How to get your hands on a new Apple iPhone 4S?

The Apple iPhone 4S is here. We've got all the details about where, when, and how you can get your hands on one, starting with preorders and a launch date. We'll update this page with details like times as soon as we hear about them.

The wait is finally over. The event at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters has come to an end and we now have all the details about the iPhone 4S. Like pretty much every other Apple product announcement, the craziness is just now beginning. Pretty soon there will be hordes of people camping out in front of their local Apple stores for a week before the October 14 launch date, so eager to get their hands on the new iPhone model that they will apparently abandon their entire lives for a chance to get it first.

If you’re planning on upgrading to the iPhone 4S in the near future, there are a few things you’ll need to know. We’ll tell you right now that it will be at least a month or two before you can just walk into your AT&T or Verizon (or Sprint!) store and ask for the iPhone 4S. There will be lines, pre-orders, and sell-outs to deal with before that’s even a possibility. Whether you are an iPhone-craze veteran or a naive first-timer, we’ve got all the details to help you get your hands on your shiny new iPhone 4S as soon as possible.

Basics

The iPhone 4S will be available for pre-order on Friday October 7, and will be launched and available for actual purchase on October 14. This launch date includes the U.S., Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. The 4S will apparently be available in both black and white off the bat and the pricing with two-year contract will be $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for a new 64GB model.

Details

We don’t have any substantiated information yet on what exact time the pre-orders will begin, or what time stores will open on the 14th, but based on past history, we’re betting that the pre-orders on October 7 will start sometime between 12 AM EST and 8:30 AM EST. We’ll update this post as soon as we hear confirmed details. UPDATE: the iPhone 4S will be available in-store at your local Apple store starting at 8 AM local time on October 14.

Preordering

If you’ve decided from the just-announced specs that you want to buy the iPhone 4S, you’ll have two options. The first option, which you’ll be able to do starting this Friday, is pre-order the phone. What happens when you pre-order? You should get an email soon after saying when your phone will arrive either at your doorstep or at your preferred carrier store. The idea is that if you pre-order, you’ll be able to actually get your iPhone 4S on launch day October 14 without lines or hassle. Apple has had trouble in the past keeping up with demand for preorders, so it’s unclear how quickly the pre-orders will sell out. We’d suggest being on your computer as soon as you know what time the preorders will begin, and being ready to click.

Buying in-store

If you plan to try and pick up an iPhone 4S in-store on launch day, you should probably get your camping tent ready. While demand might not be quite as high as we expected because of disappointed iPhone 5 hopefuls, the days directly before and after October 14 will be crazy. We’ll likely soon get information on when Apple stores plan to open on the 14th, and the lines will start not long after that announcement. If you want to buy the iPhone 4S in store but don’t want to deal with all the craziness, we’d suggest waiting three or four weeks for things to die down a little bit. There might still be lines at that point, but chances are you’ll be able to get in and out with your new iPhone in a reasonable amount of time.

What about Sprint?

Some of the biggest news from the announcement today is that Sprint will be joining the list of iPhone carriers, including the iPhone 4S. If you take a look at the current Apple store, the iPhone 4S page allows customers to check availability and prices with both Verizon and AT&T but says “Sprint: Coming Soon.” So as of now we’re not sure if Sprint customers will be able to pre-order the iPhone 4S from the Apple Website or if they will have to wait until launch day to buy a handset in-store. Sprint users will also be able to buy the iPhone 4 in black or white for $99 with contract.

Will you preorder an iPhone 4S or wait in line at a store to get your hands on it first?

This post is sponsored by: Dr Mobiles Limited

1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622

Tel: (09) 551-5344      
Web - FaceBook - Localist - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flicker  - Map - Email 

Uploaded via Apple iPhone 4!
Why Dr Mobiles Limited?

The only professional repair centre who DOES NOT charge inspection fees on faulty phones.
> No inspection fee at all!

> 1 hour iPhone 4 repair

> Repair while you wait

> Free 30 min parking
> Free loan phone

Mobile Phone News Update: LG Optimus 3D review, 2011

LG has had a good run of form with its Optimus series of smartphones. The Optimus One was a solid little thing for a good price, then it branched out and up into fancy phone territory with the quirky dual-core charms of the Optimus 2X, before tackling high style with the skinny Optimus Black.
Now LG has another demographic in its sights – fans of the hot trend for 3D technology. The Optimus 3D is the first smartphone to launch with a "glasses-free" 3D display, enabling users to take still photos and record videos in full 3D, then play them back in 3D on the phone's cutting-edge 4.3-inch display.
But thanks to what LG calls the phone's "tri-dual" technology – a dual-core processor, dual cameras and dual-channel memory – the Optimus 3D comes with a massive price tag. The cheapest monthly tariff for this monster 3D phone currently stands at £35, with SIM-free prices currently around the £500 mark.
We've dusted off the Celluloid Movie Maker for a session with the new 3D phone - check out what we thought with flickering images:

Is it worth paying such a hefty early adopter tax in return for LG's – and the world's – first glasses-free 3D mobile phone display?

