iPhone OS 2.0 Review

Okay, it has been awhile since I last posted, primarily because there was nothing to report other than rumor. Now I have some useful information.

I bought the iPhone 3G 16 GB on Monday, July 14th (because I was traveling the previous week and in a location that did not have an Apple or AT&T store). Therefore, I have had a week of experience with it. In addition, I also upgraded my generation 1 iPhone to OS 2.0 so I had a good reference model with which to compare. With that background, here are my perspectives on the the operating system.

1. Mass email delete/move: iPhone OS 2.0 provides a number of additional features that make it worth the upgrade. Among those are mass delete of emails which was a pet peeve from the older version. The feature was implemented simply and elegantly using an "Edit" button which allows you to select multiple emails by tapping radio buttons. Then when finished with selections, you can choose either "Delete" or "Move."
2. Multiple calendar support: The calendar function now supports syncing multiple calendars between your Mac/PC and the iPhone. While this was not on my wish list for upgrades, I have found it useful for keeping personal and business todos and appointments separated.
3. Screen capture: An undocumented feature of the upgraded OS is the ability to capture the current iPhone screen by quickly pressing the home button and the on/off button simultaneously. The screen capture application on my jailbroken generation 1 phone was one of the most used applications I had. You would be surprised how often you want to show someone who is remote what your screen shows. This capability simply solves that problem. Once you have captured a screenshot, it can be found in the Camera Roll under the "Photos" icon.
   
4. Direct access to contacts: By default, the 2.0 OS places a contacts icon on the iPhone springboard. Again, it was one of the additions I used to have on my jailbroken iPhone that saw a lot of use. It reduces access to contacts by a keystroke and when you are in a hurry to get to the information, the improved access is noticeable.
5. Contacts searching: When you have a large number of contacts like I do, the contacts search can be a real productivity improvement. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have found the feature to be buggy. When first accessing the contacts application, a search line is provided at the top of the screen. The problem that I have found is that many times when you tap into the contact, the screen does not respond. After a few moments, the query field vanishes all together. However, when you tap the bar at the top of the screen, it will come back and works fine.
6. Save photos from email: Another nice feature is the ability to save photos sent to you in an email to your Camera Roll. This is particularly handy when you want fast access to the photo and don't have time to sync and then move the photo on your Mac/PC.
7. Save photos from Safari: Similar to saving a photo in email is the ability to save a photo from a Web page in Safari. While I don't have a frequent use for the feature, it is a nice touch none-the-less.
8. Multiple SMS addressees: While I don't have the occasion to use it all that often, it is a nice touch. My guess is it would be nicer if Apple provided MMS so photos could be sent. I could see myself using that more often.
9. Scientific calculator: By simply turning the iPhone horizontal, the simple calculator becomes a scientific calculator. While this is nice, I would like to see a financial calculator (which I have need of more often) as an alternative to the scientific calculator. However, the scientific calculator does provide a number of functions that can be useful.
10. The AppStore: At last! With the opening of the AppStore and the ability of OS X 2.0 to take advantage of these applications, I see little need to jailbreak a phone. To date, I have added some 46 applications and have kept 43 of them on the phone. Thus far, I have only selected free applications as I want the pay applications to mature a little before I start putting out hard cash. With that said, my favorite applications are: Twitterific ( a great, simple, and useful Twitter client--follow me on wwcasey on Twitter); Boxoffice (movie schedules and reviews from RottenTomatoes.com--easy to use); Jott for iPhone ( a great interface to the Web-based Jott application as well as a great voice recorder that will transcribe your recordings); Shazam (will "listen" to a music clip and return the name and artist--again, it works and I am surprised by how often I use it); Apple Remote (only because it is cool and allows me to scare my wife when I am out of the room...); SportsTap (provides sports scores and standings for virtually any sport you want); PhoneSaber (being a Star Wars fan, a must have); and iBeer (great little accelerometer game and graphics demonstration.
    

Now for the complaints. First, the upgrade is buggy. I find that many of the features regularly crash by dropping back to the home screen. Hopefully, these will be chased down and fixed in the next release (just as was done with version 1.0).

Second, as has been pointed out by virtually every blog and review to date, the OS 2.0 is still missing the copy/paste capability. I find this to be the biggest failing of the current release and would have placed the priority above virtually every feature mentioned above except perhaps the bulk email delete. There are numerous times where a phone number is embedded in a document, and it is not hyperlinked to phone application. A second situation is where you want to extract a sentence or paragraph from a Web page to email to someone, but you are currently forced to send a link to that page. As a result, you cause work for the reader to find the text you wanted them to see in the first place.

Third, even though html email uses the Safari engine to render, you can rotate the message to the horizontal so you can get more of it on the screen. I find this to continue to be a major annoyance.

As a result, of the top 10 issues I had with the generation 1.0 software, only the bulk email delete has been addressed. Not a really good track record.

What are your thoughts--good and bad--about the OS X 2.0 software?

The Pixel Isn't Dead After All

I had written previously that I had discovered a dead pixel on my iPhone screen. In discussions with my son--who also happens to have an iPhone--we discovered that it is actually a speck of dust that has gotten underneath the screen's glass. When looked at from an angle, the speck moves in relation to the screen (a dead pixel would not do so) and if there is a light background, the bottom of the speck will actually glow from the screen's light.

This then brings up two additional questions: 1) how can the screen be sealed so as not to allow dust to accumulate beneath the glass; and 2) is there any way to remove the dust from underneath the screen short of taking the iPhone apart (which is sure to end up adding more dust instead of removing it--no electronic clean rooms at my house).

Any ideas anyone?

My First Dead Pixel

After attempting to remove a speck on my iPhone screen, it has become clear that I have a dead pixel. I have no idea how long it has been there, so it may have been there since I bought it last July. Unfortunately, my eye goes right to it now, so I notice it every time the iPhone is turned on.

With that said, now that I've notice it, I've inspected the whole screen and the one pixel appears to be the only one dead--it is in the lower left corner of the screen and most often appears in the applications controls bar. Therefore, it does not impede viewing in most applications. It is not even noticeable in the YouTube application.

Anyone else seen this? I seem to recall that the warranty allows for a certain percentage of dead pixels.