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- iPhone 4 review: Sample photos
- Dell Streak: unlocked for any network
- iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S: Which HD video is better? You decide!
- Spotify iPhone app updated with multitasking, and more!
- iPhone 4 review: Electricpig staff opinions
- iPhone 4 competition: How to enter
- There’s something wrong with my iPhone 4: the signal’s fine!
- iPhone 4 review
- iPhone 4 review: New design
- iPhone 4 review: HD video and iMovie
| iPhone 4 review: Sample photos Posted: 28 Jun 2010 10:44 AM PDT 
Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review
The iPhone 4’s camera is typically simplistic. You won’t find shutter speeds, aperture, ISO or any of that complicated business here. There’re just a handful of controls, and the iPhone 4 takes care of everything else. For some, that’ll be a nightmare, but for most it’ll come as a welcome relief. Even the simplest smartphones, such as the thoroughly consumer-grade 6700 Slide from Nokia, clutter their viewfinders with function keys and pre-set shooting modes. Apple’s approach with the iPhone 4 is refreshingly sparse. Taking photos at a distance in daylight, the iPhone 4 produces colourful snaps that look rich and deep, but it’s in close-up that the results really shine. The iPhone 4 has an automatic macro mode, so there’s no need for fiddly function buttons found on other phones. The iPhone 4 automatically reduces its depth of field, adding emphasis and texture to your snaps. It’s great for still life, as well as portraits brimming with detail. The iPhone 4’s tap-to-focus function is neat too, springing into life just a second after your finger leaves the screen. The iPhone 4 does an admirable job of auto-focus, even when given a vague area to analyse. Unusually for a cameraphone, focussing also works just fine while shooting video, and you can even tap areas of a scene while recording, although you’ll get a bit of auto-focus wobble as the iPhone 4 adjusts its optics to find the best focal distance. Enough talk though. Check out the results in our gallery right here. Just click on the thumbnails to see the full, unedited JPGs in all their glory. Stills not enough for you? Check out the HD video we shot with the iPhone 4 below, too! iPhone 4 sample video: Outdoors from Electricpig on Vimeo. iPhone 4 sample video: Coffee with Electricpig from Electricpig on Vimeo. Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review Related posts:
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| Dell Streak: unlocked for any network Posted: 28 Jun 2010 10:01 AM PDT 
The Dell Streak unlocked will set you back a tidy £449 unlocked from Dell's European web store, although there's a finance option where you grab the Dell Streak now, but won't have to pay for it until June next year. The Android tablet set hearts aflutter in our Dell Streak review and even won a reader poll against the iPhone 4. Now, available in Carbon Black only, it can be yours fully SIM-free, unlocked and ready to run on any network. Assuming you can stomach the price, that is. Out now | £449 | Dell Related posts:
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| iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S: Which HD video is better? You decide! Posted: 28 Jun 2010 09:57 AM PDT 
You’ve already seen the iPhone 4’s video editing in action in our iPhone 4 review: HD video and iMovie section, but we wanted to compare the pair’s raw footage, so shot some with both and stuck them online for you to dissect. The videos are below, but you’ll need to click through to Vimeo to see them in HD – note we only had the two handsets in the building at the same time for just moments, so we’ve had to make do with two different scenarios for filming. iPhone 4 sample video: Outdoors from Electricpig on Vimeo. Samsung Galaxy S sample 720p video from Electricpig on Vimeo. It’s a tough call. If we had to choose, we’d say the iPhone 4’s footage is slightly sharper than that from the Samsung Galaxy S, although it doesn’t handle motion any better. What you can see in action on the iPhone 4 though is refocusing on the fly, something the Samsung Galaxy S lacks. On the downside, the iPhone 4 won’t let you upload videos to YouTube in HD (or watch them in high quality either for that matter) from the phone, which is a tad disappointing. You’ll have to cull 720p footage from the handset when plugged into a computer. Is that a big deal though? Which do you think is better? Vote in our poll for the iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S and give us your thoughts in the comments below!
