Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: apple, iphone, review | Themes: Smartphones, 3GSM
5. The App Store
Either version of iPhone can take advantage of the new iTunes App Store, a clever way to extend the device’s feature set that allows Apple to profit from the efforts of independent software developers.
Though there are about 500 applications being sold (or given away) at the store only two days after the new iPhone (and Firmware 2.0) launch, to a person used to the Palm OS, this is a paltry offering. Sure, the new applications use the Web via 3G, and take advantage of many of the iPhone’s hardware capabilities including the accelerometer, camera, music player, and soon, GPS, but Palm OS has been in existence in one form or another since 1996. Yes, by now it is limited and certainly stale (and possibly obsolete), but developers have been finding ways to take advantage of it for 12 years. That’s a lot of developers, a lot of man hours, and a lot of applications.
Apple can only hope that it garners the same kind of loyal support for its mobile operating system from developers that Palm OS has found. However, with the iTunes store distribution system in place, Apple has created an ideal scenario for kicking off the platform.
I tested a smattering of free and paid apps: Facebook, Google Mobile, PhoneSaber, Bejeweled 2, and GoLearn Fitness Gym Edition.
The Facebook app is a simplified version of the social networking site that offers only sparse information on your friends (a similar piece of software already exists for the Blackberry platform). It places a heightened sense of importance on friends’ status updates, and makes it slightly harder to dig for that goldmine of other information—the “Mini-Feed.” The mini-feed is what Facebook users first see when they log-in on a standard computer and browser. However, the app is speedy and utilizes all the popular features of Facebook including the newish chat feature.
At first I was disappointed with the Google Mobile app. It appeared to simply be a search bar. But a button labeled “Explore more Google products” brought me to icons representing mobile versions of many of the other Google products I use on a daily basis, including Calendar, Docs, Google Talk, and Google Reader. Gmail and Google Maps are already accessible on the phone through other means (mail and maps icons on the home screen).
I was able to save individual buttons to my home screen that represented shortcuts to these other useful Google tools, but it would have been nice to download individual applications for each of these products rather than unearthing them from the one-size-fits-all Google Mobile app.
The PhoneSaber app is simply a silly, free way to test out the iPhone’s impressive accelerometer. Swing your phone in the air (be careful not to smack anyone) and the phone will emit Light Saber sounds a la Jedi. Depending on which way you swing and rotate, and at what speed, the phone makes different noises.
Long a favorite time-waste of mine, Bejeweled is a simple game (either timed or not) where you identify groups of matching blocks to earn points. But on the iPhone 3G, the game becomes a glittery, transfixing diversion. The game could be rendered in flat, lifeless animation but instead the graphics are intense and show off the depth of the phone’s big screen’s abilities.
I downloaded GoLearn Fitness because it seemed like a tool that takes advantage of the iPhone’s memory capacity and video capabilities while actually being useful in daily life. The software stores video demonstrations of dozens of exercises to do at the gym. For people who aren’t interested in paying for a personal trainer but still need guidance while working out, this application is certainly better than nothing. I won’t be ashamed to take a quick peek at a demonstration of the “seated cable row” while at the gym. After all, carrying my iPhone is perfectly natural since it is also my Mp3 player.
The process of choosing, buying and downloading applications is seamless and nearly identical to the process of buying music and movies through the iTunes store. The only missing feature is a listing or receipt of all the apps downloaded and their prices. It would be nice to know how much money I’ve spent on apps so that I can manage my budget and kick a bad habit if it gets out of control.
Update: Four days after I purchased these Apps, I did receive a receipt via e-mail from Apple, but a receipt is not accessible via iTunes.
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Your chart indicates otherwise. It states it took 57 seconds to load the NYT site on AT&T's EDGE compared to 65 seconds on T-Mobile's EDGE.
So which is it?
Your chart indicates otherwise. It states it took 57 seconds to load the NYT site on AT&T's EDGE compared to 65 seconds on T-Mobile's EDGE.So which is it?
