The Importance of the iPhone

The iPhone is going to change the Internet landscape in a way no other technology has in the last decade.

Forget about Facebook, Twitter and other websites, this device is going to bring about change that the business community may find disruptive. In fact it is the classical disruptive technology that the Internet was so many years ago.

Read on to hear my argument as to why this device is special and how other hyped Social Network sites whilst important are not a platform change - they may just be a flash in the pan....

The iPhone untethered the internet from the desktop. The energy of the blogsphere was redirected toward faster, mobile mediums.

The importance of the iPhone

Over 10 years ago my 15 year old niece Laura just forked out $750 for an iPhone and has already chewed up half a dozen mobile phones. Laura has to go prepaid due to a few overruns on previous plans. Its a networked device so she can sit at home and run YouTube videos where ever she is around the house.

Why does a 15 year old purchase an iPhone with her own hard earned funds?
Are books becoming obsolete?
Some schools are already integrating iPhones into their systems and not providing text books. One reason for this is the unique easy reading capacity of this device. It reacts to hand movements and can be turned on its side for easier reading.

iPhone 14: Apple's New Champion?

You may be thinking of getting the new iPhone 14 that recently launched (September 2022). Apple's launching of its newest model sparked excitement among Apple lovers which resulted in a lot of social media hype.

Apple enthusiasts from around the world queue for hours just so they can finally get their own iPhone 14!

Now that the long lines from the Apple stores have died down, you may be considering getting your own. The question still stands: Is it worth the upgrade?

Upgrading from iPhone 12 or iPhone 13?

You've probably had these models long enough to have a firm opinion of them. Let's take a look at the pros and cons that stood out during their reign:

The iPhone 12 was commended for its good battery life and attractive design. Its double camera performance was also praised but it lacks optical zoom. Another con seen in the iPhone 12 is that it only has 64GB of base storage.

The iPhone 13 proved to have a longer battery life than the previous model and has proved to have a brighter display and better cameras. However, one of the biggest cons seen in this model is that it lacks a 120 Hz display.

Both models are cheaper than the new iPhone 14 release by a hundred dollars. So, are the new upgrades on the latest iPhone 14 worth replacing your current model? Well, read ahead to know more about the iPhone 14's new features and decide if an upgrade is for you!

iPhone 14's New Features

One of the iPhone 14's biggest selling points is its long battery life. User reviews would claim that they can go on for about 3 days without charging their iPhone, which comes convenient if you're constantly on the go.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are considered the "affordable" lineup with a selling price of $1399 for the 128GB model (iPhone 14). This model comes in 5 colors - blue, purple, midnight, starlight, and (product) red. They also come in 2 sizes: 6.1- and 6.7-inches with a Super Retina XDR display.

This model features flat edges, similar to the iPhone 13. It is also packed with an aerospace-grade aluminum enclosure and a glass back that allows you to do wireless charging.

Other key features include Emergency SOS crash detection, 26 hours of video playback, Face ID, and superfast 5G cellular.

There's so much excitement over their new camera as well!

The iPhone 14 model offers an advanced dual-camera system with a 12 MP main Ultra Wide with Photo Engine for incredible detail and color. It also has Autofocus on TrueDepth front camera.

Their more luxe counterpart, the iPhone 14 Pro, has a pro camera system. It has a 48MP main and an Ultra Wide setting with the same key features listed above.

Let's summarize all of the features this model has to offer!

IP68 Water Resistant

If you're not familiar with IPX ratings, these are used to evaluate how resistant products are to environmental conditions.

An IP68 rating means that the device is resistant to fresh water to a maximum depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. They are also protected from dust without the need to use phone covers and casings!

The 6 refers to the dust resistance. A 6 rating in dust resistance means it has protection from contact with harmful dust.

The 8 refers to moisture resistance. An 8 rating means that the device is protected from immersion in water with a depth of up to 1 meter (or 3.3 feet) for up to 30 mins

Essentially, an IP68 rating is pretty solid. This is great news especially if you live an active lifestyle where you bring your phone to every adventure.

Final Verdict?

While most reviews praised the longer battery life and the outstanding camera quality, a lot of the users would say that it's only a small upgrade from the iPhone 13. Let's take a look at some pros and cons of upgrading.