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| Spotify iPhone app updated with multitasking, and more! Posted: 28 Jun 2010 09:32 AM PDT 
Announcing the new version of its app in a blog post, Spotify also hinted at a surprise new feature: "We know that many of you have been waiting for an update to our iPhone app that supports the latest iOS 4 and background listening. We're happy to say that an updated app has been submitted to Apple for review. Hopefully we'll get a speedy approval and to make up for the extra little wait time we've added a nice little surprise to make Spotify mobile even more exciting for you, stay tuned!" Whatever could those tricksters have slipped inside the Spotify iPhone app? Give us your predictions below. Ours is Social Networking features, just like the desktop Spotify. TBC | £varies | Spotify Related posts:
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| iPhone 4 review: Electricpig staff opinions Posted: 28 Jun 2010 09:08 AM PDT 
Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review James Holland, Electricpig.co.uk editor (Our iPhone 4 review author) Is it the best phone ever made? I think it probably is. Not because of the specs, but because of the fit and finish, from software to hardware and all the little bits in between Apple likes to call “the experience” – they’ve included enough enhancements to silence the haters, and enough new software trickery to lure in the fanboys. It’s the perfect balance. So much so that the only criticism left is that holding it a funny way makes the signal strength dip. A bit. Good luck with that argument, I’ve been using mine normally for days, and have yet to drop a single call. Maybe you really are holding it wrong. Ben Sillis, Electricpig.co.uk reviews editor But the reason I’ve not bought an iPhone up until now still persists with the iPhone 4. I’m still concerned about the lack of transparency Apple gives with approvals on its app store. I’ve noticed it less recently, but the run ins that butchered Google Latitude and Google Voice on the iPhone made me supremely uneasy. Likewise Apple’s complete readiness to throw developers under a train and boot all the bikini babe apps off iTunes, as crass as they were. Perhaps there simply haven’t been as many high profile incidents recently, since Apple’s managed to kill off innovation on its platform already. Certainly Apple needs to break out of the paradigm of individual apps only for iOS 5, and finally open the door on widgets. Sure, you can make a pretty decent HTML5 web app these days if Apple doesn’t play ball. But the problem extends to Apple’s potential editorial censorship on the iPhone too: note the case of a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist having his app turned away for mocking the President. I’m sorry, but Apple has no business vetting this – make an adult lock and then step away. Until this changes I probably won’t be buying the iPhone 4 either. I’m waiting for the first Android 2.2 ROM or update to hit the Dell Streak and getting one ASAP. Still, if anything can make me overturn my principles, it’s the iPhone 4’s screen. One word sums it up better than reams of text: Damn. Just damn. Jennifer Allan, Electricpig.co.uk reporter That's mostly because it's a phone which is terrible at performing what could be said is its most fundamental function: making phone calls. One friend said it was the worst phone he'd ever had, but the best "phone" he'd ever had. Those inverted commas mean a lot. A device that does not do what its name defines it as doing has been the most successful products launch Apple have ever had. But perhaps our devices, like us, have evolved past the need for basic functions like making phone calls, just like men no longer hunting wild animals. It's just a bit, well, primitive. Don’t you think? Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review Related posts:
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| iPhone 4 competition: How to enter Posted: 28 Jun 2010 08:37 AM PDT 
The premise behind our iPhone 4 competition is simple: just check out the terms and conditions on the entry page, follow the short steps and explain why you deserve an iPhone 4. Coming up with a reason that betters tales of tragedy, ballads and even pictures literally painted by words might be a bit trickier, but if ever there was a motivation to top them, a free iPhone 4 would be it. Enter our iPhone 4 competition: just click here! Related posts:
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| There’s something wrong with my iPhone 4: the signal’s fine! Posted: 28 Jun 2010 08:36 AM PDT 
Wherever I go online, I'm being told the iPhone 4 has a problem with its signal. Apple’s even prepping an iOS software update to address it, yet I've been using mine since Thursday without a single issue. Sure, I've had less than full signal a few times, but I've also had no dropped calls. Not a single one. That's better than my old iPhone 3G managed in its first 24 hours of ownership. Maybe it's my hands that're the problem. I've tried moistening them and clasping the iPhone's lower left side ever-so-hard… but the most my Vodafone signal did was dip to two bars. I squeezed. I shouted. I even did a rain dance. But it wouldn't drop signal completely. Maybe Vodafone have surreptitiously slipped a base station into my garden shed. Now, I'm not a technical expert in cell towers and signal strength, and I'm not saying the internet's lying. The internet never does that. But apart from a few "let's see if there's any truth in this" moments, I've summarily failed to floor the iPhone's signal meter, losing only a little bit of strength now and then, as I'd normally expect. I even mentioned this in our in-depth iPhone 4 review. Is it me? Am I wrong? Do I hold my phone in a freakish way? Or have I taken the grown up attitude, stopped fretting about what (if anything) is a tiny flaw in an otherwise astounding phone, and got on with using the iPhone 4 as I normally would. I'd love to know if you think different. For reference, here's a picture of me holding my iPhone 4. Normally. Pointing at it is optional, and does not affect the signal. Related posts:
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| Posted: 28 Jun 2010 07:55 AM PDT  The iPhone 4 is here. After more leaks than a St David's day in Cardiff, the dust has settled and the iPhone 4 faces closer scrutiny than any mobile before it. Is Apple's Retina Display really sharper than a whittled lemon? Does FaceTime revolutionise mobile communication? And can that all-glass design stand up to usage tests as well as it does oggling? Read our full iPhone 4 review to find out.
