How the iPhone Changed the Mobile Industry

Today, the iPhone, taken as a collective for each generation rather than an individual version, is the most popular gadget in the world. When it launched in 2007, few people would have predicted that success, not least because Apple had never made a phone before, and was far from the behemoth it is today. Back then, Apple had found success with its iPod, but its Mac line of computers were far from a threat to Windows in terms of marketshare, and the presiding thought was that Nokia was just too big to have any competition, let alone from a company that had never made a phone. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone for lacking a physical keyboard thus not appealing to business users, and bragged about how Microsoft was selling “millions and millions” of phones. Unfortunately those phones were Windows Mobile, and I’ll be surprised if anyone on the planet has a good word to say about them.

There’s no denying it, the iPhone changed the industry. But why? It didn’t invent anything, touch screens were already around, although had not been adopted by the public at large; phones were already doing email, video playback, video calls. In fact, the first iPhone was lacking some serious features: Bluetooth file transfer, USB file transfer, multimedia messaging, multitasking, video calling, navigation, a camera that could take good pictures, it didn’t even have 3G connectivity. Despite this, it caught on and transformed the marketplace to such an extent that touch screens are now the overwhelming dominant style, and Samsung has built a lot of success copying that design. So what was it about the iPhone that made it so popular?

Simplicity. Unlike other touch devices before it, the iPhone was thin and sleek. It had consumer appeal. The operating system was easy to use, streamlined, and fast. While it lacked many features, what it did include were of a high standard – reading emails was now easier than ever, and accelerometer-based games grabbed everyone’s attention. There was no clunky interface, no trying to navigate a screen using a button to tell an invisible cursor where to go. Your finger touched glass, not plastic, and everything was only a click or so away. Then there were the apps – perhaps the main selling point for the iPhone, thanks to Apple’s “There’s an app for that” campaign. Again, Apple didn’t invent it, but it did perfect it. An easy to use App Store meant searching for and finding apps was a breeze, and developers saw the potential before them. There was a whole ecosystem to take advantage of here – downloading iTunes albums and shows straight to your device and then having the famous iPod interface before you was a breath of fresh air.

True to its tacit mantra, Apple has avoided copying much from other phone companies and instead followed its own path. While it did relent and include media messaging functionality, it still has refused to include Bluetooth file transfer, mass storage, or even adopt the universal micro-USB charging port. Instead, Apple looks at the last iPhone and decides on incremental updates to make that particular experience better. And it’s been incredibly cocky in doing so – the famous “You’re holding it wrong” from antennagate on the iPhone 4 and the “It’s normal” from scuffgate of the iPhone 5 may have left a sour taste in the mouth of some users, but it hasn’t slowed down sales. Apple isn’t lying when it says the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet – while there can be disputes over its technology not matching the innovation in other devices, it’s a step-up from each previous iPhone. With a larger screen, a faster processor, better graphics and large storage for all your media, there’s plenty for users to be pleased with. It’s the thinnest phone in the world, and impossibly light. Looking back to 2007 and the original iPhone, it’s come a long way and the ecosystem has never been better – there’s Apple TV, iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, a very good camera with 1080p video recording, one of the best screens in the world and now turn-by-turn navigation to try to match the competition. And unlike the launch of the first iPhone, with its exclusivity to O2, it’s now available on every network with an array of new iphone deals.

Book Review: Ghostwriter – Lissa Bryan

*Author Lissa Bryan will be answering questions on October 11, and there will be a giveaway of Ghostwriter for a random commenter. Click the sidebar link on the 11th to take part.*

A good book is about getting caught up in a story and forsaking reality for a few precious moments. With its combination of intrigue, romance and a truly idyllic setting Ghostwriter ticks all the boxes. My first piece of advice would be to avoid reading the blurb and delve right in, without expectations or knowledge of the plot. From the outset Bryan captures the imagination and you’ll quickly find that all awareness of the real world has gone.

Ghostwriter is the story of a work-weary English Graduate, keen to make her mark in the world of journalism. Lumbered with the dull task of ghostwriting a biography for an idiotic politician with minimal information or inspiration, Sara is running out of ideas and funds. Luck, or fate, offers her the chance to live on a quiet island in the cottage of her literary hero. Snapping up the chance she quickly becomes consumed with the history of the cottage and the traumatic circumstances of its owner’s death. She finds herself transported to events in WWI with a troubled ambulance driver as her companion and a deep desire to help heal both of them of their romantic scarring.

Sara is like any graduate and the problems she faces at the start are universal. Perhaps it is this harsh reality that really grounds the reader and helps them follow Sara unquestioningly through her journey of discovery. Any strong sceptics out there might not enjoy this novel for what it is: an escape into the world of writing and romance. It is not realistic, but it doesn’t have to be and wouldn’t work if it was. However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to relate to it. Anyone who came across an unknown novel at a young age and swiftly fell in love with that author and everything they wrote will be able to appreciate Ghostwriter and get lost amongst its pages, just like Sara did.

Film Review: The Night That Panicked America

The recent spectacle of a meteor shower tracing fiery trails across many parts of the UK’s night skies brought to my mind another group of meteors crashing into Earth in that wonderful H.G.Wells story, ‘The War of The Worlds’. This in turn induced me to seek out and listen to the original radio broadcast from 1938 (isn’t the Internet an amazing resource?), when Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air created history with their dramatisation of the story.

