Today my 18 month iPhone 3G contract with o2 came to an end. For a few months I’ve heard some fellow o2-iPhone friends talk about moving to an iPhone Simplicity tariff with a 30-day rolling contract, leaving them free and single to sign a new contract when the newest and shiniest iPhone hits the streets, possibly in the summer.

So, looking to save myself £10 a month, I called o2 today and switched from iPhone 30 (£30 per month) which gave me 75 mins/125 texts, to iPhone Simplicity 20 (£20 per month) which gives you…

- 300 mins
- Unlimited texts
- Unlimited data and wifi
- Visual Voicemail

The phonecall to 2302 from my iPhone took just a few minutes. Shortly after making the switch I checked Visual Voicemail on my iPhone which was showing as ‘Currently Unavailable’. I assumed that this feature wasn’t available on iPhone Simplicity until a few friends confirmed that it was. 3G was also failing on my iPhone, so I called o2 again and spoke with a girl who really confused matters.

I was told to change the network settings on my iPhone so that I could get 3G and MMS. She also repeatedly insisted that Visual Voicemail does not come with the iPhone Simplicity tariffs. However, it appears she was confusing regular Simplicity with iPhone Simplicity, so there was no need to alter any settings on my phone. I can confirm that you DO get Visual Voicemail on iPhone Simplicity and there is no need to manually change any network settings. Simply reboot your iPhone once you’ve moved to iPhone Simplicity which will bring back 3G and all your current data settings will work correctly without any amendment.

For weeks the rumour mill has been in full swing with regards to a tablet device on it’s way from Apple. While excited to officially hear about the new creation, I was unusually tired of the speculation and delusion from many big unofficial Apple news sites, giving us random bits of detail from non-reliable sources – all of which, predictably, ended up being untrue.

So, after shutting down NewsFire RSS for days, I decided to leave it until the big man himself, Steve Jobs, got up on stage yesterday and unveiled this magical new product: the iPad. I didn’t have any huge expectations about what it would do but for me the iPad is the perfect bridge between the iPhone and iMac. No question.

For the longest time I have wanted something with a bigger screen that I could use for sofa and bed browsing and the ability to watch TV shows and Movies that I have purchased/rented through iTunes. With the absence of an AppleTV which I’m still not entirely sold on, I never do get around to watching the media I have bought. The idea of watching on the iPhone’s 3.5 inch screen is a nice one, but really not practical for doing so comfortably. The 10inches of the iPad = perfection.

I’ve been asked by various people today what I am going to use the iPad for…

- Browsing the internet/sending e-mails from the sofa and bed
- Buying and reading books from the Apple iBookstore
- The beautiful Classics app which will be so much more comfortable to read on a 10 inch screen
- Watching TV shows and Movies purchased through iTunes
- Showing personal photos to friends/family on a comfortable size screen when visiting them
- Games. Oh, the games!
- Arty drawing and painting apps such as Brushes
and the fabulous Charadium
- Apps in general, bigger screen, beauty.
- Goodness knows what else!

My PowerBook did a good job of bridging the gap between my iPhone and iMac for a while, but never gets booted up thesedays and needs to be connected to the mains permanently as battery lasts approximately 3 minutes. I have zero interest in buying a laptop as it’s overkill for my needs (see above). I know the iPad isn’t for everyone’s needs, but there’ll be a big market for this I’m sure

The iPad prices have not yet been announced on the Apple UK site, but Macworld UK have estimated the prices as follows…

iPad WiFi

16GB – £388
32GB – £510
64GB – £591

iPad WiFi + 3G

16GB – £490
32GB – £612
64GB – £693

Many of those don’t sound like Apple-ish prices to me, but again are just an estimate. I would take a guess at the 16GB WiFi starting at £379, with the 32GB coming in at £479. But, we’ll have to wait and see when Apple release the prices in GBP. I’ll update this post with the correct pricing when it’s been announced.

I have decided to go for the iPad 32GB WiFi model, at $599. I simply don’t need 3G as I have my iPhone for that. I actually saved up twice the US asking price as I’d heard that the tablet was expected to cost around $1k. So, I can now happily afford the little accessories such as case and dock! Roll on 60 days time. I’ll have a little review up for you when I get my hands on it.

See the indepth spec review of the iPad over at my friends blog, techese.

When I ordered the Magic Mouse from Apple Store online a couple of weeks ago, I popped the new Apple Remote into my shopping cart. Then a day later the shipping dates changed on the remote which would have held my mouse up for at least another 36 days. So, I removed the remote and decided to buy at a later date when stock was in.

