Today we are going to do another review of an app which is fairly new, and one which we took great advantage of before Valentines Day weekend. Â The app in question is called Siri, a personal assistant for the iPhone as they like to call it.
When we first read about Siri briefly from other forums, we thought it would be fairly similar to the Google App. Â While being similar in that it has voice recognition, it goes one step beyond the Google App. Â The voice recognition aspect of the app also happens to be the same one that is used in Dragon Dictation.
With Siri, when you first start it up, you are asked to fill in some information, such as your name, email, and phone number. Â If you do not know why they are asking, you may forgo wanting to fill it out. Â However, the reason behind asking you to fill it out is quite good, and really what makes Siri such a great application for the iPhone.
To give you a real world example of how Siri works, and how we used it ourselves, we would like you to imagine Valentines is coming up (which it already did), and you need to make a reservation to a restaurant. Â You open up the Siri app, state the name of the restaurant and location (San Diego for us), and it will do a search for you. Â Once it has found restaurant X, you state, “Reservation for two on Sunday February 14, at 6:00pm”. Â Since you had previously entered your info before, you have no need to call the restaurant to give name, phone, or email. Â They will be notified, and within moments, you will be notified via Siri (and email) of your confirmation. Â However, this does not work for all the restaurants, and when it does not, it does suggest to you, “would you like to call said place?”. Â You can check out their video below this text:
In addition to this great scenario we just explained, it also does show Yelp reviews of what other people have thought of the business you are interested in visiting. Â All in all, we were very pleased with the App, and highly recommend it to anyone.
Thanks for tuning in again. Â Today we wanted to review an amazing app that has been around since late 2009. Â It is called Knocking. Â It basically allows for Mobile to Mobile Live Sharing. Â What this means is that for example if you are witness to an amazing event, or interesting event, and you want to share it with your friend(s), and/or family, you may do so live by simply “knocking” them and allow them to see Live what your iPhone’s camera is seeing.
We have tested this application both internally, and outside the office, and it has worked really well. Â Sometimes there may be a slight lag, but that is usually fixed once flow has begun. Â We had in fact one of our friends “knock” one of our iPhone while in Mexico. Â We were able to see the sun, the sand, the pool, and the beautiful people bathing in the sun, while most of the country was freezing cold (yes even San Diego was cold at the time).
Knocking may also function as a video to iPhone conversation (one way though for now). Â Basically, let’s say you are on the phone with Jim, and while on the phone you see something quite spectacular, and want to share that, without hanging up. Â Well being on AT&T, and using iPhone’s Knocking App, you can do just that. Â Simply press the Home button on your iPhone (after you put call on speaker mode), open up the Knocking App. Â Knock your friend (all while talking on the phone), and voila! Â You know have a phone call, while sharing video simultaneously. Â You can even turn the video to show your face while talking! Â Granted it is one way right now, but with time we believe there will be two way video sharing. Â You may how it works in the official video from the Knocking Team below this text:
We would love to hear your stories. Â Have you used Knocking? Â How have you used it? Any cool and fun stories to share? Â We would love to hear from you as always.
If you have been following the news from the likes of Macrumors, you will have seen that there has been quite a discussion, or rather speculation on who Apple will choose to have as their default search engine. Â Will it continue to be Google as the default Search Engine on all iPhones? Â Or are these rumors holding some truth in speculating that Apple is indeed going to be working with Microsoft (again).
Fanboys of Apple will probably say that this should never happen, and if it does happen they will do a manual switch to Google.
Let us think about this a bit though. Â Is Bing as awful as we all remember Live or MSN Search once was? Â Polls and customer surveys suggest otherwise. Â Bing may very well be as good, if not better than Google, and with people on their iPhone beginning to use it more extensively, perhaps Microsoft will become even better. Â They certainly are showing some innovative signs with their WinMo 7 OS, which is becoming to be quite a contender on a speculative side. Â We shall see. Â As always, please send us your comments and opinions.
It has been a while since we wrote our last entry here at Accessories for iPhone. We apologize for the delay . Â This time our post will be about one of the product lines we carry. Â Specifically it is about the Candy Series. Â One of our staff members actually loves the color green, and naturally she chose to get and use the Sourpatch Case. Â We were actually thrilled to see how her iPhone would fare with it, considering she is an extreme biker, a dual athlon athlete, and a girly girl who tosses her iPhone into her purse (bowling bag)!
It has been three months since she began using this case, and that iPhone with the case has been through some serious rides!  It has fallen out of her hand when biking, when running, fallen upon tiled flooring (our office), become air borne to crash into a wall – all without scratching the iPhone one bit!  The case though has surprisingly also fared very well.  Except the last crash occurred on cement, and it created a small fracture.
We know this is an unorthodox review of a case, but we thought that if the iPhone case could sustain such abuse from the likes of her, then it can surely protect your iPhone even better. Â Unless you are in the Winter Olympics and doing some freestyle skiing!
