I don’t usually cook curry, I bake cakes more often than I cook curry. But since I was looking for a good excuse to record something on the iPhone 4 Maxis10 review unit and edit it with the iMovie app, I thought filming while I’m cooking would be a great idea. If you ask me why don’t I record myself playing video games on the iPhone 3GS using the iPhone 4, the 3GS has a privacy screen protector on it, making it a really, how would you put it, “leceh” experience with poor results.

Anyways, like I was saying the video was shot using the iPhone 4 with the assistance of my girlfriend as the camerawoman. The iPhone 4′s primary camera is 5MP and supports recording of videos at 720p. This was the easy part actually, but one thing I found out when recording the video is that the phone runs really hot with the metal band around the phone being hot, and uncomfortable to touch.

I purchased the USD 4.99 iMovie app for the iPhone 4 and started editing the heck out of the video. The app is actually pretty full featured. Using the app, I can split the video into several parts, add in titles, transition effects, additional clips (and photos) even put in a soundtrack, but that would be a bit much for this at the  moment.

The end result was exported (using iMovie as well) as a 720p HD movie and then uploaded to YouTube from the iPhone 4 over a WiFi connection. Check it out:

I think the experience on the 26th of September would be permanently seared on my brain; this was when I ran 21 kilometers through a hilly tarmac race course and then walked 5 kilometers back to the finish line due to cramps. Recalling stuff for this Newton 25KM Challenge Race Report is going to be a painful one.

The bulk of  the race was under a really hot morning sun and I had an iPhone 4 review unit strapped to my arm. I’ll be honest here, I don’t run half marathons with my own iPhone 3GS, the amount of sweat is enough to make me doubt whether Belkin arm strap can prevent the phone from getting soaked.

But since this is a review unit, what the heck. I’ve even managed to get some very interesting race data courtesy of using the Adidas miCoach app with the iPhone 4. The miCoach app works with the built-in GPS functionality in the iPhone 4 to record race data such as distance, elevation, pace and route. Once the race information has been uploaded to the miCoach website, I basically have a really cool interface to evaluate my race.

First up, the route. The Newton Challenge took place in Bandar Kinrara 5, Puchong with two categories, 12 KM and 25 KM (it’s 26 KM actually, after checking with the miCoach app). I took the 25 KM event considering that I’ve taken part in half marathons this year, needless to say I gotten more than I can bargain for. The route took us through one of the most hilliest road races I’ve taken part in, even the UPM-based Mizuno Run can’t hold a candle to this.

There are also U-turn points that are very deep in, and the thing about U-turns is that you will be left wondering how far more to the turning point. Maddening…yes….depressing…yes!

Take a look at the elevation information recorded by miCoach and the iPhone 4. Yup, basically we tackled “valley” kind of terrain, you start from one peak, go down, and then go up to the next peak, like a V. Rinse and repeat. Just check out how many we had to tackle in the graph above. The 12 KM runners had it easy, tackling only one hill before turning back at the 6 KM point.

The miCoach app has this voice notification function that can be set to trigger every kilometer (which I did) to notify the user on some race info and it pretty much helped kept my pace in check which is around  6 to 7 minutes a kilometer. The only problem was the course itself. The second half of the race was a long winded affair going uphill and down again (several times) with one u-turn and water stations that ran out of isotonic drinks.

I did 21 KM in 2 hours 42 minutes, not bad considering how tough and hot the course was. I then walked 5 kilometers back to the finish line after cramping both legs, for a final time of 3 hours 40 minutes (yes, it’s horrible walking with cramps). There was no consolation at the finish line either except for a finisher’s shirt, the Milo van and the 100 plus booth were already closed. Meh…

I found out that the Belkin case proofed to be a snug and thankfully dry fit to the iPhone 4.The phone itself had its battery life reduced to half from a full charge, which is okay considering I had the GPS on for nearly 4 hours.  For those of you Nike fanboys out there, I know you wouldn’t be caught dead with an Adidas app, but don’t fret, there’s a Nike+GPS app for the iPhone. In fact, there are plenty of health care and  fitness related apps on the iPhone to check out: http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/mobile-software-applications/id6013?mt=8

My next run will be a training run tomorrow or a day after, with a race coming on the 10th October, the Nike KL 10 KM run. If you see a guy wearing an orange Genting Trailblazer shirt and with an iPhone 4 strapped to his arm, that’s probably me.

The first time I shown my mum the iPhone 4 review unit (part of the Maxis 10 Reviewer Programme), she took out the kitchen scale (the one which I used to measure weight for baking ingredients) and set about comparing the phone in terms of weight and dimensions against that of her smartphone, the HTC Desire. It was probably the beginning of many a trial between the iOS device and the Froyo-powered upstart, but I’ll get to that in a bit. While the iPhone 4 is the latest in Apple’s stable of smartphones, it maintains quite little from the previous generation, the 3GS, except for the now familiar facade, even the sides and the back are different.

For starters, the phone has some considerable heft in it despite being slightly shorter than the 3GS. As a 3GS user, my gripe was often on the plastic cover on the back of the phone. While I read that the cover was part of an effort to better reception on the phone, it didn’t have that touch of class and manly feel from the first generation iPhone (which I also have) which had a metal back. The iPhone 4 brings back both class and macho-ness in a glass enclosure framed with metal on all sides.

Underneath the glassy exterior lay significant upgrades that well, puts my 3GS in the shade. The iPhone 4 shares the same A4 processor first introduced in the iPad and features double the memory of the 3GS, at 512 MB. The display, dubbed Retina Display, packs a 960 * 640 resolution in a 3.5 inch screen, which again, doubles the resolution of the 3GS which shares the same screen size! The rear-camera gets a boost to 5 MP with flash and an accompanying front-facing camera ( 0.3 MP).

What does all these translate to? Coming from an iPhone 3GS user, I can tell you it’s a pretty satisfying experience. As a gamer, the Retina Display is a boon, just check out the amount of detail the iPhone 4 is packing when it comes to Retina Display compatible games like Archetype and Epic Citadel. The new A4 processor no doubt has a hand in this as well, pixel pushing is something the iPhone 4 with great aplomb and that’s more than what a iPhone game like me can ask for:

Looks pretty cool right? IMHO, Apple is pretty much holding it’s lead in terms on mobile phone gaming, first with the fast  (gaming friendly) SGX535GPU introduced in the iPhone 3GS, and now the A4 and Retina Display on the iPhone 4. I’ll be exploring other aspects of the iPhone 4 in the coming days. Stay tuned for upcoming reviews on various aspects of the iPhone 4 on Nineoverten.com.