Pros

• Battery Life. There is a significant improvement in the battery life offered in the iPhone 14 line-up.
• Camera Features. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus offers a new action mode that's designed to provide a professional feel that ignores shakes, motions, and vibrations during shooting.

Cons

• Same design. Both the iPhone 14 and 13 models have identical designs. There are no major design updates aside from the color range offered.
• Same display. Both iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 models feature an OLED Super Retina XDR.
• A15 Bionic Chip. The iPhone 14 and 14 plus features the same A15 chip used in the iPhone 13 pro and Pro Max.
• No iPhone 14 mini. This comes as a big letdown to a lot of consumers since minis provide a more affordable option.

If you're looking for a phone with longer battery life and a great camera, definitely give the iPhone 14 a chance. However, if you already have a well-functioning iPhone 13, you might want to consider if getting an upgrade is worth the hassle. Still, the decision is up to you!

iPhone 11 Pro first video out of the box

Video first go with an iPhone 11 Pro (IMG_0001.mov)

What do Mac World say about the iPhone 11 Pro?

Read the full iPhone 11 Pro analysis from Mac World.

iPhone Tip - Record Screen (IOS 14 + and iPhone 11)

Recording high quality screen in real-time on any device requires some serious processing power.

Step 1 Add Screen Record to the Control Center

Go to Settings>Control Centre>tap add button next to Screen Recording.

This means the ability to record the screen is added to your control center. The control centre is accessed via a swipe from the top-right corner. Notice that the record button is now available.

Step 2 Start what you want to record

You can now swipe from the top-right corner and record. You will need to swipe away the control center. In the image above we have recorded a snippet and have swiped the control center back in. Click the red recording button to stop the recording.

Step 3 How to use your recording

On an iPhone 11 the recording is saved to photos. The resolution of the video will reflect the resolution of your device. This is where recent iPhones really shine. The resolution and audio quality can be used in videos productions.

With that extra resolution and processing power comes a hefty generated sized file (MP4). Just 9 seconds of video at 30 frames per second came to 14.8 mb. For me that is about the maximum I can send via email. Hence to send larger screen recordings I use WeTransfer.com because it does not require a login, just verification of your email.

No doubt there are a bunch on size and quality on depending on your device and your settings. The amazing thing is the resolution is enough to use screen content from your phone on a professional presentation or production. On an iPhone 11 the resolution was 1920 px * 886 px. A YouTube video will often be 1280 px * 720 px or 1920 px * 1080 px.

Previously devices did not have the processing power to effectively record the screen for use in quality video.

iPhone Tip - Edit faster with 3D Touch

IOS 11 has one particular improvement that makes updating text easier - moving to a particular part of a sentence is now very easy-:
Edit faster with 3D Touch
Press firmly anywhere on the keyboard, then lightly slide your finger to move the insertion point to where you want to edit text.

iPhone Applications

This is a very tightly controlled platform. Great for Apple who need to approve the following -:

• Any Application
• A developers Licence
• Whether the application conforms to their standards
• Every application sold earns the creators of the iPhone a commission via the iPhone store
• Can only be developed on an Apple Mac

iPhone Apps revolutionising Hearing Aids

The very latest advanced hearing aid Phonak Sphere Infinio is totally integrated into your smart phone. It supports most smart phones. Hearing Aids are now inseparable from your phone. The extra features and streaming actually revolutionise hearing aids.
For example you can carry out conversations with your phone in another room with total clarity. This almost makes hearing impairment an advantage.

Related topic Is BlueTooth making costly Hearing Aids redundant?

Coles supermarket has an iPhone application Its free and allows you to purchase items for a specific recipe.

Samsung and HTC phones are becoming very iPhone like They can all take photos, video, audio, email and look very similar to an iPhone. But my niece wanted an iPhone.
Samsung (Nov-11) won a battle with Apple to allow the right to sell its Galaxy 10.1 tablet in Australia after the Federal Court overturned a ban on the sale of the computer.

Check our article on processing payments on an iPhone app via a payment gateway

Apple blocks Adobe Flash and others from creating iPhone applications for the Apple istore. This is quite significant as Google Android is working in the opposite direction allowing anyone to create applications and creating a system where anyone (not necessarily a programmer) can create them.
However now Flash developers can leverage their skills and make apps for the ios market with the latest software and libraries.

iPhone 6 very refined

Moving from an iPhone 4S to the iPhone 6 we can see some incredible refinements. The battery lasts longer, the audio is very clear and the screen space and quality is excellent.

