Real-world iPhone 3G experiences - good or bad?
A post by Ian Hendry over on ZDNet got me thinking about just how well the iPhone 3G delivers against the hype and promise of the past few months.
Shortly after picking up my own iPhone 3G I wrote up some very initial responses, and to be honest I still stand by most of these. The biggest disappointment to arise since then was the bugginess of the OS software, something I had been utterly unprepared-for given the relative solidarity of the original iPhone OS experience. MobileSafari was much more prone to freezing up, third party apps would bail out before even reaching their title screen and dump me back on the home screen, and the GPS I’d loved so much proved to be quite inconsistent, even when tried from the same spot several times in a row.
Thankfully a 2.0.1 maintenance update to the iPhone firmware (available for all users of iPhones and iPod touches on 2.0 software) seems to have ironed out some of these, and general reliability seems improved. So my remaining niggles - battery life probably chief among them - are entirely possible to live with, and as so often with Apple products, I find that the overall experience is so enjoyable I’m actually much more forgiving of the shortcomings than I perhaps should be.
What’s interesting about Ian’s post is that the bulk of his comment is really saying how access to a data connection is the real problem, not the iPhone itself. Essentially the summary is ‘I’d love to show this thing off in the Lake District but I can’t because the signal’s pants’, and I agree - surely these are the times you really want to know where the nearest pub is, what the weather’s going to do etc, as opposed to sitting in your back garden challenging the GPS to spot you again (speaking from experience). So perhaps it’s not where the iPhone doesn’t work, but where mobile networks’ limitations are, and what they could be doing about it.
Anyway, off to press that little ‘locate me’ button one more time, just to see…
iPhone and iPod touch users: get your update on
Apple has unleashed incremental software updates to both iPhones and iPod touches running software version 2.0. The new 2.0.1 software offers a bunch of bug fixes - not specified by Apple, but anecdotal reports (including my own experience) suggest improvements in overall stability (hooray), as well as general speeding-up of contacts browsing, backing up to iTunes, and the keyboard, and possible improvement of accuracy in the meter displaying signal strength.
Get yours by connecting your iPhone or iPod touch to iTunes and hitting ‘check for update’ on the ‘Summary’ page.
iPhone 3G: 24 hours later
As the world wakes up to just another day, and those who managed to bag themselves a new Apple iPhone 3G on the launch day battling through activation problems, server meltdowns, long slow-moving queues and stock shortages get to grips with their new handsets, there’s just time for a quick appraisal of the device itself, 24 hours in.
As a user of the original iPhone until about 12pm yesterday, this probably won’t offer a complete insight for those new to the handset - to catch up, the interface and operating system is amazing and it suffers in a few departments such as an under-specced camera on today’s market and poor network speed outside of wifi areas.
As the sun is shining - a rare July occurrence these days here in the UK - let’s start with the positive.
The Good
- If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - this model really builds on the original without steamrollering over any of its defining features. So yes, you’ll find that wonderful interface completely untouched (until you start playing with it, when it’s obviously touched rather often). The physical dimensions are much the same, but the curvature of the new plastic rear casing actually makes for a more pleasant hand-hold, and the screen is as big, responsive and bright as it ever was. Little improvements here and there include the new silver grille over the earpiece and speaker outlets - hopefully more fluff-resistant than the original model, although anecdotally, I have to refute comments that the loudspeaker is significantly improved; I can barely notice the difference. Maybe it’s my ears.
- GPS - I didn’t think I’d really notice this, as Maps on the original model was already pretty hot and once a software update brought in the ability to ‘roughly’ locate yourself using various network mast triangulation and wifi zone database wizardry, it did me just fine in tight spots of lost-ness. But the GPS on the new model really takes this feature to a new level. Keeping with the adage in point one, Maps still uses masts and wifi zone info to get a rough fix, but concurrently gets in contact with something metal above the earth to home in on a much tighter, more accurate fix. And it does it in seconds rather than minutes as had been previously predicted. Needless to say it’s all done with a bit of Apple spit-and-polish (the GPS pin pulses serenely whilst it tracks you down). As soon as someone comes in with turn-by-turn navigation using this feature (the default Maps application doesn’t do this), it’s almost a game-changer.