The Optimus 3D is as hefty as its price tag, but at least you're getting your money's worth in terms of sheer physical bulk. The 4.3-inch 480 x 800 resolution screen is surrounded by a large black plastic bezel, making the LG Optimus 3D feel like a whopping great rubbery brick in the hand.

Beneath the screens sit four capacitive touch buttons. They're in a bit of an unusual order, with LG opting to be a pain in the arse by lining them up, from left to right, in the order of Menu, Home, Back and Search. The Menu button shouldn't really be given prime location on the left-hand side. We'd prefer the much more frequently pressed Home or Back to be there, as it's the easiest spot to find without searching.

These buttons are backlit, but the light only comes on when you press one of them. Which makes the backlight absolutely useless, as there's no point in a button lighting itself up once you've just pressed the wrong one. A weird feature, that.

The LG Optimus 3D is also a fat little monster, coming it at 11.9mm thick – much chunkier than the 8.5mm Samsung Galaxy S2. It also weighs 168g, so is much heavier than the S2's 116g or even the larger HTC Sensation's 148g.

There's what appears to be a camera shutter button on the bottom of the right-hand side, where camera buttons usually congregate. But it's not a camera button – it simply toggles the camera between 2D and 3D modes when taking shots, or can be held down to launch LG's separate 3D interface when using the Optimus 3D.

The only vaguely interesting physical design feature here is the metallic strip along the phone's rear, which houses the Optimus 3D's two camera sensors and its LED flash. It's one nice touch in an otherwise quite generic lump of black plastic.

The rest of the phone is your standard modern smartphone layout. Power button and 3.5mm headphone jack along the top, volume up/down rocker along the right-hand edge, then USB and HDMI connectors safely hidden behind little plastic stoppers in the top-left corner.

It feels solid and heavy, which isn't a bad thing because our brains tend to associate gadget weight with quality, but the Optimus 3D is a very bland plastic black rectangle on the outside. Hopefully the "tri-dual" thrills inside will make up for this uninspiring design.

The LG Optimus 3D's main interface is the Android 2.2 standard series of seven scrollable Home screens, populated with your own choice of shortcuts and widgets. LG's carried out a few customisations of its own, but they're mostly quite clean and simple visual tweaks.

We;re disappointed with the decision to stick with Froyo for the Optimus 3D, especially with the glut of Gingerbread-enabled handsets on the market. However, LG has promised an upgrade, so if that appears in the near future most users won't be affected by the slower operation and less-impressive battery life.

The lock screen enables you to access the phone by swiping upwards, but there's one slight annoyance here already – there's a pause between pressing the power button and the screen illuminating itself. It doesn't always happen, but it occurs often enough to have you questioning if you actually pressed the power button and to make you press it again – relocking the phone just as it was waking up. You could end up hating it for that.

Unlock the LG Optimus 3D's screen and you see a high-res 480 x 800 display that's bright and sharp, with LG's own weather widget and clock set by default to take up the top half of the screen. And it's all in 2D to begin with.

Long-pressing on any widget gives you the option to remove it, while LG has also added resizing options to most widgets. The four icons in the floating dock are customisable, too, so you can have your Optimus 3D set up exactly how you like it.

Widget resizing is a little bit of a cheat, in that it only enables you to cycle through each particular widget's preset sizes rather than pick your own custom dimensions, but it's still a better solution than having to delete widgets and replace them with different versions as you do on most Android phones.

You also get another impressive LG widget – its huge Social+ aggregator. It's a much more impressive option, both visually and in terms of functionality, than the FriendStream tool found in HTC phones such as the HTC Sensation.

It has tabs to switch network feed, more tabs to access specific functions for each social stream and opens links in its own, simple LG window. It's a great widget.

The apps drawer is, by default, sorted by category on the LG Optimus 3D, with a 3D section up the top to remind you why you paid so much money for the phone. Or you can have a more traditional horizontally scrolling page layout, or one big text list.

Press the Manage Apps option in the Menu and the layout is customisable, if you'd rather sort them by colour or usefulness rather than the alphabetical default.