After doing a Twitter search for ‘new apple remote’ a few days ago, some were reporting that their Remote was now being shipped, despite the availability still showing as 2-4 weeks on the store listing at the time of ordering. (now changed to 1-2 weeks). But, I decided to pop in my order on Monday and just sit it out. Less than 48 hours later the remote had shipped.

Delivery method showed as ‘Postal’ on my invoice, so because of the Royal Mail strikes across the UK recently I wasn’t expecting it to arrive anytime soon. However, it seems Apple are now using a different courier service to get their goods to customers in the wake of these RM strikes, so it arrived in a timely manner by UK Mail this afternoon. Apple packaged it very well, in a shoe-box sized box!

Check out more photos of the New Apple Remote on Flickr.

I unpaired my old Apple Remote and paired up the new one by holding down the right and menu buttons together for 5 seconds, then a link icon appeared on the screen to show I’d successfully paired it with my iMac. I’ve been asked a few questions around the internet about the remote already, so here’s a little summary.

It’s slightly heavier than the white plastic remote. It’s also a lot colder to the touch, being all aluminium. Even though the play/pause button has been moved from the centre, the centre still acts as a play/pause button. This is good news as I’ve become rather accustomed to clicking the centre for that and I’m sure it would take a while to re-program that action.

There isn’t a great deal more one can say about a Remote Control, but if you do have any questions then fire away in the comments.

The Apple Magic Mouse arrived at Fruit Bytes HQ late this afternoon, courtesy of UPS. Having ordered it direct from Apple Store online 9 days ago, I was very much looking forward to receiving it and having a bit of a play to see how it compared to it’s older sibling, the Mighty Mouse.

When I unpacked the mouse I was expecting it to come in the cardboard packaging like the Mighty Mouse, but instead it’s a plastic box much like the ones that the iPod range come in nowadays (below). The batteries were already inside of the mouse, so all I needed to do was flick the switch underneath, browse for a new Bluetooth device and within a few moments the Magic Mouse was ready for business.

The back of the box shows all the various actions such as the two-finger swipe and screen zoom. But, I know you’re keen to know how it feels compared to the bigger Mighty Mouse…

Because it’s so much thinner and flatter, you will notice the difference in your hand right away. A couple of my fingers felt like they didn’t quite know where to be, mostly my ring finger which ordinarily would be hugging the side of the Mighty Mouse. I sometimes found myself using my index finger to scroll rather than my middle finger. I didn’t expect anything other than an alien feeling to begin with and it would be silly to say otherwise. The more I’m using it, the more intuitive and natural it’s starting to become and I know for sure that the Mighty Mouse would feel big and chunky in my hand now.

I’ve had a play with just some of the functions of the Magic Mouse in the short time I’ve had it. Obviously vertical scroll is particularly enjoyable and the thought of no more scroll ball getting clogged up is a sweet one. I have scrolled through my iTunes music library (cover flow view) using one-finger horizontal scrolling. This was just to test this feature out but doubt it will be an action I use regularly as I never browse my library in Cover Flow view. Similarly, two-finger swiping for going back or forward in Safari may not be something I use much, but it works and works well.

These are my Magic Mouse preferences…

I increased the Scrolling up one notch from it’s default and it feels perfect for me. Aside from it’s functionality, it’s a beautifully designed piece of hardware as one comes to expect from Apple. Underneath the mouse is almost as gorgeous as the top of it. No doubt I will take further pictures to show off it’s slim profile soon and put them up on Flickr.

I know there have been quite a few questions on Twitter about the particular functioning of the Magic Mouse which I have been unable to answer due to being away from the device at the time. But, I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, in the comments. My Mighty Mouse is currently being packed up and will hopefully be off to a new home very soon. The Magic Mouse is here to stay.

If you’re quite fond of that rather large glowing fruit company in Cupertino, you will already know that yesterday Apple released a slew of updates to their hardware range, along with a brand new product, the Magic Mouse – the world’s first multi-touch mouse.

The Apple Store was offline from approximately 3pm until 5.30pm UK time while they updated it with the new shiny hardware including new 21″ and 27″ iMacs, white unibody MacBook, Magic Mouse, new Apple Remote and updates to the Mac Mini, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule. Almost too much to take in! tomacintosh.com has written a little on the new iMacs and their specs, here.

