Yesterday Apple revealed its new iPhone 3.0 software. I have to say that as a user, I'm not super excited about any of the new features, but I always do appreciate a software update. People have been asking (very loudly) for all of these new features, but personally they aren't too big of a deal for me. The features are: Copy and Paste In the 2 or so years I've owned an iPhone, there has only been one time I've actually thought "I wish I had copy/paste right now," however I'd bet when it's available I'll be finding a lot more reasons to use it. Hopefully it doesn't get in the way when I am not using it. Landscape Views in Default Apps I've had friends (JL) who have been craving this in the SMS app and others in the mail app, but I have to say, I have got so used to using the portrait mode keyboard that when I try and use the landscape keyboard (like in Safari) it slows me down. The keys seem too far apart. I prefer the portrait keyboard. Push Notifications This is referring to webservices (like AIM and Facebook) being able to push notifications and badges to your phone, like "bobby841 says: You there?" or "Brett Grubbins added you as a friend on Facebook", etc. I love the idea but my big problem is I always keep my phone on vibrate and there is only one vibrate style. This means I will have to pull my phone out of my pocket every time it vibrates just to see if I got a text message or if someone commented on my photo. Hopefully they will add more vibrate patterns in the future and let you customize the heck out of the notifications. Spotlight Spotlight is a way to search for your whole phone (search across music, photos, email, text messages, calendars, contacts, etc all at the same time). This looks pretty cool but we'll see how much I end up using it. Overall I am most looking forward to whatever small tweaks make it into the new software more than any specific feature, but I think the features will make a lot of others happy.
This one's for the Googles. I had a problem with my iPhone where when I tried to update apps on my iPhone it said the application could not be installed and that it would install the next time I connected my computer to iTunes. Well, the next time I connected my phone to my computer, iTunes tried to update the apps but it wouldn't work and I would get this error that said some applications were not installed with the error code 0xE800002E. After a lot of searching and failed attempts at fixing the problem, I finally found a solution that worked, so if you are getting the same error follow these steps and it should fix your problem without any data loss or anything:
Labels: forthegoogles, iphone
So tonight I sold the iPhone that Nick so kindly gave. I of course got his approval (even though he told me I didn't need it) and told him why I was going to sell it. I was curious what first generation iPhones were going for on ebay/craigslist so I checked. To my supprise they were going for somewhere betwen $200 and $600. It seemed the ones that were posted at $600 were seeing no activity, and the ones that were around $300 were the 8 gig version. I had the 4gb version. For perspective, the new iPhone 3G's 8 gigabyte models are selling for $200 at the Apple Store right now (with a 2 yeat AT&T contract). For the record, I wouldn't have though to "upgrade" my phone at all if it was going to cost money somply because the original phone was great and with the free software update did all of the things the new ones do, the only exception is the true GPS, but to be honest, the "fake GPS" in the old iPhones (which use cell phone tower triangulation and wireless hotspot "triangulation") works just about as well as true GPS in the city. I had no reason to upgrade. Except now I realized I could upgrade for free, essentially. I put the phone on craigslist for $200 at 10:15 one night and within 5 minutes I had 5 emails, one of which was a guy offering me $250 for it. Damn, I should have asked for more than $200. It didn't matter because all I really wanted was my free upgrade. After a few days and many emails, I ended up selling it to that guy tonight for $250. I think he is going to unlock it and use it on the T-Mobile network. I'm glad I got my "free upgrade" and thanks to the profit made on the deal, Nick will be getting a nice big iTunes gift card in the email because after all it was his phone. I also think iTunes is the safest way to send money to Dubai™.
Being an iPhone 1.0 owner (thanks again, Nick) and hearing today's iPhone announcement I have to say I think I am coming out ahead in this deal. I will get every single feature of the new iPhone. The only difference is that my "over the network" internet speeds won't be as fast and my location (GPS) information won't be quite as accurate. The nice thing is that I rarely use my internet connection "over the network" as I am almost always on a wi-fi network and the location-based look-up in the current iPhone is amazingly fast and accurate. It's funny how we'll be able to do over the air iPhone updates, music and video downloads, and software purchases, but not over the air podcast updates. That's the feature I want. For all the people that waited for a 3G iPhone, I'll bet they're glad they waited, they are getting an awesome device at an amazing price (it is a third the price of the original iPhone at launch), but to those who already have one I think we are getting all of the benifits with none of the obseletion regret.
I got a new cell phone. Actually, I didn't get it, it was given to me by my friend Nick. Nick moved to Midland, TX about a year and a half ago to take a job there and was recently offered a position in Dubai. Well, he took the position and moved there this last Saturday. Nick has an iPhone but won't be needing a US-based cell phone over there as I think will have a company phone for all his phoning needs. Well, he did something that is sure to go down as one of the coolest things anyone could do for a friend and ended up giving me his phone. He said it was because he knew I would use it to it's fullest, and I hope to come through on that. The iPhone is actually better than I expected. I never thought about it, but it is a little computer. It does 90% of what I do on my computer most of the time. If I need to pay a bill, or look up when my next hockey game is, or look up some news, I don't need to go get my laptop, I can do it all from the phone which is incredibly nice. The phone part of the phone is also amazing compared to all the other crappy interfaces and menu hell that I've had to deal with before. I am also trying to resist the urge to flick, pinch, and slide my fingers on my trackpad when I'm on my laptop. Labels: iphone
|
|