We've looked forward to the iPhone 4 more than any other gadget this year, and for good reason: Where the iPhone goes, rival manufacturers soon follow. The original iPhone ushered in unibody metal cases soon echoed by the likes of HTC. Without Apple, multitouch may never have made it to mobile handsets beyond LG's original, and pre-iPhone, Prada handset. When it comes to apps, Steve Jobs' baby continues to lead the charge, and make tsunami-sized waves across the tech industry. With the iPhone 4, however, Apple has made some serious leaps forward. Gone are the days of iPhone 3GS speed increases and minor capacity boosts. This is an all-new iPhone 4, with a re-jigged OS to boot. Almost everything inside the iPhone 4 has been upgraded. From the newly high-res 5 megapixel camera, to the accelerometers, augmented with a new six-axis gyroscope. And despite that, the iPhone 4 is slimmer than its predecessors. Sure, it's boxy and feels a little heavier than the 3GS, but it's all an illusion. Gone are the gentle curves, and in their place is a newly crisp aluminium and glass monolith. Unlike any other, this iPhone means business. Previous iPhones have been criticised for packing a weedy camera, no flash, or lacking video calling. The iPhone 4 knocks those doubts out of the park in a flash. Its new FaceTime video-calling, while Wi-Fi only at present, is ludicrously good fun and entirely setup-free. Simply phone a friend and assuming you're both hooked up with Wi-Fi, one tap is all you need to see their mush full-screen. You can even flip the image and show them what you're seeing, or drag your own face around the screen to stop it obscuring the view. The camera too is capable of HD video – for more on it, read our full iPhone 4 review: HD video and iMovie to find out more. Several readers had doubts about the iPhone 4's antenna and battery life, and while we've covered the former in our iPhone 4 review: New design, the latter seems on par with an iPhone 3GS in mixed daily use, and significantly better when in standby. We barely used our iPhone 4 last Saturday, and were pleased to find it still brimming with battery by Monday. Call quality too has been improved. The iPhone 4 seems louder, less wishy washy and clearer than Apple's earlier efforts. You could pin that improvement on its inclusion of a secondary mic for noise cancellation, but it still struggled a little as we made a call from a hectic train station. Underneath it all is the brand spanking new iOS 4, which looks sharper and quicker than ever, thanks to the iPhone 4's Retina Display. We've reviewed the iPhone 4 screen separately. It's that good. But the iOS software is what really makes it shine. Neat tweaks, such as folders and ultra-simple multi-tasking make the most of the iPhone's resolution and speed. Yes, it's another iPhone, more of the same, with improvements and upgrades dotted around. But Apple has succeeded in making a phone we're so familiar with feel fresh and new. There are niggling annoyances, such as the still-sluggish iTunes syncing, and the iPhone's inability to pick up where it left off syncing if you're interrupted by a phone call. FaceTime too is in its infancy, and easily confused if both participants instigate a video call at once. Likewise, HD video recording, while jaw-dropping, gobbles memory quicker than a fat kid at a cake sale, but they're all minor points: there really are very few major sticking points when assessing the iPhone 4. Quite simply, the iPhone 4 is the best performing, best equipped, most well-rounded mobile phone ever made. Apple has silenced its critics, out-performed itself, and above all created an iPhone that will keep its competitors following its lead for another 12 months at least. Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review Related posts:
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| Posted: 28 Jun 2010 07:54 AM PDT  The iPhone 4 is Apple's most revolutionary, and divisive design to date. At first glance, it appears to be a single slab of glass, encircled by a solid band of steel. It's a love letter to minimalism, and one the father of modern industrial design Dieter Rams would have been proud to call his own. Does function match its form? Read on and find out in this part of our iPhone 4 review.
