iPhone 101: Tips for making the most of your new iPhone 4S

If you’re new to the iPhone cult and don’t know where to start, we’ve got all the important info you’ll want to know when you break your iPhone 4S out of the box for the first time.

As we write, the first iPhone 4S devices will be arriving on loyal customers’ doorsteps ready to be unboxed, set up, and thoroughly enjoyed. we like to think that Apple products are fairly intuitive, but if you’re new to the iPhone cult or are just now jumping into the smartphone game with the announcement of the 4S (we know there are a few of you!), there are some important details and helpful tips that we’d like to fill you in on right after you uncontrollably squeal with excitement at the first sight and touch of your shiny new iPhone 4S. these won’t teach you everything about your new gadget, as the possibilities with this phone are seemingly endless, but they will help you adjust to the unique workings of the iPhone and make sure that you get the most out of all it has to offer. 

Cases

This one’s obvious, but probably the first thing you want to do when you unbox your new iPhone is slap a case on that thing to keep it protected from bumps, drops, and scratches. What kind of case you get depends on what kind of user you are, but one thing is clear: everyone should have a case. the design that makes your iPhone so pretty to look at is glass, after all, so one wrong move without a case and you’ll be paying full price for a new one.

If you’re careful with your phone and take good care of it without dropping it, you can manage with a super-lightweight snap-on case like the Incase Perforated Snap Case ($35), which protects the back of your phone from scratches and gives a good grip, but doesn’t do much for the front. if you want more protection just in case you drop your phone (most people do), go for something that protects the front screen with a raised edge and has a good, grippy texture, like a rubbery silicone case. something like the Griffin Outfit Ice ($20) will give good protection for most people in a slim design. if you’re the person who breaks or ruins phones like nobody’s business, do yourself a favor and check out products by Otterbox or the water-and-dirt-proof LifeProof Case ($70). 

Insurance and AppleCare+

Depending on your track record with taking good care of phones, you may want to think about adding carrier insurance or AppleCare+ to your new iPhone 4S. your phone automatically comes with 90 days of complimentary phone support and a whole year of hardware repair coverage, in case something goes wrong with your phone that isn’t your fault. This Apple insurance wouldn’t cover, say, you dropping your phone in the toilet or dropping it on concrete sans-case. if you’re prone to those kind of accidents, you should certainly consider adding carrier insurance or AppleCare+ to ensure that your iPhone will live a long, happy life. 

If you haven’t ordered or purchased your iPhone 4S yet, you can add AppleCare+ to your cart when you buy your phone for an additional $99. This will extend your warranty coverage to a total of two years and provide you with accidental damage coverage, meaning that you can replace a damaged phone for a $49 fee. the catch is, you can only do so twice. And, if you already ordered or bought your iPhone 4S without AppleCare+, it seems that you’re out of luck with this option, which seems to be the most affordable should you have to replace a damaged phone. 

If monthly payments are more your style, you can tack on device insurance to your AT&T or Verizon plan for somewhere around $9 to $11 per month. This will give you the same kind of coverage designed for accident-prone owners, but it will cost you between $169-200 to actually replace the phone if you damage it. This isn’t nearly as affordable as the AppleCare+ option, but it will do if you already have your phone in hand. 

First apps to download

As we’re sure you already know, half the fun of having an iPhone is being able to download apps for just about everything. We’d start to list the categories, but there are simply too many to count. before you download any apps, you’ll have to create an Apple ID account, which will allow you to buy apps and give you access to the Apple store and other important things. You can add iTunes gift cards to this account or use a credit card number to purchase apps. 

We have a separate article detailing our favorite iPhone apps and games, but there are a few select free apps that you’ll want to download right off the bat. we suggest downloading free apps like Pandora, Netflix, Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, and find my iPhone (we’ll get to that later) as soon as you start using your phone. these are the most basic apps that will get the most use on a daily basis, so you’ll want to give them priority. after that, you can have fun browsing the app store for fun games and apps galore.

Make the most of photo and video

Some of the best upgrades on the new and improved iPhone 4S were in the camera and video-recording categories. the new camera should take ultra-sharp photos, and the video camera can now record your favorite moments in 1080p HD. Make the most of the photo and video capabilities of your camera by knowing all the details and sharing your creations via social networks and apps. 

