This Christmas brings thoughts of good cheer and tiddings to all readers of donburnside.com, and maybe a little geekery about iPhone photography.

iPhoneography

We all know that the iPhone is pretty amazing at taking photos. We also know that there are apps that improve the experience quite a bit, from cool effects and filters to ways that make sharing photos easy. Here are some of the things I’ve found so far, along with a couple new pieces of kit that I got for Christmas.

Apps

• Camera +. My favorite so far. It’s like photoshop for the iPhone with some great features that really make photos look awesome.
• Instagram. Or, what I’m learning, the new Flickr. I’m not a huge fan of the filters, but I am a huge fan of using Instagram to share my photos. 1 click sharing to all social media sites, plus a spiffy UI that makes it fun to discover new people to follow and see some great examples of iPhoneography!
• Diptic. It’s how the photo above was created. Very cool. Opt for the $.99 in app purchase for additional configuration options. Totally worth it.
• Flickr. It’s installed, but I rarely use it. More why shortly

Hardware

I scored this Christmas! Check out these two great things Stella got me!

• The Gilf. I saw this when it first appeared on Kickstarter and I was sad I didn’t have an iPhone to use it with. The minute I got my iPhone, the first thing I wanted was this. Allows you to easily mount your iPhone to a tripod.
• Joby Gorillamobile. Said tripod. This one comes with a case to use but if you have any kind of screen or back protection like Ghost Armor or a MotoringBadges iPhone wrap, it’s not a great fit. The tripod does work fantastic with the Glif!

Online services While Instagram works great for sharing photos to all of your social media sites, the way it works with Facebook isn’t that hot. Same goes with Flickr to Facebook integration. I think many FB users have those services blocked, so a lot of the time the photos go without being seen.

Enter IfThisThenThat, a service that’s been around a while but I haven’t used. You use it to build your own programs that actually do stuff. I will probably do an entire post on it later. You can even create recipes that are shareable, which is what I have done.

This will take any photo that has been uploaded to Facebook and automatically move it to Flickr including a link back to the original photo in Facebook. And, it works!

I’m still on the hunt for photo apps, but slowly. I know that some of you have more than a few you would like to share, sound off in the comments below. I’m sure Hipstagram is a favorite out there, but I’m not really a fan yet. I would love to hear others!

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I'm turning off iTunes match. I really want to listen to music on my iPhone.

December 6, 2011 7:39 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

I then resumed my drive to work and hit play one more time.

The next 8 songs played without a snag. Until I hit next too early, then it was play/pause/repeat all over again.

I want music on my phone. I don’t want to stream it, I don’t want to listen to previews, I don’t want a streaming service. I want my music. iTunes Match, for all of the awesome it can be, is still not living up to it’s full potential. At least it’s not for me.

So, off it goes.

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From the lock screen, if you double press the home button (under iOS5), you can activate the camera. After you take a photo or video and press the home button again, the default action is to return to the main home screen, efectively by-passing the lock screen. With Siri, the same thing happens except you long press the home button, ask Siri to do her thing and press the home button to stop. Default action is to again return to the home screen.

Unless you have a password on your lock screen. To set that, go into Settings –> General –> Passcode Lock.

Take a photo and pressing home will prompt you to enter your password before continuing to the home screen. Sweet. But what about Siri? If your phone is locked with a password, try to ask her to take you home or to locate a person. Siri will let you know, quite politely, that location services aren’t available while the phone is locked. Rad. You can also set Siri to not work from the lock screen when your iPhone is locked. Double Rad.

Another neat feature that I just discovered is the amount of intelligence that is built into the headphone jack. If I connect the aux port cable from my MINI to my iPhone, it knows to set the volume to full, even if the phone is on mute. If I plug in a headset (I haven’t tried multiples yet), then it remembers the volume level that was set before I disconnected the set. I don’t know if this is new with iOS 5 or not, but it’s a pretty neat feature.

I’m a bit more than week into using the iPhone and other than notifications, I have zero complaints. I keep hearing about users that are experiencing bad battery life which completely baffles me. For my use (light to moderate apps and camera), my shortest amount of time before having to get juice has been 12 hours. My longest was this past Sunday where I went from 3a until 10p without plugging in. That’s 19 hours and I still wasn’t getting the low battery notification. Granted, I didn’t do much short of a few text messages and Four Square checkins. This is still twice as long as the Dinc would have gone under the same useage.

So far, still very impressed. Comments are open if you have any questions.

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But I wanted to take a minute to be clear as to why I finally caved in and got an iPhone. And to start, it’s not because I hated Android. Because I didn’t. I quite liked it in fact. What I didn’t like about Android, and I get with the iPhone in spades, is the fact that 99.9% of all Android phones are completely, 100% controlled/limited, by the carriers that sell them. Unless you are lucky enough to be able to get a Nexus that is.

This means that ‘official’ updates* come from the wireless providers, sometimes months after they are released, if at all. My Dinc was stuck on 2.2 eventhough 2.3 was released back in April. There are also the crap apps that can’t be removed*, again put there by the carriers.

