Although EssentialMac is a website primarily aimed at all things Apple and iPhone it doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in other technologies, after all variety is the spice of life and as I always say, it’s easier to write articles on items of interest.  At the moment the tech community is a buzz  with anticipation and excitement of the upcoming release of the Samsung Galaxy S3.   Samsung may be locked in a long drawnout legal battle with Apple but nonetheless the Galaxy s3 looks a mighty fine handset…

The phone that knows it’s being watched.

Touted as being designed for humans it’s a phone that watches you watching it.  As long as you look at the phone the screen never dims.  so if you are watching a movie or browsing the internet the screen wont dim down.  If you drift off mid movie for example the screen will dim then switch off.  A neat feature and one I could do with (or i could stop watching tv so late at night)

The Knows you feature

Getting bored of texting and want to call your friend instead?  Normally you drop out of the app, go into contacts to call or use speech recognition but the S3 makes this simpler.  In the screen where you are texting, pull the phone up to your ear and it starts to call that person.

Samsung Galaxy S3 – Svoice.

It seems you can ask the phone simple questions via voice recognition such as “what’s the weather like in London?”  The Samsung Galaxy S3 will go off and bring back results in a style similar to Siri but more graphically pronounced.

Naturism…

The phone itself is inspired by nature and this is apparently the reasoning behind the nice sleek curved back of the phone. Other features like tapping the home screen and watching the ripple effect giving you a theme of nature from holding to interaction.

It’s certainly shaping up to be a phone that isn’t going to leave anyone disappointed. Being specification heavy there is plenty of grunt for multitasking.  Example; you could watch videos in a small thumbnail whilst browsing, tweeting, facebooking etc etc.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 will be available in stores from 29 May.

**Editorial Comments**

This post has been sponsored by the o2 guru’s.  That being said the phone genuinely does look interesting and definetly post worth for EssentialMac.

The web was set alight, well ok a few people noticed that Apple had recently started censoring the word “Jailbreak”.  After all googling “Jailbreak” will invariably lead to sites discussing unlocking an iPhone and not say a legitimate name of a game for example or even the Thin Lizzy Song Jailbreak.

This seems to have been a glitch and a temporary error on the iTunes store as the word is as prevalent as ever.  Thin Lizzy fans… rejoice.

It was only a matter of time before someone breached the void between computer and phone. Why did it take so long for someone (Apple) to introduce a desktop messaging system that inter operates with a phone.

That being said it’s not perfect. Now and again it can lag when sending or receiving messages. The fix is simple if you experience this. If you installed Messages Beta, an early version of iMessage for the Mac that Apple released in February, uninstall it.

Somehow I missed the fact iMessage had been released officially it seems. Give it a try and let us know any feedback.

In a first for Australia, Hanrob Pet Hotels will today launch PetSkype so owners can make a video call to talk to and interact with their pets. The hotels, at Heathcote and Sydney Airport, also allow for pre-recorded videos and digital photos so owners can keep in touch with pets. Owners can arrange a time to call the hotel and ask to speak to their pet before staff take an iPad into a room to make the Skype connection.

Video Link Yahoo.
Thanks to the #SPW for the heads up.

The iPod movement passed me by. From the music was and wasn’t just about listening to the music it was about the DJ moments in between the tracks and so, for a while at least, I did without having an iPod.  Then I discovered podcasts, along comes the iPhone, and things were set to change from then onwards.  And things got even better with Instacast.

As you are no doubt aware there are plenty of programs to choose that will automate the download of your favourite podcasts rather than trudging through the interface of iTunes. My choice of software was always Instacast.  For me the program just felt right.  The interface was slick and easy-to-use and I was more than happy to shell out my hard in money for a program that I was using on a daily basis.

I’ve reviewed Instacast here back in the early days and it even made it onto our Essential mac list of essential apps as when I purchased it back on the 29th November 2011 I was happy with good money well spent..

Noticed I used the word “was” back there.

Like all good things I stuck with it through thick and thin. Even when some of the software updates rendered the program pretty much unusable. But overall you got the feeling that the developers were really passionate about the product and you knew that when the book was reported they would be working on it.

So with all this favouritism why am I now dumping Instacast.  In the last program update, for a program that I have paid for, were removed. Needing me to repurchase the program to get the existing functionality back that I had already paid for.

Yes, you read that right. They removed features that I had paid for upon purchase and we aren’t talking about minor features. Some of them were the reasons why I bought the program in the 1st place.

Features that were removed can they be purchased with the use of the micro-payment system within the application itself.

But what really annoys me is that on the update screen within the application store on my iPhone there was no mention all warning of what would happen upon the update, simply citing “fixes”

Buyers / Upgrade Anxiety

My main reason for writing this article is that I’m a little bit worried. Not being a developer I’m not privy to the terms and conditions that are applicable when you write down the text to say what will happen in the next update.  Will this set a worrying trend for other developers? Will they follow suit and start removing features from a paid for program only to release them in the guise of a pro or HD version?

