iPhone 3G

So, almost a week in and I'm quite pleased in my decision to upgrade from my V1 iPhone to the new 3G.

Improvements I've noticed: Speakerphone is much more loud and clear. Signal strength is better. 3G is (obviously) faster than Edge. Calls sound better, and people on the other end say I sound better when talking through my Bluetooth-enabled car stereo (Kenwood DNX-8120). On that note, I've also noticed that the 3G seems to sync up faster with the Kenwood. My V1 would sometimes not pair automatically, and I'd have to go into the Kenwood's setup and reconnect it. So far, the 3G has paired quickly every time I get in the truck.

I also like the SMS screen in the new software with the "Call" and "Contact Info" buttons.

The new curved back does indeed feel great in your hand, and I like the "screen" material over the speakers. I remember wanting one of those black replacement back covers for the original iPhone, so I like the new look. (Although the two exposed screws on bottom don't seem too Apple-like). My screen looks great, and not yellowish.

The App store is awesome, but I do miss my Installer.app! Yesterday I picked up a Dock from the Apple Store, and the new Contour Flick case. The Dock is, well a Dock. The contour case will have to go back though, as it was just too snug to work with the Bodyguardz I already have on my 3G.

Two negative issues. First, cannot delete individual phone calls. Second, Outlook Contacts get duplicated in the event you have the contact listed in Outlook by Name and also by Company.

The main down side I have it the horrible battery life. My old iPhone would go from like 8am to 11pm with over 1/2 a charge still remaining and that is using the ipod for about an hour at the gym and talking to a few people. Now with 3G I'm in the red by 4pm! Horrible. I'll be turning off the 3G tomorrow and see if that helps.

I'm very disappointed with the Iphone 3g. The reasons are detailed below;

1. Battery-Simply awful. I am convinced Apple put a 900 mah battery in there. 3g should not reduce the phone to 12 hours of stand by. No background processes should mean the processor is not clocking high all the time. This battery life is simply pathetic and cant be relied upon for a full days use.


2. buggy-my iphone has reset twice on me today. It lags all the time. I open an email and I have to wait five seconds for the body to show itself. When I go to send a text message it takes three seconds for the keyboard to pop up and then I cant start typing for another couple of seconds.


3. Mail is awful-how can apple expect people to use this mail app? It takes way to many presses to switch email accounts. You cant even search your email!!! I have 400 messages on there right now. Mr. Jobs, you think I am flicking all the way through that list to find what I need?


4. Calander-Terrible. Again, Mr. Jobs, how do you expecdt mobile professionals to use this when you cant even set up an appointment and invite people??


5. Notifications-I get a great bubble when I get a text message or calander appointment, why not an email? Seems perfectly reasonable to me.


6. Phone-Dialing a number couldnt be more complicated. How about smart dial from the dial pad? Is that so difficult to implement??
   
   Voice Dial-At least give us a voice dial program to make up for that terrible phone interface, HUH????

I'm sure updates will follow which will take care of the glitches, but I dont have the time to wait. And the battery is what it is. Another note to Mr. Jobs, let people buy extended batteries!! I know, it will make your beautiful product a little less beautiful, but at least it will last. For a second gen phone, Apple really came up short.

On the positive side, the media is great and I will miss Itunes. but I guess we all have to sacrifice a little. It's back to my curve I guess.

Sleek, sweet, and 3G. What more could you ask for?

I can not believe they keep saying the work PUSH, If you have a BlackBerry and like getting your emails the moment they are sent then you do not want this iphone. The 1st iPhone received emails faster than this one. Called Apple Care not much use either. I was hoping to find some help here. But I guess I will let you know its a great phone if you don't like getting your emails except every 15 minutes or unless you know they sent you one. They said mobile me is like an exchange server...NOT- that is also every 15 minutes...Damn do I miss my CURVE...

Battery was fully charged this morning left the house at 8:30am is now 12:10 battery is ½ gone I only make 5 or 6 calls. Check a few emails and got a couple of apps. Safari a lot faster speaker is clear than previous version. GPS great feature. 3g is a lot clear when on the phone.

First a little history, I've been a long time Windows Mobile smartphone user, before that Palm user and have used Blackberries for work. My phone is aging and I needed a new device. I didn't want to get another Windows Mobile device at least not until Microsoft gets up to speed with Windows Mobile 7. With that said and all the hype surronding the iPhone, I decided to pick one up, figured I couldn't go wrong since my cell provider in Canada gives virtual dollars for cell usage that can be redeemed towards new headsets so managed to pick up a 16 Gig black for $30 Canadian! Can't beat that!

With that said, these comments come from my experience in comparison with other "Smartphone" devices but so far I'm not very impressed, if I was going from a regular phone to the iPhone 3G I'd probably say this is the best thing since sliced bread but after eating better food, it's hard to go back to just bread! The iPhone can best be described as an MP3 player with a phone, catagorizing it as a smartphone can best be summed up with "iPhone, the worlds dumbest smartphone!"