As we always do here, we like to comment, write, and speculate on all things iPhone, from its OS, to devices or accessories connected to it, to the competition of the iPhone. Â Hence, this piece today is about the answer of Google to the iPhone, and why we firmly believe that while Android is an amazing piece of open source OS, it cannot replicate the ecosystem of Apple’s iPhone; not while it is open source and modified by so many handset manufacturers.
At Accessories for iPhone, we firmly believe that one of the many reasons for the runaway success for the iPhone is not just because it is a “sexy” looking smartphone as many critics will have you think, but because of the amazing ecosystem that Apple has created around the iPhone from device, to OS, to Apps. Â PC World recently wrote a piece called Six Reasons to Not Like Like Google’s Nexus One. Â We especially have to agree with point Six (which many criticize Apple for), and that is the controlled ecosystem that Apple has created around the iPhone with the App store, one form factor (manufactures handset), and the ease of publishing your Apps to fit one form. Â Fitting one form, this is a huge one we believe because unlike Android App developers, iPhone developers really need to only adhere to one screen size, one resolution, and only recently can make certain apps run faster/better in the 3GS models. Â When you take a look at the Android Market, the developers there are forced to choose: Will they make apps for the Droid by Moto, Droid Eris by HTC, G2, MyPhone, HTC Hero, or the new Nexus One with the SnapDragon CPU by Qualcomm? Â If you have been following Android news, you will see that HTC is coming with a multitude of Android handsets, as is Acer, Motorola, SonyEricsson, and much more. Â You would think Android is set to take over the world, and that is indeed what some Android fans believe. Â We are not denying that it is indeed a possibility that Android OS may very well become the de facto OS for smartphones. Â But, and this is a huge but, will Android be able to deliver the same integrated ease of use, amazing user experience across the board not only for customers purchasing Android handsets, but also giving Android developers an even bigger reason to develop more Apps for Android? Â Â We firmly believe that as it is right now, the answer is no. Â Here is a list of why we believe it will not stack up against Apple’s iPhone:
1. Different screen sizes (because different manufacturers trying to outdo the others)
2. Different hardware inside each phone (difficult for App developers to choose from/less success)
3. Confusing Android Market because not all Apps work for all Android handsets
4. Not all Android handsets will run same OS version (Droid 2.01, Droid Eris 1.5, Nexus One 2.1)
6. Most important of all – Features that need to be enabled makes it a lose for customers!
Point six is actually one that David Pogue wrote about in his NY Times column and got tons of unjust and ridiculous criticism for from rabid Android fans. Â If you want a more in-depth analysis and reason for why Android falls short next to the iPhone and its OS, please read Charlie Wolf’s report.
Until next time, thanks for reading, and please send in your comments, rants, or praises.
As written in our post yesterday, we had insider knowledge of the inevitable, that the iPhone is ready to go live on Verizon (or any other CDMA carrier a la Sprint) when Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T comes to an end. Now, we have official announcements from Qualcomm that their new chip part of the MDM family of cell phone chipsets is ready for action. It supports dual advanced 3G, 4G formats. The MSM7630 supports GSM, HSPA+, as well as work on CDMA networks and support EVDO Revision B for 3G on such devices.
What does all of this mean for Verizon customers, and current iPhone customers looking to switch to the touted as more reliable network? Well for starters it means that frustrated iPhone customers who believe the message Verizon is conveying – that their network is more reliable will help them, and for those who have held off getting an iPhone because they are a Verizon customer, or dislike AT&T can now get the iPhone. That is if the rumors are to be trusted on blogosphere, Twitter. What do you think of all this? Are you a current iPhone customer with AT&T, a T-Mobile customer with a jailbroken iPhone? Or perhaps someone locked in to Verizon, or wanting to wait till iPhone comes to Verizon? As always, please share your thoughts with us here and join our Facebook page with other like minded people.
According to MovieWeb Universal has now unveiled a new seat of control features for pertaining social media aspects of upcoming Blu-Ray movies from Universal. These features are said to include the ability of being able to receive interactive web offers from social app platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. An App for the iPhone and iPod Touch will also be released in conjunction with these movie releases which include Inglorious Basterds, Public Enemies, and more. For more detailed information, please visit MovieWeb’s site.
What we would like to do instead is to open a discussion on what else may be possible in the near future with the iPhone, and iPod Touch, but more iPhone because of its always connected ability (3G, WiFi). They will already release a Blu-Ray player. Will this we wonder include the PS3? Which is arguably the biggest reason for the Blu-Ray success over HD-DVD (if you remember that short lived war of the formats). Will this remote app become a spring board for developing new iPhone apps using Blu-Tooth capability (we assume iPhone app will either use Blu-Tooth or WiFi capability). We would like to hear your thoughts on this here at Accessories for iPhone as we are fellow aficionados of all things Apple, especially iPhone.
More news, rumors, and perhaps even an app review tomorrow.
. Â This time our post will be about one of the product lines we carry. Â Specifically it is about the 
