Disappointed with iPhone 3Gs???

[icebike]

I really like the voice controls (although I don't know why that is a hardware and not a software feature).

Well I've not seen it specifically stated its hardware, but that would be the only justification for leaving it off of the 3G.

Most of Voice reco technology is done with Software. I guess the Jailbreak community will let us know for sure.

Does anyone predict a dictation app based on the Voice Reco capabilities of this phone?

 

[Behshad]

Wow, some overly harsh criticism. Why do we judge Apple on every dream world gadget wishlist and not others? All companies' device updates are incremental since they have to balance the latest innovation vs. profitability. This is equivalent to whining that all apps should be free or $1.99 even if thousands of hours of labor went into making something.

I think faster data access, faster processor, voice control, video recording, improved autofocus camera, compass, fingerprint resistant casing, improved battery, double the memory, and Nike+ are a very significant upgrade. The inline remote control support will be awesome with the voice control as well. It would be even better if voice control integrates with bluetooth car kits. If spotlight (which already outperforms the universal search on the Pre) also integrates with voice control, this will be amazing.

I have not moved away from my 3 year old Treo, but I've been closely watching the smartphones evolve. I've been on the fence of Pre or iPhone and this announcement may have put me over the fence toward the iPhone GS. In an ideal world I'd like a few more things such as front facing camera with video chat, a 5MP camera w/flash, higher res OLED display, and 3rd party background apps (Slacker/Pandora/Simplify/Wunderradio would be sufficient). However, what we got was better than I expected and who has all of these features anyway. What's the standard here (besides an excuse to troll)? If you selectively compare the best features of every other phone out there to the iPhone, Apple will always come up short. There is no single phone that tops every other phone on features and there may never be.

The Pre has plenty of failings and in my opinion the Pre only best the iPhone with 3rd party background apps, consolidated notifications and cloud integration. Personally, I've not been impressed by what I've seen over the weekend of reports on the performance of the cloud integration because most of the cloud sites are flaky on contact management (hello google). Sure this will improve in time. As for the notifications, luckily I'm not a big on IM, text message, etc. If you get hundreds a day, this is a much bigger advantage. The lack of 3rd party background apps does suck, but that's my only remaining reservation.

The dream feature I still want from the iPhone or any other smartphone is a world class audio processor chip, so I can get better utility from higher end headphones and lossless audio files. Then I'll no longer need a separate media player. We don't know yet what chips have changed with the 3GS, but I doubt the audio processor is one of them. That said, no other smartphone has better audio processing than the iPhone.

The list of features that the iPhone bests others (including the Pre) on is enormous. Sure AT&T still sucks. With the 3GS improvements, OS 3.0, Tom Tom app and real document editing coming, I think my Treo 700p is finally being retired for an iPhone 3GS. The 3G was not enough to get me to pull the trigger, but the 3GS is.

Either you work for apple (in which case shame shame) or youre trying to justify the $$$ youre about to shell out to apple.

If this is ALL Apple could come up with, they better watch out for N97.....
I upgraded last year from N95 to 8Gb 3G,,,, but after seeing the N97 and what it can do, Its tempting to switch back,,, (specially when you dont have to go through AT&T and pay $30 data plan)

 

[Allyson Kazmucha]

Wow, some overly harsh criticism. Why do we judge Apple on every dream world gadget wishlist and not others? All companies' device updates are incremental since they have to balance the latest innovation vs. profitability. This is equivalent to whining that all apps should be free or $1.99 even if thousands of hours of labor went into making something.

I think faster data access, faster processor, voice control, video recording, improved autofocus camera, compass, fingerprint resistant casing, improved battery, double the memory, and Nike+ are a very significant upgrade. The inline remote control support will be awesome with the voice control as well. It would be even better if voice control integrates with bluetooth car kits. If spotlight (which already outperforms the universal search on the Pre) also integrates with voice control, this will be amazing.

I have not moved away from my 3 year old Treo, but I've been closely watching the smartphones evolve. I've been on the fence of Pre or iPhone and this announcement may have put me over the fence toward the iPhone GS. In an ideal world I'd like a few more things such as front facing camera with video chat, a 5MP camera w/flash, higher res OLED display, and 3rd party background apps (Slacker/Pandora/Simplify/Wunderradio would be sufficient). However, what we got was better than I expected and who has all of these features anyway. What's the standard here (besides an excuse to troll)? If you selectively compare the best features of every other phone out there to the iPhone, Apple will always come up short. There is no single phone that tops every other phone on features and there may never be.

The Pre has plenty of failings and in my opinion the Pre only best the iPhone with 3rd party background apps, consolidated notifications and cloud integration. Personally, I've not been impressed by what I've seen over the weekend of reports on the performance of the cloud integration because most of the cloud sites are flaky on contact management (hello google). Sure this will improve in time. As for the notifications, luckily I'm not a big on IM, text message, etc. If you get hundreds a day, this is a much bigger advantage. The lack of 3rd party background apps does suck, but that's my only remaining reservation.