New on the iPhone 4S, users will be able to quickly access the camera function from the lock screen by double-clicking the home button. the time the camera needs between photos has also been reduced to a split second, so you can capture every moment as it happens. You can also tap the area you want to focus on and edit the photo right on your phone. Record videos in HD and download the iMovie app ($4.99) to get full editing capabilities right on your phone. From there all it takes is a tap to share photos and video to apps like Facebook and Twitter. 

iCloud

While we haven’t actually gotten our hands on this new service yet from Apple’s iOS 5, it will surely be an important part of the update for users of the iPhone and Apple’s other devices. we won’t go into too much detail, but essentially iCloud aims to give you access to all of your media and documents across all of your iOS 5 devices. say you have a new iPhone 4S, an iPad 2, and a MacBook Pro: With iCloud you should be able to access your music, photos, and documents from any of those on all the devices. your media will essentially be stored in the cloud and can be pushed to any device running iOS 5. 

iOS 5 and Siri

Along with your new iPhone comes an entirely new and improved operating system from Apple called iOS 5. There are a few notable improvements and one big one called Siri. the smaller improvements include things like iMessage, which will allow for unlimited texting between iOS 5 users, full Twitter integration, a new notification bar, Reminders, and Newsstand, where you can easily subscribe to newspaper and magazine apps. 

The biggest thing that you, an iPhone 4S owner, will have that nobody else will, is Siri, your voice-activated assistant. the revolutionary Siri integration means that when you tap the home button (a microphone with a purple ring), you will be able to tell or ask Siri to do just about anything for you with only your voice. You can ask Siri for the weather, to look up a fact, to text a friend, or to get you directions. Talk to Siri in your normal, natural voice and she will talk back to you or give you the information you asked for on your iPhone 4S screen. 

We haven’t had a chance to test out this technology just yet, but we’re hearing from reputable sources that it really does work as well as Apple has demonstrated. the possibilities of Siri are endless, and will hopefully make using your new iPhone even easier than before. 

How to save battery life

As with all smartphones, battery life is a main concern when you finally get your hands on your iPhone. the battery life of the iPhone tends to be pretty good, with Apple boasting 8 hours of talk time and up to 200 hours of standby time. Regardless, if you are constantly using your iPhone during the day and leaving the screen on at all times, you might run out of juice by the evening. 

You can buy extra battery packs or accessories that will extend the life of your battery, but these are just a few basic usage tips that will help your battery last as long as possible. First off, turn on Auto-Brightness in your phone’s settings. This will let the phone sense ambient light and turn the brightness way down if you’re in a dark environment. This way, your phone will only be as bright as possible when you’re in a bright room or direct sunlight. You can also manually turn down the brightness on your phone to keep it at a constant brightness. if you don’t need them all the time, turn off your GPS and push data, which sends you notifications from your email, etc. these constantly use battery, even when you aren’t using your phone. An easy way to save some battery is to set your phone to go into sleep mode after only a few seconds, instead of staying on for 15 seconds after you check an email. You can do this in your settings as well. 

Tips and tricks

Restart your phone: To actually restart your phone, you have to hold down the home and lock buttons at the same time for about five seconds. This can be particularly helpful if an app starts misbehaving or if you’re phone freezes for an unknown reason. doing this quick restart will usually solve the problem. 

Take a screenshot: This easy trick lets you capture exactly what’s on your phone screen, be it a photo, Web page, or a funny conversation between you and a friend. To take a screenshot, quickly press the home and sleep buttons at the same time. your screen will flash white and you’ll have a photo of your screen saved to your Camera Roll. 

Find my iPhone: This free app (one of the first you’ll want to download) lets you find your phone on a map should it get lost or stolen. Simply activate the app on another iOS  device, enter your Apple ID and you’ll be able to see the location of your phone. For this to work, you have to link your phone with your Apple ID account first, so don’t forget that step when you download the app. 

Create folders: if you have dozens of apps or don’t like to have too many home screens, this tip will be especially useful. You can create folders for apps by dragging an app onto another app and then naming the folder. we suggest doing this for categories that probably have several apps, like social networking, photos, utilities, and games. This will clean up your home screen and put similar apps in the same place. 

Iphone’s New Creepy Companion

Sean LudwigMobile BeatNovember 3, 2011

Bluetooth headset maker Jawbone will soon release its new Up life monitoring wristband that’s designed to help you live a move healthy life by tracking every move you make, what you’re eating, how long you’re sleeping and how many calories you burn.The Jawbone Up, in many ways, is a cool use of technology to tackle the problem of not being active enough. Using the wristband and an iOS app, you can get prompts to move when you sit at your desk too long, be told exactly how long you’ve slept, be prompted to wake up in accordance with your natural sleep cycle and track how many calories you eat by snapping photos of your food.to get the most out of the product, you are expected to wear the wristband 24 hours a day. to make that possible, the Jawbone team has made the Up band water resistant and durable and it lasts 10 days on a single charge.while all of those aspects are handy, some potential users may shy away because they don’t want a piece of technology tracking every single thing they do or eat 24 hours a day. while the data isn’t neccesarily being shared with anyone else, there is something a little creepy about a machine that knows every little thing you do in your life. Additionally, if someone else gets their hands on your iPhone, he or she may be able to see all of those things.

