Category Archives: Personal

The iPhone Screens

Posted by on November 22, 2011 No comments

Now that my wife is back from a couple of days away I ended up comparing some bits between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, particularly download speed wise (with the SpeedTest app) and I noticed that the screen on the 4S was yellower/murkier than the iPhone 4 I used before.

Part of this evening I’ve been comparing the two screens and I struggle a bit over which I prefer, some colours look better on the yellower screen, at the cost of some detail in photos as its a bit more washed out, and others look better on a bluer screen, for instance I looked at the same photo on both a iPhone 4 and 4S screen and a purple/pink was much more striking on the bluer iPhone 4 screen than the 4S. However the grey and greens looked more natural on the yellower 4S. The other cost with the yellower screen is that the text of the App Icons isn’t quite as clear

I kind of forget the difference when I don’t look at the iPhone 4 but there is a part of me that is bugged knowing that some of the detail in pictures is lost / washed out and icon text is a bit harder to read.

Its not an unknown issue and also occurred when the iPhone 4 was released. Its quite varied, some like the yellower tint, some the bluer tint and the chances of getting exactly the one you want is slim unless you somehow convince Apple to let you swap lots of times.

Have a look at this photo by Jason Yeaman in the AppAdvice thread, which shows the variation in the iPhone 4 screens.

When I got my original 3GS I loved its screen to death (I honestly think it was on the yellow side of neutral), but the casing (dock connector area) cracked and I ended up taking it to the Apple Store and they kindly replaced the phone. Then began a nightmare of 6-7 replacement phones which had varying degrees of problems (dead pixels, vibration unit and so on) including quite different degrees of screen colours; none though had as good a colour as my original 3GS had and I ended up with one that was quite blue, too blue even and so I gladly upgraded to the iPhone 4 when I could.

When I got the iPhone 4, the first one was quickly replaced because the phone had a strong green aura when taking photo’s of white surfaces and I had struggled with it compared to the 3GS; while camera shots were great outdoors I couldn’t trust the camera indoors; I still don’t. The replacement 4 was yellower than the original 4 but I went with it with the intention that I could change it down the line if I didn’t get on with it. Since then I’ve gotten used to the yellower look of the screen, but had to constantly ignore the fact that the top part of the screen (status area) was dimmer than the rest of the display (most noticeable on white pages in Safari, particularly if rotated horizontally). In the end I didn’t exchange it again as I didn’t want to go through what I went through with the 3GS.

And now we come to the iPhone 4S which is yellower again than the iPhone 4. At the moment it stands like this there is a:
2G which is reddish
3GS quite blue(red)
4 most neutral (to my eyes)
4S yellow

Excuse the photography, it is an iPad 2, but it shows the difference in the screen colours well enough in both this first side on shot. The dimist, on the left, is the original iPhone, then the 3GS, 4 and then finally the 4S.

Side on shot of our iPhone family. It shows the difference is the display panels.

Then we have a face on shot of the phones, again 2G, 3GS, 4 and 4S and it again shows the variation in the screens.

Face on shot of the iPhones, all on full brightness and auto Brightness off.

I’m not entirely sure how i will leave it, whether I will waste my time and Apple’s and try and change out the phone, part of me definitely wants to as I find the screen that little bit more yellow than the 4 and it makes the text a bit harder to read. On the other had, its not a big issue and I should learn to live with it how it is; particularly as I have no idea what the replacement will be like, it could be yellower or bluer. Its a lot of money, even subsided, and it irks when its not “right”.

There is the note that was said when the iPhone 4 came out, the part of the yellowing was actually the glue which hadn’t dried yet and that basically you just need to use the phone for a week, ideally at full brightness to help it finish the drying process. I will try that out but really that was suggested more for people who had yellow splotches on their screen, rather than their screen being yellower overall compared to another iPhone. (As some have noted in this thread)

iPhone 4S thoughts

Posted by on November 21, 2011 No comments

This was the results of my dictating part of this entry.

Just a quick couple of observations about the iPhone for S and quite impressed with itself on the camera is much improved as ROP upload speeds dancebeats on 3G network about three times Fastmap banners but three times faster than on the iPhone for Siri is amazing though struggles with my accent somewhat and OsmoPrep you raspy voice for instance

Which should, of course, have been (without the correct punctuation as I forgot to tell Siri to add any.

