The news is all abuzz about the unveiling of the Apple Tablet (iTablet, iSlate, iPad, or iSomethingoranother) on Wednesday. Rather than rehash all the rumors, this post will dwell on features I hope we don't see.
1. The price had better be lower than $1000. It will be marginal at $700, appealing at $500, and sensational under that price. If I'm going to pay $1000, I'll stick with a laptop. I can live with a keyboard and the extra features a laptop offers as a small tradeoff for sexiness.
2. The prices above need to be unsubsidized. While access to a 3G network is desirable, I'm at the point where I'm not going to spend any more on Internet access, even for tethering. The reason is simple: 1) I have Verizon FiOS at home and pay north of $40 a month for it; 2) I have a data plan on my iPhone and pay $30 a month for it; 3) and my wife has a data plan on her iPhone and pays $30 a month for it. That is a total of $100 a month for Internet access. If I'm on one, I'm not on the other. Therefore, I'm not getting my money's worth out of any of them now. I'm not going to pay any more. I am going to give up a service before I buy any additional access.
If the price is right, I would buy a tablet for use with Wi-Fi only. Most of the places I use my iPhone now has Wi-Fi (home, friend's homes, Starbuck's, McDonald's, Barnes & Noble, Original Pancake House, and various colleges and universities). It's sort of similar to the AT&T and Verizon dueling advertisements--for all the debate on who has the most coverage, the majority of my 3G use takes place within 40 miles of home and most of
My Internet access is through Wi-Fi. From my viewpoint, Clear offers 4G in our area and could replace all my Internet needs if Apple offered an iPhone/Tablet package on Clear--total cost $55 per month.
The point of this is, I'm an Apple fanboy, but only to a point. A $250 netbook with Wi-Fi access will meet my needs just fine. To get me to the Apple Tablet, it will have to be a compelling financial benefit. Otherwise the iPhone and a netbook is the way to go.
Your thoughts?
Showing posts with label iPhone 3G. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPhone 3G. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, March 16, 2009
iPhone Reset
I have noticed an interesting problem with my 3G 16GB iPhone. I have had the phone since last July, but the current problem only showed up over the last week or so. I have 3Gb free, so it isn't because of lack of space. However, I do have 104 added applications along with eight saved links on my springboard. All applications are up-to-date.
With that background, the problem is two-fold. First, every so often when I first turn the phone on, it will boot up as a virgin phone. That is, it requests the user to plug the phone into a USB port and the only action you can take is to access the emergency dialing. When the phone is cold-started (holding both the on/off and home buttons at the same time), the screen notifies the user that the phone has been activated and the phone works normally--until the next time this occurs.
The second problem is that since the last OS upgrade the phone seems to respond more slowly. In some cases, the time from selecting an application to actually having that application active can run to 15 seconds!
While these are not major problems, they are annoying. Has anyone else seen these problems? If so, has anyone found a way to eliminate them? We would like to hear your feedback.
With that background, the problem is two-fold. First, every so often when I first turn the phone on, it will boot up as a virgin phone. That is, it requests the user to plug the phone into a USB port and the only action you can take is to access the emergency dialing. When the phone is cold-started (holding both the on/off and home buttons at the same time), the screen notifies the user that the phone has been activated and the phone works normally--until the next time this occurs.
The second problem is that since the last OS upgrade the phone seems to respond more slowly. In some cases, the time from selecting an application to actually having that application active can run to 15 seconds!
While these are not major problems, they are annoying. Has anyone else seen these problems? If so, has anyone found a way to eliminate them? We would like to hear your feedback.
Monday, January 5, 2009
All I want for MacWorld
This is getting to be old. It's the same old story. The iPhone is a great phone, and could be a great handheld computing device...but. So, all I want from MacWorld is not an iPhone Nano. It's not a new larger iPhone/iTouch Netbook. I want the things that should have been available on the iPhone when it first appeared.
Understand, I practically live on my iPhone. I can go for days without using my computer. I can track my personal and business email. I can research information on the Web, and I can take notes for later use. More often than not, I even write my blog posts on the iPhone (this is one of those exceptions). The point is that I use my iPhone a lot and I use it many times as a substitute for my laptop. With that background, here are my gripes.
