Your phone display's brightness consumes up to half of its power. And chances are it's being horribly mismanaged, thanks to bad engineering and a backwards user interface. Here, Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate explains Brightnessgate for iPhone 4 and Android.
Although consumers currently don't pay much attention to them, the Automatic Brightness control and Light Sensor on smartphones has a major impact on displayed image quality, screen viewability and readability, as well as preventing eye strain and headaches when the screen is too bright or too dim for the current level of ambient lighting, which varies considerably. But for many consumers, organizations and even governments, it is their impact on power consumption that generates the greatest concerns and emotions.
As we will demonstrate below with extensive lab measurements, brightness controls are a sham of incredibly poor design and engineering—Automatic Brightness in a great majority of smartphones being effectively useless. And because they don't work properly consumers simply turn them off altogether, making matters even worse for power use, screen readability and viewing comfort. This deserves to be called Brightnessgate—a scandal with several causes.
Smarphones have a light sensor located in the bezel right next to the screen that measures the ambient light together with control software that appropriately raises or lowers the screen brightness based on the measured light level. If you are watching in the dark the screen should be appropriately dim. When the ambient light level is higher the screen needs to be made appropriately brighter for two reasons: because of glare from ambient light reflected off the screen, which washes out the image, and because the eye's light sensitivity decreases substantially as the ambient light level increases. Unfortunately, none of the above currently works properly in smartphones for the following reasons:
In a smartphone the light sensor is facing your head and is measuring the brightness of your face instead of the ambient light level that is behind and to either side of the phone, which is what actually sets your eye's light sensitivity and what should be determining the brightness level of the screen. The existing front-facing light sensors are good for measuring and correcting the image for glare from screen reflections (by modifying the display transfer functions), but not for setting the screen brightness. To do that in smartphones a rear and side facing ambient light sensor with a different angular profile than the current Illuminance sensors is needed for future hardware designs. Note that a front sensor for glare is not as important since screen reflectance can be very low—around 5 percent for many smartphones. See Part I of this article.
The screen brightness needs to be set carefully and systematically based on the data from the light sensor. Here the smartphones fail again with poor and even bizarre behavior that we document below. Another sign of careless engineering—all three of the smartphones that we tested have operational bugs or errors with their Automatic Brightness. One essential feature missing from smartphones is allowing users to interactively adjust the display for their own visual preferences on how the screen brightness should vary as the ambient light changes—and it should be accomplished automatically as we'll outline below. Some people and applications prefer a brighter or dimmer screen, and some people are willing to put up with a dimmer screen that may not be as easy or comfortable to read—in return for longer battery running times. So it's important to implement a properly functioning Automatic Brightness that automatically adapts to the user's own brightness preferences—otherwise it will be disabled by the user.
Here are the main results from our extensive labs tests and viewing tests on three smartphones that we performed to evaluate the Automatic Brightness Controls and Light Sensors under a wide range of ambient lighting conditions.
The first step in evaluating Automatic Brightness is to determine how the screen brightness should change with ambient light level for optimum viewing. To demonstrate the proper relationship I read an article from the New York Times on the iPhone 4 under a wide range of ambient lighting conditions. I turned Auto-Brightness Off and then manually adjusted the screen brightness for my own optimum viewing comfort—not too dim, not too bright, just right—for each of 7 different ambient light levels, from total darkness up through moderate outdoor lighting levels. After each reading I measured the Ambient Light Brightness (Illuminance in lux) and the screen's Brightness (white Luminance in cd/m2). The results appear as the black data points in Figure 1 along with a solid black trend line. At about 1,000 lux (which is at the low end of outdoor lighting levels) I reached the maximum screen brightness for the iPhone 4, which is 541 cd/m2—it is the brightest mobile display I have ever measured, but above 1,000 lux the iPhone 4 can't provide as much screen brightness as I would like to have. The screen is still readable well beyond 10,000 lux (which is full daylight that is not in direct sunlight) but it gets increasingly hard to comfortably make out the contents of the screen at the higher ambient light levels.