The dream feature I still want from the iPhone or any other smartphone is a world class audio processor chip, so I can get better utility from higher end headphones and lossless audio files. Then I'll no longer need a separate media player. We don't know yet what chips have changed with the 3GS, but I doubt the audio processor is one of them. That said, no other smartphone has better audio processing than the iPhone.

The list of features that the iPhone bests others (including the Pre) on is enormous. Sure AT&T still sucks. With the 3GS improvements, OS 3.0, Tom Tom app and real document editing coming, I think my Treo 700p is finally being retired for an iPhone 3GS. The 3G was not enough to get me to pull the trigger, but the 3GS is.

I am going to make this short:

Without expectations, there would be no innovation.


This is a fail for Apple. They are playing MMS and copy/paste like they are NEW features. Almost every little thing besides the compass and video, are already available in the current product.

Fingerprint resistant casing ? Where did you get that? It's the same casing as the current 3G and it's a fingerprint MAGNET.

I love my iPhone I really do, but as far as this one goes, there is absolutely no reason to make 3G and maybe even some 1st gen users jump for joy.

I'm more excited for 3.0 than the new iPhone. I'll pass.

 

[Jeremy]

I think many of you are not realizing how much faster and smoother the 3Gs will be... that alone is huge. 2x faster than the current 3G. That's big. Also increased battery life. Something to think about.

*I can see how some of you are not excited, guess this is only a upgrade for the hardcore tech people out there. I'm guilty...

 

[Neutrino]

I think many of you are not realizing how much faster and smoother the 3Gs will be... that alone is huge. 2x faster than the current 3G. That's big. Also increased battery life. Something to think about.

*I can see how some of you are not excited, guess this is only a upgrade for the hardcore tech people out there. I'm guilty...

The real question is what specific aspect of the iPhone experience do users find missing or in need of address? A couple of examples for me include adequacy of network coverage; limitations of the native mail client; inability to run background applications.

How many times have you been trying to stream a video, a call comes in and resets the video back to the beginning? Palm's solution in this aspect is ideal - get a notification you can chose to take or ignore without app interruption.

Battery life is not a big deal since many of us have resigned ourselves to the need for battery cases like the Inslider.

Video editing on the iPhone? Not for me. Voice control? Not for me. Magnetic compass app? Not for me. What about Telenav or access to AT&T broadband TV?

 

[icebike]

I think many of you are not realizing how much faster and smoother the 3Gs will be... that alone is huge. 2x faster than the current 3G. That's big. Also increased battery life. Something to think about.

Sure its faster.
And Safari is supposedly faster too. All will benefit from that.

Add the two together and web browsing should scream.

We expected more. We got a camera upgrade, a largely useless compass, and a speed boost.


Hardware wise, this is a disappointment.
Software wise this is a nice Point release

Perhaps it should be called 2.3. All it offered was 4 long over due features (copy/paste, notifications, MMS and landscape mail). Much of the rest is largely Apple's usual dosage of over hyped features, many of which have been available in the App store for a long time.

 

[Jeremy]

The real question is what specific aspect of the iPhone experience do users find missing or in need of address? A couple of examples for me include adequacy of network coverage; limitations of the native mail client; inability to run background applications.

How many times have you been trying to stream a video, a call comes in and resets the video back to the beginning? Palm's solution in this aspect is ideal - get a notification you can chose to take or ignore without app interruption.

Battery life is not a big deal since many of us have resigned ourselves to the need for battery cases like the Inslider.

Video editing on the iPhone? Not for me. Voice control? Not for me. Magnetic compass app? Not for me. What about Telenav or access to AT&T broadband TV?

See I don't have issues with AT&T what so ever. Best service I've ever had honestly. Love the email client on the phone. Background applications - look at it this way - sure the Pre can do that but then you start to get the choppy playback in music, video, surfing the net, etc... do I want that? Hell no - I'd rather go Apple's route than have something that performs sub par.

Battery life - that is huge whether you want to admit it or not.

The other stuff you mentioned, I'll agree. But the speed being 2x faster... very key for me upgrading.

 

[Entertainment72]

I'd be curious to see how the Palm Pre does now.. hmm.. I'm a die hard iPhone but WOW after this fiasco nothing is stopping me from one of my eyes wondering off to see what the Pre is really about if just to check. Before Apple dropped the ball on "hardware" I wouldn't even consider a Pre or BB wow. Sometimes we need change and competition doesn't hurt .

 

[JustinHorn]

I think many of you are not realizing how much faster and smoother the 3Gs will be... that alone is huge. 2x faster than the current 3G. That's big. Also increased battery life. Something to think about.

*I can see how some of you are not excited, guess this is only a upgrade for the hardcore tech people out there. I'm guilty...

I'm going to get one, but I can wait 2.5 weeks and pay $200 less, so I guess I'm somewhere between you and the rest of the crowd.

I think a lot of people are just not seeing a "killer" feature here. I think going from 1st gen to 2nd gen was like going from 56k dial up to 1.5mbps broadband. This jump is more like going from 1.5mbps broadband to 6.0 mbps broadband. Yes it's several times faster, but it's not as big of a jump as before.