After a year-and-a-half of clicking back-and-forth between applications trying to remember that 45-digit long URL, Apple give me Cut/Copy/Paste. It can't be that hard. People have applications in the AppStore with the feature enabled. It doesn't matter if you screw it up and have to redo it at a later date, just give me the damn function. My memory isn't what it used to be. Therefore, memorizing a piece of information and switching between applications and then typing is getting less productive the older I get. When I forward a message in email, I don't like to make the reader suffer through all the various forwards. As a result, doing so on the iPhone can literally take hours. It's a dumb feature to be missing and enough is enough.
Add Flash. I don't care if it's doggy, just give me the capability to view Flash content on the iPhone. Whether Steve Jobs likes it or not, Flash is a Web standard. I am finding that there are numerous Web sites that I do not have access to simply because the iPhone does not support Flash. As Adobe expands their Web application suite, this is only going to get worse. Add to this problem the fact that many sites are also now using Microsoft Silverlight and the problem gets worse. Quicktime is a Web standard; good for you Apple. However, Flash and Silverlight are also standards and the iPhone should also support them.
Bring Mobile Safari up to standard so it can be used with sites such as Google Apps. If this means an improved Java engine, so be it. While Apple may be protecting their installed base of iWork users and continuing to show appreciation for the Microsoft Office for Mac crowd, the fact is sites such as Google Apps are catching on and users want access to the presentation, word processing, and spreadsheet functions offered. Locking this capability out of the iPhone will only drive users to alternative platforms (such as the Google OS-based phones). Embrace the evolving Web and ride the wave. Otherwise, Apple may be left in the backwash of a missed wave, much as happened in the '80s.
While I would love to have the ability to rename photos on the iPhone (as has been on my gripe list for more than a year), at a minimum, let me at least pull up the image information. The information on date and time taken are available in the phone as that information is passed to iPhoto. Make it available directly on the phone for crying out loud. While you are at it, allow the photo application to capture GPS coordinates since that field is available.
Finally, Documents-To-Go, get your act together and release the package for the iPhone. I have heard rumors of this being done since the iPhone was released and I am still waiting. Is it copy/paste that's holding you up? If so, implement your own version.
What say you? While I don't mean this to be a infinite wish list, what are the absolute functions that you feel are needed to make the iPhone a true portable computing substitute?
Understand, I practically live on my iPhone. I can go for days without using my computer. I can track my personal and business email. I can research information on the Web, and I can take notes for later use. More often than not, I even write my blog posts on the iPhone (this is one of those exceptions). The point is that I use my iPhone a lot and I use it many times as a substitute for my laptop. With that background, here are my gripes.
After a year-and-a-half of clicking back-and-forth between applications trying to remember that 45-digit long URL, Apple give me Cut/Copy/Paste. It can't be that hard. People have applications in the AppStore with the feature enabled. It doesn't matter if you screw it up and have to redo it at a later date, just give me the damn function. My memory isn't what it used to be. Therefore, memorizing a piece of information and switching between applications and then typing is getting less productive the older I get. When I forward a message in email, I don't like to make the reader suffer through all the various forwards. As a result, doing so on the iPhone can literally take hours. It's a dumb feature to be missing and enough is enough.
Add Flash. I don't care if it's doggy, just give me the capability to view Flash content on the iPhone. Whether Steve Jobs likes it or not, Flash is a Web standard. I am finding that there are numerous Web sites that I do not have access to simply because the iPhone does not support Flash. As Adobe expands their Web application suite, this is only going to get worse. Add to this problem the fact that many sites are also now using Microsoft Silverlight and the problem gets worse. Quicktime is a Web standard; good for you Apple. However, Flash and Silverlight are also standards and the iPhone should also support them.