- Applications - not unique to the iPhone 3G (apps can now be loaded onto original iPhones and iPod touches too), but seriously exciting nonetheless. At launch the selection is extremely mixed, but there’s already fantastic offerings from the likes of Apple (the iTunes remote is pure simplicity yet very very good), Twitterific, Facebook, and even Sega with a not-half-bad Super Monkey Ball game. Train journeys will never be the same again. Of course this should all have been present with the original iPhone, but let’s just be grateful we’ve got it now and look forward to the developer community really pushing this thing.
- 3G network coverage and speed - let’s face it, for UK iPhone users, EDGE was pretty poor. Coverage was limited to sporadic areas of city centres and that was about it, and even if you were lucky enough to be in EDGE coverage, the internet was still pretty painfully slow. Doubly so if you weren’t on EDGE - you’d have finished your train ride before a page had loaded (well, not quite, but you know what I mean). Thank the heavens, then, for 3G in the iPhone - the network speed it should always have had. Not only are speeds exponentially quicker on 3G, but O2’s coverage seems not half bad - certainly on my own evidence, a lot more of Birmingham is drenched in 3G goodness than EDGE.
The Bad
- 3G battery life - damn, that’s more noticeable than I’d perhaps naively hoped for. From a full charge at bed time to mid-morning, the battery was nearly half-drained - and I hadn’t even done anything with the phone (although wifi was on and mail set to pull down from Gmail every 30 mins). You’ll be more inclined to keep your charger with you wherever you go, unlike the original model which would generally withstand a couple of days of forgotten-charger-ness before throwing in the towel.
- That camera - I know, I know, it’s not the be-all and end-all. But 2 megapixels? No zoom? No autofocus? No flash? No video? What a let-down. No doubt the iPhone 3G 2.0 (rumours start here!!!!) to be released in six months time will set this straight. It feels like a massive oversight, especially with video streaming from mobile starting to make its mark and with all the potential of geotagging offered by the GPS feature. Boo Apple.
- Push email - not actually a ‘bad’ because I think from seeing demos, this feature is awesome. My problem is I can’t get the iPhone to talk to my Exchange set-up at work - but then nothing talks to my Exchange set-up at work. So a personal quibble. Hope you get more mileage out of it!
- Limited 16GB availability - just sticking my two cents in - reports from our friends in the States suggest Apple stores in the US are abundantly stocked with the higher capacity model. So I’m afraid once again, boo Apple for being stingy with stock for your devoted, and seemingly growing, customer base here in the UK and Europe.
iPhone 3G: launch reports
Well, that phone you’ve heard something about recently finally went on general sale today.
At 8:02am I arrived at the O2 store in the Bullring to be greeted by a queue of about 30 people, all in jovial spirits if a little embarrassed to be queuing for a new mobile phone.
By 9:30am, I’d given up on the O2 store since the queue had moved down by about 3 people, and they were already sold out of 16GB models (as, it seemed, had everywhere). Apparently O2’s own customer credit check and account system had buckled under the sheer volume of new requests within minutes of the 8:02 opening, and had ground to a halt that showed no sign of un-halting anytime soon.
Mooching past the Apple retail store in the Bullring, there was a healthy queue of new iPhone customers being cajoled by friendly Apple staff - but since they couldn’t offer upgrades to existing users, and anyway I had like a job to go to and everything, I had to walk on.
However, on passing the local Carphone Warehouse, where there was no queue evident (apparently there had been a queue when they opened but the staff had managed to deal with most of the demand within an hour), I dropped in - and five minutes later the staff had all the details they needed from me to process the request. Apparently for new customers CW had almost instantly reverted to its own credit check system to short-cut around O2’s crumbling servers, but sadly for upgrade customers there was no way around the network’s system, so instead I had my 8GB handset put aside to pick up later once the check had gone through.
