Why I won't be getting the iPhone5

The hype is over, the big release has taken place and I think it is safe to say so many of the apple nation are more than underwhelmed. We knew everything about this phone before it was released. No NFC, no more google maps (replaced with a lackluster apple attempt at mapping) and no real wow factor. You do get an A6 processor and some more screen real estate but that is about all. Brian Tong said it best on the CNET podcast I watched called the Apple Byte: The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the best phone on the market. It's hard for an apple fan to say that but it is true. Apple used to pride themselves on thinking differently. Now they are quite frankly in the past. The droid platform had 4G over a year ago (an ETERNITY in cell phone time) The droid had turn by turn navigation since the very start of their platform. What Apple has is the exclusive apps to their credit. They are the modern celebrity who has all the popularity that all the kids love. Well trust me when I say I am keeping my Iphone 4S. At least I have Siri and I won't have to get into a new contract or lose my unlimited data plan (curse you Verizon!) for the subsidized price. Apple will sell millions of Iphones I am sure but one less in my household. If you have the 3GS or god forbid an even older version it just makes sense to upgrade. But otherwise it isn't really worth it. I am going to be saving up my pennies in antictipation for an iMac refresh. Will someone do me a favor however and let Apple product design know that people still like their CD drives? I couldn't stand that they got rid of the optical drive on the Macbooks and the Mac Mini's. I suppose that I am stuck with my windows machine for the moment. Still waiting for Apple to WOW me away with a decent deal or price. Appears  I will be waiting for a while =0)

iOS6 Beta 4

I have officially reloaded iOS6 back onto my ipad. It seems in the new beta 4 released last week some basic bugs are seemingly fixed. I now have no issues downloading the 4 pod casts I listen to weekly. I still have an issue downloading any of the books I have purchased from the apple store. It refuses to sync at all. As a good backup I use the Kindle store for Apple. You would be surprised to find out how many books Amazon has available for free. It truly is a great service. Here is the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_ipad_mkt_lnd?docId=1000490441

because Apple has disabled the functionality to buy books within the kindle app, you will first have to login to your amazon account in Safari and purchase your book, then go back into the kindle app and sync your new purchase. Its kind of a pain, but again the better selection of titles makes it worth it

Link for the day

Today's link is my favorite all around nerd site Twit TV. I enjoy the podcasts for ipad Today and I5 for the iphone. I miss the glory days of Tech TV and these guys sort of help me relive them:

http://www.twit.tv

Some thoughts on iOS6

I have now been using ios 6 on both my iPhone 4S and my iPad 3 for about 5 days. For the most part the iPhone version gives me little to no problems. I am especially excited to see how passbook will work. I love that Siri posts to Facebook and knows a thing or two about sports. That all being said the iPad version has quite a few kinks to work out. I have had several stalls and app freezes that I quite frankly don't have on the iPhone. It actually got to the point where I had to roll back to ios 5.1.1. podcasts are one of my favorite guilty pleasures and they simply refuse to download or sync in iTunes. Not to mention the previously purchased section of the App Store is glitchy and clunky with no search functionality. I am running iOS 6 beta 3 on the iPhone and I love it. It's the best refresh of the iOS in a long while. More to come

My Reflections on the iPhone 4S

So I have been the proud owner of and iPhone 4S since Christmas. There was alot of hype about apple and it is honestly the first time I have owned an apple product. As you know from my previous posts my last phone was the droid R2D2 which was much more of a gimmick phone that simply lost its functionality somewhere along the way. I remember getting the white iPhone just before Christmas and being very impressed with its contoured design. Even the box and packaging were slim. It definitely has its share of pros. The apps are superb in comparison with my android experience. I have yet to experience a true stutter or force close on this phone. I believe that has alot to do with Apple controlling the platform and hardware. While some would say that's a bad thing, at least the developers know exactly what platform and hardware they are working with. This is the challenge andriod developers face because there are any given number og brands of android phones, all with varying hardware. I can also say that Apple just makes a superb product. There are countless apps and accessories available everywhere. The only thing I could find for my droid was a media dock and that's only because it came with one. In the plus column I am going to say that the android OS has the edge as far as customization options. The OS is far more rich then the IOS 5.1 experience I've had. The last thing I really have to touch on is Siri. This is the reason most people bought the phone as it was just a glorified Iphone 4 with some better hardware. Siri is definitely in a beta stage still and I think it is very unprofessional for Apple to release this as a selling point for their phone and have the system down as much as they do. I frequently hear from Siri "I'm really sorry about this, but I can't take any requests right now" Really? I would say so far owning a 4S has been a mixed bag. I love its compatibility with so many devices on the market and amazing quality of manufacturing. My headphones recently survived a trip through the washer and dryer and still sound superb. As far as the future and the iPhone 5 time will only tell if I will remain loyal to Apply or flirt with the Android goodness