Comments on: iPhone 3G Review

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:30:01 +0000

“Because we didnâ€™t wait for July to switch (we switched in March) we are required to spend $200 more for our iPhones which I am not happy about but I guess will have to pay to enjoy.”

If you always wait for the new, cheaper version, you’ll never buy anything electronic.

By: Captain Karma

Captain Karma — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:36:15 +0000

Because we didn’t wait for July to switch (we switched in March) we are required to spend $200 more for our iPhones which I am not happy about but I guess will have to pay to enjoy.

By: PDAMad

PDAMad — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:39:03 +0000

If I was downtown and looking for directions, the LAST thing I would pull out to assist me would be a shiny new iPhone 3G!

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:44:05 +0000

My experience over the weekend was that the GPS is just about worthless. You have to keep the iPhone face up, screen pointing to the sky to be able to get a GPS signal – which makes it almost impossible to read with reflection off of the sky.

Second – I was on Amtrak between Chicago and Ann Arbor yesterday trying to figure out where we were at in the trip. When the train was at a crawl or stopped, I could get a position lock. As soon as the train started cruising (I would guess in the 50 – 60 MPH range) the GPS couldn’t keep up and the position lock would drop to the big circle instead of the pinpoint. And then the big circle wouldn’t keep up with our position requiring frequent relocates to figure out where we were. It made me wish I had brought my TomTom ONE XL with me.

On the bright side though – it was nice to be in Downtown Chicago, get a position lock, then ask for directions to say someplace like the Apple Store on Michigan Ave, or the nearest Irish Pub, and get exact directions from my iPhone.

All in all I think the 3G iPhone is well worth the money – even the extra data charges. I’m finding 3G in Metro Detroit to be screamingly fast compared to EDGE. Though the battery life is going to end up making me head over to the Apple Store this morning to buy a 3G Dock to keep in the house for charging, as well as a car charger. I had to plug-in to charge up at least once during the day while in Chicago this weekend. I used to be able to get through the whole day with an over night charge on my original iPhone.

By: The Wizard

The Wizard — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:41:00 +0000

An excellent post Michael and here is one phrase I am quoting that shows why I like your reviews:

“and while it does feel â€œcheaperâ€ it doesnâ€™t feel â€œcheapâ€.” So witty

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:24:22 +0000

I love it, fantastic in every way, except one, rather important one. Battery life. I’ve found it dies really quick. I’ve since disabled 3G just so I could get a longer lifespan but even still its definitely not exceptional. Compared to other equally feature rich programs its not to bad, but I’d still like 10+ hours of general usage.

The App Store kicks ass, so many amazing programs. Granted most I used jailbroken, its nice to give these developers some money for their hard work.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:36:05 +0000

“We still donâ€™t have MMS messages…”

I hope they add MMS just so I don’t have to hear/read about how horrible it is not to have it. I would much rather use email than MMS anyway. Email is included in my monthly fee, MMS would be an extra charge and using email is no big deal. Any phone that can send MMS can send it to an email address and an iPhone user can send to an MMS capable phone using that phones “email” address. For AT&T it would be – XXX-XXX-XXXX@mms.att.net.

Here is a list of all the MMS “email” addresses:

http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2007/07/11328/

By: krye

krye — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:47:30 +0000

I plugged my new iPhone into my Universal Dock last night and it said it wasn’t compatible. I declined the Airport mode choice I was provided and was surprised to see that the phone did indeed charge in the dock anyway.

As far as cheap, I do not own a 1st gen iPhone, but my parents do. So I’ve had some hands-on time with it. I can say I prefer the feel of the new one better and I don’t think it feels cheaper at all. I did like the aluminum finish, since it matched the “Pro” look of Apple’s hardware better. I did not, however, like the black plastic that covered the antenna. So the one piece back on the new one, in my opinion, looks so much better.

As far as fingerprints? Yes, it’s the same issue we had with the 5G video iPod. You can see it on the black, but not on the white. I suspect surface scratches will be the same too. That’s why I opted for the white. My wife went with the black, and a side by side comparison really shows the difference.

A no-brainer, but 3G is only as good as your coverage. I get full bars at home, but 17 miles away at work, I get 2 inside the building. (Big office building.) But then again, no one in here gets a signal, so I really wasn’t surprised. Email is fast, but the internet runs like a dog on 1-2 bars.

All in all, I’m glad I didn’t run out and buy the 1st gen iPhone last year. I’m glad I held out and waited.