As someone who spends a lot of time at my desk each day and not enough time in my bed at night, I like the idea of the Up wristband being able to help me get back into a healthier routine. the trick, if I decided to get one, would be keeping it on me regardless of activity and remembering to track my food intake.

The Up wristband goes on sale Nov. 6 for $100 from retailers including the Apple Store, Best Buy and Target. the wristband comes in small, medium, and large sizes and in seven different colors: black, brown, blue, white, silver, dark red and bright red.

Check out the video below of various aspects and benefits of the Up wristband:

Tags: bluetooth, body movements, calories, iOS, iphone, Jawbone wristband, natural sleep cycle, sleep cycle, tracking people, wristband

Duracell Portable Charger 1800

Duracell’s five-hour charger is designed to provide a boost to mobile devices such as smartphones and cameras while their users are out and about.

About the size of a pack of cards, the Duracell Portable Charger 1800 MAH has a detachable adaptor for UK mains sockets so it’s more comfortable to carry while travelling.

Charging the device took just over an hour (although it came pre-charged) and when we tested it on an iPhone that was down to five per cent of its battery reserve, a recharge to 100 per cent power took a little under two hours.

However, within 15 minutes we had enough juice to make calls or use the mobile internet for a short period.

A three-bar display on the front of the device shows how much charge remains. Left unused, it remained at a full charge level three weeks later, although we found it would not deliver any power to our phone when it was down to a single bar.

The recharger has two USB sockets so it can charge a pair of devices simultaneously, although only one USB cable is supplied, with an adaptor for mini- or micro-USB sockets.

We tried charging two Android phones simultaneously and while one of them drew a charge of about 90 per cent from zero in just over an hour, the other stalled at around 60 per cent of its battery capacity.

Duracell told us that the product will provide enough power for five hours of use from a smartphone, but it’s not really possible to quantify this because the rate of depletion will depend on how the phone is used.

Accessing a wireless network or using the 3G mobile broadband services employed by most smartphones will significantly reduce battery life. However, with a full recharge for a power-hungry smartphone delivered in about an hour, Duracell’s charger did its job well.

At £30, Duracell’s product is a little more expensive than some portable chargers but the added reliability and speedy charging and recharging make it a worthwhile buy.

Customers rush to purchase the new iPhone 4S

Apple’s newest, faster iPhone 4S that went on sale nationally Friday found lots of enthusiastic customers at the company’s Summit Mall store in Fairlawn.

“I’m buying two,” said Tom Mahon, 45, a Kent resident who works at Kent State University.

Mahon was among the people standing in a short line outside the store Friday afternoon, waiting to buy either a black or white iPhone. (Customers who weren’t buying iPhones didn’t have to wait to enter the store.)

“I’ve had the [iPhone] 3GS about two years. We’re upgrading early,” Mahon said.

He said he needed a phone with 32 gigabytes of storage memory and he liked the 4S’s new Siri artificial intelligence “personal assistant” that each phone has in its bundle. the Siri application, which is exclusive to the 4S model, allows people to speak questions into the phone about such subjects as weather forecasts or the locations of nearby restaurants and quickly get an answer.

Chuck Choate, a Cuyahoga Falls resident, and his grandson Jacob Jordan walked out of the store with Choate’s new white iPhone.

“He’s my 13-year-old tech expert,” Choate said.

Choate said he wanted the 4S — he was trading up from an iPhone 3GS — in large part because of the Siri personal assistant feature. “I’m interested in voice-activated applications,” he said.

Choate also said he likes the idea of being able to use Apple’s new “iCloud,” which allows people to quickly see and retrieve data stored off-site. “It’s perfect for traveling folks,” he said.

The iPhone 4S comes with better software and an improved camera. Lots of people around the nation camped out so they could be among the first to buy one.

About 200 people were at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan as the iPhone 4S went on sale at 8 a.m. Steve Wozniak, who created Apple with Steve Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was first in line at a store in Los Gatos, Calif.

Wozniak got in line at the California store even though he already had two new phones on the way. He told television station NBC11 on Thursday that while he waited for the store’s opening Friday morning, he planned on catching up on his email and chatting with fans.

Many said the event resembled a remembrance to Jobs, who died last week, a day after Apple Inc. announced the new phone.

Emily Smith, 27, was on the location-centric social network Foursquare. she got a virtual Steve Jobs badge that read: “Here’s to the crazy ones. ThankYouSteve.”