The iPhone 4's external appearance is more than a reduction of extraneous buttons and a glossy facade though, it's a technical feat of engineering too. By replacing the front and back panel with a single sheet of glass, which runs all the way to the edge of the handset, Apple has lost almost all of its front and back mounting points. As a result everything sits inside the iPhone, connected to that metal band, rather than slung from the front, back and sides. It's the key to its aesthetic, and the anchor holding the whole thing together. But there's a problem. That metal band around the outside isn't just decorative and structural, it pulls double duty as the iPhone 4's antenna, forming its 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi aerial. The different antennas are separated by black notches in the otherwise unbroken silver border. Much has been made of its cleverness of Apple designer Jonathan Ive's multi-purpose design, but it does harbour a flaw. Should your hand bridge the two sections of the shell/antenna in the lower left, it's possible that the signal will drop. Apple's official advice has, so far, been to "hold the phone differently" and while at first glance that might seem trite, it's a bit of advice that's worth heeding. We had to force ourselves to hold the iPhone 4 in a way that significantly hindered its reception. Holding the phone while on a call yielded almost no obvious degradation in signal strength. The flaw is most apparent when browsing the web, since you're more likely to cradle the phone by its base. Much has been made of the iPhone 4's antenna issues in online debates, but we're yet to have a single call drop, or lose signal at all without actively attempting to bridge the two antennas. It seems, for the most part, that using the phone as you normally would yields great performance. What's less impressive are the minor points of the iPhone 4's construction. To save space, Apple has used new Micro SIM cards, which shave roughly a third off the size of a current SIM. They're tiny, and at present, remarkably rare. Even if you buy a completely unlocked iPhone 4 from Apple, you might struggle to find a SIM card from the network of your choice: T-Mobile, for instance, don't sell them at all. Likewise, the iPhone 4's speakers are just as tiny, and tinny, as before. Sure, they're a marked improvement on the original iPhone, but where the 3G and 3GS offered up improved audio, their placement at the bottom of the phone, and inclusion of just one speaker, means it's still infuriatingly quiet at times, with calls easy to miss if it's nestled in a jacket pocket. There are numerous strokes of genius in the iPhone 4's construction though. The front facing camera is ideally placed, and seamlessly integrated into the glass frontage. The new volume buttons and silent switch are reassuringly clunky, as is the sleep/wake button up top. The old reliable Home button is just as much a peach as it always was, neatly recessed to accommodate your thumb without a second thought. If you can overlook the foibles, and in our opinion you really should, the iPhone 4 represents a monumental leap in mobile design. It's innovative, smart, and has looks good enough to stop traffic. Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review Related posts:
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| iPhone 4 review: HD video and iMovie Posted: 28 Jun 2010 07:54 AM PDT  The iPhone 4 hasn't just had a screen upgrade with its new Retina Display. Apple's new baby now sports a 5 megapixel camera, finally equipping it to crank out good quality snaps as well as HD video. Even better, Apple has re-tooled its iMovie app for iPhone, letting you snip, splice and show off those videos. Is this the new watermark for mobile movie making? Read on and find out in this part of our iPhone 4 review.
To accommodate its new features, the iPhone 4 has a completely revamped camera interface. There're buttons to switch its LED flash on or off, a toggle switch to flip between the front-facing, and rear-facing camera, and a semi-hidden digital zoom control, which springs into appearance when you touch the viewfinder. As ever, there's a switch to change from photo to video recording, and a shortcut to the camera roll image library. It's a simplistic interface, but one that makes the most of the iPhone 4's spacious screen. It's not cluttered, never confusing, and makes framing shots and clips a cinch. Mobile shutterbugs used to more customisation and tweaking will be irked though. There's no way to manually fiddle with the iPhone 4's image capture settings. If you're after a customised ISO, extended aperture control or even a choice of what resolution photos and video are saved in, you'll need to look elsewhere. All photos are snapped at 5 megapixels, and downscaled for emailing or uploading later on. Likewise, all video is recorded in 720p. In Apple's universe there's no space for low quality capturing, which means you may soon find yourself running low on storage space if you're a prolific video-monger. If you're prepared to have your iPhone 4's capacity gobbled up, however, the footage it produces is worth the sacrifice. In bright sunlight the iPhone 4 works wonders, producing rich colours and crisp edges. Unusually for a cameraphone, you can even change the focal distance while recording a clip. Tapping the screen changes the iPhone's focus point while still shooting. Slap down another £3 for iMovie, and the iPhone 4 becomes a true portable video editing suite. The app lets you drag in footage and photos (which are automatically treated to a Ken Burns Effect, with slow panning and zooming), while themes automatically add transitions and music. iMovie for iPhone 4 isn't without fault though. Sure, it's slick and much faster than you'd expect, but transition styles are limited, and there's just a handful of themes. Likewise, it's not possible to name your projects, instead iMovie tells you when they were created and shows you a thumbnail. There are grin-inducing features aplenty though. Some themes pick up geotagging information from the iPhone 4's camera, and plot the location of clips onto maps. It's a little cheesy, and ever-so-slightly pretentious, but it's a neat trick we just couldn't resist using. See our sample video below, and you'll see what we mean (You’ll have to click through to see it in HD on Vimeo). Read the rest of our iPhone 4 review Related posts:
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Fancy a Dell Streak unlocked and SIM-free? You're in luck. Dell just slapped the Streak tablet up for sale without the shackles of O2’s network. It’s now available SIM-free from its online store. The price? Brace yourself…
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