Just a quick couple of observations about the iPhone 4S. I am quite impressed with it so far the camera is much improved as are upload speeds and download speeds on the 3G network about three times faster than on the iPhone four Siri is amazing though struggles with my accent somewhat and also my raspy voice for instance

I’ll add more to this later.

(had one instance were diction failed, showed purple dots and then just stopped)

Siri doesn’t like how I say cold, he (UK English) tends to think I mean call or called, as you can see in the pic.

20111121-001914.jpg

Also my attempt at

Tea Earl Grey Hot

didnt really work out.

20111121-002016.jpg

There is definitely something amiss with battery life. Phone just sitting there and not being used is dropping % quite quickly. It was down about 3% in 20 minutes.

I hate Mini Me

Posted by on January 30, 2011 No comments

After 4 months and apparently 700 odd games I still can’t topple Mini Me from the top of the score board. (Playing Solitaire with draw 1 card, Can cycle through deck 3 times) BTW Solitaire City is easily my favorite of the various iPad solitaire apps.



Thermomix Cooking

Posted by on January 19, 2011 No comments

thermo_press
Photo is “thermo_press” by abby_luque, on Flickr

Last year Bob get herself a new toy for the kitchen called the Thermomix (DE site). To quote the UK site the device

Thermomix is a super fast food blender and processor that also weighs, cooks, simmers and steams!

It really does replace a bunch of devices in the kitchen, though in our case more only a Magic Mix food processor. You can cook a full in the Thermomix as it has a simmering basket (which can be useful for steaming rice) and whats called a Varoma which is used for steaming vegetables / meat / pasta. It so versatile you can make bread dough, soups, sauces, drinks, desserts and main meals.

Whats odd about the machine, is that you can’t simply go to a store and buy one. They are basically sold via demonstrators, who come to your house and for a couple of hours they come and show you what the machine can do and cook various dishes for you (for instance when Bob had a couple of demos the demonstrator made Wholemeal bread rolls, soup, a dip of some kind and I believe a jam).

You might think its a little dodgy that you can only get the machine this way but it honestly isn’t. Its an expensive machine and they don’t want you to simply discount it because of the price and they want you to truly see what the machine can do which if it sat on a shop shelf you never would (nor would you see how damn easy it is too clean).

You have to convert your recipes a bit to use it, something I do not feel comfortable trying to do yet but thats fine as there are tons of recipes on blogs on the Internet and in the rather busy and very friendly Australian Thermomix forums.

Given I’ve started to use it more, I’m going to (try) and blog the recipes we use with photo’s of what the final dish looked like. I suspect it will be a long time though before you manage to extract and original recipe from me (if ever!) :)

“Acting” & “Singing”

Posted by on January 9, 2011 No comments

Sometimes we all do daft things, well at least I do, and a few weeks ago I got involved with a couple of Telltale Games fan videos created by a bloke on the TTG Forums called Silverwolfpet.

He has done a whole bunch of videos before (seriously checkout him out onYouTube) and he decided for Xmas (with the approval of Alan from the TTG forums) to do a tribute video and posted about it in the Back To The Future forum (which if you don’t know, TTG are doing a 5 part adventure game based on Back To The Future, its worth checking out). In a fit of insanity I asked if it was too late to join in, was told it wasn’t so recorded my voice and a video of me miming the words and sent them along.

Here is the completed video that was released a couple of days ago:

(direct to YouTube)

You can hear me in a couple places where you don’t see me, particularly toward the very end. BTW Here are my original video & audio recordings (excuse the phone & doorbell in the audio, I didn’t hear them during playback as I had the backing track enabled which masked them out)

Anyway, related to this, is another video I ended up doing for Silverwolfpet. I had been going to bed the same day I recorded the above video but checked the TTG forum one last time (1am) and so a message from SWP asking if I could step in at the last moment for someone else. It was supposed to be hush hush but could I record some lines and actions. Having enjoyed the other recording I accepted and got my lines. I was supposed to be Doc from BTTF and needed to dress in something he might (hence the Hawaiian shirt and dressing gown, come on what else am I going to come up with at 2am).

It was slightly awkward as SWP needed me to yell, so off to the basement I went and recorded my stuff (a few times mind you) and half an hour later synced the video of the iPhone 4 (recorded of the front cam so I could see what the heck I was doing) and uploaded it for SWP.

The final result is this:

(direct to YouTube)

You’ll have to excuse the dreadful Doc Brown impression, give me a break it was 2 in the morning and I didn’t think to check YouTube for a BTTF clip with Doc Brown :)