Others joked that the 4S model stood “for Steve.”

Many people came out despite the fact that they could have ordered phones online and had them shipped to their homes or offices.

Apple and phone companies in seven countries started taking orders for the iPhone 4S last Friday. Apple said Monday that more than 1 million orders came in, breaking the record set by last year’s model, which was available in fewer countries and on fewer carriers.

The death of Jobs could be affecting sales. Marketing experts say products designed by widely admired figures such as Jobs usually see an upsurge in sales after their creators die.

Una Chen, a 24-year-old banker, said she was just happy to swap out her Black- Berry Bold for the new iPhone, particularly after a BlackBerry outage affected her phone this week.

“It’s not good to have a phone and not be able to use it,” Chen said.

At Summit Mall, attorney Chris Yugulis said he also was going to swap his Blackberry for a new iPhone.

“I love this phone,” Yugulis said, holding his Blackberry in one hand. But he said he decided it was time to make a change.

In the United States, sales began at 8 a.m. in each time zone. They were available at Apple stores, along with those of the three partner carriers, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless. Some Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores and authorized resellers also carried the phones.

The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $199 in the United States with a two-year contract. it comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. Customers can get 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399.

The phones also debuted Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain. They are coming to 22 more countries by the end of the month.

The phone — Apple’s fifth — has a faster processor and an improved camera compared with last year’s model. it has a new operating system that allows the user to sync content without needing to connect the phone to a computer.

However, some customers and investors were disappointed that Apple didn’t launch a more radical new model — an iPhone 5. It’s been more than a year since Apple’s previous model was released.

Some people made their iPhone 4S purchase as part of a personal celebration.

Renee Roll, a North Canton resident, waited at the Summit Mall store to buy what she said was going to be her first iPhone.

“I don’t have a smart phone at all,” Roll said. “This is my [50th] birthday gift.”

Nokia 700, part 2: Camera, Multimedia and NFC review

See also: Nokia 700, part 1: hardware and OS overview

Absolutely noone’s going to buy the Nokia 700 for its camera, yet there’s still an expectation that ‘because this is a Nokia’ then its camera must be OK. while true, I still found myself somewhat disappointed by the results overall. having seen the 3 megapixel EDoF cameras on the Nokia E52/E55 (surprisingly good results) and the 8 megapixel versions on the Symbian^3 handsets (e.g. C7, C6-01, E6, again surprisingly good results), the 5 megapixel version on the 700 is undoubtedly the weakest of the three variants. 

Much of which is common sense, once you’ve looked at the size of the 700 and the space available for a camera of any kind – never mind the 5 megapixels, the optics, sensor and pixels themselves are all scaled down and the results below speak for themselves. I’d rate the Nokia 700 camera as producing ‘fun’/feature phone snaps only…. It is what it is, though, and it’ll be down to individual users to work out whether they take a lot of phone photos and can live with the 700’s output.

Here are some sample snaps, a few at the default of 3.7 megapixels (widescreen) and more at the full 5 megapixel resolution. In each case, click to enlarge or download:

Goodish results if the sun’s shining, at least – the waterfall one’s almost arty, and shows off EDoF’s ability to capture moving subjects

Blurrycam time? a fairly close-up shot of a ball, showing EDoF’s macro limitations, plus a shot in great light that should have come out much better – EDoF electronics getting confused, perhaps?

More EDoF testing, this time at 5mp resolution. a pretty good demo on the left, though the optics on the 700 just aren’t good enough for anything to be really crisp – and a close-up of a sign, taken around 30cm away – plenty good enough for reading content, obviously.

Arty enough – though the colours and sharpness aren’t particularly satisfying to a camera geek like me(!) – and a typical ‘casual’ sign shot, perfectly good enough for the average phone user?

A disappointing park scene – it’s possible that my attempts to wipe the camera glass weren’t thorough enough, raising the issue that most average users will hit exactly this problem since the glass is completely ‘flush’ with the device’s back; and a typical ‘camera phone down the pub’ shot, showing low light noise and typical blurring.

One area where EDoF cameras have traditionally done well is in video capture, since the EDoF electronics work continuously and can do the same ‘everything always in focus all the time’ job as in still mode. You do need decent light conditions for the electronics to do its job properly, but keep the light levels up and the subject more than 40cm away and you’ll get some great video with the 700. 

You may recall that I shoot the Phones Show on an EDoF-equipped phone (the E7) – the quality of the 700’s video isn’t quite as good, due to the smaller optics and sensor, but it’s still pretty decent. Here’s a sample clip, I’ve left it as an MP4 download so that YouTube’s encoding doesn’t get in the way, click the image to get the file, etc.