Bring Mobile Safari up to standard so it can be used with sites such as Google Apps. If this means an improved Java engine, so be it. While Apple may be protecting their installed base of iWork users and continuing to show appreciation for the Microsoft Office for Mac crowd, the fact is sites such as Google Apps are catching on and users want access to the presentation, word processing, and spreadsheet functions offered. Locking this capability out of the iPhone will only drive users to alternative platforms (such as the Google OS-based phones). Embrace the evolving Web and ride the wave. Otherwise, Apple may be left in the backwash of a missed wave, much as happened in the '80s.
While I would love to have the ability to rename photos on the iPhone (as has been on my gripe list for more than a year), at a minimum, let me at least pull up the image information. The information on date and time taken are available in the phone as that information is passed to iPhoto. Make it available directly on the phone for crying out loud. While you are at it, allow the photo application to capture GPS coordinates since that field is available.
Finally, Documents-To-Go, get your act together and release the package for the iPhone. I have heard rumors of this being done since the iPhone was released and I am still waiting. Is it copy/paste that's holding you up? If so, implement your own version.
What say you? While I don't mean this to be a infinite wish list, what are the absolute functions that you feel are needed to make the iPhone a true portable computing substitute?
Friday, November 28, 2008
What's on My iPhone
It's been awhile since I've written about applications on the iPhone. The last time I discussed a number of jailbreak apps that I had tried out or used heavily. However, since upgrading to the iPhone 3G, I have been running strictly legit apps. (I still have jailbroken apps on my original iPhone, but nothing really impressive.)
So what do I have on my iPhone? Here goes:
Page One/Line One:
- SMS
- Calendar
- Photos
- Camera
All standard Apple apps and in their original locations.
Page One/Line Two:
- YouTube
- Bloomberg
- Maps
- Weather
YouTube and Maps are the standard Apple apps. I have substituted the Bloomberg app for the standard Apple Stocks app because it is so much better; stores and provides more information; and is free. I don't use Apple's Stocks application. Weather is a Safari shortcut for the Weather Underground site (http://i.wund.com) and I have it set to my local weather. Weather Underground provides in-depth seven-day forecasts as well as local weather radar on the same page. I don't use Apple's Weather app.
Page One/Line Three:
- Mobile News
- Calculator
- Evernote
- Reader
Only the Calculator is an original Apple app. I have an HP-21-like financial calculator on the phone also, but find the Apple Calculator simple and reliable for most day-to-day uses. Mobile News is the Associated Press' free news application and I find it simple, and provides a great overview of world, US, political, and business news. While I still use Apple's notes app, it has been relegated to page two. Evernote is a free application that provides easy notetaking, allows voice recording, allows snapshot notes, and syncs all these in the cloud. Evernote also has Web access as well as an app that runs on the Mac. The result is information can be accessed virtually anywhere (unlike Apple's Notes app). Finally, Reader is a Safari shortcut to Google's iPhone-optimized reader page. This fills the bill for information not provided by Mobile News.
Page One/Line Four:
- Contacts
- Settings
- Twitterific
- Jott
Contacts and Setting are the standard Apple apps. Twitterific is my primary Twitter client and is used quite often. Jott is my preferred ToDo list application because it allows voice transcription of notes and ToDos. This makes it great when driving and something comes to mind that I wamt to remember.
The Dock:
- Phone
- Mail
- Safari
- iPod
These are all standard iPhone apps and in their original position.
With a few exceptions, these are the workhorse applications I use. I have a total of nine pages of apps and shortcuts, some used quite often and others that are there if I need them. Others of note include:
- 1Password for keeping track of various user IDs, passwords, and related Web site addresses.
- AppStore for keeping applications updated and installing new ones.
-AirSharing for keeping various Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files that
I need to reference on the iPhone.
- Wikipanion for looking up those quick items that don't require an in-depth Google search. It's a free app.
- Google Search with the voice recognition capability. I find that I use this app a lot more since they added the voice recognition.
- New York Times application. This fills the holes left by Mobile News and Google Reader, but the application is prone to frequent crashes.
- SportsTap, a comprehensive sports tracking application.
- iBlogger which I use to write most of my blog entries. I paid for this application and it has been worth every penny.
- i.TV for tracking what's on TV as well as finding what's playing at local theatres.
There are other applications that I use from time to time, but not nearly as frequently as the ones mentioned. I will cover some of them at a later time.
