Phone Tech Blog

It may take you by surprise, but the iPhone 4S only has 512 Mega Bytes (MB) of RAM and an 800MHz dual-core processor; this was verified by iFixit and Anandtech. Peoples’ first thoughts might be something like “How does Apple think they are going to compete with Android if they can’t keep up with their respective phones’ hardware specs?” The simple answer is the iPhone’s software. I’m not saying that hardware isn’t important; it most certainly is. The problem with many peoples’ conception of mobile phone technology is that they don’t fully understand the relationship between software and hardware, and this is a relationship that Apple seems to have mastered. The second you turn on an iPhone and play around with it, you realize that the software you are interacting with is vastly superior to its Android and Windows Phone 7 counterparts. The smoothness of the interface is unmatched and every little detail throughout the operating system is taken into consideration to maximize efficiency and simplicity for the user. No one does this better than Apple.

In a world where all we hear about is the fastest processor and the most RAM, you would believe that the iPhone 4S, with the best performance of any phone available, has superior hardware to that of any other phone. Given the specs that were discovered about the new iPhone 4S, its software is really what should be getting some attention. The way that software interacts with its hardware has the ability make or break a system. The first step is to get everything to work. Once everything works, refining every part of the system is what separates the men from the boys. Throughout any phone’s operating system, there are countless little details in every nook and cranny that can be, and should, be refined to make the user experience the best possible.

Apple’s philosophy is simple: Start with how you want the user to experience the product, and work backwards from that point. It seems like common sense, but, surprisingly, Apple is the only company that really implements that idea in such a way that it sets the standard for the entire industry. That industry-leading attention to detail and efficiency trickles down all the way down to the crucial element that is the software-hardware communication. There are a few reasons that it is so extremely crucial to maximize efficiency.

The first reason is because it cuts costs. If you can do the same for less, it doesn’t make sense not to. 512MB/phone is a lot cheaper than 1GB/phone, and when multiplied by every iPhone manufactured, that’s a lot of money being saved. All of that extra money being saved can be invested in other things such as higher-quality materials to build each device, or it can just be stored into Apple’s 81 billion dollar reserve.

A second reason is because it saves battery life. The more RAM you add to a device, the more battery life is going to be drained at a quicker pace. This is because the bigger the RAM is, the more addresses you have to power and maintain. If you have a 1-bedroom apartment, the electric bill is going to be a lot less than if you have a 2-bedroom house. The same concept applies to RAM. Having a slower processor also saves battery life. For the clock to run faster in a processor, it needs more power delivered to it to provide more cycles/second. Another way of looking at it is, if you want to drive your car 25 miles in 25 minutes, it’s going to take more gas (power) to do it than if you drove it 25 miles in 50 minutes. The iPhone is the Gold Standard when it comes to smartphone battery life. This has a great deal to do with the slower-clocked processor along with the smaller RAM.

A third reason efficiency is key is that, particularly in Apples case, you can keep older phones updated without worrying too much about them not being able to keep up with newer software. If you run iOS 5 on an iPhone 4 or 3GS, you won’t notice much lag throughout the phones operating system. Even though iOS 5 was designed with the iPhone 4S in mind, past iPhones were not forgotten. The ability for Apple to do this is made clear once you take the software written into consideration.

My third point can be highlighted by taking a look at Android’s Motorola Droid 1. I had this phone up until a month ago, and Android’s latest update available for most new phones, is not available for that phone. The only way to obtain it is through root but Verizon does not push it out. This is because the hardware cannot keep up with what Gingerbread, which is the newest update besides Ice Cream Sandwich. This is because Gingerbread is greedy and needs more resources than those offered by the poor, old Droid. While the two-year-old Droid is left out in the cold, the two-year-old 3GS is still invited to enjoy the latest update.

These advantages are passed on to the consumer. If you want a phone with the best battery life, as well as a phone that will always be up-to-date, you need a phone whose software is the most efficient; no one does that better than Apple. This is a big reason that Android phones will always be second best to the iPhone, and until Android catches up, it’s going to stay that way.

Picture Source: http://theopinion.in/android-ios-war-fanboys/

Iris is an app for Android that stands for ‘Intelligent Rival Imitator of Siri.’ As the title says, this is basically an Android application inspired by iOS’s Siri. After using iris for a couple of minutes, you can definitely see that it is in its alpha stage. From the questions I asked it, I noticed that it is mostly meant to learn facts taken from the internet, as well as clever responses when asked questions like “do you want to go drink with me tonight,” and iris politely responded “Yes I do.” It was difficult to find questions it would answer like that, a la Siri, because it mostly just searches the internet for answers. A good example was when I asked iris if it would marry me, it responded “Will You Marry Me? is the 1992 single by Paula Abdul.”

