“I see it really being of use to me when I’m in the car and a text message comes through: Siri can read it out and send a dictated reply. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s done through my Mazda RX-8′s Bluetooth sound system or the iPhone’s loudspeaker.”

Well there’s some good news and there’s some bad news.

The good news is that yes, it works through the car’s Bluetooth sound system, so it mutes any music and reads out the text messages.

The bad news includes:

• “Uh-kay” being said before most things it does.
• If you haven’t got a web connection it’ll say it can’t do anything right now, like reading something stored locally.
• The voice recognition at anything other than walking pace is pretty poor, actually, and I’ve now started simply sending bizarre text messages in reply to people rather than spending hours arguing with Siri when it comes up with gobbledegook instead of what I actually said, thinks that I said “danger” rather than “change it” and claims not to understand danger (big, brave Siri!)  and sometimes even picks a track from my music library to play in an attempt at being ‘helpful’.
• Won’t perform a web search because I’m in the UK and using proper English.

But two things – OK, three – reminded me of how lucky we are these days.

It started with iTunes Match: I updated the iTunes software on my work laptop and then enabled iTunes Match and watched as it increased the number of songs from simply those I’d previously purchased from the iTunes Store (available since a previous release of iTunes) to all of my music collection currently stored on my iMac back at home but now backed up to iCloud.

I was then able to download a track I wanted on my laptop from my music store back home.

I’m working away from home at the moment and saw that there was nothing much worth watching on the telly. So I fired up my iPad, tethered it to my iPhone – thanks to 3′s All You Can Eat data plan – and did a bit of social networking before starting up Sky Go.

I then watched a couple of films from Sky’s Anytime+ feature: new or classic films that are available to you, depending upon your Sky TV package. Streamed over 3′s network at no additional cost to me.

“It Just Works”…

More or less in line with the normal product evolution for the iPhone, Apple had recently released its iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S

As you can see, the form factor’s not really changed too much: the volume controls have been shifted a little downwards but other than that, it’s more or less the same size (I’ve not got the micrometer out to check).

What has changed is the processor and it does feel much snappier, a feeling borne out by the benchmarking on CNET UK’s iPhone 4S Review.

The camera is supposed to be much improved with a few new gizmos: we’ll see.

The killer app or at least the headliner is Siri: a more intelligent voice recognition and command app. At first, it looked as though this was somehow missing and I initially thought that the way I’d set it up (see below) was to blame. It wasn’t: it just needed enabling in the phone’s settings. First impressions were good, but other than the novelty factor I won’t be using it at the office, for instance, though I see it really being of use to me when I’m in the car and a text message comes through: Siri can read it out and send a dictated reply. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s done through my Mazda RX-8′s Bluetooth sound system or the iPhone’s loudspeaker.

Setting it all up was something I thought would be a nightmare, but I followed Apple’s instructions, backing up my ‘old’ iPhone 4 and then when setting up the iPhone 4S, restored from that backup. I just needed to enter all my passwords again – good security touch that – and then sync the songs, films and photos, etc. One last step was to reorder all my Apps the way I like them and resync and I was there. A couple of hours tops.

What took longer was the download of the IOS 5.0.1 update, but that was a necessary evil. I left that downloading whilst I went out for the evening and when I got back I did a quick update and was there.

So was upgrading worth it? For me, yes: I now have the ‘old’ iPhone 4 working for my photography side and everything sync’d with the iCloud. I was running out of space on my iPhone 4 32GB and so the increased storage – I went for the 64GB version – is welcome, even though you only get around 58GB available for some reason. The feeling of a speedier interface is nice too. There’s not so much of the wow! factor I got from moving from IOS 4 to IOS 5, though, but it is a nicer phone overall.

What next? Well what can they do with the iPhone 5? It can’t get smaller or screen size will be reduced. If it’s thinner, it would surely be easier to break as it became a wafer in your pocket. Maybe they’ll just cram more features and storage and speed into it?

As for battery life, I discovered this little tip:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/29/iphone-4s-battery-location-services-bug

Worth reading and acting on? We’ll see. I like the way the time zone is updated when you’re abroad, but I suspect that’s overridden anyway with your cellular provider – Vodafone seems particularly dodgy in this regard from my experience.

iTunes Match

If you want the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution. It’s built right into the iTunes app on your Mac or PC and the Music app on your iOS devices. And it lets you store your entire collection, including music you’ve imported from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. For just $24.99 a year.²

Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud. All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it on any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.

This I decided was a ‘must-have’ feature, so when I installed IOS5 and was prompted to set-up iCloud, I religiously upgraded to 50GB of storage for an additional £70 a year, thinking this would include iTunes Match.

I was misled.

iTunes Match was due to be rolled out by the end of October 2011 but Apple has missed this deadline. Oh and compare and contrast the US iCloud features site and the UK version. See what’s missing? Yes, that’s right: no iTunes Match.

Apple. Epic. Fail.

