New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

When I visit the US I just do the data-only ipad sim switch. $15 for 250mb for a month is all I need, and I just use voip for phone calls; but I ahrdly make any phone calls anywhere in the world.

do you use that data only sim in an iphone. does it work when you go back 6 months later, assuming you pay the $15 for the month, or do you need a new SIM?

worth it if only for the huge bump in performance. 3GS -> 4 seemed pretty significant to me, 3GS -> 5 would be huge i imagine.

Performance as in speed? I do find the 3G (not 3GS) a little sluggish. Just clocked it, launching iPod is about 6s, time lapse from clicking on Camera app to being ready to shoot also about 6s.

it's more that browsing the web in safari, over the course of a day, is going to be minutes longer than it would be on a newer phone

I do find the 3G (not 3GS) a little sluggish. Just clocked it, launching iPod is about 6s, time lapse from clicking on Camera app to being ready to shoot also about 6s.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, September 14, 2012 9:49 AM (2 hours ago)

tried this on my 4, from a cold open both camera and ipod take about 2-3s

do you use that data only sim in an iphone. does it work when you go back 6 months later, assuming you pay the $15 for the month, or do you need a new SIM?

Don't need a new sim, no, although do tend to need to put my credit card number in again. It does depend on having an iPad to activate it in, though (and probably this won't be so good with iPhone 5 nano sims). But it's the only remotely sensible solution I've found to going to the US with an iPhone and using data.

I can imagine I'd be happy with a 3G (maybe...) except for the screen - probably 80%+ of my non-work reading is on my phone, and the retina display makes a huge difference for that.

and yes, using the sim in an iphone; you just have to set APN stuff to ATT broadband.

In the US it's a well-known non-secret that the carriers pay more in subsides to Apple than anyone else, which is why they push Android phones heavily. But the popularity of the iPhone means they have to offer it or lose subscribers, so they put up with it and pay Apple more per phone than other companies get. In the US, an unlocked iPhone 5 costs $450 more than one sold with a 2-year contract.

Oh, has anyone upgraded to iTunes 10.7? Other than iOS 6 support, is this a big improvement i.e. less bloated and faster/easier to use?

i got my 4s for £30 per month with a one year contract but it's with *ahem* tesco mobile.

/The home button on my 4 is dying so I'll likely replace it with a 5

― DARING PRINCESS (DJP), Thursday, 13 September 2012/

fwiw this can sometimes be solved with a reset (for real!)

I kiss you for this, btw

10.7 is just a normal maintenance release afaik. That new redesigned one is probably 11 and coming in October.

xp that worked?? omg

completely unable to find out whether capacity of home screen folders will increase from 12 to 16

not sure if anyone has linked to this yet, but it does pretty effectively indicate how screwed for choice americans are (whether travelling abroad or not) as well as anyone who regularly travels to america. obv if would be dead simple if the world could agree on ONE network standard, EVER, and just get on with it

It's not like anyone is going to take billions of dollars of CDMA infrastructure off of AT&T's hands.

I mean Verizon's, obviously.

Weird thing is that the non-US (A1429) iPhone 5 supports the same three LTE frequencies that the CDMA iPhones used with Verizon and Sprint in the US do. The problem is that neither company is routing voice over LTE yet, so they both use CDMA for voice still which means you can't talk on you rest-of-world GSM phone on those two networks. I would have expected AT&T's iPhone 5 to work globally (and global iPhones to work on AT&T) but AT&T is using unusual LTE frequencies that most iPhones don't support. I'm guess the LTE chipmakers (Qualcomm and the like) will catch up soon and make an LTE chipset that works on every frequency used worldwide.

Travellers to the US can insert a SIM card and talk and surf on AT&T or T-Mobile's network, but on HSPA+ (still pretty fast, but not LTE) for data and GSM for voice. T-Mobile uses oddball frequencies in most places and has iPhone-compatible HSPA+ in only a few big cities and no LTE at all, so you're going to fall back on slow 2G data speeds if you use any iPhone on their network. At least you can talk since they're GSM.

so ... verizon's iphone is still the best bet for global compatibility?