The 3D features are contained within LG's standalone 3D Space app, which pops up a – 3D! Actual proper 3D! – revolving menu containing all the novelty three-dimensional content. Gameloft has pre-loaded three 3D games on here – NOVA, Asphalt 6 and Let's Golf 2 – plus there's a weird 3D storybook version of Gulliver's Travels to look at... for a bit.

The 3D images look great on the LG Optimus 3D's screen, although – as with all 3D content – you find yourself squinting and wiggling the device around and moving your head to get the viewing angle that works best. Incidentally, our screenshots of the 3D features look poor because we're translating a 3D still to 2D. It all looks very nice on the Optimus 3D itself.

But there's clearly a lack of 3D content. LG has put in a link to a 3D portal on YouTube inside its 3D Space, which contains a few trailers from rubbish children's' films and some brief, slow-moving tech demos. You'll be bored of that lot inside 10 minutes. If you want 3D content for you LG Optimus 3D phone, you'll have to start generating your own.

LG's other big Home screen widget is its take on Google Calendar support, with a huge, full-page widget it calls the Agenda. It's a simple interface for the standard Android Calendar, enabling you to schedule events, set alarms and invite people by entering an email address.

As with all of LG's updated Android widgets, it looks clean and is fast to open and use, and offers much better functionality than the Android defaults. Good work.

And look, you can even change the display fonts if you want a Mickey Mouse telephone.

The LG Optimus 3D's main interface is the Android 2.2 standard series of seven scrollable Home screens, populated with your own choice of shortcuts and widgets. LG's carried out a few customisations of its own, but they're mostly quite clean and simple visual tweaks.

We;re disappointed with the decision to stick with Froyo for the Optimus 3D, especially with the glut of Gingerbread-enabled handsets on the market. However, LG has promised an upgrade, so if that appears in the near future most users won't be affected by the slower operation and less-impressive battery life.

The lock screen enables you to access the phone by swiping upwards, but there's one slight annoyance here already – there's a pause between pressing the power button and the screen illuminating itself. It doesn't always happen, but it occurs often enough to have you questioning if you actually pressed the power button and to make you press it again – relocking the phone just as it was waking up. You could end up hating it for that.

Unlock the LG Optimus 3D's screen and you see a high-res 480 x 800 display that's bright and sharp, with LG's own weather widget and clock set by default to take up the top half of the screen. And it's all in 2D to begin with.

Long-pressing on any widget gives you the option to remove it, while LG has also added resizing options to most widgets. The four icons in the floating dock are customisable, too, so you can have your Optimus 3D set up exactly how you like it.

Widget resizing is a little bit of a cheat, in that it only enables you to cycle through each particular widget's preset sizes rather than pick your own custom dimensions, but it's still a better solution than having to delete widgets and replace them with different versions as you do on most Android phones.

You also get another impressive LG widget – its huge Social+ aggregator. It's a much more impressive option, both visually and in terms of functionality, than the FriendStream tool found in HTC phones such as the HTC Sensation.

It has tabs to switch network feed, more tabs to access specific functions for each social stream and opens links in its own, simple LG window. It's a great widget.

The apps drawer is, by default, sorted by category on the LG Optimus 3D, with a 3D section up the top to remind you why you paid so much money for the phone. Or you can have a more traditional horizontally scrolling page layout, or one big text list.

Press the Manage Apps option in the Menu and the layout is customisable, if you'd rather sort them by colour or usefulness rather than the alphabetical default.

The 3D features are contained within LG's standalone 3D Space app, which pops up a – 3D! Actual proper 3D! – revolving menu containing all the novelty three-dimensional content. Gameloft has pre-loaded three 3D games on here – NOVA, Asphalt 6 and Let's Golf 2 – plus there's a weird 3D storybook version of Gulliver's Travels to look at... for a bit.

The 3D images look great on the LG Optimus 3D's screen, although – as with all 3D content – you find yourself squinting and wiggling the device around and moving your head to get the viewing angle that works best. Incidentally, our screenshots of the 3D features look poor because we're translating a 3D still to 2D. It all looks very nice on the Optimus 3D itself.

But there's clearly a lack of 3D content. LG has put in a link to a 3D portal on YouTube inside its 3D Space, which contains a few trailers from rubbish children's' films and some brief, slow-moving tech demos. You'll be bored of that lot inside 10 minutes. If you want 3D content for you LG Optimus 3D phone, you'll have to start generating your own.

LG's other big Home screen widget is its take on Google Calendar support, with a huge, full-page widget it calls the Agenda. It's a simple interface for the standard Android Calendar, enabling you to schedule events, set alarms and invite people by entering an email address.