So what do I have on my iPhone? Here goes:
Page One/Line One:
- SMS
- Calendar
- Photos
- Camera
All standard Apple apps and in their original locations.
Page One/Line Two:
- YouTube
- Bloomberg
- Maps
- Weather
YouTube and Maps are the standard Apple apps. I have substituted the Bloomberg app for the standard Apple Stocks app because it is so much better; stores and provides more information; and is free. I don't use Apple's Stocks application. Weather is a Safari shortcut for the Weather Underground site (http://i.wund.com) and I have it set to my local weather. Weather Underground provides in-depth seven-day forecasts as well as local weather radar on the same page. I don't use Apple's Weather app.
Page One/Line Three:
- Mobile News
- Calculator
- Evernote
- Reader
Only the Calculator is an original Apple app. I have an HP-21-like financial calculator on the phone also, but find the Apple Calculator simple and reliable for most day-to-day uses. Mobile News is the Associated Press' free news application and I find it simple, and provides a great overview of world, US, political, and business news. While I still use Apple's notes app, it has been relegated to page two. Evernote is a free application that provides easy notetaking, allows voice recording, allows snapshot notes, and syncs all these in the cloud. Evernote also has Web access as well as an app that runs on the Mac. The result is information can be accessed virtually anywhere (unlike Apple's Notes app). Finally, Reader is a Safari shortcut to Google's iPhone-optimized reader page. This fills the bill for information not provided by Mobile News.
Page One/Line Four:
- Contacts
- Settings
- Twitterific
- Jott
Contacts and Setting are the standard Apple apps. Twitterific is my primary Twitter client and is used quite often. Jott is my preferred ToDo list application because it allows voice transcription of notes and ToDos. This makes it great when driving and something comes to mind that I wamt to remember.
The Dock:
- Phone
- Safari
- iPod
These are all standard iPhone apps and in their original position.
With a few exceptions, these are the workhorse applications I use. I have a total of nine pages of apps and shortcuts, some used quite often and others that are there if I need them. Others of note include:
- 1Password for keeping track of various user IDs, passwords, and related Web site addresses.
- AppStore for keeping applications updated and installing new ones.
-AirSharing for keeping various Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files that
I need to reference on the iPhone.
- Wikipanion for looking up those quick items that don't require an in-depth Google search. It's a free app.
- Google Search with the voice recognition capability. I find that I use this app a lot more since they added the voice recognition.
- New York Times application. This fills the holes left by Mobile News and Google Reader, but the application is prone to frequent crashes.
- SportsTap, a comprehensive sports tracking application.
- iBlogger which I use to write most of my blog entries. I paid for this application and it has been worth every penny.
- i.TV for tracking what's on TV as well as finding what's playing at local theatres.
There are other applications that I use from time to time, but not nearly as frequently as the ones mentioned. I will cover some of them at a later time.
Monday, November 10, 2008
iPhone November 2008
It has been awhile since I posted to this blog for the primary reason that I did not have anything significant to add to the conversation about what a good or terrible phone the iPhone represents. However, there are a couple of items that I have not seen mentioned that I think warrant discussion: 3G coverage improvements; iPhone battery improvements; AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots; and blogging applications.
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I first got my iPhone 3G, the 3G coverage was marginal at best. That is, in many places, a 3G signal was not available; where there was a signal, it was so weak that the phone would switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE; and when you did get a signal, it would suck the energy out of the battery in no time. Over the last month or so, that seems to have changed. With the release of the 2.1 update, the 3G radio seems more stable. In addition, it does not seem to drain the battery as fast. However, the biggest improvement appears to be the 3G network itself--finding a strong 3G signal now appears to be the rule instead of the exception. Quality has improved as has stability. Speed is exceptional.
Along with these 3G improvements has come a related improvement in battery life. I can now typically get a full day out of a charge, something I could not do just a few months ago.
