Ardent Meridian

I wrote last year about the battery life of the iPhone 3G, following on from lots of forum chat about perceived issues with it.  At the time I maintained those issues were down to people playing with their phones more as they were new and/or that those people were new to Smart Phones and simply had unrealistic expectations.

Well, the new iPhone 3GS is available, along with claims of improved battery life compared to the 3G and, of course, the ‘net is full of people complaining about battery life – when the numbers they are posting are very much in line with Apple’s claims.

So I thought it my be interesting to repeat the same kind of thing I did with my 3G and compare it with the new 3GS.

The image to the left here shows the results of me charging the phone to full and then using it as I normally would in the course of a day.

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I wrote recently about the Ion "Drum Rocker" I had purchased, partially in response to a broken Rock Band drum pedal, and the excellent experience I had, and am having, with it.

However, as there are options to repair or replace the original pedal, and it was the "only" thing "wrong" with my original drums, I spent some time looking at those options with the intent of fixing the pedal, and giving the old drums to a friend.

That’s my broken pedal above, snapped clean off at the hinge.  A little research research pointed to two primary options for getting my broken Rock Band drum pedal fixed, and several more for a complete – and more expensive – replacement:

• The first was to go through the official warranty/repair process, which is probably the route most people would go.  However, assuming a simple swap of the broken pedal for a new one, this is just going to lead to the same problem occurring again somewhere down the road.
• The second was a third-party solution, either replacing or repairing the existing pedal.  The options I found for this looked like they would result in both a more solid and durable end-result, and a better looking one as well.

I opted to repair my existing pedal, partly because that option was slightly cheaper, and partly because the premium replacement pedals look like they might even be upgrades to the "Drum Rocker" pedal!

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So, despite the initial, disappointed, and apparently false, impression I got from reading most of the interesting technical sites/blogs on the release of the T-Mobile G1 – it has apparently sold out all 1.5 million pre-order units.

That’s pretty impressive for a cool looking and sleek phone with every feature known to man …

For a phone with a relatively dull appearance, apparent ergonomic issues, and the inability to do anything useful in the context of Microsoft Exchange, like the G1, it is downright staggering!

I am smart enough to admit when I am wrong about something, and in terms of the G1’s or, at least, Android’s appeal: I was wrong!

Not that I am about to change my opinion on wanting the G1 device for myself or not: I don’t – I’ll wait for something a lot more "current" looking.  But as a platform to develop for, well, 1.5 million pre-orders is not something to sniff-at.  One has to believe that for every pre-order there are as many people that will snap it up at retail, and that just bodes even better for the platform as a whole.

I am going to finish my current iPhone projects, and see how they fair, before spending any more time on learning and coding on Android.  At least now, however, my enthusiasm for the platform has been restored and I do plan on releasing applications for it as well.

If Android can generate these kinds of sales on a relatively, to me at least, uninspiring handset, one has to wonder what it could do when coupled with some pretty hardware with no obvious ergonomic issues – coming out to a populated applications market …