Andy Moore

Is anyone else suffering from iThumb, the syndrome that is a sore thumb due to scrolling around the iPhone?

I can’t be alone. Any other iThumb sufferers out there?

There’s a big update on the horizon but this is a security patch.

[code]foreach($_GET as $value => $get){
$_GET[”$value”] = htmlentities(htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($get)));
}
[/code]A hacking site today found a XSS vulnerability in the plugin, if you use my plugin please just add this under $mobile_plugin_version = ‘1.2′; and keep posted for a full update and version 1.3

Shock at $85k mobile phone bill

It was a bit daft of him to be browsing high definition movies through his mobile data plan!

Well I thought it was about time I added my two cents to the iPhone thing, more so since I’ve just seen a few iPhone related search queries coming in and I’ve had one a little while now.

I took delivery of my iPhone five hours before they went on sale here in the UK, yup it’s an imported American phone, unlocked and made UK centric. Just popped my contract SIM from the business in there and it worked right away.

Ebay rocks, as does the local seller who had it in stock and delivered it to my door within 24 hours of me placing the order!

It was smug of me to walk past the line of people outside Carphone Whorehouse in Loughborough grasping my new iPhone. They were stood waiting to be let in so O2 could sting them with a pathetic minutes deal on an overpriced contract!

They will at least get firmware updates without the worry that it’s going to kill their handset and turn it into an iBrick!

Here’s a mini review.

Good things:

Lovely fluid interface.

Automatic spelling correction, really impressive.

iPod is banging and loud!

YouTube on a phone is cool but only if on a wireless connection.

Wireless browsing, Safari browser….

The WOW factor - it has it! Everyone who sees it wants to touch it and play with it…

Bad things:

Touch interface is a pain in the arse to type URLs.

Automatic spelling correction sometimes happens when you don’t want it to.

The EDGE settings don’t seem to stay locked, I’ve stored them in a note for when I’m about and can’t jump on a wireless network.

It’s not able to download images or music or ringtones from the web. That’s as anti-competitive as locking the phone to a carrier……. I’m sitting on 50,000 ringtones and can’t download any of them to my new phone, that’s bad news and mega frustrating!

2mb camera, that’s pants!

No MMS so unless everyone you know has email on their phone you can’t send them your pictures.

Microphone quality, a couple of people have mentioned the call quality isn’t too hot.

Try taking a call when both your hands are busy, rest the iPhone between your shoulder and your ear, I tried that and my ear lobe managed to touch the ‘end call’ button!

The mail client has no search feature so sucks as it’s not usable.

The mapping application isn’t location aware, no point in having a map if you don’t know where you are. In the mapping applications defense though, I went to Future of Mobile the other day, naturally I got completely lost in London and the N95’s GPS chip was no help as it couldn’t get a solid satellite connection in the city.

iPhone has a custom audio out socket that forces you to part with more money to get a suitable adapter.

8gb and non expandable is shocking.

Apple battery lifetime issues.

As much as I love it and I do, there’s more against it than there is for it in my eyes and for the time I’ve gone back to my N95, it’s a better phone and at the end of the day.

iPhone keeps giving me ‘for fucks sake’ style moments of frustration when sending SMS, mail or going to URLs, as fluid and slick as it is the frustration of having to try and type a URL eight times is a real turn off. Messaging and mail are a chore with the touching, I didn’t think I had fat fingers but iPhone seems to have given me a complex that makes me think I may have.

To sum it up in lowest common terms:

iPhone is a beautiful woman, she turns heads wherever you take her but she’s not too hot in bed.

The N95 isn’t such a pretty girl, doesn’t turn heads as much but performs better in the sack!

Sorry Apple, the N95 breaks through the ‘reality distortion field’ that Steve Jobs emits around the iPhone!

Good news for PayPal Mobile Checkout merchants, Australia is live!

My post over on dev.mobi suggested Australia would be coming soon as the documentation cited Australian Dollars as a supported currency.

One or two of my Google Alerts told me about this a couple of days ago but it’s still below the radar so I thought I’d add to it with a quick post.