The reason I want one is that when I add up all the small upgrades it makes sense for me to get one.

1) Much, much better camera. I don't like camera my medium sized camera everyone, so having a 3.0 camera with auto focus and better pictures in general (low light, etc) will be a big plus. Also, being able to take those macro pics will be great.

2) Faster CPU, this will be nice to have apps open in a couple seconds instead of 10 or more.

3) Battery Life. This sounds nice, but the fact that 3G time doesn't improve and is what I use most when away from power doesn't put any butterflies in my stomach.

4) Faster Internet connection. If this actually works out it will be great, but I have my doubts with at&t actually delivering anything close to the theoretical speeds.

5) Compass will be kind of cool

None of these would make me want to buy the phone by themselves, but put them all together and it's enough to push me over.

 

[bosox0898]

For what it matters...and because I haven't seen it mentioned... The so-called "useless" compass is needed for any turn by turn navigation app, and it will probably make GMaps a lot smoother with some software modification. Not a selling point for me to switch from 3g yet but the 3gs is a step in the right direction imho

 

[gruswitz]

@Behshad - Get a grip Troll. - I neither work for Apple nor do I own an iPhone yet. I'm just expressing my opinion. The N97 may well be an interesting phone, but the 3GS looks to be a good upgrade from my perspective. Frankly, I wasn't going to get any phone that couldn't do everything my Treo does and more. I needed turn by turn GPS and document editing still. With the new 3GS update, the iPhone has reached that threshold.

@iMuggle - Did you read all the WWDC announcements? They didn't really go on about MMS or Copy/Paste. There was a lot new there and yes they said the case changed - check out the Apple - iPhone - Technical Specifications webpage - look under Display - fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating). The speed improvements should also be really significant as BadAsh said.

 

[Neutrino]

I'd be curious to see how the Palm Pre does now.. hmm.. I'm a die hard iPhone but WOW after this fiasco nothing is stopping me from one of my eyes wondering off to see what the Pre is really about if just to check. Before Apple dropped the ball on "hardware" I wouldn't even consider a Pre or BB wow.

I agree with you completely. The good news WRT Palm is that there are now possible alternatives to the iPhone on different networks. Companies now have to fend for themselves to keep from losing customers.

It will be interesting to see what impact WWDC 2009 will have on the Palm Pre launch. I wasn't impressed with WWDC. I was impressed by Palm.

 

[dooks88]

I was pretty underwhelmed. I understand it is tough to make a "big splash" upgrade for a phone every year, but I was left wanting more. The improvements they made are a great thing, esp the speed improvements. I was looking for some more though. A better camera and screen are the big ones. I would of also like to have seen a new case design with out the chrome. The upside about that is my 3g cases will still work on the 3gs.

the upgrade price is a bummer too.

the big thing today was about the Macbook Pro's which i am completely hyped about.

 

[Jeremy]

I agree with you completely. The good news WRT Palm is that there are now possible alternatives to the iPhone on different networks. Companies now have to fend for themselves to keep from losing customers.

It will be interesting to see what impact WWDC 2009 will have on the Palm Pre launch. I wasn't impressed with WWDC. I was impressed by Palm.

With $99 iPhone 3G's it does not look good for the Pre. That is a low price that is very appealing to many people. And once you pick up the Pre you will more than likely be let down. I know I was.

 

[Entertainment72]

$399 to "upgrade" to a 16gb 3Gs.. yea right..

 

[Entertainment72]

With $99 iPhone 3G's it does not look good for the Pre. That is a low price that is very appealing to many people. And once you pick up the Pre you will more than likely be let down. I know I was.

100% agree and that will be Apple's and At&t saving grace in the end!

Sidenote: Apple REAAAALLY needs to new carrier wow..

 

[Jeremy]

$399 to "upgrade" to a 16gb 3Gs.. yea right..

It's $299 for people who are ready for a upgrade...

 

[Entertainment72]

It's $299 for people who are ready for a upgrade...

$299 for 32gb and $199 for 16gb right (full upgrade eligible).. that's what I took, my contract is up 8-31-09.. so if anything I can wait but I really doubt I will do so.. not for another two years.. no way.

Right now for me it is $399 16gb 3Gs for being a "special" customer.

Yea $199 for 16gb 3Gs.. just confirmed... with new two year and eligible.

 

[Jeremy]

$299 for 32gb and $199 for 16gb right (full upgrade eligible).. that's what I took, my full upgrade is up 8-31-09.. so if anything I can wait but I really doubt I will do so.. not for another two years.. no way.

Right now for me it is $399 16gb 3Gs for being a "special" customer.

Ah, ok. That makes sense then. I really think it's pretty simple. If you want it, you will pay whatever they ask. If not, you wait. Again, I can understand how some people may be a bit bummed out as I was until I really thought about all of the internal improvements. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

 

[Entertainment72]

If Obama gives me a government stimulus check out of the blue.. ok.