Review: July 2008 Archives

Author: Damon Brown

A few weeks ago, more than a million new (and old) iPhone users lined up at the Apple Store to pick up the iPhone 3G. (As you probably know, $199 for the 8 GB, $299 for 16 GB.) Considering there were more than six million iPhone users before the new 3G model, many of the previous users opted not to pick it up - not right away, at least.

There are four reasons for this, three of which are Apple's fault.

First, the poor economy here in America. Second, the well-reported hiccups with the iPhone 3G initialization that left some customers waiting hours without an active phone. Third, the almost equally well-reported bump in service contract costs, an increase that could run customers as much as $1,700 more over the course of the two year commitment.

Finally - that which is most important to us - Apple gave the iPhone 3G's much-hyped 2.0 software upgrade to all of us. For free.

I actually missed the boat on launch day, albeit by a few hours, while waiting for iTunes to tell me when the new iPhone 3G software upgrade would be available. It won't tell you. iTunes only checks for new software about every two weeks, which means, at least in my case, I could still be waiting for 2.0.

Regardless, you can check for iPhone software upgrades anytime by plugging in your iPhone and viewing the Summary screen. It will automatically go to the Summary screen, but, just in case, you can always tap the Summary tab, the first tab on the iPhone screen in iTunes.

Otterbox makes some terrific cases that protect any number of mobile devices from harm. For the last couple of months, I've been giving its iPhone Defender case—a limited edition pink edition where 10 percent of the proceeds go toward fighting breast cancer—a spin.

The case is made of a clear polycarbonate sheet with a hard coating that offers chemical and abrasion protection, a hi-impact polycarbonate skeleton, and a premium grade silicone skin to provide added protection, according to the company.

 

Okay. Sounds tough, right? It is.

Aside from being the recipient of a few snide comments regarding a man carrying a pink case, I've been very happy with the Defender. In fact, when I took the iPhone out to get it repaired due to a problem with the connector, the smartphone still looked like new.

The same could not be said of an earlier iPhone I'd been using. In fact, that previous iPhone's screen cracked after it accidentally fell to the ground - not on its front, mind you, but its back. And the rest of the iPhone sported so many scratches, it looked like it'd been on a trip up and down Mount Everest.

While, for the most part, the Otterbox performed exceptionally, I did run into a couple of issues. The first one could be a deal breaker for some.

Author: Damon Brown

 Once the biggest video game conference in America, last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo ,was criticized for being tame and somewhat boring. (Do a quick Google search and you'll hear about its pre-whitewashed history of near-naked "booth babes" and open bars on the show floor. We won't bother to link here.) To be truthful, LA's premier video game show was overall pretty flat. It was, in a sense, the perfect year to debut iPhone gaming.

The star of the show was EA's Spore, which adapted pretty damn well to the iPhone. Debuting in September simultaneously with the other editions on a dozen other platforms, iPhone Spore takes the very first level of the console version of Spore and expands it into a fun, addictive game.

Author: Troy Dreier

 A new version of the iPhone also means new software to run it. Version 2.0 is available standard on new phones, as a free upgrade to current iPhone users, and for $9.99 for iPod touch owners.

We're not sure why iPod touch users get so much less love from Apple, but the upgrade price is low, so users don't seem to be complaining. The January software upgrade, which delivered Mail, Weather, Google Maps, Stocks, and Notes, cost iPod touch users $19.99. Anyone who didn't purchase it will get that software bundled in with the current upgrade.

There's much to like about the 2.0 software, which adds a huge variety of features and programs to the iPhone and iPod touch. The chief reason to get it, however, is certainly to access…

Author: Joe Kissell

A North American expat in Paris finds the iPhone 3G far from technically perfect, but pretty darn cool anyway. Plus: some must-have Apps from the iPhone App Store.;

The night before the iPhone 3G launched here in France, I was at a get-together for North American expats in Paris, and I happened to mention that I was planning to get an iPhone the next morning. A woman sitting near me said that she'd heard about the iPhone, but didn't understand what the big deal was; her Nokia phone worked fine, took great pictures, played music, and did everything else she needed.