The other side of the argument?

For the console gamers out there who are familiar with the PlayStation. Upon release the PlayStation could originally play PlayStation 1 games to maintain backwards capabilities. This was not a core feature of the console but merely an add-on. Several months down the line, Sony then remove this feature for whatever reason. Yes, in this case they do reserve the right to do what they want with the hardware because technically if we read the license agreements, the only really renting the console.(Yes that is a gross oversimplification I realise)

But where does this stop?  If you bought and paid for the next version of Lion, Apple then release an upgrade which removes several key features, then ask you to purchase those key features it removed is that okay?

Are the actions of the Instacast developers less heinous because of the cash amount involved? Originally I paid £1.49 for the app and you could argue that in the grand scheme of things, another £1.49 (incidentally the arm for the USA only cost $.99) is in Islamabad, is the whole principle of the way it was done.

Let’s be fair about this.

I am going to post my thoughts on the review on the application store but am not going to follow suit like others and only give it one star. 1 star reviews really do stick with an application throughout its life span and despite all this it really does deserve more than one star. I’ll probably give it a 2 or 3 star rating because although I understand the need to generate revenue from a good application I still feel like I’ve been penalised.

The specs of the HTC one are impressive to say the least. Boasting a heft CPU bigger screen amongst the top features. I managed to get my hands on it for a short time and took a video of the HTC One X Browser v iPhone Safari. Seems that the iPhone smoked the HTC One X this time around.. Video is uploading at the moment and i’ll have it posted when it’s ready.

Test conditions were the same for both phones.  Hook up to the same wifi connection, standard browser and then go.  Caches had been cleared etc etc.

You can see in the video the javascript that we use on the front page of Essentialmac is a lot smoother on the 4s than the HTC One X.

The HTC One X is available from Three and for a rather tasty price of @29 a month you get

Update

The virginmedia.com site was taken down “for a short period of time” on tuesday by the Anonymous group. Looks like Talk Talk are on the radar next but are probably better prepared.

Thunderbolt may be one of the fastest cable connections out there but it certainly comes at a lofty price and there isn’t much in the way of Thunderbolt devices until now.  Sonnet have released new product lines which are Thunderbolt ready.  A little scarce on the ground right now but traction could finally be growing.

New Sonnet Thunderbolt Products – Lead Times

Below are the expected availability dates of the new Sonnet products – place your order TODAY – 1st come 1st served!

ECHO-EXP1H - Echo Express

Sonnet’s Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapters expand Thunderbolt connectivity to support more than just storage systems and monitors. This Sonnet adapter adds an ExpressCard/34 slot to any computer to which it’s connected, enabling you to use a wide variety of ExpressCard/34 cards to add a range of interfaces and capabilities to your system. Plus, it’s the fastest, least expensive SxS™ memory card reader available!

Expected Availability June15th

ECHO-EXP2F- Echo Express XL
Expected Availability June15th

TSATA6-PRO-E4 – Tempo SATA 6GB Pro 4 Port ESATA PCIE 2.0 Card with 4 Extended ESATA Ports

Expected Availability June29th

USB3M-E - 2 Port Allegro USB 3.0 PCIE Controller Card for Macintosh and Windows – USB 3.0 SUPERSPEED

Expected Availability June18th

XMAC-MS – xMac mini Server

Transform a Mac mini Server with Thunderbolt Technology into an Enterprise Class Rack Mount Server!

In many applications, a Mac mini or Mac mini Server with Thunderbolt technology can easily take the place of a full size server, but the size and form factor can limit its potential. Most importantly, it doesn’t provide slots for PCIe expansion cards to increase its functionality, connectivity, and storage. Sonnet’s xMac mini Server PCIe 2.0 expansion system/1U rackmount enclosure (formerly known as RackMac mini Xserver) addresses these issues and expands a Mac mini Server’s potential in a big way

Expected Availability June15th

Apple released iOS 5.1 update on Monday that addresses the following and also puts an end to present jailbreaks for the iPhone that are out in the wild..

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks.
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

Plug your device into iTunes and update or use the iPhone’s built-in update mechanism.

You might have come across this like I did that when you start to record in garageband you can only record for about 8 seconds. For the musical types this might make sense but for those like me who pick up and fiddle about with things, its confusing. Here’s how you increase the recording time in Garageband.

Ready to record your first Podcast in Garage Band tha’s longer than 8 seconds? Right then, fire up garageband and get the recording screen. On the top bar where the slider moves along at the top, tap the nicely hidden + button. This brings up the song sections dialogue.

Tap on the area that says “Section A 8 Bars” or whatever you have there if you’ve already been tinkering to get the below options.

Slide Automatic to the right and Garageband should look like this.

Tap anywhere on the screen and start recording.  You can now record for more than 8 seconds.