11th July 2008 - Apple iphone 3G

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2008-07-08-iphone-3g-review_N.htm

Apple will be selling a white version, as well.

The design changes aren't merely aesthetic. They're a nod to iPhone's 10 internal wireless radios. Plastic, unlike metal, is transparent to radio waves, improving reception, Apple says.

The headphone jack is now flush so it can accommodate any standard (3.5-mm) headphone, a welcome development to those of us who needed a clumsy adapter to use our favorite non-Apple headphones.

You can use iPhone's internal microphone to talk if your own headphones don't have one. Just be sure to really snap in your headphones; otherwise, sound comes through the iPhone's own speakers, not the headphones.

GPS

By "triangulating" signals from Wi-Fi and cellphone towers, the iPhone could previously determine your general location. GPS adds live tracking and may deliver more precise results.

I was pretty impressed by the accuracy on the new device as I drove along in my car, searched for nearby pizza places, and requested directions.

Alas, the feature begs for the audible turn-by-turn directions found on Samsung's Instinct and others. (Again, I'm hoping a third-party developer will fill the void.)

Pictures

IPhone remains a fabulous photo viewer. But Apple hasn't done much to improve its 2-megapixel camera. You still can't zoom, shoot video or use a flash. Taking pictures is a tad clumsy.

But the presence of GPS means pictures can be "geo-tagged" with the location in which they were taken. After syncing images with a computer, you might plot their location on a map. Geotagged pictures ought to work well with social-networking applications.

A nice new feature built into the iPhone 2.0 software lets you easily save a Web image to your phone or a picture that arrives via e-mail. You can use the image as the phone's "wallpaper" or sync it to your computer.

You can also post pictures to Apple's new MobileMe Gallery on the Web, part of a $100-a-year subscription service. The MobileMe service, the latest iteration of what used to be called .Mac, was also not ready for testing.

Audio quality

Apple has improved overall audio quality of the device. The speaker phone sounded better, as did music played directly through the phone's speaker.

Of course, it all still sounds better wearing headphones.

Parental controls

A new "restrictions" feature (found in Settings) means Mom and Dad can prevent the kids from downloading any applications, or from accessing the Safari Web browser, YouTube, or iTunes.

Turn on the YouTube restriction, for example, and the icon for the video site disappears from the iPhone home screen.

Powering up

There's a new small, easy-to-travel-with power adapter. Apple says you'll get five hours of talk time on a 3G network, double on Edge, and up to 300 hours of standby.

You can turn off 3G to preserve the battery. I started receiving low battery warnings toward the end of a busy work day; I found myself charging the device overnight, the same as with the older iPhone.

But I couldn't juice up the latest device using my Bose SoundDock or Belkin car kit. Apple says there will be adapters to permit charging with certain older accessories.

Technical explanation: The new iPhone only supports USB circuitry, not another method known as FireWire.

Wish list

As with its predecessor, iPhone 3G doesn't support popular Web browsing standards such as Adobe Flash, Windows Media Video or Java. And there's still no removable battery.

I'd have also loved Apple to add a slot for expandable memory. It did not.

While not everything on my wish list made it onto the new device, Apple has raised the bar with iPhone 3G. To which I offer an enthusiastic thumbs up.