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The entry titled "iPhone 3G delivers on much-hyped speed at $199," and any of the comments about it.
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Home > Plugged In > Archives > 2008 > July > 11 > Entry
iPhone 3G delivers on much-hyped speed at $199
Apple has solved the number-one gripe about last year’s iPhone — the speed.
The 3G version is indeed faster to surf the Internet than the first iPhone. The company says it’s three times faster. I didn’t necessarily find it so. Still, users must contend with an Internet that’s clogged at times. So when I tried it, it blazed sometimes and hobbled along at others.
The built-in GPS capability, which the first iPhone didn’t have, is very cool. You hit a button, and the phone will find you. If you’re inside a building, it will triangulate your position using AT&T’s cell towers and put a circle on the screen around the general area where you and your phone are.
Perhaps the biggest change in the long run is the hundreds of applications that the 3G iPhone has available to it. Apple opened up the phone so developers could write mobile programs for it.
The applications are downloadable directly to the phone from the Apple Web site. But some are so large that it might be better to download those directly to your computer and then put them on your phone.
Apple has placed an icon on the home screen for it. You touch that to seamlessly activate a list of the 25 featured applications. But they also are accessible via a top-25 button as well as “categories” and “search” functions.
I selected “eBay Mobile” and hit the button that said “free.” Other applications displayed their prices. The user taps the price and an explanation of the application pops up and you have the option to install with a button in the upper right-hand corner.
The home screen and touch-screen keyboard haven’t changed, and the phone will shift from horizontal to vertical depending on how the user holds it. This may be a no-brainer but the keyboard is easier to pluck when the screen is horizontal.
The curved form factor on the back of the phone fits the user’s hand better. And the tap, pitch and flick capability of moving content up and down the screen and for making the letters and numbers larger — the same as iPhone 1.0 — is still in use. I found it a bit slippery but I’m sure users get accustomed to it quickly.
I didn’t use this option but Apple is hawking a new “push” technology called MobileMe that will automatically input new entries to the calendar or address book on your computer in the phone and vice versa. It sounds like a handy option.
Also, the voice quality of the phone itself is better, apparently because Apple installed a higher quality set of speakers at the bottom of the phone.
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