iPhone 4S, iOS 5 and the iCloud - Pros and Cons

Screen print from my Mac Book Pro, Lion not installed

I recently returned from the wilderness of Utah and landed in Las Vegas. One of my goals was to visit an Apple Store and hopefully get the new iP4S - woohoo.

On Sunday I went to the Forum Shops on the Strip and asked if they had the iPhone 4S in stock. They said which one? I replied the 64K, black, ATT version. YES! it was available. I always buy Apple Care and was informed they had an upgrade. For $99, instead of $79, you could now have the phone replaced if it was dropped or if there is water damage for $49. Since I am one of those rare people who actually knows first hand what it is like to drop the phone in the toilet, I purchased the upgrade.... ;-) Another hint is that if you purchase the phone at Apple, instead of ATT, you only pay sales tax on the discounted price and not the full price, at least in Vegas, that saves enough money to buy some new apps!

A great feature that is offered right in the store is to have all your contacts transfered from your old phone to the new one so when you walk out you are ready to make all your calls, send messages and emails. Unfortunately since my Address Book has been, well, performing poorly for months (and not fixed after hours in the Apple Stores) the simple transfer didn't work for me. I am however happy to report that after 8 hours of manually moving each contact one by one I know have 293 contacts merged and updated! ;-)

I am also happy to report that after syncing the new phone with iTunes I have started to organize my 307 apps into folders. However I am not close to being done. I will work on that more later today. My iPad is a mess too, ugh!

So how do I like the the new 8mp camera? Well sadly I have nothing to personally report YET! Harry Sandler has done some great testing and so have many others. There are many great reviews and I am so so glad that I have it. I am sure I will get out this afternoon and at least take one photo!

So what have I been doing beside organizing my apps and contacts? Well I went to a class at the Apple Store to learn more about the iCloud. I was hoping to find out what happens after you take 1001+ images in 30 days or less, since the iCloud only holds 1000 photos. Many employees have heard what may or may not happen but none had actually done the testing themselves. So I don't know what happens. I do know that in order to use the iCloud properly, you must first set up the iCloud on your computer. If you have a PC you can go directly to the iCloud. sign in and be ready to move to your iPhone (3gs or higher) and your iPad. However if your computer is a Mac you must first install Lion to get the iCloud to work properly. So, this girl will not be using iCloud at this time. Why? well, first of all I don't have my time machine backup (just in case), I really don't have any need for iCloud at this time, and the complications it may or may not cause I really don't have time for.

What else have I been doing? I have updated my old iPhone 4 to iOS 5 hoping that would solve my problem with my contacts (it didn't). I have updated my iPad to iOS 5. Then I discovered that many of my favorite photography apps are not updated to iOS 5 yet and either crash or are not saving as a high resolution image. Hipstamatic is one that is saving at only 1200x1200 pixels. Transfer, my favorite app to move my photos from one device to another crashes. However the most important thing I have discovered is that it was necessary to make sure each and every one of my apps setting is changed to save the photos in high resolution. Thank goodness that each app is acting as if I am opening it for the first time and therefore I am reminded that I need to make these changes. So please make sure you are saving your photos in high resolution by making changes to each app in 'Settings' on the iPhone and in each of your apps where appropriate.

Ok so for some good, great and terrific news! I love Siri!!! It is fun just to have a conversation with her or him. I have asked some of the silly questions. "What am I hungry for?" "How old am I?" "Where do you live?" -- try your own it is quite entertaining. For more productive work it is great to be able to talk a text message or an email. Love adding reminders and appointments. I even asked it to find the Apple Store the other day and the map came right up...so awesome. I think 'Hal' is alive and well! on his way to face recognition, and soon to be capable of reading lips!

So after the short time I have actually been using my new iPhone 4S with iOS 5 and without the iCloud, I must say I am excited to continue moving forward with this technology. It is difficult to purposefully jump into hours and hours of reorganizing and discovery, but I willing do so because I truly believe the vision of Steve Jobs and many like him will make our lives so much better in the end.

I am now off to take a few images. I will post soon!



iPhoneography Classes Available Now! - next class starts November 21st - only six student per session. FYI - prices will increase in 2012. If you would like to learn how to capture and process iPhone images beyond a basic snapshot take an Online iPhoneography Course with Teri Lou. Two courses are available iPhoneography 101 and iCreativity. Click on the direct links in the upper left hand column of this blog for information, pricing and schedule.