iQuest Studios

So what numerous newspapers and review sites are doing, I shall do my own iPhone 3G analysis. Let’s start with the plus points

PLUS
1. Decent Speakers. The speakers are rather good, at least for me.
2. Very responsive touchscreen. I think this is what sets it apart from other similar touchscreen phones.
3. Excellent Mobile surfing. The web browser is excellent, something that sets it apart from the rest of the phones allows web surfing.
4. App Store. Another nice feature, though it would be nice if they allowed for payment via PayPal for the Singapore store. But then on the other hand, it stops me from overspending on the Apps.
5. Nice touch type interface. The built in spellchecker is excellent. I can SMS even faster than with physical numeric keys.
6. Finger Gestures rules. The pinch, swipe and what have you are really cool. Not seen on any other phone.
7. Rather smooth operation. Except for a few apps which lags, the operation of the phone is very smooth. Typical of Apple products.
8. Beautiful gaming platform. While the graphics engine might not be the best, the way many games make use of the built in accelerometer is really good. The touchscreen helps too.
9. Innovative SMS interface. Keeps everything in a IM chat way which everyone is familiar with, allowing you to easy see what messages have been sent.
10. Support for PDF, Powerpoint, Word documents etc. Great for studying notes on the go without printing them out.

MINUS
This is where I am going to elaborate a bit more.
1. Not as good syncing with even Mac programs. One good example is Notes. It makes sense for notes written on the iPhone and notes written in Apple Mail to sync, but they don’t. Same with to do lists. They should sync the To Do lists in iCal with the Calendar app on the Phone, but they didn’t. Instead I am forced to use some 3rd party app that doesn’t allow for syncing with my Mac.
2. Laggy applications. While operations on the phone are smooth thanks to the responsive touchscreen, some apps lags and ruin the perfect experience for you. The Contacts app lags the most. The camera also takes quite a long time to start up. The SMS app can be quite lag at times as well.
3. Lack of a better camera. Yup, everyone has the same complaint, but I suppose it helps conserve battery life, which brings me to my next point.
4. Short Battery Life. With nice games on the iPhone, it is hard for the iPhone battery to last me even one day in school. Especially when I am using WiFi to surf the net during lectures.
5. No editing of the documents. Even with such a great typing interface, there isn’t even basic support for editing documents on the go. It might not be a feature that everyone will use everyday, but it certainly helps when you don’t wish to lug a heavy laptop everyday.
6. Crap Earpiece. Maybe I am too used to plugged in earpieces, but I don’t like the fact that Apple doesn’t offer a plug-in version of their headphone with mic.
7. Not really the iPhone’s fault, but it is really a huge distraction especially when you can surf the Web during lectures.
Of course there are many other complaints like not being able to copy and paste and lack of Bluetooth support for file transfer, but the ones listed above irks me the most.

Conclusion
While the iPhone is a great mobile web browsing device, there can certainly be improvements in terms of both hardware and software. I just hope Apple does not disappoint in the next software update for iPhone.

Tags: iphone, review

It is finally over - the single race that I have been preparing for since December 2007.

Organisation
The general consensus of many participants of the race was that it was poorly organised. Basically, the route marshals were at all the wrong places, and I think they have been poorly briefed. At critical junctures, such as during the running route, there were no marshals to guide you in the right direction, causing some of us to run extra distance/run shorter distance. The running route was not very well marked out, and even if they could not find enough road marshals, they should at least have used tape or sign boards to mark out the direction, especially once we are off the road into the concrete jungle of buildings lining the Central Business Area.

The transition area was super muddy - probably due to yesterday’s rain. Thank god for my category, we got a rather dry patch. But the space for each participant’s transition stuff was really small. Also, it was in a field, and some of my friends found frogs inside their bags after the race as they did not close it properly. But the worst thing was the Bike Out and Bike In. There were like 3 big puddles of water on the way to bike out, and it was so damn muddy, so you can imagine what happened to my bike. All the water/mud/grass splashed all over the frame. Bike In was no better. Also, the distance from the transition area to the Bike Out and Bike In were too long - the organisers should know that it is not good to run with cleats on a muddy field. They should have changed the Bike Out and Bike In areas.

The cycling route was very technical, short and confusing. Even now, I am not sure if I completed the whole loop. The route marshals along the cycling route were the worst - they did not even mark out the U Turn point clearly, causing me to miss the U Turn point and only turning again near the transition area. Some of my friends said we did an incomplete loop, without going all the way to Marina South Field, but basically all of us were just following the barricades and the cones marking the way. We also only got only 1 lane to cycle on, so it is hard to overtake, and you have to shout warnings to the cyclist in front of you. Also, there were quite a number of sharp turns, especially the first turn after leaving the transition area. Wet wheels caused by the field and sand on the road caused my bike to skid completely when I braked to take the turn. Thank god there were no major incidents that I know of.

The run 2 route was still quite OK, pretty straightforward - U turn at the end of the road of Run 1. The marshals were there telling us to U turn, so not much confusion here. However, all in all, it was a rather poorly organised race.

My Performance
Race results are not out yet - but I already know I am not in the top 10. (probably because of the fact that I U turned at the wrong place for cycling). My timing is probably around 59 minutes though.

Run 1
The starting pace of run 1 was quite OK, and I was amongst the top few, though the gaps between each of us was already very wide after the 1.4KM mark. The view was quite OK, but again, there were no route marshals clearly directing the route - so I went the wrong area once, but managed to correct my mistake quickly without losing too much time thanks to a friend behind me. The pace got quite slow after about 3KM, and overall run 1 for me was quite slow.

T1
This is probably where I lost the most time. I was quite tired after running the 5KM (probably due a lack of endurance training), and decided to take my own sweet time at transition. Probably took like 1 whole minute to change my shoes, put on my helmet, take my power gel and water (which should have been done on the cycling leg). Then maybe another 30 seconds to clear the transition area. This made me lose lots of time over the rest.

Cycling
Cycling was pretty lonely, but I managed to maintain a rather good speed - around 33KM/H. But I didn’t hear the Championchip mat beep when I went over it a second time - so that worries me.

T2
T2 was very good compared to T1. Basically the bike acts as a very nice break, and I remembered to spin with high cadence towards the end of the biking leg. Rack the bike, change of shoes, throw down the helmet and I am off. Probably managed to clear it in under half a minute.

Run 2
The starting pace of run 2 was quite slow, as I was scared of ‘bricking’. But after a while, I realised the high cadence trick worked, and I was able to proceed at a strong pace. Managed to overtake one of my friends during the leg, and I finished strong.

Overall
I probably might be able to push a little harder during the biking leg and I really need to improve my transition 1. However, the feeling was great - having completed my first multi sport event! I just pray that next year, my parents would let me join again - and hopefully a better organised race.

Now I am just going to wait for the photos and results.

Off Topic:It’s WWDC tomorrow! Can’t wait!

Tags: City duathlon, race, report, review