There’s likely one thing that most of us here have in common, we own an iPhone.
That’s why the staff here at iPhoneDocked.com have come up with yet another great Giveaway Contest!
1. Just TWEET “Entering the Sidewinder Giveaway is easy. Simply hit the “TWEET THIS” button. http://bit.ly/15DAji #dockedcontest”
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The very second I picked up my iPhone 3GS one of my Twitter followers told me to perform a test to see if my speaker was emitting a high-pitch tone. He told me that the next time I received a text message to immediately put my ear up to my speaker when the received message sound stopped. Luckily, a message came in and I was not hearing a high-pitch tone.Whew.
Unfortunately, about 20 minutes ago I received a text message. Right when the tone ended I noticed a faint high-pitch noise coming from my phone. I decided to reply to the text and listen to see if it happened again. It did. Even when pressing the power button to lock the device it emits a high-pitch tone. I also tested playing a song or a podcast over the speaker and then pressing stop or pause. Yet again, a high-pitch tone. My conclusion is that after owning my iPhone 3GS for about a week I am now a victim of the high-pitch tone that emits from my speaker after ANY noise is played. Fabulous.
Has this happened to anyone else yet?
As you can see the iPhone 3GS performs much better in sunlight. It looks great.
Like many of you, I received the iPhone 3GS on June 19th. I upgraded from the original iPhone, and I’m here to tell you about my thoughts and observations between the two devices.
Speed: The 3GS’ namesake is speed- and for good reason. There is no more lag. At all. Everything opens fast- especially the camera which always gave me problems with the 2G iPhone.
Win for the 3GS
3G- 3G is easily four times as fast as EDGE. However, there are problems with 3G that I will enumerate on in the next section.
3GS-2 2G-0
Reception- This is probably more related to AT&T than the iPhone itself. When the 3GS has signal, it is great. Crystal clear, nice and loud calls. Much louder than the 2G! However, my experience with signal is awful. If you are out in the open, there are few problems. But anything seems to be a source of interference that degrades the signal to complete lack of usability. I will probably take the phone into the nearest Apple Store to get it checked out and see if it is a problem with my phone. The 2G never had great signal, but it was consistently a decent signal. I have used the phone in a slightly rural area, a medium city, and a large city (Whoa, I have done some serious traveling this past week).
Winner- 2G iPhone
Design- I never liked the look of the newer iPhones, but having used it, I really like how it feels in your hand. The oleophobic screen is a work of art- probably will still put a screen protector on it just in case though. The plastic back attracts grease and fingerprints like none other, but I have a Griffin Clarifi case that I can pick up Monday (Look for a review soon).
Winner- 3GS (Score is 3-1)
Hardware- The 3.0mp camera with autofocus is great. I used to not be able to take a close-up picture with the 2G camera (which influenced the purchase of the Clarifi) but the new camera seems to work very well with most shots. The compass, by itself, is nearly useless unless you are hiking. The Compass integrated with Google Maps is great. Makes it easy to navigate a new city! The video camera works very well- my only complaint is that I forget to switch from still to video cameras. Great quality in all of these aspects. Well, except for Voice Control. It is awful. I have yet to get the phone to do ANYTHING that I wanted it to by using VC. It got to the point where I decided to be juvenile and start commanding the phone using words that are inappropriate for this particular site 
. When I did this, one of my family members was called. Maybe VC knows something I don’t?
Considering the 2G had none of these features without jailbreaking, it is obviously another win for the 3GS. (4-1 3GS)
Battery life- After a week, I was kind of hoping that the battery life of the 3GS would begin to get better. So far, it sucks; the phone eats up battery at a huge rate compared to the 2G iPhone due to its increased power. However, I am using the phone a lot because I love 3G when I have it. I can only hope that battery life improves. I will wait to pass final judgement on the 3GS until later, but until then, the 2G wins hands down.
So, the 3G S wins handily over its older sibling. Even though it might not have been a fair fight, I’ve enjoyed every second of it. We now return to your regulary scheduled programming.