The optimum screen brightness values will vary due to personal preferences, and also with screen size and viewing distance, but the proportional linear increase with ambient brightness indicated by the solid black line in Figure 1 should be similar for everyone. The dashed black lines in Figure 1 also show a wide range of alternative brightness relations—the dashed lines labeled Dim and Very Dim are for aggressive power savings at high ambient lighting or for people with more sensitive eyes, and the Bright relation is for people or applications that need particularly high screen brightness with ambient light. We'll explain how to automatically implement all of this functionality below. Now let's look at the Apple iPhone 4 and two Android phones (Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire) to see how they perform.
Figure 1. The measured Screen Brightness for various measured Ambient Brightness levels. The manually determined optimum brightness settings are the black data points with their trend line. The values for five different Auto-Brightness slider settings of the iPhone 4 are labeled Auto Minimum to Maximum. Circles are the data points. The dashed lines show a wide range of alternative brightness relations. The graph is linear from 0 to 2,000 lux and then jumps in steps to 10,000 and 100,000 lux. The labels from Pitch Black to Direct Sunlight roughly identify the lux levels associated with them. The maximum Luminance of the iPhone 4 is 541 cd/m2.
Next, I turned Auto-Brightness On and then measured the screen brightness (white Luminance cd/m2) that the iPhone 4 produces under a wide range of ambient light levels, from 0 lux (Pitch Black) up through 100,000 lux (Direct Sunlight). When Auto-Brightness is turned On the Brightness slider adjusts the Auto behavior to allow consumers (in principle) to set their own individual screen brightness preferences for ambient light. To evaluate this, I measured 5 different settings of the slider: Maximum, ¾, ½ (center), ¼ and Minimum. The results are plotted as the colored lines in Figure 1 – the circles are the measured data values. None of the Auto Brightness settings even remotely approaches the desired behavior discussed above. It certainly looks as if no one at Apple ever bothered to set or check Auto-Brightness for useful performance, which is why there are lots of user comments questioning how it works on the web… This is Brightnessgate for the iPhone.
The iPhone 4 comes from the factory with the Brightness slider set to ½ (center) and with Auto-Brightness turned On. At 2,000 lux, where just about everyone will want the display operating at maximum brightness, Auto-Brightness sets it to only 60 percent of maximum, so Auto-Brightness is throwing away 40 percent of the precious brightness needed for screen visibility. And at 10,000 lux, which is full daylight, the screen brightness is still below 90 percent of maximum. The ¾ setting is much too bright and power wasteful for all indoor viewing and yet it still throws away 20 percent of the screen brightness at 2,000 lux for outdoor viewing. The Maximum setting is useless because it varies the screen brightness (and power) by less than 10 percent and the ¼ and Minimum settings are far too dim to be useful for humans.
The iPhone 4 Auto-Brightness performs in a bizarre fashion where it typically makes the screen too bright at lower indoor ambient light levels (which is important for saving battery power) and too dim at higher outdoor levels (which is important for screen readability) – it's always wrong, usable but very inefficient and wasteful. But Brightnessgate for the iPhone gets even worse.
One behavior of the iPhone 4 Auto-Brightness that is a serious operational error or bug is that it locks onto the brightest ambient light sensor value that it has measured at any point starting from the time it was turned on, and then continues to use that highest value indefinitely to set the screen brightness until the display turns off – either by cycling through sleep mode or full power off. This means that the screen brightness is frequently set too high, which wastes power and can cause eye strain if you move to lower ambient light levels. Auto-Brightness should always follow the current ambient light level (with appropriate time averaging and filtering). Apple should correct this with a software update. To easily verify this behavior with your own iPhone turn On Auto-Brightness under Settings and set the Brightness slider near the middle of its range. Go to a very dark location. Click the sleep/wake button on the top of the phone to turn the display off. Then wake it up with the sleep/wake button or the Home button. Note the screen brightness in the dark. Now take the phone to a very bright outdoor location (such as in direct sunlight) then go back (with the display on) to your original dark location and monitor the screen brightness. The display will remain at very high brightness indefinitely until the iPhone enters sleep mode again (or runs out of battery). What's even more shocking is that Brightnessgate is even worse on Android phones.
