The iPhone 3G
So, I figure it's about time to do the quick review. I was one of the lucky people to get an iPhone 3g on release day, after a short wait in the line outside. I got the 8Gig version, and i've had it for a few weeks now. I even had the perfect opportunity to test it as 2 days after I bought it I left for a week in Seattle for the HPCMP User's Group Conference. So I spent that week trying out various bells and whistles, and since then I've pushed it even further. So, what's the verdict?
What I like:
- The App Store - The ability to download apps and install them on the phone is great, and ability to do it for free is fantastic.. The ability to get useful and fun apps that actually look like desktop software and not like old VT100 terminals is the real impressive part.
- GPS & Location Awareness - The ability to see your location on google maps at pretty much any given time is great, especially if you're a traveler (This feature saved my butt several times in Seattle). Pull up maps, let it find you while you type in "borders" and then you get a blue dot where you are, and red dots showing all the nearby borders bookstores. And lots of other apps are location-aware too, so you can Geotag your photos or Tweets.
- Data - Lots of phones have data support, and lots of them have websurfing ability, but (in my knowledge) the iPhone is the only one that rivals a desktop. I almost never use my laptop or desktop anymore, since I can use a real browser (complete with AJax and JavaScript support) on my iPhone. It integrates perfectly with Google Mail (unlike Blackberries), and everything works seamlessly.
What I don't like:
- Instability - The new iPhone 2.0 firmware is simply buggy. I've had the keyboard wack out on me several times, thinking it's horizontal when it's vertical, or simply disappearing. The only solution i've found: reboot.
- Location problems - The GPS isn't terribly accurate in urban areas, I've had it "lock on" (no blue circle, just a pin) and then float up to 2 blocks while i'm standing still. Also, the location features seem to simply "stop" sometimes, and the only way to get them working again is reboot.
- Signal Strength - The iPhone doesn't seem to have a very good antenna. My friends with Razr's often still have a bar or 2 while i'm staring at No Service.
- No background apps - To preserve battery life, Apple doesn't allow any App Store application to run in the background. This makes Instant Messaging a no-go, unless you JailBreak. Hopefully this won't be much of a problem when the new 2.1 firmware with Push Notifications comes out.
- Poor Camera Quality - the CMOS sensor on the camera is slooooow. This makes taking non-blurry photos almost impossible.
- Battery Life - yeah, it's all over the net.. Read it there.. synopsis: Charge daily for usage around home, Charge 2x daily when traveling.
But, it's still simply a fantastic device. Being able to send/recieve email anywhere, use twitter, surf the net, see my google calendar, update Sandy, listen to music (either iTunes or Pandora), GPS Locate, get Directions, etc. It's simply fantastic. I highly recommend it for anyone.
