Aidan Williams - High Acuity

Okay, come on, you knew I was going to get one!

I picked up an iPhone a few weeks ago and I have to say, it does have its shortcomings, and they could be considered significant: A 2 megapixel camera with no other features, settings or flash. Mono Bluetooth audio on a device that’s designed to play music. Edge and no 3G on a device that’s designed to browse the Internet. No expandable memory. No detachable battery. No multimedia/photo messaging. No front-side camera for video calls. No GPS. No Radio. No 3rd party applications (for the moment).

That’s a lot of very old technology for a device that’s supposed to be so technologically advanced. These issues are compounded by the fact that the iPhone’s direct competitors do have all of the very latest technologies in these areas and are sold at a fraction of the price, sometimes even given away free with a new contract. Such as the Nokia N95 with it’s 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, flash, great camera settings, stereo Bluetooth, and 3G. To add to this, the sound quality of voice calls isn’t brilliant, and there is a big difference between the sound quality on the iPhone and the Sony Ericsson phones I’ve owned.

Suffice to say; I am very disappointed with the iPhone’s shortcomings. Partly because I really like having a decent camera on my phone, and given all the hoo-haa Apple made about displaying photos on the iPhone, I would have thought the device’s built-in camera would have been more substantial/advanced, etc. But I’m also disappointed largely because Apple is usually so good at knowing what a new device needs in order excel in the modern market place, and in knowing what the public wants.

However, even with all these shortcomings, I have to tell everyone that the iPhone is absolutely stunning and it does all the typical mobile phone functions far better than any other device on the market. And the extra features that no other mobile phone has are all excellent as well. Three weeks in and I honestly can’t imagine living without this incredible device. I genuinely didn’t expect to be quite this impressed as I am, given that I’d read everything about it six months ago and was starting to feel a little bored with all the adverts, articles and press on it.

Even basic everyday functions, such as being able to walk down the street while listening to my music with the iPhone’s heaphones and knowing that I’ll be alerted to any calls, texts or emails is brilliant – and being able to answer calls without getting it out of my pocket … okay, maybe I’m getting excited over nothing – but this thing is awesome!

The iPhone shows an infinite amount of promise and I can imagine some absolutely incredible improvements and applications available on future generations, but I really do miss that great camera on my three-year-old Sony Ericsson phone.

As a side note, I also bought a family pack of Leopard for myself, my girlfriend and my flatmates and upgraded, and I love it as well! Definitely worth upgrading, especially if you’re working on OSX every day.

It’s a beautiful blue-skied sunny autumn day in London and Steve Jobs & the Apple team are at London’s Regent Street Apple store announcing the UK release date of the new iPhone.

Apparently the adverts for the iPhone which they showed at the beginning of the presentation are all rehashed versions of the old US ones with the O2 logo replacing the AT&T one and the Guardian website replacing the New York Times.

It seems everything about the presentation was slightly anti-climactic, although perhaps people got their hopes up a bit too much when they found out that Steve Jobs was coming to give the presentation, in expectation that it would be something even more special – the iPhone is exactly the same as the US one – no 3G and no bigger hard drive – they do have unlimited browsing data plans, but they only start at £35 for the cheapest plan and they’re not strictly ‘unlimited’ – 1.400 page views per day – which doesn’t sound too unreasonable unless you plan on using the iPhone exclusively as your Internet browser, and even then it’s not that bad (according to Google Answers the average Internet users see 100 – 150 pages per day).

In a country where we’ve become pretty accustomed to getting even the newest phones for free, or at the very least below £50 – £100, it’s difficult to weigh out the benefits of buying an iPhone.

I think if I buy one, it will be an extravagance relating to my enjoyment of using Apple products, and I think the vast majority of UK mobile customers will steer clear of the iPhone with it’s £270 price tag and £35 monthly tariff.

So what are the benefits?

Well I’ll be able to sync my iPhone with my 17” Macbook Pro, sharing addresses, phone numbers, calendar appointments, photos, etc – which I already do with my three year old Sony Ericsson K750i.

I’ll be able to surf the web and check email on a full colour screen, with full html email including images – which I can already do with my Sony Ericsson K750i, albeit to a far more limited degree and without the WiFi connection – but if I’m near a WiFi connection, that’s what my laptop is for.

I’ll be able to listen to my music and watch videos – which technically I can also already do on my current phone, albeit in a far less simple manner, on a far smaller screen. I have an iPod for that too, which sort of dwarfs the iPhones 8Gig memory, which will also be taken up by other things such as software.

