• Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
• Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
• Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
• Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
• Option to “Save as new clip” when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
• Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
• Remotely lock iPhone with a passcode using MobileMe
• Use iPhone 3GS Voice Control with Bluetooth headsets
• Paste phone numbers into the keypad
• Anti-phishing features in Safari
• Fixes issues that caused some app icons to display incorrectly

Buy ringtones directly from iTunes, on your iPhone

iPhone OS 3.1 is available now and is a free download for iPhone customers and iPod touch users already running iPhone OS 3.0.

I shall start from personal experience, with 2 laptops i have bought in the last 18 months. These are the MSI GX700 and the Dell XPS M1530, both of which came to £999. The MSI was purchased in October 2007, and the Dell in October 2008; so comparing spec would be a worthless task. But I can compare the reliability and customer service I received from the two companies.

A fight for customer service dominance

MSI vs Dell
The MSI GX700 was purchased from an online retailer in September 2007, it took 2 weeks for me to receive the machine and only 2 months to be sick of it. For you see during these 2 months the power supply on the machine had failed, and the graphics card was overheating beyond what should be expected. The machine was returned to MSI for repair, and I got it back within 10 days. Now this all sounds well and good, but the start of this took forever. Contacting the retailer I was alerted that I need to contact the support department for the laptop directly. Now this is a normal measure, but much more difficult when the retailer gives you the wrong number, and you then get passed through 4 different phone connections to then find out that you have to phone the retailer again.

After all this, I got the machine back and a couple of months later put a disc into the drive (I rarely use discs, as transfer most data online or with USB memory sticks) and as the drive spins up to speed it makes a horrible buzzing noise. I send the machine back to MSI to be repaired, and it returns with the bottom of the machine not being secured properly, in fact the bottom falls off when I move it on my lap. One return to manufacturer later, and the piece of metal enclosure that covers the processor has been put on badly, and there is a good couple of millimetres gap between the cover and bottom of the machine.

After 11 months with the machine, I was able to wrangle a refund out of the retailer, due to the product and the repairs being useless. And with this refund I purchased an XPS M1530 directly from Dell.

I ordered the Dell machine on Friday, and it arrived on Wednesday. Everything was good, all questions I had at any time were answered, but a problem soon arose. My Hard Drive was making strange noises, and failing to boot sometimes. I phoned Dell Support, and as an XPS customer got launched to the front of the queue, and the technician was happy to talk me through the steps to update my bios, drivers, and check the drive for failures (all at 11PM at the weekend). When it was deemed that the Hard Drive was in fact failing, they sent a technician the next working day with a replacement hard drive and touch control panel (the original had been scratched when it arrived). The laptop was fixed and ready to work again within 2 hours of the technician arriving.

This difference in customer care shows you the added value you can get from buying a certain system over its competitors. Although the modern MSI had a higher spec, the Dell customer and technical support was much more comprehensive and useful.

But this value for money can extend to other areas, for example the ever present Mac vs PC argument.

Who helps you out more?

Mac vs PC
It is well known that if you equivalently spec an Apple Mac and a Windows based PC, that the Mac will more often than not be more expensive. But there are reasons for this, such as the Unix underpinnings that makes Mac OSX more reliable; the fact that the computer and OS are made by the same people, making them more reliable; the inclusion of iLife software giving you easy to use Photo, Music, Web and Video editing out of the box; Apple’s customer service.

Working as an IT technician at a school, you see all sorts of computers come in and out of the site; and end up fixing most of them. This normally involves reinstalling windows and setting the school provided machine back to how we gave it to them in the first place; or replacing a piece of hardware. Now, when it came to fixing a Mac Pro, which we had never done before, we were slightly intimidated; so decided to contact Apple Technical Support. The technician on the other end of the line was more than happy to help us through the installation and fixing of software, as well as have a laugh with us when we were searching for the serial number. Customer service much higher than what we get from our network solution provider, that we pay loads for, and get “Look at this article online” answers from.

Moo.com
But this sort of thing is not just something you should think of when buying your new MP3 player or Computer, it can affect you in more standard medias, such as business cards; something we had to purchase recently.