"What exactly does the iPhone do?" she asked.

I said, in my best faux-conspiratorial tone and with a carefully raised eyebrow, "It lets you talk to people who are far away."

Okay, maybe it was a lame attempt at a joke, but she didn't get it. "Any cell phone will do that," she said.

Of course. But for me, talking to people who are far away is the least interesting thing about any cell phone, especially the iPhone. I tried to explain how, despite the wealth of features in the iPhone, it has an amazingly easy-to-use interface and is just plain fun to operate—in a way that conventional cell phones (or even most smartphones) aren't. That didn't impress her, but to be honest, even that isn't what impresses me the most either.

What I was really thinking is that if my server (located at a datacenter halfway around the world) starts acting up while I'm out at a restaurant, or on vacation, or otherwise away from my computer and an Internet connection, I can use a VNC or SSH app on my iPhone to log in remotely, fix whatever the problem is, and get on with my day.

I was thinking that I'd never again have to plan my schedule around the fact that I might be getting a PDF late at night for a last-minute review before a magazine goes to press. I was thinking that I can start leaving my bulky Paris map book at home, and that I'll never get lost again, no matter where I travel.

In short, what made me excited about owning an iPhone 3G was that it will enable me to lower stress, reduce clutter, and do a lot of other things that can't be neatly captured by a feature checklist.

There have already been plenty of iPhone 3G reviews, but as each reviewer has his or her own priorities and interests, I wanted to say a few words about what I was (and was not) looking for.

To start with, the iPhone 3G is not only my first iPhone, it's my first smartphone of any kind. So I'm still very much in the "Wow, it can do that too?" mode, and not especially tuned in to the numerous subtleties that distinguish, say, a Blackberry from a Windows Mobile phone. I also don't work for a large corporation, so most enterprise features are uninteresting to me.

On the other hand, I am responsible for running a number of Web sites and performing a good bit of server administration, so I'm extremely interested in how effectively (and securely) the iPhone 3G will let me do those sorts of tasks. I also get hundreds of e-mail messages per day in a total of eight main accounts; I use the Web and RSS heavily (both as publisher and as reader); and I enjoy music and movies as much as the next person—so I knew I'd be examining all those features carefully.

Finally, as an American living in France, I was quite interested to see how the iPhone 3G dealt with a number of issues involving language and geography that don't tend to come up in reviews from the U.S.

Physical Design: The Big Screen
I normally carry my phone in my pocket, so one thing I was looking forward to was something thinner than my old model. And the iPhone 3G delivers—it's wonderfully svelte, and it feels great both in my hand and in my pocket. Sure, it's not the shortest or narrowest phone out there, but if the length and width were reduced, I'd have to put up with a smaller screen too, and I like the big screen. The phone feels solid in the hand and well-made. I'd love for it to be slightly lighter, but it's not unreasonably heavy.

However, as numerous other reviewers have mentioned, the surface (not only the screen but the back too) is a smudge magnet. I can't even look at it from across the room without getting greasy fingerprints on it. Yes, I'll be getting lots of mileage out of the included polishing cloth, and I'll be looking into cases soon, too.

The included earphones sound fine, but they look and feel extremely cheap—they don't begin to compare even with the set that came with my first-generation iPod. I'll be looking for a third-party replacement in the near future. The USB sync cable and AC adapter are nicely compact and perfectly functional, but I'd much prefer to have a dock. The France Telecom dealer where I bought the phone said that docks weren't yet available, but that a shipment was expected soon.

The first time I explored the phone's settings, I came across the brightness control and was shocked to see that it was set at the halfway point. When I slid it to full power I was almost blinded—it was really much too bright. Photos and video look spectacular, even at half brightness. I haven't noticed the yellow cast that many sites have mentioned, but then, I don't have an older iPhone to compare it against.