[secretmessages]

I can upgrade my 3GS in two days. Get the 4S, or wait until September for the 5?

[Kenny_uk]

(Original post by secretmessages)
I can upgrade my 3GS in two days. Get the 4S, or wait until September for the 5?

Wait for the 5, scarcely worth getting the 4S given the short wait for the 5.

[Gofre]

(Original post by secretmessages)
I can upgrade my 3GS in two days. Get the 4S, or wait until September for the 5?

As with any tech, wait as long as you can. Leaked parts indicate we're going to see a significant redesign in the next generation of iPhone.

[secretmessages]

(Original post by Kenny_uk)
Wait for the 5, scarcely worth getting the 4S given the short wait for the 5.

"Short wait", I'm the most impatient person in the world

(Original post by Gofre)
As with any tech, wait as long as you can. Leaked parts indicate we're going to see a significant redesign in the next generation of iPhone.

Hmm. Yeah, I'll probably regret it in a few months' time if I upgrade to the 4S.

Do you know what happens regarding contracts? Mine is up in July-ish, if I don't upgrade then, will I still be able to upgrade in September? Or should I ask to be put on a monthly rolling contract until I want to upgrade the phone?

[RipperRoo]

Well all my components arrived today!

...everything except my case.

No building today.

[Gofre]

(Original post by secretmessages)
"Short wait", I'm the most impatient person in the world


Hmm. Yeah, I'll probably regret it in a few months' time if I upgrade to the 4S.

Do you know what happens regarding contracts? Mine is up in July-ish, if I don't upgrade then, will I still be able to upgrade in September? Or should I ask to be put on a monthly rolling contract until I want to upgrade the phone?

Check with your carrier, they'll typically put you on a rolling contract until you want to upgrade. Just get it in writing that you're entitled to an upgrade, they've been dodgy with my family members in the past with this kind of thing =P

[secretmessages]

(Original post by Gofre)
Check with your carrier, they'll typically put you on a rolling contract until you want to upgrade. Just get it in writing that you're entitled to an upgrade, they've been dodgy with my family members in the past with this kind of thing =P

Will do Ta

[Gofre]

Two separate iPhone rear cases have been leaked, one in "black" and one in "white". I say that in quotations because in both cases the back panel is mostly dominated by aluminium with coloured regions at either end. Other insights include being longer (AKA larger screen), thinner, using a new smaller dock connector and a relocated headphone jack, which indicates a significant redesign to the internals. Yes people will whine that it's still the same kind of form factor and design, but all things considered this looks like it really will be a major revamp. Finally, the last time we saw such a fast influx of leaks was with the iPhone 4, which was launched at WWDC 2010. Hopefully that trend will continue!

[Gofre]

You know what they say, when it rains it pours. The entire chassis has leaked. Front panel is pretty much the same as expected aside from the dimension changes.



Vlad must be brimming with excitement

[Dez]

I really hope they aren't actually planning to put the headphone jack on the bottom. That has to be the worst design quirk of the iPod Touch, the headphone cable's always getting in the way.

Also is it me or does that mini-dock connector look suspiciously like a micro-USB? Has the EU finally curtailed Apple on that front I wonder?

[Gofre]

(Original post by mangoh)
is that the rumoured bigger screen size?

facetime front camera

such a waste of time facetime is - no one I know uses it

Fcaetime cameras have been on the iPhone line for two years I actually use it quite often with my parents/grandparents (And my ex while I was with her) while I'm at university,

(Original post by Dez)
I really hope they aren't actually planning to put the headphone jack on the bottom. That has to be the worst design quirk of the iPod Touch, the headphone cable's always getting in the way.

I prefer it, this way it's facing the right way in your hand when you take it out of your pocket.

Also is it me or does that mini-dock connector look suspiciously like a micro-USB? Has the EU finally curtailed Apple on that front I wonder?

If I remember correctly it's oval shaped, definitely not a microusb port. I'll try and track down one of the leaked pictures.

