A couple of days with the iPhone 3G

[Amuso]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a brand new iPhone 3G at the day of launch here in Norway, and I will summarize my experiences as I go in this little blog.

 

First of all, this is an awesome device IMHO. I really love it, but it is not perfect. But I didnt expect it to be. It is super easy to use and I am already typing at a pretty decent rate. The whole experience and user interface suits me perfectly.

 

After synching all my 500 contacts it is a bit sluggish to look up names. Not slow, just takes a second to retrieve them all and display them.

 

I still have to research if I can disable the iPhone backup feature every time I connect it to my MacBook and iTunes. Once a day (when I go to bed) would be enough for me.

 

The App store and iTunes integration is great. It is super easy to decide what to sync, and how many items from the various groups (Music, Podcasts, movies etc).

 

WiFi is great. Good reception and speed. Surfing the net is easy and seemless between WiFi and mobile networks. 3G speeds are very good. However the 3G coverage is limited outside cities here.

 

GPS reception works best outdoors. Sometimes it works well inside, but you should not expect it to work as quick or well. It is impressively fast to find you location, and the Google Maps have impressed me so far. Directions and routing is easy and fun. Havent tried to see if it follows your location as you walk/drive, but I expect it does not. Hopefully TomTom will release their navigation package so that I can give away my old TomTom One device.

 

I will definately need to get a car kit!

 

Battery life seems to be good, but I easily used up half the battery in 14 hours with playing and just a couple of calls. And I didnt play with it all the time, but I did transfer quite a bit of data over mobile networks and WiFi during the period. I think it will hold up just fine!

 

Great iPod functionality. Sound is clear and nice from the built in speaker. Phonecalls were crist and clear too. Volume seems to be quite adequate even for me with somewhat degraded hearing

 

Having problems with the Weather application. It will not locate any cities so I cannot get weather information. Will try a full restore/reset of the device. That is the only thing that doesnt work perfectly though!

 

A bit bummed that Bluetooth will not support data transfers between devices. Wanted to transfer a few MP3s from my old phone, but had to go through my MacBook and then sync with iTunes. I really hope Apple fixes this as Bluetooth transfers are easy and handy to be able to do.

 

Havent been able to get the Remote application to work either, but then I havent been on a decent local network setup yet. Hopefully it will work better then. Not so good instructions to get it to work, Apple! Needs better work.

 

Camera is impressive compared to other 2 MP cameras I have used. I never felt the mobile cameras in phones were any good even if they sported lots of MPs. This seems to be the real thing though, so it is quite good enough for my use. Takes great pictures, I think.

 

Tries out a few App Store applications, and they are fun and easy to use. Love the translation one which even gives you a playback of the translation to learn it by ear. Wow!

 

Havent fully tried out the mail functions yet, but they seem to work just fine.

 

There is still a lot to learn, and I will post my experiences here as often as I can.

 

I am really glad I got one, even though it is just a 8GB version (all they had left). I think it is definately worth the price, though I might break out of my plan for a cheaper one.