Another thing about Android is the apps are rubbish. Even the big name apps, the Dropbox’s and Foursquare’s, aren’t that great. Nothing on Android integrates with Dropbox. Foursquare never knew where I was right now, only where I had been 2 stops ago. Other apps would crash constantly or have such a limited feature set they weren’t worth using.

But the OS itself is nice and I liked using it. In fact, if Apple decided to put Android on a iPhone 4 or 4s, I would have a hard time deciding which to get.

Until I wanted to do something with photos or video.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the biggest reason I have for actually getting an iPhone is because of iMovie. The ability to take and edit video in the field has been so tempting to me I knew this was something I had to have. And it’s pretty amazing.

That video was shot and edited entirely on my iPhone. Not bad for my first try if I’m honest. I’m really excited to really get into what can be done with the camera and iMovie and expect I will be using this quite a bit. I will be talking about this more in the future, as well as a full review of the phone, very soon.

*Sure there are ROMs. Sure the device can be rooted. But both of those are steps that I shouldn’t have to take to make my device work, especially when it’s the only communications device I rely on..

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The Good

• It’s fast. Faster than the Dinc for sure.
• I like the way it feels and like that it’s a little heavy.
• Siri, so far, is amazingly
• The whole “it works” thing
• Phone calls are clear
• Best soft keyboard I’ve used so far
• The Camera is fantastic, both for photos and video (samples coming)
• Battery life is unbelievable

The Bad

• Compared to Android, email kinda sucks, but I’m a Gmail user, so this is to be expected
• Contact management is confusing. But I might be trying to use too many accounts with my phone. The fact that the word Exchange is used when trying to get Gmail contacts should be cause for concern.
• Compared to Android and Blackberry, notification sound configuration is definitely lacking. For example, I could have 1 sound for SMS, 1 for Facebook. Doesn’t seem possible on the iPhone
• Quitting apps. So un-elegant.
• Notifications – I have still have tweaking to do, but driving down the street and getting a popup about an available wifi access point is terribly annoying.

Apps

• Dropbox 180MB upload limitation. Seriously? WTF is that about.
• Google + app is definitely not as good on iOS as it is on Android. And compressing my photos from the phone is super annoying (feedback submitted).

I’m not looking for suggestions or for any of you iPhone fans to jump to my rescue. I’m 5 days in with this device, and these are only my observations so far. Considering that I’m re-learning how to use a phone again, I’d say I was doing ok. Overall, I’m still super happy with the iPhone, just need to work through the things that I’m either not familiar with or require a different way to do them.

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My first iPhone will be delivered a week from today according to the email I received from Verizon Wireless. Yes, I ordered from them, why not? I will probably be getting the extra Apple care bit too, mostly because I can be a bit of a spaz sometimes.

Time for the app recommendations. Pick 2 and leave them in the comments below!

UPDATE – Just checked my order status. I was originally supposed to get this on the 14th. Status has been updated with a delivery date of the 21st. Tech sites are all reporting that the 4s sold like crazy (AT&T is reporting 200k units sold before noon) and the Apple Store is reporting a ship date of 1-2 weeks.

UPDATE 2 – Earlier today I received my tracking number from FedEx which confirmed that I should be receiving my iPhone Friday before 3:00PM MNT (AZ).

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I officially hate my phone. Very tempted to bring the blackberry back into service.

July 26, 2011 4:02 pm via TweetCaster for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

I guess I have an excess amount of magnetic energy eminating from my person. Perhaps I don’t properly worship the correct gods. Maybe I have the wrong haircut. Maybe, just maybe, I’m not cool enough. Whatever the case, I have the worse luck with mobile phones.

This Android device was perfectly ok until it started crashing after I finished each call. So it was replaced with another. The replacement was a newer device that lacked the build quality of the first. It also came preinstalled with the previous devices issues, and then some.

Sure it crashes when I end a call. Sure, if I pull the phone away from my face and put it back it disconnects the call. I mean, what phone doesn’t do this now. As a bonus, this phone also refuses to provide any notifications from any of the apps that I have installed like Facebook, Twitter, G+ (which I mostly blame Google for) and SMS messages.

These are all problems that I never read about. Problems that nobody else seems to have.

I’m going to be charging up the Storm tonight and activating it this weekend. It has crappy internet, but at least it will make a damned phone call and let me know when someone is trying to leave me a message somewhere.

I think the problem stems from the fact that I still use my telephone for voice communications. I know this makes me the odd man out, but I still use about 400 minutes per month talking to people, and anther 400 minutes talking with other Verizon Wireless customers (mostly family). Doesn’t anyone bother checking this kind of functionality anymore?

I’m going to end up carrying both devices for a time too. The Blackberry, which rules for SMS and email, is completely lame for everything else. Since I spend the bulk of my time in WiFi coverage areas, I’m going to keep the Dinc around (in Airplane mode) to use as my portable hand-held computer.

Lame, right?

