Gary Cregan

Well there we go, I finally got one. After queueing at the Swords O2 from 5:50 a.m. on nothing but water and a nutrigrain bar, I was first in the door. Only six were available on the day so a few people had to go home disappointed.

The big question is….was it worth it?

Well in my eyes, of course it was! The retina display alone is enough to keep me entertained. There isn’t a pixel in sight. The phone has an unbelievable presentation in regard to pictures and icons. Even just sending a text is an improved experience, ever letter is just so clear! It is amazingly quick too. I have pushed this phone to the limit with every app I have and there is no lag! My 3G running 4.0 was having trouble opening the phone book let alone Pocket Universe or something a little more intensive.

I have so many good things to say about the phone, but first I will get the bad things out of the way. The battery doesn’t last very long. I have been doing some texting, playing Plants v Zombies and the usual Twitter usage and the battery is down to 30% by the end of the day. I’m not complaining as that 3G was the same, but I thought it was supposed to be better. Maybe its just the multitasking. But even if it is, I hate having to fully close every app that I open just for the sake of the battery. The second thing is more obvious, the antenna. Steve Jobs mentioned in the “Antenna-gate” press conference that people who are suffering dropping calls are more than likely in a crappy reception area as it is. I fully believe this, as I am in one of those areas. The 3G that I have been using for the last year has had problems with calls also. However I have noticed that the problem is slightly worse on the iPhone 4. I tried to dial a call this morning and it didn’t even try. Immediately jumped to no service. This happens at least once a day depending where in the house that I stand. As I mentioned this was a problem with a 3G, but it was never this sensitive. But I did notice one thing that might explain it. But its only a theory.

Ever since 4.0.1 has been released my 3G has been able to get a 3G signal. But it is literally one bar. Then drops back to EDGE. On the iPhone 4, the problem is that instead of dropping to EDGE it keeps going to no signal as I hold it in the infamous “Death Grip” position (well…that sounds dirty). So in an attempt to force a fix, I turned the 3G off. Now the phone is at a constant 3-5 bars on EDGE and there are no drops in calls or service. Weird eh?? Oh well. Now onto the good stuff.

I got the iMovie app nearly immediately after getting the iPhone up and running. It was lashing rain so I recorded a couple mins of it from different angles and put a nice little song to it. Awesome. And it looks the part, gorgeous and HD . I uploaded one of the clips to youtube via the Photos app (not the iMove app, I haven’t tried that yet) and got the following result.

It is all crappy and compressed. I hope the upload via iMovie allows for HD upload, I’ll let ya’s know!

But on the phone, in HD, the videos look amazing. The new camera does an amazing job. I am moving down to Galway in two weeks time. I think I will document the trip and bit and throw an iMovie thingy up on it. Should keep me entertained for a while.

As I said, I have only had a 3G before. So multitasking was new to me. And I have to say, I am so impressed. There are two things, Plants V Zombies and Osfoora. I love both of them and the multitasking makes opening and using them immediate. In four presses I can have full access to both of them, seconds and I am on Twitter or in the middle of playing a game. Compared to the 3G, this is amazing!

Developing on the iPhone 4 is brilliant, setting up some code to change the images depending on the hardware is simples! Thanks to Phil (@fluter) for the info.

There is a huge component I have yet to try and that is FaceTime. More of a lack of time than a lack of friends before all you smart asses start making comments!

So overall, love it. Couple of my favorite apps running on it at the moment:

Pocket Universe: Phone is really sensitive to the telescope view, really amazingly done.

Plants V Zombies: Looks amazing on the retina display, and an amazing game in general.

Angry Birds: FINALLY I can play it with no lag (stupid 3G)

Acrossair: Looks good, responds well and is really easy to use.

Case Program: More impressed with the idea than the app, ordered a bumper in seconds. Really good idea!

UPDATE: Can’t upload through iMovie and no way to upload movies in HD on the phone. Have to export and go through Mac.