Siri is very efficient being able to set alarms and book reminders and even tell you what song is playing on the radio very accurately.

iPhone 4 has problems

The iPhone 4 launched in the US recently has antenna reception problems. Will Apple launch the same device in Australia this month?

Twitter is great but may not survive

Yes I made that statement - very wrong!

Everyone has their 10 cents worth on Twitter so here is mine. A few years ago I asked my Griffith eCommerce students to examine the following social networking sites:-

• Twitter
• Google - YouTube
• Yahoo
• Facebook
• MySpace
• MSN

Prior to that I asked the students to join a private Twitter group for the subject. When I sought permission from my supervisor at Griffith, Steve asked me to compile my findings on the learning experience and Twitter so every Twitter article in the Financial Review and other sources I am compelled to read.

The students (approx 100) had to analyse the sites and report on recommend which is worth investing in and justify their answer using well documented measures like SWOT analysis (its good practise to develop business and marketing plans for any website).

Google makes most of its money from search engine ads and in my opinion bought YouTube for $1.65 billion US so that no one else would get it. It was protecting its market. Yahoo and MSN are complex portals that are very sticky (hold people on their site).
MySpace is losing advertising revenue and is haemorrhaging to Facebook - but Facebook may not even make any profit anyway and generally once these sites try to create profit from running these massive servers and data the public jump to the next thing. They generally rely upon an advertising supported revenue model, and users often vote with their feet when they get advertised to.

Twitter if you don't know by now is a micro blog with a 140 character limit and a cute interface. It may make some revenue from sending SMS messages, but actually claims not to have any revenue model. It has had some server issues due to the volume of 'tweets'. Its great for celebrities or any company that needs to put bite sized info out and people can follow them. Interestingly our travelling pro surfers use it to communicate to their fans and it really allows you to be a part of someone's life. But it may not actually be profitable.

I am a Gold Coast search engine optimization specialist and my initial concern was does Twitter effect search engine rankings and if so I had better get involved. The answer is yes and no - the actual links are not passing on any value as such but any traffic on a website has a value to Google.
It has been documented that Twitter has a 40% retention rate with Facebook having massive growth at the moment. YouTube may not make any money at all either. It is predicted that eventually with a 40% retention rate Twitter will run out of people and start to decline.

Predicting the future - the iPhone future

Why does the iPhone interest or effect your business?

As a web developer and probably like everyone else in a business we need to focus on where our best efforts should be directed. So issues like web standards, programming languages, emerging technologies need to be assessed to ensure we do not find ourselves on the scrap heap.

In 2000 I read a paper (secret I think at the time) about how Google was created and the basis of how their search algorithm worked. I started integrating this into my websites and content management system with some amazing results. Years later the value of that research has allowed me to be very effective at the time when getting to the top of Google is well recognised as a cost effective marketing tool (now). Typically in that same time it is difficult to justify 3-5 k on a website for some clients because competition and perceptions are that these are now cheaper. The real cost of a dud website (opportunity cost) is another story.

Other technologies like Flash Development (previously the best animation software) now made redundant by the iPhone revolution any thing Google - Google Calendars, Google Maps, Payment Gateways are important technologies and require an understanding to give the right choices to clients.

Now I realise the benefit of marketing, and actively seek textbooks and experts on the topic. Marketing a business profitably is very important.
By now you are probably thinking this bloke is wonderful where do I buy the tickets? But the point is the iPhone is going to have an effect on us.

Should your website look differently on an iPhone or smart phone?

This is an issue - there is never a one size fits all approach, simply because you can make a site perform well on any device without actually looking different.
Some sites work well if they detect it is a mobile device and shape the content accordingly. It really depends on the website because many people do get frustrated when they are forced into a mobile site when really they want the main web version. Hence a responsive website design adapts to different sized screens. It uses one set of code with multiple display rules.

About the author

Philip Hoile has lectured at Griffith University in e-business, advanced e-business, e-commerce and User Interface Design. A web developer since 1996 specialising in programming website Content Management Systems.
My interest in web marketing stems from a desire to improve client outcomes.

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