I was thinking of writing this post about the 3G Iphone anyway, as I had discovered some things that are helping me have a better experience with it - and just as I was about to begin - Deep Jive Interests - when ahead and did his own critique of the 3G Iphone (though I missed meeting Tony Hung when I was Tornoto last May for the Social Media RoundTable and Third Tuesday - we did try to hook up).
Tony Hung’s post on Some (Late) Thoughts on the iPhone 3G: Its Good, Bad and sometimes Ugly was just published - and he noted the bad battery life - well ….. there’s actually a work around for that one as mentioned earlier this month in Gizmodo - Apple’s iPhone 3G Fix: Turn Airplane Mode On and Off - I’ve been doing that when I’m not home or somewhere that I know I can access the wireless network without a password (not that many places) and it’s doubled the battery life!
Of course, if I’m on the phone much - I’d say, more than an hour - that will eat away about half of the battery right there - but the ATT 3G Network works OK, most of the time, if you run into trouble, just Turn Airplance Mode On and Off - as mentioned in the Gizmodo article and that seems to trigger a reconnect to ATT which restores my connection, 9 out of 10 times.
The last firmware update helped as well (don’t keep track of the exact release number) and another coming in September will help even more, so I’m told. And a post just published by Gizmodo on August 28th gives the reason why the latest firmware patch helped with the 3G Network - Power Consumption (but it had to be more than this, I feel) -The iPhone 3G’s Problem May Have Been Found and Fixed:
Essentially, the 2.0.2 updated the iPhone to ask for less power from AT&T’s towers for UMTS voice and data transmission.
Essentially, the 2.0.2 updated the iPhone to ask for less power from AT&T’s towers for UMTS voice and data transmission. Apparently iPhones were simply asking for too much power—more than the handsets actually required—and when many iPhone users were stacked on one base transceiver station tower, the tower simply ran out of power. No/low tower power equals dropped calls and poor 3G connections.
However, since it’s a power problem, most of the 3G Iphones need to get the update so that all benefit - as it’s also the cellular towers that are losing power (did I get that right?).
About the rest of what Tony has to say in his post on Some (Late) Thoughts on the iPhone 3G: Its Good, Bad and sometimes Ugly I agree with most of it - except that I was not even expecting to use the iPhone camera for much, to be honest with you - and have lately, in the WordPress Application - where I have been able to take a picture and post it along with my thoughts.
Darren Rowse wrote a post about blogging on the 3G Iphone - The iPhone 3G as a Blogging Tool - My Review
“…. as a blogging tool, the iPhone meets the expectations that I had when I bought it.
I didn’t expect it to be ever be a primary blogging device - and it isn’t - however it will be a very useful device to use as a secondary and supporting blogging device. It will save me time, allow me to be aware of important events that are relevant to my blogs and help me to connect better with readers and other bloggers.
I’m certain that other mobile devices can do similar things (in fact some like the Nokia 95 have a number of the things in my wishlist below) but for me, at least for the next little while, it’s the iPhone that I’ll be carrying in my pocket.”
My thoughts are that I’m happy to have a way to finally blog to my WordPress blogs, for a change, even if buggy, and even if I can’t spell check what I write very well - it’s much appreciated.
I’d say, in a year from now, with an external pluggable Keyboard and some more improvements in Battery Life, the 3G Iphone released then (next year) will become a viable laptop replacement.
And one more thing Tony, you say the battery life of a 3G Iphone is awful - and it is - but have you been carrying around the outlet plug so you can change it up from a normal power outlet?
I carry mine everywhere I go now.
