My 3.0 experience…

I spent a good portion of yesterday downloading/restoring my iPhone to the latest 3.0 firmware (and a larger portion just waiting for it). So what do I think of it?

DAAAAAMN! Let me just address the features that I have been using and really enjoyed. Firstly, MMS. Despite the fact my carrier has a ridiculous (and not in a good way) multimedia messaging package, the service worked relatively well… when I was doing the sending. I send a picture and it was received almost instantaneously. However, it took nearly eight hours for me to receive the first MMS. This should be fixed soon enough though… at least I hope.

Second, copy and paste. It works flawlessly for the applications that support it (which is almost anything). Copying and pasting between apps with such ease is just amazing. And if it took Apple this long to perfect it, then I’m glad it took this long.

Third, spotlight search. The FIRST time you awaken your iPhone and go to spotlight, there seems to be a slight delay. Thereafter, the feature works very smoothly and for those of you that don’t own a Mac, spotlight is the BEST means of searching your hardware. Period! Items are ordered by which app they fall under. Also, just like on the Mac, you can use spotlight as an application launcher. But that is NO excuse to not organize your apps. Organize your apps people!

Fourth, landscape keyboard. Need I say more? Notes, email, and messaging apps now support the landscape keyboard input. It tilts fast enough and feels even better. This may be more of a feature designed for those awkwardly large thumbs and elephants, but I’m sure many will welcome the extra space.

Lastly, TETHERING! A quick story. I called Fido to get the low-down on MMS and tethering. The man had had the BALLS to tell me my iPhone 3G does NOT support tethering, and only the new one will. So after a few words of wisdom to the individual, I embarked on a path to figure it out myself. Luckily, Apple made the procedure DEAD EASY! You just pair your iPhone via Bluetooth to your computer, and enable tethering on your iPhone and voila! That’s it! Speed tests are yet to be experimented with, but in my make-shift office, the speeds have been sweet. Check out Episode 109 on my YouTube channel for a demo.

All in all, 3.0 has a lot more to deliver. There are TON of other features, and several that are not as obvious (now you can see if calls were incoming or outgoing from your phone). I have to admit, there was SOME slow down when exiting applications in 3.0, that weren’t apparent before. This may be due to 3.0 or the app’s improper compatibility with the new firmware. But that was minimal. Now, the waiting game begins. Let’s see how fast the 3G S runs 3.0.

Enough of the whining…

At the time of writing this, Rogers and Fido have yet to announce their pricing for purchasing an iPhone 3G S outright, however, AT&T are out in the clear. In simple terms, if you got an iPhone 3G with AT&T than your going to be forking over somewhere in the neighbourhood of $600-700 for the iPhone 3G S (unless you are special).

What really grinds my gears (Peter Griffin style) is the fact that people are outright WHINING about the price. Did you really think that the MAN was going to subsidize your next phone a mere 12 months (or less) later? Now I’ll be honest, I am not an expert on the US cellular market, but just about anyone can understand that contracts subsidize phones. You don’t get a free phone, you get free* phone (emphasis on the asterisk). When you see those delicious $199 and $299 prices, it’s taking into account that you will be a loyal companion to AT&T for two years whilst maintaining a certain billing amount every month.

All in all, stop bitching. It wouldn’t be capitalism if you promotional pricing whenever you wanted. Of course, this can lead into other arguments about monthly spewing, manufacturing costs, etc. That’s all great, but at the end of the day… Your the one that signed the contract. If you want some of that S, pay up… Or shut up. I don’t mean to be so crude about it, but I just have a low threahhold for whiners. What are your thoughts? Post below!

Apple’s Friday flop?

These are shots from the Australian Apple store online. Mind you the price is in the Australian dollar (there’s your Thursday math session). Looking at this, the deals are OKAY in my opinion. To be honest, the deals are great if you solely shop at the Apple online store, but if at the least you have a Best Buy near you, the deals may seem mediocre. I thought there would be something really smashing. Maybe a full $50 off any iPod? Free cases? I mean, $100+ off a MacBook seems nice, but I doubt Apple will use that discount in conjunction with student pricing. We’ll have to wait an see, but my current impression is as follows…

meh…

Impulse and timing

I was about 3 clicks away from purchasing the Mophie Juicepack for the iPhone 3G yesterday. But there was this feeling. No it wasn’t a tickle below the belt. I just decided I didn’t want to buy it just yet. If you’re religious, maybe you can assume it’s a sign from God… but you know what they say about assuming. Long story short, I found out that we started carrying the new Juicepacks at Best Buy Mobile and got the Juicepack for about $40 less than what I would have paid. SWEET! No this isn’t a review, but there will be one soon. Video and written. This post is more of a heads up to let you all know I’m alive and well… and juiced (maybe not the best pun, but hey, I tried). So enjoy your Thursday, and for you Americans, happy thanksgiving!

Future plans

I have been brainstorming over the past weekend about an idea. Come this holiday season I will be putting together DRJ0K3R’s iPhone App Awards for 2008. Of course, I ain’t some technology pundit that’s up there with the creme de la creme of critics, but I got a goo opinion on what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s worth your dollars. Over the next few days (in between my study sessions), I will be thinking about how I will categorize the awards and how I will go about delivering the content (primarily through the blog). Now, I realize by putting my plans on this public domain there may be several others that wish to politely borrow the concept. That’s fine with me. It’s not like everyones’ ideas will overlap entirely.

If you guys have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment. I’m thinking of just going through each category on iTunes and deliver the best and second best app for each, finishing off with what I think is the best app out of ALL of them. The framework is there, I just have to get some proper images together and I should be good to go. Once again, let me know what you guys think below.