Figure 2. The measured Screen Brightness for various measured Ambient Brightness levels for the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire. The Manual Optimum relation and other elements are the same as in Figure 1.
There are currently a large number smartphones running Google's Android OS, and all of the models that we have looked at appear to work in the same way. There is a slider for manual adjustment of screen brightness, but when Automatic Brightness is enabled the slider disappears and there aren't any user settings or preference adjustments (unlike the iPhone 4) – you get whatever screen brightness settings Android and the smartphone manufacturers have pre-programmed into them. Unfortunately, those Automatic Brightness settings are incredibly primitive and crude – on the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire that we lab tested Automatic Brightness produces only four fixed screen brightness levels when the ambient lighting changes from pitch black all the way up to direct sunlight, with each manufacturer setting their own breakpoints as shown in Figure 2. For this reason alone, Auto Brightness is effectively useless for Android. But Brightnessgate on Android gets even worse.
Both of the Android phones we lab tested have their own Auto Brightness operational errors or bugs. On the Samsung Galaxy S two of the four Android Automatic Brightness levels are set ridiculously high: 7,000 and 30,000 lux – they are about a factor of 10 too high to be useful. The Galaxy S screen brightness remains at an incredibly low 170 cd/m2 up until near Full Daylight, only about 50 percent of the screen brightness that it can deliver, and it waits up until almost Direct Sunlight to move up to it's maximum screen brightness of 305 cd/m2. Since there are no available settings or adjustments it's better to leave the Automatic Brightness permanently off until this gets fixed with a software update. The HTC Desire has a somewhat better choice of brightness level breakpoints than the Galaxy S, but it has a bug similar to the iPhone – once the light sensor detects a light level over 100 lux it won't allow the screen below Android brightness Level 2 until the display is cycled off by going into sleep mode using the power button or Screen timeout.
Automatic Brightness on existing smartphones is close to functionally useless because the manufacturers have not made the effort required to develop, evaluate and test the software and hardware so that they work properly and effectively. All of the models we tested also have serious operational errors and bugs indicating how little an effort has been made to make them work (or rather not work) properly. It's clear that most manufacturers are using ad hoc implementations instead of methodical science and engineering, which is shameful and shocking… As a result most smartphones are operating without Auto Brightness because consumers disable them when they don't work properly, which means the screen brightness is seldom set correctly for the wide range of ambient lighting conditions that most smartphones experience. It also means that the display is very likely set by the consumer to a perpetual high screen brightness. As a result the battery runs down much sooner than if the brightness and power were actively and intelligently managed automatically, as they should be. We outline how to do that next.
We've already shown that Automatic Brightness is important and is currently functionally useless on smartphones for many reasons. We've also discussed some of the changes needed for the Ambient Light Sensors, but by far the most important factor is getting the user interface for screen brightness to work properly so that consumers can use it to adjust the screen brightness based on their own visual preferences, in a natural fashion that automatically implements and tweaks the screen brightness they would like to see for different ambient lighting conditions. That will maximize viewing comfort, screen readability, energy efficiency and battery run time if it's done correctly.