I have to say, if you think rationally about it and ignore the ‘touch-screen technology’, which is obviously a huge plus for the iPhone, when you compare the actual technological real-life day-to-day advantages of owning an iPhone vs most other modern phones in Europe, it’s not all that mind-blowing or practical. And when you consider that most prospective iPhone users more than likely already own an iPod, that removes that element from the equation – and will also probably be more sensible, since using music and video, and all of the other extras on the iPhone will take away valuable battery life – the iPhone dock will definitely get a lot of use with these phones.

Quite a few prospective UK iPhone owners seem to be upset that it’s taken them this long to get the iPhone here, given that Apple have been so good at simultaneously launching their products internationally in the past. But the iPhone is obviously a-whole-nother kettle of fish, since they’ve had to find and partner with an appropriate provider.

The UK Market has been very good to Apple in terms of iPods and its computers, but I think Apple may get a slight shock from Europe when it comes to the iPhone. We’re not used to paying £270 for a phone and we will weigh-out the pros and cons of an iPhone vs the competition, before buying. Many are already saying they’ll wait for the 2nd generation iPhone and hope that it receives an International launch once all providers are established.

Having said all that though, anyone who knows me remotely, knows how much I love technology, and with undoubtedly the best mobile Internet and mobile email device on the market, you know I’ll more than likely pick one up at some point, especially considering I’ve purposefully not upgraded my old phone while waiting for the iPhone to be released. I’m sure I’ll find many excuses to convince myself to do so in the next two months before its release, but I will also be checking out the competition in the meantime.

Wow it’s been a crazy December, but it’s been great so far!

I had my appraisal at work on Thursday, with the two directors and the HR person. I was promoted from Lead Web Producer to Web Production Manager, got a raise and got the highest bonus in the company again for the fourth appraisal in a row (since I joined).

We had a fantastic company Christmas party that was a black tie Oscars themed night – everyone looked incredible. We had six Oscars, each voted for by everyone in the company: Best Dressed Male, Best Dressed Female, Biggest Drama of 2006, Biggest Chancer of 2006, Best Comedy Moment of 2006 and Most Profitable Person of 2006.

One of my team members, Oleg, won Best Dressed Male and definitely deserved it! I somehow won Most Profitable Person of 2006, so in my speech I said “I’d just really like to thank God, and my team! Chris, Oleg and Michele!”.

It’s amazing to think that this company was 20 people at the Christmas party last year and now it’s 40. The company has grown 100% year on year since it started, not always in terms of the number of employees, but always in terms of profit, and the career I’ve had in the company would seem like a fairy tale if it all hadn’t been so much hard work. Yes, the company has done well and I’ve done well at the company and so have many others, but we’ve all worked extremely hard for the company to do well and we’ve all earned it.

Don’t get me wrong! We know how to have fun at work, during work hours and after work hours, but we also know when we need to work extremely hard. It’s the fun we have that helps us to knuckle down to work when we really need to.

However, if I had failed in my task of creating the best production team on the planet, I would have been putting my entire family at risk – that’s just the way we roll at my company. Tough, but fair.

To celebrate another fantastic year, I’ve ordered myself a new laptop: I went to the Apple Online UK Store and ordered myself a new 17″ Macbook Pro and maxed-out on every option. 2.33GHz, 3GB Ram, 256MB Video Memory, 8x double layer SuperDrive, etc – although I did opt for the smaller, faster hard drive – I’ve already got a great external hard drive. It won’t be here till the beginning of January, but that’s fine!

Apple really should be paying me for promoting them – I’ve got 8 people in work and 4 people I know out of work to change from PC to Mac and buy Macbook Pros, over the last year.

I’m not a Mac fanatic per se, but I do like them a lot and how easy everything is with them. For me it’s about how much I enjoy using the operating system, as well as my own personal productivity and how much more work I can get done on my Powerbook than I do on a PC. But I do have a couple of friends who love their PCs and won’t even think of touching a Mac – which is fine! Each to their own.

Great Christmas moment:

A couple of weekends ago I had a great Christmas weekend with David and Will; eating, shopping and visiting the Christmas markets in Covent Garden. We met at Oxford Circus and when I stepped out of the tube station, it was snowing (real ice flakes). They were coming from the top of the Nike Town building and three acrobats were suspended over the Oxford Street/Regent Street intersection via big white balloons, floating/dancing to some mystical sounds that were being projected out into the streets.

It was a Christmas parade and soon afterwards, a group of elves (yes, real elves) came walking through the streets, playing drums.