Monthly Archives for June 2009
I did it again…
I bought the new iPhone 3G S today. On launch day. I know…
I skipped the iPhone 3G, so the feature-gap with my G1 iPhone made the upgrade worth it. The Geekette, bless her geeky soul, encouraged me to go for it (she should be getting the old iPhone, which is better than her old Nokia, but I know that was only a secondary consideration…).
I already covered an iPhone OS 3.0 killer feature a few days ago, and I won’t go nuts like when I unwrapped the revolutionary original iPhone.
Nevertheless, I’ll share a few impressions in case you’re curious (and even if you’re not):
- The 3G S is very noticeably a lot much faster, in every respect. The UI is like liquid butter (as opposed to just plain butter).
- The Maps + Compass combo is incredible (or will be on the rare occasions that I’m somewhere that I don’t know like the back of my hand). The way the pins on the Map move in 3D space while the map rotates to show your direction is worth it in itself, though.
- The touch to focus feature of the camera makes a world of difference. And I’m sure I can find a use for video recording (and the Video Stabilization feature in iMovie ’09).
- I called the person with the weirdest last name I know (mine) using the (French version of) Voice control. Worked like a charm.
- Even though MMS and Tethering are both available on launch in France, I haven’t tried either yet. Might be useful in a pinch (<— iPhone humor).
Finally, I thought I would indulge in a frivolous little experiment:
“Still life with cashews and guitar pick and iPhone 3G S” shot with original iPhone
“Still life with cashews and guitar pick and original iPhone” shot with iPhone 3G S
Confusing, isn’t it?
TweetiPhone 3.0 Killer Feature
I installed iPhone OS 3.0 a little ahead of schedule (ahem) on my 1st generation iPhone 2G.
I can’t comment on the features that will only work on the iPhone 3G S (yet), but as for the rest, I have to say that for me, the feature that stands out was somewhat unexpected: search.
You see, the iPhone application launchpad was designed before the iPhone SDK, the App Store, and 50,000 apps hit the cloud. While it’s fun to flick the screens left and right, it’s a royal pain in the ass to rearrange your app icons in a meaningful way, if like me, you have 7 or 8 screens worth of apps (x 16 apps per page…)
When Apple previewed iPhone 3.0 a few months ago, I was hoping for radical change in this regard, and the Spotlight Search feature seemed like a lame response.
I was wrong.
After playing with iPhone OS 3.0 for a short while, I think I can safely say that I couldn’t care less about my giant messy heap of half-sorted apps anymore. It takes fewer taps to swipe left from the main home screen to reveal the search keyboard, type a couple of letters, and tap the app, email, calendar event, song or contact of interest, than to flick through the Home pages.
And that means I’m a happier iPhone geek.
Update: I noticed that when you’re on the main home screen, you can press on the physical Home button to go to the Spotlight Search screen, and back.
TweetDouble-O-Geek
I’m not at liberty to tell you what I was doing in Cupertino, California all last week.
Let’s just say that while a certain company was unveiling its new offerings in the opening Keynote to an annual World Wide Developer’s Conference, I was driving back to San Francisco Airport, to fly home to Paris.
But caving in to my geeky vanity, I’ve posted a little picture… After the jump.
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