4 days with the iPhone 4

For:

Speed: Noticeably quicker than the 3GS.

WiFi/3G reception: 1-bar better than the 3GS.

Battery life: 20% better.

Screen: Clear, readable in sunlight, excellent colour range.

Build: Rock-solid.

Camera: Capable of producing usable images.

Phone: Better noise cancelling.


Against:

Speed: Icons react faster, leading to more 'false selections' than 3GS.

Camera: Needs an analogue shutter release.

New shape: means buying a slew of new accessories, case, dock, etc.

Bluetooth: regular 'cut-outs' with my Bluetrek headset.
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Tin Eye

Tin Eye reports: [edited]

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.

TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. It is free to use for non-commercial searching.
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Apple Mac mini

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Apple has sliced roughly half of the metal off the Mac mini and re-released the starter computer as a box that now looks a lot like the Apple TV. And it has an HDMI port.

Like the Apple TV, the mini has an built-in power brick. It measures 197 x 197 x 36mm. The basic model has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1067MHz DDR 3 memory, 320GB Sata hard drive and Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics.

There's an SD card slot on the back, plus four USB 2.0 ports and a Firewire 800 connector, Gigabit Ethernet and Mini DisplayPort. The machine has 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 too.

The machine costs £649, and there's a server version for £929. The latter lacks an optical drive, but contains two 500GB HDDs, 4GB of Ram and a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo.
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Newlink USB SATA Drive Dock

For £15.28 (inc. postage), the NEWLink Docking Station allows 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard drives to be connected to your computer via a USB 2.0 Interface. It supports 2.5" drives up to 500Gb and 3.5" drives up to 1Tb.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: Works as advertised, and is supplied with a USB cable. 'Naked' hard drives are much cheaper than their 'cased' equivalents, so this could provide the basis for an economical backup system.
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iPhone 4, the video

For a 6-minute, expensively-produced, borderline puke-worthy, very informative video on the iPhone 4 click here
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iPhone 4

It looks just like the one that was 'lost'. It is less than 10mm thick, it has a 960 x 640 pixel screen. It will be available in the UK from June 24.

For more info, click here
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HTML5 Showcase

Apple reports: [edited]

Every new Apple mobile device and every new Mac — along with the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser — supports web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions. Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: As the arguments about whether Apple's decision not to support Flash on the iPhone and iPad drag on, the demo sites on this page demonstrate that HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript are capable of competing with Flash at producing interactive, graphics-heavy web content.
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX70

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Featuring a ultra wide angle 24mm lens from Leica, the FX70 captures more than double the viewing space at the same distance of its 35mm predecessor.

The lens has a brightness of F2.2 and incorporates something called Intelligent Resolution that extends the zoom ratio without diminishing quality.

The F2.2 lens is approximately 1.6x brighter than a F2.8 lens, itself generally considered a bright lens, and allows the FX70 to shoot at higher shutter speed and capture stunningly clear, sharp, blur-free images in lower lighting situations.

Other added features include a de-blur setting, which tracks the focal point of your image and ensures it stays sharp.

In addition to conventional Motion JPEG video capture, the camera records HD video in AVCHD Lite, doubling the recording time. Video can be edited live on the 3in Hi-res touch screen display.

No pricing yet, but you can snap up the FX70 in August.
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