Apple’s iPhone 4 is simply the easiest and smoothest working smartphone sold in Canada

Callie with the iPhone 4 and Hipstamatic

Two weeks ago I purchased a new iPhone 4 after waiting 6 months for the better Android phones to arrive in Canada.

In the meantime I tried a Samsung Android Fascinate briefly but found it clunky.

I wanted to try the new Windows Phone 7 but again the Canadian phones offered were not the best models.

Maybe it was my previous ownership of an iPhone 3 plus having an iPad and iPod Touch, but nothing felt better than being back in the land of iPhone.

A few nights ago the value of the iPhone hit home when a 2 year-old was being babysat during the day and stayed for supper.

I grabbed the iPhone while she was still eating and snapped away with the Hipstamatic app and then took a priceless video.

Uploading video

The video could be easily uploaded to YouTube, once I told the iPhone what my login and passwords were.

iPhone 4 video of Callie and Edith, uploaded from the phone and only standard definition 

That was cool. I could add a title, comments, category and tags. The actual upload took no time, although processing took longer. The video is only low res 360p. The room lighting from behind her head is not the best but it does give the clip a golden glow.

I uploaded the video clip from the computer and it was sharper at 720p. Except for those from-away videos, it’s better to wait and upload videos from a computer versus direct iPhone 4 upload.

iPhone 4 video of Callie and Edith, uploaded from the phone now high definition

Callie, the two year old, is a photogenic charmer who likes to pose. She also volunteers to back me on drums when I’m practicing guitar. I waited 2 days to publish the pictures and video to obtain the mother’s permission.

Photographs

Edith and Callie with a little Hipstamatic film noise

After Tom Wilson (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond) showed me the Hipstamatic app for iPhone I was hooked. I love the old time look, the film creativity and picture borders.

Hipstamatic is sort of an easy version of the awesome photographic technique of KK+ who we profile on NJN. It’s a chance for the amateur to experiment with film developing effects.

Getting all my pics to the web should have been easy but it wasn’t.

I tried posting to Facebook. Selecting the Facebook app on the iPhone it quickly allowed me to add the pics taken with the Hipstamatic. Ooops, I took a lot since digital film is cheap.

The Facebook app is unfriendly if don’t like your first choice from the Camera Roll. You have to back out of the selection and start again. It took several passes to find the one pic to post on Facebook.

Much easier was connecting the iPhone by USB and downloading the pics to my computer and then selecting them for Facebook and this story.

Picky? Yes, but the iPhone and apps should be easy not convoluted.

This is one area the Windows Phone 7 is supposed to shine. I want to try one soon.

Hipstamatic and apps

Callie and serious butter

They say there are 7,000 Windows Phone 7 apps, 200,000 Android apps and half a million iPhone apps. Those numbers don’t mean much except there is so much variety.

The iPad apps transfer easily to the iPhone 4.

Hipstamatic, the creative photography app, costs $1.99 plus .99 for the different lenses and film types. I bought several different lenses, camera bodies and film types which were .99 extra for each option. It’s an photography experimenter’s dream. The pics are 1200 pixels square.

Of course, the iPhone takes regular pictures that are much sharper.

Do people use Facetime? You bet. Kerrie instantly called a friend with Facetime at the Christmas eve dinner when her brother challenged her. Facetime still only works on wi-fi and between two iPhone 4 sets.

iTunes Store

The iTunes store has improved. You can purchase gift cards in Canada and use them to purchase apps.

You can also purchase gift cards and email them to people which is very cool.

For teenagers without a credit card, they can set up a iTunes Store account and apply the value of any gift cards. If you are feeling generous, Apple suggests a monthly allowance for your children that is automatically debited from your credit card and applied to their account. What could be easier.

Apple sells more than 70% of all the digital music in the US. Many parents give their children iTunes credits to avoid illegal downloading which can result in legal problems.

I still have the same trouble getting permission to use all of my purchased music and videos across the three i-devices I use. Apple controls use of purchased media. Eventually I will get on the phone with their support line and work out the bugs.

Am I happy to be back in iPhone-land? Most definitely yes. I still want to get good Android and Windows phones to experiment but for now I have an easy to use smart phone that works.

Last night I could show Krista at Churchill the new video on the iPhone 4, cool.

Leslie told me to get a case for it. The glass scratches.

Worse than that, I’ve seen two iPhone’s with shattered glass cases this year. Right, get a case.