Right now the user interface for brightness controls is completely backwards—the Light Sensor measures the ambient light and the smartphone or HDTV adjusts the screen brightness based on some ad hoc and mysterious algorithm based on an earlier user setting of a brightness control. The solution is very simple – do it in the opposite way – the consumer initially adjusts the screen brightness manually to whatever they want for the current ambient lighting. The Ambient Light Sensor then measures this light level. The value is recorded and used to interpolate the screen brightness whenever the ambient lighting changes. In principle, only two such user settings are needed to train the Automatic Brightness for a linear interpolation as shown in Figure 1. Whenever the user doesn't find the current screen brightness to their liking, they manually tweak the brightness and the new value and ambient light level are used to update the Auto Brightness calibration.
There is one more thing. To make this work smartphones need a convenient brightness control to tweak and train the Automatic Brightness. Every smartphone in the solar system has a convenient Volume Control but in most cases you have to go down a couple of menu levels to get to a cumbersome Brightness Control. My suggestion for all smartphones: temporarily shift the Volume buttons to Brightness buttons by pressing both the + and – buttons at the same time – which will activate a temporary Brightness Shift. It's fast, convenient and easy, and then have them automatically time out and shift back to Volume Controls when you're done adjusting the brightness. Every display needs a convenient external Brightness Control – not buried under several levels of menus. In all cases it's best to implement it using the existing Volume Control together with an appropriate shift button.
The above is guaranteed to work nicely and conveniently for all consumers, solve Brightnessgate, maximize viewing comfort, screen readability, energy efficiency and battery run time all together. I hope the manufacturers are listening.
Special Thanks to Jay Catral and Konica Minolta Sensing for their instruments and technical support. To measure the Ambient Light Brightness (Illuminance in lux) we used a Konica Minolta T-10 Illuminance Meter and for screen Brightness (Luminance in cd/m2) we used a Konica Minolta CS-200 ChromaMeter.
Dr. Raymond Soneira is President of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation of Amherst, New Hampshire, which produces video calibration, evaluation, and diagnostic products for consumers, technicians, and manufacturers. See www.displaymate.com. He is a research scientist with a career that spans physics, computer science, and television system design. Dr. Soneira obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Princeton University, spent 5 years as a Long-Term Member of the world famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, another 5 years as a Principal Investigator in the Computer Systems Research Laboratory at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and has also designed, tested, and installed color television broadcast equipment for the CBS Television Network Engineering and Development Department. He has authored over 35 research articles in scientific journals in physics and computer science, including Scientific American. If you have any comments or questions about the article, you can contact him at dtso@displaymate.com.
The author of this post can be contacted at tips@gizmodo.com
If your iPhone has never been unlocked, downgrading from 1.1.3 will leave you bricked until you upgrade back to 1.1.3, as far as I can tell. The phone (even with an authentic AT&T SIM) reports an Incorrect SIM while iTunes says there's no SIM at all, when you've downgraded back to 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 (1.0.x untested). If your phone was unlocked, the baseband upgrade fails on 1.1.3, so you will not have this problem but will not get 1.1.3 to work.
Obviously this may change once Apple releases the firmware officially but I do not count that as likely. Return to Nate True's blogComments: 
Log in or register to post comments.
Just as the rumors suggested, Apple updated the official Apple Store app to include support for customer check-ins, reservations and other location-based services. You can use the app to reserve products to pickup at Apple retail stores, check into stores upon arrival to alert employees to your appointment and add reservation appointments to iCal (note that iOS 4 is required for check-in and iCal support). You'll also be able to add engraving and gift wrapping options when making purchases from the store.
Version 1.1 is available now and requires the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad running iOS 3.0 or later.
[Via Mac Stories]
Like a few commercial television networks before it, PBS has launched an iPad app designed to stream the network's content to your iPad on demand. PBS for iPad is available for free right now on the App Store, and it has full streams of lots of classic shows. There's some new content as well -- Circus is a show that's been created just for the iPad app itself. But there's also some Masterpiece Theater and Julia Child in there, as well as other well-known standbys of the government run and donation-supported broadcasting network.
The app also has schedule information about what's on TV, as well as a DVR-style feature that will let you resume shows when you pause them while watching. There's no iPhone or iPod touch version yet, but a (slightly different) version will arrive on those devices later this year.
