For this show, we look at the future of the Internet – We were invited to attend a special session discussing broadband trends, Internet demand, and the thorny subject of “up to” broadband speeds. It made for a lively debate, and we have a recording of the entire session, plus our exclusive interviews, ready and waiting!

Here’s a summary of what’s covered in the latest installment of FrequencyCast:

• News Updates: Sky’s plans for Formula 1, 3DS update, TiVo and DAB
• Focus: Pete’s been to an Internet insight session. Here’s his report.
• Hands-on: The Livescribe smart pen
• Featured: Control your TV with an iPhone, plus weather stations revisited
• Your comments on TV + 1, printers and GetJam

If you own an iPad, iPhone or iPod, then you can get the latest show now now via iTunes – You’ll find it here: FrequencyCast on iTunes.

Alternatively, you can download the latest show, show 70 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Show Links:

• Show Notes for Show 70
• Transcript: Internet Insight Session – The Net of the Future
• Transcript: Livescribe Echo, UnityRemote & Weather Station

As you know, our shows are free, and we rely on our listeners not only to set the agenda, but also to help spread the word about what we do. Please tell your friends about this latest show – Like FrequencyCast on Facebook, or it Tweeting’s your bag – follow FrequencyCast on Twitter and re-tweet this here posting for us!

We’d love to get your comments and feedback on the show. If you have a comment, good or bad, please add a comment in the box below, or leave us a voicemail message on 0208 133 4567 (London call).

We hope you enjoy this latest show, and, like us, are looking forward to seeing what tomorrow’s Internet has to offer.

As ever, you set the agenda for the show – what you’d like us to cover, and what questions you want us to answer. Here’s a summary of what’s covered in the latest installment of FrequencyCast:

• News Updates: BBC HD channel to be axed, iPhone 4S shortages, o2′s upgrade policy, PBS comes to the UK and festive DAB
• Focus: As requested by our listeners, it’s all about printers and printing.
• Review: iPhone 4S and the Siri virtual assistant
• Your comments and questions on dual monitors, Overdrive book lending and the Steadicam

If you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad device, you should find show 69 is available now via iTunes – See FrequencyCast on iTunes.

Alternatively, you can download Show 69 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Show Links:

• Show Notes for Show 69
• Transcript: Printers and Printing Transcript
• Transcript: iPhone 4S and Siri Transcript

Please help us out by spreading the word. Tell your friends via: FrequencyCast on Facebook and FrequencyCast on Twitter.

Any comments on the show? Anything you’d like to ask our Siri? Please add a comment below, or leave us a voicemail message on 0208 133 4567 (London call), or drop us a text message!

It seems that a significant number of  iOS 5 users have noticed a marked drop in battery life, and we’re getting reports that this may be due to a bug (a.k.a a “feature”) introduced in the last official software release. It looks like the operating system may be using the location services to make power-hungry calls to check the clock.

Possible fix:

A number of sites on the ‘net have been reporting a possible fix, and users seem to be reporting that the fix is making a difference. Here’s the fix:

iOS 5 makes use of the device GPS and Wi-fi location to find out where it is, and uses this to work out what time zone you’re in when you’re roaming. For a high percentage of users, this could be viewed as unneccesary.

• Go to “Settings”
• Go to “Location Services”
• Scroll down to “System Services”
• Set “Setting Time Zone” to “Off”

Before turning it off, you may notice that the little purple location services icon appears next to “Setting Time Zone”, which confirms that the device is indeed using location software, and therefore battery.

iOS 5 Battery Issue Location Settings

If this is indeed a confirmed Apple bug, no doubt a fix will be forthcoming in the form of a new version of iOS 5 – And possibly the first to be sent over-the-air.

Been hit with a low battery? Had any luck with this fix? Please let us know in the comments below!

As requested by our listeners, we’re talking about printers and all things printing. Not the most exciting topic, but we’ve tried to add a few things that might be of interest, plus a mystery object, and a special guest.

In the show, we also look at the hottest virtual assistant on the planet – Siri.

As you’re probably aware, Siri is the new speech recognition gizmo from the clever folk at Apple. We’ve been putting Siri through its paces, to see if it’s actually useful in the real world, or just a gimmick to get people to rush and and buy a new iShiny (if o2 let them upgrade to a 4S, that is)

As part of the show, we play a fun video clip demonstrating that as well as being a semi-serious tool, Siri can be fun. People have been playing around to work out what fun things she (or “he in the UK) can say. In the show, we feature a short extract of a Siri Duet, performed by Jonathan Mann.

Here is the full video clip. Tissues at the ready, everyone:

We hope Jonathan’s dream of one day marrying sexy Siri comes true.