What I would like is to be able to upgrade to an iPhone. From what I can tell, the iPhone doesn’t have any issues when it comes to making and receiving voice calls. At least none that I have heard about.

As I keep saying, my telephone, first and foremost, needs to have the ability to reliably make and receive phone calls with sending and receiving SMS messages being a very close second. Right now, the device I have doesn’t do either of those well or reliably so it’s time to switch back to something that does.

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@VerizonWireless rules. Being a customer since '04 helps too, but seriously, I get the best customer service from them.

June 22, 2011 3:33 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

When last we spoke about my never ending problems with cell phones, I had just received my 2nd Droid Incredible (Dinc). The first was crashing after a call. No big deal. Replacement arrived 2 days early. I was up and running again in a little less than an hour.

Then, starting last week, this phone started acting up. It also exhibited the same crash-after-a-call problem that my last Dinc had. A problem that was easily corrected by putting the phone to sleep and waking it back up again using the handy dandy switch at the top of the phone.

That stopped working last week as well.

Today, after finishing a call with Verizon Wireless, my phone crashed so hard I had to do a battery pull to correct it. Luckily, I even got the sleep/wake switch to work as well.

I was on the call initially because I’m a few days behind on my bill, a fact I will be correcting on Friday. Since I had them on the phone, I figured it was a good time to review my plan since I’ve been making changes to it for the first half of the year (mainly not having teh lad on it anymore). My new friend at VZW looked at my minutes used for the past 3 months (less than 400 billable per month) and said I would be a good candidate to go to the $59.99 plan. Sweet! That’s $30 less than my existing plan, which will pay for my data (still unlimited BTW, but more on that later).

And since she was so helpful, I thought I would bring my telephone woes up to her. She said I would need to call back on a different phone to do troubleshooting and texted me the number to call. While that was happening, I think she was reviewing my account a little bit more (besides minutes and data used) because no sooner did I get the text message with the 800 number to call I received a 2nd with her email address.

She said to me, when I’m ready (about 2 weeks), to email her back and she would get me going on an early upgrade!

Did I ask? Nope. Did I get angry? Nope. Was she super professional, very nice and extraordinarily helpful? YES!

I swear I never get bad service from VZW. I’ve said it here many times before. Anytime I have a problem they fix it, more often than not the first time without having to talk to more than 1 person. Ever.

[SHORT VERSION]

I’ll be getting an iPhone sometime in July. Stay tuned for details

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In the mail today I received my 12th replacement mobile phone from Verizon Wireless. Twelve times I’ve had problems with a phone. Twelve times I’ve had to call 611 or visit my local store. Twelve times I’ve had to reinstall apps and restore from backup.

Twelve.

At first it was comical. By the time I got to my 5th Blackberry Storm, I was pretty angry. By the time I got to my 5th Blackberry Storm I was giggling. When I bought the HTC Droid Incredible last August, 6 months BEFORE the iPhone became available on Verizon, I thought my nightmare of crappy phones was over.

And my nightmare was over. At least it has been for the past 10 months. Up until then, the Dinc has been problem free. Then it started crashing after ending a phone call. Turns out, the sensor that controls the screen when you pull the phone away from your head was going out. “No problem” says my guy at the Verizon Wireless store. We’ll sort you out.

Which they did, in record time as usual.

I will say that it is easier to recover on an Android Phone than it was on the Blackberry. From hard reset to complete took less than an hour and that includes setting up all of my apps and adding my 6 email addresses and 6 Twitter accounts back to the phone. I would imagine that it is equally easy on an iPhone.

I’m just getting tired of doing it. I am told that there is a chance I might qualify for an early upgrade in August instead of having to wait until next April. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. I’m just tired of swapping phones.

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Also, cameras work way better with batteries. #facepalm

May 9, 2011 4:14 pm via TweetCasterReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

If I had a dollar (US$1.00) for every time I forgot the battery for my ‘good’ camera, I would have exactly 2 dollars (US$2.00). Really not that big of a deal, but I also did not have my old and busted and trusty Panasonic DMC-TZ3. What did I have?

My Droid Incredible.

Again, not that big of a deal, but this was for work. And the Canon takes really good photos, especially since I think I might have figured out how to actually get it to take good photos. And the photos get used to create documents that our sales staff then uses to help sell our products.

But I only had the Droid Incredible. And my only battery was a hour away and an hour back.

I kept remembering everyone that has ever told me it’s the photographer, not the camera. This week I put that to the test and, if I’m honest, everyone was right. The photos below all came directly out of my phone. Ok, maybe not directly in the strictest sense, but if directly-via-photoshop counts, then yes, directly from my phone.

Sure I could have used an app like Vignette to process them, but in my experience with this phone, the photos that it produces aren’t suitable for my needs. Photos apps on the Droid introduce a lot of noise, do weird things with color and only make a photos that fans of Instagram seem to like.

While I had the right tool for the job, I had the wrong tool. So, I made due with a little trickery. And I think they turned out pretty ok.

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