Looks like a great app, and you can't argue with the price of getting all that content on the iPad completely for free. At the risk of sounding like a pledge drive, we'll say that if you enjoy the app here in the US, maybe look into giving your local affiliate a nice donation in return.
Tags: Apple, contest, documentary, download, free, ipad, Julia-Child, pbs, tv, usb, video
Bug no iOS 4.1 from Salomão Filho on Vimeo.
The best way to prevent others access your iPhone is not to lose your phone. Passcode does not help. A newly discovered security hole found that there is a special trick to look into contacts even the phone is locked. Check out the video above to see how it works. Do you think this security hole is serious? Well. We just hope Apple will fix this soon.
[via MacStories]
Yo guys, the latest iPhone firmware just came out. I can confirm that it is encrypted like the iPod Touch firmware, and so far no one has cracked it open to view the files. We're working our hardest on this. My recommendation is not to upgrade, if you have a modded phone (ringtones, fake activation, ANYTHING third-party), until we have more information. If you want to upgrade, restore your phone first with the old firmware by holding Shift while clicking Restore in iTunes (Command key if you're on Mac) and choosing the 1.0.2 firmware first, then upgrading once the restore has completed.
DO NOT UPGRADE IF YOUR PHONE IS UNLOCKED.
Let me say this too: The iPhone firmware version 1.1.1 invalidates ALL iPhone software hacks.
We will bring you more news as it develops. Return to Nate True's blogComments:
Log in or register to post comments.
So in an attempt to figure out what was bricking unlocked phones on 1.1.1, I upgraded my unlocked phone to 1.1.1. After a number of (shall we say) valiant attempts at reviving the radio, I managed to brick it even further, by somehow completely breaking the radio. I have this fun message as shown on my phone, and nothing (not CommCenter, not bbupdater, not iEraser, nor NORDumper) can communicate with the baseband on the phone. All restores fail because they can't talk to it. So it looks like if I want to continue testing with 1.1.1 I'm going to have to replace the radio board on my phone with a new one.
If anyone here has an iPhone with a cracked screen or some other non-radio problem (dead battery, etc) just laying around, I could definitely use it. I'll send you an assembled Time Fountain for it, if you'd like. Return to Nate True's blogComments:
Log in or register to post comments.
Master iPhone hacker Zibri has released ZiPhone, a utility that can jailbreak and unlock any new iPhone (as of firmware 1.1.3) directly, without any complicated upgrading or downgrading steps. Way easier than my crap. Hats off to Zibri for this one.
Check out Zibri's blog for all the instructions. Return to Nate True's blogComments:
Log in or register to post comments.
Well it’s mostly bug fixing, so we will see, I actually experienced some bugs reported, so cross fingers now…
Official information about it:
“iPhone OS 3.1.2 Software Update
This update contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:
• Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not
wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular
network services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during
video streaming
Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS
For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guide for your iPhone at:
http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/iphone
For more information about iPhone, go to:
http://www.apple.com/iphone
To troubleshoot your iPhone, or to view additional support information go to:
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone
This update contains security content originally included in previous iPhone Software Updates. For more information, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222?
If, just for a chance, you decide not to follow every single game of the World Cup, I think I have just found the perfect place for you…..on your Iphone!
Last night, I spent hours on a new poker application on the Iphone and it is great!
I was always a bit cautious about playing poker in casinos or even with friends because I never really knew if I was good at it. I always wondered where all these people were training to become so good. Well, now I found the perfect tool for that my Iphone…
There are several applications worth the try, such as Poker Texas Hold’em, Absolute Poker or Zinga Poker live is excellent. You can play without spending a fortune and you can train as much as you like to become a real pro.
The best thing is that you get lots of advice and tricks and you really can improve very quickly. I did! You can also choose who to play against, real people, your friends or very realistic players.