From recommendations on the internet, mainly Twitter, we decided to use www.moo.com to print our business cards; and we are very pleased that we did. We were unsure if the images we had were the correct size, etc for the cards but one of their customer service agents answered our questions very quickly. He was happy to look at the images we had and make sure they were right, he even checked the cards once they had printed to make sure they looked as good as they did on screen. And we were kept informed at every step. Now is where you get to have a laugh at me.

For you see, I accidentally uploaded and had the wrong image printed onto the cards. This image had the wrong phone number on it, which rendered them useless, something I felt silly over. Shortly after receiving the cards, I had an email land in my inbox from Moo, asking what i thought of the cards. My reply said that the printing quality was awesome, and I jokingly mentioned that I had accidentally put on the wrong number. Twenty-four hours later, I received an email with a voucher code for a free set of business cards.

This has to be some of the best customer service I have ever received, as the number error was entirely my fault. Therefore, I am going to have to go at a tangent here, and say that bitcolumns very much recommend moo.com.

Buying Tips
These tips should help you make sure you get the most from your money, no matter what you are buying.
Do your research. Read about the product and the company online; ask friends if they have ever bought anything from the same company. Check to see what their warranty and technical support cover.
Shop Around. The best prices can be found by looking everywhere you can. Price comparison websites, online retailers, the manufacturer’s website, etc. Never rule out high street stores though, as more and more are putting out offers to attract customers back through their doors.
Check their customer services.If they have an “Ask Us” feature, use it. Get a sneak preview of what their customer service is like. This link is there to entice you into buying their products, but can give an insight to their support. If they are quick and helpful then this is a good sign.
Try the product. If you are able to go to a shop or a mate’s and try out the product before you buy it, do it. This will let you make sure it is the product you want, and ensure it is right for your needs. No point buying something because it is cheaper, or got good customer service, to find that it is useless.

Sex on-anodised-aluminium leg.

In my honest opinion (and I have to clearly state it’s my opinion else it will be a lashing) Mac is just so much easier, not to mention sexier and I grant them full credit for pricing the iMac and Macbook ranges how they have over the years. I went Mac in 2008 and never looked back. I love the simplicity, the style, and not a single blue-screen-of-death EVER again.  Being a web-designer and illustrator, the huge iMac screen is a major benefit, too. I no longer have to scroll to view a design fully; but best of all I don’t have to fork out for a 24”LCD separately.
I was fortunate enough to get a Macbook at a hugely discounted price at launch. Back then; the average retail was well over £1000. The Core 2 duo spec would not be anything new, either. But despite Apple being quite last week to bring out dual core in their laptops, they still floored the competition with the style and design, as always. I will be buying myself a new iMac ASAP.

“But you can just install OSX on a PC!”

All seems peachy until you hear or read this old chestnut from an anti-macboy/girl. While this is true, it really doesn’t have much weight. For a start, it’s not all about the operating system. You could put a Ferrari Enzo body kit on a Ford Fiesta; it would still be a Ford Fiesta. Ok ok I admit I am a fanboy to a certain extent. But I can see the flipside of the argument of “Why would I pay 50% more for a Mac when I can get  a desktop just as powerful for half the price? You pretentious ^@!£”$!” and to answer it in a simple way without any bias, no one is forcing you to,  are they? The reason designer things are more expensive is because they look better on you. The reason iMac is more expensive than the latest desktop belter is because it is powerful, simple, full of capabilities straight out of the box and doesn’t look like what it is. I encourage anyone to look at the latest iMac design and tell me it looks like a computer with a straight face.

As of, well.. now, you can pick up a brand spanking new 20” 2.66GHz iMac straight from Apple.com for £949. Seriously. Even the top of the range 24” 3.06Ghz version is a mere-in-comparison £1,799. It seems Apple have responded in the midst of a worldwide eco crunch, and have became a little more competitive with prices.

I guess in a way, people with my opinion (and it seems Apple, too) have given in to all the million billion trillion bleating lambs moaning that they don’t want to pay so much for a Mac, have won. The choice really is yours, but now has never been a better time to come over to Mac for quality, power, simplicity and style; and you can buy one without starving for a month between paydays, so you can’t complain any more.

Unless you want to play games of course, as Mac’s are still about as useful as chocolate teapot’s in that department.

