. The qwerty keyboard. The keys were too narrow and it took quite a while typing tweets. Auto-rotate works when typing SMSes but not in apps like Facebook and Twitter. Thus, typing a status update took longer than necessary. Also, going back to add a word to a sentence was a nightmare. It took quite a while for the phone to register this function.
2. Screen one pulls all your feeds. If you decide to turn this off (to save data), there is no way of clearing the screen. Old feeds from the day this feature was deactivated still displays on the screen. I went into every logical setting to clear old feeds, and have yet to find it.
3. The input to charge the phone is covered, so every time you want to charge the device, you have to open and close it. I found this impractical. It’s only a matter of time before it weakens/breaks.

When the Motorola MotoDefy landed on my desk for review, I was a bit busy with My Digital Life, so I passed it onto someone who could get a review up sooner than me. But I had some free time afterwards and the Motorola guys let me play with it for a bit.

I’ve reviewed Android handsets before, and know what to expect. I’m not a fan of Android on a tablet and think it’s more suited for mobile phone, because it’s more personal.

The phone is light and slim, and fits comfortably in my palm. The 3.7-inch touchscreen is responsive, most notable when scrolling through the seven home screens.

One of the first things I did was remove the YouTube and Weather app shortcuts, so that it doesn’t eat my data. The very first time I played with an Android phone, I lost about R90 in two days because of feeds being pulled “in the background”.

As you know, Android requires a Google account to access Gmail, Gtalk, calendar, Marketplace, etc. I’m not big on using IM from a phone, so I don’t login to Gtalk, unless I’m testing a phone, which is only for a few minutes. I wouldn’t recommend it though; it just eats data and battery life.

I also haven’t used a Motorola phone before and I think, like I did with the Samsung Wave, that the hardware cannot be faulted. Android is what makes this phone what it is, and frankly why Motorola is still making phones. It runs on Android 2.1. Also, you need to remember, it isn’t a high-end smartphone, but a mid-level one (also, shouldn’t be compared with high-end phones as such).

They got the looks right, with it being light and I like that the phone doesn’t slip from your hand. It sort of “grips” into your hand.

The handset comes with MotoBlur, Motorola’s interface for the handset, just like the HTC Sense for HTC handsets. It is social network oriented and pulls your social feeds (email, news & weather included) all in one place. You need to create an account to use MotoBlur.

The phone has a decent 5-megapixel camera as well as camcorder, which isn’t too fancy – good enough to upload and share on social networks.

What I didn’t like about the phone is that the charging slot and 3.5mm jack is covered, and each time you need to use it, you have to uncover it. Can be a bit of a bother, but it is there because it is water resistant.

The screen is resistant to scratches by a technology called “Gorilla Glass”. It’s nice if you have a tendency to knock things about, or if you’re just clumsy.

In conclusion, I’d say this is a very good mid-range smartphone and should preferably be taken out on a contract – you don’t want sky-high data charges especially if it’s not controlled.

Technical specifications can be found on the Motorola website.

I haven’t blogged in a while as I’ve been really busy. Here’s a review I wrote which was published on My Digital Life.

I’d never used a Samsung phone before the Wave landed on my desk. All I knew about the phone was that it was Samsung’s first phone running the new bada operating system.

What Samsung got right was the Wave’s physical attributes – at 11mm thin and weighing just 116g, it’s very light in your hand, has rounded edges that feel good, and the screen is just amazing. Its slate form factor features three buttons: call, reject/power-off and main menu.

Screen

It has a 3.3-inch, 480×800 resolution AMOLED display, which has to be seen to be appreciated. It is crisp and colours appear vibrant. It makes you want to browse websites, play games and look at pictures, just for the sake of it. What Samsung has done with this capacitive touchscreen is put an anti-smudge coating on top of the scratch-resistant tempered glass. After extensive use, you will notice the lack of fingerprints, which makes all the difference.

Messaging

The first time I replied to an SMS on the Wave, I hit the send button unknowingly. Somewhere while trying to change a word from autocorrect, the message was already gone. What I found frustrating was having to add words to the dictionary if it didn’t exist – this, after typing the word and it being changed to something else. Overall, it was tedious composing SMSes, which made replying with a quick phone call a better option.

Camera / Video

The five-megapixel camera takes really good pictures, both indoors and outdoors, with an outdoor visibility mode and an option of eight resolutions. Other features worth mentioning are anti-shake, and face and blink detection. Video is fantastic. The Wave is capable of recording in 720p HD quality, getting rid of the need for a camcorder.

Widgets

The Wave has multiple homescreens for you to add widgets and when you run out of space, it will add another, up to a maximum of ten screens.

As I’m not a fan of push e-mail, I selected the Gmail widget immediately – but was disappointed that it was not actually a widget, just a link to the browser.

The feeds and update widget works better at pulling your Facebook and Twitter feeds (for reading only), than the individual applications itself. While the Twitter app never loaded profile pictures from your stream, the Facebook app was buggy – it took a few tries for a status update and completely failed at uploading an image.

Connectivity

I had no problem connecting to my home WiFi and browsing the mobile web, but the biggest problem thereafter was that social applications by default used my 3G connection. I went into settings and under applications, I could only choose my Vodacom 3G connection points. There was no option for selecting WiFi for applications.

I was overall impressed with the user interface; from sweeping the screen to unlock, and scrolling between different homescreens, it was very responsive. Although, for some reason, it took more than one try to answer and end a call.