An hour or so later I got the call and took an early lunch to go pick the thing up. Again the staff were incredibly helpful, fast, efficient, and am now the proud owner of an iPhone 3G (with next-to-no 3G coverage where I work - ut oh…!!!).
How did you get on - manage to bag one? Even better, manage to bag the gold dust-like 16GB model? Sound off in the comments!
Apple officially releases App Store for iPhone and iPod touch; MobileMe updates
As noted earlier, the App Store is now officially live and available on Apple’s iTunes. Browse hundreds of free and paid-for applications which will work with either the iPhone (in original and new 3G flavours) or the iPod touch, subject to your device running the new 2.0 firmware, expected to be released tomorrow.
There’s also an update available for OS X users to support new features in MobileMe, the rebranded .mac service offering a bunch of personal email, calendar and media syncing solutions between multiple devices. If Software Update doesn’t bring it up automatically, users report checking the .mac section of System Preferences should trigger the update to call up. Let us know how you get on.
iTunes 7.7 released ahead of iPhone 2.0 software launch
Hold on to your hats: if you fire up Software Update, or head to Apple’s iTunes page, you’ll see a shiny new 7.7 version of the veteran jukebox software.
What’s new? Well of course there’s the small matter of supporting a certain new phone product Apple has something to do with. Support for software version 2.0 for both iPhone and iPod touch plus the brand new App store (apparently hidden but up and running) round up the new features.
Anyone notice anything else new?
UPDATE 1:30pm: the App Store appears to be fully up-and-running if you follow the link from the iTunes Store page. The range of apps at launch is pretty dazzling and you can download them now in preparation for your 2.0-ised software!
Mac OS X Snow Leopard new features uncovered
What with all the buzz around the iPhone post-WWDC, Mac OS X hasn’t been getting much love here on TWA lately. But now AppleInsider has posted some lesser-acknowledged features in Apple’s forthcoming revision to its current OS, and highlights how these will come into play for users of the next-next-next-generation operating system.
Of the features listed, I’m particularly interested in the expansion of multi-touch functionality across the OS. When Apple debuted the MacBook Air with enhanced touch-pad-based touch control, it felt like a baby-step in the right direction, rather than the giant building-to-building leap of the iPhone. By integrating the touch control frameworks into the OS in a way developers can easily access for their own apps, I’m tremendously excited by the potential for more gesture-based computing, something we’ve long been promised but somehow hasn’t been properly explored until now.
It’s also nice to see a genuine effort to slim down the physical space the OS occupies on a hard drive. Windows has long been the butt of ‘bloatware’ gags, and Microsoft Office even more so, but I have to say in recent years Apple’s own apps have followed the trend for coming in bigger and heavier with every new release. Whilst in theory the exponential increase in storage space available to most users should make this less of a problem, nevertheless my MacBook Pro’s capacious 120Gb hard drive is pretty much full with all those weighty pro apps - although of course a Parallels partition to the tune of 30Gb and a whole bunch of video content doesn’t help either…
Probably my most-looking-forward-to feature, though, has to be the tight Exchange integration coming in Snow Leopard. When Apple first announced licensing ActiveSync for use in the iPhone, the first question that popped into my head was ‘does this mean we can have it on the Mac, too?’ - for, much as it pains me to say so, Exchange is by far and away the most common enterprise set-up in a work environment, and a lack of full integration is one of the biggest barriers to enterprise taking up the Mac platform (that and cost, in my experience).
I’ve happily been running a MBP through work, sitting on a number of shared Windows drives accessed through SMB (still not nearly as tight and quick as I’d like, but perfectly workable) and consigned to Microsoft Office for getting at my Exchange email, calendars and shared folders. Since even Entourage doesn’t fully talk to Exchange, but rather seems to use a number of voodoo-like workarounds to share info with the server, I can’t wait to fire up Mail (finally!) for my email and iCal for my calendar and happily leave Entourage in its dock.
So what about other users? Are you planning to upgrade to Snow Leopard when it comes out? If so, will you expect to pay another £79 for the privilege, or should this one be on Apple? Fire off in the comments.