HTC are catching up, but this Desire just isn’t as slick as the iPhone.

Battery life – Both not great. Maybe a day. DRAW

Apps - iPhone has gazzilions. HTC downloads from anywhere. DRAW

App Store – iPhone WIN

Screen - Both gorgeous but iPhone keyboard better. iPhone WIN

Usability - HTC much more configurable but not as logical. DRAW

Capacity - iPhone all internal memory simple. HTC upgradeable. DRAW

Price - Near as damnit the same. DRAW

Look & Feel – iPhone more luxurious and solid. iPhone WIN

Fashion Victim – iPhonista backlash. HTC WIN

Bugs & Wobbles – HTC has a few more niggles. Gadgets crash. Jerky screen. Apps hang. IPhone WIN

Thoughtful - HTC has so many little extras to discover. HTC WIN

So HTC are getting there. It’s pretty good and I don’t mind using it. However, my iPhone keeps peeking at me from my desk, winking, smirking.

 
On Thursday 19th March we ran a free ‘iPhone Top Tips’ Ninja Skills training hour at Adam St in Central London for 20 small businesses.

The hour is filled with 100 or so ‘ top tips’ delivered in a fun and interesting format. We ask attendees to take at least 3 tips away whether they owned an iPhone or not.
These sessions are run within the context of ‘We don’t know what we don’t know!’. Every 6 weeks we offer a different subject.

What did people think?

“A really great format to get some fast tips for using the iPhone more effectively and also get thinking about how to use IT to really help my business. Dan knows his ‘IT onions’ and throws in plenty of humour to make the geeky stuff seem fun. Really looking forward to the next workshop.” – Linda, Bright Blue Skies Ltd.

Some attendees kindly offered to be filmed post session to tell us what they thought….

Us here at The Engine Room are a mixed and odd bunch. Most of us have iPhones and use them for both work and play in mixed and odd ways. In this blog we cover a few of the more sane iPhone applications we use on a daily basis. All these applications are available to download for FREE here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/appstore.html at time of writing.

First up we have MyRail Lite. It’s an essential application for people living in or around London who commute into work via train. It displays an exact duplicate of the platform timetable display for any given station including departure time, arrival time, platform number and all stops and times on the way to your destination. The only time I’ve seen it misbehave is when the actual station is having trouble with it’s timetables too.

Next we have TwitterFon. It’s a neat little iPhone app for reading and updating your Twitter account if you have one. It’s nicely laid out and very simple to use. You can follow twitter links and scroll through recent friends’ twitters on the move.

One of my favorites is the apple Remote application for iTunes. It allows you to use your iPhone or iPod as a remote control for your iTunes. Provided your iPhone or iPod are on the same wireless network as your computer with iTunes on it then you can search, play, skip and adjust the volume of your music in real-time.

For those of you who are forever correcting leaning pictures on the wall or the tech savvy carpenter this little tool will come in handy. Aptly named the iHandy Level, it users the iPhone’s inbuilt motion sensors and displays a very accurate spirit level.

The last little tool is more of a toy. It’s called RJDJ and users your iPhone’s microphone to sample sounds from around you and turn them into a spacial sound-scape you can manipulate by touching the phone’s screen.

If we show you 100 top iPhone tips for business can we ask you to remember 3?

Stig's iPhone

Save time, money and frustration with your iPhone

Or, if you don’t have one, get the inside track here

Items covered:

* How to get the most from your iPhone

* But what about Blackberry, Windows MB, Nokia et al?

* Killer Apps, battery saving, keyboard tips & more

Thursday March 19th. 1230-1330. Adam St (www.adamstreet.co.uk)

£50 deposit required by Credit Card and only charged if you don’t turn up

Only 8 spaces out of 20 left so book now by emailing dan@theengineroom.co.uk

or call 08456 447758

See you there

Lots of you are complaining about short battery life on the 1st and 2nd generation iPhones. Many saying theirs won’t last more than 6 hours.

The truth is they don’t have great battery life. The 1st gen (Silver back) is better as it is not 3G (which sucks the living juice out of the poor thing).

Obviously we all use ours in different ways. Personally I use mine as an iPod, alarm clock, phone, for weather and maps, with a moderate amount of surfing each day.

Mine is a 16GB 1st gen and I get just about a full day’s usage  (14 hours or so) per charge on average.

A few top tips to make yours last longer (As it were):

1. Update to the latest firmware (2.2 at time of press)
2. Turn the screen brightness right down
3. Turn off all unnecessary wireless connectivity i.e. Bluetooth and WiFi
4. Keep it cool while charging (Heat kills the battery over time)
5. Turn off the iPod equalizer (Odd but true)
6. Only charge until full where possible. Extended charging will kill the battery
7. Use the autolock feature

 
Let us know how you get on….