3G iPhone is Announced

Apple has announced the much anticipated 3G iPhone at WWDC 2008. Finally, the iPhone is catching up with comparable specs of other multi-function smart phones out there: 3.5G, Wireless LAN 802.11b/g, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, camera, and all the apps one would expect to come with a smart phone. The phone will also be cheaper. It makes the 1st generation iPhone look like a piece of ancient history, even though it is less than a year old.

But overall, I’m still not entirely impressed with the iPhone. It looks nice, that’s for sure. However, a 2-megapixel camera seems so low-spec by today’s standards. I suppose if you only snap the occasional photo and only have basic imaging requirements, the iPhone will do fine.

I’ve heard some complaints about simple features that were missing in the original iPhone firmware. Simple things that will now be fixed. For example, you can now search contacts, and you can now bulk delete/move emails. Wow. Not “Wow, so cool”, but “Wow, you mean you could not do that before?” Here’s the “New Features” list for the iPhone Firmware 2.0:

• contact searching
• complete iWork document support
• complete Office document support (now includes PowerPoint)
• bulk delete and move for Mail
• save images you receive
• scientific calculator in landscape mode
• parental controls
• language

It’s good the firmware is maturing. But I wonder what else they’ve forgotten about? Well, apparently the spanking new 3G iPhone is still missing a few important features:

• Can you believe it, but there is no MMS support.
• The camera does not capture video.
• There is bluetooth, but the iPhone’s idea of bluetooth does not extend to stereo music headsets or providing data modem connectivity to a notebook or PC.
• You can’t copy-and-paste.

There are more things, but I guess that’s enough iPhone bashing for today.