Apple have released new 13 inch Macbooks and 15 inch Macbook Pros at their release event today. The update brings the design of the notebooks in line with the iMac, as well as adding some groundbreaking new features.

These features include:

• Etched Glass Touchpad (which also acts as mouse button)
• Side mounted LED Battery level indicator
• Mini Displayport
• Removeable Battery and Hard Drive
• Macbook Pro Only: Dual Graphics Cards (on board Nvidia 9400 + Discrete Nivdia 9600)

Both are available for ordering today (Tuesday 14th October), with the following pricepoints:

Macbook starts at £929.00

Macbook Pro starts at £1,369.00

There were four main complaints against the original iPhone. These were:

• No 3G
• No GPS
• No MMS
• No Copy and Paste

With the iPhone 3G, Apple have remedied two of these problems. The most obvious of these is the inclusion of 3G and HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access – lets just say its mega fast, allowing up to 7.2Mb mobile broadband). These technologies allow the iPhone to browse the internet at blistering speeds, and even download videos such as the now famous, 6-minute-long ‘Evolution of Dance’ from Youtube in under 20 seconds!

The second new inclusion is that of GPS. The location information from this can be used in many ways. The first is with Google Maps, which can now ‘lock-on’ to your current position, and then tell you how close you are to your search. Futhermore, the camera application can now geo-tag pictures – telling you exactly where you were when you took the picture. Other uses include social networking applications, which show you how close your friends are, and how close you are to their homes, etc.

Apple made another major change this time round, the price. In a massive drop from the £269 price of the original 8GB phone, the most you will now pay for an iPhone is £159 (excluding contract) – and thats for a 16GB device.

So, what exactly do you get for this new, lower price? Surprisingly, quite a lot:

• 3.5″ Touchscreen
• 8 or 16GB of Memory
• GPRS, 3G, Wi-Fi connectivity
• GPS
• Bluetooth (Voice only)
• Loudspeaker
• iPod
• 2 megapixel camera
• iTunes, App Store
• e-mail, internet browsing

and much more…

One new feature we have yet to mention is the App Store. This has been introduced in the iPhone 2.0 software and allows you to purchase and download applications for the iPhone wirelessly. The best bit is, if the App is less than 10 Megabytes in size, you can download it whilst on the move, even without a Wi-fi connection. Popular apps include:

• iPint (FREE!)
• Facebook (FREE!)
• WordPress (FREE!)
• Palringo (Instant Messaging Software. Includes: Aim, Yahoo!, MSN) (FREE!)
• Phit (Game produced by Armor Games) (£1.59)

Many more are available, from games to learning aids, and music to utilities.

So the pros include a clear, responsive screen; quick and easy 3G connection; GPS; good sound quality when making calls; and a brilliant spellcheck on the software keyboard.

But as with all phones, there are the downsides.

The phone only houses a 2.0 Megapixel camera, which produces pictures which, while they are of a good quality when viewed on the iPhone screen, will degrade quickly if enlarged. And with no MMS or Bluetooth File Transfer, you can only really share the pictures via e-mail or facebook.

Furthermore, some apps are US only. This is no more noticeable than with the eBay application. Although advertised throughout the UK site as a Top App for some time, it transpires that the App is only availabe in the USA, which has lead to some major dissappointment.

The extreme shine on the back, as well as looking brilliant, does a lot to attract scratches and marks. Within weeks of owning the phone, we have noticed an accummulation of small scratches. Though they do not affect the functionality of the phone, it can be a frustration on such an asthetically pleasing device.

One major reported problem seems to be with the 3G reception of the phone. Although we have not experienced any difficulties that match the description, it is reported that the phone can drop out of 3G signal with no warning, and will say there is no 3G signal where other phones are fast to connect. We are unsure if this is a problem only in other countires, or if many are finding this true in the UK as well. (If you experience this, please let us know).

Overall the iPhone 3G continues Apple’s tradition of bringing a different and refreshing approach to a standard product, but with the bugs that are currently present only time can tell if the iPhone will prove itself. Apple hopes that all major bugs will be removed with the release of iPhone 2.1 software in September. We will keep you posted on any changes or improvements as the iPhone evolves.

Score: 4/5