iOS 4 First Impressions

WHY DOES THE AUDIO SUCK? Read this description: http://www.facebook.com/chrispirillo

I learned a few things while I was trying to record my first impressions of Apple's new iOS 4 (as seen here on the iPhone 3GS). I decided to make the fandroids happy and used my HTC Evo 4G to capture the excitement.

Did you catch that? I'm actually using an Android device in a practical setting!

It disappointed me on so many levels. Not iOS 4, but the HTC Evo 4G's default camera app and settings. And, just in case think THIS video looks and sounds bad, here's the raw data from the first one:

http://pastie.org/pastes/1014730

Yes, my first take topped out at 11fps since I was recording indoors with limited light. Ouch. Even when I exposed myself to more light (to capture at 24fps), I still wasn't able to lock the camera's exposure - so you'll find the brightness fading in and out throughout this entire video. Sorry - I'm just using the default video recording app on the HTC Evo 4G (as would most users).

Oh, and... there's no way to adjust the default audio settings either, so I was limited to a paltry 8k mono sound! I'm a little baffled by that one. What was HTC thinking?!

And even after getting through it all, I learned that HTC's software only encodes MPEG4 in 3GP format. WTF? What good is having expandable storage options if your defaults are crippled?

Moreover, I would like to apologize for repeating myself in the video - this was (seriously) an umpteenth take after trying to get the camera to play nicely.

*sigh*

So, back to the true subject matter of this video: the iOS 4.

Overall, my impressions of the iOS 4 are (surprise, surprise) positive. This was an incremental upgrade. Apple seemingly left out a few finer details, but it didn't completely take away from the experience. If you're already an iPhone user, you'll love what you see here. Some of these features have been long overdue. I don't care if you had them four years ago - it's today, and now we all have them (making your history, in this respect, moot).

I'm now on the lookout for a better video recording app for the HTC Evo 4G - so if you have recommendations, I'm all ears (unless you fandroids rip into me again - in which case, you can take your own Android device and shove it up your high-and-mighty ass).