Chapter 9 – finally taking the plunge with an apple iphone

June 2024

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On the day before travelling back from Lavarone, Italy, I did a daft thing and left my Vollaphone on top of the top-box on the Guzzi (motorcycle). Of course, it fell off at the next roundabout and was promptly run over by the car behind which broke the display. This was a bit sad because a) a silly thing to do and b) I had built up a good system without google on android and had a dual-boot ubuntu touch system which was beginning to work well. To cap things off, I wrote to the volla company to get a new display and they are currently out of stock and not sure when they’ll be available. This gave me the push to perhaps give an iphone a go!

Chapter 9 – a quick getaway

June 2024 A liveblog about trying to get away for a few days on two motorbikes Jump! to bottom of page… There are plans at the moment to get away with an old friend for a few days and to go somewhere on motorbikes. We haven’t ridden together for yonks i.e. rather more than ten years, and we’re both safely over fifty and used to travelling alone so it should be interesting 😊 Anyway, starting on Monday 10th June and possibly up until Friday all things permitting… There isn’t actually a plan yet more than exact than “o’er yonder” although […]

Chapter 6 – Four interesting replacement smartphones

First of all, a couple of steps back, a phone used to be mainly a phone, it seems currently to have become a mobile communications centre, desktop and office with which you can also do real-time or delayed voice messaging.

I had been eyeing up iphones for a while mainly because the camera seems to be very good and I was always a bit jealous of people’s iphone photos which were simply way better than mine with the vollaphone. My oldest daughter had been working on me for a long time to go applewards so I decided to give it a go and have now ordered a refurbished iphone 12 pro max with 256GB.

This post will be a sort of scrapbook dealing with “going iphone” from a background of android and linux-based phones and will be updated as we go. The phone should be arriving at the beginning of the current week so will take it step by step.

I think I will try to keep it simple at the start and resist the temptation to empty the app store onto my device. First things that will need doing will be basic setup, updates and integration of my nextcloud system and various emails into the iphone…

A bit of iphone history 🙂

iPhone User Guide

Here’s everything you need to know about iPhone, straight from Apple. This definitive guide helps you get started using iPhone and discover all the amazing things it can do.

Here we go:

to continue as it happens 🙂

29th June 2024:

Thus we have started!

“Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.”

― Hunter S Thompson

Sometime earlier this week my refurbished iphone 12 pro max arrived with a blue case and a gorilla glass protector. It is definitely a solid chunk of technology and smacks of quality even without switching it on. Having set up many different devices over the years and decades starting with self-built PCs with Windows 98 through all the variations, in recent years Linux dual-boots and laptops and in the phone-zone numerous androids, degoogled androids and linux-based mobile devices. Thus, the apprehension and joy at the prospect of setting up a new device with my usual functionality and connectivity remained within modest boundaries.

I was absolutely clear that the setting up would be slow and well-considered and certainly not rushed. Basic setup was good with all language and input options available. I first setup the nextcloud in accounts and started integrating it for calendars (CalDAV) and contacts (CardDAV). Probably the main reasons to choose the 12 pro max were the excellent camera and the screen size (due to the usual over 50 problems 🙂 ). One definite finding is that the iphone is a device with massive potential and that I am only slowly discovering its possibilities and ways of using it.

Apple introduces iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max with 5G

Apple today announced iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, features 5G and advanced technologies for users who want the most out of iPhone.

I have a central “cloud” for all devices using nextcloud which is handy and enables iphones, androids, ubuntu touch devices, linux laptops and desktops and even windows PCs to use the same file system. “No file shall be left behind.” It also is the reference file for calendar and contacts and can do more than that, for example, tasks but I haven’t done that yet. I also use Joplin for intersystem notes and this works for all except ubuntu touch.

So back to the iphone. The app store is huge and, of course, dominated by the big hitters. Some apps such as Osmand (which I greatly like) are there but don’t have the free functionality of, say, the f-droid version which is “plus” (unlimited) from day one. I suppose this is fair in that they “robin hood” the users, i.e. taking from those who have and giving to those who have less. This is fine by me and I suppose the iphone crowd is mostly better-off.

Afternoon and evening 29th June 2024:

First serious test of the camera today and I have to say the camera and software are absolutely amazing, the results are stunning and the optical zoom is exceedingly useful, particularly for better framing of portraits. Even as an iphone newbie, I can safely say that the photos are next level! Another very impressive aspect is the battery life and optimisation which gives me easily 2 to 3 days between charges (which is similar to the volla phone 22 btw 🙂 ).

to continue as it happens 🙂

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