Toby Atkin-Wright

The new iPhones look appealing, but with the forthcoming iOS 7 supporting our family’s iPhones and iPads, I don’t feel the need to upgrade. However good the hardware revisions are, I tend to find more value in software updates, and as long as those keep coming I am happy with the hardware that we own.

The same thing applies to computers. I was motivated to upgrade my old Mac Mini when it would no longer run the latest OS X; I suspect I’ll be using the replacement Mac Mini until it too no longer runs the latest operating system.

Does this mean that phones now have a useful life of four years? I don’t feel the urge to upgrade every two years, as I was doing a decade ago. This is partly influenced by buying my recent devices outright and using SIM-only contracts, so I don’t have the upgrade cost included in my monthly payments.

Connecting my phone and iPad to the work Exchange system means that certain security policies are specified by the server. I grudgingly accept this. (I resent work having any sort of control over my iPad, but being able to work on the iPad is useful, so I put up with it.)

Today my passcode expired, so I had to change it on both devices. And I’ve spent the day typing the wrong passcode. Again and again. Grrr.

In between bouts of Angry Birds, Beth has been playing the iPhone game Mirror’s Edge, one of the freebies from iTunes at Christmas. She’s got quite obsessive about it, and is now much better than I am at playing it.

For a while this afternoon she was playing it with the iPhone screen upside-down. She mostly remembered to swipe in the right directions.

In between bouts of Angry Birds, Beth has been playing the iPhone game Mirror’s Edge, one of the freebies from iTunes at Christmas. She’s got quite obsessive about it, and is now much better than I am at playing it.

For a while this afternoon she was playing it with the iPhone screen upside-down. She mostly remembered to swipe in the right directions.

Work did the decent thing and issued me with an iPhone 4 today. So it is goodbye to my old 3G S, and hello to a new phone and a new phone number. I can be called, texted, or FaceTimed on +44 7584 146176.

Work did the decent thing and issued me with an iPhone 4 today. So it is goodbye to my old 3G S, and hello to a new phone and a new phone number. I can be called, texted, or FaceTimed on +44 7584 146176.

We had a fun dinner out this evening at Bella Italia; Beth and I went into town with qidane, and kateaw and zephyravictrix met us there on their way home from Dundee. Andrew had some Tesco vouchers to spend (apparently the conversation rate from Tesco points to restaurant vouchers is very favourable), so thanks to Andrew to paying for dinner!

Beth and Kate are upstairs for story time at the moment. Kate has been reading the “Swallows and Amazons” books to Beth, and they have just started Peter Duck. Beth has been greatly enjoying them.

Last night when I checked on Beth as I went to bed, I found her fast asleep holding her iPhone. (She has my old iPhone — without a SIM — for playing music and games.) When I tucked her in, she turned over and flopped the hand holding the iPhone over the side of her bed, dangled it there for a while, then pull her hand back under the covers and started snuggling the iPhone. All without waking up. Oddly enough, Kate sometimes does a very similar thing when she falls asleep while playing Scrabble on her iPhone. Like mother, like daughter.

We had a fun dinner out this evening at Bella Italia; Beth and I went into town with qidane, and kateaw and zephyravictrix met us there on their way home from Dundee. Andrew had some Tesco vouchers to spend (apparently the conversation rate from Tesco points to restaurant vouchers is very favourable), so thanks to Andrew to paying for dinner!

Beth and Kate are upstairs for story time at the moment. Kate has been reading the “Swallows and Amazons” books to Beth, and they have just started Peter Duck. Beth has been greatly enjoying them.

Last night when I checked on Beth as I went to bed, I found her fast asleep holding her iPhone. (She has my old iPhone — without a SIM — for playing music and games.) When I tucked her in, she turned over and flopped the hand holding the iPhone over the side of her bed, dangled it there for a while, then pull her hand back under the covers and started snuggling the iPhone. All without waking up. Oddly enough, Kate sometimes does a very similar thing when she falls asleep while playing Scrabble on her iPhone. Like mother, like daughter.

