The Ultimate Question Of Battery Life, The Universe And Everything

Yes, I'm an Apple Fan Boy.

Yes, I love Apple products.

Yes, I actually use them.

And this last statement is actually the source of my rant as for the last five years, I have been constantly obsessed with the battery life of my iPhone (from V1 to 3G to 3GS to 4 to 4S and finally iPhone 5). Each new iPhone with each new iOS iteration brought more features, less power consumption but more or less the same battery and in the end the same battery life.

What Apple failed to realize is that releasing a less power hungry chip doesn't compensate for the increase in use and functionality when coupled to the same battery.

All the talk about great battery life is just marketing BS to me. The iPhone has great battery life if you don't use it. But isn't the point of having a shiny iPhone to actually use it? What if you're heading to the airport after a long day of work (or actually a short day of work) and realize that your boarding pass stored in Passbook won't be available when you get to the airport because you don't have enough battery left?

Well, that's my life and the following picture is what I fear the most and yet see very often:

FaceTime Vs. VoiceTime

Am I the only wondering when Apple is going to unleash the real power of FaceTime by not implementing a new feature but actually giving users the option to choose between videoconferencing and voice calls?

Videoconferencing has been the holy grail of communications for a very long time until it was actually released and most people realized it was actually uncomfortable and awkward to broadcast their image.

Nevertheless, Apple managed to make Apple fans use their FaceTime product more than they had ever used any kind of videoconferencing software or device. One of the best features of FaceTime is that it uses data connectivity (originally wifi and now cellular as well) to establish a session, hence letting people communicate internationally for free.

The next best thing, in my opinion, will be when Apple decides to let users opt out of the video and and only use Voice (they should name this VoiceTime), therefore letting people call each other for free using internet connectivity.

Now, I see you wondering: this is not new, Skype did this years ago... Well yes and no... The genius idea behind FaceTime was to use one's cellular phone number as a FaceTime ID. In the same line of thinking, Apple could very well allow users to use their cellular phone number as an ID to make voice calls, effectively looping the loop by doing so: users will use their phone number to call other users' phone numbers but they will be bypassing cellular carriers' voice infrastructures and only be using data networks. I could very well see Apple becoming a data-only carrier and be a game changer in that area.

Now do you get it? VoIP calls using one's cellular phone number as their ID!

Another Worthy Burger in Strasbourg (France)

Every once in a while, fate smiles upon you. As most of you already know, my wife and I founded the "Share-A-Burger" initiative in December 2004 in a genuine attempt to change the world one burger at a time. If you're not already a fan by the way, please like our facebook page immediately.

As of today, we have 479 fans sharing the love of burgers and even better, a restaurant in Strasbourg that serves burgers using our GNU General Public License Burger recipe with only minor modifications. So, do not hesitate to go try it for yourself at Le Catsy's Chez Frieda!

And of course: May The Burger Be With You All!