Battery Issues with the iPhone 4S

Just recently, there have been some issues discovered with the battery of the newest version of the iPhone. Apple engineers have been spending their time contacting iPhone 4S owners to make them aware of the problem.

The iPhone 4S became available to consumers just over two weeks ago, and ever since its release users have been raising concerns about unexplainable battery loss on the device, even when the phone is on standby. One individual dealt with a ten percent drop every hour according to The Guardian.

"I then got a call from a senior [Apple] engineer who said he had read my post and was 'reaching out' to users for data and admitted this was an issue (and that they aren't close to finding a fix!) and asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file below and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info," he told The Guardian.

When the iPhone 4S was first released, the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, promised that the device would feature a much longer battery life; however, some of the devices are obviously not fulfilling that promise. According to Sascha Segan, a lead mobile analyst at PCMag, the Sprint iPhone 4S got 7 hours and 33 minutes of continuous 3G talk time, while the Verizon iPhone 4 only got 6 hours and 17 minutes. This would make it seem like the iPhone 4S does follow through with the promise that Cook made, but there are still the incidents surrounding battery issues.

Although Cook promised longer battery life, he did add that “it delivers on Apple's promise of longer battery life - as long as you have strong wireless signal." There’s the catch!

If you’re having issues with your iPhone 4S’s life, there are things that you can do to reduce the loss of battery life. You can drop push e-mail, lower the brightness of the screen, turn off all calendar notifications and shut down the Wi-Fi when you aren’t using it.

Hopefully, the issues will be worked out soon, because there is nothing more frustrating than having a phone that dies on you all of the time. Knowing Apple, they will have it worked out sooner than later.

Sources: PCMag - Report: Apple Investigates iPhone 4S Battery Issue and PCWorld - Apple iPhone 4S Battery Drain: Guessing Game Continues

Find out what is going on in the Tech Army World.



What are the Top 10 Money Making Missions?

What other companies have joined and what do they do?

How do I join the
Tech Army Organization ?

Android Ice Cream Sandwich to Add Native Stylus Support

Android OS 4.0, adorably nicknamed Ice Cream Sandwich, has just let loose information on another new feature that will be gracing your Android devices when this highly anticipated operating system update hits handhelds in the future. The newest feature to be revealed is native support for smartphones and tablets with a digital stylus, a feature confirmed by Google.

This new feature will include pressure recognition, hover tracking and nib-tilt with a differentiation between pen and finger use. In addition to that, a specific stylus API, which was discovered by Reddit, will be able to differentiate between stylus, finger, mouse and eraser and will even support pens with up to three buttons. Before this, devices like the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note required custom pen-control systems to be created in order to handle their digital styli.

Google is expecting big things from this feature including its capability to be used to improve Android phones and tablets in drawing and sketching applications. Google also hopes that it will help in boosting precision for gestures as well. Handwriting and shape recognition are also a few possibilities, even though Android currently lacks a native handwriting recognition engine.

In addition to all of this, Google has added a basic painting app, known as TouchPaint, to its API demo code. This allows developers to become capable with the different elements of the new functionality. However, it is still unknown what HTC and Samsung will do in regards to their own custom APIs. Samsung released the Galaxy Note source code on October 20 as a part of its strategy to get third-party developers to produce apps for the S Pen stylus. The HTCdev team has also stated that it too was prioritizing the Flyer, as well as the Jetstream, pen API in its developer outreach.

Source: SlashGear - Ice Cream Sandwich adds native stylus support to Android

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.

Ever Wonder How Much It Costs to Make the iPhone 4S?

How much do you think it costs to make the iPhone 4S? Apple is charging anywhere from $199 to $399 for the device, but obviously it doesn’t really cost that much to manufacture it…does it?

According to a breakdown that was released by IHS iSuppli on Thursday, October 20, all of the materials for the 16GB iPhone 4S come to a total of $188. Then if you also add in the manufacturing costs, the total goes up to $196. If you add gigabytes to the device, the price will increase further. A 32GB device costs $207 and a 64GB phone costs $245.