Now for the bad news--AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots work terribly on the iPhone. First, the hoops you have to jump through just sign on to the hotspot is a genuine pain. You connect by Safari, fill out your phone number and agree to the terms and conditions. Then AT&T sends you an SMS message with a link to use for access. However, half the time, the link is not live (requiring you to enter a really long URL manually into a browser. Another quarter of the time, the link is bad and will tell you that you cannot connect and to try again later. If you should be so lucky to connect, the connection is flaky. That is, when I go to open another Safari window, AT&T will ask me to go through the sign-in procedure again. By this time, it is just simpler to turn on 3G.
Other than that, not much has changed. The iPhone still crashes periodically, although less than when first released. Some apps are good and some are bad. I have been trying out the free blogging applications. I tried to post this using LifeCast, but once the entry was completed it would not upload and I ended up having to manually enter the post online. Therefore I wouldn't recommend LifeCast.
WordPress is an outstanding free blog, but is limited to posting to the WordPress site only. However, it is easy to use, full featured and works well.
Finally, BlogWriter Lite works well, no labels or tags, but will allow you to compose on the iPhone and then post to a blog. I use it for a BlogSpot blog and it works great. The only problem is that it will allow the use of only one blog (I have four). I am willing to buy a blog app, but the choices at present seem to have significant bugs judging from the comments, so I will wait awhile longer.
What are you thoughts on 3G, battery life and blog applications? I would like to hear.
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I first got my iPhone 3G, the 3G coverage was marginal at best. That is, in many places, a 3G signal was not available; where there was a signal, it was so weak that the phone would switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE; and when you did get a signal, it would suck the energy out of the battery in no time. Over the last month or so, that seems to have changed. With the release of the 2.1 update, the 3G radio seems more stable. In addition, it does not seem to drain the battery as fast. However, the biggest improvement appears to be the 3G network itself--finding a strong 3G signal now appears to be the rule instead of the exception. Quality has improved as has stability. Speed is exceptional.
Along with these 3G improvements has come a related improvement in battery life. I can now typically get a full day out of a charge, something I could not do just a few months ago.
Now for the bad news--AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots work terribly on the iPhone. First, the hoops you have to jump through just sign on to the hotspot is a genuine pain. You connect by Safari, fill out your phone number and agree to the terms and conditions. Then AT&T sends you an SMS message with a link to use for access. However, half the time, the link is not live (requiring you to enter a really long URL manually into a browser. Another quarter of the time, the link is bad and will tell you that you cannot connect and to try again later. If you should be so lucky to connect, the connection is flaky. That is, when I go to open another Safari window, AT&T will ask me to go through the sign-in procedure again. By this time, it is just simpler to turn on 3G.
Other than that, not much has changed. The iPhone still crashes periodically, although less than when first released. Some apps are good and some are bad. I have been trying out the free blogging applications. I tried to post this using LifeCast, but once the entry was completed it would not upload and I ended up having to manually enter the post online. Therefore I wouldn't recommend LifeCast.
WordPress is an outstanding free blog, but is limited to posting to the WordPress site only. However, it is easy to use, full featured and works well.
Finally, BlogWriter Lite works well, no labels or tags, but will allow you to compose on the iPhone and then post to a blog. I use it for a BlogSpot blog and it works great. The only problem is that it will allow the use of only one blog (I have four). I am willing to buy a blog app, but the choices at present seem to have significant bugs judging from the comments, so I will wait awhile longer.
What are you thoughts on 3G, battery life and blog applications? I would like to hear.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
iPhone 3G Bug Research
Since getting my iPhone 3G two weeks ago, I have found that there are a variety of problems with it. Many of these problems have been documented as individual issues with the new phone. They have included battery drain problems, especially with the 3G radio turned on; crashes of a variety of applications, but mainly with applications added from the Apple AppStore; and a variety of memory leak problems that lead to the operating system running slower and slower until the only way to fix it is to perform a hard reboot by pressing and holding the on/off and home buttons simultaneously.
I experienced all of these problems at one time or another. In many cases, I was having to perform the hard reboot multiple times a day (not to mention frequent battery recharging). Therefore, several days ago, I undertook a series of experiments with the iPhone by turning the various radios on and off under different circumstances to see if they had any impact on the identified problems. Since I don't use bluetooth, it has always been off. However, I have worked with the combination of 3G, EDGE, and Wi-Fi in various configurations.