Check out this website PokerListings, and especially their quick guide to poker on iPhone to get all the info you need and see you soon on the green carpet…
Tags:application iphone poker
Last week Apple announced that the operating system from the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad will be coming to the Mac in the Summer of 2011. There are some very interesting ways they are going to do this. They include an App Store, Launchpad, Folders, Full-screen apps, and Mission Control. I’ll explain each of these better below and I’ve also included the full video of the announcement which includes updates to the MacBook Air and iLife.
Your Mac will now have it’s own App Store helping you install new apps and keeping your old ones up to date. You’ll be able to see reviews, star ratings, organize by category, search and all the other great features that the iPhone App Store has. Apple will also be selling their own apps individually in the App Store. This way if you wanted to upgrade to the new iMovie but don’t use GarageBand you will save money by not having to buy the whole set.
Think of this like a full screen folder of you applications in icon view that also supports folders like the iPhone. You can drag them around, have multiple pages and, again, organize them into folders.
This should be pretty self explanitory. This lets apps fill the entire screen. No statusbar, toolbar, dock, clock, etc. You can also switch back and forth between apps with a quick gesture.
Think of this as Expose on steroids. This shows you everything that’s going on: Dashboard, Desktop, Full Screen Apps, Spaces, & groups of apps. Again, with just one gesture, you can open Mission Control to quickly jump somewhere else.
If you’re jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone you will very likely need to first download the appropriate iPhone firmware / iOS to your computer so you could manipulate it (for example, with pwnage tool).
If you need to download a particular iOS / firmware for your iPhone you’ve come to the right place.
Below are direct download links for ALL firmware versions (from iOS 1.0 to iOS 4.1) for ALL iPhone models, from iPhone 2G to iPhone 4.
To download any firmware version for your iPhone simply scroll down until you see the exact model of your device and the appropriate iOS version that you want and click on it (actually you should right click on it and select to save the file on your computer – otherwise iTunes will probably automatically open it).
iPhone 2G (First Generation iPhone) firmware downloads:
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.0
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.0.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.0.2
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.1.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.1.2
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.1.3
- iPhone 2G firmware v1.1.4
- iPhone 2G firmware v2.0
- iPhone 2G firmware v2.0.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v2.0.2
- iPhone 2G firmware v2.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v2.2
- iPhone 2G firmware v2.2.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v3.0
- iPhone 2G firmware v3.0.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v3.1
- iPhone 2G firmware v3.1.2
- iPhone 2G firmware v3.1.3
iPhone 3G (Second Generation iPhone) firmware downloads:
- iPhone 3G firmware v2.0
- iPhone 3G firmware v2.0.1
- iPhone 3G firmware v2.0.2
- iPhone 3G firmware v2.1
- iPhone 3G firmware v2.2
- iPhone 3G firmware v2.2.1
- iPhone 3G firmware v3.0
- iPhone 3G firmware v3.0.1
- iPhone 3G firmware v3.1
- iPhone 3G firmware v3.1.2
- iPhone 3G firmware v3.1.3
- iPhone 3G firmware v4.0
- iPhone 3G firmware v4.0.1
- iPhone 3G firmware v4.0.2
- iPhone 3G firmware v4.1
iPhone 3GS (Third Generation iPhone) firmware downloads:
- iPhone 3GS firmware v3.0
- iPhone 3GS firmware v3.0.1
- iPhone 3GS firmware v3.1
- iPhone 3GS firmware v3.1.2
