Hi Guys,
I'm a member on Apple's Dev Prog but consider myself to be a real end-user. To this end, I wrote a brief review of my experience with the iPhone OS 3.0 update on my blog. I have pasted it below for easier reference. Happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
The new iPhone OS 3.0 is not due to be released to the general public until the 17th of June. However, Apple have made the final version available to their iPhone Developer Programme members, so I downloaded it and took it for a spin. This is the same version that will be released to the general public next week. Ive had the new OS on my iPhone for about 12 hours so this is by no means an exhaustive review. I have a 16GB iPhone 3G.
Upgrading to 3.0 was pretty quick, much quicker than upgrading from any previous releases; I was done in 20 minutes (plus the time it takes to transfer apps, music, video etc.). I chose not to do a restore from my previous backup as I wanted to start afresh.
One of the first things I noticed was that phone reception had drastically improved. I live in London so I am on the O2 network. Previously, I found that I got 5 out of 5 bars when at the front of my house and 3 out of 5 bars at the back of my house, I now get 5 bars everywhere in my house. Even at work I have 5 bars permanently where previously I hovered between 3 and 5.
Applications open much quicker than they did in 2.0. Im finding that as soon as I lift my finger off the screen the application has already begun launching. Previously, there was a little delay before the application launched. Please note that begun launching does not mean that the application is ready to use, just that it has started to load.
I sent a couple of normal text messages via the Messages app using the new landscape keyboard. It was a joy to use. Soon after, I received a text from O2 saying that MMS had been setup. I did not have to call or send O2 any specific message to ask them to setup MMS. You can now also turn-off text message previews.
The keyboard seems much easier to type on and Im find myself making fewer mistakes, it does look like the keys are a little wider but that may not be true. I gave the iPhone to someone else who has forever had trouble using the keyboard and they found it to be much improved. In addition, the availability of the landscape keyboard in all Apple apps makes a huge difference to the whole user experience.
Features in Maps seem to be pretty much the same although Im finding that it locks my GPS position very quickly. In fact, the pulsating blue dot appears before the map tiles!
Copy and Paste. What can I say? Although this was a feature that I needed I wasnt really looking forward to it, it just didnt feel like I needed it THAT bad. I waas I wrong. The execution of Copy and Paste is fantastic. It works across all apps and even in some third party apps. I have copied from Mail to the Safari address bar, from Notes to Mail and from Safari to Mail (including pictures and hyperlinks). Absolutely fantastic. I thought text selection would be a little bit difficult but it is very easy and accurate.
Safari now allows you to autofill forms with usernames and passwords. You will have to enable this feature in the Settings menu. Then, every time you enter a username and password into a website Safari will ask if you want it to save the details. Works as it does in every major browser. A great timesaver.
In my opinion, Safari doesnt appear to be rendering websites any faster than it was in 2.0 either on WiFi or 3G.
Spotlight allows you to search (almost) everything in your iPhone. There are a number of ways you can enable Spotlight but I chose to configure the home button (double tap) to take me to the Spotlight search screen (this can be configured from the Settings menu). From here, you just begin typing away and Spotlight searches your iPhone in real time. Its really fast and has become my default method for launching apps. One thing that did disappoint me about Spotlight is that it doesnt search bookmarks stored in Safari nor does it search Google. Im hopeful that we might see either of these points addressed in future versions.
YouTube now allows you to access your YouTube Account. This was a big deal for me and was one of the features I was looking forward to the most. I subscribe to a number of channels on YouTube and am now able to browse and view the videos straight from the YouTube application. I can also view my favourites and my own videos,
Mail works brilliantly in landscape mode. It is now much easier to type away at emails. There is also a search box that will search all of your emails, I use Gmail. I have heard that you will be able to search the servers for email, if the email cannot be found locally, right from within the Mail app. However, I cannot figure out how to do this. Perhaps Google havent enabled the feature yet?
Most applications seem to be working just fine. But I have had a problem with SplashID which I use to store passwords, bank details etc. It doesnt seem to want to sync with the desktop version of the app. I have emailed Splash about this and am waiting for their response. Most other apps are operating fine, including the popular Tweetie Twitter client.
One final thing to note is that when you boot up the iPhone for the first time you will see the Apple logo that you have become accustomed to. However, instead of moving right into the iPhone OS from here the screen will go blank for about 30 seconds and then it will go into the iPhone OS. I thought my iPhone had crashed and was about to do a hard reset, so I thought this was worth mentioning.
Thats all Ive managed to look at so far. I think most other features and quirks will only be realised as I use the iPhone on a day-to-day basis. Overall performance has really improved with some great little features thrown in; Copy and Paste is really going to go further in making this a real laptop replacement.
I was one of the many people that bought the iPhone 3G the first day it came out and was subjected to all the horrors that came with iPhone 2.0 including the crashing, lag and poor phone reception. Im happy to report that none of those problems exist with iPhone 3.0 and if you had any reservations about upgrading immediately, based on your experience last year, then you really have nothing to worry about.
Whilst it could be argued that there is nothing revolutionary in this new OS release there is definitely plenty here to make the iPhone that much more brilliant. I like to think of this release as the iPhone version of Snow Leopard; a bunch of tweaks, performance improvements and a few new features thrown in.
