Singapore Looking to Sell Camera-less iPhone 4S

Who would want to buy them? Apparently Singapore’s national servicemen. The military has guidelines regarding electronic devices and that includes the restriction on camera-equipped gadgets. Seems that it is often the case that military personnel would use one phone for personal use and another during active duty.

Taking out the camera from the iPhone clearly is an unsanctioned modification and as it happens, will void the warranty although it is likely that the telcos who modify the phone may be required to foot the bill on service requests, depending on how Singapore’s consumer protection laws work.

Since the camera is one of the iPhone’s most significant highlight, it makes no sense why anyone would want to buy a camera-less iPhone regardless of military regulation. If anything, these servicemen who may already have an iPhone since half the country apparently does already, or those looking to buy one, could just buy another phone that has no camera.

There are plenty of camera-less phone in the market and it would be much less costly than having to buy two iPhones or even just one “blind” iPhone. With a two year contract, the 64GB model supposedly will go for S$900 (US$700). A basic phone would fetch for S$50-$70 and switching SIM cards between the phones, if you don’t want to keep two numbers, isn’t that complicated.

This reminds me of the tall tale of the NASA pen, which, although humorous, was mostly false.

Singapore Looking to Sell Camera-less iPhone 4S

The multitasking bar in iOS = browser history

Fraser Speirs:

you do not have to manage background tasks on iOS. The system handles almost every case for you and well written audio, GPS, VOIP, Newsstand and accessory apps will handle the rest.

There is almost absolutely zero need to manually kill the apps listed in iOS’s multitasking bar as it’s not a list of active apps but a list of recently used apps. It’s no different than if you had opened your browser and go to the history list. Apps listed there are not active. A few exceptions to this case of course exists such as when an app hangs but it doesn’t mean you have to clear the bar every time. It’s not like you clear your browser history regularly do you? 

The blog post is not a particularly long one, but for the short-attention span crowd, go straight to the summary section.

Even the Geniuses at Apple’s Genius Bars still get this wrong.

The multitasking bar in iOS = browser history

Why Don’t We Do Something – Hey Geronimo

screen grabs of the siri vs tellme video. the important parts.

Microsoft’s TellMe vs Apple’s Siri

Android fan James Kendrick gives the iPhone 4S a shot

Don’t get me wrong, the Android Gingerbread interface isn’t bad, it’s just not always smooth. In just a few days with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 I had come to expect operation to be fluid and consistent system-wide. That’s just not the case with Android, and every little interruption in smooth operation now accumulates into a feeling of frustration as I use the phone.

Android fan James Kendrick gives the iPhone 4S a shot

iPhone 4S vs Nokia N9 photo comparisons

Basically the N9 has a much more muted color dynamics. Which one is more natural? I can’t say but the photos from the 4S certainly look much more vibrant, attractive and lively. The N9 benefits from having a wide angle lens though.

iPhone 4S vs Nokia N9 photo comparisons

I don’t know why people are making such a big fuss on whether Apple will release a brand new redesigned iPhone. The current models are fine as they are. If they’re gonna release a new phone, the design doesn’t have to be changed.

Apple didn’t change the iMac’s design for years at a time. The MacBook went through several revisions over two years without a new design. Same with the transition from PowerBook to MacBook Pro. Oh, and don’t get me started on the Power Mac G5 to Mac Pro.

The design of the iPhone 3G was maintained over two versions, so why not maintain the current form for the next release? iPhone 4 is still the top selling phone in the US, followed by the 3GS despite being more than 15 months old and in the case of 3GS, more than 24 months old. That tells you that the designs work pretty well. It’s never form over function.

*sigh* not again

Apple lost another prototype iPhone. Yes. In a bar. Again.

*sigh* not again

More and more tweets from iPhone or Android apps in my timeline. Last year almost all comes from Blackberry apps. Shift happens, RIM.