- iPhone 3GS firmware v3.1.3
- iPhone 3GS firmware v4.0
- iPhone 3GS firmware v4.0.1
- iPhone 3GS firmware v4.0.2
- iPhone 3GS firmware v4.1
iPhone 4 (Fourth Generation iPhone) firmware downloads:
- iPhone 4 firmware v4.0
- iPhone 4 firmware v4.0.1
- iPhone 4 firmware v4.0.2
- iPhone 4 firmware v4.1
Related posts: Download iPhone firmwares v1.0 to v3.0.1Download: TinyUmbrella 4.1.12 tool [Mac / Windows / Linux]Download: TinyUmbrella 4.1.11 tool for iPhone / iTouch / iPad [Mac / Windows / Linux]Download: TinyUmbrella 3.1.6 tool for iPhone (Mac / Windows / Linux)Download: TinyUmbrella 4.1.9 hack for iPhone / iTouch / iPad [Mac / Windows / Linux]Tags: download, firmware, iOS, iOS 1.0, iOS 1.0.1, iOS 1.0.2, iOS 1.1.1, iOS 1.1.2, iOS 1.1.3, iOS 1.1.4, iOS 2.0, iOS 2.0.1, iOS 2.0.2, iOS 2.1, iOS 2.2, iOS 2.2.1, iOS 3.0, iOS 3.0.1, iOS 3.1, iOS 3.1.2, iOS 3.1.3, iOS 4.0, iOS 4.0.1, iOS 4.0.2, iOS 4.1, iPhone, iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, OS
Stay tuned up to the iPhoneWorld news! Follow iPhoneWorld by RSS, Twitter or Facebook!
Filed under News, iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4G, iPhone Downloads, iPhone OS
The first tabletop Internet radio that allows 1-button control of your Pandora music directly from the front of the radio, the remote control, or the free iPhone® remote app
San Diego, Calif. - (October 26, 2010) – Grace Digital Audio, a leading brand of Wi-Fi connected home audio solutions, is pleased to announce a new all-in-one advanced tabletop radio featuring Pandora. Grace's Model# GDI-IR2550p is the first and only tabletop radio that incorporates the same features that Pandora listeners use on computers and smart phones, including 1-button access to the thumbs up/down song selection and play/pause functions. Listeners can also skip, play, pause, and even bookmark songs directly from the remote and front control panel.
Grace Digital's Wi-Fi Internet Radio featuring Pandora additionally provides over 50,000 radio stations, podcasts, and on-demand content including NPR / NPR on-demand, FOX News, CNN, BBC, CBS, iheartradio, NOAA Weather Reports, Live365, KROQ, and Sirius Premium Internet radio. For customers who desire to listen to their digital music collection wirelessly anywhere in their home, Grace's GDI-IR2550p will also connect and play music direct from your iTunes library stored on your PC or MAC.
Grace Digital's CMO, Greg Fadul, thinks functionality is what sets Grace's new Wi-Fi radio apart from the competition. "In the transition of bringing Pandora radio from the computer to the tabletop, most Internet radios lose the simple functions that the computer provided. "We've created a stylish Wi-Fi enabled tabletop radio with high-grade audio that reflects the same simple and easy-to-use functions of Pandora that are available on the computer."
Now shipping, Grace's GDI-IR2550p is available at www.gracedigitalaudio.com and www.amazon.com for $169.99.
About Grace Digital Audio
Based in San Diego, California, Grace Digital Audio is a designer and manufacturer of connected home consumer electronic products including, Internet radios featuring Pandora, outdoor speakers, USB archival solutions, media players, wireless speakers and other indoor/outdoor audio products. Known for ease of use and a superior audio quality, Grace Digital Audio provides home linked products that keep customers connected to their music in and outside their homes. Grace sells its products through major retailer, ecommerce sites, dealers and distributors throughout North America. To learn more about Grace Digital products please visit them at www.gracedigitalaudio.com.
Pandora and the Music Genome Project are registered trademarks of Pandora Media, Inc.
iPhone and iTunes is the registered trademark of Apple, Inc
So I haven’t received my iPhone 4 yet. They are apparently sold out everywhere for the next three weeks. But I got a chance to check out my friend’s a couple days ago. I was impressed.