As with all of LG's updated Android widgets, it looks clean and is fast to open and use, and offers much better functionality than the Android defaults. Good work.

And look, you can even change the display fonts if you want a Mickey Mouse telephone.

This post is sponsored by: Dr Mobiles Limited

1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel:             (09) 551-5344      
Web - FaceBook - Localist - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flicker  - Map - Email 

Uploaded via Apple iPhone 4!
Why Dr Mobiles Limited?

The only professional repair centre who DOES NOT charge inspection fees on faulty phones.
> No inspection fee at all!

> 1 hour iPhone 4 repair

> Repair while you wait

> Free 30 min parking

> Free loan phone

 

 

 

 

Top Ten Things Airlines Don't Tell You

This post is sponsored by: Dr Mobiles Limited

1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel:  (09) 551-5344      
Web - FaceBook - Localist - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flicker  - Map - Email 

Uploaded via Apple iPhone 4!
Why Dr Mobiles Limited?

The only professional repair centre who DOES NOT charge inspection fees on faulty phones.
> No inspection fee at all!

> 1 hour iPhone 4 repair

> Repair while you wait

> Free 30 min parking

> Free loan phone

Besides the hidden fees and hours sat on an airplane without any clue as to why you're holding, there are certain things that airlines will never tell you. We tracked down three U.S. pilots and squeezed out some of their dirty little secrets. Due to the sensitive nature, we're not naming names.

10. Even Pilots Have to Pee
"Anyone who has sat near the front of the plane since 9/11 has surely noticed when the pilots are ready to take a bathroom break, or 'physiological needs' break, as the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) calls it. When nature calls we alert the flight attendants on the intercom. The attendants set up a barrier to the cockpit and give us an all-clear signal to open the door, as we don't have a separate bathroom and have to use the same one as everyone else. A few months back my fellow pilot picked up the wrong handset and accidentally asked the entire aircraft if we could 'come out and pee?'"

9. There Is Such Thing as the "Good Seats"
"If you are susceptible to motion sickness, your best bet is to sit over the wing. An airplane is like a teeter-totter. When the pilot moves the nose of the plane up or down, the seats in the extreme front and back are going to move a greater distance. And as a rule, the tail tends to move more than the front, so stay away from the rear if motion is a problem for you."

8. The Fasten Seatbelt Sign Is No Joke
"Turbulence isn't dangerous to a jet aircraft, but it is to the people in it. Past incidents of severe turbulence have slammed people into the ceiling and then dropped them to the floor, causing very serious injuries. If your flight crew tells you to be seated because of turbulence, I highly recommend you heed their warning."

7. There Are No Free Lunches
"Thanks to the airline bankruptcies starting in 2000, few U.S. domestic airlines still provide food to its crews. As pilots we are allowed to eat in the cockpit once we're at cruising altitude, but we're usually eating something from the food courts in the airport terminal: pre-prepared wrapped sandwiches, slices of pizza. Not quite the glamorous lifestyle it used to be."

6. And You Thought Filling Your Car Was Expensive
"The number-one expense for an airline is fuel, which isn't going to get any cheaper. And because the cost of gas fluctuates so much, so does the price of the flight. Your average two-engine, narrow-body aircraft burns about 15 gallons of gas per minute at cruising altitude. So you can imagine what the gas bill would be on a transcontinental flight."

5. The FAA Has a Sense of Humor, Sort of
"Airplanes follow an invisible map of highways and avenues in the sky in order to make it to their destinations. There are thousands of virtual points in the sky that pilots follow on their route, each with unique names so the air-traffic controllers can tell us where to go and how to get there. The FAA has gotten creative when naming some of these points (which must be five characters), like these over southern Florida—UFIRD, DONLD, and TRUMP over Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, or FINNS, PYRUT, and BUFIT for Florida native Jimmy Buffett. My favorites are at the Kansas City Airport, honoring its local cuisine on the arrival procedure with SPICY and BARBQ."

4. The Deal With Electronics
"Nothing has ever been proven, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that electronics really interfere with an aircraft's flight instruments. The most likely culprits are things that transmit a signal, like a cell phone or a computer operating in Wi-Fi mode, which emits an electronic pulse or wave. But new aircrafts are being engineered for the wireless age so you should see more and more allowance of electronic devices in the future."

3. Your Co-Pilot Could be More Experienced Than You Think
"The turmoil of the airline industry over the last 20 years or so has caused many airlines to go out of business or shrink in size, thus laying off massive numbers of employees. If an airline captain loses his job at one airline and goes to another, he or she will start over as a co-pilot at entry-level pay and will be given no credit for their experience."

