Mister Tech

By Lee Lup Yuen

Tips, tricks for the enterprise user

iPhone 3G is pretty but anti-social

Posted in Mister Tech by Lee Lup Yuen on Thursday, September 18 2008 07:44 AM

I recently bought the Apple iPhone 3G from my local mobile operator, used it for a week and found the iPhone 3G strangely "anti-social" for a modern 3G mobile phone:

It can't forward SMS messages.
It can't send SMS messages to a predefined group of recipients (contact group).
No copy and paste functions.
No MMS messaging.
No 3G video calling.
It won't let you share documents and media files via memory cards or Bluetooth.

However, unlike other phones and PDAs, I found the iPhone 3G very good for Web browsing due to the large touchscreen and speedy 3.5G mobile Internet access. The iPhone 3G Web browser still doesn't support Flash and client-side Java, so I wasn't able to log in to my banking Web sites.

The new GPS (global positioning system) feature in the iPhone 3G works surprisingly well. The GPS was able to lock in to my location quickly when I tested outdoors in Singapore and Sydney, seemingly faster than the GPS in my Nokia N82. Using the built-in Google Maps with GPS on the large touchscreen feels very comfortable.

I'm impressed with the iPhone 3G's support for geotagged images and the ease of uploading images to the Internet. When you snap a photo with the built-in camera (which is only 2 megapixels, disappointingly), it captures the GPS coordinates (assuming you have GPS reception). With a few taps, you can upload the geotagged photo to Apple's MobileMe online service and share the photo. Click here to see my photo of the Sydney Opera House. When you mouse-over the photo and click the "i" icon, you can see that the GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude) were captured.

The iPhone supports an SDK (software development kit) for building custom iPhone applications. I expect to see many useful location-based iPhone applications that will take advantage of the GPS.

In the meantime, I'll stick with my Nokia N82 as my primary phone. I'll use the iPhone only when I need to browse the Web on the move (e.g. for e-mail) or when I'm lost in a foreign city.

Disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed in this blog are the author's, and do not necessarily represent those of ZDNet Asia.

Talkback 2 comments

iPhone 3G is pretty but anti-social
The new apple iPhone 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software, which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call.
Posted by francis james on Saturday, September 27 2008 02:01 AM

iPhone 3G is pretty but anti-social
I will still prefer using my N95, SMS , Group SMS, Video Call, GPS (Using Garmin Mobile XT + MalsingMaps), Mail for Exchange. 5MP with Flash Light, Installed Morbitubia for Youtube Access. Wireless Internet Access.

Only the interface is not so interactive as compare to Iphone 3G, i bought 1 and not used to all the function, just sell it off to my fren. The GPS does not support Navigation at all.
Posted by Desmond Lim on Friday, October 31 2008 06:47 PM

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About the blogger

Lee Lup Yuen

Lee Lup Yuen is passionate about mobile phones and PDAs, as he is constantly buying new gadgets and programming them in J2ME, .NET, Symbian and AppForge. He has developed commercial applications with mobile technologies like SMS, MMS, WAP, 3G video streaming and location-based services.