(23MB, 720p resolution MP4)

Both videos and photos look great on the 700’s screen, of course – the pixel density and the super-bright CBD display make sure of that. And therein lies a problem, since you don’t immediately see any problems in your snaps or footage. It’s only later, when the moment’s long gone and you’re back at your PC, do you examine the media and (perhaps) sigh in disappointment.

Of note is that Symbian Belle introduces a whole new file scheme for captured media. As with the interface in general, it has converged on ‘accepted’ practice in other mobile OS, with all new photos and videos being stored in a DCIM folder in mass memory or a microSD card (rather than in the traditional numbered folders inside of ImagesCamera and VideosCamera) – it’s yet another minor adjustment for the hardened Symbian fan, but not actually a major problem.

As with other nHD-display (16:9) phones, the default resolution is one that means no ‘ugly’ side bars on the screen when viewing captured media, but you do lose quite a few pixels in the process. Still, again, few people who know anything about ‘megapixels’ and camera quality are going to be picking up the Nokia 700 anyway…

The camera interface has received a little spruce up for Symbian Belle, but it’s still a little clunky – note the presence in the screenshot below of both the dotted and lined ‘More’ icons, bottom right – is there any excuse for this in 2011? The lined version only brings up the option of a ‘user guide’ – this whole interface could still be much better thought out.

Meanwhile, the ‘Back’ icon is what most people will use to exit Camera – that or simply pressing the phone’s main ‘Home’ key.

The Photo and Video editors from Symbian^3 are present and correct in Belle, with a few interface tweaks as needed.

And, importantly, the Video editor now lets you ‘Continue with previous saved project’, eliminating the biggest disincentive to use in the Symbian^3 version. Now you can stitch clips and photos together and ‘Save project’, ready for adding to (or reworking) later on. a simple, but nice addition to Belle’s multimedia functionality.

Video functionality is rounded off with stub apps for the YouTube and BBC iPlayer (in the UK) mobile web sites and CNN Video, all of which we’ve seen before.

We’ve seen this Music Player, minus the Belle toolbar before, giving rise to a few simplifications on the Nokia 700. ‘Repeat’ and ‘Shuffle play’ are now on the toolbar, though the size of the Nokia 700 display does mean that it’s quite hard to hit the various control icons when you’re out and about (e.g. on a bumpy bus).

The ‘coverflow’ album selection in landscape mode is also much the same, but with a subtle twist. Tapping on an album cover no longer obscures the cover with the song list – instead, the pop-up window is transparent and the songs are listed in this pane. Nicely done.

Sound quality is very good, as you might expect, though only on custom headphones – the supplied ones aren’t in-ear, don’t have multimedia controls and aren’t that special. Headset types are a personal preference though, and it’s easy enough to plug in generic headphones or use a higher quality multimedia headset from another Nokia smartphone. or, I suspect, to use the NFC to pair up with a stereo Bluetooth headset of your choice.

The Nokia Music Store and Shazam (music recognition) are both well known and here presented with just the Belle UI facelift. Note that Shazam is free but ad-supported.

Multimedia is well represented on the Symbian Belle homescreen system – here are a few examples of how it might all look, in place:

I’ve already gone overboard in this review, praising the clarity and crispness of the 700’s display, but it really, really shines for video playback. OK, the viewing area isn’t huge, but (given decent source material) the colours, sharpness and fluidity of video playback is stunning.

The video interface has been improved too, with the new toolbar at the bottom providing consistency, with less pixels in the way of your video content. There are functional changes, too. Importantly, the ‘Videos’ player remembers where you got to in each video (at last!), so you can hop between feature films and won’t have to keep fast forwarding each to where you got to. The familiar icon for changing the aspect ratio (e.g. to get rid of black bars) has been relegated to the ‘More’ menu and only appears if the video isn’t 16:9.

The forward-facing main speaker ensures plenty of volume if you’re not listening on headphones. a good experience all round. 

With no kickstand, watching videos on the 700 is rather dependent on a suitable stand, at least if you want to watch hands-free. (Here’s my DIY stand!)

Despite the 700’s small volume, it’s clear that the same graphics processing power is present as on its larger sister devices, meaning that even 720p videos at high bitrate play fine and with Symbian providing a rich set of video codecs. Everything I threw at the 700 was played perfectly.

NFC is the ‘in’ technology this year, of course. In theory, Symbian has had it for longer than any other mobile OS, in the form of the C7, but the functionality wasn’t unlocked until a few months ago. There are a handful of other smartphones available now that also have NFC on board, one of which is this, the Nokia 700.

