The Disgustingly Wonderful iPhone 5

This is a blog post about my new found love, my iPhone5.
I hate myself for being so materialistic and giving in to the ridiculous price, but can also stand proud at the fact that it took me so long to give into its temptation.
Here's a bit of back-story and a little about me; I hate material objects, I am a nature and animal lover and believe the money spent buying nice cars and designer clothes can be much better spent feeding the hungry. I never, ever, go shopping unless it's for food or if I am being made to find an outfit for a wedding, and even then I refuse to buy the expensive stuff. Take for example my own mothers wedding, I was a bridesmaid AND allowed to pick my own bridesmaid dress, most 21 year old girls from north London would have had a ball and taken the opportunity to find the most expensive designer dress they could find, I was happy with a high-street £25 simple dress, I say happy, I would have been happier in old jeans and a t-shirt but society rules like that. So this is me, call me tight, cheap (I get called it all the time), but materialistic I am not!

Blackberry seemed so advanced
in 2007 - this phone now sells for £30

Unfortunately, there is just something about mobile phones that gets me!... Going back to circa 2007, smartphones were just starting to make their way out into the general market, the biggest providers at that time were Blackberry, with Apple on the warpath and Google trailing pathetically behind. If you wanted a smartphone it had to be a Blackberry, and so I got one for my birthday that year.
It was incredible! Being able to access emails from a phone instead of a computer, being able to stalk people on Facebook the moment you wake up in the morning without leaving the bed to plug anything in on switch anything on! This Blackberry was genius and I loved it!... For a while.
3 months down the line, its 2008 and Apple have finally made an appearance, and what an entrance! After a few rubbish attempts, here was the iPhone 3. It was so pretty and sleek, and had a touch screen, wooooow, this phone made the Blackberry look like a frumpy old mess. My brother got the new iPhone 3 as his birthday present that year.

Time passed, upgrades came and went, I was loyal to Blackberry, they had served me well, giving me my emails and being so big and stable that I could never lose or break it. But on the sidelines, Apple were making waves, with Steve Jobs at the helm they were marching with purpose, they were going to win this smartphone war! It's something you couldn't ignore, the iPhone upgrades were coming quick and often, with each upgrade bringing more ground breaking technology, like 3G, video cameras for Skype calls, and an app store full of possibilities and hope. I wanted one. badly. But I resisted, I was not going to give into this marketing scam, not  lastly because with all these bell and whistles came a very hefty price tag (bring on the cheap/tight remarks again).
I would have carried on resisting had my brother not given me his hand-me-down iPhone 3 that he had spare after he upgraded. By that time at the end of 2009, my old (only about a year old but nevertheless old in phone terms) Blackberry was on it's last legs and just couldn't keep up with the 3G technology, in fact any technology that was coming along, this was the beginning of the end for Blackberry. So I needed a phone, and an iPhone 3 I got.

I had no idea at the time what a huge upgrade I was about to get with this iPhone 3. I could surf the internet more easily and quickly, get wifi in places I didn't even know had wifi, suddenly I was connected to the world of 'right now', the whole world was literally at my fingertips. I realised how much I'd been missing on as I'd been plodding along with my Blackberry, and promised myself this wouldn't happen again! Except that, well, history has a funny way of repeating itself.

The iPhone 4 felt like a dinosaur
compared to the new iPhone 5. 

It took another 3 years until I upgraded my phone again. Doesn't sound like long but in phone terms it is more than a lifetime. By now, Google had entered the smartphone market with Android and were dominating, Blackberry was nowhere to be seen, and even Windows were bringing out their own smartphone. Apple were still innovating, just about, and made enough hype and noise around their new iPhone 5 for it to be completely appealing. Also by this point, my iPhone 3 was on it's last legs, unable to use most apps I tried downloading, and struggling to make phone calls, sending and receiving texts was a matter of pot luck. It was time for a change, I couldn't wait any longer for my brothers hand-me-down (his iPhone 4 was also now a dinosaur anyway) and so I took the plunge, and bought an iPhone 5.

It made me feel very sick. I was so happy yet so disgusted in myself at the same time, such a mix of emotions, I was so ashamed in myself, thinking of all the ways the money spent on just a phone could have been better spent, but that's the thing, the iPhone 5 is not 'just a phone'.

