The iPhone 3GS - still the best? (Pt 2)

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 29 June 2009 15:58

Business IT - Technology

Continued from part one, we look at the iPhone 3GS and ask if it is still the best smartphone and handheld computing device, despite ever more and frienzied competition.
Part 2 - please read part 1 here!

The iPhone 3GS hasn't been all rainbows and firefly fairies. Alongside those reports of overheating and bugs in OS 3.0, I've discovered my own bug.

It's the inability to upload videos taken by the new video camera to YouTube. I tried my existing account, created a new account, tried uploading different lengths all to no avail.

I simply get a message saying the clip can’t be uploaded, while one time the 3GS crashed half way through an upload, going black. I left it be for some minutes, but when I checked again, I couldn’t revive the phone by pushing the top button, I had to hard reset it with the top button and home button at the same time until it restarted.

The camera auto-focus is fantastic, but as noted elsewhere online, it would be nice to have a few more controls for those that want them. Not deleting trimmed video would be wonderful too.

The Voice Command feature is impressive, working several times in crowded noisy environments to dial a number by voice, using the command “ring” and then the phone number itself, number by number.

Conversely, in quiet areas, the voice command using number by number dialing hasn’t always worked, where you’d think it would perfectly. That said, calling users by their name (which the iPhone automatically recognises, no voice tags or training required) is very accurate.

Voice Command can also be used with the iPod software to bring up playlists, make a genius playlist, learn more info about each track and more is also very impressive, and really improves on the standard iPhone/iPod package.

What is disappointing is that Voice Command only works with these two apps for now, but naturally there is hope that future versions of Voice Command will work with ever more apps.

The iPhone 3GS has had its “S” derided for being “same”, “similar” or even in the case of overheating claims, “scorcher”.

But keeping the same case design, for once, is clever, maintaining the same design for this generation of accessories at a crucial time when Apple’s competitors are trying to tempt us all with iPhone-killer-clones.

The iPhone 3GS speed, coupled with the iPhone OS 3.0 benefits, of which a few are 3GS exclusive, is naturally the best iPhone package yet.

Finally offering cut and paste, Bluetooth stereo (but no Bluetooth keyboard!!), forwarding SMS, using MMS and plenty more has wiped away most of the iPhone’s deficiencies.

What’s more noticeable than ever, despite the speed boost, is the lack of true multitasking, or even the widespread availability of Apple’s halfway house in any apps, with this being the push notifications scheme delayed from iPhone OS 2.0.

Reports of other iPhone OS 3.0 bugs suggests an iPhone OS 3.0.1 update will be with us sooner rather than later, something that is always welcome.

What about reports the iPhone 3GS has already been jailbroken by the iPhone Dev Team? Please read on to page 2!