For more Silly Siri Stuff, have a listen to our November show, which is due out on Tuesday morning…

To upgrade, or not to upgrade… that was my question. Looking at the spec of the iPhone 4S, there seemed to be no need to rush out and upgrade, and so, I’d decided not to go and queue for the 4S – but might upgrade when the rush had died down. That having been said, we’ve received a few emails asking for us to review the 4S for the next show, plus tweets from tech chums playing with Siri and the new camera, making me twitchy to upgrade.

Casually checking the o2 site to see how sales were going on Saturday, I did a stock check, and found that a store a couple of miles away from the town I was visiting… had stock. I thought it might be worth a look, so strolled past.

At the o2 store, there was no queue, but a sign saying “No stock”. I popped in anyway, to be told that they did actually have stock after a delivery this morning. So, I thought I’d upgrade.

Please may I upgrade, sir?

Sitting down with the “o2 Guru” at the Basildon store, my details were fed into the computer. I’m one month away from an upgrade. “No problem – I’ll pay the extra month to get out of my contract”. That’s where the problem lies, apparently.

o2 appears to have changed policy on its “Fast Track”, meaning that I couldn’t buy myself out of the contract. Neither could I take out a new contract now, and let the old one lapse – At least, not without losing my number.

o2 Fast Track

It seems that if you’re on a tariff of less than £40 a month, o2 don’t value you enough to let you “fast track” out of a contract. The store manager at o2 wasn’t interested in trying to sort anything out, and the floor staff, while sympathetic, couldn’t do anything. They suggested I call o2 Customer Services…

o2's online upgrade notice - Wait 5 weeks, or go to Vodafone, apparently

Shock 1 – Switch to Vodafone, says o2

A call to o2 Customer Services seemed fairly encouraging, but ultimately fruitless. I could switch to a £41 contract, then Fast Track, but I’d have to pay an extra £6 a month to get any data with that contract (more on that in a mo).

So, I’d go from £36 to £47 a month to be able to get an iPhone 4S. Even if I wanted to go ahead with this craziness, it would take anywhere between 12 hours and my next billing cycle for the tariff change to go through on the o2 system before the in-store team could see the change and flog me a phone.

“Are there any other options?” No, it seems. Then I worked it out… “Can I cancel my contract, and move networks?” Oh yes, that’s fine. Seems I’d have to pay a month’s fee to get out of my contract, but then I’d be free to take out a new (and cheaper) contract, and shift my number to another network operator.

The helpful chap at o2 Customer Services, and then the team instore, confirmed that the only way I’d be able to get an iPhone 4S would be to call for a PAC (the code needed to move to a new network), and shift to another provider. o2 agreed that my shifting to the Vodafone network was the way to go, and did nothing to try to keep me.

Shock 2 – No data on new tariffs

Something else that’s changed in o2′s iPhone policy. When you upgrade to a new iPhone, you have to take out a new contract – and the new contracts don’t include data. Our £35 a month contract with 500MB of data, would convert to a £36 a month contract with no data. A 500MB bolt-on is an extra £6 a month.

As you can’t use an iPhone without data, that’ll now be a £42 a month tariff. A little sneaky, o2?

So long and thanks o2

So, being loyal to o2 for nearly 15 years counts for nowt, and rather than taking my money to fast-track upgrade, tying me into a new long contract, and taking my cash for a new iShiny – I’m off to Vodafone. I can get a phone faster, and be paying less as their tariffs include data (unlike o2′s). Thanks a bucket o2!

We’re assuming that o2 is relying on customer’s lethary, and hoping that customers won’t mind paying more to stay with them, as the alternative is hard work. Which it isn’t.

To switch, call o2, free, on 202, and follow the “want to leave o2″ menu option. Ask for a PAC (Port Authorisation Code), then pop off to your local Vodafone store (or online at Vodafone or Carphone Warehouse)

Audio Update

If you’re interested, young Pete and Carl recorded some audio on the subject:

Given the amount of hype that surrounds any Apple launch, we locked Pete and Carl in a room after they’d taken time to dissect what the new boss of Apple had to say.

As a result, here’s a 10 minute summary of what the new iPhone 4S will have to offer, what features are killers (if any), and whether the FrequencyCast team will be queueing up on the Friday the 14th of October.

You’ll find the audio update attached to this blog entry, or at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html – This should also be available via iTunes very shortly.

So – the iPhone 4S has a faster processor, better screen and better camera, plus some cunning voice recognition technology – is it enough to hold back the advancing Androids? Is an iPhone still the coolest phone to own, or is this just not innovative enough. Can we expect crowds queuing for this phone, or given its hefty price tag, will people swarm to an HTC or Samsung instead?
If you’ve got any comments on the iPhone 4S, we’d love to hear them so we can discuss this in more detail in the next show.

We’re all patiently waiting for the news to filter in from the US – and we’ll be updating this post in real-time as we hear anything!