An iPhone is an iPhone they're all the same they say. No, they are not, again, I had no idea what I had been missing. Yes I'd had an iPhone but it was not the same. Its the little details, the panoramic camera option, the built in facebook app, the amazing speedyness of it. The iPhone 5 has again upgraded me and plonked me back in the world of 'now'. The now, where social networking is king, News becomes old news as soon as you click the seen button on your Sky news app, you can dictate a text message while driving and have Siri send it for you. The world has changed and finally I have caught up with the help of a phone.

 Of course whether Apple will be able to keep it's lead is looking unlikely, Android are becoming the new Apple, innovating, and doing it for a lower price too. But for now, Apple and their iPhone 5 are still reigning supreme, will sales through the roof and their loyal followers still raving about them. Lets hope they are not the next Blackberry, otherwise I have another very long wait ahead of me.

For now, I am enjoying finally being able to play my favourite apps that I couldn't download updates for on my old iPhone 3. Apps such as Jumbled, Logos Quiz and Snake (yes that last one is truthfully ironic). Oh and the fate of my Blakcberry, I managed to finally sell it for £27 back to O2 my mobile provider a few months ago. No-one wanted it, I almost had to pay them to take it off my hands!

Happy Birthday Android

This week Android turns 4, and while most kids that age have not yet learnt how to read or even count, Android is way ahead of the class and holding 75% of the smartphone operating system market, making it the world's biggest smartphone OS! No mean feat for a 4 year old!

How has it got there, avid iOS fans may be wondering? It's because Android cater to the everyday man. Not the showoffy, egomaniatical iPhone users, not the 'we are to business focused to have fun' Blackberry crowd, no, Android have placed themselves nicely in the middle of the market with its army of budget handsets, open source app market, and the ability to keep up with moving technological trends. But beware, with a birthday in November, their starsign is Scorpio and my my do they have a sting in their tail! Now that they've successfully settled into their niche, Android are on the attack!

The attack planning started in 2008, since then Android has been improving their operating system with numerous updates, listening to their consumers and adding new features and fixing bugs. Each update release is named in alphabetical order after a desert or sugary treat for example, Cupcake, Donut and Ice-Cream Sandwich (good luck finding a dessert beginning with 'X Android!).

Androids newest update
is Jelly Bean 

Androids latest offering JellyBean is fast and powerful, and with better hardware becoming available such as the Google Nexus or Samsung Galaxy which have better specs but yet are much cheaper than an iPhone,  it could becoming more appealing to even the most hardened of Apple fans, who might just get a bit sick and tired of having to sleep rough for a week outside an Apple shop just to get a handset that can't tell you where the nearest coffee shop is properly (referring to the terrible iOS 6 maps here). It would not be a surprise to see Google and Android increase their lead in this market even further in the next year.

The advantage of the open source app market (the Google Playstore) to Androids OS rankings is not always talked about, but does have an impact. The closed off iOS appstore makes it harder and harder for developers to create innovative and fresh applications, as they will likely be rejected, so they turn to the Android, to their laid-back, anything goes attitude. This will have a knock on effect, with Android having better applications being made for them (yes there will be lots of terrible ones in there too), and these apps will contribute to an all round better OS.

If you have read other parts of this blog you'll know I am the owner of www.logoquizanswers.com, the comprehensive answers and cheat website for the Logos Quiz app. We fully support Android, and actually are one of the only cheat websites to do this (the others almost all solely focus on iOS only).  Check out how much we love Android Logo Quizzes. This also brings up a good point again about the advantage of the Google Playstore. For every one brilliant app for iPhone, there will be 10 in the Playstore, giving the end user more choice, variety and ultimately a better end experience.

For those interested in the breakdown percentage of the OS market and how the other brands such as Apple and Blackberry are doing, here is a lovely pie-chart to sum it up for you. As you can see, Android is dominating by a long shot!

Good for you Android, and Happy Birthday!

And yes, I know how much I moaned about Google in my last post, this still stands, however they don't half make a good operating system! For reference only, I own and use an iPhone.