Our former offices in Wandsworth just weren’t large enough to cope with the rate at which our company is growing, and earlier this month we relocated to slightly more roomy premises in a lovely location on the New Kings Road. We’ve taken the opportunity to completely redesign our studio; we squabbled over paint colours, the workbenches were custom-made, and we got a bunch of shiny new iMacs, too! I think we’re all in consensus that it turned out nicely (and I’m going to grudgingly admit that green was the way forward), so we thought we’d give you a little glimpse of things behind-the-scenes here at Bottosso Limited!
So, the wait is over. As promised, it is the most significant overall upgrade to the hardware since the original – but do the individual promises live up to the hype? Well, we each queued for up to four hours at our various locations yesterday to find out!
I’m not sure about things at the Apple Store (and looking at the news, I’m glad I’m not!), but I can certainly say that things at O2 were very well handled – in my queue, people came and took our order for coffees, lattes, teas, juices etc., and bought them from the shop across the road, which they covered the expense of. We also had a few handsets going up and down to play with, and communication with the staff was great, who kept coming out to check that we were alright and had all the information we needed. Friends at other O2 queues around London reported back to me on free smoothies, pastries and sweets!
My first impression: the glass façade feels amazing in your hand. It really does, you could just stroke it all day with a sensuality which you would never bestow on a human being. It’s reasonably heavy, but in a reassuring, dense way. The build quality feels really solid, and the side buttons are pleasantly ‘clicky’.
The display – the display is stunning. I actually think that it has impressed me more than any of the bigger things I was looking forward to; everything is unbelievably sharp and is just a joy to read. These little things really do make a difference. It works really nicely in conjunction with iBooks, where it is honestly quite hard to believe that you are not looking at a printed (self-illuminating!) page.
As for the camera, that tiny flash is pretty effective, and 5 MP is a huge relief (the 3GS’s mediocre camera being my main griping point).The colours are more life-like and just result in photos that actually look like something you may want to keep, content permitting.
I seem to be the only person who is not over the moon with the battery life – maybe it’s just my model? However, I really can’t see any difference to the 3GS battery span, which has always been extremely poor. Still, you win some…
The general verdict at the office is that the iPhone has finally arrived. There is no whining to be heard this time about the lack of this or that feature – it is a complete product. And it can only get better with future reincarnations. We’re really excited about what the incredibly fast, sharp hardware means for app development – as usual, watch this space!
So, the predictions were mostly correct – unlike those in the case of the iPad! With the 3GS being (even in name) a clear stopgap between the 3G and the next big iPhone remodel, it feels as though we have been waiting for this announcement forever! We shan’t run through all the spec upgrades, which are plentiful and can be ogled in full detail here. But which new features are we the most excited about?
:
Video Calling
This is the first time that I’ve felt like I’m in the future. I’m sure if you’d asked my five year old self, I would have predicted ubiquitous video-phones long before now. I also thought we’d be riding jet-packs to work, so get on it please, Apple.
Sweet Design
I defy you to tell me it looks anything other than totally awesome.
Super-sharp Display
Apparently the pixels are indistinguishable to the naked eye. Sounds good to me!
Different Colours
No, it isn’t really a ‘feature’ per se, but I’d be fibbing if I denied how stoked I was to see that the two breeds of iPhone actually are distinguishable this time round. Now I just need to decide which one I want…
Decent Camera with Flash
Finally! The one point I felt I really did have to concur on with naysayers was the relatively poor quality of the camera. I’m looking forward to busting out Hipstamatic with this.
Two weeks to go, everyone!