My initial impression was that the iPhone 4 feels great in your hand. It’s slightly heavier, but the extra weight gives it a solid feel. What’s more, it has almost all of the features that I have been wanting for years.
The camera quality is excellent when compared to my 3GS, and the HD video quality is stunning. My friend also showed me a movie he made in 5 minutes on the iMovie iPhone app, and it was impressive, considering it was made on a phone.
I also love Apple’s implementation of the flash options and the front-facing camera switcher in the Camera app. To enable the flash, disable it, or set it to Auto is as simple as tapping your preferred option at the top of the screen. Switching to the front-facing camera is also a matter of tapping once at the top of the viewfinder screen. And the LED flash itself seems to be of reasonable quality.
The speaker seemed to me to be louder and improved with regards to audio quality.
It was also just a pleasure to hold in my hand. Touching the buttons and using the interface was a characteristically-Apple experience. The speed was also noticeably improved, and iOS4 is a great acquaintance to the iPhone 4. Folders and multitasking were meant for iPhone 4.
I didn’t get to make any calls or use any apps, but overall the experience was undoubtedly superior to the iPhone 3GS. While I have been plenty critical of past iPhones, with the iPhone 4 there is less to complain about — though, don’t worry, I will have plenty to critique once I receive mine in the mail and begin to actually use it. Nevertheless, to me it seems that the iPhone has finally come of age. If the iPhone were a human male, I would say that after three years of growth and experience, iPhone 4 is now, at last, a man.
No one is without flaws, however, and I am sure I will become acquainted with the iPhone 4's weaknesses given some time. But overall I am impressed and almost proud to see that this device, which I have scrutinized and observed since its infancy, has finally grown up.
(Of course, let’s not forget there have been issues reported that should make any reasonable person hesitate to spend hundreds on the iPhone 4.)
Here are some more photos, taken with my 3GS:
Do you agree with my initial impressions of the iPhone 4? Is it all it’s cracked up to be? I would love to know what you think.
Recommend this post to your friends and followers:
Get more iPhone insights, reviews & how-to's on Facebook & Twitter.topic: News & Discussion | Tags: iPhone 4, review
So the new iPhone 1.1.3 firmware allows you to put icons on your home screen for websites, but I know many of us want to put phone numbers on there for a Speed Dial screen. I've put a little hack together that lets you have a (somewhat) speedy speed dial icon. There's no jailbreaking required for this one - it can all be done using Apple-approved Web Clip creation.
Check the images below for a walkthrough. 
Start by heading to (phone number).tel.QLNK.net on your 1.1.3 iPhone. QLNK.net is owned by me and .tel.qlnk.net hosts a special page that will redirect your iPhone to call the phone number you specify.
Advanced: Set your own speed-dial picture by adding "?picurl=http://path.to/photo" to the end of the URL. You can use QLNK's URL shortening service to make it easier to type on the phone.
Privacy warning: Due to the nature of this hack, your phone will request this page when you create a speed dial icon on your home screen. I assure you I will not use this data AT ALL FOR ANY REASON. It is entirely possible to put a similar script on your own web server, which will do the same thing without sending me any information; that course of action is recommended if you are at all concerned about your privacy.
As of January 25, 2008, the page returns you to a data: URI, which does not contact my server every time you hit the icon - just the first time when you create it. The dialing page is instead stored locally on your phone.
Lee Fernandes has instructions on putting this onto your own server. 
You will see a "Call" popup - for now, hit Cancel. Later when you are using the speed dial you will use the "Call" button.
Now hit the "+" button at the middle of the Safari bottom bar. 
Hit "Add to Home Screen". 
Enter a name for the speed dial entry, and hit Add. 
Congratulations! You have a speed dial icon on your phone. Here I have added Google 411.
When you want to dial, unfortunately, you have to tap twice - once on the icon and then once in Safari to hit Call.
I'm hoping for more native support for icon speed dial later on from Apple. Return to Nate True's blog