You’ll have read my NFC primer a few weeks ago, exploring how the technology works and what it can make possible. not everything described there is available right now, but Nokia has identified three key use cases and they all work in this device. Helpfully, a new mini-app, NFC Tutorials, is included in the 700, showcasing what you can do:

    

I say ‘tutorials’, but each of the panels above just links to a one minute narration-less video. Each function (‘pair’, ‘share’, ‘play’) is shown in action. The videos are glossy and do demonstrate what’s happening clearly, but they’re hardly tutorials in the classic sense of the word.

The News and Apps panes can be expanded to reveal a selection of NFC stories from Nokia’s web site and a selection of applications (in the Nokia Store) which are NFC-enabled. It’s all nicely done, though the actual link goes to the old ‘Ovi’ version of the store and some of the items listed are ‘no longer available’. Still, in time, I’m sure these niggles will be sorted out – the Nokia 700 is still at the start of its update journey.

In use, NFC performs as advertised, even though the range of things it can do at the moment is somewhat limited. Frustrated NFC fans on Symbian can at least take solace in the fact that NFC implementations on other mobile OS (e.g. Android) are far more basic at the time of writing. 

The simplest NFC use case isn’t even listed by Nokia in the ‘tutorials’ – tapping to read a passive ‘tag’. In this case (shown below), my test tag pops up a short URL leading to my Facebook page, which then opens up in Web once I’ve tapped on ‘OK’. It’s also noticeable how fast NFC tag detection is – the first implementation on the C7 (in Anna) was very slow, taking around a second. The C7 has since had the Anna service pack and new v25 firmware and is as fast as this, the 700, in detecting and reading the tag in a small fraction of a second.

Another common use would be ‘touch to share’, currently limited just to contact cards and media, though I’m sure plenty of other phone content will be supported in the future, hopefully with Symbian leading the way still. With a contact entry on-screen, I tapped the 700 to my C7 and acknowledged the transfer (actually accomplished via Bluetooth) on the latter. After receipt, the Anna-running C7 didn’t know what to do with the received .vcf file, so I had to go hunting in my mass memory – it’s expected that Symbian Belle to Belle transfers would be more complete and seamless.

Another clue that Symbian Anna’s NFC support is not complete is that I couldn’t transfer contacts from the C7 to the 700 in the same way. Roll on Belle for all the current handsets!

Photo sharing was much the same, from 700 to C7. Highlight a photo (or photos) in Gallery and then touch the phones together and a Bluetooth transfer is initiated.

I did other NFC tests too. I couldn’t get the Nokia 700 to send anything to the Samsung Nexus S, which appears to only be able to read passive tags at the moment (the forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update should add much more NFC functions in). I also tried ‘reading’ my Nokia World NFC-enabled name badge, but the data format wasn’t recognised.

I didn’t test the NFC-facilitated pairing of the 700 with Bluetooth audio accessories since I didn’t have any to hand, but we’ve all seen this demonstrated many times on video and I don’t expect any unpleasant surprises.

Early days then for Near Field Communications. The 700 will get regular firmware updates expanding what it can do in terms of NFC content sharing, plus (at some point) compatibility with various wireless payment systems. And the world around it will gradually acquire NFC compatibility too, not least other smartphones (other than those already running Symbian Belle) throughout 2012.

NFC is starting, just starting to become a ‘must-have’ on my personal phone buying check-list. It’s not there yet and most Nokia 700 buyers won’t have heard of NFC, but it’s great that it’s there under the hood for when needed in the future.

In summary, in part 1 of this review, I found the 700 to be well made and with pretty good hardware, even if it wasn’t the form factor for hard core smartphone fans. I found Belle to be a leap forward in terms of convergence with the UI that other mobile OS are standardising on. And in this part 2, I found it to have one of Nokia’s less inspired cameras that nevertheless can knock out a mean video. And I loved the inclusion of NFC.

In part 3 of this review, I’ll be looking at other aspects of Symbian Belle in action, at other incidental applications and I’ll be summing up this latest Symbian smartphone.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 31 October 2011

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10 Things to Do with Your Obsolete iPhone 4 from CashForIphones Now That the iPhone 4S is Here

Press Release Source: Cash for iPhones on Monday October 10, 2011, 7:00 am EDT

RENO, Nev., Oct. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — our houses, pockets and bags are filled with gadgets. We collect them, placing ever growing faith in their sleek metallic casings and cleverly designed features, and we upgrade them as often as our bank balance will allow; justification be damned!

(Logo: photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111010/DE81601LOGO)

Out of this multitude of gadgets, one rises above all others – the mobile phone. Smartphones, and in particular the iPhone, have become an ubiquitous part of our lives, and their capabilities have become so far reaching that their presence at our sides is only likely to grow.

