Have two weeks passed already? I am taking a look at my iPhone and feel something coming… Here is a post completely written in the iPhone WordPress app (UPDATE - now with some modifications made from my Mac) where the iPhone takes the spotlight again.
Plastic all around. It feels better in the hand thanks to its curved backside, and the grip on it is also steadier thanks to the plastic. But if you’ve got an iPhone other than the white one, you’ll definitely notice how many fingersprint smudges you’ve left on it at a glance!
Yellow-tinted screen. It’s not actually a defect, but a design choice according to Apple. If you’ve stared countless hours at an old iPhone, you’ll definitely notice the difference, although it’s not as severe as some might believe.
3G. In the big cities you’ll never miss the new and speedy 3G service, but get out of them, and you’re lost. Of course, AT&T should’ve made 3G service an option, as not everyone lives in a big city.
GPS. The GPS is very accurate, but it does show some lag when compared to your actual, moving position. The small GPS antenna is to blame.
Text messages. If you don’t want to pay extra for the text messages when you already are paying for an expensive iPhone plan, Macsimum News has some neat alternatives on how to get by.
App Store. I’m guessing that Apple is now ashamed by the amount of flashlight, tip calculator, and Sudoku apps available. But yes, there are also some treasures to be found in there: let me vote in favor of the WordPress app for mobloggers! And Twinkle!
Apple walks away with the cash. Just by looking at the lines still forming in my local Apple Stores I can safely deduce that.
Giveaway! If you’ve read everything this far, congratulations — you now know have the opportunity to enter a spontaneous mini-giveaway. To celebrate the App Store, MacRecon will give away a $25 iTunes card to one lucky American commenter in this post (sorry, iTunes card was purchased in the US). You have 24 hours to leave the comment, starting from the published date at the top of the post. Good luck!
UPDATE - The winner of the iTunes card is Matt Moriarity. Congratulations! You shall receive an email with the prize details later throughout the day. As for everyone else, you can still try your luck in the anniversary giveaway.
TJ Draper on July 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am says:
Ooo, Ooo, Pick me, Pick me!
Mike Thurlow on July 29th, 2008 at 9:57 am says:
Nice summary on the iPhone 3G.
Matt Moriarity on July 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am says:
my credit card has already suffered so much from this phone. Totally worth it
Chris Willis on July 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pm says:
My impression of the 3G device so far is… I’ll keep my dented and non-vibrating original iPhone. BUT, that’s mainly because I have a BlackBerry for work, which has GPS, and I have access to a WinMo 3G device.
GPS on a smartphone is great, but with no Telenav on the iPhone (yet), its not important to me. I don’t have an immediate need to know where the closest indie theatre is, based on my current location.
3G is also a great addition. However, the simple economics has kept me from caring. My iPhone plan is $20 more on my phone plan. With 3G it goes to $30. Faster access to my email, and/or a Google search, to me, isn’t worth $10/month.
Unknown to me is the 3G’s build quality. I don’t feel like I have been any rougher with my iPhone than I have been with my Curve. But my iPhone is being held together with electrical tape, as the screen bezel has come away from the body, and the vibrate feature only works when it wants to. I’ve dropped it a few times, but no more than any other device I carry. I hope that when I do upgrade, the device is a bit more resilient.
The App Store is a great addition, although I find myself downloading apps like “More Cowbell!” that are fun for a second, and then get deleted. I only actually use 3-4 apps (SplashID, MLB At Bat, Net News Wire, and Jott). Although today I did download the Apache Copter game and Pacemaker, the running app. We’ll see how those work out. The App Store, however, is not a device-dependent offering, and works great on either iPhone.
Chris Willis on July 29th, 2008 at 12:19 pm says:
UPDATE: Both Apache Lander and Pacemaker… Deleted.
Techslacker on July 29th, 2008 at 11:49 pm says:
The 3G is my first iphone and despite some instability I’m loving it. It’s a breath of fresh air right now compared to my old Treo650. Ya gotta love the apps too and this is just the beginning.
It is a bummer that there’s not any demos for many of the pay stuff. That was certainly one benefit to the Treo 650.
Frank on July 30th, 2008 at 9:22 am says:
The comments are now closed. The winner will be announced shortly.