This is just a very brief overview of my thoughts after 24. I will be elaborating more on the iPhoneDocked Podcast on thursday
Taken with the iPhone 3Gs video camera and uploaded directly from the phone:
I know I said I wasn’t going to post on vacation, but this is cool. If Florida is one thing it is hot, uh, I mean HOT and HUMID. So having water an arms reach away is not just handy but essential. While I was going for another drink of water the condensation from the water bottle dropped on to the screen of my newly purchased 3Gs. I wasn’t worried that it would damage my phone but I like to treat water and my devices like rival gang members, the further away the better, because a drive by squirting is a senseless crime and just perpetuates the problem. Forgetting about the oil resistant screen, it was kind of surprising when I saw a bead of water just sitting on the screen. It was really a beautiful sight. The glassy bead was perfectly round with its edges neatly tucked under itself. You knew there was some mysterious force it work. I would not recommend trying this demo, (I’m sure nothing would happen, but better safe than sorry.) On a whim I tried pouring water over the screen to see what would happen. The water just rolls off like a newly waxed car. I’m not sure why Apple didn’t advertise this as a front and center feature, but I can tell you the screen resists oil just as well as water. A beautiful screen is just a wipe away. (I in no way suggest that this makes your 3Gs water proof, so if you are goofy enough to go swimming with your phone to test your screen, you deserve what you get.)
(Video may not be available right away, check back in a few minutes if not)
I will in no way hide behind fanboyism on this one. AT&T’s data/messaging options are a joke. AT&T is so complacent in their position in the market you can bet we won’t see it change soon unless the iPhone 4G/LTE goes to other carriers. I still can’t believe I pay this much for my iPhone experience. What do you think? To much money or worth every penny to be on an iPhone.
Via BillShrink.com
I don’t know about you, but one thing I am really excited for is the olephobic coating on the iPhone screen. I remember before my wife received my first gen iPhone she would look at me in disgust when my screen got all smuggy. I really tried to keep it clean, but she was convinced I was using my iPhone as a breakfast plate or worse. Now that she has the iPhone her tune has changed.
Case in Point:
I tried to find some examples of how that would look or work. There are many sunglasses that have the same protection, but I couldn’t find a video of someone showing how easy they were to clean. The closest thing I found were these videos with olephobic protection on concrete. Hopefully this will be enough to get you by until we see it in action.
Hopefully, anyone who preordered an iPhone 3GS will have it arrive on June 19th (specifically, me). Because if not, Apple and AT&T by extension will have a huge load of angry customers with fire and pitchforks marching on their stores (me again). I personally think that most people will get their phones on the 19th, but those who preordered later might get them the week after. Picking a Friday for the delivery/release date was probably strategic by Apple to give an extra day or two for a huge amount of inventory that needs to be shipped out.
I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but the iPhone is a cash cow. Apple and AT&T could purchase a small country with the way that they are making money off of us. But how can they not let everyone who currently has an iPhone (2.5G or 3G) update to a new iPhone contract before 18-24 months is up? Yes, I’ve heard the “it is just like any other phone contract!” argument. Is it? What kind of data plan do you get from AT&T- is it a smartphone contract? No, it is an iPhone contract! This phone is set apart from other phones, just like BlackBerrys are set apart from other smartphones. There should be an addendum to the iPhone contract that allows you to upgrade to a new version of the phone with a new contract whenever the manufacturer comes out with a newer version of the hardware. Why not do it for all phones? Besides the subsidies, there isn’t really a reason. AT&T, stop alienating your loyal customers, it isn’t a great way to keep them happy! Remember how many people have been brought to your network because of the iPhone- don’t let them get away.
I was musing on those who were saying that the iPhone 3GS is a dud. Considering the circumstances, it was a pretty smart move by Apple. Even though Apple seems to be weathering the financial storm pretty well, this new update is a great way to promote a new product without a lot of retooling. The assembly for the 3GS should remain the same- reducing the retraining costs for those that assemble the phones. The plastic cases are essentially the same, only minor retooling of machinery and workers is required by the workers. Seems like a smart business move to me.