Your chart indicates otherwise. It states it took 57 seconds to load the NYT site on AT&T's EDGE compared to 65 seconds on T-Mobile's EDGE.So which is it?
Thanks for catching our error, mpjesse. T-Mobile's edge was slightly faster in our tests.
-Rachel Rosmarin, Editor, Tom's Guide
Cool, thanks!
Was hoping for your impression on GPS. Left us hanging there when you started to make a comparison with the Blackberry but stopped short. I looked to the next page looking for more.
Can see the signal strength wasn't that great in the Ab Crunch screen shot. And unless it was altered your email address appears in the other screen shot.
So, your Treo had a ridiculously bad battery life. The iphone by all accounts has what appears to be a normal battery life for devices in its class, which, if you surf a lot won't even get you through an entire day. Most reviews have it giving out in under 4 hours or so, IIRC. Since you cannot take the battery out and replace it with a spare this is a real problem for heavy internet users. I have an HTC PPC 6800. While away from home I can pair it with my laptop and surf to my heart's content or perhaps stream internet radio for hours on end while I work. The battery will be gone in under 5 hours but I can just pop in my spare. So no iphone for me. I suppose for more typical users they will at least make it home for an overnight charge so for them this is probably OK.
So, your Treo had a ridiculously bad battery life. The iphone by all accounts has what appears to be a normal battery life for devices in its class, which, if you surf a lot won't even get you through an entire day. Most reviews have it giving out in under 4 hours or so, IIRC. Since you cannot take the battery out and replace it with a spare this is a real problem for heavy internet users. I have an HTC PPC 6800. While away from home I can pair it with my laptop and surf to my heart's content or perhaps stream internet radio for hours on end while I work. The battery will be gone in under 5 hours but I can just pop in my spare. So no iphone for me. I suppose for more typical users they will at least make it home for an overnight charge so for them this is probably OK.
So, your Treo had a ridiculously bad battery life. The iphone by all accounts has what appears to be a normal battery life for devices in its class, which, if you surf a lot won't even get you through an entire day. Most reviews have it giving out in under 4 hours or so, IIRC. Since you cannot take the battery out and replace it with a spare this is a real problem for heavy internet users. I have an HTC PPC 6800. While away from home I can pair it with my laptop and surf to my heart's content or perhaps stream internet radio for hours on end while I work. The battery will be gone in under 5 hours but I can just pop in my spare. So no iphone for me. I suppose for more typical users they will at least make it home for an overnight charge so for them this is probably OK.
Can anyone help me... Although i have not yet been connected do to the sheer number of new customers to o2 that they could not supply everyone with numbers right away, but anyway my question... I have noticed that you cannot use music as your ringtone which seems quite silly as it is supposed to be an ipod (music phone) so why would you not be able to set a song as ringtone?? seems crazy as all they have is about 10 VERY lame sounds that you can use!! Please help if anyone knows a way of getting music as a ring tone!!
Was hoping for your impression on GPS. Left us hanging there when you started to make a comparison with the Blackberry but stopped short. I looked to the next page looking for more.Can see the signal strength wasn't that great in the Ab Crunch screen shot. And unless it was altered your email address appears in the other screen shot.
tntom,
Stay tuned for our full examination and test of the iPhone 3G's GPS capabilities as compared to various other GPS devices. Coming soon!
-Rachel Rosmarin
Can anyone help me... Although i have not yet been connected do to the sheer number of new customers to o2 that they could not supply everyone with numbers right away, but anyway my question... I have noticed that you cannot use music as your ringtone which seems quite silly as it is supposed to be an ipod (music phone) so why would you not be able to set a song as ringtone?? seems crazy as all they have is about 10 VERY lame sounds that you can use!! Please help if anyone knows a way of getting music as a ring tone!!