I'm a member on Apple's Dev Prog but consider myself to be a real end-user. To this end, I wrote a brief review of my experience with the iPhone OS 3.0 update on my blog. I have pasted it below for easier reference. Happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
The new iPhone OS 3.0 is not due to be released to the general public until the 17th of June. However, Apple have made the final version available to their iPhone Developer Programme members, so I downloaded it and took it for a spin. This is the same version that will be released to the general public next week. Ive had the new OS on my iPhone for about 12 hours so this is by no means an exhaustive review. I have a 16GB iPhone 3G.
Upgrading to 3.0 was pretty quick, much quicker than upgrading from any previous releases; I was done in 20 minutes (plus the time it takes to transfer apps, music, video etc.). I chose not to do a restore from my previous backup as I wanted to start afresh.
One of the first things I noticed was that phone reception had drastically improved. I live in London so I am on the O2 network. Previously, I found that I got 5 out of 5 bars when at the front of my house and 3 out of 5 bars at the back of my house, I now get 5 bars everywhere in my house. Even at work I have 5 bars permanently where previously I hovered between 3 and 5.
Applications open much quicker than they did in 2.0. Im finding that as soon as I lift my finger off the screen the application has already begun launching. Previously, there was a little delay before the application launched. Please note that begun launching does not mean that the application is ready to use, just that it has started to load.
I sent a couple of normal text messages via the Messages app using the new landscape keyboard. It was a joy to use. Soon after, I received a text from O2 saying that MMS had been setup. I did not have to call or send O2 any specific message to ask them to setup MMS. You can now also turn-off text message previews.
The keyboard seems much easier to type on and Im find myself making fewer mistakes, it does look like the keys are a little wider but that may not be true. I gave the iPhone to someone else who has forever had trouble using the keyboard and they found it to be much improved. In addition, the availability of the landscape keyboard in all Apple apps makes a huge difference to the whole user experience.
Features in Maps seem to be pretty much the same although Im finding that it locks my GPS position very quickly. In fact, the pulsating blue dot appears before the map tiles!
Copy and Paste. What can I say? Although this was a feature that I needed I wasnt really looking forward to it, it just didnt feel like I needed it THAT bad. I waas I wrong. The execution of Copy and Paste is fantastic. It works across all apps and even in some third party apps. I have copied from Mail to the Safari address bar, from Notes to Mail and from Safari to Mail (including pictures and hyperlinks). Absolutely fantastic. I thought text selection would be a little bit difficult but it is very easy and accurate.
Safari now allows you to autofill forms with usernames and passwords. You will have to enable this feature in the Settings menu. Then, every time you enter a username and password into a website Safari will ask if you want it to save the details. Works as it does in every major browser. A great timesaver.
In my opinion, Safari doesnt appear to be rendering websites any faster than it was in 2.0 either on WiFi or 3G.
Spotlight allows you to search (almost) everything in your iPhone. There are a number of ways you can enable Spotlight but I chose to configure the home button (double tap) to take me to the Spotlight search screen (this can be configured from the Settings menu). From here, you just begin typing away and Spotlight searches your iPhone in real time. Its really fast and has become my default method for launching apps. One thing that did disappoint me about Spotlight is that it doesnt search bookmarks stored in Safari nor does it search Google. Im hopeful that we might see either of these points addressed in future versions.
YouTube now allows you to access your YouTube Account. This was a big deal for me and was one of the features I was looking forward to the most. I subscribe to a number of channels on YouTube and am now able to browse and view the videos straight from the YouTube application. I can also view my favourites and my own videos,
Mail works brilliantly in landscape mode. It is now much easier to type away at emails. There is also a search box that will search all of your emails, I use Gmail. I have heard that you will be able to search the servers for email, if the email cannot be found locally, right from within the Mail app. However, I cannot figure out how to do this. Perhaps Google havent enabled the feature yet?
Most applications seem to be working just fine. But I have had a problem with SplashID which I use to store passwords, bank details etc. It doesnt seem to want to sync with the desktop version of the app. I have emailed Splash about this and am waiting for their response. Most other apps are operating fine, including the popular Tweetie Twitter client.
One final thing to note is that when you boot up the iPhone for the first time you will see the Apple logo that you have become accustomed to. However, instead of moving right into the iPhone OS from here the screen will go blank for about 30 seconds and then it will go into the iPhone OS. I thought my iPhone had crashed and was about to do a hard reset, so I thought this was worth mentioning.
Thats all Ive managed to look at so far. I think most other features and quirks will only be realised as I use the iPhone on a day-to-day basis. Overall performance has really improved with some great little features thrown in; Copy and Paste is really going to go further in making this a real laptop replacement.
I was one of the many people that bought the iPhone 3G the first day it came out and was subjected to all the horrors that came with iPhone 2.0 including the crashing, lag and poor phone reception. Im happy to report that none of those problems exist with iPhone 3.0 and if you had any reservations about upgrading immediately, based on your experience last year, then you really have nothing to worry about.
Whilst it could be argued that there is nothing revolutionary in this new OS release there is definitely plenty here to make the iPhone that much more brilliant. I like to think of this release as the iPhone version of Snow Leopard; a bunch of tweaks, performance improvements and a few new features thrown in.