[Dez]

(Original post by Gofre)
If I remember correctly it's oval shaped, definitely not a microusb port. I'll try and track down one of the leaked pictures.

They must be beyond desperate for space if they're willing to redesign the dock connector to a completely different, incompatible, and still proprietary format. That's 10 years' worth of 3rd-party gear they're throwing out. Although then again, the patent on the dock connector's probably gonna run out before long, so this may just be Apple's way of keeping exclusivity on their products. Still, 'tis odd.

[Vulpes]

Can someone explain to me why there is a sticker across the back of the iphone cases? that darker band across the logo and product details?

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by Vulpes)
Can someone explain to me why there is a sticker across the back of the iphone cases? that darker band across the logo and product details?

Apparently it's not a sticker, but that part is made from aluminium (or aluminum as apple would say)

[Intriguing Alias]

Just ordered this

[Dez]

(Original post by hassi94)
Just ordered this

Nice, but looks like it'll be bloody noisy. Three fans are gonna raise a racket. :/

[Chrosson]

(Original post by S-man10)
how does one convert from FLAC to ALAC on windows? Can't seem to find the answer as most of the software suggested is only MAC compatible.

If you want an swiss army knife way to convert flac to alac in a single step, you can use winff. Typically used as a video converter, it actually supports anything ffmpeg supports (which means it can read anything vlc can read). Supported audio output formats happen to include alac and (surprise surprise) MP3 (so if you configured it properly, you could use it as a replacement for winlame).

Anyway, flac to alac - you configure it once, then use it forever:
Download winff.
Edit -> presets.
Audio -> WMA.
In the boxes, enter "alac", "ALAC", "-acodec alac", "m4a" and "Audio".
Press "Add/Update" and then "Close".

It's now configured. Add all your files, select your destination folder (note that typing it in won't work) and select "Audio" and "ALAC" as the options.

Done. For more speed on a multi-core processor, edit -> preferences -> Use several encoding threads -> the number of cores you have.
If you have flac files with 'flac tags', you may be able to preserve the tags in the conversion - http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-u...ch/000003.html

(Original post by Mad Vlad)
What was wrong with 192kbps .mp3

PRSOM

(Original post by Gofre)
I doubt they'll die off any time soon, until using bundled headphones or tinny laptop speakers stops being the norm amongst the general public.

And all humans evolve to having really good ears.

(Original post by S-man10)
Just downloaded it. Although I'm not sure is ALAC fiels are supposed to be of a lower file size? A 38MB FLAC converted to a 12 MB ALAC despite me setting a high bitrate.

If you're setting a bitrate when converting between lossless files you're doing it wrong. Edit: to clarify, bitrate is irrelevant for the conversion between lossless files. It's like reducing the 'quality' of a zip file - you can set the compressor to spend more time making the data a bit smaller, but either your data is intact or it isn't, there is no notion of quality.

(Original post by Gofre)
And you definitely chose m4a as the output format?

M4A is a dual-use extension for both lossy and lossless apple audio files - it may contain either aac or alac codecs.

(Original post by Gofre)
What I noticed is that the encoder I use also creates a wav copy and then encodes to m4a, indicating that something about FLAC/ALAC makes a direct conversion impossible, possibly being why iTunes doesn't do it.

Trivially you could pipe the WAV out of one encoder and into the other, which amounts to direct conversion. That may even be what ffmpeg does to do it in a single step...but it doesn't really matter.

[theronkinator]

Facetime is such a load of ****. All it is is a more pointless, more locked down version of video calling which has been around for years.

[RipperRoo]

(Original post by hassi94)
Just ordered this

I thought having two fans on a GFX was a lot. Must be a beast.

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by Dez)
Nice, but looks like it'll be bloody noisy. Three fans are gonna raise a racket. :/

Well looking at a review now; the 2 fan asus is 5 db quieter than a reference card and 15db quieter at load. I hear the windforce is cooler and quieter.