The results indicate that the problems occur when the 3G is on. First, with 3G off, whether or not the Wi-Fi was on, I did not experience the frequency of crashes and memory leaks that were experienced when 3G was on. Indeed, I have had 3G off for a couple of days now and have now and have not had to perform a hard reboot once. While numerous application launches are slow, they are consistently slow--there is no degradation in performance. From this I conclude that the slow application response (lasting to five seconds or more in some cases) is a separate problem with the configuration of the OS.
Battery drain with 3G off seemed to be on a par with the 1.1.4 version on the generation 1 iPhone. While this is not surprising on the one hand, it is when I have had discussions with numerous people complaining that the 2.0 version on the generation 1 iPhone seemed to have faster battery drain. My suggestion is that unless 1) you are accessing complicated, non-iPhone optimized Web pages; or 2) you have a need to access the Internet and talk on the phone simultaneously, leave 3G off. Leave it off at least until Apple releases an update to 2.0.
To be sure, I still experience crashes--especially related to Safari--but they are much less frequent. This leads me to believe that the Safari crashes are due to a cause separate from the other application crashes. (Speculation is that the other application crashes may be due to the DRM used in the SDK.)
Another issue isolated by these experiments is the communications instability. With 3G on, the iPhone appears to have significant problems locking onto a "preferred" radio--EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi. As a result, the phone experiences numerous drop-outs, causing the phone to pick a back-up communication radio and re-establish communications. My research indicates that this happens when the phone has the screen turned-off for any extended period of time. It also occurs when the signal is marginal (not sure what marginal is as yet). When the situation occurs, the iPhone "thrashes" among the various available radios. However, it seems most pronounced when the 3G radio is on. When the 3G radio is off, it will still take a few seconds to lock onto either EDGE or Wi-Fi, but does not take that long. When 3G is on, it seems to take forever to lock on. Whether this is the radio, or the handshaking that goes on after lock to establish an Internet connection is unknown.
The result of all this is leave the 3G off if possible until Apple has had time to work through the various bugs in the OS. Your thoughts?
I experienced all of these problems at one time or another. In many cases, I was having to perform the hard reboot multiple times a day (not to mention frequent battery recharging). Therefore, several days ago, I undertook a series of experiments with the iPhone by turning the various radios on and off under different circumstances to see if they had any impact on the identified problems. Since I don't use bluetooth, it has always been off. However, I have worked with the combination of 3G, EDGE, and Wi-Fi in various configurations.
The results indicate that the problems occur when the 3G is on. First, with 3G off, whether or not the Wi-Fi was on, I did not experience the frequency of crashes and memory leaks that were experienced when 3G was on. Indeed, I have had 3G off for a couple of days now and have now and have not had to perform a hard reboot once. While numerous application launches are slow, they are consistently slow--there is no degradation in performance. From this I conclude that the slow application response (lasting to five seconds or more in some cases) is a separate problem with the configuration of the OS.
Battery drain with 3G off seemed to be on a par with the 1.1.4 version on the generation 1 iPhone. While this is not surprising on the one hand, it is when I have had discussions with numerous people complaining that the 2.0 version on the generation 1 iPhone seemed to have faster battery drain. My suggestion is that unless 1) you are accessing complicated, non-iPhone optimized Web pages; or 2) you have a need to access the Internet and talk on the phone simultaneously, leave 3G off. Leave it off at least until Apple releases an update to 2.0.
To be sure, I still experience crashes--especially related to Safari--but they are much less frequent. This leads me to believe that the Safari crashes are due to a cause separate from the other application crashes. (Speculation is that the other application crashes may be due to the DRM used in the SDK.)