Aside from the new 27in iMac being of particular interest to me, the more affordable option currently is the Magic Mouse and Apple Remote. I ordered both of these shortly after the store came back online and delivery date was 5th November. However, the Apple Remote today changed to 2-4 weeks availability so my order was pushed back another 30 days. I did the sensible thing and cancelled the order for the remote otherwise that would have held up my Magic Mouse, which is now due to ship in 3-5 days.

I’m very much looking forward to using the new Magic Mouse. I bought my wireless Mighty Mouse back in February and while it’s much better than the wired version I’d been using for over 12 months before it, I do find the scroll ball something of an annoyance. To not have that aspect to deal with will be very refreshing. The new Apple Remote looks nice and finally it looks like it belongs with the iMac and MacBook Pro’s. I will pick one of those up when they’re in stock for immediate shipping.

As with every new hardware update of particular significance, it’s time to show some restraint and not let that reality distortion field take control. I suspect and must remember that in a few months we’ll all be salivating over something new and even more shiny – hopefully possibly the Apple tablet. As much as the new more powerful iMac would be a wonderful addition to my workflow, I am holding out for a tablet device. If that looks unlikely for the first quarter of 2010 then an upgraded iMac could take it’s place.

Were you excited about the hardware upgrades yesterday? Have you ordered a new Mac already or are you considering a purchase in the not too distant future? If you are ordering direct from Apple Store UK, would you consider using this link which supports Fruit Bytes as you buy. Thank you!

Tweetie 2 (iTunes) was released to the App Store last night, shortly after developer Loren Brichter announced to the masses on Twitter that it had been approved. The buzz about it on Twitter felt very similar to that which accompanies the release of a brand new Apple product. It was THAT good.

After I wrote a little about Tweetie 2 a couple of weeks ago, I read some pre-release reviews which confirmed that there were no themes in Tweetie 2, just the one simple theme. I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to feel about that as Chat Bubbles has been my theme of choice since day one. I didn’t like the thought of having that taken away from me. But, the list of features kept my interest fully there, so I wasn’t going to pass judgement until I had the app infront of me.

Let’s just say I’m now thinking “Chat Bubbles? What Chat Bubbles?”. The simple clean white theme is gorgeous. Simplicity and absolute elegance. The screengrabs of the theme don’t do it justice. See it on your iPhone and you’ll feel the love. I have barely put my iPhone down since I bought Tweetie 2 last night. There’s features I haven’t touched yet – still so much more to play with which is what I love in an iPhone app. Having everything there and fully functional, but still managing to find something even more cool on closer inspection.

My favourite bits of Tweetie 2 so far are the “pull down to refresh” feature which gives that satisfying little pop sound when it’s done, threaded conversations and the little blue neon markers underneath unread tweets, @’s and DM’s. The ‘nearby’ feature is also particularly beautiful. I’m also a huge fan of the new simple silver icon. I think, like the application behind it, it’s simple and elegent. It sits on the opposite side of the same row as my Camera app on my iPhone’s home screen – and looks right at home there.

Rather than do a full review of every feature, I am going to hand you over to the Cult Of Mac who have done a sterling job on that front. One more thing I will say, however, this is worth £1.79 ten times over. I seriously do mean that. I believe fully in supporting developers when they create beautiful applications like this which change the way I use my iPhone and Twitter on a daily basis. £1.79 just doesn’t even begin to cover my appreciation.

Rating:

Tweetie 2 – iTunes [£1.79/$2.99]

In my initial thoughts post on the iPod nano 5G, I promised some video soon so you could all see the quality as that’s been the most requested of me on Twitter. I took the nano out with me today and was approached by someone who thought my bright orange gadget looked rather tasty. Luckily I was able to capture his enthusiasm on video.

Like I mentioned in my last post about the nano, I am seriously impressed with the video quality but I’m also extremely pleased with that of the audio. Of the more expensive camcorders I have owned over the years, the audio quality was somewhat of a disappointment. Either quite muffled or an over-sensitive built-in mic, something that the Aiptek AHD200 suffered from which meant that a gentle breeze would quickly be translated as a force nine gale.

Here’s another video taken with the nano today…

My usual path when uploading video to the Mac from the nano is via iPhoto, then from within QuickTime I can quickly trim a clip and upload it to YouTube from within QT, or pop it onto Flickr. Both of the videos here are direct from the nano and uploaded to Flickr. If I want to do something special with it then I’ll import it into iMovie and do some editing in there. However, one of the things I bought the nano for was quick simple video I could upload to twitvid which will then be auto-posted to Twitter. That’s simply a case of syncing the nano, importing the video into iPhoto, again just trimming in QuickTime and then saving the video (.mov) and uploading to the twitvid site. They’re usually very speedy in processing the video to share instantly on twitter.