The Samsung Wave’s hardware cannot be faulted – from looks to features, it’s what you’d want in a phone. However, there are little bugs in the OS that can be frustrating if you are new to Samsung – but can be overlooked by other good features.

IN SUMMARY

Good: Responsive; anti-smudge screen; excellent video recording capabilities
Bad: Apps limited and not polished; messaging is tedious
Rating: 7.5/10
Price: R4900.90
Contact: Retail outlets

SPECIFICATIONS

Dimensions: 118mm x 56mm x 10.9mm
OS: Bada
Processor: 1MHz
Display: 3.3-inch touch, 480×800 WVGA resolution
Memory: 1GB
Storage: MicroSD, expandable up to 32GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, HSDPA, USB
Other: Five-megapixel camera, 720p HD video recording, MP3 player, FM radio, games, 3.5mm audio jack.

I was invited earlier today to get a sneak peek of the Nokia N8. The handsets are prototypes and from the demonstration I was given, I was very impressed.

If you’re a Nokia fan, and have been waiting very patiently for a revamped operating system, then you won’t be disappointed with Symbian^3. Most noticeable was the fast and responsive user interface, when browsing through the 4GB music library, with cover flow.

The wow-factors about this phone is: 12MP camera, HD recording and playback (720p), the fresh Symbian^3 OS.

What really sets this device apart is the built-in HDMI connection and USB-on-the-go. Two very handy features that any smartphone could do with. Additionally, the HDMI and USB cables are included in the box.

The N8 has 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen with a 640×360 resolution, comes with 16GB built-in memory (expandable via micro SD up to 32GB), FM transmitter, FM radio, mp3 player, free walk & drive navigation with Ovi Maps and 3 customisable homescreens.

According to Nokia, the handset will retail for under R6,000 on prepaid, and will be available on contract, by October 2010.

More information on the Nokia N8 here.

I was playing around with some of my iPhone photo apps and ended up with a stunning result.

I took a normal picture using the standard camera i.e. no effects:

Then converted the pic to HDR (free app called HDRforFree):

And lastly, used the Camera+ app and applied the effect called “So Emo”:

I love the end result, it’s so dynamic.

If you have an iPhone, please share what your favourite photo / photo editing apps are.

I received the Nokia 5330 mobile TV edition phone last week and did not have high expectations for it; who would? To add to that, the instructions attached clearly stated that it is part of a pilot program with DStv and is currently not available in South Africa. Hence, pricing has not yet been determined. It also said to expect glitches.

For the testing phase, (I’m not sure if this is applicable after it launches), a Vodacom SIM gives you 6 channels and an MTN SIM gives you 8 channels. I ended up buying an MTN SIM for the extra channels. After the initial hiccup (the phone was not fully set-up on DStv’s side), which Nokia assisted with, I finally got to test it. And by that I mean, I actually got to WATCH TV on a cellphone! And I was impressed!

I did not expect it to be as clear as it was, probably because this was new to me. I don’t know what the standard is. The earphones have a built-in receiver that is based on DVB-H (digital video broadcasting-handheld) technology. You do not use any data while watching TV. In order to watch a channel, you have to “purchase” content, which lasts for a month, so you don’t have to “purchase” every time. I did not pay for this, which I suspect is where a cost will come in, once launched.

Excuse the pic taken with a camera, there was no app available to take a screenshot.

The screen is 2.4″ with a 240×320 resolution. Most people to whom I’ve showed it, responded with “such a small screen”. Uh, you weren’t expecting a 40″, where you? Given that you’re going to be watching from a close distance, you don’t need a large screen; although the screen could be slightly bigger, but I’d say it’s pretty decent.

If the price is right, I think Nokia might have a winner here.

*EDIT* – I incorrectly stated that the Nokia 5330 does not have 3G, but it in fact does. Thanks to the anonymous person who brought it to my attention.

I downloaded the iBooks app that was made available after iOS4 was launched (it’s free). I also downloaded a few free books, Winnie the Pooh, Macbeth and Dracula and two sample books: Why we suck by Denis Leary and Bro on the go by Barney Stinson with Matt Kuhn.

What I like about the app is that it works smoothly. You turn the page by swiping your finger across, much the same way you do other stuff on an iPhone. I don’t mind that it is small, you just need to adjust the font to a size you’re comfortable with. You can also adjust the brightness of your screen, and font type. To make it more “authentic” you can even switch sepia on. Cool feature, as displayed below.

I don’t buy phones based on their extras like GPS capabilities, so I wouldn’t say that iBooks is a reason to get an iPhone 4. It’s just a nice add-on, the same way you would enjoy your Facebook or Twitter app. It’s convenient.

While I do think the app is cool, I don’t think I will be purchasing any books. In fact, I’d probably download free ones for when I’m at the airport or on the plane, to pass time.

Anyone else got the app? What do you think of it?

I’ve compiled a list of my best / most useful / worth buying iPhone apps.

1. Dropbox – free
2. Hipstamatic – $1.99
3. Pano – $1.99
4. PS Mobile (Photoshop) – free
5. WordPress – free
6. Rock Band – $6.99
7. Plants vs. Zombies – $2.99
8. Doodle Jump – $0.99
9. Facebook – free
10. Tweetie  - $2.99 (Twitter to release it free as Twitter for iPhone “soon”)

If anyone reading this wants to share their favourites, please feel free to do so.

Note the crappy Vodacom signal I pick up at home and other places.

Just testing the WordPress iPhone app. I’ve included the last pic I took on my phone.