I also noticed it cannot access your location at the moment, so if you want it to find you a good restaurant or coffee place, you’re out of luck for now. It is important to keep in mind that it is in alpha, so if you want to give it a whirl, don’t expect everything you see your fellow iPhone 4S users enjoying. Yet. The developers are constantly working on it to make it better, and the first version came out just 8 hours after they started writing the code for it. It has come a long way since then, but still obviously has its limits. When you download it, you will also need to download Android Text-to-Speech synthesis if you haven’t already. If you haven’t, it will automatically take you to the market so you can install it. If you get a chance to check it out, let me know what you think below!

Picture Source: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dexetra.iris

Blackberrys were the smartphones to have in 2002. They had push email, internet faxing, and a good mobile web-browser for the time. They were the best smartphones up until the iPhone came out in 2007. They were still popular after the iPhone came out; then came Android. Android became huge after the Motorola Droid came out for Verizon in November, 2009. Both iOS and Android have been growing every year; Blackberry OS has not grown nearly as much. Blackberry phones have not changed very much since Blackberry OS 5. The hardware as well as the OS are pretty much the same and have not been able to keep up with the times.

The iPhone OS has not changed much since it came out in 2007, but it doesn’t need to change; iOS is simple, fast, functional, and modern. It does everything a smartphone should do, does it well, and looks great doing it. The same can be said for Android, though it is the opposite in the sense that it is constantly changing. Both operating systems never feel dated and always compete to give users the best possible user experience and performance. This is where RIM, who owns Blackberry, is considerably behind. Android and iOS can do everything a Blackberry can do, and then a lot more. A very important aspect in which Blackberry OS is considerably  weaker is the app market. The app market is a key element of what makes Android and iOS so much more functional in so many ways. The lack of apps limits the functionality and versatility that it provides the other to OS’s with. The only things that Blackberrys excel in is encrypted corporate email, Blackberry messenger, and their great keyboards. Android and iPhones are even offering safety measures for businesses and there are Android phones that have the same form factor and similar keyboards to those of Blackberrys.

After having these options with the two superior operating systems, why choose Blackberrys? I still have not been able to come up with a good answer. A lot of people are starting to see the same things and leaving the operating system for something better. RIM has also seen this and has tried different things to keep up. One thing they tried was coming out with an all touchscreen phone with four buttons on the bottom. These two phones were the Storm 1 and 2. These phones were plagued with bugs and were not a big hit. Nothing RIM tries to do seems to work. Blackberry OS 5, 6, 6.5, and 7 are pretty much the same thing. There are very little differences between them in functionality and appearance. RIM’s next effort to try to regain some ground in the mobile OS war was the Blackberry Torch; it was a good try, but it was too little too late. RIM always seems to be a few steps behind and has never been able to catch up.

Their latest phones look very nice, but they are not different enough or exceptional enough to draw users in. There is nothing appealing enough to draw people away from other phones to try a Blackberry. RIM’s saving grace is Blackberry Messenger. When I talk to people who love Blackberrys, they say that the main reason they use it is BBM. Without BBM, a lot of people change over to another OS. Now with iMessenger running on iOS, RIM is starting to lose ground there too. Soon RIM will have nothing novel to offer with their Blackberry OS, or even anything it does exceptionally better than the other leading operating systems. Their lack of innovation in the last 4 years is the reason that they can no longer compete and will someday die out.

Picture Source:

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-javelin-8900-smartphone-review

Yesterday morning I discovered a launcher for my Android phone that pretty much turns it into an iPhone from the homescreen. It’s called Espier Launcher. It takes all of your apps and displays them on your homescreen with a 4×4 grid and adds pages until all of your apps appear, thus getting rid of the app drawer. This also means no widgets, if you’re okay with that. You can also make folder the same way as with iOS, you simply drag one icon onto another and it creates a folder that you can name.

If you swipe to the very first page, you will find a search page that will search your apps and contacts, as well as the internet. If you swipe up on one of the home pages, you will find the app switcher found in iOS; it shows your most recently used apps in order from left to right; it only shows four at a time but if you swipe to the left, it will show you four more. If you open the app switcher and swipe to the right, you will find toggles for rotation lock(which works throughout every app), wifi, bluetooth, network settings, brightness, and sound. I’ve been using it for two days now and it’s definitely my favorite launcher. The developer did a very thorough job of imitating iOS and it’s definitely something to take a look at!

Picture Sources: http://www.androidrevolution.com/