I know video quality of the iPod nano is something that many people out there are interested in knowing about, as was I before I decided to purchase. But I hope the above videos go some way to reassuring you that this is no fuzzy pixelated offering from Apple.

As mentioned in this post, if there’s anything specific you would like to know about the iPod nano from someone that is enjoying playing with it then do feel free to ask in the comments

As a huge advocate of Tweetie for iPhone and Mac, I was excited to hear what developer Loren Brichter was going to announce today, regarding the next version of the iPhone client. Some people were anticipating an update to the Mac version which was released back in April, but I can’t say that there’s anything I’m waiting to be improved on that. It’s already way ahead of the other Mac apps for Twitter, IMO.

Loren has explained in depth what features will be coming in Tweetie 2, including video recording from the 3GS, drafts manager and threaded conversations like the Mac version – a feature I love and have been desperate for on the iPhone client. I’ll let Loren tell you about the whole heap of other features.

Tweetie 2 for the iPhone will be submitted to Apple this week and we’ll impatiently await the approval. Tweetie 2 is a complete rewrite and a whole new app which will cost exactly the same as it does now, just £1.79/$2.99, for new users and old. I have been following mentions of @tweetie on Twitter and have been surprised to see people complaining about having to pay for the new app. I have been using Tweetie on the iPhone exclusively for almost 10 months and I still can’t believe that this, my most used and loved app on the iPhone, cost only £1.79. That won’t buy you much, nowadays, but it will buy you the best Twitter app you’ll ever need on the iPhone.

After many years of waiting and wondering why there is no Apple Store in the great British city of Newcastle upon Tyne, yesterday we found out that the wait is (almost) finally over. Apple Store is coming to toon! It will be opening Spring 2010 in Eldon Square South, which is currently under construction.

You can see the brochure with the floor plans for the new mall and where the Apple Store will be located, here (PDF).

Apple now have job opportunities listed for the Newcastle store on their website.

I’m very excited about the new store. Finally no more ordering online and waiting days for shiny things to arrive via UPS – just a very short journey into the city centre instead to pick things up as and when I want need them. Thank you, Apple, for making this Geordie Geek very, very happy.

After a very long 7 months, my Gadget abstinence has come to a shuddering halt thanks to the new iPod nano with video camera. I opted for the very juicy orange in the largest 16GB capacity, which cost £135. I ordered from the Apple Store online at around 1.30pm yesterday afternoon and it arrived via UPS at 3pm today. That’s probably the quickest delivery time I’ve experienced from Apple in 4 years.

I was feeling quite underwhelmed before the ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ Apple Event last Wednesday, knowing the entire event was going to be devoted to iTunes and the iPod range – something that I wasn’t too excited about. That was until the One More Thing where the new nano with video camera was announced.

I’ve been wanting the iPhone 3GS since it’s launch a couple of months ago. However, due to being tied into my existing iPhone 3G contract until March, all options to get around that were hardly attractive. Pay up the rest of my contract and upgrade/sign a new 18 month contract, or buy the Pay & Go iPhone 3GS for £440 and pop my existing SIM in. The latter was the more attractive option, but word from some 3GS upgraders was “wait until next summer for the next new iPhone”. So, the new iPod nano is my go-between – with a more attractive price-tag.

The video functionality of the nano was the selling point for me as it was the biggest thing I wanted from the 3GS. Okay, so I can’t upload directly from the iPod itself to the internet like with the 3GS, but it takes moments to sync to iTunes/iPhoto so I can quickly trim a video in QuickTime and then upload to iTunes, MobileMe or YouTube.

I am very impressed with the quality of the video on the new nano. Due to time constraints today I have been unable to capture a large amount of video, but did manage to get this up on YouTube as a test for people who asked me via Twitter. I hope to get some more footage out in natural daylight soon. My initial impressions are very positive, considering it’s such a tiny device. It seems to perform extremely well when going from light to dark conditions which is something that past (and more expensive) camcorders I’ve owned were unable to do very efficiently.

I shall be posting a more indepth review soon. I am in the middle of some major home improvements right now which has slowed my Fruit Bytes dedication down, but if you have any specific questions about the new nano or a request for a test video then please feel free to ask me in the comments or drop me an e-mail and I’ll do my best to assist.