Now, I’m sure the majority of us have seen either the 2005 Spielberg blockbuster starring Tom Cruise or the much cooler (in my opinion) 1953 movie featuring Gene Barry. Of course, it goes without saying that neither film compares to Herbert George’s 1898 novel – for me, one of the most significant science fiction stories ever written – however, the earlier film benefits from being simpler and less overblown but no less impressive visually. It also tapped into that whole ‘red (communist) scare’ thing that was gripping America at the time of its release.

To really allow the genius of Wells’ writing to stir up your imagination though, turn off the TV, switch off your phone and lay back in a darkened room and listen to the radio broadcast that went out on CBS on the eve of Halloween almost seventy five years ago. It was such a spellbinding play that of the approximate six million who tuned in to the broadcast, over a million believed it to be a true Martian invasion and many of them actually fled from their homes in hysterical abandonment. And this brings me rather neatly to the film I’m recommending this time round – The Night That Panicked America.

Made in 1975 for the ABC Television Network this TV movie, starring Vic Morrow, Tom Bosley and Paul Shenar, recounts in docudrama style the broadcast from the point of view of Orson Welles (Shenar) and his Mercury Theatre associates as well as from several fictional groups of listeners from varying locations and social classes who all believed the broadcast to be a real Martian invasion.

The depiction of the broadcast itself makes this film worth watching just to see how radio professionals put together a show – actors in front of mics reading lines from pages of script while foley artists use the tools of their trade (and often some clever improvisation) to create the sounds to bring the story alive. To witness each and every one of them coming in right on cue is a pure joy. And once the broadcast is under way, then we get to see the poor, misguided listeners, the believers, those who had missed the broadcast’s opening line announcing the evening’s dramatisation of a novel. If they had heard this, they would have realised it was not real news bulletins they were listening to. There’s no doubt that the ‘on-the-spot’ reporting style of the radio play helped convince many that an invasion was actually happening and together with fact that in 1938, Americans were living in an atmosphere of tension and anxiety as Adolf Hitler steered the world towards its second global conflict, the play’s frightening premise simply fuelled the paranoia that was already running high in the country’s stream of consciousness. Indeed, some listeners thought the invaders were the Germans on a vanguard attack.

While this TV movie may exaggerate some of the panic (for entertainment’s sake, you understand), it’s not difficult to imagine just how wildly people might have reacted on that night. Remember, this was a time when news wasn’t as instant as it is today and with the radio being the only source of finding out what was going on in the wider world, hearing (never mind seeing) was believing. So, when we see a pair of farmers arm themselves with shotguns and head out into the surrounding countryside in search of the invaders and a wealthy household flee their dinner party with the family silver we can pretty much understand their actions even though we know they’re mistaken.

Another note of consequence – the Mercury Theatre on the Air was an unsponsored show at the time, and therefore there were no advertisement breaks during the play. The audience would have heard an uninterrupted report of a Martian invasion in real time with no clue that they were listening to a work of fiction. Naturally, it wasn’t long before the CBS studio started receiving calls from concerned listeners but the switchboard operators simply couldn’t believe that people thought that what they were hearing was real.

In the days following the broadcast, CBS was on the receiving end of a fair amount of flack over the incident with several newspapers and public figures describing the play’s ‘news-bulletin format’ as cruelly deceptive. The network was sued by many listeners claiming ‘mental anguish’ and ‘personal injury’ but all suits were dismissed save for one – a man from Massachusetts claimed for a pair of shoes he had bought to escape the Martians. Orson Welles apparently insisted the man be paid.

All in all then, this is an interesting little film made all the more remarkable for being a true story. The fact that the story revolves around one of the greatest sci-fi tales ever written, makes it, while not quite a classic, most definitely worth watching.

 

 

 

iPhone 5 “Scuffgate” & Lumia 900 Durability

Since the release of the iPhone 5, Twitter has had a new trend: Scuffgate. It’s not been the best week for Apple, with the company being criticised for its maps, and the camera suffering from a purple hue for many users. Scuffgate, however, refers to many users noticing how easily the new iPhone scratches and scuffs, to the point that some are even taking damaged iPhones out of the box.

The reason the iPhone 5 scratches easily is because it uses anodised aluminium, and Apple Senior Vice President of Marking Phil Schiller has described this as normal, saying in response to a user email that “Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.”

It’s not actually as normal as Schiller would like consumers to believe. Apple uses anodised aluminium for its Macbooks and iMacs, and they do not suffer the same problem. Nokia also uses it on its products E7 and N8, both of which are known for their ruggedness and durability. Aluminium itself may be a soft metal, but it is not “normal” for a phone to arrive scratched – if it were, Apple should have rethought the idea to use it. The real issue is that coating is very thin on the iPhone 5, making it particularly susceptible to scratches and scuffs.

 

For comparison, here’s a video of the N8 being deliberately scratched:

 

And while we’re on the subject of phone durability (and Apple’s lack of it), the Lumia 900 gets put through its paces to see how much damage it can take:

Frozen for 2 hours.

Cooked for an hour at 200F

Used as a hammer

Thrown from a moving car twice

Dunked in a pool

Results here: