By Jon Cohen

Like every September we can be sure of a few things. School is back in session, hurricanes will be a big part of the nightly news coverage, and Apple will release new hardware and software. In what can be called a predictable fashion Apple has used the September event to launch new products for a number of  years, and this year is no different.

During today’s media event Apple has released a number of new products that will be sure to help drive sales of Apple products for months to come. With all these new iPods, Apple has secured themselves a place in the “Want” list for 2010 holiday season. Looking at some of the updated products, my eye was quickly caught by the new touch screen iPod Nano and the new iPod Touch.

With this being the first Nano with a touch screen display, it features a simple way to look at photos, album art, and the clock while still being able to enjoy music. The lack of the video playback and the missing built-in camera is a notable loss. Oh, don’t let me forget to mention that it does have a built in clip, to make the device wearable right out of the box!

As for the jewel of this media event, the new iPod touch does not disappoint. Featuring a gorgeous display, and  front facing camera with FaceTime technology. This allows the iPod Touch to become just like the iPhone 4 but without the phone . FaceTime as a technology,  will allow Apple to change the way people communicate. I know that FaceTime seems like a gimmick but after using it myself I can see the appeal for it. It is fast and the quality is fantastic. (As long as you have a Wifi hotspot)

I am sure that Apple is going to land in the winners circle again with all these new iPods. Apple creates demand for products, then they offer these products at a price point that is affordable for most people. Thus at the holiday season, no matter what age you are, their will be an iPod that is right for you.

Of Note: Apple did also release an updated version of iTunes feat. Ping, an updated AppleTV, and  a new iPod Shuffle.

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The number one thing that makes the iPhone such a winner is all those apps. Apps let a smartphone become smarter, and granted all the major players in the smartphone world offer apps. You should note that Apple has more apps. for you to download then Blackberry, Android (Google), Palm/HP (WebOS), Nokia combined. One thing you need to know if you don’t already own an iPhone is that the majority of apps. are free. This fact is one that often shocks people who look at my iPhone and comment on all the apps on the phone and makes the remark “You must have spent a lot of money on apps.”

Here is a list of a few of my favorite apps.

• Facebook, does this app. even need an explanation? I think not.
• Dropbox is a web (cloud) based file storage system that gives you full access to files and allows you to access them anywhere you go.
• SoundHound, a great app that will figure out the music that is playing and give you info like artist, title, and album. It will also link you to YouTube to watch the video as well as the iTunes music store to buy the song. Very cool, very powerful.
• PhotoShop Express will allow you to do quick and impressive edits to photos. From changing colors to cropping, to adding boarders and more. It is one of the simplest apps out their, plus it is free!
• Another free app is Urban Spoon, a Vegas style slot machine that helps you choose local restaurants with a spin of the wheel. It uses the iPhone GPS to locate where you are and then points you to restaurants in your area that meet your requirements. Whether it is Food type, Price, or locations. Trust the spoon to point you to a great place to eat.
• Echofon / TweetDeck / Twittelator – Best Twitter apps out today. All feature full and rich interface and make sending out “tweets” simple.
• Last is a very addictive game called “Plants vs. Zombies” it is not easy to describe in a few words. You are planting plants to fight zombies as they try to attack your house. Simple game but tons of fun. Great for everyone!

When it comes to accessories I will not be so specific to give out brands and such, rather the accessory types.

The number one thing is a speaker system, regardless of you listening to the music you moved from your computer or the music that can be heard from streaming music apps, it is a pain to listen to on the iPhone’s speaker. So get a good sounding set of speakers and if you find a pair that have the iPod dock built in then you can recharge the phone at the same time. Staying on the topic of sound, a good pair of headphone would be a very nice add on. Yes you do get a pair of Apple headphones in the box, but after a month with them they will go from a white color to a off-white and full of dirt. Plus sound of a better headphone can really help you enjoy the iPhone. The last accessory is a case, although I don’t use one, many people do love to trick out their iPhone with a cool case. A case will also help protect the iPhone from bumps or drops.

Their you have it, 4 Days of the iPhone 4. In conclusion I will state if you are going to buy a smartphone then the iPhone is the best choice for most people. If you currently own the iPhone, iPhone 3 then this upgrade to the iPhone 4 will be a welcomed change. But if you are like me and had the iPhone 3GS, you may not be so sure if you should upgrade. The benefits listed in the past three days of posts lead me to believe it is well worth the upgrade. I do realize it is not for everyone, and to spend the money to change a year old phone. Thus I leave it to you to make the decision.

For day three I decided the battery would be the first think I tested. Before I went to bed I set up the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. Both started with full batteries and Wifi was on for both. Data was turned off on the older 3GS, but not for the iPhone 4. I thought by doing this would balance the scale since the new iPhone has a better battery. I hypothesized that I would find both phones with similar battery levels by morning. Also, I left the same 3 apps open on both phones, and after a refreshing 8 hour sleep I woke to find the iPhone 3GS’s battery was down to 72% and the iPhone 4 was at 84%. Through the night I did get 10 emails and a lot of “tweets” which both phones displayed in the  morning. I knew the iPhone 4 had a bigger battery, but I suppose I didn’t realize how weak the older 3GS’s battery was.

I moved on to the HD Video next. On the phone the video looks sharp and is very clear. I was able to do basic edits directly on the phone as well iMovie is an Apple app. that allows for more rich features so if you want to edit and add titles, music, etc. it would be a great app. to get. I found myself wondering what it would look like once I looked at it on the computer screen. One of the nice parts of the iPhone is how it seamlessly integrates with social media. With the ability to upload to YouTube from the camera app. and how simple it is to post a video to Facebook or Twitter. The downside is that HD video can not be uploaded directly from the phone. You’ll need to use a computer to upload the HD footage. Below I have posted a short video I took from the phone and uploaded directly to YouTube.

As mentioned yesterday the software bug that I have noticed, it is not the much spoken about antenna or the proximity sensor, but the ambient light sensor. This sensor dims the screen when you are in a dark space (like a movie theater or outside at night). From what I can see, the sensor does not work well when compared to the older 3GS version. On the  iPhone 3GS the sensor would dim the screen within seconds, on the iPhone 4 it does not dim at all. A small issue for me, but still a pain in the butt when sitting at the movies and checking my email.

Tomorrow I look at some of my favorite apps. on the iPhone, as well highlighting a few popular accessories that can help enhance your iPhone experience. After all you’ll want the iPhone to fit in with your lifestyle and accessories are a great way to do that.

Read Day 1

Read Day 2

I woke up on this the second morning of owning the new iPhone 4 to the built in alarm. I was shocked by how loud this tiny little speakers sounded, I estimate it is at least 25% louder then the previous iPhone 3GS. As the day progressed I had a chance to make a FaceTime phone call using the iPhone 4′s front facing camera. Apple requires you to make the call using WiFi so it was a bit of a pain in the rear to have to find a WiFi hotspot but I did. I assume Apple will soon allow FaceTime over the 3G network. With that being said the experience of FaceTime was one I will not soon forget. FaceTime was easy to use, fun, and the quality on my end was remarkable and totally useable on a daily basis. I only hope that more devices use Apple’s open standard of FaceTime in the near future. Right away, I assume the next iPod Touch will have  the FaceTime build in with the same front facing camera as the iPhone 4. (Should be released in early September 2010)

One of the reasons I decided to get an iPhone 4 was the improved rear Digital Camera, now featuring a 5MP sensor and a built in LED flash I knew it would allow me to share better quality pictures with all of my friends and family. As well allow me to capture images that I would be able to be printed if needed I was very impressed. As for the front camera it does not impress me in the same fashion as the rear camera does but I must say it gives pleasing images that are very similar to the iPhone 3GS. An interesting feature that the iPhone cameras have is built in Geo-Tagging (it uses the iPhone’s GPS to keep track of where the photo was taken)

Below you will find sample images from the rear camera as well as the front camera. It should also be noted the LED flash can be used as a flashlight ( and There’s an App for that). Final thoughts on the camera, great with good light (day or indoor), very nice when ambient light is present and when that LED Flash kicks in. Poor images with no light, very grainy even with flash. Therefore, like most cameras use it in the correct settings and you won’t be left disappointed.

During Day 3 testing I plan on trying out the HD video, discussing the battery life, and left you know about the first software bug I have found.

Read Day 1

Read Day 3

In my house:

Image from rear camera on iPhone 4 without LED flash

Image from rear camera on iPhone 4 with LED Flash

Image from Camera on Front of iPhone 4

At the pub:

Image with good light source no LED flash needed

Outside:

Panorama with the iPhone 4

Using the Zoom:

Zoomed in with digital zoom (more then 200 ft. away)

Background: I took the plunge and bought what has been described by many users and critics as a defective product, the new iPhone 4 from Apple. I had to give the idea of buying the iPhone 4 some thought, but once I did buy it, I found myself hoping that I would not be disappointed by it. After all a lot of people are asking me for my thoughts on this new device. People want to know whether or not they should buy/upgrade to iPhone 4. So I opted to buy one and test it out for myself and thus allow me to give people an informed opinion.

The screen is so sharp to look at, both text and images are super clear that it made me almost forget that I was wanting to test it for signal issues and dropped calls. The first impressions of the new iPhone are summed up with one word “Wow”. Although it feels heavier then the 3GS iPhone (it is not, both are 4.8 ounces), but it also feels like the weight is in the right place to use this phone. Unlike the 3GS this iPhone sits in my hand comfortably, and feels solid! After syncing my data with iTunes the new iPhone was ready to use. (Apple deserves a lot of credit for shipping a phone that is charged out of the box)

I tried out the phone feature without using any case or bumper looking to drop calls and checking for the signal to deplete, both didn’t happen on Day 1. In fact the “Death Grip” that is much talked about all over the Internet was not causing me any issues. I did loose a bar from time to time, but it was not different on any other of the older iPhones I had used. I am using this phone on the Rogers Wireless network which has offered me wireless service over the past 10 years, I only wish the Internet speeds would be faster. I plan on testing with both Bell and Telus in days to come, provided that PR from each of the companies gets back to me.

After one day, my thoughts are the following; great display, super fast, and no signal issues. Tomorrow I plan on testing the video call feature known as “FaceTime” as well as doing some test images using both the front and rear cameras. So far I can’t find any reason why someone would not want to buy/upgrade to the iPhone 4. Stay tuned for Day 2 tomorrow.

So as you may have noticed it is SUMMER! This means from most a chance to get out of the house head to the beach or go on vaycay. Before heading to the lake or on to the airplane lets make sure you have the right gear to capture those amazing moments that you will want to live in motion beyond your memories. Today we will look at a few options for small and compact camera’s that can be used to catch all the events happening over the summer.

I will be looking at the simple “shoot and share” camcorders, these are very popular. First thing to remember is that small and portable does not mean crappy picture. With all the advances in technology over the last 5 years we have seen the most to smaller devices that can give you just as good quality as your 3 year old camcorder. Where most of these newer video recording devices fall short is when it comes to night usage. Yes some do have LCD mini lights that come built-in, but for the most part they don’t really do the job. So with that being said you will need to make sure you are in a well lit area to do pleasing night videos. Other then that these small camera’s are great. Most offer 720p HD video output. But don’t be fooled by the HD logo, they still give you the same picture you seen on your television during HD programming. In fact the philosophy that bad video capturing will bring you bad video output, this is nothing new, but now that bad video is in HD. So please remember to hold steady, don’t move the camera to fast from left to right and please, please, please remember that video only looks good one and that is horizontal so keep the camera the right direction.

Now that we got the basics out of the way lets look at brands to try out. Kodak, Flip Video, Coby and Sony each of these use the basic built-in flash memory for quick capture and each offer a quick transfer solution to bring the video to an editor or directly to the web (though the computer). After testing a few, I found that all give nice video during the day, and the Sony was the one that gave the nicest and most accurate colors during testing. By far the Flip Video was able to offer the cream of the crop with the SlideHD a touch screen based video camera, it should be noted it is also the most costly and newest to the market. While the Kodak and Coby where great value choices. None of the tested units gave great results in night or indoor use, but as stated before if you are in a well lit location you can get very pleasing video.

Regardless of which product you choose you will be able to easily share these  memories online or with friends and family by hooking the camera up to the television. Now stop surfing the web and get out their and enjoy the summer.

As we age, we lose the ability to do some of our most enjoyed hobbies. One hobby that seniors tend to miss is reading books. At one point you may have read 3 or 4 books a month, and now struggle to be able to even read the numbers on a telephone. For most, the loss of vision has been a source of much anger, and embarrassment because reading fills a need for information in oneʼs life. Well, there is good news on the horizon; with new technology reading will once again be a possibility for most. This is due to the introduction of eBook Readers. Today’s seniors, regardless of age might be able to reignite their passion for reading. Most of these devices give the reader a choice of brightness and text size. This helps to address one of the reasons why seniors donʼt read as often as they once did.

Some of the devices that you will want to consider are the Sony eBook Reader, the Amazon Kindle, or my favorite the Apple iPad. All of these are light weight and easy to use, pricing for the eBook Reader vary from $299 up to $899 depending on which options and configurations you choose. For most, the average price will be about $499.

Regardless of which device you choose you will be impressed with how easy it is to get access to books. Both Apple and Amazon offer a book store on the device that allows you access to many books. The catalog includes best sellers, new releases, and public domain titles. This leaves readers with somewhere between 60,000 to 150,000 books to choose from, and the list is always growing. eBook Readers also offers readers 30,000 free books to choose from and new releases or a best sellers will only cost between $10 and $20 per title. The best part is that you don’t even need a computer to start accessing or buying books. The Reader uses a safe and secure integrated store that only requires a credit card if you are purchasing books.

All of these devices offer users many different ways to display text. So if you have a problem with your vision, you will be able to take advantage of the many different text configurations such as black backgrounds with white text or white backgrounds with black text. The device can even give you that authentic book feeling if you so desire to change the background to the original paper from the book. The Apple iPad will also allow for color illustrations which gives your old favorites a new look and feel.

Other key features to consider when choosing the eBook Reader for yourself or someone you love is that Apple’s iPad is more then just a single use device. It can also offer email, internet, music, and the ability to watch movies. I think this device is the overall winner in the market.

So whether you are an avid reader who has stopped reading or if you just read less because of the strain on your eye, you will want to pickup an eBook Reader and get reunited with your favorite books.

So, the iPhone 4 has been out for over a month and no one can doubt that it is a best seller. In fact, most stores that carry Apple products are out of stock on a daily basis. I find myself being asked the question “should I upgrade or not”. This in fact is a question that I am personally asking myself. Since I have a iPhone 3GS and it has been working perfectly for me for the last 13 months, why would I upgrade now? The answer is not an easy one.  Once you set aside the hype and desire that Apple evokes we can look at features and needs. Yes the iPhone 4 has a better processor, thus making it a lot faster. It also has an amazing display (far superior to my 3GS), and yes it has a front facing camera that allows for FaceTime (video calls). With all these things being accounted for, the real question is do the new features outweigh or at least counter balance the fact that when the phone is held a certain way, it does not work?  In my opinion the answer is maybe, well I know maybe is the safe answer and certain people believe that you should not buy a product if it is not 100% perfect, while others share my opinion. The opinion that almost all manufactured products are never going to be perfect from the start is a fact of life.  In all industries we see that products go through testing and most of the time this gets rid of all and any issues, other times testing does not show a high enough error rate to warrant any action. Examples of both these outcomes can be found in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries. As well computers are never bug free; just ask Sony after they recalled millions of notebook batteries due to randomly blowing up. Microsoft Corp. who produces one of the largest consumed products in the world “Windows” has been plagued with bugs and fixes for them for 15 plus years. Regardless, Apple nor any other company is not perfect and therefore a maybe answer to the upgrade question is valid.

My end feeling is that if you can wait 3 to 4 months and let Apple continue to tweak its software and hardware then you should! If you need a new phone right away then the iPhone 4 will be a great choice as long as you remember not to use the death grip. You can also count on Apple to have great customer service and be able to resolve most of your issues for the first year after your purchase date.

By now you have probably seen, played with, or even owned a netbook. Does the world really need them? My answer is yes for right now. The computer world is in a transition and netbooks fill the gap when needing to upgrade from your 5 year old desktop or laptop.

Netbooks are small, lower powered, and ultra-portable computers that have been a favorite choice for most consumers who don’t have high computing needs.

Over the last ten years mobile computing has morphed in many areas. From cost, screen size, speed, weight, and price to name a few. In 2000 people were prepared to buy a computer with a 15″ display that weighed in at over 8 Lbs. and was priced at around $3000.00. By 2005, we started to see the shift to light weight computers with Wifi, and screen sizes of 14″. As of 2007, the move went to better value as we saw computer start being priced between $600-$900 with a nice set of features, finally by 2009 we see the 7″ or 10″ netbooks, offering battery life and a price tag sub $500.00.

With all these changes in the market over the last 10 years, the average consumer does not know what he/she wants. While standing in a local big box electronic store recently I overheard the computer sales man ask the young female customer what she needed the computer for. Her reply; school, pictures, and the web. He walked her over to the row of netbooks and said “these would be great for you!” with a smile. Then pointed at the price tag and said “what a deal!”  I found myself amused by the fact that this girl was going to buy the computer solely on price. Granted it was a cheap price, but what never entered the saleman’s mind or the customer’s mind was why is it so cheap? I later asked the girl why she chose that model and she told me because it was cute and a good price. Never once did she stop to realize that the technology in the unit was old, low powered, and really just a band aid solution for her needs.

It is my opinion that we as consumers are waiting for the next level of computing. Whether it be tablet computing or something else, the world is needing a new way to consume the vast amount of media and content from the web. Only time will tell what the next mobile computer will look like. For now netbooks are here, they are indeed cute and cheap, they fill a gap for consumers and will be one of the best band aid solutions for the next few years.

A quick and funny story that my prove valuable for any business computer user.

I was at a client of mine recently who was having issues with their keyboard and mouse. The computer was rendered usless to them, and had been sitting in a box in the corner for about 1 months. When I stopped in at the office they were pissed at me. See I had sold them this computer only 3 month earlier and since it had stopped working they assumed I sold them a lemon! It was posible that the computer did go bad after a month or two vecause the brand (a major brand) has had it’s share of recent issues of late. So once they let me know about the issue I stopped in to check it out.

I decided to take the unit from the corner and hook it up. I asked one of the office staff members where the mouse and keyboard was? They pointed me to another small storage room, I instantly noticed that it was a wireless keyboard and mouse, at this point guessed what their problem was, Batteries. They had not replaced the batteries on the keyboard and mouse, and thus they just assumed the computer was the problem when in fact it was the wireless keyboard and mouse. After I replaced the batteries and rebooted the machine we were back in business and this very new and very fast machine was ready to get back to work. I didn’t charge them for my visit only for the batteries.

I share this story with you is for two reasons, firstly always have additional batteries on hand at the office when dealing with a computer with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Secondly, maybe offices are better to keep using  a wired mouse and keyboard and leave wireless keyboards and mice for home users. In this case they had additional computer that they used, but if they only had 1 or 2 computers and this happends then business would fully stop for the office and that can hit the bottom line hard!