Nadine,
There are many songs (99 cents) you can choose from via iTunes to create a custom ringtone: http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/ringtones.html
Of course, Apple needs to have agreements with the owners of the song. I'm sure a little bit of Googling might reveal a free (but perhaps illicit) way to turn any song into a ringtone!
--Rachel Rosmarin
You state that you have to enter the mail app to see if you have mail. I am using a v1 4gig iphone and my mail is set to download or fetch every half an hour. When it fetches and new messages arrive, I get a number indicating how many new messages I have. This is all done without opening mail. I suspect this functionality is available to you through settings you may need to adjust, unless something has changed.
You state that you have to enter the mail app to see if you have mail. I am using a v1 4gig iphone and my mail is set to download or fetch every half an hour. When it fetches and new messages arrive, I get a number indicating how many new messages I have. This is all done without opening mail. I suspect this functionality is available to you through settings you may need to adjust, unless something has changed.
He meant without even having to look at the phone. The light he referred to was a blinking status light so even if the phone was feet away on a table across the room he would know whether or not he had received new mail or not.
[citation]Out to dinner on Saturday night, two first-gen iPhone toting men spotted my iPhone 3G and introduced themselves as Apple employees.[/citation]
How cute. Two male Apple employees out to dinner with each other. LOL.
Man, my Nokia 3210 would be lucky to get 36-48 hours standby time. 5 hours of talk time is unheard of!
25 minutes battery life on your Treo ? Are you using it as a business tool or an entertainment device ? My Treo, a 650 bought in the 1st week of Cingular / ATT availability(what is it 3+ years old ?) still goes a whole week between charges and that includes keeping my youngest son occupied when he's in the car with me and my daily fix of Sudoku. It shuts itself off at 11 pm and wakes me up at 6:30 am, otherwise it's on all day. Of course I don't take cell calls when I am in my office (about 4 hours a day) and won't do e-mail when a big screen and full size keyboard is available. I just can't imagine a usage pattern that kills batteries as fast as you are .... again assuming the use is as a business tool.
A second comment would be that judging a anyone's performance based upon experiences on "product launch day" is not representative of what anyone would experience whop didn't fell a need to be the first one on their block with "the new thing". Business's have long said an "OS is still a beta until SP3". The numbers say this thing sold at a rate about 3 times higher than anything electronic product in history. As with Firefox's download day, these conditions are bound to cause some hiccups as systems are stretched in a manner that they have never been tested at before. You don't want problems, wait a week for the new gadget.
25 minutes battery life on your Treo ? Are you using it as a business tool or an entertainment device ? My Treo, a 650 bought in the 1st week of Cingular / ATT availability(what is it 3+ years old ?) still goes a whole week between charges and that includes keeping my youngest son occupied when he's in the car with me and my daily fix of Sudoku. It shuts itself off at 11 pm and wakes me up at 6:30 am, otherwise it's on all day. Of course I don't take cell calls when I am in my office (about 4 hours a day) and won't do e-mail when a big screen and full size keyboard is available. I just can't imagine a usage pattern that kills batteries as fast as you are .... again assuming the use is as a business tool.A second comment would be that judging a anyone's performance based upon experiences on "product launch day" is not representative of what anyone would experience whop didn't fell a need to be the first one on their block with "the new thing". Business's have long said an "OS is still a beta until SP3". The numbers say this thing sold at a rate about 3 times higher than anything electronic product in history. As with Firefox's download day, these conditions are bound to cause some hiccups as systems are stretched in a manner that they have never been tested at before. You don't want problems, wait a week for the new gadget.
Thanks for your comments Jack. I'm glad you've had such good luck with your Treo 650. It is quite obvious, however, that my Treo 650 has suffered numerous hardware failures after warranty expiration. Sadly, I know I'm not the only one to have these problems. It was a pain to live with the device for so long, though its problems had nothing to do with my usage pattern.
--Rachel Rosmarin
can t mobile edge works on iphone 3g, and be able to access the safari browser internet