Recent searches had also indicated that 3 might well be offering free tethering, whereby you use your phone’s data package with other devices like laptops and indeed an iPad to save you having to splash out on a separate data contract. And yes, I am beginning to be tempted by the thought of an iPad as well, having had a photographer friend extol the virtues of his and having played with one at Meadowhell last weekend.

Merely having expressed interest, I’d been surprised to receive this text from 3 on the 22nd June:

“Great news: You’ll get an iPhone 4 upgrade and we’ve already reserved one for you…”

I didn’t even say I wanted one yet!

Then on the 24th June:

“Update. Your iPhone 4 is still reserved. Due to high demand we’ll contact you when we can process your order. View tariff details at three.co.uk/iphone”

The next day, I received this text:

“Great news. Your iPhone 4 will be available w/c 19 July. We’ll contact you between 1 & 7 July to process your upgrade…”

Well I’ve just received that call late this afternoon. They’re offering me a 16GB iPhone 4 on a 24 month contract with a one-payment to start with. In other words, it’s the same offer as anyone else would get, except that:

1. I wouldn’t want a 16GB one as I’d intend to actually use it and fill up the phone with music, video and of course work.
2. Why the hell would I want a 24 month contract when Tesco are offering a 12 month one?
3. Why the hell would I want a 24 month contract when my current one is a 12 month one?
4. Why the hell would I want a 24 month contract when Apple tend to launch a newer, better iPhone every year?
5. Why the hell would I necessarily want to stay with 3 when I have two pay monthly phones and want to combine the two into one?

Time to talk to 3′s customer retention department, I think…

Looking at the tech specs, it’s lighter, thinner and shorter than my present Nokia N97 but wider. So a guarded thumbs up there. It’s heavier, taller and wider but thinner than my current choice for upgrade, BlackBerry’s Pearl 3G/9105, so the scales tip away again. And of course it’s a touchscreen with all that goes with that in terms of minor irritations.

The first couple of minutes of the promo video focus on the video calling capability of the iPhone 4, but then this does depend upon both the caller and the recipient having iPhone 4s and being set up and using WiFi. The guy in the hotel room is clearly luckier or wealthier than me, because I almost always find hotel WiFi hit and miss and hideously expensive. And of course this is nothing that an average laptop user can’t accomplish with a cellular, wired or wireless connection and Windows Live Messenger, Skype or whathaveyou. So the main feature is nice, but expensive.

Multi-tasking makes it to the iPhone 4, something that both the Nokia and the BlackBerry have been doing for yonks.

So it looks like the choice is probably still going to be the BlackBerry, but we’ll see.

What you get for at least $500 – so £500 in the UK, then – will be a glorified ebook reader with the ability to look at photos or browse the web and send e-mail … provided you’re at a WiFi hotspot because it doesn’t ship to start with with any 3G connectivity (and won’t at that price either).

What’s worse is that, like an ebook reader, it’s not exactly pocket sized either.

Now if you’re in the market for an ebook reader that’s twice the price and that brings the option of web browsing where there’s a WiFi hotspot – and with no USB ports a 3G dongle is not an option – then you might want to consider it. For me, I’ll make do with a 3G phone for portability and the ability to look at photos, play music or films, and send e-mail and browse the Internet, or I’ll use a cheap netbook like the one I already have that does a similar job for half the price.

Thanks, but no thanks, Apple.

So anyway, with 5GB/month I thought that might make it easier: no need to get a phone line and a broadband package, just use my allowance for a change.

But Mrs RHM then suggested I should get a webcam for my laptop so I could help the kids with their homework if need be and also keep in touch with her. Fine, I thought, though alarm bells started ringing: she uses our venerable iMac while the rest of the family have PCs.

So what’s the problem with the iMac?

Well the iMac and OSX Leopard has iChat which promotes its video chat features. To use it to its best, you need to have a .Mac account – which is expensive for what you actually get which is why I abandoned my .Mac account after a couple of years – as does your friend and .Mac is pretty much a waste of time for anyone on a PC. “Never fear”, says Apple, “you can always link up with AIM.” What?

“iChat works with AIM, the largest instant messaging community in the U.S. You and your buddies can be either AIM or .Mac users. Text, audio, and video chat whether your buddies use a Mac or a PC. Sign in with your AIM account, and all your buddies appear in your iChat buddy list.”

Great! No-one in the UK – OK, I exaggerate a tad – uses AIM: AOL Instant Messenger. The client software seems to have issues here on this PC, by the way, which comes as no surprise to me having once used AOL software for testing purposes. Go on: ask any of your connected friends what they use for instant messaging and they’ll say “MSN” (or “Windows Live Messenger“, to give it its proper name).

You can, of course, download the Mac Messenger client, but the ‘usual’ home user version does not support video messaging. Not really a surprise as I think Microsoft doesn’t really bother with Mac users as they’re lost causes as far as “the Beast of Redmond” appears to be concerned.

Maybe this is another reason not to get a Mac? Until Apple comes up with an instant messaging client that supports video messaging with Windows Live users, you’d otherwise be partially cutting yourself off from the majority of computer users, at least here in the UK.