Although the outside of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S are completely identical, iSuppli said that the inside of the iPhone 4S offered a "wealth of innovation." "Key among these changes is a custom part from Avago that helps give the iPhone 4S its unique capability to be used in multiple wireless systems globally, while still keeping costs down," Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of teardown services for IHS, said in a statement. "In another surprise development, the 4S employs a Hynix NAND flash memory device. While IHS has already confirmed multiple suppliers for this part, it does mark the first time that IHS has identified a Hynix NAND flash in an iPhone, as opposed to devices from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. or Toshiba Corp. seen in all previous iPhone and iPad teardowns."

The wireless parts incur a chunk of the cost, totaling $23.54 in all versions. The phone also possesses a dual-mode design which iSuppli said was "a unique design approach compared to that used by most cell phone makers, which use different models with unique wireless subsystems to support various wireless carriers' standards."

It also has the Avago component that allows the device to support 2G and 3G technology across multiple different bands. "This is a very special converged approach that gives Apple a real technology lead over most other manufacturers, further reducing the complexity of the radio frequency/power amplifier (RF/PA) section of the iPhone line beyond Apple's already highly-integrated design," Rassweiler said.

Other costs for the production of the smartphone include: $23 for the 3.5-inch display, $14 for the touch screen, $17.60 for the 8-megapixel camera, and $15 for the Qualcomm baseband processor.

"Qualcomm obviously is a big winner in the 4S, with the company now taking sole ownership of the baseband processor position with its MDM6610 device," said Wayne Lam, a senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS. "While the Qualcomm MDM6600 was in the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, the Intel (formerly Infineon Technologies AG) PMB9801 was used in the HSPA model. In the iPhone 4S, Qualcomm no longer has to share the iPhone 4 baseband design win with Intel. It will be interesting to see how Intel responds in terms of winning back this socket in the next design cycle."

Another incredibly expensive aspect of the phone is the memory subsystem. For the 16GB phone it is $19.20, $38.40 for the 32GB version and $76.80 for the 64GB phone.
I don’t know about you, but I personally was surprised at how expensive the phone really is to manufacture. Apple is still making plenty of profit off of it I am certain, but I never would have guessed that it was so expensive to make. I guess it makes sense when you have such a well-made product though. Now I can better understand why the iPhone is so expensive.

Source: PCMag - How Much Does it Cost to Make the iPhone 4S?

A Copier Rental is a quick way to mass produce important documents for potential customers at an event or conference. Renting office equipment is simple and easy and it can also save you loads of time and money. Rentacomputer.com has been offering copier rentals to more than 1000 cities worldwide for over 20 years.

T-Mobile's New Dual-Screen Smartphone

On Monday, October 17 T-Mobile unveiled the “ultimate multi-tasking handset,” the dual-screen LG DoublePlay.

The DoublePlay smartphone has some amazing features. It offers a 3.5-inch touchscreen at the top of the phone as well as a 2-inch bottom touchscreen when you slide out the keyboard, which is a QWERTY keyboard that is split on both sides of the bottom display. The smartphone also comes standard with Swype, which allows for easy texting. T-Mobile said that it "allows users to perform multiple tasks at once such as updating their Facebook pages while simultaneously surfing the Web, texting or checking email." The DoublePlay runs a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor as well as Android 2.3. It also features a fantastic 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and 1080 HD video recording.

"Whether sending texts or emails, checking in on social media sites, or browsing the Web, consumers are looking for fun and easy ways to stay connected to the people and things that matter most to them," said Kim Swanson, director of product management at T-Mobile USA. "With the introduction of the LG DoublePlay and its unique dual-screen design, we are bringing the ultimate multitasking tool to our customers."

Unfortunately, T-Mobile has not yet announced when they will be releasing the DoublePlay and how much it will cost customers. However, there have been recent reports that the device will launch on November 2 and will cost users $149.99.

Just as a side note, the DoublePlay will be the device that is used for the 2011 U.S. National Texting Championship. The competition seeks to find the fastest texter in the United States and rewards whoever can text the fastest with a grand prize of $50,000. Obviously, if the DoublePlay is being chosen for a national texting competition, it has to be a great media phone. If you’re a constant texter, this could be the phone for you!

Rack-Mount Server rentals are ideal if your company needs an extra storage unit for company information while you are testing various types of storage solutions.

Whether you need a short-term rental or a long-term lease, we have the right kind of server for your needs.

iPhone 4S Sales Are Going Well

On Friday, October 14 Sprint and AT&T were both able to boast about their sales and activation numbers for the iPhone 4S. The numbers prove that consumers are extremely excited about the latest version of Apple’s iPhone.