2. The Air Isn't Immune to Office Romances
"All the crew stays at the same hotel, but I remember a couple years ago the pilots' wives pushed for flight attendants to be at a different hotel than the pilots because they didn't want to make it easy for their husbands to cheat."

1. Crews Are Trained in More Than Just Emergency Exits
"Terrorism is a big deal nowadays. Most flight attendants and pilots are trained for those instances and taught self-defense as well as how to detect certain behaviors. Pilots are also able to sign up for a voluntary intensive program that is held at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. For one week they learn things like how to shoot a gun and disable someone carrying one. When they finish the program they're licensed to carry a gun into the cockpit with them."

 

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review

Mid-range Sony Ericsson Android phone packs a photographic punch

Sitting pretty in the hand, the small Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo smartphone and its 8.1-megapixel camera offer photographic skills far beyond what you'd expect for its 125g weight.
The 3.7-inch screen with multi-touch Reality display is nice and sharp, and benefits colour-wise from Mobile Bravia technology. However it fares poorly in direct sunlight, with us having to pull the ol' hand-as-a-sun-blocker move.
The phone is small enough to use comfortably with one hand, so it's not a huge problem, but essentially, with smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 carrying AMOLED and the Apple iPhone 4 with its Retina display technology, should we really be having problems with direct sunlight any more?
You can check out our Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo video review too - it's like a written review but with moving pictures:

The definitive Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review

Sitting pretty in the hand, the small Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo smartphone and its 8.1-megapixel camera offer photographic skills far beyond what you'd expect for its 125g weight.

The 3.7-inch screen with multi-touch Reality display is nice and sharp, and benefits colour-wise from Mobile Bravia technology. However it fares poorly in direct sunlight, with us having to pull the ol' hand-as-a-sun-blocker move.

The phone is small enough to use comfortably with one hand, so it's not a huge problem, but essentially, with smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 carrying AMOLED and the Apple iPhone 4 with its Retina display technology, should we really be having problems with direct sunlight any more?

You can check out our Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo video review too - it's like a written review but with moving pictures:

But, moving on, the (blue for us) semi-anodised finish, curved posterior and well-distributed weighting means it sits nicely in the hand at least.

The lock/power key, volume rocker, and – score! – a soft camera key all live on the silver right side of the 13mm-thick chassis. It's not the thinnest of phones, but the depth gives it a nice solid feel in the palm, and it's short enough (4.7 inches, or 116mm) to slip easily into pockets.

On the front we have the Home, Menu and Back buttons, plus up top the Xperia Neo squeezes in a front-facing camera, and proximity and light sensors.

On the back, of course, we have aforementioned 8.1-megapixel camera and a beast of a flash, with which we may have blinded some unsuspecting band members at gigs. Whoops.

Placed at the top are the mini-USB port, 3.5mm audio jack and – in keeping with the high megapixel camera – a mini-HDMI port.

All in, we're not faced with yet another black slab of a smartphone, which is good, we suppose. It's neat and ergonomic, but it's not the sexiest design ever and doesn't really push our aesthetics buttons.

Coming in SIM-free at around £369, it's a mid-range smartphone that fits a lot into its small frame. Running on Gingerbread 2.3, there's also the 8MP camera, mini-HDMI out should you enjoy seeing your videos on a big screen, and a multi-touch 3.7-inch screen.

The Xperia Neo definitely leans on its media offering, but for what it's worth, that's some pretty good stuff, and great if your smartphone is more for play than it is for work.

This post is sponsored by: Dr Mobiles Limited

1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344
Web - FaceBook - Localist - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flicker  - Map - Email 

Uploaded via Apple iPhone 4!
Why Dr Mobiles Limited?

The only professional repair centre who DOES NOT charge inspection fees on faulty phones.
> No inspection fee at all!

> 1 hour iPhone 4 repair

> Repair while you wait

> Free 30 min parking

> Free loan phone

 

Unreal Structures Built in Secret. . . .

You will be amazed on what people built secretly in the past!  Click her for the link

This post is sponsored by: Dr Mobiles Limited

1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel:             (09) 551-5344      
Web - FaceBook - Localist - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flicker  - Map - Email 

Uploaded via Apple iPhone 4!
Why Dr Mobiles Limited?

The only professional repair centre who DOES NOT charge inspection fees on faulty phones.
> No inspection fee at all!

> 1 hour iPhone 4 repair

> Repair while you wait

> Free 30 min parking

> Free loan phone