With every new release comes new features, faster connection speeds and better functionality, and with the launch of the iPhone 4S, many of us are sat there thinking, “I want one, but what do I do with the old one?” while it would be easy to throw it into a drawer “just in case,” actually putting to practical use is not only the smart thing to do, it also helps us rationalize our desire by turning want into need and allowing us the luxury of upgrading, guilt free. So with that in mind, here are ten things you can do with your iPhone 4:

Now that all the options are laid out, all that’s left to do is count down the days until we can get our hands on the iPhone 4S on the 14th of October, after all, we’ve got the advantage of being able to justify it now!

So, what will you do with your iPhone 4?

Based in Reno, Nev., Cash for iPhones is one of four sites offering top dollar for working and non-working electronics. the company also operates CashForIphones.com, CashForIpads.com, CashForBerrys.com, CashForSmartphones.com, and CashForLaptops.com.

ACCC Launches iPhone App For Product Recalls

I was under the impression that product recalls were a rare thing. Turns out this isn’t the case — all you have to do is peruse the ACCC Recalls Australia iPhone app, launched recently by everyone’s favourite consumer watchdog, to see there’s quite a number of recalls in the wild.

What’s the purpose of the app, other than showing your friends the awesome washing machine they just bought is totally defective? ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell explains:

For consumers, this means that when you’re out and about doing your shopping, you can quickly and easily check for recalled products on your phone. For example, you could be at a garage sale, where a recalled product might have unwittingly been made available for purchase.

According to the ACCC’s press release, the app was officially launched via YouTube. Sadly, I don’t think it was overly successful, considering the video has accumulated just 71 views as I write this, most of which are probably from journos. Still, engaging your audience on multiple fronts is hardly a bad thing.

I usually crack out my phone to double-check prices when I’m out and about, so I guess there’s no harm in making sure what I’m buying isn’t a piece of junk. though I imagine that’s why many of us read reviews before departing on a shopping trip in the first place.

There’s actually a surprising number of recalls in the system — over 400 when I loaded the app this morning. The database is pulled from the Recalls Australia website, and explains the initial long load time, despite the app being a paltry 1.2MB in size, well under Apple’s 20MB limit for 3G.

If you’re in the mood, you can even lodge a complaint via the app, though all this does is prompt you to send an email using the Mail app. Not exactly state of the art, but I’m sure it’s already on the to-do list of things to improve.

ACCC Recalls Australia is a free download from the App Store.

[App Store, via iTechReport]

Jawbone’s new Up health wristband is equal parts cool and creepy

Bluetooth headset maker Jawbone will soon release its new up life monitoring wristband that’s designed to help you live a move healthy life by tracking every move you make, what you’re eating, how long you’re sleeping and how many calories you burn.

The Jawbone Up, in many ways, is a cool use of technology to tackle the problem of not being active enough. using the wristband and an iOS app, you can get prompts to move when you sit at your desk too long, be told exactly how long you’ve slept, be prompted to wake up in accordance with your natural sleep cycle and track how many calories you eat by snapping photos of your food.

To get the most out of the product, you are expected to wear the wristband 24 hours a day. To make that possible, the Jawbone team has made the up band water resistant and durable and it lasts 10 days on a single charge.

While all of those aspects are handy, some potential users may shy away because they don’t want a piece of technology tracking every single thing they do or eat 24 hours a day. While the data isn’t neccesarily being shared with anyone else, there is something a little creepy about a machine that knows every little thing you do in your life. Additionally, if someone else gets their hands on your iPhone, he or she may be able to see all of those things.

As someone who spends a lot of time at my desk each day and not enough time in my bed at night, I like the idea of the up wristband being able to help me get back into a healthier routine. the trick, if I decided to get one, would be keeping it on me regardless of activity and remembering to track my food intake.

The up wristband goes on sale Nov. 6 for $100 from retailers including the Apple Store, Best Buy and Target. the wristband comes in small, medium, and large sizes and in seven different colors: black, brown, blue, white, silver, dark red and bright red.

Check out the video below of various aspects and benefits of the up wristband:

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Companies: Apple, Jawbone

Daily Deals: 16GB iPhone 3G, App Store Freebies, GPS Tracker

We start off another week with a deal on refubished 16GB iPhone 3Gs for $449. also on tap is the latest batch of App Store freebies, including “Meatball Madness!” memory game and myTracks 2 for Mac, a GPS track management utility and geotagged photo linker.