The weekend before the iPhone 4S’s release the preorders for the device sold out on Apple’s online store, and on Friday sales continued to boom.

"Sprint today reported its best ever day of sales in retail, web and telesales for a device family in Sprint history with the launch of iPhone 4S and iPhone 4," said Fared Adib, Sprint's product chief, in a statement. "We reached this milestone at approximately noon CT/1pm ET. The response to this device by current and new customers has surpassed our expectations and validates our customers' desire for a truly unlimited data pricing plan."

Three of the four major U.S. mobile carriers began selling the iPhone 4S on Friday: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Although the lines outside the stores were smaller than the lines for the launch of the iPad 2, there were still plenty of consumers that were hyped about the latest version of the iPhone. Sprint announced earlier in the week that they had already sold out of its cheapest version of the iPhone 4S, while Apple said that they had sold 1 million devices via preorders. Obviously, these devices are selling well.

AT&T reported that it had "record activations," although they did not attach a number to that statement. "As of 4:30 pm ET today, AT&T had already activated a record number of iPhones on our network – and is on-track to double our previous record for activations on a single day,” was all that the carrier said.

However, all of these record sales numbers do not mean that the activation process was a breeze.

All of the devices required a two-year contract with either AT&T, Verizon Wireless or Sprint, unless the customer wanted to pay almost an extra $500 for an unlocked iPhone 4S. Once buyers, especially AT&T’s customers, attempted to power up and activate their new phones, there were some reports of the activation process being slow.

"Seven iPhone 4s activation attempts in a row... #ATTFail," tweeted one buyer.
There have been different delays and glitches with the whole process, but hopefully the issues will die down in the next few days so that customers can enjoy their latest version of the iPhone.

A Copier Rental is a quick way to mass produce important documents for potential customers at an event or conference. Renting office equipment is simple and easy and it can also save you loads of time and money. Rentacomputer.com has been offering copier rentals to more than 1000 cities worldwide for over 20 years.

Apple Unveils New iPhone 4S

The second coming of the iPhone 4 has arrived, led by none other than new Apple CEO Tim Cook. This adds a new milestone to Apple, being the first to launch three new handsets in 2011.

Aesthetically the iPhone 4S looks identical to its predecessor but the real changes are on the inside. Inside the new device Apple has added a dual-core A5 CPU alongside a new dual-core GPU that apparently boosts graphics performance 7x. On the front of the device is the same old 3.5" Retina display that has become quite the Apple fan favorite with a glass plate on the back.

The side antennae, which caused many problems during release, have been upgraded as well and iOS will now intelligently switch between two different sets on the fly to avoid dropping calls. In addition to that, those antennae are connected to a dual-mode GSM and CDMA radio that will allow Apple's handset to roam the globe while still enjoying either 14.4Mbps HSPA+ or EV-DO Rev. A.

The back of the iPhone 4S also sports a new 8 megapixel camera with a backside illuminated CMOS sensor for better low-light performance. In addition to that, the lens also comes with a new 5-element assembly with a hybrid IR filter and also sports aperture down to f/2.4.

The revamped visuals also extend to the video performance. The 4S can now record 1080p video and also has a new image signal processor for image stabilization as well as facial recognition. The camera itself is also a little faster, requiring only 1.1 seconds before being ready to take the first picture and only 0.5 seconds between successive images.

The new iPhone 4S is also Apple's first handset to feature a Siri virtual assistant tech built in. All you have to do is tap the mic on the keyboard and start talking into your phone, which will then convert your voice into text, check the weather, get directions or even perform web searches.

A typical eight hours of talk battery life can be experienced over 3G and 14 hours over 2G while web browsing over 3G will drop you down to six hours. You should get somewhere around nine hours of web when using WiFi and 10 hours of video playback with music topping out at 40 hours.

The 4S will come in both black and white colors for a starting price of $199 for a 16GB model and $299 for a 32GB model. However, both of those pale in comparison to the newly announced 64GB model which will run you a hefty $399. Pre-orders will become available Friday, October 7th with a shipping date of October 14th in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.

Oh, and if that isn't enough, you should also be happy to know that Apple has now added Sprint to its family in the United States with Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Three holding down the fort in the UK.

Source: Engadget - iPhone 4S officially announced: lands October 14th starting at $199 in sizes ip to 64GB, coming to Sprint

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.