We’re currently watching a live blog from Engadget, and their site seems to have crashed – D’oh. Now watching Twitter. Here’s what we’re hearing:

iOS 5 Update

Old news, as the update for the operating system has been announced before, but as a reminder:

• Improved notifiation system
• iMessage – Messaging between iOS users
• Location-aware Reminders
• Take a photo from the standby screen
• Tabbed web browsing for iPad
• Greater use of the iCould (Camera roll and docs) – Launched 12 Oct
• Find My Friends (a bit like Google Latitude?)

The new version of iOS5 will be released on Wednesday the 12th of October 2011, apparently.

iPod Nano

• Improved fitness (no Nike Shoe dongle needed)
• New clock faces (wear it as a watch)

iPod Touch

• New one – in white (8, 32 and 64GB versions)

iPhone 4S

OK – So there is a new iPhone. It’s not the iPhone 5, it’s an iPhone 4S. Here’s what’s new:

• Looks the same
• Uses an A5 processor (going to be 2 x faster)
• Dual core graphics (7 x faster graphics)
• Better call quality, using “wireless system”
• Uses two antennas – 2 x faster download on HSPDA
• 8 Megapixel camera, backlight illumination – 73% brighter photos, face detection
• 1080p video recording
• Airplay Mirroring (games on TV)
• Siri – Voice recognition / intellegent hands-free lookup
• Dictation (speech to text)

Available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. iPhone 4S Release date – October 14th in the UK

Early picture of the new iPhone 4S in white

Now you know!!

The information has been recorded by Apple’s mobile operating system to allow faster access to our location by apps that need to know where we are. However, there have been a number of security concerns about people being able to track our locations, or access the location database (i.e. where we’ve been) from a file copies to iTunes.

Apple has been (fairly) quick to address this, and have just released an update to their iPhone software.

The iOS 4.3.3 software update, now available via iTunes, addresses the concerns about what Apple calls the “crowd-sourced location database cache”, and specifically reduces the size of that cache, doesn’t back it up to iTunes, and deletes the database completely when you disable “Location Services” from the Settings menu.

Once again, the world is a safer place… until the next security / privacy scare, that is…

For iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch: iOS 4.3 Software Update

The new update includes various tweaks and fixes, plus the following improvements:

• Personal Hotspot – Share iPhone 4 mobile data connection with up to 5 devices
• iTunes Home Sharing – Play music, films and TV shows from a shared iTunes library on a Mac or PC
• Improvements to Airplay streaming
• Faster Safari performance with Apple Nitro JavaScript engine
• HD video out using the Apple Digital AV Adapter (View 720p HD videos on HDMI display)
• Ping features including Push notifications, Post and Like songs, and Parental controls
• Ability to set the number of times for a message alert to be made

There’s also been an upgrade for Apple TV :

 v4.2 supports the changes to AirPlay in today’s iOS upgrade, as well as improvements to the keyboard for text entry.

Also, there seems to be a new version of iTunes.

It was only a week ago since iTunes 10.2 was released. Just a few days later, with no fanfare or explanation notes,  10.2.1 has appeared

Rumours are that we can expect a front-facing camera, a slimmer iPad and possibly a faster processor. As ever, it’s all speculation and the real deal won’t be out there until this coming Wednesday.

Tablet-lovers watch this space…

According to insiders, we can expect the official release of the long-awaited BBC iPlayer mobile application in February 2011.

Expect the app to hit silly download numbers when it becomes available, but remember, watching TV over a 3G connection can get costly from a mobile – play safe, and where possible, use wi-fi.

Sorry, but as yet, no news on an iPlayer app for Android devices…

Customers of the highly-rated First Direct bank can now check balances, make electronic transfers and view the 20 most recent items for their accounts using a new iPhone or iPad application that’s just been released.

Matt Colebrook, the CEO of the online and phone bank had this to say:

“The iPhone App is as a huge step forward, but it’s just the beginning of our ambitions for mobile banking. Our plans for 2011 are to make our ‘on the go’ mobile service available on other smartphone devices.”

“We chose to go with the iPhone first because that’s where our customers are. Over the last 12 months, the iPhone has grown to become the 6^th largest source of visitors to our website and whilst Android is growing rapidly, it’s nowhere near the iPhone just yet.”

You need to be a First Direct customer (obviously!) and to have registered for online banking. One of our team is a firstdirect customer , and he’s tested out the service. It gets a FrequencyCast 5 out of 5.

The app is free, and available now from the iTunes App Store: First Direct iPhone App

When driving around, Pete runs two sat navs – a TomTom, for the hardcore navigation, and a smartphone running Waze, the social navigation application.

Waze is a global project to create a free and fun sat nav. The software is available for a range of smartphones. Install it, and as you’re driving around, you update the master Waze map. You can report speed cameras and live travel news, and road speed information is shared when speed drops below a set threshold.