Another issue isolated by these experiments is the communications instability. With 3G on, the iPhone appears to have significant problems locking onto a "preferred" radio--EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi. As a result, the phone experiences numerous drop-outs, causing the phone to pick a back-up communication radio and re-establish communications. My research indicates that this happens when the phone has the screen turned-off for any extended period of time. It also occurs when the signal is marginal (not sure what marginal is as yet). When the situation occurs, the iPhone "thrashes" among the various available radios. However, it seems most pronounced when the 3G radio is on. When the 3G radio is off, it will still take a few seconds to lock onto either EDGE or Wi-Fi, but does not take that long. When 3G is on, it seems to take forever to lock on. Whether this is the radio, or the handshaking that goes on after lock to establish an Internet connection is unknown.
The result of all this is leave the 3G off if possible until Apple has had time to work through the various bugs in the OS. Your thoughts?
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Review: iPhone 3G
In my last post, I discussed only the iPhone OS X 2.0 software upgrade and the AppStore. This post is about the new iPhone 3G hardware only. As you will see, it is a short review.
First, why should you upgrade? The following are the only reasons I can think of:
With that background, the iPhone 3G is lighter and better shaped than the gen-1 model. However, browser speed improvement is a factor of both the 2.0 software (also available on gen-1 phones) and 3G. In my opinion, if you are accessing iPhone optimized Web sites, you are going to see little difference. If you are accessing normal Web sites, you might see a significant improvement, but remember the software upgrade is responsible for part of that. Also remember that loads on the site impacts speed; you can have the fastest Internet service in the world, but a Web site under heavy load or using a small server will be slow--whether on dial-up, 2G, 3G, or an OC3 line directly connected to your computer. Therefore, unless you are a heavy non-optimized Web site user, you may want to hold off buying the 3G.
The other key difference is the A-GPS. I find that it works great when it works. However, there are times when it can't seem to get a lock on my location. When it works, it is fun watching the little blue dot move as you move. In my case, it will actually move from the front to the back of my house which isn't bad.
With that said, I have to honestly say that if you are still lost using the gen-1 location services, then you probably should not be allowed out alone anyway. GPS is nice, but not a good reason to upgrade in my opinion.
The microphone and the speakers on the 3G both have been improved. However, not enough to justify an upgrade.
My net out. If you just want the 3G to have one, if you need extra space, or you just have $300 to burn, then go for it. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to justify the upgrade.
How about the rest of you who have upgraded? What are your thoughts?
First, why should you upgrade? The following are the only reasons I can think of:
- You don't have an iPhone currently, are eligible for an AT&T upgrade and you have been lusting for the iPhone.
- You currently have a generation 1 iPhone and are running out of memory (you have either a 4GB or 8GB model) and you are eligible for an AT&T upgrade.
- You are on another wireless carrier and simply want an iPhone.
- You could care less about the iPhone.
- You have an iPhone and it basically meets your current needs.
- You have an iPhone, but you are not in the AT&T 3G coverage area (and this is quite a bit of the AT&T coverage area).
- You think 3G is going to work miracle speeds on your email and browser.
With that background, the iPhone 3G is lighter and better shaped than the gen-1 model. However, browser speed improvement is a factor of both the 2.0 software (also available on gen-1 phones) and 3G. In my opinion, if you are accessing iPhone optimized Web sites, you are going to see little difference. If you are accessing normal Web sites, you might see a significant improvement, but remember the software upgrade is responsible for part of that. Also remember that loads on the site impacts speed; you can have the fastest Internet service in the world, but a Web site under heavy load or using a small server will be slow--whether on dial-up, 2G, 3G, or an OC3 line directly connected to your computer. Therefore, unless you are a heavy non-optimized Web site user, you may want to hold off buying the 3G.
The other key difference is the A-GPS. I find that it works great when it works. However, there are times when it can't seem to get a lock on my location. When it works, it is fun watching the little blue dot move as you move. In my case, it will actually move from the front to the back of my house which isn't bad.
With that said, I have to honestly say that if you are still lost using the gen-1 location services, then you probably should not be allowed out alone anyway. GPS is nice, but not a good reason to upgrade in my opinion.
The microphone and the speakers on the 3G both have been improved. However, not enough to justify an upgrade.
My net out. If you just want the 3G to have one, if you need extra space, or you just have $300 to burn, then go for it. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to justify the upgrade.
How about the rest of you who have upgraded? What are your thoughts?
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