iPhone 3.0 and 3G S Impressions Tips Tricks and More

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As the dust continues to settle on “The Week Of The iPhone” we’re all getting increasingly used to devices with a new OS or entirely new devices. That’s means the list of wishes for OS 4.0 begins now. It also means increasing familiarity and impressions that are more valuable than the initial “OMG did you know it can do this?” and “Wow! Wow! Wow!”

What follows are some likes, dislikes, tips, treats and more, disappointments and dreams for future updates.

For Those who upgrade to OS 3.0

–Favorite feature
Travis- SPEED!!! Video.

Larry– Spotlight search. I have 7 springboard pages of apps. and this makes it a lot easier to find one.

Raymond- It’s a tie between MMS and bluetooth audio.

Jessica– Spotlight. It is really handy, though I wish you could search the web directly from there instead of having to open the Google app or Safari.

Chris G– Cur / Copy / Paste

Jason– Spotlight Search across all apps and Bluetooth (esp A2DP streaming)

–Feature still missing
Travis- Background apps

Larry- I’ll go with the obvious – tethering and MMS.

Raymond- Being able to use the iPhone as a Wifi hotspot with 3G data.

Chris G.–Still can’t edit music properties/lyrics in iPod app

Jessica- A last.fm scrobbler app that runs in the background without me having to jailbreak.

Jason– Multitasking/Ability for the iPhone to handle more Background Processes

–Something you didn’t discover at first but later found and were wowed
Travis- Turn on battery percentage. Go to settings: general: usage and you can turn it on.

Larry- apps were alphabetized on springboard when installed.

Raymond- I didn’t realise that the Mail and iPod apps got their own search bars at first…

Chris G. — Icons no longer “bump” other icons off screen while being moved across multiple screens

Glad You Updated?
Travis- YESSS!

Doug- I am not loving the 3.0 OS on my first gen iPod touch. I almost feel like Apple intentionally crippled it to entice me to upgrade. It is slow and sluggish. And the BT is not activated, even though it has the capability of doing so. All I really got out of it was universal search and cut and paste. Not really worth the trade off or the $10 in my opinion.

Larry- Yes

For those who got iPhone 3G S

–Favorite new aspect
Larry- Video

Dan- Tie between Speed and Video

–Biggest disappointment/feature still missing
Larry- Tethering and MMS

Dan- Tethering

–Trick/Tip/Wow glad I discovered this
Larry- can enable battery percentage under Setttings, General, Usage

–Are you glad you upgraded?
Travis- I am very glad I upgraded. Gave my wife the 1st gen and it feels super
slow.
Larry- Oh YES!

Dan- Uh… yeah!

Random Comments

Jessica- The 3GS looks great…the speed and camera will tempt me. I may drop cash on that instead of a Flip video camera since the video feature seems to work so well.

Jason–The Video recording/editing feature is the most compelling reason I may decide to upgrade to 3G S from the “regular” 3G in the near future.

Gripes

Chris G- I’m using BeejiveIM which will use Push, but the push version is hung up in the approval process.

Dan- Voice Control works great if you give EXACTLY the right command but it is so limited right now.

Larry–I would like to add something about the lack of push notification able apps. I’m slightly frustrated by the lack of them. I mean the SDK was released early to developers so that they could begin working on it well in advance right? And come release all we have is AP Mobile and Tap Tap 2? I feel a little like I did at the release of iPhone version 1 when there was no App Store to get apps. from. Like I was given this super tricked out race car but no gas to fuel it.

Tips That Make A Difference

Unlimited Apps– Prior to OS 3.0 there was a ceiling on the number of apps you could load on an iPhone or iPod Touch. That’s gone! And while the number of pages of apps is capped at 11 (instead of the prior 9) you can load as many apps as your device will hold. Once you exceed the 11 pages (176 apps) apps will not show up but CAN be found through a Spotlight search.

Force Quit Apps– The Home button now serves different functions so it no longer lets you force quit unresponsive apps. Now if an app needs to be force shut you hold the sleep/wake button. When the “Off” slider appears you press and hold the home button.

Open New Links In Safari– When you tap and hold on a hyperlink while using Safari you now have a choice to open the link, copy it or open it in a new page. It makes surfing on the iPhone much much easier.

AutoFill In Safari– Once you turn it on in the Settings page you can tap “AutoFill” on the bottom of a page to autofill your credentials.

Mail Search– The Spotlight search is awesome. Better still is the search functionality within the Mail apps itself which offers a number of filters and makes searching for a pin in the midst of an email haystack simple.

Shake To Shuffle– A function I thought was a gimmick turns out to be super useful in the car. Don’t like the song? Shake it without ever having your eyes leave the road.

Quote Email Fragments– Tap and hold while in e-mail then select a portion of text to quote. After that tap reply and the “wuoted” text will be in the new email. Wow, just like on a desktop!

Undo With A Shake– In Mail, Messaging, or Notes shake the phone and you will be asked if you want to erase the last bi of text you entered.

Enable Emojis–(Thanks Larry) Go into the app. store and download/install the app. called “Spelled Numbers.”
Once it’s installed go into the app. and type in 91929394.59
Then press the home button.
Then go into General, Keyboard, International, Japanese, then over to Emjoi and enable it.
After that you’ll have a globe on your keyboard to the left of the spacebar.
Press it.

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.