There’s also an element of fun and social interaction with Waze too – as you drive, you “munch” roads, to confirm them, and there are a bunch of goodies on the road to collect. You can also work your way up a scoreboard, and “ping” other Waze road users.

With Halloween upon us, the creatives at Waze are having fun with us – and there are now bonus ghosts and pumpkins dotted around the roads to help those collecting points to ramp up their scores.

Waze Halloween Road Treats

Got Waze? If so, let us know. Otherwise, if you’ve got an iPhone, Android phone or a Blackberry – get the free app from waze.com (iPhone link). You’ll be addicted, and be doing your bit to map the world.

We’ve just released a quick 10 minute update covering a few news snippets – the changes at Global Radio, a new TomTom sat nav, good news for T-Mobile and Orange users, plus new toys from Apple

The 10 minute FrequencyCast Update is attached to this blog entry, and is available free via iTunes or at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html

We’d love to get your feedback on these stories.

The BBC News iPhone App

After being delayed by a BBC Trust review, the BBC News mobile application was released last week for the iPhone and iPad.

The app allows you to scroll around stories in the main BBC News categories, and edit the layout of the screen to customise what stories you see first. Stories contain embedded video clips, and the beeb has made it easy to share stories on Facebook and Twitter. You can also watch the BBC News TV channel as well as submit a photo or news story direct to the BBC newsroom.

Over half a million people downloaded the application in the first week – impressive numbers!

A BBC Sport application is expected for the iPhone and iPad soon, and versions of the apps should be out for Android and Blackberry later this year. A BBC iPlayer application is also believed to be in the pipeline.

The BBC News app is available for free in the iTunes App Store: BBC News App

The OS upgrade to 4.01 (out now) will make the signal strength display more accurate, and Apple will be giving away a free case (referred to as a rubber “bumper” to everyone who has bought an iPhone 4, or buys one before the end of September 2010. A “bumper” reduces the problem which is caused when the human hand comes into contact with the lower part of the left-hand edge of the iPhone 4.

Those who’ve already bought a bumper case will get a refund.

iPhone 4 owners still not happy can get a refund within 30 days of purchase.

“Antennagate”, a.k.a Death Grip is likely to cost Apple something in the order of £115 million in costs to provide cases for the 3+  million iPhone 4 users – plus a lot of bad press…

Details of how to get a free case will be coming to the Apple website from the 22nd of July 2010.

The 580 megabyte download includes bug fixes and improvements, most notably: “iOs 4.01 Improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display”.

The new OS appears to have increased the size of the signal strength bars, and in part addresses the “Death Grip” issue with reception, which will be formally addressed by Apple at a press conference tomorrow.

iOs 4.01 is available now for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4

The problem manifests itself when you hold the handset in a certain way – causing the signal to drop a few bars – we demonstrated this in our iPhone 4 Launch Special Edition.

A leading consumer magazine in the US has stated that it can’t recommend the phone due to the signal / reception problems, and many Apple fans are an unhappy bunch.

It’s unclear what Apple will have to say about this – Their responses so far have been wooly. There appears to be four options open to Apple:

1. The “It’s not a problem” approach that we’ve had from Steve Jobs
2. Free “bumpers” for all – $25 rubber cases that cover the offending area on the bottom left of the phone
3. A software fix – Although the problem still exists in iOS 4.1 just released to developers, and most believe that this hardware problem can’t be fixed in software
4. A product recall. Embarrassing for Apple, being called for by many, and could be the only way to put this to rest.

Here in the UK, we should know by the end of the working day on Friday just what Apple plans to do for us iPhone 4 users…

• News Updates: iPhone 4 has launched, and big changes for local radio.
• Focus: BT Vision reviewed. A cheaper alternative to Sky for TV and Sky Sports?
• Interview: Radio past and present discussed with a leading radio amateur
• Hands-on: An update on the high-tech Fitbug scheme
• Your comments and questions on Freesat, slow broadband and Slingbox

You can download Show 53 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

Links:

• Show Notes
• Transcript: Focus on BT Vision

Bonus Material!

• iPhone 4 Launch Special: http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/iphone4.html
• 90 Years of Radio Interview: http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/historyofradio.html

We hope you enjoy this packed show. If you like what you’ve heard, please spread the word…

Our listeners have spoken – they want to hear Carl and Pete talking about the new Apple ShinyPhone, and want to know what we think of the 4…

Happy to oblige, we’ve put together a 20 minute special podcast covering the iPhone 4 launch, a hands-on look at the new phone, plus thoughts about availability, tariffs, and the problems with the iPhone 4.

If you’re thinking of getting an iPhone 4 in the UK, take a listen to our iPhone 4 Launch Special Edition – Available at frequencycast.co.uk/iphone4 now.

No need to queue, and our podcasts are, as ever, free!

Got a comment or a question on the iPhone 4? Let us know…