It seems so - a complete reverse from the iPhone 4 which didn't even have a SIM card slot and couldn't get reception in most of the world. The Verizon iPhone 4S is dual CDMA/GSM, but designed not to work on American GSM networks (read: AT&T) - the SIM card slot is there so you can use it outside North America.

So... I have a question about old Apple lust objects.

I need a new computer (mine is from early 2008) but I don't want to buy a new Apple computer. It's just too much money. It's like a car — i'd rather buy used.

So I'm thinking of buying a newer used macbook or macbook pro. My question is about the unibody Apple notebooks. How many years do the batteries last? Mine is JUST now starting to give me "Replace soon / now" warnings. If I buy a 2 year old macbook will I need to replace the battery soon?

I'm wary of buying a computer that deliberately makes it difficult for the user to replace or upgrade parts.

for 1000 dollars you can get a refurb macbook pro i5 that's still a plenty useful computer.

I'm wary of buying a computer that deliberately makes it difficult for the user to replace or upgrade parts.

downloading ios6 to ipad now...

well I think it would def depend on how many cycles the battery's been through, whether the previous owner left it plugged in all the time, etc. I think the app coconut battery app tells you this info?

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/battery/

any passes for passbook available yet?

Can it even be installed yet? I open it and it gives me a dead App Store link

Ditto.

ios6 = 791MB

we're gonna be here for a while

Installed

Bluetooth on-off toggle is now not so buried, so much better.

Took about four tries to load iPod/music without crashing.

Flying Delta tomorrow evening I wonder if passbook will work tomorrow.

assuming they haven't fixed the password visibility issue? still blows my mind that on a presentation device like the ipad your password is displayed character by character. because I want everyone in the room to know what my password is.

10.8.2 has sorted the wifi timeout issue.

Panic Inc ‏@panic
Good news: we're told Mac OS X 10.8.2 fixes a hang-on-wake with Transmit 4, and a frequent WebKit crash with Coda 2. We recommend updating!

god

10.8.2 >>>>> iOS 6

stet, ios6 + uk + maps. should i upgrade?

will firmware update fix the screen tearing i keep experiencing on safari?

Do you mean when scrolling pages fast?

iOS 6 installed without a hitch. Too bad many of its best new features won't work on my iPod touch 4.

I was wondering what all the carping about the new maps was about. The previews I saw on tech sites looked amazing. Then I found out why - check out this page. That fancy photographic 3D flyover building and street rendering only works in the US, and only in certain cities at that. The rest of the country, and the world, gets ugly featureless mockups instead. I trust Google is working 24/7 on an iOS mass-transit map, as well as Street View.

xp yes

but also when an app like facebook tries to update something at the same time i'm typing something fast i get weird jumping around blocks of screen

oh and forgot to mention, even Americans living in those select cities won't see the 3D renderings on older devices, like mine.

I just want public transit directions.

for 1000 dollars you can get a refurb macbook pro i5 that's still a plenty useful computer.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, September 18, 2012 11:07 PM

yeah... I'm thinking a 2 or 3 year old machine that costs less than $650. i'll figure it out...

Most of the major transit systems have their own apps already, but now they'll need to integrate them with iOS maps

it has turn by turn no thats an improvement

yeah, I used turn by turn with siri on my ipad 3 on the way home from work, no issues. looks like a regular GPS now. could give an f about 3d flyover, just get me from here to there.

Caek: if you use maps totally no. It's hilariously bad. Half the tube stations aren't even on there. It is near-totally useless in London because what locations it does know about are in the wrong places. In Edinburgh some buildings are in the roads.

(The driving directions also seem shit, because it isn't distinguishing A and B roads properly)

Google maps works better for CTA directions than any other app. They just need to go ahead and release a standalone app. If apple would even allow it.