I spend a lot of time in front of my iPhone. It is the primary way I access my personal email, use Twitter, and read RSS news feeds, and I use Safari quite a lot. With some games on my phone, I haven't used my Nintendo DS in ages. So I thought it might be interesting to list the third-party apps that I use most. Do let me know if I'm missing out on some fantastic apps that you can't live without.

Tweetie is, to my taste, the best Twitter client for the iPhone. It has good features, and is very usable. Its method of refreshing the feed by dragging off the top of the list is excellent, and deserves to be copied by other apps.

Byline is my RSS/Atom newsreader of choice. Having tried various others, both apps and web-based solutions, Byline wins through with its useful link caching, its integration with Google Reader, and its ease of use.

I use Skype a fair bit for work communications, and occasionally for international phone calls. It'll be even handier when the upcoming OS update allows it to run in the background.

National Rail is very useful for checking train times, and for monitoring live departure and arrival times. Takes a lot of pressure out of travelling by train.

I spend a lot of time listening to music through Spotify. This is another app that would really benefit from being able to run as a background process. Roll on iPhone OS 4!

Games-wise, I've had fun with Monkey Ball, Doom Resurrection, and Wild West Guns. I've got Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on the phone, but inevitably haven't played them much (unplayable non-games that they are). Rock Band is excellent, Scrabble works well, and I've enjoyed playing through The Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Oh, and Shotgun Pro, Dice, and MiniPiano are worth having installed for the toy value.

I also have a load of other apps installed, but use them infrequently: AIM, Yammer, Navigon (British Isles), London Tube, Foursquare, Last.fm, Darkslide, Dropbox, IGN, Shazam, WhatTheFont, RedLaser, LinkedIn, eBay, EyeTV, LiveJournal, Journaler, ScotTraffic, Amazon UK, Layar, Stanza, Tumblr, Sudoku Grab, Tesco Clubcard, and Wolfram Alpha. They can't be that bad though, or else I'd delete them.

I spend a lot of time in front of my iPhone. It is the primary way I access my personal email, use Twitter, and read RSS news feeds, and I use Safari quite a lot. With some games on my phone, I haven't used my Nintendo DS in ages. So I thought it might be interesting to list the third-party apps that I use most. Do let me know if I'm missing out on some fantastic apps that you can't live without.

Tweetie is, to my taste, the best Twitter client for the iPhone. It has good features, and is very usable. Its method of refreshing the feed by dragging off the top of the list is excellent, and deserves to be copied by other apps.

Byline is my RSS/Atom newsreader of choice. Having tried various others, both apps and web-based solutions, Byline wins through with its useful link caching, its integration with Google Reader, and its ease of use.

I use Skype a fair bit for work communications, and occasionally for international phone calls. It'll be even handier when the upcoming OS update allows it to run in the background.

National Rail is very useful for checking train times, and for monitoring live departure and arrival times. Takes a lot of pressure out of travelling by train.

I spend a lot of time listening to music through Spotify. This is another app that would really benefit from being able to run as a background process. Roll on iPhone OS 4!

Games-wise, I've had fun with Monkey Ball, Doom Resurrection, and Wild West Guns. I've got Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on the phone, but inevitably haven't played them much (unplayable non-games that they are). Rock Band is excellent, Scrabble works well, and I've enjoyed playing through The Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Oh, and Shotgun Pro, Dice, and MiniPiano are worth having installed for the toy value.

I also have a load of other apps installed, but use them infrequently: AIM, Yammer, Navigon (British Isles), London Tube, Foursquare, Last.fm, Darkslide, Dropbox, IGN, Shazam, WhatTheFont, RedLaser, LinkedIn, eBay, EyeTV, LiveJournal, Journaler, ScotTraffic, Amazon UK, Layar, Stanza, Tumblr, Sudoku Grab, Tesco Clubcard, and Wolfram Alpha. They can't be that bad though, or else I'd delete them.