On the plus side, compared to Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile, this is the best GUI on a phone hands down! The OS is rock solid and it's an absolute dream to use! The screen is absolutely beautiful and a pleasure to work with even outdoors in direct sunlight. Compared to my Windows Mobile device which I can barely see with one hand providing shade, the iPhone is perfectly viewable in the same sunny enviroment! Also compared to my WinMo device which uses a resistive touch screen, I can't stress enough how much better a capacitive touch screen is!

Accessing the internet with the 3G iPhone is the best experience I've every had. The web browser is fast and very easy to use! It pretty much loads every page I've tried so far in a very useable way, though I've had issues accessing companies OWA site.

16 Gig storage, can't say anything more than that! It's just awesome. If you're a Windows user, I can say I've noticed much improvements with the new version of iTunes. Another plus is the ability to run 3rd party applications, this was one of the things prevented me from considering the first generation iPhone. The second thing is Activesync compatible push email, I'm really happy they included that feature as I can't live without it anymore.

On the negative side, it's a little big for a phone, not that it's bad but I wish it was a little smaller in the height area and not as wide. The thickness is perfect though, just wish it was smaller.

So far I find the battery life to be really bad especially with 3G. Kind of funny, all the hype surronding 3G and I turned it off to get some extra battery life. I thought my Windows Mobile device was pretty bad for battery but I was really surprised to find that the iPhone was just as bad if not worse! I always heard it was very good. I don't know if it's just the first couple of charges but hopefully it will improve. Speaking of battery life, it really is silly that you can't easily remove the battery, what is Apple thinking! I use my devices heavily and charge at least once a day if not more. Batteries don't last forever and I end up replacing my batteries once a year, they're still good but they stop holding a charge long enough. I also have a spare battery for situations where I know I won't have access to a charger and can easily replace it. Not happy about this.

The GPS seems to work as good as my other devices but it really is silly that they didn't update their software to support voice guided drive by instructions or included a different program. Yesterday I had to go somewhere and tried navigating with the iPhone, ended up pulling out the old WinMo device to use TomTom. Was thinking of selling it but now thinking of keeping it in the car as a GPS unit. Someone told me that developers cannot write voice guided GPS software for the iPhone due to Apple's agreement. I can't believe this and hope it's not true, that would just be silly. I heard TomTom was going to release a version for the iPhone, I really hope this is true or at least someone releases a GPS program with voice guided drive by instructions!

So far I'm not impressed with the apps in the app store, most are useless or gimicky but I know it's just a matter of time before I start seeing some useful programs to replace programs I've been using.

Now to that "iPhone, the worlds dumbest smartphone!" comment I made earlier. The device is missing too many basic features out of the box! Things that you can even find in the cheapest model dumb phones! Where is MMS, where is voice dialing, copy and paste??? Ability to run multiple programs at once? A 3G device without video calling? Would have been nice to have out of the box solutions to edit files, I miss that, maybe they should have an iPhone version of OpenOffice

The keyboard on the iPhone is nice and I really like the way it corrects words, it's needed because the keyboard is too small to type out long emails or notes fast and maintain accuracy at high speeds. I really hope alternate keyboards can be written and easily used and someone writes one. I'd really like to see Cootek's TouchPal keyboard written for the iPhone, it's the best touch keyboard I've ever used!

These are just a few things I've had issues with so far, I'm going to stick with it and hope for improvements in these negative points I've made. BTW, one thing I absolutely hate, why oh why Apple do you have to make everything proprietary. I'm talking the charge connector. Every device I use has a mini-usb connector, makes it really simple to have one charger in the car for all my devices, makes it even simpler to go anywhere and charge my device. It's so easy to say, do you have the cable you connect your digital camera to your computer and then just connect your device. But the 3G iPhone, noooo, carry a cable or you're screwed. Well then, everyone has a 3G iPhone now right!

So if you are one of the few people who hasn't picked up a 3G iPhone and are thinking of getting one here's what I say.

If you're a dumb phone user and you can adjust to carrying a larger device, you're going to probably love it but you'll hate the battery life!

If you're a BlackBerry user, you'll hate the keyboard if you type long emails and you'll definately hate the battery life.

If you're a WinMo user, you're going to love the GUI and touch screen but you're going to have a hard time dealing with all the limitations and finding alternatives to the software you use.

If you're an mp3 user who wants to get an mp3 player that can make some phone calls and be able to access the internet occasionally, you're going to think this is the best thing since sliced bread.

Having come from a smart phone background, I found that it lacked the level of control that I was used to. For example, not being able to browse the file system and also I find the satnav a bit too simple.

Saying that, the phone is pretty slick, with it's interface being superb.

The apps are pretty standard, nothing too fancy, but as said the interface is blinding. The processing of actions is completely abstract for the user and that makes it a joy to use.

Great phone!

Really happy :)