First week with the new iPhone 6+

Well it's been just over a week since I picked up my new iPhone 6+ from the Apple Store at Robina, so I thought I would jot down a few impressions so that I can see if my feelings towards it change over time. First thing, it is big, very big compared to my old iPhone 4S. I think this would worry me more if I used it predominantly as a phone however I tend to use it more like an iPad nano. I carry it in my shirt pocket and it fits fine and I've had no problems with it bending. 

The screen as well as being large is incredibly detailed and the colour reproduction is great. The rounded edges make it feel very comfortable in the hand and I find I use it by holding it in my left hand and type or gesture with my right hand. Despite the size it actually feels like it may be slightly lighter than the 4S. Some of the apple apps (e.g. Mail) now have a Landscape mode which presents more info and a better layout on the larger screen. iOS 8 has a slightly different feel to iOS 7 even though they don't look all that different. I was lucky I missed the debacle that was the 8.0.1 update which caused problems with phone calls and TouchID and went straight to 8.0.2. 

I have been comparing the built in pedometer with my FitBit One and the phone always seems to come out with a lower number of steps but the amount can change wildly. When I been simply walking the iPhone shows about 2% lower but if I am walking around shopping and standing around then it can be about 10% lower. I think the Fitbit is perhaps overly sensitive as it shows me having walked steps when I am driving whereas the phone doesn't register any steps. The Fitbit is even worse if I'm not wearing it but leave it on the car seat next to the phone. So for the moment I'll use both but I suspect the phone will end up being more accurate. The steps are logged into the new health app dashboard which has potential to store lots of different health related info, including emergency info in case of an accident. 

The camera seems very good and much more responsive than the old 4S. It has new slow-mo video modes and time lapse which I haven't tried out yet. The burst mode is sensational and takes approximately 10 photos per second while you hold the shutter button down. I tried it for 10 seconds, taking 100 photos with no slow down to write the photos to storage, not sure how long it would continue at this speed. This mode is a bit too easy to activate as I found keeping my finger on the shutter button just a little too long resulted in small bursts of 2 or 3 photos being taken but I suspect I just need to get used to this. The editing in the photos app is much better with more options and very responsive. The digital zoom seems to work reasonably although I suspect it is better to not use it but crop the image later but for a quick and easy shot it's not too bad. 

The panorama feature also works pretty well and is supposed to produce higher resolution images than the older phones. I'm still getting used to holding the phone to take photos and being bigger makes it a little awkward but I suspect it's just a matter of practice to get it right. 

At the moment the feature I am enjoying the most is the TouchID to unlock the phone. After setting up and calibrating with my fingerprints it is working accurately and quickly and makes using the phone for a quick check of something much faster. The only real problem I have noticed so far is that every day or two the wifi connectivity goes wonky and it won't connect to the network, requiring a restart. This has occurred on three different networks and I notice that the Apple Discussions Forum has a rather long post about this but it seems to be a iOS 8 problem and not a iPhone 6 problem. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next iOS update. 

All up I'm very happy with the phone and glad I got the large one. 

Testing blogging from the iPhone 6+

Thought I would test posting to my blog using the Blogger app on my new iPhone and in the process also checked out how fast 4G actually is. In the screenshot below, the top result is my home ADSL 2 and this is about the fastest I get. The second result is via 4G at Robina shopping centre this morning. 

I wish I could have my ADSL download quota and cost with the 4G speed, shame the current government is killing the NBN. 😞

Gold Coast Show long weekend 2104 - Day 3.

Yet another sleep in but after a leisurely breakfast and pack up, I was still able to head off just after 9 am. I turned south at the highway as I was wanting to have a look around Iluka and the southern part of the Bundjalung national park. It was only a short run down the highway to the Iluka turnoff and then I started to explore the little offshoots into Bundjalung, including various picnic areas and to the beach at the ominously named Shark Bay. 

The beach leads all the way back to the black rocks camp ground, unfortunately you can no longer exit from the beach to the camp ground. The camping ground at Woody Heads is a nice looking spot but way too crowded for my liking, would be good for a family trip however. Then it was onto the Iluka Bluff nature reserve which has a nice little beach and picnic area. There is also a short walk up to the top of the bluff, where you get a great view of the surrounding coastline. 

Then I continued on into Iluka itself and after a bit of a drive around the town and seashore, I found a great spot for some fish and chips and Thai fish cake for lunch. 

After lunch it was time to start heading back home but I was not wanting to head up the main highway and deal with any traffic congestion. So after consulting several maps I thought I had found a back way across to The Summerland Way which would take me up to Casino. I headed up the highway a few kms and turned off to Tullymorgan then after a few kms there should have been a turn to the north to the huge metropolis of Gibberagee but the road I wanted to take looked somewhat in disrepair and there was a "No Through Road" sign. Oh well, I headed south through Tullymorgan and then had to go further south towards Lawrence before I found a road heading west towards the Summerland Way. I was never lost as I could see where I was on the gps map app on the tablet and I could see where I wanted to go but it was frustrating I couldn't go the way I wanted. 

I was back onto bitumen roads and heading north and hardly saw another car, making for a very easy drive. The only thing that livened the trip up was a stroppy policeman in Casino doing a RBT. The detector they use in NSW is completely different to the ones up here and he kept telling me to count and I was expecting to have to blow into the detector, so I was a little confused but ended up counting to one and being told to be on my way. Then it was north to Kyogle and then turning west towards Murwillumbah. After 50 kms or so I took the Burrill creek road turnoff to Tyalgum. This started as a very narrow bitumen road winding along the creek and became a very narrow dirt road not long after. The scenery was excellent and about 5 or so kms from Tyalgum the road was bitumen and became wider giving a subperb view of the surrounding mountains. 

The superb views continued on the other side of Tyalgum on the way to Chillingham and I think it was Mt Warning I could see from the back. 

From Chillingham I could have headed north and home through the Numinbah Valley, but I chose to head towards Murwillumbah and then go up and over the hills through Tomewin and into the back of Palm Beach through the Currumbin Valley. 

All up over the three days I had done almost 600 kms and had a very pleasant weekend.