We’ll also check out other bargains, including external batteries for your iPod or iPhone, along with many other items. As always, details on these and many more products are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump. eCOST.com offers the refurbished iPhone 3G 16GB for AT&T in White (pictured), model no. MB499LL/A, for $449 plus $9.99 for shipping. [That’s $41 under our January mention and the lowest total price we could find by $11.] (Although it’s locked to AT&T’s network, it’s outside of any contract period.) it features compatibility with AT&T’s 3G network, built-in GPS navigation with Google Maps, enhanced enterprise support, a 3.5” touch screen, at least 5 hours of talk time, and more. a 90-day warranty applies, but it’s not clear who backs it.

Note that Buy.com still has the refurbished iPhone 3G 8GB for AT&T in Black, model no. MB046LL/A, for $359.99 with free shipping. (That’s tied with our mention from a month ago for the lowest total price we could find by $8.)

Below are downloads of several free applications available for a limited time from Apple’s App Store, with price drops from $1 to $5. These apps are created for the iPhone and iPod touch, and are compatible with the iPad but will run at a significantly lower resolution. (Check the individual apps for further information.) the apps:

Meatball Madness!: Memory challenge game aa.Itsy the Spider: Puzzle game Machiavelli’s Ascent: Adventure game A+ LED Paint: Light-dot painting Farm Story: Farming simulation Birdie In Trouble: Puzzle game Seed of Salvation: Physics-based game

Today only, MacUpdate.com offers downloads of tichel’s myTracks 2 for Mac for $7.95. (That’s $6 off and the lowest price we could find for this GPS track manager and geotagged photo linker.) Click here for more information.

TigerDirect.com via Buy.com offers the Fantom 2TB eSATA / USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, model no. GF2000EUC, for $139.99 with free shipping ($0.07/GB). [That’s the lowest total no-rebate price we’ve seen for any 2TB eSATA / USB 2.0 external drive by $5.] (We listed the same drive two weeks ago for $10 more after a $20 rebate.) it runs at 7200 rpm and features a 32MB cache and eSATA cable. Deal ends May 9.

Dell Home offers the Panasonic VIERA 50” 600Hz 1080p Widescreen Plasma HD Television, model no. TC-P50U2, for $889. (Add it to your cart to see this price.) [With free shipping, that’s the lowest total price we could find by $72; it’s also within $50 of being the least expensive 50″ 1080p plasma HDTV we’ve seen.] Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a 1920×1080 (1080p) native resolution, 2,000,000:1 native contrast ratio, SD card slot, two HDMI inputs, and VGA, component, and other video inputs. Deal ends May 6.

Today only, DailyCheckout.com offers the Vertigo 2GB MP3 Player in six colors (Blue pictured) for $19.99. (With $4.99 for shipping, that’s $80 off list price and the lowest total price we could find.) this knockoff of the iPod nano features a smaller 1.8” LCD, video playback, voice recording with built-in microphone, FM tuner with 20 presets, seven equalizer presets, automatic sleep mode, eBook reader, and more.

OfficeMax offers the Pegasus 7” Portable Widescreen LCD Television (pictured) for $69.99. (With free shipping, it’s tied with our March mention and the lowest total price we could find by $10.) Sales tax is added where applicable. it features an HDTV tuner, 7” 480×234 LCD, 16:9 aspect ratio, remote control, built-in stand, and antenna.

Sony Styles offers the factory-refurbished Sony HandyCam DCR-SR47 60GB Hard Drive Digital Camcorder in Red for $299.99. during checkout, it falls to $239.99. (With free shipping. [That’s $10 under our October mention of this camcorder in red and the lowest total price we, although we saw it in blue for $10 less in January (since expired).] Sales tax is added where applicable. this camcorder features a 60x optical zoom, 2,000x digital zoom, 720×480 recording resolution, 2.7” touchscreen LCD, built-in zoom microphone, 60GB hard drive, Memory Stick PRO Duo slot, USB 2.0 connectivity, and more.

Shop4Tech offers this 1000mAh External Battery for iPod / iPhone in Black for $9.95. Add coupon code “CC15” to your cart to cut it to $8.46. (With free shipping, it ties our mention from two weeks ago as the lowest total price we’ve seen for a single 1000mAh battery.)

Today only, DealsClick.com offers the Polaroid DVF-130GC VGA Digital Camcorder in Green for $29.99. (With $4.99 for shipping, that’s tied with our April mention and the lowest total price we could find by $6.) Features include a 2” LCD display, 480×640 VGA video, 8x digital zoom, SD card slot, integrated USB connector, and more.

Update: Target has it for $31.49 via coupon code “2ROZVVHX” plus free shipping. (That’s a $4 drop and the lowest total price we’ve ever seen for this camcorder.) Sales tax is added where applicable.